Chapter 2

Monday morning with no school is nice. I rode my bike over to Porter-Gaud and got a schedule from the front office. All the teachers and staff were there, getting ready for the year. I looked over the athletic schedule. They didn’t have a golf team so that was out and I can’t say I was disappointed. The way I saw it, I had a choice between baseball and tennis in the spring and I quickly decided to try my hand at baseball. Some middle-aged guys still played softball and tennis wasn’t a team sport. In the fall, the choice was easy, swimming. I was already a pretty good swimmer but I knew there was more to it than that. I knew I’d probably have to improve on my other strokes besides freestyle but I’d seen varsity swimmers and knew I’d also need to put on some muscle. I’d naturally grow in the next four years but it didn’t have to be unfocused.

I thought that if I was going to put on muscle so it would help with swimming, I’d have to lift weights. I’d lifted with Kenny Blenkhorn and his older brother five or six times before. Kenny had a bunch of weights in his garage. Actually, his older brother had them and he showed us how one day. He told us about full body workouts and push, pull, leg splits and a couple of other ways to schedule your lifting. He was huge and had been in a couple of bodybuilding competitions so we had to believe him. He taught us that everything revolved around five specific lifts and something called progressive overload and I remembered a lot of it. It made sense the way he explained it. It was hard work and we didn’t really have a reason to keep doing it. That was then. Now, I did. Kenny Blenkhorn lived a couple of miles away and I couldn’t just go over to his house whenever I wanted to lift weights. Impractical and uncool. I needed my own weights.

I walked out to the garage and found just what I expected. We had two cars in a five-car garage with plenty of extra room. One of the stalls had a workbench and our bikes but the last two were empty. I tried to picture not just a bunch of weights but a gym where the empty space was. I thought about where I would put everything I had in mind but there was so much room it didn’t matter as long as Mom didn’t care. I had no idea how much gym equipment would cost but I was sure it would be a lot less than ten grand. I took mental inventory of what was in Kenny’s garage and compared it to what I’d seen at Porter-Gaud. I tried to remember what was at the YMCA too, and between those, I started to develop a plan. I figured that if it was something you needed in a home gym, a good sporting goods store should carry it. Why wouldn’t they? I knew the key exercises and the equipment necessary to do them. It wasn’t rocket science.

I went looking for Mom. Having a big house is nice because there’s room for just about anything. On the other hand, when only two of you live in that big house it can be tough to find the other person. I walked through the house and hollered for her a couple of times, then out to the pool but she wasn’t there. I finally found her in the greenhouse working on her orchids. I think orchids must be like babies because they take so much time and attention. Kind of a strange hobby but Mom liked it.

“It took a while to find you,” I said.

“I’m hiding. Would you grab the bag of potting soil from the cabinet and bring it to me, please?” Mom had on a dark green apron; her hands were dirty as was her face where she’d touched it. Her hair had fallen lose in a couple of places but with dirty hands, she couldn’t adjust it. She blew up at it to move it out of the way. It was funny in a nice way.

I walked over to the cabinet and found three different bags of potting soil. “Which one?” I asked.

“Purple bag.”

I took it to her. There was a bench down the middle and one on each side. Mom had devoted most of it to orchids and there were a dozen of them about to bloom.

“Can I use one of the garage stalls?” I asked.

“There’s certainly enough room. What do you have in mind?” she asked as she split a couple of plants at their base and started working to repot them.

“I think I want to make a gym. You know. Weight lifting.”

She stopped what she was doing and looked over at me. “Busy couple of days, huh?”

“I guess. Franklin gave me some money and I think I want to use some of it to make a gym in the garage. I want to try out for the swim team in the fall and baseball in the spring. Weight lifting would help with that.”

“Swimming and baseball. That’s better than football. I approve. Alright. Anything else? Any other big plans?”

“Not yet.”

“Saturday, you spend the day fishing with Franklin. Sunday, you bike over to Sally’s house to tingle her with your kisses and today you want to put together a gym and then try out for the swim team and baseball. Is that about right?”

“I finished my weekly chores already and it’s not even noon on Monday. That too,” I added, grinning like an idiot.

“You know what I think?” she asked me, and I shrugged my shoulders. “Franklin’s going to ask Karen to marry him.”

