This is a story about a boy and a girl.

If you missed chapter one you can find it here...Chapter One.

I realize these are very short chapters but is there a law on how long a chapter has to be to qualify as a chapter?

I didn't think so.

.....

Six months had passed, possibly a year.

The girl, being that she was only 9 years old (or maybe 10), had seldom thought about the little boy she had met that day at the park.
Her mind was probably full of more important things like who chased her on the playground at school, whether or not there was any bologna in the refrigerator for lunch, or when she would get her first training bra.
But then she discovered that the boy had moved to town.

She thought about him a little bit then.
Shortly thereafter she found herself in the car with her parents on the way to the boy's house for supper.

She worried about being embarrassed in front of him and she was nervous.
After they arrived she again made quick friends with the little boy's sister...she was forward and unabashed...things the little girl was not and the little girl liked that about her.

It was the same reason she liked her that day at the park.
They fed the chickens and sprayed them with the water hose and pushed each other on the long rope swing while the parents did what parents do and the little boy played off in the distance with another little boy.
Night began to fall and the parents built a bonfire.

The girls and boys eventually found their way into the company of one another and made their way into an old barn on the property.
They stacked hay bales, made tunnels and climbed through them, hung from a rope hanging from the rafter, talked about snakes and giggled about whatever young kids giggle about while getting straw stuck in their hair and down their pants.

The girl had fun and felt comfortable.
Someone found a light bulb in the hay.

The boy started throwing rocks at it to break it but the girl screamed at him to stop because she was afraid it would explode.
The boy laughed at her and said she was silly.

She was jealous of his confidence and quietly left the barn with her new friend.
The boys followed and they all walked back to the bonfire together.

The boy went around the house and retrieved a four-wheeler.
The girl had never ridden on one but she was excited to try...she told her new friend that she wanted to ride.

Her friend pointed to the boy and said, "He'll give you a ride."
The boy looked over his shoulder at the girl as he sat on the four-wheeler, revved the engine and said, "Hop on!"

The girl became embarrassed.

She looked to the adults for assurance that she shouldn't ride with the boy, but they seemed disinterested and unconcerned.

Even with their approval (or at least lack of concern) she still shook her head no.

She knew that if she were pressed tightly against the boy in order to hold on that he would most definitely feel her heart beating against his back and then he would know she was afraid.
And though she didn't know why, she knew she didn't want him to know she was nervous in his company.

But despite it all, the boy somehow knew not only that she was embarrassed, but why she was embarrassed and he playfully mocked her.
"Come on.  I won't wreck", he yelled.

"I know what I'm doing, but you'll have to hold on really tight."

And then he grinned such a wicked grin that he may as well have blown her a kiss and the girl walked away, her cheeks hot and flushing.

And she decided right then and there (almost with a stamp of her foot) that if the boy ever asked her to ride a four-wheeler with him again that her answer would be different.

That she would be confident like him.

That he would not affect her.
B