Alice:

Four eighteen-year-old school students, two boys and two girls, were sitting on two decrepit sofas facing each other in a tiny garden shed.

The silence was deafening.

One of those students was Alice.

Come on, somebody say something! Or we’ll never lose our virginities.

She fidgeted around as she tried to think of a conversational starter. Since she was using her hands to hold her short skirt close to her legs, this drew even more attention from the two boys sitting opposite her.

She turned to the girl sitting to the right of her.

“Well, the boys are certainly enthralled by our legs, aren’t they?” she said.

Cassy giggled. “Yep, they sure are!”

And then, there was even more silence.

Oh, bloody hell. What if I force the issue?

So she deliberately positioned her body to point between the two boys and moved her legs apart ever so slightly.

“Hey bro, you can just see her panties…” said Drayden.

“Yeah, I know,” said Bronsen.

Oh, now you say something? thought Alice.

Cassy, with another giggle, had copied Alice’s example.

Well, at least we have the boys’ attention. But we already had the boys’ attention! We need to get to the talking-things-over part now! How on Earth do couples in a physical relationship do this?

Alice clamped her knees together, and Cassy, seeing this, did the same.

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourselves, boys. Remember, we first need to decide who goes with whom,” she said.

"Ohh," said the two boys.

"Yes!" said Cassy, "If we can decide that, then we can, maybe, possibly, get onto the interesting parts. Maybe not straight away, but, you know..."

“And it’s very private here!” said Alice.                         

"Well, OK, I'm happy with that. So, who would like to express their first preference?" said Bronsen.

Alice sat there in silence.

I just can’t decide between the two. Can’t someone else please choose for me?

"Oh, come on! The guy is supposed to be the first to ask the girl, so which of you two would like me?" she said.

The two boys looked dismayed.

"That's the problem; I like both of you equally," said Drayden.

"Yeah, that is the problem. I like both of you equally, also," said Bronsen.

This is hopeless.

"OK, the boy makes the first move. But the girl is always the one to accept or reject, right?" said Drayden.

"Maybe," said Alice.

"So, let's just skip directly to where the girl says yes or no," he said.

"Yeah, Cassy. Or Alice. Just pick one of us and be done with it." said Bronsen.

There was another extended silence. Alice kept on fidgeting around without saying anything, as did Cassy.

"I guess I have to say that I like both of you equally," said Alice.

A sigh from Cassy. "It's so stupid, but yeah, me too."

"This could get frustrating for us boys," said Bronsen.

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"Hey, boy! This girl is also getting frustrated, you know!" said Cassy. She slapped the handrest of the sofa to emphasise the point, raising a small cloud of dust.

"And don't leave me out!" said Alice, "Girls have sex drives too, don't forget."

It looks like neither boy is willing to make a choice.

"Just make a move, dickheads!" said Alice, "Oops, I didn't mean to use that word... but anyway!"

"Yeah! Bloody hell!" said Cassy at last, "You boys are hopeless!"

"Well, so are you!" said Drayden.

"Don't blame us when you're equally to blame!" said Bronsen.

Another intense and awkward silence. Alice finally broke it.

"If none of us can make the first move, then let's just go home, OK? We can all come here tomorrow and try again. That good with all of you?"

So they all left for their homes.

How pathetic; we can’t even take the first step. What a tremendous letdown.

Drayden:

The next day:

Drayden looked at the marked test paper the teacher had just handed him. The subject was mathematics.

Smirk - I got 97%. I bet that's the highest.

Now, where did I lose that 3% - Oh shit! I made a stupid error! Baka!

Sigh.

It being the end of the school day, he gathered his stuff, jammed it all into his schoolbag, and left the classroom.

Still, I beat all of the others. Especially the class stud; he's always surrounded by at least two, if not more, of the pretty girls from our class.

Well, I got something that you don't! Greater intelligence! In the long run, I'm sure girls will prefer that.

Hmm - especially Cassy. Or Alice. Shame it can't be both.

Now, what was I doing - that's right.

His classroom was on the third floor. Looking outwards, he could see the sports ovals and the gardening and maintenance sheds. The little shed that contained the clubroom was out of sight, hidden by the more prominent buildings in front of it.

