Chapter 9: A Teachable Moment

Graduation was three weeks to the day after the disaster the prom turned out to be. By then, while I was still in jail, it was more like house arrest than Death Row in Supermax. Daddy was over the grumpies, and Mom had taken me out shopping for summer clothes and goof-off time.

School had gotten better. One of the guys arrested at my party had a lawyer for a father who got the charges thrown out on the twits, so they were back in school. The funniest thing that happened occurred the last day of school. Bobby found Jackie Fortier rubbing up against Billy Taubins, one of the jailbirds, in the cafeteria before school, and when he protested, she laughed and called him a needle-dick. Well, it’s not like I didn’t warn her! Bobby and Billy started going at it and Bobby got the shit kicked out of him. He ended up with a pair of black eyes and a broken nose. I really wanted to laugh my ass off, for sure!

Life is not fair. I ended up almost expelled for slapping Bobby and these two nimrods didn’t even get nothing! I think the principal was just so sick and tired of it all, she simply ordered them sent home.

Graduation was Saturday morning at eleven and it was over by one. I wasn’t the only one to laugh when Bobby walked across the stage to pick up his diploma with two grotesque black eyes and a giant bandage over his nose. Afterwards Daddy and Mom and Mom’s entire family took pictures of me outside the school (graduation is held in the gym, with a portable stage across one end) and then we drove home. I should explain - only Mom’s family showed up. Daddy left home (ran away, I think) from East Asshole, West-By-God-Virginia when he was a kid. Somehow, he made his way here, got a GED, and got into State, which is where he met Mom. Mom, on the other hand, is from this big Italian family. She’s the baby girl, with five older brothers, and NaNa and PaPa still have these awful accents from when they came here right after World War II.

We got back over to the house, with Daddy leading the way and the rest of the family in a convoy behind us and as we pulled up to the house, I saw this car sitting on the newly repaired lawn. I looked at it as I got out. It was a bright yellow ‘Stang, a convertible, and then I saw this big bow perched on the antenna. My mouth just dropped open as I stared, then I was jolted back to reality by the sound of my mother laughing. I turned to look at her to see her smiling, an arm wrapped around Daddy, nodding. I ran to the car and yanked the door open, then jumped in and looked around. It was gorgeous! I looked back at my parents and laughing family to see Daddy dangling a set of car keys from his fingers.

I hopped back out and ran over. “Daddy! Mom!” I hugged them both and caught the keys he flipped to me. Then I grabbed my mortarboard from my cousin Nico, who was wearing it proudly. Nico is only six, and he started to protest. “I’ll give it back, Nico!” I pried my tassel off and set the mortarboard back on his head, where he clamped his hands down to hold it in place. I ran off to the car and put the tassel on the rear-view mirror. “I’ll be back.”

“Amber! Your party?” cried Mom.

“Don’t mess up my lawn!” bellowed Daddy.

I gunned the engine loudly, then drove off the lawn as sedately as I could. Okay, so I didn’t exactly come to a stop at the end of the driveway; in fact, it’s probably a good thing the cops were busy elsewhere that day. I made it to Becky’s just as she and her family was getting home. I grabbed her arm and pulled her to the car, and we roared off. “We’ll be back!” I yelled.

I drove over to Hailey’s and grabbed her as well. She was sitting up on the top of the back seat, her feet on the seat, waving her arms in the breeze as we pulled back into my driveway. She screamed in delight, then climbed over the side without opening the door. Mom hugged and kissed both hers and Becky’s cheeks, then pointed them towards the food. I followed and we each grabbed some chips and a soda. Fifteen minutes later we were gone again, back to Becky’s.

Once at Becky’s we parked and climbed out. Her mom greeted us both, as did her father, and we wandered around to the back yard. She had ducked out on her party, too, and her aunt on her mother’s side gave her a good-natured chewing out about leaving guests, yada, yada, yada. I tuned it out and wandered around, then saw this cute young guy at the snack table. I sauntered over, with him watching me, and smiled. “Hey there, who are you, cutie?”

The young man blushed redly. He was several years younger than Becky and me, a tall and slim gangly boy with a thick mop of dark and curly hair. He looked around fourteen or fifteen. He was all elbows and legs, but was at least six-foot-tall, with dimples and was very cute. I am a real sucker for dimples. (Daddy has dimples!) “Uh, Jimmy, Jimmy Reynolds,” he stammered.

