Chapter 3

I thought it would be hard to live my punishment down. Ruthie hugged me and forgave me completely and harbored no ill-will at all.

In a way, the punishment sort of cleared the air. Mom said that now that it was done and over, we could all just move on, and life was too short to harbor grudges. “You did your time, now rejoin us, Katie,” Mom said.

I did not think Ruthie was capable of holding a grudge anyway.

There was some breakfast left over after my mom finally relented and let me re-join the family at the table.

My family had a long discussion about calling each other hurtful names. No one asked me where I heard “cock up” (thankfully) and I apologized a dozen times to Ruthie. She holds no grudge and forgave me the first time I apologized. I still felt bad about what I had said and felt the punishment was justified – even if it was humiliating and annoying to stand there while everyone else ate.

The next day things went back to normal again. I was back to texting Pod just as furiously as the day before when Mom wasn’t home. I did not mention how I was spanked a few days earlier. I thought he would think I was really naughty, and I was too embarrassed to tell him about it. I did tell him how I insulted my sister using some of his British slang.

Pod explained that in Britain calling my sister a sodding MOPPET would have come across as a term of endearment, but he understood that in America it might have been taken differently. He said that he was picking up Southern accents from my texts. I didn’t know what a moppet even was.

“Did you think I meant Kermit and Miss Piggy? That’s funny! I am so sorry about that, your sister must have been gutted!” he apologized for my misunderstanding. He wrote Moppet in his texts about his sister sometimes, but I thought that was just how British people say Muppet. British people have funny ways of spelling things that kill my spell checker when I text him back. My phone keeps telling me I that am spelling a word wrong when I repeat it the way he typed it.

“I find I am learning American words as well. In no time, you will have me saying ‘Pay attention to me boy! I’m not just talkin’ to hear my head roar. That’s what I’ve been - I say, that’s what I’ve been telling you, boy! Go, I say, go away, boy, you bother me! I say!’ he texted me.

He had to explain to me that was Forghorn Leghorn. A slow-talking Southern Chicken Hawk from the cartoons. I had never heard the reference. It made me laugh that he thought Americans might talk that way. I told him that I had a southern accent, but it was pretty mild compared to people others. He explained he learned everything about American from our “Telly”.

I had to ask what “Telly” meant as well, because I didn’t realize he meant television.

He texted back that he liked the sound of my melodious voice. “It’s very innocent, like a pristine stream in a meadow that has been untouched by man, but just under the surface of the water is a cynical, less than innocent vixen waiting to emerge.”

I didn’t know what to make of that. I wished I could have heard his tone of voice when he said that to figure out if Pod was being sarcastic or not. This was the first time that our texting ever touched upon anything beyond simple friendship.

“Oh, I am a vixen, am I?” I texted back.

“A minx! If you were any more elusive the British would mount horses and chase you for sport with the other foxes!”

At first, I didn’t realize he meant actual fox hunting. I imagined a scenario where stodgy and regal British royalty wore red military-style jackets and chased me through the wilderness naked. I told him that because I thought he would laugh. “I could picture your hunting party chasing me through the rolling British countryside.”

He waited a long time to respond. I felt like I had made a mistake by texting something quite so over the top. I might have even scared him away. I was about to type back that I was only kidding because I was – at least sort of. I had no intention of being hunted for sport. I was simply being playful and flirtatious, and I didn’t know-how.

“In Kensington, I’ve heard there is a club that spends their spare Sundays engaged in hunting girls nearly stark naked, except for their fox costumes. It’s great sport. They lead the punters on a merry chase -no one is actually harmed. They shag the girls only if they can catch them. Is that something you would actually do?” he finally texted back.

“Would you?” I wrote back immediately. I didn’t answer his question. I was so breathless.

“No, I doubt I would look very fitting naked with a fox tail and ears,” he replied dryly. I could hear his accent humor dripping in the text message.

“I meant would you hunt a girl like that?” I typed it very gingerly. I wanted to explain that she’d be naked without anything except for a fox tail and ears around her head. It was a hot scenario – I hoped he thought so too.

“Depends on the girl,” he wrote back without hesitation.

“Me?” I replied. My pulse was rising, and I was getting turned on. I had NO fantasies about being hunted for sport. It was however the first time we ever talked about anything naughty, and I was getting caught up in our heated chat.

“I think we’d better have tea, and perhaps dinner first before that,” he wrote back. I wasn’t sure if that was his dry wit or his way of telling me he wasn’t interested. “How about we go swimming sometime and progress from there? You said you had a lovely community pool. I hope you do not think I am too forward, but I am dying to have a swim.”

It wasn’t TOO forward! I was over the moon with excitement! “YES!” I wrote. I immediately wanted to take it back and not seem so overly eager, but text messages don’t work that way.

“Then it is a date,” he mentioned a time to meet this weekend.

Oh god! Really? A DATE? While I had some sexual encounters before, I’d never been on a real date.

