Scouting For Girls, Part 2 - Orientation

by eloquent delinquent

There's three uniforms for a Seedling in the Forest Girl Explorer Scouts, and they all show up at once. Mom really splurged and got the whole kaboodle! It must've cost her a bunch, and Nicole gets a little softie feeling from seeing how much Mom is willing to invest in her being happy in their new town.

After they've been run through the washer and got that weird packing smell out of them, Mom presses them all and then Nicole lays everything out on her bed, kind of inspecting them, getting a little excited. She's going to be part of something again!

There's the traditional green dress, usually for more formal meetings. It's hemmed a little above the knee and buttons all the way from bottom to top, although most girls never undo all those buttons and just wiggle it on over their heads. Unlike her old Acorn outfit, this one is gathered a little at the waist, and has a khaki belt that goes with it, so the wiggling might be a bit more difficult. The troubles of getting bigger, she grins. The dress comes with a white knee-high socks and a white slip for underneath with little shoulder straps and the Girl Explorer logo sewn on it. There's also the dark green neckerchief and merit sash, but that can go with any uniform.

The next is the daywear uniform, and it's a light green button front blouse with cap sleeves, a dark green pleated skirt that ends at her fingertips, and a khaki envelope-type cap with green trim. It comes with a merit vest, also khaki, and Nicole realizes that she may have to get duplicates of her badges so she can have them on both the sash and the vest. The accessories are a red neckerchief, a little white undershirt and knee high dark green socks. It's what most the girls at the bake sale were wearing, and what they wore all the time back in Chicago.

The last is the one she's most excited about – it's the true Forest Girl Explorer outfit, dark green shorts with lots of pockets (boys call them cargo shorts, but these aren't so baggy), khaki button front blouse with long sleeves that have these little tabs and buttons above the elbow so you can roll up the sleeves and hold them in place. She loves that, it's so cool! It comes with both this red and dark green bandana, a little white t-shirt, and two pairs of thick green hiking socks, one over the ankle for when it's hot, and another pair that come up over the knee for when it's cold. It's supposed to go with boots, but she already has those, for hikes that her Dad was supposed to take her on but never did.

Grinning at her new wardrobe. She starts to undress, pulling off her t-shirt and shucking her way out of her sweatpants. Standing there in her panties, it takes her a minute to decide what to do. She's been hanging out with the troop a lot in the last couple weeks, so she knows that daywear and explorer outfits are pretty much mix and match. She goes with the khaki top, the pleated skirt, the knee high socks and her Chucks. She rolls up the sleeves and buttons them in place, then looks in the mirror on the back of the door as she decides to leave her hair down. Pretty cool!

Today is more of a get-together than a meeting – they're going to Hanna's to learn water safety. She's been to a couple get-togethers already, too. It's usually just a few girls and Tender Katie or one of the other moms teaching them something for a while, then they just visit and kind of goof around.

So far, there's only been two meetings and one get-together she hasn't been allowed to attend, because Katie and the other girls all tell Nicole that she isn't “official” yet. Nicole understands, but she still feels left out. It's disappointing – she really wants to be sworn in, but Tender Katie keeps telling her she needs to get “oriented” first, to see if she really gets along with the other girls and wants to do the activities.

It's such a stupid grownup thing to say. She already knows she likes it, she doesn't need to see any more to know she wants to join! Besides, the other girls keep doing that secretive, nose-to-nose eye-gazing whispering thing that Nicole's come to think of as “the lovey-dovey look.” And if she catches them at it, they stop, and give her this kind of knowing grin. She still has no idea why they do it, or what it means. So frustrating! She wishes she did.

She wishes someone would do that with her. She's not sure why. Just to belong. Just to know how it feels, having another girl so close, looking into her eyes, sharing whispers. The thought makes her quivery inside for some reason. Nicole chews her lip, thinking about it.

It'd be especially nice to do that with Lena.

“What're you thinking?” her Mom asks from the doorway.

Nicole realizes she has her hand on her tummy and snatches it away. “N-nothing!”

Mom's brows knit as she looks her daughter over, then she asks, “Uniforms fit okay?”

The ten year old bounces with excitement, flouncing her green skirt, “Yeah!”

“You look adorable, so adventure-y.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“We should get you a Smokey the Bear hat, maybe.”

