Chapter 4: Acceptance

The first days of Summer Break passed in a whirlwind with Lisa Monroe being the eye of the storm. She and Irina took him shopping to complete his wardrobe and to find a number of gadgets that Lisa felt were necessary for a kid his age. She also took him to eat in restaurants and taught him the rudiments of etiquette.

Danny saw his father on the following Sunday. They had dinner about town. He made sure to give Danny a chunk of cash for the Swiss vacation and a credit card for emergencies. He also prepared Danny for their coming out at the end of the summer. The Westbrooks would retreat to their new beach house near Kitty Hawk, and Danny would meet Marsha Westbrook and his half-sister Ashley. Depending on their reaction, Danny would join the family for good. Or not.

On the following Tuesday, Danny boarded a flight to Bern, Switzerland, via Washington Dulles and Frankfurt, Germany. He had never been inside an airplane before and the entire journey was exciting and very confusing. While he found his way through Dulles International without major problems, Frankfurt was quite the maze of terminals. Some friendly Lufthansa flight attendant took pity on him and steered him to the right terminal for his connecting flight.

The plane for the flight to Bern was a tiny, four-engine AVRO RJ85. There was barely time for the staff to serve them a Danish pastry before the plane landed again. To Danny’s relief he found a man holding up a sign reading “Haus Rütli Summer Camp“ when he left customs. He was shown to a small bus outside where twelve students were already waiting. An hour later, three more young people climbed into the bus and the driver activated the intercom. “Welcome to Switzerland! We will now drive you to Haus Rütli. The drive will take two hours. There are Coca Cola and Sprite in the fridge, and we have cheese sandwiches.”

Danny already knew that only three of the fifteen youngsters were from the US and those were all senior to Danny. There were six in his own age group — two Spanish guys, an Italian girl from Modena, twin sisters from Turku, Finland, and a weird dude wearing an English public school uniform. The two Spaniards were shy and obviously from sheltered upbringing. The Italian girl was very much in love with her own reflection in the bus window while she talked incessantly into her very hip smartphone.

That left Danny and the Finnish twins. Lea and Rita Rautilaina were down-to-earth girls and spoke almost perfect English. They also spoke German and French, Danny found out. They had been born in Berkeley where their parents, both biomedical researchers, had worked as post-docs. They seemingly found Danny as interesting as he found them and by the end of the bus ride they were chatting like old friends.

It was almost ten p.m. when they arrived at the large farmhouse above a small town named Lenk. The huge barn had been converted into sleeping quarters with four students to a room, communal showers and a common room. Being a late arrival, Danny had to take the lower bunk in a room he shared with three older teenagers. Again, the group was international with a Russian from St. Petersburg, a Pole from Gdansk and an Arab guy who barely spoke a word. The Russian, Anatoli, was very disappointed that Danny had no Russian at all in spite of his Russian last name, but he was the most outgoing in the group. He had been to Haus Rütli the year before, and he told Danny what to expect.

Danny slept like a log in that first night. Anatoli told him that this was owed to the elevation. The house was located at over 4,000 feet above sea level and the thinner mountain air made for a good night’s sleep. The wake-up call came at 06:30 and by 07:00 they were expected at breakfast. Danny managed to get Lea and Rita to sit at their table and his reputation with his roommates went up accordingly.

After breakfast they stayed in the dining room. A Herr Meininger introduced the house, the staff and the rules. He stuck to English for his instruction, as most students were more or less proficient in it. The man had the longest beard Danny had ever seen; almost Gandalf style. He was small and stocky but full of energy. When he was through the intro, he had each student give a brief synopsis of their biography. Danny gave a very brief account of his background, unwilling to discuss his parents at all. Others were more forthcoming and still others bragged openly about their parents’ perceived status.

Like Danny, Anatoli had also been brief and when they were sent to their rooms to dress for the first short hike, he fell in beside Danny.

“You didn’t say much, huh?”

“Naw, I don’t feel like sharing my innermost thoughts,” Danny grinned back.

“Same here,” Anatoli agreed. “Too much gossip here anyway.”

