The Larissa Epic
Copyright© 2026 by Oz Ozzie
Chapter 4: Gunbalanya
Coming of Age Sex Story: Chapter 4: Gunbalanya - At the start of the story, Larissa is a young woman failing to cope with Covid. The story trace's Larissa's growth through the challenges of Covid and marriage with Julian, and the lives of people around her, ending with Larissa and her friends changing the nature of Australia
Caution: This Coming of Age Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa mt/ft Fa/Fa Mult Teenagers Fiction Rags To Riches Light Bond Group Sex Orgy Exhibitionism Oral Sex Nudism
Once they were in the air, Larissa moved them around so that she could talk to Helena and Athena with Suzy, and plan for the trip.
“How are you feeling?” She asked them. Very excited. Larissa smiled at them. “But you’re a little nervous as well, right, Helena?” Helena nodded, surprised that Larissa had picked up on it. “Do you know why?”
Helena wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, I’m sure the trip’s going to be fun, but I’ve also got this feeling that you want something, and I’m hoping that I don’t let you down.”
Larissa nodded seriously. “It’s certainly true I want something, and you might find some things about this trip challenging. But the only way either of you can really let me down is by not telling me the truth about how you’re feeling.” They both nodded in response. “It’s OK for you to be challenged. In a second, I’m going to tell you some of the things that you might find challenging. And I want you to do your best with them, but you are just teenagers, and Helena, you have a significant health issue, so you can and should tell me, or any of the others, if there’s a problem. At least one of us will be around looking after you whatever. We have to look after you well, and we don’t want to create a problem for you, but you have tell us, OK?”
Helena looked at Larissa, alarmed. Just what were they going to be doing?
Larissa smiled. “Alright. So you’ve probably figured this out, but when I said, sleeping in local’s homes, that means with indigenous people, in their homes as their guests, sharing in their life, their culture.”
“Mum and Dad figured that out,” Athena said. “They weren’t ... well, they weren’t that happy about it, but they didn’t know how to say it.”
Larissa nodded seriously. “Right. They really wouldn’t want to say anything that’d look bad.” Athena nodded. “But we are going to visit a very different culture, and they weren’t concerned for nothing. Hardly anyone who visits them goes and stays in their houses, takes the time to do that, but we’re going to. That’s specifically what I asked for. Eat their food, too. And that might be challenging for you. Would you eat a lizard?”
Helena and Athena both shook their heads vigorously. Never!
“Well, they do sometimes, big goannas. What about crocodile?” Helena wasn’t sure about that, and neither was Athena. “It’s supposed to taste like chicken. So I think they’re going to test me out with stuff like that, but it’ll be very impolite if they test you out too much.” Helena nodded, that made sense.
“What I’m asking you to do is to be polite, and do your best to go with the flow, experience everything they offer you to, and eat whatever if you can. If you can’t, be as polite as you can when you ask for an alternative. And when I say polite, say please and thank you, and be as easy to look after as you can, and if you can help them out, do that. But the one thing we’ll make sure is that you always have good clean water to drink from our own bottles. Don’t drink their water unless you know it’s been boiled hard, OK?”
“Wow. Why not?” Athena said.
“Parasites, little microorganisms. It’s a constant problem for them, and they’re much more resistant than you. They’ll understand that you can’t. So let’s talk about safety.” They nodded again. “If I’m in meetings, which I will be, and they decide to take you somewhere to see something, which will happen, you should do whatever. But you never go anywhere without one of us coming. Either Suzy, Jane, Jade or Vi.” They nodded. “And whenever you do, you take a little backpack. Here.” Suzy gave them both a backpack each. “In here, you will always have a full bottle of water taken from the plane here, spare t-shirt and shorts, a little towel, and this little first aid kit. Also insect repellent and sunscreen, which you’ll use religiously, as well as wearing hats. And also this little spray bottle, to cool yourself down.”
Helena looked through the bag; there was also some food bars, and a net to go around her head to keep flies off; she’d worn one of them before one a holiday in central Australia when she was younger. And it had a pocket for her phone along with a battery pack to charge it.
