Cousin Rikki to the Rescue

Rikki shook her head. "No. So which fire exit did they go out of?"

"That one." Rikki, her petite little gymnast body trembling with rage, pushed through the door with Amanda behind her, the two girls exiting into the alleyway.

The cool Melbourne night air -- it was August so winter in Australia -- hit both girls, but it failed to cool Rikki's temper. The blonde teenager could hear the raucous male voices affected by alcohol even before she turned the corner, and when she did she stopped in horror and fury.

A mob of boys surrounded Lewis, a number of girls standing back watching. Four of the boys were holding her terrified cousin by his arms and legs, swinging him back and forth and chanting 'Milkshake, milkshake, milkshake!" Chad stood in front of them, laughing and spraying soft drink into Lewis's face as his mates swung Lewis higher and higher.

"You're going in the dumpster geek!" Chad promised Lewis in his taunting voice. "But don't worry, there's lots of things in here to break your fall. There's fish guts, prawn shells and rotting vegetables. You like that, dork!"

The boy standing next to Chad was familiar to Rikki. It was Chad's older brother Kirk, his stupid mates behind him. Kirk was dressed as a clown; a brightly colored suit, large shoes, garish make-up and a large conical hat with pom-poms on his head. The sight did not produce any humor in Rikki, and in fact even more horror and anger.

Lewis was absolutely petrified of clowns, be it clowns in person, on TV and even pictures of clowns. One pair of Rikki and Lewis's grandparents lived down in Geelong, and they had a large painting of a clown in their hallway, the painting's eyes seeming to follow observers around the room. It had frightened Rikki enough when she was a little girl, and she had noticed that Danielle and Jamie would also give the painting a wide berth and avoid looking at it. But in the case of Lewis, the clown painting terrified him to the point of being catatonic. Lewis was not invited to many kids' parties as a child, but he could never go to a costume party least a guest should be dressed as a clown.

Unfortunately, Danielle opening her big mouth at school telling everyone about her brother's clown phobia led to much ridicule by the many bullies who tormented Lewis. That Kirk -- who had left school last year -- was dressed as a clown meant this had to be planned in advance. Kirk obviously didn't go around dressed as a clown most of the time.

Before the angry Rikki could open her mouth, she noticed that the group of boys surrounding Lewis and swinging him back and forth included her date for the evening Brendan. Brendan was drinking beer and laughing, pouring some of the beer on Lewis's tuxedo.

Their taunting and jeering grew louder until Rikki yelled out "Hey!"

The bullies stopped and turned, looking in amazement at the petite blonde girl storming towards them at a fast pace, her pretty face looking like a thunderstorm about to explode.

"Put him down, put him down now!" Rikki yelled, the bullies having hold of Lewis so shocked by the appearance of this angry little blonde that they did as they were told.

Lewis, looking dizzy and sick, breathed heavily and struggled to keep his breath. He hated to be swung around like this and couldn't handle even the most tame carnival or theme park ride. He also blinked trying to see in the dim light, missing his glasses which he needed at all times.

"Whoever has his glasses give them back to him," Rikki said. None of the bullies moved. Rikki stomped her foot. "Give them to him now!" she screeched.

The bully who had the glasses meekly complied and handed the glasses back to Lewis, while the furious Rikki turned her attention to Brendan.

"Brendan, what the fuck were you doing?" Rikki snapped.

"Oh, relax Rikki, don't get your knickers in a twist, we were just having fun," laughed Brendan. He put his hand on Rikki's arse, and Rikki slapped it away.

"I can't believe I agreed to go to the formal with you, you piece of shit Brendan," snapped Rikki. "Get fucked."

"Yeah, and you're the one who I'm going to fuck later on," Brendan slurred.

"Fuck off Brendan, stay the fuck away from me and stay the fuck away from my cousin," said Rikki.

Brendan's expression grew angry. "Yeah, I should have known that you were nothing but a stuck-up little cock tease. What the fuck is your fucking problem Rikki? You on your rags or something?"

He attempted to grab Rikki by the shoulder, and the young girl turned around and slapped Brendan hard across the face, the sound echoing in the dingy alleyway and Brendan stumbled backwards.

"What the fuck did you do that for, you bitch?" he yelled, rubbing his face.

Rikki ignored him. "Come on Lewis, we're leaving," she said.

