The T-Bird revved it's engines. A flash of yellow metal and the squeal of tires on asphalt announced the arrival of Choteau University's star quarterback to everyone on campus. Jeff backed into his personal parking space, a space actually reserved for one of the history professors.
We stopped moving. We finally stopped moving! The car had indeed come to a halt, permitting the redheaded girl in the passenger seat to gorge her lungs with much needed breaths, breaths she had been denied while Jeff navigated the interstate. Fortunately for Dawn, she was blessed with the same healthy lungs that contributed to her father's and brother's athletic successes.
Thirty minutes on the interstate playing the automotive equivalent of leapfrog was enough to fray anyone's nerves, anyone but Jeff. While she gasped for air he fiddled with the radio, turning the dial from station to station, receiving nothing but static. He thumped the dial with his forefinger a few times then shook his head. He muttered something about picking up a new part at the auto shop on the way home.
Dawn wasn't looking forward to the ride home. Thirty more minutes of stunt-driver Jeff and she was bound to black out and gash her head on the dashboard. Spurting blood all over her big brother's restored Ford Thunderbird would definitely remove her from his list of favorite people and end their little agreement.
Riding shotgun with Jeff may have been like a time trial but it was far better than the alternative: Daddy. Her father was undoubtedly hurt when his little Sunshine begged her way out of the family minivan and into Jeff's Thunderbird. She hated the look of disappointment on his face but visions of Daddy as the chauffeur, coating her cheeks with kisses, were the stuff of nightmares. She loved her father; he was the most wonderful man on earth, but sometimes he could be such a...well, such a father.
Jeff shifted the Thunderbird to park, stomping on the gas pedal for one final rev of the engine before stripping the key from the ignition.
A circle of young women swooped on the vintage Thunderbird. At the center was a slender bottle blond. "If it isn't Choteau University's stud of a quarterback in the very tanned flesh." The blonde's southern drawl was comically thick. "Summer sure was kind to you, Jeff." She shined a mouthful of enormous white teeth. "We all just about died when they put you on the cover of that football magazine."
How had anyone seen the magazine? Dawn wondered. Jeff had purchased so many copies for his own collection that the magazine should have been sold out everywhere.
"I showed that magazine to my mama. I told her that's the handsome face that put Choteau University on the map."
Jeff removed his sunglasses. His eyes appreciated her lean body while his ears appreciated her garish southern accent. "Liza, babe, why don't we put all the flirting to bed this year?" Jeff unwrapped his fingers from the steering wheel and touched the girl's bronzed arm. "I want you want me. We're both seniors and come spring I am outta here, degree or not."
"Jeff Kramer, you just aren't accustomed to the word no, are you? You know I'm not that kind of girl." The blond wormed her upper body through the open window and smirked at Dawn. "Besides, you wouldn't want your new girlfriend to get jealous. What a pretty little thing, and lordy if she don't look young. I see you done made strawberry your flavor of the month," the blond offered Dawn a wink that was positively wicked, "or is this one cherry?"
"Oh God, Liza! Don't be gross. That's my kid sister, Dawn."
Liza's eyes and mouth opened wide at the revelation. Dawn fidgeted in the passenger seat, squirming under the gaze of the blond and her friends. "Dawn. What a perfect name. She looks sweet as sunshine with all that pretty red hair." Dawn winced at the mention of Sunshine; it was the pet name shackled to her since before preschool, a name she hated.
"Speaking of hair, what happened to yours?" Jeff combed his fingers through Liza's bleached blond hair, exposing brunette roots. "Don't tell me the sun did this."
Liza pulled the hair from his grip and smacked his shoulder. "It was a dare from one of my girlfriends in Myrtle Beach. You know how we girls love to experiment."
"I do. You experimenting with your friends is a recurring fantasy of mine." He earned giggles from most of the girls. Liza backed away from the car, back to the safety of her circle of friends as Jeff emerged from the yellow car. He was like a social butterfly, breaking free from his cocoon and spreading his wings for all to see. He called a few of the women by name, offering winks to the lucky and friendly little touches to the luckier.
The way Jeff flirted was effortless. It was like he had been put on earth for the sole purpose of charming women. Words flowed from his lips like melted butter and the women absorbed every syllable. He let them soak, no doubt debating which morsels he would devour first. With no shortage of willing victims Jeff was sure to have a busy year.
A tilt of his mouth and an arch of his dark eyebrows were the only tools he needed to transform a group of mature college women into a massive puddle of swooning little girls. Why didn't he hold a raffle? Five dollars a ticket and the winning female could spread her legs for Jeff Kramer. He would make a fortune.
Dawn knew a plethora of girls and women who would pay any price to spread their legs for Jeff. Many were her own friends. At a sleepover last year, a gathering of a dozen or so girls, her best friend Jenny had been the first to open Dawn's eyes. During an aimless session of truth or dare the question of favorite masturbation aid was asked. Jenny admitted to using newspaper clippings of Jeff. The other girls giggled fiercely before one by one confessing their own impure thoughts about Jeff.
Jenny, Amy, Blair, Kathy and the others had no shortage of graphic fantasies. It was odd to discover that her closest friends in the entire world dreamed of performing every sex act imaginable on her big brother. Dawn blushed hardest when Tara, the tiny slip of a tomboy, likened Jeff to a male Helen of Troy. She quipped that his was the face that launched a thousand fingers. Dawn wanted to disappear that night, especially after Tara jestingly accused Dawn of using her own fingers as a surrogate Jeff. The other girls cackled like a pack of hyenas while Dawn vehemently denied the accusation.
Tara's words still made Dawn uncomfortable, even now as she followed in the wake of Jeff and his cadre of female 'friends.' Unlike the girls at the sleepover, the women in Liza's group thoroughly ignored Dawn, reserving their complete attentions for Jeff. More women linked up with the circle, gravitating towards her brother. Men (well, boys compared to Jeff) were also present. They jockeyed to be first to offer Jeff a slap of the hand or a word of encouragement. It seemed that the males of Choteau University also worshipped at the altar of Jeff.
His teammates, hulking brutes who were easy to spot, occasionally passed by. They smacked Jeff's back hard and called him awful four-letter words, the twenty-first century equivalent of an '
atta boy
.
Forget class, Dawn was getting her education upon the shaggy bluegrass of the commons. It seemed like the entire student body had shown up, each waiting for a turn to personally thank Jeff Kramer for existing. No wonder he had such a swelled head.
If only
someone
would notice the lone redheaded girl drifting aimlessly in the sea of churning hormones. No one did. That was the first moment she desperately missed her group of friends. Blair was pedaling across Europe, Amy and Kathy were away at distant colleges, Jenny had taken a job at her mother's bakery and Tara was still in high school.
She would need to make some new friends, a job complicated by the brand of Jeff Kramer's sister. Everyone would be nice to her, some nauseatingly so. What easier way to gain popularity than by getting close to Jeff Kramer's kid sister? Guys and girls alike would be seeking her out, buying her lunch and inviting her to parties, all in the hopes that some sort of inherited Kramer magic had been passed to Dawn.
Won't they be surprised
?
Jeff stood tall among the circle. His arm draped Liza's shoulder.
