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We don't need no education.
We don't need no thought control.
Hey, teacher, leave us kids alone.
All in all, you're just Another Brick In The Wall.
Pink Floyd.

First day of spring Semester, 1980.
Six years earlier...

"Kari Byundlee? Miss, uhh... Bengdee? Bungay?"

"Present!"

I looked up with a grin. Our Biology 102 teacher had moved from Egypt to our Southern California suburb the previous semester, and Mr. Naboo's thick accent still had trouble with certain sounds. Kari Bentley, a tall brunette at the next table, politely ignored the gross mispronunciation of her last name, but it stuck with me. Her table mate Taylor, an equally tall strawberry blonde, also caught it and poked Kari in the ribs.

Without thinking, I leaned across the narrow aisle between our lab tables to whisper, "Bunny."

She gave me a nondescript look, but her bright brown eyes gleamed with curiosity. Betty Boop-length eyelashes blinked to me in some kind of mysterious code. "Huh? What?"

"Bunny. Um, Mr. Naboo. He called you Bunny..."

She mouthed Bunny to herself, then tossed a half smile my way. Turning away, she whispered in Taylor's ear. Their giggling brought the humorless teacher's frustrated attention upon all of us. I was still halfway out of my seat, and had many priors from the previous semester, so he knew in an instant who to blame.

Pointing a large and hairy finger, Mr. Naboo scolded, "Hey, clown! Don't... uhh... don't be clown."

The low level snickering at his clumsy English came from all but the most saintly students. While few of my classmates wanted to hang out with me, they all seemed to appreciate my talent for unwittingly and effortlessly disrupting a class.

Mr. Naboo's dark ears somehow managed to glow red, and he glared at the whole class in embarrassment, anger, or both. "Read page four. I need to take a call."

Just before he reached the door to his back room, I called out, "Sorry, Sir."

The hitch in his step shouted a sonic boom of irritation, but he managed to close the door behind him without further incident.

His absence triggered full blown laughter from the classroom of eleventh graders, but an uneasy mood accompanied the glory I felt.

They don't really like me, they just like seeing a teacher pissed off...

Obeying a sudden, irresistible impulse, I stood to my lanky 5'7" height, then took a bow. A few hands clapped, but most of the boys and all the girls rolled their eyes or shook their heads.

Except one. Miss Bunny is studying me...

Never one to quit while I wasn't too far behind, I tried rousing the class to sing the hit Pink Floyd rock anthem with me.

"We don't need no education, we don't need no thought contr..."

My voice trailed off as once again, striving for social leadership utterly failed. Completely defeated, I slumped into the chair to bury my face in the textbook. Mr. Naboo was sure to call on me when he came out, and I needed to be prepared with a perfect answer to foil his revenge. Having read the whole book on the day I got it, the material merely needed a quick review.

Mr. Naboo re-entered our class a few minutes later, then resumed the lesson in his hard-to-understand and dull way. The next forty minutes took one hundred years to pass, giving me a perfect way to explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Finally he looked at his watch, waved dismissively at us, then disappeared into his office without a word.

I love biology, but Nabby makes it suck. I wonder how many times I can ditch his class and still get an A...

Sensing movement out of the corner of my bespectacled eye, I gazed at Kari, who had turned to face me. Though possessing no discernible beauty flaws, her appearance fell well short of the many gorgeous girls at my school.

Fuck those hot bitches. They all hate me...

I quickly assessed her symmetrical oval face, well defined cheekbones, properly set eyes, slightly pointed nose, medium lips over healthy teeth, feminine jaw and chin, but found no fault, other than some pimples.

She's cute, in a prim and proper sort of way. I wish she didn't make me feel even smaller than I am.

Kari's dark brown hair seemed to have an unruly life of it's own, and dragged instead of flowed over her shoulders.

Not every girl gets to have beautiful hair...

Judging her figure proved harder, with a knee-length grey dress covering most of it. Still, her sturdy calves and shoulders gave a hint of athleticism, which clashed with her slightly clumsy mannerisms.

Have I met her before?

Gathering my books, I stood up and smiled honestly. "Hi, Bunny, I'm Ray."

Both of Kari's hands flew to her mouth, hiding a shy giggle. "Bunny? That's my name now?"

A familiar dimple emerging on her left cheek made me remember. I had an English class with Kari a lifetime before, in our freshman year. Her acne had been much worse then, and I felt a twinge of happiness for her improving condition. Such empathy was very rare for me, so I felt a slight connection with her.

In ninth grade, she was even taller than me. Then again, every girl was taller than me back then.

She didn't seem like a fighter, but could probably kick my ass, so I quickly backpedaled. "I'm sorry, Kari. I won't say it anymore."

Hand waving, she reassured, "No, no. That's fine, Ray. I like it. You can call me Bunny. What's your nickname?"