“Cool. I would if I was him but what does that have to do with me putting together a gym?”

“He’s thinking that if they get married, they might have kids and he’s practicing being a dad. If one day with Franklin gets you this motivated, I’m all for it. Do you have any idea where you want to purchase the gym equipment?”

“There’s a couple of places but before I put any equipment in the garage, I want to put in some mats from Tractor Supply.”

“Tractor Supply?”

“Yeah. Crazy, huh? They have stall mats at a really good price. You know, stall mats for horses. They’re really tough and not too expensive. That’s what Kenny’s brother said at any rate.”

“You’ve been thinking about this. Let me finish this and then we can have an early lunch and I’ll take you shopping. By the way, girls like their guys to have muscles. In case you didn’t know,” she said, smiling.

“Thanks, Mom. And it’s not like I’m motivated because of Franklin. I think it’s more that I have a focus now.” She nodded.

An hour later, mom came into the kitchen to see that I already had sandwiches made. She gave a smile that I’d seen before. Yes, I was anxious. Eat your sandwich and let’s go, I thought. She washed her hands and didn’t waste time eating her sandwich.

“I have dirt on my face, don’t I?” she asked.

“Maybe a little.”

“Maybe a little. Let me go wash up and change and we’ll go. You sure about this?” I nodded and she got up, leaving her plate for me to take care of.

Three hours later I had a pile of gear at the front of the garage, waiting for me to put it in place.

“I’m going to take the rental truck back. A lot of that is heavy so don’t overdo it. Franklin or maybe your friend Tank or Kenny could help.”

“Okay. Mom, thanks for getting me that deal. I never would have thought to try to negotiate a better price.”

“Other than you, their big sale of the day might have been four hundred dollars or so. He didn’t want to lose a fifteen-hundred-dollar sale. Like I said, don’t overdo it. I have a couple of errands and I’ll be back in time to cook dinner.”

I went to work. The stall mats were even heavier than I imagined and I dragged them into place, covering the entire floor of the last garage stall. I jammed them together as tightly as I could. Next up was the cage. The boxes were heavy but the individual pieces were more manageable. Once I had it assembled, I grabbed the socket set and really cranked down on the nuts holding it together. If it was going to hold up a lot of weight, I didn’t want it wiggling. No wobble.

Next, I assembled the dumbbell rack and loaded the dumbbells onto it. I rearranged them a couple of times and then put the bench together. There were only eight bolts so it was really easy. The Roman Chair was harder than I thought because it was tough to keep straight with only one person. After trying unsuccessfully to line everything up, I realized I could lay it on its back to work on it and then stand it up. Much easier. I lifted it up and put the crossbar on. I liked it because it had a pull up and dip station and I planned to use those a lot. I realized I’d need a way to store the pulley attachments for the rack. Maybe hooks or something for the back wall.

I put the bar in place on the rack and loaded ninety pounds on it. I realized I had a solution for the attachments and it wouldn’t be hard to do. Dad had all these plans and ideas that he never got around to. It meant there was a lot of extra stuff laying around and it saved me a couple of trips to the hardware store. I took a two by four and bolted it onto the back wall then screwed hooks into it. I had to move a couple of them because I misjudged the size of things, but I had room for everything. I stepped back to admire my work just as mom drove up and parked at the other end of the garage.

“You have been busy, honey. It looks good. Very professional.”

“Yeah. Not as hard as it looks. Kind of like a big erector set. I like it. I think I need a poster of Ronnie Coleman on the side wall though.”

“Dare I ask who Ronnie Coleman is?”

“He’s a beast. He won Mr. Olympia something like six or seven times. He’s huge.”

“And since you want to be huge, he’d be good motivation?”

“Not huge like him, but yeah. Motivation.”

“You want to show me how all this works or are you too tired from putting it all together?”

She knew that I’d show it off no matter how tired I was. I used light weights and ran through a lot of what I could do with it and told her which muscles each exercise worked. I know she enjoyed it and I could see her thinking about it.

“It looks really good, honey. I’m proud of you. I think you made a wise use of your money. Now, are you going to use it?”

“Yes, ma’am. I already thought about that and know that I have to figure out a routine and I have to record my progress.”

