Chapter 1

The bus ride home was bumpy. It always was. Turner St was notorious for its potholes but it was the only way to get from school to the area where the bus picked my sister and I up. I had begged my mom over and over to let us go to the charter school that was only a couple of miles from his house, but stupid Steve always had to say anything that is contrary with what I want. I don’t know anyone I disliked more than stupid Steve. Ugh...

Most of the trip was smooth, so I’d lay my head on the glass and zone out. I always had my hoodie on so it wasn’t an issue with the cold glass. Until Turner St, that is. Once the bus made that left I would have to lean back instead of to the side because the potholes jostled the bus so much that I’d constantly hit my head on the window.

“So, what are you up to later?” I asked my best friend, Eddie. We’d been friends for damn near 10 years. Apparently, we have lived near each other our whole lives, but we only met in kindergarten. I might as well not have asked; his response was always the same.

“Your mom!” He obnoxiously replied.

I just glared at him annoyed and asked “Wanna go to Danny’s?” Danny has been our friend all throughout elementary and middle school. Then, his parents chose to let him go to Carters Charter and Prep School. We all wanted to go there. Don’t ask me why, but the boy:girl ratio there was ridiculous. It was basically 1 boy to every 2 girls. Needless to say, that every guy there got laid because they are such a rare commodity that the girls fight for them. Do I want to go there? Of course! Will my mom let me? Nooooo!!! All because of Stupid Steve ... What a Douchebag...

“Hell Yeah, man! Maybe his sister is home. She’s so hot!” Eddie was the kind of guy that would never stop talking about girls. Granted I’m thinking about them non-stop too, but he takes it to a whole new level.

“That she is, my friend. That she is. I’m sure Jae will be home. Her job doesn’t start for another 2 hours and she always gets home early. Must be nice having someone drive you home.” Her boyfriend, Brad, would always drive her home. He’s one lucky bastard, lemme tell you. Jae was a walking wet dream. Barely over 5’ tall, 110 lbs, nice perfect C’s, flexible, toned, and smart. She’s the total package. “Hopefully she will be stretching again for her gymnastic class.” I told Eddie.

“Yeah...” He said dreamily. “Maybe she needs help with her stretches. I’ll volunteer as tribute!”

“OK, Katniss. I don’t think she needs your help, Eddie.”

“Hey! A guy can dream, can’t he?”

“Dream away Cinderella, you know she’s not gonna wanna do a 15-year-old. She’s 17, she’s got a reputation to uphold.”

Eddie socked me in the leg after that jab. “Asshole.” He smiled as he said that, though. He knew I was joking.

The bus finally stopped on our street. Me, Eddie, Samantha (my 14-year-old sister), and a couple more people filed out of the bus. Our street isn’t known as the best one around. It’s not the worst one round but I’m sure many people would rather drive around than drive through my little neck of the wood. It isn’t dangerous or anything, but it’s old and has not been maintained very well. Mom says that since the housing recession hit, most of our neighbors felt the brunt of the residual impact. My house was a 2-story townhouse. Nothing much special about it, but it’s home for me and I love it. It shares walls with the 2 other “houses” connected to mine on a nice big plot of land. All I know is we got a long driveway and a big backyard.

Eddie and I walked side by side towards my house. Sam walked a little bit behind us and asked “You guys going to Danny’s?”

“Yeah, Sam. Want to come?” Sam and I are close. She has her school friends and people she hangs out with here too, but she hasn’t ever gone through that ‘I hate my big brother’ phase.

“Sure! What you guys planning on doing? Circle jerking?” She’s got jokes...

“Only if you’re in the middle.” I can dish it out too.

“Haha! You wish, perv!”

We walked up the driveway and Sam and I dropped our bags off and came back out. Eddie’s house was a few more up the block, then it’s a couple of streets over and we get to Danny’s house. I had grabbed a couple of cokes from the fridge on the way out and handed one to Eddie. “Thanks, man. getting hot in August, huh?”

“Yeah, isn’t fall supposed to start getting cold?” Eddie just shrugged in response. Sam walked out a few seconds later with a Capri-Sun. She’s never been a big fan of soda. Me? I could drink it morning, noon, and night.

“Ready to go drool all over Jae, Aaron?” Sam knew I’ve had a big crush on her for years now and she never let up.

“Yeah, I am. I’ll just sit on top of you that way you can catch all my drool.”

She poked her tongue out at me then took another sip from her Capri-Sun. We were pretty much at Eddie’s house and his mom spotted us from the kitchen window. She dried her hands and walked further into the house, outside our view. Eddie turned up his drive and walked up to his door and went inside. His mom was cool. She’s a single mom. His dad died in a car crash. I try not to bring it up because, even though he doesn’t say it, I know that he still misses his dad and it all still bothers him. It’s been 6 years since it happened, but he’s getting through it.

