A Well-Lived Life - Book 9 - Anala
Chapter 6: A New Semester and a New Job, Part I

Copyright © 2015-2023 Penguintopia Productions

Coming of Age Sex Story: Chapter 6: A New Semester and a New Job, Part I - This is the continuation of the story told in "Book 8 - Stephie". If you haven't read Books 1 through 8, then you'll have some difficulty following the story. I strongly encourage you to read those before you begin this ninth book. Like the other books in this series, there is a lot of dialogue and introspection. There is also a lot of sex. Book 9 has 82 chapters and about 448,000 words. It's a lengthy read. I hope you'll stick with it!

Caution: This Coming of Age Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa   Ma/ft   Mult   School   Incest   Brother   Sister   First   Slow  

January, 1984, Chicago, Illinois

On Monday morning, I was up early and practiced my karate kata and did some basic exercises. After I showered, I went to the kitchen to make breakfast and noticed a light snow falling. So far, there was just a dusting on the browned grass, but the forecast called for light snow all day. I'd be heading to IIT alone, as I was the only one with an 8:00am class.

I was fairly happy with my schedule, even though I had an early-morning class. Being an early riser, it didn't bother me, though I was a bit melancholy because Stephie was supposed to be in all three classes that I would have on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As it was, none of my friends were in any of the classes. At least Dave would be in the Tuesday night database class.

Just as I was leaving the kitchen, Katy came in to make her breakfast. I smiled at her and she smiled back, but nothing was said. It was going to be an interesting semester for sure. I went back to my room, put my books and notepads into my leather bag, then went downstairs and put on my shoes, coat and gloves. I debated which hat to wear and decided to go for the KGB «ушанка», wondering what kind of response I'd receive.

I found out immediately on walking into my Introduction to Business class when a stocky guy with sandy-blonde hair greeted me.

«Доброе утро, товарищ!» (Good morning, Comrade!).

"Sorry, I don't speak Russian," I grinned. "This was a gift from a friend of mine."

"A friend in the «Комитет государственной безопасности»?" he chuckled.

"No, from the daughter of the Russian Trade Attaché in Washington. I do have a KGB Colonel's uniform that did come from a friend in the KGB, though. I wore it for Halloween."

"I'm Andrei," he laughed, holding out his hand.

"And your father's name?" I grinned as I shook his hand.

"Paul," he smiled.

"Good morning, Andrei Pavlovich. I am Stephen Rayevich. If I may call you Andrushka, you may call me Stepa," I chuckled.

"OK. OK. You made your point. Are you a Russophile or an émigré?"

"Russophile. You?"

"My grandparents on my father's side emigrated from Russia in 1917. My dad thought it was important that we all speak Russian, and most people at church do."

"Then I suspect you're Orthodox, and most likely members of Holy Virgin in Des Plaines."

"No, but that is our cathedral. We go to a church in Carol Stream. How the heck do you know that? Are you Orthodox?"

"No, but a good friend of mine is, and I've been to the Greek cathedral for Pascha services. I've also read The Orthodox Church by Bishop KALLISTOS."

The professor walked in just then and I grabbed a seat in the front row. Even taking a seat after most of the other students, one was available. I scanned the room, and it looked like mostly Freshmen, nervous and excited at the same time. True to IIT form, in the class of thirty, there were only four girls. My new Russian friend was sitting in the back, flanked by two of them.

I could tell from the first sentence the professor spoke that this class was going to be boring as hell. And as I reviewed the syllabus that he handed out, I decided that my sister was right — I'd make sure I hired other people to run the business day-to-day. I'd rather spend my time programming as I'd done when we had Four Dimensional Software.

When class finished, I stopped to talk to Andrei. He was a Freshman who lived in Wheaton and commuted to IIT each day. His major was aeronautical engineering and he, like Dave, attended church every Sunday. We seemed to hit it off pretty well, and I let him know I was available if he needed help with CS100. We parted, and I went to get a cup of coffee from the student center and then walked back to find the classroom for my American History class.