“Whoever’s with you will have a satellite phone too. So the thing you’ll find it easy to be concerned about is crocs, right?” They nodded, everyone had told them about how dangerous crocodiles were up where they were heading. “Just listen to the locals about that, they know where they are or might be. What you need to be concerned about is parasites. Make sure food is fresh and clean or well cooked, and you drink safe water, and only swim in running water, or if you specifically ask an adult local if it’s safe from parasites. And also, when you sleep at night, make sure you sleep under a mosquito net. We have some for you if your host doesn’t.”
Helena thought about that. It certainly seemed like something she could do, and she nodded.
“OK. So have you heard about the street violence in the NT?”
Helena hadn’t, but Athena said that her parents had been worrying about that.
“Sure. Tell you parents that they sound like very wise thoughtful parents.” Helena glanced at Athena, and she really loved what Larissa said there. “But we have Jade and Vi with us, and there’ll be other security around us at times, so you have nothing to worry about it. If you notice it, just ignore it, and just pay attention to Jade and Vi, they’re who you listen to. Any questions about safety?”
“Wow. It’s like we’re going to a different country,” Athena said.
Larissa nodded. “In some ways, we are. We’re going to their country, a country inside a country. And not a happy one, either, but that’s too big a problem for even me to try taking on. I’m pretty sure that in all the places we stay, English will be a second or even third language for our hosts, so you’ll have to be patient with them on that. Now, have I worried you enough?”
“Yes, I’m more nervous,” Helena said.
“I understand. But you should know that we’re going to look after you, and you’re travelling as part of the official party of the Australian of the Year, so everyone you encounter is going to want you to experience the very best they can offer you, and for you to be safe. And actually, some of the meals will be very swish indeed, one you’ll even be sharing with the Prime Minister. But whatever is going on around you, since you’re with me, you’re representing me, and so that means always being polite, helpful, considerate.”
“Right, service and compassion,” Athena said. “That’s what Helena said before they announced you, that whoever it would be, they would be a replacement for the queen.”
Larissa looked at them both in surprise. “Wow. You might be right. I hadn’t thought about that.” They nodded, they were quite sure that they were right. “I’m happy to do service and compassion like the queen did, but I’m not replacing her in any other way.”
“Ok, Queen Larissa,” Athena said with an impish smile.
Suzy, Toni and Jane were all listening to this and burst into laughter.
“Well,” Larissa said, smiling, “I can see that you’re going to get along just fine! Let’s review the program together.”
Helena, Athena, Jane, Larissa, Toni and Suzy reviewed the plan for the week in depth, going through what was going to happen each day, where they’d each be, and what their goals were. Once they’d been through that, Helena knew two things for sure: this trip was going to be an experience like nothing else she’d ever had, and also, she was going be very tired once it was over; this was going to be life at Larissa speed.
Then Toni spent an hour talking to Helena and Athena about blogging and recording, so they had a clear idea about what Larissa wanted, while Larissa and Suzy talked to Vi and Jade about the week’s program from a security point of view.
Athena appointed herself in charge of writing their blog, since she loved writing and was top of the class in English, and she connected up to Larissa’s official blog where her content would go and was just creating the document template she wanted to work with on her laptop when the plane suddenly tilted down. Surprised, Helena looked up at Larissa, what was happening?
“Lunch!” Larissa said. “We’re going down to refuel at Mt Isa, and we’ll grab a bit of food while we’re there. It’ll take about half an hour.”
The first thing Helena noticed when she got out of the plane was the heat. She was used to the occasional stinky hot day where she lived, well into the 40s, but this was something different, she felt it pushing down on her. Her mum had warned her about this - humid and hot. Fortunately, she wasn’t outside for long, and then they were sitting in the cafe in the air-conditioned airport building, and to her surprise, it was very busy.
Sitting in this cafe was a very different experience to around home; everyone who recognised Larissa was surprised and excited and wanted to say hello, or ask her to sign something, or congratulate or thank her. Or ask about her plane, like it was some kind of hot rod. Larissa smiled and talked to everyone like they were her best friends, and signed stuff, and told people off gently when they said something inappropriate. But Helena could tell that Vi and Jade were nervous with all these big mining men around, and neither of them even bothered to get food; they just stayed right on Larissa’s shoulders. Toni went and got food for the rest of them, and while they ate Helena shared smiles with Athena at the way Larissa stole a bite to eat occasionally during mid-conversation.
