Part 107: California Dreamin'

Day 73: Wednesday, November 27

Chapter 1

As lunch started, Katherine went looking for Christine. She'd promised Alan that she would try to befriend Christine and also apologize for spying on her and Alan at their Tuesday night dinner date, and she was determined to keep both promises despite her great reservations about Christine's character.

Christine, though, wasn't at her usual cafeteria table with the other "Goody-goodies." But the members of that group seemed to have some sort of sixth sense about what the others were doing and Katherine was told that Christine should be on the second floor of the school building.

Katherine went up there and, sure enough, Christine was loitering in the hallway, suspiciously near the door to Glory's class. Katherine didn't know about Christine's new role as Alan's bodyguard, but she suspected that Alan's presence inside that room had more than a little bit to do with Christine hanging around. She felt a surge of hot jealousy as she was reminded of Christine's crush on her brother, but then she also recalled her vow not to be jealous.

Fixing a smile on her face, she walked closer to Christine and said, "Hi. What'cha up to?"

Christine was caught off guard. She wasn't expecting anyone to talk to her and ask what she was doing there. But she recovered quickly and replied, "Aaaaah, I'm waiting for someone."

Katherine looked up and down the hallway, which was completely deserted. This seemed to be an unlikely spot to meet anyone when there were so many better and more private spots around the school to meet. But she decided not to press the issue. Instead, she said perkily, "Oh. Well, while you're waiting, can we talk?"

"Uh, sure."

Katherine sat down on the floor and leaned back against a wall. She had a brown bag lunch and began opening it. "Why don't we eat as we talk? I was kind of hoping we could talk a while." She wasn't too worried that the "someone" Christine was waiting for would show up, so she figured the two of them had plenty of time to talk.

Christine sat down, but reluctantly. She appeared preoccupied and continued to look down the hall in both directions more often than she looked at Katherine. She said, "Uh, I can't eat lunch in the school hallway. That's against the rules. But I'm not hungry anyway. You go ahead."

Katherine thought, What a moral priss. Who cares about a rule like that? She's probably the kind of person who stops at a traffic light even when there's no one around for miles. That's the kind of attitude that could make her dangerous to the harem! Still, they say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I can best protect our group by pretending to be her friend.

But she naturally kept those thoughts to herself. Instead, she spoke frankly, "Christine, what's up? You're acting very strangely. You know and I know that Alan must be in the classroom just behind us and that he's probably going to be there for the whole lunch hour. So why are you hanging around as if you're waiting for the off chance that he might leave early? Is something wrong with him or with you? You're looking a bit nervous. He's my brother. If there's something that involves him, please, let me know."

Christine stopped her scouting of the halls and devoted her full attention to Katherine for the first time. After an uncomfortable pause, she said in a low voice, "You're observant. I like that. And you cut to the chase. I like that too. The truth is, you're right. I am waiting for Alan. And something IS wrong. Frankly, he may be in danger. I've kind of appointed myself to be his bodyguard because of my martial arts training. But this is just between you and me, right? I assume that since you're his sister, you'll under-"

Katherine was shocked and horrified. She cut in, "What?! Alan's in danger?! Of course mum's the word, but tell me! Tell me what's up! Why didn't anyone tell me?!"

Christine leaned in conspiratorially and continued in an even quieter voice, "We just found out about an hour ago, so this is the first chance for you to hear. It turns out some of the football players are after Alan again. One of my friends gave me the story."

Katherine listened raptly as Christine laid out what she knew concerning the plot.

Christine figured that since Katherine was Alan's sister, there was no point in holding back. Furthermore, it was possible that Katherine might be in danger herself if the football players decided to get at Alan through her. She realized that this chance meeting was actually very fortuitous, and kicked herself for not seeking out Katherine first, or Amy for that matter. She told Katherine that Amy should be alerted right away, and of course Katherine agreed to help with that.

Christine was very frustrated that she could only be in one place at a time because there was so much that needed to get done during her free moments at school, but guarding Alan took up all of that time.

Christine and Katherine spent about ten minutes discussing the football-player problem while Katherine scarfed down her egg salad roll and mini cucumber.

