Chapter 1

Toni Matson was on the loose for the evening. Her folks were out at some country club thing and not expected back until late. The plan had been for her to attend her brother Cliff's baseball game and go home with him, but the other team's bus had broken down and they'd had to forfeit -- and she'd gotten to the field just in time to see Cliff pile into his friend Jack's car with four other guys and go shooting off. "Don't wait up!" he yelled as they tore past.

"Damn!" Toni gathered her blonde hair and shoved it back up under her baseball cap. Toni had been looking forward to the game; it would have given her an excuse to yell and cheer and jeer at the umpires and bounce up and down in the stands and generally get a little wild and crazy. Toni enjoyed her sports, both as a spectator and as a participant. She played soccer and field hockey in season, and would have liked to play football, but her 5'2" frame didn't support it. At fourteen, Toni was compact and muscular and a bit more curvy than a lot of girls without being fat; as a result, she had a hot little figure for a tomboy, especially since things had started sprouting here and there in the past couple of years, like the compact 'B' cups that jiggled just a bit when she walked and didn't wear a sports bra and the tight, round ass that had begun filling out her jeans above her muscular thighs.

Middle school sports got no attention at all, so Toni attended her brother's high school level sports religiously. Older boys gave her a rash regularly for her tomboy ways, but they were hot... Cliff caught a lot of shit from his friends -- especially those who had known him long enough to remember Toni as a stick-like eight year old -- but some of the guys seemed to enjoy having her around. Still, he tended to snub her in public, as he had tonight, even if he apologized later.

Toni bent to adjust the legs on her skin-tight running shorts. Mom would shit if she saw Toni in them doing anything BUT running; they clung everywhere and displayed a camel-toe. Toni's pubic hair was in but it was thin and scraggly and irritated her during sports, so she shaved it, leaving nothing to blur the outline of her mons in THIS outfit. 'I could go home... Yeah, right!' she thought; if Cliff was out, she was covered, so she might as well head over to the 'Y' or something... Resetting her ball cap, she set off down the street.

"Hey, see that shit?" 'Horse' Miller nodded at Toni from a distance of a couple of hundred feet while adjusting the baggy shorts he had on under his football jersey.

Ricky Gulchenski swung his eyes in that direction and grunted, "Yeah? Young stuff." His basketball jersey with a famous name on it clung to his muscular frame like a wife-beater. He compensated for this with some heavy gold chain.

"Yeah, well..." Horse shrugged. "Pickings are thin, and I just watched her brother or boyfriend or something blow her off..." The Horsemen were an unofficial gang from the school that had been supposed to play Cliff's team that night; they weren't on any sports teams -- they were just out to raise Hell by giving the other team crap on their home turf -- and maybe feeling up some guy's girlfriend in the stands... When the game got called, the crowd dispersed pretty quickly, leaving them at loose ends.

'Smooth' Johnson gazed at the young girl through his heavy-lidded eyes. "Give it a minute -- we need elbow room." The parking lot was emptying rapidly. "Maybe she wants to party; shit like that be lookin' for older dudes, sometimes." The whole group was 'gangsta,' supposedly, although they didn't boast a black among them. Smooth was maybe the closest they had, being swarthy and good-looking in a languorous way -- and he had the rap.

"Maybe we can convince her, anyway," Horse offered, "It ain't like she's gonna know us." He cracked a beer; they had a case along to help them enjoy the ball game.

Smooth eyed him. "You be thinkin' with your dick, Horse. There be ways and ways. For one thing, snaggin' some little bitch off the street, kickin' and screamin', be what they call highly visible. On the other hand, if we invite her along and she gets in the van under her own power..."

Ricky spit on the ground and rolled his heavy shoulders. "Think that's gonna happen?"

"Depends how safe she thinks she is," Smooth replied. "You just gotta lay back and offer her a little adventure..."

"Or a beer," 'Snort' Hawkins entered the conversation, scratching on thin, freckled arm. "Or a puff from a joint." He pulled off his backward-facing ball cap and scratched his red brush cut, then re-settled it, making sure it was off-angle.

