Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 The Trailer Park: The Second Year

   Wizard

   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - Standard Disclaimer.  This is a work of fiction for
adults only.  If you are under the age of eighteen, please immediately do
what I would have done when I was your age.  Which is, delete this story
from your hard drive and/or leave this internet site.  I know you've left
now like the good little boys and girls you are.  But if you haven't or for
the rest of you, enjoy.

   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - Author's Note: Special Thanks to Russell Hoisington for
his hard, hard work in making this almost readable.  His long hours of
correcting spelling, and punctuation are appreciated (though he says I've
almost mastered paragraph structure).  Thanks also to the Night Hawk for
his comments and suggestions.

   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - One Last Note: This is a repost with some minor
corrections.  The Trailer Park started as a short story, then took on a
life of it's own.  The Trailer Park: The Third Year will follow shortly,
and eventually there will be six years.

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- - - - - - - - - -



   Chapter I



   Paula rolled over.



   This may not seem like a momentous event, but it was the high point of
my day so far.  I watched as she rolled off her stomach and onto her back.
She arched her back for a second or two, pushing her chest high and
straining the fabric of her bikini, then settled back on the beach towel
and relaxed.



   I knew I was staring, and a second before Tami slapped the top of my
head I sensed she knew it too.  We were sitting on our own towel, backs
propped up against the fence.



   It was a beautiful September day, two clouds played tag in the blue sky.
A lite breeze was blowing, just enough to make it comfortable to sit in the
hot sun.  Not too hot, not too cold.  A perfect day, marred only by the
realization that it was our last day of freedom.



   I turned my head to grin at Tami.  Then I blatantly looked down at her
right breast.  She cuffed the back of my head again.  "What?" I complained.
"I thought you just didn't want me checking out the other scenery."



   "You're incorrigible."



   "Yep," I agreed.  I glanced up and then leaned down and gave Tami's
breast a quick kiss.



   Tami glanced up, then giggled and pushed me away.  "You do realize that
my mom is in the house?"



   "It's her house.  She's allowed."



   "Yeah, but it's a house with windows.  You know, glass, see-through."



   "Did you have a point?"



   Tami looked up at the sky.  I wondered if she was beseeching a deity. 
And if so, which one and for what.



   "The only good way to shut him up is to kiss him," came a voice from the
other side.  I looked over and saw that Paula had risen to one elbow and
was watching us.



   Tami blushed, then leaned over and kissed me.  I mean she really kissed
me.  Not that it was our first kiss, but usually in public all I got was a
quick peck.  Tami put her soul into this one.  Her tongue shot into my
mouth like a bullet, and I could almost feel every one of her taste buds as
they rasped over mine.



   She broke away almost a minute later, quickly looking toward her house
to see if she'd been observed.



   "You two are sickening," Paula observed in a disgusted tone.



   "It was your idea," Tami pointed out.



   "Get a room." Paula lay back and closed her eyes.



   "What's with you today?" I asked just before the light dawned.  "Gary!"
Paula's eyes shot open again.  "He dumped you."



   Paula propped herself up on her elbow again.  "So what?'



   "I'm sorry," Tami said softly.



   "He's an idiot.  Only a fool would dump you."



   "You did," she accused.



   I was confused.



   Tami came to my rescue.  "No he didn't.  You two only fooled around. 
You never went together, so he never dumped you.  He wouldn't have.  If you
two had been going together, I wouldn't have stood a chance."



   Paula looked mollified.  "So how is he?  Does he fuck good?"



   I almost choked.



   I figured that Tami was turning bright red and trying to disappear.



   "He's awesome."



   I spun my head to look at her.  She was smiling without a trace of
embarrassment.



   "Damn!  I was afraid of that," Paula said with a grin.



   I stood, strode to the diving board, and jumped up.  You know that old
saying about discretion and valor.  If Paula and Tami were going to discuss
my virtues as a stud, I was going to give them room.  One part of me wanted
to listen, but I knew from experience that two girls discussing virtues
could become two girls discussing faults in the blink of an eye.



   I stepped to the end of the board and took an experimental jump.  It was
a lousy board.  I knew that.  But I always tested it.  I guess I hoped it
would get better.  As I checked my bounce, Mikee and Kelly stepped out of
their trailer and started walking toward the pool.



   I waited until they got in the gate and waved.  They ignored me so
efficiently that the temperature dropped at least five degrees.  They set
down their towels and other stuff and tested the temperature of the pool
with their toes.  I swallowed and stepped backward to the end of the board.
The two sisters hadn't said more than a dozen words to me since I'd
clobbered their brother Kenny.



   I looked around.  Tami and Paula were still talking intently, and Mikee
and Kelly were ignoring me.  It was like having the whole pool to myself. I
stepped forward, hurdled to the end of the board, and launched myself as
straight up as I could.  I flipped one-and-a half times and came almost
straight back down.



   My old diving coach used to say a perfect dive would take off a layer of
skin as you passed the board.  He did point out that you had layers to
spare.



   I didn't take off any skin, but I didn't miss the board by more than a
couple inches.  My entry was as close to perfect as I ever came.  One
bucket.  My old team used to judge water entries by the number of buckets
of water you kicked up, and it was a small bucket.



   As I broke the surface I was grinning.  Then my grin slipped away. 
Tami's friend Tabby was standing at the door to her trailer, and Tami's mom
was leaning out and pointing this way.  I pictured a three way conference
of Tami, Tabby, and Paula and wondered if I should just sink to the bottom
of the pool and try to set a world record for staying underwater, say two
hours.



   Then I remembered that my mom, bless her heart, had been nagging my dad
for a month to build an awning over the back door of our trailer.  We had
all the lumber.  I pulled myself out of the pool and walked over to Tami
and Paula.



   I grabbed my towel.  "Got to run.  Chores." I was heading for the gate
before they realized I was leaving.  I nodded to Mikee and Kelly, who
turned their backs on me, and held the gate open for Tabby.  As I closed
the gate, I wondered where Alana was this afternoon.  Add her and Allie and
you could have a hell of a conference.



   I wondered what virgins thought about as they were hurled into the
volcano.



   * * *



   "You left in a hurry," Tami said as she sat on the back steps.



   "I had to get this done," I said as I nailed the second to the last
board to the framework for the awning.  I'm not really a handy guy at
construction, but we'd already poured the concrete for the footings.  The
rest was pretty much nail board A to board B, attach board C, repeat.



   "Funny, how you suddenly remembered."



   "A good thing, too," I said as I climbed down the ladder to get another
board.



   "I could have sworn I heard your mom ask your dad to do it, and he said
this weekend."



   "He, uh, delegated."



   "Uh huh." She watched as I nailed the last board in place.  I wiped some
sweat off my forehead, almost putting my eye out with the claw of the
hammer.



   "Tony, can I ask you a question?"



   I have never wanted to say `no' more in my life.  "Anything." I surveyed
my work from the top of the ladder.  "Would you hand me the level, I want
to make sure this is straight," I said, hoping to change the subject.



   She stood, picked up the level where I had leaned it against the
trailer, and brought it over to the ladder.  She lifted it up to me,
holding it just out of my reach.



   I reached for it, looking down at her.  When our eyes locked, she held
it high enough for me to grab.  As I did she asked, "Are you lying to me?"



   I wanted to say `no', and laugh it off.  "Yes."



   She let go of the level and I straightened and laid it on my frame.  It
was perfect.  I was amazed.



   Tammy picked up a board and handed it to me without my having to ask for
it.  "Because of Tabby?"



   "Uh huh," I mumbled, having put half a dozen nails in my mouth.



   "Why?" she asked after I'd nailed them all.



   I nodded toward another board and waited until Tami turned her back to
me.  "You and Paula were already dissecting my sexual prowess.  I just
didn't want to be there when Tabby put her two cents in."



   Tami laughed as she handed up a board.  "I would never ever discuss your
sexual prowess with Tabby.  For one thing, I don't want my love life to be
news at eleven."



   "Oh," was all I could say before I filled my mouth with nails again. 
Having three hands would have been much more efficient design if you ask
me, or maybe a prehensile tail like a monkey.



   "Remind me to kiss you when you get off that ladder."



   "Remind me to kick you in the balls," said another voice.



   I looked down.  Mikee and Kelly were standing behind Tami.  Mikee stood
fists on hips looking like a Valkyrie.  A pissed off Valkyrie at that. 
Kelly fidgeted beside her.



   I set the hammer on the board I'd just partially nailed in place.  I
pulled the rest of the nails out of my mouth and put them next to the
hammer.



   I climbed down, claimed my kiss from Tami, and faced my little warrior
and her sister.  "Hi, girls."



   "I want to know, and I want to know now, why you beat up my brother!"



   "I didn't beat him up.  I just hit him.  Twice."



   "You broke his nose," Mikee accused.



   "And knocked out three teeth," Kelly added.



   "It..." They'd asked before.  Together and separately.  I hadn't told
them because he was their brother and I didn't think they should know.  "It
was just something between us."



   "But you hurt him bad," Kelly whined.  I could tell that Kelly really
wanted me to have a good reason.



   "Your brother..." Tami started to explain.



   "Tami!" I snarled.  Tami's head jerked up, surprised at my tone of
voice. "It was just something between us." I repeated for the girls.



   "I don't think we can be friends anymore," Mikee declared sadly.



   "I'm sorry."



   Kelly rushed up and grabbed my hand in both of hers, "There had to be a
reason."



   "This is ridiculous," Tami said.  "Tell them."



   I couldn't bring myself to tell the two girls what their brother had
done.  Girls should think their big brother is special, shouldn't they? 
Could I take that away from them?  On the other hand, they were both smart
girls.  If they hadn't figured out their brother was a jerk, they would
soon.



   I moved to the steps and sat down.  I waved the girls to me.  They came
forward, and I picked up Kelly and sat her on my left leg.  I looked up at
Mikee and waited.  It took a minute, but she stepped forward and sat on my
other leg.  I put my arms around the girl's waists and just held them for a
minute.



   "Mikee, what do you think would have happened if I'd broken Peter's
nose?" Peter was their second brother.



   "Alana would have beat the crap out of you and Mom would have called the
sheriff and had you put away," Kelly answered before her sister.



   I looked at Kelly.  "Don't say crap.  And did Alana try to beat the crap
out of me?"



   Kelly shook her head.  "She got grounded for some of the things she said
about you, but that was all.



   I looked at Mikee.  "Did your mom call the sheriff?" Mikee shook her
head no.



   "Do either of you think she loves Kenny less than Peter?" They both
shook their heads.  "Do you think she might have decided that there was a
good reason for what I did?" They nodded.



   "Kenny got what he deserved," Tami added.  I looked up at her and shook
my head as a signal to say no more.



   "I think it's great that you two are loyal to Kenny.  Family loyalty is
important.  I'll understand if we can't be friends anymore, and I'll miss
you." I sighed.



   "There was a good reason for what happened, but I hope you'll both
believe me when I say you're better off not knowing."



   I kissed each girl on the forehead and then pushed them up off my lap. I
stood.  Mikee took Kelly's hand and they started to walk away, then turned
and Mikee looked at me questioningly.



   "If you ask me again, I'll tell you.  But you really don't want to
know." Mikee nodded and the two of them walked off.  I knew Mikee would
ask. Not right away, but someday she would ask.  I didn't think Kelly ever
would.  As I watched them turn and walk up the road, I wondered if we were
friends like before, just friends, or something else.



   Tami stepped up to me and kissed me hard.  No tongue but hard.



   "What was that for?" I asked when I got my breath back.



   "You handled that great."



   "We'll see how I handled it.  Grab a board and let's get this finished,"
I said as I climbed back up the ladder.



   "You should be in the State Department."



   "Bite your tongue.  Diplomats are a step below lawyers."









   Chapter II



   "I heard you're the guy to talk to."



   You know how a car engine can over-rev when it's not in gear.  That's
what my brain was doing.  A small part of it wanted to know, "Heard from
who?  Talk to about what?" The rest of it was scanning every pixel of the
picture in front of me.  A last small part of it was willing my cock not to
rip through my jeans.



   She was my age, plus or minus a year.  Copper red hair that hung to her
belt.  Right now that hair was loose with some of it hanging down her front
over her left breast and the rest down her back.  She was a little taller
than I was, maybe an inch at most.  And the breast that wasn't obscured by
hair looked about softball size.



   Her white t-shirt with a picture of the three Jimmy Neutron girls was
tied off at her midriff.  She wasn't wearing a bra, and I could tell that
her areola was about the size of a Kennedy fifty-cent piece and topped with
a nice pointy nipple.  Short cut-offs and legs that did a lot more than
just reach the ground completed the picture.



   When I'd opened the door, she had a basic hello-type smile, but now that
changed to a grin.  "You're Tony aren't you?  Speak English?"



   "Uh..."



   "Habla Espanol?"



   "Uh..."



   "Parlay-view Fran-case?  German?  Latin?  Swahili?"



   My brain was slowly spinning down, and I tried to remind myself that I
was in love with what's-her-name.  I mean, Tami.



   "Uh, I'm Tony."



   "He speaks.  That's a start."



   I knew I was being insulted, but I didn't care.  Her voice tasted like
honey with just a little tang.  God, southern accents were so sexy.



   "You wanted to talk to me?"



   "I'm Robbie.  I go to your school."



   "No you don't," I said automatically.  If she'd been there I'd know.



   She laughed.  "Silly.  I just started Thursday."



   She'd gone to my school for two days and I didn't know it.  I must have
been high on something.



   "I don't think so.  Our school is for mortals, not angels," I said
before I could think about it.  What a corny line.



   Robbie giggled.  "I can see I need to watch out for you."



   She looked past me at the living room, and I realized that I was keeping
her standing on the porch.  I opened the door wide and motioned toward the
sofa with a half-bow.  Robbie giggled again but stepped inside and moved
toward the sofa.



   I glanced around outside, then closed the door behind her.



   She was sitting on the sofa, leaning against the back with her hands
behind her head and her legs slightly open.  The position made her chest
stick out.  She'd brushed her hair back, and now both nipples strained
against the cotton material.  The crotch of her cut-offs was only about two
inches across, and I could see hints of her lime green panties on either
side.



   I'm not sure that I ever would have stopped staring, except I'd stopped
breathing and eventually the need for oxygen brought me back to the world.
As I looked up into her eyes I could tell she'd been studying me.  There
was a rumor that we were going to dissect a frog this year and then study
it's insides under a microscope.  Now I could empathize.



   I settled on the arm of the sofa, a habit my mom hated, and tried to
look at her normally instead of like a pedophile at a third grade picnic.



   She nodded, then smiled.  "I need a favor."



   `Anything!' I wanted to shout.  My CD collection.  My baseball cards. 
My bank account which represented about eight hundred hours of mowing lawns
and pulling weeds.  My first born son.  Hell, Tami and I had talked about
having six kids, I was ready to sign them all over right now.



   "A favor?"



   "Yep.  And Miss Calloway, well, she thought y'all'd be the one to help."



   I cocked an eyebrow.  "Laying it on a little thick?"



   "Excuse me?"



   "Your accent.  You were laying it on a little thick."



   "Guilty," she said with a smile.  "Sometimes boys..." She glanced at me
to see if I was offended.  I smiled.  "Boys are a little more compliant
when I do Scarlett O'Hara."



   "Just be Robbie Whatever and we'll be compliant enough,"



   She giggled again.  "Robbie Tate.  Roberta Elizabeth Marie Tate."



   "Roberta?"



   "Pretty bad," she said with a nod.  "That's why I go by Robbie.  The
last time a boy called me Roberta was in the second grade.  I punched him
in the mouth."



   "So if I call you Roberta, I should have my guard up?"



   "Be a good idea," she said with a grin as she made a fist.



   "So what's this favor you need?  And this time without channeling
Scarlett."



   Robbie cocked her head and looked me in the eye.  "You know who she is?"



   "This may not be the deep South, but a few smuggled copies of 'Gone with
the Wind' have made it up here.  I read it last year, just before we moved
here.  I thought it was a good story but over-rated." I'd read it on a bet
with my old English teacher, Mrs.  Wheeler.  I read 'Wind' and she read
Heinlein's 'Citizen of the Galaxy.' I still think she got the better part
of the deal.



   "Wow.  Maybe I haven't reached the end of civilization after-all."



   "Actually, we're the next to the last stop before the end of
civilization."



   This time we both grinned.



   "So what's this favor?" My mind raced ahead, and I pictured her saying
that she was horny after a long trip and needed a good fuck.  I didn't
bother to figure out why Miss Calloway, the girl's P.E.  teacher would have
recommended me.  I just pictured Robbie naked on all fours on the floor and
me aiming my battering ram at her ramparts.



   "Well, we just moved here from Tennessee..." she interrupted my
daydream.



   "What part?"



   "Chattanooga."



   "Right on the Georgia border."



   "You know it?"



   I smiled.  "I've got a cute cousin who lives in Athens."



   "A kissin' cousin?"



   "I'll never tell," I said with a smirk.  Actually I wouldn't kiss Talia
on a bet.  She was sixteen and most closely resembles a ferret.  I had a
feeling that she was going to marry a blind man or die a virgin.  Actually,
she wasn't a real cousin.  Dad had a couple buds from high school, that
Traci and I called uncle, so their kids became cousins.

   "And why would you leave Tennessee and come here?"



   "A job.  My dad's company is building a plant, and he'll oversee the
construction and then run it."



   "And now that you're here, you need a favor?"



   Doggie style.  Please let it be doggie style.



   "I've got a little problem."



   If there's any justice in the world, your problem is nymphomania.



   "And Miss Calloway suggested me?"



   I can handle nymphomania.



   "She said you have a way of getting what you want."



   I actually stopped thinking about sex long enough to analyze that
statement.  I think Miss Calloway just paid me a back-handed compliment.



   "And just what is that I want?  Or rather, that you want me to want?"



   "Well..."



   Fifteen minutes later Robbie had finished explaining, and I knew I was
going to help even if it didn't involve sex.  I got up, stretched and went
to the phone.



   "Who are you calling?"



   "My girlfriend," I admitted reluctantly.  "We're going to need her
help."







   Chapter III



   "Think fast!" I said and tossed the football underhand to Mom.  She was
sitting on the sofa and had to lean forward to catch it.



   "What have I told you about playing ball in the house?" she asked as she
brought the ball up by her ear and fired a soft pass at me.



   "Let me see..." I said as I tossed it to Dad.  "Something about don't."



   The ball went off the tips of his fingers and bounced against the wall.



   "Especially with your father," she said with a nod and a sigh.



   "Hey, I'm not that bad," he protested.



   Mom and I looked at each other and grinned.  Then we looked at Dad.  "Of
course you're not," we said in unison.



   "Well just who taught Tony to throw a perfect spiral?"



   "I did," Mom said.



   "Who taught you to throw a baseball?  Answer me that."



   "Mom did."



   "Maybe Traci will let me play Barbies with her," he grumbled.



   I stepped over to his chair.  "Jim Thorpe you're not." I reached up and
ruffled Dad's hair the way he used to do to me.  "But I wouldn't trade you
in on anybody."



   "Remind me to raise your allowance."



   "You just did, dear.  After he built the awning last week," his wife
reminded him.



   "Well, I can raise it again, can't I?"



   "Not unless Bill Miller plans to give you a raise.  We'll have to trade
him in on a cheaper son." Mom grinned at me, making sure I knew she'd never
trade me in.  "Good game tonight.  You guys humiliated the Badgers."



   "So how come my all-star son, who is Jim Thorpe reincarnated, spent most
of the night receiving instead of throwing," Dad wanted to know.



   "Uh, sore arm." I reached up and started rubbing my left shoulder to
emphasize the point."



   "Anthony, you're right handed," Mom reminded me.



   "Oh yeah." I grinned and switched to rubbing my right shoulder while my
parents exchanged a look.



   "Well that new guy did a great job at quarterback.  I would have thought
that with Jake sick and Tyler's broken finger, and then you with your sore
arm, the Rebels would be in trouble.  But that new guy throws better than
you."



   I had a feeling that Mom was trying to get a rise out of me with that
last crack, so I decided to ignore her.  "Almost as good," setting the
record straight.  "By the way, Mr.  Parker would like to see one of you on
Monday."



   My parents exchanged another look.  Mr.  Parker was the vice principal
at the school.



   "Why?" they said together.



   "He seems to think I have an attitude."



   "You've been here half a year and he's just figuring that out?" Mom
sounded amazed.



   Dad was less amused.  "What kind of attitude?"



   "He said something about thinking that rules didn't apply to me."



   "And just what gave him that idea?"



   "I would like to point out that a wise man once told me that rules were
a guide not an absolute." Mom shot dad a very dirty look.  "And a pretty
woman explained her eight arrests for civil disobedience in very similar
words."



   Dad grinned and Mom laughed.



   "I saw a show on TV about a great boarding school.  They'll let him
shoot guns and run through obstacle courses," she said.



   Dad shook his head.  "Honey after what our military has been through in
Afghanistan and Iraq, I just don't think it's fair to inflict Tony on
them."



   "I am still in the room," I reminded them indignantly.



   "So what happened?"



   "Mr.  Parker's version is probably shorter."



   "Any less biased?"



   "Both versions are probably biased," I said after a few seconds thought.




   "Well the game's over and there's nothing much on TV, so let's hear the
long version," Dad said.  Mom moved over and sat on the arm of his chair.



   I sat down on the sofa facing them.  Court was in session.



   "Would I hurt my chances if I pointed out that when I sit on the arm of
a chair..."



   "Yes!" Mom said.



   "It all started last week when we got a new student."



   "Wouldn't happen to be a quarterback would he?  Arm like a cannon?" Mom
asked.



   "If you want the abridged version, wait for Monday."



   "Point taken.  Honey shut up." Mom glared at dad and clamped her mouth
closed.



   I grinned and continued my story.  "HER name was Roberta Tate, but
anybody who plans a long life calls her Robbie."



   "Robbie.  That's cute.  Is she?"



   Dad pulled Mom down onto his lap and put his hand over her mouth before
nodding to me to go on.  Parents could be such a trial.



   "She started here on Thursday and went to see Mr.  Feldman.  She wanted
to play football."



   Mom's eyes got big and she must have bitten Dad, the way he jerked his
hand away, but she didn't interrupt.



   "Mr.  Feldman has some set ideas about girls in sports and..."



   "Mr.  Feldman is a male chauvinist pig."



   "Mr.  Feldman is a male chauvinist pig with some old fashioned ideas
about girls in sports and told her no."



   "I thought there were some federal laws about that?" Dad asked.  "Title
three or six or something."



   "I think it's title nine, but Mr.  Feldman had an out.  The season's
already started.  The team's set.



   Dad nodded.  "And next year...  I assume she's an eighth grader?" I
nodded.  "Next year she's Branson's problem at the high school."



   "Got it in one," I confirmed.



   "So how did you get involved?"



   "Robbie went to Miss Calloway, the girls P.E.  teacher.  Miss Calloway
told her she couldn't interfere but suggested that she talk to me, since
I'm the quarterback and the leader of the team."



   "I thought they voted Brian Greene captain?"



   "In name only.  I'm the heart and the soul of the Rebels."



   "Getting deep in here," Dad said.  "Your son can sure shovel it."



   Mom twisted in his lap to look him in the eye.  "How come when he builds
an awning he's your son, but when he's piling on the B.S.  he's mine?"



   "I calls `em as I sees `em."



   Mom turned back to face me, accidentally driving her elbow into Dad's
stomach.



   I grinned.  At least they didn't act this bad in public, and I was used
to it.



   "She stopped by on Saturday."



   "And she batted her eyes at you, and you decided to ignore the coach and
put her on the team all by yourself," Mom accused.



   "It wasn't her eyes that got my attention, but yeah, something like
that."



   Dad grinned, and Mom's elbow accidentally lodged itself in his stomach
again.  I hate those eyes in the back of her head.



   "Let me guess: you got her suited up and snuck her on the field without
the coach realizing he had a girl on the team," Mom said dryly.



   "That's the abridged version, but something like that."



   "What if she'd got hurt?  How did you know she could play?" Dad wanted
to know.



   "Well, this week Robbie and I spent some time throwing the ball around,
and I knew she had an arm."



   "There's more to football than passing," Mom reminded me.



   "I also borrowed some pads from the school and..."



   "Stole."



   "Creatively acquired some pads and I gave her some good hits."



   "You tackled a girl?" Dad said with a little of his own chauvinist side
coming out.



   "When I could.  She moves pretty good.  Besides I saw some video tapes
of her playing in Tennessee."



   "But what if she'd got hurt?" Mom wanted to know.  "No release forms, no
insurance."



   "Her release forms were signed and her insurance paid."



   "Without Feldman knowing?"



   "I had some help in the office." Mom arched an eyebrow.  I covered my
mouth with my hand as I said "Tami..." then uncovered my mouth and
finished, "filed all her paperwork just as if it had come through the
coach."



   "Not sure I got that son.  Who filed the paperwork?" Dad asked,
grinning.



   "Let's just say a person high up in the administration." Tami was an
office aide third period.



   "So after you creatively acquired her a uniform and pads, and creatively
filed her paperwork, how the hell did you creatively get her on the field?"



   Mom's elbow started back, but Dad caught it.



   "Well, Tami helped her get suited up in the girl's bathroom, and in the
second half, when I told Coach Feldman that my arm was too sore to throw, I
told him that I'd been working with Robbie..."



   "And he assumed that Robbie was a guy?"



   I nodded.  "He probably figured that Robbie was off the second or third
string.  He kinda ignores all of them.  Robbie had her helmet on, with her
hair tucked up under it and the collar of her uniform.  With some face
black under her eyes, he didn't realize a thing."



   "That's why you waited for the second half?  You didn't want her in the
locker room at halftime?"



   I nodded, Dad could be pretty sharp sometimes.  "That, and I wanted to
get a couple points on the board." We'd been up thirteen zip at the half.



   "The guys in the huddle had to know," Mom suggested.



   "They did, as soon as Robbie opened her mouth.  I told them to trust me
and that it was a don't ask, don't tell situation with the coach."



   "What did Alex think of all this?" Mom asked with a twinkle in her eye.
Alex played center.



   "You mean about having a girl with her hands between his legs?" I
laughed and they nodded.  "I didn't ask and he didn't tell."



   "I'm surprised you didn't volunteer to play center yourself, instead of
moving to end," Mom said with her eyes still twinkling.



   "Surprised me too."



   "So what did Feldman say after the game?  I assume that Robbie took her
helmet off."



   I nodded.  "The coach was kinda speechless.  Though he did mumble
something about a couple hundred laps."



   "What about Robbie?"



   "After that game, I'm pretty sure she's on the team.  But somebody let
it slip to Parker..."



   "Mr.  Parker," Mom corrected.



   "...  Mr.  Parker about how Robbie had gotten into the game, and that's
when he told me that he wanted to see you Monday."



   Dad sighed.  "I'll call him in the morning and set up a meeting for the
afternoon.  It'll give me an excuse to skip out early."



   "I'll handle Mr.  Parker," Mom said definitely.  And I knew from the
tone of her voice that it was a done deal.  It didn't hurt that I'd struck
a blow for women's rights.  Two of Mom's arrests were from protests for the
ERA.



   "Not so fast, buddy," Mom said as I'd started to stand.  "You're
grounded!"



   I started to protest, then nodded.  I had played a little fast and loose
with the system.  "How long?"



   "I think, nine o'clock."



   I glanced at the clock.  It was eight forty-five.  I managed to keep a
straight face as I turned and started out of the room.



   "What does Tami think of Robbie?" Dad asked my back.



   "Likes her, hates her body."







   Chapter IV



   "You want to fuck her, don't you?"



   Hell yes!  "Do you really think that's a fair question right now?"



   "Fair?"



   "Fair.  Tami, I think I love..."



   "You think?"



   How did a nice peaceful Saturday afternoon with my girlfriend turn into
a fight.  "Tamarone Elizabeth Sharp.  I am thirteen years old, and while I
think I'm in love, I'm smart enough to realize that I don't have the
experience to really know for sure."



   "You don't have to bite my head off.  Geez."



   We stared at each other.  No, that's not right, we lost ourselves in
each others eyes.



   Tami broke the spell.  "You were telling me why asking a question isn't
fair."



   I sighed.  "It's not the asking.  It's the question.  And the timing."



   "What's wrong with the timing?"



   "You may not have noticed, but there's something long and hard sticking
in your pussy."



   "I noticed." Tami started rocking again.  "But it's not that long."



   If I hadn't been flat on my back with Tami riding my cock, I would have
walked out in a huff.  Well, maybe not.



   "And how would you know?"



   "I've been around," she said with an air of worldliness.



   "Oh really." I grabbed her shoulders and rolled.



   "Oh, kinky.  The guy on top.  What will they think of next?"



   I was beginning to understand most guys' appreciation for dumb blondes.
Someone who would moan on cue and not talk.



   Tami's feet settled on my back, one heel on the small of my back and the
other rubbing the top of my butt crack.  I tried to keep most of my weight
on my hands and knees, but thrust forcefully into the teenaged girl.  I
guess I was trying to prove just how long I was.



   "So, do you want to fuck her?"



   "God I hate you," I said in exasperation.



   "I can tell," she giggled as our pelvises slapped together.



   I could feel the energy building inside me and I thrust faster and
harder.  "Couldn't you just shut up and enjoy the moment?"



   "I am enjoying the moment." She shuddered and pushed her hips upward to
meet mine.



   "Damn you." My balls seemed to be pulsating.



   "I, oh, here it comes.  Tony, God, Tony don't stop!"



   "I'm..." I didn't know what I was.  My balls seemed to explode and push
streams of newly produced sperm up to my cock.  I'd swear my cock was
expanding as I rammed it home again and again.  Tami reached up and pulled
my chest toward her and we clung together as I pumped my hips one more time
and released into her.



   Suddenly my mind filled with and image of millions of little tadpoles
all swimming toward a single goal.  An egg.  A single shining egg on a
little pedestal, unguarded.  The holy grail of every one of the little
swimmers.



   I rolled off Tami and sat on the edge of the bed.  My stomach felt like
I was about to revisit the grilled cheese sandwich I'd had for lunch.  I
was having trouble breathing.



   Why hadn't I thought of this before?



   I tried to think.  How many times?  Damn, I wasn't sure I could count
that high.  Almost every day during the summer.  Except for her...  Well,
almost every day.  A couple of times a week since school started.



   Why hadn't I thought of this before?



   I could picture Tami and me, together, starting a family.  But I didn't
want the kid starting pre-school before I started college.