“Do you think it would do me any good to lift weights? I don’t want to look like Ron Coleman or anything.”

“Definitely. I could show you exercises for whatever you want. At least I think I could.”

“When are you going to start?”

“I want to start right now but that’s probably not smart. Just putting it all together was my work out for the day. I need to figure out what split I’ll use first so, probably tomorrow morning.”

“What’s a split?”

“A split is how you divide up your workout. Some people do everything in one day but Kenny’s brother says a split is best. He said if you try to do it all in one day, you can’t get the intensity you need. Everything he said made a lot of sense. I’ll probably figure out a push, pull, leg workout. On one day, I’ll do exercises that use pulling muscles, like back and biceps and on another day, I’ll do push. Kenny’s brother does that and he’s huge so I guess it works. He’s not Ronny Coleman huge but he’s the biggest guy I know.”

“And then you focus just on legs for one day? That’s the day that gets your butt, I bet.”

“Glutes, mom.”

“Ah. Gluteus maximus. I think I have a gluteus saggy-much. And back day gives you a wider back. I don’t know if I would stick with it but I think I’d like to try. Would you mind?”

“Hell no, mom. That would be great.” She gave me the eye. “Heck no, I meant.” She nodded.

“Is it good to workout at the same time or would I be in your way?”

“No. Together is good. I could help you and I think it would be more fun. Yeah. Definitely. That’s cool, mom.”

She smiled a very happy smile. “You should call Franklin and ask him to come by on his way home from work. I bet he’d love to see this. Don’t wait until Saturday. I have one more errand to run but I’ll be back before he gets here.”

I called as she left. I didn’t tell him why, just that I had something I wanted him to see and that he would want to see it. Then I started trying to figure out my split. I figured that once I had something to work with, I’d call Kenny and see if his brother could help me tweak it. I heard the car honking and I went out to see what Mom wanted. I figured she had groceries to bring in but I was wrong.

“I went back and got us a couple of things we might need,” she said. She pulled stuff out of her bag. “This is a lifting belt. You will want to wear that for things like squats and deadlifts. At least that’s what the salesman said.”

“I didn’t even think of that. It’s a nice one. Thanks, mom.”

“This,” she said pulling out the next thing, “Is a forearm blaster. I didn’t see any exercises for forearms but it wasn’t very expensive. You put a weight on the end of this rope and then rotate the handle to reel it in. And these are lifting gloves. A pair for each of us.”

“Outstanding Mom. You’re getting into this.”

“And, here’s a poster of Ronnie, the beast, Coleman and one of a guy named Jay Cutler.”

“And there’s another one.”

“This one’s for me,” she said. “Let’s hang them up.”

I grabbed some tacks from the workbench and put up my two posters. They looked great. When I turned around Mom had put hers up.

“Holy crap, mom. Who’s that?”

“That, Buddy, is Rachel McLish. Apparently, she was the woman that set the standard and made it seem right for other women to do body building. No drooling.”

“She’s totally hot.”

“She is very definitely totally hot. You can probably drool a little but not too much.”

“This is sweet, Mom. Thanks.”

“I figured that if I was going to use your gym, I could contribute a little. Is Franklin coming by?”

“Yes, ma’am. He’ll be here in a bit. Can’t stay but he’s coming.”

“Have him honk when he gets here. I want to come out and see what he thinks.” I nodded and she went back in.

When he pulled in, I was sitting on a bench, making notes and sorting through exercises to figure out my split. I motioned for him to honk and he did.

“What do you think?” I asked as he walked into the gym. It wasn’t a garage anymore.

“Very nice. Very, very nice,” he said, truly appreciating it. “Looks like a pro did it, that’s for sure. And I see you’ve got Ronnie for motivation. I don’t know who that is,” he said nodding to Jay Cutler.

“Hellllo,” he said, drawing it out when he saw Mom’s poster. “Mom know who you’re using for motivation out here?”

“That’s her poster. Rachel somebody.”

“McLish. She’s motivating, alright.”

Mom came out and saw Franklin admiring her taste in posters.

“What do you think?” She asked and before he could say anything, she added, “About the gym, you bozo. I already know what you two think about my poster.”

