Chapter 39B: Show and Tell at the Pool

Relative safety and Jimmy's example encouraged more horseplay, and Stick started pressing Mary, who was surprisingly good at making virtually no noise at all when she moved. After a couple of minutes of limited success, he pulled Teddy into the conspiracy, too, the pair making loud splashes in the vicinity of Mary and diving away.

But it was Danny who eventually blundered into Darla Jean's man-trap while trying to guard Thelma. Darla Jean picked him up interspersing himself between her and his lady love, made a wild, diving grab, and came up with Danny's hip in one hand and his stiff erection in the other, "Gotcha!"

"Holy shit!" Danny roared, surprised, but Jimmy nearly bent double, laughing. "Well, if you're gonna play naked... Goodies are on-limits, everybody! Prepare to be felt up!" This brought a number of joyful shrieks, and some activity that had been heretofore surreptitious came out into the open. "Help! I'm drowning! I need a flotation device!" Jimmy yelled and began splashing after Amy his hands out questing for her breasts.

"Thelma, do you need anything while I've got him by the balls?" Darla Jean inquired, eyes dancing. Besides, this gave her further opportunity to feel poor Danny up...

"Jeez! Don't hurt 'em! I need that thing in full working order!" Thelma giggled.

"Well, okay." Turning to Danny, she added, "You're it, right? You admit it?" She gave him a gentle tug, jacking him more than anything else.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm it, I'm it!" Danny agreed. "You got me! Leggo!" Darla Jean did so and withdrew, grinning, and Danny got started, dunking and spinning while everyone else thrashed to new positions.

"That took forever," Randall noted quietly, slipping up next to Darla Jean.

"It's a big pool," Darla Jean replied, "and there are relatively few people in it."

"And only half of them are male," Randall added softly. Darla Jean flashed him a look; had she been that obvious? Pitching his voice louder, Randall added, "New rule! Danny, you have to catch a girl! When you're it, you have to catch somebody of the opposite sex!"

"Kewl!" Jimmy hollered gleefully. Stick grinned from ear to ear; Mary rolled her eyes, but didn't argue, and Amy laughed.

Darla Jean murmured quietly, "Why did you do that?"

Randall shrugged, grinning, "It seemed like a good idea... Why should everyone else have an easier time of it?" Darla Jean's stomach lurched.

Fact was, Darla Jean HAD tipped her hand to anyone watching closely; Mary was suspicious, but she wasn't sure because Stick had started messing with her, and almost everyone else had been similarly distracted. But Randall had been watching Darla Jean and ONLY Darla Jean; he not only knew that she had been limiting herself to males, but that Danny had been a choice based upon desperation -- she'd been shooting for Stick or Teddy! Randall dropped behind Darla Jean, but then an arm snaked around her waist, and his voice hissed in her ear, "Tell me!"

There was a hot iron bar between the cheeks of her ass, cool water notwithstanding. Watching Danny get under way and trying to struggle free quietly, she whispered, "Tell you what?"

"Why?"

Darla Jean began slowly moving to her left to avoid Danny's blundering threat; Randall stayed with her, matching her, move for move, and not pulling away. "Let me go!" She went to work on his encircling arm.

"Not until you tell me. I can tell THEM, you know..."

"I can't! You won't understand!"

"Shhh. Back with me." Randall began backing off, pulling her with him. Darla Jean stopped fighting -- the surface reason being the noise it would make in front of an already alert Danny. She dropped her arm over his, clasping herself to him as he quietly backed them off. Still, it took an altercation between Mary, Stick, and Teddy resulting in a loud splash off to Danny's left to get him off the scent. They were left in deep water -- as tall as she was, Darla Jean's feet weren't touching bottom; she was now dependent upon her clinch with Randall to keep her head above water. Now," Randall breathed, "or I'll dunk you AND I'll tell the others!"

"Randall!" Darla Jean was amazed! This wasn't the Randall she knew! Then again, a little bit of admiration leaked out of the cocktail of mixed emotions whirling through her. She glanced around, and Randall wasn't the only boy present giving a girl a hard time, or even the worst; Jimmy was belaboring Amy from the front -- either she was defending her breasts or trying to keep from being pushed over backwards, or both. Teddy had one of Mary's arms and Stick the other, and Stick's free arm dipped suspiciously into Mary's crotch. Only Thelma was free in the water, and she was operating in a narrow band where the depth rose only to between her waist and mid chest; she'd seceded full view of her small breasts for the ability to operate at what she considered a comfortable water level. Still, Randall's grip on Darla Jean pressed his considerable erection against her ass in a VERY familiar manner. On the other hand, they HAD slept together -- and it wasn't as if she had ruled out further occurrences. But... "That's blackmail!"

