In sophomore year there was a new girl in school. There was nothing special about Mary. Well, that was what everyone else but me thought. I always felt she was special. Ok, so she was not beautiful. Cute perhaps in the girl-next-door way. Not one of the popular girls. While smart far from the top ten students in our class. Not an athlete. Actually, she was prone to various illnesses so she didn’t take PE and was she was away from school for a long time in after Christmas. Not a recluse either . Just one of the girls. But for some reason she was the girl of my dreams.

Yes, I liked her. And even if she wasn’t “anything special” according to my friends. So what if I was wimpy? Wimps have friends as well. That didn’t mean that Mary noticed me. Even if not one of the popular girls she was a bit above me socially. That is until she came back from her illness. She had tried to keep up with lessons but she was definitely behind in mathematic and physics. Subjects that I excel in. I was not hard to convince when the principal asked me to tutor her. To spend time with Mary one on one (and get paid for it!). No, I wasn’t hard to convince.

Familiarity didn’t bring contempt. Mary was smart and fun and a good student. I will not claim that it was because I was great tutor. The tomboyish charm that I had already fallen for kept sucking me in. Yes, I had it bad. The thing is that I had expected Mary to drop me as soon as she noticed. I can’t pretend that I hid it very well. Oh, she didn’t declare her love for me. Far from it but she was nice to me. She made it perfectly clear that she had no romantic interest in me but liked me as a friend. I took it. I’d have taken whatever she offered as long as I could be near her. We spent time together. Often had lunch together. Talked about history and action films. Not exactly what you expected a nice, well brought up girl and a wimp to discuss. So what? That was what we liked and it was damned hard to find anyone interested to talk about that with a girl and wimp. We even started to take long walks in the weekends in the hills surrounding our small town. We did other things as well. Things the girls in school normally didn’t do. Mary really was a bit of a tomboy. Slowly, slowly I noticed small changes in Mary’s attitude towards me. At first she had been very guarded. Who could blame her? She was dealing with a self-admitted infatuated boy. Then there were small signs that she might not be as indifferent any longer to me as she had once claimed. I was hopeful. I was also terrified of doing anything to destroy our friendship.

Then one day I did Mary a favor that demanded something extra of me. It doesn’t matter exactly what. What matter was what it made her say.

“That’s very nice of you Peter. You’d almost think that you’re my boyfriend. Next thing you’ll ask me for a date.” Said with that mischievous smile that I loved.

“Movie and dinner Friday night” I blurted without thinking.

Mary was taken aback but then she got that lovely, adorable mischievous smile again.

“Pick me up at six. Pizza, no burger. The new Secret Sissy Spy film.”

I had planned to see the new Secret Sissy Spy film anyway. I only hoped that SSS4 was as good as SSS3 had been. I loved how a wimpy kid like myself could be the awesome secret spy SSS in reality. Ok the “reality” was fiction but still …

To be honest we were a bit awkward both of us. We had spent quite a lot of time together but not as boyfriend-girlfriend. Puppy love my friends (?), who saw us in the pizzeria and only after more than heavy hints left us alone, claimed.

In the theatre we held hands but neither of us made any move to kiss. The film was great!

As we left the cinema, still holding hands, we talked about the film. About all the special effects, the performance of SSS/Cecil Jane and his fight scenes and so on. All that couldn’t have been just trick photography. That wimpy kid really could do at least some of what was in the pictures even if he had a rather strange style. I was both envious and hopeful. If Cecil Jane could then I could, at least in theory. Then and then I decided to start taking karate classes. I’m afraid I was also a bit too overflowing about Lorna, the blonde romantic love interest. I really liked how she had got a bigger part than in SSS3. She was cute, really cute. I had had a crush on her ever since SSS3. Not a smart thing to say to the girl that you’re having your first date with. Not smart at all. Mary got a bit miffed for some reason.

“Do you know that Lorna is played by a boy? Are you into girly boys?”

Oh, oh. Time to backtrack and tell Mary how much l like her. Not a difficult task. I waxed quite lyrical. And then my curiosity got the better of me.

“How do you know that Lorna is a boy?”
“I just know. Don’t ask me how I know. I just do.”

Talking we hadn’t really thought about where we were going. We had wound up in the town park. A very nice family park – during the day. Not a place to enter at night.

Suddenly there were two big nasty looking thugs coming up to us. One grabbed me so I couldn’t do anything. At first I was more humiliated by how easy it was than I was scared. The other guy grabbed Mary. I couldn’t do anything. The guy ripped open Mary’s blouse and he, just as I, could see that Mary’s perky breasts that nicely filled out the B-cup bra was all silicone. For a moment he just stood there. A moment was all “Mary” needed. She took him out with a few karate moves. A few very characteristic karate moves that I just had seen on the silver screen. The guy holding me lay moaning on the ground seconds later. Well, he only moaned for a short time before one more tap made him unconscious. I wish I could claim I had done that! No such luck.

“Fantastic! You really fight like you do in the picture!”
“Yeah, I had to learn some karate to make it look right. Actually, they gave me quite intensive training.”

And then Mary (despite everything I couldn’t think of her with quotation marks) realized that she just had admitted to being SSS or at least Cecil Jane.

“Please don’t tell anyone. If this gets out my life will be destroyed, again. The last time media found out who I really was, my life became hell. So I moved here and took on the persona of Mary, a girl. That’d throw them off the scent. I just wanted to live a normal life even if it was as a girl. I’m sorry I deceived you. So, I can’t be your girlfriend. I’m really sorry. I had come to like you. Really, really like you.”

At that Mary blushed.

“Friends?” she added in a hopeful voice.

“Who are you really?”
“I don’t know any longer. I’m NOT Secret Sissy Spy. I’m not Cecil Jane. My legal name is John Smith, believe it or not, but that is someone I haven’t been for over a year now. Strangely enough being Mary Johnson had started to grow on me. Partly that was your fault. Oh, well that is water under bridge.”

Mary, who just had taken out two big thugs (fortunately still unconscious), became a very deflated girl next door. Even sobbing. I took her into my arms.

“You know what? Let’s forget about Secret Sissy Spy and Cecil Jane. I just realized I love Mary. She might not be who I thought she is but she’s a lovely girl that I have grown to like and respect. I’ve no doubt she will take me on an amazing journey. Not an easy one but I can’t wait to find out more about her, and hopefully US. And how many wimpy boys like me can feel safe at night during a date?”

“I’ll teach you karate. I’m going to have so much fun with you.”
Ok, that could be interpreted in many ways.
“So you don’t mind that I’m a famous actor and a boy?”
“I’m in love with Mary. I will be sad whenever you’re “ill” but I will survive.”

And I kissed her. She melted into my arms. Well, to be honest we melted into each other’s arms. Quite a nice feeling that I was looking forward to repeating many, many times in the future. Still, I couldn’t resist asking, when the kiss eventually was over:

“Is the boy playing Lorna as good a kisser as you?”
I’m not sure I really love that mischievous smile of hers.
“Better”