“Very motivational, Mom. I think this is awesome. Pretty much everything you’d need for a great workout. I like it. I might have to start coming by more often.”

“Yeah, you should,” I said. “Am I missing anything?”

He looked at my notes and then the gym. He told me to rearrange lifting order to put bigger muscles first, suggested an exercise for back I hadn’t remembered and checked it against the equipment I had. He approved.

“I’ll guess that you’ve figured out what sports you’re going to try out for. That’s what this is about isn’t it?”

“Pretty much. Swimming and baseball. It was baseball or tennis and they don’t have a golf team.”

“You don’t exactly look heartbroken over that. Better start working on your cardio for swimming. Mind if I try a couple?” he asked and I extended my hand in a be-my-guest gesture.

He walked over to the rack and adjusted it for squats and put a couple of forty-fives on either end. He backed under, situated the weight on his shoulders and stepped forward. He started down and stopped about two thirds of the way down.

“I forgot what I was wearing. I’m going to split my slacks if I go all the way. Guess I need to start packing a gym bag with me.”

“You approve?” Mom asked.

“Definitely. This is the real deal,” he said, racking the bar.

“Am I missing anything?” I asked.

“I’m sure you are but not much. A curl bar would be nice, maybe a triceps bar. Chalk. You’ll probably find a couple of pully attachments you wish you had but nothing major. You might want something to warm up with when the weather is bad.”

“Like a stationary bike?”

“Or a rowing machine. That would probably be better for swimming. Even a skip rope would be good.”

“How much are rowing machines?”

“I think the professional ones are really expensive but I’ll bet you could get one that’s perfectly fine for under two hundred. That’s just a guess. You could get a skip rope for five bucks, though. Listen, I’d love to stay but Karen and I have reservations for dinner and I need to get going.”

“Anyplace special?” Mom asked.

“High Cotton. Supposed to be outstanding and neither of us have ever been.”

“It’s nice. Ronnie took me there a couple of times. I think he liked Chop House a little better but I love the menu at High Cotton. Same people own both. Have fun.”

He waved and was gone. Mom was beaming. “When do we start?” she asked.

“Once school starts, I’ll be working out in the afternoon so it makes sense to do that. Tomorrow at three?”

“I’ll be ready. This is kind of exciting. What do you think about the rowing machine idea?”

“I’ve never used one. I don’t know. I guess it makes sense though. I didn’t look when we were at the store. But a five-dollar skip rope sounds good too and it’s cheap.” She smiled at that. “Cheap” was a word she rarely used to describe something in a good way.

“Well, the weather’s still good so if you want to run or bike beforehand you could do that, too. I can only workout tomorrow for about an hour though. Is that enough time?”

“For a first workout, that’s probably going to be twice what you need. It will wear you out so we’ll start easy. Do you have something tomorrow afternoon?”

“Janice and I are going to Alhambra Hall for a fundraiser so you’re on your own for dinner. I can put a steak out to defrost. That should be good after a workout, don’t you think?”

“Mom, steak is good after anything or before anything. Thanks.”

“I’m going to start dinner. Jack, don’t try to do too much. Okay? I’m glad you got this but you’re new to it too. Is there any way you could hurt yourself?” She asked, looking at the weights in a different way.

“Probably. But I’ll start light and work up. I’ll be careful.”

She seemed satisfied and we walked up to the house. The phone rang and I took the call on the kitchen phone. “Hello, Pierce residence.”

“It’s Sally. Can you talk?”

“Hey. Just a minute.” I stretched the cord around the corner. “What’s up?”

“What’s up is that I miss you.”

“No one has ever said that to me before. It sounds nice. I miss you, too,” I practically whispered. “Mom is just around the corner.”

“Gotcha. I’ll do most of the talking. Did you know our moms are going out tomorrow night?”

“I just found out.”

“My dad will still be here. But you’ll be lonely in that big house, all by yourself.”

“I’m kind of used to it,” I said without thinking, then recovered. “But I could definitely use some company.”

“I’m going to Debby Heinz’ house for dinner tomorrow night but not really. I’m coming to yours. Your mom is supposed to pick my mom up at four thirty and they’ll be gone until nine, at least.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Got any ideas how we could entertain ourselves for that long?”

