Chapter Six
1
Amanda was angry and she made no secret of it as she released a discontented sigh. The other two girls waited patiently but she could sense their restlessness as heavy as the musty air which surrounded them. Where was Penny? She knew that they always met in the barn at twelve and she never went out of her way to get there on time, but Penny had never been this late before.
Amanda watched as Sarah arched her back, cat-like, over the hay bale on which she lay and then stretched out her long slim limbs as far as she could. She moaned a throaty yawn before turning onto her side – her back facing the spectator – and curling up into a ball.
"This is getting really boring," said Wendy staring into her compact mirror before applying a thick sheen of lip gloss to her pout.
"Look, just shut up will you?" Amanda retorted.
"So how much longer do we have to wait here?"
"I told you already, we wait till Pen gets here all right?"
"Silly bitch probably isn't even coming," sighed Sarah, not moving from her comfortable, foetal position.
"Of course she'll be here," snapped Amanda as she stood up and marched over to the barn door.
"Why do we always have to wait for her anyway?" Wendy asked eyeing her reflection in the mirror and toying with her fringe. "She knows where the lake is. I say we go down there now and she can catch up with us later."
"Umm... I'll second that," Sarah mumbled, turning to face the others but still maintaining her snuggled posture.
"We'll go when she gets here and not before, do you understand?" Amanda turned away from the other two and peered through a small gap in the old wooden planks.
"Well, do you see her out there?" Sarah's voice was flat and tired as she asked the question.
"No, but she'll be here," Amanda said taking her eye away from the gap.
She turned to the others again. After the brightness outside, the barn now looked disturbingly dark and it took a little while for Amanda's eyes to readjust. She walked back over to the hay bales, dragging her feet across the creaking floorboards as she went. She became more despondent with each passing second but she knew that Penny would turn up in her own good time. She always did.
The next five minutes passed in silence. Sarah closed her eyes and curled up again. Wendy – her lip gloss now perfectly applied – moved on to checking her fingernails while Amanda just sat and watched without paying any real attention to either of them. Another five minutes passed before Amanda finally conceded defeat. The others were right; Penny wasn't coming today. Amanda walked over to where Sarah lay gently snoring and shook her awake.
"Huh... what's going on?" asked Sarah still half asleep.
"Come on Sleeping Beauty, time get up," replied Amanda.
"So she finally got here then?" Sarah wiped the thin trail of saliva from her cheek with the back of her hand before sitting up and rubbing her tired eyes.
"Don't ask silly questions, just get your things together and let's go."
"And about time too," said Wendy as she closed the lid on her bottle of nail varnish and threw it into her make-up pouch being careful not to scuff her wet nails.
The three girls gathered their swimming bags, exited the protective shade of the old barn and set out for the lake under the blistering heat of the afternoon sun.
2
Graham Sheen was sad. He hadn't been able to keep Penny Stephens out of his thoughts all night. He had been so looking forward to seeing her again but she hadn't come with the others to meet Amanda today. It was all his fault. If only he hadn't looked at her that way, if he hadn't seen what he had seen. But he had, and he'd liked it, and now he would probably never see Penny again. That was typical of Graham's luck, just when things seemed to be going well he would mess them up.
The barn door swung open and he watched from his hiding place in the back seat of his father's Range Rover as his sister and her two friends came out into the sunlight. They were all dressed identically in white, floppy, wide-brimmed hats and short, plain white, sleeveless dresses. Graham gazed at their shiny, tanned legs as the girls headed towards the main road and wished so much that he could see Penny dressed like that right now with her long dark hair flowing behind her in the soft breeze. Then that picture faded to be replaced by another, Penny dressed in a white T-shirt, denim shorts and black Dr. Martin boots – soaked from head to toe. He decided that the second picture was much better.
A shrill, distant giggle drew Graham's attention back to the three girls. They were quite far along the main road now. In a few moments, they would be hidden from view altogether by the high hedgerows. He would follow them, watch them, the way he always did. Maybe Penny would meet the others there; after all, he was the one she was staying away from not them. He would follow and he would watch.
3
After the heat of the open common, the three girls appreciated the shade of the woodland clearing. They knew that they were not supposed to be there but that only added to their excitement. They all wore their swimming costumes under their dresses to minimise the time it took to get into the cooling water. Because the lake was on the private property of the Munford Estate, they were the only people there. While Sarah and Wendy splashed around at the edge of the lakeAmanda removed a large beach towel from her swimming bag and unrolled it on the ground a few feet away from the water's edge.
Where was Penny? What was she playing at? She knew that they were going swimming this afternoon; they had arranged it all yesterday. It's because of what happened in the barn, Amanda thought to herself, I must have gone too far. Why did I have to say those things to her?
