Chapter 4

Monday, March 18, 2002

I slept well, and when I awoke it was to the sound of my alarm clock ringing in the start of a new day. JR wiggled her butt, and said, "Get the alarm, sleepy head!" I hated to move away, but I did.

JR sat up, grinned at me. "You were a good boy last night!"

"I was," I agreed, "and you'll find out I'll be a good boy again after school." She grinned, and went to the closet, got out clothes and vanished towards the bathroom. I lay in bed, stroking my rod, happy in my heart.

Mom poked her head in my room, saw what I was doing. I blushed, but she pretty much ignored me. "We're going to have breakfast here in a minute, Tom. Tell Joanna." I nodded, and it seemed to me, she stared at my hard on for a second, before turning to go. Except I wasn't as hard as I'd been a moment before. I got up, got my things, and when JR was out of the shower, went in myself.

The day seemed like most of the others in my memory; Dad drove JR to school, Uncle Craig stayed home, and Mom was going to work later. I was scheduled to pick up JR but not Penny on the way home.

Same old stuff, I was a junior, bored out of my skull with my classes. Tony and I met between our second and third period classes. "You did pretty good with Marsha," he said grinning.

It took a second for me to remember that as far as Tony knew, Marsha had been not only my first, but my one and only. I decided that best friend or not, there was no need to enlighten him about JR or Penny. "You weren't doing badly yourself," I told him with a grin of my own.

He laughed. "I never do badly. Marsha said you were really nice; most guys don't like girls that are taller than themselves."

"She's nice," I agreed. "And it wasn't that big of a deal." I dropped my voice, "She was a perfect size."

He gave me a little punch on the arm, "We need to get you a real girlfriend, not one who's already gone!"

"Yeah!" I told him. Sure, and I'd get in mega trouble if it got out I had two eighth grade girlfriends I was supposed to be 'sharing.' Just what had JR meant by that? Parallel or serial? Tony turned and walked towards math, and I headed for history, contemplating what it would be like to be in bed with two girls at once.

At lunch, we were sitting in the commons, munching snacks from the snack bar, talking. Behind me I heard a girl say quietly and firmly, "Leave me alone, Roger!" Followed a second later by the same voice saying much more firmly, "I mean it, Roger!"

I glanced behind me; I knew the girl slightly, Shannon was her name. The boy was, I thought, younger than her, but he had his hand on her leg, under the table. She tried to scoot away, put he followed. "Stop it!" She hissed still trying to keep the dispute private.

I turned around, reached out and tapped the boy on the shoulder. He turned to look, and I smiled at him. "I think she wants you to stop." I paused for dramatic effect. "So stop."

I've never seen anything like it in my life.

He saw me, his face turned beet red, and without any warning, he uncorked a punch at me, from where he was sitting. I leaned back a little fast, nearly fell off my own chair, but it was enough so he fanned air in front of my face. He jumped off the seat and started towards me; I got up too.

"You've butted in one too many times, Ferguson!" He swung again, and I moved to one side. "Damn you, stand still!" He swung a third time and this time I pushed his fist away.

Suddenly all the clues came to together. "Roger Parker, I presume?" I muttered. His face, still red, went almost purple. He lunged at me, grappling me, dragging me to the floor.

I might have been an inch shorter than him, not as heavy, but I'd been around the block a few more times. Besides, Roger was just plain lousy at fighting. After a few seconds, teachers were pulling him off and demanding an explanation. "He swung on me," I told them, not telling them why he swung on me. 'Cause I screwed his girlfriend yesterday, after she caught him putting it to my sister.' Like sure, that was an explanation.

Roger had calmed down a little, even though he was still breathing hard, and had to listen to a dozen kids rat him out for starting the fight, and tell the teachers I'd not even punched back; several of the boys said it with derision; yeah sure, like my parents would understand my getting suspended for fighting?

Eventually, Roger was sent to the office, I was admonished to 'keep out of trouble.' I nodded, and started to sit back down. Instead, Shannon touched my arm.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem. I was wondering if I'd ever meet Roger Parker face to face. No wonder he's so unpopular with girls."

She grimaced. "He and I dated in the fall... I guess he had a fight with his latest girlfriend."

"I guess he did. Penny is my sister's best friend."

Shannon looked at me, started to say something, then didn't. "Thanks. Tom, isn't it?" I nodded. She smiled at me, turned and left the commons.

I sat back down next to Tony, who'd sat still through out. I didn't blame him, he'd been in trouble a few times; the teachers were always dumping on him. "What was that all about?" Tony asked.

I shrugged, "He was going with Penny, but they broke up yesterday. I think he blames me." I shook my head, "This is kinda personal, Tony; I'd just as soon not go into it."

Tony glanced around, punched me on the arm. "Tom," he said, his voice low, "probably everybody at school knows that Joanna and Penny are queers."

"Tony," I said firmly, "like I said, it's personal. What JR and Penny do is their business; not yours, not mine." I waved my hand towards the school office, "Not what's his name's." I was tempted to say something about Marsha, but decided against it.

"You know about Marsha being queer?" He asked suddenly, catching me off guard; I'd just been thinking about it.

"Personal, Tony," I told him, repeating it again. "I don't talk about other people behind their backs. Not JR, Penny, Marsha... or you and Sue Ellen."

He nodded at me, and then grinned. "So Joanna and Penny are back together, eh?"

I made a zipping motion across my lips. "My lips are sealed, Tony."

He grinned just as the warning bell sounded. We got up and went to our afternoon classes.

After the last bell of the day, I stopped at my locker, got what I needed and turned to head out to the parking lot. Shannon came up to me, and smiled. "Can we talk for a second?"