To Helena’s surprise, a couple of people recognised her; they saw Larissa and then looked at the rest of the party, and figured out who she was. One of them was a miner who said that his daughter was a big fan of Helena, and could she possibly do a selfie with him? Of course, but since she’d observed Larissa in action, first she asked him about his daughter, and he said that she was twelve, and she’d been given a hard time by some other girls in her class, but she did have a good friend. Helena gave him a selfie, and then told him to put his phone in video mode and pulled Athena into the picture and did her best to give his daughter an encouraging message about friends, sleepovers, and being strong and ignoring the other girls. Then she got the camera and showed her walking stick and all the little signatures on it. Then she said, be good friends and care about people, it pays off. She got very lovely appreciation from the miner, and a smile of approval from Larissa, and wow, did that feel good.
It also made carrying her walking stick worth it. She didn’t actually need her walking stick right at this time, but they’d decided on the plane she wouldn’t go anywhere without it on this trip, though all the steel in the knob had been a bit of a problem for the security they had to go through; they’d only grudgingly allowed it, even for Larissa.
Then one of the pilots joined them, and Larissa called a couple of the guys she’d been talking to over so they could talk to the pilot while she ate her lunch. Helena hadn’t paid any attention to the pilots, but now she did. She’d assumed that Larissa’s pilots would be male, because ... just because. But like the rest of Larissa’s team, the pilots were female. An ex-airforce naval surveillance pilot and a pilot from the flying doctor service, in fact. It had never occurred to Helena that air force pilots might be female, but this one was all attitude, giving those guys a hard time about their top speed, when she’d been supersonic. But all with a smile, and the guys were very amused. But the stories the other pilot had, from flying doctor rescue service, just crazy.
As they left, Toni grabbed lunch for Jade, Vi and the other pilot so they could eat in the plane. Once they were back in the air, Helena asked Larissa to turn around, and then said, “Larissa, I have a couple of questions for you, from what people said in the airport.”
“Sure.”
“Umm,” Helena hummed; her first question wasn’t easy. “Umm...”
Larissa gave her a smile, encouraging her. “Just ask, Helena, whatever it is.”
“That woman, I saw how she looked you up and down, and then said you weren’t as beautiful as you think you are.” Larissa nodded. “Why would she say that when you’re so beautiful? And so insulting! Do you get that a lot?”
Larissa frowned. “I do. And that’s because I’m not that beautiful.”
What? How could Larissa say that? Helena was about to object.
“No,” Larissa said, “I’m not. I know, everyone says I am, when they see the photos of what Ella or others can do to me.” Helena nodded, that was sure true. “And I am beautiful when they do their thing, but so are you, right?”
Helena had to agree with that. She looked up that photo a few times every week and gazed at herself in that selfie she took after Ella finished with her, an image of what she could hope to be, though she’d never let anyone else know that she did that.
“But when they haven’t done that, then I’m just OK, just normally pretty-ish. Pretty enough for Julian, and that’s enough for me. That woman, it’s sad because she went out of her way to put me down. It used to get me upset, but now I just know, that’s her shit not mine, and I’m sad for her that she needed to say that. As long as I’m enough for Julian, then I’m fine, and in fact, that’s why I usually don’t wear much make up - this is me, and I’m enough for me. Are you enough?”
Helena tried to ignore her instinctive emotional response that she was never going to be enough, plain, handicapped, alone ... because her head knew that she had friends, lots of them, Daniel thought she was worth chasing, and because of all that had happened. And because she knew what Larissa expected her to say, but still, her emotional response to say no was strong.
Larissa was nodding. “Right. Hard to feel like you’re enough. Everything we learn points against it. But I believe in Julian, and he shows me every day that I’m enough. Are you enough for Daniel?”
Helena thought about that. Daniel was a good honourable boy who respected her boundaries, but she was aware every time he tried to hide that he was looking down her blouse, and she even knew when he was checking her ass out. She’d never say but she gave him lots of opportunities to look, and she knew that he knew she was doing that. And she also knew that a couple of other girls, older girls who were more ... immediately available ... had made a pass at him earlier in the year before it was clear that Helena had his heart, and she’d felt pretty good when she’d found that out, and how he’d ignored them. Pretty damn good indeed, in fact.