"Fine, fuck off back to mummy and daddy like a good little bitch then." She had regretted those words the very second she had said them and now she was paying the price. Amanda lay back on her towel and closed her eyes but she couldn't relax. She knew that she wouldn't feel at ease until she saw Penny again.
What was happening to her? She'd never had any problems telling Sarah and Wendy exactly what she thought of them; she did it all the time without a second thought. What made Penny so special? Why did she feel so differently towards her?
Amanda's head started to hurt with unanswerable questions. She could feel the energy draining out of her as she lay there under the shade of the tall trees. She had never felt so hot in her life. Maybe she would take a dip with the others in a minute after all.
4
Graham made sure he kept himself well out of sight, under cover of the bushes and dense undergrowth, as he edged a little closer to get a better look at the three girls. He liked to watch them swim, especially when Penny was with them. But she wasn't there, not this time. A twig snapped under his foot. The two girls in the water looked right over in his direction for a moment and he froze in his tracks, sure that they had found him out. Then, after a frighteningly long moment, Sarah and Wendy carried on splashing each other. He smiled to himself safe in the knowledge that he had outsmarted them just as he always did whenever he came to watch. Everyone called him an idiot, a retard, but Graham could keep still and quiet for a very long time when he had to.
If only Penny had been there with them. Graham loved seeing her in her yellow and white striped, one-piece swimming costume with her hair tied back in a long ponytail. Although his sister and the other two girls were good-looking enough, he didn't look at them in the same way as he did Penny. She was much prettier by far and she never teased him the way the others did. He didn't speak to her very much – the conversation on the road yesterday had been the longest that had ever passed between them – but whenever the others started to pick on him Penny never joined in.
The picture that he had conjured up of Penny in her swimming costume was nowhere near as exciting as that of her breasts against the material of her soaked T-shirt, but for some strange reason, it did fill him with a strange sensation. The bulge in his trousers was getting bigger – more uncomfortable by the second – until he had to open his zip and take out his erection. Suddenly he had been transported somewhere else. A place where there were only two people, Penny and himself. Graham closed his eyes and settled down.
5
Amanda heard splashes as the other girls climbed out of the water. The wet footsteps advanced towards her but she didn't open her eyes. Instead, she just rolled onto her right side so that her back was towards them. The girls were very close now; she could feel them right behind her. One of them dripped water on her as she crouched down until her lips almost touched Amanda's ear.
"Amanda, wake up," Sarah whispered. "I think that someone's watching us over in the bushes."
Amanda pushed Sarah's face away and sat up. She looked all around the small clearing but could see nothing. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "Where?"
"Over there." Sarah nodded her head in the direction of a large cluster of bushes not far from the path they had followed down to the lake.
Amanda scanned the area for a moment before turning her attention back to the girls. "I don't see anything," she frowned.
"Well, look more carefully, right in those bushes over there," Sarah's voice was impatient but remained quiet.
She stood right behind Amanda and rested her arm on the other girl's shoulder, pointing her right index finger back in the direction of the area in question. Amanda followed the trajectory of the finger until she clearly saw what the others had. There were definitely some signs of movement beyond the outer layer of thick greenery.
"So what do we do now?" Wendy asked, unable to keep the fear out of her voice as she pulled her beach towel out of her swimming bag and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"I say we sneak up on the pervert and scare the living shit out of him," Amanda smiled.
"I'll go for some of that," smiled Sarah.
"But whoever it is must know that we've spotted them by now," said Wendy.
"And just how do you make that out?" Sarah asked without moving her eyes away from the moving green leaves.
"Well, we've been looking and pointing over there for the past few seconds so you work it out." Wendy turned and walked back to the spot where their dresses lay.
"Don't start getting snotty with me you silly little bitch," Sarah hissed after her.
Amanda watched as Wendy started to get dressed again. "And just what do you think you're doing?"
"I think that we should forget about whoever it is and just get the hell out of here right now. What if it's someone who is supposed to be here, like one of the groundsmen?" Wendy didn't even look up at the other girls as she spoke; too busy trying to slip back into her dress.
Amanda walked over to her and slapped her hard across the cheek. The shock etched on Wendy's face was almost comical. "None of us are going anywhere except to find out who the hell the little prick is who's spying on us," Amanda seethed, "and when we find out we'll make them wish they'd never been born, even if they are supposed to be here."
"Hey Mand, keep your voice down," said Sarah, "we don't want to scare them off before we get over there do we?"
"And you can stop telling me what to do bitch," Amanda shouted as she turned on the other girl. "Wendy's right; whoever it is must know that we've sussed them by now, so let's just get them before they get to us."
"Okay, okay," said Sarah, holding her hands up submissively. "Let's go."