“I might have one or two.”

“Okay. I’ll be there as soon as our moms leave and you can tell me. Mom’s coming. Gotta go,” she said and hung up. And just like that, I had a boner.

The next day, I called Franklin during his lunch break. At least I figured he’d have one around noon.

“Hey, Sport. What’s up?”

“I did what you said.”

“I think I said a lot of things.”

“Oh, yeah.” There was only one thing on my mind though. “I told Sally that I liked it when we kissed. We kissed some more.”

“I guess that mystery is solved. She likes you.”

“Yeah. Apparently, she likes me a lot. She said we had to stop because kissing me made her want to do more but she wasn’t ready yet.”

“And you stopped, right?”

“Yeah. But she said she would want to do more after she had time to think about it and stuff.”

“It probably surprised her. Smart.”

“Yeah, well, I read one of Mom’s old Cosmopolitan magazines and it told me a lot about kissing but I don’t know anything about second base.”

“And you want to know what to do if the situations should arise.”

“Exactly. It was a good thing I read the magazine because it helped a lot. But it’s a magazine for women. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to find help on how to grab a boob.”

He laughed. “Probably not. The first thing to know is that you don’t grab them. You can hold them and caress them but grabbing them would be bad. Let me think a minute,” he said and paused. I waited. “In baseball, you run to second base. With girls, you have to sort of ease into it. Make sure she wants you there. That means you let your hands sort of roam around on her back and sides. When your hand gets close to one of her boobs, she’ll let you know if she wants it closer.”

“How? She’s going to say, it’s okay if you grab my tits?”

“Well, that would certainly be one way but I wouldn’t count on it. More subtle. She might moan a little when you get close. Or she might turn her body so that it seems like she’s offering one to you.”

“Holy crap. Really?”

“Yeah. And if she doesn’t want that, she’ll probably put her hand over yours and push it away. If she wants your hand on her tit, she’ll let you know. If she moans or turns to you, it’s because she’s happy. Keep her happy. If you put your hand on her tit, do it to make her happy, not you. Be gentle. You can squeeze but do it gently. Cup them. Hold them. If she’s really happy, her nipples will get hard. Depending on what she’s wearing, you might feel it through her dress or blouse or whatever. It’s probably okay to circle it and even pinch it a little but do it gently. Do everything like how you feel doesn’t matter. Do everything as though you’re trying to make her feel good. She’ll let you know if you’re being successful. I think that’s probably the best advice I can give you on that.”

“That seems way less complicated than kissing.”

“Maybe. There’s another difference and it might be a big one. It’s pretty hard to look at your girlfriend while you’re kissing. But if your hand is on her tit, you should be looking at her. She could be telling you a lot with her eyes. Just don’t go too fast. Make her happy. Does that help?”

“Way better than some article in a magazine. Thanks, Franklin.”

“Don’t be in a hurry to get to second base. Make her happy. Don’t go too fast. You have lots of time. And once you are there, you can enjoy second base a lot. Don’t be in a big hurry to go to third. I’m late for a meeting. Got to go,” he said and hung up.

I thought about what he said and it made a lot of sense. I imagined a lot of different scenarios and his advice made sense in each of them. I wanted to find out if it was good advice.

That afternoon, Mom and I had a great first workout. We started with push and that meant chest, shoulders and triceps. After light warmup weights we each found a weight that we could do six reps with. That would be our working weight. We stopped at two sets so that we wouldn’t overdo it but we must have done twenty sets, altogether. It was almost four when mom announced that she was finished.

Stretching her arms, she said, “I’m going to regret this in the morning, aren’t I?”

“No pain, no gain,” I answered.

“I think I prefer, no pain, no pain.”

“You did great. Tomorrow, we do pull. Back and biceps.”

“Alright. I’ll be ready for that, I hope. I know I’m going to be sore. I’m running late and need to take a quick shower and get out of here.”

Twenty minutes later, she pulled out. I was still taking notes and trying to figure things out. Thirty minutes later I heard a bike pull into the driveway and then up to the garage. Unbelievably, I’d forgotten that Sally was coming. I wasn’t really sweaty but I was just wearing workout shorts and a blue Tee shirt.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey. Wow. Impressive. How long have you had it?” she asked, looking at my gym.

