Auction

{This tale is rather mild in the sex department compared to most posted here, so if not your thing, best to wander on to a different story.}

+++

I don't know why I did it, I just did.

People can be so...well, we all know how some people can be.

It was for charity, coming up on Christmas and the kids in my senior class decided to hold an auction to raise some money.

Not a bad thing there, an idea like that.

Usually everyone brings in some gadgets to donate, we all bring in some cash and buy something we don't really want or need.

Then we save that to donate at the next year's charity auction.

It was Sara Mae Parker that popped up with the idea that started things off. I use her entire name here because if anyone ever called her Sara, she would correct with "It's Sara Mae."

I dated her a few times, Sara Mae was fun and would actually let me feel her snug little titties inside of her bra. Feeling up a date a little bit outside of their clothing was no big deal, nearly all of the girls would allow that.

Just about none of them would allow any real skin to skin stuff, the few that did were the subject of stories in the locker rooms.

With Sara Mae, I got to touch her puckered nipples, roll them, and she would moan and sound as if she really liked that.

Which was pretty cool, I was at the point of thinking I knew exactly what to do with a set of titties.

Sara Mae Parker's, anyway. Of course, then going for a hand up her skirt brought things to a stop quickly.

The trouble was that she let all of her dates do that and just about everyone knew it.

She also got straight "A's", at least in the classes with male teachers, which made me mildly suspicious. Several times I noticed that Sara Mae would get held over after class for one thing or another.

Yep. Straight "A's."

+++

"Why not auction off dates to the New Year's Eve dance with all of the senior girls?" Sara Mae popped up with, more or less taking over the conversation.

Auction off Dates? Well, that started a lot of discussion, we all know how kids are. A couple of them complained that they were going steady but Sara Mae countered with, "It's just a date."

Doug Dahl popped up with it being no problem, everyone could just keep their hands to themselves, offering up an evil smirk and wiggling his fingers in the air which got chuckles from the kids.

It was a neat idea, a chance to win a date with a girl that there was no chance at all of getting one with otherwise?

Yep, cool idea!

Then someone said that whoever got the highest bid would be the Queen of the dance, and the high bidder would be the King.

Just great when one thinks about that, huh?

So that was what they (mostly the girls) decided to do.

Which of course starts a bit of a competition and has to end with some hurt feelings.

+++

Me? I am Brad Jenkins, barely 18 years old back then and not exactly a jock around the school. Still, I know I looked OK, and I managed to stay in pretty good shape from pushing my old lawnmower around every Summer.

I had one of those edger tools that no one else had so I got all of the best jobs. It didn't take me very long to figure out that if I did a really neat job, I always got called back when it needed done again.

The only sports I signed up for in high school was track and field, I could run. Not that it matters for this story, I was up at the old high school a few months ago and my name was still on the wall, school record in the half mile and the mile run both.

Probably that will stay there for a very long time since it's all meters now, I don't care. 1.54.6 in the half and 4.19.2 in the mile run is still damned fast, even today. Back in 1961 that got my name in the paper.

I did have a girl friend at the time, Alma Lee Miller. Nice gal, she was fun, and we necked a lot when we parked out by the river on Saturday nights in my old blue Dodge. She even let me feel her up some but just through her bra, which I swear was made out of cast iron.

Some of the jocks did hit on her whenever I wasn't around or they thought I wasn't. That didn't bother me a hell of a lot, Alma was a nice looking gal so there was no way it wasn't going to happen.

Especially Doug Dahl, who was the center on the basketball team, the pitcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, captain of the wrestling team, on and on and on.

I didn't like that guy very much. I told Alma that too, she just said she had no idea why, he was a nice guy.

Uh huh.

We all know "that" guy, the names change but the attitude doesn't? There is one in every class of every school on the planet.

Better than you, better than me, and he didn't mind one bit letting anyone know that.

Smart ass to boot, with an overwhelming opinion of himself. I sometimes felt like popping him one, but Doug had me by around 50 pounds so I just gritted my teeth and ignored him.

I could easily whip his ass running, by the time he got his oversized legs up to speed I was always ten feet in front of him.

