Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Author: Thinking Horndog
Title: Second Best
Part: 003
Universe: Second Best
Summary: A full-length novel that follows several young couples and
their families through the period immediately preceding their Senior Prom.
Keywords: nosex rom
Keywords for full story: F-solo, Ff-inc, M+F Ffm MF mf oral anal bd D/s

Mg-inc Fm-inc mm mmf rom MF-reluc

   Chapter 3 The Dance

   8:00 p.m.  found both groups sitting on the sidelines watching braver
souls move to the music.  The guys had collected by the punch bowl -
drinking sodas, no one in their right mind would touch that awful glop -
and the girls were hanging out near the restrooms.  Rick collected his
troops, and began organizing the recon: "Okay, guys, here's what we'll do -
Let's take off around the right side and circle the place looking for girls
who aren't up dancing that might be worth dating.  Don't limit yourselves
to our list, but keep an eye out for them, anyway.  Let's go separately, a
few seconds apart, so we don't look like we're ganging up on anybody. 
We'll meet back here and compare notes before getting down to the scary
parts." The boys nodded and moved out, Ricky leading, followed a few
seconds later by Bobby, Tim, and Terry.
Dolores was trying to whip the girls into shape: "Come on girls, move it
a little.  Tap your foot or something.  If you don't give the guys some
hint that you might want to dance, you'll be standing here when they turn
off the lights!" Mandi self-consciously began to sway a bit.  "How's this?"



   "You look like a mechanical bull, but it's better than nothing.  Come
on, Jackie, loosen up!  Hi, Dina."

   "Hi, Dolores.  How's it going?"

   "Not so good.  I'm trying to get these two to at least LOOK at the guys.
At this rate, they'll NEVER get prom dates!" Dolores' exasperation was
covering her own nervousness.

   "Well, girls, they're out there, and they're hunting.  For instance,
that's my older brother Ricky trolling about 10 feet out - and I KNOW he's
looking!" Dina announced.

   "He seems kinda nice," said Mandi, "What's he like?"

   "He IS kinda nice - even if he IS my brother," Dina replied.  "Too smart
for his own good, but a decent sort."

   "Isn't that Bigmouth Bobby McCormick?" Dolores asked as he hove into
view, following the patrol route set by Ricky and leering at all comers.

   "Yeah, that's him all right." Dina agreed.  "He's not as awful as he
wants you to think - but that's plenty bad enough.  That big hunk behind
him is Tim Vincent.  Wrestling team hunk, but as sweet and gentle as they
come.  He'll take someone assertive to draw him out, or he'll just orbit
the floor all night," Dina continued, eyeing Dolores sidelong.

   "Who's the little guy?" asked Jackie.

   "Terry Michaels.  Stereotypical computer geek, but he's real sweet,"
Dina related.



   "So how come you know so much about them?" Dolores asked suspiciously.



   "They all hang with Rick.  I know them all real well, 'cause I hang with
them a lot when I'm not with you guys." Dina supplied.  "Sophomores are
idiots, so I have to hang with seniors or go insane.  It's a pain in the
ass being a near-genius!" Everybody chuckled.



   Ricky had reached the nearest point in his patrol route, and had slowed
down to give the girls a visual inspection, casually allowing his eyes to
sweep slowly over them.  His eyes took in Jackie, and while he admitted to
himself that she wasn't hard to look at, redheads had always struck him as
somewhat erratic.  Dina's presence caused a slight frown, "I wonder what
SHE's up to?" he wondered.  But that was a background thought process as
his eyes began to traverse across Mandi.  The above-the-knee skirt and form
hugging white halter-type blouse were a surprise - Ricky was used to seeing
Mandi in baggy looking outfits that left her form hidden.  The legs,
revealed by the short skirt were nice - DAMN nice - smooth and muscular,
and as his eyes drifted upward to her chest, he was doubly surprised, first
by the amount of cleavage displayed, and second by the fact that it was on
display in itself.  Mandi had followed Dolores' suggestions on dress for
the evening exactly, and, while it was still less revealing than normal for
any number of women, this was the least that she had worn in public since
she was 12.  Mandi picked that moment to sway slightly to the music (she
was looking at Tim), and the resulting oscillation of her breasts, which
were not completely under the control of her blouse's tube top underlayer,
stopped Ricky dead in his tracks.  "Jesus!  She's braless, or the next best
thing, and those are NICE!" Ricky wasn't seriously a tit man - actually, he
could usually find something nice on just about any woman, be it hips, leg,
hair, eyes ...  whatever.  But these were seriously deserving of
appreciation, and the effect was as if they had suddenly appeared out of
nowhere!  Ricky froze with his eyes popped, wishing they had zoom lenses.

