Ron’s Adventure
by Colin Kelly
colinkelly@xemaps.com

Chapter 6: The History Project

This is a work of fiction. However, it is based on things that my friend Ron told me that he did in the 8th grade. The names, locations, circumstances, and a few of the events have been changed to protect the privacy of those who participated in the actual happenings.

This story is Copyright © 2005 by Colin Kelly. It cannot be reproduced without express written consent. The Nifty Archives has written permission to publish this story. No other rights are granted.

This story contains scenes of explicit consensual sex between minors. If reading this type of material is illegal where you live, or if you are too young to read this type of material based on the laws where you live, or if you find this type of material morally or otherwise objectionable, or if you don't want to be here, close your browser now. The author neither condones nor advocates the violation of any laws. If you want to be here, but aren't supposed to be here, be careful and don’t get caught!

Sorry that it took me a long time to finish this chapter. There were a lot of interruptions. We went on our family vacation to L.A., and I got to ride lots of roller coasters (I LOVE roller coasters!). When we got back I went to computer camp for a week at the local college, and then I read the new Harry Potter book (I liked it). Because school was about to start I wanted to take it easy and to (finally) do some of the things that I’d been planning for summer vacation. I was able to find enough time this weekend to write chapter 6. Hope you like it!

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When I woke up Monday morning I lay in bed for about 15 minutes before getting up. I thought about the sleepover on Friday night, Doug would be coming over after school. I’d had a couple of sleepovers before with Jay. He brought his sleeping bag, but I told Doug that my bed is big enough for the two of us. I grinned. We were going to have a lot of fun!

My dick was starting to get hard. But the head was still way sensitive! It pushed against my PJs and that really hurt. I’m going to have to be careful when I use the washcloth to beat off! I tossed back the covers and looked down. The head was real red. I touched it with my fingertip, and even that hurt. The pain caused my boner to go away, and I pulled the skin up so the head was covered as much as it could be. There was no way I was going to beat off this morning! I’m not too good with pain, and beating off would have been pain city!

As I lay there, I thought about the dream I had Saturday night. About having sex with Darryl. It wasn’t playing constantly in my head like it had been. I could remember it, but when I thought about something else I forgot about the dream until I tried to think about it again. I breathed out, I was glad that the dream wasn’t stuck in my head like that song at Disneyland.

I got up, grabbed clean underwear, and went into the bathroom and locked the door. My dick still hurt, so I decided that I didn’t need to pee. I pulled out the Vaseline and rubbed a little on the end of my dick. It didn’t feel too bad, so I pulled back the skin and put on a big gob and spread it around the entire head, then pulled the skin back up as far as it would go. My dick was all pulled up into my body, and only about an inch was sticking out. I looked like some little kid. I decided that using the washcloth to beat off wasn’t such a good idea after all! I pulled on my briefs, and adjusted my dick so it was as comfortable as I could make it. The main thing was to keep the head covered by the skin, I guess this is what was called the foreskin, as much I could. But I was circumcised, and my foreskin kept sliding back, partly uncovering my dick head.

I decided that I’d skip taking a shower this morning, and let my dick recover. I sniffed my armpit, and it didn’t smell too bad, so I rolled on some deodorant. I put away the tube of Vaseline and the deodorant, and brushed my teeth. My hair is always kind of a mess, so I just ran my hands through it trying to make it look OK. But it didn’t look good, so I got my hands wet and ran them through my hair, then pulled out my hairbrush and finally got it so it looked good enough that I was satisfied. I pulled on my T-shirt and looked at myself in the mirror. I’d do.

Back in my bedroom I checked out a pair of jeans, but decided they would be too tight in my crotch and I’d be in pain most of the day. So I pulled on a pair of loose khakis and a dark green shirt, socks, and my Rockports which are like totally comfortable.

I grabbed my backpack and jacket, and took them downstairs. Mom had fixed scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.

“Morning, honey. How did you sleep?”

I grinned. “Don’t remember, I guess ‘cause I was asleep!”

“Funny! What do you want to drink?”

“Orange juice, please. And could I have some peanut butter and jam for my toast?”

Mom put a carton of orange juice and jars of crunchy peanut butter and apricot-pineapple jam on the table.

