The Shed Club (Part 5)

A reminder of where we are (from part 4….)……

“”Have you ever shot before?”, I asked, as casually as possible as I was buttoning up my skirt. It was obvious that several others there found this question interesting as well, as they stopped straightening their knickers and waited for the answer.



“Well, yes”, he finally said, after doing all the shades of red again.



“When was the first?”, I asked, not letting go.



“Yesterday”, came the answer.


“So this was only your second?”, I asked, eyes open in genuine surprise.


He took a deep breath and shook his head. “It’s the third”, he replied, looking straight at me. “But it’s the first time I’ve actually shot anything”.

He genuinely looked proud.



We all looked at each other with mouths open and then spontaneously cheered this momentuous event, little Zoe looking exceedingly pleased with her afternoon’s work so far…..


Finn was told to go and tell the next one to report, and suddenly it was MY turn to get the wobbles. It was Mark up next!

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PART 5……



…….A good two or three minutes later, Mark had not arrived and us girls were showing signs of impatience, so Zoe was asked to go and get him, as she had a mannerism about her that usually resulted in her getting her own way pretty quickly. We watched through the net curtains as she disappeared into the house. I could just imagine the scene inside, and had visions of her leading Mark back by the hand. He was about twice her height and three years older…embarrassing, or what?.


Sure enough, Zoe appeared at the door and waved at us triumphantly. She then waited in the open doorway until Mark showed, and walked down in front of him towards the shed. When she came in, Mark waited outside and it was obvious that there was a problem.


“Two things”, she announced, looking a little upset. She had our full attention. “Gary and Mike want to do it together” (these were the two other lads who were in her year at school, Mike being officially the youngest of our gang).

“What, to each other?”, someone asked. There were quizzical looks all round.


“No, no…..they both want to take their turn together, as opposed to doing it on their own”.


There seemed to be no objection, so the decision was made to allow that to happen.


“And Mark wants to ask you if I can be left out of it when he takes his turn”, she blurted, looking a bit red in the face. “He wants me to go out while he asks you, and I said I would”.
She was being fair and grown up “out loud” so that Mark could hear her, but she was making faces to us all the while and it was obvious that she very much wanted to be in on the “action”.

She opened the door and stepped aside as Mark entered, then she went back up to the house and in to the kitchen. We asked Mark what was going on.

“I can’t do it with her here”, he replied, trying to appear all “Mr Cool” but obviously ill at ease with the fact that it was now his turn.


“Why not?”, I found myself asking. He looked surprised that it was me that asked it.


“She’s too young” he protested.


Jackie gave a snort. “No younger than Finn”.


“Or Gary or Michael” someone else pointed out. “And they’re all included in everything”.


“But Zoe is almost a sister. Her mum and dad are always round my house with my parents. All of us have even been on holiday together”, he looked around to see if his plea was hitting home.
It was true though, what he was saying. Mark and Zoe’s families were very close.


“I can’t…..you know, do that …..sort of thing , in front of her!”


From the blank expressions on our faces, I think he realised at this point that he wasn’t winning the battle.


“She’s too young”, he repeated, wrapping up his argument.



I looked at Jackie and it was obvious that she was of the same mind as me. Judging by the quick exchange of glances with the others, we all wanted Zoe to be included. Even though I had this ccrush thing going with Mark, and I would have DEARLY loved his turn to be strictly for my eyes only, we couldn’t escape the fact that he was now being very unfair, as he’d had plenty of time to air his objections when the whole thing was first arranged.

Don’t get me wrong….I still fancied him like mad, but it would be fair to say that his demonstration today didn’t do him any favours. I think we were all of a mind that he was using Zoe as a way of possibly chickening out of his turn. OK, we could understand his objections to a point, but it’s not as if she hasn’t seen what he had to offer before. I think that everyone had seen pretty much everything of the others over the past year or so….and this is just a grown up version. My mind was made up….Zoe was “in” as far as I was concerned. I have always been irresistably drawn into arguments by using logic to dispute a point, and this was no exception.

“Mark, why didn’t you raise this objection when we first set the ground rules?” I asked all nice and polite. Actually, I wasn’t there when the rules were set down and was therefore guessing. The others nodded and mumbled their agreement with the question.


“I did!”, he protested, now realising that I was definitely not on his side in all of this.

A chorus of “No you didn’t” rang out, and Jackie pointed out that Zoe’s name had never been singled out during the entire “negotiation”, ……by anyone.

“If I remember correctly”, she continued “It was you who first brought up the thing about us girls undressing and stuff. So it’s not as if you didn’t get a chance to speak, and so you could have said something then, but didn’t”.


Lots of nodding heads. More murmerings.


I took up the reins. “You say that Zoe’s too young and it would be embarrassing”.
He nodded.
“Are you therefore saying that you would NOT be embarrassed if you did your thing with her out of the room and only US here?” The girls liked this line of reason and there were self satisfied smiles all round as we waited for his answer.


He stood shuffling in front of us, but had no answer.


“OK, I’ll take that as read that you WOULD be just as bad with or without her.