Chapter 3

Still Jeannie’s turn:

A couple of weeks passed. Mom and Dad okayed me bringing my gang over again for a Saturday afternoon pool party, but I got a bit of kickback from Sara because she wanted us to invite boys.

Dad put his foot down. “No. I’m going to be playing golf and your Mom’s got some social thing. Johnny’s gonna be here and you KNOW what the rules are. Don’t let me find out that somebody broke the rules. You never know who might drop by.”

“Yes, Dad...”

I invited Reena but she turned me down. “My mom and step-dad are going to something and won’t be home till midnight. We have the whole house...” Her eyes lit up. “You could come over and bring John.”

“And exactly what would I get out of THAT?”

“Ranger. He said he thinks you’re cute. And I could have a lot of fun with John.”

“I’ll pass.”

“You’re missin’ out. So, you ‘n John?”

“No way!” And I picture her brother Ranger and he comes off in my mind as somebody who’d be trolling playgrounds.

Pool party’s limited to the carrying capacity of Johnny’s car, so with Reena out, Danielle’s in. Danielle’s a volleyballer, kinda shy away from the court, but a little terror in a game.

Having Johnny in the car stifles some of the conversation, but when we get out at the house, we all dash up to my bedroom.

Danielle spoke up first. “I know why Reena’s not here.”

“Really?” Sara asked.

“Yeah ... Her folks’re gone for the evening. She and Ranger...”

“I heard Ranger’s got buddies coming over...” Emma spat.

“Ewww ... she’s slutted out pretty fast...” Sara said. “I already heard talk about ‘er...”

Emma dropped a big one. “Uh, Jeannie, she wants your brother...”

“Johnny?” I played ignorance.

“Oh, come on! She was all over, grabbing him that last pool party...”

“Well, she didn’t get ‘im then...”

“Johnny’s kinda hot, yaknow,” Sara admitted.

“Ewwww!” I squealed. “He’s my BROTHER!”

Whom several of my friends think is hot, okay? But my BROTHER!

John’s turn:

That whole ‘chaperone the pool party’ thing was interesting.

Yeah, I guess it’s kinda skeezy to be eyeballing your little sister’s friends but fourteen year old girls, well, some mature faster than others and some grow differently than others and hey, I’m a teenaged male anyway, so watching is part of what I do.

And in the pool...

I’d thought about bringing some of my own friends to the party but I determined that if I did that, they’d dilute any chances I might have with the girls. Besides, if one did something with Jeannie, I’d have to try to kill ‘im.

Things? First pool party this year, Jeannie’s friend Reena was all over me, right from the start. I was doing my normal thing, swimming a few laps. She deliberately got in my way, unavoidable, and when I stopped, she moved right up against me and grabbed my dick. No, it wasn’t an accidental touch. Fingers wrapped around me through my trunks.

With Mom and Dad there. And Jeannie and Sara and Emma.

Now being a teen-aged boy, there’s a part of me (yeah THAT part, for sure, but you know what I mean) that says ‘Hooray! Let’s see where this goes!” and it’s already got a list of places it wants to go. The rest of me, though ... NOT in front of Mom and Dad and Jeannie. Nope. Ain’t happening.

So I blurted “Reena!” and backed up and she pulled off a combination of leer and innocence. “oops!”

Wasn’t the only time she ‘oopsed’ me that day.

I had fun, though. Kinda flattering, being the athletic guy in a pool full of playful girls. I made a big game of lifting them out of the water and flipping them over my shoulders. Got ‘oopsed’ by Emma and Sara, too, but neither of them made as much effort as Reena did.

And why was Jeannie frowning at me?

I hauled myself out of the pool, sitting on the rim, legs spread, for a bit of rest. I had no more than landed and arranged myself than Reena made for me like a torpedo. Jeannie saw it. Jeannie was closer, plunged underwater, emerged between my legs, face right at my crotch, and turned just in time for Reena to show up.

There’s a difference between your sister and her curious, somewhat horny friend. The friend might’ve done something I had fantasies about. The sister defended my virtue. Some things I didn’t want defended. Well, maybe not at THAT point in time.

I know I was being defended because I asked Jeannie about her actions as we were driving home after dropping her friends off.

“She’s not the one for you,” Jeannie told me solemnly. “Mom said first times are supposed to be special. You wouldn’t be Reena’s first anything, I don’t think. Is that what you want? Doing it with somebody who thinks it’s like a handshake?”

