I sat next to Julia in English class and met her at lunch.

“I can’t believe that you drove all the way to Fairfax to see me,” she said, her eyes exuding genuine joy.

“What can I say,” I said, holding my arms out as if surrendering. “I can’t get enough of you.”

She beamed with affection. I liked that because it showed me that she cared. I certainly didn’t want to cause her any anxiety. “How about a movie tonight?”

She frowned. “I can’t. I have cheerleader practice tonight.”

“I thought that basketball season was over?”

“Westfield hosts the third team in the league tomorrow night. They’re fighting for second place because both Madison and Westfield have identical records.”

I chuckled. “I suppose that means that I’ll have to attend another basketball game.”

She gave me a placating smile. “At least you won’t have to pay to get in.”

“Yeah, that’s a plus. They charged a whole dollar at the Fairfax game.”

“That’s too much,” she said, feigning shock.

I took advantage of the fact that I couldn’t go out with Julia to attend another swimming makeup class. It was just Neil, Nelson, Stan, Josh, Barry and I.

“Hey, Inspector Kramer,” Nelson yelled. “Have you solved the Westfield High murders yet?”

I waved a dismissive hand at him. “Unfortunately, it’s not elementary, dear Nelson.”

They laughed, but their laughter morphed into gasps when they saw a young woman descend the stairs that led to the girls’ showers. She was younger than Victoria, a curvaceous blond with beautiful eyes and a more flirtatious personality. She was dressed in a white tee and shorts and wearing white socks and tennis shoes. Her shapely legs caught our attention and made us forget that we were naked.

“I’m Heather Williams,” she said with a sly smile. “Miss Gains couldn’t make it tonight. I’m her assistant. Line up and I’ll take attendance.”

Her sexy toned voice reminded me of a young Lauren Bacall. In fact, she looked a lot like her. She had the same bedroom eyes, the luscious lips and the left parted hair that gently curled down around her face. She had a sophisticated, almost sultry look that exuded innate sexuality.

When she called our name, we raised our hand. When she was finished, she didn’t blow her whistle. “I think I’ll just have you dive off the mid-level board.”

We lined up, and I was the first to climb the ladder and make a dive. I tried to knife into the water without causing too much splash. I surfaced, swam to the side of the pool, climbed out and strolled back to the diving board ladder. The other guys were just as brazen in the way they exhibited their bodies to her. Maybe it was the fact that she was an incredibly beautiful young woman and we had a primal urge to impress her with our manly attributes.

The reality was that we were living a fantasy.

“You boys can continue,” she said after a half dozen dives. “I’ll be up in the office.” She smiled “If you want to take a rest, I won’t tell anyone.” She added an ornery smile as punctuation.

We watched her turn and ascend the stairs. Our young male eyes followed her every erotic move as if she were a Greek goddess ascending into heaven. Most of it was fantasy fueled by hormones.

We saw her enter the doorway to the girls’ showers, and after a few minutes, we could see her in the open window that looked down on the pool from the girls’ athletic office.

“This is ridiculous,” Neil said low enough for only us to hear. “It’s one thing to have Miss Gains looking at us, but this bitch is not all that much older than we are.”

“Yeah, but it was worth the price,” Nelson said. “She’s a looker.”

“No doubt,” Neil said a teasing grin. “You were definitely trying to impress her.”

He blushed. “Hey, I can’t help it. I have that problem even when I’m fully clothed.”

We laughed, only adding to his embarrassment.

Heather looked out of the window. “Keep it down, you guys.”

We stood there gaping at her as if she were an angel looking down at us from heaven and admonishing us for being mere mortals.

I waited until she went back to the desk before telling them about my experience at Fairfax. “I had a chance to see the Fairfax high school when I went to the championship game. They also don’t allow guys to wear suits. A boys free swim was in session during the game and the door to the pool was wide open, but there were no women or girls hanging around there.”

“Our school staff is a bunch of perverts,” Nelson said. “If this happened to girls, there would be all sorts of trouble.”

“This can’t happen to girls,” Neil said. “They’re permitted to wear bathing suits.”

He was right. Girls were considered to be more modest than boys. The idea of girls swimming nude would have been unthinkable. Boys, on the other hand, were supposed to be unconcerned about nudity. It was a cultural notion that goes back a long way and didn’t end until girls and boys attended swimming classes together, forever ending the naked swimming practice in American schools and YMCA’s.

Heather came down before the end of the period to torture us some more. “Line up, guys,” she said in her sexy voice. “I want to see you swim the length of the pool.” She pointed. “Line up at the deep end and dive one at a time.”

We obeyed like lovesick puppies. She made us do it a dozen times before finally having us line up again.

“Thank you for being so obedient,” she said. “I appreciate that. I’m new here and I was a little worried that you wouldn’t comply.” She smiled. “You may go shower now.”

She stood there and watched us climb up the stairs to the shower room and then came up behind us and watched us shower, smiling as a means of heaping additional torment on us.

I suppose she didn’t realize how insane this whole business was, but that’s the way it goes . . . at least back then.

The next evening, I attended the Westfield-Madison playoff game. Again, I made sure that Julia saw me. At the half when I expected to see Julia and her cheerleader group perform, I didn’t see her. An imaginary red flag went up in my head. I got up and headed out of the gym. I knew that something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was.

I turned down the hall to my locker and froze. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Julia was standing with her back against her locker and Lester was holding her mouth with one hand and preparing to stab her with what looked like a butcher knife. She was swinging her arms in a futile attempt to fend his attack off.

Without thinking, I took off on a run and smashed into Lester like a football tackle, knocking him to the floor. I ended up on top of him. Julia screamed her head off, but I was too busy to yell. I wrestled with Lester for the knife. He grabbed it in his left hand, but I managed to knock it out again with a well-timed kick. He hit me square in the side of my face with his ham-sized fist. I fell and he picked up the knife. I managed to get out of the way when he tried to slash me with it. I had been in a knife fight before, but when that happened I also had a knife. This time, I was at a disadvantage.

Julia’s screaming attracted people, but no one wanted to get involved with a crazy guy brandishing a knife. I don’t blame them, but I didn’t have that option. I rushed Lester and managed to get a blow to his gut, but he stuck the knife into my side. I fell, clutching the wound, which was bleeding badly. Lester got up and was ready to finish me off. I looked up to see him standing over me with a look in his eyes that indicated that he was totally insane.

Julia whacked him in the head with her book bag. He fell on his ass and she hit him again, but the book bag came apart and books flew all over.

I managed to get up and kick Lester in the head, knocking him back down before he could get up again. Unfortunately, I was too weak to do much else. I collapsed to the floor and Julia came to me.

She cried in anguish, “Don’t die! Please, don’t die!” Tears ran down her face in a torrent

I saw that some of the other kids had gotten the knife away from Lester and were holding him down. Adults were running around in a panic. All I could see was Julia crying her eyes out.

I tried to say something, but I couldn’t. I had lost too much blood, which was all over her, the floor, and me. I knew that I had done the right thing, but it had cost me my life. The last thing I heard was Julia’s wailing.