Message-ID: <34874asstr$1011597003@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: karigold_sky@hotmail.com (Kari Gold)
Reply-To: karigold_sky@hotmail.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 19:22:52 CST
Subject: {ASSM} MSM #4 - Jeepers Creepers (fffffMMMM, slumber party, mystery, tease)
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 02:10:03 -0500
Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail
Approved: <assm@asstr-mirror.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d


MSM #4 -  Jeepers Creepers (fffffMMMM, slumber party, mystery, tease)

This story is my property ... not that anyone would want to steal it,
but, hey, who knows what kind of weirdos are out there.  Oh yeah,
adults only, too (yeah, right!)

** Special thanks to "dick harder" for the mystery idea!!


Kari Gold - Middle School Mysteries #4

Jeepers Creepers


"Which color do you like better?" Pam Erde lifted her left leg and
displayed her two freshly painted toenails to the rest of the girls in
Amy Hovan's bedroom - Kari Gold, Juanita Walker, Amy Hovan and Sue
Jurkowski.  One toenail was a fluorescent purplish color while the
other was jet black.

"The Iridescent Lilac, DEFINITELY," Juanita Walker chimed in
immediately while she braided Amy's hair.  "Black toenail polish is
like soo morbid."

"It makes you look like you just dropped a bowling ball on your foot,"
Amy Hovan added as she studied her pouting lips in the vanity mirror.

"GRUCK!" Pam wrinkled her nose and studied her two toes again.  "So
you don't think the Total Midnight is like kind of goth?" she asked
curiously.

"A little goth goes a LONG way," Juanita Walker observed sagely.  As
the reigning Miss Junior LaTeena for the ENTIRE state, Juanita
Walker's advice on all things beauty and fashion related were pretty
much gospel at Stratford Middle School.  "You don't want teachers and
stuff to think you're dangerous.  Remember what happened to Sheri
Hedburg?"

The girls all nodded.

Earlier that year, eighth grader Sheri Hedburg had painted her lips
black and started wearing a long black trench coat.  Then she wrote
'Marilyn Manson Is God' on her science folder.  As a goof, some lamer
called in an anonymous tip that Sheri was about to go all "Columbine."
Suddenly the cops and Mrs. Maddern, the middle school's vice
principal, were searching the poor girl's locker for guns and bombs.
At the mention of Sheri's name, Kari Gold perked up her ears.

"Listen, you shouldn't allow yourselves to be victims of hysteria,"
Kari Gold reproved her friends as she reclined on Amy's bed.  She
looked up from the issue of "True-Life Detective" she was reading and
folded the corner of her page so she wouldn't lose her place.  "You
should wear what you want to wear and paint your nails whatever color
you want - even if it is that HIDEOUS black color!"

The girls all burst into laughter, even Pam, who by now was busily
applying nail-polish remover to the toe in question.

The five friends were spending this drizzly Friday night at Amy
Hovan's house for a combination pizza party/makeover session/Freddy
Prinz Jr. movie marathon and sleepover.  Because Amy's mom kept the
house's thermostat at like 85 degrees after Halloween, the girls had
propped one of the bedroom windows wide open.  But even with the cold,
wet November breeze rustling through the room, the quintet of seventh
graders was still unseasonably underdressed, their blossoming bodies
glistening with beads of perspiration.

With the last of the pizza finally consumed a half-hour earlier, the
makeover part of the festivities was now well underway.  Wearing a
long yellow nightshirt and matching yellow anklets, Juanita Walker was
finishing up Amy's braid while the thirteen-year-old hostess obsessed
over the array of lipstick tubes set before her.  Having just finished
waxing her legs with Pam's new "Silkene Treatment for Teens," Amy was
only wearing the top portion of her plaid flannel pjs.  With her
thighs and calves now as "smooth as silk" (and burning like HELL!),
Amy had turned her attention to her lips.  By dawn the next morning,
she was determined to find her PERFECT shade of lipstick, even if it
meant trying EVERY shade in Sue Jurkowski's well-stocked arsenal.

Meanwhile, Sue Jurkowski herself was posing in front of the
full-length mirror on the inside of Amy's closet door.  Sucking in her
smooth bare tummy, the busty seventh-grader was mentally trying to
gauge whether or not Pam Erde's new gray sweater would look too slutty
stretched over her already quite shapely body.  These days, Sue was
finding it extremely difficult to find ANY blouses or sweaters that
didn't make her breasts look TOTALLY humungous.  Although Pam Erde was
a good four inches taller than Sue, the bottom of Pam's sweater barely
reached Sue's navel even when she tugged it down towards the waistband
of her white cotton panties.

As Sue Jurkowski continued studying herself in the mirror, Pam Erde
looked over from where she sat and cringed slightly.  The last thing
she needed was for Sue to stretch out ANOTHER one of her sweaters.
The only reason Pam had even offered to let her friend try on the
sweater was because Sue had just finished giving her a mini-pedicure.
This, subsequently, had led to Pam's recent regretful experimentation
with Total Midnight toenail polish.  Of all the girls in the room, Pam
Erde was wearing the least, just a matching bra and panty set
decorated with tiny strawberries.  Sitting at Amy's "Hello Kitty" desk
with one leg bent up awkwardly, the tall, slender thirteen-year-old
busily scrubbed her errant black toenail, silently cursing the day
she'd ever HEARD of Total Midnight nail polish.

While her four friends fretted over various aspects of the makeover
process, Kari Gold stretched out on Amy's bed determined to finish the
article on "The Fisherman," a Massachusetts serial killer from the
1960s who sealed his screaming victims' eyelids and lips with fish
hooks and fishing line.  Wearing only a black sports bra and matching
black biker shorts, Kari absentmindedly chewed the end of her left
pigtail as she tried to re-concentrate on the article she'd been
studying.  Thinking several pages ahead of the article, Kari began
wondering if "The Fisherman's" choice of fishing line or hooks would
in any way be traceable.  Or, perhaps, there would be some common
denominator among the victims, something connecting each of them to
the killer ..?

"Don't get too engrossed in that article, Kari," Juanita Walker warned
from across the room.  "You're next, remember ..?"

Kari buried her nose deeper into the magazine and tried to ignore her
best friend.  Makeovers might be fun for her four friends, but Kari
Gold found them a bit .. well, silly.  Only lame TV detectives cared
about superficial stuff like their hair and make-up.  REAL detectives
were too busy protecting society and catching crooks to be obsessed
with how they looked.  But, as a token gesture of "girl-power"
solidarity, Kari had reluctantly agreed to let Juanita style her blond
hair.  Secretly, however, Kari Gold was hoping her best friend would
forget as the evening wore on.  Juanita didn't seem to be cooperating,
though.  What Kari needed now was distraction.

"Who wants to play Truth or Dare?" Kari suddenly asked.  She lifted
her face out of the magazine and smiled at her friends' shocked
stares.  "Come on, guys," Kari laughed, "you know we're going to play
it eventually.  So why not just get it out of the way?"

"You're just trying to get out of getting your hair done!" Juanita
accused.

"You're just scared," Kari fired back.  "Isn't she?" Kari turned to
Pam for support.  "Remember last time?"

Pam laughed.  "You did freak out pretty bad last time, 'Nita," Pam
agreed.

"YOU WANTED ME TO TOUCH SMOKEY'S .. THING!" Juanita exclaimed.  "That
was like TOTALLY sick .. even for you, Kari!"

"You're the one who decided to take the dare," Kari challenged.  She
laughed as she recalled how mortified her best friend had been when
Kari had DARED her to touch the penis of the Walker's family dog,
Smokey.  Juanita had been forced to take the dare after she'd refused
to answer Kari's 's Truth question: "Of all the boys in Stratford
Middle School, which one would you most like to give a bj to?"
Needless to say, Juanita had run straight between the horns of her
dilemma and out the room.  Kari Gold was NOT about to let her best
friend forget a thing like that.  "Like I said, you're just too scared
to play."