   Why hadn't I thought of this before?



   I knew why.  I was in love.  Or lust.  Both.



   I didn't want to ruin Tami's life before it really got started.  Hell, I
didn't want to ruin my life.  Mom was going to kill me.



   Tami was on her knees behind me, leaning on me, rubbing my arm.  "Tony,
are you okay?



   I felt so selfish.  So many guys laugh it off, say birth control is the
girl's problem.  But I wasn't like that.  I just forgot.  Why hadn't I
thought of this before?



   What could we do?  She could douche.  Did she douche?  Hell, I don't
know.  I'm an eighth grader, for god's sake.  Why didn't she keep her legs
crossed?  No, that was wrong.  I wanted it.  We wanted it.  We're too
young.



   Abortion?



   Well, it's Tami's body and if that's what she wants.  But how could I
consider killing a child?  Tami's and my child.  Even if it's minus nine
months old.



   "Tony, you're scaring me." Tami was holding me tighter and I could feel
her shivering.



   I turned sideways so that I could look at her.  She took a deep breath
and sat back with her legs curled to the side, reached out, and took my
hands in hers.  "Tony, are you okay?"



   "I, we, I fucked up." Tami's eyes got bigger, she knew I didn't say
things like that.  "I didn't think.  It could be too late."



   "You're not making any sense."



   "I..."



   "Tony, take a deep breath, let it out slowly."



   I smiled and followed her instructions.  "I screwed up royally."



   "What?  It can't be that bad.  We're both still alive.  Four arms
between us.  Four legs...  and other appendages."



   "We, I mean I...Tami, I haven't been wearing a rubber."



   She grinned.  "So that's what that mess is in my panties all the time."



   "Tami, I..."



   She laughed.  I wondered if she was hysterical.  In the movies they
always slap someone whose hysterical.  I didn't want to slap Tami.  Hell, I
didn't even know if that really worked.



   Tami looked at my face and choked back her laugh.  "Tony, I'm sorry."



   "We may have screwed up..."



   Tami squeezed my hands, hard.  "Tony, it's okay.  I'm protected."



   "You are?"



   Tami nodded.



   "But how?"



   Tami grinned.  "After the first time, I talked to my cousin Linda. 
She's a nurse in Seattle.  She got me a patch."



   "Oh."



   "It's just as good as the pill."



   "Good."



   I stood up and started dressing.



   "Where are you going?"



   "I just need...  I'm gonna take a walk.  I need to think a little bit."



   "You were scared."



   "Hell yes, I was scared.  I'm just getting the hang of being a kid,
suddenly I though I was going to be a father."



   Tami was doing her best not to smile.



   "And I felt bad that I was just now thinking about it.  I felt like
millions of jerks who want to have their fun and let the girl do all the
worrying,"



   "You're not like that.  I know you're not."



   "But I was.  I was having a good time.  Thirteen and getting laid as
often as I wanted.  I didn't have a care in the world."



   "Tony..."



   "I'm alright.  I just need to do some thinking." I dressed quickly as
Tami watched, then gave her a smile and slipped out of her room.



   Outside, the world seemed normal.  Alana and some guy I didn't recognize
were standing in the shallow end of the pool, making out.  Mikee and Kelly
were treading water and splashing in the deep end.  Paula was lying next to
a girlfriend, storing up some solar energy for the winter.



   I walked down the street to the path into the woods.



   Maybe I'm not ready for sex.



   Maybe all the damn hypocrites were right, thirteen was just too young.



   But when is old enough.



   And how do you know?







   Chapter V



   "Anybody home?"



   I recognized Tami's voice and smiled.  She must have seen no cars and
stuck her head in the door.  "Back here," I yelled.



   Tami walked into my bedroom before I remembered that I hadn't made my
bed.  Well, she had to find out I'm a slob sometime.  I was sitting at my
computer typing.



   "Answering your fan mail?"



   "Fan mail?"



   "I figured that since you and Robbie have won three games now, the fan
mail should have started." She stood behind me and looked down at the
screen.



   "The closest we've come to fan mail is Coach Branson from the High
School telling us last night that he hoped we were both coming out next
year."



   "At least that means you won't have to try and sneak her into a game."



   "Yeah, I guess.  This is just that paper for social studies."



   "Mrs.  Taylor wanted two pages double spaced.  How many you got there?"



   "Five."



   "And single spaced too."



   "I'll reformat it when I print.  I always do it this way."



   "So ten pages.  You're done."



   "I'm in the middle of a paragraph."



   "Save it or I'll shut down your computer."



   "You wouldn't."



   One look in Tami's eye and I knew she would.  I clicked on the save icon
and swung my chair around to face her.



   "You know what they say.  All work and no play makes Tony a dull boy. 
It's time to play."



   "Tami, I'm not sure..."



   "Tony, love of my life.  It's Saturday.  No one's home.  You have a
not-so-ugly girl in your room and a bed five feet away."



   "Tami, it's just that I...  I mean you...  I don't want to screw up your
life."



   "Tony, it's been two weeks.  And you were supposed to protest that
not-so-ugly label."



   "But..."



   "I told you about the patch."



   "I looked them up on the internet.  They're not a hundred percent."



   "Nothing is.  A plane could be flying overhead and suddenly fall out of
the sky into the pool--where, I might add, Alana is swimming in a bikini
that's even smaller than usual.  Should we give up the pool because it's
not a hundred percent?"



   "That's different."



   "No, it's not.  You can either hide from life or live it.  Everything
else is just degrees." Tami reached down, took my hands, and pulled me to
my feet.  "I think your problem is you like me too much."



   "I love you," I said without even thinking about it.



   "You love me?" She gave me a push and I stumbled backward onto my bed.
"And you couldn't even correct not-so-ugly?"



   "Maybe I should get Tabby in here.  You don't like her, so you won't
care so much.  Maybe then you can get it up."



   I didn't correct her, but I'd already gotten it up.  My cock started
swelling as soon as I'd heard her voice.



   "Stay!" she ordered and walked out of the room.  A few seconds later she
was pushing a naked Kelly inside.



   "This little girl..." I wished she hadn't said little girl.  She was ten
after all, not six.  I wasn't some kind of child molester.  "...says you
haven't given her the good feeling since the beginning of summer."



   I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks, which were probably as red as
Kelly's.



   "Do something about it!" Tami commanded.  "I'll be in the living room."
Tami stepped out and closed the door.



   You know those videos they make you watch in health class?  The ones
about dating and social situations and stuff, made by some guy who hasn't
had a date since the fifties?  Not one of them covers what to do when your
girlfriend brings a naked fifth grader into your room.  I wondered if I
should send a suggestion to the Board of Ed.



   * * *



   "Hi," Kelly said after a long silence.



   "Hi yourself.  Did you know you forgot your clothes?"



   Kelly giggled.  "I didn't forget them.  Tami told me to take them off."



   "Why?"



   "You know."



   Suddenly Kelly took one step and sailed across the room and landed in my
lap.  She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me an almost painful
hug. "Thanks."



   "What was that for?"



   "Uh, Mikee and I heard Mom and Dad talking.  It was about Kenny and some
of the trouble he's gotten into.  They were worried about him cause he shot
that owl for no reason."



   "Orville.  His name was Orville."



   "Daddy was saying there's hunting and there's killing.  And that
shooting the owl, shooting Orville, was just killing.  I think Mom's glad
you busted Kenny's gun, though Dad grumbles about it." Kelly squirmed
around.  One of my hands went naturally to her butt and the other to her
thigh to steady her.



   "Mikee and I talked about it later and we figured that you didn't want
to tell us what Kenny had done.  You didn't want us to know he was bad."



   "I don't know if he's bad.  He just doesn't think about what he's
doing." Damn, now I was defending the puke.



   "I think Mom's real worried that Kenny is bad.  When she was talking
about the owl she said some cereals started off that way."



   "Cereals?"



   Kelly shrugged.  "I don't know what kind of cereal, or why they're bad."



   Lightbulb.  Not cereal, serial.  She was saying that some serial killers
started off that way.  I sure wasn't going to explain that one to Kelly. 
Serial killer?  I didn't think that Kenny was that bad.  Maybe he just
needed to get laid.  Maybe I could set him up with Tabby.



   "We haven't done anything in a long time," Kelly reminded me as she
reached down and started stroking my cock through my jeans.  "Don't you
like me anymore?"



   "You were mad at me, remember?"



   "Oh yeah, right.  Fucking Kenny."



   I smacked her bare bottom, hard.



   Kelly tensed up, mad, then relaxed as she realized.  "Sorry.  Darn
Kenny."



   I patted her on the head.



   "So what did you want me to do?" I looked down at her pussy already
glistening with lubrication.



   "You could fuck me," she said quickly, tightening up in case I smacked
her again.



   I sighed and hugged her instead.



   "Okay, we're going to have a grammar lesson."



   "Schoooool?"



   "Sort of.  More like manners.  You do English don't you?"



   "Sentences and paragraphs and stuff?"



   I nodded and so did she.



   "Do you know what a verb is?"



   "That's easy," she said, squeezing my cock for emphasis.  "A verb is do
word.  Like walk or run or go."



   "Okay, lets try a harder one.  Do you know what an adjective is?"



   Kelly thought for a moment, then shook her head.  She squeezed my cock
again, too.



   "An adjective is a describing word.  Like if I said cute baby, cute
would be an adjective."



   "I get it but..." she shrugged.  I knew she was thinking, 'What does
this have to do with making me feel good.'



   "I..." I tapped myself on the nose, "like you a lot and want you to talk
good.  So I don't like it when you use fuck as an adjective."



   "Like fucking Kenny," she said brightly.



   "Bingo," I said and tapped her on the nose.  "When you said `You could
fuck me.', you were using the word correctly, though I don't recommend
using it correctly or incorrectly in front of your mom."



   Kelly giggled.  "So to complete the lesson, are you going to demonstrate
what the verb fuck means?"



   Don't you just hate smart girls?



   I thought about telling her that she was too young, but I knew her well
enough to know that she'd ask if Mikee was too young.  Then if Tami was too
young.  And right now, I just didn't have the answers.  I needed to stall.



   I leaned back and pulled Kelly up until her little girl pussy was poised
in front of my face.  Damn, now Tami had me calling her a little girl. 
Kelly didn't need more encouragement.  She pressed her hips forward until
her crotch covered my face.



   My tongue knew what to do without my having to make a decision.  It
pushed out of my mouth and started exploring the folds of Kelly's pussy. 
She tasted so good.  Not like Tami.  Not even like her sister.  Or sisters.
I reminded myself of Alana.  They all tasted good, but each had her own
flavor.



   Kelly rocked softly back and forth as my tongue teased her.  With one
hand I rubbed her butt while adjusting my cock in my jeans with the other.
As my tongue found her little clit I got Tami's message.  It was a tasty
message.



   Kelly came quickly, and I wondered if she masturbated at all.  Maybe she
had been doing without since the beginning of the summer.



   My two little alter-egos were back, perched on my shoulders, the little
devil craning forward for a better view of Kelly's pussy.  Good Tony saying
that I should explain about masturbation and how natural it was, since I'd
awakened her sexuality.  Bad Tony saying that she was too young to
masturbate, and this way she'd be hot and heavy whenever I was in the mood.
You got to love the little guy.



   As Kelly sagged with the release, I scooted her down, then stood with
her in my arms.  "Feeling better?"



   She nodded with a shit-eating grin on her face.



   "Good."



   I carried her into the living room.  Tami was sitting on the sofa
reading a computer magazine that my dad had left there.



   I saw a small pile of clothes on the floor and set Kelly next to them.



   "Did you fuck her?" Tami asked with a grin, looking up.



   "Tami!" I said, trying to sound shocked.  "She's a fifth grader."



   "Yeah, and I suppose that's just water on your face."



   I reached up and wiped my chin with my hand.



   "He taught me about add-jack-tives," Kelly said helpfully.



   Tami looked surprised.



   "Adjectives," I corrected the younger girl.  "We talked about the proper
use of the word fuck."



   "He smacked me when I said fucking Kenny." Kelly had pulled on her
panties and now danced away in case I was going to smack her again.



   "Should I go get Mikee now?"



   "Why?"



   "There's no reason both of us should go without."



   "Get your ass in the bedroom woman!" I said pointing.



   Tami grinned and walked meekly, head hung down, toward my bedroom.



   I grinned and motioned Kelly to come here.  I kissed her hard on the
mouth.  "Get dressed and go home." I gave her a swat on the butt.  "Thanks.
I owe you one."



   Kelly looked confused but nodded.



   I walked back to my bedroom, to give my beloved the fuck we both needed.







   Chapter VI



   "Do you think they know?"



   "Depends on who they are, and what it is they know."



   I closed the door behind us and put my hand on Tami's back as we went
down the steps.  We walked toward the pool.  It was a beautiful Saturday
for the middle of October.  Almost warm enough for swimming, though the
pool had closed last week and was locked up.



   "Our parents?  About us?"



   I was wearing shorts.  I stopped and pulled out the waistband and looked
inside.  Then I twisted, pulled out the waistband in back and looked
inside. "Nope, don't think so."



   Tami had stepped back and looked at me as if I was crazy.



   I grinned.  "I still have my balls, so your mom doesn't know.  And there
are no chunks out of my ass, so my dad doesn't know."



   Tami grinned back.  "You are so..."



   "I am, aren't I?" I stepped forward, grabbed her, and pulled her into a
long kiss.



   As we were exchanging spit I saw Mr.  Billings drive by, giving us a
look that said the middle of the street wasn't the best place to do this.



   I slipped my arm around her again and we continued on down the street.



   "You didn't mention your mom."



   "I think she knows we do more than just kiss.  I don't think she knows
how much more."



   We walked to the end of the street and turned toward the highway.



   "Still depressed?" she asked as we reached the highway.



   "Depressed?  How could I be depressed, walking with the most beautiful
girl in the state?"



   "I'm not the most beautiful.  Alana is."



   "Okay, the most beautiful eighth grader in the state."



   "No, Robbie or Cathy Morgan."



   How could you want to kiss someone and kick her at the same time?



   "Okay, the smartest girl in the state."



   "Callie Tenley."



   The urge to kick was starting to overwhelm the urge to kiss.



   "Walking with the nicest," I moved until I was facing her, my hands on
her shoulders, our noses only inches apart, "smartest, most beautiful girl
in the state."



   Tami giggled and rubbed her nose against mine.  She took my hand and we
continued walking down the highway.  "Only the state?"



   I briefly considered being gay.  Guys couldn't be this exasperating. 
But then, they weren't this cuddly either.



   "Why'd you think I was depressed?"



   "About yesterday."



   "Why would I be depressed about yesterday?"



   "About losing."



   "I'm not...  we..." I stopped talking and took a deep breath.  "Did you
ever play a sport?"



   "Just in P.E."



   "Okay.  You remember telling me about the spelling bee you were in? 
Just before you moved up here from Colorado." Tami nodded.  "Were you
bummed because you came in fifth?"



   "Of course not.  I told you how happy I was about getting fifth.  It was
the best I'd ever done, and it was the whole county."



   "Sports is just like that.  I had one of my best games ever.  So did
Robbie.  So did the team.  The Wildcats were just better."



   "Oh."



   "Really.  I'd be more depressed if we'd won but I hadn't played my
best."



   "But it was your first loss?"



   "We wanted an undefeated season.  We were hoping, but I wasn't counting
on it.  Apple Valley Middle School is twice our size, with more kids to
pick from.  They have a stronger team.  We're five and one, that's damn
good.  We have two more games and the worst we can do is five and three,
that's a winning season right there."



   "I guess."



   "Trust me, If I'm depressed, you'll know.  I mope, I whine, I even cry
when nobodies looking."



   "I don't believe that."



   "Ask Mom sometime what I was like when you weren't talking to me."



   I saw Tami look over at me, but kept looking straight ahead.  I was
getting a little too mushy.  I decided to change the subject.



   "Did you see that pass Robbie threw yesterday?"



   "Which one?  She threw as many as you did."



   "The long one in the second half.  The one I got our touchdown on."



   "You like her, don't you?"



   "Oh yeah.  She is so cool."



   "You want to fuck her."



   I realized that I'd missed the signal that the subject had changed
again.



   Moral dilemma time.  I checked my shoulders.  My little alter-egos
weren't there to back me up.  One, I loved Tami.  Two, because I loved her
I didn't want to lie to her.  Three, telling her the truth would cause
problems because my cock had made it clear that it liked Robbie.  Four, I'm
a coward.



   "And did you see the way she bounced up after those two clowns tackled
her.  From the looks on their faces, they figured that a girl should have
stayed down."



   "You do want to fuck her."



   Damn!  Well, misdirection works for magicians.



   We'd gotten to the parking lot of the convenience store.  I pulled her
over into the corner.  "In that movie we watched last night, Jack Nicholson
told everybody, `You can't handle the truth.' Are you sure you want to
know?"



   "Yes," she said, half stomping her foot.



   "First of all, thirteen-year-old boys don't usually tell
thirteen-year-old girls the truth.  There's union rules." Tami looked
impatient.  "We've talked a lot about love, and I've told you that I'm not
completely sure what love is." She nodded.  "Well, I think I love you with
all my heart.  But some of my body parts aren't so committed.



   "Sometimes, my mind fantasizes.  And my cock definitely lets me know
that it likes other girls.  When I see Robbie, I get hard.  That goes for
Alana, Allie, and a few others.  Would I like to fuck Robbie?  Yes.  Do I
sometimes fantasize about Robbie?  Yes."



   I could see the storm clouds starting to gather on Tami's face.



   "I think the question might be, 'Do you ever think about fucking Alan
Carter or Zach Hughes?'" Two of the cutest boys in our school according to
the grapevine.



   "I, uh, that is...  This isn't about me."



   "Nope.  It's about teenaged hormones.  I've got em.  You've got em.  And
from all I've read, it takes awhile before we learn to control them. 
Thinking about other possibilities is natural and normal.



   "So what it come down to, is, yes, I'd like to fuck Robbie.  But I'm not
going to.  Not unless you want to make a threesome out of it."



   "That's sick."



   "Then I guess I'm not going to fuck Robbie."



   "Maybe you, me, and Zach."



   "Now, that's sick," I said with a grin.



   "How'd you get so wise?"



   "Reincarnation."







   Chapter VII



   The bleachers at the football field were cold.



   I was glad I didn't sit here much.



   I watched the field.



   "How long are you planning to sit here?" a voice asked from behind me.



   "Till the game's over," I said without taking my eyes off the field.



   "Tony, they canceled the game," the voice said as it sat down beside me.



   "That's what they want you to believe."



   "Tony, there's three inches of snow on the field."



   I turned and looked at Robbie sitting beside me.  "What, you can't throw
the ball in a little snow?"



   "Brother, I can throw the ball anywhere, anytime.  You just make sure
you're there when it arrives."



   I turned back to the field.  "It's two minutes left in the first
quarter. We have the ball on our thirty.  Brian just picked off the
interception so it's first down."



   "Who's at QB?  You or me?"



   "We're running 32-right.  There it goes, you take the snap..."



   She picked up the thread.  "You're in motion and take the hand-off. 
Here comes their tackle, that big kid we've heard about..."



   In my mind I could see it so clearly.  "They think it's a running play
and come after me.  You block him as I fade back and fire a rocket to
Kevin..."



   "Damn!" we said together.  "Right off his fingertips." We turned to look
at each other.



   "Why'd they have to cancel the game?" I moaned.



   Robbie smiled.  Somehow that made it a little better.  "Tony, we've got
three inches of snow.  There's supposed to be twice that in the next few
hours.  Gates Middle is a long way away.  You don't want them risking their
lives just so you can play football do you?"



   We looked at each other and Robbie waited about fifteen seconds before
adding, "Well?"



   "I'm thinking about it," I grumbled.



   "Tony!" I flinched involuntarily and almost said, "Yes, ma'am!" She'd
sounded like my mother.



   "I know.  No, I don't want anybody getting hurt.  But, it's just...  I
mean it was the last game of the season."



   "It's the last game of the season, On a Friday night at home," she sang
in a surprisingly clear strong voice.



   "I didn't know you could sing," I muttered, realizing how stupid it
sounded even as the words left my mouth.



   "I'm supergirl.  I can do anything,"



   "That I believe."



   "You're sweet," she said and leaned forward to kiss me.



   "What was that song?"



   "Just something from the seventies.  It's about a kid who plays good,
because his father, who was blind, died and now can see him.  `It's the
first time that my father's seen me play,'" she sang.



   "Cool."



   "Kinda corny, but kinda cool."



   I kept looking at Robbie.  She was wearing a fur-trimmed hooded parka.
Two long strands of red hair poked out of the hood and hung down in front.
A few flakes of snow dotted her head and shoulders.  I wished I'd brought
my camera because it was an incredible picture.



   "What are you looking at?"



   "An angel," I whispered.



   "Damn.  I've been warned about you." She leaned forward and kissed me
again.  This time, instead of a peck on the cheek, she tilted her head and
went for my mouth.  As our lips met it was like a surge of electricity went
through me.



   She put her hands on my shoulders and her lips caressed mine.  It was
the most perfect kiss I'd ever felt.



   "Tony?" she said, snapping me back to reality after she'd broke the
kiss.



   "Huh?"



   "Your hand."



   "Huh?"



   "Your hand is on my tit." I looked down.  Sure enough, my hand was
square on her chest.  I didn't put it there.  I left it unsupervised and it
went wandering on its own.



   "Were you going to move it?" she asked calmly.



   I pulled my hand away as if I'd been shocked.



   "It's not that I mind a cute guy trying to feel me up, but you're moving
a little fast.  It's only our first kiss."



   "Uh, sorry."



   "Besides," she added, grinning.  "If you were smart, you'd wait until
there wasn't three inches of padding between you and what you want to
feel."



   I could feel the heat on my face.



   "Don't you have a girlfriend?" she asked neutrally



   "Girlfriend?"



   "You know, Tami?"



   "Tami?"



   "You know, female, thirteen years old, brown hair even longer than mine,
green eyes, the love of your life."



   "Oh my God.  Tami."



   "That's her."



   "Tami," I repeated.  I'd forgotten all about Tami.  "I..."



   "Don't sweat it.  You know what they say, God gave men two heads, but
only enough blood to operate one at a time."



   "Tami."



   "When you remember, you remember good," she said with a laugh.



   "What am I going to tell Tami?"



   "My suggestion is nothing."



   "You don't understand.  I can't lie to her."



   Robbie smiled.  The kind of smile you might give a small ignorant child.
"I didn't say lie to her.  Just don't bring it up."



   "I can't."



   "Sure you can.  If she asks, tell her.  If not..."



   I nodded, though inside, I decided to tell Tami.



   "You going to sit out here and do the whole game in your head?"



   "No.  I guess I'm done."



   We stood.



   "Good.  Dad asked me to ask you to dinner.  And since you suddenly have
a free evening..."



   "I'll call home and see if it's okay."



   "Hormones under control?" she asked as we started trudging across the
field.



   I blushed.  "I think I can keep my hands off you at the dinner table, if
that's what you mean."



   "Not exactly.  It's just that my sister is home."



   "Okay." I said, not sure what she was driving at.  I turned and looked
back at the field.  The white lay unbroken except for a twin set of
footprints.



   "She's a swimsuit model."



   I turned quickly and looked at Robbie's grinning face.



   Her hand flashed from behind her back, and my mind registered the snow
in it just before she let fly.  The snow splattered against my face, and I
saw her running toward the school.



   "I'm the ugly sister," she yelled over her shoulder as I took up the
chase.







   Chapter VIII



   Sometimes I just wanted to go back to a simpler time.



   Like the fourth grade.



   The first half of the fourth grade.



   Girls had cooties and were to be avoided, though I never did figure out
what a cootie was.  Sports were good.  Homework was light.  Those were the
days.  Then Maryann Simpson kissed me under the mistletoe at the Christmas
party, and nothing's been the same since.



   First there was Tami.  I loved Tami.  At least I was pretty sure I did.
One thing I'd figured out from all my reading was that even grown-ups were
confused at just what love is.  So how the hell was I supposed to know?



   Then Tami brings me a girl and tells me to `do something about it.' That
wasn't normal, was it?  And Kelly was a fifth grader, too.  Almost like
Maryann Simpson.



   Then there's Robbie.  Robbie made me feel funny inside.  But a different
kind of funny than Tami.  It couldn't be love, because it was different
from what I felt for Tami.  It wasn't just lust.  I knew what lust felt
like.  Lust was Robbie's sister, Samantha, who not only was a swimsuit
model but had just missed getting the cover of this year's Sports
Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.  After sitting across from her at dinner I
knew the editors were crazy.



   So to recap: I was in love with Tami.  I felt something more than lust
for Robbie.  And I'd give my spleen for a kiss from sister Samantha.  And
adults talk about the simple times of childhood.  To quote Ebenezer
Scrooge, `Bah humbug!'



   I wondered where the nearest monastery was and if they had an on-line
application form.



   * * *



   Sometimes when you get to thinking you're the center of the universe,
life has a way of letting you know you're not.



   I'd wasted a Saturday afternoon sitting in my room trying to figure
things out.  Now I'd gotten hungry.  Since it was still a couple of hours
to dinner I figured I could get away with a snack.



   When I walked into the living room, Mom and Dad were talking.  I knew
something was wrong because: a) they stopped talking as soon as I walked
in, b) they were standing about a foot apart instead of sitting in their
normal spots, c) Mom looked like she was about to cry, and d) Dad looked
red-faced as if he'd been arguing.



   A smart son would have turned around and given them their space, but
despite what Tami says, wisdom is not my strong suit.



   I stopped beside them and planted my hands on my hips.  "What's wrong?"



   "Nothing, honey."



   Mom knows I hate to be called honey.  And she's a rotten liar.



   "Excuse me.  I'm thirteen years old.  I realize that may not make me an
adult in your eyes, but it should mean I'm on the way.  I've gotten
twenty-one A's out of twenty-eight classes in my last four report cards, so
I'm not stupid.  I'll ask again, what's wrong?  Now you can tell me it's
none of my business and I'll reluctantly accept that.  But don't tell me
nothing."



   For a few seconds, I thought I'd made my mom cry and was kicking myself
for sticking my nose in.  Then she sniffled.  "I'm sorry honey.  I mean
Tony.  Sometimes I forget you're getting to be a big boy."



   I hate big boy almost as much as honey, but I let it pass.



   "It's Aunt Patti.  Her appendix burst, and they've taken her to the
hospital."



   "Is she okay?"



   "They have her in surgery.  We haven't heard anything yet," Dad said
calmly.



   "She's my only sister.  I want to go." Mom was almost whining.



   "And I don't think she should.  It's a three hour drive to Kirkland,
over Stevens Pass."



   "I thought the roads were clear."



   "They are, but we're supposed to get some more weather tonight or
tomorrow.  Besides your mother's upset, and that's not a good idea for a
long drive."



   I was about to suggest that Dad drive her when I realized what this was
all about.  Us.  Traci and me.



   "Oh.  Excuse me," I said and went toward the back of the house.  From
the look I caught of Mom's face, she thought I didn't care and was a little
shocked, but I didn't take the time to set her straight.



   I knocked on my sister's door and walked in.



   "What do you want?" Ann asked, standing.  Paula's little sister could be
a major brat, and she had a way of making `you' sound like a dirty word."



   "Sit!" I said sharply.  "Good girl.  I patted her on the head as she sat
on the edge of the bed.  "Traci, we need to talk."



   "Okay," she said and turned around in her chair.  She'd been typing on
her computer.  She saw me glance at the screen and quickly turned back to
blank it.



   "Aunt Patti is sick, and Mom wants to go see her."



   "Okaaayyy," she said, wondering why I was the one telling her this.



   "Dad doesn't want her to drive by herself because she's upset."



   "Is Aunt Patti okay?"



   "It's serious, but I think she will be.  I want to tell dad that it's
okay for him to take her.  That would mean we'll be on our own for a day or
two, and I'll be in charge."



   "No way!" Ann said.



   I looked down at her, trying to look menacing.  "I have a sweat sock
that I wore for three days straight.  It would make a good gag."



   Ann sank back.  From the corner of my eye I saw Traci hide a giggle
behind her hand.



   I looked back at Traci, who had a straight face again.  "Since I'm the
oldest, that would mean I'm in charge.  I'll try not to boss you around,
but we have to show Mom and Dad we can do this.  I know that Ann is
supposed to stay the night.  That would be okay if she can behave." As I
finished I brought my gaze back to Ann, and she cringed.



   Traci stood.  "Let's talk to Mom and Dad."



   * * *



   It took some convincing, but they finally agreed and were on the road
half an hour later.  The threat of darkness and impending weather helped.
So did the fact that I pointed out Tami's mom was home, and I could call
her if there were any problems.



   "So this is the part where you call your friends and have a wild party,"
Ann said as she, Traci and I watched the taillights of Dad's car disappear.



   "No, this is the part where you help Traci clean her room while I clean
the kitchen."



   "You can't make us..." she started to protest.



   "Did you miss the part where I could send you home if there were any
problems?  Even money your mom will want to know why.  What do you think
I'll tell her."



   Traci grabbed Ann and pulled her toward her room.



   "What about your room?" Ann wanted to know before Traci got her halfway
down the hall.



   "Already clean.  You can check if you want," I said with a grin.  I'd
cleaned while I pondered my complicated life.



   The girls disappeared into Traci's room and closed the door.  I decided
that I didn't like Ann much.  She was cute, and would probably grow up to
be a sex kitten like her sister, but she was a Brat with a capital B.



   She was the same age as Kelly, and while I would enjoy putting her over
my knee and spanking her, there wouldn't be anything sexual about it.



   Mom had left it up to me whether I wanted to broil the steaks she'd
defrosted or order pizza.  I figured I'd leave it up to the girls.  Maybe
that might keep the peace with Ann.  Traci seemed fine with everything.



   * * *



   The three of us sat around the dining room table eating our pizza.  Ann
seemed to have mellowed, probably because we ordered half Canadian bacon
and pineapple even though Traci and I both like pepperoni and extra cheese
the best.



   "Ann, I need to talk to my sister." She shrugged.  "Without your help.
If you feel the urge to talk for the next couple of minutes, take another
bite of pizza instead."



   Her eyes blazed, but she took another bite.



   "Dad thought he'd be back tomorrow, but I'm not sure that will work. 
It's already starting to snow, and he could get trapped on the other side
of the pass.  If he calls tomorrow and says he can't make it, I want to be
able to tell him everything's under control.



