Chapter 3: Fall 1988-2

As seniors, we were allowed to define the paths we would follow throughout our lives. I began to appreciate the C.M.A. system of offering each cadet the freedom to customize his extracurricular activities to meet his own aspirations. Seniors who didn't make the varsity team were given the opportunity to pursue other activities. It was our last year and we were beginning to look toward the future.

We who were room leaders had been chosen for that role because of our class standing, not because we had demonstrated an aptitude to lead. The position was thrust upon us; most of us would succeed, but some would fail. Charlie Evans, who had risen to the tenth position on the class ranking, had become room leader of room Three C. Had I stayed at C.M.A. for my sophomore year I would have remained in room Three C and the position of room leader would have been mine. Or would it? Back when we were freshmen Charlie was ahead of me in the class ranking. Had returning home for my sophomore year made me a more competitive student? I doubted that. I knew Becky had been responsible for making me more competitive. She pushed me. Oh how I missed her. I hadn't seen her for over a year and she was still pushing me.

After two weeks of school it became apparent which ones of us were going to make the grade as room leaders and which ones were not. News reached the advisory committee that Charlie was having difficulty maintaining order in room Three C. As the ranking cadet in Company C, my fellow committee members looked to me to put Charlie Evans in a better position to lead.

This was clearly a case where the system was wrong. Charlie should not have been chosen as room leader based solely on his class ranking. Russell, on the other hand, was a natural leader but because of his class ranking he was not considered. Russell was playing on both sides of the ball and didn't give a shit about the position of room leader anyway. But I maintained that if he had put his mind to it Russell would have been a natural leader.

Charlie wasn't letting on that anything was wrong and I didn't want to confront him; I wanted him to come to me.

"Have you seen Debra lately?" I asked Charlie after practice on Tuesday afternoon. He was always telling me about seeing Debra Simmons and her asking about me.

"Yes, she said she was going to make sure she dances with you after the Dearborn game."

"Really!" I said acting interested. "How about sitting with me at dinner?"

"I have to eat with my roommates," he answered.

"No you don't. Spear can handle them. Leave him in charge and come sit with me," I pleaded. Rodney Spear was the cadet who had taken my bunk in the room during sophomore year. He never impressed me but he was number 30 in class ranking. If he kept his record clean he would make lieutenant at the end of third quarter.

Charlie was dubious about leaving Spear in charge of the dinner table, even for one meal but I talked him into sitting with me at the officer's table and letting Spear be in charge. Adam Corning and the other members of the Colonel's advisory staff welcomed Charlie to the table and then let us talk privately.

"How many colleges have you applied to?" I opened the conversation.

"None yet but I have three in mind. Why do you ask? How many have you applied to?"

"None yet but I know where I'm going. We went over to Pontiac last summer and I've almost got the application ready to go," I said.

I told him about the campus and the town where it was located, omitting that Pontiac was Mr. Oldham's choice of colleges and I didn't have a say in where I would go. It didn't make any difference to me if I went to a small school or a major university. Mr. Oldham was footing the bill and it was all but settled that I would be going to work for his company after college.

Charlie sounded interested in the school. I never knew if he was planning on majoring in business or if he sought the comfort of knowing someone else there. I told him I would bring him the information I had collected and he could write for an application. He seemed pleased and I moved on to what I really wanted to discuss with him.

It got the attention of other members of the advisory committee when I suggested that we swap assistants. We all knew it had never been done before and we would have to present solid reasons for the exchange but they must have seen the merit because they didn't try to dissuade us from going ahead with my little plan. I was confident that I could handle Spear and I knew that Spence would be a valuable asset to Charlie. What I kept to myself was my desire to get rid of Spence. I was willing to take on Spear's nonchalant disposition in order to put Spence out of my sight. Every time I saw him undress for bed I thought of him slamming into Cindy, her holding her tits and making the bow tie shape with her lips.

