Barbie Dolls and Hot Pants | Teen Ink

Barbie Dolls and Hot Pants MAG

By Anonymous

In summer day care, outside had always been my favorite place. Going out was a prelude to another epic adventure. As a tomboy, I stuck with the boys who made up games in which we were all characters with names, personalities, and skills way beyond our real selves. That had to be the best part – being someone you knew you could never be. When I played, I threw my whole being into it. I became that person.

There was only one problem. I, as the only girl, had to be the damsel in distress. Princess So-and-So, who did nothing but sit in the tower and wait to be saved by Sean, who always played the role of my savior since Andrew thought we were destined to be together. My good friend Jake was always arguing, because he wanted to be my victor, and agreed with me that girls shouldn’t always be in distress. He was my closest friend from the first day we played together.

During the summer of fourth grade, I decided to state my issue. Pace, our leader, stood in our little fort (we’d proudly conquered it from the Barbie players) with regal air and told me that I was a girl and that was the way things were going to be. I told him it wasn’t fair, and Lara Croft didn’t need any help from men. He thought about it and looked at Stephen, saying, “She does have a point.”

Stephen shook his head and said, “She isn’t tough enough to be like Lara Croft.”

“I’m tough!” “She’s tough!” Jake and I said at the same time.

Pace sat Indian-style and stroked his bare chin as though he had a beard, and said, “Let us test her skill then, shall we? I say we have her do a mission, and see if she can roll with the men in our … quests.”

Pace was always admired for his wise demeanor and mature word choice, and I respected him, so I nodded, accepting this as fair, saying, “Bring it on.”

My first mission was simple: Sneak up to the girls’ fort, steal a Barbie, and bring it back so we could hold it captive. Pace approved the mission, assigning Jake as my escort. We approached the fort in James-Bond mode, rolling and pressing ourselves against walls like secret agents.

“Are you ready?” asked Jake, with a grin. I nodded, and he stooped so I could climb on his shoulders and peek into the fort’s upper room. The girls didn’t see me, engrossed in making Ken and Barbie get married, as they did every day. They had abandoned Barbie in her “dressing room” as Ken spoke to a friend. The moment was all too perfect.

“A little higher,” I whispered, and Jake lifted me up, resting against the gate behind us to hold my weight. I rose a bit, feeling my skirt drag on the metal behind me as I reached, and reached, and reached …

“Hey!” exclaimed one of the girls.

My world spun, and panic pumped adrenaline through my veins, making my mind run a million miles per hour. I felt my support falter, and I quickly grabbed my captor before tumbling to the ground. There was an awful rip, and I knew (and denied and hoped) it wasn’t, but knew it was – my skirt catching on the fence. As we ran to our fort, I felt it slipping down my legs, so I kicked it off to reveal tie-dyed hot pants. The trip to my safe haven seemed to take forever, and I thought, If my counselor sees me with my skirt off in multicolored hot pants running for my life with a wedding-day Barbie in my hands … and smiled to myself as I imagined his reaction. My smile widened when I saw my friends cheering and yelling. Pace, with all composure gone, was rolling on the floor laughing. I didn’t really care. The excitement of victory was too great to be fazed, and I felt amazing, floating on clouds, or at least running.

My allies rushed me into the fort and blocked the path of the angry girls as Stephen began his negotiations with his sister, the leader of the Barbie players. Jake joined me in the upstairs area, where I sat in Pace’s corner, feeling embarrassment for the first time as the adrenaline died, and tears ran down my face. Never one to pull the macho act, he embraced me in a big bear hug and told me everything was okay, saying I was “totally awesome.”

Of course from then on I was allowed major action-filled roles in our games for my heroic skill, and talk of my skirt incident faded among the boys, except Jake.

He still laughs about it to this day.



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This article has 48 comments.


on Oct. 27 2012 at 6:28 pm
LestyPatrick PLATINUM, Darlington, South Carolina
43 articles 5 photos 21 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, in as much as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and very fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterward carefully avoid"John Keats

I can totally relate to this XD

HOTLOVE said...
on Sep. 25 2012 at 11:44 am
THIS WAS SO AWESOME. YOLO

on Aug. 22 2012 at 11:52 am
KnitsandPurls GOLD, Mahtomedi, Minnesota
13 articles 0 photos 83 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I cannot live without books"
--Thomas Jefferson

Totally corny but oh so cute!! And well-done, too!

on Jun. 17 2012 at 6:48 pm
TMarie42 SILVER, Orland, California
7 articles 0 photos 26 comments

Favorite Quote:
Pulvis et umbra sumus.