   Traci nodded and took another bite of her pizza though not as savagely
as Ann.



   "If you have any homework, see if you can get it done tonight.  That's
one less thing to worry about tomorrow.  And if you figure out what you
want to wear to school Monday, we can make sure it's clean and ready."



   "You really don't think they'll come back tomorrow?"



   "I think Mom will stay a few days either way, but if the snow comes
hard, Dad won't be able to get through the pass for a day or two." Traci
nodded.  "Even if it lasts two or three days, I think we can make it. 
We've got food, and it's not like you need Mom or Dad to get to school. 
After all, you're a big girl." I hated myself as soon as I said it.  But
Traci didn't seem to mind.  Maybe `big girl' didn't bother her like `big
boy' did me.



   "I did most of my homework yesterday.  But I still have half a page of
math that Mom was going to help me with."



   "I'll help you, if that's okay." Traci nodded.  She even smiled.  "After
you finish your pizza figure out what you need clean, and I'll do a load of
laundry."



   "I can do my own laundry."



   "I know, but you've got a friend to hang with, and I have some of my own
to do too."



   Traci nodded.



   "Think we should skip church tomorrow?"



   Traci grinned.  "But I was counting on it."



   "Oh, well." We only went to church a couple of times a year.  Usually
midnight mass for Christmas and if Grandma Cooper was visiting.



   Ann looked at Traci, then at me, and raised her hand.



   I grinned.  "Yes?"



   "Could we have some ice cream later?"



   "Sure.  You've earned it."







   Chapter IX



   "Oh God, yes," Tami moaned as I drove my cock deep inside her.



   My hands were up inside her sweater, massaging her breasts.  I let my
thumbs rest on her nipples as I stood behind her.  "What's the magic word?"
I whispered, then followed my voice into her ear and let my tongue caress
it's ridges.



   "Don't stop," she moaned.



   "Close enough," I agreed and nibbled on her earlobe.



   We'd been fucking slowly for several minutes, and now I picked up the
pace.  The backs of my thighs were aching.  I was just enough taller than
Tami that I had to squat a little to enter her, and after awhile it got
uncomfortable.



   Though not as uncomfortable as the cold hard ground beneath us.



   "If Orville were still around, do you think he'd be watching us?"



   If I live to be a hundred--and I plan to--I don't think I'll ever get a
stranger question during sex.



   "Orville didn't strike me as the voyeur type." I pulled my cock out of
her pussy and leaned back enough that I could rub it against the crack of
her butt, which let me straighten my legs for a few seconds.  Then I pushed
it between her thighs again.  I felt her hand grasp it and guide it once
more into her pussy as I pressed forward hard.



   "Isn't this the best place to...  you know."



   Tami amazed me.  I hoped she always would.  She had a cock buried in her
most private place and still didn't want to say the word `fuck.'



   "If it wasn't forty degrees, it would be perfect," I agreed.



   We were standing in the middle of the clearing where I had played with
Alana.  Our jeans and underwear were draped around our ankles while we got
it on where--as Tami said--Alana didn't get any.



   I think the idea that she was doing something that Alana hadn't made it
even better for Tami.  The fact that we were doing it in a clearing where
someone could walk in on us at any time made it a little more risky for
both of us.  It was the spice for our lovemaking.



   I drove home again, and could feel my balls swell.  "I hope you're
almost there, because I..." I couldn't finish the sentence as I was hit
with the first wave of release.  Tami groaned, and I knew that her own
orgasm was flooding her at the same time.  I slowed and milked my cock in
her pussy.  I wondered if it was frustrating for my little swimmers to
search for a fertile egg that wasn't there.



   I pulled out of Tami and turned her to face me, then kissed her
forehead, her eyelids, her nose, and finally her mouth.  As our lips came
together her tongue probed forward and danced with mine.



   I was so lucky.  I couldn't imagine anything being better than this. 
Tami and I were so in synch that we came together more often than not. 
From my reading, both the erotic story sites and the sometimes more
accurate psychology and physiology research, I knew that was rare.  Of
course part of that was guys who finished and didn't care if the girl got
off or not.



   I pulled away from the kiss and looked Tami in the eye.  "Would you be
offended if I covered the little guy up?  Now that he's out of his nice
warm cave, he's freezing."



   "God, yes," she said and reached down to pull her clothes back on.



   I dressed quickly, took her hand, and we started walking back to the
park.



   Tami gave me a quirky smile.  "Did you ever think that outdoor sex in
Washington in October may not be the smartest thing we could do?"



   I grinned.  "The thought crossed my mind.  Especially when I was pulling
the little guy out of your pussy."



   Tami blushed, then grinned.  "I thought it Big Tony?"



   "Well, sometimes it's Big Tony, but after a couple of rounds with you,
it's just the little guy."



   "I'm sorry, little guy," she said and reached over and patted the crotch
of my jeans.  It didn't even stir.  "Just think of all the fun we could
have had while your parents were gone.  You could have farmed Traci off to
Ann's house, and I could have spent all night."



   "No, I couldn't."



   Tami giggled.  "No, you couldn't," she agreed.  "Tony you have a bad
case of responsibility.  Most kids our age would have gone crazy having the
house to themselves for four days--hell, most high schoolers would,
too--but not my Tony."



   It was the kind of comment that was insulting and complimentary at the
same time.  "I guess I'm too dull."



   "Oh boy!" she said, stopping and pulling me into another long kiss. 
"Not dull, just different," she added when we got our breath back.



   We walked down the trail until we came to the back of the trailer park.
Mr.  Lansing, who owned the trailer next to the trail, was just coming out
of his storage shed.  He smiled at us.  "And just what were you kids doing
in the woods by yourselves?" he asked with a slightly lecherous grin.



   "Just looking for owls," I told him and felt Tami squeeze my hand.



   Lansing nodded, obviously not believing me, then turned and locked up
the shed.



   "You miss him, don't you?" Tami asked.



   "Mr.  Lansing?"



   "No, Orville."



   "Yeah.  It was cool having him around, watching him fly.  Knowing that
he wasn't a pet, but was as free as I was."



   "Maybe free-er."



   I nodded.  "I've been thinking that I need to research owls on the
internet.  Maybe there's a way of..." I couldn't find the right word. 
Luring?  "...inviting another one to the neighborhood."



   "That would be cool."



   I heard a car, turned, and saw Mr.  Billings turn his car onto Shirley
Temple Avenue, so I pulled Tami into another kiss and watched the annoyance
on his face as he edged around us.



   "That was for his benefit?"



   "He's old.  Almost fifty.  I figured he needed a thrill.  Besides, I
enjoyed it too.  Hopefully, you did too."



   "Any girl would have enjoyed that."



   Damn, why'd she have to put it just that way?



   "Tami, I kissed Robbie.  Or she kissed me.  We kissed."



   Tami's face went blank.  She pulled me over next to the pool's fence and
looked at me without any expression.  "And why are you telling me this?"



   "I don't want to hide anything from you."



   She nodded.  "Why'd you kiss her, or she kiss you?"



   "It was last Friday.  I was bummed about the game getting canceled and
we were talking and it just kind of happened."



   "Did you like it?"



   If ever there was a time to lie, this was it.  "Yeah, I did." I suppose
I could have mentioned that I liked it so much that I forgot Tami existed,
but I had to save something to talk about for when we're seventy and the
cable goes out.



   "Okay, does she kiss better than me?"



   A loaded question if ever there was one.  "Not better, not worse, just
different."



   Tami's stone face cracked, and she smiled.  "I can live with that." She
gave me a quick kiss.  "Don't make a habit of it, okay?"



   I nodded and she kissed me again, harder.



   I was thinking that Tami's mom wasn't home and usually didn't get home
until after seven on Fridays.  My parents wouldn't be expecting me until
dinner at six.  That gave us almost an hour and a half with no one home at
her house.



   "Speak if the devil," she said when her tongue was done tickling my
tonsils.



   I turned.  Robbie was in front of my trailer and headed this way.



   For a second, my mind flashed with an image of Robbie, Tami and an empty
bedroom fifty feet away.  Then other pictures pushed that out of my mind.
Would it be considered cowardly to go hide in my room right now?



   "Don't worry," Tami whispered, reading my thoughts.  "I like Robbie,
though if she goes around kissing my boyfriend I may have to have words
with her," she finished coldly.



   I wondered if words in that particular tone of voice involved bloodshed.



   "Have you heard?" Robbie yelled as she ran up he street toward us.



   I reached for Tami's hand, but she put it in her pocket.



   "Heard what?" I asked as she came to a stop in front of us.



   "We got picked."



   "Picked for what?" Tami asked.



   "The Halloween Bowl."



   Tami looked blankly at Robbie, then at me.



   I was confused.  "I thought that was just a rumor.  Something they were
talking about."



   "They stopped talking, and we're in." Robbie said smugly.



   I turned to Tami.  "The Halloween Bowl is something they've been talking
about doing for the last couple of years.  They were going to invite four
high school and four middle school teams for a kind of tournament."



   "And they picked us," Robbie added.



   "But you got beat by Apple Valley," Tami pointed out.



   "But they got beat by Gates and the State Boys school."



   "When?"



   "Next weekend.  We're gonna play at Husky Stadium at UW.  We'll go up on
Friday, play on Saturday, and then if we win, play again on Sunday."



   "Husky Stadium?" I said in awe.  Seventy-five thousand seats, not that
middle school or even high school football could fill them.



   "Yep.  They're gonna put us up at the Red Lion.  You poor slobs will be
four to a room, but I'll get a room all to myself."



   "I could share.  I wouldn't want our star quarterback getting lonely."
The words were out of my mouth before my brain could stop them.  Robbie
looked shocked, and I didn't dare turn to look at Tami.  Robbie didn't look
offended; more like...  apprehensive.



   Suddenly I felt Tami's arm slide around mine, then her hand find mine,
our fingers interlacing.  "Don't worry, I'm getting him fixed.  By Friday
night, he'll be safe."



   Robbie laughed.  "I have a feeling that he'll never be totally safe."



   Tami laughed and squeezed my hand.  "Not even with handcuffs, leg irons,
and a quirt."



   The two girls grinned at each other, and I wondered what I had gotten
myself into.







   Chapter X



   "Can I sit here?"



   I looked up at Robbie.  "Sure I guess so." I'd been sitting by myself on
the bus heading for Seattle.  Most of the team were bunched up in the back,
talking loudly, but I hadn't been in the mood.  I was sitting by myself
near the front.  Tami had received a letter yesterday that upset her.  I
didn't know what it was about, and I wanted to give her space.  But I hated
to see her upset.



   "I'd offer a penny for your thoughts, but they look deep and meaningful.
I probably can't afford them," she said as she sat down.  "Thinking about
Tami, huh?"



   I nodded.  Most of my deep and meaningful thoughts in the last year had
been about Tami.  About how she was mad at me.  Or I was mad at her.  Or
being in love.  Or getting knocked up.



   "You told her, didn't you?" I looked up, confused.  "About the kiss?"
She seemed careful to say `the' instead of your or my.



   I nodded.  "I don't like to hide things from her."



   Robbie nodded, a strand of hair falling across her right eye.  "She's
got you trained."



   That made me angry.  I wasn't whipped, I was in love.  There's a
difference, isn't there?  "I'm not trained.  I'm..." Hell, what was I?



   Robbie smiled.  "You're considerate.  Relax, I was just pulling your
chain."



   "Uh huh."



   "I figured you told her.  She was different the last couple of days."



   I looked at her and brushed the rebellious strand of hair back behind
her ear.  It may not have bothered her, but it bugged the hell out of me."



   "She wasn't mean, or nasty or anything.  Just different."



   I nodded.



   "I think we're friends, but with girls sometimes it's hard to tell."



   I grinned, and she grinned back.  I think girls' relationships with
girls are a lot more complicated than guys' with guys.  Maybe even more
complicated than guys with girls.



   "I think you're friends too, but what do I know?  I'm just a guy."



   "Yeah, you're simple-minded, but you have your uses.  Opening stubborn
jars, killing spiders, that sort of thing."



   "Thanks," I answered, though I had a feeling that she was speaking of my
entire gender.



   "She said I could kiss you, you know."



   "Excuse me?"



   "Tami.  She said I could kiss you."



   "When did she say that?"



   "Yesterday.  After school.  I saw her at her locker just before she
caught the bus."



   "She just--out of the blue--gave you permission to kiss me?"



   "Yep.  Pretty strange."



   I nodded.  "Is this kissing just for you, or is it open season?"



   "She didn't say.  Why, got somebody in mind?  I might get jealous."



   Before I could protest that I didn't have anyone in mind, my brain
dredged up images of Kelly, Alana, Mikee, Allie, and Paula.



   Robbie read my face.  "You do have someone in mind.  I am jealous."



   "Oh, shut up," I said and kissed her to end the discussion.  As my nose
rubbed against her cheek I could smell a faint aroma of cinnamon.  My lips
mashed against hers.  Her mouth was slightly open, and I could feel her
warm breath.  My mouth opened slightly, and her tongue surged in.



   I figured that Tami had given her permission to kiss me, so I had
permission to kiss her.  Of course using straight line logic with girls was
rarely a sure thing.  Hell, it was never a sure thing.



   "Hey guys!" I heard a voice above me.  "When your quarterbacks are
making out before the big game, is that a good thing or a bad thing?"



   I pulled away from Robbie and looked up.  Alex was leaning over the back
of the seat, and I could see several others moving towards us.



   "On our team, a good thing.  Everybody else's, very bad." Brian Green
clarified as he stood in the aisle next to us.



   "I guess this means that Tami is on the market?" somebody in back said.



   "Probably not.  I think Tony's building a harem." Brian made motions
toward the back of the bus.  "Come on, lets give them their space."



   I always liked Brian.



   When we were alone again, Robbie kissed me gently on the lips.  "Am I
part of your harem?"



   This is not a question you hear often.  Or that anybody has taught me
how to answer.  I decided to do what any other red-blooded American boy
would do in this situation.  Stall.



   I reached behind her, picked her up, and set her in my lap.  As my lips
met hers again, my hand found it's way to her breast.



   I kneaded her tit beneath her t-shirt and sports bra for almost a minute
before she pulled my hand away.  She didn't seem offended.  "Slow down,
tiger," she whispered in my ear.  "We have two coaches and a chaperon about
four seats away, and we've already been the center of attention.



   I nodded and kissed her again, a little less desperately this time.



   I wondered if Tami would let me have a harem?







   Chapter XI



   "You slept with her," Tami accused.



   "Kinda," I admitted.



   Tami's face kind of dissolved.  "That's okay.  I'm not mad.  I
understand.  You're a boy; you couldn't help yourself."



   "You said I could kiss her."



   "I know," she admitted.  I think she was holding back a sob.



   I reached for her, but she pulled away.  The silence was like a wall
between us.  It filled her living room and felt like it was smothering me.



   "If you didn't want me to, why'd you say I could?" I had an urge to
stomp my foot as I said that.  Hell, I had an urge to lie on my stomach and
kick and scream and throw a hell of a tantrum.



   "I...  I figured you were going away with her for the whole weekend, and
you get so...  so..."



   "Horny?" I supplied.



   She smiled weakly.  "I thought this way you wouldn't have to lie or
anything.  You wouldn't have to cheat."



   I reached forward, grabbed her, and pulled her into a hug.  She
struggled, but not too hard.  I looked down into her eyes--damn, I could
lose myself in there--and smiled.  "That is one of the sweetest things
anyone has ever said to me." I closed the distance between our faces and
kissed her nose gently, barely brushing it with my lips.  "And one of the
strangest." I bit her on the nose and let go of her.



   In science class that afternoon we'd watched a video about the science
of cosmology.  A group of scientist trying to fathom the secrets of the
universe.  They just didn't want to tackle the tough question: how women
think.



   "I'm sorry that you have so little respect for me that you don't think I
can make it through the weekend without attacking a pretty..." I decided to
rub it in.  "No, a beautiful girl.  I appreciated the permission, even if
it wasn't sincere."



   "I...  I...  You're changing the subject."



   "No, same subject, different point of view.  You said I could kiss
Robbie.  What did you think would happen?"



   "I don't know.  I figured you'd kiss her and not like it and come back
to me."



   "Well, I kissed her and I loved it.  It was great.  And I came back to
you."



   "She was great?" Tami asked in a small voice.



   "Kissing Robbie was an experience."



   "I...  I see."



   "No, I don't think you do.  I kissed Robbie and I loved it.  I've kissed
you, and I love that too.  In fact, I'd love to kiss you right now, but I'm
not sure I'd get my tongue back.  Kissing Robbie, even kissing Robbie and
liking it, doesn't make me..." I almost said love, but so many guys use the
word that it doesn't mean anything.  "...feel any different about you."



   She was softening.  I was getting through to her.  Then she stiffened as
if someone had driven a steel bar up her ass.



   "But you slept with her!"



   "How do you know?"



   "I heard Paul talking to David about it.  Besides you admitted it."



   "I ad..."



   "You fucked the bitch!" she shouted.



   "No, I didn't," I said as coldly as I could.



   "Liar!  Get out!"



   Sometimes I think that sex and love just aren't worth the price of
associating with the opposite sex.



   "Tami..."



   "I said, get out!"



   "God damn it!" Now I was shouting.  I lowered my voice and grabbed her.
I swung her down to the floor and sat on her hips.  She started beating on
my chest with her fists, but I grabbed them and held them to the floor.



   "Now, you're going to listen."



   "You're just as bad as my da..." She clamped her mouth shut and stared
at me.  If looks could kill, those eyes were weapons of mass destruction.



   "One.  Robbie is a friend of mine.  I don't like you calling her a
bitch."



   "I don't care what you like," she said through clenched teeth as she
struggled.



   "She's a friend of yours, too."



   Tami stopped struggling and just glared.



   "Two.  I said I slept with her.  I didn't say I fucked her."



   "What the fuck are you talking about?"



   I hated it when Tami was crude.  "Achtung!  Class is in session.  Please
define slept with?"



   "You fucked her.  You slammed your nasty little cock into her smelly
pussy."



   "Wrong!" And I deeply resented the word little.  "Try again.  "Slept is
a past tense of what verb?"



   "What the hell are you talking about?"



   "I got news for you lady.  We're not getting up until you pass this
class, so if you want to stay like this for a couple of hours and then
explain to your mother just how you got there..."



   "You can't."



   I grinned.



   "I hate you."



   "That's too bad.  I love you." There, I said it.  And I realized that I
meant it.



   Tami stopped struggling but continued to glare at me.  "Slept.  It's a
past tense of sleep."



   "Okay, please define sleep?"



   "A state of rest or unconsciousness."



   "Tami, I slept with Robbie." I rolled off her and was out the door
before she could say a word.



   * * *



   "Can I talk to you?"



   I stood at the door, not opening it further and making no move to come
outside.  "Sure."



   "Could we, uh, take a walk."



   "Is there going to be yelling or screaming involved?"



   "I promise," she said and made a cross over her left tit.  She wasn't
wearing a bra, and the nipple poked at the fabric of her t-shirt in the
cool night air.  Definitely an unfair advantage.



   I looked at Mom and pointed outside, she nodded and went back to
explaining something to Traci about her homework.  I thought about a
jacket, but it wasn't that cold.  Besides if Tami could wander around in a
t-shirt, I wasn't going to look like a wimp.



   I stepped out and closed the door.



   We walked toward the highway.  Tami didn't say a word, and I just
enjoyed the night.  It was clear, not a cloud in the sky and no moon, so
there were millions of stars.  Sometimes walking under the stars at night,
next to one you love, it's hard to remember that the lights in the sky are
stars, great balls of gas, with planets and maybe even boy and girls
looking up at their sky.  Well, maybe not boys and girls; young male and
female whatevers.



   We turned north on Annette Funicello before Tami spoke.



   "I'm sorry I got mad."



   "It's okay.  It happens," I said generously.



   "You didn't sleep with Robbie."



   "I already told you I did."



   "I..."



   I stopped, put my hands on her shoulders and turned her to face me. 
"Tami, euphemisms get you in trouble.  If you have a question, ask it."



   "Did you have sex wi...  fuck Robbie?"



   "Is it any of your business?"



   "I guess not," she said dropping her head.



   I put my finger on her chin and lifted her head until we were looking
each other in the eyes.  "No.  I did not fuck, hump, screw, have
intercourse with, or know in the biblical sense Roberta Elizabeth Marie
Tate."



   "Oh."



   "But I have fucked, humped, screwed, had intercourse with, and known in
the biblical sense Tamarone Elizabeth Sharp.  And hope to repeat the
experience many many more times."



   Tami giggled.  "We both have the same middle name."



   "No you don't.  Yours in Elizabeth, and hers is Elizabeth Marie."



   Tami giggled again.  "And we both have great taste in men."



   I decided to forgive her for calling Big Tony nasty and little.



   "Can I ask you something?" she asked quietly after we'd started walking
again.



   "You can ask me anything, anytime.  I will never lie to you.  I may
evade.  I may mislead.  I may outright stonewall.  But I will never lie to
you."



   Tami giggled.  "Why did you sleep with Robbie?"



   "So many choices," I mused.  "Should I evade?  Or prevaricate?  Or
stonewall?  Or change the subject so subtly that you don't even notice? 
For you, milady, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as
Perry Mason would say.  I went to talk to her.  It was after the coach did
bed check, so I had to be sneaky.  When I came back, Paul and the other
idiots in my room had locked me out.  So I slept with Robbie.  Her under
the covers, and me on top."



   "You could have slept under the covers.  I would have trusted you."



   I remembered our conversation this afternoon and decided that sometimes
silence makes the best answer.  Besides, I'm not sure I would have trusted
me.



   "Did you kiss her?"



   "Before or after climbing into bed with her?"



   "Before," Tami said with just a slight hesitation.



   "This would be a great example of a time to stonewall." From the corner
of my eye, I saw Tami pout just a little.  "Both.  I kissed her when I went
to her room.  And I kissed her when I came back.  Then I kissed her
goodnight after we got into bed."



   "Just goodnight?"



   "Are you sure you want to know?"



   "No, that's okay."



   I could tell she meant it.



   "Just goodnight."



   "Are you going to kiss her again?"



   "Has anybody ever told you that you're nosy?"



   "All the time," she said with a hint of remorse.



   I grinned.  "That depends.  Did that permission of yours have an
expiration on it?"



   She looked startled.  I'd caught her off-guard.  She thought about as we
turned back onto Shirley Temple and started toward her house.



   "Nope as long as you kiss me more and better."



   "Done." I pulled her into the shadow in front of Alana's trailer and
kissed her more and better.







   Chapter XII



   "What?" I snapped at the closed door.



   The door opened and Traci stuck her head in.  "I just wanted..."



   "What?" I snapped again.



   "I just wanted to tell you, there was a phone call," she blurted out and
closed the door quickly.



   I stared at my bedroom door and realized that Traci hadn't deserved
that. She'd actually been a pretty good sister since Mom and Dad had gotten
trapped on the other side of the pass.



   Hell, I'd been in such a funk I hadn't even realized that the phone had
rung.  If I'd snapped at Mom or Dad like that, it would not be a very happy
new year.



   I looked at the computer screen.  I'd written three words.  A quick look
at the clock told me that I'd been sitting here for two-and-a-half hours.
That was a whole word every fifty minutes.  If you figured approximately
five hundred words to the page, I could have my history paper done in
eighty-six-and-a-half days.  Which would only be seventy-four days late.



   I stood and started toward the phone in the kitchen, then changed my
mind.  I went back to Traci's room and knocked.



   "Yes?"



   I opened the door and stuck my head in, half expecting some kind of
flying object to smack me in the face.  "Sorry, squirt.  I shouldn't have
snapped at you like that."



   "No, you shouldn't," she agreed with a big smile.



   "Thanks for telling me about the phone.  I was just in a bad mood
because..."



   "I understand."



   And I think she did too.  I smiled at her and pulled the door closed.



   In the kitchen, I picked up the phone.  "Hi, it's Tony."



   "Tony!  What's the weather doing there?"



   Who the hell was calling for a weather report?



   The phone in the kitchen was old-fashioned.  It had a cord, but a long
one.  I held the phone against my ear and stepped to the back door.  As I
opened it, a large snowflake landed on my nose.



   "Snowing.  But just lightly," I told the voice as I surveyed the white
and green mosaic of my lawn.



   "It's snowing here too.  But really hard.  Almost a blizzard."



   "Mrs.  Sharp?"



   "Yes.  Oh, you didn't realize who it was.  Sorry about that."



   "Where are you?"



   "Wenatchee.  I don't think I'll be able to get home tonight."



   "Don't risk it if the roads are bad.  Tami can stay here."



   "You're sure it's all right?"



   "Mom said anytime."



   "That's such a relief.  You'll go get her?"



   "I don't think she's home."



   "Where...?"



   "I think she's still at the dance."



   "The dance?  What time is it?"



   I looked at the clock over the stove.  "Just a little after ten."



   "She should be home."



   Silently I agreed with that but said, "I think the dance goes till
eleven."



   "Oh."



   "I'll walk over now and leave her a note.  Then I'll watch for her."



   "You're an angel."



   "Remember that the next time you catch us kissing on the couch."



   She laughed.  "Part devil too.  I guess they balance."



   "I try."



   She laughed again.  "I have my cell if she needs me.  Thanks again."



   I hung up and walked into the living room.  Mom was sitting on Dad's
lap. I wished they'd act their ages.  "We're taking in strays again."



   Mom laughed.  "Where's Bonny stuck this time?"



   "Wenatchee.  She says it's really coming down."



   "Yeah, they just had a weather watch about it," Dad agreed.  I looked
over at the TV.  They were watching `My Best Friend's Wedding,' and there
was a banner on the bottom of the screen about road conditions.



   "You going to go get her?" Mom asked.



   "We'll time you," Dad added and looked at his wrist, though he wasn't
wearing his watch.



   "I don't think she's back from the dance yet.  I was going to leave her
a note, then watch for her."



   They both nodded, then turned their attention back to the movie and
started cuddling.  Parents!



   I quickly wrote a note for Tami, then pulled on shoes and a jacket and
headed for her house.  This was one of the best things that could have
happened, I decided.  It had been a great year until tonight, and I didn't
want to go into Christmas and the new year in a bad mood.  This would clear
the air.



   I remembered standing by my locker at school that afternoon when Tami
had told me that she was going to the dance tonight with Peter King.  I'd
felt like the linoleum floor beneath me had suddenly become quicksand.



   "Why?"



   "Well he's a sophomore and it's a high school dance, and I just want to
try it."



   "But I thought...  I mean, you and me...?"



   "Don't you mean, you, me and Robbie?"



   That had stopped me cold.  Since the Halloween football game I'd made
out with the red-headed girl half a dozen times.  The day after
Thanksgiving she'd visited, and I kissed her hard, right in front of Tami,
then kissed Tami just as hard.  Even with all our clothes on it was a wet
dream come true.



   "Or maybe, you and me and Mikee and Kelly?" Tami added.



   About once a week Tami had brought one or both of the girls for a visit
with me, either at my house or hers.  I didn't know exactly what the
arrangement was between the three girls, but the younger ones never
approached me by themselves anymore.



   Tami would sit in the living room, waiting, then ask, "Was it good?"
when they'd finished.



   Then a week ago, I'd been fucking Tami doggie-style, trying to time my
rhythm to Stonewalk by Exchange.  I'd read in a story somewhere that it was
perfect background music for doggie-style.  I'd decided that I had a
different internal rhythm than Jimmy, when in the middle of a thrust Tami
said, "Mikee wants to know when you're gonna make her a woman." I'd cum on
the spot.  Tami needed to work on her sense of timing.



   I hated liars and hypocrites and realized that I'd become the latter.



   "Have a good time at the dance."



   There was a blue Camaro parked in front of the pool.  I wondered who was
visiting Alana.



   The house was dark and the door locked when I arrived, but I knew where
they kept the spare key and let myself in.



   I stood in the dark living room and contemplated where to put the note.
The coffee table, the front of the refrigerator, or on Tami's bed.



   I'd just decided to stand it up against her mother's cut glass flower
holder on the coffee table when I heard the noise.



   I cocked my head and listened.  A small moan and the squeak of a bed.  I
wondered if Tami had come home not feeling well.



   I started back when I heard a boy's voice say, "Now you're gonna find
out what real fucking is all about."



   I stopped dead in the hallway.  I knew I should leave, but couldn't make
my feet move.  There was a sliver of light in the hallway, where Tami's
door wasn't completely shut.



   "It's so big.  I've never seen one so big."



   I took a deep breath and commanded my feet to take me home.  Instead
they carried me forward until I could look through the crack in the door.
Tami was naked on her back on her bed, legs up in the air.  Peter King had
his pants and underwear around his ankles and was moving forward toward her
pussy.  I couldn't see his cock, but I didn't care how big it was anyway.



   I shut my eyes and slowly turned back to the living room.  I propped the
note against the thin vase and quietly let myself out the door.



   * * *



   An hour later I was staring at the same three words on my computer
screen when there was a knock on my door.  I started to snap `What?' but
took a deep breath instead.  There was a second knock.  "Come in."



   "Hi." Tami looked beautiful, wearing her dress for the dance.  "I got
your note."



   "Good." I turned back to the computer and started typing.  At least now
the words flowed.



   The Bay of Pigs was another in a long list of examples that would
culminate with the Vietnam war, of politicians trying to run military
operations with political instead of tactical or strategic goals.



   "What's that?"



   "My history paper for Mr.  Tocci."



   "Lighten up.  It's not due till after vacation.  Today's the first day
of Christmas break.



   I grinned in spite of myself.  "The first night actually."



   "How many guys do you think are working on the history paper tonight?"



   "Counting me, one."



   "You know what they say, all work and no play make Tony a dull boy."



   "I thought that was Jack."



   "Jack died of stress and fatigue."



   I clicked on the save icon and turned off my computer.  "I guess I had
nothing better to do.  It's not like I had a dance to go to."



   I hated myself as soon as the words were out of my mouth.  I was being
the hypocrite that I hated so much.



   "Sorry, I didn't mean that.  How was the dance, anyway?"



   "About the same as one of ours." Tami stepped up to me, spun my chair
toward her, and plopped in my lap.  "Except my favorite guy wasn't there."



   "So, did he want to make out after the dance?"



   Tami hesitated ever so slightly.  "No, he just kissed me once."



   "So you didn't fuck him?"



   "Tony!  It was our first date!"



   "I seem to remember that we did a lot of stuff, even fucked, before we
had a first real date." I laid my hand on her leg below the knee and slowly
slid it up under her dress to her thigh.