   Mandy picked up the motion (or lack of it), spotted Ricky staring, and
blushed.  "He's looking at me!  God, what can he see?"

   "He likes it, whatever it is," Dina laughed.  "You're done.  If he does
nothing else tonight, Ricky will ask you to dance."

   Ricky, realizing that he had been caught, shook himself, blushed, and
moved on, giving Dolores a quick inspection.  But it was perfunctory,
despite the favorable review it generated - Ricky was mentally replaying
that vision of Mandi swaying to the music.  He drifted slowly away, his
attention more on looking for a place where he could unobtrusively resume
ogling Mandi than any analysis of other possible targets.

   Bobby decided that just scanning the "meat market" wasn't enough, so he
bore down upon the girls and deployed the full force of his dubious
charisma, starting with Mandi: "Hi Butterball!" (to which Mandi flinched).
"Look who just turned titty pink!"

   Ordinarily, the flinch (and the accompanying oscillation) would have
produced a follow-on comment, but Bobby had already turned his attention to
Jackie, "Hi, Jack-off!  Looking for a snack for later?"

   Ricky DID catch the flinch, AND the accompanying oscillation.  Then the
blush registered, as did the fact that Jackie was standing there
open-mouthed, totally nonplussed at Bobby's gall.  Ricky was out of
earshot, but it didn't take much imagination to figure out that Bobby was
doing his thing.  Then Dolores cut loose: "Bobby McCormick, that is the
nastiest thing I have ever heard!  You get out of here RIGHT NOW!!"

   Bobby looked crestfallen for a flickering instant, then recovered his
aplomb and sauntered off as if nothing had happened, leering over his
shoulder at Dolores.  The girls - Dolores glaring, Jackie trying to control
tears, and Mandi still blushing, looked at each other for support, then in
the direction of the remaining pair of males in the pattern.  Tim was
standing about ten feet away, glaring at Bobby and clenching his fists. 
Dolores watched him slowly get control of himself and begin to move,
tracking a bit further out than Ricky had done.  More surprisingly, over
his shoulder Terry could be seen, literally hopping mad.  Rage seemed to
make the slight boy grow 3 inches, and turned his normally placid face
bright red.  Jackie, seeing this display, made an effort at control in
order to minimize the impact.  Dolores' expression went from anger to
wonder, "Wow!  Who'd have thought Terry packed such a temper?"

   Dina stepped in: "This is serious, girls.  Whether you know it or not,
those guys are every bit as scared of us as you are of them!  Bobby's
little outburst and its effect on us is gonna cause them to be even more
afraid to come around than they already are!"

   Dolores disagreed, "It can't be that serious!"

   "It certainly is!" Dina replied.  "I get out more than the three of you.
I run with Denise a lot," (glancing at Mandi), "and I've discovered that
the male ego is extremely fragile, especially early on, when they haven't
much experience.  Shy guys might ask only one girl to dance, and if she
turns him down, he's done for the night!"

   "Okay, so what do we do?" Jackie wanted to know.

   "Shake off Bobby's bullshit, and make a little eye contact with Tim and
Terry as they come by - that is, if you're interested..."Dina replied.

   Dolores, who had decided that she was, frankly, VERY interested in Tim,
returned his shaky smile as he tottered by, still somewhat more distant
than anyone present really wanted him to be, and Jackie gave Terry an
encouraging nod as he completed HIS reconnaissance.

   As they gathered at their original watering hole, Terry burst out, "What
in the Hell did you say over there?  You had them ALL stirred up!"

   Bobby eyed Terry calmly, "I just said Hi, the way I usually do."

   "Meaning he insulted each of them, in turn," Ricky postulated ruefully,
shaking his head.  "When are you going to learn?  It takes a rare woman to
appreciate being insulted.  Maybe they're too rare.  You may have to do
without - for life!"