Amanda purposefully headed towards her goal. She could hear the other two girls following close behind. The bushes were thicker than she had imagined. There didn't seem to be any way in from the front so they would have to go around the sides and approach the intruder from the rear. It was a perfect trap. Amanda indicated for the other two to break off to the left while she moved around to the right. She neared the other side of the bushes, the sound of movement still coming from deep within, and an uneasy question passed through her head. If the spy had known that the game was almost up why hadn't he taken the chance to make a run for it instead of just sitting around waiting to be caught? Maybe the spy was just sitting there, waiting for them to come. Maybe this had been the plan all along, to get them under cover of the woods and split them up. Maybe they were not the ones setting up the trap but the ones walking into it.
Amanda slowed down her pace, not relishing the moment when she would reach the spot where the spy lay in wait. Even at her new slower pace, she knew that she would probably get there before the other two; Wendy would obviously be slowing Sarah down by now. She couldn't find any sign of a gap in the mass of greenery and a part of her was happy about that. The rustling of the bushes stopped suddenly and Amanda froze. She looked down and found a long thin twig by her feet, bent down and picked it up, swishing it in the air a couple of times like a whip. This ought to do the job, she thought as her confidence returned.
Amanda had almost cleared the entire back area of the bushes before she finally came to the only likely point of entry, a small crawlspace at the base of the bushes. The leaves started to move again and adrenaline rushed through her like so many butterflies. Gripping the weapon firmly in her right hand, Amanda got down on all fours and paused for a deep breath before finally crawling through the gap. The little tunnel of leaves and branches started to thin out the longer she crawled through. Over to her left, she could see that the other two girls had found another way in, one that had been a lot less trouble than her own judging by the unruffled look of Wendy's dress.
"Can you two see anything from there?" Amanda asked, keeping her voice down to a minimum.
"Yeah," Sarah whispered back frowning into the area directly in front of her, "Someone's in there but I can't see what they're doing."
Amanda crawled over to her friends as quietly as she could and stared hard through the last thin layer of leaves. It was too dark in that area of the bushes to make out what the spy was up to. Amanda moved in a little closer, sure that the person was too engrossed with whatever it was they were doing to notice her. It was Graham and it took a couple of seconds for her to realize what he was doing.
"You filthy piece of shit," Amanda cursed as she raised her weapon over her head and ran into the small clearing. Sarah and Wendy followed close behind.
The fact that Graham had been discovered did not instantly to register with him. Even as the girls were almost upon him he kept his eyes closed tight and the rhythm of his hand fast and steady.
Amanda heard Sarah and Wendy giggling behind her and, without a second thought, brought her makeshift whip down hard against her brother's cheek. Graham snapped out of his trance with an agonized scream. As he clutched his injured cheek with both hands Amanda raised the stick again and brought it down with all her might. It was a well-aimed strike directly on his vulnerable erection. He let out another scream, more intense this time and Amanda felt a strange power surge through her as he curled up like a slug at her feet. She wanted to hurt him again and again. She raised the stick once more and brought it down hard onto his back – one hit... two... three... four... until the weapon finally gave up and broke in half.
She hadn't finished with him yet. In a second she swung her bare foot into Graham's back with all the force she could muster. The other girls joined in with a torrent of kicks to his head, rear and back until he somehow managed to climb to his knees.
"S... s... stop, s... stop," Graham pleaded as he tried to tuck himself back into his trousers.
"Okay girls," Amanda smiled, "let it get up."
The other girls took a couple of steps behind their leader and carried on laughing.
"I's... I's gonna t... telled dad of you."
"Yeah? And what exactly are you going to tell him you stupid spaz?"
"N... no called me spaz."
"I said, what do you think you're going to tell him?"
"I's gonna telled him that you and them beated m... me up."
"Well, I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"I's not care, I's gonna telled."
Amanda grabbed a fist full of Graham's hair and used it to yank his head back. Then she spat a large ball of saliva into his open mouth. "And what do you think he's going to do to you when I tell him that you were hiding here in the bushes perving on us?"
"But I's not looked at you."
"Don't lie," giggled Sarah, "You just wanted to see us naked."
Amanda let go of her brother's hair and stood over with the other girls. Graham just knelt there like a wounded animal.
"Piss off back home you fucking retard," She shouted down at him.
"I's get you back, jus' wait an' see," Graham screamed after them as they headed for the gap in the bushes, which Amanda wished she had known about earlier.
"Yeah, I bet you are. Now get back home like a good little nutter before we beat the shit out you again."
"You jus' try it an' I telled dad 'bout that thing."
All three girls stopped in their tracks. Amanda turned quickly and walked the few steps back to where her brother still knelt. The look on Graham's face told her that he'd already regretted his words. Coldly, without any expression on her face, she told him – "If you ever say a word about it I'll kill you in your sleep, do you understand spaz?"
Graham didn't speak. He just looked down at the ground and nodded slowly.
Author's Note
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