While she was thinking about that, Larissa said to Athena, “What about you? Are you enough?”
Athena apparently wasn’t sure about that, to Helena’s surprise - Athena was just so put together and compassionate, and good looking, Helena had always assumed that she was fine.
Larissa nodded gravely. “You two, such good friends, so you need to help each other out on this, OK? Both of you, good looking enough, compassionate, friendly, fit, good friend networks, supportive families ... so make each other strong. Because you are enough to have a good life, full of fun, good works and great feelings, and to fill up your guy’s life while you do that, and it doesn’t matter if someone else thinks you aren’t pretty enough, or something else enough, or someone’s faster, sexier, whatever. Let them be their thing, and you be yourself, the prize isn’t the fastest or the prettiest or the sexiest, the prize is for the happiest, and none of those things make you happy. OK?”
Helena glanced at Athena, and nodded. “OK.” She turned back to Athena and said, “Larissa’s right, and you’re just so amazing, and I never even thought you mightn’t think you’re enough. I’m going to make sure you know that you’re great every day, OK? I mean, you know you saved me, and you still look after me everyday, so special and amazing.” She tapped her wrist, a signal that they shared with each other, that meant ... well, actually, it meant that they had each other and they’d be OK.
Athena smiled back, but Helena could see that she had tears in her eyes. “What about you? The way you stood up to Jason? The way Daniel worships you? You better believe you’re enough, because what hope have the rest of us got? We’ll look after each other, OK?!”
Larissa smiled at both of them. “Good. Remember, OK? Now, what else did you want to ask about?”
“One of those guys in the airport was ragging on the pilot because this is such a small jet. Why don’t you have a bigger one?”
“Oh,” Larissa said, “it’s Bob’s plane, and he chose it. But I like it. Sure, it’s not that big, but it’s usually big enough for me. This is the first trip we’ve filled it up. Usually it’s me and Toni, and sometimes Suzy. And Ella, often. And sometimes one of my other sisters or mum. Julian’s mum, that is. Julian comes sometimes too. And my security girls, of course. So why would I need bigger? And it’s not that fast, not quite as fast as a commercial airliner, but close. But you know what this plane has that makes it why Bob chose it?” Helena shook her head. “A really short take off and landing distance, and it can land on grass or gravel airstrips. That just means that I can go to lots more places in the country, and so can Bob. You’ll see, we’re going to land at Oenpelli airport at the end of this flight, and this is the only jet that can get in there, I think.”
“Wow,” Athena said. “I didn’t realise it was that special!”
Larissa shrugged. “It does get a lot of attention. Sometimes because of the rough field thing. But mostly for the wrong reasons. I didn’t want my own jet, because it means more carbon wasted per trip. Greta Thunberg already says that Layna and Julian are sell outs because they fly commercial, and here I am, flying a private jet around, which means even more carbon per flight mile. But Bob insisted, and I really can’t live without it. It just means I can go places, and get home when it suits me, and it can save me up to a day of travel each way.”
Helena had been looking out the window on and off through this discussion. At first, they’d been flying over farmland that was quite green, but then it changed, getting bare and brown. Wait, wasn’t she going north to the wet tropics? She went up to the front of the plane, and looked in the cockpit, said hello to the two pilots, and had a really fun few minutes getting shown all the control systems. They were up over the edge of the Barkly tablelands, the pilots said, and pointed out the side window at the area off to the left. Ahead, they pointed out where the savannah was, lush and green. The savannah stretched all the way up to Kakadu and Arnhemland. This was true wilderness, they told her. No roads, only hardcore four wheel drive tracks, and hardly any farms or stations. Untouched land, left that way for the Indigenous Australians to use. By the time she decided that Athena should have a look, she could see the ocean off to the right, the Gulf of Carpentaria. She went back to her seat and let Athena have a look.
“By the way,” Larissa said to her, when they were both done with that, “how was the rest of your Easter? I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to you when I saw you.”