   "If you ruined it for us..." Tim rumbled ominously.

   "Nah, everything's fine.  Want me to go first, and prove it?" Bobby
offered.

   "Not on your life!  I don't want your going down in flames to set the
pattern!" Ricky exclaimed.

   "Right.  If nobody else minds, I'm going to try Dolores," announced Tim.
Getting nods from the others, Tim wandered off across the dance floor.

   Across the room, Dina caught the purposeful movement, and decided to
offer a bit more advice: "Look girls, we need to keep the flow going.  If
someone comes over to ask one of you to dance, you should say 'Yes' if at
all possible.  And if the one asked REALLY can't, or REALLY doesn't want
to, one of the other two should volunteer as a replacement.  It's
imperative that we get them out on the floor - we can sort 'em out later."

   "They're really that chicken?" Dolores asked.

   "They'll be dropping feathers all the way across the dance floor.  If
you get up now and head for the ladies room, and he's on the way, he'll
think you saw him coming and avoided him.  If you catch his eye in the
process, he'll probably go straight home, crushed.  Guys are fragile. 
Girls in the 'A' group go through them like a combine through a wheat
field. Some of them are never the same." Dina looked up, locating Tim,
whose forward progress was getting slower and slower as his nerve gave out.
"Here comes our first fish of the day.  One of you be sure and catch him -
it'll set the tone for later action!"

   The three girls locked eyes, the result of the nonverbal communication
being Dolores announcing "Right!" and turning a bright smile on Tim, who,
heartened, again began to shuffle toward the girls.  "Hi, Mandi, Jackie,"
Tim mumbled, nodding at them, before visibly running out of steam, looking
at Dolores.

   "Hi, Tim!" Dolores said, brightly.

   "Hello, Dolores, would you like to, uh..."

   "Dance?  Yes," Dolores replied, and Tim looked down to find her hand
dropping into the one he had been unconsciously slowly raising.  He looked
at it for a moment, surprised, as he absorbed the unaccustomed sensation,
then looked up into Dolores' smiling face, smiled tentatively, and began to
gently draw her onto the floor.

   "I'm not too good at this," he confided.

   "Practice makes perfect," was the response.  After that, joy began to
set in.

   "Well, Tim's got his," Bobby observed, "And now I'm gonna get mine!" He
moved off, briskly.  Ricky and Terry just looked at one another.  "He's
gonna get smacked!" Terry postulated.

   "One good thing - we can't come off looking worse.  If he doesn't piss
them off generally, we'll be knights in shining armor by comparison,"
observed Ricky.

   "That's a BIG 'if'", Terry complained, morosely.



   Bobby wasted neither time nor ceremony.  Arriving in front of Jackie,
his conversation starter was: "So, wanna dance?"

   Jackie, remembering previous conversations, smiled sweetly but said,
"Bobby, I'd sooner kiss a snake than dance with you!"

   Bobby didn't blink - but he didn't think, either: "A trouser snake?" he
asked, leering.

   SMACK!  Jackie open handed him across the left cheek, furious.  Dina,
who had been standing in the background with Mandi, quietly announced, "You
can leave now, Bobby..." Mandi glanced at her oddly, unable to understand
why she had apparently enjoyed the byplay.  As Bobby wandered off, looking
perplexed and rubbing the bright red patch on his cheek, Dina calmly
announced, "Well, that was unfortunate, but richly deserved.  The side
effects should be obvious: We're going to have to be particularly welcoming
to our next guest.  The good news is that we've established for everyone
ELSE in the room that we have SOME standards!"

   Dina needn't have worried.  At the sound of the slap, Terry was off like
a shot, bearing rapidly down on the girls, furious.  "What in the Hell did
he say to you, Jackie?" he demanded.

   "Another cocksucking joke," said Dina, rolling her eyes.

   "I'll KILL HIM!" Terry roared, whirling.

   Jackie, while visibly impressed, knew that the situation required
defusing, and took the opportunity afforded by catching Terry's swinging
arm as he spun away.  "No, no, it's OK, Terry.  It was just Bobby being
Bobby, and he's already been paid off.  Let's dance!" she announced,
dragging Terry onto the floor as a diversion.

