Forever . . .

  There’s a first for everything.

  When you build up something in your mind—really imagine it, wish for it—sometimes, when it actually happens, it doesn’t live up to your expectations.

  True love is nothing like that.

  Especially not for Katherine and Michael, who can’t get enough of each other. Their relationship is unique: sincere, intense, and fun all at the same time. Although they haven’t been together all that long, they know it’s serious. A whole world opens up as young passion and sexuality bloom.

  But it’s senior year of high school, and there are big changes ahead. Michael and Katherine are destined for another big “first”: a decision. Is this the love of a lifetime, or the very beginning of a lifetime of love?

  “A convincing account of first love.”

  —New York Times Book Review

  Simon Pulse

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  Cover designed by Russell Gordon | Cover photograph copyright © 2007 Jupiter Images

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

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  Books by Judy Blume

  Adult

  Wifey

  Smart Women

  Summer Sisters

  Young Adult

  Tiger Eyes

  Letters to Judy: What Kids Wish They Could Tell You

  Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories

  by Censored Writers (edited by Judy Blume)

  Middle Grade

  Iggie’s House

  Blubber

  Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself

  It’s Not the End of the World

  Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

  Then Again, Maybe I Won’t

  Deenie

  Just as Long as We’re Together

  Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson

  The Fudge Books

  Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

  Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great

  Superfudge

  Fudge-a-mania

  Double Fudge

  Picture Books and Storybooks

  The Pain and the Great One

  The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo

  Freckle Juice

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Atheneum Books for Young Readers

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 1975 by Judy Blume

  Copyright renewed © 2003 by Judy Blume

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole

  or in part in any form.

  Atheneum Books for Young Readers and is a registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Also available in an Atheneum Books for Young Readers hardcover edition and a Simon Pulse paperback edition

  Designed by Mike Rosamilia

  Library of Congress Control Number 74022850

  ISBN 978-0-689-84973-2 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4169-3400-4 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-44246-780-4 (eBook)

  FOR RANDY

  as promised . . . with love

  Contents

  Judy Blume on Forever . . .

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  About Judy Blume

  Judy Blume on Forever . . .

  This book was first published in 1975. My daughter Randy asked for a story about two nice kids who have sex without either of them having to die. She had read several novels about teenagers in love. If they had sex the girl was always punished—an unplanned pregnancy, a hasty trip to a relative in another state, a grisly abortion (illegal in the U.S. until the 1970’s), sometimes even death. Lies. Secrets. At least one life ruined. Girls in these books had no sexual feelings and boys had no feelings other than sexual. Neither took responsibility for their actions. I wanted to present another kind of story—one in which two seniors in high school fall in love, decide together to have sex, and act responsibly.

  The seventies were a time when sexual responsibility meant preventing unwanted pregnancy. Today, sexual responsiblity also means preventing sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. In this book Katherine visits a clinic and is given a prescription for The Pill. Today,she would be told it is essential to use a condom along with any other method of birth control. If you're going to become sexually active, then you have to take responsibility for your own actions. So get the facts first.

  1

  Sybil Davison has a genius I.Q. and has been laid by at least six different guys. She told me herself, the last time she was visiting her cousin, Erica, who is my good friend. Erica says this is because of Sybil’s fat problem and her need to feel loved—the getting laid part, that is. The genius I.Q. is just luck or genes or something. I’m not sure that either explanation is 100 percent right but generally Erica is very good at analyzing people.

  I don’t know Sybil that well since she lives in Summit and we live in Westfield. Erica and I decided to go to her New Year’s party at the last minute for two reasons—one, because that’s when she invited us, and, two, we had nothing better to do.

  It turned out to be a fondue party. There were maybe twenty of us sitting on the floor around a low table in Sybil’s family room. On the table were a couple of big pots of steaming liquid Swiss cheese and baskets of bread chunks. Each of us had a long two-pronged fork, to spear the bread, then dip it into the cheese. It tasted pretty good. I had gotten about two bites when this guy said, “You’ve got some on your chin.”

  He was on Erica’s other side, sort of leaning across her. “You want me to wipe it off?” He held out his napkin.

  I couldn’t tell if he was putting me on or what. So I told him, “I can wipe my own chin,” and I tried to swallow the bread that was still in my mouth.

  “I’m Michael Wagner,” he said.

  “So?” I answered, as Erica shot me a look.

  She introduced herself to Michael, then tapped me on the head and said, “This idiot is my friend, Katherine. Don’t mind her . . . she’s a little strange.”