I was quite early, and the room was empty, so I took a seat in the front row and took out my business textbook and started reading the assignment. Slowly, other students filed in and once again I saw that it was mostly Freshmen, though right before the professor walked in, Wen Zhao came into the room and took a seat beside me. We said 'hello', but didn't have time to talk further before class began.

This history class was a continuation of the class I'd taken the previous Spring, and the professor was the same University of Glasgow graduate that I'd had for that class. This one covered the period from 1840 to 1970, which was a lot of material for a single-semester course. When the syllabus was handed out, I saw that there was a large amount of optional, but suggested reading. I realized immediately that I was going to have to put in a lot of time in this class to maintain my straight-A average, but it was a topic I loved, so that would make it easier. The problem would be finding the time to read, given my crazy schedule. I'd be spending Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons reading, for sure.

When class finished, I realized that I was on my own for lunch for the first time since Freshman year, and that had been short-lived because Stephie and I started having lunch together fairly early in the semester. I asked Wen if she'd join me, but she begged off because her meal plan required her to eat at the cafeteria. I offered to buy her lunch, but she declined. I thought about going to Sig Eps to eat with Dave and Julia or Theta Xi to eat with Mike, but didn't want to just drop in unannounced. I decided to walk over to Bridgeport and go to the diner where Candace worked.

"Hi, Steve!" Candace called out when I walked in and sat down. "Long time no see and no hear!"

"Becky and I aren't meeting anymore and I have been crazy busy. This semester is going to be even crazier; I'm doing an internship two days a week in Downers Grove."

"That's cool. What do you want today?" she asked with a wink.

I chuckled, "Well, I could say 'two breasts with a side of thighs, but I'll have the cheeseburger and fries, plus a Coke."

"I think I've heard that one a hundred times just in the past month!"

"I didn't figure it was original. How's school going?"

"Pretty good. I finish up in May. How about you?"

"One more year after this one. Then out into the cruel world to slave away for forty years or so!"

She put my order in and then went to take orders from other diners. When my food was ready, she brought it to the table.

"If you're not busy some weekend, call me. I'd like to get together, if you want to."

"We'll see, but please don't count on it, Candy. I'm pretty busy and I'm working on putting things back together with my High School sweetheart."

Actually, I could have said my three High School sweethearts — Jennifer, Kara, and Bethany — but I didn't.

"What happened to that girl from Georgia?"

"She went back to Georgia. It was the right thing for her to do. It's fine because I'm really focusing on school and work this semester, and really don't have time for a girlfriend. The girl I just mentioned is at Stanford out in California now. She'll move here when she graduates."

"I hope it works out. If you change your mind, let me know. Will you be coming for lunch very often?"

I chuckled, "Is that an offer?"

"Absolutely! But you know what I meant."

"Probably once a week or so. I don't have anyone to regularly eat with right now due to everyone's schedules."

She left the table to serve other customers, and I ate in silence. When I finished my meal, I paid the check and left my usual tip. I said 'goodbye' to Candy and told her I'd probably see her in a week. I walked back to campus in the light snow and went into the engineering building. I found the correct classroom and took a seat in the front row. I didn't have long to wait for the class to start and when the professor walked in, I glanced around the room and saw several faces that I recognized but nobody that I knew well. I sighed and took out a notepad and pencil.

The professor, a short, balding man in his late fifties, handed out the syllabus and then went over the goals for the class. While the title of the class was 'Engineering Ethics', the course was a full-blown ethics course, with case studies drawn from engineering and science. He started off the discussion immediately after taking attendance by asking a hypothetical question.

"Suppose, Mr.," he consulted his attendance sheet, "Adams, that you are working for a car company. You discover that there is a minor flaw in the design of the vehicle. The flaw will likely lead to ten deaths a year. The cost to fix it is $100 per vehicle. The cost to pay the lawsuits works out to $5 per vehicle. What do you recommend the company do?"

"I'd say if you are aware of a potentially fatal defect, and it's in your power to fix it, you need to fix it. If you can't fix it, then you need to make it clear to the person buying the car that the risk exists. I realize that you asked me, more or less, to weigh profits against lives, and for me personally, I can't do that."

