Chapter 48: Saturday, Sept. 29

I awoke with a groan as the alarm went off. I noticed my butt was again hanging off the edge of the bed as my sister grumpily expressed her displeasure.

“Turn that thing off,” she grumbled. “I was planning to sleep in.”

Must be nice, I thought as I carefully got my feet on the floor. After killing the alarm, I staggered to the bathroom and spent a good 15 minutes in the shower letting the hot water pound my sore muscles. Finally awake and feeling a little better, I took my time finishing my morning ablutions while Kacie enjoyed her lie-in.

Clad in a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, I made my way to the kitchen. I could have gone for one of Tia Connie’s breakfast plates or one of Grandma’s country breakfasts, but neither was handy at the moment. I made do with a bowl of cereal, figuring I could grab something while I was out if I needed.

Mom and Dad came in for their coffee as I was finishing up. It looked like Dad had an early tee time today.

“What are you doing up so early?” he asked after getting his first sip. “I’d think you’d be resting up for your big date.”

I detected just a hint of sarcasm there.

“I’ve got to go in for treatment,” I said. “Doc seemed to think I got knocked around a little too much last night and wanted to check me out.”

“Is there anything wrong?” Mom asked with a note of concern.

“I don’t think so, but some of the Lions were apparently out to get me last night,” I said.

“What for?” Dad asked with more than idle curiosity.

“This is all second-hand, but it seems Kelli Thornton sent out a mass email to just about every player in the district claiming I was carrying on with their girlfriends,” I said. “Fortunately, the Lions weren’t good enough to do the job, but I still took some shots.”

“And kissing that cheerleader only added fuel to the fire,” Dad smirked. “I don’t blame Tucker for getting everybody out of there. That could have gotten really nasty if that kid had gotten over the fence.”

“First, I did not kiss her,” I said with a weary sigh. “She kissed me. And if anyone seriously believes I’m fooling around with that many girls, they’re too dumb to be playing football. I think last night showed that.”

“We should call the authorities about this,” Mom fumed, her protective side coming out.

“Not yet,” I said. “Coach Tucker said he’ll address the matter. There’s a district meeting Monday morning and all the head coaches will be there.”

I decided not to mention what I had planned. My parents could wait until it was too late for them to do anything about it for me to get my shot in.

“Well, you be careful out there,” Dad counseled. “Keep your head on a swivel so you can see ‘em comin.’”

“I’ll do that,” I said. “It’ll be easier if I don’t have to return any more kickoffs. My biggest worry is somebody ignoring the fair catch signal on punts.”

“When you get back, get started on your homework,” Mom commanded. “How much do you have?”

“Papers for Economics and Creative Writing,” I said, “but I’ll be able to turn the same one in for both classes. I’ve got to read Machiavelli for a test in Western Civ and ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ for English, but I’ve got a couple of days on that. Western Civ will be the top priority after I finish the paper. I can read the Shakespeare on Sunday if I have to.”

“We’d both better get moving,” Dad said after draining his mug. “It’s almost 8 now. I need to hit a bucket before your grandfather takes all my money. Maybe I can hold onto enough to pay for lunch at the turn.”

“I’m going to go do some grocery shopping, so Kacie will be the only one home when you get back,” Mom said. “Make sure she’s up. I don’t want her running late on Monday because she slept late all weekend. I should be back around noon. Is there anything you’d like me to put on the grocery list?”

“Two 16-ounce and two 12-ounce strip steaks,” I said, pulling out my wallet. “I fed Jed and a couple of guys at the apartment last night. Marie got the steaks from Arlene’s freezer and I need to replace them. Will this be enough?”

I handed my mother $60, which left me just enough for a little extra breakfast at Rosa’s. I’d better hit an ATM while I was out.

“It should,” Mom said, grabbing the money almost as fast as Kacie would have. “You should make those boys chip in. You won’t be able to afford this very often on your allowance.”

I figured I’d spent my allowance for the next month at least just for Homecoming mums. And there were still the replacement textbooks to pay off.

“I told them if they want to do it again, they’ll have to,” I said as I headed for the door.

