Chapter 6

If there was one girl Jo-Ann had wished had gone away for the summer it was Maggie Troy. Maggie was one year older than her sister Mary, who was Jo-Ann Carlton's best friend. But in order to send Mary to summer camp, Maggie's parents had to keep their elder daughter home.

Maggie was almost two inches taller than Jo-Ann, and her hair was a slightly darker blonde. Unlike her chunky sister, she was skinny, skinnier than Jo-Ann, and yet for all her thinness she had started rounding out very nicely. Facially she had the misfortune to resemble her father rather than her mother, which meant she had a long nose and thin lips. Her father was a handsome man, but he would have made an awful-looking woman. As a result, Maggie was a far-

from-beautiful girl. This caused her to develop an inferiority complex, and this, in turn made her pick on all of her sister's friends even though her mother had promised that when her nose had stopped growing, she would take Maggie to a plastic surgeon. So day after day during the school year Maggie would pick on her prettier sister and pick even more on the beautiful Jo-Ann. Was it therefore any wonder that Jo-Ann wanted nothing to do with Maggie during the summer vacation?

However, Maggie, like Jo-Ann, was home all the time, and she lived down the block from Hank Justin's home. As a result, she saw Jo-Ann going there all the time. At first, she thought it was because the younger girl wanted to play with Pretty, the dog. But when she saw Jo-Ann go into the house day after day, and Pretty remained out in the yard, she knew it was something more.

Maggie, for all her obnoxious behavior, was an extremely intelligent girl, and as a result was a year ahead of other girls her age in school, which meant she was two years ahead of Jo-Ann. This also meant she was privy to discussions that went on between girls older than herself, and Maggie had more than an inkling as to what sex was all about, though no boy had so much as hinted he was interested in her. Quite naturally, Maggie became somewhat of a prude outwardly, since if boys showed no interest in her, she, in turn, refused to show an interest in them, But internally she was burning up with curiosity.

It followed then that when Maggie saw Jo-Ann going into Hank Justin's home day after day she began to suspect what was going on. Her initial inclination had been to tell her parents who, in turn, would tell Jo-Ann's parents. That would fix that little brat. But without realizing it, Maggie had reached what might be called the reasoning age. She reasoned that it would do her no good to tell on Jo-Ann since all it would do would be to get Jo-Ann, and possibly Hank Justin, in hot water. The idea was to get Jo-Ann out of the picture but at the same time keep Hank Justin around and make use of him herself. So telling her parents was out. But being an avid watcher of TV, Maggie understood the word blackmail, and she was going to blackmail Jo-Ann into letting her learn whatever it was Jo-Ann was learning from Hank. She knew she was no raving beauty, but if she was able to make Hank Justin do "things" with her, she'd be able to forget about how plain she was.

So the Monday following Jo-Ann's defloration, when the younger blonde, dressed in her halter and shorts was walking toward Hank's house, Maggie, coming from the opposite direction, intercepted her. The taller, older girl was proud of her developing breasts and wore no bra under her white t-shirt. Her dark nipples stood out clearly against the shirt, but she seemed not to notice.

"Well, well, well, going back to Hank's house again, huh, Miss Smarty Pants?"

"Hank's a nice man," Jo-Ann defended. "He let's me play with Pretty. He'd let you play with her too, but you don't like dogs."

"Pretty? Who do you think you're kidding. I've seen that dog running around the yard while you're in the house with the door closed."

Jo-Ann felt a cold hand clammily constrict around her heart. The rotten kid knew, and what was more, it seemed as if she was threatening to tell her parents.

"You're inside with Hank," Maggie went on. "What's more, I know what the two of you are doing. I'll bet you screw."

"Hush!" Jo-Ann gasped. "You don't know what you're saying."

"Sure I do," Maggie teased. "Jo-Ann and Hank screw-ew," she sang out loud.

"Stop that!" Jo-Ann insisted.

"I'll stop it," Maggie told her. "I'll stop it as soon as you go inside and you tell Hank that I want some of whatever he's giving you. If you don't tell him, I'll tell the whole neighborhood what you're doing."

"You're terrible," Jo-Ann gasped.

"Well, why should you have all the fun?" Maggie wanted to know.