  “I noticed,” Michael said. He wore glasses, had a lot of reddish-blond hair and a small mole on his left cheek. For some crazy reason I thought about touching it.

  I looked away and went back to spearing chunks of bread. The guy on my other side said, “My name’s Fred. I live next door to Sybil. I’m a freshman at Dartmouth.” Unfortunately he was also a creep.

  After a while I tuned him out but he didn’t know and kept blabbing away. I was more interested in what Michael was saying to Erica. I wondered where he went to school and h
oped it was some place close, like Rutgers. Erica told him that we’re from Westfield, that we’re seniors, and that we’re spending the night at Sybil’s. Then Michael introduced her to somebody named Elizabeth and I turned around in time to see him put his arm around this pale dark-haired girl sitting next to him. I pretended to be interested in Fred the Creep after all.

  At midnight Sybil flashed the lights on and off and Fred wished me a Happy New Year, then tried to stuff his tongue in my mouth. I kept my lips shut tight; while he was kissing me I was watching Michael kiss Elizabeth. He was much taller than I first thought and thin, but not skinny.

  After the party we helped Sybil and her parents clean up and somewhere around 3:00 a.m. we trudged upstairs to bed. Sybil conked out as soon as her head hit the pillow but Erica and I had trouble getting to sleep, maybe because we were on the floor in sleeping bags, or maybe because Sybil was snoring so loud.

  Erica whispered, “Michael’s a nice guy . . . don’t you think so?”

  “He’s much too tall for you,” I told her. “You’d only come up to his belly button.”

  “He might enjoy that.”

  “Oh, Erica!”

  She propped herself up on an elbow and said, “You like him, don’t you?”

  “Don’t be silly . . . we barely met.” I rolled over, facing the wall.

  “Yeah . . . but I can tell anyway.”

  “Go to sleep!”

  “He asked me for your last name and your phone number.”

  I turned around. “He did?”

  “Uh huh . . . but I guess you don’t care about that.” She buried herself inside her sleeping bag.

  I gave her a half-hearted kick. Then we both laughed and fell asleep.

  Erica and I have been friends since ninth grade. We’re a good pair because she is outspoken and uninhibited and I’m not. She says she has to be that way to compensate for her size. She’s just four-feet-ten—so when I said that she would come up to Michael’s belly button I wasn’t kidding. Everyone in her family is tiny. That’s how her great-grandfather got their last name. He came to this country from Russia, not speaking a word of English. So when he stepped off the boat and the man in charge asked him his name, he didn’t understand. Instead of just calling him Cohen or Goldberg, the way the immigration officers did with so many Jewish refugees, this man sized him up and wrote down Mr. Small. Erica swears if she ever marries she will choose someone huge so that if they decide to have children the kids will at least have a chance to grow to normal size.

  Not that being little has hurt anyone in her family. Her mother is Juliette Small, the film critic. You can read her reviews in three national magazines. Because of her Erica is positive she’s going to get into Radcliffe, even though her grades aren’t that hot. I have a 92 average so I almost died when I saw my college board scores. They were below average. Erica scored much higher than I did. She doesn’t fall apart over really important things and I’m always afraid I might. That’s another difference between us.

  The phone rang at noon the next day and woke me. Sybil jumped up and ran to answer it. When she came back she said, “That was Michael Wagner. He’s coming over to get his records.” She yawned and flopped back on her bed. Erica was still out cold.

  I asked Sybil, “Does he go with that girl, Elizabeth?”

  “Not that I know of . . . why, are you interested?”

  “No . . . just curious.”

  “. . . because I could drop a hint if you want me to . . .”

  “No . . . don’t.”

  “I’ve known him since kindergarten.”

  “He’s in your class?”

  “My homeroom.”

  “Oh . . . I thought he was older.”

  “He’s a senior . . . same as us.”

  “Oh . . .” He seemed older. “Well . . . as long as I’m awake I might as well get dressed,” I said, heading for the bathroom.

  Sybil and I were in the kitchen when the bell rang. I was picking raisins out of a breakfast bun, piling them in the corner of my plate. Sybil leaned against the refrigerator, spooning strawberry yoghurt out of the carton.

  She answered the front door and showed Michael into the kitchen. “You remember Katherine, don’t you?” she asked him.

  “Sure . . . hi . . .” Michael said.

  “Oh . . . hi,” I said back.

  “Your records are still downstairs,” Sybil told him. “I’ll get them for you.”

  “That’s okay,” Michael said. “I’ll get them myself.”

  A few seconds later he called, “Who’s K.D.?”

