Message-ID: <53478asstr$1144487403@assm.asstr.org>
From: Shalon Wood <dstar@pele.cx>
Subject: {ASSM} Sonuachara 3 (ff rom teen)
Lines: 301
Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2006 05:10:03 -0400
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Approved: <assm@asstr.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d

Standard disclaimers apply; this story may or may not contain, in any
given part, graphic depictions of lesbianism, homosexuality, group sex,
bdsm, underage (teen) sex, magic, occultism, violence, and biting 
sarcasm.  If you're underage, or if for any other reason it's illegal 
for you to read this, or you're disturbed by the content, please don't 
read it.

Archived at http://prudence.pele.cx, and we've got a web-forum at
http://playground.pele.cx/forums as well, for discussion of both
Prudence and our other stories.

Comments *greatly* appreciated.

Enjoy,

Velvet
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Trina was waiting for Zoe in the parking lot on Monday. One of the
nice things was that they got out of school an hour early to do their
community service, which meant one less hour of boredom. Zoe dropped
her bag in the back seat and hopped nimbly over the door, wincing
slightly as she hit the seat.

"You okay?" Trina asked.

"Mm? Yeah, moved wrong. Let's get out of here," Zoe said.

"Okay." Trina was silent for a few minutes as she drove. "You want to
tell me the truth? Or at least pretend I'm not an idiot? If you don't
want to tell me, that's fine, but at least say so."

Zoe shrugged one shoulder. "Shoulda stayed gone a couple more days,
but I needed some stuff from the house."

"What happened?" Trina asked. "I noticed...well, it didn't look like
you went home Thursday night, but I didn't just want to ask. But if
you're hurt..."

"Eh, no big deal. Folks I'm staying with aren't bad, actually. Guy's
gone, usually... traveling salesman, I shit you not. Woman's all June
Cleaverish and maternal. Fusses a lot, but she's sweet. Their son,
though, is a total shit-head, and every once in a while, his girlfriend
gets fed up with him beating her up and threatens to call the cops if
he doesn't leave. So he heads for 'home', and if George isn't there,
he takes over as the 'man of the house'. Jackass."

"Oh," Trina said. "You like it there?"

Zoe shrugged. "Definitely been in worse places. They let me be,
mostly."

"Would you stay there if you had a better option?" Trina asked.

"It's not a matter of options," Zoe said. "The state shuffles you
around when they feel like it. Probably they'll move me out of this
place in the next month or two. They don't want you getting
'attached', see."

"How much longer are you going to be stuck in the system?"

"Eighteen's the official age, but if I can get and hold a job enough
to pay my own way, I can go to court to get out at 17," Zoe said.

"How old are you now?" Trina asked.

"Fifteen. Sixteen in a couple of months."

Trina blinked. "Really? I figured you were older. You must have
skipped a grade or something?"

"Didn't actually start school until I was 12, and they tested me to
see where I belonged and put me in 7th."

"Ah, that makes sense." Trina pulled into the parking lot in front of
the home. "Look. I need to talk to you about something."

Zoe looked at her watch and frowned. "We should really go on in."

"We've got a few minutes. And it's important," Trina said.

Zoe sighed. "Okay. Five minutes, and I don't promise to answer
anything I don't want to, or do anything unless I think it needs
doing."

"It's not like that," Trina said. "It's...look. If we're going to be
friends, we've got to get one thing straight from the beginning."

Zoe gave Trina a look that very clearly said, 'There was an assumption
we were going to be friends?', and Trina tilted her head.

"I'd _like_ to be your friend."

Zoe shook her head. "Table that for now, and go on with what you were
saying."

"It's money," Trina said. "I've got it. I spend it. If I have a friend
who needs something and can't afford it, I'll help them out. It
doesn't mean I'm trying to buy your friendship or anything, but it's
_stupid_ for you to do without if I can help you. I've got enough I
won't miss it, and I'm not going to be some dog in the manger hoarding
something I don't need. I mean, I can't help everyone, but if my
friends need help..." She shrugged. "Why not?"

"If they _need_ help, I can see that," Zoe said. "But there's a
difference between a need and a desire, and between helping and
giving."

"Well, yeah," Trina said. "But... I just don't want you feeling all
defensive about it."

"I'm not. But I don't need help, either."

Trina raised an eyebrow. "Oh? So you skipped lunch Thursday because
you really _were_ on a diet? C'mon."

"Never said I was. Just asked if you considered I might be. Skipped
because I didn't feel like going home Wednesday night. But I didn't
_need_ lunch. I was far from starving, and it wouldn't have hurt me to
do without."

"But there wasn't any point to skipping, either," Trina said.

"You're not getting my point," Zoe said. "Lunch was a want. Not a
need."

"Okay, I see your point," Trina said. "There _still_ wasn't any point
in missing it when I could help."

"Yes, there was," Zoe said. "It's my preference to earn what I
get. Sometimes that means I go without. That's _my_ choice, and no one
has a right to take it away from me."

Trina sighed. "Okay. I understand. Can I make a deal with you?"

"Mmm?"

"I don't want you to go without when there's no point, not for small,
trivial stuff, or even bigger stuff if it's important. You don't want
to get stuff you haven't earned, and you don't want to take advantage
of other people's generosity. You let me help you out, and I won't let
you take advantage of me. And later on in life, you help out other
people the way I'm helping you out -- if it's no hardship to you, you
help them out. Give them a ride, buy them dinner, whatever. That way
you're still earning what you get, you just get to do it with people
who actually need it. Deal?"

