Chapter 57: Making a Spectacle Seem Mundane

We loaded the suitcases onto the bus quickly. Once the bus was full, I informed the driver that we were going to head to breakfast. He said that he would park around the corner.

Maurice, Jason, and I headed over to the restaurant. We arrived at the entrance and found that the rest of our group had already been seated. The hostess agreed to lead us to the private room where everyone was.

I lagged behind the others as the hostess led us through the restaurant. Several of the patrons looked at us as we walked past. A couple of the women had inquisitive expressions on their faces, but no one said anything.

The hostess opened a door. Inside I could hear a loud and happy party going on. Maurice paused to look back at me. "What?" he asked.

"Sounds like everyone is ready for the game," I said. "Let's go and get food so that we can start our day."

I walked in first. The room had several tables. I noticed that everyone had spread out so that each table was populated by the people in one group. Letty and Jana sat alone at one table. Morgan, Beatrice, and Becky had claimed another table and were sitting with Nancy and the two children. Ashley and Lenore were sitting at a circular table. They had set up so that Angelique was between them and there was an empty spot across from the child.

Kathy and Milli immediately stood up and ran over to grab Maurice. The duo was dressed in extremely short cheerleader style skirts and vests. They giggled as they arrived in the doorway.

"Jessica said you were good last night," Kathy said.

"Not the biggest though, that surprised her. She's heard that black men always have a big one between their legs," Milli said.

Maurice's skin actually began to take on a red tint. "She told you that?" he choked out.

"Of course," Milli said as she burnished her fingernails much like Jessica did. "You wouldn't expect her to make a decision without our input."

"But to talk about that," Maurice said as his face darkened.

I gently nudged Maurice into the room and made sure the door closed. "Girls like to talk," I told him. "Don't worry; it looks like Jessica was happy about last night. You might want to tell your father that he'll see you Monday. I get a feeling they won't let you go home tonight."

"Oh, the days of multiple girls in the same bed," Jason said in a mocking tone. "I can barely remember that."

He and I laughed as we walked over to greet our ladies. Kathy had finally walked behind Maurice and was pushing on his back as she and Milli forced him to march over to the table Jessica had claimed.

I sat down between Lenore and Ashley. Lenore immediately looked over at me. "We ordered an omelet and hash browns for you. We figured you wouldn't mind that."

I nodded as I looked across at Angelique. "And did our Angel get her blueberry pancakes?"

"No!" Angelique said with a huff of indignation. "They said they are out of blueberries."

I could see tears in her eyes. "Don't cry," I asked. "I promise we'll get you something nice at the game."

"What?" Ashley asked.

"A big teddy bear probably," I said. "I think we can find one bigger than her."

My ladies laughed as Angelique sat up in her chair. We started to talk about our hopes for the day. One thing that both Lenore and Ashley made clear was that they were having lots of fun.

The hostess and two different waitresses arrived and started distributing dishes to the various tables. Everyone immediately started eating. Angelique frowned at her pancakes, but the smile that lit up her face with her first bite was priceless.

"Better than blueberry?" I asked.

Angelique barely nodded before taking another huge bite. She seemed determined to eat everything before someone could take them away from her. "These aren't mud pancakes," she said after one bite.

I did look over at Liz and Cassidy. They had joined Jason and his ladies for breakfast. Cassidy was relaxed and smiling as she enjoyed a crepe. Liz was looking around and watching each table. I wondered about this until she stood up and marched over to my table.

"How?" she asked.

"How now?" I asked back.

"Not that. How do you make it work?" she asked again.

I paused and put my fork down on my plate. "I need a bit more information. What are you wondering about?"

Liz waved at the room. "I know that you have four people here with the CAP to volunteer. Heck, I see three of them in class every day. And I can see you have little groups built up around each of the high CAP people. But you are all friends and the groups seem very stable. How do you make that work?"

"Mark, Jason, Jessica, and Morgan care," Ashley said quietly. "They took the time to learn as much as they could about how things will work off Earth. They make sure we know what we might face, but they also make it clear they'll give us as much freedom as possible."

"Basically we know that after a pickup we'll be sex slaves," Lenore said. "At least the law will make us slaves, but Mark won't treat Ashley and me as a slave. It allowed us to get to know him and become comfortable with the idea."

"Idea?" Liz asked me

"We can't change the rules that much. Once we leave Earth, Ashley and Lenore will only have the rights I'm willing to allow them. From what we've heard, I could order them to be naked for the rest of their life and they'd have to be that way."

"I'd do that now," Ashley said.

"I don't want you arrested or assaulted," I informed her. "I could also confine them to our home, or change their looks drastically, although with these two that would be putting paint over gold, they are perfect as they are."

Lenore blushed. "And that's why it works. He sees us as special now, so we don't fear the future much."

"What about Kelsey. You dumped her the day she tested," Liz asked.

"Kelsey dumped us," Ashley replied. "She started trying to dictate how things would be during the drive to the testing center. Mark tried to stop her. When she came out of the center she told off Mark and left the center without us."