"Yeah," Randall conceded, "but I need to know. Five seconds." He deliberately dipped her a bit, reinforcing the threat.

"Why?"

Randall paused. Should he tell her? No, not now -- it might alter her answer. "No more delays. Four... Three..."

Darla Jean cast about desperately, "It's... data collection!"

"Data collection?" Randall's grip relaxed as he pondered this, but not enough. Then he glanced up. "Danny's coming. Turn around and wrap your legs around me, quick!"

"Let me go! I told you what you wanted!"

"Not enough. How about I hand you to him?"

Danny was looming. "Okay, loosen up a bit." Darla Jean turned and wrapped her legs around his waist -- which pinned the tip of his lengthy erection against the area between her nether lips and her anus (an area suddenly discovered to be highly sensitive) -- and Randall quietly backed them off into even deeper water. Absolute silence reigned while Danny, facing increasing difficulty with the depth of the water and a drop-off in noise, quested here and there close by before Amy fell over backwards attempting to evade Jimmy, creating a loud splashing ruckus that promised better hunting. Danny rushed off.

Randall drifted to his right, maintaining the depth -- he was basically holding them on tiptoe -- and murmured, "Okay, keep it coming."

"Well, I need a bigger dataset. They're all so different!"

"You need more than one?" Randall asked. What would she say?

"No. At least I don't THINK so -- if it's the RIGHT one!" This wasn't going well...

"And you haven't found it? Most girls settle for one at a time..." Randall chided.

This DEFINITELY wasn't going well... "There isn't a lot of scientific method to that. It's just settling -- and the divorce rate says THAT doesn't work. I'm not even sure exactly what I need, yet!"

Randall absorbed this. "Dwayne was data collection?"

"Yes. It's kind of embarrassing -- I needed a direct comparison, soon after... I told you Dwayne was never under consideration for a relationship..."

"And Ted?" Randall looked up and began slowly drifting left again. Both murmured "Polo," in response to Danny's ping.

"Ted was..." What? An accident? "Ted wasn't supposed to happen -- but I still got data."

"And both of them at the same time?"

"Randall, that's not fair!" The pair were nose to nose, and Randall was poker-faced. "THAT was unexpected, too!"

"But you got data from it. Will you be repeating that particular experiment?" Darla Jean glared at him, furious. "Okay, okay. What about these guys?"

"What about them?"

"Do you plan to..."

"No!" Darla Jean tried to pull herself away, but Randall wouldn't allow it. "They're all taken -- I can get THAT information second-hand! Let me go!"

"No." Darla Jean continued to struggle in her embarrassment; Randall added, "Hear me out, will you?"

"Why should I? I can imagine what you think of me!" Darla Jean ranted.

"Apparently, you can't!" Randall looked up and began moving as rapidly to his right as he could and continue to be silent. Darla Jean turned around to assess the threat and shut up -- Danny had been drawn by their conversation again. Randall managed to get about ninety degrees to Danny and began sidling along the pool edge toward shallower water. At about that point, Mary screeched, "Stick! Get your..." There was more to it, including an intense expression as Mary finished in a sibilant whisper, and it attracted Danny away from his blind quest in the area Randall and Darla Jean had so recently occupied.

The threat dissipated, Darla Jean turned back to Randall. "What does THAT mean?"

Randall started sidling toward deeper water again; he didn't want Darla Jean going anywhere yet. "It means that I understand; we both kind of approached the idea last Saturday morning that we needed further experience. I've... been busier than expected, too."

"So I hear..."

"It's all kind of embarrassing; in some ways, I wish I didn't have to deal with it. Bottom line is that you're not the only one experimenting this week; you're not even the only GIRL doing it! Unless you have had an adventure that hasn't gotten out, we're about even." He burned a moment checking their surroundings, then sighed, "Look, I don't know how to ask you this, but do you have any preliminary conclusions?"

"Do YOU?"

"Yeah, but if you can't give any ground, I can't either!" Randall frowned. "All right; it's not the only dimension -- I can't expect to just do sex with a girl. If I can't carry on a decent conversation afterward, I can't even look forward to it. Well, that might change once I've done without again for a while, but I can't do a relationship that way."

