Chapter 4

The aftereffects of Cal's time with his sister had unexpected carryover into the next day. Two of the boys who had been cruel to Rebecca were Greg Overland and Chad Clark, the same two that hazed him at every opportunity. Both had egos that considerably exceeded their basketball potential, and he doubted either would ever make the varsity. Both, though, played football, and had already made that varsity that fall as sophomores.

Practice that day was a priceless lesson for Cal. He prided himself on being in control of his emotions, but a glaring weakness was exposed. The thought of the way the boys had treated his sister made him see red, and it must have shown in the way he reacted to the two. What they did to him, he had quite easily ignored, but when it was Rebecca, that was a different matter.

After practice, the coach called him aside and asked what was going on between him and the two. Over his protests that he had not done anything to them, the coach agreed, but said he could tell there was some very bad feeling there. He demanded to know what it was.

Cal tried several times to avoid giving the reason, but the coach was relentless. When he heard the reason, he became rather angry, as well. He was the same coach who had taught Rebecca math the year before. After a couple of unintended curses, the coach got a hold of himself.

"One of the hardest things in life is learning to work effectively with people you don't like," he told Cal. "In sports, in business, in the military: it happens all over."

"I know, and I should have been able to handle it better. My sensei will have a big lecture for me today."

Fortunately, one day was all it took. Cal never again managed to be more than minimally cordial to the two. Their self-centeredness prevented them from ever noticing his attitude, and their hazing of him never slackened. In competition, he was able to pass to them, screen for them, and otherwise treat them as normal teammates. If they had ever done anything overt to Rebecca, he doubted he could have restrained himself. Cal never mentioned to the coach how Greg and Chad had been hazing him.

A couple of days later, when Pete and the parents were again absent after supper, Rebecca and Tessa came up to him. Tessa stood in front of him, hands on hips, a passable imitation of an angry look on her face. "How come you don't have any awesome pictures like that of me?"

"Who says I don't?" he quipped, chuckling that his unexpected response knocked her completely off balance. Before she could recover, he pressed his advantage. "Of course, you'll have to invite me to your bedroom when you're combing your hair in your undies before I can get one like that, but I've got some others."

Catching Tessa without a retort was a challenge for even an expert, and he almost succeeded. She was reduced to taking a play swat at his shoulder to establish some impression of control. Then, she dropped any pretense and asked "Do you really have some of me? Can I see them?"

Tessa wanted to come down to his basement lab with him, she was so eager. He forbad that, but she was practically bouncing up and down with impatience when he came back upstairs with five photos in hand. "Is that all you have?" she asked in obvious disappointment.

"No, but these are the ones I think are exceptional," he answered.

Making an exaggerated show of being deliberate, he made her sit on the sofa while he showed her. Then, he gave her a little lecture about not touching the face of the prints with her hands. Next, he went into a rambling explanation of why he did not have as many of her as of Rebecca. She knew he was stalling to irritate her, but for once, she kept her peace and waited him out. That was quite an accomplishment for Tessa.

The first picture showed her walking up the front walk to the Banner house, obviously with Rebecca beside her. She was holding her school books in front of her with both arms wrapped around them. Cal had caught her with her head turned toward Rebecca, talking in her usual animated fashion. It was a picture of a vibrant, happy teenaged girl. Tessa stared at it, then stared at Cal, then back at the picture. She went close to a minute without making a sound.

The second was a close-up of her face, deep in concentration. The light from a window played across her features in an interesting way. It was not especially revealing of Tessa's personality, but it was a very artistic and she was the subject. She must have been impressed because she was again very still.

Cal got ready to duck, if necessary, as he turned over the next one. It was in the Banner kitchen, showing Tessa from the rear quarter, bent over with her elbows on the counter. She was wearing tight shorts and a loose top, with bare feet. One leg was bent at the knee, with her toe pointed straight back - it was a very fetching pose. Her legs looked full but nicely rounded, and her ass looked delicious. She was once again talking animatedly to someone in the room. There was no need to duck, but she did make the obligatory accusation of 'pervert'.