“I figured that it’s nobody’s business.”

The hike lasted only two hours, one uphill and one down, giving them an idea of the surrounding land. Lea and Rita gravitated to where Danny and Anatoli were walking, and they stayed together.

After lunch — pasta with molten cheese or Käse-Spätzli — they had an hour of free time before they received an introduction into the flora and fauna of the Bernese Alps. Following that, the students were split up in groups for elective activities. Danny followed his inclination by taking a carpentry class with an old master carpenter who looked like Methuselah. Under his direction, they took down a section of fir wood siding from the converted barn for replacement. Danny spent the remainder of the afternoon nailing fresh boards to the wall while a grinning Lea impregnated the boards with a linseed oil varnish. Her sister Rita had opted for the beekeeping class and at dinner she could show two stings for her troubles.

Working the whole day in the fresh mountain air, Danny again slept like a log and he attacked the breakfast on the next morning like a starved wolf. Another hike that morning — this time a little longer — again was followed by crafts classes. Danny stayed with the carpentering class and he learned how to work with hammer and beveled-edge chisel to gouge a feeding trough from a log.

The first days set the pattern for the four weeks. After the second week, the staff switched them to full-day outings alternating with full-day crafts classes. They took the narrow-gauge railroad up to the Jungfrau glacier where they spent two hours sledding in the middle of summer. They explored an underground waterfall and they hiked up to almost 9,000 feet to the peak of the Schilthorn Mountain. While most of the students preferred to take a cable car for the last 1,200 feet, Danny and some others took the steep incline under their feet. It was exhilarating to tread higher and higher, already past the tree line and even other mountain tops, until they reached the summit. Lea and Rita had easily kept up with Danny as their parents had taken them on trekking tours since they turned into teens.

To everybody’s surprise, the Italian princess from the bus, Lucia, had also taken the footpath, and she had attacked the incline like a mountain goat on steroids. Anatoli had made it a point to shadow her and he was drenched in sweat at the summit. For once Lucia registered the people around her and she even joined the banter with the ones who had taken the cable car.

The entire group then took the cable car down into the Lauterbrunnen Valley where their bus was already waiting. Danny and Anatoli, with Lea, Rita, and Lucia stuck together for the bus ride. They found out that Lucia was not snooty at all, only shy. Checking her reflection reflected her own insecurity more than anything else. Once she got over that she thawed considerably and Anatoli could not get enough staring at her. Lea and Rita were amused by that, and Danny joined in the banter.

When they arrived back at the farmhouse, they quickly showered and then hung out until supper. That evening the five friends went for a stroll. Once out of sight from the farmhouse, Anatoli and Lucia stayed a little bit behind, clearly wanting to be by themselves. Danny wanted to comment on this when he suddenly felt a hand in his right hand. It had to be Lea and she smiled at him. Then Rita’s hand took his left. She, too, smiled at him.

Thus the three teenagers walked hand in hand for a while, content with the feeling of closeness. Danny’s mouth was a little dry and they did not talk at all as if afraid that any world might break the spell. Finally, Lea found the courage to speak up.

“Have you ever kissed a girl, Danny?”

Danny blushed three shades of red and nodded. “Theresa Salazar kissed me this spring. She’s ... she was our neighbor’s daughter.”

“Is she dead?” Rita gasped.

“N-no! She’s not ... I don’t live there anymore.”

“Oh, you moved. Did you two do more than kissing?” Lea kept pressing.

“No,” Danny said with a blush.

“So you’re cherry,” Lea stated. “Same as us.”

“Lea!” Rita scolded her sister.

“What? It’s true.” She turned to Danny. “But you know how, don’t you?”

Danny shrugged. “I guess. I’ve seen stuff on the ‘net.”

Rita snuggled close. “Danny, would you ... I mean, would you like to do it with ... you know ... real girls? Us?”

Danny’s eyes bugged. “You serious?”

Lea giggled a little over his reaction. “Yeah. We want to find out what it’s all about. You’re cute and a nice guy. We’d like to find it out with you.”

“H-how? Where?”