"Snort be thinkin'..." Smooth agreed, nodding. "We give her a ride out to that old farm and see if mebbe we can breed her..."

"She don't know us," Ricky offered. He wasn't the group's heavy thinker, but he did tend to weigh the odds; generally, if he was around, they were in the Horsemen's favor, but this was a little different territory.

"She don't know all the guys at her high school, either," Snort retorted, giving off the snort that got him his nickname.

"This could get to be serious shit," Jack Frasier, the group's designated conscience, noted.

"Shaddap, Jack Off! You don't want any, you can sit it out. This ain't our town, Man -- that little cunt ain't never gonna see us again..." Horse grunted.

Jack shrugged. They seldom listened to him -- and they seldom got into trouble. But that was because when they DID listen to him, they tended to avoid some shit -- and when they didn't and shit went downhill, Jack usually had an escape plan in mind...

The parking lot was empty and Toni was almost out of sight. "Looks good," Smooth opined. "Le's do it. You got the lead, Rick -- real low key. Ask her if she wants a ride. Snort, you be on backup. I'll run my rap on her..." Smooth got his name from his ability to talk chicks out of their panties like a black, but it was usually big bitches. "Horse, try to look like you ain't hangin' her on a meat hook." Rick was usually the Horsemen's titular leader, but this was pussy, and Smooth had a better track record.

"I'll get around to THAT!" Horse chuckled. Horse was seriously hung...

"The more she gives us up front, the easier it'll be," Smooth cautioned. "We wanna be out in the sticks before she gets noisy, so don't fuckin' scare her ass!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Horse grumbled. They climbed into their old ratty van and Jack pointed it at the parking lot exit.

Toni was halfway down the next block when they caught up. Smooth leaned out of the passenger window and said, "Got dumped, huh?"

Toni eyed him, scratching her belly under her too-short tank top; he seemed friendly enough. "Yeah. Having a little sister gets Cliff ragged on a lot. You know Cliff?"

"Sure," Smooth lied. "Too bad about the game. I guess now we'll have to find somethin' else to do."

"Yeah, I was looking forward to it..." Toni began to wonder if maybe her evening was about to change.

"Wanna lift? We're jus' goin' cruisin' it looks like..." Smooth offered.

"Cruising?" Toni echoed.

"Yeah. Don' look like we can do the game, so I guess we'll jus' raise a little Hell, you know? Guy stuff. Take a ride, suck a little beer..." Smooth hung it out there. "We could take you wherever you're goin' since we ain't busy..."

"Guy stuff, huh?" Toni eyed him. Hanging out with some high school guys might be cool...

"Yeah." Smooth just waited; there was a time in every sales pitch when you shut up and let the other person talk themselves into agreement, and this was it.

"Well... You know Cliff, right?" Toni confirmed.

"Sure. Doesn't everybody?" Smooth lied.

"I'm kind of at loose ends, too..." Toni nibbled at the bait.

"Wanna hang out?" Smooth offered. "Crack the slider, Snort." Snort slid open the side door of the van and settled back, waving a beer in a friendly fashion. Ricky waved from the back seat; he masked Horse, which might have been a good thing.

Toni came forward and stuck her head in the van. "Hanging out might be cool. I like doing stuff with the guys; I'm kind of a tomboy." She swept the group with her eyes; everyone was busy looking innocent. "You're all cool, right?"

"Sure, Babe," Smooth agreed, his eyelids drooping. Every male in the van had the same thought: 'You'll be doing stuff with the guys, all right...'

Unfortunately for Toni, she wasn't telepathic. While she stood there, dithering, Snort set the hook, "Hey, wanna beer?"

'Cool!' Caution took a back seat in Toni's brain. "I've never had any..."

"Well, you can try it," Ricky offered, waving. "If you don't like it -- some girls don't -- you can pass it to me and I'll finish it. You don't have cooties or anything, do ya?" He grinned engagingly.

Snort cracked a beer and waved it at Toni. "Come on, get in. You don't want the whole world watching -- some nosy fuck will call the cops and we'll ALL get bagged for underage drinking!"

Toni took the beer -- and climbed into the van in the process, "Yeah, you're right!"