“Oh. Well, I didn’t think it was going to be very good. Most of my friends were going away and the rest of mum’s family hate on us now, so I could see mum was nervous about that. And Aunt Raychelle and all them went somewhere. And Athena’s family went up to Canberra to see some relatives.” She stopped and thought while Athena rolled her eyes, since she hadn’t had much fun on her family holiday.
“It started pretty slowly. Mum and I had a day tidying up in the yard, and we got a lot done once it stopped raining, I guess. I wasn’t as helpful as I wanted to be, but I think it made mum feel good, that we did it together, and I did what I could and I could see she was happy at the end of the day. Then on Saturday, she, well, she won a prize from the place where she goes to get her nails done, the first prize she’s ever won in her whole life, so we went there at lunch time and we had a spa and then they gave us both a massage, a scrub, a pedicure, did our nails, and then a stylist came by and did what Ella did for me and gave her a makeover, hair and make up, and dressed her up really fancy, a really beautiful ball gown, kind of like some of yours. I think it was a friend of Ella’s that did it.”
Larissa just nodded, so Helena realised. “Oh! That was a set up!”
“Sort of. Mary put her thumb on the scale and contributed a bit. They just wanted your mum to feel good, she’s had a hard road this year, and she’s really tried to change the way she goes about her life, and they thought she deserved something special. But don’t tell her, that’ll ruin it for her.”
“Thanks, that’s lovely and please tell them that. And it really worked, she felt like she was on top of the world, and she went straight off from that in her swish dress to a big date with Paul, and when she came in the door at the end of the night, she was singing with joy because they got steamy in the car, the first time she let herself do that with him, and we had a little dance in our kitchen.”
Larissa gave her a lovely smile for that.
“Then on Sunday, Paul took mum and I to the hot springs on Mornington Peninsula, and Daniel came along. We went to the surf beach first, and Paul showed both of us how to surf, and how to watch the rips and be safe, which we liked a lot.”
Larissa looked at her in surprise. “You can surf?”
“Sort of. Just a body board, I wasn’t going to try standing up, of course, but I’m pretty strong in the water now, strong enough to surprise Paul, so I did OK. Then Daniel went out the back riding the bigger waves and Paul and I sat on the edge of the beach with the water from the waves splashing across us and talked for a while. Mum was asleep on the beach. Or pretending to be.”
“Oh?” Larissa said.
“Paul wanted to talk to me alone. Ask me if it was OK if things got more serious between the two of them. He said that I had to be OK with it, he didn’t want to come between us, and anyway, he worries cause of you and Aunt Raychelle’s family, you know, he hasn’t got a lot of money or a job people respect, he’s just a caretaker at the old coal power station they’ve turned off.”
Larissa frowned. “He shouldn’t worry about that. What did you say?”
“Oh, I told him that you’ve been as poor as you can be, and as rich as you can be, and as much an outcast as you can be, and as popular as you can be, and you wouldn’t care about those things at all, all you’d care about would be whether he looked after Mum’s heart and made her strong. And I told him that I might need help with my legs sometimes because I fall over, but mum’s hurt more than me and she’ll need help when her life falls over occasionally, and if he’s a man that Julian would approve of, because that was your instructions to me about my man, or that Nick would approve of, then he’ll do his best to help her up when her life falls over. And that I’m just a kid so why would I have my own thoughts about it, I’m going with what you and Hannah said.”
“Wow. That’s a very grown up perspective,” Larissa said. “What did he say?”
Helena shrugged. “It’s not hard. You, Aunt Raychelle, Bob, Terry, Louise, Amber, Charlotte, all saying the same thing. He listened hard and thought about what Julian and Terry said to me, and then he asked me to get him Terry’s number because he’s heard about him, his nephew goes to Terry’s school.”
Larissa smiled for that. “Terry’s awesome. Paul has a family? You’ll get new siblings if it’s a thing?”
“He’s divorced. I know, that’s a red flag. Mum told me that, which is why it’s going slow. Well, they both are. Or mum will be - the social worker is helping her with that. Anyway, the story for him is that his wife had a stroke cause of too much drinking, which he was doing as well, and it changed her, and she ran off with some younger guy, ended up doing drugs. Paul kept the kids, two boys and a girl, and he stopped drinking and just focused on them until they were older. The older boy has a job in Moe, the girl’s at uni in Warragul doing something, and the youngest boy’s doing year twelve at Warragul somewhere. And Athena’s mum told me that story as well, it was quite the scandal when she ran off with her young boy, they got caught doing it somewhere public, and he was only just legal. After that, we called Daniel in from the surf and went to the hot springs, and I really liked that. You been there?”