“Don’t you know? We have a room to ourselves, all the way at the rear end of the hallway. When? How about an hour after lights-out? I’ll go visit the girl’s bathroom. You meet me there and we go to our room together. You know, walk in step, so nobody can hear the difference. Did you bring condoms?”

Blushing again, Danny nodded. Lisa Monroe had given him the box admonishing him to be safe, not sorry.

“Great! We brought some, too. Mom said not to be stupid,” Lea giggled.

“It’s a date then,” Rita said with finality.

“What happens if we get caught?”

“We’ll be sent home with smiles on our faces,” Lea grinned. “Seriously, what can they do? You’re our age, even a few weeks younger. They’ll probably hush it up. If they call our parents they’ll be cool. Think your father will blow a fuse?”

That brought a grin to Danny’s face. “He’s not in a good position for that.”

It was one thing to talk about it, but Danny felt his heart beat in his throat when he made his way out of the room and along the hallway towards the boys’ bathroom. The floorboards creaked softly under his bare feet. He reached the bathroom and realized that he was early. Making the best of it, he used the toilet and washed his limp dick under the cold water of the hand wash basin. Then he heard the soft footsteps outside and the sound of the girls’ bathroom door opening and closing.

When Lea exited the bathroom, he could see her happy smile across the hallway in the dim safety light. Synchronizing his steps with hers he followed her to their bedroom. The room was dark, but he was pulled in and felt hugged from both sides. He could smell the girls’ hair and his arm went around their backs almost automatically. That was when he realized that one of them — Rita? — was naked!

The realization that he was holding a naked girl in his arm made his dick fill out immediately. A hand brushed over the front of his pajama pants and the naked girl in his arm gasped.

“Am I doing this to you?” she whispered with awe.

His mouth dry, he could only nod, but she must have sensed the movement.

“Cool! Kiss me?”

Rita’s lips were soft and tasted of spearmint. Danny took his time to explore them and he let his tongue slip into her mouth. Her little tongue responded and danced around his while her breathing became stronger.

“Me now!” Lea whined and Danny felt what had to be a smile on Rita’s lips.

Lea plastered herself against his front and he turned to find her lips. At the first contact, her tongue wiggled into his mouth. He felt her pussy rub against his thigh and she whimpered into his mouth. Now, Rita’s hand found its way into Danny’s pants and he felt himself in her soft grip.

“God, it’s huge!” she whispered excitedly.

“Lemme feel!” Lea whispered back and a second hand closed around his shaft.

Not to be outdone, Danny let his hands wander down the girls’ backs. Their asses were firm and round and when he let his fingers slip between their legs he felt wetness.

“Yess!” Lea hissed into his mouth.

“My turn!” Rita demanded, replacing her sister’s mouth on Danny’s lips.

Lea disengaged herself for a brief moment and pulled his pants down. Then he heard the rustle of fabric and when she pressed against his thigh again, he felt naked pussy on his skin.

Things became blurry after that and Danny lost his ability to tell the twins apart. He was on his back on the lower bunk bed and one of the girls rolled a condom over his dick with surprising expertise. He was worried about breaking hymens and bleeding, but there was only tightness, no resistance, when a pussy slowly engulfed his erection. It was an excruciating five minutes before he was fully seated in his partner.

“It’s me, Lea,” she whispered when she finally bottomed out. “God, I’m so full!”

“Weren’t you...” he started to ask, but a voice to his left already answered.

“We had them removed by a doctor last year. Mom said it hurt her too much when she had her first time, so our gynecologist did the job.”

“A-huh!” Danny was able to answer, for an agile sixteen year-old was already starting to ride his tightly encased dick and the friction was barely bearable. “You’re so tight, Lea!”

“I’m ... almost ... bursting!” she panted. “That th-thing is fuh-ucking huge!”

In spite of this assessment, Lea began to ride him with increasing vigor. On the upstroke, her tight pussy almost pulled the condom off his dick while on the way down, he felt as if he was stuck in a vise. Danny could not last long under this sensory assault. Not five minutes after Lea had mounted him, his hips began to buck uncontrollably.