11/10

Chapter One

 For Fern, the worst and best part about coming back from summer vacation was the people. Now he was a very tolerant guy but if there was one thing he couldn't handle well, it was attractive people. The first day back from the summer after sophomore year he already knew that everything had exploded. Abs, thighs, asses, (his self-esteem had also exploded but that was just him), hair, hormones, and breasts. They were all either gone, bigger, or more shapely. The following few weeks of school was an all you can eat buffet and the members of his class were the ones being served.

Rarely was it that he didn't dare a peek at someone's body or face. A two-second glance was never enough for his hungry eyes. The words of his mother about the objectification of women were hushed by the hormones in his body begging him to take as many peaks as he could. Whether it was ignorance or dumb luck he managed to get away with most of his transgressions, until the third week of school.

Fern sat towards the back of the room, his desk pushed all the way next to the opposite side of the room closest to the door. It was a Thursday afternoon and his brain was beyond fried. There were two pieces of paper in front of him. One was a mix of numbers and words demanding him to solve their problems. The other was a wide ruled piece of paper, blank. In an attempt to at least look like he put effort into his assignment, he rewrote one of the questions in his own messy chicken scratch handwriting. During this process was when his first problem arose.

There was a small noise like a pencil hitting the ground, a quick turn to the left confirmed that theory. Up rose Brittany Starling a girl he had gone to school with since the 2nd grade. Fern even had specific memories of her covering him with thick yellow finger paint. Britney Starling like many of the girl in Junior year had exploded as well. Thick thighs, well-formed abdomen, nicely formed chest Fern would rate her a ten out of ten on his attraction scale. She rose and bent down to pick up her pencil. Now Britney was in what Fern liked to call the danger zone for him. She was right in his line of sight, bent over giving him a perfect view of her ass in all its rounded glory.

Fern was so focused on her ass and the number of wondrous things he could compare it to, including bread, juicy fruit...more bread. He ignored the movement of her head turning directly to look at him.

"Are you staring at my ass?" She asked in clear English, cutting through the silent tense atmosphere of the test taking math class. Even the usually blissfully oblivious math teacher looked up at them. Fern briefly had an almost PTSD like flashback to his early childhood. The night he had watched the movie the Exorcist with his family. His mother's warning that all women had the ability to turn their heads 360 degrees to catch any stupid thing he did. That threat stuck with him for almost a year scaring him away from risky seven year old decisions like stealing cookies, and rubbing the dog in mud. At that moment in seventh period math class he remembered that warning from ten years in the past and nearly choked on his spit.

Fern ruffled through the response folder in his mind, throwing out suggestions like 'Hell, yes and it's a fine one at that,' and 'Yeah, please don't punch me'. He finally gave up and just turned his head the opposite direction hoping that by some luck she might disappear. This is where the second problem happened. During the ten seconds it took for Britney to question Fern's ass looking motives, and for Fern to turn away another one of Britney's pencil had fallen and rolled under the desks (she had a lot of them). Mason, another child Fern had gone to elementary school with, had bent over to pick up the fallen pencil. Mason was also in the danger zone. It was like time had frozen for Fern and it was just him and Mason's ass. His eyes looked over, admiring it, taking mental notes, comparing it to Britney's. At some point in that frozen moment, a voice cuts in again.

"Are you staring at my boyfriend's ass too?" Fern's muscles tightened, his inner thoughts screamed. He realized then that time had not frozen, it was not just him and Mason's ass. Time had continued to move and he had spent the last six seconds giving Mason's ass a hard stare. Despite his dark skin tone, his face darkened red enough to be noticed. Mason turned around and stood up properly, he looked between Fern and Britney at a loss for words. His face read somewhere between shock, confusion, and appreciation.