“No, not really,” I admitted. “Not now, anyway. At the time ... uh, Jeannie, that thing has a way of taking over my whole thinking...”

“Mom told me that guys are like that. So it’s true...”

“Yes, it’s totally true. I know all about right and wrong, but when I get past a certain point, well...”

“And you were at that point today.”

“Completely gone over. When you popped up between my legs, you stopped Reena...”

“She’d’ve bitten you.”

“She could’ve done anything she wanted...”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. And then you’d’ve been just another statistic, number whatever on her list, and she’d be first on yours, and that’s a waste of something I think should be special. I’m your sister. You’re my brother. We have to look out for each other. I have to keep you out of trouble.”

“So any girl that I decide I might...”

“First, shouldn’t be ‘any’ girl. Should be ‘the’ girl. And second, yeah, I know more about girls than you do, so you’d be smart to take my advice. It’s supposed to be special.”

“It’s hard for it to be special when today she’s being ‘special’ with you and tomorrow it’s somebody else...”

“You remember that,” she said.

Talking with Jeannie makes me kind of nervous, sometimes, like I’m a kid and she’s my parent, and that’s weird because I’m two years older than her and I’m supposed to be the mature one.

But then Jeannie’s always been kind of different.

So things continued on. School? I did my normal thing, academic excellence. Nothing keeps parents happy like straight As and no police reports. Pool? Almost daily. First, I’m the pool guy for this family. Second, good exercise. Third, half the time, Mom and Dad are there, if not, me and Jeannie.

She asked for me to toss her into the air. I do that. Hey – exercise, right?

One time, though... “I thought you said you wore your jock under your bathing suit.”

“Sometimes. Usually not. Feels good like this.”

Arched eyebrow. “I’m sure that’s what Reena thought.”

“Jeannie!”

“Okay, won’t talk about your girlfriend.”

“Seems like she’s everybody’s girlfriend these days. Heard something about ‘er in school...”

“See?!? And YOU could’ve been part of the conversation.”

“Yeah. No. Not Reena.”

Reena apparently fell off Jeannie’s pool list. We added Danielle, one of Jeannie’s volleyball crew. One weekend, big deal – the whole volleyball team. Great!

Afterward, though, “They wanted to invite boys...”

“I’m sad. I wasn’t enough.”

“You’re an animal, bro.”

I might be an animal, but I looked at Jeannie beside me and it felt a whole lot better than if I’d tagged one of those nymphettes from the pool.

And other interests. Last grade report before the end of the school year. Dad was proud. Said so.

“Then you’re thinking I should be rewarded?” I asked.

“Yeah ... rewarded. What do you have in mind?”

“Jetski.”

Dad actually laughed at me. “Uh, no. but you do get points for trying. That’s almost twenty thousand bucks...”

“That’s for a new one.”

“And used? Means you get somebody else’s problems. I’m an attorney, not a mechanic.” He grinned. “Try again.”

“Kayak.”

“Elaborate.”

“Two-person. Roof rack for my car. Two sets of paddles. Two life vests. They’re called PFDs.”

“I know that, son.”

“Lime green. I saw one at the sporting goods store.”

“Uh, you do realize that if you get it, your sister’s gonna want to go out with you...”

“I know. I can do that. Just not EVERY time.”

“Understood.”

Jeannie’s turn:

“Mom, can we have a talk?”

“A talk? Or a TALK?” Mom answered, with a dramatic emphasis.

“The second one, I guess.”

“You’re not sure?”

“No, I’m pretty sure.”

“Okay,” Mom said, putting her book down. “What does my terribly bright and beautiful daughter have on her mind?”

“Birds and bees stuff.”

“We’ve had some of those talks already. You can ask me anything.”

“Okay,” I said. “This isn’t about me. It’s about girls I know, and I have questions.”

“Let me top off my coffee,” Mom said, “then we’ll talk.”

We sat across from each other in the breakfast nook. The window there looks out across a corner of the patio to the pool. It’s tranquil.

Unlike my head.

Mom sat down, her smile tempered a bit by wariness. “So what’s got you concerned?”

I took a deep breath. “Mom, some of my friends are having sex...” I caught the obvious question in her eyes. “I’m not.”

“Good to hear. It’s a lot more serious step than a lot of people think.”

“Some of them act like it’s nothing at all,” I sighed. “But getting pregnant ... I don’t know much, and what some of my friends say, well, I don’t think it makes sense.”