Brittney, the Tapgirl Princess

The next day at school, Britney couldn't get John's double-thick horseshoe taps out of her head. She knew that Ms Wilms, her English teacher, was giving some important instructions for the paper that was due next week, but she only dimly heard something about writing a story about an embarrassing experience you'd had. She figured she'd ask Ella later about how long the paper had to be—Ella always paid attention to Ms Wilms. Meanwhile, Brittney was thinking about going to the mall after school and buying some boots she could have double horseshoes put on. She just had to have tougher boots than John's, and her cowboy boots just wouldn't do it any more. Absentmindedly, she started stomping down with her heels on the floor under her seat—the huge #8 metal taps on her brown Bass Weejuns making louder clacks with each stomp on the floor. Pretty soon even Ms Wilms, who seemed not to notice almost anything going on in class, stopped in mid-sentence.

"Miss Davis," she called out. "Would you please stop making all that noise?"

"I'm sorry, Ms Wilms," Brittney replied in a rather sassy voice. "It's just these metal taps on my shoes that I put on so my heels would stop wearing down."

The whole class burst into laughter. The thought of Brittney having taps put on her shoes to stop wearing down her heels was just too much for everyone to take.

"Don't believe her, Ms Wilms," said Barry. "She puts taps on her shoes because she wants to make loud, clacky sounds so that everyone will notice her."

"Shut up, Barry," Brittney called out. "You're such a weeny! You'd never put taps on your shoes. You're such a chicken, if you had taps on you'd be afraid of the sound of your own shoes walking down the hall!"

More laughter from the class.

Ms Wilms broke in. "All right. Enough already," she said. "I haven't finished telling you about next week's writing assignment." And she continued describing the paper requirements, despite the fact that almost no one, except Ella, was listening.

That little verbal exchange had all kinds of ramifications, though. Barry Browne, the boy who started the ruckus, started thinking about what Britney said, about his being too chicken to put taps on his shoes. He made a mental note to ask Sam the shoe man about having taps put on his oxfords. Meanwhile, in the back of Ms Wilms' mind appeared a fleeting memory of her own past—about 7 or 8 years ago, in college, when she too had worn metal taps on her flats and loafers. She recalled that back then she was one of the only girls who did that, but now it seemed like nearly every one of the girls in her classes was walking into school with metal taps on their shoes, click-clicking on the tile floors.

English was Brittney's last class before lunch. As soon as the bell rang, she jumped out of her seat and was the first one out of the classroom. She ran over to the room down the hall where she knew her good friend Barbi would be coming out of her 11th grade history class. Barbi soon came through the door with another friend, Jessica, both girls chattering and clicking along with noticeably metallic taps on their loafers, just like Brittney's. The three girls usually met for lunch over behind the technology classes, the one place where kids were allowed to smoke. Today, though, Brittney had a different plan.

"Hey Barb, Jess. Hey you guys, I want to go over to Western Outfitters and buy some harness boots, the kind with the metal rings on them. Jessica, will you drive me over there?"

"But we'll never make it back before sixth period," Jessica replied.

"So what!" exclaimed Barbi. "I hate Mr. Wilson's trig class. Come on, Jess, let's go!"

Since Jessica was the only one with a car at school that day, her response would be critical. Jessica thought for a second. "OK, I'm in." And the three girls raced off to the student lot, the silver metal taps on their shoes visible as they ran, click-clacking along the cement. Reaching the car, a GT convertible that Jessica's parents had bought for her, they climbed in, Brittney in back directing the show. Convertible top put down, makeup checked, cigarettes lit, Jessica and the girls peeled out of the lot, escaping the torture of their school for the open road, smiling and chattering, all three of them with long bright blonde hair shining in the sunshine and blowing in the wind.

