This is part 3 of an ongoing story - if you want to read part one go here and if you want to read part 2 go here.

The Head Cheerleader Chapter 3

Nicole wiped away the tears from her eyes. Leah got out of the car and went around to open the door for Nicole. Nicole got in and Leah hurried around. She got in and closed the door quickly. She started the car and peeled out.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"It is not nothing if your crying like that. There's tissues in the glove compartment."

"Thanks. It'sjust that Steve Hunt said that if I didn't go to prom with him he was going to tell everyone my secret. Which not even my parents know. He knew because he found my red notebook. Speaking of it I lost it when we ran into each other earlier."

"I got the notebook. Why don't you go with him?"

"I'm not interested."

"I thought the head cheerleader is suppose to go out with the quarter back."

"Yes but..."

"But what?"

Leah pulled into the driveway and parked the car.

"It's just that I feel he's not the right one."

"Well then who is? I mean if it's alright for me to ask."

"Sure it's OK. I don't know. It's like nothing when I kiss him."

"I'm glad you confided in me. Don't worry my lips are sealed."

Nicole placed her hand on Leah's strong muscular arm.

"Thanks a bunch. Let's get started on English."

"We Will but first I got to go feed the horses. Want to come along?"

"Sure I would like to."

They both got out of the car and headed around the house to the barn.

"Do you want me to help?"

"No it's alright I can do it. Thanks for the offer though."

"Oh OK. Well I'll watch then."

Leah headed into the barn and grabbed a bundle of hay. Nicole watched as her muscles flexed. THe hay was like a sack of potatoes to her.

"25 pounds each."

"I don't think I could lift that. You make it look so easy."

"I'm just use to it."

She tossed the hay into two stalls. Pointing to the first stall.

"That is Coco's and Vixen's stall. The one next to theirs is Surfboard and Aqua. The cows are held in the other barn. Pigs and sheep out in the field."

"That's cool. Are we ready to start on English now?"

"Yes. I was wondering do you want to get paid for this? I have no problem paying you."

"No don't worry about it. Consider it as a favor."

"Well let's go."

They headed towards the house. Niles the butler greeted them at the door.

"Good afternoon Ms. Leah. Who is this fine young lady?" Nicole smiled.

"This is Nicole Meadows. She's going to help me with English."

"OK you two have fun. I'm off to the market."

Niles bowed and left them alone. Leah stood there for a moment.

"We can either work here at the kitchen table or up in my room."

"Let's go to your room."

"OK follow me."

Leah lead Nicole upstairs to her room. Hoping that Nicole wouldn't mind the posters of the women on her wall and the rainbow stuff everywhere. She put her hand on the door knob bracing herself for what Nicole may think. She opened the door and went in as Nicole followed.

"Make yourself comfortable. I forgot my things in the car. Oh while I am down there would you want something to drink?"

"Yes sure. Water would be nice."

"OK I'll be back in a jiffy."

Nicole sat on the bed as Leah went to get her stuff and the drinks. The posters of the woman on the wall made Nicole blush a bit. Her thoughts disappeared as she heard Leah coming up the stairs.

"OK water for you." She handed the cup to Nicole.

Leah sat down next to Nicole. Her tears were no longer on her face. Leah grabbed the red notebook that was Nicole's.

"Here's your notebook."

"Thanks I was hoping no one else found it. I mean since it was you it was alright you would understand."

"Nicole I have no idea what your talking about. You don't have to tell me anything. It's your secret."

"It's killing me not being able to tell anyone but Jamie."

"Jamie Marshall?"

"Yes. She is the only one who knows beside Steve."

Leah put her finger to Nicole's lips. Soft against her skin they were. Nicole stopped talking.

"We are here to work on English so isn't that what we should be doing?"

"Yeah your right. I'm sorry."

"No need to be." Leah smile sincerely.

Nicole began the lesson. Verbs and Nouns. Then came adjectives. Leah understood them. Time quickly flew by.

"I better get going before it gets too late."

"Yeah. Are we going to do this tomorrow?"

"Yes we are. Same time. Same place."

"Do you still want a ride?"

"Yeah if it's alright."

"Sure it is."

Nicole headed down the stairs as Leah followed. Nicole opened the door and went out onto the porch. Leah grabbed the phone. When she walked out onto the porch Nicole was sitting on the steps. Leah sat beside her handing the phone.

"Thanks. I'll call my mom it shouldn't take her long."

"Yeah."

