Stage Fright

The first person I saw after getting changed was Kelly Beecroft. She always made me absolutely weak, and today was no exception. So smooth and pale and clean, with a high, high forehead and big brown eyes and a snub nose so perfect I wanted to cry...though that, I suspected, wasn't only due to her nose!

Because I wanted her so bad and she wouldn't be mine. In fact, if we hadn't been in the same dance class I doubt she'd have even acknowledged my existence! Today, typically, she was just wearing a grey sweatshirt pulled down like a dress over tiny black spandex shorts.

When she stooped carelessly to tie her ballet shoes, the sweatshirt pulled up and showed me her bum in those shorts. I was feverish. Was she doing it on purpose? One way or another I couldn't resist.

"H-Hi, Kelly!" I stammered breathily, stumbling to her. Oh, her clean smell. It wasn't making me any less breathy!

"Um," I tried again, "I know I keep asking, but as we're about the same age, maybe we could try spending a bit of time together outside class?"

I was so flustered by her, as ever, that that was the best I could think of to say! She for her part, likewise as ever, paid me no attention and just started on her other shoe.

"You're so stuck-up!" I blurted, losing my nerve because I was already anxious about the recital I had coming up in this lesson. "We can't all be as cute as the kind of boys you like! Why don't you just give me a chance?"

Calmly Kelly finished lacing-up, and walked away without a word.

When I was next in line to give my recital however, she wafted lightly up behind me and this time she did speak.

“What’s it like having to wear panties like mine?” asked the girl.

It wasn't quite the sort of question you expected just before an exam, so for the first second or two I was flummoxed! Then suddenly in a rush of embarrassment I noted the downward direction in which Kelly had flicked her long-lashed pretty eyes. Red underpants and thin white shorts were evidently not the best combination!

"They're not exactly the same as yours!" I burst out, somewhat indignant. "Boys do wear this kind too, you know!"

"They look like ones I'd wear," scoffed Kelly. "So what's it like?"

For all that I’d accused her of not taking an interest in me, she sounded extremely interested in that question at least! My colour deepened yet further.

“Um, embarrassing,” I finally admitted, stammering out the words. Then I couldn't help adding pointedly: “Especially when someone sees.”

Kelly smiled, a little bit naughtily, making me suspect I was being teased however much she was behaving like this was an innocent conversation.

“But you’ve got so many bouncy swingy bits in front though,” the wide-eyed girl went on, still in the tone of one deeply absorbed. “My boyfriend wears tight under-shorts, and they help control that. Doesn’t it annoy you to have to stuff all those things down a little pair of panties? It’d drive me up the wall if I had them.”

I wanted to say it was more annoying having to listen to her talk about it! Just hearing her made me feel like my bouncies were twice as big and ten times more of a pain. Unable to help it I reached for the front of my shorts and resettled them, so they sat slightly differently in my underpants.

"You get used to it," I protested in vain, because Kelly looked on the verge of giggling at that flinch.

On the floor of the studio, the boy before me was blundering through the last minutes of his recital. It would be mine next! I tried some breathing exercises to calm me down. That was when Kelly leaned in close from behind me and whispered in my ear:

"Get top marks and I'll pop you just like you've always wanted."

I gulped hard. That was one tempting prize, and very hard to resist! On the other hand, I'd never managed top marks yet. What was more, did Kelly appreciate how difficult it was going to be for me to stay focused, after all the distracting things she'd just been saying?

No, I could do it. I knew I could. It was time, so I prepared to step onto the studio floor and do my absolute best.

“I can make it happen just by blowing,” confided Kelly in a soft sing-song voice, then pursed her lips and pushed out a single sweet puff of air.

That did it! There was no way I could concentrate with that going round my head. Predictably I went to pieces the minute my recital began.

THE END