Dad was already backing his Beemer out of the garage when I got to my car. I waited for him to get out of the way before cranking up. I noticed the fuel gauge was below a quarter tank. I’d need to fill up before going to get Stephanie, taking more cash out of my account. Mom rounded the corner of the garage as I pulled out of the driveway, leaving my sister all alone in the house.

I arrived at the fieldhouse a few minutes after 8, but there were only a couple of other players’ vehicles in the lot ahead of me. We’d gotten out of the game relatively unscathed. I was still moving a little stiffly as I made my way through the locker room to the training room. I noticed Wil, Benny and Morgan setting up to review game film in the coaches office, but didn’t try to attract their attention.

Doc directed me to a table and gave me a quick exam. I guess since I’d managed to drive home and back to the fieldhouse with no trouble, I wasn’t too terribly damaged. I was able to talk him into 15 minutes with the heat packs to loosen up my muscles, but I would have much preferred one of Marie’s massages. I seriously doubted I’d get a happy ending in this place.

“Where are you taking Stephanie tonight?” one of the girl trainers asked as she laid a heat pack across my back.

“Dinner at Prairie Star Country Club,” I said. “Then probably hang out at the teen lounge until I have to take her home. Coach was rather adamant about making her curfew.”

“You know this is her first date,” the girl said. “You need to do something special for her.”

Call me a heartless bastard, but I thought simply risking her father’s wrath to go out with Stephanie should be special enough. I wasn’t going to spring for flowers and candy or anything like that.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I mumbled as I let the heat packs do their thing.

Before I could get too comfortable, Marshawn hopped up on the table next to mine. The linebacker didn’t waste any time in giving me grief about last night.

“Supermodel really will have everybody in the district wantin’ to take a shot at ‘im if he keeps mackin’ on their girlfriends,” he sang out just loud enough for everyone in the fieldhouse to hear. “That cracker woulda tried to rip yo arms off and beat ya over yo head with ‘em if folks hadn’t been holdin’ ‘im back.”

“Yeah, but now that I know what’s goin’ on, I’ll be harder to catch,” I said, “by the girls and their boyfriends. Of course, I know I can count on you to protect me. You don’t want to let anybody do me any serious damage. That’s your job.”

“And donchoo forget it,” he cackled. “Ny’Quesha said to tell ya hi, by the way. I oughta knock ya outta yo cleats just for that. Ya done already given me enough reason to, anyway.”

“I never even saw your sister last night,” I said. “Will I get clobbered if I say hi back?”

“Nah, man, we good there. I’m talkin’ ‘bout the little postgame gatherin’ y’all had,” Marshawn said, sounding almost hurt. “Fed Reggie a steak and didn’t even think to invite me. Was my pick-six not impressive enough for ya?”

“You were already long gone before the matter even came up,” I said. “We were just looking for something other than burgers without having to go out to one of the truck stops. Steak just happened to be available. I would have settled for pretty much anything else at that point.”

“Yeah, well, ya better not forget the defensive captains next time,” Marshawn growled. “Bad ‘nough ya got the O-line protectin’ ya lunch. I need to maintain my playin’ weight.”

“If we do it again, we’ll need to plan ahead of time,” I said. “It cost me about $50 for last night. Any guys wanting in are going to have to pony up. What Jed and Chuck had last night was about $15 a pop.”

“And what’d they have?” the linebacker asked.

“A 16-ounce strip steak,” I said. “Each. Poor Reggie just got a 12-ounce cut.”

“Ya can put me down for a nice, thick 16-ounce ribeye,” he said, smacking his lips. “And a loaded baked potato. Can’t leave that out.”

That would run about $20 just for the steak.

“Want me to get some dancing girls to serve it to you, too?” I snarked. “Maybe sit in your lap to cut it up and feed it to you a bite at a time?”

“Better pass on that,” he said with a hint of regret. “My momma find out I was doin’ somethin’ like that, she’d snatch me bald.”

Since Marshawn was one of the defensive players who’d opted to continue shaving their heads, Mrs. Taylor wouldn’t have much snatching to do. Unless he was talking about body hair. I didn’t even want to think about someone snatching that.

“Let’s get through Thursday, first,” I said. “We can see who’s serious about having a postgame steak after the walkthrough. That’ll give me time to see how much shopping needs to be done.”