When they got to the mall, it was pretty empty of customers. But they got plenty of stares anyway. A group of several older women looked at the girls as they clicked past them, muttering about what these girls were doing away from school. A handful of male store managers oogled the girls as they passed their nearly empty stores--three luscious high school babes in their skin-tight pants, tapped-up brown loafers, and blouses tied above their waists so their pierced belly-button jewelry would show. Vaguely aware of the attention they were getting, the girls made their way over to the food court, munched down some pizza, and then crossed over to Western Outfitters. The three of them sauntered inside, their taps clicking loudly on the tile floor, and while Brittney walked directly over to the display of harness and biker boots, the other girls wandered over to examine some other boots on display nearby.

"Hey Barb, look at these white cowgirl boots," called out Jessica. Barbi came over to look.

"Those are majorette boots, dummy," she said. "But they do look nice. Hey Brittney, look at these!" Brittney looked over to the white boots Barbi was raising in the air.

"Cool!" she replied. Britney only half paid attention at this point, being fully engaged in trying to pick out a style of boots that would be tough enough for double horseshoe taps and that didn't have those awful deeply treaded heels that taps wouldn't bind to.

Soon, she came up with a pair that she liked—with the metal ring at the side of the ankle, smooth brown leather all over, and hard rubber over wood heels that would be perfect for horseshoe taps. They were men's boots, but she already knew her size equivalent in men's shoes—11 women's, 9 1/2 mens—so she picked out a box from the shelf and tried them on. She stared at the bottoms and imagined what they'd be like with steel taps covering most of the heel and sole. Just thinking about walking around school with all that metal under her was getting her excited. She pictured John Baker dropping his jaw in awe when he saw her.

Meanwhile, each of the other girls had also picked out a pair of boots. Jessica had decided on the white majorette boots, and Barbi had gone for a pair of black women's cowboy boots with silver and red stitching up the 10" shaft and tapered 2" stacked leather heels. Although each pair of boots cost between $50 and $150, the girls cheerfully offered up their dads' credit cards--they were all still under their limit this month--and marched out of the store, boxes in hand.

You'd think that they'd want to wear their new boots from the start, but when Jessica suggested that they do that, Brittney replied, "NO WAY! They don't have taps on them yet." And the others agreed that it wouldn't be right to wear them even for a moment without taps. So they ran back to Jessica's car and headed for Sam's Shoe Repair.

Sam was in back, eating a sandwich, but when he heard the girls coming, he came forward to meet them as they entered.

"Hi Sam," said Brittney. "We just came from buying these new boots." And all three girls held up their boxes, and began to empty them of their contents. "We want taps on them."

Sam smiled. "I suppose you want some little half-moon taps like these?" And he held up some very dainty looking plastic taps about an inch long.

Everyone laughed.

"You know that's not our style, Sam!" replied Brittney. "John Baker showed me the double horseshoes you put on his Engineer boots. I want some on these new harness boots too. But I want them to be louder than his."

"OK, sure, let me think how to do that." Sam brought out two horseshoe taps and some nails. "I can put the double horseshoes on like this. See, I can put the back two nails through just the bottom tap. The top tap will bind to the heels from the front four nails. That way they'll stay on but make more noise than usual."

"Awesome! And I want toe and side taps, too."

"Of course. I've got some special toe taps I can put on these boots, the kind with a big lip that goes over the edge of the sole, so they'll be really visible from the front. They're called toe bumpers."

Brittney kept smiling. "Cool. You know I'd like those. How come you didn't mention them to me before!" She couldn't wait to see the toe bumpers and double horseshoes on her boots. Sam turned to Barbi.

"Now what kind of taps would you like on these cowgirl boots, young lady?" Sam asked.

"Well, I've never had horseshoe taps on my shoes before, but I think they might be nice on these new boots, wouldn't they?"

"Yes," Sam reassured her. "Horseshoes would be fine on these beautiful boots. Do you want singles or doubles like I'm putting on Brittney's? I'd recommend double horseshoes because the heels are so tapered."

"Well, ok," Barbi said cautiously. "If you think that double ones would be better. But maybe I shouldn't have taps on the soles."

"Nonsense," said Sam. "There's no point having taps on the heels and not putting them on the soles too. Look, I'll put them just on the toes and we can save the side taps for later when you get used to the boots." Barbi nodded her o.k. Sam turned to Jessie. "Now for these majorette boots, I have some special taps called Continentals. They used to be put on tap dancing shoes but majorettes also had them on their boots. They're aluminum, though, not steel like the others." Sam showed Jessie two Continental taps—heel taps made in the shape that would cover the entire heel and toe taps that had a big lip like the toe bumpers but were much larger.