"I am NOT!" Juanita slammed the hairbrush down on Amy's vanity.

"Okay, then, PROVE IT!" Kari issued her ultimatum.  She threw aside
her magazine and rolled over into a sitting position.

"Come on guys," Amy begged, suddenly worried about the repercussions
of the ensuing game, especially since it was about to be waged in her
house.  "Let's not get carried away, okay ..?"

"Don't worry, Amy," Kari assured her friend.  "Nothing's going to
happen.  Juanita will run away WAY before that."

Pam and Sue laughed while Juanita FUMED.  "Deal the cards, GOLD!"
Juanita hissed, plopping down on the floor.  Pam and Sue quickly sat
down on the floor, too, forming a crude circle while Kari dug around
in her backpack for her deck of Little Mermaid playing cards.

As the other girls readied themselves for the contest, Amy still
remained in her chair.  It was no secret that Amy Hovan DETESTED
playing Truth or Dare.  Usually, it was Amy not Juanita who was the
first to drop out.

Needing as much moral support as she could find, Juanita looked up at
her shy friend and patted the space directly next to her.  "Come on,
Amy, it's no fun without you .."

"I've got the cards," Kari announced, taking her own spot on the floor
between Sue and Pam.  The girl detective quickly shuffled the cards
and offered them to Juanita for a cut.  Juanita split the deck in
half, placed the top half on the bottom, and handed the cards back to
Kari.  Before she started dealing, Kari Gold looked up at Amy Hovan.
"Are you playing or not, Ames?"

"Come on ..!?" the other girls pouted in unison.

Shrugging her shoulders with a defeated frown, Amy slid off the chair
and sat down Indian-style next to Juanita.  The pretty Latina placed
her arm around Amy's shoulder and gave her shy friend a quick hug
before Kari started dealing the cards.

The rules of the game were simple:
1)	One card was dealt to each girl.
2)	The girl with the lowest card had to choose between telling
the Truth and taking a Dare.
3)	The girl with the highest card determined what the question or
the dare would entail.
4)	If there was a tie between low cards, then BOTH girls lost and
had to decide between themselves whether to tell the Truth or take the
Dare.
5)	If a girl chose to tell the Truth instead of taking the Dare,
the other girls voted on whether or not they believed the girl's
answer.  If the others didn't think the girl was telling the Truth,
the unlucky girl was required to take a Dare as a penalty.
6)	If the girl chose Truth, but then decided she didn't want to
answer the question, then she HAD TO take the Dare.  (This was what
had happened to Juanita Walker during the last game.)  The same rule
applied if a girl chose Dare, then decided she'd rather answer a
question - She HAD TO take Truth.
7)	If a girl declined to tell the truth or refused to take a
dare, she was eliminated.
8)	The last girl left was the winner.

In all the many times the five friends had played Truth or Dare, Kari
Gold had proven victorious in every single contest but one.  Her only
loss had come several months prior when she'd refused to take a dare
by stealing a pack of cigarettes from Dairy Mart.  It wasn't that the
dare had frightened Kari Gold.  She'd pulled off much more dangerous
missions while playing the game.  Rather, Kari KNEW that stealing was
illegal, and as a detective sworn to "serve and protect" Kari Gold
wouldn't do ANYTHING illegal.

"The cigarette rule," as it came to later be known, had led to changes
in the game regarding what dares were permissible.  Basically, a dare
could be ANYTHING as long as it didn't involve REAL theft or
vandalism, or anything that could possibly lead to serious bodily
injury.  In light of these limits, excessively embarrassing, gross or
mischievous pranks were not only allowable, but also par for the
course.

With the cards now dealt, the girls held their breath as Pam Erde, who
was sitting directly to Kari Gold's left, turned over the first card.
4 of hearts.  Amy Hovan was next, sighing as she revealed a 7 of
spades.  Juanita followed, turning over a Jack of spades.  Sue
Jurkowski quickly flipped her card, showing the 10 of clubs.  Smiling
at Pam, Kari Gold turned over the last card.  6 of hearts.

"TRUTH OR DARE?!" the girls all challenged Pam in unison.

Pam Erde studied the girls' faces.  Being the first hand, Pam trusted
that her friends would take it easy on her in order to prolong the
game.  "Truth," she replied firmly.

Since Juanita had high card, she got to ask the question.  "Okay,
TRUTH ..!" Juanita stressed the word, her mind racing.  "How many boys
have you French kissed - total - in your life?"  

Pam rolled her eyes, looked up at the ceiling, racked her memory and
started counting on her fingers.  "Six," she replied after reaching
the thumb on her right hand.  "Definitely six."

"Anybody want to challenge?" Juanita asked.

"Two weeks ago it was only four," Kari Gold smirked.  Her photographic
memory was INFAMOUS in the game.

"You're riiight!" Juanita cackled.  "Challenge!"  She pointed an
accusatory finger at Pam.  "Either you were lying last week, or you've
like turned into a TOTAL slut since then."

"We DEFINITELY need the names, dates and circumstances of the last two
boys," Sue Jurkowski jumped in.  "Either that or 'fess up that you
were lying last week."

"And you know what we do to people who lie!" Kari added.  Of course,
she was referring to making Pam take a Dare as a penalty.  In the
girls' version of the game, lies from previous games, if revealed,
also resulted in being forced to take a Penalty Dare.  Much to their
chagrin, more than one of them had been caught in this caveat over the
years.

Pam wrinkled her nose at her friends.  "I French kissed Alex two weeks
ago at the movies .. when we saw 'The Romeo Club'," she added for good
measure, worried that someone might challenge her again.

"On your first date!" Sue burst out laughing.  "Boy, are you easy."

Pam turned crimson.

"I figured as much," Kari commented.  "But that still doesn't explain
who Boy Number 2 is.  You went out with Alex last weekend, too, which
means there must've been someone else in there .."

"Yeah, Pam, tell us .." Juanita cooed.  "Who is this mysterious Boy
Number 2 you French kissed?"

"Are you two-timing Alex?" Amy asked incredulously.  For someone who
had yet to go on her first date, Amy Hovan was finding it
incomprehensible that her friend would risk losing one boyfriend,
especially one as cute as Alex Axelrod, by cheating on him with
another guy. 

"Come on, guys .." Pam pleaded.

"TRUTH!" the girls demanded, cutting her off.

"OKAY!" Pam hissed back.  "I met this guy at the Rec .. he's on my
brother's hockey team."

"Who?" Kari insisted.  "Name!"

"B..Bryce .." Pam stammered.

"Last name?" Kari kept at her friend.

"I .. I don't know," Pam confessed.  Suddenly the whole room burst out
in squeals of laughter.  "He .. he started talking to me while we were
waiting for my mom to pick us up.  My brother was off scamming on some
girls from St. Jo's, and this guy just came up and started talking to
me .."

"And you made out with him?" Sue Jurkowski howled.

"How old was he?" Amy Hovan asked quietly.  "Your brother is like 15
.."

"I don't know .." Pam squirmed.

"Age!" Kari demanded.

"Yeah, age!" Both Juanita and Sue seconded Kari's demand.

"I don't know .. he's a freshman, I think," Pam offered, trying her
hardest to end the grueling Truth session ASAP.  "He goes to
Benedictine .."

"You MADE OUT with a high school guy?!" Amy Hovan just couldn't
believe it.  Pam was the tallest of the quintet and DEFINITELY looked
the oldest.  But still .. " .. A HIGH SCHOOL GUY!?" Amy repeated for
emphasis.

"It wasn't LIKE THAT!" Pam's face burned.  "We just .. IT WASN'T WHAT
YOU'RE THINKING!"

"How far did he go?" Sue pressed.

"That's NOT FAIR!" Pam snapped back.  "I answered Juanita's question,
and that's NOT part of it."  She turned imploringly towards Kari Gold.
"Kari ..?!" she whined.  Over time, it had become an accepted part of
the game that Kari played the role of arbiter in these types of
situations. 