It was then that Chad laughed and said. "Hey Brendan, it's too bad she's got the shits with you. She's pretty hot when she's angry, and who wouldn't want to fuck a gymnast? I bet she's really bendy."

Rikki paused and strode up to Chad, a height difference of over a foot no deterrent for the angry little blonde. "You're really brave, aren't you Chad? You need all your idiot mates and your older brother and his dickhead friends to help you bully my cousin." She indicated Lewis, then addressed the other bullies and the students who had been standing around watching Lewis getting tormented. "You all should be ashamed of yourselves. Twenty onto one?"

Chad snorted in disdain. "Aren't you a bossy little madam, Rikki? I'd always thought you wouldn't put out, but now I bet you like it on top when you're fucking all the male gymnasts on tour."

With the speed of a cat, Rikki kicked Chad in the shins, then kneed him in the testicles, Chad doubling over in agony. "My balls!" he lamented.

Older brother Kirk seemed to find this amusing, and guffawed. "You're really a fiery little bitch, aren't you Rikki? Like Brendan said earlier, you got your period or something?"

Rikki glared at Kirk. "You should wear the clown costume all the time Kirk, it suits your personality and it's a definite improvement. Anyway, I'm glad you're here, there's something I wanted to give you."

"What's that?" Kirk grunted.

Like she had done with younger brother Chad, Rikki with lightning fast speed kneed Kirk in the groin and then give him a hard kick to the shins, the clown-costumed Kirk yelling out in agony and falling to his knees clutching his groin.

"That's for all the times you made Lewis's life a misery at school, and even now you had to torment him," snapped Rikki. "And you're lucky I just kneed and kicked you, you're lucky I didn't call the cops on you and get you charged. You're 19-years-old, coming back to help your brother bully other students. Fuck you, Kirk."

Rikki took her cousin by the arm. "Come on Lewis."

None of the bullies dared stop the little blonde firebrand as she marched back inside with her cousin, Amanda holding the door open for them.

"Amanda, I'd really better take care of Lewis, get him home, sorry I can't come back to the room or on to a club," Rikki said. "Thanks for telling me what was going on earlier."

"That's fine," said Amanda. "As long as you're both okay?"

"Yeah should be, see you later," said Rikki. She then turned to Lewis. "Lewis, I'll just get my overnight bag and jacket and then we'll go."

Lewis, who had by now regained his sense of balance after being swung back and forth by the bullies, asked, "Go where Rikki?"

"Anywhere but here," said Rikki, getting her backpack from the room she and her friends were renting overnight and her blue jacket back from coat check and putting it on, the cousins then leaving the hotel and into the cool Melbourne evening. Being Friday, it was a busy night around the inner city, lots of people there for functions, to go to clubs, pubs and bars and with a football game over at the Melbourne Cricket Ground this evening, lots of Australian Rules football fans were still in the city before heading home.

"Are you feeling better now Lewis?" Rikki asked as the two teenagers walked up Collins Street, before turning into Swanston Street.

"Yeah," said Lewis, clearly relieved to be away from the hotel and even more to be away from his tormenters in the alleyway. "Thanks Rikki, for helping me."

"It's no problem, now let's go and look at the city lights and try and relax," suggested Rikki, the teenager thinking about what had happened when she confronted the bullies. Her high school was something like a soap opera at times, and in fact if a Melbourne television network was looking to produce a new soap, all it had to do was put cameras at the school and let the students act normally. The stories of what she did to school bully Chad, his brother Kirk and her date Brendan would spread around like wildfire, exaggerated at every re-telling.

Rikki and Lewis walked past the Flinders Street Station, the ornate yellow building lit up and to the Princes Bridge, looking at the tall skyscrapers on the northern side reflecting their bright lights across the muddy waters of the Yarra River. There were fewer tall buildings on the opposite Southbank side of the river, but these were lit up too along with the spire of the Melbourne Performing Arts Center. The skies overhead had some clouds, but they did not obscure the light of the moon and stars.

"The Rialto looks pretty tonight, doesn't it?" Rikki said conversationally, indicating Melbourne's tallest building illuminated in blue.

Lewis nodded. "I guess. Rikki, I'm sorry."

Rikki looked at Lewis, noticing his unhappy expression, her cousin looking worried and guilty. "What are you sorry about?"

Lewis looked even more despondent. "For wrecking your night. You want to be having fun with your friends and your boyfriend, not taking care of me."

"My boyfriend?" Rikki was surprised.