Drayden's classroom was at the end of the line on the balcony. The one where the highest-ranking students were. The school elite. So, as Drayden looked down the length of the balcony, he simultaneously looked down from his pinnacle of intelligence to the lowest.

Everybody was coming out of their classrooms, so Drayden saw many teenagers milling around. He made his way down the line, avoiding everybody's personal space while pretending not to see them - except for one boy waiting outside the third classroom.

"Hi, Bronsen!" said Drayden, finally making eye contact with someone.

"Hi there!"

Bronsen was taller than Drayden, and his body looked more athletic. His skin colour was slightly brown, contrasting with Drayden's pure white.

They walked down to the fifth classroom to find that the students were still inside. Their teacher must have forcibly delayed them and had only released them from that unwanted state just then. So Drayden and Bronsen waited just outside the door.

Ah! There's Alice! Sitting at her desk and looking down, trying her hardest not to attract any attention.

She's even worse than I.

Oh-oh.

Drayden had just seen the classroom bully approach Alice from behind. He put one hand on her back.

Is he trying to snap Alice's bra strap?

Alice twitched her body when he touched her, stymying his endeavour. So he pulled at her short, black and very curly hair, stepped to the front, thumped his hands on her desk, and leered at her. Alice shrank further into herself and also put one of her hands on her chest just above her breasts to block his view down her blouse.

Bronsen and Drayden exchanged glances.

I'm glad I got help.

And, despite the embarrassment of entering someone else's classroom, Drayden did so, closely followed by Bronsen. They went to Alice's desk.

"If you mind?" said Bronsen.

Bronsen's attitude indicated that he did mind.

The bully just left without saying a word. A couple of passing girls grinned and gave the thumbs-up sign to the two boys, then rapidly set their faces back to neutral and hurried by.

Alice gave the boys a look of thanks. Then she put her head down again, picked up her bag, and followed them while still looking down and trying to make herself invisible.

Fortunately, this didn't last all that long. By the time they had gotten to the end of the corridor, to the classroom with the lowest of the low academic ability kids, she was beginning to hold her head up and even say a few words to the boys. This classroom was where Cassy spent most of her time. Finding her on this particular afternoon was more straightforward than usual. They just had to listen to the shouting coming out of the room.

This time, it was three to invade the foreign classroom.

Cassy was immediately noticeable. She was swearing at the top of her voice and frantically jumping around, trying to catch her school bag. The school bag, however, played hard to get, mainly because it was being tossed back and forth across the room by half a dozen boys.

"I order you to give me my bag!" 

The boys just laughed. "We don't take orders from a woman." said one of them.

"You bunch of arseholes! You shits! I'll get the teachers onto you!"

These were the more polite phrases she was using.

Cassy sure knows how to swear.  

"You're the one that's been suspended, not us! The teachers will never believe you!" they said, plus other things that were a lot less polite.

We had better act before Cassy does something drastic.

Cassy, her long red hair sticking out all over the place and red in the face from anger, tried to catch her bag, only to have a boy grab it. She tried to capture the boy, but he casually avoided her. Getting worked up, she was about to hoist up a desk and throw it at someone when Drayden walked up to her and stood by her side.

"Oh. Hello, Drayden," said Cassy.

She stopped moving and looked a bit embarrassed. She then greeted Alice, who was now standing on her other side.

Bronsen had moved to the boy who currently had the schoolbag and stood in front of him, arms crossed, looking thoroughly pissed off.

"Hey, you! Hand over the bag."

"Sure, sure, here."

The bag was handed over, and then Bronsen gave it to Cassy.

"What was all of that about?" said Bronsen.

"These dumbos kept on harrassing me!"

"Because you kept on insulting us!"

"Well, you shouldn't be so thin-skinned about it all!"

"Well, you shouldn't be so bitchy in the first place."

At this point, Alice stepped into the fray.

"Cassy, let's just go now; you surely don't want to suffer their company any further, do you?"

Since Cassy was taller, Alice now definitely had her head up. Cassy agreed, and a couple of minutes later, they were walking across the oval, heading for their clubroom.