I turned and sat on Eddie’s mom’s car’s bumper. Whew, that would be a mouthful to say... “Hey, Sam...”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you tell him?”

“Just ... Don’t ... I dunno, ok?”

“You know you’d be much happier if you stopped being a baby and told Eddie how you felt.”

“But what if he doesn’t like me back? I’ll die!”

“You know that’s impossible, right?”

“You know what I mean, O Literal One!”

“Heh ... You do know this is Eddie you’re afraid to talk to about this, don’t you? The same Eddie who you used to play manhunt with? The one who has basically lived at our house since he was 5? You two shared beds before for Christ’s sake!”

“I just don’t want to ruin anything between us...” She said dejectedly.

“I guess ... that’s possible. I’ll bring up the subject with him, see what he says.”

“You would hook up your little sister with your best friend? What planet are you from? Nobody would do that. Not anyone sane, anyway.”

“Why not? I never understood ‘societal taboos’” I made the little quote marks with my hands as I said that. “I don’t not like you and we all already hang out together. What’s the big deal?”

Sam looked at me and smiled a little then spotted Eddie walking out of his house. “Thanks, Aaron. You’re a pretty great brother.” She said as she leaned her head down on my shoulder.

Eddie walked up with his mouth full and mumbles something holding his hand out to us. His mom made some more of her bomb-ass brownies! Sweet! We both say thanks to him and yell out “Thanks Mrs. Park!” in unison. We each take our piece and start heading to Danny’s house. As we’re walking, I slow to look across the street at something while they keep walking and drop back into step with them behind Sam. While Eddie looked to his right, I nudged Sam closer to Eddie. She looked over her shoulder at me and gave a quick exasperated glare. I just smiled at her. Eddie was the ever-oblivious horn dog he always was and noticed nothing.

We walked and talked about nothing like we always did and got to Danny’s in no time. We’d all been friends for so long that knocking would be considered a faux pas at this point, so we all just walked in. Danny was sitting on his couch with his feet propped up on the armrest playing some game on his phone, while his sister, Jae was setting up her mat to start her yoga thing. I silently thanked the gods and settled on the other couch behind her and asked Danny “What’s up, rubber duck?”

He snorted to himself “Really, Aaron? ‘Rubber duck’”

“I dunno ... It rhymed. Haha” I replied.

Eddie plopped down next to me and Sam sat on the arm rest on Eddie’s side. She put her hand on his shoulder and used it to leverage herself up to get comfortable there. Maybe lingering a little more than necessary. I quickly glanced at her and make eye contact and had a quiet instantaneous non-verbal conversation with Sam. I’ve always could know what others are feeling. I don’t know why, I just had. Whenever mom was sad or angry at Stupid Steve, how I know that Sam is basically in love with Eddie, how Eddie feels about his dad or how he is normally a horn ball, or even how turned on Jae was at the moment.

... Wait, what?? I took more notice of this. I looked (tried not to stare too much) at Jae and concentrated on her and what she was feeling. I felt it slip some and come back, like I was trying to catch a good signal with my radio signal booster that each of us had and we’d use to chat across the neighborhood. Why is she turned on? I felt my mind grasp it a little more solidly. I couldn’t really decipher it, it’s so fluid. Like it’s smoke. I felt around ... It’s hard to explain. It was like I had to will my mind a certain direction. I thought my mind up like a receiver instead of a blank state and I immediately ‘grasped’ onto why she was turned on. She and Brad must have been doing some heavy petting in his car before she came inside. I could feel her. Not actually, like with my hands, but I knew that she still felt Brad’s hands on her epic tits. I felt her pussy was still wet. I formed my mind into more of a needle now and I poked her with it and I got a sudden stream of information from her. I suddenly knew everything about her. This was insane. I could tell how many times she’s been hurt at the various sports she did, I could ... Am I seeing this right? I probed her mentally a little more and found out that she’s recently had something inside her pussy. I don’t know what that all meant. Did she and Brad have sex?

“ ... Hello? Earth to Aaron...” Jae was talking to me. “You going to stare at my ass all day?”

I looked around. Apparently, I had zoned out. Danny apparently couldn’t care less how much I stared at his sister’s ass. Eddie Had a big shit-eating grin. Sam was hiding a smirk and was blushing a bit. “Sorry, Jae, I zoned out.”