Jessie thought for a moment. "Gee, Sam, I don't know. I think I'd like to have horseshoes on my boots just like Brittney and Barbi. Maybe the Continental taps would be alright on the toes though."

"OK," replied Sam. "I will do it that way. Now you girls just sit down and make yourselves comfortable while I go to work on these boots."

The girls looked at their watches. It was already into the middle of sixth period. If they timed it just right, they could get back to school at the start of 7th period, the one time of the day all three girls were in the same class.

After they'd been sitting for about 10 minutes, hearing Sam pounding nails into all of their boots, a 30'ish well dressed woman with medium-length pale blonde hair came into the store. Sam stopped and came forward to serve her.

"How can I help you today, Mrs. Johnson?" Sam asked.

Mrs. Johnson opened up the shoe box she was carrying and pulled out a pair of 4 inch high black patent stiletto pumps.

"Sam. Look at the heels on these shoes. I've worn them only three times and already the rubber heel tip is worn half-way down. Can you replace these with something that would wear longer, like plastic or something?"

"Well, Mrs. Johnson. I could give you plastic heel tips. But if you want them to really last a long time, I would recommend these steel spike tips." And he brought out one to show her. "They also have another advantage that these girls could tell you about!" Sam laughed and pointed to Brittney and her friends.

Brittney was following this conversation with interest. She had had a pair of spike heels before, but didn't wear them more than a few times before she outgrew them. And that was before she'd discovered metal taps. So when she heard Sam's last comment about the advantage of steel heel tips, she instinctively stomped down with each of her loafers making a loud clack-clack, and then raised one of her shoes up so Mrs. Johnson could see the large metal tap on the bottom.

"Oh, I see!" said Mrs. Johnson. "Yes, I think I'd like the steel kind then." Mrs. Johnson then looked down at the shoes she was wearing—some brown business loafers with chunky 2" heels. "You know," she continued, "seeing those metal cleats on that girl's loafers…I think I'd like to put some on the heels of these shoes. Can you do that now, while I wait?"

Sam looked over at the girls. "Well if you can wait a few minutes I can. I'm finishing with some boots that these girls gave me to repair."

Brittney quickly checked her watch and then interrupted. "That's o.k., Sam. You can do the lady's shoes first. We have to wait for the next change of classes before we go back to school anyway." So Sam queried Mrs. Johnson and she nodded, slipped off her loafers, and gave them to Sam.

"What size cleats do you want on these, Mrs. Johnson?" He showed her a wooden board that had one tap in each size he carried, from a size 000 that was barely visible up to the huge 8's that Brittney had on her loafers. The three girls snickered, figuring that Mrs. Johnson would pick out some small ones, like #0 or #1, that might seem lady-like on dressy shoes.

"How about these, Sam?" she asked, pointing to the #6s on the board. "Would they fit on these heels? I'd like to make really sure that I don't need to replace the heels on these shoes."

"Yes, I think I can squeeze those on. Have a seat." And Sam motioned towards the sofa where there was a seat next to Brittney.

Mrs. Johnson sat down and smiled at Brittney. Brittney had already sized her up as a career woman who always tried to look her best, the kind who had her hair colored every week so her roots wouldn't show. Brittney thought of her own hair and how it had been almost two months since she'd had a coloring job. But she liked having her dark roots show; she never could understand why women tried to avoid letting people see that they colored their hair. It was so obvious anyway! She could see that Mrs. Johnson's roots were dark, even though the platinum blonde color was still pretty close to her skin.

Mrs. Johnson broke the silence. "So what are you girls having done to your boots?" she asked of none of them in particular. Jessica was the first to reply. "We're having taps put on them, just like you," she said.

"Oh, 'taps' is what you call them, huh? I always thought they were called 'cleats'."