Nicole hung up with her mom. They sat in silence for a bit. Until finally Leah grabbed Nicole and kissed her.

Content Source: The Head Cheerleader Chapter 3 - Bukisa.com

Continued from Part 1. If you haven't read part 1 yet read it here.

The Head Cheerleader Chapter 2

The bell rang and Leah grabbed her stuff and was about to go out the door when Mrs. Berkley stopped her.

"Leah you need to improve on your grades or your going to fail. If there's anything I can do let me know."

"Yeah OK." Like I am really going to come to you she thought.

Sarah didn't have the time to help. Who would? She thought. She walked out the door and straight into Nicole. Books and papers flew. Both got knocked to the floor.

"Oh I am so sorry." Leah stammered out.

Nicole just shrugged as if it happened everyday to her. Leah gathered her things and then began to help Nicole with hers. Leah reached for the red notebook just as Nicole's hand reached for it. Their hands lightly touch. Nicole pulled away startling Leah.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry. It's fine."

Leah thought of the feeling of Nicole's hand on hers and she liked it. The blue nail polish matched her eyes.

"Thanks for helping me."

"No problem. After all it was my fault and I'm really sorry."

"Ah it's OK. I overheard that you need help with English."

"Yeah I do but I don't know anyone who is willing to do it."

"What about Sarah?"

"She doesn't have the time with work and all."

"Well I can help you if you want."

"You could?"

"Yes so that way you don't fail."

"I would appreciate it. When can we start?"

"How about today after school since there is no cheer-leading practice."

"Sure. Your place or mine?"

"Probably yours. My family is very religious and all. I know that your a...lesbian."

"It's alright I understand."

"I'll meet you at your car after school."

"OK sounds good. Thanks for doing this for me."

"Your welcome."

Nicole smiled and walked away. Leah followed her with her eyes watching her hips sway. Glancing down she realized Nicole forgot the red notebook. Leah picked it up. Hoping to give it back to her as soon as she could.

She headed off to art with Ms. Larissa Gene. She preferred to be called Larissa. The smell of clay filled the room. Ms. Larissa sat behind the desk as the bell rang. Leah came in and sat at her table waiting for the instructions to begin.

"Good Morning class. Today we're going to start our clay projects. Remember it can be anything you want it to be. Be creative!"

With that everyone got to work. Leah already knew what she was going to make. She was good with her hands so this won't take too long to do. It was going to be the best thing she ever created. By the end of the period she had the lower half of her clay model done. The detail was spectacular. Long legs. The curvation of the lips. After-all was said and done it looked perfect. Ms. Larissa walked around and acknowledged everyone's work. She got to Leah and stopped rubbing her chin.

"Wow Leah this is amazing but your going to have to cover up the private area."

"What? Why? It's showing the beauty of a woman."

"I know but you never know what the advisers will think. I personally think it's fine the way it is."

"It's my sculpture. I am keeping it like it is. The advisers can take a chair and shove it up their......" She stopped.

Leah stormed out of the room. Ms. Larissa stood there just speechless.

Leah got down to lunch and it sure was packed. Mystery meat for lunch. Ah no thanks Leah thought. She placed her stuff on the table and went up to grab an apple and some water. She sat down and began to eat her apple. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Nicole sitting with her friends. The curvation of her jaw. Those lips. Leah shuddered. She had to stop thinking about Nicole like that. Nicole glanced over at Leah. Leah turned quickly hoping Nicole wouldn't see that her face was bright red. She quickly got up and left the cafeteria and headed to her car.

Oh fuck she thought Nicole is going to help me with English. She fiddle with her hat as she sat waiting in her car for Sarah and Nicole. Sarah was the first to show. Instead of climbing in she went over to Leah's side.

"I'm getting a ride with Mark. SO you don't have to wait for me."

"Shit you mean I got to ride with Nicole by myself."

"Wait. What?"

"Yeah she's going to help me with my English so I don't fail."

"Sorry Leah I didn't know. You'll be fine though. Plus you think she's cute anyways."

"So what if I do? She's probably as straight as an arrow flying through the air."

"You never know."

"Yeah maybe but I am not holding my breath. I might turn blue."

Sarah left and Leah waited for Nicole. Nicole appeared coming down the hill a couple of minutes later. Tears were streaming down her face. The tears glistened in the sun.