"You're the engineer. Your boss says that senior management decided, on the advice of attorneys, to not say anything and not fix it, and just pay out the lawsuits. What do you do? Do you leak it to the press? Become a whistleblower?"

I chuckled, "That's easy for me to say sitting here in class. Yes, of course. On the other hand, if I had a wife, a mortgage, and a couple of kids, and they depended on my income from the job, I'd certainly have a much harder time deciding what to do."

"Very good. You've just summarized the entire semester. Unfortunately for you and your classmates, I can't just give you an A and let you go on your way. If you'll take the packets that I've given you and turn to the first page, we'll begin with a survey of the Greek philosophers. Any of you who've taken an introduction to philosophy may be bored, but please hang in there!"

I decided that I liked this professor. At each step, he'd consult his attendance sheet and call on someone to answer some hypothetical question based on what he'd just talked about. Even though I'd taken several philosophy courses, I wasn't bored, though I felt bad for a few of the students who managed to tie themselves in knots trying to answer his questions. I had two years' worth of Sunday philosophy with my friends that had helped me order my thoughts on things like this.

"Class, your first assignment is to read the handout on 'Lifeboat ethics' as proposed by Garrett Hardin. You'll find several questions at the end. You might find some of the questions a bit shocking, such as the idea of when cannibalism becomes OK and if it's OK to deny food and water to a sick individual and give it to a healthy one. Just try your best to answer. There are no right or wrong answers. You'll be graded on your reasoning and how you defend your choices. See you Wednesday!"

I gathered my things and realized this class was going to provide quite a bit of fodder for our Sunday discussions. I'd just have to be careful to only raise topics after I'd done my homework, so that it didn't seem as if I was trying to use the group to succeed. After all, that just wouldn't be ethical!

I walked to my car and, after brushing the snow off the windows, drove home. I made myself some tea and took the teapot and cup into the Indian room and sat down to read. I got in a couple of hours of reading before it was time to make dinner. Jackie came into the kitchen to help and we quickly got everything going, then sat down with cups of hot cocoa to wait.

"How are things with Jamie?" I asked.

"Right where we left off, but that might actually change."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. He asked me to think about moving in with him after he graduates. Well, assuming he gets a job."

"Interesting. I thought you guys hadn't been together."

She laughed, "We haven't. That's why I was so surprised. I asked him if that was his backhanded way of asking me to go to bed with him. He actually blushed!"

"Direct as always, Jackie," I grinned, "What did you say?"

"I told him I'd think about it. I really like living here. But I do want to see if Jamie and I can make things work. Hell, I've been trying for more than a year now! When do I have to tell you if I'll be here in the Fall?"

"Let's call it August 1st. That's before Sofia gets here, and if you move out, I'll ask Cindi if she'll room with Sofia. And I'm sure there are other girls that would want to move in, like Charlie. But it would have to be cool with Cindi."

"So no chance you'll let Sofia stay with you?"

"Oh, who the hell knows? I'm not promising anything to anyone, including Sofia. I'd have to talk THAT through with Jennifer. And it sure would upset Elyse, Bethany, and anyone else who might come to visit, especially given Sofia isn't likely to go home except maybe at Christmas and for the Summer."

"So that would cramp your style?" Jackie asked with a knowing smile.

"You could look at it that way. But I am not interested in going steady with anyone. Not in the near term, anyway."

Julia came in to see if we needed help and I asked her to set the table, as dinner was almost ready. When she finished, we called everyone to dinner and sat down to eat. When we finished, Katy and Cindi cleaned up and I went upstairs to change into my gi, because I was going to karate on Mondays instead of Tuesdays. Given the snow and cold, I planned to drive to the dojo, even though it was less than eight blocks away.

Fortunately, I'd paid just enough attention to practice over break so as not to earn the ire of Sensei Jim. He asked if I'd heard from Stephie and I told him that I had and that she was doing well. I also let him know that she'd started going to a dojo near Georgia Tech and he was happy to hear that. When class ended, I drove home and showered, and went to my study.

