Chapter 204

May 14, 2018 (Monday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

We had a nice breakfast with Matt and Steph, having no discussion about last night. We joined the rest of the Central-bound students in the Sprinter upon our return to the compound. Lana related our night in their room, particularly the bits about Steph.

Rache shook her head and stated, “Is it you? I mean, I can’t imagine my mother ... or anyone else’s mother other than Steph and the Go5 moms that would even allow five kids to have sex in their house much less stand nearly next to the bed on which it’s taking part and watch ... and tell you that she likes to be a voyeur. I can’t imagine that there’s anywhere else in reality that could happen.”

Meka responded, “I’ve begun thinking that the Go5 make their own reality. Granted, I had a sexual relationship that was ... out of the ordinary before falling under their sway, but I’ll bet mine was still more likely than what we have. I’ve begun wondering if Alicia and Richard would...”

Cera interrupted with, “No. They’ve got the boys to consider. However, I think it might be possible if they weren’t a factor. By the way, Brit and I are going to stay there tonight.”

Rache responded, “Oh. I was going to put forth a proposal at home this evening. Are you planning to shower with us after practice?”

“Yes and, so long as it doesn’t take too much time, you could propose it in or after the shower. We need to be at ... my other home for dinner. Is your proposal something that Civia and Maren need to hear?”

“Yes, and I planned to make sure they were going to shower with us, although that’s probably something they’ll always jump at.”

“True that,” Gracey agreed.

The young girls did jump at the chance to shower with us, so they walked to the J with us after practice.

“Why wouldn’t we,” asked Maren. “The Go5-slash-LA shower system is great, enjoyable, and it helps with ... interpersonal relationships, bonding, and team building. Speaking of which, do you ... guys do ... more-intimate shower stuff when we’re not there? I mean, it seems to us that ... the shower would ... or could be a place to be ... intimate.”

Rhee asked, “Do you really want to know?”

“Not details. We’re just interested to know ... the ... sorts of things that you do ... differently when we’re not with you.”

“Yes, we do. We use a ... slightly amended buddy-wash system that’s different in only one ... addition.”

Rache took the floor after the shower with all LA members present.

“I’ve been thinking about my original, soccer-oriented LA portrait and decided that I’d like to put it together. I can’t really draw, but here’s what I have in mind.”

With that, she passed around a sheet of paper showing her design. When it came to me after Heather, who was first, I held my hand up to everyone, grabbed my phone, carefully took a photo of the drawing, and then handed my phone to Liya.

“Could you put that photo on the big screen?”

Rache responded, “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. That’ll be a lot easier.”

A couple of minutes later, we were looking at Rache’s suggested design, to which Kim exclaimed, “That looks great. Am I right, Rache, that there are only two clothing items?”

“Yes, and they’re there to contrast with Celeste’s naked boobs: somewhat narrow pink tubes on Brit and Lana, and with a bit of paint on Char. Otherwise, everyone is completely naked, although none of the naughty bits show ... except for Celeste’s breasts. Would you mind that, Celeste?”

“Not at all, even though they’re right up front and center.”

Rache asked, “Civ, Maren, what do you think your parents would think?”

Civ replied, “Emma would certainly be fine with it. I’m less certain about my parents. I’m not sure what they’d think about Celeste, but they might object to nearly all of us being entirely naked. Of course, you’ve also got Maren and me on the ends and seated, which would make Brett seeing us less probable.”

Maren immediately added, “But, with our agreement with Brett about butts, we could come into the photo from behind once everyone else is set. Obviously, we’d see Brett’s butt if we were waiting behind everyone, but that’s also covered by our agreement. I think this looks like a lot of fun, so, please, can we do it? The first portrait was so much fun, and this one looks even more interesting. Civ and I were going to talk to our parents about butts maybe next week depending on when the first portraits are handed out, but that discussion virtually requires them already knowing about the ... sex in the LA.”

Those two girls are getting adept at dropping silence bombs. I was glad when Celeste took that bull by the horns.

“How about today? Could Beth and I invite ourselves to dinner? We could bring something to stretch whatever they’ve made.”