Anyway, Alma and I talked about it and I more or less got told I had better win her for the Christmas dance. So I brought $80 to be sure I won the date with her no matter what.

$80 was a hell of a lot of money back in 1961, it was everything I had saved up mowing lawns each Summer, so I was hoping for maybe $10 or so to win Alma for the Christmas dance.

+++

The big auction day finally arrived, it was held at noon in the balcony over the gym.

All of the girls were decked out, made up to look their very best. Let's face it, the one who got the highest bid was going to carry around a feather in their cap for quite awhile.

Queen of the Christmas dance was a big deal in our school, right up there with homecoming and the Junior Senior prom.

The bidding was rather frantic, first was Maggie Peterson, a pretty brunette and she had a set on her that would put most movie stars to shame. A couple of the guys got into it, going up a dollar at time, then things got a little tense with nickles, finally pennies, ending at $26.89.

Jerry Martin won the date, how the guy came up with that much I don't know but there were some hoots and hollers about it.

Maggie kind of made a face since Jerry Martin was a nerdy bookworm type kid with glasses and some extra around the middle.

Doug Dahl teased Jerry loudly about maybe getting some which caused Maggie to turn bright red and got him shushed by one of the teachers.

Good fun, mostly. The girls went one at a time, Sonny Miller and Greg Jones got into it over Sally Benedetti, she had on a top that showed an inch or so of cleavage, sort of scandalous back then.

Sally was completely aware of that because she kept tugging her blouse up, of course it slid right back down.

Sally was also known as a sure thing if you could get a date with her, I heard that anyway but never knew for positive. Doug Dahl dated her for awhile, he bragged about how Sally had sucked him off before they even got to the movies.

Yea, sure, I thought.

Guys tend to brag a lot in the locker rooms.

I even asked her out once myself but I got turned down. Like I said, I was no jock. Sally only went out with the jocks, the guys on the track team didn't get much attention.

She did flirt with me a little bit after the blurbs in the newspaper about me setting the school records, but by then I was dating Alma so she gave up pretty quickly.

Sonny won that bid at $30, Sally looked happy since that put her in the lead, plus Sonny Miller was one of the jocks.

Greg Jones looked a little crestfallen, I knew he had run out of money and he was dating Sally at the time.

While I was waiting for Alma to step up, I happened to glance over and spotted Paula Terry.

Normally I wouldn't have noticed her, but she looked miserable. I had talked to her maybe 10 times in our four years of going to school together, probably the mostly sum total of that was "hello".

Once she helped me a lot with an Algebra problem, that was about it. She had pretty blue eyes, her best feature. When she looked at you, I mean really looked at you, those eyes got noticed.

Back in 8th grade I danced with her one time at the noon dances we had, the teachers did those "draw your partner" things, I have no idea why.

I got teased some for having to but I really didn't mind, Paula was OK.

Nice girl, Paula. Skinny, flat chested, plain. She looked like her Mother made all her clothes and she probably did, the glasses she wore constantly had thick lenses and black rims.

Paula never looked at anyone much, not really. Nobody looked at her either, she was just there.

Like every class on Earth has a Doug Dahl, every single class on Earth has a Paula Terry. The girl no one notices and most don't care about.

The truth is that I never noticed her myself, and probably didn't show a hell of a lot of caring, either.

Paula appeared miserable, like she wanted to run. She probably realized just how bad this situation was. The idea of bidding for dates sounds good on the face of it but it creates lots of tension, I mean, think about how a young girl would feel if no one wants her?

I could see Paula had made an attempt at her hair but it still stuck out on one side and she had put on some lipstick. I don't think she had ever had any on before, either. Her dress had ruffles on the front of it and the hem line was at least six inches too long for the style of the day.

And she was right on the edge of crying.

Why did I notice that?

I don't know.

It struck me that they were going to call her up there and not one single one of the guys were going to bid, which would be mortifying.

Which is exactly what Mrs. Harrison, our school Vice President did. I could see Mrs. Harrison was delighting in getting to be up there running the show, anything that ever went on around the school she was in the middle of.

I don't think Mrs. Harrison ever noticed any of the kids in school, she spent most of her time in the office primping or with a phone against her ear.

I suddenly felt sorry for Paula, hell, I had never noticed her before but now I did.