"I got the door..." Ricky lunged up over her to close the slider. "Let's go, Man," he told Jack.

"Easy, we don't want no attention," Smooth reminded Jack as he put the van in gear.

Meanwhile, Ricky leaned over the seat, pretending to be a teddy bear. "Hey, I'm Rick. That's Snort. The quiet dude is Horse..." Horse just nodded at Toni warily. "So try it," Ricky waved at the beer.

Toni tilted up the can and let some flow into her mouth; it was... bitter. Swallowing, she said, "Ewww..."

"Beer grows on you," Smooth said conversationally. "You have to give it a chance."

Snort waved his and glugged down a swallow, "All the guys do it..."

Ricky shrugged, saying nonchalantly, "Snort's right. If you wanna hang out with the guys, you gotta get past bein' a beer virgin." Snort snorted. Toni giggled at being exposed to Snort's trademark noise and nerved herself to bring the can back up.

"Now you know what it's like, you won't be surprised, like," Smooth muttered. "There be a lot of things like that..." 'Like havin' your pussy poked -- or your asshole,' he added to himself. "If you wanna hang with the guys, you got to be open to new things."

"Yeah," Horse erupted. "Lotsa new things..." 'My dick, and Ricky's dick, and Smooth's dick, and Snort's dick...' he added to himself, grinning. "Hey, take us out somewhere I can fire up a joint without Dudley Doright showin' up." He turned to Toni. "You do grass?" Toni shook her head and Horse eyed her, "Maybe you oughta stick to beer..."

"No, I want to try it," Toni insisted, thinking, 'They're right -- if I want to hang out with the guys, I can't be a priss...'

"I dunno..." Horse swept his eyes across his partners in crime as if he was taking a vote. "Let's see how you do with beer. Hey, how old are you, anyway?"

"Sixteen," Toni lied instinctively, tacking two years onto her actual age straight-faced, then took another swig of beer -- deliberately not holding it in her mouth to avoid the taste.

Everybody in the van nodded -- and they all knew better. The trick was committing her to pretending to be older -- and then making her meet expectation. Now she was committed to doing what sixteen-year-olds did -- including fucking... Horse settled back in his seat, deliberately scratching his balls, watching Toni for a reaction.

Toni frowned. "That's rude."

"I thought you were hangin' with the guys?" Horse pressed aggressively. "Guys scratch their nuts -- you sensitive or something? Your tits never itch?"

Toni blinked. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry..." She looked away, turning so she could talk to Ricky, who grinned, "Don't mind Horse -- he gets touchy, you know?" He cocked his head, "How you doin' with that beer? Can I crack one of my own?"

"Yeah, sure..." Toni nodded, taking another swig. Suddenly, a big rush caught her off-guard and she swayed a bit, her eyes popping. "Yeah, I'm getting used to it..." she lied, thinking, 'Wow!'

In the meantime, Horse had provided a perfectly good reason for Jack to head for the city limits -- and he acted on it, heading the van out of town and toward the old abandoned farm the gang sometimes used for parties. The silly little bitch wasn't EVEN watching where they were going... Jack grinned at Smooth, who grinned back.

Horse was on a roll, though -- and it was working, pushing Toni further and further into deep water. "Girls who hang with the guys come in two groups -- and both of them got to have a little tolerance, you know? First, you got chicks who want to be in the group and stay chicks -- somebody's squeeze, or whatever. They kind of have to do the 'boys will be boys' thing, at the very least -- and it could get to be a good deal more than that, you know? The second group wants to be treated like one of the boys -- and that pretty much means they need to let just about ANYTHING roll off them, you know? Ball scratchin' is small stuff. Pissin' alongside the road, jerkin' off watchin' porn flicks, talkin' about pussy, cussin, spittin' -- hey, whatever, you know?" He cocked his head, eyeing Toni. "So, which one do YOU want to be? You wanna be WITH the boys, or ONE OF the boys?"

"I want to be one of the boys!" Toni replied.

Horse snorted. "I don't think you got enough ass to carry that off, but..." He sat back, spread his legs wide and made a production out of scratching his balls. "I got big balls -- and they itch sometimes. I gotta big dick, too -- you got a problem with that?"

