Chapter 3

THE CREW FOUND OUT how having two little sisters put a crimp in their activities. They’d invited the girls to stay and they came out to the field with them in the morning to help with baling and stacking the straw. They weren’t sure they liked having to work so much, even though they were given simple jobs. They liked being with the older kids though, and soon managed to make friends with Tori and Lana’s siblings, Leanne’s siblings, and Rosie’s brother. By the time the evening workout was done on Monday, they had playdates arranged with other girls who would be in their class.

But they were with the crew for evening meals, workouts, and even showers. Playtime for the crew was definitely limited. The last of the straw was baled and stacked Friday morning and they were all ready for a break. Unfortunately, Dennis had fallen behind in his class and the term ended the previous week. He had just this weekend to finish his incompletes and that tied him down all day Saturday and Sunday. He couldn’t join his girlfriends Saturday in moving the Kellys into their new home.

And then practice started.

The football schedule was enough different from the cross country and volleyball schedule that they did not participate in the daily conditioning session. Dennis had a feeling, though, that coaches Grant and Lyle were working the team just as hard. They were rebuilding from scratch, though. Last year’s team had been predominantly seniors. This year, there were a lot of freshmen. The team was both smaller and weaker than the previous year.

Dennis expected to see Donnie and Dave back on the cross country team. Donnie had made a full recovery over the summer and might not be as strong as he’d been a year ago, but was working out every day. What he didn’t expect to see was the contingent of guys from the track team who had been involved in the fracas. Jim, Drew, Si, and Greg. Three of those four had all played football the previous year.

“I didn’t expect you guys to be running cross country this year,” Dennis said after practice.

Si stepped up to face Dennis. He was the biggest of the guys and they still didn’t like each other. But it seemed he was the spokesperson for the guys who had participated in the battle against the Bulldogs.

“We owe Coach Andy,” he said. “We screwed up the track season last spring and it shows poorly on him. We might not be able to beat you in a footrace, but we’ll beat some runners. I’m suspended from competition. The other guys, though ... They’ll be right behind you.”

“Great. I’ll be trying not to let them catch me,” Dennis laughed.

There wasn’t much time to get ready for the first event, and Dennis was happy to have been working out so hard all summer. The second Bartley 5k Open was Saturday morning. His cross country team lined up with boys beside the girls. In the ‘traditional’ challenge, the football team lined up next to them. Then came other students and finally community runners. It looked like a much bigger event than the previous year.

Dennis crossed the finish line in 17:50 for a solid first place, but there was an older runner from County Seat who was only ten seconds behind him. Donnie, Dave, and Drew all broke twenty minutes, and surprisingly, asthmatic Darrel was just over twenty minutes. He’d received some new treatments for his asthma over the summer and was breathing much more clearly.

Janice was thick with the guys as she, too, broke twenty minutes with her first place women’s finish. Five other Bartley women were in the top twenty-five places and under twenty-five minutes. It was looking like a good season coming up.

“Does it seem to you like time is compressing into nothing?” Dennis sighed. “Or am I already suffering from acute senioritis?”

“Or did Lana bring brownies that have happy stuff in them?” Tori asked as she leaned back against Dennis’s leg and stared up into the night sky. It was such a beautiful night that the teens had not gone into the barn, but simply lay out on the grass near the campfire.

“Not my fault,” Lana said, turning her head from the other side of Dennis to kiss her girlfriend on the forehead.

“I feel it, too,” Judith said. She was propped against a log seat and Dennis lay back between her legs, his head resting on her bosom. “It’s like summer is gone already and we didn’t do anything. And next comes graduation and Dennis and Natalie and Diane and Leanne and Tori will all disappear on us the way Roberta and Daniella did. And next summer will just be ... empty.”

“Don’t be so pessimistic,” Natalie said. “Whatever we do, we know we aren’t going far away. Dennis wants to stay near enough to Peg so she doesn’t have too much adjustment to make. I don’t know about anyone else, but that means at least Brenda and I will still be near, too.”

The longest-term girlfriends were on the other side of the fire, generally leaning against each other and giving the newest girlfriends time to spend with their boyfriend. Brenda, Amy, and Natalie still had the easiest access to Dennis because they could walk over and stay the night just about any time. Usually they just slept, but there was a little lovemaking involved. Besides, they felt Rosie, Diane, and Leanne needed more contact with them. The difference between the girlfriends who were lovers and the girlfriends who weren’t was becoming more pronounced and they could feel the three pulling away.

“I’m going away,” Leanne said. “Don’t cut me off, please. I don’t want to break up. Yet. I got my early acceptance letter from Northwestern University this week. I’m going into their Legal Studies program.”

“Leanne!” Rosie said, wrapping her arms around her long-time neighbor and friend.