“Thanks, mom.”

“So, what will be covered in your classes this week?”

“We’re going to be starting a history project. Ms. Jefferson said we’d be on teams of four, and we’d have to work together to finish our report. All four on a team will get the same grade. We’re going to pick who’s going to be on the teams. I want to have Jay and Norman on my team, but we don’t know if we get to pick or whether Ms. Jefferson will pick. Each team will get a history problem, and will have to use the Internet to find the answers, and we’ll need pictures and maps and graphs. Then we have to write up the report.”

“When does the project have to be turned in?”

“I’m not sure. Sometime next month, I think. Ms. Jefferson will tell us today, I guess.”

I finished my breakfast and put my dishes in the dishwasher. “Mom, I’m going to phone Doug so we’ll meet and walk to school together. Is Debbie ready?”

“Yes, she already had breakfast and she’s in her bedroom studying for a test.”

I looked at the clock. “OK, that’s good. We’ll probably leave in about 10 minutes.” I went into the family room, picked up the phone, and dialed Doug’s number.

“Hello.” The voice was Doug’s mom.

“Hi, it’s Ron, Mrs. Choi. May I talk to Doug?”

“Oh, hello, Ron. He’s just finishing his breakfast. Hold on for a minute.”

It really was about a minute that went by before Doug picked up the phone. “Hi, Ron! What’s up?”

“You want’a meet and walk to school together?”

“Sure! Michelle’s ready. We can be there in about 10 minutes. I gotta pee first.” He giggled.

“Ooo, can I watch?”

Doug whispered “Yeah, sure! Perv!” then broke out into laughter.

“Like mom told me, ‘sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me!’ See ya in 10 then!”

“K. Bye, Ron.” Then Doug whispered “I love you” and hung up.

I grinned and hung up the phone. It was wonderful that Doug said he loved me, it made me kinda glow all over. But what if his mom had overheard him? I’d have to tell him to cool it the way Darryl had told Doug and me to cool it!

I decided that I’d better pee, too. I hadn’t taken a leak when I got up because my dick hurt so much. It would also give me a minute to check out how the Vaseline was working. I went into the downstairs bathroom and locked the door. I unzipped and very carefully pulled out my dick. It wasn’t so easy because it was still kinda shriveled up. The head didn’t look as red as it had been when I got up. I peed, and there was a little burning sensation around my pee slit, but when I was through that went away, and I flushed. Again, carefully, I positioned my dick in my briefs so it was comfortable, and zipped up my khakis.

I walked into the kitchen. “Is Debbie ready? It’s time to go.”

My mom called out “Debbie, time to leave for school!”

“OK, I’m ready!”

We left the house and walked to the corner. Doug and Michelle were coming down the block, and Debbie and Michelle waved at each other and were grinning. It looked like they had become good friends. I smiled as Doug walked up.

“Hi, guy!”

“Hey, Ron!”

We headed to St. Bart’s, talking about what we’d be doing in school this week.

“We have a history project, and Mrs. Garcia told us that we’d be working with kids from your class. Maybe we could be on the same team!”

“Wow, that’s neat. Ms. Jefferson didn’t tell us that we’d be working with you guys, and she didn’t tell us how the teams would be picked. Did Mrs. Garcia tell you about that?”

“Yeah, she said something about each of us writing down who they wanted on their team, then they would see how it all matched up. Hey, Ron, who will you put on your list?”

“Well, let’s see, there’s Jay, and then there’s Norman, and, hmmm, some other kid, kind of a perv I think. Oh, yeah! It’s Doug Choi!” I burst out laughing, then so did Doug, and he punched me in the arm, but not too hard. Debbie and Michelle were walking ahead of us and they turned to see what was so funny and gave us a dirty look. Girls!

We chatted about school stuff, and the new Harry Potter book that had just come out, and what we thought would happen in the next book, and what we each liked and didn’t like about the other Harry Potter books and the movies, and the new movie that was coming out around our birthdays. I told Doug that he’d better be careful about what he told me on the phone, that someone in his family could overhear him. He blushed, partly because of what I told him, and I think partly because he had said he loved me! Pretty soon we were at school, and we each went to our own classrooms because the bell was about to ring.

