Chapter 40

Cassidy
A little grin tugged at her lips.

The scavenger hunt had begun that morning. When David returned from his morning run, three girls were waiting to offer him a blow job. The boy who’d claimed the biggest slut title at Lincoln High had run to his room. The old David would have wanted to talk about what it all meant. But once he was sure they just wanted to claim today’s scavenger hunt prize and nothing more, he would have whipped it out and let them have at it.

Cassidy had just finished making breakfast when Ruth came down after her shower.

“If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought he was gay this morning,” Ruth said.

She’d been coming out of her shell to the point that she no longer ended her sentences with ‘ma’am’ or ‘sir.’ She also seemed to be letting a sense of humor come out of hiding.

“I thought I might stroll over to the weight room and mention he turned down a free one this morning,” Cassidy said.

“That bunch will revoke his ‘man card’ for sure.”

“I warned Andy that David would do this. He doesn’t know that if none of them get him to participate, the points roll over and double each day. By week’s end, whoever gets to him will have the hunt wrapped up. He’ll have the whole rowing team following him around, offering to blow him.”

“I might have to call Fritz and get extra security,” Ruth worried.

“Have you seen our boy get hit on?”

“Yes.”

“Did he need your help?” Cassidy asked.

“No, and I’ve seen some ... ah ... aggressive offers. Okay, I get your point. I’ll wait and see if he asks for more security before jumping the gun,” Ruth decided.

They heard David coming down the stairs. Cassidy had kicked the girls out, so he was safe until after his practice tonight.

He strolled in and tossed a piece of cloth to Cassidy.

“I wanted to return these. You left them last night.”

“Those aren’t mine,” Cassidy said as she realized what they were.

Panties!

’So, that’s how he plans to play it,’ Cassidy thought.

“I didn’t have any on,” she continued.

“Well, neither did I,” David fired back. “Panties, that is.”

Ruth blushed bright red, which made the two friends grin. It would have been better if the nerdlings had been there, but they’d flown home on Sunday. Dare’s mom had decided he’d spent enough time hanging with David and wanted to see her son.

Even Cassidy could see that Dare and Corvus were making up work for their VR project as an excuse to extend their vacation. They claimed they were working to make it “near real-time,” whatever that meant, despite them having said earlier that they’d already done it. But David didn’t seem to care, so she hadn’t said anything. Precious, in particular, appeared put out that Corvus had left. Without him around to torment, Cassidy worried the silly cat would go after David.

“I’ll repeat myself. I’m not letting your rowing team give me daily blow jobs.”

“Hang on. Let me get my phone, and I’ll record you saying that,” Cassidy said and ran up to her room, where it was charging.

When she got back, David gave her a dirty look. He didn’t appear willing to let her record him.

“This way, I can send it to the girls to let them know you are not willing to help them with their scavenger hunt,” she said.

“Okay, fine,” he grumped.

Cassidy held up the phone, found the video app, and hit record.

“I’m not willing to participate in your rowing team’s scavenger hunt,” David said.

’The shit is smart enough not to come out and say it,’ she thought.

“Just so we’re clear, you’re not willing to allow them to give you daily blow jobs.”

He looked pained.

“Correct. I’m not,” David said.

“Is it because you’re worried that Crystal would disapprove? Because she said it’d be fine,” Cassidy prodded.

“I understand that.”

“Well, then, color me confused. I remember you saying that you enjoyed receiving them. Is it just because it’s from the team? Are you worried they might not give good ones?” she asked.

Ruth made a choking sound when her coffee went down the wrong pipe.

Clever David raised one eyebrow in warning. Cassidy figured she could edit the video if he had a good comeback.

“Is it because you don’t want to help me with my team-building project?” she quickly asked.

“No. It’s just...”

“It’s because they aren’t movie stars or models, isn’t it?” she persisted.

“No, I think they’re all quite attractive.”

“So, you’re admitting they aren’t hideous, and I know you’re a slut, so ... what’s the problem?” she asked.

“I don’t think it would be right.”

“That sounds way too logical for a college boy,” she pondered. “I remember some social media speculation that you might be gay. But that was just because you’re good-looking. Would you rather it were a guy?”

“Cassidy Hope!” David yelled as he lunged for her.

Ruth took him down, which surprised Cassidy because she would have totally deserved him strangling her. While he tried to get away, she quickly attached the video to a message and sent it out to their friends and the football team.

Maybe some peer pressure would make him more agreeable. Then again, David was stubborn.

“We have to go, or we’ll be late for class,” Cassidy said.

David got up and brushed imaginary dust from his clothes.

“If I were you, I would sleep with one eye open because I plan to superglue your hands to your tits,” David warned.

She gave him her little-girl pout, then kissed his cheek.

“You’ll end up caving. Since it’s inevitable, just lie back and enjoy it,” Cassidy said.

Internally, she cringed because that sounded like a line a rapist would use. If it were anyone other than David, she would have called off the rowing team. But she knew he was just jerking her around and actually enjoying their byplay. If he weren’t, David wasn’t shy about telling her how he really felt.

Instead, he put Cassidy in a headlock and rubbed the top of her head. He let her go and grabbed his books. The two of them chatted on their way to class as if everything was fine. That was until he started to receive messages.

“What did you do?”

She took off running with him chasing her. If David wanted to catch her, he could have. But by the time she ran into the building where her class was, they were both giggling like they were playing chase in middle school.

After class, Cassidy went to go lift. She found TV trucks lining the street and a crowd gathering. When she got closer, she saw the building cordoned off and people with FBI jackets milling around. A parade of agents came out, carrying files.

She went to the caution tape and caught the attention of one of the agents.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re conducting a raid. Before you ask, I can’t say what it’s for.”

“I’m supposed to go lift,” Cassidy said.

“The building is closed until further notice. You’ll have to make other arrangements.”

She sent David a message.

Buttercup: ’FBI shut down weight room. Want to go surf?’

DSquared: ’Seriously?’

Buttercup: ’Yep’

DSquared: ’I’m in’

When they came back from surfing, they checked the TV news. The FBI had held a press conference to announce Operation Varsity Blues.

The feds were making three allegations concerning student admissions:

1) Bribing exam administrators to facilitate cheating on college and university entrance exams.
2) Bribing coaches and administrators of elite universities to nominate unqualified applicants as elite recruited athletes, thus facilitating the applicants’ admission.
3) Using a charitable organization to conceal the source and nature of laundered bribery payments.

USC was one of many schools targeted in the probe. Other schools included Stanford, UCLA, Texas, and Yale.

Then Cassidy got nauseated. Brook had never said what her grandmother had done to get her a rowing scholarship. If it had anything to do with this, Cassidy would be disgraced and kicked out of school.

“Call Brook,” was David’s advice.

“Can you talk to her for me?”

“We’ll do it together,” he offered with a hint of a smile.

He pulled out his phone.

“Now?” she asked, alarmed.

“For the toughest girl I know, you can be a real chicken at times,” he teased as he dialed.

“I bet you were just thinking of me,” David said as Brook answered.