I hesitated. Everyone in my family loved the diminutive childhood label Grandma had bestowed upon me, but it embarrassed me at sixteen.

Ahh, what the hell. She seems nice. I hope I can trust her.

"It's... Mousey. Because I was..."

Her finger snapped. "You were really small. I remember from freshman English. Umm, do you think you'll keep growing?"

I pray every fucking day I will...

The puberty fairy had not tapped my gonads with her magic hormonal wand until the previous August, when I stood a mere five-foot tall on my sixteenth birthday. Only my participation in marching band had saved me from being locker room prey to sadistic jocks, but I had still burned with shame at being a little boy surrounded by young men.

As a freshman and sophomore, girls had interested me in an academic sort of way, but I had not felt the scorching compulsion to be around them that my normal friends displayed. Not having the same lustful focus had made me more of a loner than I would have liked.

Then, one night I had gone to bed smooth and woke up with a peach-fuzzed sack. That afternoon, I had borrowed a Playboy magazine from my father's collection and took my newly upgraded tool for a test drive. Nothing happened that day, but two weeks later, a warm and wonderful messy surprise blessed my belly. I had earned the wanky title of adolescence, and began fearfully plotting to lose my virginity.

By the time I graduate. If not, I'll kill myself...

"Yeah, Bunny. I think I will keep growing. My father is over six feet, and my sister is tall, like you."

She winced at my mention of her stature. Standing five-foot-ten, Bunny towered over many boys in our junior class, who had yet to reach their full height. If I had any kind of awareness of that sort of thing, I would have sympathized with her outlier status. Some other girls in my school matched Bunny's height, but most of them had a willowy, graceful shape, and a few could potentially be super-models like Christy Brinkley.

While nobody would call her fat, pudgy, chubby, or even plump, Bunny's size and shape didn't fit too many high school boy's image of perfection. Her mostly straight up-and down figure wasn't boyish at all, but she probably wouldn't be an object of fantasy for my perpetually horny male classmates.

None of that mattered to me. I was far from ready to pursue romance, found her pleasant to look at, and most importantly, she seemed to like me. At that moment in my life, Bunny was perfect.

She held her hand above my head. "Well, Mousey. I hope you grow tall."

Puzzled, I asked, "Why?"

"Oh... I don't know. You don't have to be tall, I guess. I'm just... I don't know."

She fidgeted with her backpack. I had somehow made my new friend uncomfortable.

My buddy Mark broke the tension by addressing the girls. "Hi Taylor, hi Kari."

He bumped me, "Ray! Hey, man. Good to see you're finally growing up!"

Mark had been my partner in an off-campus computer programming class the previous year. We had written a few things in Basic and become friends through our similar sense of humor. He had grown too, but mostly in width, moving into the category of bulky.

Great. Another friend who makes me look like a shrimp...

"Yeah. Thanks, Mark. It's about time."

Mark stood in front of Taylor, and I noticed they were roughly the same size. The word Amazon came to mind, as Taylor blatantly displayed the sensual feminine curves Bunny mostly lacked. Her open, heart-shaped face had one of the sweetest looks I had ever seen on a girl. Unfortunately, the exaggerated features which created it kept her in the ranks of cute.

However, unlike Bunny, Taylor preferred clothes with a tight fit to show off her plus-sized, voluptuous lines. A varsity football linebacker might be comfortable next to her, but most other men would feel small. I would look completely ridiculous dancing with or kissing Taylor.

Bunny wouldn't be quite as strange to kiss, not that I would know what to do...

Mark pointed. "Taylor's my next door neighbor and grew up with me. Last summer, she and Kari came over to swim a bunch of times, but it's too cold for that right now. Do you all want to just hang out at my house after school on Friday?"

It would be a long bicycle ride, but I seldom got invited to even small parties. And certainly not with two friendly girls. I said, too enthusiastically, "Yes, I'll be there!"

Taylor whispered in Bunny's ear, then spoke. "Kari can bring some booze."

Bunny dresses like a second grade teacher, but she's a party girl?

She nodded mischievously at me, "Do you like vodka, Mousey?"

"I do, Bunny!"

Mark and Taylor both cracked up laughing. Taylor took her friend's arm.
"Bunny and Mousey. That's so cute! Bye guys!"

Mark intently studied the girls as they walked away, then looked down at me. "What was that all about?"

"Nabby can't say Bentley, so she's Bunny. Then she asked for my nickname. What's wrong?"

"Pet names for each other? Ray, is she your girlfriend now?"

I squirmed, "No, Mark. I wouldn't know what to... I'm not ready for... She's too... so much bigger than me. No, she's not a girlfriend, not like that."

He clapped me on the back. "That's hilarious. You got a girlfriend before me. See you later."

Wait. Does Bunny actually like me... that way? I'm scared...

A/N: Like most teenagers, my suicidal thoughts never rose above the level of musing.

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