“Hi, Ron! What’s new?” I looked around and saw Jay coming into our classroom.

“Hi, Jay! Have a good weekend?”

“Yeah. We went to visit my grandma in San Diego. We went to the zoo and it’s great. You ever been to the zoo there?”

“No. We went to the L.A. zoo, and it was OK.”

“San Diego’s zoo is lots bigger. It’s huge! And they have a wild animal park somewhere else, not at the zoo, where they’re supposed to have wild animals running around together just like in Africa. And some of them you can get right next to, and even feed, grandma said, like the giraffes. But we didn’t have time to go there, just to the main zoo.”

“What’d you see?”

“Man, just about everything. What I liked best was they have these huge cages with birds flying around and you can walk around in there with them, and if you stand still they will land right next to you.” Jay giggled. “But you gotta be careful, ‘cause they might poop on you as they fly by. A little kid next to me got a huge bird dropping on his head and we started laughing ‘cause it looked so funny but he started to cry, maybe ‘cause he was so embarrassed or something. And his mom came over and gave us a really dirty look for laughing. I’m sure glad it was him and not me!” Jay began laughing, and so did I.

Norman came over. “What’s so funny, Jay? Hi, Ron.”

We both said “Hi” to Norman, and Jay retold his story about the bird dropping and the little kid. Actually, I felt sorry for the little kid. I could imagine what I’d feel like if that had happened to me! Then Jay told about the other animals he had seen and which ones were his favorites.

The second bell rang, and Ms. Jefferson told us to get to our seats and quiet down. “As you know, we are going to start our history project this week. You will be in teams of four. Each team will have two students from our class and two students from Mrs. Garcia’s class.” There were groans, including mine. That meant that I couldn’t be teamed up with both Jay and Norman. “Here’s how we are going to assign you to teams. Each of you will write your name at the top of a 3 by 5 card, plus the name of one person in our class you want to be teamed with, and two from Mrs. Garcia’s class. Mrs. Garcia and I will put this on a class roster and see how it comes out. We will make the final choices based on what you submit. We will choose teams first where everything matches, then we will pick the other teams, and that may be random. So, it makes sense for you to talk to your classmates from both classes and try to decide in advance who you and your team members write down on your cards. The cards have to be turned in during the last class today, so you have recess and lunch to talk among yourselves. It turns out that between the two classes there are 72 students. However, our class is larger, 37 students, and Mrs. Garcia’s class is smaller, 35 students, so Mrs. Garcia and I will have to select one team that will have three students from our class and one from Mrs. Garcia’s class.” Wow, maybe there was a chance that Jay and Norman and and I would be on a team with Doug! “Are there any questions? Yes, Samantha?”

“I don’t know anyone in Mrs. Garcia’s class. How do I pick someone from there?” There was a murmur of agreement from some other kids.

“Both classes will meet at the start of recess today and you should spend the time getting to know some of the students from Mrs. Garcia’s class. The students from Mrs. Garcia’s class will stand in an inner circle facing out. The students from our class will stand in an outer circle facing in. The student circle from Mrs. Garcia’s class will walk around and you will introduce yourselves to each other. When everyone in Mrs. Garcia’s class has met everyone in our class, you can talk to and get to know each other. You should do the same during lunch, and decide who from the other class you might like to have on your teams. The students from Mrs. Garcia’s class will be doing the same, to get to know you and decide who to pick from our class to be on their teams. And, of course, you’ll need to pick who you want to have on your team from our class as well.”

I’d tell Jay and Norman and see if they want to be on a team with me and Doug, then all of us will fill out our cards that way. I decided not to ask Ms. Jefferson if we could do that because other kids might do the same and it would make our chances less. I raised my hand. “Ron, you have a question?”

“Yes, Ms. Jefferson, I have two questions. How do we pick what our team is going to write about, and when is the project due?”