I often imagined a boy coming to my house to pick me up, whisk me away to some restaurant and we’d dance and eventually end up on a long walk on the beach! I’d settle for meeting at our community pool! He didn’t have a car and I doubted my mom would let me go on a date with a boy in a car anyway. We made the arrangements, and I was so excited.

I was too shy to ask my mother for permission. I also knew it was unlikely she would let me go by myself without asking my reasons and I didn’t want to say it was to meet a boy. I was being sneaky and that was probably my undoing.

I also didn’t want the entire family to go because I was afraid, they would snoop and tease me about the fact that I was talking to a boy. I led my mother to believe that I wanted it to be just her and I at the pool.

I really didn’t think that one out. I assumed she’d read a book and do what she did. I’d be discrete and make it seem like Pod showed up discreetly. She probably wouldn’t remember him and didn’t know I had been texting him non-stop over the past two weeks.

My mom was incredibly flattered that I wanted to have a “Mother-Daughter Day” and I rolled with that premise for why I wanted to go to the pool without the rest of my family. “I’ve been very hard on you the last two weeks and I thought you were starting to despise me. I’d rather spoil you like I do the others, but I guess you remind me of me on some level and I keep wishing you’d step up, Katie! I am really glad you want to hang out with me. I was starting to think you saw me as an ogre!”

“I don’t blame you for punishing. I messed up and I got what I deserved, Mom,” I said. She was so excited to hang out with me that I couldn’t bring myself to manage her expectations that it wouldn’t be a Mommy-Daughter Day and I was just hoping for a little privacy from my siblings.

“I was going to ask your father to spank you next time you need one, but I keep hoping there won’t be a next time! You are a good kid, Katie! Thanks for asking for this! I need a little time to relax!”

“Yeah, you can soak in the hot tub, read your book, and I’ll swim a few laps! It will be fun!” I suggested a little distance between us when we get there.

“Nonsense, we’ll make a day of it! We can paint each other’s nails, we can listen to the radio! We can hang out and just talk about whatever! I feel like you are glued to that phone all of the time now and we never get to talk!”

My little sister overheard, and she was totally on board with coming with us. That was NOT what I wanted to happen. “Oh goody, goody gum drops!” She bounced up and down. “We can paint each other’s nails? And faces! I want to be a bunny rabbit!”

Oh great, now my little sister was horning in on this. If it was ONLY her that went, she might keep mom busy while I dashed off to hang out with Pod!

“I am sorry Ruth Ann! This is a day just for me and Katie. We’ll have a special day together. It won’t be long before we go to Myrtle Beach. They have mini-golf, shopping, beaches, amusement parks, all sorts of things!”

“I don’t want to do that, I want to go with you guys!!” my sister pouted.

Mom normally spoiled my little sister and gave in. This time she stuck to her guns and assured Ruthie that there would be a ‘next time. “This is a reward for Katie. I know she is having a tough time adjusting to running the household when we are not home. You kids are so easy that you are basically on auto-pilot. I guess I underestimated that it would take her a little time to get the hang out of it.”

Lindsay was the only one who saw through my little plot. She gave me a skeptical look, but she didn’t say anything. The look she gave me shook me and made me feel guilty. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I was only thinking about one thing and that was Pod. If I ended up getting punished after that day – I was fine with that too. I’d trade sucking on a bar of soap or twenty swats on the tush for a date with Pod.

I will admit though the concept of consequences for my actions never entered my mind.

Sunday came and my mom work me up nice and early. She made a special breakfast for us and danced around. The whole family sang along to “Vacation, All I ever wanted! Vacation! Got to get away” by the Go-Gos while my mom prepared us for the pool.

The others wanted to go with us because the weather was great. “You all had your chance to go to the pool yesterday! We’ll be in Myrtle Beach before you know it and your father, and I have a fantastic surprise about that! Now, I’ll be gone for a few hours. Lindsay, can you stay home and watch your brothers and sister?”

“No can do, Mom! I’ve got plans!”

“Alexa, Play Cats in the Cradle by Cat Stevens,” Dad pretended to dry his eye. I guess the song he wanted was about a young kid wishing he could spend time with his father, until he grew up, had kids of his own and was too busy to have time for his father now that he was tired. It was very sappy and sentimental.

“It’s not like that dad. Mom just kind of sprung this on me. I’ve got stuff to do,” Lindsay said.

Dad’s response was to simply sing a line from the song to both of them. “You see, my new job’s a hassle, and the kids have the flu, But, it’s sure nice talking to you, mom. It’s been sure nice talking to you!”

“Oh Pish-Tosh,” Mom dismissed my dad’s joke, and asked him to watch the kids.

“Sure, I think I can handle a couple of hours of rug rat duty! Who wants Ice Cream and maybe a trip to the arcade?” he asked. Naturally, Lucas, Georgie, and Ruthie were ecstatic to hang out with Dad. Mom warned him not to spend TOO much before the big trip, and gave him a big kiss.