Paula stepped up, the room was suddenly dead quiet. She was looking down, it was clear that she knew what was coming.

"How much am I bid for a date with Paula?" Mrs Harrison asked with a big smile.

No response. I glanced at Alma, she was smiling, completely self confident in getting to be Queen of the Christmas dance.

"Doesn't she look just wonderful today?" Mrs. Harrison tried, lamely.

No response.

"Five dollars? Anyone?" She asked.

Still nothing. Paula's face was now ghostly white, she was staring at the floor in front of her.

"How about a dollar?" Mrs. Harrison called out loudly, completely oblivious to what she was doing to poor Paula.

I looked over at Alma, she was ready to step up next. She had a little smirk on her face, most of the other kids did.

I knew Alma would not be caught dead sitting at a table with Paula during lunch, Alma was sort of stuck up.

"I bid 5 cents!" Wise ass Doug Dahl popped up with. The asshole was standing maybe 5 feet away from me.

I glanced at poor Paula, she was trembling now in embarrassment.

"What the hell, I don't mind dating two at once, that will give me a spare just in case." Doug hollered out loudly enough to make sure everyone heard him.

Several of the kids snickered at that.

Paula's head came up, she gave Doug a stony stare. I saw her do everything in her power to glare him down, then her expression broke and a tear slid down her cheek.

Mrs. Harrison said something, maybe right then for a second she had begun to realize? I don't know, I doubt it.

"Eighty dollars!" I yelled out. Paula looked up at me in shock.

Our eyes met, then a slow smile crossed her face.

I saw Alma's eyes flash open, there were several gasps from the room.

It was far too late to take it back.

"What a nice bid. Are there any others? Anyone?" Mrs. Harrison asked. Everything always went right over that woman's head.

There weren't. Of course not. I doubt anyone else in the room even had that much. So Paula was my date, I had sealed my fate.

And Doug Dahl won the date with Alma.

Of course he did.

Alma refused to look at me, Doug sure did. With a huge grin, he was pleased to be taking her to the dance and all it cost him was $22.00.

It was clear that Alma was pissed off.

Later, I tried to talk to Alma about it, try to explain why I did what I did but she was having none of it.

I stood there watching as Alma got onto her school bus, Doug right behind her.

I saw Alma take a seat towards the back, Doug sat beside her. He leaned forward to look out the window, making sure I saw him.

Then someone touched my arm.

"Thank you for doing that, Brad. But you don't have to take me if you don't want to, I will understand." Paula said from behind me.

I turned and looked at her.

"You are the Queen of the dance and I am the King, we have to go. Besides, I want to." I told her.

"Really?" Her face brightened.

"Yes, really!" I answered.

Right at that moment I wasn't real sure I meant it.

Doug Dahl with MY Alma had me completely pissed off, but there was no one to blame but myself.

+++

Finding Paula's house was a bit of a chore all by itself. I drove past the lumber yard, out the bay road until I found the trailer park. It was raining lightly, the driveway was muddy and slick which I knew would mess up my Mom's car I had just washed and polished.

Paula and her Mom lived in a tiny 8 foot wide by 40 foot long ugly little green and white thing mixed in with several other dilapidated trailors.

I wasn't real happy but I did what I did and I was going to go through with it no matter what.

I admit it did cross my mind to back out, then try to fix things with Alma but I didn't.

The woman that opened the door was the exact spitting image of Paula, except for a few wrinkles. She smiled and let me in.

"I'm Caroline, Paula will be ready in a few minutes, I need to go in and help her. Make yourself at home, please." She smiled as she looked me up and down, then she went down the hallway.

I sat there not knowing what to do with myself, looking at well worn furnishings and photos of groups of people hanging on the walls.

I doubt that there was a single speck of dirt in the entire place, though.

Then Caroline came back out, sat down.

"Paula told me what you did for her, I want to thank you for that. She is very shy, and she has never been on a date with a boy before." She reached out and placed her hands on the back of mine.

I opened my mouth to say something, just then the door opened and Paula stepped out.

She wore a soft flowing pale blue gown, the bodice showed clearly that my original impression of her was wrong. She was sleek and slender but she wasn't flat chested.