"Nope," Toni waved it off nonchalantly. "Sorry about before -- that's none of my business." She shifted her gaze to Rick, who gestured a toast with his beer so she took a swig. She had most of this one down, and was learning to tolerate the taste. 'It's not THAT bad,' she mused to herself.

Smooth looked back from checking where they were; Toni's little Podunk town was only visible in the back windows and the rear view mirror. "Hey, Horse, you can light up. Jack's gonna keep us legal -- right Jack?"

"I got it," Jack agreed.

"Jack's the designated driver," Smooth related to Toni conspiratorially. Toni nodded.

Meanwhile, Horse surfaced a bag of grass and some rolling papers; Toni watched, fascinated, as he rolled a joint and took a hit. He passed it to Snort, who took a hit, while Ricky explained, "You got to suck it in and hold it in your lungs. It's probably gonna make you cough..." Snort coughed right then. "That's more because it's strong and you're not used to it than anything else. You smoke?" Ricky tipped his beer while he awaited an answer.

"No," Toni admitted.

"Good. Cigarettes ain't worth it and they just get you hooked without a whole lot of enjoyment coming with it. Grass, though..." He took the joint from Snort and sucked in a lungful and held it for several seconds before expelling it. "Grass gives you a buzz, which makes it worth it. Besides, you can't smoke a pack of joints a day..." He handed off to Smooth, who took a hit, watching Toni. Toni reached for the joint; Smooth pulled it back, asking, "You finished with that beer yet? If you can't do beer..."

Toni cranked back the can and poured the last two swallows down her throat. "There!" A mild rush went through her, but she covered it by handing Ricky the can, "It's empty..."

"Snort, get Toni another beer, Man," Rick directed. "It's empty, all right," he verified for Smooth.

"Well, okay, I guess you can have a hit, then," Smooth allowed, holding out the joint. "I'll hold it. Take it in deep and hold it."

Toni tried -- and failed, coughing and choking on the acrid smoke. Everybody laughed. Ricky handed her the beer Snort had retrieved for her, cracking it, "Here, suck on this..."

Toni took a big swallow. "Hurts my throat!" she croaked.

Smooth swept an eye out ahead to see where they were; Jack was just taking the dirt road that led back to the farm. They could move things along... Turning back, he said, "You need to have it filtered for you by someone who can take it on the first pass. Rick, show her how to shotgun."

"Okay." Rick sucked in a lungful and waved Toni forward, but she didn't know what to do. "Lock lips with him so he can shoot it to you!" Snort rasped, giving her a push in the middle of the back. Toni looked back at Snort in some surprise, but he was telegraphing some urgency, so she leaned forward. Ricky grabbed her by the back of the head and crushed her lips to his, then poured second-hand smoke into her mouth. Toni inhaled to scream and got a lungful of smoke!

"Hey, hey! Settled the fuck down!" Ricky croaked. Toni coughed and gasped and waved her hands, spilling beer here and there.

Ricky grabbed her arms. "Hey!"

Toni coughed some more. "Why...?"

"That's a shotgun, dumbass!" Horse exclaimed. "Ricky sucks it in and gives it to you -- filtered, kinda!"

"Oh..." Toni blushed. "I thought..."

"Well, you bein' a girl DID make it easier," Rick croaked, chuckling.

"I dunno if you're up for this shit," Horse needled Toni. "Better stick to beer."

"I'll be fine -- I was just surprised!" Toni insisted. She took a swig of beer, more or less just to prove she could.

"Yeah, sure," Horse dismissed her derisively.

"No, come on! Ricky?" Toni insisted.

"Let Smooth do it."

"Okay." Toni turned to Smooth expectantly. Smooth took his hit and handed the joint to Ricky, then pulled Toni to him, gently. Toni went willingly and plastered her lips against Smooth's and sucked in the smoke. This time it worked; Toni got a big hit. It rolled right over her, bringing a big rush with it. Toni weaved and moaned and the interior of the van spun. "Want some more?" Smooth grinned.

"In a minute," Toni croaked. "My mouth is dry."

"You got beer..." Snort chuckled, snorting.