Zoe sighed. "Sorry. I know you mean well. But... well, the thing is, I
don't do anything on credit, and I never intend to. If I can't afford
it _now_, I don't want it. Because I might _never_ be able to afford
it. I might not be able to earn it. So I live within my means, in all
ways, in case I never get a chance to balance the books."

Trina blew out a breath, her bangs fluttering. "Look. I've got
money. I didn't do a damned thing to earn it. Money's only useful for
what you can do with it. Maybe you'll get a chance to pay it back,
maybe you won't, but if you won't let me give you the chance to try,
what the hell _good_ is my money? Honestly, you'd be doing me a
favor."

Zoe smiled. "If I _needed_ something, maybe I'd let you. But I
_don't_. So if you want to help, do it where it's _needed_."

"Not even need. It's _stupid_ for you to go without lunch, when I
could buy your lunches for the next month and not even notice it. I
mean, where's the sense in that?" Trina asked.

"I could do your math papers for the next month and not even notice,"
Zoe said. "It'd be so easy as to be relaxing. I'd enjoy it, and it'd
be easier on you. Why shouldn't I?"

"Well, you couldn't, but the reason you _shouldn't_ is that I wouldn't
learn anything. What are you learning from not eating? That the only
person you can count on is you? Maybe it's time to learn another
lesson, like maybe life is easier with friends."

"Well, we all pick the lessons we think are valid and important," Zoe
said. "It's more important to me to make my own way than it is to eat
every day."

"You can't do it all yourself," Trina said. "Nobody can. What's
important isn't the fact that you have to depend on someone else to
help, it's picking the right people to depend on. If you try to be
totally self-sufficient, you're going to fail, unless you intend to go
live up in the mountains and live off the land. Otherwise you're
depending on other people to grow your food, pick your food, deliver
your food to the supermarket...."

"And I'm paying them for their effort with money, or services I can
render," Zoe said. "It's very important to me that if I can't earn it
myself, I'll do without it."

"And it's very important to _me_ to spread... um... goodness, I guess,
throughout the world," Trina said. "Some people do that by giving
money to organizations. I'd rather do it by helping out my friends, so
they can help out other people later on, so that those people can help
other people...."

"So help other people," Zoe said. "You've got plenty of friends. Your
generosity won't suffer atrophy due to one person refusing it."

"Most of my friends don't really need it," Trina said. "The ones that
do, I _do_."

"Then continue to do so, or step it up a bit if you feel like you
aren't doing enough," Zoe said. "No problem."

Trina smiled at her. "I'm trying to."

"So?" Zoe said. "See, you don't need me, you've got plenty of
targets. Now, can we go in? I promised I'd be here before 4."

Trina sighed. "Okay. But we aren't through here."

"Yes, we are," Zoe said, hopping out of the car and grabbing her
bag. "Oh, and yes, I could. They only offer up to pre-calc here."

Trina smirked at her as she got out of the car. "Okay, I'll make you a
bet. If you can't do my next month's math homework, I'll admit I was
wrong. If you can't, you pay up."

"Oh?" Zoe asked. "Pay up how?"

"By not arguing with me about the money."

"No. Sorry, not arguing is against my religion," Zoe said.

Trina laughed. "Okay. You can argue, but you still let me spend it."

"Okay," Zoe said. "But when I win, you drop it totally. Take no for an
answer."

Trina smirked. "Fine. I win."

"No, you won't," Zoe said.

"I already have."

Zoe raised an eyebrow. "And how do you figure that?"

"Because I've already done it through the end of the semester."

"Then that makes it _really_ easy for me to win," Zoe said. "I don't
have to do a _thing_ to win."

"Nope," Trina said. "You said you could do my homework. You can't,
because it's already done. You could maybe do the problems, but that
wouldn't be my homework. The bet wasn't 'the homework that I haven't
done', it was 'my homework'. That would be the homework that was
assigned to me."

"No," Zoe said, "Actually, I said that I could do your _math
papers_. I made no assumptions as to the nature and number of said
papers. If none are assigned that haven't been completed, I've still
fulfilled the bargain, and thus, _I_ win."

"Ah, but I _have_ had math papers assigned," Trina said. "You can't do
them because they're already done. Therefore, I win."

"Even if that were the case..." Zoe said, "I did not say 'unfinished
papers', either. Just because you've already done them doesn't mean
that I couldn't also complete the assignments. Now, if I'd said 'I
could do all your math papers for the next month _for you_,' then I'd
agree you had grounds to claim victory. But all I actually _said_ was
that I could do them, not implying in any way whether or not you also
did them."

"But if you did the problems on the paper, they still wouldn't be _my_
math papers, because _my_ math papers are already done. Therefore,
logically, you _can't_ do _my_ math papers."

"Depends," Zoe said. "You might have done the problems, but I doubt
they've let you turn them in. They get pissy about working ahead. So
if I put your name on them and handed them in, they would, indeed, be
_your_ math papers."

"Nope," Trina said. "You have to turn them in in class, and as you
aren't in my math class, you can't do that."

"No, I just have to say I found them," Zoe said. "No problem at
all. Or give them to you... if I give them to you, they are, by
definition, _yours_. To turn in or not. A gift. No longer mine, is
what I'm getting at here."

Trina laughed. "Okay, fine. Shall we call it a draw?"

Zoe smiled. "Well... I don't know. It'd _ruin_ my record."

"Mine, too," Trina said. "So we'd be even."

"Alright then, draw," Zoe said.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you like this, you might want to take a look at Strange Love, an
e-zine of sf/fantasy/paranormal erotica. The first issue is on sale
now for $2 at:

http://strangelove.pele.cx

Take a look!

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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