“Congratulations,” Dennis said. “That’s really exciting news.”

“I figured my boyfriend and girlfriends should be the first to know. I haven’t even told my parents yet,” Leanne said.

“Like father, like daughter?” Natalie said. “I know Zoe and Eva are planning to go to law school next year. Dad’s very proud of them.”

“How’d we get so many lawyers in our little town?” Diane asked. “Your father, Leanne’s father, my father. My older brothers have already declared themselves for different fields, so he’s looking to me next.”

“Thank goodness, Dad knows I have no higher ambition than playing basketball in college and coaching afterward,” Natalie said.

“Summer camp didn’t dull your ambitions?” Lana asked. “I’m certainly thinking twice about having anything to do with kids in the future. Even my brother and sister!”

“I think they’re adorable!” Natalie said. “It was so much fun having Anna and Caitlyn living with me the last week of camp. Even if it put a bit of a damper on some of our activities.”

“So, Leanne, how do you want to define your identity with the crew this year? You kind of just told us you were breaking up with us ... at least in the spring,” Amy said.

“Yeah, I guess I did, didn’t I?” she said. “The thing is, I don’t want to not belong with us. Does that make sense? I don’t want to not be included in things just because I’m temporary. I don’t want any other girlfriend or boyfriend. I guess I don’t really want to fuck, either, since it would just be for entertainment and not for commitment. But I’m still happy to get naked and play little games and be together with you all. That includes you, Dennis.”

There was no response. Judith leaned forward and saw his closed eyes.

“He’s out cold,” she said. “So much for marathon sex tonight.”

Of course, they didn’t do without sex. And Dennis woke up enough to participate.

It felt like an extension of his dreams. Tori rolled her head on his thigh and began nibbling at his cock. Lana pushed her way up to kiss Judith and that left her nipple just at Dennis’s lips where he responded by sucking and licking it. When Dennis was hard, Tori rolled a condom on his cock and mounted him. Dennis was in a world of tits and pussies. He didn’t come right away and when Tori finished her ride for pleasure, Judith moved around to take her place, leaving Lana to kiss and be fondled by her boyfriend. Dennis wanted the dream to continue for as long as possible. He stayed hard without coming. But when Judith finished and rolled off him, the condom was stripped off and Lana planted herself on his cock.

Dennis’s eyes snapped open to look into the intense blue eyes of his blonde lover and pull her to him. He was oblivious to the whispers and continued play around him. Lana’s face, her lips, her pussy clasped around his cock consumed him. They rocked together and slid their bodies against each other. Each time she moved forward and back and he sank into her again, electric charges ran up and down his spine. As she mounted toward a climax, just as Tori and Judith had done, he hugged her to him and thrust as far into her as he could to unleash the torrent of semen built up inside him. He flooded her pussy and she came, adding more of her own juices to the mix that flowed out between them.

When they collapsed next to each other, Natalie pillowed them against her breasts while Amy softly licked the juices off Dennis’s cock and Brenda cleaned the mess from between Lana’s legs. And in that position, sleep claimed them.

The school lawns and sports fields looked like a well-manicured golf course when the students arrived on Monday morning. The new groundskeeper had been out all Saturday afternoon making sure everything was in perfect condition for the first day of school. Somehow, arriving at a building that sparkled as much as this one did served to enthuse the students about returning to the classroom, even though it still looked like summer outside.

Dennis would not be in any classes until his 1:45 statistics class with Coach Neil, but on days when Bartley was in session and DMACC was not, he had to check in at the same time as other students in the morning. He and the girlfriends all arrived at the same time and they found their way to first period classes. Dennis went straight to the coaches’ office where Ardith checked him in. He spent the day organizing the equipment cage and checking all the team manager first aid kits.

The new athletic pavilion was not completed yet, but they were scheduled to move into it on November 1, just in time to start basketball practice. It would be a chaotic time. As long as the weather held, he would continue to lead combined workouts on the softball field starting at 3:30, fifteen minutes after school let out.

Then there was cross country practice. He was pleased to see the course had been as well cared-for by the new groundskeeper as the rest of the school grounds.

“Welcome to the new routine,” Coach Andy said. “We have to work earlier now that school is back in session and we have the first games this week. So, Coach Dennis will be starting conditioning exercises at 3:30 each afternoon. The first volleyball game of the season is tomorrow night at the Roadrunners. Coach Pat and I have agreed to split out volleyball for separate warmups on game days. I want you all to look around you at some of the younger faces in our group this afternoon. We have enough of you now that we can cover the junior high meets as well as the varsity meets. And at many of our regular season cross country meets, there will be races for a junior varsity or there will be a freshman-sophomore race. Believe me that if you are showing varsity running, neither Coach Ardith nor I is going to force you to run JV instead of varsity—even if you are a freshman or sophomore.”