“Two very good questions, thank you, Ron. I’m going to post the team rosters and hand out a list of project topics tomorrow. You and your team members need to talk about then pick a project and write your team number next to that project. Now, the date your projects will be due. This is the second week of September. The projects will be due on the last Friday of September. That gives you three weeks to finish.” There was a loud chorus of groans from the class and even a few “That doesn’t give us enough time!” comments. “Mrs. Garcia and I have been assigning these history projects for several years now, and three weeks has always been enough for the other classes.” She looked at us with an ‘unless you’re kinda dumb!’ expression. “Each project is graded based on 500 points. You will receive an outline that lists how your project report must be organized. Organization will be worth 200 points, that’s 40% of the total. So it’s very important that you have your report well organized.” This brought on more moaning.

Tyler, a kid who usually complained about having too much homework, raised his hand. “But Ms. Jefferson, that means our team’ll have to meet like every day, and how can we get all of that done and still do our other homework?”

“Well, you won’t be getting any other history homework, so you will be able to work on your project using the time you would usually spend on history homework. Your history class time will also be used for the project. And the way we have the project organized will let you work independently, then get together once or twice a week to make sure everything fits together. But you will have to start working on your projects right away. We have a way to encourage you to do this. For each day, that’s each school day, weekends do not count, that your report is turned in before the due date, you will receive an extra 10 points, like a bonus. So, if you finish and turn in your report a week early, you will get an extra 50 points. That can be the difference between a B and an A! But be sure you don’t rush things and turn in a partially done report, because the 500 points are going to be based on the quality of your report, especially how complete and organized it is, not how fast you finished it. Any other questions?”

There was some grumbling, but no one had any questions.

“Now, open your algebra book to page 48. We are going to look at some interesting formulas.”

There were some groans, most kids didn’t like math but I thought it was OK. We all pulled out our algebra books and opened them.

After algebra the recess bell rang, and we all went into the playground and began lining up in circles the way Ms. Jefferson had told us. There was some confusion, kids in the wrong places, and the circles weren’t circles until Mrs. Garcia moved the kids from her class around, but after a couple of minutes we were lined up pretty good.

Jay was on one side of me and Norman on the other. I whispered to them, “Hey, listen up! I have an idea. Let’s you two and me and Doug put down our names on our cards, then we can all be on that one team Ms. Jefferson said would have to have three from our class and one from Mrs. Garcia’s.”

“Wow, neat idea, Ron. Norman, that OK with you?”

“Yeah! Neat! You think Ms. J will go for it?”

“I hope so,” I said. “I think we’d make a great team, and I think that we can finish a week ahead and get the extra 50 points and all get an A on the project!” Jay and Norman nodded and grinned. It was a plan!

Just then Ms. Jefferson told us to look at the other class circle, and Mrs. Garcia got us to introduce ourselves, shake hands, even with the girls, then her class circle would move around so we were all introducing ourselves to the next kid. It was a little confusing because our circle had two extra kids, but it seemed to work out OK. I knew some of the kids in Mrs. Garcia’s class, like Sean and Tyler and Gary and a few others. Finally, I was facing Doug.

“Hi, Ron!”

“Hi! Hey, Jay and Norman and I got an idea about the teams. We’ll tell you about it at lunch. Don’t turn in your card until after we talk!”

“I wasn’t going to turn it in before this afternoon, anyway. What’s your idea?”

“We’ll tell you at lunch.” I smiled at him. “We think it’s clever! And kinda sneaky!”

“I love it already! See you at lunch.”

Doug moved to my left and I introduced myself to the next kid, a cute girl named Lisa. After we had been introduced to everyone, the circles broke up and we talked to kids from the other class. It was actually kinda fun, meeting a lot of new kids that were actually in our school. I guess we had pretty much stuck with the kids in our own class, and hadn’t make friends with most of the kids in the other class. Way too soon the bell rang, and recess was over.

Our English teacher, Sister Mary Constance, a nun, came to our class and we had a spelling test, diagramed some sentences, read a short story and then discussed it, and started on our homework assignment which was to write a story about what we did on the weekend that had to be at least one full page long printed double spaced. I’m not sure what someone would do if they didn’t have a computer and a printer at home, but I guess everyone did because no one said anything.

Jay, Norman, and I met Doug outside at lunch. We all had brought our lunches, so we didn’t need to go to the cafeteria. It was more private outside. We sat at one of the picnic tables at the back of the playground.

