Chapter 3

As the weeks passed I was going to Jenny's at least two evenings a week and staying there most weekends, unless I was required to be somewhere for work reasons. Her divorce was going through and it was only a matter of time until she was free. Keith visited Manda quite regularly, but Jenny thought that she was too young to stay with him for a whole weekend. Manda was always happy to see him, but I think that as I saw her more than he did, she was perhaps beginning to think of him less as her daddy.

Christmas was approaching, and Keith surprised Jenny by telling her that Cathy was pregnant—well, perhaps it wasn't such a surprise, as they'd been sleeping together for quite some time at that point. Jenny told me that she thought the timing was significant: the divorce was imminent, and the baby would be born probably during the summer break of the school where they worked. Keith had also told her that he was thinking of changing schools; to somewhere with either a higher pay grade, or even a deputy headship.

Looking back over my life I am aware of just how much Jenny's influence has played in shaping my beliefs and attitudes. I suppose, even having sisters, a lot of my understanding about having a relationship with the opposite sex was because of her.

Some boys and girls have a hard time with their emotions during puberty and adolescence because they have no one to ask about the changes; or at best, if they do, it's someone of the same sex. I know that at this time in my life I overheard my older sisters talking about boys and sex, but it was only snippets of conversations and I never felt that I could ask them to explain things that I didn't understand—which, to be honest, was pretty much everything!

As I've said, Keith and I talked and we tried to work things out based on our limited understanding, but we were lucky that Jenny could usually fill in the gaps left by our ignorance. I know that once she started going out with Keith I moderated my questions to her, but up until then we were always very open with each other. This appeared to pay dividends later on, because even though I was still naïve and unworldly, I was quite comfortable around girls when the time came for that to be important. In fact, several girls told me that one of the reasons they liked me was that I was easy to talk to and that they could relax in my company.

My friendship with Jenny helped in other ways, of course. Being around her so much I got quite used to the accidental flashes of her knickers and the sight of her bras and cleavage through her clothes. She taught both Keith and I how to dance, fast and slow, and there were lots of platonic hugs and kisses, which again came in handy when I started to date for myself. She was also one of the first females, not a member of my family, who I saw naked. I say one of, because there were actually two at the same time.

It was our first camping trip: just a weekend away when we were 15. When we first started talking about the idea, Keith and Jenny had been going out together for a few months and we were all still 14. There was lots of kissing and cuddling by them, but nothing as yet too intimate; there was definitely no way that their parents would have let them go alone, so it was suggested that I go and share a tent with Keith, while Jenny and a classmate of ours, her best friend Nicole Westbrook, share another. I liked Nicole, and apparently it didn't take much persuading to get her to go with us.

Well, we had a couple of overnight dry runs, with me pitching a newly acquired tent in our back garden and Jenny doing the same in hers. Then later, before the real expedition took place, and according to the others, we all had more or less the same talk with our parents: about raging adolescent hormones and acting in a sensible and responsible manner with the opposite sex. We did, of course, have plans to push the limits as far as we could with our new freedom, but we actually were all quite sensible and responsible.

Anyway, Nicole's father drove us to an organized campsite, which was one of the conditions our parents made for us going, which was about ten miles from home—it could have been hundreds; the sense of freedom was intoxicating! We pitched our tents near each other, but not too near, unpacked essentials, then, I suspect, like a lot of people in our situation we realised that we had no real plans for what to do next so we went for a walk around the site. I was walking with Nicole and we had barely set off, when I felt a warm hand take mine. We just looked at each other and smiled then carried on as if it was something we always did. She later told me that she'd always liked me, but as I was either too shy or too self-conscious to do anything at school, she had decided to take the initiative once we were away from it. Later on I got my first French kiss from a girl. But back to the story.

