"I'm telling you, if you say her name three times in the mirror, she comes back and haunts you!" Allie said, "My cousin's oldest cousin tried it and ever since then she's been seeing things! She keeps having these really vivid nightmares about Bloody Mary."
"We're taking your cousin's oldest cousin as proof? I don't even know your cousins name, let alone their cousins name," Mae replied as the four girls headed home from school, walking. The girls usually didn't walk, but once a week they made an effort to walk home together, or as close to home as they each realistically could. Truth be told, Trisha was the one who lived closest to school, so she was usually the first to drop off. Chaz was a bit of a ways after that, and then Allie went home with Mae until her dad come come get her, seeing as they realistically walk all the way to a trailer park. As they passed the nearby wooded area beside the school, they suddenly heard laughing and shouting, and they stopped, backed up and peered past the trees to see a group of girls - all varying ages from 3rd grade up to 6th grade - riding bikes together. "What do you think they're doing?" Mae asked. "I think...and I might be wrong about this," Allie said, "but I think they're riding bikes." "Shut up," Trisha said, making them laugh. "It's like a club or something," Chaz said, before calling out to them, "Hey! Are you guys a club or something?" A 6th grade girl zoomed up to them and skidded to a stop in front of them, looking at the girls suspiciously. After a moment, she pulled her helmet off and nodded. "Yeah, we're a club, why?" she asked. "We've just never seen you here before is all," Trisha said, "You guys just come here to ride bikes? Is that the whole club?" "Yeah," the girl said, "We just come here to hang out after school and ride bikes and do bike tricks. Why? You wanna join us?" The girls all exchanged a glance. They'd never really been part of a club before, but they did like riding bikes. Or, at least, most of them did. Mae still had training wheels on her, while Allie had a different reason entirely for not wanting to ride a bike, despite doing it with her friends when the moment called for it. After leaving the club to their activities, and Trisha and Chaz wound up at home, Allie and Mae continued walking towards Mae's, but neither one said a thing for a while. After a bit, Allie finally sighed. "You don't wanna join that bike club, do you?" Allie asked. "I don't know," Mae said, "Kinda? But I'm embarrassed. I still have training wheels.I feel like they'd make fun of me. I can barely ride, let alone do tricks. But it would be kinda cool to hang out with other kids I guess. What about you?" Allie didn't reply. She just looked away, and mumbled something, which Mae didn't even bother trying to understand. After another moment, a few cars passing them on the road, Allie finally spoke again. "I had to buy a training bra the other day," she said softly. "What? Wait, you're a 4th grader!" "I know, but my dad says that sometimes girls develop early," Allie replied, "So he had his sister take me to get one. It was awkward, but less awkward than having him take me to get one. I'm wearing it right now. It's really uncomfortable." "Jeez," Mae said, "Wait, so that's why you don't wanna ride a bike?" "It hurts!" Allie said, "It cuts into me, it has wires in it!" "Being a grown woman's gonna suck," Mae muttered, making Allie laugh. *** "Can you take my training wheels off?" Mae asked, standing in her stepfathers office as he worked. He stopped and looked at her, a smile playing on his lips, one brow raised. "Why do you want your training wheels off?" he asked, and Mae shrugged. "I just do," she said. "You know you're not good at balancing," he said, "I mean, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude or insult you, but you know that. You're not good at balancing. That's why you have training wheels. What makes you suddenly want them gone? You think you're good enough now?" "There's this group of girls at school and they meet after school and they ride bikes together. They asked me and the girls if we wanna join them, but I'm embarrassed cause I still need training wheels. Nobody else needs training wheels. None of the girls in the club had training wheels." "Come here," her stepfather, Scott, said as he patted a seat beside his desk. Mae obliged, entered the home office further and sat down. He turned his chair to face her and looked at her, smiling as he continued, "don't judge yourself by the merits of others. Just because you need training wheels it doesn't make you any worse than them. There's nothing really wrong with it, Mae. Honestly, you should try and stay a kid as long as possible." Mae nodded, looking down at her feet. "...but they'll make fun of me if I go with training wheels," she said, her voice cracking, like she was going to cry. He rubbed her back and sighed. "If they do, then they're not people you should wanna hang out with," he said, "but, if you feel that strongly