Chapter 42

IN ANOTHER BARN out in the country—one usually known for being a safe place to park and make out—a different kind of meeting altogether was in progress Thursday night.

“Your team placed in the meet this afternoon. You broke the agreement.”

“I quit the team. It’s not my fault. Coach went out and recruited other guys. There’s nothing we could do about it.”

“Not my problem. My problem is deciding which of the girls will go first. You think you can quit on this? You need to be taught a lesson. Maybe we should do your girlfriend’s little sister first. God! She’s hot. I can’t wait to get my dick in her. Probably leave her pregnant, too. Or maybe we should start with your little sister.”

Donnie was through thinking. He swung and hit the guy in the gut. His counterpart was bigger than he was, but it felt good to get the first blow in. They were going to find out how well-conditioned he was, even though he was outnumbered. He silently thanked Dennis for that.

It didn’t make a difference. He knew he was going down. He just planned to take as many people with him as he could. He got some good blows in—heard some ribs crack and the satisfying squish of a kid’s balls when he kicked them. He wasn’t trained in martial arts, but the over-the-fence stretch warmup Dennis had them all do made breaking one guy’s nose by kicking him with his heel an easy move. But Donnie was seriously outnumbered and when two guys managed to pin his arms behind his back, the beating he got was unmerciful.

The cheerleaders showed up out at Tori’s farm at one o’clock to record another workout session with Dennis. Olivia and Jayden set up the cameras and checked the lighting, as some of it had been moved since their last workout video. Chris Davis came with her friend Sara and was dressed to work out as well. Dennis took the release from her.

“Welcome, Chris. Are you planning to join the cheerleaders next year?” he asked.

“Maybe. Not today. I just need a brutal workout. I’ll tell you about it when the recording session is over. I don’t want to hold you up,” she said. She was a petite brunette with fiery brown eyes and a shapely figure. She’d come prepared to do the routines as her outfit was the same as Sara’s—tight bun-covering shorts and a regular sports bra. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen his classmate dressed like this. She was a regular at his afternoon workouts. But he hadn’t said a dozen words to her all year.

“Okay. Let’s get rolling. I’d love to get two sessions in this afternoon. We haven’t done any for a few weeks and Olivia is running short of content to post,” Dennis said. Even though he didn’t record during the school workout sessions, he practiced the routines there. All the cheerleaders knew which one they were working on next.

It took an hour to get the first half-hour workout recorded. They’d worked hard and the cheerleaders started stripping to head for the shower stall. Chris looked at Dennis speculatively.

“It’s not required,” he said. “We’ve gotten used to it and shower between sets.”

“And it does nothing for you?” she asked.

“Not like, you know. Unless someone brings it up. I do like boobs,” he said. Chris grinned at him, then pulled her bra off.

“Well, there’s two more for you to fantasize about,” Chris said. She turned away and headed to the shower, pulling her shorts off on the way.

“Nice,” he whispered.

“You’d better catch up. They’ll be done before you get there,” Lana said, tugging at his shirt.

“Yeah. I shouldn’t delay things.” He finished pulling his clothes off and followed the cheerleaders into the shower, taking his turn to hold the spray and to lather. Chris’s boobs weren’t the only part that was nice. But, of course, there were also Sara, Rae, Sharon, Claudia, Donna, and Rebecca. There were a few giggles over the chub he was showing.

The second recording went fairly smoothly and they finished up about four o’clock. Dennis said goodbye and turned to his girlfriends. Tori turned him around to face Chris and Sara, who had come back into the barn.

“Can I talk to you alone, Dennis?” Chris said. So, there was a second agenda to her being here. He nodded and the girlfriends took Sara outside.

“What’s up?”

“Donnie’s in the hospital,” Chris said. “He got beaten up last night. Bad. There’s going to be revenge. Since you were so interested in what’s going on with the track team, I thought you should know.”

“Donnie quit the team,” Dennis said. “He wouldn’t tell me what was going on. I’m sorry he’s hurt. Should I go visit him?”

“No. Somebody else will talk to you. Since you don’t get along with most of the guys, I came to talk to you first so you’d listen.”

“I’m not going to take part in any rumble. We have a decent sheriff now. He’s the one they should talk to,” Dennis said.

“They don’t want you to take part. They want you to stay away. You’ve trained them. I talked to Sharon and it looks like he did some damage, too. He just tried to do it all by himself.”

