Victoria's Secret
                                          
                                          by
                                          
                                       Octorocks


     "WHOA!! WHATTA BOD!!..."
 
     Dan and Pete's eyes bugged out on their first day of high school at one girl
entering the crowded front yard.
 
     "She walks in Grace," Dan sighed deep his soul, gawking.
 
     "Wow! Lookit that!!" Pete cried, taking in the willowy brunette in a curvy
plaid jumper and leggy red tights and patent-leather pumps following a stocky
fourteen-year-old dude swaggering like a rooster in a barnyard. "Wait! She looks
like -- can't be! Is that -- that Vicki Lawson??"
 
     "Gotta be! That's Jamie with her!"
 
     Dan gulped. "No way! She's tall as a sophomore!"
 
     "Mean tall? She's freakin' grown up -- and out!" Dan swore, shaking his head
and thinking: You come back from summer camp and the junior high babe of your
dreams' starting high school looking like a freaking coed!
 
     "Totally ultimate Awesome!!" Pete swore, astonished and enthralled. "Heard
of girls bloomin' overnight, but she's developed faster than an instant camera!"
Pete pondered. "Maybe it's her big sister!"

     "Naw, she's adopted. She's always been kinda weird -- in a cute way."

     "Worst than weird! She's kinda creepy too! Hardly ever smiles or talks."

     "She's not that bad," Dan defended, "She's just -- kinda shy."

     "Well, weird or shy, sure glad she dumped that flaky dress! Whatta knockout!
Yeah, I know where I'm headed when the guys crash the girls locker room!" Pete
said to Dan's puzzled face. "Don't know? The gang's planning a panty raid!"

     Dan was stunned. "Panty raid?"

     "Bras too -- but beginners' don't count. It's gonna be neat, and since
Vicki's gonna try for cheerleader too, so that makes her even more fair game!"

     Dan smirked, inside laced with misgivings. He still held an unrequited crush
on Victoria Lawson since Grant junior high. "Right. Like they're just gonna hang
around and let us do it, huh?"

     "Girls take showers after P.E. just like guys, right? We're gonna jam their
gym locker room door with bubble-gum between room change and hit 'em soon as
they're wet n' bare!"

     Dan really didn't like the idea. He was long captivated by Vicki Lawson and
suddenly a lot more since today, and as he looked around he noticed several
upperclassmen jocks taking long looks at her miraculous makeover too.

     O freak! Dan swore. No one in eighth grade really knew how many guys moved
on Vicki Lawson because no one ever admitted to being dumped. Well, not dumped
exactly. Vicki was infamous for being indifferent about everything and anything,
including being social, and all the regular sly grins and winks and peacock
struts that guys threw her just didn't seem to register any interest. And in back
of that, that overprotective dork Jamie was always blocking off anyone making a
serious move on her, and you just couldn't jack up a babe's pesky brother and
expect her to like you, though with Vicki he really wondered.

     In any case, they were in high school now with a new yard of hawks ready to
flock after freshmen chicks, and if there was any chance to score with Vicki, Dan
knew he had to do it but quick. Pete may've just handed him some ammo to score
some points with her, or at least make her feel grateful enough to seal his
existence.

     Yep!  The panty-raid gave him a perfect excuse to finally meet her face-to-face
and warn her on the sly. Then move on from there.

     Impatient from two lunchroom tables away, Dan wished Jamie Lawson would
leave and take a whiz or something. He was always hanging around Vicki, almost
worst than a boyfriend.

     Hey, she's gotta leave the nest one day, bro'!

     Dan looked up and saw nice and blondie Jessica sidle up to Jamie and bat her
blue eyes. Dan rubbed his hands.

     All right!!

     Wasn't anything Jessica wouldn't do for a few bucks to rake more make-up and
fancy threads. At least almost anything. It was crazy! Paying a fox to get a fox,
but Jessica was mostly so stuck-up on herself and Vicki Lawson was the most
mysterious hard-to-get chick in town. If he could break her ice every jock would
be patting his back as an Ace-One Stud.

