by T. M. Haught
The Erotic Misadventures of
PENNY & SQUIRT
A Love Story
A Novel
By T.M. Haught
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2014 by T.M. Haught
Registered with WGA East
The cover design is also copyright 2014 by T.M. Haught.
All rights are reserved.
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This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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All characters in this novel are fictional, including those who are identified by office or calling. Any resemblance to actual persons is coincidental. All events are fictional, including those set in real locations. Real locations and actual brand names are only used as a backdrop for this story and their use does not imply or represent an endorsement in any way. All sexually active characters are 18 years of age or older.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE:
This story is a fantasy, intended only for readers who are 18 years of age or older, but it is important to point out that in the real world unprotected sex can result in sexually transmitted diseases and in unplanned pregnancies.
However, this isn’t the real world, it’s just a book, so enjoy...!
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CHAPTER ONE
The Adversaries
It was an old Victorian style house, not nearly large enough to be called a mansion, but still impressive in appearance with its small porch, decorative trim, and turret. It had three floors, although the top floor was mostly disguised by the mansard roof with two dormer windows in the front and two more in the back. The walls’ fresh coat of paint sparkled and gleamed in the early morning sunlight and the residential neighborhood was quiet except for birdsong... that and the grumbling of the two teenagers standing on the sidewalk in front of it.
Penny Mathews was 18, with long blonde hair and bangs, brown eyes, about 5’6” tall and with a good enough figure to make her blue jeans and pullover blouse look better than average. Jonah Nash was also 18, although two months younger, with tousled brown hair and blue eyes, about 5’3” tall, and a slender, somewhat gangly build that made his gray slacks and plain shirt with its pocket protector full of pens seem slightly oversize. The round, owlish glasses didn’t help the image any.
Penny raised an eyebrow and checked her watch... again. “Ah, life in the ‘burbs. So when does the freakin’ school bus get here, Squirt?”
“Maybe you should go back to having your dad drive you. And stop calling me Squirt,” Jonah said defensively. “You’ve been doing that since you and your dad moved in two weeks ago. I’m as old as you are, and only a few inches shorter.”
Penny made a show of holding her hand flat over her own head, then holding it lower over his head. “Yeah, right. You’re a regular giant. Squirt.”
Her silly grin was more impish than cruel, but Jonah was still peeved by her taunts. He glared at her.
“You shouldn’t pick on me,” he asserted. “After all, you and your dad are guests in our house.”
Penny rolled her eyes. “Yeah... paying guests. We needed someplace to live when my dad’s company transferred him to their divisional office here.”
“Why didn’t you just stay in that apartment on the other side of town where you were at first?”
“Couldn’t,” said Penny. “We’d only been there six weeks when the jerk owner decided to turn the whole building into condos. Anybody who couldn’t afford to buy their place outright ended up on the sidewalk. At least we got a refund on our security deposit and a partial on the rent. We’re lucky your mom was renting out rooms and was already acquainted with my dad from that online single parenting support group he joined awhile back.”
Jonah’s expression was still sullen. “Yeah... lucky. If... if my dad was still here, things would be different.”
Penny bit her lip a little, looked down at the sidewalk at the narrow cracks where grass was trying to grow and the spot where their backpacks were sitting, then swung her gaze up again as the familiar sound of a large approaching vehicle caught her attention.
“Hey, heads up, Squirt!” she said. “The school bus is here. Now we can get going.”
“Swell,” he replied, without enthusiasm.
* * * * * * * * * *
Palmvista High School was like most such educational facilities in medium sized towns, built in the 50’s or 60’s and remodeled in the 90’s. Painted concrete walls, a flagpole out front, and fences around the parking area and the athletic field. Standard halls and classrooms, lockers on the walls, and not quite enough teachers for all the students. By mid-day it was lunch time and the cafeteria was full of students and noisy chatter, mingling with kitchen noises and the smells of hot food.
Jonah was moving through the serving line just ahead of Penny. As they both slid their trays along, being handed small melamine plates by the cafeteria ladies, Penny studied the items in the steam table bins with a sigh of disappointment.
“Mystery meatloaf and overcooked veggies,” she said. “Don’t you just love school food, Squirt?”
He said nothing in reply, but kept glancing away from the serving line toward the center of the room. He seemed to be searching for something... searching... searching... and then he perked up as he finally found what he sought.
They reached the end of the serving line, paid for their meals, and started to turn to go find a table. It was a big room with lots of kids, but there were a number of empty seats.
“Do you want to sit together?” said Penny.
“No,” Jonah said abruptly. “I see someone I want to talk to.”
