Duncan Fox - Daddy_s darling daughter

"Where are you, you brats!" Judy muttered. She thought about calling out to them again, but hesitated, fearful of whom she might attract. They had been gone for quite some time now. If they were going to come back, they would do so without her shouting. If she shouted, she might only attract unwanted attention. She was acutely aware of the total vulnerability of her position.

A distant crashing in the woods made Judy jerk her head around and freeze, holding her breath. Her mind conjured up a multitude of possible causes for the racket. Perhaps the shepherd, or another dog, was coming. Or it might be the two hippies. Judy hoped it would be Jimmy and Billy, but somehow knew it wouldn't be. She debated with herself, not sure whether she should call out or not, not sure what she should hope for. It might be rescue, or it might be something worse than what had already happened to her. Hopefully, whatever it was would pass her by, leaving her in peace to free herself from her predicament. Then she could get dressed and leave this hateful hollow without anyone else becoming aware of her humiliating position.

To her dismay, the crashing drew steadily closer. It sounded like a herd of something plowing through the brush, but Judy knew that the dry leaves always gave that impression. A chipmunk sounded like an elephant in the leaves.

Desperately, Judy strained against the ropes, fighting to gain the fraction of an inch of slack that she needed to free her hand. If she could do that much, she had a chance. The thrashing sounds drew steadily and ominously nearer, and Judy's struggles became more and more frantic. She gave a sob when, by some quirk, she lost some of the ground she had so painfully gained against the brutal ropes.

There was a whistling now, along with the crashing, and it sounded vaguely familiar. As Judy fought the ropes, she tried to place the tune the unseen person was whistling. Judy managed to regain the lost ground just as she placed the tune. It was one that had been making the rounds at school, a nonsense ditty that nobody could ever remember the words to. It was one of those maddening tunes that once you caught it, you couldn't get rid of it-it would keep running through your head until you were thoroughly sick of it. Since whoever was plowing through the underbrush knew the tune, they probably went to the same school, and probably knew Judy. The information did nothing to cheer her up. If it were a boy, she would absolutely die. The thought that it might be Johnny made Judy battle the ropes with panicky strength. He was the coolest, and he was sort of Judy's steady. But if he found her like this, she'd never be able to live it down.

The fight with the ropes did Judy no good, only leaving her more exhausted and no nearer escape. The whistling and the crashing were very near the top of the little hollow now, and Judy slumped against her bonds, exhausted. If it really was someone from school, they probably knew of the hollow, and were coming to it. Lots of kids did, for a lot of different reasons. They came alone, and they came in groups. It was a nice, quiet, peaceful place that they thought grownups didn't know about. Judy wanted to disappear into the tree as the steps neared the rim of the hollow.

Judy was trying to fold herself up in shame when the steps started down into the hollow and the whistling stopped suddenly.

"What in the world?" the person exclaimed, and Judy died.

"Well, well, well, well, look what we have here," the person marveled, and Judy wished she could disappear. "If it isn't little Judy Poody. How'd you get yourself in that fix? And all naked, too?"

"Let me loose, Karen, please," Judy begged the girl that came around the tree to stare at her.

"Let me loose, Karen, please," the girl mocked. "Why should I?"

"Please let me go," Judy begged again. Karen was Judy's archenemy in school.

"Now let me see, should I let you go," Karen mused, fingering her chin in a theatrical fashion. She giggled, making her short, black hair bob with the motion. "This is just too rich."

"I'd let you go if you were like this."

"I just bet you would," Karen said, obviously tickled to death at Judy's helpless position.

"I would to," Judy answered. She didn't want go break into tears in front of Karen, but exhaustion, fear and humiliation all combined to make it a heroic battle to avoid bawling.

"Well, I won't," Karen snapped. "I ain't no goody-goody like you."

Judy had to admit that was true. "I'll give you the answers on the next geography test or something," Judy promised, hating herself.

"Fat chance," Karen answered. "Besides, school's out for the summer."

"Well, next fall then," Judy answered, fighting for a bargaining point.

"Just like you gave me the answer on that spelling test, huh?" Karen snapped.

"You deliberately gave me the wrong spelling on that word I asked you."

"Well, I told you it wasn't right to cheat. What was I supposed to do?"

"It isn't right to cheat," Karen mocked again. "That's just what you'd say.

Everybody cheats. Oh, everybody except Miss Goody Two Shoes here. And what about John. What do you have to say about taking Johnny away from me?"

"He wasn't yours in the first place. He never took you out."

"No, but he hit me the hardest he hit any girl," Karen snapped. "That meant he was my boy friend."

"He never hit me at all," Judy gloated, and immediately knew she bad said the wrong thing. "And I didn't take him away from you."

"Did so," Karen snapped.

Judy fell silent, unable to think of any way to get Karen to let her go. Karen had always hated Judy, for as long as Judy could remember. It wasn't Judy's fault that Karen was frequently caught cheating, or that Johnny went out with Judy instead of Karen, or that Judy got higher marks than Karen.

"This is just too rich to believe. Who did it to you?" Karen asked, again gloating.

"None of your business," Judy snapped.

"Your clothes must be around here some place," Karen mused, looking around the clearing. "Oh, here they are." The black-haired girl gathered up Judy's scattered garments and piled them in a heap. "My, my, she even has to wear a bra now!" Karen snickered. "I'm glad I don't have to wear one yet. What a pain."

Judy knew from Karen's tone that Karen really felt just the opposite. It was just one more thing for Karen to be bitter about-that Judy was developing while Karen was still as flat as a board.

"What are you going to do?" Judy asked, a little fearfully, secretly testing her ropes behind her back.

"Well, now, that's a good question," Karen observed, fingering her chin again.

"Obviously I can't let this chance go by without taking advantage of it. I could just leave you here and take your clothes, but I don't think that's enough. Remember the time you beat me up behind the game shed?"

Judy remembered it well. Karen had challenged her, and there had been no teachers around at the time. "That was a perfectly fair fight."

"It was not," Karen retorted. "You cheated. You kicked me."

"Only after you kicked me," Judy said, still trying to work her hand free.

"I'm going to get you for that," Karen decided, ignoring what Judy had said.

"You wouldn't dare hit me," Judy snapped. "You might hurt your precious hands."

"Hadn't thought of that," Karen observed, looking down at her hands. She had just started playing the piano. Despite a complete lack of talent, she was convinced she was going to be a great pianist. "But that's all right," Karen went on. "I don't need to use my hands." She strolled over to a stand of tall, stringy bushes and began to uproot them.

"You hit me with those and I'll tell on you," Judy threatened.

"So go ahead and tell on me, it'll be worth it," Karen gloated, stripping the leaves from one of the thin, whippy branches.