   "That was different.  That was you."



   "So you didn't fuck him?"



   "No!  I'd never fuck Peter.  I..."



   I stood up abruptly.  I reached out and didn't so much as catch Tami as
deflect her toward the bed.



   "I made the bed, clean sheets and the whole works.  If you need
anything, let me know.  Good night."



   I stepped out and closed the door behind me.







   Chapter XIII



   I knocked on the door and waited.  Inside, I heard some rustling, but
that was it.



   I knocked again.



   "Wha...  who...  come in."



   I opened the door and stepped inside.  Even covered by blankets, Tami
looked beautiful lying in my bed.



   "Good morning.  It's ten-thirty, if you care.  I just need to get some
things.  I'm meeting Robbie in ten minutes."



   As I turned to my dresser and started digging out a set of clean
clothes, Tami asked, "Where are we going?"



   I ignored the self-issued invitation, turned back to her, and smiled,
"Mr.  Post's vacant lot."



   A few minutes later, Tami came out dressed in dressed in white jeans,
with a black turtleneck sweater.



   My cock stirred.  I reminded it to behave before saying, "Looking good.
Very good."



   Tami smiled and curtsied.



   I opened the front door for her, and we were greeted by a blanket of
white over everything.  Almost unbroken except for the single trail of
footprints leading to Dad's idling car.



   I opened the back door of the car for her.  She slid in and over, but I
closed the door and climbed into the front.  Dad gave me one of those
looks. I just smiled and looked out the fogged up windshield.



   Dad took the hint, put the car in drive, and we headed for Robbie's
place.  Robbie lived with her dad about half-a-mile from the trailer park.
The house was an old-time farm house that was big enough for a family with
a dozen kids, but Robbie lived there with just her dad.  He said he'd
gotten a deal.  Robbie said if she found anybody acceptable, she planned to
keep boyfriends chained in the empty rooms, though she promised to feed and
water them regularly.  Having known Robbie for three months, it wasn't hard
to imagine a cute guy wearing an iron collar and chained to the bed.



   Dad pulled up in front and Robbie came running out before he could even
take the car out of gear.  Robbie surveyed the seating situation and
climbed in back with Tami.



   "So where are we going?" she asked as Dad pulled back onto the road.



   I turned to look at Robbie and said, "Mr.  Post's vacant lot."



   "Who's Mr.  Post and why does he have a vacant lot?"



   "Mr.  Post is one of my neighbors.  And he has a vacant lot for the same
reason your dad has a fourteen room house."



   "He got a deal," Robbie and I said together, then started laughing. 
From the corner of my eye, I saw Tami give Robbie a less than friendly
look.



   "So why do we care about his vacant lot?"



   "Well, Mr.  Ed got a really bad deal."



   "I thought his name was Mr.  Post?"



   "It is.  His first name is Ed, and since the guy who owned the talking
horse was named Post, I call him Mr.  Ed."



   "I'll bet he appreciates that," Tami said, speaking for the first time.



   "Most of the time," I agreed.  "Anyway, the lot Mr.  Ed owns is about
six hundred feet long and two hundred feet wide."



   "I'm missing something."



   "Me too," Tami chimed in.



   "One end of the lot is about fifty feet higher than the other," I
explained.  "And the whole thing is fenced.  A very high fence."



   I turned in the seat and looked back.  Both girls looked blank; then
Robbie smiled big-time.  "Virgin snow."



   "Bingo."



   "But if it's fenced...?" Tami asked.



   "I've got a key."



   Tami looked her question at me.



   "When he was in Vermont in November, I fed his dogs and cats."



   * * *



   We played in the snow for almost three hours.  Over the last month,
while waiting for a good snow, I'd brought up a couple of sleds, a
toboggan, and some plastic trash can lids, and now we put them to use.



   I think the trash can lids were my favorite.  We'd hold the lids and get
a running start, then hurl ourselves down the hill, landing on the lids and
skimming the snow to the bottom.  Unless we crashed, but that was fun too.



   Around two I called a halt and we trudged to the shack near the gate. 
It was only ten by ten and looked ready to fall down, but inside it kept
the wind and cold out and the heat in.  There was a large wood stove, and
I'd stoked it up when we first got there, so now the shack was nice and
toasty.



   I'd packed lunch in my backpack.  I hadn't had time to make another
sandwich for Tami, but that just meant that I ate one sandwich instead of
two.  I had put in another Coke, so we all had drinks.



   We were sitting in a semi-circle in front of the stove with Robbie on my
right and Tami on my left.  Robbie got up, crossed in front of me, and went
to the only window.  I admired the view in here as Robbie admired the view
outside.  Robbie was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved pink-and-white
t-shirt.



   I decided that pink wasn't Robbie's color.  It looked good on her, but
wrong.  Pink was a girl's color.  Not that Robbie wasn't a girl; she
definitely was.  It's just that pink was soft and feminine.  Not that
Robbie wasn't soft, just...  Hell, pink just wasn't her color.



   "It's so beautiful.  Especially the parts we haven't trashed."



   "We missed some?" I asked sarcastically.



   Robbie turned and stuck her tongue out at me, then turned back.  "I wish
it was like this all the time."



   "Spoken like someone who's never had to shovel a sidewalk."



   Robbie turned, started to stick her tongue out at me again, then nodded
instead.  "I suppose that's true."



   As Robbie walked back to her chair I snared her and pulled her onto my
lap.  Then I pressed my face to hers, my lips opening and my tongue pushing
into her mouth.  She didn't struggle, and her lips parted and our tongues
wrestled.



   When I'd grabbed her, one of my hands wound up on her butt, purely
accidental but I left it there.  Now my other hand settled on her left tit,
and I discovered that she hadn't bothered with a bra this morning.



   We stayed like that, except her tongue wrestled it's way into my mouth.
My hands gently massaged her tit and ass, and I could feel her nipple get
harder against my palm.



   "Would you two like to be alone?" asked a sarcastic voice from my left.



   I pulled away from Robbie, long enough to say, "Please," and then
started nibbling her neck.  A minute later the door slammed.



   "I think you went too far.  She's mad," Robbie said as I kissed the
juncture between her neck and shoulder.



   "I'm not," I said and dropped my head down to kiss her other tit through
her t-shirt.



   "You're not?" Robbie's hand stroked the back of my head.



   "Nope.  The world's a great place and I'm glad I live here." I kissed
her tit again.  "I wouldn't live anywhere else."



   "You're weird."



   "If you're just figuring that out, you're a lot slower than I thought
you were." I switched my hands so that my left hand now cupped her tit, my
thumb gently teasing her nipple, and my right hand dropped down onto her
thigh.



   "What about Tami?"



   "What about Tami?" I repeated and kissed her tit again, this time
holding her nipple between my lips and sucking.  Cotton is not my favorite
flavor, but what the hell?



   "I don't want to come between you." Robbie sounded like it was a
struggle to talk, and I wondered if she was suppressing a moan.



   "Nobody's come between us." I moved my right hand closer to the promised
land.



   "But I don't want..."



   "Would you shut up and kiss me?" I asked and pressed my lips to hers
again.  My left hand, well trained, slid down her side, under her shirt,
and back to her breast.  I couldn't believe how hot her skin seemed.  How
alive.



   As my palm rubbed against her stiff little nipple she arched suddenly,
and her hips bucked forward against my hand.  Then she sagged back.  My
hand settled on the crotch of her jeans, and I wondered if she'd just had
an orgasm.



   "Sweet Jesus," she moaned as we broke apart.  "That was good."



   Yes it was, I silently agreed as I pressed my hand harder against her
crotch.  I couldn't feel anything through the stiff denim, but hopefully
she could.



   "I was warned about you."



   "Who would warn you about me?  And why would you need a warning?"



   "Allie.  When I told her that you come over to my house sometimes to
throw the football around, she suggested that I wear my pads.  Now why
would she do that, I wonder?"



   "Cheerleaders.  Different wave length all together."



   "But what about Tami?  She..."



   "You're not our problem."



   "But...  Peter King!"



   "He's not the problem either.  Would you focus.  I'm trying to seduce
you here."



   "Is that what you're doing?" she asked coyly.



   "I hadn't realized I was being too subtle." I lifted her shirt and
sucked her nipple into my mouth.  Definitely tasted better without the
cotton filter.



   "But, you and Tami...  I thought...  for..." The last word trailed off
into another soft moan, but I thought it was forever.



   I sat up and sighed heavily.  Part for effect and part from
exasperation. "Nobody came between me and Tami.  It just happens.  I
believe that for a relationship to work, there has to be trust.  Anything
else can be fixed, but there has to be trust.  All I'm going to say is that
our relationship isn't working anymore."



   I could see Robbie's mind working behind her eyes.  When she was about
to speak I added, "And anything else really isn't your business."



   Robbie clamped her mouth shut and glared at me for a few seconds, then
smiled and nodded



   I kissed her and debated between getting my mouth back on her tit or
going for the zipper of her jeans.



   "I do have to say one more thing."



   I sighed again and nodded.



   "You do realize that your friend is standing outside, cold and miserable
and probably slowly freezing to death?"



   "Party pooper." I stood and lowered Robbie to the ground.  I watched as
her shirt fell and covered that perky little tit.



   "I'll call Dad to come get us.  He gave me his cell.  After we drop Tami
off, maybe he'll let me go back to your house."



   "And why would you want to come to my house?"



   "We can play football."



   "With or without pads?"



   "Ladies' choice," I said with a half bow and a click of my heels.  "Or
something else."



   "Something else?"



   "I hear wrestling can be fun."



   Robbie nodded, then frowned.  "She'll know."



   "Probably."



   "Tony Sims, sometimes I'm not sure you're nice."



   "Roberta Elizabeth Marie Tate, sometimes I'm not sure myself."







   Chapter XIV



   I couldn't believe how beautiful she looked lying there.



   Her red hair was splayed, if that's the word, around her head on the
pillow.  One strand lay down her body, partially covering her left nipple
and her belly button.  A small diamond of hair, slightly darker than the
copper of her head, seemed to point the way to her pussy, thick lips that
seemed to invite me forward.  The entrance to nirvana.



   So why did the only Italian phrase I know beside `ciao' pop into my
head, `Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate', `Abandon hope, All ye who
enter here'?  Still, that was better than the only Latin phrase I knew,
`Nos morituri te salutamus', `We who are about to die salute you.'



   She was even more beautiful than Tami, if that was possible.  Sexier
than Alana.  And she was lying there, naked and waiting for me.



   I stepped forward from the doorway, conscious of my cock swaying as I
walked, wondering how it looked to her.  Silly?  Intimidating?  She smiled
a half-smile as she waited.  Inscrutable.



   I knelt on the foot of her bed and knee-walked forward between those
muscley but beautiful thighs.  I fell forward on my hands, suspended over
her, my cock brushing the lips of her pussy.



   "Damn, I want you," I murmured as I looked down at her.



   Her green eyes seemed to sparkle as she reached up and wrapped her arms
around me, pulling me down.  I felt my cock push at the entrance to bliss,
and I...  I...  I thrust downward and my cock grazed along her pussy and
nestled between her legs as I lay upon her.  I kissed her heavily.



   Her eyes sparkled, dancing with an inner light as she kissed back, her
tongue probing forward into my mouth and entwining with my own.



   I don't know how long we stayed like that.  It seemed like forever, but
it wasn't long enough.  She rolled me onto my back, rolling with me, lying
on me.  When she broke the kiss, she laughed.



   "I think you missed."



   "I didn't miss.  I..." It's hard to explain something you don't
understand yourself.



   Robbie sat up, so that my cock was imprisoned between her butt cheeks
and my legs.  She looked down at me.  And looked right thru me.



   "You've never done it with anybody but Tami." It wasn't a question, just
a hard statement of fact.



   "I..."



   "I don't believe it."



   What did she want?  I was only thirteen, How many girls did she think
I'd been with?  "I..."



   "Hush," she said, laying her forefinger on my lips.  "I wasn't making
fun of your manhood."



   I wish girls would stop reading my mind.  It's not fair; I can't read
theirs.



   "I can't believe it," she repeated.  "I finally find a guy I want to go
all the way with, and he has a one-girl cock."



   "You're a virgin?" I stared up at her in disbelief.



   "You don't have to be that shocked." She grinned.  "I know I come off as
worldly.  I just never met a guy before that I wanted to go the extra step
with."



   "But you looked so calm, so, hell I don't know.  So ready."



   "I was ready.  I decided months ago, the day I met you, in fact, that
you could have my cherry.  And today, when you were getting ready to, uh,
do me, I figured that it would either be good or be bad.  If it was bad,
then I could experiment and figure out if it was you or me."



   I blinked.  I knew that Robbie could be analytical, but...



   "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.



   I couldn't help it.  I laughed.  And as I laughed, I felt my cock relax,
despite the pressure of her ass against it.  "Somehow, I don't think it
would be appropriate.  I mean, I'm naked.  You're naked.  You're sitting on
my cock.  Do you really think it's the best time to talk about my
girlfriend troubles?"



   "Ah ha!"



   "Ah ha?"



   "So you admit that she's your girlfriend?"



   "Uh, yeah."



   "Still your girlfriend." Again it wasn't a question.



   I thought about it.  It had seemed so natural to call her my girlfriend.
That was how I thought about her.  What the hell did that mean?  "I guess."



   "So let's talk about it."



   "It's private." My cock had relaxed completely.  There was a beautiful
naked girl sitting on it, and it had gone from attention to at ease.  Not
even a semi-erect parade rest.



   "I'm sitting on your cock.  I think we can talk about private things."



   "Would you stop reading my mind!" I snapped.



   Robbie grinned, smiled knowingly, but didn't promise.



   "Lets see," she mused.  "Yesterday, you were your normal Tony-self, in
love with Tami and the world.  Today, you were different.  The way you
treated Tami, that was cold.  In both senses of the word."



   "You were there too," I accused.



   "She's not my girlfriend," she pointed out.  "I like blondes."



   A picture of Robbie on this bed with Miranda Watkins popped into my
head.



   She smirked at me.  "So how many girls did you just pick for me?"



   I swear, in the future I'm picking girlfriends with zero telepathic
ability.



   "We're getting off the subject," she said after a few seconds. 
"Something happened between the end of school yesterday and picking me up
today.  I'm guessing that something was the dance."



   She seemed to be studying me, so I kept my face neutral.



   "Or something that happened after the dance?"



   Neutral.  No expression.  Think about football.



   "Okay, something after the dance.  Tami made out with King?"



   Totally neutral.  It's none of her business.  Think about algebra. 
That's it.



   "Damn, she fucked him!"



   "Would you stop that!  It's between Tami and Peter."



   "And you."



   "It's none of your business."



   "That's true," she agreed.  "But you're not mad about her fucking King."



   "Of course I am."



   "A little, but that's not the problem."



   "And just when did you get your degree in psychology?"



   "When Mom started fucking around on Dad," she said, a little coldly, her
mouth a tight line.



   "I'm sorry.  I didn't know."



   She smiled again.  "That's okay, they didn't either.  They thought they
kept it all hidden from the kid."



   I reached up and started massaging her nipple between my thumb and
forefinger.  "You can do that all day," she moaned and shifted her hips so
that my limp little worm pressed against the underside of her slit instead
of her ass.  "But that doesn't answer the question: if you're not mad at
Tami for fucking around, why are you mad at her?"



   "She doesn't fuck around," I snapped.



   "Just once?"



   I nodded.



   "So why are you mad?"



   "I'm not mad."



   "You do a great imitation.  You treated her like a piece of dog shit on
the bottom of your shoe."



   "I...It wasn't that bad."



   Robbie arched an eyebrow.



   "I'm not mad," I repeated.



   "Does Tami know why you're not mad at her?"



   "Of course she does."



   That damn eyebrow again.  It was almost as bad as the mind reading.



   Dumb girls, that was the answer.  Girls wrapped up in themselves.  My
next girlfriend would be dumb and insensitive.  That would solve all the
problems.



   "So why does Tami think you're not mad at her?"



   "She knows what she did.  She...  it's between her and me."



   I halfway expected her to put her hand on my temple and start the Vulcan
mind-meld, but she nodded, apparently satisfied.



   I relaxed.



   "She lied," I blurted out.



   "Is that all?"



   I dropped my hand away from her tit.  "I don't like liars."



   Robbie looked down, hesitated, then nodded.



   I decided to forget all about it and eat some pussy.  I was going to
teach Robbie the definition of multiple orgasm.



   "I knew a liar once," I said, almost whispering.  "He hurt a lot of
people." I closed my eyes.  "There was a girl, Emily.  He told her that he
loved her and only her.  But she heard him tell the same thing to Jessica.
He lied to his parents, his teachers.  Because he was smart, he got away
with it, too."



   I opened my eyes and looked up at Robbie.  She was being inscrutable
again.



   I closed my eyes.  "Last year, before I moved here, during the summer,
he told a lie that almost killed a friend of mine.  He was supposed to go
straight home after school, but instead went to the arcade for an hour. 
When he got home, he told his parents that he and Luke had gone to Luke's
house and did some homework.  A little later, Luke's dad called looking for
Luke because he wasn't home and was told that he'd already been home after
school.



   "Since Luke had already gone home, nobody looked for him in the
construction site next to the school.  He'd fallen off a scaffold and they
didn't find him until morning.  He almost died."



   "That's terrible."



   I opened my eyes again.  "No, what's terrible is the look my parents
gave me afterwards.  What's terrible was looking in the mirror and seeing a
liar.  Seeing someone who thought he was above the rules and could lie to
keep himself out of trouble.  What's terrible is knowing that I almost
killed my friend."



   "Tony, you were, what, eleven?"



   I nodded.



   "We all make mistakes.  That's what makes us who we are."



   "Maybe, but when she lied to me, something...  something...  just died."



   "I understand."



   I nodded, knowing that she did.



   "But does she?"



   "She knows what she did.  She knows she lied about it."



   "But does she know that you know she lied?  Maybe she thinks you're..."
she grinned, "...not mad because she fucked Peter the Prick."



   "Of course she knows I..."



   Damn!  She was cocking that eyebrow again.  Maybe Tami didn't know.



   "And I was never mad.  I was...  disappointed."



   "Have you ever told her that story?  Does she know how you feel about
lying?"



   I swallowed.  "I've never told anyone that story.  I try to pretend it
was somebody else."



   "It was."



   "No, it was me.  I can't escape that."



   "No, it was Tony the eleven-year-old.  I never knew him, and I'm glad.
Sounds like a jerk.  But I know Tony the thirteen-year-old.  And he's a
hell of a guy.  He got me on the football team, not by lying but by bending
the truth a little bit."



   "A lot.  I don't think I'm above the rules, but sometimes the rules get
in the way of what's right." I grinned.  "Lady, you talk too much."



   Before she could answer, I rolled over and got her on her back.  Then my
mouth found her pussy.  My tongue separated those big puffy pussy lips, and
I tasted her essence.



   "Can I ask one more question?"



   "I'm a little busy here," I said and then drove my tongue back into her
slit.



   "What's the statue of limitations on lying."



   I laughed into her pussy, then lifted my face up and looked at her.  The
look on her face told me that she knew exactly the difference between
statue and statute.



   I decided to punish her.



   Five orgasms in a row.







   Chapter XV



   I sat on a log by the frozen lake, watching as Robbie pulled off her
sweater.  She wore nothing underneath, and the cold had made her nipples
stiff and hard.  The fire between us barely warmed me.



   On the lake, Tami skated, ignoring us.



   Robbie dropped to her knees and scooted around the fire and between my
legs.  She slowly pulled the zipper on my jeans, and my cotton encased dick
pushed up through the opening.  Robbie grinned at me and then stroked it
with her thumb.



   She opened the top of my jeans, and Big Tony stood up a little more,
pressing against the restraining underwear.  Robbie wrapped her hand around
the shaft, her thumb on the head just under the waistband.  Her other hand
slid into my jeans and cupped my balls.



   I leaned my shoulders back, my face to the sky, and enjoyed the
sensation.



   On the lake, Tami did a kind of jumping, spinning thing.  I think they
call it a lutz.



   Robbie pulled down my jeans and underwear.  I lifted my ass to help,
then sat back on the log and almost screamed.  Note to self: frozen logs
are cold and shouldn't be sat on by naked butts.



   Robbie's hand encircled my cock.  Her hand was cold, and the feeling was
painful and wonderful at the same time.  Second note to self: think about
restricting outdoor sex to summer months.  Maybe fall and spring.



   On the lake, Tami was circling, gathering speed.  I saw her push high in
the air and spin twice before landing.  A double lutz.  Tami faltered, but
I ignored her.



   Robbie was breathing on the head of my cock, and her hot breath felt
wonderful.  I almost shot my load right then.  Her tongue flicked out and
touched the tip of my cock.



   On the lake, Tami fell to her knees, and then the ice cracked and she
was in the water.



   I grabbed the back of Robbie's head and pulled her forward, letting her
mouth engulf my cock.  It felt so warm.  The contrast from the frigid air
made it better.



   Tami clawed at the edge of the ice but couldn't hold on.  Her
water-sogged clothing pulled her back and down into the icy water.



   Robbie's lips closed on the base of my shaft and she sucked gently as
she pulled her head back until my cock pulled out of her mouth.  She looked
up at me, "You know she's going down for the third time?"



   I pulled her head forward, and her mouth engulfed me again.  I felt
sperm surge through my cock and spray her throat.  "I'm busy here.  I'll
worry about her later."



   As my cock pumped again I looked at the lake and watched as Tami's arm
sank into the hole in the ice.



   * * *



   I didn't scream.  But I woke panting and drenched in sweat.  What the
hell kind of dream was that?



   I looked at my clock.  A little after eight.  Good.  I'd gone to bed
about four after watching movies all night.  Four hours sleep.  What more
did a growing boy need?



   I got up and dressed.



   Mom and Dad had already left for work.  Traci was evidently still
asleep. I made a note that I still hadn't picked out a Christmas present
for her, and the days were trickling away.



   Outside, another inch of snow had fallen during the night.  And the
lightly falling snow had almost filled in the impressions of my parent's
footsteps.  I walked to Tami's house, enjoying the feeling of snow
crunching beneath my feet.



   At Tami's house I noticed that her mom was already gone.  I walked up on
the porch, brushed the snow out of my hair, and knocked.  After a minute, I
knocked again, louder.  I waited another minute and knocked a third time.



   "Coming," I heard from deep in the house.



   Tami opened the door a crack and peeked out.



   "Could you get dressed and come out?  We need to talk."



   Tami pulled the door open.  She was wearing a red t-shirt that came to
her upper thighs and a blue terrycloth bathrobe that she hadn't tied
closed. "You can come in."



   "I think it would be better if we went for a walk."



   Tami nodded.  "I'll just be a minute." She left the door open in
invitation, but I stayed on the porch.



   One thing I'll give Tami: when she says just a minute, she means it.  I
don't think it was a full minute before she was back in the living room,
wearing a grey sweater and a pair of jeans.  She sat on the sofa and pulled
on a pair of fur lined boots.  I envied her.  I was wearing tennis shoes,
and my feet, with two pairs of socks, were already cold.



   "Where to?" she asked as she pulled her door closed.



   "Want to walk to the store?"



   She nodded, and we started the journey.



   We walked in silence through the park, but as we turned onto the highway
I said, "I saw you with Peter King."



   From the corner of my eye I saw Tami looking down at her feet as we
trudged through the snow.  We were almost to the store, before she decided
to speak.



   "I thought maybe you did.  I mean, I saw the note after he left, but I
thought maybe I hadn't noticed it when we came home because we were..."



   "Yeah."



   "I'm sorry.  It was stupid.  That's why you were mad?"



   "I wasn't mad."



   "But, yesterday you acted like...  then you and Robbie?"



   "I was horrible yesterday.  You didn't deserve that."



   "I...  yes I did."



   "No, you didn't.  And even if you did, I shouldn't have acted like that.
It's...  it's not who I am."



   "I'm sorry that Peter and I..."



   I held up my hand to stop her as a wind kicked up and swirled snow
around us.  "It's not about Peter."



   "But..."



   "Tami, I wouldn't get mad if you fu..." I couldn't say it.  "If you had
sex with Peter, the basketball team, and all your teachers."



   "Yuck."



   "I wouldn't like it, but I'd accept it.  Hell, you bring me young girls
to molest.  And read magazines while I do it.  This is not a normal
relationship."



   "You don't molest them.  You make them feel good.  And normal is boring.
This is us."



   "Well, it wasn't the fu...  the sex that bothered me.  You lied about
it. I shouldn't have asked, but when I did, you could have told me to mind
my own business.  Hell, you could have told me to fuck off.  But you sat
there and lied."



   "I...  I didn't want to hurt you."



   "It hurt more when you lied than if you'd told me all the gory details.
`It's so big.  I've never seen one so big.'"



   Tami looked at me, white-faced, then looked back at her feet, almost
covered by the swirling snow since we'd stopped.  "It wasn't really.  I
mean I've only seen two, except babies'.  And yours is..."



   "Not the point.  And your credibility at the moment isn't that high. 
You lied to me."



   "Tony listen." She put her hands on my arms and looked me straight in
the eye.  "It was stupid.  Going to the dance was stupid.  It was like
going to a middle school dance, only with older kids around.  Then Peter
drove me home, and we parked by the pool, and he started kissing me.  I
was...  not thrilled, but...  damn...  flattered.  I was flattered that a
high school guy, a sophomore with a cool car and everything, wanted to take
me to the dance.  Wanted to kiss me.



   "He noticed that my house was all dark, and I told him that Mom wouldn't
be home until late, and he kind of just invited himself in.  I never
planned it, but somehow we were in my bedroom, and he was going to fuck
me."



   "I hope you enjoyed yourself," I said sarcastically.



   "No.  No, that's not true.  A little.  But it wasn't like with you.  I'm
not trying to flatter you and tell you what a great lover you are, but I
didn't care about Peter, and that made a difference.  Then Peter came, then
Peter was gone."



   "I came out in the living room and saw your note.  For a minute I
panicked.  Then I decided that you'd left it earlier and I hadn't noticed.
Then I sat next to you and lied because I didn't want to tell you how
stupid I'd been.  I didn't want to hurt you."



   "Lying hurt.  I've got a thing about lying and liars."



   "I've noticed," she said with a shiver.



   "Come on," I led her into the store, and we bought donuts and warmed up.



   On the way home I told her my story in more detail than I'd given
Robbie.



   At my house I took her hand and led her to the door.  "We'll wake Traci
and have breakfast."



   At the door she stopped and turned me until we were face to face.



   "Tony are we...?"



   "Tami, we'll always be friends.  Best friends.  Right now, I don't know
if it can be anything more."







   Chapter XVI



   How can my heart sink through the floor while my body stays here?



   "What did you say?"



   Jerry looked uncomfortable.  Very uncomfortable.  "I just figured you
two were over, what with...  everything."



   "I asked what you said?"



   My fists clenched unconsciously, though I'd never hit Jerry.



   "I said the word all over school is that Tami's been fucking and sucking
with some high school guy." Jerry looked like his fight or flight response
was ready to kick into overdrive.



   I forced my hands to flatten and slowly lifted one and clapped Jerry on
the back.  "No way.  It's just talk."



   Jerry grinned.  "I heard it was a senior."



   I guessed the grapevine was working in full force.



   "Nah."



   "Do you suppose, now that you and she are history, she'd go out with
me?"



   Jerry really shouldn't say things like that when my hand is that close
to his neck.  Before I could crush his Adam's apple, Robbie walked up.  I
think she saw the tension in my face because she removed my hand from
Jerry's back and wrapped my arm around her waist.



   "I take it you've heard."



   "That Tami's been making the beast with two backs with an unknown
senior."



   My hand was on her waist and she put her hand on top of mine.  "I've
heard several names mentioned, but Peter King's several times.  Chrissy
Farmer says that she heard King telling her brother all about it.  They're
in the same class you know."



   I felt my fingers digging into her side and forced them to relax.



   The bell for first period rang.  This was going to be a hell of a first
day back.



   "If it's any consolation.  He says she was fantastic."



   "No, that's not a consolation."



   * * *



   Robbie caught up to me before third period.



   "Don't make any plans for after school.  You've got an appointment."



   "You know, I'm a big boy now.  I can schedule my own life."



   "Are you male?"



   I nodded.



   "You need help." She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and was gone.



   * * *



   Robbie was standing in line at the cafeteria when I saw her again.  I
walked up behind her, wrapped my forearm around her neck, and pulled her
out of line.  Not an easy task; she was almost as strong as me.



   "Do I, by any chance, get to know what my appointment is?"



   "No.  And by the way, sarcasm doesn't work for you.  You're not the
type."



   "And you are?" Robbie gave me the kind of look usually reserved for the
feeble-minded or particularly slow children.



   "Did you hear about Tami?" she asked.



   I shook my head.



   "She went home after second period.  Said she was sick."



   "Fuck!" I said softly.



   * * *



   I was waiting outside the gym when the bell rang at the end of sixth
period and managed to cut Robbie out of the herd of eighth grade girls. 
"Come on, we have to catch Kelly," I said as I directed her down the hall
toward the front doors.



   "Who's Kelly?  Why do we have to catch him or her?  And how the hell did
you get from math to the gym before the bell rang?"



   "Kelly is Kelly Dubrey, and she's an eighth grader and probably the
smartest girl in the county."



   "I thought I was."



   "Smart in different ways.  Kelly's a genius in math.  And Mrs.  Walters
likes me."



   "What's that got to do with Kelly?"



   "Nothing, but that's how I got to the gym before the bell rang.  She let
me go a couple of minutes early."



   "And why do I want to see Kelly?"



   I shook my head.  "Short term memory loss.  Effects a lot of geniuses. I
just told you."



   Robbie glared at me.



   I ignored the glare.  "By the way, how did you like spending the night
at my house with Tami and me?  You know, the night of the dance?"



   "I didn't..."



   "There's that short term memory loss again.  I guess you can be too
smart for your own good."



   Another glare, this one verging on a laser beam.



   "Hi, Kelly," I said, in the hope of escaping with my life.



   "Hi, Tony." Kelly Dubrey was very short, not surprising when you
consider she was eleven.  She had mousy brown hair that never behaved. 
Kind of cute though.  I made a note to see if Robbie or Tami might give her
a few pointers.



   "You still got a couple of classes at the high school?"



   Kelly giggled.  "You know I do.  Analytical geometry and physics.  I'm
waiting for my ride now."



   "Want to do me a big favor?"