about it, I'll take them off, at least for a few days and see how you do. Would that make you happy?" Mae smiled, now looking back up at him, nodding. He smiled back, kissed her forehead and nodded. "Alright, I'll do it tonight," he said. *** Trisha was riding her bike to school the following morning, thinking about joining the club after school. On one hand, it'd be freedom from the suffocating home life, but on the other hand, she felt wary about hiding anything from her mother. Suddenly she heard the sound of wheels coming up behind her, struggling to stay on the ground, and turned to see Mae come rolling up beside her, panting a lot. "Are you okay?" Trisha asked before looking down at her bike and asking, "...where are your training wheels?" "I don't need 'em!" Mae said, "I can do it all on my own!" "Move it slowpokes!" Chaz said, zooming past them on her own bike, skidding in front of them and coming to a stop, making Trisha wobble a bit and making Mae flat out stumble altogether and almost fall over, catching herself only with her foot. "Be careful!" Trisha said as she stopped and helped Mae back up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," Chaz said, "but I do think I've got a pretty good shot at getting into the club! I can do all sorts of tricks and I am really steady on my bike. I can even go off a ramp." "I didn't realize you were so athletic," Trisha said as Mae got back onto her bike. "Well, when I wanna be," Chaz replied. "Did you...did you put flame decals on your bike?" Mae asked, struggling to sit on her bike without tipping over, as Chaz looked down, grinning, at what Mae was referencing. "I sure did, now they know I'm wicked cool," she said. "Flame decals make you wicked cool?" Trisha asked. "Everyone knows that, Trish, duh," Chaz replied, turning around and speeding off towards the school, leaving Trisha and Mae alone on the sidewalk. They waited a few moments before glancing at one another, before heading towards the school as well. Mae was having trouble balancing, so Trisha sighed and took her hand, placing it on her own bikes handlebar grip. "Just hold onto this and I'll keep you steady, we'll ride at the same pace, that way you won't break any teeth before class," she said. "I appreciate it," Mae said, "I don't understand why this is so difficult for me, it's not like I have trouble walking on two feet!" "Your feet aren't circular. Also, you fall over all the time." "Okay no more talking." *** The school day passed by rather uneventfully. Come the end of the day, each girls thoughts were consumed by bike club, though all for differing reasons. Trisha, on one hand, wanted to be involved, but on the other hand was scared of going against her mothers wishes of further socialization with her peers. Chaz wanted to be involved but was afraid if she got too invested in it, she'd run the risk of losing her friends to competititveness. Mae wanted to be involved, but Trisha was right, she tripped constantly throughout the day as it was so odds on her riding a bike well weren't looking great, and Allie...well, Allie wanted to be involved but was afraid the other girls would judge her if they knew she was already wearing a training bra. As school let out and the girls headed to the bike rack out front, the only one they didn't see there yet was Allie. Trisha, Chaz and Mae all climbed aboard their bikes, best they could, and headed toward the clearing the club had been spotted in. Mae held onto Trisha's handlebars the whole time, which, yes, gave her steadiness but also made her feel weak. Eventually they reached the club, and lo and behold, Allie was already there. Turns out she'd parked her bike on the opposite side of the school so she could get there sooner than them. "So," the 6th grade girl from the other day, Lauren, said as she rode up to them, "You guys think you can be in our club? How well can each one of you ride?" "I'm a great rider," Chaz said, speeding off towards the club, popping a wheelie, impressing them. Even Lauren looked happy about her skills before turning back to the others and noticed Mae's hand on Trisha's handlebar. "You can't balance, can you?" she asked, and Mae started sweating. "I...I can, yes I can," she said. "Then let go of the handlebar." "I'd rather not." "We don't need little kids who can't ride without training wheels," she said, before looking at Trisha and adding, "and we don't need other kids who protect them like little sisters. This club is for cool kids. Kids who can ride their bikes without crashing and crying." "It's a club where you ride bikes," Trisha said sternly, her voice growing angry, "who cares how each one does it?" "Because your lack of skill makes us look lame," Lauren replied, now glancing at Allie, "...and what's with the sweatshirt? Why are you wearing so many layers?" "...no reason," Allie mumbled. "Sorry, your friend here is pretty good, but she's the only one we really want to include," Lauren said, before turning and riding away slowly, until