Chapter 3

Kylie carefully avoided looking at Jason as he returned to his desk, but he made a point of grinning at her as he stretched.

"You're shameless!" she whispered, giggling slightly.

He nodded rapidly, pleased he'd been able to make her relax, if only a little. "Yup! It's fun!"

She shook her head and looked down at her desk, refusing to look at anyone, and blushing brightly when he whispered, "Sure you don't want to get some relief?"

"Well," said the teacher. "Now that we've had a most excellent example of the mechanics of the male sexual response, we'll get back to chapter 2, the female sexual response."

"No way!" whispered Kylie, almost inaudible beneath the teachers voice.

"You might like it..." replied Jason.

Kyle just shook her head.

"Your loss," he shrugged, then opened his book to the page indicated: a full-page close up of the female genitalia in a state of arousal.

"Of course, women vary in appearance," Ms. Smith began her lecture. "You or your girlfriend won't necessarily show the same symptoms of arousal to the same extent as the model in your textbook. You have to learn the more subtle signs. Can anyone tell me what those are?"

Jason grinned. "Heavy breathing."

She nodded. "Faster breathing, flushed skin, raised heartbeat, hardened nipples. Of course, the first three can be caused by exertion, and the fourth by cold, so how do you tell the difference?"

"Well," Jason said, "if my face is between her legs, she probably hasn't been running anywhere..."

The teacher smiled. "But by that time, hopefully you've reached the point where you should have no doubt about her arousal. What we're examining here, though, is the initial response. How do you tell if your attentions are arousing her, or if you're boring her, or bothering her? What sort of signs would those be?"

One of the guys in the front row raised his hand. Jason recognized him; it was the boy who'd run Kylie into the closet earlier. "I don't know the answer, but ... it seems to me that a lot of the same responses have a lot of different meanings. If you're looking for one, you might not realize you're really getting something totally different. It could be dangerous."

Ms. Smith nodded. "Exactly. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between fear and arousal. Women don't have a handy lust-o-meter like you guys do. And to complicate things further, sometimes a woman can be afraid and aroused at the same time."

Jason noticed Kylie's blush deepening as the teacher went on. "In fact, some women get frightened by their own arousal, and don't know how to respond to it, especially if it's a new experience for them. What do you think you should do in that case?"

David shook his head helplessly. "I don't have a clue. Leave her the heck alone, I guess."

The teacher smiled noncommittally. "That's one answer. Anyone else?"

"Um, try to, kind of, ease her into it?" Jason asked.

A girl in the front row, a cheerleader named Becky, spoke up. "Just do it. I mean, if she's turned on, then she'll get over the fear, right? I say don't let her get away with acting all coy when she really wants it." A couple of the guys nodded in agreement, but most of the other girls looked at her like she'd grown two heads.

"That's bullshit!" Jason said, then blushed.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "I would say, rather, that it's based on a mistaken assumption, but I'd like to hear the basis of your opinion, Jason."

"Well, uh, I mean ... if you force her, that's rape, and she might not ever get over it," Jason said, his face still red.

The girl in the front row turned around to face him. "If she's turned on, it can't be rape."

"Oh, bullshit," Jason said. "It's rape if she doesn't want it. Just cause she's turned on doesn't mean she wants to have sex -- maybe she just wants to make out, or maybe she just wants oral sex."

"So?" Becky asked. "That counts as doing it, too. But it's that virginal type that whines and whimpers 'oh, don't do that' while she's dripping wet that I mean. The best thing for them would be if someone didn't listen to them and just went on and showed them there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Goddamn, you are one sick bitch, you know that?" Jason said. "No means no. I tell you, I ever catch a guy pulling that shit, he'll be lucky to walk away. Hell, he'll be lucky to walk period."

The teacher cleared her throat. "No threats, guys. Let's examine why Becky's suggestion is wrong, shall we?"

Jason blushed again. "Sorry."

"It's important to note, and I think Becky is not aware of the fact, that the body and the mind don't always work together. Your body can do things that your mind is screaming in horror about. Arousal, when you get right down to it, is a physical response. Now, it's a good thing, a wonderful physical response, but we shouldn't give it too much importance. We're not purely physical creatures, after all. Let me give you an example." The teacher paused for a moment.

"Okay, suppose you have a girl, call her Mary. Now, Mary is allergic to peaches. If she eats peaches, she breaks out in hives and it can even be life-threatening. She knows this, so she avoids them. But one day, she's eating out and suddenly realizes that the dessert she just took a bite out of is full of peaches. The problem is that her taste-buds -- her physical reaction -- are in rapture. It's the best darned thing she's ever tasted. Her tongue wants her to eat and eat and order seconds. By your logic, Becky, someone should hold her down and pour it down her throat, because it's what her body wants. Do you see the problem here?"