"Yeah..." Toni took a big swig, thankful that the taste cut through the fog.

In the meantime, the van pulled to a stop. "All set," Jack reported. They were at the farm. The guys caught each other's eyes; it was time to get this show on the road...

"Shotgun!" Ricky yelled, and sucked in a lungful, handing off to Horse. He pulled Toni in -- and she didn't resist; she knew the game now. But when he'd emptied his lungs in her, he followed it with his tongue, surprising her. Toni pushed against him, but she had a lungful of pot -- and his arms were like granite! He let her break the kiss when her lungs were nearly bursting; the smoke oozed from her mouth as she gasped, "Ricky!"

"What?" Ricky pretended innocence.

Toni thought about it and decided that Horse would just ride her again if she got huffy. "Nothing." The next hit would come from Smooth, she decided. As it was, things were kind of odd... Her mind drifted a bit as she took a slug of her beer to clear away the smoke. 'I'm tipsy,' she realized. Not realizing it consciously, she erupted in a giggle.

"Let's hang in the fresh air for a while," Ricky suggested, and threw open the slider. "Come on, Toni," he urged, hauling her out by the wrist. Toni staggered along behind, bewildered at the pace of things, which had suddenly gotten rapid -- or so it seemed to her. Looking around, she saw a run-down farmhouse and a barn and some fences. 'I wonder where we are?' she thought. It still hadn't occurred to her to worry about it.

Jack and Snort headed for the barn to make sure nothing in the loft had been disturbed. They'd hauled some old mattresses out of the house and put them up there some time back. A quick climb up the ladder showed that everything was as they'd left it. Jack gave Snort the thumbs up and they headed back down to get the beer cooler; fucking was likely to be thirsty work.

There was a variety of stuff out in the yard -- a couple of stumps, and old rocking chair -- and a three-legged milking stool that Ricky plopped an unsteady Toni onto. "Have a seat," he said, and went to sit on a stump a couple of feet away. Horse settled into the rocker and rocked a couple of times, eyeing Toni.

Smooth thought of interfering, but Horse had been carrying the whole deal pretty well thus far. Horse cocked his head and said, "I don't think you've got the guts to be one of the guys, so I'm gonna ask you again -- do you want to be with the guys or one of the guys? You see, either way, there's an initiation to go through -- but they're different. I really think you want the one for chicks that hang out with the guys, personally."

"Initiation?" Toni's head spun a bit. She licked her lips and tried to get a grip on herself. "What kind of initiation?"

"That'd be telling," Horse replied. "You need to make the call without knowing. If you flunk the initiation for being one of the guys, though, we'll just move on to the one for chicks -- no hard feelings, dig?"

"Yeah... No hard feelings..."

Smooth came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed them, saying, "I think you ought to do the chick initiation; the one for the guys is kind of rough..." He slid his hands down her arms and back up, then dropped them over her breasts.

"Hey!" Toni shrugged him off. "Leave those alone!" 'God, I'm so clumsy!' she thought, 'What if...?' Suddenly, the idea that she might be in some danger burst upon her.

"Don't get all bitchy, now!" Horse snapped. "If you don't want to be with the guys, then I guess you want to be one of us, right?"

"Yeah..." Toni glared at Smooth.

"Stand up, then. Ricky?" Horse waved graciously. Ricky got up off the stump. Toni turned toward him and he hit her -- right in the solar plexus! Toni couldn't breathe!

"To be one of the guys, you got to take a shot from each of us and stay standing..." Horse was there in front of her as she wavered back and forth. He hit her right between the tits -- and she couldn't breathe AGAIN. She was sitting on the ground, but she couldn't do anything about it but retch... "Get her up," Horse grumped, "We'll give her a second chance..." Toni was weirdly grateful until Snort's fist came out of nowhere and hit her in the jaw and the lights went out...

"Haul her upstairs, Ricky," Horse directed. "Looks like she flunked. Now she can be WITH the guys..." Everybody chuckled. Ricky picked up Toni's limp body like it was nothing, threw it over his shoulder and carried her across the barnyard and up the ladder to the loft. Snort and Jack followed with the beer cooler.