Guessing that she was ready for a swimsuit shot, Cal turned over the next one. She was standing, and the shot was from the side. She had both hands raised, working to get some kind of a band around her wet hair. She was, of course, talking. The profile showed her nice, full breasts lifted fetchingly. While not a true 'bubble butt', her ass showed a nice swelling curve, tapering to thighs that were a little too sturdy. The suit was a modest bikini. While it avoided emphasizing a fat roll around her middle, her tummy bulge was quite obvious. Rather than being a turn-off, though, it was smooth and rather sexy.

Surprisingly, there was no mock-angry reaction from Tessa - she just stared at the picture. Cal decided that was the right time to go for the last one. It was again taken in the kitchen, the morning after one of Tessa's frequent sleepovers with Rebecca. Her only visible garment was a long T-shirt, and her hair was very sleep-tousled. She was nearly facing the camera, looking at an angle at someone, probably Rebecca, to whom she was talking. She held a glass of juice in her hand, and her expression gave the distinct impression of talking in her sleep.

"You jerk!" Tessa yelled at Cal, and turned to slug him. Fortunately for him, he had moved quickly, and avoided her swing.

"Wait a minute, now, I think that's one of my best shots," he protested.

"Why? Just because it embarrasses me the most?" she demanded, but a little grin was already sneaking through. He sensed it was now safe, and sat back down on the sofa beside her. She laid the five pictures out in a row and looked at them all for quite a while. Suddenly, she jerked upright and glared at him.

"Hey, how come you always catch me talking?" she demanded.

"Well, how long do you expect me to wait to get a shot?" he answered, raising his arm in defense as he said it. He just noticed Rebecca laughing heartily when he was pushed onto his back on the sofa by the flying mass of teenaged girl that was launched at him. Tessa's squeals of protest stopped abruptly when she landed directly on top of him, apparently not something she had anticipated.

She had landed with their pubic bones touching, and her breasts resting firmly against his chest. Almost as a reflex, Cal had put his arms around her, and they ended up in what look exactly like a lovers' embrace. Tessa was too stunned to move for a moment, and Rebecca sucked in her breath when she saw them.

Finally pulling back as if to get up, Tessa seemed to reconsider, dropped back down, and planted an eager kiss on Cal. "Now, I can't say 'never been kissed', either," she declared with eyes gleaming. Then, she got up and pulled Cal to a sitting position.

Before things even had a chance to settle down, both girls were begging him to see more pictures of themselves. Cal considered his little lab to be his private sanctuary, and had always been reluctant to let anyone else in. However, he himself had started this whole thing with the pictures. On top of that, he could sense that the relationship between the three of them had changed permanently. He could tell that they were about to be closer than ever, and he found the idea not at all frightening.

He looked back and forth between the two of them for quite a while, mainly to let them know that this was not a trivial request. Then, he reached for each of their hands and led them downstairs.

In his usual fashion, Cal's darkroom and the adjacent workroom were meticulously clean and strictly organized. He had a storage box with each girl's name on it which held negatives, prints, and accompanying notes. He pulled out the file folders of photos of each girl, then led them to a couch in the adjacent rec room.

The girls poured over their folders for quite a while. Rebecca had almost twenty-five to look at, and Tessa about half of that. "It seems like you took a lot more of me than this," Rebecca complained after she finished.

Cal must have been too mellowed out by what had happened to think before he answered. Normally, he would never have admitted what he did. "Oh, yeah, I took a lot more. Of both of you. You have to take a lot of shots to get a few good ones."

"Well, where are they?"

"I, uh, destroyed the prints."

"Why?"

"Either they weren't very good, or they were... were... uh..." 'Now, why the hell did I say that?', he berated himself.

Too late! "Or they were what?" both girls demanded simultaneously.

"Well, uh, some of them were a little, you know, uh, embarrassing," he admitted.

It's really tough living with a smart sibling. It's hard to get away with anything. "You said you threw away the prints. What about the negatives?" Rebecca demanded. Then she added "You never throw away negatives, do you?"

Before he could respond she had dashed to his workroom and brought out the box with her pictures. She was holding up the first negative to the light before she even sat down. Noticing how many there were, she glared at him and told him "Pick out the most embarrassing one and make another print." The way she said it convinced him he had better play it straight.

As he took the box from Rebecca, Tessa ordered him to do the same for her. Still almost feeling the sensation of her body on top of him, he was not disposed to deny her anything. He made the girls wait, and after about fifteen minutes, he came out with two photos. As might be expected, both photos showed more skin than was planned or customary.