Haha, this sounds like something I would do (I hate Barbies and I always hang out with guys). Loved it! Great job!

on May. 4 2012 at 9:44 am
AbbyMarie SILVER, Harlingen, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 19 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail". Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love this! It is so cute! You managed to get me excited about a barbie stealing mission!

on Apr. 12 2012 at 9:37 pm
the3rdkind GOLD, Santo Domingo, Other
11 articles 2 photos 20 comments

Favorite Quote:
One day you are seventeen and planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And that someday is yesterday. And this is your life. - Nathan Scott (OTH)

I loved this article!! Really great voice ;)

on Apr. 12 2012 at 6:13 pm
BloglessBlogger GOLD, Somerset, California
10 articles 1 photo 67 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Don't let the fear of striking out keep keep you from playing the game."

Sounds like some trouble that I would get into... 'Cause honestly I hate Barbie Dolls.

spacer scott said...
on Mar. 6 2012 at 7:51 am
wow i was just amazed by your use of dialogue

Kaffeine said...
on Feb. 6 2012 at 7:13 pm
Kaffeine, X, Other
0 articles 0 photos 25 comments
This is so adorable! I played games like that too...

on Jan. 15 2012 at 11:29 am
EPluribusUnum DIAMOND, Woodbine, Maryland
59 articles 24 photos 280 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head)."
-Sylvia Plath

I remember games like that, I didn't give them up until the seventh grade when my best friend moved away. We'd get all the kids in the neighborhood into it and create these huge lion prides and wolf packs. Those were the days...

on Dec. 24 2011 at 9:28 am
Gumballlover BRONZE, Homer, New York
3 articles 0 photos 39 comments

Favorite Quote:
"The things that may come may not be beautiful, they may not be perfect. But they're for you. HAVE FAITH"

I used to play these games too! I found them sooooo much fun!

novella BRONZE said...
on Nov. 10 2011 at 7:56 pm
novella BRONZE, Greer, South Carolina
4 articles 0 photos 19 comments
loved this! adorable and heroic, which is hard to achieve:) you actually had me excited and nervous about stealing a barbie! it was like being a little kid again:)

Bones96 BRONZE said...
on Nov. 10 2011 at 5:32 pm
Bones96 BRONZE, Charlotte, North Carolina
2 articles 0 photos 108 comments

Favorite Quote:
Life isn't about finding yourself it's about creating yourself-

Very cute I loved this story. Reminds me some what of when I was little kid My friends and I played games like that it was very fun wish I could go back to those days.

Keep up the great writting! :)


on Nov. 10 2011 at 3:31 pm
abedengo-called-benny BRONZE, Valley View, Ohio
2 articles 0 photos 24 comments

Favorite Quote:
Someday you'll be old enough to read fairytales again.

-C.S. Lewis

Does this "too this day" line mean that Jake and her got married?  I hope so...

on Oct. 19 2011 at 3:01 pm
Saphirra BRONZE, Auburn, Pennsylvania
4 articles 13 photos 109 comments

Favorite Quote:
“Falling is just like flying except there’s a more permanent destination.” -Some person on Tumblr

Very good writing! Your descriptions were great and it was just Amazing!!!! Keep up the good work!

on Sep. 27 2011 at 9:26 am
My skirt got caught and fell off too, difference, I was running from my brother, who at the time held a dead snake, my skirt was caught on a branch, and it was in the middle of the schoolyard, and i was thirteen.... not fun to explain to a teacher, and esspecially not fun for my brother.

on Sep. 5 2011 at 3:47 pm
zadiekatie23 PLATINUM, Rio Rancho, New Mexico
39 articles 4 photos 69 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

This was a great article; I enjoyed reading it! Actually forgot halfway through that it was nonfiction! XD You have a gift for storytelling; keep up the good work

on Sep. 5 2011 at 6:01 am
AyeshaMuzaffar BRONZE, Lahore, Other
4 articles 0 photos 98 comments
Awwww....it's such a cute story!

on Aug. 14 2011 at 10:05 pm
Lola_Black GOLD, Harrison, Michigan
11 articles 2 photos 276 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I've always been famous. It's just everybody's just now finding out." --Lady Gaga

Aww! This is so cut and funny! I love it! Do you have any more stories?

on Aug. 14 2011 at 11:46 am
shoelessjoe GOLD, Highland, Michigan
19 articles 0 photos 48 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Don't tell me the sky's the limit when ther are footsteps on the moon"
"Instead of waiting for the storm to pass, learn to dance in the rain"
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams"

This is so cute!!!! and i love that it's nonfiction!!haha keep writing :)