Watching his back move away from her, Penny made a bit of a face, then shrugged and started looking for another area, preferably some distance from her bothersome acquaintance. Where to sit, where to sit? Most of the gang here was still new to her, but she recognized several clusters of “mean girls” who spent their time bonding and bad-mouthing others, a table of jocks—guys on the football, baseball or soccer teams—who usually leered at her in a suggestive way that made her feel uncomfortable, and then the groups of nerdy kids and “chubbies” who looked as if they just wanted to be left alone and stay off the radar of bullies.
Where to sit? She finally decided to pick one of the tables on the fringe where there was practically no-one sitting. She was heading for that spot when she looked over her shoulder at Jonah, who was now standing in front of one of the tables populated by some of the “mean girls” and staring rather fixedly at the one on the end of the row. The girl had unusually fair skin for someone wearing a cheerleader’s outfit, a slightly angular face framed by well styled brownish hair, and large expressive eyes. That girl looked up suddenly as she became aware of Jonah’s presence, and her expression hardened.
Penny slowed as she walked, then stopped in her tracks and watched the little drama unfold, flinching a bit as she noticed that Jonah was nervously shifting his weight back and forth from foot to foot, glancing down at those feet, then almost making eye contact with the pretty girl. Penny couldn’t quite hear what he was saying, but it really didn’t matter as there didn’t seem to be that many words coming out of his mouth anyway. She could see that his mouth was moving... perhaps stammering... but then even that stopped as he completely froze up. The pretty girl regarded him with all the fo
ndness of seeing something unpleasant she had just stepped in.
He was spared further embarrassment only by the fact that one of the jock boys, complete with a large letter stitched to his sweater, stepped virtually in front of him, nearly pushing him out of the way as if he didn’t exist, and began talking to the object of Jonah’s interest. Penny noticed that Miss Pretty Girl instantly transformed herself into something charming and vivacious, chatting up the jock boy with eager interest.
Jonah was already backing away from the scene of the disaster, his head down, and changed directions, heading quickly for an empty table on the far edge of the room. He sat his tray down gingerly and took a seat.
Penny immediately headed for that table, almost against her own better judgment, and reached it in a few seconds. She studied the forlorn youth a moment, glanced back at Miss Pretty Girl, who was still engaged in conversation with Jock Boy, then put her tray down next to Jonah’s and took the seat beside him.
“All right,” she said. “What just happened here?”
“Nothing,” said Jonah.
“Sure looked like something. For someone you were in such a hurry to talk to, you didn’t get many words out.”
Jonah gave a big sigh of exasperation and stared at his food. “That’s Tiffany Jeskavech. She’s very popular.”
“She’s a real cutie all right.” Penny started eating.
Jonah sighed. “I’ve wanted to ask her for a date since the first time I saw her here, two years ago.”
“Okay. I can see that. So what’s the problem?”
Jonah said sullenly, “I... I have trouble talking to girls.”
Penny swallowed her bite of food and shrugged. “Really? You’re talking to me.”
“That’s different.”
“I’m a girl.”
Jonah glanced at her. “Yes... but...”
“But what?”
“I like Tiffany.”
“Oh,” said Penny, as the fork full of meatloaf that was headed toward her mouth suddenly froze in its trajectory. “And you don’t like me?”
“No,” said Jonah. Then, almost as an afterthought as his annoyed gaze met her own quietly perturbed look, he added, “No offense.”
“Right.”
“It’s just that you’re always picking on me, making me feel worse than I already do. Why should I like you?”
Penny resumed eating, then nodded grudgingly. “Point noted, Squirt... sorry... Jonah. I probably should cut you some slack. Sometimes I forget that other people have feelings, too, when I try to be funny. I know you’ve been through a lot, but regardless of how you feel about me, you really need to get over your fear of girls. I mean, really. If you can’t even talk to them, then you’re never going to get any... uh, anywhere.”
There was an awkward silence for a long moment that stretched into even more moments. Jonah started eating, then he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that I don’t like you. You’re okay, I guess. I mean, you’ve been through a lot, too, losing your mom and all.”
Penny sighed and her look turned reflective. The past year hadn’t been easy in a lot of ways. An awful lot of ways. “Yeah.”
“So... what should I do?”
“About what?”
“Girls. What should I do? You’re a girl, so you must have the inside track on what I’m doing wrong.”
She turned to look at him more fully. His words didn’t sound like sarcasm and there was a certain vulnerability in his eyes that made it hard to poke fun at him. In fact, for the first time since meeting him and judging him to be an annoying twerp, she actually felt sorry for him. And she had to admit, in his own way, he was kind of cute.
“Okay. It’s not so much what you’re doing wrong,” Penny told him. “It’s more what you’re not doing right. Some girls find bashful guys sweet and charming, up to a point, but most girls like boys that are self-confident... boys who know what they want and how to get it, as long as they’re not too grabby and aggressive. That can be a turn-off, too.”