   "Anything," she said slightly breathlessly.



   I decided that I needed to be careful in my attentions or I could have a
genius in my little harem.  And I got in enough trouble with just smart
girls.



   "There's a kid over there whose been spreading rumors.  Peter King's
been saying that he fu...  that he had sex with Tami Sharp."



   "You can say fuck.  I'm not a little kid." She looked so adorable saying
that with her little fists on her hips.



   "Sorry."



   "It's not true?"



   "Of course not.  You know Tami."



   "I didn't think she'd do that."



   "King's been saying that they did it at her house after the dance.  But
after the dance, Tami came over to my house--her mom was out of town--and
spent the night with Robbie and me.  That is, they got my bed and I got the
damned couch.  This is Robbie Tate, by the way."



   "Hi," they said together.



   Kelly gave Robbie a wide-eyed look of admiration.  "I saw you play
football.  How'd you learn to throw like that?"



   "Just comes naturally."



   "I wish it did for me.  I may flunk P.E."



   "Maybe you and I could work on it sometime."



   "That'd be cool." A van pulled up out front and honked it's horn.  "Got
to run."



   We watched her run through the doors and down the steps.



   "You just lied you know."



   "Through my teeth," I agreed.



   "You know, part of growing up is realizing that life isn't absolutes."



   "And how would you know?"



   "Haven't you heard?  Girls mature faster than boys."



   I hate when they say that.



   * * *



   I was standing by the side door, saying goodbye to some friends as they
grabbed buses.  Robbie came up behind me.  "Come on, you've got an
appointment."



   At almost the same second, Paula jumped off the bus in front of me. 
"You've got to get out of here.  Peter King's looking for you."



   "In a minute," I told one.  "Can't, got an appointment," I told the
other.



   "You Sims?" I didn't recognize the voice, but I knew it was Peter King.



   "Last time I checked," I said turning around.  King was standing behind
me.  He stood about three inches taller than me and about thirty pounds
heavier.  And none of that was fat.  He'd started for the varsity and set a
school record for quarterback sacks.



   "I hear you've been calling me a liar."



   "Did you say you slept with Tami?"



   "Yeah."



   "Then I called you a liar." I knew King hadn't had the benefit of my
sleeping with/sex lecture.  But I figured I was still telling the truth.



   "I fucked her brains out."



   "Still had all her brains the next day.  Besides, Tami spent the night
at my house.  You can ask my mom if you need too."



   On the step of the bus, Paula was shaking her head vigorously.



   I ignored Paula.  "I've heard that a lot of the guys at the high school,
when they can't find a girl to put out, make stuff up."



   I saw the fist as it swung toward my face, but there just wasn't time to
do anything about it.  His fist hit the side of my face.  I felt like every
one of his fingers left a dent in my jaw.  I felt my mouth fill up with
something salty, and I spit just as his second fist slammed into my chest.



   The air pushed out of my lungs, and I fought to breathe as he swung
again.  His fist connected with my head, just above my ear.  It wasn't just
bells I heard; it was god damned Notre Dame.  The Paris one.  I went down
to one knee.



   I looked up at Peter.  I felt the blood filling my mouth again and spat
to the side.



   "That was three.  I figure we're even.  We're done."



   I struggled to my feet.



   Peter laughed.  It was not a pleasant sound.  "I'll tell you when we're
done.  And it ain't yet."



   Peter stepped forward, his hands becoming fists again.  I swung weakly
at his head with my right fist.  He blocked easily.  Then I kicked his knee
as hard as I could with my left foot.  He screamed and as he started to go
down, I drove my right fist as hard as I could into his balls.



   Yeah, not really fair, but my grand-pap once told me, "If somebody else
starts a fight you don't want, you don't have to play by his rules." I
figure that since I don't want to fight, if I have to I'll make sure the
guy never wants to do it again.



   Peter was lying on the ground, his hands cupping his crotch.  At least
he wasn't leaking blood.  I spat again.  I staggered toward the door of the
school.  Robbie rushed to me, supporting me.  "Are you okay?"



   "Yeah." I spat again, my mouth didn't seem to be filling quite as fast.
"I'm so glad we had to stay for an appointment."



   Robbie blinked.  Then grinned.  "Your sarcasms getting better."



   I tried to grin, but it hurt too much.  I nodded instead.  That hurt
too.



   "By the way, I lied again.  It seems to be becoming a habit again."



   "What'd you lie about?"



   "Being okay.  I think he may have broken my jaw."



   * * *



   I remembered fucking Tami.  I remembered the feeling of Robbie's mouth
on my cock.  The feeling of ice against my jaw was a close third for the
best feeling I'd ever had.



   We were sitting in the cafeteria while Robbie fussed over me.  I kind of
liked Robbie's maternal side.  It was totally alien, but nice.



   "Sorry, guess I blew your appointment.  Want to tell me what it was?"



   She smiled coyly.  "Actually, we still have ten minutes."



   "Oh." I took the ice away and gently felt my jaw.  I didn't think it was
broken, but I was prepared to swear I could feel the impressions of King's
fingers in the lower bone.



   "You let him hit you," she accused.



   "Well, I kinda had it coming."



   "That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen."



   It's hard to argue with truth.  "I didn't think it'd hurt so much."



   "And that's not the smartest thing I've ever heard you say."



   "I guess I'm on a roll."



   "I guess you are." She took my hand away and gently kissed my jaw.  It
hurt like hell.



   She stood.  "You ready?"



   "For football?  No.  Ditto baseball, hockey or tennis."



   She grinned, took my hand and pulled me to my feet.  "Wimp."



   "You got that right."



   "You want to go home?"



   "Can't.  Got an appointment."



   We walked down the south hall and Robbie led me into the band room.  Mr.
McCoy, the music teacher, was hunched over his desk, with his back to us.



   "Mr.  McCoy?"



   He turned and smiled at us.  "Miss Tate, and this is the young man?"



   I felt like a lamb being led to slaughter.



   "This is Tony Sims."



   "Mr.  Sims, I've seen you play baseball.  But you look like you've been
playing football without your helmet."



   I smiled.  It hurt.  "Call me Tony."



   "And what would happen if you called me Jimmy?"



   "Well, Mr.  Reed would have a coronary, right after he suspended me."



   "True.  Very true.  So I shall call you Mr.  Sims."



   I liked him.



   "Miss Tate tells me you can sing."



   "News to me.  She's never heard me."



   `Would you be willing to try?"



   I worked my jaw around.  It hurt, but it worked.  "I suppose.  But I
think it's a waste of time."



   "It's after four.  I'm off the clock.  I've got the time to waste if you
do.  What would you like to sing."



   "He'll do The Wonder of You."



   "Ah, a Presley fan." Mr.  McCoy sat down at the piano.



   I realized what Robbie was up to.  That was one of my shower songs.  She
must have heard me when I was showering at her house.



   Mr.  McCoy started playing something that didn't sound anything like the
song I was expecting.  He played and I realized how good he was.  Then the
melody slowly changed to what I was waiting for.



   "Ohhhh hoooo hoooo hooooo.



   "When no one else can understand me,"



   I started pretty soft, but Mr.  McCoy just ignored me and kept playing.



   "When everything I do is wrong,



   "You give me hope and consolation,"



   I closed my eyes and just pretended I was in the shower.



   "You give me strength to carry on.



   "And you're always there,



   "To the end of..."



   "Mr.  Sims, I'm impressed," the teacher said when I'd finished.



   I nodded.  My jaw hadn't bothered me while I was singing, but now I was
feeling it.



   "So how come you haven't taken any of my chorus classes?"



   I decided that saying they sounded boring wasn't politically correct. 
Or very nice.  I shrugged, "So many classes, so little time."



   He nodded, though I'm not sure he was buying it.  "Miss Tate thinks I
should put you in my advanced vocal group next semester."



   I looked at her and she smiled.  I looked back at McCoy.



   "Think you could find time for it?"



   "I don't know.  I mean, I really hadn't thought about next semester
yet."



   He smiled.  "It starts in three weeks.  You might want to start thinking
about it." He shook his head.  "Ah, youth.  Never planning ahead."



   That really wasn't fair.  I planned ahead.  Most kids didn't pick their
second semester classes until the day first semester ended.  I usually
picked them a week before.



   "If you're interested, the class is sixth period.  I think we'll have
seven other students and all the others will have taken it the first
semester."



   "What do I do?"



   He spread his hands.  "You sing."



   I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, when I looked back he was grinning. 
"In the regular chorus classes, everybody sings as part of one big group.
In advanced vocal, we work on singing by yourself, or duets, or with small
groups.  In addition to class work, you are required to perform at least
three times, in school shows, talents shows, county fair, whatever.  At
least one of those must be a solo."



   Mr.  McCoy stood.  "I must go now.  Please think about it.  We'd love to
have you."



   "Can I borrow your piano bench for a minute?"



   He nodded and went to his desk and started gathering his stuff.



   I sat down heavily.  Robbie came up beside me, "Are you okay?"



   My answer was to grab her wrist and pull her quickly across my lap. 
When her butt was centered, I lowered my arm onto her back to hold her in
place and started spanking.



   "Oh dear," Mr.  McCoy said as he turned around.  "I know teachers aren't
allowed to spank students, I'll have to check my handbook to see if
students can."



   I spanked her again.







   Chapter XVII



   "Feeling better?" I asked as I walked up to the bus stop.



   "Better than you look."



   "What's wrong with the way I look?" I asked, standing straighter and
running my fingers through my hair.



   "Aside from the fact that one side of your face is a giant bruise,
nothing." Tami leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.  The unbruised
one.



   "Yeah, looking in the mirror this morning I was sure glad I don't have
to shave yet."



   Tami grinned and molded herself to my side.



   We stood like that for about five minutes until the bus came, ignoring
the looks we were getting from the others.



   On the bus I swung into the third seat, and Tami sat down beside me.  It
was like nothing had happened, yet I knew it had.



   The driver had closed the door and started to put the bus into gear when
Paula came running up.  He looked down at her and shook his head.  She
looked up, smiled big, and clasped her hands in front of her in a pleading
gesture.  He relented and opened the door.  Just another average day.



   We picked up eight more kids before we got to Robbie's stop.  She smiled
as she got on, seeing Tami and me sitting together, then squeezed past Tami
and plopped herself on my lap.



   Mr.  Connors, the bus driver, gave me a dirty look but didn't say
anything.



   "You don't look quite as bad as I expected."



   "Good morning to you too."



   She gently turned my head and inspected the damage.  "You used to be
cute."



   "And will be again."



   She inspected me again.  "Maybe.  But maybe I'd better start recruiting
a replacement.  I can't be seen with Frankenstein."



   "Thanks."



   Next to me, Tami shifted but said nothing.



   "Why the hell did you let him hit you if you could beat him up?"



   That was a damn good question.  "I didn't beat him up, I defended
myself."



   "The question stands."



   I let one hand rest on her butt and the other on her thigh.  I lowered
my voice.  "I guess I figured he had a couple of hits coming.  Since I'd
made him out a liar and everything."



   "Why?" Tami asked quietly, almost whispering.



   I looked over at her.  "I decided their were worse things than lying. 
Like bragging without caring about another person's feelings."



   "He could have hurt you," Tami said.



   "He did hurt me," I admitted.  A true hero would have shrugged it off.
"I play football.  I've been hurt before.  I'll get hurt again." I thought
about adding a line about standing up for what's right, but there's a limit
to early morning corn.



   "Thank you."



   "You're my friend," I said as I rubbed Robbie's leg.



   Tami watched my hand for a minute and nodded.



   * * *



   As we got off the bus, I put my arms around both girls.  Across Tami's
shoulders and Robbie's back.  It certainly wouldn't hurt the rep to be
walking around with two of the hottest girls in school.



   "Mr.  Sims!" I heard as I was whispering something totally inappropriate
into Robbie's ear.  "My office." Mr.  Reed, the principal, was standing a
few feet in front of us, arms folded and foot tapping.



   "Is there a problem?" I asked innocently.



   "Only if you consider being suspended a problem."



   Around us, the halls got very quiet.  There were about sixty kids in the
hall, waiting for school, including the twenty-five or so that had just got
off the bus.  Everybody was staring.  Robbie put her hand over mine on her
waist and squeezed.



   "Getting suspended would definitely be a problem," I admitted.  Mr. 
Reed nodded at my statement of the obvious.  "My parents won't be pleased."



   "You should have thought of that before you put Mr.  King in the
hospital." Several kids gasped.  By now everybody knew about the fight, but
not everybody knew how bad Peter had gotten hurt.  Hell, I didn't know he
was in the hospital.



   Mr.  Reed unfolded his arms and pointed toward the main office.  "Let's
go."



   "You don't understand," I said, not moving and still holding the two
girls.  "My parents aren't going to get mad at me; they're going to be
royally pissed at the school." I saw Tami's eyes open wide when I said
pissed, but I'd chosen my words carefully.



   "Excuse me?"



   "Sure, everyone knows it's school policy to have a teacher supervising
bus loading, but there was no one there to stop the fight.  Let's see, who
could have been on duty?" I mused.  "I believe it was Mr.  Hallowell's turn
for the duty."



   Around me I saw several nodding heads, and noticed that the crowd was
growing.  Mr.  Reed was still standing pointing toward the office.



   "But everybody knows that Mr.  Hallowell does his duty from an easy
chair in the teacher's lounge.  I wonder who's supposed to be in charge of
making sure that Mr.  Hallowell does his job?"



   "The point is..." Reed said, finally dropping his arm.  "This school has
a zero tolerance policy for fighting and you just put a kid in the
hospital."



   "The point is, Mr.  Reed, if this school wants to have a zero tolerance
policy for fighting, then it needs to supervise the students.  And somebody
is responsible to make sure that supervision happens."



   "I'm not sure I care for your attitude."



   "I'm not sure I care for yours." Around me, I heard several sharp
intakes of breath and the kids closest to us moved back, probably expecting
an explosion.  I noticed Mr.  McCoy in the crowd and wondered if he'd want
to take back his invitation.



   "Point one, how many fights have I been in since I moved to this
school?" Reed glared at me without answering.  "None.  How many fights was
I in, in six-and-a-half years at my old school?" I didn't bother waiting
for an answer.  "None.  How many times has Peter King been suspended for
fighting just this school year?  The answer to that would be three.

   "Point two.  There were about thirty witnesses to the fight yesterday.
Can you find one who'll say I threw the first punch?  Or the second?  Or
the third?  I defended myself only after he'd hit me three times.  Can you
find anyone who'll say I taunted him into attacking me?



   "Point three.  Peter King is a sophomore.  What the hell was he doing at
the middle school anyway?



   "Point four.  King has a couple of inches and twenty or thirty pounds on
me.  Do you really think I wanted a fight with him?



   "Point five.  I'm sorry that he's in the hospital, but maybe he'll learn
not to pick a fight with younger, smaller kids.



   "Point six.  The school is supposed to provide supervision to make sure
that things like this can't happen.  It didn't.  If you're not going to
protect me, then I have to defend myself.



   "Point seven.  The administration is supposed to make sure that the
teachers do their job.  What were you doing yesterday afternoon while King
was doing this?" I turned my head so that Reed had a good look at the side
of my face.



   "And point last.  My mother said that if you needed to talk to her about
all this, you could contact our attorney, Bill Sheridan." Bill Sheridan had
a reputation as the crookedest lawyer in this half of the state.  That
meant he won a lot.



   Around me, several kids started applauding, but that died down as Reed
sent dark looks at the crowd.



   Then the first bell rang.  Nobody moved.



   "Shall I go to class, or go home and watch game shows while Sheridan and
the superintendent figure out who's getting fired?"



   There was a long silence, shattered by the second bell.



   "Get to class," he growled to the crowd at large.  "You too.  I will
investigate what you said." Then he stomped off toward the office. 
Literally stomped, like a five-year-old.



   I let out the breath I'd been holding.



   "I can't believe you did that," Robbie said and Tami nodded.



   "Mom wrote the speech," I admitted.



   "You have a very cool mom," Robbie said as we started toward our
classes.



   "I told her everything," I told Tami, looking her in the eye.  "Though
she didn't ask the obvious question."



   Tami paled but nodded.  I knew that she knew that I'd told Mom all about
her and Peter, but that Mom hadn't asked about her and me.  Maybe this mind
reading stuff isn't so hard.







   Chapter XVIII



   "Ladies."



   Mikee and Kelly turned and looked at me.



   I smiled my most charming smile.  "And what are you up to today?" At
least it didn't hurt to smile anymore, and two weeks had hidden the bruises
so I wouldn't scare the girls.



   "We want to go swimming," Mikee said, and they turned back to staring at
the fence around the pool.  And the locked gate.



   I grinned.  "Well, even if the gate was unlocked, and even if there was
water in the pool, you'd be bumping into ice cubes.  I mean, it's almost
February."



   The girls turned to me again and pouted.



   Damn, they were even cuter when they pouted.



   "Ladies," I said, stepping forward and putting my arms around them, "I
can't offer you a swimming pool, but how about some hot chocolate and a
bathtub.?"



   "You just want to see us naked," Kelly said with a giggle.



   "Well, it has been awhile."



   Both girls grinned.



   "You never come visiting anymore," I accused as I steered them toward my
house.



   "Well, Tami..."



   "You don't need Tami's permission to come see me, whether it's to say hi
or other things." I leered.



   Kelly giggled.



   "What kind of other things?" Mikee asked seductively.



   "We'll think of something.  The family went to Seattle, and you know how
lonely I can get."



   "What about Tami?" Kelly wanted to know.



   "We're just friends."



   "What about Robbie?" Mikee suggested.



   "Went shopping with her dad."



   "So we're third choice?" Mikee said, trying to fake sounding hurt.



   "Sixth, actually.  There was Paula, and Allie, and Alana."



   "Alana wouldn't have anything to do with you," Kelly said with a giggle.



   "Yeah, you're not a senior."



   "Okay, fifth."



   We'd arrived at the steps in front of my trailer.  "I don't know if I
want to be fifth," Mikee said and pulled away.



   "It's okay by me," Kelly said and snuggled close.



   "Me too," Mikee admitted and hugged herself to my other side.



   I grinned, and we went up the stairs and inside.  "Get comfortable," I
told them.  "I'll make cocoa."



   I came back a couple minutes later, carefully juggling three mugs of
cocoa in two hands.  The girls had shucked their heavy coats and were
sitting on the sofa wearing jeans and t-shirts.  I kinda hoped when I told
them to get comfortable that they'd...



   "So what have you two been up to?" I asked as I set down the cocoa and
took a place on the sofa between them.  "I haven't seen you since the
beginning of Christmas vacation."



   "I got a new bike for Christmas.  And a stereo," Kelly gushed.  "And I
got all excellents on my report card."



   "All I got was clothes."



   "What did you ask for?" I asked and took a sip of cocoa.



   "Well, clothes.  But they..."



   "You know the old saying, be careful what you wish for.  What'd you get
on your report card?"



   "Mostly B's.  Two C's.  What'd you get?"



   "One B, the rest A's."



   "I hate smart kids," Mikee mumbled.



   "I guess that's why I like your sister best." I pulled Kelly into a hug.



   Kelly giggled and Mikee fumed,



   I released Kelly, grabbed Mikee, and pulled her onto my lap.  "You know
you're cute when you're mad." I kissed her on her forehead.  Then her
eyelids, nose, and finally her mouth.



   "Hey!  What about me?" Kelly whined.



   "Talk to me when you're a teenager." I saw her face set into a pout of
her own.  Mikee had turned thirteen a couple of weeks before Christmas.



   I kissed Mikee again.  Longer and deeper this time.



   "But I'm almost eleven," Kelly protested.  "And I've got hair on my
pussy, too."



   "You do?"



   Kelly stood and in one move pushed her jeans and panties past her hips.



   Damn.  I could see six or seven hairs framing her slit.



   "Hey!" Mikee protested.  "I have hair, too."



   "But you've had yours awhile.  This is special." I reached up and
stroked Kelly's hairs.



   "Would you two like to be alone?" Mikee asked sarcastically.



   I remembered Tami asking that question and not liking the answer.  So I
kissed Mikee and stroked Kelly.  Damn!  Little Kelly had hair.



   "Have I told you how beautiful you are?" I asked, looking down at
Mikee's face.



   "Not recently."



   "You are beautiful.  The angels must have crafted you to inspire poets."



   Kelly giggled.



   Mikee sighed.  "You know, that would mean a lot more if you didn't have
your hand on my sister's cunt when you said it."



   I gave a short laugh.  "You have a point." I stood, taking my hand away
from Kelly and lifting Mikee to my chest.  I turned toward my bedroom.



   Kelly stood to follow.



   "Sit!  Stay!" I commanded.



   Kelly sat with a pout.  "You don't have to treat me like a dog."



   "You're right," I agreed, turning back to her.  I reached down and
patted her head.  "Good girl." I thought about getting her a cookie but
thought that might be pushing things too far.  I carried my princess away
to my castle.



   I undressed Mikee and laid her on the bed, then stood at the foot
looking down at her.  "You are beautiful, you know.  Raphael and
Michelangelo would cut off their hands that they could not create such
beauty." I stripped off my own clothes.



   Mikee looked puzzled.  "What do turtles have to do with it?"



   You try to get poetic and bump into the low standards of American
education.  What's a guy to do?



   "Alana's more beautiful."



   "Alana is perfection and unattainable.  You..."



   I knelt on the bed and pressed my face to her pussy.  Knowing what Mikee
liked, I stabbed my tongue quickly in and out of her cunt, and I found her
clit with my thumb and gently rubbed it.  In less than a minute Mikee was
moaning.  I wondered if it was possible to make a living as a gigolo
without having to touch wrinkled old women.  Yuch.



   Mikee started driving her hips upward to meet my tongue, and I knew her
orgasm was close.  She must have been real horny.  I knew I hadn't touched
since before Christmas.  Did this mean the hot little seventh grader wasn't
getting any action anywhere else?



   Mikee grabbed my head and held me as she sank back onto the bed.



   "Liked that?" I asked as I kissed my way up her body.



   As I kissed her chin, I caught a flicker of movement and knew that Kelly
was watching us from the doorway.



   "How can anything be so good?" Mikee asked after I'd kissed her mouth,
nose, eyelids and forehead.



   I shrugged.



   "Are you ever going to fuck me?"



   "I..."



   "I'm thirteen.  You fucked Tami when she was thirteen."



   It's hard to argue with logic, especially when you don't want to argue.
My knees were between her thighs, and my cock was hovering above her pussy.
"Are you sure?"



   She nodded.



   I lowered myself until my cock was pressed against her outer defenses.
"Really sure?"



   Mikee hesitated, and I almost pulled away.  "Please fuck me."



   I pressed down, and her lips, slippery with my saliva and her own
juices, parted, and my cock pressed inside.  In the stories I'd read I'd be
thinking this was the tightest pussy I'd ever been in, but it felt about
the same as Tami to me, even though Mikee was a smaller girl and about
three months younger than Tami when I'd first fucked her.



   My cock slid in easily until my balls rested at the bottom of her slit.
I rolled us over, onto my back.  "I'm in," I said, unnecessarily.  "But I'm
not going to fuck you." She looked disappointed, and I almost laughed. 
"This is your first time, so you're going to fuck me." Mikee grinned and
started moving her body around my cock.



   I wondered if Robbie still wanted me to be her first, then decided it
was unfair to Mikee to be thinking about that.



   Kelly, mesmerized, had come about halfway into the room instead of
hiding just outside the door.  I knew the younger girl would want to get
fucked too, and I might.  But not today.  This was Mikee's day.



   "Oh my sweet fucking Jesus!" Mikee yelled as her second orgasm swept her
up.  For once, I wouldn't give her a hard time about her language.  After
all, she'd just lost her virginity.  But damn, was I glad that Mr. 
Smithfield, my next door neighbor, was deaf as a post.







   Chapter XIX



   I knocked on the door.



   Robbie opened it and smiled.



   I cleared my throat.



   "And I'll sing you to sleep, after the lovin', with a song I just wrote
yesterday." I sang.



   "What?"



   "Oh wait.  I'm not supposed to sing that for another half-an-hour."



   "What are you talking about."



   "You'll figure it out," I told her as, in one motion, I came in, scooped
her up, and kicked the door closed.  "I have great faith in you," I said as
I climbed the stairs toward her bedroom.



   "What's gotten into you," Robbie giggled.



   "Well, yesterday Mrs McGinty was wearing these black fishnet
stockings..." I nudged her door open with my foot, carried her in, and
deposited her on her bed.



   "Mrs McGinty, huh?" Mrs McGinty, the cafeteria lady, was about sixty
years old, weighed about three hundred pounds, and thankfully wore long
skirts so that I'd never seen her legs.



   "I woke up so horny, and since you said your dad was going to be gone
all day..."



   "You just thought you'd ride your bike over here and have your way with
me?"



   "Actually, I walked.  I was afraid if I rode my bike, I might only have
energy enough to fuck you five or six times."



   "Five or six times?"



   "Before lunch."



   It had been a long two weeks.



   After I'd fucked Mikee, Kelly wanted to lose her cherry, but I managed
to say no.  Until the next day anyway, when her sister threatened to hold
me down for her.



   Then, between practicing for a school concert with the advanced vocals
group, and parents who actually stayed home, I'd never had a chance to be
alone with Robbie for more than a couple of minutes.  And I didn't want her
first time to be a quickie.



   "Did you ever consider I may not want to fuck you five or six times."
She giggled.  "Before lunch.  Or even once, for that matter."



   "But you can't refuse me."



   Robbie turned cold, and I realized that it sounded like I was going to
do this whether she wanted to or not.



   "You don't realize what day this is, do you?"



   "What day is it?" she asked, suspiciously.



   "This is the day that the whole world celebrates the glory of my birth."



   "Your birthday?"



   "And guess what I'd like for my present?" I reached down and captured a
foot and pulled her sock off.



   "How many guesses do I get?"



   "Five." I pulled off her other sock.



   Robbie giggled.  "You want a train set?"



   "Nope.  Fifth birthday." I grabbed the bottoms of her sweat pants and
pulled.  They slid down easily, and I held them up like a matador's cape
and took a short bow.



   "Tinker toys?"



   "Fourth and sixth birthdays.  Would you sit up for a minute?"



   She sat up.  I positioned her arms over her head, grabbed the bottom of
her t-shirt, and yanked it up and off.



   "A chemistry set?"



   "Tenth birthday, and Dad swore never again.  The house stunk for weeks."
I grabbed the bottom of her sports bra and pulled it up and off as well,
then lowered her arms and pushed her back into a reclining position.



   "A cap gun?"



   "I am a pacifist." I leaned forward and grabbed the waistband of her
panties, candy cane striped, and pulled them down her legs, letting them
dangle on her left ankle.



   "Remind me to ask Peter King about that."



   I frowned.  "Next Tuesday."



   "How many guesses left?"



   "One."



   "Your two front teeth?"



   "Christmas when I was eight.  You're out of guesses."



   "Damn, now I'll never know."



   "Maybe I could show you?"



   "Maybe you could."



   I grinned.  I undressed quickly, my erect cock giving away my
excitement.



   "My, what a big..."



   "Let's not go there," I said quickly, images of Peter and Tami invading
my mind.



   Robbie looked surprised, then thoughtful, then understanding.



   I crawled up beside her, letting my cock rest on her leg, turned her
head, and kissed her.



   "Now what?" she asked, sounding timid for the first time since I'd known
her.



   "Hell, if I know.  My present is just looking at you, nude on a bed. 
Anything else is up to you."



   Robbie grinned, then suddenly my cock was in her mouth.  A great way to
start a birthday.



   Robbie sucked on my cock for a couple of minute, teasing the groove
behind my head with her tongue, then seemed to decide something.  She
pushed me onto my back and mounted me, sliding forward until the side of my
rod was pressed against her slit.



   "Like this?"



   "Well, you might want to try headfirst the first time.  Sideways is more
advanced."



   Robbie gave me an eat-shit-and-die look, then grasped me at the base,
sat up, and pressed the head against her lips.  She pressed down with her
hips, and my cock slipped along her slit.  She looked annoyed.



   I reached down and gently pried her pussy open with my fingers, and she
tried again.  This time my head lodged in her pussy, and she pressed
herself down onto me.  "Is it supposed to hurt?" she asked when she'd
swallowed about half my length.



   "Bearing in mind, that I'm not an expert, yes.  It usually hurts the
first time.  You didn't have a cherry to break which is painful, but your
vagina still has to get used to something this big inside it."



   "Have an inflated idea of yourself?"



   "I may not be the biggest in the world, but it's bigger than my finger,
and that's what you're used to.  Do you want to stop?"



   "No."



   She pressed down and took another inch.



   "It's better," she said, but not very convincingly.



   I knew she wouldn't quit.



   I grabbed her waist, rolled her onto her back, and drove my cock hard
into her pussy.



   "Oh God!"



   "Not even close," I said as I lay on her.  "Just your average humble
football hero."



   "Whose life mission is eliminating virginity?"



   "We do what we can."



   "Is this all there is to fucking?"



   "Well, normally, there's some movement involved."



   "Wellllll."



   "I was letting you get..."



   "Tony, would you shut up and fuck me?"



   I aim to please.  I did.









   Chapter XX



   Tami and I were walking around the park, just enjoying the night sky. 
March had come in like a lion, as the saying goes, dumping six inches of
snow on us.  But now, two days later, the snow was gone and it looked like
spring was ready to start.  It was one of those clear Washington nights
when all the clouds were partying somewhere else and every star in the
galaxy was trying to outshine the others.



   "So what are you going to do about the offer?" she asked as we turned
onto Annette Funicello for the third time.



   The park had just added a swing set and other playground equipment at
the south end of the front lawn.  I guided her there, and we sat on the
swings.



   "I figure I have to try, just to see if I can.  But I don't know if I'll
take it."



   Tami started swinging, pumping her legs.



   "What about the talent show?"



   "I'll try for that too."



   I started swinging too, but I'd go back as she went forward.  We were
just out-of-sync.



   It felt good just enjoying the night with Tami.  I liked nights with
Robbie too.  But somehow it was more special with Tami.  Maybe because she
was my first love.  There was just something about her, like the way she'd
ask awkward questions at the worst possible times.



   "So how many girls have you fucked?"



   Any other time I would have choked, but instead I laughed.  I laughed so
hard that I had to stop and hold my side, trying to get my breath back.



   "What's so funny?" she asked.  She didn't stop swinging, but she slowed
down to look at me.