"Yeah Brendan. Your boyfriend."

Rikki shook her head. "He's not my boyfriend, Lewis. He was just my date for tonight, and what a big mistake that was. He's a jerk."

Lewis's face took on that puzzled look that he often did when discussing interpersonal relationships. "But don't you love him?"

"No, not at all," said Rikki. "After what he did to you tonight, I don't even like him."

Lewis was confused. "But Danielle and her boyfriend Brad go out places together and they love each other."

"That's because they are boyfriend and girlfriend," said Rikki. "I am not Brendan's girlfriend, and I never will be. All he did was give me the shits."

Lewis looked concerned. "Are you feeling okay Rikki? If you have diarrhea you should go home and rest and drink lots of water."

Rikki blushed as passers-by heard the comment and looked at her. "No, no, it's just a figure of speech, I'm not sick," she said, remembering how Lewis struggled to master slang.

Lewis looked frustrated. "Sorry Rikki, I didn't mean to embarrass you. I just wish people would mean what they say. Like one time once Danielle told me that I gave her the shits. I said I was sorry to hear that she had diarrhea and asked her if she wanted me to go down to the shops and buy extra toilet paper for her and she got even more cross. Then a few weeks later she rang in sick for her shift at work because she had food poisoning, and she said on the phone that she had the shits, meaning that she literally had diarrhea. It gets so confusing."

"Yeah, life would probably be much easier if people just said what they meant, but it doesn't work that way," said Rikki. "Like what did Chad and his friends say to make you go with them? What were you thinking?"

Lewis's face looked downcast. "Chad was being really nice, saying how sorry he and his friends were for bullying me all through school, and that they felt really bad about it. They said they had bought me a gift to make up for it, something I would really like, and if I came with them they would give me a really big surprise. I probably should have known better."

Rikki's heart ached for her cousin. "Lewis, I'm so sorry, that was such a mean trick for Chad to play on you."

Lewis nodded. "As soon as I saw Kirk dressed as a clown I just got so scared that I couldn't move." Again, he looked despondent. "But I deserve it."

"Lewis, you do not deserve to be bullied and harassed like that," asserted Rikki.

"Yes I do, I'm nothing but a nerd, a dork, a geek and a loser," Lewis lamented.

"You're not, who says that?" Rikki asked.

"The kids at school, our other cousins and Danielle," said Lewis. "I'm just a loser, and that's all I'll ever be."

"Lewis, you're not a loser," said Rikki. "You're a really nice guy, and so clever. High school just isn't your time, you'll do better at university next year."

Lewis wasn't convinced. "Even if I do well in university, who is going to give me a job when I finish? I couldn't even last a week at that job at the café Dad got me."

Rikki, in addition to competing in gymnastics earned money at the gymnastics center by helping out teaching younger kids and working some shifts in the café there. Hospitality could be a demanding job at times, and definitely not Lewis's thing. "That job just wasn't for you," she said. "I wouldn't feel bad about it."

"Mum and Dad were disappointed in me," said Lewis. "Just like when I was a kid and failed at tee-ball, or when Mum and Dad tried to put me in Scouts and it didn't work out."

"Lewis, don't stress about it," said Rikki. "Those things weren't for you. Just like the school formal tonight wasn't for you either. I don't know why Aunty Judith and Uncle Alistair made you go."

"I really didn't want to go, but Mum and Dad wanted me to go and I didn't want to disappoint them again," said Lewis. "I'd rather have stayed home and studied and then watched television. Did you know Star Wars was on TV tonight?"

Rikki raised her eyebrows. "Star Wars? You must have seen that movie like a million times. And the sequels too."

Lewis looked puzzled. "I haven't watched it a million times. Do you know how long it would take to watch it a million times even if I watched it every day? About 2700 years."

Rikki laughed lightly. "It was just a figure of speech, I meant you've watched it a lot of times. Anyway, why would you want to watch it on TV where there's adverts when you have the video of it?"

"I like watching Star Wars on TV where there's adverts, because while the commercial breaks are on I can look forward to what's coming up next," said Lewis.

"I never really thought of it that way," said Rikki, genuinely surprised. Lewis sure did see the world in a different way from her and most everyone else she knew.

Lewis again looked despondent. "But part of me wishes that I was having fun at the formal like everyone else and staying overnight at a hotel like you were going to, rather than having to go home because I'm a loser."