Rebecca had come out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around her, and Cal happened to be in the hall with his camera. As she turned to walk away from him, the part of the towel that was supposed to cover her bottom was somehow tucked way up under. The shot caught her in mid-step, and showed all of her legs, her crack right to the top, all of one cheek, and a good part of the other. Actually, it was a beautiful and erotic shot, and Rebecca realized it immediately. She sat speechless.

Tessa's shot was taken at the pool. She was boosting herself up onto the edge with her arms, her tummy pressed tightly against the lip. One cup of her suit top had slipped down, leaving her breast completely exposed. Because of her position, her expression, and the lovely young mammary, it was also an erotic and compelling shot.

"Here, I'll shred them for you," Cal offered gallantly.

"No way!" both girls objected, clutching the photos to themselves in almost identical fashion.

"I'm keeping this," Rebecca declared. "Why did you throw it away before?" she asked him.

"Well, I felt kind of ashamed that I took them. I mean, I didn't do it to embarrass you guys. It was just..."

"You're just such a pro you couldn't pass up a sexy shot, huh?"

"They are sexy, aren't they?" he asked them.

"Yeah," Tessa answered. "I wish you had showed me right away."

"What? I didn't want you to claw my eyes out!"

"Oh, I wouldn't have. I... I never thought I could look like that. I mean... I think a guy might like seeing me like that." Tessa said that in such a way that it tore right into Cal. It suddenly struck him for the second time that week just how much girls battled insecurity. He himself probably had unusual self-confidence for his age, but he was sensitive enough to understand their feelings.

Blurting it out almost without thinking, he said "I sure like looking at you like that."

Just as he thought he had ruined the whole day, she asked him softly "Then, why didn't you keep a picture?"

Deciding that total honesty was working fine so far, he told her. "I was tempted, believe me. But I didn't think you would appreciate me using your picture to uh... I mean..." His drive toward honesty ran out about then.

"You mean to get off? You might be surprised how I felt about it," she told him. Then for the second time, she leaned over and kissed him right on the mouth. "Thanks for thinking about my feelings." Then, as if she couldn't stand that much serious talk, she added "Even if you are just a pervert with a camera!"

All three of them laughed at that, all equally anxious to crank down the soaring emotional level. No sooner had they relaxed a bit, though, when both girls demanded that he print up all of the other 'embarrassing' pictures of them.

"No, I don't want to do that," he said firmly. "The two I showed you are embarrassing, but they are very good photos. Most of these others are not artistic. They don't make you look good - not sexy like those."

"First of all, Brother Dear, this picture," and Rebecca waved it at him, "is not really embarrassing. It makes me feel good that my butt looks that nice. I... I love it! I'd frame it on my wall, except..." On that, the two girls broke into giggles as Cal searched for his lower jaw, missing somewhere on the floor.

"Same here," Tessa assured him. Cal was being thrown lessons on the young female psyche much faster than he could absorb them. He was starting to feel a rare headache coming on.

Over his strenuous objections, they badgered him into printing a few more pictures that showed unplanned skin. When the first one of Rebecca came out of the tank, before he even got it hung to dry, she exclaimed "Eeeeew! I don't want to see that one!"

"I told you, didn't I?" he asked, his frustration evident. When the same thing happened to Tessa, they willingly gave up their demand and waited while he destroyed the offending prints. Of course, he had deliberately chosen the samples to make his point, but since it worked...

He thought they were finally done, but they threw him one more curve. "Do you have some good pictures of Mom?" Tessa asked.

Cal did indeed have some good pictures of Teri, Tessa's mother. He found her to be a lovely woman, even with the unflattering weight she had added since the divorce. Since she was at the Banners' quite often, she was as vulnerable as anyone else to his lens.

"Wait a minute!" he demanded. "You aren't going to show her those two pictures, are you? I don't want to die young!"

"Oh, relax, Cal," Tessa told him, "you said it yourself: they are beautiful, flattering pictures. We're proud of them. Of course we're going to show her. Mom's cool. She'll love them. She'll be jealous, too. Unless you've got some like that of her."

"Uh, no, I don't. I didn't catch any extra skin on her." he told Tessa. "Oh, My God! Sis, you're not going to show Mom, are you?" The panic was evident in his voice.

"Come, on, 'Bro! I get straight 'A's, remember? I love Mom, but she could NOT handle this. Geez, are you jumpy!"

