Chapter 4: First Rewards

Piper woke up and, for a brief moment, she could imagine that all was well with the world and that she’d just had a bad dream. But reality set in, despite her denials. Her fingers felt weak as she checked her phone. There was another email, this one simply had a link to a game to install on her phone. It looked like scrabble, but a chat client popped up inside it. It was him.

“Thank you for installing this little game. It will let me chat with you anytime I wish. You should make sure to keep your phone on you at all times.

Since you were such a good sport yesterday, I’ll only give you one task for today. You’re going to give the boys a little treat, just for the eyes. Today, you are going to forego wearing a bra of any kind.

That is all.

Plenty of girls do it, after all, you don’t really need the support anyway. Think of it as striking a blow for women’s equality while pleasing the eyes at the same time.

We’ll talk later, sweet girl.”

Dressed in pjs she stared at her closet and thought. Did she really need to do this? Of course she did, especially after yesterday. How could she have known he wasn’t Jake? How could he have known where they were going to be? How did he get cameras there. Had he been there? The angle of the video was too high for him to have been one of the other movie goers. She shook her head. She didn’t have time for this, she needed to get ready for school.

Feeling defiant, she smiled as she settled on the biggest bulkiest christmas sweater she could find. If smelled a little musty for having been in a box for the last 6 months, but it was big and thick enough that no one would notice she wasn’t wearing a bra. Given the heat, she knew she’d get some weird looks, but she put it on over a pair of just long enough to meet school code cargo shorts.

Despite the anxious start, Tuesday was a really nice normal school day. Jake gave her a few wild flowers in the morning when he picked her up which was so completely sweet of him. Both Pennie and Alicia, two of the varsity cheerleaders, asked her if she was going to be at Elite Overnight Cheer Camps this summer. She couldn’t be sure, but if she had to guess, that meant she might be up for choreography core or maybe even Captain of the Varsity squad next year. Captain was a long shot, after all, she was only going to be a junior, but the choreography core worked together not just to make new cheers, but to make the choreography and teach the cheers to the other girls. It was usually three girls, the captain - usually a senior - and the other two were girls who’d proven they could come up with cheers and moves. Piper had proven both. They always had at least one junior in the choreo-core, and that probable meant she’d be working with Pennie on choreo next year! Eek! She was so excited!

By the time she got home, she’d almost forgotten about all the craziness and the reason she wasn’t wearing a bra. The few people who had said anything about the sweater said she looked cute in it. Piper settled in to work on homework and brainstorm on yearbook ideas for next year while waiting for Sarah to stop by.

Her phone beeped. It was him.

“How very clever.”

She smiled. Maybe she had to play his game, but she didn’t have to play it his way. She thumbed out her reply, “I did what you asked.”

“Yes, perhaps you did. Yet I still find I am not happy. But I shall not punish you for it. In fact, I have rewarded you for it. You’ll find that I am quite the kind benefactor as long as you obey me. Go to your front door and look for a package.”

She shot up. Had he been here? Had he come to her house? Mom was in the backyard doing some gardening so she dashed to the front door, leaving her pen to slowly roll of the table on onto the floor. Eyes darting around the porch, she saw nothing.

“Mom?” she called out, jogging to the back, “Mom? Did I get a package in the mail today?”

The beautiful woman with a soft kind smile and similarly curled hair wiped off her brow from under her sunhat and sighed back, “Nope, not today. Are you expecting something honey?”

“No, I,” she lied then instantly regretted it. Why would she ask if she didn’t expect something, “Well, like, I mean maybe. Jake hinted that he might have gotten me something.”

Her mother chuckled. “That boy, he’s head over heels for you.” She shook her head, “But not today. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll keep a look-out.”

“‘Kay.”

“Did he say how-,” her mother stopped when she saw her daughter was already gone. “She moves a mile a minute.” She chuckled softly and thought back to her own first crushes and first love.

Piper hid in a corner of the breakfast nook and texted back. “There’s no package.”

His reply came back so quickly it startled her, “Do not lie to me. You have a package, it is a reward and it has been delivered.”

“Sorry, but no, it hasn’t,” she typed back.

“Go to your front porch and get the package now. DO NOT LIE TO ME. DO IT NOW.”

She’d never seen him type in all caps before and the site of it made her blood freeze. She scrambled up and ran back to the front porch, but there was still no package. She typed out that it wasn’t there again, but her finger trembled over the send button. He seemed mad enough already and she was starting to get a bit scared.

Her phone buzzed again, “OPEN THE GIFT. I am trying to be kind, Piper, but if my kindness is met with such s contemptuous and cavalier reception, I shall be forced to react unkindly.”

She didn’t want to know what that meant. Piper was sweating bullets as she searched around, in the mailbox, down the steps and even in the potted planters, but nothing. Then she spotted a bulky yellow envelope tucked behind a bush by the porch steps. She grabbed it up out and ran in, typing in her phone, “I found it!!! It was in the bushes, I swear, I wasn’t lying.”

“Shut up, girl. Open your gift now.”

With a gulp, she ran upstairs and into her room. Sarah would be here soon, so whatever it was she needed to get it open and hidden now.

She tore open the bulky padded envelope and found a package with a strap and a set of batteries and a - ‘Oh!’ Her mind registered with realization. It was a Polar heart rate monitor! In any other situation, from any other person, she would have squealed in delight.

She typed back to let him know that she had opened it.

“Do you like your present?”

Piper was conflicted. She should say that she loved it, but in truth, it felt so completely creepy that he had known exactly what she might want. Part of her wanted to set it on fire. She typed back, “Yes.” That wasn’t enough. She added, “But ... I am scared.”

His words returned, “Brilliant, my girl. Thank you for your honesty. I don’t wish to be handled. There are to be no white lies between

us. Quickly now, you will find a little box with a plug. I want you to plug it into an outlet in your room.”

Sure enough, a one inch square black plastic cube with a plug was in there. Immediately, she assumed it was some kind of hidden camera or microphone. He told her to plug it in in her room, but say where specifically. She slid open her closet door and found an outlet tucked behind her winter clothes bin and tucked it away. Satisfied that she had a bit of privacy, she put her sweater in the bin as well and grabbed a t-shirt. Under any normal circumstances she wouldn’t have bothered with a bra with Sarah coming over, but putting one on felt like an act of defiance.

Just then the doorbell rang, so she pulled over her t-shirt and bounced downstairs. It was Sarah, who was very interested in possible summer plans after Piper was done with all her camps and wanting to share a new song she’d discovered. Piper was distracted, but she tried to smile and be present for her friend. The two girls began boning up on their biology in advance of next week’s final.

Piper’s phone buzzed, so she flicked it to silent and peeked at it in her lap. “Tell me, sweet girl, have you ever experienced ecstasy?”

Sarah asked, “What’s the difference between bacteria and protobacteria?”

Piper looked up, “Um, I think, nuclear membrane? I think the protobacteria don’t have it, because proto means, like, first? I think? The rest of them do.”