I told her about Franklin’s gift, although I didn’t say how much. I told her I was going to try out for swimming and baseball. Somewhere in the middle of the telling I looked at her. I’d seen her, obviously, but this time I really looked at her.

“You look nice.” She spun for me. She was wearing mid-thigh length shorts and a ribbed top that was really snug. It made her boobs look bigger. Plus, she was all smiles.

“Thanks. Did you get talked to after Sunday?”

“Yeah. You?” She nodded.

“Mom told me I can’t do all the things I sort of want to do. It’s like she had some sort of checklist.”

“Same here. First base is okay. No even thinking about second base.”

“My mom said the exact same thing.”

“First base?” I asked.

“I want to practice some more,” she said and we just looked at each other for a minute. Neither of us really knew what to do next. She sat next to me on the bench and then scooted closer and we kissed. We smushed lips together and laughed at ourselves for not really knowing how to kiss very well.

We had close to five hours so we weren’t in a hurry. As we kissed, she scooted even closer. I was straddling the bench and she was sitting sideways. We played with our lips, tasting each other. I held her face and then let my hands slide alongside her head to hold her neck. We messed up and clanked teeth a couple of times and our noses kept getting in the way but we laughed about it. We were making our mistakes together and that made it okay. We made fewer and fewer mistakes and became more comfortable with each other.

At a certain point, we both relaxed a little. “It’s okay to mess up,” I said and she agreed and we continued kissing. My hands hadn’t been doing much and I decided to let them help. I moved my hand from her face to her neck with my thumbs on the soft spot behind her ear. I held her like that and kissed her. She moaned a little so I guessed that she liked it when I held her and maybe even controlled her like that. She leaned back and slid a leg over the bench so she was straddling it and then scooted closer. I had a serious boner but it wasn’t close to her and she wouldn’t feel it unless we did something to close the gap. I felt safe. She put her legs over mine and then scooted closer. I didn’t think it would be long before she could feel me. And then she did.

She pulled back from the kiss and looked at me. I was thoroughly embarrassed and thought she would hate me but that’s not how she looked at me. She smiled, and I thought she was going to laugh but she didn’t. She inched forward a little more, pressing against keeping her eyes on mine.

“That is so cool,” she said.

“You’re not mad at me?”

“No. Are you crazy? No,” she said and raised up and down, just a bit, rubbing against me. Her eyes got wide and then she smiled again. “It’s only like that when you’re excited, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It means you want to do more with me, doesn’t it?” I nodded. “Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”

I was thinking it would feel sort of obscene but I just shook my head.

“You’re holding your breath,” she said. I relaxed a little and took a breath. “It feels good.”

“Really? You’re not just saying that?”

“No. It feels pretty, I don’t know, adult, I guess. It feels good that you want me, that you think I’m desirable, I guess. I bet every girl wants to think she’s desirable. But I can actually feel that you do. That’s nice. It’s really nice,” she said and pressed her pussy against my dick even harder. “It feels nice to rub against you like this. I don’t know what you must think of me but I have to say it.”

“I don’t think anything bad, that’s for sure. Sally, that feels so good. I think my heart is going to bust.”

“Yeah? It’s pretty exciting,” she said and rubbed up and down again. I was in heaven. “Jack, it makes me want to do more than I should.”

“Wow. I thought you would be mad.”

“No. I feel good. You want to do more than just kiss, obviously.”

“Yeah. Obviously.”

“But you wouldn’t do anything that I don’t want you to, right?”

“No. Never. I wouldn’t,” I said and must have been pretty convincing. “I don’t know what I’m doing anyway. I’ve never even kissed a girl until we kissed.”

“I have an older sister. You’ve met Katie, right?”

“Maybe. I think so.”

“She told me a bunch of stuff and I can ask her anything. She’s done a lot. She’s in college so she should know by then, right?” I nodded. “Mom said we can’t go to second base. That means you can’t put your hands on my butt,” she said.

“No. I’m pretty sure that would be second base. I can’t do that,” I echoed.

“Right. It seems kind of silly, really,” she said. I mean, I can feel you through your shorts but you can’t even feel my butt. Does sitting this close count as second base?” she asked and rubbed up against me again.