Darla Jean nodded pensively. "Me neither. What about your dataset?"

Randall shrugged. "There wasn't much in the way of competition. You?"

Darla Jean sighed. "The same. But there is a problem."

"What?"

"I... need to collect more data."

"Oh." Randall assumed a deflated look.

"Look, that doesn't mean..."

"What?"

"It doesn't mean I think I can do better, but -- oh, you'll think I'm a total slut!" She turned her head. "My mother surprised me recently -- she took the whole Dwayne and Ted thing in stride and said she'd been positively wild at my age. The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree, I guess..."

"So, you want to get a little wild?" Randall asked.

"Well, yeah. Experience things, you know?" Darla Jean could NOT look Randall in the eye.

"So the relationship thing is out."

"Well..."

"Well, what?"

"That's not up to me."

"Meaning?"

"Randall, this is HARD..." Darla Jean gathered herself, "I can't ask you to put up with..."

Randall chuckled, "You getting your sample?"

"Yes."

"Maybe I won't mind... I like to think that I'm capable of being rational about such things." He eyed her, "What about me? Would I be able to collect MY sample?"

"That's fair." Darla Jean's eyes slid away again, "Some things might take both of us."

"Um, yeah," Randall replied distantly, while he thought about possible permutations. "We'll need ground rules."

Darla Jean opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a loud squeal as Danny collected Thelma. The uproar ending Danny's turn allowed others to talk, and Jimmy yelled, "Hey, what are you two doing over there?"

"Who wants to know?" Randall returned.

"Looks pretty cozy from here!" Jimmy chuckled. "I've heard you two -- if you go at it, you'll get caught!"

Darla Jean put up a brief struggle, but Randall wasn't having any. "We still have things to talk about -- screw them!" Pitching his voice to carry, he replied to Jimmy, "You have a dirty mind, is all. I'm taller than Darla Jean, so she can go deeper if she hangs on. Besides, what the Hell was Stick doing to Mary? And was that patty-cake that got Amy all wet?"

"Don't tell him!" Mary screeched, plowing for deeper water, the boys' grip on her arms momentarily broken.

"Awright, awright!" Jimmy grinned. "Go ahead and get started, Thelma!"

"What do I..." Thelma began, but Danny came up and began providing instructions. "Stick my head... !" More mumbles. "Can't I just... ?"

Danny looked up, "Guys, Thel doesn't do water. She's kinda scared. Can't I just spin her around or something?"

Everyone glanced around, collecting agreement. "Sure," Jimmy replied. "She has to stand still with her hands over her ears for fifteen seconds so you can get clear."

"Okay."

"Boys, Thelma," Jimmy added. "You're hunting boys!" Everyone laughed. There was a lot of splashing as Mary's boys started chasing her and Danny started disorienting Thelma. Randall shifted to his left as Mary started crowding him. Darla Jean, watching things over her shoulder, murmured, "What kind of ground rules?"

"Umm, well, we need to be honest with each other. I guess..." He pondered a moment. "I guess if one of us wants to do something that might bother the other one, there is no veto, but he or she should be informed, anyway. If you want to do things I can't handle -- or vice-versa -- we'll just have to deal with the consequences."

"Do you have anything in mind?" Darla Jean asked.

"Noooo," Randall replied. "I like to think I'm open-minded. What about you?"

"Ummm," Darla Jean glanced over at Mary, Stick, and Teddy. "No, nothing in particular. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, I guess. What if one of us wants to see the other do something... ?"

Randall's glance followed Darla Jeans. Did she mean doubling up, or queer-bait stuff? "I... really hope we can, umm, operate on a higher plane. You should be able to ask, and you should be able to say no. And if one of us asks, and the other says no, they should respect that, but if they want to go elsewhere to get that particular thing, that should also be okay."

"That's... pretty open..."

"Well, yeah," Randall replied. "But sex isn't the relationship. It's part of it, and it needs to be a good part -- a BIG part -- but we're looking at emotional attachment and friendship -- that kind of thing. Other dimensions. We should be doing romance, teamwork, friendship, mutual dependence. Sex between us should incorporate those other things, and sex with others, when we do it, should not; if it does, then maybe we have an issue -- but we can deal with that if and when it happens."

"Maybe you can have those things with more than one person..." Darla Jean remarked, watching Mary wrestle with Stick as Teddy looked on, grinning.

Randall stopped, thought about it. "Maybe. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Shhh, now..." Thelma was counting to fifteen.