"She's right, Sue," Kari pronounced.  "That wasn't part of the
original question.  She's under no obligation to answer that."

Sue and Juanita scowled, and Pam curled her lips in a triumphant
sneer.

"I'm satisfied .. for now," Kari announced.  "How about you guys?
Satisfied?" Kari asked the other girls.  They all grudgingly nodded
their heads.  Kari nodded and mercifully handed Pam the deck of cards.
"Okay, next turn."

Pam snatched the cards, silently shuffled them and offered them to Amy
to cut.  The shy seventh grader split the deck in thirds, restacked
the sections, and handed the cards back to Pam.  The tall slender girl
took a sharp breath and dealt the cards with a vengeance.

Being to Pam's immediate left, Amy was first to turn over her cards -
King of diamonds.  She breathed a noticeable sigh of relief.  Juanita
flashed everyone a nervous look before she flipped her card - 7 of
diamonds.  She turned to Sue and waited for the busty seventh grader
to follow suit.  Sue giggled and turned over her card - 7 of hearts.
She smugly turned to Kari Gold.  Kari bit her lip and flipped her own
card - 5 of clubs.  At that point, Kari had the lowest card.  Only Pam
Erde remained.  The tall, slender twelve-year-old hesitated a moment
then slowly revealed her card - Queen of hearts.

"Come on, Amy," Juanita nudged her friend.  "Say it!"

"Truth or Dare .." Amy asked more than commanded, barely looking at
Kari Gold.  Amy hated winning almost as much as losing.

"Dare .. OF COURSE!" Kari Gold replied with a straight face.  Kari's
strategy was always the same - TAKE THE DARE and JUST DO IT.  Put the
burden back on the winner.

"umm ..." Amy looked towards Juanita for assistance.

"You won, Amy," Kari reminded her shy friend.  "It's YOUR dare, NOT
'Nita's, okay ..?"

Amy nodded and sat in silence for a moment.  "Call Wyatt Clifford .."
Amy started.

"That's it?" Kari laughed.  "Okay!"  She scrambled over to Amy's Hello
Kitty nightstand and scooped up the cordless phone from its cradle.
"One phone call to Wyatt Clifford coming up."

" .. I'm n..not finished yet, Kari," Amy asserted.  Suddenly, every
eye in the room focused on Amy Hovan.  "You h..have to talk dirty to
him, too," Amy struggled to get the words out.  Her face was even
redder now than Pam Erde's had been.  "On speaker phone .." she added
almost as an afterthought.

"WOW!" Juanita screeched.  "AWESOME!"  She pointed to Kari Gold.
"Come on, Miss Truth or Dare Champion.  Make the call, make the call,
make the call .."  In a second, the other girls picked up the chant
until they were all prodding Kari with their determined voices.  

"Lame," Kari Gold responded with false bravado.  "I mean TOTALLY
lame."  She paused and looked at her friends.  "Do any of you losers
even KNOW his number?"

"I've got it RIGHT HERE!"  Juanita Walker dug frantically into her
purse and quickly produced her Day Planner.  "555-3577," she read off
the number.  "You know, I think Blaine, Ivan, Josh and Patrick are all
over there, too."  She giggled.  "Maybe Wyatt will put YOU on speaker
phone, too!"  She howled, and the rest of the girls joined in.

"You guys are so lame," Kari Gold punched in Wyatt's number and waited
for four imponderably long rings before someone picked up.

"Hello," a woman chirped.  It had to be Mrs. Clifford.

"Hi, is Wyatt there?" Kari asked.

Juanita waved her fingers angrily at Kari Gold and pointed to the
small phone speaker next to the cradle.

"Who may I ask is calling?" the woman replied.

"Kari .. Kari Gold," the seventh-grade detective stammered as she
activated the speaker and set down the receiver.

"Just a minute."  The speaker went silent for one merciless minute
before Kari heard the telltale click of Wyatt's receiver being
re-engaged.

"Hello?" Wyatt's voice drawled.

Sue Jurkowski started to explode in laughter, but Pam Erde slapped a
pillow over her mouth.

"Heya, Wyatt," Kari responded, trying to ignore her hysterical friends
and stay focused on the task at hand.  She needed to get this dare
over with ASAP.

"Kari?" Wyatt asked.  He was definitely surprised to hear the
seventh-grade detective's voice on the other end of the phone.  Last
month, Wyatt Clifford had hinted to Blaine and Josh that he might ask
Kari to the Homecoming Dance.  The two boys promptly told this to
Juanita, who in turn promptly informed Kari of the impending "date."
The only problem was, Wyatt never asked out Kari.  In fact, he asked
Lizzy Dietz to the dance instead, and they'd started "going together"
right afterwards.  But that had been back in early October, and Lizzy
and Wyatt had broken up three weeks later.  And now here was Kari Gold
calling him out of the clear blue sky.  "What's up?"  the cockiness
leaked out of his voice.

"I don't know," Kari replied while her friends buried their faces in
Amy's pillows and snorted in laughter.  "What's up with you?"

"Not much," Wyatt answered.  "I got some of the guys over.  That's
all."  He paused.  "So what do you need?"

Kari looked at her friends, her eyes laser-locking on Juanita's dark
pupils.  "I need you," Kari Gold replied softly.

"What?"

"I said, 'I need you,' Kari Gold repeated.  "You know what I mean .."
She tried her best to sound sexy so she didn't have to say the words.

"Are you like trying to goof on me or something?" he laughed.

"No, I'm totally serious," Kari insisted.  Suddenly she was pissed.
Here she was telling Wyatt Clifford she WANTED him, and he was
treating it like a big joke.  "I think you're pretty hot.  I was
thinking maybe we could hook up sometime."

"You are definitely goofing on me." Wyatt laughed.  "What?  Is 'Nita
there?  Is this some joke or something?"

"No, asshole," Kari spit back.  "I was totally serious.  I was going
to let you go to second base with me and everything, but you BLEW IT!
Lamer!"  She slammed down the phone, and the room erupted in gales of
laughter.  In a few seconds, even Kari Gold was howling.

"That was AWESOME, Kar," Juanita cackled, giving her best friend a
hug.  "I wonder what he's thinking now."

"What a loser," Pam joined in.  "I can't believe him."  She handed Amy
the cards, and the girls quickly settled back into the game.  In a
minute, the next round of cards had been dealt, and Juanita was the
first to flip over a card.  When the two of Spades looked up from the
floor, Juanita GROANED.  Visibly relieved, Sue quickly turned over her
card -- the seven of spades - and gloated.  Kari was next, smiling as
the Ace of diamonds appeared.  Now Juanita REALLY groaned.  Pam's card
was the Queen of spades, and Amy flipped her card over to end the
round.

2 of hearts.

Juanita and Amy had now tied.  They were both in the Truth or dare
"hot seat" now, and Kari Gold was about to be their judge, jury and
executioner.

"Truth or Dare!" Kari challenged.  "I'll give you a moment to confer."
Juanita and Amy began whispering back and forth frantically for a few
seconds before Kari cut them off.  "Okay, what'll it be?  Truth or
Dare!?"

"Truth," Juanita replied slowly to her best friend.

"Okay," Kari hesitated a moment, trying to think of a KILLER question
to ask them both.  Suddenly it dawned on her, the same question she'd
used on Juanita Walker last time.  "Which guy at Stratford Middle
School would you MOST like to give a bj to?"

"You bitch," Juanita snapped back.  "You know there is like NO WAY I'm
going to answer that question."

"How about you, Ames?" Kari asked with a smirk.  The shy girl shook
her head, rabid fear now in her eyes.  It was clearly apparent how
much she HATED this game.  "Okay, then," Kari shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess you have to take the Dare."

"Give them something good," Sue encouraged Kari.  "I mean REALLY
good."

"You guys are SO gone," Pam laughed.

Amy and Juanita remained silent for a second before Juanita raised her
hands to her chest, curled her fingers inward and wagged them back and
forth.  "Come on, Gold.  Bring it on!" she challenged her best friend,
a grim, determined smile on her face.  Juanita Walker was NOT about to
lose to Kari Gold again in Truth or Dare, not two weeks in a row.  NO
WAY!