  “Me,” I answered. “Some of those albums are mine.” I went downstairs and started going through the pile. “Are yours marked?”

  “No.”

  I was making a stack of K.D.s when he said, “Look . . .” and grabbed my wrist. “I came over here because I wanted to see you again.”

  “Oh, well . . .” I saw my reflection in his glasses.

  “Is that all you can say?”

  “What am I supposed to say?”

  “Do I have to write the script?”

  “Okay . . . I’m glad you came over.”

  He smiled. “That’s better. How about a ride? My car’s out front.”

  “My father’s coming to pick me up at 3:00. I have to be back by then.”

  “That’s okay.” He was still holding my wrist.

  2

  Everyone says that Erica has insight. I suppose that’s how she knew I was interested in Michael before I admitted it to anyone, including myself. It’s true that I come on strong with my sarcastic act sometimes, but only when I’m interested in a guy. Otherwise I can be as nice and friendly as they come. Erica says that means I’m insecure. Maybe she’s right—I just don’t know.

  A few minutes after we pulled out of Sybil’s driveway we drove past Overlook Hospital. I told Michael I work there every Thursday after school. “I’m a Candy Striper,” I said, “and I was born there too.”

  “Hey . . . so was I,” he said.

  “What month? Maybe we slept next to each other in the nursery.”

  “May,” he said.

  “Oh . . . I’m April.” I sneaked a look at him. His profile was nice but I could see he’d broken his nose more than once. His hair reminded me of Erica’s golden retriever, Rex. It was exactly the same color.

  Michael drove down the hill into the Watchung Reservation. “I used to ride here,” he said.

  I pictured him on a Honda XL 70.

  “I had this one favorite . . . Crab Apple . . . until the time she threw me and I fractured my arm.”

  “Oh . . . a horse!” I laughed.

  He glanced over at me.

  “I thought you meant a motorcycle,” I said. “I’ve never ridden a horse.”

  “I figured that . . . you’re not the horsey type.”

  Was that good or bad? “How can you tell?” I asked.

  “I just can.”

  “What else can you tell?”

  “I’ll let you know later.” He smiled at me and I smiled back. “You have nice dimples,” he said.

  “Thanks . . . everyone in my family has them.”

  He parked the car and we got out. It was cold and windy but the sun was shining. We walked down to the lake. It was partly frozen. Michael picked up a handful of stones and tossed them across the water. “What are you doing next year?”

  “Going to college.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I said. “I applied to Penn State, Michigan and Denver. I have to see where I’m accepted. What about you?”

  “University of Vermont, I hope. Either there or Middlebury.” Michael took my hand and pulled off my mitten, which he shoved into his pocket. Holding hands, we started walking around the lake.

  “I wish it would snow,” he said, squeezing my fingers.

  “Me too.”

  “You ski?”

  “No . . . I just like snow.”

  “I love to ski.”
br />   “I know how to water ski,” I told him.

  “That’s different.”

  “Are you good . . . at skiing, I mean?”

  “You might say that. I could probably teach you.”

  “To ski?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’d be nice.”

  We walked all the way to the Trailside Museum and had a look inside, before Michael checked his watch and said, “We better head back.”

  “Already?”

  “It’s after 2:00.”

  My teeth were chattering and I knew that my cheeks would be bright red from the wind. I didn’t mind though. My father says I look good that way—very healthy.

  When we were back in the car I rubbed my hands together, trying to get warm, while Michael started up the engine. It stalled a few times. When it finally caught he pumped the gas. “I better give it a minute to make sure,” he said.

  “Okay.”

  He turned to face me. “Can I kiss you, Katherine?”

  “Do you always ask first?”

  “No . . . but with you I don’t know what to expect.”

  “Try me . . .” I said.

  He took off his glasses and put them on the dashboard.

  I wet my lips. Michael kept looking at me. “You’re making me nervous,” I told him. “Stop staring.”

  “I just want to see what you look like without my glasses.”

  “Well?”

  “You’re all blurred.”

  We both laughed.

  Finally he kissed me. It was a nice kiss, warm but not sloppy.

  Before he let me out at Sybil’s house, Michael stopped the car and kissed me again. “You’re delicious,” he said.

  No boy had ever told me that. As I opened the car door all I could think of to say was, “See you . . .” but that wasn’t at all what I meant.

  3

  “I met a very nice boy,” I told my mother that night, “even though he’s still in high school.” Mom was in her bathroom, trimming her toenails. “He has this reddish-blond hair and wears glasses. He likes to ski.”

  “What’s his name?” Mom asked.