Larissa shook her head.
“You should. At first I was a bit ... I don’t know, all these super good-looking older girls in sexy bikinis and I’m just plain old me in a boring bikini, but Daniel was really good at paying a lot of attention to me, and he said my time will come, I’ll smash them all.” She grinned. “My butt’s looking pretty good these days, so maybe I will. I’ll sure try.”
“I reckon you will!” Larissa said. “But of course, what really gets the guys interested beyond gawking at your butt is how you live your life, the happiness in your heart. But go on.”
“OK. I took my walking stick because Paul said it’s pretty slippery in places, and Daniel helped me into all the pools and everyone wanted to talk to us cause of that, which was nice. And I really loved all the hot water baths. I just felt really good, and my legs were definitely a bit better afterwards. I’ve thought that about Aunt Raychelle’s spa, maybe, but this time I was sure, it really made a difference.”
“I’ll take you there again then!” Larissa said. Helena’s eyes boggled, trying to imagine people’s reaction to Larissa in a bikini at the hot springs, and Julian in short shorts too, but she didn’t say anything.
“Sounds like fun, thanks. So Paul also got us a private bath, and mum asked me privately while we were having lunch, what did I want? Did I want to share it with them, and would I want to wear anything if I did? Larissa, it was cute, I could see she wanted to get naked with Paul, but it’s not the right time for Daniel to do that with me yet, so I said for them to go have fun, and we sat in the main pool and talked to people. Then mum came out with a big smile on her face, and that was it, we left and went up to the beach with you.”
Larissa smiled. “Yeah, it was nice too see you there. Did you enjoy it?”
Did she enjoy that? It was one of the most fun things she’d ever done. Larissa had sent out a notification blast to her sisters early in the morning, an invitation to a beach party on the last great day of the summer, anyone who wanted welcome. By the time they’d made it to the party, there were about fifty other people hanging on the beach outside Larissa’s old beach pad; Helena had recognised it instantly. It’d been a bit intimidating to meet so many people at once, specially for her mum, but her mum and Paul had got talking to Julian’s parents immediately, while Thomas and Jane had dragged Daniel and Helena straight into the water and after that she was fine, gradually meeting Larissa’s friends, while playing in the water or watching everyone play beach soccer or cricket. Helena didn’t do the playing on the beach, of course, but she did join in when they played volleyball in the water.
But the highlight was when Julian and Larissa decided they were going to go jumping off the pier nearby, and insisted that Helena was doing it too. She’d never have thought, but Julian carried her up the ladder to the pier, and then helped Daniel do it, and she jumped off the pier multiple times, imitating the other girls and having a great time. The last time she jumped, seven guys lined up in a row, including Nick, Julian, Thomas and Daniel, and then their girls jumped up onto their hips, hugging them from the front, and they all jumped backwards into the water together, all making as much noise as they could. She came up in the water, still in Daniel’s arms, and found herself face to face with Hannah, and they kissed each other in pure pleasure at the moment.
As they swam back to the beach party, she told herself that she’d remember that moment all her life. She could never have imagined, in those gloomy days back at the end of the year before, that she’d be jumping off a pier like that with Larissa and her friends, and Hannah, holding her own in a stylish bikini and in the arms of a good and honourable boy who was her first and hopefully only love. Unbelievable!
What she was going to do was have a permanent record of that last jump; there’d been a paparazzi on the pier taking photos, lost amongst the tightly packed crowd on the pier watching Larissa and Sienna, who’d flown down from Sydney with Hamza for the day, jumping off the pier in their thong bikinis, along with Larissa’s friends. Larissa had ignored the crowd, and left it to Courtney’s very impressive policeman boyfriend and Jade to manage it, and a photo of the fourteen of them all jumping at once made it into the weekly celebrity magazine that had just come out a couple of days earlier. Helena’s welcome back to school was going to be interesting.
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