Civia immediately called Kalina and got permission to bring us with them and also got her mom to invite Emma.

“Mom asked if we could bring a salad.”

Katie told us that she and others would put the salad together while Celeste and I ... and Lana dressed; Brett and the young girls were already dressed, of course, as Rache would soon be taking Liya, Char, Lana, and Brett to the Jacobs residence. Celeste and I were ready to go in time for us to add a bit of our effort to the salad-making, and then she drove the four of us to the Palecek house where we received a warm welcome.

Kalina stated, “We just haven’t gotten around to putting together nights to invite some of the ... clan for dinner. Fortunately, we do now have a larger table, so we won’t have to be bumping elbows during dinner.”

I smiled at her and said, “We’re used to that, so it wouldn’t have bugged us girls.”

She grinned at me and added, “Well, of course, it doesn’t matter what the children think, it’s the adults that are important,” after which she rolled her eyes to show she was being humorous in the vein of my statement.

Emma walked in the door shortly thereafter and we sat to a dinner of cabbage rolls, mashed potatoes, and salad. As usual, when any portion of the expanded Williams clan is involved, dinner conversation was lively and enjoyable. As dinner came to an end, however, my gastrointestinal Lepidoptera began flitting about.

After we were seated around the living room, Celeste grabbed this bull’s horns, saying, “We wanted to visit today in order to inform you of something you three should know. While we ... more-permanent J residents are comfortable with how we live, and your two daughters are also, they and we think it’s time that we let you know something that ... we hope ... doesn’t cause you to curtail or rescind Civia’s and Maren’s time with us. The LA ... except for your two daughters ... are all sexually involved with each other.”

In my quick glance at the three parents, I saw the Paleceks’ eyebrows rise, but the corners of Emma’s mouth turned up slightly, as well there seemed to be something of a twinkle in her eye. I stared at her, which had her turn her palms up at me, raise her eyebrows at me, and shrug. The movement caught Kalina’s attention, and her focus switched from us to Emma.

“So, Emma was right.”

I turned back to Emma and asked, “You knew?”

“No, but you’ve given out various little hints over the months. As well, a sexual relationship at the center of the LA helped explain how close you all are. I was a girl once ... and while I’ve seen some close-knit sets of girls, usually that’s two or three girls, I’ve never seen such a large array of girls of an incredible variety of ages that are so obviously so close to each other. A ... communal sexual relationship made more sense to me than anything else I could figure.”

I asked, “Do I take your ... words and ... seeming ease at our revelation to indicate a ... relatively accepting attitude? I’ve got to tell you, we’d be incredibly grateful for that ... on numerous fronts.”

Kalina turned her head to Civia and asked, “How long have you known?”

“They told us during that sleepover in April, the first one we’d had in a while. We’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you since, although we weren’t sure that it was our ... story to tell.” Civ held her hand up at Kalina and added, “We could imagine that ... knowledge could impact our parents’ acceptance of us spending time there, so we’ve been reluctant to bring it up. Mom, Dad, if anything, we want to be there even more, as the girls have shown us in ... as serious a fashion as I can imagine that they value us, they value us being with them. If they didn’t, they could have kept the secret, but they didn’t. They love us, even though Maren and I are not at all involved in ... that part of the LA.”

Celeste and I managed to keep from talking, waiting for other reactions. Jeff and Kalina looked at each other, and she pointed her chin at him, so he turned to us.

“It’s probably a good thing that Emma had expressed her ... thoughts about that. I mean that she suggested the possibility of a sexual relationship, as it got us considering the possibility and thinking about how we’d respond to such. While Emma’s idea seemed to have some merit from what we’ve seen of you girls, it seemed ... frankly ... somewhat ridiculous at first. I can’t say that Kalina and I had come to agree with her because we hadn’t, but that was something to which we were ... paying attention and spending some thought. She and I have talked quite a bit with Civia about sex and various aspects surrounding it, such as the problems it can cause and the ... joy of it with the right person. Once Maren and Emma came to enter our lives, the amount of discussion we’ve had with the two girls has increased, partly because of Emma’s supposition about the ... J residents.”