“OK, guys, what’s the clever idea?”

Jay, Norman, and I each told parts of our idea. Doug grinned, but then looked a bit worried.

“We were told we had to write the name of two from our class, and two from your class. Instead you want me to write just my name and all three of your names?”

“Yup. And write on your card that it because you’re volunteering to be on the team that has to have three from Ms. Jefferson’s class and one from Mrs. Garcia’s class. I don’t think anyone else will think of doing this. And it’s not like you’re going to get in trouble for doing it. It will make it easier for our teachers to select the teams.”

Doug thought for a few seconds, then grinned. “You’re right. It’s clever, and it is sneaky, too. I like it. I really like it! Let’s do it!”

Everyone agreed that each of us would write all four of our names on our cards. When we returned to class that’s what we did, and turned in our cards to our teachers at the end of class. We wouldn’t find out until tomorrow whether it worked, and we were all nervous, I can tell you!

Doug and I and our sisters walked home together. For the first time Debbie and Michelle talked to us. They had heard about the history project, and had seen the kids from our classes introducing themselves to each other, and how everyone in the other grades were talking about it. They were curious about how the teams were going to be picked. We told them a short version of how it was going to be done, and our idea to all get on the same team. Then they told us about what they were doing in third grade, especially how they had to read a story by Friday and take a test. Both girls read a lot, so they thought it was an easy assignment.

We got to my house and Debbie and I said bye to Doug and Michelle. I finished my homework, we had dinner, watched TV, said goodnight, and I went up to my room. I checked my dick. The head wasn’t as red as this morning, and when I touched it, it didn’t hurt either. I felt a little grungy because I hadn’t taken a shower this morning, so I went into the bathroom and took a shower. I was super careful when I washed my dick. The soap stung a little, but when I rinsed the stinging went away. After drying, I put some more Vaseline on my dick head, and it didn’t hurt when I rubbed it. Man, was I glad that it seemed to be almost better! I brushed my teeth, then went back to my bedroom. I turned on my PC and checked IM, but no one I know was on, so I shut it down and went to bed. I was tired, for some reason more than usual. I went to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

When I woke up in the morning I didn’t remember having any dreams. I lay there for a few minutes thinking about what was going on today. The history project! The teams were going to be announced. I started to get nervous. I really wanted to have Doug and Jay and Norman on my team. I thought about that for a few seconds and grinned. ‘My team’ I called it. Well, maybe I’d be the team leader and maybe I wouldn’t. Of course, Ms. Jefferson didn’t say anything about having team leaders. Maybe we’d just work together. We were friends, and we wouldn’t need a team leader.

I got up and checked my dick. The head looked like it was just about back to normal. I breathed a big sigh of relief. I thought about beating off, but decided not to push it yet. Tonight or even tomorrow morning would probably be soon enough. I went to the bathroom and did all my usual morning things. I dressed, again putting on loose khakis instead of jeans so my dick wouldn’t have anything pressing against it.

As usual Debbie and I met Doug and Michelle and walked to school with them.

“Well, do you think we’re gonna be on the same team, Ron?”

“I hope so. I don’t see why not.” I grinned. “We sure made it easy for our teachers to pick us, didn’t we?”

Doug laughed. “Well, we’ll find out today, won’t we? When do you think the teams will be announced?”

“Probably this morning. That’s our history and social studies class.”

“I can hardly wait.” Doug grinned at me. “You nervous?”

“Yeah.”

We continued to school without saying anything more. We didn’t even say ‘bye’ to each other when we split up to go to our classrooms, we just nodded to each other. When I walked into the classroom Jay and Norman were sitting at their desks looking at Ms. Jefferson. She was pinning a couple of sheets of paper on the corkboard. The list of teams and the list of projects! All the kids got up and crowded around trying to see the team rosters. Norman and I were at the back of the mass of kids, but Jay had pushed his way right up to the

Jay turned and shouted “Ron, Norman, look! We’re on team 18 with Doug! Ron, your idea worked!”

“Shhhh! Keep quiet, Jay!” I looked around to see if Ms. Jefferson had heard him, but she was walking around the room putting some papers on each desk. Jay pushed through the crowd of kids, and he, Norman, and I walked to the back of the room.