"This one is simple," Kari leaned back against Amy's bed and flashed a
wicked smile.  "All you have to do is kiss each other for thirty
seconds .. and use your tongues."

"WOOOOOOOOOOAHH!" Sue Jurkowski squealed in delight.

"They're GONE!" Pam howled.  "C'YA!" she waved at Juanita and Amy then
high-fived Kari and Sue.

"You bitch .." Juanita glowered.

Kari shrugged her shoulders again.  "That's the game, 'Neets.  It's
just like Popstars.  If you can't cut it, then get out of the band."

"We're out then .." Amy began.

"Not so fast, Ames," Juanita cut her off.  Juanita DID NOT want to
lose this game, at least not before gaining some revenge on her best
friend.  Kari always won Truth or Dare, and for once Juanita Walker
was bound and determined that the girl detective wasn't going to
achieve her victory so easily.  This time, Juanita was ready to put up
a fight and make Kari Gold sweat for a change.

"No way," Amy protested.  "You can't be serious.  No way .."

"Come on, Ames," Juanita beseeched her shy friend.  "Just thirty
seconds and it's over.  Then we can KICK Kari's ass."

"That's thirty seconds WITH TONGUE, bee-yatch!" Pam reminded Juanita.
"There is like NO WAY, you two are going to French kiss for half a
minute.  Give it up already, 'Nita.  Kari's got you."

"You have fifteen seconds," Kari announced, her eyes glued to the
secondhand on her watch.  "It's now or never."

"I can't .." Amy started sobbing.

"That's it," Sue observed.  "Amy's crying now.  It's over."

"Jesus, Amy, would you GROW UP!" Juanita snapped.  "Are you going to
just sit there and let Kari win like she always does?  Come on, GET
PISSED!  Wouldn't you just LOVE to see the look on her face if we do
it.  Then when she loses again - and she WILL - we can REALLY get her
back.  Wouldn't you just love to see Kari be the loser one time?  JUST
ONCE?!  Come on!"

"Ten seconds .." Kari announced.

"Give it up, 'Nita," Sue jeered.  "You and Amy are 'off the island.'
C'ya!"

"I can get you a date with Josh," Juanita played her trump card.  She
knew Amy had a major crush on the boy, and she was positive she could
get Blaine to convince Josh to ask Amy out.  "A REAL date.  I swear!
He told Blaine he thought you were cute.  We could TOTALLY double date
... NEXT WEEKEND.  I swear, Amy.  I am NOT LYING.  He will totally ask
you out.  I swear."

"Five .. four .." Kari counted each tick of the secondhand aloud.
"Three .. two .."

"Okay .." Amy whispered, nodding her head frantically.  "I'll do it."

"Wow!" Pam exploded in laughter.  "You're serious aren't you?"  Amy
nodded her head frantically again.  "She's TOTALLY serious.  You'll
really do it?"  Pam badgered Amy while the shy girl kept shaking her
head.  "This is unbelievable.  I mean TOTALLY unbelievable."

"She'll chicken out," Sue commented.  "One of them will.  There's NO
WAY they're going to French kiss each other for thirty seconds.  NO
WAY!"

 "Well, if they are, they're going to have to do it RIGHT NOW!" Kari
pronounced.  "'Cause time's up."

"Hold on a sec, will ya'?!" Juanita scolded her best friend.  "Let us
get situated, okay ..?"

"You've got ten more seconds," Kari agreed.  "After that, you're out,
and we deal the next hand."

Silence enveloped Amy Hovan's bedroom now.  Tension and anticipation
shivered through every jangled nerve in the seventh graders'
sweat-soaked bodies.  With Kari's, Pam's and Sue's eyes now glued to
Juanita and Amy, the two girls were left no choice.  At this point,
backing out now would be even more humiliating than actually going
through with the dare.

Taking the lead, Juanita scooted up closer to Amy's shivering body.
With her index finger, she lifted the shy girl's downcast chin until
both their mouths were parallel.  Amy's eyes were shut tight and her
lips quivering.  A bright scarlet rash flushed her face and neck,
running all the way down to her chest where it disappeared beneath the
collar of her flannel pjs.

Juanita licked her lips.  Gently, so as not to startle her shy friend,
the beautiful Latina brushed back the loose, brown bangs stuck to
Amy's beat-red cheeks and trembling mouth.  Someone in the room gasped
when Juanita bent in even closer and the two girls' chins bumped.  For
the next few seconds, their lips just hovered there, mere microns
apart.

"Remember the dare," Kari Gold whispered.  Juanita sighed, grazing her
moist lips on Amy's philtrum and then moving down until their curious
mouths finally locked. "Tongues .." Kari reminded them softly.  "So we
can see."

Juanita winced slightly when she heard this, and surprisingly it was
now Amy that took the lead.  Her tongue darted out quickly from
between her trembling lips, stabbing into the opening of Juanita's
mouth so quickly that the pretty Latina backed away with a start.

"Don't lose contact," Kari warned her friends.  "If you do, you'll
have to start all over again.  That means ANOTHER thirty seconds."

Juanita scrunched her yes tight and leaned back into Amy, opening her
mouth this time and curiously seeking out Amy's advancing tongue.  In
another second, the two were French kissing each other daintily, much
to the amusement of the other three girls.

"How much time?" Sue asked Kari.

"17 more seconds," Kari answered, trying to keep her eyes on both her
watch and the girls' mouths.

"I can't BELIEVE this," Pam gasped.  'There is like NO WAY I would
have done this.  NO WAY!  Not for one million dollars."

"Yeah, you just make out with boys you don't even know," Sue took a
cheap shot.

"Shut up, Sue," Pam warned her friend.

"12 more seconds," Kari announced.  "Eleven .. ten .. nine .." she
counted off the seconds aloud now.  She had to hand it to Juanita and
Amy.  Her friends had WAY more guts than Kari had EVER given them
credit for, especially Amy.  Kari wasn't even sure she could have
taken the Dare herself.  Suddenly, for the first time EVER, Kari found
herself scared at the prospect of drawing the low card.  She could
only imagine what Dares the other girls would concoct now.  "Three ..
two .. one .. that's it," Kari finished the countdown.

Juanita and Amy IMMEDIATELY pushed away from each other in a fit of
nervous giggles.  Surprisingly, none of the girls said ANYTHING about
what had just transpired - no jokes, no rude comments, NOTHING.  Among
friends, there are just some things you really don't want to discuss
after they've happened, and this was one of them .. DEFINITELY.


Still shuddering, Amy handed Juanita the deck of cards.  The pretty
Latina's fingers attacked the pack, almost as if she thought she could
mix up the cards so completely that all memories of what had just
transpired would be lost in the shuffle.  When she was through, she
slipped the pack to Sue.  Sue did what she always did, shaking her
head and declining to cut the cards.  She'd read somewhere once that
cutting a deck of cards would bring you bad luck, and from that point
forward she'd slavishly adhered to that notion.

"It's your funeral," Juanita commented under her breath as she dealt
the cards.  When everyone had a card faced down in front of them, Sue
turned hers over first -- 3 of spades.  Her face dropped.  Kari
quickly flipped over her card - Queen of clubs - which was then
followed by Pam's 8 of diamonds, Amy's 9 of diamonds, and Juanita's 4
of clubs.

"SHIT!" Sue spat when she realized Kari had this round, too.  "Shit,
shit , shit, shit, shit .."

"Truth or Dare!" Kari challenged Sue while the rest of the girls
laughed.

"Truth," Sue replied, not even thinking it over.  She would not be
caught DEAD doing a dare like the one Juanita and Amy had just
completed.  Plus, she prided herself in being a pretty good liar when
the chips were down.

"Have you ever let a boy feel your boobs?" Kari asked.  "And I mean
your BARE boobs!" Kari clarified her question.

"No way!" Sue answered back.