I shrugged. "It happened. Do you have any more questions?"

"You seem to always be together," Liz said.

"Because you can't leave a pickup site to fetch someone who was missed," I said. "If I stumble on a pickup, I have to select from the people there. So Ashley and Lenore want to be near. That way should a pickup occur, I can pick them right away."

"And then find two more," Lenore said with a sigh. "We thought Kelsey would be one of them, but."

"We'll find someone. We aren't in a hurry," I said.

"Why not?" Liz said. "You could get out of school by being picked up."

I laughed. "And I'd be in school for whatever assignment I got once I was picked up. Also remember that once you are picked up you are going to be fighting a war. Wars aren't exactly healthy."

"I heard OSHA was going to declare that wars could be hazardous to your health," Lenore said.

I laughed at that and took another bite from my omelet. I looked around and could see that many people were finishing their meals. Liz reached out and touched my shoulder.

"Can I talk to just you in the bus?" she asked.

I nodded. Liz returned to her table. I could see her talking to Cassidy. I finished eating. When I pushed my plate away, Ashley leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"I think Liz likes Cassidy. If she asks, make sure she understands that she'll need to take it slowly," Ashley said.

I smiled as I got up and walked around to where Angelique was sitting. The three year old had finished her breakfast and was fidgeting in her chair. I grabbed her from behind and lifted her out of the chair and onto my shoulders.

Angelique screamed in surprise, but then started laughing with delight. "I'm tall!" she crowed as I walked over to where Erica and Thomas were sitting.

I carried Angelique over to the other table. Thomas had a sneering look on his face, but Erica seemed wistful as I brought Angelique over.

The little girl on my shoulders started squirming. "Let me down," she demanded.

I set her on the ground. Angelique ran over and put an arm around Erica. She said nothing as she hugged the older girl.

Nancy Taggert looked over at me. "You spoil that girl," she said accusingly.

"She's probably going to have a lonely life," I said. "There is no guarantee we'll be around many children once we leave Earth."

"So you are definitely leaving?" she asked.

"There will come a moment when we stumble on a pickup. When it happens I'll go. It may be rough, but I will work to defend my friends and family," I said firmly.

"You could stay and help defend Earth," the woman said.

"Without the help of the aliens we can't save Earth. And their help requires that we defend other planets in addition to Earth," I said. "I'm willing to take on that task."

"I am as well," Morgan said. "But that won't happen today. I think everyone is ready, and I already paid for the meals. So why don't we head to the bus and go to the NFL Experience."

"Sure," I said. "I want to see Ashley hit a blocking dummy."

"She could just hit you," Becky said with a giggle. "That would count."

Everyone laughed at her comments. Then we started getting up and heading to the exit. The waitress came over and kissed Morgan on the cheek. "That's for the tip."

The rest of the morning and early afternoon proved to be fun. Jason and I tried to coax Thomas out of his shell as we wandered the NFL Experience and tried out each station. The girls joined in, and it was easy to see that all of them were athletes. Matti actually led them in the throwing contests. Jessica mentioned that it might be a good idea to have Matti try out for the softball team in a few months. My sister nodded and agreed to try once practices opened.

Jason and I received a bit of attention for our performance at the blocking stations. Jason managed to run the multiple block exercise faster than many college age players could. My best event was the single sled where I set a speed record for high school age players.

But eventually the event shutdown, and we boarded the bus to run to the stadium. Thomas was already showing some signs of fatigue, but he refused to sleep on the bus while it fought traffic to get to the stadium.

When we finally arrived Nancy Taggert was showing signs of concern. Thomas' refusal to rest left her wondering if he was going to be fine throughout the game. Morgan assured her that there was a couch in the luxury box where he could lie down if necessary.

By the time the bus got to the drop off point at the stadium there was only about one hour until kickoff. We left the bus and gathered at the gate to enter the stadium. Lenore and Becky were carrying packs they said contained extra clothing for everyone, and Beatrice had made sure that everyone was carrying a jacket or coat before we left the bus. We joined the line of people entering the stadium. Morgan held a couple large sheets of paper up as we began moving towards the entrance.

We had tickets to a luxury box, but Morgan said that the instructions he had received indicated that we had to enter through a regular gate. We were surrounded by a crowd of liquored up men who had spent the last two hours partying in the parking lot.

Several of the men noticed the ladies in our group, and we soon started to hear comments.

"Man, look at the ass on that blonde! I'd love to tap that," one man called out.

I tried to find the speaker as another man spoke. "Those bitches are wearing cheerleader skirts. What do they think they are doing at a game? They probably know nothing about football."

"What about the one with the scar on her face. She's wearing a mini skirt too. That's just pathetic," a third man said.

I had to reach out and grab Jason before he lunged at the speaker. As I did Jana whirled around. Her arm was fully extended, and the slap of a hand hitting a check echoed out silencing the people near us.