“Geez, don't be weird.”

“You ready to go?”

Nicole nods, but says, “You know, I could just ride my bike.”

They start down the condo's narrow staircase. “Yeah, but Ms Jaworski wants to visit with me, so I can at least get you that far.”

“You can call her Sophie in front of me if you want,” Nicole says, feeling very sophisticated. “She wants all the girls to call her that.”

Even though her mom's walking in front of her, Nicole can practically feel her rolling her eyes, “Ugh, California. You can call Lena's mom whatever she wants you to, and I'll call her what I'm comfortable with. You can put your bike in the back if you want.”

She does, they load it up, and they make the trip across town. They live closer to the ocean, and Nicole's mom didn't know that most of the college teachers live on the east side of town, where there's more open land and forest. She can tell Mom kind of regrets it, and thinks maybe they'll move again soon, to be closer. It surprises her a little to consider that Mom might be lonely, too, might want to have a group of friends and belong.

But then Nicole's mind drifts back to the Scouts, and Lena.

Lena's the one that's kinda taken her under her wing, and they've become pretty chummy already. They both like riding bikes and mystery stories and old reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even though they're almost too scary sometimes. Plus, Lena is super nice and friendly to nearly everybody, but especially to Nicole, and that makes her feel so special. Lena's mom – Sophie - is just as sweet and probably the youngest Mom that she's ever met.

Lena keeps telling Nicole how pretty she is, and though it's flattering, it seems obvious to Nicole that Lena, with her long, lustrous dark hair which only appears brown in direct sunshine, her lively brown eyes and her creamy skin, is the pretty one. When Nicole looks in the mirror at her own ten year old face and her shoulder length copper brown hair and her turned up nose and her tons of freckles she sees more of a tomboy, although her green eyes are big and cute. It's nice to be called pretty, though. It makes her feel like she is.

Nicole's met most of the girls in the troop through Lena by now, and she says most of the girls are pretty, and Nicole sees how she could be right. Mostly she's spent time with her own Seedling group, ages nine through twelve, which turns out to be the biggest group even though there's only eight of them. Each of them is different, but they all have their appeal. She's getting a better idea of what they're all like, trying to put together a picture in her mind of how the troop works.

It's fun looking at things the way Lena does.

She's unloading her bike in Lena's driveway when Sophie comes out with a big smile, greeting Mom and then Nicole by taking each of them by the hand for a second and saying something nice. She has the same dark hair as her daughter and though she's not tall, she has that very toned body that runners always seem to have. She acts like both Nicole and her mom are equally important, which is weird but neat.

“The girls are inside, go ahead,” she waves Nicole toward the house, then turns to Mom. “Hope, since it's just going to be us adults, can I interest you in a glass of wine?”

“Can you ever,” Mom replies.

Sophie tosses her dark hair back, delighted. “Fabulous! Do you know much about wine? I'm trying to turn all my friends into Napa valley snobs...” she's saying as Nicole leaves them behind and heads into the house.

Lena and Fawn are leaning against the bar between the kitchen and the dining room, chatting and sipping iced tea. Fawn is dressed all in the explorer uniform, but Lena is dressed up just like Nicole, and she wonders if maybe they have telepathy. That would be cool. Lena spots her and leaps happily to her feet, then bounds over to her and sweeps her into a big hug. Lena's always hugging somebody or squeezing them or petting them – a lot of the girls are like this. When they've watched TV, Lena likes to cuddle up. Nicole likes it a lot, but she's still getting used to it. She wonders if it's a California thing, or just the Scouts, or if people in Chicago were just stuffy.

Fawn hangs back at the bar and watches them with this little grin.

Fawn is tall for an eleven year old, huge-eyed, long-legged and lean and really graceful, but quiet and watchful and so so shy. She only really seems to be comfortable when she's dancing, which she's super good at and does with her older sister Tara, who at 14 is in the troop as a Sapling. It's easy for Nicole to remember Fawn's name because she acts so much like a deer. Fawn seems to be closest friends to Cassidy, but she seems okay with Lena, too.

With the hug ending, Nicole looks to Fawn, “You brought your bike too, right?”

“Yeah,” she replies in a small voice. Her big blue eyes stay focused on Nicole, and they're kind of hypnotizing. Her tummy does this little flutter. Then Fawn realizes she's staring and looks away like she's embarrassed.