"Challenge!" Pam Erde shouted.  "You have SO!  You told me you let
your cousin suck on your boobs."

"That was like 5 years ago," Sue protested.  "We were little kids ..
he was my cousin .. I like DIDN'T EVEN HAVE BOOBS BACK THEN!"

"Your cousin qualifies as BOY, Sue!" Juanita shot back.  "You were SO
lying.  I call PENALTY DARE!"

"This is SO unfair!" Sue beseeched Kari Gold.  "I didn't know you
meant ANY boy.  I didn't even have boobs back then," she continued
whining.

"Get REAL, Sue," Pam shrieked.  "You LIED .. BIG TIME!  PENALTY DARE!"

"Vote!" Kari called out.  "Who here thinks Sue was lying?"  All the
girls raised their hands while Sue glared at them.  "You know what
that means," Kari explained.  "You have to take a Penalty Dare.  If
you don't, you're out of the game."

"She won't take the Dare," Pam laughed.  "She NEVER takes the Dare."

"Shut up, Pam!" Sue snapped back.  "I do SO take Dares.  You're the
one who NEVER takes Dares."

"Okay, you two," Kari cut in.  "Just chill, okay ..?"  The girls
calmed down for a second while Kari thought up a suitable Penalty
Dare.  "Okay, Sue, here's what you have to do," Kari started.  "Since
you lied about your boobs, you've got to pay the price."  Kari watched
Sue flinch in expectation.  "Your going to have get TOTALLY topless
and stand in front of Amy's window for three minutes."

"AWESOME!" Juanita laughed.

"There is NO WAY I'm doing that," Sue complained.

"SEE, I told you!" Pam chimed in.  "You are SUCH the baby, Sue!"

"Let's see you do it, then ..?" Sue challenged.

"It's not my dare, retard," Pam shot back.  "I knew you wouldn't do
it.  Sue's out!  Next hand.  Come on .." she gestured to Kari.  "It's
your deal."

"You think you know EVERYTHING, don't you!" Sue accused Pam.  "Well,
you don't know shit, okay ..?"

"Are you taking the dare, then?" Kari asked, waving off Juanita as she
handed Kari the cards.  "Are you?"

"I .. don't know .." Sue stammered.

"She's not," Pam insisted.  "The thermometer's popped out.  The
turkey's done.  Come on, Kari, deal the next hand."

"Screw you, Pam," Sue hissed, rising to her feet.  "Screw you!"  In a
second, the angry twelve-year-old scooted Pam's gray sweater up her
busty torso and over her head.  As she furiously snaked her arms out
of her sleeves, her ripening boobs jiggled and bounced in her bra.

Pam and Juanita snickered.  Kari Gold looked over towards the window,
watching the sweep of headlights slowly brush the puddles along the
wet suburban street.  Amy Hovan lowered her head, attempting to divert
her peeking eyes from the spectacle.

In another second, Sue Jurkowski stood before her friends in only her
lacy white bra and cotton panties.  Kari Gold silently nodded her head
towards the Sue's bosomy chest, indicating that Sue still had
something to remove before she was in total compliance with the
conditions of the Dare.

Sticking her tongue out at Pam, Sue reached behind to her back and
unhooked her bra.  Pam burst out in another round of laughter while
Juanita kept giggling.  Sue stopped momentarily, and suddenly it
appeared like she wasn't going to go through with the Dare after all.

"See?" Pam observed.  "What did I say?  Was I right or what?"

"Screw you!" Sue repeated, letting go of the hooks and allowing her
lacy white bra to slide down her tummy before it dropped to the floor.

When the girls saw their friend's naked chest, they suddenly quit
laughing.  All at once, the room grew very silent and DEADLY serious.
Sue Jurkowski was going to go through with the dare.  She was going to
display her big bare boobs for three whole minutes to anyone who
happened to pass by Amy Hovan's house.  This was certainly going to be
one Dare that was destined to go down in the annals of the game.

Kari pointed to Amy's open window.  Pam and Juanita broke out in
nervous titters again.  Crimson-faced and dripping in sweat, Sue
Jurkowski held up her chin and strode past the quartet towards the
window.  The only stitch of clothing remaining on her blossoming young
body was her white cotton panties.

"Who's timing this?" Sue croaked as she posed herself behind the thin
pane of glass.

"Me!" Kari Gold answered.  "Five seconds," she announced after a
pause.  "175 more seconds to go."

"HEY!!!" Sue Jurkowski suddenly exploded.  "There's someone out here.
SOMEONE IS PEEPING IN THE WINDOW!"

Suddenly Sue Jurkowski, Pam Erde, Juanita Walker and Amy Hovan were
all throwing themselves on Amy's bed, each one scrambling to cover
herself with Amy's down comforter.  Only Kari Gold kept her cool
during the crisis.

Springing to her feet, the seventh-grade detective flipped off Amy's
light switch and bolted to the window.  Now that she'd equalized the
amount of light between inside and outside, Kari's eyes only took a
few seconds to adjust to the darkness beyond the open window.  When
everything came into focus, Kari Gold could clearly make out the
shadowy silhouettes of four white males - approximately 14 to18 years
of age with heights ranging from between 5'4" and 6 feet tall --
breaking into a run across Amy's front lawn.

As Kari's night vision grew further acclimated, she suddenly realized
that one of the fleeing teenage males appeared to be carrying a
camcorder!

Kari's heart started pounding.  Whoever had been peeping in the window
could have been filming her and her friends the WHOLE TIME!
Restraining the urge to throw on her clothes and dash madly out of the
house in pursuit, Kari paused a moment and observed the boys' escape
route.  If she was going to track them down and get that tape, she
needed to know where they were headed.

After crossing the street, they headed west, sprinted past a few
houses, and then cut down a driveway and into some backyard shadows.
Once they were out of sight, Kari quickly walked over towards Amy's
bed and began rifling through her backpack.  In seconds, she produced
a pair of black tights and a black sweatshirt.  As she quickly dressed
herself, the other four girls suddenly began screaming at the tops of
their lungs.

"OH MY GOD!  WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY SAW?!"

"SOMEONE CALL THE COPS!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO?"

Kari shook her head and sighed as she scuffed on her black running
shoes, reached into her overnight bag and pulled out her 'forensics
kit.'  Since officially becoming a detective several months ago, Kari
Gold had converted one of her mother's old make-up kits into a
portable crime lab.  The black satchel now contained everything that a
detective could possibly need - from fingerprinting supplies, casting
plaster and luminol to lock picks, a pocket microscope and a small
stethoscope for eavesdropping.  Throwing on her black fleece coat and
clutching the kit's leather strap-handle, Kari was out of the Hovan
house in less than two minutes.

As her first order of business, Kari sprinted over to the crime scene
below Amy's bedroom windows, scanning the wet ground for any useful
clues.  Since it had been raining all day and most of the afternoon,
the cold, wet earth promised optimal conditions for clues like
footprints and tire tracks.  Bathing the ground in the intense beam
from her penlight, Kari quickly spotted four good sets of footprints
etched deep into the muddy flowerbed lining the front of the Hovan
house.  Upon closer look, she recognized the distinctive tread-mark
patterns of heavy boots .. combat boots .. ALTAMA COMBAT BOOTS.

"Give me a sheet!" Kari Gold called through the open window to Juanita
Walker.  "QUICK!"

Without hesitating, Juanita tore one of the sheets from Amy's bed,
opened the bedroom window wider and handed the clean white linen to
the girl detective.

"What the devil is all the screaming about?" Mrs. Hovan burst into
Amy's room now.

"We had a Peeping Tom, mom!" Amy bawled.  "Someone was watching us
through the window!"

"Oh my Lord," Mrs. Hovan exclaimed, dashing over to the window just in
time to see Kari Gold lay one of her clean linen sheets over the
flower bed's fresh mud.  "Kari Gold what on EARTH do you think you're
doing?"  Mrs. Hovan yelled.

