I caught the looks from a gaggle of Junior Varsity cheerleaders. They were young, but they were very cute. Further down the hallway were the

Volleyball chicks: tall, skinny, and all smiles for us. Even the nerd girls, the ones who spent more time with Lab equipment than on their appearance, shyly blushed when they found I was Looking at them.

Everybody loved us.

Well, almost everybody. There were the anarchists who openly despised high school sports and the stoners who were just so out of it they could care less. And then there were the ‘Heights’ chicks.

The gaggle of prissy girls were all from the ‘Heights’ side of town.

You could always recognize them because they went out of their way to make sure you included the word ‘Heights’ after the city name where we lived. Despite being hero jocks, our parents lived in houses that weren't quite worth $5 million and therefore we weren't even worth their time, at Least on an ordinary day.

But this day, this Monday after winning the Rivalry Game and getting the game ball, I was puffed up like a rooster. I strutted along and pointedly fixed my gaze at Amber, quite possibly the hottest girl in school, and only a Junior.

5°10", blonde, blue eyes, big rack, all on a trim, lithe body. I mean, we're talking Barbie doll proportions here. Blessed with a model pretty face, she would have given Cherys a run for her money in the attractiveness department if it weren't for the bitchy attitude that ruined the Look.

In my opinion, Amber was the only really good looking one in the whole bunch. The rest were just rich, as if expensive designer clothes made up for their average appearance.

She glanced up as we approached, more an unconscious peek when seeing a moving object in the corner of her eye than any active desire to look at me. With her oversized Chanel sunglasses, I wouldn't have even noticed except for the fact that I was staring straight at her.

Beautiful blondes with big tits and short skirts have that effect on me.

Anyways, Amber was already swiveling back to her friends when she belatedly realized I was actually looking her up and down, the way an interested male always evaluates a pretty girl.

Damn she was a fiiine looking chick. And after getting shut out by

Monica over the weekend and basking in my current hero-worship, I was feeling a little cocky. And besides, she was just a Junior, not one of the alpha-female bitchy Seniors.

Amber quickly broke my reverie.

“What the hell are you looking at?" she hissed, the blank stare of her black sunglasses coldly ripping through my self-confidence.

Witty words failed me. I kind of stuttered, "“N-n-nothing." And then in an attempt to salvage what dignity I had left, I continued down the hallway towards my next class. Nate knew better than to comment.

Fortunately, we bumped into Monica and Ellie just a minute later. Both girls gleefully giggled and ran up to us.

“Hi baby!" Monica Leapt into my arms for a searing kiss. I don't know if seeing the throngs of students following us turned her on, or she was just establishing her territory in front of everybody. Either way, her tongue was massaging some point a few inches down my throat.

Ellie and Nate just hung back, giving each other awkward grins. Not that they were awkward around each other. We'd all been in the same circle of friends throughout High School and they even dated briefly last year. It's just that they were used to such displays of affection between their respective best friends, that's all.

They patiently waited us out, and then the first bell rang and it was time to move along. Monica and Nate said goodbye and walked off together. They shared the same first period. Ellie and I had our first period together, and we headed along per usual.

Now I'd known Ellie for years. After all, we were the same age, from the same part of town. We'd been going to the same schools since first grade and I'd been crushing on her big sister Cherys since the fourth grade. I was even one of the first people to start calling her ‘Ellie instead of ‘Elemis’ in Middle School.

And in all that time, we'd probably walked to a few thousand classes together, just comfortable friendly walks. And TODAY was the first day in history that Ellie reached out and held my hand as we walked along.

She did it so casually and so easily that I didn't even realize it for thirty seconds or so. But when I made the first instinct to let go, she just gripped my hand harder

There are many times in a boy's life where he's trying to process too many things at once and the brain just kind of... locks up. Like