Trying to somehow save face, he quipped, "I guess you older women just fluster me." That triggered a ten minute tickle bout/grope fest, after which he printed three pictures of Teri, two of which were almost breathtaking.

That night, Cal had to jerk off twice before he could even get close to sleep. Between Rebecca two days earlier and the two girls that day, he had a lot to absorb. He had to admit that his feelings about both girls had changed - a lot. He had always known they were smart, and that they were fun companions. Now, he had been shown a little of the complexity of their desires and their insecurities. That made his feelings for them all the stronger.

Laying on his back, he could still almost feel Tessa after she had jumped on top of him. In the short time she had been atop him, some feelings had been indelibly stamped in his memory. Her legs and crotch had been perfectly aligned with his. Her pubic bone had been hard, but there was an obvious cushion over it. Her thighs on his had felt warm and welcoming. Her breasts - that had been the most fantastic feeling of all! So soft and full!

Also delaying his sleep were thoughts of Teri Walts, Tessa's mother. Even though Cal's fascination with women was just starting to bloom, especially after the recent events, Teri had always epitomized 'woman' in his mind. The Walts and the Banners had been neighbors since before the children were born. Teri and Elaine had been close friends all of that time, despite the differences in their ages, personalities, and styles. Teri had married young and given birth to Tessa soon thereafter. To Cal, Teri was much like the favorite aunt that many children have living nearby. He actually did have his real Aunt Laura living quite close. Laura had always been very good to him, but Teri was even more special.

It wasn't that Cal's mother was unfeminine or unattractive that Cal fixated more on a different woman - far from it. Elaine was very attractive: trim, graceful, vivacious. She was a thoughtful, attentive mother, despite her successful business career. Cal had a good relationship with her. They talked freely, joked, and horsed around. Although he had never tried to spell it out, his mother just did not come across to him as sexy in the same way that Teri did. He did not, until recently, think much of either woman in terms of sex appeal, but it was just his natural reaction to them.

To the Banner children, Tessa's mother was 'Teri', not 'Mrs. Walts'. It had been a hard sell with their parents, but Teri was adamant, and as always, very persuasive. She won.

The reason Teri was divorced may have been that she was just too strong for her ex. She had talked about it a few times with Cal, treating him as an adult confidante. Her theory was that her ex had always been a little intimidated by her, and it finally gotten to be too much. He found a mistress with a much meeker personality, and he was gone.

The problem for Teri was that she really loved the guy, as did Tessa. He was always good to both of them, and still was, allowing them to stay in their very expensive house in that privileged neighborhood. Sometimes, Teri wished he would give her some ammunition for hatred. It might make things a little easier.

She honestly did not think she had done anything to dominate or henpeck him, and friends and relatives who knew them well agreed. It was just that his new love stroked his ego in ways Teri never had. That should not have been enough to sunder a basically good marriage, and that is what tore at her endlessly.

Cal knew how troubled Teri was over her failed marriage. She often talked to him one-on-one, sharing surprisingly personal details with such a young boy. It was a trait of Cal's that would prove valuable to him throughout his life: people instinctively trusted him and seemed eager to confide in him. Rebecca several times joked that he should become a priest, regardless of the fact that they were not Catholic.

Cal was drawn to Teri for a number of reasons. Probably the most important was her undisguised emotional intensity. Though he himself came across as reserved and tightly controlled, Cal felt things very strongly, and sensed them strongly in others, as well. From the time he was a child, there had been a connection between Cal and Teri. There was a good bit of the 'son-she-never-had' feeling on her part.

For all of his self-confidence, Cal had at least the usual confusion and shyness around girls his own age. Because of his lifelong friendship with his sister and with Tessa, he was at ease with them. Still, he could share with Teri at a level he had not reached with Rebecca or with his own mother. She was his primary contact for learning about women.

Wounded, and still not recovered after more than three years divorced, Teri had not yet worked up any interest in looking for another husband. Cal was young, so there was no connotation of dating or romance, and he was a safe and comfortable male to be around. At the same time, he exhibited more mature male traits than many of the adult men she knew. She did not think of him in the same context as Tessa, at all. He was much more of an equal than a dependent or an underling. She always wondered if the experience of Khalid's death was responsible for Cal's premature 'emotional aging'.