Charlie was skeptical about the idea. I had to convince him that Spence was just what he needed to maintain control of his charges. I painted Spence as the indispensable assistant, going so far as to say he should have been picked as one of the room leaders.

Spence was easier to convince that a move to room Three C would be a good thing for the company than Charlie had been. Perhaps he was as anxious as me to put some distance between us, even if it was only to the room next door. Perhaps he pictured me slamming into Gloria.

"What we agreed upon still goes doesn't it? You'll put in a good word for me, won't you?"

I agreed to our original terms. "Do a good job for Charlie and I'll do whatever I can to get you promoted," I assured him.

The Colonel heard my argument and approved the change in room leader assistants without his customary stalling. "This shows remarkable ingenuity on your part, Oldham. Sacrificing your own level of comfort for the good of the company is a magnanimous gesture," Colonel Travis said as we exchanged salutes. I made a mental note to thank Marcy Cochran for the change in the Colonel's attitude toward me.

Once I had the Colonel's approval and Spence had accepted the move Spear didn't have any say in the matter. But he was the one that gave me the most trouble. "Why should I move?" he asked.

We both knew what he meant by that question. He was asking why he should move to a room where he would be demanded to share responsibility. I could have told him it was because I was ordering the move or because the Colonel had approved it. But I didn't; I told him the truth. Well, I told him the truth the way I wanted to believe it.

"You're a slacker Spear. You've been pulling room Three C down and that pulls Company C down. Spence is a perfect replacement and the move will be good for you, too. I'm going to make you pick it up. If you do a good job I'll put in a good word for you. If you don't I'll make your life miserable. Does that sound fair?"

The other members of the room didn't like the change any better than Spear did. I told them the truth, too. Well, I told them my version of the truth. The next few days were filled with turmoil but after a week or so Spear learned that he would have to pull his weight and things settled down. He would always be a pain in the ass but when I looked at him I didn't see Cindy holding her tits and her lips forming the bow tie shape. It was a fair exchange.

The highlight of my weekends was seeing Ann Hastings when she returned from her date. By the third time I was able to look at her without forgetting my own name. Stephanie reached for her shirt and bra when we heard the sound of the front door opening. I got to my feet, adjusted my cock, trying to make myself presentable. The goodnight kiss was the same as I had heard the other two times, brief. "Thank you for a lovely evening. You sleep well too. Goodnight."

"Where's Stephanie?" she asked when Ann came into the room. She was removing her coat as she approached me and I saw that she was wearing a skirt and blazer, probably work clothes, I thought.

"She's ... she's probably getting my jacket," I said.

"Are you all right?" she asked, looking closely at my legs.

It was always the same when she came near me. I blanked for a few seconds. Her gaze was steady and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. "We played our first game yesterday. I got racked pretty good," I said, doing a deep knee bend to try to get limber. It was true; it had been a grueling day. The Dearborn running back and I had punished each other from the beginning to the end of the game. Even Debra Simmons noticed that I was a little gimpy when we danced. Jeannie laughed at me, Marcy sympathized and Gloria offered to give me a rub down.

"I see," Ann Hastings was saying. "Oh, there you are," she said when Stephanie came back into the room, her shirt tucked in and her hair in reasonable order.

"I was just..." Stephanie didn't finish the sentence.

"Weren't you getting Sammy's jacket?"

Stephanie went to the hall closet where she had stored my jacket. My eyes were still fixed to Ann's and hers to mine when Stephanie returned with my jacket. She followed me to the door and we shared a short kiss.

"Goodnight, Sammy," Ann said from the living room, making me blush with shame for not saying goodnight first.

"Are you going to run tomorrow?" Stephanie asked and I said probably not. I had too much schoolwork to catch up on.