“I oughta go with ya to the market,” Marshawn said. “I could pick out which one I want.”

“I won’t be doing the shopping,” I said, thinking I’d better call Erin Aguilar’s dad to see if we could work out a deal if this was going to be a regular thing. “But I’ll make a list for the person who will be.”

“I’ll be sure to bring my wallet Thursday, then,” he quipped, hopping off his table. “Friday needs to hurry up and get here. I’m gonna be hungry!”

I was in a drowsy state when Trapper announced my time was up and I needed to get out of there so the training staff could deal with the next guy. I grabbed my shoes and shirt and went back to my locker to put them back on. Morgan stuck her head out of the coaches office to check in with me once I was fully dressed.

“Ready for your hot date tonight?” she smirked.

“Why do you intentionally say stuff that could get me killed?” I responded. “All I need is for Coach Tucker to hear that. And my plan is for this date to be anything but hot, not even lukewarm. I’m just trying to get out of here before Stephanie knows I’m around.”

“Then you’d better get moving,” the budding Paula Brown said. “Coach Tucker took her with him to make a donut run just before you got here. They ought to be back any minute.”

“I need to do some homework, anyway,” I said, turning for the exit. “See ya later.”

“Later,” Morgan grinned, “say, about 7. We’re having dinner with your family.”

I can’t say I was looking forward to it, but I had suggested it. I could only hope Coach Tucker and Dr. Ensberry wouldn’t compare notes on how to do me in.

It was about a quarter ‘til 9 when I reached my car. I decided to head straight home, opting to hang onto my money for as long as I could. It might also give me time for a nap before my date if I finished my homework quickly.

I did manage to get out of there before the Tuckers returned, which was probably a good thing.

Mom and Dad, of course, were still out when I got home. So was Kacie, but in her case, “out” meant she was still asleep.

I walked into my bedroom to see my sister had kicked the covers off and was laying on her back. Her sleep shirt had ridden up to reveal she wasn’t wearing panties. Hadn’t her mother ever warned her what could happen to little girls who were found sleeping in a boy’s bed in such a state? I made sure to close the door quietly and lock it before undressing and going to rouse her.

Kacie must have been dreaming about something nice the way she murmured and shifted position, cocking a knee to the side to expose her muff a little more. I couldn’t resist and went to get a closer look. I gave her a very light swipe of the tongue, not even getting a reaction as first. I kept my movements to a minimum as I continued to play the tip of my tongue around her hole, waiting patiently for her to become aroused.

The wait wasn’t very long — or maybe her dream was very good — as her clitoris made its presence obvious before I really got going. I sucked the little nub between my lips and gave it a little flick with my tongue, causing my sister to moan softly. I don’t know exactly when Kacie came awake, but I’m pretty sure it was about the time I felt a hand clamp down own the top of my head and pull me tight as I snaked my tongue up her tunnel. With a wail and a shudder, her thighs began bouncing off the sides of my head as she hunched her hips off the bed.

“GAAARRRYYY!!!” my sister cried as the tremors raced through her.

“What makes you think I’m Gary?” I whispered wickedly.

“Who else would be in his room?” she wheezed. “Besides, you’re the only boy I know who willingly does that. Now get off. I gotta pee.”

Not being into water sports, I did as ordered and helped Kacie out of bed. I let her have the bathroom to herself until I heard the toilet flush, then decided to join her when I heard the shower start.

“Scrub your back?” I asked as I stepped into the shower.

“You know what to do,” Kacie said, handing me her scrubber and turning back to the spray of water.

I grabbed her bottle of body wash and squirted a stream across her shoulders, then got her back good and soapy. I set the scrubber aside when I had a good lather built up and used my bare hands, getting them covered in suds, then slipped them around front to make sure her boobs were nice and clean.

“Why don’t you wake me up like that every morning?” she moaned as she sagged back against me.

“Because we’d never get to school and that would set off Mom,” I said, placing a kiss on the side of her neck just under her ear.

“I could live with that,” my sister said with a little shiver as I continued massaging her chest. “It’s not like we need to graduate and get into a good college.”

“I’ll let you tell Mom that,” I said. “I’ve already been served notice that I won’t be allowed to be one of the idle rich. Shame, really. It does sound like fun, until you run out of money.”