Heavy sweaters and pleated skirts kind of hide things on a female, that was Paula's normal manner of dress.

This dress was low cut in the bodice, more than I had ever seen any female wear in public. I mean way more!

It would have been even worse but a silver colored clasp held the front of it together partially, leaving an inch or so of bare flesh showing below it.

Paula saw where my eyes went and blushed furiously, looking for several moments like she didn't know what to do with her hands. Her makeup was flawless, the gown was beautiful, the glasses were gone.

She was not really a beautiful girl, she was instead...? Hell, I don't know how to explain it other than she looked...attractive, even sexy? I picked up the corsage I had with me and pinned it on her, being careful to keep the back of my hand towards her body as I did that. The touch of her skin felt hot on my hand, I was careful to not stick her like my Dad had shown me the year before when I took Alma to the junior prom.

The dance went off very nicely, we danced a lot and in short order we got used to each other. Talking was a little bit stilted at first but then she began to relax.

Quite a few of the other kids gave her some compliments, causing her to blush but I could see the pleasure in her eyes.

Sonny Miller came over and asked Paula to dance, politely asking me if I minded first. I nodded, Paula got up and let him lead her to the dance floor.

Several times I looked over to see Alma dancing with Doug, he kept smirking at me. Alma saw me looking and reached up to clasp her hands behind his neck.

They were dancing really close, something considered a NONO back then.

Twice I saw Mrs. Harrison say something to them, they moved apart but slid right back tight together the moment Mrs. Harrison looked away.

I knew it was for my benefit and that pissed me off. Paula glanced at me several times, but never said anything. I took a deep breath and did my best to be attentive, bringing soft drinks to our table, dancing with her.

Then the King and Queen were announced, lots of pictures were taken as we went up and sat on the throne they had set up.

We did the Queen's dance to light applause, I did see Alma standing off to the side holding hands with Doug, she was not clapping.

I had no idea at all how I was ever going to fix this with my girl friend.

The dance got over at midnight, they always did, so I took Paula down for a soda at the 24 hour cafe in town. Her Mother had mentioned we could be out until 2 AM but no later.

Which meant we would miss the all night party some of the kids had planned. The mood I was in and doing my best to hide it meant that didn't matter.

Alma and Doug were there, of course they were. Alma made a big show of sitting as close to Doug as she could, I pretended to ignore that.

Greg and Sally came over and sat at our table, that helped a lot. The surprise was that Sally was friendly and soon she and Paula were in a conversation, Greg was even friendly to me. Where Sonny Miller went, I don't know. Greg and Sally had been dating right along most of our senior year so as soon as the dance was over Sally went right back to her boyfriend.

I spotted Maggie, she looked to be having fun dancing with Jerry Martin, kind of a surprise.

"I sure got a kick out of you putting that butthead Doug in his place." Greg told me.

"It wasn't just that, Paula and I are friends, we have been friends for years." I said.

Not exactly truth but Paula sure did give me a huge smile. Then she reached out and put her hand on the back of mine, just like her Mother had. Again I noticed her blue eyes.

Finally it was time to take Paula home, we drove along in silence. There was the awkward moment in the car, she asked me to walk her to the porch so I did.

"Thank you, Brad. This was so wonderful." She stood there looking like she had no idea of what to do, so I stepped forward and kissed her.

Our lips touched, hers were so soft it made my head swim. Her eyes were wide open the whole time, which was maybe three seconds.

The porch light came on, Paula giggled.

"I better go in, thank you again, Brad." She turned and went inside, I got a glimpse of Caroline's smiling face for just an instant.

I thought about the evening all the way home, I even reached up and touched my lips with one finger.

+++

I saw Paula at school daily after that, there was a change in her. She had on a trace of makeup, and now her hair was carefully brushed. She smiled more and several times I saw her talking to some of the other kids.

After perhaps a week she showed up with her hair cut into a page boy style, some lighter colored high lights in it. She had a new blouse and skirt, too, that was different.

I was very busy doing my best to make up with Alma and having no luck with that at all. She hated me, I was worse than dirt to her and she made that very clear.

She had her heart set on being the Queen of the Christmas dance and I was the one that screwed that up by dating that...that...THING!