There were a couple of pieces of mail on my desk and I noticed the answering machine flashing. I opened the two bills and set them aside, then listened to the message.

Steve, this is Becky! Alyson canceled her visit! She said you told her not to come! Call me!

I sighed and pressed the button to erase the messages. I decided to simply ignore the message. I didn't want to get into an argument with Becky, and her request to get together wasn't something I was particularly interested in. I realized I wasn't following my own maxim of simply telling the truth, and I'd need to do that the next time I talked to her. But not now.

I went to the kitchen to get a glass of juice and then went to sit in the great room by the fire that someone had started. Katy came in a few minutes later and sat down.

"How was your first day of class?" I asked.

"Good. Yours?"

"Good. Did you have a good Christmas break?"

"I did. How about you?"

"I did," then I lowered my voice, "I thought about you."

She was silent for a moment, then whispered, "I thought about you, too."

I chuckled, "OK, now that we have that out of the way, the ball's in your court, Katy. I won't turn you away, but I'm not going to chase you."

"I know. I appreciate it. I still don't know what I want. Thanks for understanding."

"Absolutely. Whatever happened to the guys you were talking to last semester?"

"Nothing. They just didn't measure up to my standards. I'm still looking, though."

"Now is when I make my joke about measuring up!" I grinned.

"Whatever else happens, I think that you've redefined 'great sex' for me."

"Glad to oblige, Ma'am," I chuckled.

My conversation with Katy died of necessity when Julia and Jackie came into the room to relax by the fire. With the other girls in the room, the conversation turned to school and the weather. Just before 10:00pm I heard the phone ring in my study and went to answer it. It was Dave asking what time I'd pick him up in the morning. I suggested 7:30am as we'd we'd be going opposite the traffic, and once we got past Harlem Avenue, it would be smooth sailing. Dave agreed, and we ended our call.

I went back to the great room and let the girls know I was heading to bed and reminded them to turn off the gas fireplace before they went to bed. Jackie followed me up the stairs and when she asked if I needed someone to keep me warm, I took her up on her offer.

On Tuesday morning, I was up early as usual and went to the attic to practice my karate kata and do my exercises. I made sure to use the area of the attic room that was over my room so that I didn't wake anyone with the noise I was sure I was making. After I showered, I went down to the kitchen to find that Jackie had made breakfast for the two of us. After I ate some bacon and eggs and drank a cup of coffee, I kissed her goodbye and headed out into the cold air.

The light snow had stopped overnight, and the roads were completely clear, so I made good time down to IIT. Dave was ready and walked out of the Sig Ep house as soon as I pulled into the driveway. He got in and I headed for the Dan Ryan Expressway. About forty minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot. I found a spot not too far from the door and parked. We got out of the car and walked in the front door. Lynn greeted us and asked us to wait for Scott. She called him and he appeared a few minutes later.

Scott took us into the office and gave us the tour, introducing us to quite a few people, but the only names I immediately remembered were Josh Clark, David Watson, and Carlton Jones. When the tour was done, Dave went with Dave Watson, and I went with Scott. He handed me a printout and a manual for the TMS-1000, then directed me to a desk.

"As I said, you'll be working on an alarm clock for Spartus. Look at the instruction set, then look at the code. We need to find a way to save about 30 bytes. Some of it might come from rearranging the code; some might come from rewriting the code. From what I saw in class, this is right up your alley. My office is just around the corner. Come see me if you have any questions."

I decided that I needed a cup of coffee, so I walked to the employee lounge, found a 'Nuvatec' mug, filled it with coffee, and went back to my desk. I flipped through the manual for the chip to find the instruction set. It was really simple and there were perhaps twenty instructions that might be of use for the alarm clock program I was reviewing. Once I had a general grasp of the instruction set, I started looking over the code. Fortunately, it was quite well documented, so I could quickly get an idea of what it was doing.

About an hour later, I felt comfortable enough to start looking for ways to improve the code and reduce the instruction count, thus saving the very limited ROM space. I noticed that not all the ROM pages were filled, which meant that about half the necessary space could be found if a better way to organize the code could be found. Also, if I could eliminate jumps, it would save three bytes, which was huge, as there were quite a few jump instructions in the code.