I batted my eyes at him and smiled. “And how did you get invited?”

“I’m Becky’s cousin. My dad and her father, well, Becky’s dad, he left...”

I held up my hands and warded him off. “I get the picture,” I replied with a laugh. “How long are you going to be in town?” I winked at him, and he blushed again.

“Uh, all week. It’s a vacation, sort of.”

“Well, I just know I’m going to see you again. You are just too cute!” I turned away and wiggled my butt at him, then ran off to find Becky. I could hear him calling after me for my name, but I just kept going.

Becky, Hailey, and I drove over to Hailey’s house next, where we had some more snacks, though Hailey’s mom snagged her and kept her from leaving. The woman is such a pill! Becky and I drove back to my house. On the way, I got the lowdown on her cousin. He had just turned fifteen and the family was visiting from Chicago for the entire week. Like, since when did Phoenix become a tourist spot? I don’t see Disney here, do you? “Why do you want to know about my cousin?” she asked.

“He’s cute!”

“He’s a dork!”

“Dork to you, cute to me! I love those dimples.”

Becky snorted. “You really need to get your head out of your ass! He’s fifteen, for Christ’s sake!”

“Yeah, but look how tall he is. Aren’t you curious if anything else is nice and big, too?” I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Oh, my God, you really are diseased! You need to get laid! What, nobody in your own species available?”

I didn’t mention the gangbang I had enjoyed with Mom the previous week. I was becoming a sex addict. “Think of it, I could become a great teacher. Haven’t you ever wanted to take somebody and teach them how to be a great lover. My God, think of the possibilities!”

“Aaackkkk!” Becky covered her face with her hands and screamed. I teased her some more, and then we pulled into our driveway. I didn’t think any more of it, and we spent the rest of the day running around to various friends’ houses and crashing parties. Several crashed ours as well, not always while we were there, and Mom just smiled and loaded them up with food and soda.

I didn’t think about Becky’s cousin again for a week. By the end of the week, I was incredibly bored and incredibly horny. I wasn’t going to start working for the summer until the following week. Nobody was around.

My parents were away. Daddy and Mister Baker had some sort of conference or business meeting in Tucson on Thursday and Friday, and Mom and Amanda and gone with them. I know Mom had packed several dresses and skirts and tops and high heels, and the only thing resembling underwear was a string bikini. I am sure that Amanda Baker had packed the same way, and my parents and the Bakers planned to do some swinging and swapping over the weekend.

I couldn’t even go over to the McNabbs. Christy had invited me over several times for a threesome with her and her husband, but they were at some adults-only resort in the Caribbean fucking their brains out for a week.

The phone rang and I grabbed it. “Hello?”

“Amber, what are you up to?” It was Becky.

“Jack shit! What are you up to?”

“The same. Mind if I come over?”

“Come over. We can go swimming.”

“Fifteen minutes.”

I wandered up to my bedroom and pulled on a bikini. While I planned to sun myself naked, I always would start with a swimsuit, then shed it after Becky got comfortable. She usually would tan topless, but not bare, though she never complained when I stripped down. I was kind of glad I suited up, since when I answered the knock on the door, Becky had her cousin Jimmy with her. She rolled her eyes at me as she came in. “Mom and Aunt Vicky are out shopping, and I got stuck baby-sitting Dork-O here.”

“Fuck you, too, Becky!” said Jimmy without any heat.

I looked curiously at them as they came inside. “Okay, so it’s not exactly babysitting,” my friend admitted. “Mom and Aunt Vicky went out and I got assigned to keep Jimmy company, and we can do that in your pool as well as home. You mind?”

“Now is a great time to ask!” I turned and led them through the house and into the kitchen. I stopped and grabbed three beers from the refrigerator, then went on and out to the back yard. I handed Jimmy and Becky a beer and twisted the cap off my own. Jimmy stared at me and the bottle - I don’t think he’d ever had a beer before, at least not one he and his friends hadn’t snuck from somewhere. He twisted off the cap and sipped at it gingerly. “It ain’t poison!” I commented to him and took a big swig myself. He gave a sweet and boyish grin and imitated me, then belched loudly and blushed. Becky groaned and I laughed.