she heard Allie's voice calling out to her. She came to a quick halt, and turned back towards her, glaring. "You know, you think just cause you're in 6th grade that that makes you more mature, but you're not! Biologically I'm already more mature than you! And maturity is knowing that you don't put someone down or exclude them simply because they don't live up to your weird standards of inane hobbies!" Allie yelled, surprising even Trisha with her vocabulary; she continued, "I'm already wearing a training bra, and I was afraid that that would make you make fun of me for developing early, but you know what? Mae can't even ride without training wheels, and she took them off and came here and that makes her WAY braver than me! I'd rather be part of her club!" Lauren stayed there, parked on her bike, before looking back at Chaz, who was sitting on her bike with Lauren's friends. Lauren smirked. "And what about you?" she asked, nodding at Chaz, "you wanna be part of the baby club over here?" Chaz looked at the girls, then looked back at Lauren, and sighed as she started to roll back towards her friends. As she passed Lauren, she stopped and looked at her, glaring. "I don't wanna ride bikes with someone who can't even treat others nicely," Chaz said, "Yeah, you're good at riding a bike, but you're not good at being a friend." With that, the girls each headed on their way to Mae's house, with her holding Trisha's handlebar the entire way. The way they saw it, they already had a bike club. A better club. A club where they accepted one another for who they were, instead of ostracizing them for their lack of skill in a normal activity. Besides, in their bike club, they didn't have to deal with Lauren, and that was reason enough to be excluded. *** Sitting in her room that night, waiting for Allie's dad to come get her, Mae looked up from the board game they were playing on the floor and bit her lip. "Thanks for standing up for me," she said. "Thanks for not telling anyone I was wearing a training bra or being weird about it," Allie said. "...will you teach me how to balance on a bike?" Mae asked, and Allie smiled, nodding, making her move on the board. "Yeah! We can go to the park near my house, there's never anybody there, and we can ride together! I'll teach you how to balance!" Allie said, "...We should start our own bike club, with a cool name, and maybe leather jackets. All the cool bike clubs have leather jackets." "We could call ourselves the Glittering Blisters," Mae said. "That's...pretty cool, actually," Allie replied, the both of them laughing. The school year was passing them by quickly, but the girls didn't seem to notice. They just noticed the small incidents, the ones that seemed mundane at the time but would, in the future, be the best memories. Whether it was helping a homeschooled girl socialize or forming their own rebellious bike club out of spite, these were the sorts of things childhood memories were formed by. Allie's dad got off late that night, so she let Allie sleep over at Mae's. The following morning, the four of them rode to school together, Mae's training wheels back on her bike, where they belonged. "I'm telling you, we tried it last night and nothing happened," Mae said, "We stood in the bathroom and we said 'Bloody Mary' three times and no blood nor any Mary's ever showed up to haunt us. It's not real. Your cousin's cousin is trying to scare you." "Well I'm gonna punch my cousin's cousin in the face next time I see them," Allie said, making the girls chuckle. "Hey!" Lauren shouted at them from behind, with some of her 6th grade friends riding alongside her. The girls all stopped and turned to look at her as she grinned and pointed at Allie, "Get out of my way New Boobs." The girls stepped aside and let Lauren and her friends ride past. Lauren smirked as her eyes connected to Allie's as they passed by. "Good choice," Lauren said. "You know, you're kinda mean, and I don't know how you have friends unless they're as bad as you are," Allie said. "Yeah, well, you have boobs, so," Lauren replied. "Yeah well in a few years when all the boys start to like me, you'll wish you had them," Allie replied, making Lauren blush as she sped up on her bike and raced off towards the school, her friends in tow, and the girls laughing with Allie at her remark. "That'll teach her to mess with the Glittering Blisters," Mae said. "The WHAT?" Trisha asked. "Don't ask," Allie said. "That's our bike club name! We're gonna get leather jackets!" Mae said, as they continued along the sidewalk to the school. "That's a disgusting name, I'm not gonna be part of a club called that," Trisha said, half laughing. "It's not that gross, that's why I added glittering to it! Makes it prettier!" Mae replied in defense.
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FANNYPACK follows 4 girls - Chaz, Allie, Trisha and Mae - in the 90s as they deal with adolescence and friendship. Archives
December 2022
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