“Yeah, well I can think of a way to keep you busy,” Kacie said teasingly as she leaned forward and placed her hands on the wall.

Her action caused the spray of the shower to hit me square in the face, not the best circumstances for what she seemed to have planned. Grabbing her by the hips, I spun us around facing away from the showerhead and pushed her toward the back wall. Once she was stable, I squatted down a bit to get things lined up and entered in one smooth stroke, causing us both to groan in satisfaction.

The session with the heat packs paid off as I was able to move freely considering the confines of the shower. I moved one hand to cup a boob while using the other to trace circles around Kacie’s clit. My sister shuddered and moaned as I pumped in and out, her internal muscles gripping me in some very interesting ways. With a gasp, she clinched me tight as a spasm rocked her body, bringing me close to the edge.

With just a few more thrusts, I unloaded into her depths and fought to keep my balance as the world returned to normal. I stood straight, unleashing a stream of come down her legs when we disengaged. God, but I did enjoy watching the trail of fluid extend down her thighs.

Kacie pushed back from the wall and turned to face me, locking on for a brain-frying kiss as she pushed her boobs into my torso.

“Thanks, I needed that,” she panted as we clung to each other. “But it would have been better in bed.”

“Blame your bladder,” I said. “I was ready to keep going, but you couldn’t wait.”

“Like you don’t have to pee when you first wake up,” she grumped.

“Then you should have woken up earlier,” I said.

“You make everything sound like it’s my fault,” my sister pouted as she moved past me to resume washing.

“At least Mom didn’t come to wake you up before she left,” I said. “I don’t think any of us would have enjoyed her finding you in my bed without panties.”

“I would have sworn I had them on when I went to sleep,” Kacie giggled. “There must be a panty thief running around. And I think he’s stashing them in the top dresser drawer at Arlene’s apartment. I know you’ve got at least one pair of mine in the collection.”

“Yeah, well, don’t blame me for what happens if you forget to wear them again,” I said as I tried to soap up behind her, but she was hogging all the water.

“Yeah, well, if I forget again, you’ll have to get home before I fall asleep so we can see what happens,” she smirked.

As long as it wasn’t on a night when I needed to get to sleep, I thought.

Kacie finally finished up, allowing me access to the showerhead. She made sure to get a kiss without rubbing up against me as she stepped out of the shower and grabbed her towel.

“Would you mind getting one for me?” I asked as she moved to the sink to tend to her hair. “Please?”

“Since you asked so nicely,” she said, stepping to the cabinet for another towel, which she stuffed into the outside handle of the sliding door. “What are you doing today?”

“Homework,” I said, rubbing a dollop of shampoo into my hair, which was still too short to hold a part without goop. “That’ll take a few hours.”

“If you get done quick enough, I’ll let you take me to lunch,” she said. “That’ll have to do for my date this time around. Maybe you can take me to Morton’s on my next turn if you don’t find another date again.”

I quickly reviewed my dating rotation — Staci (and Bethany) for Homecoming next week, then Morgan, then Bethany’s regular turn.

“If I’ve got it figured right, that’ll be the Halloween dance,” I said. “Unless you plan on dressing up as a high society lady, Morton’s will have to wait.”

“Shoot,” Kacie muttered. “We’ve already done too much planning for that dance. We are not wearing those costumes to Morton’s.”

“We?”

“You’ll see,” she said. “I don’t want to spoil the surprise. But you’ll be driving the Rover that night.”

I could only imagine what was being cooked up by my sister and her gang. It better not be something like harem girls. The school administration wouldn’t even let us into the dance if Kacie’s outfit was deemed to be too revealing.

I finished up, rinsed and toweled off as Kacie went to her room. Returning to mine, I redressed in what I’d worn to the fieldhouse, then booted up my desktop for the first time in weeks and got started on my Economics paper. It took me a good two hours, mostly because I went through every article on Mr. Cochran’s list, but I was able to pick enough bits from each to give me plenty to work with. I paid special attention to what was in the metro dailies. There was quite a bit regarding petroleum and agriculture that I could have Grandpa expound on for me.

It was about 12:30 when Kacie stepped through the bathroom doorway wearing one of her jogging shorts combos.

