Chapter 6: Nancy

The next morning I was back at the high school, papers in hand.

Nancy took them and thanked me for offering to volunteer. "It's not easy to get parents interested in doing something like this," she told me. "Too many only look at it as a kidless weekend; they wouldn't dream of 'compounding the error' by helping look after nearly fifty junior high girls and another dozen-and-a half in high school."

I nodded. "I wanted to be a cheerleader in high school," I sighed after saying that. Even after all this time it still bothered me. "I mean, I didn't have a clue, Nancy. None. I blew the tryouts, busted them as bad as you can. I went home and worked and worked and worked. I thought I did okay the next year, but the squad got to vote on new members and I was never voted on."

"That must have been unpleasant," she said, her eyes on me.

"I was pretty steamed the first time, resigned to it by the time I was a senior. But hey, I was going to be valedictorian, not a bad consolation prize.

"Not that I wouldn't have traded it to be a cheerleader." I waved outside. "I'm not a frustrated mom, bent on making her daughter live out my school girl dreams. I haven't pushed Susan hardly at all. Am I happy she wants to do it?" I laughed. "Oh yeah!"

Nancy smiled, and I smiled back at her. Go ahead, I told myself, ask her out.

"Laura, would you like to go out for dinner together some night?"

I'd been about to speak; I blinked when Nancy beat me to it.

"I was going to ask you," I told her, laughing. "Yes."

"It's really a plot. I'm sure you're okay, but I like to get to know chaperones before the weekend, so I have some idea of where they are coming from and so that they know a little about me."

"Any time." I paused for effect and added, "Is tonight too soon?"

"No, that's fine. I'm single, no significant other at the moment. I do have an insignificant other who usually lives with me, but right now my sister is in Japan, intent on learning the language."

"That would be a good place to do it," I said, grinning like a schoolgirl about to go on her first date.

"Susan is going over to Linda Kellogg's after school, I'm sure Linda wouldn't mind an extra place for dinner."

Nancy wrote down her address, and I told me to come around five.

I called Linda and she told me she'd bring Susan back before it got too late. "I might be a while," I told her, and Linda said it was okay.

Nancy's house was a smaller one, in an older neighborhood. There were a lot of trees, more lawns than most areas I'd been in, although Nancy's place had desert landscaping.

She was wearing a tank top and Capri pants that came down to mid calf. "Sorry I'm dressed so casual, but it's a warm day and I have a swamp cooler, not an air conditioner," she explained.

I nodded; I was wearing slacks and a blouse, pretty much what I usually wore. Her house was cool, though, and well shaded by several strategically placed trees.

We talked for a while about our lives. Nancy had actually grown up in Phoenix, which, she assured me, but her in the minority.

"My parents moved here in 1950," she told me. "My dad promptly got drafted and was sent to Korea. Mom settled down to having babies; I have eight older brothers and sisters and a younger sister. Mom was forty-three when I was born, forty-five when my little sister popped out." Nancy shook her head. "My older brothers and sisters were eager to get out of the house; they wanted to get shut of perpetual diaper changes, late feedings -- the whole nine yards. The schoolteachers were glad that Samantha and I were the last; enough they said."

"I'm an only child, my husband was an only child. We had only one daughter."

She met my eyes. "I'm not sure I ever want to be a mom."

"It's an interesting experience," I told her. "I wanted to be a good mom, and would have been willing to have more kids, but..." I spread my hands. "I just got pregnant the once. My husband and I were talking about checking out a fertility clinic, but I was a little nervous. One more baby would have been fine, maybe two. But the frequency of multiple births is just too high for comfort with a lot of the fertility treatments."

"There's always adoption," Nancy said quietly.

"I'm single again," I huffed a sigh, met her eyes. "I'm not as eager as I once was about meeting guys, dating..."

Nancy nodded that she understood. "When I was in junior high, I found myself madly, passionately in love with someone a little older than myself, a cheerleader at the local high school. I followed her around like a puppy," Nancy told me. "One afternoon we went to her room and she showed me some new ways to masturbate. I was in heaven.

"She sponsored me a year later onto the cheerleading squad. I was ready, and I loved it. And when I learned that most of the girls on the team were gay too... well, that was icing on the cake. I found I had a taste for variety, so I had quite a few partners during high school.

"We talked about it a lot. Gays could have as much sex as they wanted with each other. We were like a small, rather incestuous family. Everyone knew everyone else, knew who was seeing whom. Four years of high school, four years of college, no one got pregnant, except two who wanted to, no STDs, just a lot of girls with smiles on their faces.

"Don't get me wrong, a lot of my friends, my 'family' started seeing guys in college, most have, ah, gone straight. Most girls in the program here settle down in college, get married and have families of their own." She met my eyes again, and both of us smiled.

"Our coach in high school, Miss Farmer, was in her late thirties; she was the nicest, kindest person I've ever known. I still talk to her at least once a week, even though she's retired now.

"She was understanding, helpful, our big sister. She helped us in every way you can imagine. Advice, homework tutoring, you name it, she was always there for us. Long before I got to college I decided that I wanted to be like her. So here I am."

She reached out, touched my hand. "There are very few things I wouldn't do for my girls, Laura."

"I understand."

"Like minded people..." Her fingers stayed in contact with mine. "They are pretty few and far between. I met Linda three years ago at this same retreat. She has a natural aptitude for working with girls; it was nice to have her there. We got to be good friends very quickly."

"Linda and I have talked a couple of times. She's very nice; I like her daughter too. Her niece, Gail, is equally nice."

"Gail has a special place in my heart," Nancy said quietly. "She always will. One of the most talented young women it's ever been my pleasure to work with." She smiled at me. "Linda tells me your daughter is very nice too."

"Well, I'm not going to contradict her on that!" I said, moving to hold her hand.

"Linda and I have a lot in common," Nancy told me. "But not everything. You know, Laura, you remind me a lot of Coach Farmer." Our faces were now inches apart, our eyes locked on each other. "You are a very great deal like Terri, in fact." Her lips brushed mine, clung.

I returned the kiss, being more than ready to move forward. It was very much like my first-ever kiss, something that happened in high school. I remember the boy's first name, James, his last name now lost in the mists of my memories. Both of us had been shy and tentative, driven by hormones and curiosity to learn more. For a first kiss it was really nice -- marred only by the second kiss when he'd wrapped my hand with his and led it to his turgid erection, already outside his pants.

With Nancy, while our first kiss was like that other first kiss long ago, I'd learned a thing or two over the years and what started as shy and tentative quickly grew quite hot.

Nancy grinned at me. "And here, I was told you didn't have much experience. As in virtually none."

"Oh, it wasn't virtual," I told her, grinning back at her. "Linda and I have similar tastes, although I suspect you and I are even more similar."

She nodded in agreement. "Well, right now I'd really like is to take you to bed and eat you for dinner."

"That sounds like a plan," I told her, and she pulled me to my feet.