     Jessica sassily swished off and Jamie rose and followed like a drooling fly
vacuumed up by a blonde tornado.

     Right!

     Back at Grant, Vicki was left alone only once a blue moon so it was
blast-off time! In five seconds Dan was sliding his lunch tray on the table just
across from Vicki, the corner of his eye catching several dudes breaking off
their own jumps toward her and muttering at getting tripped up.

     Dan laughed inside himself. Suckers!

     Now the real hard part!

     "Er, mind if I eat here?" he innocently asked at a half-vacant table,
feeling that funny skittishness guys felt first meeting a very pretty girl.

     "I don't mind that you eat here." Vicki said more indifferently than polite
in her strange twangy monotone. Everyone since Grant tried to guess her accent
since she was once an orphan, but no one got it yet. Close up she was even
prettier than he last remembered in June, yet he was startled at how wholesomely
different she looked. Not just seemingly matured almost overnight, but almost --
womanly in a delicately sculpt face framed by fluffy chestnut tresses. She
looked way more like her own curvy sixteen-year-old twin sister than the tiny
thirteen-year-old child in shapeless pinafores, kiddie Mary Janes and fairy
bobbed ponytails that he last saw before summer.

     Unreal!  Talk about puberty on hyperdrive!

     Vicki nibbled her turkey on rye while silently staring at him from a lovely
poker face. It wasn't entirely expressionless, just remote or disinterested,
asthough she were some all-knowing being who was bored with a mundane world. Her
lush feathery eyelashes hardly ever blinked and when she gazed back at you those
big fathomless coffee-brown eyes never wavered, and you got the eerie feeling that
she wasn't actually looking at you, at least not any differently than at a tree or
a rock. And in some vague queer way, Dan felt like he was, well, on television.

     No wonder they call her ice cube! But she wasn't really "cold"; just so
reserved and polite that she seemed it, though her sheer beauty cast a warm enough
glow in place. But she's way hotter than any glow now! he thought amid fantasies.

     Dan cleared his throat and sheepishly averted his eyes up from below Vicki's
deep ruffled collar. "Er, so, Vicki...how'd you spend all summer, huh?"

     "Getting upgraded."

     "Huh? Oh, yeah, know what you mean; Dad's got Windows 95 too. I went to
camp, hiking, fishing, building muscle, you know? And you look...look...er,
really -- nice."

     "It's a new me."

     "Sure is!" he chuckled, catching his cough and collecting nerve and leaning
up. "Er, Vicki, can I tell you a secret? It's -- real important."

     Vicki stopped nibbling and leaned over the table toward him. Dan half
expected her to parrot him so. It was one of those quirks that made her oddness
almost cute, and though there were kids who said she was ditzy or even retarded
because she was so docile and aloof and often misunderstood regular conversation,
no one could say that Vicki Lawson wasn't the smartest student and most agile
cheerleader back at Grant, not to mention one of the prettiest girls which
counted most. And to many guys, Vicki's stoic demure was like an Easter egg of
coy wonders waiting to be cracked by a lucky right guy. And now, having seen her
hormone overhaul, there was an even better reason to.

     "Secret?" she said in a way not really curious but inquiring further.

     "Yeah. see, some of the guys are planning a panty raid in your gym class
locker room soon."

     "Panty raid."  It was funny how Vicki asked a question without sounding it.

     "Yeah, that's when guys bust in and try to grab a girl's -- er, underwear
to show how macho they are, you know?"

     "Underwear," she said without a flutter of appall, abashment or even
concern.

     "Er, yea. That's why I'm telling you. I--I don't want you to be embarrassed
when these fools break in on you all, you know?"

     "Break in. Grab. Wrong."