“Are you done yet?” she asked. “I’m getting hungry.”

“Pretty much,” I said, noticing that my word count was over 900. “I’ll have to check with Grandpa to get his input on a couple of things, but I can do that at dinner tonight. I don’t think he’d appreciate me calling him before they finish their round.”

I hit spellcheck and made a couple of corrections, then saved the file. I made sure to save it to Dropbox so I could call it up on my phone when I got Grandpa’s help. That’d be better than taking my laptop to dinner. Stephanie might expect me to pay her a little attention by then.

“What are you in the mood for?” I asked, spinning around to face my sister.

“Rosa’s will be good enough and we won’t have to go that far,” she said. “Who’s driving?”

“I should,” I said. “I need to fuel up and swing by the apartment to get my sport coat. I’ll need it tonight.”

“I’ll meet you at your car,” Kacie said. “I need to put on some shoes.”

I made sure I had wallet, keys, shades and grabbed a cap, then went to my Beemer to wait for my sister. My stomach was growling as I got in the driver’s seat.

Kacie came out having added sneakers and her movie star shades from the day Cabana Boy was born to her ensemble, her hair pulled back into a ponytail with a scrunchy. I don’t know how many scrunchies she owned, but it was obviously enough to color coordinate with all her outfits. I could think of black, red, blue, green and yellow off the top of my head and it wasn’t like I’d been paying close attention.

I went to gas up first, not wanting to take the chance of running out before I returned home. The sport coat could wait, though. I was in as much a hurry to eat as my sister.

We pulled up to the Rosa’s nearest my fuel stop — I think we had nearly as many of them in town as we did Subways — and went in to feed. I grabbed enough grilled beef to keep me from expiring of hunger before dinner and sucked down a couple of quarts of sweet tea.

Kacie was chattering away about band stuff as she worked on her chicken fajita salad. The contest show had been fully installed and performed for the first time last night. I promised myself I’d watch the game replay for the band’s halftime performance, if nothing else.

My sister informed me the band wouldn’t get to perform the entire show next week because of Homecoming. Even though Homecoming would be held before kickoff, the band wouldn’t start working on their part of it until Monday, taking up time that would normally be spent preparing for halftime. Instead, they’d just do roughly the same show that had been performed for the season opener with the Homecoming court introduced one more time.

“At least we’ll be on the field together,” she said.

“Why would I be on the field for Homecoming?” I asked.

“You’ve been nominated for king,” Kacie grinned. “And from the way girls reacted to your poster, I’d say you’re going to win.”

Oh, hell no! I was not going to be part of their little dog-and-pony show.

“I’d rather not,” I said. “What if Kelli Thornton wins Homecoming queen? I am not going to deal with that level of drama during a game.”

“Actually, I think that was her plan before she took her shot at you after Sadie Hawkins,” Kacie said. “I heard she’d already picked out the song for the dance.”

The Homecoming queen and king were featured in a spotlight dance to start the Homecoming dance. It was a rigidly structured tradition that dated back more than 70 years. The same thing would happen at prom after the prom queen and king were crowned. From what I could tell, it was the high school equivalent of the bride and groom’s first dance at a wedding reception. It was all about the girl. The guy was just a prop.

“I’ll get myself kicked out of school first,” I said. “I am not dancing with that girl.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Kacie said. “Staci told me Kelli’s lost a lot of support in the last couple of weeks. I know the band’s not voting for her. We’ve got our own candidate, Isabella Quiñones.”

The band represented the single largest voting bloc in our school. If you were serious about getting elected to anything that was decided by a vote of the student body — from Homecoming court to student government — you’d better have the band kids on your side. If they were against you, you may as well not even run.

I on the other hand, was serious about not getting elected. My life was complicated enough as it was.

“Surely you have a candidate for king, too, then,” I said. “Put all your support behind him.”

“We didn’t nominate a boy this year,” my sister said. “Most of the girls want to vote for you. And don’t call me Shirley.”

Shit! I neither needed nor wanted to deal with this. Maybe I could convince Mrs. Montero to declare me ineligible based on the number of incidents I’d been involved in so far.

“Who else has been nominated?” I asked.

