Chapter 22

NATALIE, DANIELLA, AND ROBERTA joined Dennis for the night. Leanne was sad that she had to go home, but the four walked her to her door and all gave her a long and heartfelt kiss goodnight.

“I’m going to rub myself raw tonight, thinking about what you three will be doing,” she sighed. “I know I’m not there yet, but imagining it just makes my juices flow.”

“Don’t worry, sweetie. When you’re ready, we’ll all make sure your juices are flowing,” Natalie said. She dove back in for another kiss with her girlfriend, then Leanne went into her house and the quartet crossed the street to Dennis’s house. Dot was asleep in her chair and only stirred slightly when Dennis kissed her on the cheek.

“Did you get all charged up over the auditions tonight?” Roberta asked as soon as they were alone in his room. “Lana made sure she was paired up with as many of us as possible during the game. She wasn’t overtly sexual, but she wanted to cuddle with each of us.”

“I think it was the first time Debbie had kissed a girl,” Natalie said. “But she had so much desire in it that I couldn’t help but hold her and keep kissing her.”

“That might have only been her second kiss with boy or girl,” Dennis said. “She’s not as experienced as everyone thinks. I don’t know how she got that reputation.”

“You’re probably right,” Nat said. “It started in seventh grade when she decided to go all goth and emo girl. It was such a change from the bubbly blonde she’d been the year before that people just started talking about ‘the crowd’ she ran with. I talked with her for a while tonight. You know, she’s still upset about the last party at her house. But one of the things she mentioned was that when she decided to join the track team, it was because she’d finally decided not to let her stepmother ruin her life any longer.”

“Is she in danger of being abused?” Dennis asked.

“That’s what I thought she meant, but she said it was all her own doing. She didn’t want her dad to remarry and becoming the slutty goth girl was her way of cutting her stepmother out of her life.”

“Gosh, that’s too bad,” Daniella said. “On the other hand, Tori had definitely kissed before and didn’t really mind if it was a boy or a girl who was exercising her mouth. Did she let you see her boobs again, Dennis?”

“Um ... Not exactly.”

“How not exactly?” Roberta asked.

“She kind of used the Braille method. You know I hate to talk about what I do with any other girl, but ... Damn! Her tits felt good!” Dennis declared. The girls started laughing. “But I’m not saving number eleven for her. She wants to play and made sure I knew what she meant, but I don’t think she really wants to be a girlfriend. She’s really a free spirit.”

“I’m not opposed to playing with her,” Daniella said. “And I don’t think she cares much if it’s a boy or a girl making out with her. She’s one fast girl.”

“She sure has been anchoring the races. 400-meter, sprint medley, 4x400-meter relay. I think Coach might be thinking of having her replace Janice in the 4x800-meter relay,” Dennis said. “Janice really wants to run longer distances. She’ll be great at cross country.”

“Did you know she ran a half-marathon last summer? And she was only fourteen. She won’t turn fifteen until August,” Roberta said.

“That makes her like one of the youngest freshmen in school, doesn’t it?” Natalie asked. “She’s going to be great next year.”

“Look what I found!” Daniella said. She had Dennis’s cock out and wrapped her hand around it. “I think talking about Tori got him hot and bothered!”

“Daniella, you did that, not Tori. You know how I love to be touched by you,” he said.

“Feeling’s mutual, so how about some mutual touching.” Talk about the auditioning girlfriends was suspended as the four managed to get the clothes off each other and roll into bed.

It was always fun to have Natalie, Roberta, and Daniella in the house on Sunday morning as they planned the dinner menu for the coming week. When Leanne and Rosie joined them, it was a near riot. But six of them wouldn’t fit in the car for grocery shopping, so Dennis volunteered to stay home and play with Peg. They were outside shooting hoops when Lana and her siblings came into the back yard to join them. They were all dressed for church, but that didn’t stop the younger kids from joining Peg as she shot baskets.

“Wow, that was some party last night,” Lana said as they sat on the swing.

“It wasn’t too much for you, was it?” Dennis asked. “I think the girls were all a little over the top.”

“Oh, there were half a dozen of us who weren’t ready for that kind of playtime, you know? We hung out and mostly didn’t get involved. You’re the only one I hid with.”