   "Now THAT's how it's DONE!" murmured Dina, grinning, as Terry,
recovering from his anger, slowly realized that - somehow - he was doing
the thing he had been nerving himself to do all night.

   Terry looked about, self-consciously, as he moved to the music "I don't
do this very well..." he mumbled.

   Jackie grinned, "Girls tend to learn to dance from each other, but guys
seem to think that's a homosexual activity.  So they learn on the dance
floor.  Don't worry about it."

   "Maybe you could, uh, teach me a few things?" he asked.

   "Maybe..." Jackie replied, with a sidelong glance.  "For now, just keep
your feet in the vicinity of the floor, and we'll fake it."

   Meanwhile, Tim was proving to be less trouble than Dolores had
anticipated.  While obviously just learning, he was much more graceful than
expected given his size, and was able to cover a misstep with blinding
speed.  He made few mistakes, except when distracted - and since trying to
absorb Dolores with his eyes seemed to be his primary distraction, she
figured there was little room for complaint.  In fact, after three long
fast dances, Dolores was rapidly tiring, while Tim's athleticism left him
still fresh, despite the unaccustomed nature of the exercise.  Nonetheless,
Tim detected the problem and reluctantly asked "Do you want to sit down a
while?" as the song finished, a proposal that Dolores gratefully accepted.
When she sat in one of the folding chairs lining the wall near where they
started, Tim was left trying to figure out what to do with himself: He
didn't want to leave, but didn't want to force himself on Dolores, either.
He murmured, "Thanks for the dances." and was beginning to turn away,
looking for the others, when Dolores discovered that he thought that he had
been dismissed.  "Why don't you sit here with me?" she asked.  Tim,
grateful for the reprieve - having looked around and discovered Terry
engaged with Jackie, and Ricky headed toward the group, he really had
nowhere to go - settled into a chair, trying to figure out what he was
going to do for conversation.

   Ricky, having observed blinding success on the part of Tim and Terry had
shaken off the fears engendered by Bobby's debacle and began approaching
Mandi, who, absent the support of her girlfriends, was attempting to blend
with the wall.  But progress was slower and slower, because the more he
looked at Mandi, the more he began to feel outclassed.  "Jesus, she's
gorgeous!" he thought, "How did I managed to ignore her this long?" The
follow-on thought, "She won't want to do anything with the likes of me!"
wasn't far behind.  Fear won over motivation, and he drifted to the right -
towards his sister, who was watching him with an amused expression. 
"What's so amusing?" he asked.

   "The fool I'm looking at," Dina responded, "Anyone with half a brain,
knows you were headed over here to ask Mandi to dance, and the fact that
you just chickened out is just as obvious!"

   "But I'm - she's...uh", stammered Ricky.

   "She's standing against the wall, acting shy," Dina responded.  "She
hasn't danced with anyone yet, and she's waiting for YOU to try, Dufus! 
Now get over there, and don't take 'No' for an answer!" Ricky gathered
himself and resumed motion in Mandi's direction, and Dina muttered under
her breath "Jesus, I should get paid for this!  What a group of idiots!"

   Ricky, reenergized, approached Mandi.  Unfortunately, distractions
caused by nervousness, the unaccustomed view and his reactions to it robbed
him of his usual capacity for snappy repartee: "Uh, hi - wanna dance?"

   Mandi was scared to death.  She favored Ricky with a "deer in the
headlights" look, and was about to mumble 'No' and simultaneously attempt
to disappear into the wall behind her when she caught Dina over Ricky's
shoulder rolling her eyes in frustration while waving her arms and mouthing
"YES!!!".  This allowed her to gather herself, remember what she was there
for, squeak out a meek "Okay", and place her suddenly sweaty hand in
Ricky's equally sweaty grasp.  Ricky led her gently onto the floor, where
they began to diffidently move to the music, trying to assess each other's
assets and capabilities.

   Jackie and Terry had had two dances to start getting comfortable with
each other.  The memory of his fury had gone far to offset Terry's owlish
looks in Jackie's eyes, and Terry found the flashes of fiery personality
emanating from Jackie's fragile body equally pleasing.  Having long since
calmed down, Terry was still bothered by the incident with Bobby.  "What
did that fool say to you?" he asked.