“What does Sharon have to do with what’s going on? I mean, I know she’s Donnie’s sister. But...”

“You’d think one of the boys would blab, but they’ve been close-mouthed. I just know it has to do with their sisters and girlfriends. Donnie told me that much. That includes me, Jaydyn, Sharon, Rae, Janice, Sara, and maybe all the other girls at school who aren’t your girlfriends. I don’t know. I just know the guys aren’t going to put up with it any longer. Just don’t get in their way.”

“Right. Since I don’t know anything about it, it’s hard to get in the way.”

“You always find a way.”

Dennis didn’t know what to do with the information Chris had given him. This fell in the category of the subject he didn’t want to tell his girlfriends about. Chris had made it sound like they were the only ones who weren’t affected by whatever was going on. There was only one person he felt he could talk to, and after Saturday morning chores were done, he found himself standing outside Coach Ardith’s home. He’d been there a few times to drop Ardith off before she got her car replaced. Today, he’d walked over, taking a circuitous route as if he was on a secret spy mission or was doing something very wrong and didn’t want to be seen. Maybe that was true.

He knocked.

A few seconds later, Ardith opened the door. Dennis stood there with his mouth open. His coach worked out in the afternoons with the team, but in the context, Dennis never really looked at her—or any of the other scantily clad girls if he could help it. He supposed the outfit Ardith was wearing might not meet the dress code he’d helped draft. He was pretty sure there was more skin showing than was allowed there.

“Dennis? What’s up?”

“Um ... Coach ... I need to talk. It’s about what’s happening on the boys’ track team. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I can wait until later,” he stammered.

“Nonsense. Come in.” She turned and led him to the living room.

From the back, Dennis could verify by the amount of butt cheek showing that the clothes wouldn’t meet the BHS standard. She turned off the video that was playing on her screen and Dennis was amused to find it was one of his workout videos. Damn! His coach was hot.

“I’ve got lemonade or soda pop. All diet, I’m afraid. What will you have?”

“Oh. Dr Pepper?”

“The only diet soft drink that actually tastes like the non-diet counterpart,” she said, disappearing into the kitchen. She didn’t bother with glasses—just handed him a can and sat in a chair opposite the couch, waving at it. “You didn’t bring a chaperone,” she said.

“I didn’t think it was necessary. We’ve worked together long enough that I trust you.”

“I’m losing my youthful charm.”

“Hardly,” he laughed. “You know during basketball season, all the girls got into teasing me. Rae was one of the most blatant. I remember Natalie cautioning her that she was playing with fire and I might decide to take advantage of her. Rae said, ‘I wouldn’t scream or anything.’ I guess that goes for me, too.”

“Let’s keep that conversation for a future date. What is it about the track team?” she asked, quickly changing away from a risky subject. She didn’t rush to change clothes, though.

“Thursday night, Donnie Oswald got beaten up. He’s in pretty bad shape in Des Moines Hospital. I don’t know the details, but apparently, he fought several guys who overpowered him,” Dennis began.

“Shit. Does Andy know?”

“I don’t know. You’re the first person I’ve talked to. I wouldn’t know about it except Chris Davis joined the cheerleaders when we were recording yesterday and told me about it afterward. She’s Donnie’s girlfriend.”

“Don’t tell me she wants you to get revenge,” Ardith said. “Don’t go there.”

“No. She wants me to stay out of it. She said she didn’t know what the details were, but that she was sure the guys on the team were going to go after them. Maybe other guys, too. Donnie had told her that it was all about the girls at school, especially the sisters and girlfriends of the players.”

“Rivalry?”

“I don’t know. I talked to Coach Dearborn at DMACC Wednesday, before I knew about Donnie. Things just didn’t look right to me and I needed a sounding board. He said our team had definitely been hacked. It went back to when they started losing basketball games before the tournament. They were fourteen and four before that and ended the season fourteen and nine. When we ran the time trials at the beginning of the season, every guy on the track team ran faster and jumped or threw farther than they have in any meet. The meet Thursday night was the first one they scored more than two points, and that was because of new guys. Their time trial times could have placed them high enough to be in third, like the Angelines.”

“Andy and I have noticed. We discussed canceling the rest of the season, but it wouldn’t be fair for the girls who are really doing well for as small a team as we have. And a few boys who seem to be trying hard.”

“Have you noticed they all are still working out like demons during the conditioning exercises? Lonnie suggested they considered the workouts to be their sport. Chris said I trained them.”