Her name was Rhonda and she was a cute little redhead, my classmate in the 7^th grade, in the ultimate BFE, Tonopah, NV. She liked to sit in the row next to me and tease me, constantly asking if I wanted to see a beaver. Of course I said yes and she would open and close her legs quickly, too quickly for me to see anything.

After such teases, she would say, “No really, really this time. You wanna see?” Time and again I fell for it like she was my personal Lucy with a beaver football. When we were supposed to be studying and weren't paying attention to each other, her legs would drift open and I'd get a glimpse of her panties, which had a series of circles and a bulls eye right, well, you know where.

Yeah, Rhonda was a tease and maybe a bit sexualized for a 7^th grader but she did come through on her teases sometimes too. After weeks of promising to show me her “fried eggs” she did eventually take me behind the gymnasium and show me her little boobies, which looked a whole lot tastier to me than eggs, I must say.

 All of this sounds like good clean, coming of age and exploring your budding sexuality stuff except for one minor glitch; Rhonda had a boyfriend.

Darrel was a hood, probably the ultimate hood in our little town. He wore a leather biker's jacket full of chains and he chain smoked. We were 13 and he was in the 9^th grade but was probably closer to 17, having been held back in school a couple of years. There wasn't a soul in the Jr. High or High School that wasn't afraid of him.

Not only did Rhonda tease me, she told Hood Darrel about it and he didn't dig it one little bit. He and Rhonda always managed to follow me down the hill after school and he would taunt me. “

Hey Mojo, I hear you been flirting with my ol' lady.” “Hey Mojo, yer gonna get yer ass kicked if you don't stay away from my ol' lady.” “Hey Mojo, yer a pussy.” “Hey Mojo...”

I stuck with my group of friends and walked on, trying to ignore him and dreading the day when he took action on his threats.

My cousin, Denny, came to visit that summer and he spent a couple of months with us. Denny was a couple of years older than me, a few inches taller, and he generally pinned me when we wrestled, which was pretty much all of the time. I was always convinced that I'd get him the next time but I rarely did.

One mid-summer morning Denny and I walked to downtown Tonopah. We were in the local Rexall looking at comic books when in walked Hood Darrel.

“Hey Mojo,” Darrel says to me, “Gimme five buck, both-a youse.”

“Pfft. Kiss my ass.” Denny tells him. Of course, Denny can do that, he doesn't live here. He doesn't have Darrel following him home from school every afternoon threatening to kick his ass. At least those were the rationalizations I gave Denny when he harassed me for eventually giving in and giving Darrel my only five bucks. Denny didn't buy my rationale. He said I was a coward. Easy for him to say...

The following school year I went out for wrestling, at least until I decided that all that diet and exercise stuff was way more effort that I was willing to put out. During the weeks I did practice though, guess who else showed up? That's right, Hood Darrel.

I dreaded the day when I'd have to match up against Darrel. He taunted me with that idea and was generally as menacing toward me as he knew how to be. That lasted for about a week, until Coach said for us to take the mat together. To my surprise, I had Darrel pinned in about 30 seconds flat. I thought maybe I got lucky but we tried again, and again he was pinned almost instantly. Over the next week, until Darrel stopped showing up, I must have pinned him a dozen times and then some.

Turns out that for all his tough, motorcycle jacket with chains and Marlboro Man acting out, Darrel was a puss. This is the guy that I had seen attack a teacher in class (the oldest teacher in the school, which now seems not coincidental) and everyone in the class, myself included, had been afraid to intervene.

Darrel stopped following me home but a few weeks after he quit wrestling I saw him and Rhonda walking down the hill ahead of me. I ran up behind Darrel, shoulder butted him and knocked him down, and demanded my five bucks back. He stood up, reached in his pocket and handed it over without a word and without the tiniest bit of hesitation. I have never again backed away from a bully but I've had a few bullies back down when I've stood up to them.

Soon after that, Rhonda dumped Darrel and he dropped out of school, never to be heard from again, at least not by me.

I'm still a fan of fried eggs.