   "Well, first, he asked me to dance," she returned diffidently, "But I
was damned if I was going to after he called me Jack Off before!  Well, I
got too cute in my response, and left him an opening he couldn't pass up,
and he insulted me again.  So I let him have it.  Really, it was partially
my fault - I told him I'd rather kiss a snake, and the 'trouser snake' quip
popped out before he even knew it was coming, I think!"

   Terry started to grin, then turned serious, "I don't know why he can't
let that nickname thing alone - he knows you were drugged and raped!  The
whole thing's not fair!"

   Jackie stopped dead on the floor and went white.  "Who told you!?!" she
gasped.

   Terry assessed the reaction and decided to be discreet, "Someone who
thinks you got a bum rap.  I can't agree more.  To be victimized, then have
the whole incident turned around into some kind of kinky slut party thing -
and getting dragged through the mud over it - that sucks!"

   Jackie recovered, and resumed dancing, "Well, they were trying to cover
their asses, in case I remembered who it was.  I'm pretty sure of a couple
of them, but they're long gone, and good riddance." She was just about to
complain about what it did for her social life when she realized that,
there in front of her, was someone who didn't believe her reputation, and
didn't care about it, either.  She began smiling fondly at Terry, which
didn't hurt his mood one bit.

   Tim, in search of SOMETHING to say, turned to Dolores and asked "Want
something to drink?"



   Dolores, somewhat surprised, said "Sure."

   "What would you like?  I don't trust the punch, but there are some
sodas..." Tim waxed positively polysyllabic.

   "A Coke?" Dolores replied.

   "Sure." Tim popped up from his chair and made his way to the
refreshments table, where he discovered that Coke was not in evidence. 
'Better to be safe than sorry' he thought, so he returned to Dolores and
asked, "There doesn't seem to be any Coke.  Is Pepsi OK?  There might be
some Coke in the machines outside, but they might not let me back in..."

   Dolores was thoroughly taken aback.  Tim had shown her more courtesy in
this one incident than she was used to from ANY male, with the possible
exception of her father.  Despite the fact that it wasn't a favorite, she
responded, "P-Pepsi will be fine, Tim." Tim, having no idea how many
brownie points he had just collected for simply doing what he considered
right, set off to obtain the sodas.

   Tim returned with the sodas, was graciously thanked by Dolores, and
again settled gingerly into the folding chair.  This time, however, Dolores
was unwilling to let the conversation lapse.  Turning to Tim, she asked,
"What do you see when you look at me?"

   Tim didn't see where this was going, but he figured he wasn't in trouble
yet...  "An extremely beautiful woman."

   Dolores smiled, "No, I mean ethnically.  Race, color, that sort of
thing."

   "I dunno," Tim replied, "Does it matter?  It looks good on you...  I'm
not really deep into the race thing.  Is it important to you?"

   Dolores, whose mixed ethnicity had caused her to be treated as 'less
than black' by blacks, and basically ignored by others was somewhat taken
aback by this blithe lack of concern.  "I'm half black..." she said,
looking into his eyes.

   "OK," he replied, wearing an expression that said 'Where is this going?'
Obviously, it was a matter of complete indifference to him.  He pondered
for a moment, then asked "What's the other half?" The question in his voice
was not the one spoken, but rather 'Is this what you wanted me to say?'

   Dolores was convinced.  Nobody could dissemble that well.  Tim didn't
give a damn that she was a racial mongrel.  "I'm sorry, Tim," she
apologized.  "It means a lot to some people.  I needed to know if it was
important to you."

   Tim frowned, trying to puzzle out the implications.  "I don't see how.
Whatever the mix, the results are quite a sight to behold.  Unless there
are genetic implications..."

   "None that I am aware of," Dolores interjected.

   "...I can't see any reason to get excited about it.  You want to get it
all out?"

   "The other half is Indian." Dolores responded.

   "Well - there it is.  I can't date you." Tim's brisk tone had her
looking up, glaring - only to find him grinning from ear to ear.  "Which
hemisphere?  Eastern, or Western?"

   "Eastern," came the smiling reply.

   "Cool.  Are we done with this?" he asked.

   "It would appear so," came the reply, accompanied by a bright smile.

   "Good.  Let's go dance."