Nicole catches Fawn looking at her a lot, but when they talk she acts really nervous. She figures it's because she's new.

“Is Cassidy here yet?” Nicole asks. The get-together is for the five of them – her, Lena, Fawn, Cassidy, and Hanna.

“No,” Lena replies, “We're gonna swing by her place on the way to Hanna's. It's pretty much right along the way.”

“Oh, okay.” Nicole's never been to Hanna's before, but she has been to Cassidy's. She's intrigued to go there again because of what happened last time.

Cassidy's a hoot. Her mom is what Nicole's Mom calls a hippie, with very long curly brown hair and no makeup and she always wears these really simple but colorful clothes and smells a little funky. Cassidy has that same kind of, she's not sure but maybe wildness, about her. So does her little sister Joy, who's an Acorn and on her it's totally cute. But even though Cassidy acts a little spacey or on her own planet sometimes (at least that's what Amber says), her family lives out on this great big property that's almost like a farm with ducks and chickens and she knows how to crochet stuff and all about gardening and nature.

She'd rode out that way last week to return a couple of old Scouting books Cassidy had loaned her about hiking and northern California. She'd dropped her bike on the big front lawn and knocked, but nobody answered. So she'd circled around back, which opened onto a huge yard with big gardens and planter beds and backed up on the woods. There had been Cassidy's mom Cheryl, a little ways off, hanging sheets on the line to dry, where they'd caught the light breeze and kind of filled and flapped. Cheryl hadn't noticed her as Nicole had rounded the corner of the house.

She'd been about to make herself known when 7 year old Joy came bounding out of the tall weeds edging the yard toward her mom, her tie-dyed slip dress and crazy tangle of brown curls billowing all around her. She'd ducked among the overlapping sheets and appeared before her surprised mother, happily shouting, “Mama!”

Cheryl had thrown her long hair back over a shoulder and cocked her hip against the wicker clothes basket, studying her youngest daughter wryly. “My, my, little blossom, what've you been up to?”

In response, Joy had simply thrown her hands up, holding them inches from her mother's face.

As she'd drawn her head back a bit so she could focus on the little hands before her, she commented, “Well at least they're not dirty.”

Joy had just stood there, wiggling her fingers, “Look, Mama.”

Brow slightly knitted, Cheryl had moved closer and put her nose against her daughter's fingers. Her eyes closed for a second, and suddenly this sly smile had broken across her face. “Maybe you are a little dirty. Is that what you're telling me? Is there dew on your flower, little blossom?”

Instead of replying, the 7 year old had simply giggled and pulled her loose fitting dress up to her waist. Between the wavering sheets, Nicole had seen the little girl's pert bare bottom, so pale compared to her tanned legs. Nicole had gasped in surprise, felt herself blush furiously, and had retreated to the house's corner to conceal herself.

But she hadn't been able to walk away, even though she'd felt so confused and stirred up. Another girl with no panties! And Joy'd just showed herself half- naked to her Mom! How much trouble would she be in?

She'd peeked around the corner to find out.

Cheryl had taken a moment and just stared at her daughter's sudden exposure with that same wry grin. She hadn't seemed upset at all. For her part, Joy could hardly keep still, kind of shivering and shifting from one foot to the other, her crazy brown locks tossing to and fro.

Finally, Cheryl had asked, “Did you come over because you want me to be your play pal?”

Joy had just nodded, not changing her position at all. “I like it when you play, Mama.”

Her mom had squatted down and favored her with a fond smile, “Aww. That's because I like playing.”

With that, she had set her laundry basket aside. They'd leaned in, and though Nicole couldn't quite make it out through the ruffling sheets, she was almost certain that they'd put their foreheads together and were giving each other the lovey-dovey look. The thought had sent a strange thrill through her. Before now, she'd only seen the Scouts do it, never a daughter and her mother.

Then, with her long brown hair riffling in the breeze and obscuring her face, the mother had shifted in front of little bare-bottomed Joy, and something began to happen. With Joy's back turned and the sheets sweeping in front of them, Nicole hadn't been able to make out what had been going on, sometimes she could only see their shadow on the sheets. All she could be sure of is that Joy had crooked one of her knees up, and began to squirm like she was being tickled. And though she couldn't see, she had heard just fine, though it didn't exactly make anything clear. Cheryl had made these quiet reassuring coos, and maybe she had been saying things but Nicole hadn't made it out. Joy hadn't said anything, but she kept making these sounds like she was tasting something delicious, over and over.