     Dan thought it was weird how she talked in broken spurts, yet in a queer way
you could almost feel her thinking out each word, like she was kneading and
processing each's inner meaning. Even her eyes seemed to slightly draw back
mulling it like lights briefly dimming when you turn on an air conditioner.

     "Yeah. Like I respect peoples privacy, you know?"

     "Privacy."

     "Yea, and I never take anyone's anything either, least not without asking."

     "Asking. Asking for underwear is right."

     He sighed, psyching himself up. "Yea, that's me alright; always asking..."
He drew a breath of encouragement and glanced around at other wolves stalking in
the background, watching, waiting for him to blow it. "Asking if -- if you'd like
to...to..."

     His proposal stopped, mystified at Vicki busily peering up and down and
underneath the table. "Er, lost something?" Dan asked just as she snatched an
empty greasy brown bag from a passing guy's tray on its way to the trash can.

     "No, I found it."

     "What?"

     "Privacy." Vicki said, without any indication getting up and walking away
with the bag and leaving her lunch and his bewilderment cold.

     Dan blinked, the stone in his chest sinking down a pit while nearby jealous
girls giggled and relieved jocks cackled. "Oh great!"

     "Crash n' burn!!" teased Pete, moving up. "Real cool! Thought you were
gonna ask her out to Terminator 7, not make her grab a barf bag!"

     "Cut it out," Dan muttered, angry and grim as the worst loser getting up.
"I'm the one who got terminated!"
     
     "Sir!"  

	 The cute monotone voice came from behind Dan so suddenly walking home on the
sidewalk that he nearly jumped out of his shoes spinning around at--

     Vicki!

     "Where'd you come from??" Dan gasped, amazed and bewildered. Only a few
moments before he had just glanced behind him crossing the street -- all alone.

     Vicki pointed up the street. "There with Jamie."

     Dan squinted, saw nothing. "I mean, how'd you sneak behind me so fast just
now?"

     "I didn't sneak. I ran."

     "Com'on, not even the Flash's that quick!" Dan scoffed, doubting her like
any sane person would, but her poker face was so sincere looking he decided to
play along. Besides, he thought he'd blown it with her. "Look, I'm sorry if I
said anything wrong at lunch."

     "Lunch. I was looking for you since I left the girls' lavatory but you
left," she said in her even monotone, not disappointed or angry at all as she
handed him a slightly greasy beaten-up brown bag. "This is for you. You asked."

     "Me??" Dan asked, puzzled and began to open the bag before her hand stopped
his.

     "In private too, me boy!" she suddenly said in a funny pantomime like she
was imitating a sly sailor from an old cartoon. Dan wasn't sure whether she was
being cute or mocking him; Vicki was renown for spontaneous impersonations and
its weirdness only added to her fascination. It occurred to him that if she was
so flippant about his blown lines, then anything could be in that bag, and he had
a sinking feeling Pete's assumption was only too true.

     "Er, well, sure," Dan said, looking at the bag and wondering if he ought
hold it too close, in the process dropping two of his textbooks and he stooped to
get them. "Look, I really didn't mean--"

     Dan felt a faint breeze and looked up and was startled by empty air and
glanced all around him at -- nothing. Like Vicki Lawson hadn't been there at all.
It was crazy. There wasn't time for any joker to even dive behind the nearest
tree much less clean out of sight. He shook his head.

     Man, I'm losing it!

     But I got this bag -- from somewhere.

     Her?

     By the time Dan reached home and used his latchkey his bewilderment resigned
into a kind of self-immolating pine:

     Okay, even if it's puke, it used to be part of her so I'll keep it anyway,
his doleful love reasoned as he entered his room, staring and sniffing the bag
for maybe an hour before nerving enough to open it. He was ready to embrace the
worst, but when his eyes peeked he blinked in ten double takes then staggered
back in disbelief, shaking as he got himself together and ever so gently spilled
the lacy contents out on his dresser top.

     Oh Man!

     Can't be!

     Suddenly he was Aladdin finding the magic lamp.