"Preserving evidence," Kari snapped back matter-of-factly.  "Make sure
no one walks here until I come back here and get a cast of these
footprints."  

"What the devil are you talking about, young lady," Mrs. Hovan was as
hysterical now as the girls in Amy's room.  "You will get in here this
instant, and you will STAY IN THIS HOUSE until I say otherwise."

"Call the police, ask for Officer Norton," Kari ignored Mrs. Hovan's
histrionics.  "Tell him what happened and that I'm in pursuit of the
perps."   Kari Gold didn't have time to indulge Mrs. Hovan's
overprotective parental urges.  She had crooks to catch.

"You will do NO SUCH THING, young lady .." Mrs. Hovan hollered as Kari
turned around.

"C'ya!" Kari shouted behind her as she broke into a gallop.  Dashing
across the street and trying to duplicate the teenage boys' exact
movements, Kari could hear Mrs. Hovan and her friends screaming after
her to come back.  But within moments, their calls faded into the
thick rush of the November night wind.  Her face soaked with
perspiration and drizzle, her heart thumping against her ribcage, her
breath steaming around her eyes in wispy ringlets -- Kari Gold felt
TOTALLY ALIVE.   

Padding atop grass, mud, concrete, asphalt, and finally grass again,
Kari's churning feet raced down the driveway the boys had chosen,
quickly emerging in the same backyard shadows where the boys
themselves had vanished.  Stopping for a moment, Kari used her
powerful penlight to scan the ground at her feet.

More fresh, deep bootprints with the familiar Altama tread patterns
scoured a straight path towards a wooded lot located at the far end of
the yard.  As Kari approached the thicket that stretched along the
tree line, the bootprints and telltale crosshatching of broken twigs
revealed where the boys had entered the woods minutes earlier.

Keeping her penlight focused on the ground ahead of her, Kari Gold
retraced the boys' path through the woods until the tree line broke
again into a gravel path.  At the end of the gravel path sat a large
barn, and beyond the barn loomed a large, two-story house.  As Kari
Gold walked up the path, the barn came into clearer view with every
footstep.

With lights blazing behind its red-curtained windows and a red demonic
face painted across its large black door, the old barn looked
positively infernal.  Below the demon's chin, hand-painted letters
spelled out: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" and beneath that,
spelled out in big block letters was the word "Nematoads."

Suddenly, Kari Gold knew exactly where she was.  The barn was the
practice space for Stratford High School's infamous Death Metal band,
the Nematoads.

Kari Gold had been hearing about the notorious musicians and their
leader, Beaver McCule, since last year when they supposedly sacrificed
a stray kitten on stage and drank its blood.  Later investigation by
the police uncovered that the kitten was nothing more than
realistic-looking plush toy while the blood merely a mixture of karo
syrup and food coloring.  Still, the stunt had generated enough
publicity to transform the mediocre metal-heads into a local urban
legend.

As Kari surveyed her memory for any other information she could
remember about the Nematoads, she quickly recalled that the band had
four members: Beaver McCule - lead singer, Carlos Delvega - lead
guitar, Wesley Simonet - bass guitar, and Ed Gerrish -drums.
Coincidentally, they all happened to be in the same age and height
range as her mystery "peepers."

Although Kari Gold knew that a good detective NEVER jumps to hasty
conclusions, she also knew that the smart detective follows the clues
as they appear and then works her leads.  In 99 out of 100 cases, the
most obvious assumptions turn out to be correct.  In this instance,
choosing to investigate four self-declared "Satanist outlaws" who
regularly wore standard-issue Army combat boots seemed like a pretty
good place for the seventh-grade detective to start.

Still, Kari Gold needed to be careful.  If things suddenly grew
dangerous, she wanted to make sure she was covered.  Considering her
options for another moment, she finally slid her cell phone out of the
inside pocket on her fleece jacket.  A second later, she pressed the
#1 speed dial code.  The phone on the other end rang once before
Juanita Walker's anxious voice answered: "Hello ..?  Kari ..?"  The
pretty Latina was obviously looking at her cell's Caller ID.

"Yeah, 'Neets, it's me," Kari announced to her best friend.

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, KARI?" Juanita practically screeched into the
phone.  "Get back here right now.  The police are on their way.  Mrs.
Hovan is having kittens over here."

"I think I tracked the peepers down," Kari ignored Juanita's pleas.
"I didn't want to say anything before and freak you all out, but I saw
one of them carrying a camcorder."

"YOU WHAT?" Juanita squealed.  "OH .. MY .. GOD, Kari ..  We've got to
find them and get that tape back."

"Which is exactly what I'm doing," Kari responded.  "That's why I took
off like that without waiting for the police.  We need to get that
tape back OURSELVES.  If we let the police recover it, they'll watch
it and probably play it in court as evidence .."

"Oh my God, Kari," Juanita hyperventilated.  "You've got to get that
tape back.  If our parents or anybody ever saw it, we'd be SO busted."

"Don't worry," Kari reassured her best friend.  "I think I have a
lead.  I'll call you back when I know more."

"Where are you?" Juanita demanded.

"I tracked their trail back to the McCule's house," Kari explained.

"Beaver McCule .. from the Nematoads!" Juanita exclaimed.  Even
Juanita had heard of Stratford's infamous heavy-metal hooligans. "My
God, Kari, those guys are devil worshippers.  They sacrifice animals.
They could like totally rape and kill you.  You can't go in there
alone.  Stay put.  I'm coming after you.  You're going to need
back-up."  

"Listen, Neets," Kari cut off her friend.  "The best thing you can do
right now is stay there, try to get Amy and everyone calmed down, and
STALL the police until I get back.  If I run into any real trouble,
I'll speed dial you with the 9-1-1 code.  Then you can tell Officer
Norton where I am.  Otherwise, I'm going to handle this myself and get
that tape without anyone EVER seeing it."

"My God, Kari, I am so scared .."

"I'll be back before you know it," Kari assured her friend.  "C'ya!"
She clicked off her cell phone and reassessed the Nematoads clubhouse.
"Well," Kari Gold smiled to herself, "here goes nothing."

Breaking into a trot, the seventh-grade detective jogged up the gravel
path until she was standing right in front of the barn's painted door,
her eyes looking straight into the mouth of the cackling demon.
Before she could even reconsider her actions, Kari Gold rapped on the
thick wood and inhaled sharply.

Inside the barn, the muffled sound of pensive voices and scrambling
feet reverberated through the rotting timbers.  The rustling red
curtains alerted Kari to the fact that she was now being watched by
whoever was inside the barn.  The murmuring voices grew sharply, until
Kari could distinctly make out the words: "Shut up and let me handle
this!"

Seconds later the barn door creaked open, and Kari Gold found herself
face to face with the infamous leader of the Nematoads, Beaver McCule.
Standing a good five inches taller than Kari, Beaver's long,
sandy-brown hair shrugged forth from his scalp in a defiant,
sweat-soaked mullet.  Wearing a tight black t-shirt, camouflage
trousers and muddy black combat boots, Beaver's labored breathing
wheezed out from between his nicotine-stained teeth.  Crooked in
Beaver's right hand, the glowering tip of an unfiltered cigarette sent
twisting tendrils of smoke into Kari's chilly, runny nose.

Under any other circumstances, Kari would have found herself giggling
in the presence of such a preening poseur.  In her present situation,
however, she flipped the off-switch on her inner 'loser-ometer,' bit
her lower lip, and focused on the crucial task at hand.  

"Yo, what's up ..?" Beaver drawled with an affected stoner / surfer
patois.  "Like can we help you or something?"

"Yes," Kari Gold responded, "I was hoping maybe you could.  Are you
guys the Nematoads?"

"Guilty as charged," Beaver replied.

"That's a REALLY cool name ..Nematoads," Kari cooed.  "What does it
mean?"

"Nematoads is the scientific name for slime mold," Beaver
pontificated.  "I'm kind of a science buff."

"That is SO cool," Kari effused.  "I REALLY, REALLY love how you
painted the outside of your barn here.  That quote is so rad -
'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.'  Did you make that up?"  