He looked at Celeste and me for a few moments each, then asked, “What’s in the water over there? First, your parents slowly aggregate into a single ... marriage and now there’s the even larger ... relationship of Civia’s best friends.”

Some of the tension in me drained at the calmness in Jeff’s voice and manner, so I gave him a small smile and said, “We’ve wondered that very thing.” I breathed deeply as surreptitiously as I could and continued, “We girls ... That is, Rhee and I started ... in May ... before we knew about Carol and my parents if that was even a thing at the time; we don’t know, specifically, when their first conversation took place. By mid-July the entire Go5 was involved. We don’t know, not really, how or why, but others of our friends began guessing about us and literally telling us that they wanted in. Since they were very good friends, some of whom we loved as friends, we found it ... relatively easy to expand our ... relationship to include them and that ... process ... seems to be ongoing, as Katie’s only recently joined us and... [I breathed deeply again] ... Rache may join us.

“We truly don’t understand why so many of our friends have wanted into what the Go5 started, but not only can’t we find it in ourselves to refuse them, we don’t want to refuse them. We kept this from Civia until last month, and that was not the easiest thing to do. That daughter of yours is incredibly bright and doesn’t need a lot of hints to figure out a puzzle. However, after we twice turned your girls down from visiting us, we decided that we had to come up with a better way to deal with this and that only better way was to come clean with them. We still keep them away from it, even on the weekends when everyone is there.”

As Celeste, the young girls, and I had discussed on the way over, Celeste immediately took up the explanation with, “You know the story of how I became associated with the Williams family. As our regular Thursday dinners became more ... As I spent more time with the family and, particularly with the Go5, I came to like them more and more. They gave me ... something of a second chance at the ... time I should have had in high school, something that I mostly wasted. As those dinners continued, I realized that I was developing some strong feelings for ... the entire family, but particularly for the girls. They were really fun, incredibly bright, and quite mature, much more so than I was at their age. When the Jacobsens moved away, Sandy and Charlie told me that they suddenly would have a lot more space and invited me to live there, as they knew about both my problems with living on campus and my ... financial ... concern about school. So, I moved into the J in January and spent even more time with the girls and found myself falling in love with them.”

She shrugged, and then added, “Andy was an existing friend who lived in the same on-campus building I did and with whom I was occasionally ... intimate. When I told her that the Williams parents offered a place to her, too, she jumped at it. She began spending time with the girls and quickly caught up with me in her feelings for them. As you know, she’s so committed that she’s in the process of applying for citizenship so she can stay here after she graduates. “The senior girls have their own story that’s both similar to and quite different from mine. It’s their story to tell, but they’ve essentially gone through the same process with the Go5 that I did. Those girls are ... simply ... amazing, particularly given that they’re only high-school freshmen.

“Something you need to understand is that nearly all of us older girls, perhaps all of us, would be involved with these girls even if Brett were not involved. The girls are why I’m involved, but Brett is a ... wonderful addition, despite, like the girls, that he’s a freshman. We cannot see the future, but all 15 of us are committed to this relationship. We fully understand how difficult it will be to keep everyone together, but we work very hard at doing just that.

“Assuming that I continue my success at the university, I’ll get my BS next spring. Since I’m hoping to continue here for graduate work, I won’t be leaving Elkton anytime soon. While Andy doesn’t know her future after graduation next year, she’s committed to doing whatever she must to stay with us. The seniors are all going to the university here come fall, so our first real test, assuming we’re all still together at the time, is when the freshmen graduate from high school in three years. Until then, we hope and plan to keep us together.

“Finally, Kalina, Jeff, and Emma, all of us at least like your daughters very much, and, despite the great age discrepancy, they not only fit with our freshmen but also with the older girls among us. We’re not encouraging them to join our very weird, but very wonderful love affair. We greatly enjoy spending time with them at the J and elsewhere and hope that they can continue to spend significant time with us.”

That was our explanation, so Celeste and I awaited their response. Fortunately, it was not a long time in coming.