   That was something else about Tami: that look she could give me.  Robbie
had a look just about like it, but different.  Hell, Mikee and Kelly had
looks too.  I wondered if they were born with it, or if there was a secret
girl training camp somewhere.



   "I was just think that one of the things that made you special was your
talent for asking awkward questions."



   "Then I asked an awkward question."



   "It's a gift."



   "With great power, comes great responsibility," she said, quoting
Spider-man.  "I'll try to use my powers for good."



   "Ever watch Nick-at-Night?"



   "Sometimes."



   "Ever seen Murphy Brown?"



   "I love that show."



   "I can see you as Murphy.  Not that bitter, but asking tough questions
and watching your victims squirm."



   "So you think I should take journalism next year?"



   I thought about it.  Nether of us had a clue where life was going to
lead us, but I really could see Tami as Murphy Brown."Yeah, I think you
have to try it."



   "What about you?  Can you see yourself as Jimmy Olsen?"



   I laughed again.  "Sure, why not?  Let's give it a try.  But instead of
Murphy Brown and Jimmy Olsen, we can be Clark Kent and Lois Lane.  But
without the cape and the tights.  They look uncomfortable."



   "You know, if my gift is asking awkward questions, you have a talent
too."



   I knew what was coming.  The mind reading thing was definitely getting
easier.  "Oh?"



   "You're pretty good at evading questions you don't want to answer."



   "Did I do that?"



   "Yeah and you're trying to do it again."



   I grinned, and started swinging again.  Tami started pumping harder,
going higher.  I remembered being a kid and determined to go
around-the-world.  But no matter how hard I pumped, I never made it. 
Damned physics.  Damned gravity.



   "A few." We were almost in sync.  I was just a few feet behind her as
she swung toward the stars.



   "Not just Robbie, huh?"



   "A few."



   "Mikee too?"



   "A few."



   "Not little Kelly?"



   "Would you get the fuck out of my head?  I said, a few."



   "Tony, your language!"



   "I'm sorry," I said, and meant it.  "So how many guys have you fucked?"
Tami had been dating a lot of different guys over the last two months.



   "Two."



   "Two?" I repeated, surprised.  "I thought..." I guess I hadn't thought.
I'd assumed.



   "Yeah, well, I guess when it's right, it'll be right."



   "Oh." I hadn't a clue how to respond.



   "You know, I told him he was the biggest I'd ever seen.  And when it was
over, I told him he was the best I'd ever had.  I guess I'm just a born
liar."



   "Tami, I..."



   "Oh shut up.  It isn't your fault, it's mine."



   "I..."



   "Did you hear the latest about Peter?"



   I knew several Peters, but there was no doubt who she was talking about.
"No."



   "He's expelled.  The first expulsion in twelve years."



   "What happened?"



   "I guess he asked Allie out."



   "Allie Smidt?" I'd caught up to her and we were swinging together.



   "Uh huh.  And she pretty much laughed in his face.  It was at the
basketball game at the high school.  Then some freshman made a comment
about Peter always hunting the middle school and not getting a girl from
high school.  Then Peter attacked him.  When a couple of teachers tried to
break it up, he attacked them too."



   "I'm sorry."



   "No you're not."



   "Would you please stop reading my mind.  I was trying to make the
appropriate civilized response."



   "But you're not?"



   "No, I'm not.  I mean, if I was the first fight Peter ever started I
might be.  But he picked that role a long time ago.  I may have branded him
a liar, but he treated you like a piece of meat.  Or some prize he'd won at
a carnival." I looked at her as we swung side by side.  "I would have done
it for any of my friends."



   "I believe you."



   We swung in silence.  Each of us trying to push up to the stars.



   Tami stopped pumping and slowed.



   "Are we ever going to be us again?"



   I didn't know.  I didn't know what us had been.  I didn't know why it
died.  Was it one lie?  Was it something else?  Was Robbie and me an us? 
It was good, but it was different.  Was it an us?  Would that die too, and
there be a different us?



   I pumped harder.  Maybe this time I could go all the way.







   Chapter XXI



   "What do you think?" Robbie asked me as she handed me my bottle of
Gatorade.



   "I think Richard Calloway is a vicious cruel sadist who the Marines
kicked out for being too mean." I took a large mouthful of the drink and
swished it around my mouth before swallowing.



   "That bad?" asked Tami sympathetically.



   "And he's the best coach I've ever seen."



   "So, you gonna make it, stud?" Robbie asked.



   "And what are you going to do if you do?" Tami added.



   "Don't know, and haven't got a clue respectively.  I'm just trying to
make it through Monday afternoon."



   I took another swig of Gatorade, gave Robbie back the bottle, and
trotted back to the field.



   * * *



   "So what's the word?"



   "I get to come back tomorrow."



   "That's good, right?" Tami asked.



   "I'm not sure.  I remember in the Halloween Bowl game, when the front
line messed up and I got hit from three directions at once." I paused for
dramatic effect.  "I wish I only hurt that bad."



   "Awwwww," the two girls said together.



   I grinned.  On the one hand, it was cool seeing the two girls together
as friends.  On the other hand, I kinda felt like I'd been dropped off in a
minefield and they forgot to leave me a map.



   "You know, Tami was telling me how you used to give her massages. 
Soothing her tired aching body.  I won't be petty enough to point out that
you've never given me one."



   Oh, God.



   "Maybe we should give you a massage.  Make you forget all about your
aches and pains."



   "I don't know," I said as the girls stood up and I slipped my arms
around them.  "Massage is a very complex science.  Are you licensed? 
Bonded?  Insured?"



   "We're cute!" Tami said forcefully.



   "Close enough." We started down the steps of the bleachers and headed
for the parking lot.  I saw a couple of my fellow athletes give me almost
friendly glances as I walked, hell--as I strutted--with the two beautiful
girls.



   "I hate to be the dumb blond..." Tami started.



   "Especially since you're a brunette," Robbie interrupted.



   "I was thinking of dying it.  Trying the blond thing for awhile."



   "What shade?"



   "Kind of a California gold."



   I could have evaporated and they wouldn't have noticed as they talked
around me.



   "Excuse me, ladies."



   They stopped talking and looked at me.  Maybe the minefield would be a
better idea.



   "I think you were going to ask a question, and if my opinion counts, I
think your hair is beautiful the way it is."



   "Of course, your opinion counts," they said together, convincing me that
it didn't.  At least about hair color.



   "I was just trying to say I didn't understand why we were here."



   "I was trying out for the baseball team.  You were rooting me on."



   "I said dumb blond, not brain dead," Tami said with a hint of chill in
her voice.  "Why are we here?" She waved her arm to take in the high school
athletic fields.



   "Well, last year, Coach Calloway had eight seniors, five juniors, and a
sophomore on his team.  And the junior varsity really sucked.  The seniors
all graduated and two of the juniors are doing track, and one, for some
God-knows reason, is playing golf.  So that only leaves him with three of
last years varsity."



   "Since his son Ricky played for the middle school last year, he saw some
of our games and has a good idea what's available for freshmen, and like I
said, the junior varsity sucked, so he's scrambling to fill out the team.
Ricky will get to play varsity, and the coach asked me to try out too."



   "You can do that?"



   "Yeah, but I only get four years of eligibility, which means I'd have to
sit out one of my high school years."



   "If he's so desperate, why didn't you suggest Robbie?" Tami asked.



   "Actually, I did.  While pointing out that I've never seen her play."



   "Hey!" Robbie protested.



   "I haven't, so I can't give you a wholehearted recommendation, but I
told him you were a natural athlete and tenacious."



   "Tenacious.  I like that."



   I grinned.  I knew she would.  We scanned the parking lot, but Mom
wasn't there yet.



   "He said he didn't want you trying out."



   "Another male chauvinist?  Like Mr.  Feldman?"



   "No, Coach Calloway's a good guy.  But he said that an eighth grader
trying out would be brutal.  And an eighth grade girl would be beyond
that."



   "Brutal?" Tami asked.



   I shrugged.  "Did you see much friendly comradery out there?"



   "It looked like the pitcher tried to take your head off at batting
practice."



   "He did," I agreed.  But I think smacking that curve ball he hung out
for me over the left field fence made up for it.



   "So you were protecting me?"



   "No, Mr.  Calloway was protecting you.  I would have brought you along
to take some of the heat off me."



   "My hero," Robbie said in her Scarlett O'Hara voice.



   "Looks like you got more than you can handle," a voice said.  Three of
the ball players were crossing the parking lot, heading toward a pickup.



   "No.  He's got more than you can handle," Robbie snapped back, and then
kissed me.



   "Yeah, baby," Tami added in a passable Austin Powers imitation before
following Robbie's example and pressing her lips to mine.



   The one in the middle went red, and I guessed he was the one who had
spoken.



   On the one hand, It felt good the way the girls had counter-punched the
loud mouth; but on the other hand, I had a feeling that I'd pay for it
tomorrow.  On the third hand, any excuse to kiss hot beautiful girls was
worth it.  Damn, I was running out of hands.



   Mom drove up before the situation could deteriorate.  Traci was in the
front seat with her, so the three of us piled into the back, me in the
middle.



   "How was your practice?" Mom asked as she pulled out of the parking lot.



   "Interesting." I was saved from elaborating by Traci resuming the story
she'd been telling Mom.



   * * *



   "What did you mean when you said you got to come back tomorrow?" Tami
asked as she unlocked her front door and let Robbie and me in.



   "Well, Coach Calloway needs twelve to fourteen players for the varsity.
Thirty guys came out.  Thirty-one counting me.  He does a one-week try-out,
so every day he cuts a couple of people from the list."



   "That's not very nice."



   "But it's necessary.  He wants the best team possible.  Anyway, he cut
three guys today."



   "What happens to them?"



   "They play JV and have a chance to move up if they're good enough."



   "So, if you make it through the week, you're on the team?"



   "Sort of."



   "What do you mean, sort of."



   "Well, for an eighth grader to make the team the coach has to pick me.
Then Mrs.  Jeffries, the high school principal, has to approve it.  Then
Mr. Reed has to approve it." We settled on the sofa, Tami at one end and me
at the other with Robbie on my lap.  I looked straight at Tami.  "Can you
see Mr.  Reed approving something like that?"



   She shook her head, as did Robbie.



   "Actually, I think I'm a diversion."



   Robbie twisted a little on my lap and took my face in her hands.  "What
do you mean, a diversion?"



   "Just that.  I don't think the coach plans to ask me to join the team,
but I'd be willing to bet I'll make it to Friday."



   "Bet what?" asked Robbie.



   "Why?" asked Tami.



   I grinned, first at Robbie, then at Tami.



   "How about, if I make it to Friday, you can't dye your hair?"



   "Forever?"



   "Let's say, at least till the end of school." Hopefully by then she'd
forget about it.



   "And if you don't?" Tami asked slyly.



   I laughed.  "You can dye mine."



   "Any color?' the girls asked together, exchanging looks.



   I nodded.  Hopefully, confidently.



   "Deal," Tami said and stuck out her hand.  I reached over and shook it.



   "What do I lose?" Robbie wanted to know.



   "How about a three-way with Tami?" I whispered.



   Robbie flashed red, then giggled.  I knew she was thinking that Tami
would never go for it.  This mind-reading thing is a snap once you get the
hang of it.  I shook hands with her, too.



   "So just why do you think you'll make it to Friday, but not make the
team?" Robbie asked.



   "Like I said, I'm a diversion.  I'm pretty good..."



   "And modest too," Robbie added giving me a quick kiss.



   "Can't be good at everything," Tami added.



   "Anyway, I'm pretty good and none of those school studs want to get beat
out by middle school weenie, so they'll give an extra ten percent.  Then
the coach is going to wind up with some freshmen on the team, and the
middle schooler who didn't make it will take some of the pressure off
them."



   "That's mean."



   "Like I said, Coach Calloway is mean, sadistic, and cruel, and very,
very good.  And even if I made it, I'm not sure I'd want to.  I mean, what
would I do my senior year, study?"



   "You're too smart for your own good," Robbie accused.



   "Funny, you're not the first person to say that."



   Robbie stood.  "We owe you a massage."



   "I think it's time to head home for dinner." We were taking Tami in
again because her mom was away for the night.  I'm not exactly sure how
Robbie became part of the deal, but I'm not complaining.



   "Your mom said seven.  We have half-an-hour," Tami said.



   "You don't have to." I really wasn't sure this was a good idea.



   "Stand up!" Robbie ordered.  She could teach marine drill instructors a
thing or two about giving orders.  I stood.



   "We always used to put the sofa cushions in the middle of the floor to
lie on."



   "I have sofa cushions," Robbie said, reminding me that she had been
slighted, then added a fake sob, before picking up one of Tami's cushions
and tossing it to the exact middle of the floor.



   Somehow I knew I was going to give a lot of massages before I heard the
last of this.  And that didn't take any mind reading at all.



   Tami took the last two cushions and laid them in a line.



   "Strip!" Robbie ordered.



   "I don't think this is a good idea."



   "Y'all ain't got nuthin, we'all ain't already seen." Robbie was
channeling Scarlett again.



   If I learned anything from General Custer it was, "When you're
outgunned, surrender." I started pulling off clothes.  In less than a
minute I was down to my briefs.  Red with a white waistband, very stylish.
A look from Robbie, and I lost them too.



   The funny thing was, here I am, standing in Tami's living room, naked
with two hot girls, and I wasn't hard.



   Instead of pondering the cosmic significance of that, I lay down.  The
girls knelt on either side.



   "You know, I'm not the only one he gives massages to," Tami said as she
started rubbing my shoulder way too gently.



   "Really?" Robbie said as her fingers started digging into my shoulder on
the other side.



   Oh god!  Mikee and Kelly.  I willed my atoms to vibrate through the
atoms of the floor.  I'd heard it was theoretically possible.



   "Yeah, two girls here in the park."



   I don't think Robbie meant to dig her fingers into the muscle at the
side of my neck, but she did.  If I were lucky, Tami would drop it without
mentioning their names.



   "Mikee and Kelly."



   "I don't think I know them."



   I told myself I wasn't going to cry.  I was fourteen, too old for that,
as Robbie's fingers stabbed into already abused muscles.



   "You've probably seen Mikee in the halls.  She just turned thirteen. 
Kelly's almost eleven."



   Robbie's grip loosened, and I sighed.  I'd never seen Robbie jealous
before.  Of course, the only other girl in my life was Tami, and she was
kind of a special situation.  I wondered how Robbie would react if she knew
what else I did with the two younger girls.



   The girls worked down my body, Tami rubbing too lightly to do any good,
but Robbie digging in and loosening up tight muscles.  I was going to be
lop-sided for awhile.



   The girls chatted about unimportant things until Robbie laid her hands
on my butt.  Then Tami's hands joined her on the other side and Big Tony
came awake.



   Tami got a little more forceful as the two girls kneaded my ass.  As Big
Tony stirred beneath me, I wondered if they planned to work on my front. 
And just who was getting my joystick.  The human body has enough symmetry
to make dual massage workable up to a point.  And that point was getting
longer every second.



   As the girls worked down to my legs, Tami's hands brushed my balls, and
Big Tony, though pressed against my stomach, was at full attention.



   Down past my knees they rubbed my calves.  Tami was getting better,
doing almost as good as Robbie.



   Then Robbie slapped my butt.  "Roll over slick."



   I thought about protesting but knew in the end she'd get her way.  I
rolled over.  Big Tony, happy to be free, popped up immediately, proud as
the Washington Monument.



   "He likes us," Robbie cooed.  "He really likes us."



   I wondered if she purposely paraphrased Sally Field.



   "He likes me best," Tami said, I think jokingly, and grabbed my tentpole
at the base, her forefinger and thumb making a circle.



   "No, me." Robbie said and grabbed my prick above Tami's hand.



   Ever played the game with a bat?  One person catches a bat, then the
second person grabs it a little higher, then the first again, all the way
to the top of the bat.  As these two played I wondered what the prize was.



   Tami's hand closed on the head of my cock.  "Me."



   I must have agreed, cause I chose that moment to erupt.



   Tami pulled her hand away and wiped it on my leg.  "Yuck!  You can have
him."



   Robbie watched as four more spurts followed the first.  "I don't want
him."



   The girls stood.  "Let's go to dinner." They left without another word.



   I lay on the floor of Tami's living room, my cum dripping down my
stomach and legs, and wondered for the three millionth time since puberty
had set in if it was all worth it.









   Chapter XXII



   "Make it stop!" I grabbed my head as if in agony.



   Robbie looked out her opened door at me.  "Make what stop?"



   I dropped to my knees, a look of agony on my face.  "The music.  Stop
the music!"



   "What music?"



   "I can't tell you.  It's like a virus."



   I dropped to my side, then rolled on my back, looking up at her.  "Make
it stop.  Please!  I'll go mad."



   "Poor baby," Robbie said, then reached down and grabbed me by the
armpits and pulled me in the door so she could shut it.  "How did it
start?"



   "I was talking to dad and watching the news.  We saw a story, and I made
some snide comment about it.  Then he said the words."



   "What words?" Robbie asking kneeling by my head.



   "It's a small world, after all," I said and grinned.



   Robbie looked at me questioningly.  Then the reality set in.  "Oh, God.
I hear it too."



   I started, then Robbie joined in:



   "It's a small world after all.



   "It's a small world after all.



   "It's a small world after all.



   "It's a small, small world."



   We finished in perfect harmony.



   "It won't stop," she said.



   "I know."



   "How can we stop it?"



   "There's only one known cure.  Music and sex.  Lots of music.  Lots of
sex."



   "You pervert.  You did this to me on purpose."



   I grinned.



   Robbie held out her hand.  I took it and we stood up.  For a moment we
grinned at each other, then hand-in-hand we raced for the stairs.



   Robbie sat at her computer.  "Any particular genre?"



   "Rock.  Some Alice Cooper, The Doors, Iron Butterfly."



   Robbie shot me a look.  Not my usual music, but somehow we had to drive
the demons out.  She used her mouse to click several things on the screen
and the music started;



   "Riders on the storm..."



   "Now what?" she asked, standing.



   "You're wearing too many clothes."



   She giggled.  "So are you."



   We both started shedding unnecessary coverings.  When we were naked I
stepped to her and pulled her into a hard embrace and smothered her mouth
with mine.



   I dropped slowly to my knees kissing a line from her mouth to her
pelvis. I was so incredible lucky to have her.  I stood, picked her up, and
carried her to the bed.  I dropped her from about two feet and watched her
bounce, enjoying the surprised look on her face before I pressed my face
again to her pelvis and kissed all the area around her mound.  I nuzzled in
the soft down above her slit, then kissed my way down one thigh and up the
other.



   I spread her legs and gently kissed her slit from top to bottom and back
again.  My tongue flicked out, barely past my lips so that my taste buds
could enjoy the experience that was Robbie.  I'd tasted how many girls? 
Seven?  No, nine.  I'd almost forgotten Alana and Stephanie--briefly I
wondered if Alana's friends would return this summer-and each girl had her
own...  flavor.



   I used my thumbs to open Robbie and then started licking her exposed
cunt.



   I thrust my tongue deep into her hole, letting my taste buds savor her.



   Robbie grabbed my ears and pulled me up to her, pulling my mouth to hers
and pushing her tongue deep into my mouth.  I felt her hand on my cock, and
she was guiding it toward her pussy.  The head slipped between her lips and
I pushed hard, entering her.  We both moaned, deep in our throats.



   Something was playing, though my mind wasn't clear enough to recognize
what.  But it had a driving bass line and I fell into rhythm with it,
driving deep into my lover as Robbie thrust her hips to me.



   I felt the relief I needed stirring within me as the sperm in my balls
seemed to boil.  Too soon, I thought.  I wasn't ready.  But my body was,
and cum spurted from my cock and coated Robbie's insides.  As I drove my
wilting stick into Robbie, milking it, I felt her stiffen, then relax, and
knew that she'd gone over the edge too.



   We clung together, enjoying the feeling of being together, being
attached, being one.



   * * *



   I lay on my back and enjoyed the image as much as the sensation.  Robbie
straddled me, my cock once again embedded in her tight hot pussy.  This was
my favorite position, lying flat, the girl sitting on me and doing all the
work.  To hell with the macho man-on-top.  This was the ultimate.



   Robbie was enjoying a slow up, forward, down and back rhythm and looking
down on me as dreamily as I looked up at her.  I reached out and ran my
thumb across the top of her slit.



   "That was mean," she murmured.



   "What, playing with your pussy?" I raised my hand and captured her
nipple between thumb and forefinger and gently rolled it.



   "No.  The song when you first got here."



   I grinned.  "I told you not to ask.  It's contagious."



   "It sure is."



   "It's hard to believe that the same people who gave us Bambi, The Little
Mermaid and The Lion King could also be responsible for that curse of
music."



   Robbie nodded.  The music had changed to the new age stuff we'd both
started to like, though I didn't recognize the piece that was playing.



   "I'm surprised that you're up to this.  I mean, after three days of
baseball try-outs."



   "I'm resilient." I grinned.  "Besides, that's why I'm letting you do all
the work."



   "Liar.  You always let me do all the work."



   I grinned again.  "Just Thursday and Friday and I win my bet.  A
threesome." I leered up at her.



   "So how many girls have you fucked with this piece of steel?" Robbie
asked casually, the rhythm of her hips picking up slightly.



   A warning light came on in my head, and a mental klaxon announced a
loaded question.  I was pretty sure that Robbie knew Tami was my first. 
And she knew that when she and I got hot and heavy, right after Tami and I
broke up, that I didn't want to do it with anyone.  So any number other
than two was dangerous.  Unfortunately, any number other than four was a
lie.



   "More than one."



   Robbie reached behind her and wrapped her fingers around my balls.  The
feeling was incredible.  Then she squeezed, and pain became part of the
equation.  "You're very good at evading questions you don't want to
answer." She squeezed again.



   "Less than seventeen," I added.



   "Seventeen?"



   "Less than."



   Her grip relaxed a little.  "How many this week?"



   I was on safer ground here.  She was the only one.



   "More than zero."



   Her hand tightened.



   "And less than six."



   "Six?"



   "Less than."



   The look she gave me was calculating but amused, and her hand relaxed
and gently stroked my balls.  "Just make sure it stays less than six."



   I couldn't resist.  "This week?  Or every week?"



   Her hand tightened, then relaxed again.  "Every week."



   I considered a comment about how restrictive that was, but decided that
my balls wouldn't appreciate it.



   Robbie picked up the pace of her fucking.  My cock had deflated a little
with the rough handling of my balls, but it now became hard as steel again.
I thought about Mikee and Kelly.  They'd almost got me in a lot of trouble.



   Robbie released my balls and leaned forward, her hands on my ribs for
greater leverage.  I watched her face and saw the first signs of orgasm.  I
flipped us onto her back and thrust hard and deep, trying to intensify her
pleasure.



   She muttered incoherently as wave after wave of pleasure washed over
her. Then in a giant surge my balls signaled my own climax, and my seed
surged toward her uterus.



   "Have I ever mentioned how much I like doing that?"



   "Once or twice," Robbie replied with a giggle.  "Is it that good with
all of your less than seventeen?"



   "Oh yeah!" I agreed.



   Robbie cocked her head.  "Dad's home."



   "Who cares?  I could stay like this forever."



   "Have I ever showed you my dad's gun collection?"



   I rolled off Robbie and headed for my clothes.  Robbie laughed and sat
up.  "Don't like guns?"



   I thought about Kenny's rifle.  "No.  Does he really have a collection?"
I pulled on my underwear.



   "Ask him.  He'd be thrilled to show it to you." Robbie rolled off the
bed, went to her dresser, and started pulling out clothes.  I pulled on my
jeans.  "Most of them are from the time of the Revolutionary War." Robbie
was putting on panties as I slipped my t-shirt over my head.



   "They shot a round bullet about this big." She held her fingers about an
inch apart.  I sat in her desk chair and started putting on shoes and
socks."



   "Roberta!  Are you home?" came a shout from downstairs.



   "Up here, Daddy," she shouted back.



   I reached over to her computer and turned the music down, then finished
tying my shoe.



   Robbie had dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and didn't bother with shoes
and socks.  "Come on," she said and held out her hand, leading me
downstairs.



   "Hi, Beaver.  Hi, Tony.  Why aren't I surprised that you're here?"



   "Beaver?" I said, conflicting images of Robbie's pussy and the little
kid on the fifties TV show filling my head.



   Robbie must have sensed what I was thinking, because her elbow became
one with my stomach, resulting in the loss of about a half-a-cubic-foot of
air from my lungs.



   "Hi, Daddy."



   "Beaver?" I repeated, moving out of range.



   Robbie shrugged.



   Her dad grinned.  "When Robbie was about three or four, we were living
in Savannah and had a little creek that ran through our back yard.  Robbie
liked to dam up the end of it and flood the yard."



   "That's enough reminiscing."



   "I can tell there's more to the story."



   "Just that Roberta was almost never wearing clothes when she did it."



   "Daddy!"



   "Any pictures?  I want to see the dam of course.  I helped point Tami
toward a career in journalism.  Maybe Robbie's got a future in structural
engineering."



   He frowned when I mentioned Tami, then smiled again.  "A lot of
pictures," he said, and I saw Robbie blush.  "But I can't show them to
you." He held his hand to the side of his mouth and whispered loudly, "She
knows where I sleep."



   "You bet your sweet ass, I do."



   "Robbie!" he and I said together.



   She grinned at both of us.



   "Had your dinner yet?" he asked after a few seconds.



   "Hours ago.  There's a plate for you keeping warm in the oven." She
reached out her hand, and I took it and let her pull me back up the stairs.



   Inside her room I asked, "He knows, doesn't he?"



   "That his daughter isn't pure and innocent anymore?  I think so."



   I remembered the Mel Gibson movie, The Patriot.  Those guns made nasty
holes.  "Does he...  I mean, is he...  I..."



   "Tony, breathe." We sat on the side of the bed.  "Just after we came
back from the Seattle game after Halloween he and I had a talk, and I told
him that I though it would be best for everyone if I had protection."



   "You did?  Back in November?"



   "I told you that I decided when I met you that you were gonna get my
cherry.  By then I was sure of it.  Anyway, he wasn't too happy about it,
but Dad's a realist.  He took me to the doctor and I got the patch. 
Remember that first time we almost did it?  I told you you didn't need a
rubber, that I was protected.



   "Since you're always around here, even when he's not.  And since you're
the only boy who's around here, Dad put two and two together and got four.
Actually, he thought I lost my innocence about the middle of November."



   "That explains some of the strange looks I was getting about then." I
hesitated.  "He doesn't like Tami, does he?"



   "Why?"



   "He had a look on his face when I mentioned her downstairs."



   Robbie laid back on the bed and sighed.  "He likes her, especially since
he knows that we're friends.  He just isn't sure where she fits in our
relationship."



   "That makes four of us."



   "He doesn't want me to get hurt."



   "That makes four of us too."







   Chapter XXIII



   "Thanks for dinner, sir.  That was great."



   "Thanks, Tony, it's nice to be appreciated."



   "Hey!  I made the potatoes and the salad."



   I looked at Robbie and keeping my face neutral said, "They were okay." I
watched her simmer for a few seconds, then corrected myself.  "Robbie, they
were incredible.  Where did you learn to cook like that?"



   "Robbie could cook better than, ur, her mother when she was six."



   "Roberta has many talents," I said, conscious of the many sharp
instruments near her hands.



   "Yes she does," her dad agreed.



   I'd been invited to dinner and a tour of his collection.  He'd picked
Robbie and me up after practice, started dinner, and then showed me the two
dozen guns he owned.  I especially liked his first gun.  He'd found it in
South Carolina when he was just a little older than me.  It was a pistol
that had belonged to Francis Marion, the legendary Swamp Fox.



   Then he cooked a lemon garlic chicken that was out of this world.



   "Robbie has been keeping me up-to-date on your try-outs.  Get cut
today?"



   "Nope.  I'm going to make it to Friday, just like I thought.  We're down
to sixteen now, counting me."



   "And you still think he'll cut you tomorrow?"



   "I'm sure of it." Especially after a few guilty looks he'd given me
after practice today.



   "And Roberta tells me you have a bet about it."



   I'd been sipping my Coke, swallowed wrong, and started coughing.  When
I'd recovered I looked at Robbie, who was sitting with her hands folded on
the table in front her, looking innocent.



   I wondered if I could crack her angelic look if I said, "Yeah, she, Tami
and I are going to do a threesome."



   I decided I wasn't that brave.  "Yeah, Tami was thinking about dying her
hair, so I bet that if I won, she and Robbie couldn't dye their hair, and
if I lost, they could dye mine."



   "You're a braver man than I am."



   "Gunga Din," I said, finishing the quote.  Her dad raised his eyebrows.
"Mom and Dad are into old movies.  I was raised on a diet of Cary Grant,
with a little John Wayne and the Marx Brothers thrown in."



   "That explains a lot."



   * * *



   Upstairs, I closed the door and pulled Robbie into a long kiss.



   "Somebody's been practicing," Robbie said when she pulled away.



   "An hour a day with my forearm." I lifted my arm in front of my face and
kissed it for several seconds.  "And the vacuum cleaner hose."



   Robbie laughed and fell back on the bed.



   "Since your dad knows we're doing it, he won't be surprised to her the
bed squeaking," I suggested with a hand on my belt.



   "Knowing it and having it rubbed in his face are two completely
different things.  And he does have gunpowder and ammo for all those guns,"
she said as she sat up.



   I let my hand drop and pouted.



   "On the other hand.  He does give me my privacy." Robbie reached up and
slipped her finger under my belt and pulled me over in front of her.  She
pulled my fly down and expertly extracted Big Tony from his cocoon.  "I see
your friend wants to come out and play," she said, stroking it.



   "With you, every chance it gets."



   Robbie opened her mouth wide and maneuvered my cock until it bumped into
the back of her throat, then closed down on it, her lips almost at the
base.



   "Robbie, could you come here?"



   "Damn!" she said after she released my cock.  "Coming, Daddy!" she
yelled.  A bad choice of words, cause in a minute or two I would have been.
"Don't move, and don't put your friend away."



   Robbie shot out the door, leaving it open.



   There's something inherently awkward about standing in a girl's room,
alone, with your dick hanging out.  Add an open door and it was downright
creepy.



   She was back in a minute and closed the door behind her.  "He just
wanted to know about tomorrow night," she explained as she sat down on the
bed again.  "Now where was I?"



   I answered by pointing my cock at her mouth and pushing forward.  Her
lips opened and the warm moist cave of her mouth enveloped my favorite
appendage again.