The site was quite nice, with provision for static and touring caravans as well as tents, entertainment facilities and a large shop. There was also an outdoor swimming pool which we intended to try later. As we were only going to be there for a few days, we had decided not to take cooking equipment, although we had the means to make hot drinks if we wanted. We couldn't buy alcohol, but after swimming in the pool and eating in the cafeteria, we spent a few hours and a few pounds in the clubhouse playing on the amusement games. We were sticking to our plans for sharing tents, but we decided to give Jenny and Keith a bit of privacy, so Nicole and I were in my tent; which is where she taught me how to French kiss. I have to confess that while we were doing it I got quite aroused, and Nicole said that so did she, but Mr Sensible met Miss Responsible and nothing else happened.

The next day was much the same as the first, but we'd all rather blown our meagre budgets on the amusements so we swam again but otherwise entertained ourselves. We bought snacks and soft drinks from the shop and then we all settled in Jenny's tent, which was quite a lot bigger than mine. Someone produced a pack of cards, and, yes, the inevitable happened, and the stakes were raised, so to speak.

I don't honestly remember who suggested it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't me. So, anyway, I'm sitting facing Nicole, with Jenny to my left and Keith opposite her. None us knew how to play poker, so we decided on a game we all knew and agreed the rules. I won't bother with a hand-by-hand account of the game, but everyone's clothes were soon being shed.

Now I have never asked Jenny and Keith about the specifics of their physical relationship, so I don't know how familiar they were with each other's bodies, but there didn't seem to be any reluctance on their part; and after our making out session the day before, I think Nicole and I were quite curious, too. Since Keith and I were bare-footed and were wearing T-shirts, and shorts over our underpants and the girls were each wearing much the same, with the addition of a bra, it was agreed that the boys could replace one item of forfeited clothing at some point, but only after another round had been played.

When Jenny lost her first game she did that trick where she removed her bra while still wearing her shirt: I don't know what she hoped to achieve, but her shirt was quite thin and her nipples were soon quite pronounced; and as we were all laughing quite a lot, we were treated to the sight of her boobs bouncing around, which I, at least, found quite, er, stimulating: her discarded bra started off draped around Keith's neck. Nicole opted to lose her shorts first, exposing her bikini briefs, which was also a very pleasant sight. Keith and I literally lost our shirts first time around.

The game gathered momentum, and by the time that the girls were both topless and Keith and I were down to our boxer shorts, it was obvious that we both had rampant erections. From the look on Nicole's face, I assumed that she was as eager to see me completely nude as I was her. Okay, so we weren't going to have sex, but I was 15 and the most bare flesh I'd seem prior to that belonged to my mum and my sisters.

The tension was palpable as the cards were dealt; we had agreed to just turn our hands over together; weakest hand losing. I'd seen Keith in the school showers, so I tactfully looked away as he took off his shorts. In case you're interested, we were both about the same size. Jenny and Nicole both cheered, and Keith playfully slapped her hand away as Jenny pretended to reach out for his engorged member.

Although I wasn't worried about comparisons with Keith, I was still nervous as the cards were dealt by him to the three remaining players; he being eliminated. My heart was pounding, which seemed to do nothing to diminish my hard-on, and my mouth was dry as I turned over my cards without looking at them.

"Come on, Neil, or would you like me to do it?" Nicole said when she saw my losing hand. I just shrugged and then quickly discarded my modesty. Jenny cheered as enthusiastically as she had Keith, waving her arms in the air, which of course started her boobs bouncing again, while Nicole just smiled and clapped her hands, quietly. I don't know if it was pre-arranged, but then Nicole and Jenny both looked at each other and smiled, then before Keith and I could say or do anything, the girls both quickly took off their knickers; much to mine and Keith's amazement. Both girls had quite thick pubic hair so you couldn't see much, but it was still an awesome moment.

"Okay, boys, have a quick look, then I think we had better put some clothes back on, before we get too carried away," Jenny said. You might think that that's anticlimactic, but it was a milestone for both Keith and me, and we were buzzing for hours afterwards. I should just add that we all settled down to something like normality after that, but before we returned to our tent for the night, we had a protracted goodnight kiss with our respective girlfriends; Nicole was now that, of course, and for some time after. Sadly for both of us, and Jenny, Nicole and her family moved to another part of the country not long afterwards, so our teenage romance never blossomed and Jenny lost a best friend.