“Oh, man, this is fantastic!

“Did you see the list of projects?”

“No, I was only interested in the team roster!” Jay looked down at his desk. “Look, here’s the list of teams, and the list of projects too!” We all looked at the projects. They seemed tough.

Norman looked worried. “Look at these projects! ‘Content for the 8th grade U.S. history projects can address the Bill of Rights, Citizenship, Voting Rights, Political Parties, Judicial Independence, Early Exploration, Lewis and Clark, Colonial America, American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, Westward Expansion, the Mexican-American War, Slavery and Abolition, the Industrial Revolution, Inventions, World War II, Immigration, and the Internment of Japanese Americans.’ Oh, man, I’m starting to get a headache already!”

I groaned. “Look, this page tells how to organize our report. ‘The U.S history projects will help 8th grade students learn to use primary resources as a historian does. Historical documents include letters, notes, paintings, speeches, cartoons, slave narratives, biographies of historical individuals, court cases, radio addresses, newspaper articles, and ballot measures.’ We’ve gotta do research in the library and on the Internet, both. We have to have pictures, and we have to tell where they came from. The report has to have 1,500 words and it’s gotta be double spaced. Jeez, this is a lot of work!” I looked up at Jay and Norman, and they were shaking their heads at the amount of work we’re going to have to do on this project.

“Ya know, we ought a get with Doug after school today and look at the project list and try to figure out which one we think we can do the easiest. Norman, your house is closest to school, can we meet there?”

“Sure. Mom will still be at work, but if I phone her I’m sure she’ll say it’s OK. She doesn’t know Doug, but she knows both of you.”

“When can you call her?”

Norman grinned. “Any time. I got a cell phone for my birthday! I’ll call during recess, but we gotta find somewhere to do it where nobody can see us. They don’t want cell phones at school. Dumb!”

“Can I use your phone to call my mom? And Ron will have to call his mom, and Doug, too.”

“That’ll all be OK. My cell phone has unlimited minutes. No long distance, though, so ya can’t call all your relatives!” Norman grinned.

I was jealous. “That’s so cool that you have a cell phone. Man, would I like to have one!”

Ms. Jefferson rang her little ‘attention’ bell. “Alright, class! Let’s get back to our desks and I’ll give you some guidelines about the history project.”

At recess we saw Doug hurrying over to where we were standing. “Guys! I don’t believe it! It worked! Fantastic!”

“Yeah, but did ya see that list of projects? Man, this is gonna be so tough! We’re going to my house after school and figure out what project we should do. I have a cell phone. We can call our moms and make sure it’s OK. Let’s go back there to the picnic table and we can call now.” Norman turned and almost ran toward the back of the schoolyard, and we followed him. Once we got there, Norman turned on his cell phone and called his mom at work, and she said it was OK if we all came over to work on the project after school. I was next, and mom said it was OK but told me I had to be home by six. Jay’s mom said OK too. Doug’s mom must have been out, because he got her voicemail and left her a message telling her what we were going to do and that he’d call her during lunch to get her OK.

Now that all that was settled, before we could do anything else the bell rang ending recess and we had to go back to class. At lunch Doug still couldn’t reach his mom, so he left her a message that he would go to Norman’s house and call her from there.

Norman only lived a few blocks from St. Barts, and it only took us ten minutes to walk there after school. No one was home, his mom and dad worked, and he didn’t have any brothers or sisters. As soon as we got there, Doug called his mom, and she was OK with him working on the project at Norman’s.

We got together in Norman’s bedroom because that’s where his computer was, and we needed to go on the Internet to work on the project. I’d never been in his bedroom before. Norman was a friend, but mainly he was Jay’s friend, and Jay was mainly my friend. Whenever I’d been to his house we’d been in the family room or back yard. His room was small, with a twin size bed along the outside wall that had a window, and his desk with his PC was on the opposite wall. When Norman pulled out the chair at his desk and sat down at his PC, the back of the chair was real close to the side of his bed. Jay, Doug, and I sat on the bed behind him. He turned on his PC, brought up Google, and turned around. “OK, let’s go through each of the projects on the list, and look them up on Google. The ones that we find have the best stuff can be the ones we pick from.”