   "Robbie!" her dad called from downstairs.  I was thinking about
borrowing one of his guns.  "Never mind.  I found it." I didn't care what
it was as I stroked her hair.  It took only a minute before her tongue and
lips coaxed my personal elixir of life from my body, and I fell on her bed
beside her, drained.



   "Thanks, I needed that."



   "I guess.  You been checking out Mrs.  McGinty again?"



   I grinned.



   "Or was it Allie Smidt in her track shorts after school?"



   "Allie?" I choked.



   "Or Tabitha?  Or Paula Grey?  Or Alana Temple?"



   "I, uh, that is..."



   "Tami's been telling me about your love life while we watch you
practice."



   "Tami talks too much.  There ought to be a law."



   "There is.  It requires old girlfriends to brief new ones."



   I rolled onto my back.  Big Tony flopped around outside my jeans.  "All
of those happened while you were still in Tennessee.  In fact, they
happened when Tami wasn't even talking to me, so..."



   "Relax stud.  I wasn't charging you with a crime."



   "I..."



   "Breathe," she commanded with a small laugh as she tucked Big Tony back
into my pants and zipped me up.  "You'all got a guilty conscience?"



   "My conscience was surgically removed when I entered the sixth grade. 
Since you seem to know all about my sex life, maybe I should know a little
about your old boyfriends.  And girlfriends."



   "Girlfriends?  I nev..." Robbie's face briefly matched her hair.



   "You implied that..."



   Robbie sat up straighter.  "You may have inferred, but what I implied
was that a girlfriend might not be out of the question."



   "Oh."



   Robbie grinned.  "You really did it with Tami's best friend in the pool
next to her house?"



   I smiled.  "I didn't plan it.  It just kind of happened."



   "Do you know what I'd do if you messed with my best friend like that?"



   The word eunuch popped into my mind.  "But Tami's your best friend, and
we have a threesome to schedule right after practice tomorrow."



   The look I got reminded me that I was dancing on the edge of a cliff. 
When in doubt...



   I shifted position, lifted her shirt and closed my lips over her nipple.



   "Coward!" she accused.



   I let go of her nipple, looked up at her, grinned, and nodded.  Then I
started sucking on the other nipple while massaging the first with my
fingers.



   "You really should stop that.  Sometime before first period tomorrow."



   I swirled my tongue around her nipple, then kissed the valley between
her breasts before looking up at her and asking, "Why?"



   "I'll think of a reason.  Give me a week or two."



   "I'll keep busy until I hear from you." I started planting kisses all
over her ribs and stomach.



   One hundred of them.



   "I've been thinking," I said when I finished.



   "Very dangerous.  You could overheat your big head, and it can produce
unpredictable results for innocent bystanders near you."



   Not only was my next girlfriend gonna not be smart, she was gonna be
mute.  Mute was definitely the way to go.



   Damn!  It occurred to me that there was probably a waiting list for
beautiful-but-dumb, sexy-but-mute girls.  A long waiting list.



   "Habla Espanol?  Parlay-view Fran-case?  German?  Latin?  Swahili?"



   I nodded.  Robbie was reminding me of the first day we met, when I got
so tongue tied that I couldn't speak.  I wondered: if there hadn't been a
Robbie, would there have been a Peter?



   "Are you in there?  "



   "What, already?  Can't a guy have a minute for introspection?"



   "In a word, no.  What were you thinking about?"



   "Now, or when you called my intellectual prowess into question?"



   "Both."



   "Now, none of your business.  Before, the dance."



   "Ah, the dance." She grinned.  "I was thinking of going to the dance. 
But nobody asked me.  I guess everybody thought somebody else had."



   Oh, fuck!



   I slid off the bed to my knees in front of her, bowed my head, and
kissed each of her toes.  "Milady.  I have done you a great injustice."



   "Really?"



   "There can be no forgiveness."



   "Go on."



   "I should be horse-whipped."



   "There are worse things than horse whips."



   "And all too good for my crime.  I have taken you for granted.  I just
assumed that we'd go to the dance."



   "Do tell."



   "I am ashamed." I bowed my head and kissed her toes again.



   "You're forgiven.  This time anyway.  You've had a hell of a week.  And
yes, I would love to go to the dance with you."



   I kissed my way up her body.  From her ankles to her knees.  From her
knees to the bottoms of her shorts.  Then I pressed my face into her crotch
and tried to rub her slit with my nose.



   "And what were you thinking when you realized what a bonehead you were?"



   I lifted my face high enough to talk.  "I think I should leave well
enough alone and spend the rest of my life bringing you to new heights of
pleasure." I went back to nuzzling her mound with my nose.



   "A worthy goal, but..." she lifted my head by my ears until our eyes
met. "What were you thinking?"



   I sat back on my heels.  "I was thinking about Tami.  Should I... 
should we...  should I invite her too?"



   "An interesting question.  You know, some people think about going to
the dance before the day before."



   I bowed my head for a second, then looked up again, not hiding my smile.



   Robbie ignored it.  "I know at least eight guys have asked her," she
said.



   "Good."



   "And she's told them all no."



   "Oh."



   "Like you said before, Daddy's not the only one confused about our
relationship."



   "So what...?"



   "I won't be mad or upset if you invite her too.  And I won't be mad or
upset if you don't."



   "You're a lot of help."



   "But she is your friend, and I think she expects it."



   "Like I said, you're a lot of help," I said, starting to rise.  "I guess
I'd better get home.  I've got something to do."



   "You've got something to do here first," she said, standing and pushing
her shorts and panties to the ground.  I grinned and pressed my face into
her crotch again.







   Chapter XXIV



   They say that school is all about cliques and social status.  I was
pretty sure that between quarterbacking the best football team the school
had in years and walking into the Spring Dance with two beautiful ladies on
my arms, I had peaked.  Nobody was going to top that.



   It had taken a lot of convincing to get Tami to come.  She hadn't wanted
to be a fifth wheel.  But I told her that at worst she was a third wheel
and that trikes were a lot more stable than bikes.  Then I added she'd be a
fifth wheel if I invited Mikee and Kelly too.  She just gave me her look
and let me talk her into coming.



   "Everyone's staring," Tami whispered.



   "Yeah, they are," Robbie agreed, sounding very satisfied.



   I don't think they had coordinated, they hadn't had time, but Robbie and
Tami complimented each other.  Robbie's dress was a vivid blue, while
Tami's was a bright red in a similar style.  I almost wished I'd gone all
white, but I wore a light blue sport shirt and jeans.



   The dance was typical middle school.  The gym was decorated in streamers
and posters, though we did have a disco ball suspended from the ceiling
that somebody had donated years ago.



   The band, a local high school group, was playing a slow dance when we
walked in, so I parked Tami in a chair and took Robbie out on the dance
floor.  I guess I'm old-fashioned, but I like the slower dances where I
actually get to touch my partner.  Of course, back in the fourth grade when
I'd learned, I thought it was torture.



   Robbie was a good dancer.  Which was no surprise.  If there was anything
Robbie wasn't good at, I hadn't discovered it yet.  And she felt good in my
arms as I held her close.



   From the looks we were getting from Mr.  Parker, the vice-principal, too
close.  But the student handbook didn't specify a distance for dancing, so
I ignored him.  But I wouldn't be surprised if next year's handbook didn't
fix the omission.  Do you measure from the thighs?  The hips?  Or the
chests?  Maybe take an average of all three.  I could see Parker wandering
the dance floor with a tape measure and a calculator.



   The song ended and the band started another slow one, so I exchanged
Robbie for Tami.  Tami wasn't as sure of herself as Robbie, but she was a
good dancer anyway.  Especially when she forgot about trying to dance and
just let the music take over.



   Robbie lost no time in finding another partner, a seventh grader who'd
been leaning against the wall, trying to be invisible.  A couple of minutes
in Robbie's arms and the kid looked like Casanova.  Damn, I love her.



   The next song was faster, so I brought Tami over to the side and sat
down.  Tami hesitated, then plopped down on my leg.  A minute later, Robby
joined us, sitting in the chair next to me.  "I got dumped," she said and
pointed.



   Somehow I doubted that, but followed her finger.  The kid was dancing
with Mikee.  Sometimes I forgot that Mikee was a seventh grader herself
now. Tami and I exchanged a glance and laughed.



   "What?" Robbie demanded.



   "Inside joke," I said, patting her thigh.



   Robbie fumed for a second, then nodded.



   We sat and watched the dance.



   "I'm not sure this is appropriate."



   I looked up.  Mr.  Parker was standing next to us.



   "I, uh..."



   "She's just sitting on his leg.  Lots of couples are doing it," Robbie
spoke up.  I looked around and she was right.  "There aren't enough
chairs," she continued.  "Even Mrs.  Richland is doing it." Sure enough,
Mrs.  Richland, the home ec teacher, was sitting on her husbands leg.



   "I wasn't referring to that," he said with such obvious distaste that I
wondered if anybody had sat on his lap, ever.  "I meant bringing two girls
to the dance."



   I considered saying that I was a Mormon, but since I'd heard that Parker
was Mormon, I bit my tongue.



   "I wasn't aware that the handbook required monogamy," I said.



   "Mr.  Sims, your attitudes have already gotten you trouble this year."



   I considered pointing out that my attitudes may have gotten me into
trouble, but I hadn't stayed in trouble very long.



   Grandpappy used to say, "No sense opening your mouth and starting a war
you can't win, when keeping it closed works just as well." I smiled.



   "What's wrong with it?" Robbie wanted to know, getting up and settling
on my other leg.



   "It just doesn't look right."



   "Has somebody complained?" My bud Luke was here with Allie Smidt or he
probably would have, saying I had more than my share.



   "That's not the point."



   "I guess I don't understand the point." I did my best to look confused.
"It's not against the rules in the handbook and nobody's complained. 
What's the problem?"



   Parker had one of those veins in her forehead that throbbed when he was
annoyed.  It was doing a mambo right now."



   "Appearances.  Don't you care about appearances?"



   "Not a lot.  Would you really want me to chose between two beautiful
ladies like this?"



   Parker looked like he wanted to use my boney butt for field goal
practice.



   "Confidentially," Robbie whispered.  "He's just the beard."



   "The beard?"



   "Yeah.  I'm here with Tami." Then she leaned over and planted a kiss on
Tami's lips.  Tami turned scarlet but didn't pull away.  Parker stomped
off.



   "The truth comes out," I said in my saddest voice.  "Would you two like
to be alone?"



   "Yes," Tami said quickly, then put her hands on Robbie's shoulders and
returned the kiss.



   Payback is a bitch.







   Chapter XXV



   "I know you planned this.  But how the hell did you get my dad, her mom,
and your folks to go along with it?"



   I grinned knowingly.



   Actually, it just happened.  Tami's mom was going to be gone for the
weekend and had already arranged with my mom for Tami to stay with us. 
Then Aunt Patti called from Kirkland and invited all of us up.  My mom
wanted to go because she hadn't seen her sister since her surgery.  She
talked to Tami's mom, and they decided that we were old enough and
trustworthy enough to stay by ourselves.  Besides, there was nothing that
we could do overnight that we couldn't have been doing during the day.  And
both women were smart enough to suspect that we had.



   Then Robbie had decided to spend the night with Tami after the dance,
and her dad had gotten into the act.  And now, I had the house to myself
with two hot babes until Tami's mom got home tomorrow afternoon.



   Tami excused herself and went to the bathroom.



   "So now you get your threesome," Robbie said in a low voice, her face
unreadable.



   "No," I said quickly.



   Robbie looked surprised.  Hell, I was surprised.



   "No?"



   "Tami's not ready for something like that."



   "She'll be fine.  I'll explain about the bet."



   "No," I said firmly.  Robbie blinked.  She might be fine, but I didn't
think I could handle Tami watching while I made love to Robbie, or vice
versa.  I guess I'm a wimp.  It was one thing for Kelly to watch me and her
sister, or Mikee to watch me and Kelly.  But Robbie watching my cock sink
into Tami?  I don't think so.



   "So what about the bet?"



   "Let's just say, I won, Tami's going to stay a brunette, and leave it at
that."



   Robbie stared at me.



   Tami came back.  "What's wrong?"



   "I was just trying to figure out how I wound up with a nice guy."



   "You know what they say," I said, "Unlucky in love...  Maybe you have a
career as a card counter."



   Tami looked from Robbie to me and back again.



   "So what happens now?" Robbie asked finally.



   "Well, I'm going to kiss you a hell of a lot better than Tami did.  Then
I'm going to kiss her a lot better than you did.  That should bring you
both back to the hetero lifestyle.  Then I'm gonna go to my room, climb in
bed, and pull the covers over my head.  I got cut from the baseball team
today, so I'm gonna cry myself to sleep."



   Robbie and I were sitting on the coach, so I grabbed her and pressed my
mouth to hers.  The kiss lasted centuries as our tongues intertwined and
her breathe mingled with mine.  My hand massaged her breast beneath her
frilly dress.  I broke away and kissed her once more, lightly, on the lips.



   Then I stood and pulled Tami into a tight embrace.  My hand caressed her
ass as our lips met as hotly as Robbie and mine.  When I finished, I kissed
her gently and walked to my room.



   "There's two other beds.  One of you can take Traci's and the other my
parents', or you can share my parents'.  It's big enough," I said over my
shoulder before I closed my door.



   "Two girls and a house to himself, and he goes to bed," I heard Robbie
say through the door.  "He needs someone to take care of him."



   "Lucky he's got us," Tami said.







   Chapter XXVI



   "We're here!" somebody shouted.



   My eyes opened slowly.  What the hell?



   My door opened, and Kelly ran in and jumped on me.  "Your parents are
gone and we can play all morning." She kissed me hard and hugged me through
the sheet and blanket.



   `This isn't right,' I thought.  Then: `Why not, you've done it before.'



   Mikee followed her into the room.  "She's always first," she complained.



   "That's cause I save the best for last.  Besides, she runs."



   There was something wrong.



   Kelly sat up and started pulling her shirt off.  "Mikee made out with
some kid at the dance last night," she informed me as her shorts joined her
shirt on the floor.  She wasn't wearing anything else.



   I looked at the seventh grader.



   "Billy Creswell.  Robbie told him to dance with me and we...  well, he's
nice."



   I grinned at her, and she almost shyly started pulling her shirt off. 
Kelly started pulling my blanket off me.



   `What's wrong with this picture?' a voice in the back of my head yelled.



   `What could be wrong about waking up to two hot girls ready for sex?' I
told it.



   Two hot girls.



   Two hot girls?



   Oh, my God.  Robbie and Tami!



   "You've got to get..." I looked at the door.  Tami's face was
expressionless, but Robbie's was shocked.  I'd finally managed to surprise
her.



   Tami draped her arm around Robbie's shoulder.  "Come on," she said,
leading Robbie back toward my parents' room.



   I considered my options.  I could research that monastery I'd been
thinking about.  Except they liked to really get into the religion thing,
and I wasn't sure I could.  Homosexuality seemed like an option.  I suppose
Luke was kinda cute, but he didn't look very cuddly.  Maybe I could talk my
parents into moving again.  They say Boston is nice.  We have cousins
there. I could start over.  Maybe not make the same mistakes.



   "Oh, God," Kelly said, looking at the door.



   "Fuck!" Mikee said, then clamped her hand over her mouth.



   I couldn't agree with her more.







   Chapter XXVII



   "Robbie, can we talk?"



   Robbie closed her locker and looked the other way down the hall. 
"There's nothing to say."



   "You don't understand."



   "I think I understand just fine."



   "Will you at least listen?"



   Robbie spun and looked at me, her face set in stone.  "Talk!"



   "I..." The problem was, what the hell could I say?  I'd been having sex
with the two younger girls on the side.  I could say it didn't mean
anything.  And it didn't.  It was just sex, But I didn't see that helping a
lot.



   "That's what I thought," she snapped.  She spun again, and started down
the hall.



   "Robbie, could we..."



   "Leave the young lady alone," came the voice from behind me.  I didn't
have to turn to know it was Mr.  Parker.



   "I'm just trying to talk to her."



   "She obviously doesn't want to talk to you."



   It had been a bad weekend.  Mikee and Kelly wouldn't talk to me because
they thought they'd messed up my life.  Robbie wouldn't talk to me because
she felt betrayed.  Tami wouldn't talk to me because...  hell I don't know
why Tami wouldn't talk to me, but she wouldn't.



   Dad was in a bad mood when he came home because he'd gotten a speeding
ticket.  Mom wasn't much better cause she'd just ridden a hundred miles
with Dad.  The runt was okay, but that wasn't a lot of help.



   Then Robbie wasn't on the bus this morning, and the bus was late so I
couldn't talk to her before class.



   Like I said, it had been a bad weekend.



   I turned and faced the administrator.



   "Just cause you've never had a love life, doesn't mean you should resent
those of us who have."



   "My office.  Now!"



   * * *



   I sat in Parker's office for over an hour while he ranted and preached
about respect.  After the first hour I pulled out my notebook and started
doing my history homework.  Parker didn't even notice for five minutes.



   "What do you think you're doing?" he bellowed.



   "Homework."



   "Put that away.  We're talking here."



   "Talking?  That implies we're communicating.  Exchanging ideas.  I'm
sitting here bored out of my skull, and you're doing a rambling monologue.
If you like long boring monologues, join a Shakespeare group."



   For a few seconds, I thought I'd killed him.  I wasn't sure how I felt
about that.  On the one hand, it wouldn't be much loss to the world of
education; but on the other, I have a kind of Buddhist philosophy about the
sanctity of life.



   His face turned red and his mouth worked, but only silence.  That and a
little drool.  Then he stomped out.



   He was back a few minutes later with Mr.  Reed, the principal.



   "Tell him.  Tell him what you said." His face was still red, and that
vein in his forehead was throbbing and creeping me out.  I considered an
innocent act: `Said?  Said what?' Not to stay out of trouble, but because
it would piss Parker off royally.



   "I don't remember my exact words, but something to the effect of, since
Mr.  Parker likes repeating long boring monologues, he should join a
Shakespearian acting group."



   I thought I saw the hint of a smile of Mr.  Reed's face.



   "You see," Parker said gleefully.  "It's attitudes like his that can
destroy the school."



   "Destroy the school?" I was destroying the school?



   I sighed.  "Look, Parker brought me in here to suspend me.  He hasn't
even bothered to call my parents yet.  You two may have nothing better to
do than sit around all day, but I have a life." Or I had one until Mom gets
a hold of me.  "So call my parents, pick a number, and let's get on with
it. Besides which, lunch was..." I looked at my watch, "...an hour and
thirty-seven minutes ago, and I missed it.  My stomach is growling."



   "Charley, go call his parents." Reed said after a few seconds thought.



   "Both are at work.  Dad should be easier to get a hold of, but Mom will
be madder," I said helpfully.



   "Mr.  Sims, I'm worried about you," Reed said after Parker had left the
room.  I looked up at him, but didn't reply.  "You've had a very good
record.  Both at your old school and now here.  But lately..."



   I think this was the part where I was supposed to break down and confess
to drugs, or alcohol, or being abused or something.



   "First that fight in January..."



   "For which you wanted to suspend me," I responded at last.  "But when
you actually took the time to investigate, I heard no more about it.  Not
even a hint of an apology."



   "And now this," Reed finished, ignoring my comments.  "And you don't
even seem to care."



   If there was ever a time for the word fuck with a large exclamation
point, this was it.



   "Mr.  Reed," I said softly.  "I made a comment that I probably shouldn't
have.  I've had a very bad couple of days, but I know that's no excuse.  I
know I'm getting suspended and I accept that.  But expecting me to listen
to that blowhard lecture me for over an hour, saying the same thing over
and over and over..."



   "That's enough!"



   I couldn't resist one more point.  "Have you ever listened to him for an
hour?"



   "That's not the point."



   "What is?"



   "Excuse me?"



   "What is the point?"



   "The point is, you owe Mr.  Parker your respect."



   "Sorry, won't happen.  If getting through this school means respecting
Mr.  Parker, you might as well draw up the expulsion forms."



   "I don't understand what you mean."



   This is what comes from having grandparents who were hippies.  At least
three of them were.  Mom's dad, Grampa Doug, was ROTC then career Marines,
but we try to live down the shame.  Actually we're very proud of Grandpa
Doug, but his attitudes can be a bit neanderthal.  What Granny Vickie ever
saw in him, I'll never know.



   "Were you ever in the military?"



   "I was in the Army.  But I don't understand what that has to do with
anything."



   "Officer?"



   "Yes."



   "In the Army, you come to attention and salute a superior officer?"



   "Yes."



   "As a sign of respect?"



   "Yes, but..."



   "Did you ever serve with a superior officer you didn't respect?  Stupid?
No common sense?  Just an asshole in general?" I could see the answer on
his face, but he didn't say it.



   "Don't bother to answer, I wouldn't want you to have to lie.  But I'll
bet you still came to attention.  That you still saluted.  You respected
the office, the rank, not the man.  I'll be happy to respect the office of
vice principal, but if I have to respect Mr.  Parker to get through middle
school, I'm not going to make it."



   We stared at each other for a long time before Mr.  Parker came back
with Mom.  She did not look happy.



   "I believe a five day suspension would be appropriate," Mr.  Reed said.
Mom's face clouded more.



   "Mr.  Sims, I think we can cut that to three days, if you'd like to
apologize to Mr.  Parker."



   "Bob!" Parker started to complain, but Mr.  Reed held up his hand.



   "Well?"



   I knew what everybody expected.  Mom looked relieved.  Two words and it
was over.  `I'm' and `sorry.' I remembered Granny Vickie talking about
Grandpa Doug's last tour in the Marines.  He had a silver eagle on his
shoulder, and everybody said that a star was in his future.  All he had to
do was change a paragraph on an officer's evaluation report.  One paragraph
for some senator's son.  I remembered the look on Granny's face as she told
how Grandpa had taken retirement instead.  That look told me what she saw
in him.



   I stood up.  "Mr.  Parker, I'm sorry that you're so pathetic that you've
never had a love life." To say there was a stunned silence is like saying
the Grand Canyon is a ditch.  "Oh, and I'm sorry you're long-winded and
boring too."



   "Twelve days." Mr.  Reed said evenly.  I found out later that twelve
days was the maximum he could give with involving the superintendent. 
"Mrs. Sims, you may take him home now."



   "But we need to discuss this.  He has to understand..."



   "Charley, I think Mr.  Sims has had enough talking.  He understands the
situation completely."



   Mom's face lightened a little as she looked from me to Mr.  Reed and
back again.



   "I hope you understand where your attitude has gotten you, young man,"
Parker said, wanting the last word.



   "Two and one.  That's what my attitude has gotten me."



   Everyone looked confused.



   I grinned.  "You've tried to suspend me three times and made it stick
once."



   I started gathering my books as everybody watched.  Just as I was
passing out the door I heard, "Mr.  Sims?" I turned back and looked at Mr.
Reed.  "When you come back, maybe you and I could chat about things."



   I gave him a half smile.  "I'd like that."



   He nodded and I turned away.  Mom was giving me a quizzical look.



   On the steps outside, she asked, "Was that worth it?"



   We were almost to the car when I said, "Yeah, it was."



   "You might not be so sure when I get done with you," she threatened as
we got in her car.



   "I think..."



   She turned in her seat and looked at me, silently waiting for me to
complete the thought.



   "I think your dad would understand," I said.



   She put the car in gear and we pulled out of the parking lot, leaving
that world behind.







   Chapter XXVIII



   Suspension was not a vacation.  Mom saw to that.  She had a long list of
chores around the house, and as that petered out she loaned me out to the
neighbors.



   I really should schedule these things better.  My suspension was for
twelve days.  Twelve school days, which should have meant sixteen calendar
days.  But because spring vacation fell in the middle of it, it was
actually twenty-three days.



   Mom and Dad had a long talk before sentence was pronounced.  It was
about what I expected.  Completely grounded until I went back to school. 
No television.  No computer or internet except for school work.  My long
list of chores, which included Traci's usual jobs.  No friends.



   I think the looks I got from Dad were the worst.  He was disappointed. I
think that was the worst punishment.



   Traci could have lorded it over me, but instead went out of her way to
be nice.  I don't know if she's growing up or Mom warned her that I could
explode.



   * * *



   The first night I was paroled for half-an-hour for a walk in the warm
night air.



   "Hi," Tami said breathlessly and she hurried to catch up.  I was just
turning onto Annette Funicello in the front of the park.  "I heard what
happened."



   "I can't talk," I told her.



   "Look, I know you're upset about what happened..."



   I stopped.  "Tami, I'm not mad.  I'm not upset.  I just can't talk.  I'm
grounded from all human contact.  Mom was nice enough to let me take a
walk." I gave her a small smile and continued down Annette.  She went back
the way she came.



   Tami was sitting on my porch as I came around again.  She got up and
fell into step with me.



   "Tami, I..."



   "Your mom said I could walk with you and we could talk.  She also said
you couldn't enjoy yourself, but I'm not sure what she meant."



   "No physical contact."



   "Like that's going to happen," she said with a laugh.  They say you
really told Parker and Reed off."



   "Not Mr.  Reed, he's not so bad.  And not much Mr.  Parker.  I just said
he'd never had a love life."



   "And never will," Tami added.



   I grinned.  I always felt better just talking to Tami.  "At least he can
fantasize about the cheerleaders and the girl's basketball team."



   "You think he does?"



   "I would, if I was him."



   "You do anyway."



   I grinned again.  "Of course.  Have you seen the way her skirt flips up
and down when Allie's cheering?"



   "Anyway, you missed an interesting day."



   "What happened?"



   "Mr.  Calloway and Ricky came to help Mr.  Hallowell with try-outs."



   "Fuck!  I forgot about try-outs.  I won't make the team."



   "Oh."



   Now I was having second thoughts about Mom's question of whether it was
worth it.  By the time we passed my house again, I'd decided it still was.



   "Did Robbie try out?"



   "Yeah.  I watched.  She made the team."



   "How?"



   "They picked six today, and will pick the second six tomorrow.  Mr. 
Calloway said that will make the ones who are left try harder tomorrow."



   "You talked to him?"



   "He came over to talk to me after try-outs.  He said he missed having
you there.  He also said you were right about Robbie being a natural."



   "Good." I was happy for Robbie.  I could go to the games and cheer her
on.



   "He had a message for you." Tami grinned.  "He said learning to control
your temper is as important as learning to hit a curveball."



   "I didn't lose my...  well, not much."



   Tami kept grinning.



   "Robbie had a long talk with Mr.  Hallowell after practice, then her dad
drove us home."



   "What about?"



   Tami shrugged.



   We were in front of my house again.  "I'd better go in, or I won't get
out again till I graduate." I started to toss off a wave, then reached
forward and pulled Tami into a hug.  "Thanks," I whispered.  "You helped."



   "As long as you didn't enjoy yourself."



   * * *



   Tami became my life-line.  Every night, Mom would let me out for a walk
about seven, and every night Tami was waiting.  She kept me sane during my
long captivity.  Damn, now I'm starting to sound like the Count of Monte
Cristo, or the Man in the Iron Mask.



   She'd bring me homework and take what I'd done back to school. 
Technically, I wasn't supposed to have homework.  Any assignments that were
due during a suspension were supposed to be failures or incompletes, but
she'd bring back my assignments and they'd be corrected though the number
grade at the top was missing.



   And she kept me up with the latest at school.  Tabitha had a boyfriend.
Carl Hunter.  I knew who he was, but didn't know him.  Mentally I wished
him luck.  Allie was going out with a freshman on the high school baseball
team.



   Our baseball team, she said was a joke.  Mr.  Hallowell was trying, but
didn't have a clue.  And, unfortunately, this year there was no Ricky to
help him.



   * * *



   Friday of my first week, I was mowing the park's front lawn.  Mom had
volunteered me to the manager, Mrs.  Timmers.  She'd also volunteered that
I'd use a power mower instead of the park's riding mower.



   I'd just finished and was sitting, taking a breather, when the school
bus came by.  I waved to the group as a whole, then watched as they
splintered and went their separate ways.  Mikee and Kelly rushed by,
obviously trying not to catch my eye.  Tami gave me a smile and a wave, but
headed home.  She knew that I didn't want to break my mom's rules and risk
my walks.



   Alana and Paula weren't on the bus, but they rarely were anymore.  But
Kenny was.



   "So Mr.  Goody-Goody isn't so high and mighty anymore."



   "Hi, Kenny," I said as pleasantly as I could.



   "I guess being a football hero wasn't enough to keep you from getting
busted."



   "I guess not."



   "They say Mr.  Parker's going to be watching you like a hawk.  One foot
out of line and you'll be gone for good."



   "It'll give Parker something to do," I agreed.  I figured being pleasant
and agreeing would drive him nuts.



   "Like a hawk," he repeated.



   I smiled.



   "Or maybe, like an owl."



   I stopped smiling.  Then I smiled again.  "You know Kenny.  I'm in more
trouble now than I've ever been in before.  I'm in so much trouble, that
breaking somebody's jaw couldn't make it worse.



   Kenny took three steps back.  "You and what army?"



   What were we, in second grade?  I shrugged.



   "You wouldn't."



   "Probably not," I agreed.



   Kenny started to walk away, then changed his mind.  "Maybe now that
you're the punk and I'm the good kid, Tami will get friendly with me."



   I imagined Kenny's intestines after I'd trimmed them up with the power
mower.  Then I had a better idea.  "Maybe," I agreed.



   Kenny looked stunned.



   "By the way, good kid." I started pushing the mower toward the storage
shed where it was kept.  "The word is, the sheriff is bringing the drug
dogs thru the school tomorrow." Kenny went white.  I'd made it up, but
maybe I could call the sheriff and suggest it.



   * * *



   The next week was spring vacation.  Tuesday I'd been loaned out to Mrs.
Timmers again and was painting the fence that runs along Patty Duke Way. 
Traci ran up.  "Mom wants you home."



   "What for?"



   "She didn't say." I could tell from her grin that Traci knew more than
she was telling, but let it go.  I cleaned my brushes and put everything
away as fast as I could.



   "Took you long enough," was all that Mom had to say when I got home.



   "I had to clean up.  I couldn't just leave everything out."



   Mom nodded.  "Get in the car."



   "What for?" I asked casually.



   "Aren't you in enough trouble without making me repeat myself?" I headed
for the car.  I saw Traci looking around a corner, but I guess I couldn't
fault her for watching her big brother get his.



   I got in the car and put my seatbelt on and waited.



   Mom came out about seven minutes later.  Having more than one brain
cell, I didn't say a word.  Mom started the car and we drove to the school.