The way it all worked, you could have as many nominees as official school groups — from athletic teams to band to various clubs — wanted to put forward. There would be four senior girls and four senior boys in the court. The junior, sophomore and freshman classes would each select a couple to represent them. After the king and queen, the also-rans would be princes and princesses. The junior class reps would be duke and duchess, the sophomores earl and countess and the freshmen baron and baroness. Voting would be done in homeroom sometime early in the week, Monday or Tuesday, with the entire court introduced at the Friday pep rally. The winners for queen and king would be a fiercely guarded secret until they were crowned at the game.

“Marshawn Taylor’s one,” Kacie said, getting my attention. “I know there’s a boy from the basketball team and one from the baseball team, a guy from theater and one from Student Council. I’m pretty sure that’s most of them, but there’s always a couple of folks you’ve never heard of from things like Spanish Club.”

Then my sister got a sneaky little grin.

“Elise Stirling’s been nominated for queen,” she snickered. “I know you’d enjoy dancing with her again.”

“Not gonna happen,” I said. “At least not the spotlight dance. I’ll come right out and announce my support for Marshawn. He’d be a good pick if they want a jock.”

Way back when starting quarterbacks and head cheerleaders were an automatic couple, they were pretty much the default choices for Homecoming royalty. Usually prom, too, unless the girl got knocked up before then. I know that’d happened a few times back before birth control became more available and accepted. There were still some folks around who refused to put their precious treasures on the pill or something similar because their little princess was still going to be a virgin when daddy walked her down the aisle. Funny how many of those people became grandparents before they were 40. For some reason, Jenny Evans came to mind.

As it was, the band had produced almost as many Homecoming kings as the athletic program over the last few years. I noticed it was usually a guy who played a “cool” instrument like drums, sax or trumpet. Tuba players never seemed to make the cut.

“So, who would go to the trouble of nominating me?” I wondered out loud, not really expecting an answer.

“I’m pretty sure it was the cheerleaders,” Kacie said. “Back before Sadie Hawkins. Staci certainly would have been in favor, even if Kelli saw it as a way to lure you into bed.”

I just shook my head at that. There seemed to be no limit to what kinds of intrigue high school girls could dream up. I wonder what Machiavelli would have thought of such machinations.

We finished our meals, refilled our drinks and headed out to resume running errands. There was a branch of the bank we used a couple of blocks down the street, allowing me to grab some cash at the ATM. I took care turn as far left as I could in the driver’s seat, but Kacie didn’t make a grab for my cash. Instead, she handed me her card and had me withdraw $100 for her. I almost choked when I realized her PIN — 4279 — could be used to spell Gary.

Back on the road, we headed for the apartment so I could get my sport coat. I think Kacie was hoping to have another go while we were there, but Marie’s presence put the kibosh on that.

“Daddy!” my submissive bitch — who appeared to be wearing nothing more than her house dress and choker — squealed as I entered the apartment. “I thought you were going to call if you were coming over.”

Her bright smile faded when Kacie followed me through the door. My sister looked a little disappointed at Marie’s presence, as well.

“Just stopping by to get my sport coat,” I said, reaching to grab the garment off the clothes bar. “If I’d been thinking, I would have taken it with me last night.”

“You came over here last night?” Kacie asked, sounding a little put out at not being invited.

“Me, Jed and a couple of other guys after the game,” I said. “We wanted something to eat that wasn’t burgers. Marie was nice enough to accommodate us.”

“Are you going to bring them over again next week?” Marie asked.

“I haven’t decided,” I said. “One of the defensive captains had to give me grief about missing out, so I know at least one other guy wants to do it. I told him he’d have to pay for his own steak, as will anyone else who wants one. I’ll find out how many are serious about it after practice Thursday. If I get you a list that evening, will you have time to do some shopping?”

“I should,” Marie said. “Mrs. Jenson and Mrs. Metzger are supposed to leave Friday morning right after Mrs. Jenson’s obstetrics appointment. She said she wants to get to Los Angeles in time to have at least a day to rest up before she starts her meetings that Monday. It’ll take about two days for them to get there depending on when the drivers have to take breaks. I think they’re planning on stopping in Arizona for a night, Tucson or the Phoenix area.”

“Can I come?” Kacie asked eagerly. “I’m sure I could go for a steak after the game.”