Chapter 26

FRIDAY, the school was buzzing. The day started with assembly so the teams would hear the school cheering for them before they left. One fan bus would leave right after school was out. The cheerleaders had decided to travel with the fans for this game to keep the spirit up.

Dennis was in the locker room at 1:35. He took up his position in the second locker row so he wouldn’t offend any of the new players. He was surprised, though at the state of undress the new players were in when they came to him for tape. Laura and Shelby both shocked him by showing up topless and sitting in front of him.

“Wow! Um ... I never thought I’d see this!” Dennis said when Shelby sat down. All she was wearing were her game panties.

“Seeing is all you get to do, but it’s too much fun to tease you a little.” She pinched her nipples casually as he taped her ankles. When he looked up, her nipples were hard points sitting atop puffy cones. Shelby had a nice figure and round full breasts, but the areola and nipples made cones sticking out from the roundness. Dennis couldn’t help running his hands up her calves and giving them a little squeeze when he was finished.

“You’re all set,” he said.

“I might travel all the way to the Cardinals with my hand in my panties,” she giggled. Dennis sighed, thinking he wouldn’t mind traveling all the way to the Cardinals with his hand in her panties.

By 2:30, the team was on the bus and headed south.

The game was intense through the first quarter with the teams going back and forth with the lead. They were carefully measuring each other to see where the weaknesses were. The big guard facing Natalie soon found out she wasn’t fast enough to steal the ball. Natalie drove to the inside and scored from the foul line twice on her. Bartley led the first quarter 18-14. In the second quarter, the Angelines broke away from the Cardinals.

Unable to stop Natalie’s relentless driving, the Cardinals first made the mistake of double-teaming her. They saw the futility of that when Daniella popped two three-pointers from the corner. Then they started getting pushy and fouled Natalie. Natalie sank her free throws. They didn’t expect a guard to run for the backboard, but Natalie grabbed rebounds as often as her taller sisters. These inevitably went sailing down court to Amy who capitalized on the open field. At the half, the Angelines had stretched their lead to fourteen points.

Ardith didn’t change strategies for the second half, though she started substituting more frequently. Judith came in and replicated Natalie’s efforts on the boards. Having two guards grabbing rebounds was more than the Cardinals could comprehend. Natalie kept shooting and when she missed, chances were that Judith had the rebound up and in.

Late in the third quarter, when Natalie made her ninth out of ten free throws, Ardith started pulling her starters and putting in the freshmen and sophomores who were new to the team. They ended with an Angeline victory 75-56. Natalie had scored twenty-nine points and had sixteen rebounds. Daniella scored twenty.

The girls took their time in the locker room. The Cardinals had very nice facilities and they took advantage of the showers. Dennis and Lana had the tape off all the girls and had seen a lot of flesh, as they all got dressed in street clothes and headed up to watch the second half of the boys’ game.

The boys were a point behind at the half, 24-25. They came back strong in the second half, though, finally capturing a 56-46 victory. There were a lot of sleepy heads on the long drive home. The cheerleaders switched from the fan bus to the Angelines’ team bus for the return trip. Dennis made sure the tape was off all their legs and that their feet had all been massaged. Realizing the Angelines had already showered and changed, the cheerleaders surreptitiously stripped and changed into street clothes, tossing their uniforms into the laundry bags. They’d worry about showers when they got home.

After Saturday morning chores were done, the crew headed for Ames to go Christmas shopping. They chose Ames instead of Des Moines so they could go to Boone to meet Brenda when her bus arrived. The shopping was almost as good in Boone, but they were out more for the time together than to do serious shopping.

“I say we limit anything we get to two dollars apiece,” Roberta suggested.

“Can we get anything for two dollars?” Dennis asked.

“It could get really expensive if we didn’t put a limit on it. You have twelve girlfriends and we each have a boyfriend and eleven girlfriends,” Rosie said. “It doesn’t take long for that to add up.”

“If we’d planned this with any forethought,” Tori suggested, “we could have pooled our money and bought one thing for each person, being from the group.”

“Wow! That’s a good idea,” Natalie said. “Are we sure we can’t do that anyway?”

“What if we all get something sexy to wear at our Christmas party?” Amy said. “The present would be that each person gets to take the clothes off another.”

“Oh, girl. Who wouldn’t want to take your clothes off you?” Daniella asked. They all stopped at a coffee shop and bought holiday drinks, most having to do with peppermint and chocolate.

“Are we having a Christmas party?” Dennis asked. “We really haven’t done any planning for anything, have we?”