By lunch time I'd identified a section of code, that if I could figure out how to save two instructions, would let me move another section of code to the same page, and thus save three more bytes, and would free up just enough space on another page for the new function, assuming I could fit the new function in the space available once I wrote it. Dave and I went to Italian Submarine on Roosevelt road for lunch.

"How's it going?" I asked.

"Right now I'm learning Unix commands and the 'vi' editor," Dave replied. "Then I'm supposed to start looking at the C, YACC, and Lex code that the Z80 cross-assembler uses and see if I can make performance improvements. It's a serious challenge, but I think I'm going to like it. How about you?"

"Assembly language is my game, man. I'm on to something, but I haven't found what I need just yet. If I can figure out how to shave a couple of instructions from one function, I'll have the first part of the puzzle solved."

"If anyone can do that, you can!" Dave said.

"We'll see!"

When we finished our lunch, we headed back to the office. I grabbed a Coke from the common fridge and sat back down at my desk to review the code. Suddenly, it hit me. There was a single instruction, 'TCMIY', that could replace three other instructions. That would gain two bytes, which, when I removed the jump instruction, allowed me to move the code from the other page. I now had forty bytes of code to add the battery backup function that was needed to complete the project.

I wrote up a quick flow diagram, then wrote out some pseudo code and eventually wrote out the instructions. I had one byte too many and spent the next two hours trying to come up with a new algorithm. I was stumped and couldn't think of a way to solve it, so I looked over the other code that was already on the page. There was one very short routine that if I could move to another page, would free up the extra byte. I checked, and saw that it was called from only one place, but because it was eight bytes long, I couldn't just move it without finding five bytes on the other page.

I was becoming cross-eyed from staring at the code for so long that when 5:00pm rolled around, I simply left everything on the desk and walked out to the car with Dave. I was so close, but I hadn't quite cracked it. It was frustrating, and I was tempted to take the code home with me, but decided that perhaps a solution would present itself when I took a fresh look at it on Thursday.

"How did the day go?" I asked Dave as I pulled onto Finley Road.

"I didn't do much except figure out how to use 'vi' and get around the Unix system. It's different from PRIMOS and VMS that we use at school."

"I'll need to learn 'vi' and Unix, too, once I solve this tricky puzzle. There's so little space in ROM that it's like trying to cram ten pounds of crap into a five-pound bag. I think I can do it, but every time I think I have it, I'm like one instruction too many. It's enough to drive me to drink. I think that's why they put me on it. A senior engineer probably told Scott to go fuck himself!"

"That bad?"

"Dude, the Z80 and 6502 are light years ahead of this shitty chip. It costs like $1.00 so you can put it in a $12 alarm clock, so I get it. Either of the other chips cost more than the God-damned clock!"

"Steve, I think that you've sworn more in the last thirty seconds than I've heard you swear since I've known you!" Dave chuckled.

I sighed, "Yeah. I love the challenge, but you can tell I'm frustrated."

"It's your first day!" Dave said, laughing. "Chill!"

"Right. Like I can EVER chill about any programming project?"

"No, you can't. You get in that zone and the world could end and you would have no idea. Hell, all the girls could walk naked into your room and you wouldn't notice."

I laughed, "You're wrong on that one. I learned a long time ago that girls' software is WAY more fun than computer software!"

Dave laughed, "You're SO right!"

We made it back to IIT before 6:00pm and I dropped Dave at the Sig Ep house, then headed back to Hyde Park. When I arrived home, Elyse and Cindi were just getting dinner on the table, so I washed my hands and went straight to the dining room.

"How was your first day at work?" Elyse asked.

"Frustrating. They gave me a tough assembly language problem to solve and every time I think I have it cracked, I discover that I'm using one-too-many instructions, or that I have to fix some other thing."

Julia laughed, "Poor baby. You love it and you know it!"

"Maybe!" I grinned. "Your other half had an easy day of sitting around learning how to use a text editor and learning Unix commands."

