Brittney, the Tapgirl Princess

The final two weeks of school that Spring were mostly fun and games. As the weather warmed up, the teachers knew they couldn\'t push the kids very hard. However, Brittney did have final exams to take—and as a ninth grader, they were her first high school exams, and even she was a little worried about them.



"Hey, John," she called out to her double-horseshoe-tapped-harness-boot-wearing boyfriend. "Can I study with you tonight for Wilson\'s algebra test? I really didn\'t understand half of that class."



"Sure, Brittney. I\'ll meet you after school, at our usual place."



After school, Brittney and John met up and walked home together. First they had to stop at Brittney\'s house to pick up her algebra book—"I never take it to school. It\'s easier just to borrow a room copy." Then they walked over to John\'s house to study. They loved walking along the sidewalk together, arm in arm, dragging their heels along the cement, their horseshoe taps—the ones on her penny loafers and the ones on his boots—both making noisy scraping sounds with every step they took.



John\'s mom greeted the pair at the front door, wearing an alluring combination of a skin-tight neon-blue tee-shirt, some equally tight white shorts, and a pair of red roper boots. Brittney always paid attention to the clothes people wore—particularly their shoes—and she did a double-take when she saw that there were steel horseshoe taps under John\'s mom\'s ropers.



The two of them went upstairs and took out their notes from the first part of their algebra class, but it was hard for Brittney to focus on math. She kept thinking about John\'s mom.



"God," cried out Brittney. "I don\'t remember any of this stuff. When is it that you put x over on the other side of the equation?" John worked hard at explaining the rules of algebra to Brittney, but without much success.



"Hey John," said Brittney. "When did your mom start putting horseshoe taps on her boots?"



"Oh, she asked me to put them on those ropers of hers last week. She was out shopping and ran into Barry\'s mom who was wearing shoes that had taps on them. Monkey-see, monkey-do! Actually, she said she wanted to outdo Mrs. Browne, so she asked me if I could put horseshoes on some of her shoes instead of the half-moon type that Mrs. Browne had on. So I put them on her ropers and on a pair of penny loafers like you\'re wearing. It was a little weird doing that—just like what Barry said about putting taps on his mom\'s shoes.



"I also think my mom\'s a little bit in competition with you. Did you see how she was dressed this afternoon—almost like she was back on the make! I guess parents hate to think of themselves as getting old, don\'t they. She\'s even started smoking again, something she hasn\'t done since I was little."



"Speaking of which," said Brittney, " I need a cigarette. This algebra stuff makes me nervous. Can we take a break?"



"I guess," replied John, "but we really just got started! You\'ll never pass the exam at this rate! Why don\'t you just smoke here in my room while we work."



"I\'d rather go outside, if that\'s ok." Brittney stood up, took out her cigarettes and lighter and walked out of John\'s bedroom. John just shook his head and followed after her. He had no control over this girl—none at all!



As John and Brittney were walking out the front door, a tall young man, looking to be about 20 or so, was walking inside.



"Hey, John."



"Hey, David. David, this is my girlfriend, Brittney. Brittney, this is my brother, David."



"John! You never told me you had a brother!"



"Yeah," said David, smiling. "I\'m not surprised. He usually pretends I don\'t exist!"



"Well," said John, with a touch of envy, "David\'s been away at Princeton all year. He never came home once to see us. Now all of a sudden he comes home for the summer and thinks he\'s hot shot Mr. Joe College."



"Nice meeting you, Brittney. Are you leaving just as I\'m getting here?"



"No," answered Brittney. "We\'re studying upstairs. We just came outside so I could have a cigarette."



For David, Brittney had just said the magic word. Just as some guys are attracted to a girl because she looks pretty, or others because she is smart, David was smitten by the girl-smoking bug years ago, and that was the number one thing he looked for in a girl. Of course, if she was pretty and smart, those were also big pluses. But she had to smoke and smoke really well for David to take a second look.