"Lewis, again you're not a loser," said Rikki. "But talking about going home, I think we'd better do something about your tuxedo. It's a mess." She indicated the stains on his jacket and trousers from where the other boys had poured drinks and food all over him in the alleyway. "Your Mum isn't going to be too happy."

"Actually, Mum and Dad went out with some friends and aren't coming back until tomorrow," said Lewis. "It's just Danielle at home with her boyfriend. She won't be happy to see me come back, and she'll laugh at me and make fun of me for getting covered in food and drink."

"I've got a solution for that," said Rikki. "You said you would have liked to stay at a hotel rather than go straight back home? There's a hotel not far from here, I bet they've got rooms. It's nice and quiet, good value for money and kids coming from interstate for gymnastics competitions often stay there. How about you go there and sleep for the night? That way we can get your tuxedo sorted out, and you won't annoy or get laughed at by your sister."

"I don't know," Lewis said, looking most worried and glancing up at the night sky, where seagulls flocked around the illuminated spires of the two large art-deco skyscrapers at the Eastern end of Collins Street.

"Come on Lewis, it will be my treat," said Rikki. "Then tomorrow morning, we can go and get you some fresh clothes, have breakfast together and then we'll catch the train back home."

"What about you, where will you sleep?" Lewis asked.

"Oh, I'll just go back to the other hotel and crash in Amanda's room with my other friends, say my plans changed again," said Rikki.

"As long as you're sure?" Lewis asked doubtfully.

"Of course," said Rikki, taking Lewis to the nice, budget hotel where things were pretty quiet apart from the busy bar area on the upstairs mezzanine floor, to where they were not headed anyway.

The hotel had rooms available, Rikki paying for one and taking Lewis upstairs after a short delay where Lewis was a bit fretful that he didn't have a toothbrush or toothpaste, the hotel reception thankfully selling these items to guests. Getting out of the lift, Rikki and Lewis walked to the room, Rikki opening it with the key and the cousins went inside.

"This is nice," said Rikki, looking around the hotel room which had a double bed, a television, a small refrigerator and a desk and chair. One door led to the closet, and another into the ensuite bathroom.

"It is," Lewis agreed. "Thank you so much, I'll pay you back tomorrow."

"Hey, that's okay, my treat I just want you to relax and have a good time, put what happened tonight out of your mind," said Rikki. She looked at the food and beer stains on her cousin's jacket and trousers. "Let's get your tux cleaned up a bit."

Rikki always kept a clean washcloth in her purse and went and wet it down in the bathroom, sponging the worst of the stains from her cousin's jacket and trousers. "It will still need to be dry-cleaned and the hire shop does that anyway, but that's got the worst of the stains so they won't charge extra for it," she said.

"Thanks Rikki, you did a really good job getting it cleaned up," said Lewis.

"My pleasure," said Rikki, noticing again that Lewis looked worried. "Everything okay?"

"I need to tell Danielle that I'm staying in a hotel instead of coming home tonight, but if she asks questions I won't know what to say and if she knows I got bullied then she'll laugh at me and make fun of me."

"Would you like me to call your sister?"

Lewis nodded. "Yes please."

Rikki went over to the desk where the phone was and called the number of her aunt and uncle. The phone rang and rang, until finally her cousin Danielle answered it. "Hello?" came Danielle's reply.

"Danielle, it's Rikki, how are you?"

Rikki of course could not see into her aunt and uncle's house, so could not observe that Danielle was lying on the living room sofa to take the call on the new cordless phone. The tall pretty brunette was not alone, however, she was joined by her boyfriend Brad, like her a second year university student.

Brad had removed Danielle's sneakers and socks so she was now barefoot and had just taken off her jeans. Now Brad had taken off Danielle's jeans so on her top half she wore a blue knitted jumper, on her bottom half only a pair of light blue bikini-brief panties.

Danielle lay with her knees apart, her legs wide open to allow her handsome boyfriend easy access to her crotch. And Brad was having a great time in Danielle's private feminine area, tracing the indentation of Danielle's vagina in her panties, sniffing her pussy smells on her panty saddle, pulling aside Danielle's knickers to perve on her dark brown pubic hair and pretty pink vagina and sometimes putting his hand into her panties for a good rummage around, fingering both her front bottom and her back bottom.

"Yeah good, is everything okay?" Danielle asked, giggling as Brad took a big sniff on her box through the double cotton saddle of her knickers and made grunting noises to indicate he liked what he smelled.