I looked around at everyone. “Sounds good. So, let’s get started. It shouldn’t take us too long to find the best project!”

I was wrong. Searching in Google took over a half hour just for the first project on the list, the Bill of Rights. There was lots of stuff on the Internet, but that was the problem. There was too much stuff about it on the Internet. We looked at lots and lots of web sites, and Norman saved links to the sites we thought were the best. But there were still thousands of web sites to see!

Doug stood up, stretched, and yawned. “I say let’s stop on this one! We have so many sites saved already, maybe too many. And my shoulders and back are sore from sitting here and leaning around Norman to see the screen.”

Norman stood up. “I’m thirsty, and hungry. Anyone else want a snack? We’ve got cookies and chips, and we’ve got Coke and 7-Up and root beer. What’s everyone want?” We told him our choices, Cokes all around except Jay wanted root beer, and chips, and cookies. “Jay, give me a hand, OK?”

Norman and Jay left to get our drinks and snacks. Doug was still stretching and rolling his shoulders. “Hey, Doug, let me give you a shoulder massage.” I stood up and grabbed the top of his shoulders, and began massaging them, rubbing my thumbs hard on the upper part of his back. Doug groaned a few times, and I could feel his muscles relaxing under my fingers. After about 30 seconds I stopped. “How was that?”

“Oh, man, that felt great.” Doug turned around, rolled his shoulders, and looked at me. “Lots better, now. That was like a professional massage. Thanks, Ron!”

“No problem, glad I could help! And I really enjoyed massaging you.” I grinned my evil grin.

Doug grinned back. ”You need a massage?”

“Nope, I’m fine. Thanks, though.”

Doug sat down at Norman’s PC. “While we’re waiting, let’s look at that last site Norman saved, the one with the links to lots of other sites about the Bill of Rights. There were some things there that gave me an idea about what we could write about for the project.” He clicked on the history icon, and a list of web sites opened on the left side of the screen. “Now, which was that site…”

“Doug, wait! What’s that there?” I pointed at the history list. “Look at that, the title’s ‘The Cool Page for Queer Teens’, what’s that?” Doug clicked on the link. A page opened showing a bunch of links. Doug clicked on a link, and a page about ‘What does it mean to be gay?’ opened. We both looked at the page, then at each other, and we probably both had shocked expressions. Doug scrolled down the history list, and clicked on a link to ‘Gay365.com’ which had links to gay news stories. Then a link to ‘nifty.org’. And a link to a site with lots of pictures of guys sucking each other.

Doug and I looked at each other. Doug still had sort of a shocked expression, but then he grinned. “I’ll bet Norman is gay, or at least really, really curious, Ron.”

I giggled. “I think so! Maybe you…”

“Oh, shit!”

It was Norman. He and Jay had come back with the drinks and snacks. We turned and looked at him.

“Oh, sorry, I guess I was looking at some stuff and left it…” Tears began to run down Norman’s cheeks, and he put the tray with glasses and ice and a large bottle of Coke and one of root beer on his bed. “Shit. Uh, it’s not what you think, uh…” He turned and looked at Jay, who had a scared expression. Jay looked at me, and at Doug, then back at Norman.

I stood up, and Norman took a step back and looked frightened. “Norman, it’s OK, man. Doug and I…” I turned and looked at Doug for a few seconds, then back at Norman, “Doug and I don’t care if you’re gay or not gay or whatever. You’re our friend, and that’s the only thing that matters with us.”

Norman turned and looked at Jay, and some sort of message must have passed between them because they grinned at each other, then they looked at Doug and me and smiled. Norman rubbed his arm across his face, wiping off most of his tears. “Maybe we better all sit down and have something to drink, and then if it’s OK with Jay,” he turned to look at Jay and Jay nodded, “we’ve got something to tell you.”

I sat on the bed near where Doug was sitting at the computer. Norman and Jay sat near the end of the bed. Doug and I looked at Norman and Jay, and Norman poured the sodas and Jay opened a bag of Ruffles cheese potato chips and handed it around.