“Makes sense,” said Jonah. “So, what should I do? How do I get to be the kind of guy that Tiffany will take seriously?”
“Tiffany seems a little shallow to me,” Penny felt obliged to point out, “especially the nasty way she looked at you and then turned on the charm when the guy in the varsity sweater hit on her. Just because you have a crush on her doesn’t mean she’s nice enough to be worth the effort. But whether it’s her or one of the other girls, you still need to boost your confidence level so you can approach them on an equal footing. I mean, being too shy to talk to her for two years? Not gonna work.” She paused. “How about sports? That might help.”
“I’m in the chess club.”
Penny rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, that’s a really rough and tumble game!”
“Chess isn’t easy!”
“No, and intelligent guys can be sexy, too, but just sitting there staring at a black and white checkerboard isn’t going to get the girls excited about you the same way as watching a guy in shorts kick a soccer ball into a net and hearing someone yell ‘score!’ You know what I mean?”
Jonah sighed. “Yeah, I do. I’ve just never been good at sports.”
Penny returned her attention to her meal. “Well, we’ll just have to find a way. Let me think on it. I love a challenge.”
“A challenge?” said Jonah. “So I’m hopeless, huh?”
She turned back to him and her eyes locked on his. “Not you... just your attitude. Attitudes can be changed. You’ll see.” She reached for her dessert. “Let me think on it.”
* * * * * * * * * *
That evening at home, Rebecca Nash was putting dinner on the table in the small dining room of the old house. The table was already set and there were glasses of water, dishes of vegetables, a basket of dinner rolls and a few other things, and Rebecca was just now bringing in a platter with a dozen pieces of fried chicken on it. She set it down, the chicken still steaming, near the middle of the table next to a small vase with a few cut garden flowers in it.
“Everything smells great, Mrs. Nash,” said Penny. “You’re a good cook.”
“Thank you, Penny.” Rebecca smiled and took her own seat. “So how was school today? Are you making new friends yet?”
Penny shrugged. “I’m still the new kid. It’ll take time.”
Robert Mathews studied his daughter, thinking about the fact that his transfer to the Palmvista office of the company he worked for had made things harder for her, especially coming only a year after her mother’s death. He still felt guilty about the move.
Robert glanced at the others at the table. “Maybe Jonah can introduce you around. He’s been going to that school for awhile. He must know everyone.”
Penny rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut. Why cause trouble.
Rebecca said, “I think that’s a great idea, Jonah. You wouldn’t mind helping Penny get acquainted with the others, would you?”
Jonah kept his gaze directed down at the table. His tone of voice flat, he said, “Sure. No problem.”
Rebecca studied him, remembering several teachers in the past who wrote on his evaluation sheets the words, “Does not play with others,” or “Too introverted.” She glanced at Penny, suddenly remembering the times she had heard, but overlooked, Robert’s daughter make needling or disparaging jokes about her son. Maybe Jonah wasn’t the ideal one to play go-between after all. There was clearly hostility between the two. She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake. She hoped there wasn’t a war about to erupt.
“Well,” she said, looking away from both teenagers and starting to pass the bowls of food around. “I’m sure things will work out in time. Let’s eat dinner!”
CHAPTER TWO
The Lesson Plan
It was a little past nine in the evening when Jonah finished his homework and put it in his backpack, ready for school the next day. He was in his room on the top floor of the house, and although it was small there was plenty of room for his bed, a
desk and chair and a large footlocker he used for storage. The door to the hall was on the side opposite the window, and in the wall on the right side were doors to his bathroom and closet. Bookshelves and a few posters from the Nova TV series filled the remaining wall.
Jonah turned on his compact stereo system, which still had a classical music CD in it, and set the volume so it would be loud enough to enjoy but not loud enough to bother others in the house or annoy the neighbors. He started scanning the bookshelves for something to read, although he had read every book he owned a number of times.
He had selected a title, “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas, and started to turn around when he heard a peculiar scraping noise. It was hard to pinpoint, both as to what it was and where it came from, but then the sound came again and stopped him in his tracks. It was definitely coming from the closet... his closet.
He had had nightmares as a small child about monsters in the closet or under the bed, and although that was in the other house in which he and his parents had lived, not far from the military base where his father was stationed at the time, those dreams leapt vividly to mind and the sound made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Childhood dreams and worries were easily dismissed, but still....
Then the knob on his closet door turned counter-clockwise slowly, and the door opened a crack. “Oh shit,” he thought, remembering a dozen horror films he’d seen with scenes that started like this and all of them ending badly for the hapless person involved. He didn’t know whether to yell out, or run, or what.
Then the door opened a bit more and a familiar blonde head peeked around the edge of it. Penny quickly surveyed the room, then settled her gaze on Jonah.