"No way.  It's from the Bible," Beaver explained condescendingly.
"It's what's written on .. The Gates of HELL!  Jesus, don't they teach
you kids ANYTHING in school these days."  He paused and caught himself
getting sucked into Kari Gold's awe-stricken brown-eyes.  "Listen, you
still haven't told me what you're doing here."

"I just want to ask you a few questions," Kari explained, flashing her
most innocent-looking smile. 

"Okay, but can you like make it fast?" Beaver's seemingly laid-back
attitude did little to mask his obvious impatience and annoyance at
the seventh-grade detective's sudden appearance.  He not only barred
Kari's entrance into the barn with his body, but his left arm was
stretched across the doorframe. "We just got done with like a marathon
jam session, and we're all like major spent ..?"  He took a deep draw
on his cigarette, letting the smoke seethe out his lips.  "So maybe if
you want an autograph or something, you could like come back some
other time ..?"

"I'm not here for an autograph," Kari replied, craning her neck and
peering past the older boy and into the well-lit barn.  "I'm looking
for some guys .."

"Then you came to the right place, babe," one of the Nematoads called
out from inside the barn.

Because he sat tuning a bass guitar with a small electric tuner, Kari
guessed the boy to be Wes Simonet, the group's bassist.  Known as "the
ugly one," Wes was a tall, gangly, black-mulleted boy with a leprous
complexion, prominent buckteeth, and a protruding Adam's apple.  To
further accentuate his Neanderthal aura, he wore a white tank top,
black jeans, a wide studded belt, and mud-spattered black combat
boots.

"We've got four guys here," Wes salivated while he leered at Kari.
"That's one pole for each hole, and two to suck on.  How does that
sound, Pink?"  His comments were greeted with a raucous round of
guffaws from the other hormonally-charged headbangers.  He stopped
tuning his bass a moment to exchange high-fives with a
Hispanic-looking boy who also appeared to be tuning his own
instrument, a burnished red Fender Stratocaster guitar.  "Let her in,
Beav.  Can't you see that little Pink here is 'cumming up'?  It's time
to 'get the party started'?"

"Yeah, cum on, Beaver," the Hispanic-looking guitarist chimed in, his
words tangled in a faux cockney accent.  Judging by his appearance and
the fact that he was tuning an electric guitar, Kari surmised this
Nematoad to be Carlos Delvega.  Beneath his bleached-blond mane, the
teen's jet-black roots stained his Thor-like mullet with a vaguely
muddy sheen.  "Let the li'l birdie cum in here, if that's what she
wants.  Isn't that right, babe?  Little Red Riding Hood wants to cum
in here and play with the Big Bad Wolves?"  

The room erupted in more laughter and barking ... yes, barking.  Kari
bit her lip even harder.  "That all depends if you've got what I want
..."  The girl detective batted her eyelashes provocatively at Beaver,
stunning the older boy for a second.

Momentarily distracted, Beaver let his guard down.  In an instant,
Kari darted under his outstretched arm, gliding into the barn.
"Woaahhh," Beaver reached out to grab her, but the agile ing nue
easily evaded his clumsy grasp.

Now that she was standing completely inside the Nematoads' large
practice space, Kari Gold's acute powers of observation kicked into
high gear.  Immediately, she noticed how cold the room was despite the
hot-air blower rumbling above her.  Ice glazed the insides of the
windowpanes, and all over the concrete floor wet boot prints
crisscrossed each other in intricate patterns.  A cursory glance told
her that the watery tread marks certainly appeared to be exact matches
for the bootprints beneath Amy's bedroom.

"Hey, babe," Eddy Gerrish, the band's doughy mop-topped drummer,
interrupted Kari's concentration.  He was wearing fake black leather
pants ...yes, fake black leather pants ... that looked like stitched
Hefty-bags stretched over the bulbous dimensions of his pear-shaped
lower body.  "Cum on over here and talk to the Ed-meister.  I think I
know EXACTLY what you're looking for."  He grabbed his package and
sneered menacingly.

"Wow," Kari widened her eyes and slinked over towards where Eddy sat
behind his drums.  "I just love the drums - you know, bang, bang,
bang!"  She tapped his cymbals, which were frigid to the touch, and
then slowly traced her fingers over the drum set's cold, stainless
steel hardware.  "I bet you bang REAL hard," she gushed, leaning over
the drum kit, so close that her mouth fluttered mere millimeters from
Eddy's face.   

"'Zat it, love?" Carlos stood up, wagged his tongue a la Ozzy
Osbourne, and rubbed the crotch of his black jeans.  "You a little
bitch in heat, are you?  Sniffing around for some big hard bones ..?"

"Guitar players are so HOT!" Kari suddenly ditched the husky,
hyperventilating drummer and flitted over to Carlos and Wes.  "I LOVE
it FAST and LOUD!" the seventh grade detective announced, thrashing
her head back and forth to an imaginary speed metal riff.  As she
violently bobbed her head and gyrated her hips, she also closely
examined the guitarist's large, stacked tube amplifier.  Running her
hands over every inch of the amp's cold surface - front and back - she
suddenly flipped the On switch.  "Show me how LOUD you can get," she
bit her lip mischievously.

"That's a Marshall, love, a real classic that is.  Same kind Hendrix,
Page and Clapton all used.  Ain't no sissy, solid state crap here.
You've gotta giv'r a few minutes or so for the TUBES to warm up."
Carlos drew in closer, his lips curled in his best Billy Idol sneer.
"Then this baby'll get LOUDER and as HOTTER'n you can stand."

"We'll just have to see about that, now won't we ..?" Kari cooed as
she ducked under Carlos' grasping hands.  

"You look like you got a smokin' little body under all those clothes,
Pink," Wes jumped in.  Seeing all the attention that Eddy and Carlos
were getting, the buck-toothed bass-player didn't want to be left out
of any of the action.  He quickly set down his bass, stood up, and
moved in for the kill.  "Say .. what grade are you in anyway?" he
asked, almost as an afterthought.

"Seventh .." Kari answered, thrusting out her twelve-year-old chest
and licking her lips.  At this point, the girl detective's best bet
was to keep the boys thinking with their penises, NOT their brains.
Still, she needed to be careful not to push things TOO far.  Even with
a 9-1-1 speed dial to Juanita, it would still take the police at least
5 to 10 minutes to reach her.  "I heard you guys were into sacrificing
virgins," she minced slyly.

"Hey, you know what they say," Eddy quipped, rising from his stool.
"Old enough to pee, old enough for me."

 "We've popped cherries a lot younger than you, love," Carlos added
ominously, his hand reaching out to grope Kari's pert breasts through
her black fleece jacket.  "A lot younger."

The seventh grade detective shuddered and tried squirming away, but
the noose of bodies surrounding her had tightened.

"Does your mommy know you're here, Pink?" Wes sneered, his own hand
finding Kari's twelve-year-old ass.  "Huh?"  He squeezed her tender
ass-cheek through the filmy lycra of her tights.  "Does your mommy
know her little girl's a whore for heavy metal cock?"

"What do you think?" Kari snapped mischievously, playfully pushing the
older boys away and wriggling under their clutching hands.  While the
horny headbangers watched in silent hunger, the seventh-grader danced
backwards, bumping and grinding while she unzipped her fleece jacket,
slowly lifted her bulky black sweatshirt, and gave them a good hard
look at her budding, blossoming body.  No one noticed the small cell
phone palmed in her hand, though, or the fact that her finger was
poised on the #1 Speed Dial key. 

"Jesus fucking Christ, would you look at that shit," Wes gasped.
Every male eye in the room riveted to Kari Gold's smooth flat tummy
and the protruding nipples that poked out against her shiny, skintight
sports bra.

"Listen," Beaver McCule's agitated voice suddenly broke the group's
trance.  A second later, the Nematoad's lead singer stormed over from
the doorway, stepping between his band mates and Kari Gold.  "I don't
know what you're doing here, babe, but I think you'd better leave
before you get yourself in a whole lot of REAL trouble."