I loaded up Mom’s car with sunblock, a little cooler, and a radio (you can bring radios to the pool if you don’t turn them up loud). Mom double-checked that I had everything she asked me to pack and then apologized. “I shouldn’t keep going behind you and double-checking! It probably drives you crazy. I am trying to trust you more! Now that you have some responsibility, you are showing me that you don’t need your nosy mom constantly checking to make sure you changed your panties or ate your lunch!”

“Mom!” I blushed. I was quite flattered that she said that though.

The community pool was only a few streets away. I was so excited to see Pod. I almost didn’t feel completely absurd in my tight-fitting Sandy Cheek’s one-piece. I felt like it shrunk a little since the last time I had it on.

“Wow, that suit really IS an extra small, isn’t it?” Mom chuckled. I knew she noticed my huge pokey nipples through the material, and that’s what she meant when she said “small”. It was her polite way of not coming right out and saying “Jesus, everyone can see your boobs through that material!”

“See if you can make it work for a summer and we’ll talk about getting you a new one next year,” she offered. It was small consolation that I’d have to wear this thing to our family vacation in Myrtle Beach THIS year.

“OR, maybe a two-piece,” I suggested with a smirk.

“You shouldn’t be in such a hurry to show off what you have, Katie,” Mom warned. She usually had all of us in tow and she couldn’t just talk to me like she was doing in the car on the way over to the pool. She shared with me that she blossomed much earlier. “I was the same physical size you are, except that my knockers came in and looked like Watermelons! Everybody noticed and teased me! They called me Dolly Parton! and teased me because I had Tig Ol Bitties!”

I blushed. I suppose that might be ALMOST as bad as having “mosquito bites” or Itty Bitty Titties- but I would have traded small boobs for big ones like my mom any day of the week.

“Every guy I knew when I was your age was trying to get in my jeans, and I let some of them! I wish someone had spanked my behind for acting like a slut! I loved the attention and when you are 15 and a boy tells you that he loves you – unfortunately, it’s easy to believe him!”

I didn’t know what to say to my mom. I was flattered she was confiding in me. My teenage experience was quite different from hers.

She could tell I was uncomfortable with our one-on-one conversation. She grinned and said that I was that perfect age between girl that plays with dolls and a young woman. “You aren’t a little girl, and you aren’t quite a woman yet. Don’t worry, boys will start noticing you before you know it. Just enjoy it, because one day they won’t stop looking at you, and then once you get used to how that feels – they’ll never look at you again!”

Mom was trying to say that now that she was older guys didn’t stare at her anymore. I didn’t think that was true. My mom had a very youthful face just like I did and looked like she was in her early 30s.

“Hang on to your innocence while you can! You’ve got plenty of time, and when you get ready to sprout into a woman then we can pick out an APPROPRIATE bikini, not two band-aids and a piece of dental floss to wrap between your butt cheeks!”

“Mawww-awwwmm!” I tried to clarify I would never wear anything that revealing. I did imagine Pod’s face if I did though, and he was happy to see me popping out of the water. We were all alone though in my fantasy and not at a busy community pool.

That huge pool was incredibly crowded too! Mom lamented that there were no parking spaces. There had to be over a hundred people. It was a perfect day in June and the community pool had only recently re-opened after the Winter. Everyone wanted to be there. The smell of hamburgers grilling, the sound of laughter, and music made it seem like a fun party.

“Get out and take our cooler into the pool area. Find us a spot and WAIT there. A table preferably but you probably won’t find one. I’ll take even ONE pool lounger if you can get it,” Mom said.

Mom wanted me to bring the cooler so that it would look official when I planted our stuff someone and claimed a base camp that we could leave our stuff. I was lucky it was on wheels. I also had a few pool noodles, my towel and sunblock. I wrapped the towel around my waist because I felt like the tight suit was giving me camel toe.

I could not find a table, pool lounger, or even a single chair when I entered the community pool. The adjoining club house was filled with people as well. Bikinis, butts, suns, and music! It was chaotic and I was glad the rest of my family wasn’t here adding it to it. The first thing Georgie, Ruthie, and Lucas would have done is run off into the splash pool and Mom would have expected me to chase them down.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Pod introduced himself with a gallant flourish. He was clearly waiting for me. He was also wearing a Squidward themed pair of swimming trunks he must have bought specifically to make me feel not quite as humiliated. Squidward is SpongeBob’s neighbor that lives next door in Bikini Bottom. I was thrilled he was actually here. I didn’t expect him to stand me up, but I found it hard to believe this we saw each other in real life instead of just on the phone.

Pod was so much taller in person than I remembered. I didn’t expect that my mother would find a parking lot so quickly. She danced into the pool area singing “I am happy! So happy! Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof! Because I’m happy! Clap along if you feel like happiness, is the truth!”