     Ali Baba in the treasure lair of the Forty Theives.

     Back in grammar school getting his first "A".

     Awesome!

     Awesome!!

     AWESOME!!!
     
     A half-hour later Pete scoffed at the lacy 35A and pink silky briefs on
Dan's dresser. "Naw, you're B.S.'ing me!"

     "If I'm lyin' I'm dying!" Dan excitedly said, barely able to contain his
cluck and strut.

     "These can be anyone's! Your mom's, sis's, even some jock's!"

     "Look, it's like I told you; she took them off in the girls' bathroom then
chased me down to give them to me!"

     "But why??"

     Dan smirked. "What else can it mean when a chick throws her skimpies at
a guy, huh?"

     "Drop off the laundromat?"

     "Means she's serious for action n' passion, dufus!" Dan clucked proudly and
suavely, nodding with smug visions of intrigue. Finally! No more only soggy dreams!

     "Yea, I think ole' ice cube's hot and calling for a visit from her fave fire
department!"
     
     It was deep past twilight and Dan studied the Lawson home from almost every
angle walking past a dozen times but he was still puzzled.

     Where's her freakin' room?

     Every window he peeked and ran from was accounted for, but no girls'
bedroom. It was crazy! He heard rumors back in junior high about that dweep Jamie
sharing his room with Vicki, but that was too crazy. Maybe she had an attic room,
yeah, that must be it. Dan slipped behind the driveway hedges of one window and
peeked in to see Jamie Lawson doing homework on his bed.

     Well, he just better not get in my way! Dan avowed just as the bedroom door
opened and lanky Ted Lawson entered, looking more like a vacuum salesman than the
genius Jamie claimed he was. The window was cracked for air so Dan could hear
inside.

     "Finished, dad?" Jamie asked. Ted sighed.

     "Yeah, Jamie. I finally gutted the most valuable components and after I throw
Vicki in the sack I'll be leaving for the lab in an hour or so."

     From the bushes Dan frowned, puzzled.

     "Mom was sure upset knowing what you had to do with her."

     "Your mother gets upset if Vicki gets a splinter. She'll get over it."

     Dan blinked: What's all this going on about Vicki?

     "I'll sure miss her." Jamie said. "Mean, it's like we grew up together."

     "Had to be done, Jamie. I mean that prototype could only simulate growth so
much. But now we can move on a normal life without anyone the wiser now."

     "Yeah, you sure did a great job!" Jamie said in a funny enthralled way that
made him sheepishly shrink under Ted's frown and Ted walked over to the tall blue
cabinet and tapped it.

     "Does this need a lock now, Jamie?" he admonished. Jamie blushed.

     "Er, no dad! Of course not! Er, so where you gonna trash her? The town dump?"

     Dan was startled.

     Trash?

     "Her"??

     Vicki?

     "The plant has a special recycling bin, so nothing will be wasted. The
skeleton will be a problem because it's so tough, so I'll have to use the
diamond saw there to reduce everything to bite-sized chunks first."

     Dan shuddered: Skeleton? What -- what are they taking about??

     Ted sighed. "I'm a mess so I'm going to clean up. Your mother has a chore
for you, so hop to it."

     "Awww!!" Jamie muttered, hurrying out the door with him and Dan, puzzled and
not a little fearful backed up, a creak from the rear fence's gate jolting him to
dash into the bushes bordering the garage window, just missing the sight of a
red-pigtailed tomboy bouncing over to peek in Jamie's window too then huffing and
scurrying around the corner of the house to the back door.

     Dan sighed and idly peeked into the garage and at first blinked because he
wasn't sure by the faint street lights, but when he pushed his nose up to the
glass and strained his eyes he froze in disbelief then horror at the workbench
inside where, surrounded by twinkling electronic instruments, he saw faint pieces
of separated legs, arms, a little torso split in half and emptied and...and a
head of chestnut mane, opened like a coconut...