Content Source: The Head Cheerleader Chapter 2 - Bukisa.com

Teens and Friendships

How "good" your parenting is often does not have the biggest role in your child's choice to experiment with drugs. There are many reasons that kids choose to try drugs and lack of time with their parents, lack of communication, and lack of information is not always the reason. Those three factors do often come into play but just because you've spent a lot of quality time with your kids and speak to them about everything under the sun does not make them immune.

This is from an article that I wrote and published on Bukisa (read all of it here).

I think it is important for parents to come to realize and accept that they are no longer the center of their children's universe. In fact, you might not even be on their Top Ten list. No matter how much you love them, how much attention you give them, or how much time you spend with them, there are simply other factors that play a huge role in their lives.

Friendships are one of the biggest influencing factors in teens lives. My daughter comes home and hits the computer, turning on her Facebook account right away. Then she picks up the phone. Sound familiar? She's only been away from her friends for about 10-15 minutes but she feels a need to be constantly connected to them. Why?

I'm not the only one asking this question. Wayne Parker asks the same question in his article, What Friendship Means to Your Teen. He discusses things like changing patterns and social status and give some great ideas for letting your teen have the independence they crave yet keeping them close.

Basically, your teen is changing and becoming the adult that they will be in a very short time. They are learning about themselves and how they relate to the world - where they fit in. They know where they fit with you. You're their parents and you love them (or let's hope that is what they think). Now they need to figure out what other people think about them and whether or not they are happy with that or if they want to change it.

The bottom line is that your teen is changing and learning about themselves and they are going to look outside their home for answers.

A couple of good articles to further your reading:

• Teen Growth and Development - 11-14 years - outlines physical, sociological, and intellectual changes your teen will go through and some tips to help you get through it, too. The thing I've implemented the most in the past couple years? Talk about it! Don't keep it to yourself because then you really are alone but once you start talking you'll find out that you aren't alone at all and you can have a great support team. I talk about my daughter's drug issues fairly often and I'm glad I have because if I hadn't my friend would never have suspected her son of smoking pot. Because she knew I was having issues with it though, she thought to check up on him when things didn't seem right and now her 12 year old son is getting the attention he needs (and yes, it does start that early!).
• Ten Things Your Teen Son Won't Tell You...But He Did Tell Me - great article about teen boys. I'm just getting into this one so I haven't had a huge amount of experience with it yet. I think I'll be referring back to this one!

How have your teens been influenced by friendships? Do they talk to you about it? Do you have other ways of finding out about it? How do you feel about "snooping"? Do you take advantage of tools that are available on the Internet to read messages, check out their Facebook profile?

I'd like to hear what you have to say about teens and friendships so leave a comment!

Loving Your Imperfect Teen

"Yes, Shauna finished the year on the Honor Roll for the third year in a
row. She'll be going into all advanced classes again and she'll likely
graduate in December. I feel so sorry for you for having to deal with
alcohol and drugs - Shauna never did anything like that. And you know,
she's saved up so much money from that part time business that she runs with her
friends that her first few years of university are already paid for. She's
so busy with school and her business and volunteering at the Seniors Centre
three times a week. She's such a good girl!"

Does this sound familiar at all? And no, not because it is your teen but because there's always someone in your life that has that perfect kid that no one can touch? Don't feel bad - I've been there!

If you're here it is likely because you have a teen that is so far from perfect that you have clumps of hair missing and your voice is raw from screaming into your pillow at night. Maybe they are doing minor things and maybe they've managed to find some pretty major trouble. Either way - this blog is for us - for parents with imperfect teens.

My teen is young - not quite 14 yet but I've already had my share of imperfections to deal with. The thing I'm learning is that despite her imperfections - and my own because the answers that I think are right at the time often aren't when I look back at them - is that she really needs my love. She needs to know that I will always love her. And she needs to know that I will love her, not despite her imperfections, but imperfections and all. It is part of who she is. But her imperfections are not all of who she is.

In this blog I'm going to address some serious issues that we come across in the teen years. Many of the will be things that I've gone through myself and some of them will be issues that I know other parents are facing. I would love to have your feedback, I want to know what you want to read about, and if you have a blog that has to do with teens I want you to share it with me so that I can read it.

I'm also going to share some research that I've done. Some of it will be internet based but others may have a more empirical background. I majored in Human Ecology with a Family Studies major in University. My focus was more on families and younger children then but now that I have teenagers I've been doing more research about the teen years. Once again, discussion is encouraged so please leave comments!

Parents - and grandparents and other family members as well - our teens are our future and we have to love them otherwise they may not grow up to love themselve. Let's learn together what we can do to make our future better.