"We call them 'taps,' said Barbi. Only the kind we're having put on are horseshoes. They're bigger than the ones you picked out. They go all around the edge of the heel, like this." And Barbi brought up her loafers, her #6 heel taps visible, and drew the U-curve on her heels showing where the horseshoe taps would be placed.

"Wow. Those must be loud!" said Mrs. Johnson. "Maybe I'll try those sometime, but I think the ones I picked out will be just right." And then she lowered her voice and whispered to the girls (perhaps so Sam couldn't hear). "I said something to Sam about keeping my heels in good repair, but honestly I want those taps on so I can be heard when I walk around the office. I've got a hunch that having taps on my shoes will be useful for getting things done my way, just like when I wear spike heels."

Just then Sam reappeared with Mrs. Johnson's loafers. She looked at the taps, which were so large on these chunky heels that they were angled along the sides and went all the way from the back to the front outside edge of the heels. She held them up so Jessica could see them and said, "Hmm, kind of like two-thirds of a horseshoe, huh?" Then she put them on her feet and made a stomp on the floor. "They sound good, too!" she said. "Thanks, Sam." Then she remembered the stilettos she had brought in with her. But Sam had already done his work on these. He brought her black pumps out, and showed them to Mrs. Johnson: a nice shiny silver metal tip on each heel.

"These will be just perfect! Thank you, Sam!"

After Mrs. Johnson had left, it was only another couple of minutes and Sam started bringing out the girls' boots. One by one, they excitedly ran their hands over the bright new steel undersides and slid their feet into them. First Brittney's brown harness boots with the double horseshoes, toe bumpers, and—count them—three taps on each side of the sole! Then while Brittney was busily lacing them up, out came Barbi's beautiful cowgirl boots, also with double horseshoes that stuck out a little over the edge so they could be noticed under the tapered heel. ("Is that o.k. that they stick out," she inquired of Brittney? "Of course, silly—that's even better!") And, finally, the white majorette boots for Jessica, complete with horseshoes, Continental toe taps, and #3 side taps too! ("The side taps are a little bonus for you," said Sam.)

"Yikes," shouted Barbi. "It's almost 2 o'clock! We better get back!"

So they hurriedly paid Sam for the taps ($2 for each girl: "Special price for Forest Glen girls," said Sam), stuffed their old loafers into the shoe boxes the boots came in, and ran off to Jessica's car. The new taps caused all of them to slip once or twice, but they shook it off and reveled in the metallic sounds they made as they sprinted along the sidewalk.

They jumped into the car ("Careful with those taps! Don't scratch my paint!" said Jessica, only half-joking), and she floored the engine, put it into gear, and took off with tires squealing. It was only a few blocks to school, but at one point she hit 40 on the speedometer. The girls were just so excited by what they had on their feet, they couldn't wait to get back to school. And just as they pulled into the parking lot, the bell rang for last period classes to start.

The three girls raced through the lot and over to their computer class where kids were still just settling into their seats in front of their PCs. But when the three of them walked into the room, boots stomping on the floor, everyone turned and saw them beaming. Each of them walked towards her seat—clack-click, scrape-clomp, clackity-clickity-click—and all eyes were glued to their boots and to what could be seen underneath them.

The girls in the class were in awe. A lot of them had taps on their shoes too, but nothing like these huge horseshoe plates, toe bumpers, and side taps. But it was the boys who were dumbfounded. These three blondes were already pretty hot in their eyes. But coming in with their navels showing (they'd totally forgotten to untie their blouses and tuck them in their pants), and these brand new stomping boots on their feet, they could not get their peckers to relax! Three or four of them were sitting on their hands—probably to prevent themselves from jacking off in public!

And for one guy in the class, this parade of females had special meaning. When the girls had reached their seats, John Baker looked over at Brittney, motioned for her to raise her foot so he could see her taps, and then shook his head from side to side when he saw what she showed him—horseshoe tap, toe bumper and three more half-moon taps along each sides of the boot sole. Brittney pointed to the horseshoe. "Double," she called over to John. "Plus a secret extra thing to make them even louder." He shook his head once more. Brittney was definitely in charge again.