"Golly!" Ted had marveled.
They continued along the winding mountain road and finally through a gate in a barbed wire fence which Mr. Hughes closed carefully behind him. They they drove a ways past a well-kept ranch house and Mr. Hughes stopped the car. "What are we going to do now?" Ted asked.
Mr. Hughes pulled two knapsacks from the car. He gave her the biggest one and explained that it was full of all kinds of light things. Then after she had hefted both knapsacks he slipped on the heavier one. They began climbing a grassy mountain. "We'll be able to see hundreds of miles once we get to the top," he said.
Ted didn't know what was particularly exciting about that but if it turned Mr. Hughes on and if this was what it took to get a part in his show…
She was dressed in a faded pair of gym shorts that were growing too tight for her. A loose middy blouse nearly concealed the tight-fitting shorts. She wore ankle socks and sneakers. Mr. Hughes was also attired only in shorts, sneakers, and a knit shirt. The day was warm and sunny. She climbed beside him, wishing she had worn something bigger and looser than these shorts which were cutting into her thighs, binding around her cunt with each straining step up the mountainside. She had been afraid Mr. Hughes might go too fast and she would become tired but he was already puffing. His face was turning redder with each yard they climbed up the mountain. "I hope we don't see any snakes," he muttered.
Ted was of two minds about the subject. She thought it might be real interesting to see one-providing she didn't see it too close. Gradually she found herself ahead of Mr. Hughes as her well-muscled little ballerina body trotted nimbly uphill. Finally she realized he was lagging behind deliberately so he could admire the play of muscle as her perfect legs and taut little ass strained in the too-tight shorts.
She glanced back down past the red-faced and glassy-eyed Mr. Hughes and saw the roof of the ranch house far below and only slightly closer the coupe Mr. Hughes had driven. She thought it was a Packard. Or was it a Pierce-Arrow? Mr. Hughes had eyes only for her crotch outlined in the too-tight shorts.
Ted glanced around. They were completely alone, save for an athletic cow that grazed a half mile to one side and a buzzard which regarded them incuriously as it soared back and forth overhead. She wondered what Mr. Hughes would say if she were to take off the offending shorts and finish this climb in her panties. After a moment's thought she decided she'd better not. Though her panties were perfectly serviceable and covered nearly as much as the tight shorts, even at twelve Ted had noticed that men were odd about certain things. And from the fixed way Mr. Hughes eyes remained on her crotch she knew instinctively that he was not like the boys in the company-all very kind boys and all very motherly toward her, but not at all interested in her that way.
She turned back and continued climbing. Ten minutes later they were abruptly in a little flat place on the mountainside, invisible to anyone without an airplane. Mr. Hughes unpacked her knapsack and spread out blankets. Beside the blankets he spread a table cloth. Then he began unpacking his own heavier pack.
Ted marveled at the number of goodies he had managed to stow. There were sandwiches of a hitherto unknown succulence. There was fried chicken. There was caviar and little crackers which she had learned to like from previous opening night parties. There was a magnum of champagne which she, didn't like at all. Finally, there was a bottle of cream soda beside it in the insulated container. "How did you know?" Ted blurted, then realized he must have researched the subject with Momma.
She sank gratefully onto the blanket as Mr. Hughes spread the feast. Finally he was sitting cross-legged beside her, puffing only slightly less, eyeing her crotch with the same slightly glassy stare. "Hope we don't run into any snakes," he murmured as he poured himself champagne and a paper cup of cream soda for Ted.
They ate leisurely and as Mr. Hughes pointed out various landmarks which he claimed were fifty and a hundred or maybe if was a hundred and fifty miles away. She guessed a busy man might enjoy getting this far away from it all once in a while. "Do you come up here alone?" she asked.
Mr. Hughes gave her an odd look. "Yes," he finally said. After a moment he finally added, "Sometimes I bring up a friend. But it has to be somebody very special-somebody I like a lot."
"Has anybody ever been bit by a snake?" she asked.
Mr. Hughes gave her that odd look again, wondering just where lay the line between innocence and sophistication. Ted gave a satiated sigh and put down her plate. She took a final sip of cream soda and gave a lady-like little burp. She lay back on the blanket, unconsciously twisting her ass into the position countless ballet masters assured her was most attractive.
Mr. Hughes finished too. He lay down beside her. Ted wondered how he would begin. She had no doubt that he would.
But Mr. Hughes was apparently in no hurry. They lay side by side not touching one another gazing into the blue sky at a circling buzzard. Mr. Hughes' hand did not creep out to touch her. She wondered if he had changed his mind. Maybe, she thought in sudden fright, be didn't like her after all and she wouldn't get the part and then Momma would be very cross.
"You must be growing awfully fast," he finally said.
"Yeah," Ted agreed. "But how can you tell?"
"How long ago did those gym shorts fit you?"
"Last year," she said in sudden comprehension. "I saw you straining and struggling all the way up," he said. "A couple of times I almost asked you to take them off. Providing you had something on underneath," be hastened.
"I do," she said. "I wanted to take them off too but I was afraid you might get the wrong idea."
"Wrong idea?"
"You know-"
"Know what?"
"The kind of things men do with girls sometimes," Ted explained.
"Oh. Have you ever done things like that?"
"I'm a virgin," Ted laid, evading the question.
"But you know all about what boys and girls do together?"
"I know most of it, I guess."
"You don't sound very sure."
"Well, golly," Ted protested, "after all I'm a virgin!"
"So you are," Mr. Hughes said musingly. He got slowly to his feet.
"Are we leaving already?"
"No. Just got to step over behind the bushes for a minute. While I'm gone you might as well take off those tight shorts if you want to. No use getting your legs all sore and marked up." He strolled leisurely away into the bushes and a moment later Ted thought she heard him taking a leak. Alone, she guessed she might just as well take off the shorts. The darned old things were killing her and if she came home with deep crease lines in her legs Momma would dust off that old lecture about how she was an artist and her body must be perfect, without bruises or scratches and a girl who was going to be a prima ballerina someday had no business dorking around like some neighborhood tomboy and…
She sat up on the blanket and struggled with the button of her shorts. They were too tight. She stood and sucked in her belly as much as she could. Finally she felt the button come open and the zipper start sliding down by itself. "Aaaaahhhh," she sighed, and let the offending gym shorts fall between her legs.
Without thinking she rose en point and the shorts slipped past her heels. Turning slowly, she stepped out of the shorts first her right foot, then her left. She caught them on her left toe and tossed the old shorts over on top of her knapsack. Now she was clad only in her loose-fitting middy blouse, a pair of serviceable rayon panties, white socks and sneakers. She wondered what Mr. Hughes would say if when he came back she had removed not just the shorts but maybe her gym blouse too. If she was going to stay out in this sun much longer she had better get if off or the makeup lady would have kittens trying to powder over an uneven suntan.
Mr. Hughes seemed to be taking an awfully long time over in the bushes. She wondered if he was going number two or if he was hiding somewhere waiting to see if she was going to undress any more.