No Picnic, part three

I made the mistake of letting my fright get the better of me, to the extent that I began to say in a hesitant, timid voice:

“Um, w-well, we were just saying to each other how hot it is this afternoon, so – ”

Like I said, big mistake. Immediately all three females burst into mocking superior laughter and taunts, Jessica’s mother just as much as her daughters. They were all going at once, and the word “scared” was their unanimous favourite. “Scaredy-pants,” “Scaredy-boys,” “Scared of losing to a girl,” “What’s the matter, you scared?” and so it went, and it was hopeless then. Our sense of boys’ honour had already been badly piqued by the teasing we’d had to put up with earlier, and at the first mention of how we might be scared we were on our feet at once, pink about the cheeks, wanting nothing but to accept the challenge at once and take these uppity girls down a peg or two.

So we played, and they wiped up the court with us. Only Kyle had any skill at all, and of course even he was badly outmatched. His friend meanwhile proved to be almost as bad as I was, and obviously it was no help at all that he also needed a wee! The three of us had no chance, playing a trio who were stronger, fitter and faster. We were not only beaten, but teased and taunted until we could hardly take any more.

I could see how intently Kyle’s friend gazed at Holly the whole time we were playing, nearly going out of his pants in the hope that during this game an accidental flick or billow of her skirt would show him what he so badly wanted to see. It was a reasonable enough thing to expect, but unfortunately it turned out the girl was an absolute little princess at keeping her panties hidden when she didn’t want them to be seen! Most girls had a knack for this, but a boy could sometimes get lucky. Not with Holly though! Without any effort at all she made sure she never did anything in the game that would result in her skirt flipping or riding up too high, which I guess was easy enough to do when your opponents were giving you as little trouble as we three boys. It made watching the girl a tantalizing experience for me and Kyle, and of course it was a hundred times worse for Kyle’s friend, who knew he could have the thing he most dreamed of if he could just see her underwear once.

We soon learned however that Jessica’s mother’s swimsuit had full matching dark-blue panties underneath the skirt, because she’d lost none of the skill she had as a schoolgirl and I ended up with those in my face more times I could count. Jessica’s we already knew were plain red, and she too made a point of demonstrating the talent she’d clearly inherited from her mother. One of her team’s favourite tricks was to do as girls do in netball, and hold the ball out of our reach without moving so we had to hop up and down in front of them to try and knock the ball out of their hands. Even Holly, who was shorter than me, was able to do this, and against her mother and big sister there was no hope. Time after time I’d jump frantically up from the ground, heart pounding, but all in vain.

On the rare occasions Kyle managed to get the ball and passed it to me, I tried desperately to remember what little I knew about how to walk or run while bouncing it. But it was impossible! I’d be a few seconds into attempting the maddeningly difficult process of coordinating feet and hand when in a cloud of perfume one of my opponents would arrive and the ball would be gone. Nothing had ever made me so flustered, and tears were starting to prick at my eyes. This game was so difficult for me, I just couldn’t get it right, and the girls were so much better…it was all getting to be more than I could take. I could see I was a long long way away from even being as good at this game as Kyle was!

Finally, while I was struggling to keep Jessica from taking the ball yet again, I accidentally stepped out of bounds and it was all over. The female trio broke at once into raucous cheers, high-fives and doing little dances, all the time jeering and giggling at how breathless, hot-faced and defeated we looked. Our embarrassment couldn’t have been worse. It just about rounded off a perfect day…or so I thought at the time!

END OF PART THREE