The sounds Joy made had the strangest effect on Nicole. This wave of goosepimples had prickled all over her body, her heart started thumping even faster, her cheeks felt hot, and this warm, heavy feeling had begun gather down there, between her legs. As mother and daughter had kept going, Joy's noises became louder, sometimes like little exclamations, and Nicole had felt her body responding even stronger.

She had begun to feel a bit frightened by what was going on, between the spying and her mysterious reactions, but she'd been unable to leave, unable to stop watching. She wanted to see more, hear more, to know what all this was about. It was like she was mesmerized by this experience and the heat rising in her body.

But then she'd heard the metallic clatter of Cassidy dropping her bike on the front driveway, and that startled her out of her trance. Nicole had immediately jumped back from the corner. Feeling sweaty and guilty and all mixed up she'd rushed back around the side of the house on wobbly knees to intercept Cassidy. She'd known she had to meet her out front, to cut her off, to keep Cassidy from seeing what Nicole had seen, from knowing that she'd spied and the crazy way it had made her feel.

Cassidy was almost in the front door when Nicole had called out to her. She'd turned and paused, and then said, “Ohhh, that's your bike next to mine.”

“Yeah.”

The girl had turned and meandered back down from the porch, saying, “I thought maybe we'd gotten another one.”

“I brought back your books.”

Cassidy had nodded absently, running a hand through her wild shock of hair, “Yeah, okay, yeah.”

They'd stood there for an awkward moment. Then Cassidy had said, “Nice bike.”

“Thanks.”

She'd gestured toward the big tree over by their garage, started ambling in that direction, and had asked, “Since you're here, you wanna push me on the tire swing?”

And they'd done just that, and everything had kind of gone back to normal. But she keeps thinking of what she'd seen between Joy and her mother in the back yard, trying to figure out what had happened. When she remembers it closely, she gets that same warm, kind of floaty feeling and it seems like it was a dream, maybe.

All the way over to Cassidy's house she thinks about it, watching Lena's back and bottom as she pedals in front of her, dark hair streaming, skirt fluttering. Fawn's thick French braid slides and coils across her back. She's thought about maybe confiding in Lena or one of the other girls, but when she tries she just can't do it, it's too weird and embarrassing. Besides, what if it got back to Cassidy? Would she be mad or something?

So she keeps it in her head and stews, just like seeing up Jenny's skirt at the bake sale. It's like she's suddenly a real-life character in one of her mystery stories, only this one wasn't about crime. It's more strange, more intriguing, and has created as much of a mystery in herself by the way she's thrilled by it.

Call it The Case of the Panty-Less Girls. She wants to get to the “bottom” of it, she thinks. Hee hee.

It takes about twenty minutes to get from Lena's to Cassidy's. Nicole tries to remember the streets and the turns they're making, but she hardly sees anything familiar. Lena has something like a map in her head. If they go hiking, she wants to be sure Lena is there.

Cassidy is sitting on the porch waiting for them, her bare feet dangling over the edge. Her outfit is different from all of theirs, it's a button-front dress like their formal uniform, only it's quite a bit shorter and faded to an almost milky jade color. It was Cassidy's mom's from when she was a Seedling, It's got all the old insignia patches on it and everything. She has the regular outfits, but this is the one she likes to wear when things are more relaxed. She gets up and slips on her battered sneakers and joins them in the yard. They've barely exchanged hellos when Lena snatches her into a great big hug, and after that Cassidy gives Nicole a littler one.

Then Cassidy wraps her arm around Fawn's shoulder and squeezes playfully, jostling her a bit. “How's my favorite wallflower?” she asks, then leans over and gives her a great big smooch on the cheek. Fawn blushes and lowers her head, but even though she's looking at her shoes, Nicole can still see the beaming smile on her face.

Letting her go, Cassidy fetches her bike from the side of the garage and says, “Saddle up, cowpokes.” She's always saying old timey stuff like that. Cassidy's bike is different from theirs, too. It's this old rattletrap with a big basket in front and like a platform on the back and it's obviously meant for someone about six inches taller than Cassidy. But she gets a little running start and swings her leg over and they're off, the other girls hustling to catch up.