"I'll see him tomorrow and I'm sure he'll fill me in," Julia said.

"I'm sure he will!" Cindi muttered under her breath.

I just smiled and shook my head, fortunately none of the others heard her comment.

"With Stephie back in Georgia, I have an extra ticket for the Penguins game against the Black Hawks on Sunday. Anyone want it?"

"Sure, I'll go," Katy said quickly.

"Cool," I replied. "Julia, I assume you and Dave are still planning on going, right?"

"Absolutely!" she said.

When we finished dinner, Cindi and Katy did the dishes and I headed back to IIT for my class. I was cutting things close, and wondered if it might make more sense to just grab something to eat at The Bog, or even stop by Kentucky Fried Chicken on 35th Street by IIT on Tuesdays.

Dave was already in the classroom when I walked in, and had saved me a seat next to him in the front row. I thanked him and was about to ask if there was a way to eat at the Sig Eps on Tuesdays when the professor walked in. He introduced himself as Bob Dyehouse and handed out the course syllabus. We'd be using something called 'Prime Information', which was a database program that ran on IIT's Prime computers.

The class seemed to drag on, but I suspected that was because I'd worked all day on a difficult programming problem, and the fact that it was 10:00pm before the class let out. I asked Dave about dinner on Tuesdays and he said that he'd arrange it. I'd have to pay their 'commuter member' meal cost, but that was only $4.00. I told him to count on me for dinner on Tuesdays.

I drove home and when I dropped my book bag in my study, I saw the light on my answering machine flashing, so I pressed the play button.

Hi, Steve, it's Connie. Give me a call when you have a chance. Any time before midnight is OK.

I copied down the number she'd left and then pressed the erase button on the machine. I was tired, but I really wanted to know what she had to say, so I dialed the number. She answered on the second ring.

"Thanks for calling me back," she said. "Things were a little crazy at home."

"So I heard from Larry! Slapping and hair pulling? Really?" I asked.

"The argument did get a bit out of control," she said with a giggle. "Can I ask what you said to Joyce?"

"Basically that she should mind her own business and that I wasn't going to discuss what, if anything, happened between us. I more or less told her to butt out. I was more than a bit miffed when she called you a slut and said that you'd been with a dozen guys from school. I had first-hand evidence that wasn't true, but couldn't really say so."

"She was baiting you, Steve. I think she thought by saying that she could get you to admit something. She knew damned well that I hadn't been with those guys or even Anthony, because Joyce and I actually talked about that stuff."

"Wait! You and Joyce talked? She's implied that you two have never gotten along and never talked."

"We're sisters. You have to know how it is! You have a brother and a sister, don't you?"

"Sure. So what happened?"

"She accused me of trying to steal you away, of using my body to lure you into some kind of trap. I denied it, but she was pretty adamant and the argument just went downhill from there. When she called me a slut, I slapped her, and that's when the hair-pulling and slapping fight happened, and mom and dad had to separate us."

"Did you guys patch things up?"

"No. She won't talk to me unless she has to. I'm glad I'm at Purdue and not living at home. Have you talked to her?"

"Not since that day she and I went to your grandfather's house. I'm not sure that there's much to say until she's ready to talk rationally about what's going on. She made all kinds of accusations about you trying to trap me, just like you said, but I certainly don't feel that way. Granted, you do want to do what she said, but you were up front about it and presented it as a business deal. With some very interesting side benefits."

Connie laughed, "You liked those, I take it?"

"I invited you back, didn't I?" I chuckled.

"And now?" she asked.

"Well, it's really up to you. If you're just looking for some fun from time to time, sure. You know my situation. And you'll have to deal with your sister when you go home."

"I don't care what she says. Once school settles down, I'll give you a call and maybe come up for a weekend in February. Would that work?"

"So long as it's not the second or third weekend; I'll be busy."

"OK. I'll give you a call in a couple of weeks," she said.

I hung up and went up to bed. I was mentally beat and fell asleep quickly. I was actually glad that I didn't have one of the girls with me that night, because I needed the sleep to recharge, and I had to be lucid for my 8:00am class.

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