Author: Thinking Horndog
Title: Second Best
Part: 031
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

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 31
Tuesday afternoon:  The Michaels'

	After school, Jackie met Terry in the parking lot.  The day had gone
surprisingly well - Terry had attained some freedom the previous evening,
and Ms. Hazeltine had proven to be every bit as pliant as hoped.  She
approved the plan for an extra credit project to insert fund transfer
functionality into the bookkeeping software that the class was utilizing as
a project, and after looking at the pair for a moment and smiling gently,
approved a more than generous 4 week timeline for the project.  The couple
decided that the initial evening of 'project work' should occur at Terry's
house.  So it was that Jackie entered the Michaels' home behind a whistling
Terry, after a quick kiss on the porch to steady her nerves.

	Ellen looked up from the shopping list she was creating, "Hello
Sweetheart, how was sch...?" She stopped dead in mid-sentence.  There was a
GIRL behind Terry, standing rather nervously in the living room!  Jackie
might as well have been a creature from outer space; Ellen was caught
totally unprepared.

	"Hi, Mom.  This is Jackie.  She's my partner for a project Ms.
Hazeltine assigned us in DP class."  Terry's voiced was studiedly casual.

	Ellen got up, came over and shook Jackie's hand, gently.  The
"Pleased to meet you" was in a decidedly bemused tone, however.  Her baby
brought a GIRL home?  Ellen stepped back and blatantly examined Terry's
guest - and had to admit, grudgingly, that she liked what she saw.  Jackie
was a classic auburn redhead, slight, freckled, and small breasted, with
that hint of softness to her flesh that redheads can be heir to.  Ellen
blinked, shook her head, and said, "Sorry - Terry never brought home a g - I
mean Terry seldom brings home guests."  Turning to Terry, she asked, "Where
are you two planning to work?"

	"Well," Terry temporized, "We're gonna need a system - I figure up
in my room..."

	Ellen arched her eyebrow, "I think not!  You can use the system in
the den!"

	"Aw, Mom!  I'll have to spend all kinds of time setting up and
dragging crap across the LAN from the systems in my room!"

	"Perhaps - but I'm sure Jackie's mother would be much more
comfortable with this arrangement than the idea of her spending time alone
in a boy's bedroom!"

	The couple shared a significant glance.  If ANYTHING was certain it
was that!  Terry gave in without grace, shrugging angrily.  In fact, he
hadn't expected to succeed with the ploy - he was just setting the stage.
If it had worked, however...  The couple turned and moved toward the den,
carefully NOT touching each other in Ellen's presence.

	In reality, the den wasn't such a bad place.  The shared workstation
was in a corner away from the windows (to keep glare off the monitor) and in
the one location in the room most difficult to see from the entry.  Next to
it, and shielding it somewhat, was the large couch that the Michaels tended
to populate while watching the TV on the opposite wall.  There were two
office chairs to facilitate video game play, so both teens had a place to
sit.  Terry commenced a thoroughly businesslike system start, then dashed
upstairs to start the systems in his room.  When he returned, Ellen was
still standing in the door, staring bemusedly at Jackie - who was ignoring
her as she spread their working papers over the desktop from her backpack.
"Will you be needing anything, Sweetheart?" Ellen asked.

	Terry passed a look with Jackie, and responded, "Maybe some Cokes,
Mom?"

	Ellen nodded, and swung sedately out.  She continued at this pace
until out of Terry's line of sight, then made for the telephone in the
kitchen at a dead run.

	Paul Michaels glanced up at the flashing light that indicated that
the telephone was ringing.  He had had it installed because the telephone
was hard to hear above the roar of the a/c and system power supplies in the
crowded room.  He exited the data center and picked up the extension in his
cube.  "Paul Michaels."

	"You held out on me, didn't you?" came his wife's voice, have amused
and half irate.

	"Huh?"  Paul responded.

	"Terry brought home a GIRL from school today - ostensibly to work on
some DP project!  They're in the den, now!"