“That was really nice, Lana. Anytime you just need a hug, I’m here,” Dennis said. She reached over and took his hand in hers.

“Or if I need a hand to hold?” she asked. He gave her hand a little squeeze. “I hope that by the time I’m really ready for something more, you’re still available to give it to me.”

“Are you a girlfriend?” Peg demanded when she saw Lana holding Dennis’s hand. Dennis held on to keep her from quickly withdrawing her hand.

“She is,” he said. “Lana is Number Ten.”

“Oh, goody! That means you’ll be my sister, too. And if you’re my sister, then Nils and Sophie can be my sisters!”

“I’m a brother,” Nils objected.

“Oh.” Peg seemed disappointed for a second and then brightened up. “My sisters and my brothers!”

There was chaos in the house as the girlfriends came in with groceries and Dot and Elsa tried to get Sunday dinner on the table.

Everyone was excited on Monday for the Marysville Invitational Meet. It would be an eight-way meet and the last one before the State Qualifier at Traynor on Saturday. It was sixty miles from Bartley to Marysville, so the bus was slated to leave right after school.

And then, as the fantasy stories would say, the dragons came. Not long after lunch, people started running to the restrooms. The janitor was going crazy, cleaning up vomit in the hallways. The school stank to high heaven. Nearly half the girls’ track team was affected by what turned out to have been some undercooked chicken in the school lunch. Those who had eaten the cafeteria lunch were almost uniformly affected by the outbreak, including Dennis and several of the girls on the team.

Those who were well enough got on the bus and left the school. EMTs were called upon to help the two school nurses cope with the disaster. Bottles of water were brought from the grocery store and everyone remaining in the school started drinking as much fluid as they could. In some instances, that simply caused more vomiting, but in general, it helped. The sudden onset of the symptoms was unusual, but also meant that the stomach and bowels of nearly everyone affected were cleared within two hours. Parents arrived to take their children to doctors or just to take them home. Four students were loaded into medical transport and rushed to the hospital in Des Moines. Several showed up with parents at different regional clinics.

“Oh, God! I feel like someone turned my insides out,” Dennis moaned. Dot took him home and administered the anti-diarrheal the nurses had given out, though all agreed the best treatment was rest and fluids.

At Marysville, the team was a shambles as Ardith worked quickly on reorganizing who was running what. There were simply some events Bartley would not be able to field. Amy ran in the 100-meter but failed to place. Becky made a surprise showing of fifth in the 200-meter. In the 400-meter, things looked up as Tori placed first and Debbie second. No one placed in the 800-meter and Ardith withdrew the team from the 4x800 relay. Laura and Leah were out completely. Emily and Janice ran the 1500, but neither placed. Janice, as the only Angeline runner in the 3000, placed fifth. Hurdles was a no-go as all three Armors were still at school throwing up. Ardith consulted with her team and they jointly decided to focus their efforts on the 4x100 and distance medley races. They just didn’t have the people to make a good showing in either the 4x200 or 4x400, though Lana came away from the high jump after missing the first height and ran with the two relay teams.

Surprisingly, Amy and Tori led the 4x100 relay team to a victory, but Tori suddenly emptied her stomach in a trash can just before the start of the 4x400 and the team barely limped home from the final event.

Though no jumpers placed, despite ridiculously low standards, Corrine placed second in the shot put. Denise stepped in for ailing Rita and threw twenty-nine feet for fifth place. Then she turned around and heaved the discus 100’6” to capture first in that event.

In addition to Tori, two other teammates came down with symptoms on the drive back and twice the driver simply pulled to the side of the road to let them out for an emergency evacuation of the bowels. Ardith was on her cellphone all the way back to Bartley to get parents to pick up their daughters at school. In all, it was a disastrous day.

A third of the student body was out on Tuesday, postponing several final exams that would be held on Friday, the last day of the semester. The cafeteria had been closed by the state health department. Several families had pulled their kids from school altogether. Most of the seniors cut classes for the week, so there were few people in the halls.

Wednesday, things gradually got back to normal and weary students took abbreviated tests for their final exams. Seldom had people so looked forward to the last day of school.