I nodded, checking her out. Shannon was thin, with reddish blonde hair, pretty short. Small breasted, maybe even smaller than JR, it was hard to tell through her blouse and bra. "Roger stopped me after sixth period. He says he's 'gonna get you'." She hung air quotes around the last three words.

"He hasn't had much luck so far," I said with a laugh. "I didn't even know who he was; I just didn't think it was right, him bothering you like that."

She smiled at me, and I felt myself grow hard. Gosh, Tom, you have a one-track mind!

Shannon sighed. "He told me he was going to tell everyone that your sister isn't that good of a fuck, neither is Penny, and that they are really queers."

"Lesbians," I told her, wanting to get a little bit of moral high ground, to make up for my hormones now interested in yet another outlet.

She blinked, and then laughed. "Oh yeah, I guess so. Roger can be pretty mean."

"Well, he's going to be surprised; Penny and JR aren't exactly in the closet. It would not be unreasonable to assume that they didn't want to do it with him for inadequacy reasons."

Again Shannon blinked, then giggled outright. "I never thought about it that way! Oh my God! He starts telling people about them, and that's what they're going to think!"

"Shoots himself in the foot," I agreed.

She glanced at me. "You're pretty cool."

"Thanks," I said, trying not to preen and strut like some guys I knew would do. Then I made a quick decision; "Want to go to the basketball game Friday night?"

She looked at me steadily for a bit, before nodding. "Cool," I murmured, and asked for her phone number, which I got. That was cool too, because she wrote Shannon Leary on the top, and now I knew her last name as well!

I rushed over to pick up JR, knowing I was a little late. "Guess who I met at lunch?" I told her, as we started towards home. "Roger." She looked at me in surprise. "He was trying to feel up Shannon Leary right there in the commons," I went on, recounting what had happened. "I ah, asked her if she'd like to go to the basketball game on Friday night."

JR looked at me, then nodded. "Mom talked to me a bit before I went to bed last night. She said that you and I have to be sure to keep our own lives; that too much togetherness, that's what she called it, wouldn't be good for us."

"Do you think Penny will be pissed?" I asked, anxious not to make her angry with me either. JR shook her head.

"No, and in any case, I can stay over with Penny on Friday... I'll give her something else to think about."

"Shannon said that Roger was going to tell everyone about you and Penny." I went on with that part of the story, including the part about Roger being inadequate. That reduced JR to hysterics, and as soon as we were home, she had to call up Penny to tell her.

Uncle Craig appeared and I talked to him while JR was on the phone. After a bit, he looked me in the eye. "Ellen told me that she and Dave explained to you about her and I."

I nodded and he went on, "They told me you were helping your sister like I helped her." Again I nodded, not really sure what the point of this was.

"Can I ask you a question?" He paused, "Two questions?"

"Sure," I said, curious what they were.

"Why do you call her JR, and absolutely no one else does?"

"She asked me to; asks anyone else who calls her that, not to."

"Do you know?" He persisted, and I shook my head; I liked it, I'd never really thought about it. It was just something JR wanted. Why not?

"And are you comfortable with your mom and me?"

I nodded, "And does Aunt Shirley sleep with Dad?" I asked back. He nodded. I glanced out of the corner of my eye and saw JR standing at the door to the room. How long had she been there?

Uncle Craig saw where I was looking, and turned to look at JR. "Hello, Joanna."

She walked towards us and stopped a few feet from Uncle Craig. He smiled at her. "Could I ask you two questions too, Joanna?"

"I like Tom to call me JR because I always knew in my heart, we'd be together one day, even if it was just once. And I wanted Tom to have a special place in my heart; the only one in that place."

"And are you okay with your mom and I?" JR nodded, and Uncle Craig smiled. "Shirley said you'd be." JR nodded again. "Ellen and I are going to meet David for dinner, we thought you two would like a little time together." He turned and walked away.

My eyes went to JR and she shrugged. "Penny's on her way over," JR said quietly. I raised an eyebrow. "We both want to do it with you again." I once again contemplated if they were talking about serially or parallel; an interesting question, but one, I thought, that would shortly be resolved.

A while later, I heard a car pull up outside, and JR went to the door; there were a burst of voices, and with a start, I realized I could hear a voice I didn't recognize.

Curious, I went into the living room from the family room and found that not only Penny was there, but Penny's mom Kim and another girl, Penny and JR's age. I didn't recognize the girl, she was tall and thin, she would have been cute, except it looked like she was pretty upset.

"... So it's kind of an emergency, Joanna," Kim was telling JR.

JR met my eyes, then said evenly to me, "Jennifer's parents found out she's been with Penny and me. And another girl before us, a black girl."

I managed not to blink; even harder was resisting the temptation to glance at Penny's mom at the announcement. Evidently, I was about the only person who hadn't heard about JR and Penny up to this weekend. "And," JR added, "now they've kicked Jennifer out. Her parents kicked her out! Can you believe that?"

"If she stays with us," Kim said, and I glanced at her, "well, I expect staying with two lesbians is going to get someone in trouble, if not Jennifer, then Penny or me."

I nodded like I understood, but I didn't. Kim Wells was a lesbian too? She and Mom had been friends forever!

"So, I'd like to know if Jennifer could stay here for a couple of days, until things settle down, and we can work something out." Kim waved towards town. "I talked to Ellen a bit ago, she said it would be up to you two." She smiled slightly, "And that I should understand that sleeping arrangements right now in the Ferguson household are different than they had been because of Craig's visit."

I looked at Jennifer, a tall thin girl, not as tall as Marsha, but pretty tall, nearly six feet. Pretty black hair that was done up in a ponytail, tied tight. She looked back at me, defiant and angry. What's to like about being kicked out, then shopped around to the lowest bidder?

I turned to JR. "Your call, it's okay with me," I told her.