	Paul absorbed this in silence.  Frankly, he was surprised at Terry's
speed and ingenuity.  "Did it ever occur to you that it might be an innocent
homework collaboration?"

	"Part of me hopes not.  She's CUTE - I've got to admit!"

	"Really?" Paul was surprised that his wife was taking things so
well.  The girl must be a knockout!  Typically, Terry hadn't said... "What's
she look like?"

	"About Terry's height, thin, freckles, dark red hair..." Ellen knew
that Paul wouldn't recognize 'auburn'.  In her experience, men distinguished
color - generally - but only had names for a broad range, rather than
individual shades.  On the other end of the phone, Paul was entertaining his
own thoughts 'Bust development never seems to come up when one woman is
describing another - at least to a man!' he thought, amused.

	"Well, at this point, I recommend that you not get too excited about
it.  I'd be happy about ANY interaction with girls that Terry is having -
he's a bit late off the mark!"

	"But..."  Ellen wasn't quite ready to let it go.

	"You don't like the girl?"

	"I don't know - we've barely passed two words!"

	"And if she just doing a project with him, that's all there need
ever be!" Paul pressed hard, trying to instill reason in Ellen's thought
processes.

	"But what if she's some kind of slut or something?"

	Paul grinned into the phone.  "Terry will need to learn about THAT,
too, at some point."

	"You're absolutely impossible!" Ellen exclaimed, and hung up.  She
went to the refrigerator, extracted the Cokes, and took them back to the
den.  Peering around the corner, she found them seated side by side,
virtually joined at the hip as they both examined a flowchart developing on
the screen.  Something about the picture both pleased and bothered her, but
she could not identify it until she announced herself and they separated and
rotated their chairs to accept the cans of soda.  The pair had been TOO
close - it had pleased her that they seemed to fit together like two parts
of a jigsaw puzzle, but bothered her that two people with nothing between
them but a data processing project would be making SOME effort to maintain
some personal space.  Still, Jackie displayed proper manners upon accepting
the cold can, and they hadn't been doing anything demonstrative...

	...except that, out of sight between them, Jackie's right hand had
been tucked into Terry's left as he manipulated the mouse.

	Ellen made a point of surreptitiously checking on the pair every 15
minutes.  Each time, she found nothing obvious - just an intense feeling of
familiarity.  Whatever position she found them in - Jackie bent over Terry's
shoulder pointing to a diagram, or Terry resting his hands on the back of
the task chair as Jackie typed at the keyboard - she could detect nothing
untoward, except for the fact that each invaded the other's personal space
with absolute impunity.  What she didn't realize was that on every approach
she would step on the spot in the living room floor that caused the A/C duct
below to give out it's distinctive ping, alerting the couple to her comings
and going quickly enough for her not to discover Jackie kissing Terry or
Terry massaging Jackie's shoulders.  That background noise was a part of her
environment, and it never occurred to her that it could also function as an
alarm.

	At 6:00 p.m., Ellen made herself visible.  "Will Jackie be staying
for dinner?"

	Jackie looked at her watch. "Ohmigod!  I'm late!  Mom will kill me!"
Hurriedly, she gathered her stuff and dashed for the door, whipping past
Paul, who was just arriving home.

	"Want me to go along and make the excuse?" Terry wanted to know.

	"No, its okay," Jackie replied as they piled into the wagon, "Just
get me home!"
	Terry's car made short work of the couple of blocks' difference in
their addresses.  As they pulled up, Jackie scrutinized the windows, then
leaned over and gave Terry a quick peck.  "Tomorrow!"

	"Tomorrow!"  Terry agreed, and watched her go.

	Back at the Michaels', Paul was comparing his quick glimpse with
Ellen's longer appraisal.  "She looked pretty good - but I didn't get time
for anything in-depth..."

	"Oh, she's cute all right - and they played it real cool - but
nobody operates that close to a casual acquaintance, ESPECIALLY Terry!
They're up to something!"

	"So?"

	"I don't know whether to be happy, or throw a fit!"

      "I'd suggest the former..." Paul offered, grinning.  "Besides, she
doesn't look like a man-eater to me."