My weekends were all the same, monotonous. Friday nights were spent catching up with Mr. Oldham and Suzanne. Saturday mornings I ran with Stephanie and Curtis and Saturday nights Stephanie and I played kissy-face in her aunt's living room after the kid went to bed. We still pretended to read from The Merchant of Venice but her class had finished the play weeks before and I didn't know what she was currently reading. We had progressed to the point of removing her shirt and bra completely but I stopped trying to take it to a new level. I contented myself with playing with her breasts, squeezing them and flicking the nipples with my tongue. She seemed to enjoy the attention and there were signs that she would have permitted me to do more. Her skirt would ride up on her thighs; she no longer wore jeans or slacks. I could have run my hand up her leg, all the way to her sex but I didn't. I bided my time, waiting for Ann to come home from her date.

Through subtle questioning I learned that Ann was divorced and worked in her uncle's law office as a paralegal. I also found out that her uncle was handsomely paying Ann and her parents were subsidizing her living expenses. That's how she was able to maintain the home in our neighborhood.

"Why do you want to know about Ann?" Stephanie asked.

"I was just wondering if she's serious about this guy, that's all."

"She thinks he's going to pop the question," she said.

"How come she always says goodnight at the door? Why doesn't she invite him inside?"

"She's not sure if she wants to settle down again. He's looking for a mother to his kids and she hasn't even met them yet."

I always wore loose fitting pants so I could shift my cock around and hide my hard-on when Ann came home. I told myself I was spending Saturday nights with Stephanie in order to hold her interest in running with Curtis, but it was really to be there when Ann came home from her date. I don't know what I would have done if she invited the guy inside. I always left as soon as she got home, like I was only keeping Stephanie company so she would feel safe. Just seeing Ann for a minute or two was payment for three hours of rolling around on the rug with her niece.

The following Friday we held the Pinehurst running back, the kid who had poked a hole in my cheek with his dirty fingernails the year before, to less than ten yards on the ground and won the game by two touchdowns. He wouldn't shake my hand after the game but his eyes glowed with satisfaction when he saw the deep scar his fingernails had left on my cheek. I was filled with elation when I got home. Not only had we won the game; Spear was showing signs of coming around and Spence had room Three C running smoothly. I was caught up with my homework. For the first time in weeks I could relax all weekend.

"You have two messages. Call Mrs. Patrick back first," Suzanne said, handing me two of those pink 'while you were out' slips like they used at the office. The second message was from Stephanie.

"Sammy," Mrs. Patrick said, "do you remember the golf outing I told you about?"

"Yes, ma'am," I answered. Aw shit!

"Its next weekend, October one and two at your uncle's club. Will you be available to help out?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said without thinking twice. The letter of recommendation she wrote was worth a weekend of my time, even if I had to make an excuse about missing Josh's fifteenth birthday party. Thank goodness I hadn't invited Stephanie to accompany me to the party.

"Thank you Sammy. We're having all kinds of events. It's not just golf. There will be something for everyone. You'll be working in a booth, exchanging scrip for cash and signing people up for the events. I'm going to find an attractive young lady to work with you in the booth. Wear casual clothes but bring a jacket and tie for the dance. Oh, Sammy, I know you need to leave early to go back to school. Perhaps you can have your driver pick you up about three P.M. on Sunday?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said for the third time.

"Shit," I muttered to myself as I hung up the phone. She just sweet-talked me into working all day Saturday, attending the dance Saturday night and working until three p.m. on Sunday. "Shit! If she wasn't a sweet little lady I would tell her where she could stick her outing."

Stephanie wanted to know if I would come over that night. Ann was going to be out and Stephanie said she was afraid to be alone. I asked if Ann had a date on Saturday night too. The answer was yes. I agreed to come over in time to put the kid to bed. Shit! This means two nights of blue balls. Maybe I'll take a couple of condoms. Shit! I don't have any. Maybe Josh has some?

Mrs. Ford was furious with me at first but after I explained why I couldn't make it to Josh's birthday party she mellowed, saying she understood. I offered to have Ned pick me up at the club on Sunday afternoon but she said she didn't mind coming by to pick me up. "He's going to be so disappointed," she said before she let me talk to Josh.