Kalina stated, “Given the trouble and ... words you went through to explain, it behooves us to consider the ... situation carefully and not give you our ... response immediately. Even though you stressed how much you care for our girls, we’ll require some time to think about this and discuss it among us, particularly Jeff and I. However, we would like to ask all of you, you girls and our girls, that you at least maintain the status quo regarding the various relationships. We appreciate that the older girls have spent some effort keeping our girls away from the sexual relationship. We do not believe that they should be ... sheltered from discussions about nor from partaking in such, but we’d greatly appreciate them not just diving into sex as soon as the opportunity comes to them.”

She glanced around the room, then continued, “Jeff and I have told you a bit about our ... sexual history, at least enough to let you know that neither of us was entirely without some experience, even at Maren’s age. While I tell you that, I still stand by my assertion that if they were going to ... experiment at a relatively young age, doing so with a friend or friends among the LA would be better than all other options I can imagine. I’m not saying that we would condone such, just that our girls would be considerably safer there than anywhere else Jeff and I can imagine, and that’s due to your obvious care and love for our daughters. They’ve both benefited greatly from the friendships with you girls, and we would prefer that relationship to continue ... with or without some possible future sexual relationship. Thanks, very much, Beth and Celeste, for volunteering what you’ve told us, rather than having us find out about it because we stumbled across it on our own. May I ask what part our girls played in you coming here tonight?”

I replied, “They suggested it, which shows both how well they know you and how much they want to be with us ... as friends. They wanted to negate the very possibility you mentioned about stumbling across us, so to speak. It’s something we’ve discussed a few times earlier, but they thought that now was as good a time as any.”

We gabbed about other things for a while but then begged off so we could get schoolwork done, arriving at the J shortly before 7:30. Both of us stripped, grabbed books, explained how it went at the Paleceks, and set to studying.

May 16, 2018 (Wednesday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

Practice was a bit grueling, as Meka assigned us extra laps and we ran a hectic scrimmage. Some of the Argon lineup members are becoming somewhat comfortable in the Krypton lineup, particularly Lissa. Coach had her and me trade for each other in the lineups. Krypton “won” 4-2.

Lissa exclaimed, “Okay, that’s incredible! That front line knows where and when to cut; how to delay for another member to get in position; and, of course, what to do with the ball when they get it. Oh, Mia, Tonda, and Padme are quite good, but it’s obvious they don’t have quite the experience or ... I don’t know. I think we need a good show-and-tell session. Coach, sometime soon, could we have an O vs. D session in which the K-lineup front line could critique our efforts?”

“That sounds like a good idea. Argon front line, do you agree?”

Mia, as the only senior on that line, responded, “Yes. I learned a lot from Rhee and Beth over the past two years, but I know there are at least a few things I don’t have solid in my own mind. Even Civia’s a better left wing than I am.”

Civia replied immediately, “I disagree, at least somewhat. You have some skills that I don’t, including your magic cloaking device. You’re also better at crossing with your left foot.”

Coach responded, “I agree with Civia. While she has the best shooting skills I’ve ever seen on a girl so young, she has come nowhere near mastering the sport. Also, while I’ve seen her go missing, she is not as proficient at that skill as you are, Mia. In fact, I’ve seen few girls in this age group master that quite like you have.”

Mia stared at Coach for a bit, then said, “Thanks, Coach.”

“All right,” Coach continued. “It’s Krypton’s turn to start tomorrow, and we’ll have a long day, as it’s quite a ride to Rattlesnake Springs, that team being the first of our six non-league opponents. We’ve been playing the bottom teams of our league so far, so don’t be complacent tomorrow. None ... I repeat... none of our non-league opponents are anything like pushovers. Rattlesnake didn’t make it out of regionals last year, but from what I’ve been able to determine, they lost no critical players from last year’s team, so should be even stronger. Bear down, stay focused, play our game. Depending on how things go, I may or may not substitute, except for one situation. Argon, during the first half, stay focused on the game. Let me know if you see anything we might exploit and definitely let me know if someone on Krypton seems to be faltering or gets winded. Crewe, you’ll get in the game in both halves. Before you go in, pay attention to how and what their O is doing. If you see anything interesting, don’t hesitate to bring it to me, even if you think there’s no way I would have missed it. Got it?”