Norman took a deep breath. “I’m gay.” He turned and looked at Jay.

Jay had a slightly worried expression. “And so am I, and we’re… boyfriends, I guess, that’s what the stories on Nifty say we are, when guys are, uh together, and, uh, we’re, uh, together. Ya know?”

Norman looked at Jay. Jay turned to him, and I could tell they were looking into each other’s eyes.

I turned to Doug and raised my eyebrows, silently asking if I should tell Norman and Jay about us, and Doug understood because he nodded.

“Guys, Doug and I think that’s fantastic. And, we’re boyfriends, too. Doug and I are ‘together’ like you two. I’m not sure if we’re gay, or bi, but we are ‘together’ for sure!” Doug looked me, then at at Norman and Jay, grinning his evil grin, then he wiggled his eyebrows.

Norman looked at us and grinned. “I thought you guys must be getting it on!”

I was shocked. “What do you mean? You thought we were gay? What made you think that?”

“It was just the way you two look at each other. It reminds me of how Jay and I look at each other. So I just figured…”

Suddenly Jay yelled “Hey, look at the time! It’s quarter to five! We haven’t decided anything yet. Ron, you said your mom told you to be home by six, so we’ve got less than an hour to figure out what project we’re going to do. Let’s get back to it, OK?”

Norman, Doug, and I all nodded our heads ‘yes’.

Doug turned back to the computer. “There was a site that you saved, Norman. It’s about the Bill of Rights. Let me see if I can find it. Here it is. I think we should do our project on the Bill of Rights. It’s important to our freedoms in this country. And people are always trying to chop out what they don’t agree with. It affects us, all four of us, because we love each other, because we’re guys, gay guys.”

The rest of us looked at Doug. He was right, this was a great history project for us. “I’m with you, Doug. How about you two?”

Norman and Jay both said “Yes!” at the same time.

“Great idea! And I saved links to lots of web sites about the Bill of Rights. Let’s spend the rest of the time checking which ones are the best.” And that’s what we did. At 5:30 I stood up and said it was time for me and Doug to go, and we agreed that we’d meet at Norman’s both Wednesday and Thursday after school and continue working on the project. None of us could work Friday night, but we agreed to decide about the weekend when we met at school on Friday.

On the way home Doug and I talked mostly about Norman and Jay, about how long they had been together, and joked about what they were doing and how they were doing it. I thought about how Norman was heavy but solid, and Jay was a skinny kid. It seemed strange that they would be attracted to each other. But who would figure that two kids, me and Doug, one with Scottish ancestors and one with Chinese ancestors, would be attracted to each other?

We also talked about the sleepover at my house Friday night. We’d pick Doug up at his house on our way home from picking up my dad at the airport. We kidded around about what we’d do in bed, and how we’d have to be really quiet about it because my bedroom isn’t as private as Doug’s.

The next two days were really busy at school. Our teachers were giving us more than just history period to work on our projects in class, and the four of us met at Norman’s house after school on Wednesday and Thursday. Everything seemed to go together really easily. We were all enthusiastic about picking the Bill of Rights as our project. We found a lot of material on the internet, even a picture of the original Bill of Rights document on Google. We wrote an outline of what we wanted to include in the report, and there were four sections, one for each of us. The hardest part was going to be writing the 1,500 words! We figured that would be six pages, a page and a half for each of us, and that’s a lot of writing! When we met at Norman’s house on Thursday we decided who would write which section and that we’d work on it by ourselves over the weekend.

Every class at school on Friday seemed to take forever. I guess that I was excited to be going to the airport with mom to meet dad when he got back from his business trip, and about Doug coming over for our sleepover. I kept watching the clock and wishing that the day would end!

Finally, the bell rang at 3:30 and I ran out to the front of school to wait for mom. Debbie was there already, she must have gotten out of class early. Mom drove up with Nichole, and we got in the car.

“Ready to go to the airport and pick up dad, kids?”

Debbie and I answered at exactly the same time, “Yes!” followed by Nichole’s “Yeah!”

“OK, we’re on our way!”

To be continued…

I hope you like this story, and if you have comments, suggestions, or questions, email me!
Colin Kelly
colinkelly@xemaps.com