“I’ll bet you did. With your eyes conveniently looking right at my ass?” She was still standing up and stretching. Maybe she didn’t care all that much about me looking at her ass? She was smiling after all...

I gave her a quick half-smile and got up. “I’m gonna go take a piss.” I stated and walked to the bathroom. Once I got in there I tried the needle thing again and boom! It’s like I just jacked into the internet with a T2 connection. I pulled back and tried it on Eddie and same thing. Except I got something else too. He had a constant stream of endorphins seeping into his bloodstream. He was happy? I looked around some more and Sam had put her hand on his back once I left. Hmm, maybe he does like her after all ... I tried the needle on Sam and once again, same surge of information. I noticed that she strained her wrist and I also noticed a steady beat of horniness coming from her. It was very faint, but there nonetheless.

This was crazy. Am I Professor Xavier?? Am I an X-Man now? Are there other mutants? Nah ... right? Weird...

I took a piss and washed and came back out. Sam still had her hand there and Eddie was studiously looking at Jae’s ass while she went through her yoga poses. Danny, the ever-obsessed gamer, lived up to his name by still having his nose buried in a game. “Let’s go swimming!” I announced to the crew.

Both Eddie and Sam responded in the affirmative and Danny gave a noncommittal grunt. “Quit being a tool, Danny. Come on!”

“Oh, alright, you suck!” Danny managed to tear his attention away from his game.

Danny had been fortunate. His parents had always been well off. His house was a damn palace compared to my house. We usually always hung out at Danny’s house. He didn’t mind. All his stuff was here. Plus ... He had a pool! We all kept some stuff over here. Danny’s house had 2 separate wings, essentially. The side where his parent’s room was along with another room near it and the other side of the house had the other 3 bedrooms. The pool was surrounded on 3 sides by his house. His room had a shared bathroom with his sister’s room and all 3 had access to his backyard and pool. I went into the bathroom and opened one of the closets there and pulled out my swim trunks from there. I quickly changed and stepped out just as Danny stepped out of his sliding glass door to his room. We made eye contact and knew that we’d be racing to see who would get into the pool first. He had a small advantage because there were some pool chairs in my way and he had a straight shot. He won.

As I resurfaced from my cannonball, I spotted Sam walking out of Jae’s room. She had on a bikini that she’d owned for what must have been ages. It was starting to get small on her and I inwardly did that wolf whistle. She had light brown hair that hung to the middle of her back. Looks like she was filling out nicely. I’m no expert on boob sizes but she looked like a solid B. Since she played soccer she has a nice flat tummy and really toned legs. In the few seconds it took for me to take stock of Sam, I felt a nice big wave hit me from the side. Eddie was apparently in the pool now. I turned his way and waited for him to surface, then I jumped on top of him. Sam did a flip over us and landed right next to me. Danny had been underwater and waited until Sam settled in the water He swam beneath her, planted his feet under himself grabbed a hold of the top of her legs right beneath her firm ass and pushed her up and out of the pool. She shrieked and flew on top of me and Eddie. She slid over me and because Eddie was resurfacing, he brought her up in his arms. She hooked her arm around his head to stabilize herself and realized what had just happened.

“My hero!” Sam said to Eddie and kissed his cheek. Eddie just had a big goofy grin and let her drop in the water eliciting another shriek. He dove down after her and she twisted and tried to swim away. She’s always been a pretty accomplished swimmer and she had no trouble getting away from us all. By the time she reached the other side of the pool, we had all kinda separated and I hopped out of the pool and went to the lounge chair near the pool.

I had wanted to explore more about what all that craziness that happened back inside was. When I sat down, I saw that Danny was chasing Eddie around and Sam was floating on her back. Her nice tits were out of the pool and the water was lapping up and over her stomach. I formed my mind into a needle again and ‘pointed’ it at Sam. I, once again, got that intense rush of information. I closed my eyes and concentrated while I mentally looked around at all the information. I could sense that there were layers and layers of things. At the outside, there was all the input going into her body from her nerves and senses. Underneath that there was what I guess I could describe as her emotions. Seems like this is the layer I could always sense in other people. I think I should dedicate some time to explore why it is that I can feel others and why I can now ‘connect’ to them.

Pulling the layers back some more, I detected the involuntary processes that her body was performing. Heartbeats, breathing, digestion, etc ... Wow this is insane. Imagine all the practical applications in utilizing this information.

I sensed that she was getting out of the pool because I suddenly knew that she was colder now that a second ago, which meant that she’s no longer in the water. I kept my eyes shut while I concentrated at all the input her body was receiving. I felt the footsteps, I felt her lift her arms and gather her hair and wring it out. She sat next to me and kept working on her hair.