They head back toward a major street and ride along it for a bit, and Nicole recognizes the farmer's market they go to for vegetables, and the shopping center with the Hobby Barn in it. Cassidy and Fawn chatter about this game they both play online, and all the stuff you can build and do in it. It's kind of amazing to see Fawn so relaxed and talkative, being around Cassidy makes her really let her guard down. Nicole rides a little closer just to see it happen, and even though she's delighted by their friendship, it also makes her feel new and unknown and a little left out again.

Lena's leading the way, so she doesn't see any of this.

Then they turn again and start up this long, gradual uphill street that winds and loops and all the houses here seem big and new somehow. The closer they get to the top the bigger and more fancy the houses get. When Cassidy leans forward on the pedals, the bottom of her short dress rides up, exposing most of her hips and the curvy bottom of her butt, and either her panties have rode up too or she's not wearing any. Nicole tries not to stare. She's feeling the heat of the summer day now, sweaty and breathing hard. They all are.

Then they take one last turn and ride into the looping driveway of one of the biggest and fanciest houses yet. The lawn is brilliant green and the three trees out front are still babies, seedlings just like them, so Nicole guesses this house is new as well. They park their bikes and walk up this columned porch to the enormous wooden double doors. Nicole finds herself hanging back, staring.

Lena nudges shoulders with her and asks, “Are you okay?”

Nicole shrugs, tries to smile. “I've never been someplace like this before,” she says quietly.

“Don't be nervous, it's just a house,” Cassidy says reassuringly.

“Hanna's dad did effects for the Star Wars movies,” Lena tells her. “He still works for George Lucas and stuff. They're rich, but they're nerdy and kind of fun, you'll see.”

Somehow the doorbell rings, though she doesn't see anybody push the button., A minute later the door opens to reveal a petite lady with a tumble of ginger hair and a stunningly pretty face, high cheekbones and a broad mouth grinning in almost a Cheshire-cat way. Nicole finds herself staring, even as the woman starts ushering them into the house. Lena has to kind of goose Nicole along.

The girls all say, “Hi Mrs Greenberg,” as they file through, and she just stands by the door, waving excitedly to them. But when Nicole steps in last, the pretty mother puts her hand on her shoulder and draws her aside.

“You must be the new girl Hanna told me about. What's your name again?”

“Um, Nicole?” she replies, flustered. Having Mrs Greenberg look her straight in the eye feels like being pinned in a spotlight.

“Well hello Nicole, and welcome to our home,” Mrs Greenberg says with a playful sweeping gesture. “Hanna and Lena have told me a lot about you. Do you still want to be a Scout?”

“More than ever,” she replies, still staring. Who thought jean shorts and a tank top could be so cute? Mrs Greenberg's got these catlike pale blue eyes and such perfect white teeth.

'That's great! You seem really sweet and bright, I'm sure you'll fit right in.”

“Really?”

Now her smile is nearly a laugh, “Of course! The girls would be lucky to have some fresh views on things. Do you like movies?”

“Sure.”

“Well, my husband works on movies, so we have lots of movie stuff here. Feel free to look around and make yourself at home. I hope you'll have lots of fun here,” she finishes with this dorky kind of curtsey. She's weird. Nicole likes it.

Immediately smitten, all Nicole can do is grin stupidly at this beautiful lady until Lena takes her hand, dragging her deeper into the house. She gawks around, the house is big and airy and full of light. The ceilings are way up high, and all these cool things are scattered around like knickknacks among the low-slung modern furniture, a black movie light on a stand and a model spaceship hanging from a wire.

But the pictures along one hallway are what really get her – they're paintings of scenes she recognizes from the Star Wars movies, but with one little part cut out and left black, sometimes in the corner, sometimes in the middle, always an irregular shape. There's a picture of the palace on Naboo, and there's the landing platform at Cloud City... but always with a little black bit missing, like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle.

She can't figure out why, and after Mrs Greenberg calls out, “I'll go get Hanna, Katie's waiting for y'all out back,” and heads up the stairs, there's no one to ask. Those pictures sit funny in her mind. Pieces missing from something so familiar. They're like so much that's happening to her in this new town.