While David and John were chatting briefly, Brittney took out her cigarettes, lit one, and took a long drag. She slowly exhaled a thick plume of smoke into the air and immediately took two more drags, one right after the other, lifted her head, and blew another white cloud across the front lawn. Then she took one more drag, and after exhaling a short plume of smoke she sucked it back up into her nostrils and then did a full exhale. Watching this display of expert smoking, David decided to hang around a little longer.



"Damn, Brittney," said David. "You really do know how to smoke, don\'t you! How long have you been smoking?"



"Oh, I started about a year and a half ago. It\'s just something I do that relaxes me. But I think it\'s nice that you like my smoking. John here is always telling me to stop."



"Geez, Brittney. You know I like watching you smoke too. It\'s just that I worry about your health."



"Go fuck yourself, John. You\'re just …I don\'t know. I don\'t really know why you keep saying I should stop. Maybe it\'s because you don\'t smoke yourself. Do you smoke David?"



"No, actually not. I think it\'s great that girls smoke—it makes pretty girls like you look even better! But it\'s not anything I want to do myself."



Brittney then asked David about college, what his major was (history) and how he liked being away from home (loved it). David then started to asked Brittney about herself, and John decided not to fight this battle now. He turned to go back inside and called out to his girlfriend. "Brittney, I\'ll be upstairs working on algebra. Whenever you want to study for the exam, let me know." Then he slammed the screen door behind him, clearly annoyed, and clomped his way across the living room, his horseshoe-tapped boots making a really loud sound on the wood floor.



"I think he\'s jealous already!" Brittney commented to David.



David laughed. "Yeah. He has those monster-boots with big cleats on them. Thinks he\'s a tough guy."



"Well, I like him that way, you know. I did choose him to be my boyfriend."



"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I didn\'t mean anything by that."



"And he and I are kind of in competition over steel shoe taps anyway."



"What do you mean? Do you put those things on your boots too?"



"Boots, shoes, sandals, all my footwear. See, I even have horseshoe taps on these penny loafers." She raised up the bottoms of one of her shoes so David could see them."



"Wow! I\'ve never seen big cleats like that on girls\' shoes."



"Well, you haven\'t been back here in Forest Glen very long, have you?" Brittney asked, thinking about the hundreds and hundreds of girls and women, let alone the guys and men, who were now wearing big metal taps all over the heels and soles of their shoes.



"No, actually, I just got back from Princeton yesterday. I took some time after classes were over to write and send off an application to study abroad?"



"Do you study all the time?" Brittney asked, fearing this handsome guy was a "grind" or worse, a "nerd."



"Well, I do study a lot, I guess, but I like to mess around too."



"You know," said Brittney. "Your mom has horseshoe taps on some boots too. I just saw her wearing them."



"No shit! My mom? Wow, things have really changed around here this year."



"So David, what are you doing back at home?" Brittney inquired. "Do you have a summer job here? Are you going back to Princeton in the fall?"



"Yes, and yes," David replied. "I came back for some interviews a couple weeks ago and got myself an internship at the TV station in…"



"Fuckin\' A!" cried out Brittney. "I don\'t believe this!"



"What do you mean?" asked David.



"You\'re the \'David\' that Kelly Clark was just talking to me about. You\'re the guy who has the internship there!"



"Yeah, that\'s what I was just telling you!"



"You\'re the quote \'shy guy who\'s good in bed\' that she told me about!!!"



"What the hell are you talking about? Do you know people at the TV station?"



"Well, I will soon! I just got an internship there too! You and I are going to be working together!"



And that is how Brittney came to meet David, a guy who would become somebody really special in her life.



But she didn\'t know that yet. All she knew is that things were going to be more complicated in her life. She\'d be spending lots of time with her own boyfriend\'s brother, on a job that seemed to involve a fair amount of bedroom play. She could definitely see trouble ahead. And she wasn\'t even 15 yet!