     Dan shuddered with echoes of a fresh conversation.

     Oh no...no, can't be!

     Horrified yet drawn by morbid concern, he looked for a way in then circled
the garage for another window slightly closer to the workbench, and fighting the
terrible revulsion of it he peered in, his pounding heart flushed cold as he
vaguely recognized the crumpled features of a tress-swept face half-peeled like a
rubber mask from an open empty skull. Even the eyes, her lovely eyes -- gone!

     Oh no!

     Oh no!

     Vicki.

     Poor, poor Vicki!

     There was no doubt. He knew every blemish and birthmark on Vicki Lawson's
face and arms and lower legs, all accounted and present for. They were all a
little smaller put together than he imagined her body ought to be but--

     Man, that's sick!  Me wondering over stupid things like that!

     Oh, Vicki! Poor Vicki!

     Even in his horror and grief he was thankful that it was too dim inside to
see any -- anything red or gore...

     O Gross!

     O Vicki!!

     They killed her! he gasped with horror swelling into rage. Worst! Far worst.

     But Why??

     Was it because -- because they learned what she did? Giving her undies to a
boy? Can her whole family be THAT strict??

     No!

     Oh please, no!

     Dan ran.

   
     What Dan found worst back home was that his grudging dad believed Ted Lawson
over the phone instead of him.

     "Don't believe him, dad! I saw it! I saw what they did with Vicki!"

     "You saw an old store manikin he was fixing for his wife's friend."

     "He's lying through his gums! I saw her! All hacked up into -- into pieces!" 

     "Lawson was also shocked that you were sneaking around his property, and so
am I. So I'm grounding you for two weeks."

     No, no one believed him. So Dan shortly after took his roller blades, snuck
out his window and raced like mad for the scene of the crime and his heart's last
stand. He rolled up just as the Lawson's car backed out of the dark garage in an
apparent hurry.

     No!

     No way!

     Dan skated hard after the car, reaching the rear fender and holding on in a
surfing couch, riding the rough street cracks and cracks and nearly falling, but
he held on like a valiant lover. Luckily the driver was avoiding main highways,
almost sneakily avoiding being seen by other cars. It slightly lightened Dan's
heavy heart with vindication.

     In ten minutes the United Robotronics plant loomed up and Dan moved low over
to the car's opposite side and held on the door handle while Ted Lawson handed
the gate guard a pass and drove on into a parking lot. Slipping behind another
car, Dan watched, his throat crimped and heart stone as he watched Lawson quietly
remove a swollen lumpy green garbage bag from the trunk.

     Dan mewed: He's not getting away with it, Vicki. I swear!

     He thought of calling the guard but sensed he'd have as much luck convincing
him as his dad, especially since Lawson was a respected top engineer at this
place. But he couldn't just let Lawson dispose forever free and clear his -- his
once true crush.

     Diamond saw? Recycle bin?

     No way!

     Dan rushed forth on impulse, anger and adrenalin firing his mad dash as he
hurtled toward Lawson and in one swipe snatched the bag from Lawson's arms, the
sudden weight nearly bowling Dan over but he backpedaled and surged forward just
in time, slinging the heavy bag over his slouched back as he raced for the gate.

     "Stop!!" cried Lawson far behind him. The guard didn't see Dan slew towards
him till too late, and too late to discern what was rushing at him the guard
threw himself aside to the ground, giving Dan the space he needed to duck under
the wooden swing gate and hurtle down the curving driveway and the street beyond.
Cutting through lawns and alleys, grunting under the weight on his back, Dan was
confident there was no way anyone could trace or stop him now.

     Don't worry, Victoria Lawson; I'll take care of them, promise! Dan swore
between tears to the heavy bag on his back, feeling its familiar gross but sorry
protrusions of dismembered humanity.

     It was going to be one long night but it was early enough for a lot to go
down, he felt, and before it was through the Lawsons were gonna pay but good.

       *      *      *
      End of Chapter One