“That’s true enough. School’s out early Wednesday for the break and then Christmas is on Saturday. We have to assume Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are family days,” Leanne said. “Is anyone going out of town?”

“Gransy and I are going to visit my parents on Christmas Eve,” Amy said. “Mom already made it clear that she doesn’t have a place for us to stay the night.”

“That’s harsh,” Debbie said.

“Oh, it won’t be too bad. Gransy said she’d make an excuse for us to leave fairly early and Brenda promised to be under my Christmas tree when I get home.”

“That doesn’t sound comfortable,” Natalie laughed.

“Oh, it’s not really bad. My Christmas tree is sewn into the coverlet on my bed. We won’t have an actual tree.”

“Wow! A Christmas tree. I’m so far behind. I should get a tree so Peg will have something to decorate. We had a little artificial tree last year that looked pretty Peanuts, you know?” Dennis said.

“I like Amy’s idea,” Judith said. “Let’s go pick something sexy out for each of us. We can either unwrap the present at our party or we can unwrap each other. Or both.”

“Which brings us back to party,” Tori said. “I volunteer the barn.”

“Will it be warm enough?”

“I haven’t actually tested it yet, but Dad says he’s added a couple more heat lamps so we can do workout videos in cold weather. You wouldn’t believe it, but I saw him and Mom following one of the videos last weekend. They’re trying to get in shape!”

“That’s great, Tori! My mom and Peg have been working out, too,” Dennis said. “And the cheerleaders wanted to know if we’d do any taping over the break. I was hoping to figure out a few new routines for when we get back to school.”

“Let’s do it,” Diane said.

“Oh, it was murder!” Brenda said as she got off the bus and fell into Amy’s arms. Then she went around to all her girlfriends and her boyfriend for hugs and kisses. “I only scored eleven points. What was really disheartening, though, is that I was high scorer for our team. They trounced us 83-55!”

It turned out that they were all shopped out and Brenda promised she would have something appropriate to wrap her present in. They ate at a trendy Italian steak house and were all too full to move by the time the meal ended. The owner took a fancy to them and kept bringing out small plates and saying, “Try this!” Which they did. Dennis thought the total bill was way too low for all the food they ate. They pooled their money together and left a generous tip.

What Peg would sing on the fourth Sunday of Advent had not been announced. But people began filling the pews at Trinity Lutheran half an hour before the start of the service. They crowded in. All children and some adults were sitting on the laps of others. Dennis held Lana in his lap and Amy held Brenda. Most of his girlfriends were pretty tall, so they gathered smaller friends to join them. And still, the church was over packed. An air of expectancy fell over the congregation as Pastor Donnelly signaled for them to stand for the first hymn.

Peg’s voice was certainly part of the singing, but for the first half hour of the service the congregation and choir all sang together.

“I know that this sanctuary is filled with people who await the voice of an angel, so I will keep my remarks brief this morning and ask that you meditate on the concept of expectation and awaiting. We have all experienced this in one way or another and this morning’s service is a lesson in waiting.”

Pastor Donnelly was true to his word and spoke for only ten minutes as anticipation grew in the sanctuary. When he called everyone to prayer, silently asking God to come unto them, the church became very quiet. Into this silence, a simple piano background played, which many thought was familiar but none could name until Peg’s crystal voice crept into their consciousness.

Ave Maria
Gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena

The Latin words were understandable to many people in the congregation who had taken Latin at Bartley High School. But it was not necessary to understand the precise meanings to be moved by the voice that carried them. By the time the last tones died out, there was not a dry eye in the congregation. Nor did anyone applaud as had become a custom when Peg sang. They were too moved by the music to put their hands together. Then one person and another lifted their hands in the air and silently acknowledged the gift they had received.

The entire service was a little shorter than the accustomed hour, but the crowd hung around outside for longer than the cold weather normally would have allowed. Dennis and his girlfriends all stayed in their pews until Peg had removed her choir robe and came out to meet them.

“Sisters!” she squealed, happily running to embrace each of the girls.

“When did you learn that song?” Dennis asked.

“On the radio. It’s a Jesus song,” Peg answered.

“Your coach came in a couple of times this week to help with pronunciation of a couple words Peg was stumbling over,” Mrs. Thompson said as she approached. “But Peg brought this to me and even though it isn’t part of the normal Lutheran liturgy, Pastor Donnelly approved it.”

“It was so wonderful!” Natalie said. “I love your singing, sister.” The crew met Dot and they all walked out of the church together.