"I could say the same for you, young man!"  Officer Norton's stern
voice barked as he strode through the door.  "All of you!  Now BACK
OFF!"

"Shit!" the Nematoad's all exclaimed in unison.

"Crap .." Kari Gold hissed under her breath as she scrambled to pull
down her sweatshirt and zip up her fleece jacket.  Out of the corner
of her eye, she thought she caught a momentary smile cracking over
Officer Norton's face.  But when she turned to face him, he was all
business.  Kari was surprised to see her favorite police officer out
of uniform.  He looked TOTALLY different in his street clothes: faded
jeans, a flannel shirt and khaki windbreaker.  "Officer Norton, I ..
how did you?"

"Juanita told me where you were," Officer Norton explained.  "And it's
a good thing she did, too.  Just what do you think you're doing here,
Kari.  A good detective knows BETTER than to go into a potentially
dangerous situation without back-up."

"I .. I'm sorry, Officer Norton."  Kari Gold was embarrassed to say
the least.

"Let's go," he pointed to the door before turning to Beaver McCule.
"For the record, McCule, I'm here unofficially .. FOR THE MOMENT.  So
I strongly suggest that if you have ANYTHING illegal in your
possession - drugs, alcohol, or a videotape perhaps - that you DESTROY
IT immediately before I come down here with the whole Stratford Police
Department and turn this little play-pen of yours inside out.  Do you
understand me?"

"Sure thing, ossifer," Beaver McCule quipped while the other Nematoads
snickered.

"DO YOU THINK I'M KIDDING AROUND HERE, MCCULE!?" Officer Norton went
eyeball to eyeball with the Nematoad's lead singer now.  "DO YOU?"

"No, sir," Beaver backed down obsequiously. 

"Come on, Kari," Officer Norton softened his voice, looking back
towards the seventh-grade detective when he realized she wasn't
moving.  "NEITHER of us should be here."

"I .. I'm not leaving here until I get what I came for."  Kari Gold's
determined jaw shivered as she defied the friendly policeman.

"And what would that be?" Beaver challenged with a smirk.

"I think you know," Kari's hissed through her gritted teeth.  "Now
would you just give it to me, please."

"I don't know what you're talking about, babe," Beaver replied smugly.
"Why don't you fill us all in?  I'm sure Officer Norton would like to
know what you're looking for, too.  Wouldn't you, officer?"

"Leave it alone, McCule," Officer Norton warned.

"You broke the law, Beaver McCule," Kari ignored the older boy's
taunts and pressed forward.  "Peeping in people's windows and
videotaping them is a SERIOUS crime."

"So's slander, babe," Beaver chuckled.  "I'd watch what you say in
front of the officer here, 'cause if you start accusing me of ANYTHING
without proof, I'll not only file charges, but I will SUE your
seventh-grade ass."

"I'm warning you, McCule .." Officer Norton started.

"You and your friends were peeping in windows, and you stood outside
Amy Hovan's house with your camcorder, and you videotaped us, you sick
pervert .." Kari Gold continued.  "Now I WANT THAT TAPE!"

"Kari .. don't," Officer Norton advised.  "Juanita filled me in on
what happened.  That's why I'm here .. unofficially," the policeman
added.  "You don't want to make a case out of this.  Now come on."

"I want that tape," Kari responded.  "These perverts have NO RIGHT to
have it."

"Let me get this right," Beaver laughed.  "You're accusing us of
peeping in some window and videotaping you?  Is that right?"

"Yes," Kari Gold insisted.

"And you saw us .. in the dark?" Beaver asked smugly.  "Saw our faces
... clearly?"

"I .. I may have," Kari bluffed.

"Yes or no, babe ..?" Beaver fired back.  "You either saw our faces,
or you didn't.  What's it going to be?  And remember, we have an
officer of the law present here.  When I file my slander charges,
everything you say is gonna be used against you in court.  Isn't that
right, officer?"

"Kari, this isn't the place or time .." Officer Norton started.

"I saw the four perps fleeing the scene," Kari declared, trying not to
let Beaver's arrogance unnerve her resolve.  "One of them had a
camcorder.  I SAW THAT!  All I want is that tape.  I don't want to
file any criminal charges.  I JUST want the tape!"

"I still don't see what that has to do with us, babe," Beaver replied.
"We weren't peeping in any windows tonight, and we certainly didn't
videotape any seventh graders at a slumber party."

"That's funny," Kari defiantly stuck out her chin at the older boy.
"The peepers were four boys your size, and when I followed their trail
it led right here."

"That's circumstantial evidence, babe," Beaver laughed.  "For your
information, we've been practicing here ALL NIGHT ... since like six
o'clock ... STRAIGHT," he added for emphasis.  "And I fucking DARE you
to try and prove otherwise.  It's our word against yours, babe.
That's four against one.  And since you didn't see anyone's faces out
there, you lose."

"That's your alibi?" Kari challenged.  "You were practicing here all
night?  For over three hours .. straight?"

"You got it, babe," Beaver smirked.

"And you didn't leave here .. NOT ONCE!?"

"Nope, and we just quit a few minutes ago," Beaver responded.  "Right
before you got here.  Isn't that right, guys?"

They all agreed loudly.  

"Then you won't mind if I take casts of your bootprints and match them
against the prints left at the scene .. just to eliminate you all as
suspects ..?" Kari offered.

"Where's your search warrant, babe?" Beaver snarled.  "Ain't I right,
officer?  She's gonna need a search warrant to get us to surrender our
boots.  And with no positive IDs at the scene and no probable cause,
NO judge in the world is gonna issue a warrant.  Ain't that right,
officer?  Ain't that why you're hear 'unofficially,' 'cause little
Miss Nancy Poo here don't have ANY right to come in here and accuse me
and the 'Toads of ANYTHING?  Ain't that RIGHT, officer?" Beaver
insisted triumphantly.  "Tell her! Tell her she'd better get off my
family's property RIGHT NOW before I have her arrested and sue you,
her, and this whole f-ing city.  And I will sue you all, by the love
of Satan.  I WILL!"

"Kari," Officer Norton insisted, "we really do need to be going.
Right now!"

"But his alibi is a lie," Kari Gold maintained.  "And I can prove it."

"How are you going to do that, babe?" Beaver snorted.

"If you've been here ALL NIGHT practicing, then why is it so cold in
here?" Kari challenged.  She shook free from Beaver's grasp and stared
the Nematoad's lead singer straight in the eye.

"Well, not that it's any of your business, babe," Beaver hissed, "but
we always practice with the heat off.  When we get CRANKING, the
infernal fires of HADES make it hotter than hell in here.  Just LOOK
at the sweat on us, babe.  Me and the 'Toads were cranking in here a
few minutes ago."  He paused and flashed a smug, triumphant smile.
"You got any other questions for me, Nancy Poo?"

"Come on, Kari," Officer Norton beseeched the seventh-grade detective,
gently grasping her arm.  "Just let it go.  There's nothing more we
can do here tonight."

"No," Kari replied gravely, shrugging off the policeman's loose grip.
"I know they're lying .." 

"Sometimes you just have to cut your losses in this business, Kari,"
Officer Norton lowered his voice and whispered in the girl detective's
ear.  "Sometimes the bad guys do get away with it."

"Not this time," Kari Gold smiled coldly.  "This place is FILLED with
evidence that contradicts their story.  And I can PROVE IT!" she
added.  "Right now!"


WHAT EVIDENCE IS KARI GOLD REFERRING TO?  HOW CAN SHE PROVE THE
NEMATOADS' ALIBI IS A LIE?


PLEASE SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO  karigold_sky@hotmail.com .  Everyone who
answers correctly will receive a free prize.

--------

Does anyone want to see more Kari Gold Middle School Mysteries?
Please let me know by posting a review - good OR bad -- on
alt.sex.stories.d or emailing me at karigold_sky@hotmail.com .

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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