   "What are...?" A look from Mom and the question died.



   She pulled around to the back of the campus and stopped next to the
baseball field.  "You work for her," she said pointing.  "And I'd better
not hear any complaints." I followed Mom's finger.  Robbie was standing in
between the parking area and the field.  "I'll be back at five.  Be ready."



   I took that as dismissal and got out of the car.



   Mom pulled away, pulled a u-turn, and came back.  "Your stuff." In the
back of the car, behind the passenger seat, was my baseball bag.  I took it
out of the car, and Mom pulled away again.



   I walked over to Robbie, then noticed about a dozen kids in the dugout.
"Mom said I work for you.  What do you want me to do?"



   "Coach us."



   "What?  I can't."



   "Why not?  I hear Ricky coached the team last year."



   "That was different.  He was an eighth grader."



   "So are you, doofus."



   "I can't coach."



   "Ricky and his dad say you can."



   "Coach Calloway?"



   "Yeah, he said you can do it."



   "But, I can't," I said for the third time.



   "Listen slick.  Your mom said you worked for me, and I'm telling you to
coach."



   "But...  what about Mr.  Hallowell?"



   "Mr.  Hallowell would really appreciate it," said a new voice from
behind me.  I turned and saw the teacher standing there.  "Miss Tate, would
you join the others?" he asked before looking at me.



   Mr.  Hallowell went down to one knee so that we were eye to eye.  "Mr.
Sims, I'd like to tell you something that no teacher likes to admit to a
student.  Hell, no adult likes to admit to a kid.  I'm in over my head. 
I've always liked baseball, and I watch a lot of it.  When this job came
up, I thought that was enough to make me a coach.  It isn't.  Last year I
was too busy pretending that I was the coach and ignoring what Ricky
Calloway was doing to actually learn anything.  I'd like to change that."



   "But, me?  Coach?"



   "Richard Calloway says you can."



   "But I'm suspended."



   "I know.  And I must say I resent the fact you decided to get yourself
suspended just when our season was starting."



   `I didn't plan to get myself suspended,' I thought.



   "The rules say a suspended student can't play on a team.  It doesn't say
anything about coaching."



   "Actually, I think they say participate in..."



   "Do you want to play baseball, or do you want to show off how smart you
are?" Robbie's voice came from behind me.



   "Miss Tate, I thought I told you to get to the dugout."



   "He didn't," she said.  "Besides, I figured you might need help
corralling him."



   I grinned.  "Get to the dugout,"



   "Are you saying that as Tony or as the coach?"



   "Get to the dugout now!" I barked.



   "Yes sir," she said without even a hint of respect and trotted toward
the dugout.



   "Thank you, Mr.  Sims.  Then you'll help?"



   I nodded.  "But call me Tony.  Baseball teams can't be that formal," I
said as we followed Robbie.



   "Should you call me Mark?"



   "Only if I wanted to get suspended again."



   * * *



   "Have I mentioned you're the best mom ever?" I asked loudly as I came
home.



   "Not lately."



   "In the history of moms, no one else even comes close."



   "You're just saying that because you get to play baseball."



   "I'm just saying that because I'm in love with the truth."



   "What about me?" Dad asked.



   "Did you know about the practice this afternoon?"



   He shook his head.



   "You're just mediocre then, but I love you."



   "I take it you had fun then?" Mom asked.



   "No ma'am.  Zero fun.  I'm being punished, you know."



   "So much for being in love with the truth," Dad muttered from his chair.



   * * *



   "Okay, gentlemen and lady.  No team I've coached has ever lost a game.
You're not going to be the first."



   "Isn't this the first game of the first team you've coached?" Robbie
asked with a grin.



   "Alex, if she talks again, sit on her."



   Alex grinned, looking like he loved the idea.  Alex was my first
baseman. At just a hair under six feet and two hundred and ten pounds, he
was the biggest kid in the school.  If he sat on her, she'd stay sat on.



   Robbie stuck her tongue out at me.  Like a good coach, I ignored her.



   "You've worked hard the last two weeks, now just play some ball."



   We'd lucked out with our schedule.  Actually, I'd lucked out with our
schedule.  Our first two games were away.  Today we were at Central
Washington Academy; then Saturday we played at Walker Middle school.  Next
week we had a home game on Wednesday, but my suspension was up on Tuesday.



   "When the announcer calls your name, let's try to look like a baseball
team."



   "While you hide in the dugout, trying to be invisible,"

   "While I hide in the dugout, trying to be invisible," I agreed.



   "Should I sit on her now, Coach?"



   * * *



   "Okay, gentlemen and lady.  We're one and O.  Not bad.  But Central
Washington was a cake walk, and you only beat them by four.  Walker's going
to be tougher."



   "Can I say something?" Robbie asked raising her hand.



   "I think you should know that Brian won the lottery."



   "What lottery?"



   I smiled, "He gets to gag you if you get uppity."



   "Uppity?"



   "Uppity."



   Robbie stood up and looked down the bench at Brian.  "He's kinda cute.
That might be fun."



   I shook my head.  "Go!" I shouted, pointing at the field.  The team
charged out for their infield practice.  Mr.  Hallowell shrugged, grabbed a
bat and a couple of balls, and followed them.



   I found a spot on the bench to watch.



   "Pretty inspirational speech, Coach."



   "I..." I looked at the side of the dugout where Mr.  Reed was looking
in. "Mr.  Reed!  I'm just watching.  I'm not going to play or anything."



   "Relax, Mr.  Sims.  I know you've been helping Mr.  Hallowell with the
team."



   "I..."



   "It may violate the letter of the rules about suspensions, but I don't
think it violates the spirit.  After all, it's all about learning to
behave. Have you been behaving Mr.  Sims?"



   "Uh, yes sir." I considered adding that I knew how to behave before I
got suspended too.



   "You've been helping your fellow students.  You've been supporting your
school.  Mark Hallowell says you've been a great help to him.  Your
teachers say that you're pulling at least a B in all your classes, which is
pretty amazing considering all the work you've missed." I noticed the extra
emphasis on missed.  "And your mom says the trailer park has never looked
better.  All in all, a pretty successful suspension."



   "Uh, yes sir." I hadn't known that Mom talked to him.



   "The question of the day is, have you learned anything from it?"



   "I'm not sure," I admitted.



   "I take it, respecting Mr.  Parker is not an option?"



   "It's always an option.  Anyone can earn my respect." I put the same
emphasis on earn as he had on missed.



   "Ummm.  But you'll show Mr.  Parker's office and authority the respect
it deserves?"



   "I always have.  Well, almost always."



   "Mr.  Hallowell mentioned that it would be easier if you were on the
field coaching third base when we're at bat instead of hiding in the
dugout. I don't think that would be a problem.  You'd have to be in uniform
of course."



   "I don't have one." I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt.



   "There you go, lying to the principal.  It's in the equipment bag."



   "I..."



   "And since you've learned all your going to learn from being suspended,
I think you've had enough vacation.  No more laying around watching soap
operas, I'll expect you in school Monday morning."



   "Yes sir."



   "And Mr.  Sims?  Unless he asks, I don't think it's necessary to mention
to Mr.  Parker that you've been hanging out with the baseball team."



   "Yes sir," I said with a grin.



   "Don't you think you'd better change?"



   "Sorry sir, I'll never change.  But I'd better get dressed.







   Chapter XXIX



   "Sorry, Tony.  She doesn't want to talk to you."



   "I understand."



   I'd wanted to talk to Robbie everyday since I'd gotten suspended, but my
evening walks hadn't left me that much freedom.  On the baseball field I'd
tried my best to treat her like a player and not let our personal baggage
interfere.



   We'd won both sides of the double header, though the second game was a
lot closer than I would have liked.  Then Mom made my day by deciding that
since Mr.  Reed was suspending my suspension, she could ease up too.  I was
free.  And my first mission was Robbie's house.



   "You'll tell her I stopped by?" I asked, looking at my toes and scuffing
my feet.



   "Of course I will.  And Tony?" I looked up.  "You've done a great job
helping with the team.  Roberta's never hit better."



   "I just shortened her stride.  It was pretty obvious."



   "Not to her last five coaches."



   I smiled thanks and turned toward my bike.



   "Daddy!"



   "Yes, Beaver."



   "You can ask him to come in."



   Mr.  Tate opened the door wide and ushered me in.  Robbie was standing
on the stairs, wearing cut-offs and a half shirt.  The late afternoon sun
flooded the upstairs windows and created a halo effect around her.  I just
stared.



   I was vaguely aware of her dad leaving, saying something about being in
the kitchen.  I was more aware of my heart beating and a feeling of
lightheadedness.  God, she was beautiful.



   Then she turned her back on me.  "You'd better come up," she said over
her shoulder.



   I didn't move until she was completely out of sight.  Was this love?  Or
lust?  I climbed the stairs and walked to her bedroom.



   She'd sat on the bed and was waiting.  "What can I do for you, Coach?"



   "I didn't come as your coach.  If that's why you agreed to see me, I'd
better go.  I came as Tony."



   "I, uh, I knew that.  It's just...  Damn, I don't know."



   "Welcome to my world."



   "I'm sorry you got in trouble."



   "Why?  It wasn't your fault."



   "It's just...  if I'd talked to you..."



   "Mr.  Parker and I were meant to bump heads.  All I had to do was keep
my mouth shut.  I didn't."



   "I still feel responsible.  If you hadn't been mad at me..."



   "I wasn't mad at you.  I was mad at me."



   "Still..."



   "Old news.  I'm unsuspended, so I can coach the team without hiding in
the dugout and get back to regular life."



   "But you're...  you're going to play, aren't you?'



   "I can't.  I missed try-outs.  I'm not on the roster.



   "You fucking idiot!"



   "I..."



   "You big baboon.  Your name was on the roster before try-outs even
began. Why do you think Hallowell and Calloway only picked eleven?  We all
knew you were on the team.  Kevin knows he's only shortstop till you come
back."



   "I..."



   "What kind of twit are you?"



   "I..."



   She closed her eyes and shook her head.  "Sparkling conversationalist."



   "I..."



   "Tony, sit."



   I started to sit on the bed with Robbie, then changed my mind and pulled
over her desk chair.  I needed a second to clear my head.  I was on the
team.  I was off suspension.  Robbie was talking too me.  Overload.



   "That's great," I said after a few seconds.



   "Tony, you're an idiot."



   "I love you too."



   "You need someone to look after you."



   "Are you volunteering for the job?"



   Robbie gave me an appraising look, then ignored my comment.  "So you
like to fuck little girls."



   The problem was out there now.  But, what do I say, `Yes, I like to fuck
little girls; at least Mikee and Kelly'?  I'm pretty sure that wasn't what
she wanted to hear, but it was true.



   "And big girls," she added before I'd come up with an answer.  "Tami
told me about Paula, and Alana."



   "Tami's got a big mouth."



   "She was trying to make me understand about you and the little girls."



   "Tami's an angel.  And Mikee's not that little.  She's a seventh grader
after all.  A lot of eighth graders go out with seventh graders."



   "But you don't go out with her.  You just fuck her."



   "It just kind of happened.  We both have fun and don't want any more."



   "I can understand Mikee, but a fourth grader?"



   "Like I said, it kind of just happened.  And, actually, Kelly was the
more aggressive of the two."



   Robbie's eyebrow raised half-an-inch.  "Tami says Mikee wants to be your
next girlfriend."



   Oh, God!  "I'm not sure there'll be a next one.  If I've blown two in a
row, maybe I should quit."



   Robbie cocked her head and gave another one of her appraising looks.  I
felt like I was under a microscope.  "You want to tell me about it?"



   "Not really." I sighed.  "It's really all Tami's fault.  She had this
really bad day last year and her shoulder muscles were tied in knots. 
Anyway I went home with her..." I told Robbie everything.  About massages
that led to other things.  About Paula and the sex lessons.  About Alana
and her friends.



   "You've had a hell of a year."



   "Yeah." Tami stopped talking to me.  An owl got killed just for living.
I'd discovered I was capable of violence when I beat up Kenny.  I'd gotten
beaten up by Peter, then discovered my dark side when I put Peter in the
hospital.  I stopped talking to Tami.  Robbie found out I was a pervert. 
I'd been suspended.  All in all, a hell of a year.



   "But you didn't fuck the little...  the girls while you were with Tami."



   "No, I messed around with them.  Tami knew about it.  Most of the time
she was in the other room.  But I didn't fuck them until after Tami and I
broke...  after Tami and I weren't Tami and I any more."



   "I remember when you didn't want to fuck me.  Did you start fucking them
after you did me?"



   "Before.  They kind of made it okay."



   Robbie opened her mouth, stopped, then closed it again.  "So you fucked
me here and them at the park.  You were getting all you could handle."



   "Not quite, but more than most eighth graders."



   "Anybody else?"



   I shook my head.



   "Now what do we do?" she asked.



   "Hell if I know."



   "Tony Sims, I don't know whether to kiss you, kick you between the legs,
or just never talk to you again."



   It took an effort of will, but I opened my legs wide.  "Do what you
gotta do.  But if I get a vote..." Robbie cocked her head.  "...it won't be
the last one."



   "You'd rather get kicked in the balls...?"



   I nodded, though not enthusiastically.



   "You're either the slickest con-man in the country or..." she stood and
stepped in front of me.  "Stand up."



   I did, just barely resisting an impulse to cover my crotch with my
hands.



   "You're sure about this?"



   God, no!  She wouldn't really...  I nodded.



   Robbie flowed onto me, her arms going around me, her lips covering mine.
I hesitated before I enclosed her in my arms and returned the kiss for all
I was worth.



   She turned me around and pushed on back onto the bed, falling on top of
me.



   I felt her hands tugging at my clothes, and suddenly my cock was free
and her pussy was bare and unprotected.  Her hand grasped me and guided me
in.



   "Your dad," I gasped, trying to think straight.  It had been a long two
weeks.



   "Knows."



   "But you said before..." Something about knowing and having it shoved in
his face.  My cock glided into her warm sheath and suddenly I didn't care
anymore.



   "We had a long talk.  He'll deal with it."



   I rolled on top of her, then plunged deep within her and suddenly felt
my balls contract, then explode as millions of tiny swimmers, pent up for
too long, raced for the finish line.



   "I'm sorry," I said as I rolled off her, my limp cock pulling out and
lying flat against my leg.



   "Why?  I think you needed that.  The next time..."



   "Next time?  But your dad?"



   "I'm pretty sure my dad knew what was going to happen as soon as I said
you could come in.  Like I said, we had a long talk."



   "About?"



   "Everything!"



   Oh, God!  My life flashed before my eyes as I thought about all those
guns.



   "I told him about you and me, about you and Tami, about you and the
little...  the other girls."



   "And he let me in the house?"



   "I even told him about me and the boys back home.  We're very close."



   I couldn't help it.  I pictured Robbie naked in bed with her dad as they
talked.  It was all those damned stories on the newsgroups.



   "You're gross," Robbie said with a giggle, proving again she could read
my mind.  "I mean we're close as friends.  For a while I was the only one
he could talk to." She was stroking my cock while she talked.



   "I don't understand.  What about his friends?"



   Robbie was quiet for a long time.  She lay there, gently stroking my
cock.  I realized what a strange picture we made.  I was lying on my side
looking at her, fully clothed except for a limp dick sticking out of my
fly. Robbie lay on her back, her cut-offs and panties pushed down just past
her hips.  Her one hand lay on her chest, her other stroked my cock as she
stared at the ceiling.



   "Did I ever tell you how we happened to come here?"



   I shook my head, then realized she wasn't looking.  "No.  I just figured
your dad's work said go, and you went."



   "Dad was vice president of operations.  He was the one who told people
where to go."



   "Uh, okay."



   "It was about Mom."



   "Uh, okay." That's when I realized that Robbie never talked about her
mom.  Not good, not bad, nothing.  It was like she never existed.  I
remembered her dad saying something about her once, something about not
cooking.  But other than that she was a phantom.



   "When I was in the fourth grade, Mom started fucking around."



   "Oh."



   "Actually, that's not right.  When I was in the fourth grade I realized
that Mom was fucking around."



   I decided that saying "Oh" again wasn't adding to the conversation, but
didn't know what else to say.



   "It took a while to realize that getting naked in bed with a guy closer
to my age than hers wasn't something that every mom did.  Then it took a
lot longer to realize that Dad knew, and that it was breaking him up."



   "I tried to talk to him about it, but he just said everything was fine."



   Why is it that parents can't seem to remember back to when they were
kids?  They don't remember that they had eyes and ears, and could put
things together.



   "About a year ago I knew Mom was going to be out all night.  Supposedly
at a parent teacher meeting, but really shacking up with her boyfriend.  I
got Dad reminiscing about when I was younger.  We used to tickle and
wrestle, and before that smirk comes back on your face, it was a father and
a kid playing around, not a father seducing his daughter.  I love my dad,
but yuck.



   "Anyway, before long, we were wrestling around on the floor.  And I got
him pinned."



   "You pinned him?"



   "I'm pretty strong for my size, he's an out-of-shape desk jockey.  It
wasn't that hard.  Then I let him know that we were going to have a
heart-to-heart about Mom.  He argued that it was none of my business, that
I was too young, all the usual excuses.  So I sat on him for half-an-hour.



   "After a while I knew he was getting sore from lying on the hard floor
with all my weight on his chest and pinning his arms over his head.  So I
said something really blunt, like I knew Mom was fucking around on him, and
was he going to talk about it or not.



   "And he did.  It turned out that he didn't want to talk to anyone
because he was embarrassed.  He thought that it made him less off a man. 
We talked all night.  In fact, we were still talking when Mom came home,
though we'd gotten off the floor.



   "It seemed to make him feel better.  About a week later I gave him a
digital camera for his birthday."



   "I'm lost," I admitted.  "A camera?"



   "Inside was a complete set of photos of Mom and her latest on Mom and
Dad's bed."



   "Oh."



   "I told him that he wasn't happy and he should either accept the
situation or do something about it."



   I grinned.  I could easily picture the thirteen-year-old girl talking to
her father like that.



   "It took a couple of weeks, but one night he came home from work.  Mom
said she was going out 'cause she had a meeting.  He said that was fine,
and she could just keep going.  He handed her a set of divorce papers and a
set of photos.  After she'd left, he and I sat down and talked about
options.  We decided that a new start somewhere else would be for the best,
and here we are." For the first time, she looked at me.



   I smiled.  "And I'm so happy you are."



   She grinned and squeezed my cock, which had come back to life under her
ministrations.  "I can see you're happy."



   "Do you hate her?"



   "No!" she said quickly.  "I always got along with my mom, but we never
had a really strong relationship.  I felt bad because she hurt Dad, but I
knew she didn't mean to.  She just...  she was all about what she wanted."



   "Oh, God!  Mikee and Kelly!  After you went through that, then you find
out your boyfriend is all about what he wants."



   Her hand circled my cock and she squeezed.  "I wasn't trying to make a
point about you.  I was explaining why my dad and I can talk about
anything. Even us."



   "I'm not sure I'm comfortable having a parent knowing what's really
going on."



   "It's kind of unnatural, I'll admit," she said with a chuckle.



   "It's sick and wrong."



   "You know what would really be wrong?"



   "What?"



   "Using that harpoon of yours while my dad's downstairs oiling his gun
collection."



   "I always liked to live dangerously," I said as I pulled her on top of
me.







   Chapter XXX



   "Mrs.  Temple, uh, hi."



   I'd never known the woman well, and since I'd beaten up on Kenny last
year, I doubt we'd spoken five words.



   "It's a beautiful night, and Tami and were about to talk a walk.  We,
uh, thought the girls might like to join us."



   "Alana's not here."



   "We were thinking about Mikee and Kelly."



   "Mikee?" she said with a suspicious tone.  "And Kelly?" as if the
combination had never occurred to her.  "How long were you going to be?"



   I looked at my watch.  "It's about eight now.  Maybe an hour or two.  We
thought we'd walk around for awhile, then sit on the front lawn and look at
the stars.  And there's no school tomorrow," I reminded her.



   "Let me ask them," she said and closed the door in my face.  I looked at
the street and shrugged at Tami.



   A minute later, the door opened and the two girls rushed out onto the
porch with me.



   "Yes, Mom," Mikee said.



   "We will, Mom," Kelly chimed in before Mikee closed the door.



   "Hi, girls," I said and gave them a quick group hug.  We hadn't talked
since they outed me to Robbie.  I took their hands, and we walked down the
steps to Tami on the street.  She gave each girl a hug, then took Mikee's
hand.  I took Kelly's and put my arm around her back, my hand sliding
naturally into the back pocket of her cut-offs.



   We walked up the street toward my house.  The sun had just gone down,
and the night was in the process of going from the faded colors of dusk to
the crisp darkness of night.



   "Tony?" Kelly said tentatively.



   "Yes, Munchkin."



   "I'm sorry if I got you in trouble.  With your girlfriend I mean."



   "We're sorry," Mikee added.



   "Are you real mad?" Kelly asked in a small voice.



   "I'm not even a little mad."



   "You're not?" Mikee asked.



   "For real?" Kelly added.



   "For real," I agreed.  "Besides, Robbie and I made up yesterday, so I
love the whole world."



   "There you are." Robbie stepped off my porch and walked toward us.



   "What's she doing here?" Mikee asked, almost in a hiss.



   "She's going for a walk with us.  She was just inside, calling her dad."
Even in the semi-darkness of the street I could make out Mikee's frown.



   Robbie stopped in front of us.  "Hi, I'm Robbie.  You must be Kelly. 
Tony's told me a lot about you."



   She stepped closer and whispered into the eleven-year-old's ear.  I
caught the words "ticklish" and "pussy," and Kelly giggled.



   "And that makes you Mikee," she said, stepping in front of the other
sister.



   "Michelle."



   "Mikee, I hear you want my boyfriend."



   "I...  uh...  I don't...  I wouldn't...  that is...  never..."



   "Don't sweat it.  Some days, I'd not only give him to you, I'd gift wrap
him."



   "I love you too," I said.



   "You stay out of this," Robbie snapped, then kissed me.



   "I suppose you want him too?" she asked, looking back at Kelly.



   "Well, I always get Mikee's toys when she's done with them."



   Robbie laughed.  "I like this girl.  You and I are gonna be friends."



   We walked and talked.



   Mostly, Tami and I talked.  About the stars, and how many there were,
and how far away they were, and which ones had people.  She'd point to a
star and describe it's inhabitants and their culture, then I'd pick one and
do the same.



   Finally, we settled at the swings.



   "Sit!" Robbie commanded, and I took a swing.  Tami sat on the one next
to me and started swinging.  Mikee and Kelly sat down on the next two
swings.  Robbie settled crossways on my lap, grabbed my head with both
hands, and kissed me.  Hard.  Her tongue stabbed into my mouth.



   She pulled away before my hands could start wandering.  "God, I missed
that."



   "Me, too," I agreed.



   Then she got up and walked over to Mikee.  "Your turn," she said,
tapping the younger girl on the shoulder.



   "What?"



   "Go make out already.  See if he's really boyfriend material." Robbie
grabbed Mikee's hand and pulled her off the swing, then took her place.



   Mikee stood for a few seconds, looking at Robbie, then at me, then back
again.



   "Would you go kiss him already," Tami urged.



   Mikee still hesitated.  Robbie stood up behind her, grabbed her
shoulders, and guided her to me.  Mikee sat on my lap in the same position
Robbie had used.



   "You're on your own from here," Robbie said, returning to her swing.



   Mikee looked at all her witnesses, then grabbed my head as Robbie had
done and kissed me.  Her tongue pushed gently at my lips, and I opened
them. Her tongue pushed in, the tip touching the tip of my tongue.



   After about a minute I pulled back.  "Remind me to tell your health
teacher to give you an A in kissing."



   "Your turn, Munchkin," Robbie said.



   Kelly giggled.  "Did Tony tell you to call me that?"



   "Yep.  Go kiss him."



   Kelly giggled again, but jumped up and came over to stand by my swing.
Mikee got up and moved to her swing.  Kelly jumped, landed on my lap, and
started kissing all in one move.  Her tongue didn't come visiting, but it
was still pleasant.  Kelly made a nice armful, but then, so had her sister
and Robbie.



   When Kelly started giggling, I said was time to stop.  "Okay, Robbie's
turn," I announced.



   "Hey!  What about me?" Tami complained.  "Don't I get a turn."



   "Nope," I said.



   "Yes, she does," Kelly said, wagging a finger in my face.



   "Yeah," her sister agreed.



   "Double yeah," Robbie said, making it unanimous.



   "I guess I've been outvoted," I said, trying to sound whiney.



   "I don't even like you," Tami said as she settled across my legs.



   "Me neither."



   The long tender kiss made liars out of both of us.







   Chapter XXXI



   "We're changing songs."



   "What?  We can't do that.  The show's tonight," I complained.



   "Then you better get busy and learn the new song."



   "I..." I was arguing with Robbie.  I should know better.  The only time
I ever won was on the baseball field, and we weren't on the field now. 
"Why?"



   "I had a chance to check out the judges.  The other song wasn't gonna
work."



   "So?  It's not like we care about winning.  It's just one of the
requirements for vocals."



   Robbie gave me one of her looks.  The kind you'd give your grandmother
with Alzheimer's who couldn't remember her own name.  "It's always about
winning."



   I sighed.  "Let's see the music."



   * * *



   The year was winding down.  Two days left of school, and Tuesday was
just a half-day.



   Baseball was done, at least school baseball.  There was still Babe Ruth
League to look forward to.  The team had done pretty good.  We went twelve
and one, losing our last game because the damn shortstop, who shall remain
nameless, bobbled the ball in extra innings and let the runner from Wingate
score.



   Mr.  Hallowell turned out to be a pretty good student.  He listened when
I explained why I did certain things and asked questions when he wasn't
sure.  He might not be the best coach next year, but he'd be a coach.



   Tests were done and final papers handed in.  All that was left was final
grades.  Mine should be pretty good.  Somehow I didn't have any incompletes
during my little vacation.



   Mr.  Reed and I had some good talks about respect, baseball, and the
Vietnam War.  He turned out to be a pretty good guy.  I wished I'd gotten
to know him sooner and under better circumstances.



   All that left was the eighth grade talent show.  Tonight.



   * * *



   Robbie and I practiced at her house most of the morning.  She'd already
figured out the staging, so all I had to do was learn the words and music.



   The stage was dark as Robbie and I took our positions.  We were each
sitting on a tall stool sitting at an angle so that our backs were mostly
to each other but we faced most of the audience.  Jerry Stilton sat a
little further behind us with his guitar and Jenny Morton with her
keyboard. She started in on the Reba McEntyre standard, and after a few
bars, he joined in.  A violin would have been nice, but we didn't know
anyone who played except Mr.  McCoy, who seemed to play everything.



   Then a single spot focused on Robbie, with just a wide enough focus that
I was apparent in the shadows.  She lifted her microphone to her face, and
looking above the audience, sang:



   "If you see him, tell him I wish him well.



   How'm I doing?  Well, sometimes it's hard to tell.



   I still miss him more than ever.  But please don't say a word.



   If you see him.



   Oh, if you see him."



   She had a real plaintive quality in her voice.  You could hear the
heartache of someone who missed someone else.  It was funny, but I hadn't
really listened to the words, I'd been so busy learning them.



   Her spot died out slowly on her last words and mine came up:



   "If you see her, tell her I'm doing fine.



   And if you want to, say that I think of her, from time to time.



   Ask her if she ever wonders where we both went wrong.



   If you see her.



   If you see her."



   Both spots as I sang, holding the note on the I:



   "Oh, I still want her."


Robbie:



   "And I still need him so."


Harmony:



   "Oh, I don't know why we let each other go."



   Musical bridge as both spotlights slowly fade.



   Single spot again, on me:



   "If you see her, tell her the light's still on, for her."



   Fade my spot, bring hers up slowly:



   "Nothing's changed, deep down the fire still burns for him."



   Both spots.  Harmony:



   "And even if it takes forever, say I'll still be here."


Robbie:



   "If you see him."


Me:



   "If you see her."


Robbie:



   "If you see him."


Me:



   "If you see her."



   Spotlights fade to black.



   Damn, we were good.



   The lights came up, and the audience started applauding, loudly.  Robbie
and I got off our stools and took a bow.  Then another.  One more for luck.
Damn, we were good.



   That had to be one of the saddest songs I'd ever heard.  Two people who
want and need each other, but let something come between them.  Then both
waited for the other.



   Robbie and I were off the stage and standing in the wings, watching the
stage crew set up the last act.  "Think we're going to win?" I asked.



   "Who cares?  Not everything is about winning."



   I looked at her.  She was watching me.  Waiting for a reaction, but what
reaction?  Damn song was still playing in my head, despite the hard rock
coming from the group on stage.  The words were almost haunting.  "And if
you want to, say that I think of her, from time to time.  Ask her if she
ever wonders, where we both went wrong..."



   Fucking manipulative bitch!



   Robbie smiled.  "Don't you think it's time to go talk to her?"



   I nodded.



   "You do belong together, you know," I heard behind my back as I walked
down the stairs and out into the gym.



   Somehow I found Tami in the packed crowd.  She was sitting with her
mother.  "I need to borrow her for a few minutes," I said in apology.  I
took Tami's hand and maneuvered her out of the crowd and out into the
hallway.



   "You and Robbie were fantastic," she said and hugged me as soon as we
were clear.



   "No, you and I are fantastic.  Robbie and I are just good."



   "What are you talking about?  You know I can't sing a note."



   I grinned.  "Don't have to.  Just being with me makes a melody."



   "What are you talking about?"



   "Oh, shut up." I grabbed her and pulled her into a tight embrace, my
mouth searching for hers, my tongue pressing into her mouth and finding
hers, my hands cupping her ass and breast.  It seemed so natural, so right.
I didn't know why it hadn't always been like this.



   "Mr.  Sims!" We broke the kiss at the interruption and looked at the
doorway where Mr.  Parker was standing.  "This may be a Saturday, but this
is still a school and that behavior is inappropriate."



   I smiled at him.  "So suspend us," I said and kissed Tami again.



   "Us too," said Robbie's voice.  From the corner of my eye I saw her and
Ricky Calloway come out the other door.  Then she pulled him into a serious
kiss of her own.  "By the way, Tony, consider yourself dumped," she said
when they came up for air.



   "Suspend us too." Luke was behind her, with, of all people, Allie Smidt.
Then they were kissing too.


   Long live the revolution.  And four more years of school.