They could have easily spent the rest of lunch that way, but Katherine was acutely aware that there were a lot of other things they needed to cover before the lunch break was over, if she was going to make headway on fulfilling her promises to her brother. So, as soon as she felt she'd heard all the important latest developments, she waited for an opportune pause and then said, "Christine, this may come out of left field, but I have a couple of confessions to make."

Christine arched a curious eyebrow and waited to hear more.

Katherine had previously decided that the closer she could come to the truth with Christine, the better off she'd be, as there would be fewer lies she'd have to keep (although there were many things she would have to keep completely secret, no matter what). So she said, "It's not like I have a thing for my brother, meaning some kind of sexual or romantic thing. Of course not! But I am kind of, well, possessive of him. I mean, isn't that natural? Do you know what I mean from having a brother or sister of your own?"

Christine replied, "No, I'm an only child."

Katherine thought, That figures. That would help explain all the intense pressure and expectations obviously coming from her parents. But she said, "Well, even as siblings go, Alan and I are really close. We don't fight all the time like lots of siblings do. In fact, he's not just my brother, he's my best friend in the whole world. Well, him and Amy. But the thing is, I spend a lot of time with him. Things were going good between us and I didn't want it to change. So, when he got all interested in you, especially this last year when his crush intensified, I was jealous. Well, maybe jealous isn't the right word. Possessive, is what I mean. You know? God, this is so hard to explain!"

She was genuinely blushing, because explaining even this much was difficult. Further, skirting this close to the truth of her incestuous relationship was even more difficult and also embarrassing. However, she also figured that this explanation would help to reduce Christine's suspicions further down the road. If she showed any jealous behavior regarding Alan, Christine hopefully would write it off as sisterly possessiveness.

Christine wasn't the most touchy-feely type, but she did manage to clinically say, "I understand. Please. Go on."

Katherine continued, "So the upshot of that is that I've kept my distance from you. You and I, I think we could actually be good friends. Don't you think? But I never approached you, because I thought that you were the one that was going to steal Alan away. I don't mind Alan going out with Amy at all, because we're best friends and she's so nice. In fact, I was the one who helped bring them together. Amy comes over to our house to hang out with Alan and me just about every day these days, so in a way things are better for me since they started going out because I get to see both of them a lot more than before. But if it were you and him, you two would always be gone, off on some date or another. Or at least that's what I thought. I'm sorry. I can be so immature sometimes."

Christine blurted out, "That you can. You have so much untapped potential. You should hear what the teachers say about you." She would have said more, but then belatedly realized she was being outright rude with someone she hardly knew. She backtracked, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to come out..."

Katherine just smiled. Inwardly, she was upset at Christine's cheekiness, but she didn't let it show. She also wanted to know what the teachers had to say, but she let that slide too. She very diplomatically replied, "You have a good point there, but let's not talk about that now. I'm telling you the issues I've had with you and my brother and why that's hindered a friendship. Can you consider what I said?"

Christine nodded and thought about Katherine's words. It occurred to her that since Katherine and Alan were so close, Katherine could be a big obstacle to any romantic relationship Christine might develop with Alan. It would be very smart to befriend Katherine so that she wouldn't mind her and Alan being together, much in the same way that she didn't mind Alan being with Amy. But instead of saying any of that out loud, she just nodded silently.

Katherine knew that Christine was right in her complaint. She knew she was actually much smarter than people generally gave her credit for, but she didn't utilize her intelligence as much as she could. However, she had used her smarts to give serious consideration overnight as to the best way to approach Christine. She would have been delighted by Christine's reasoning had she known her thoughts, because that was the exact reaction she was hoping to get. However, now came the hard part.

Katherine said, "I didn't realize just how much the idea of you and Alan going out bothered me, at least not until last night. Then, when I heard that you two were going out on yet another date, I got really worried. Not only were you going to take him away from my home, but you were also going to steal him from Amy."

Christine started to protest. "It wasn't-"

But Katherine held her hand up and stopped Christine before she could start. "Wait please. Let me finish first. I'm not saying that was what you were going to do, and I know it wasn't even a real date; I'm just saying that's how I felt. I got myself worked up. So worked up, in fact, that I kind of, uh..." She found herself blushing again. "I, uh, I kind of spied on the two of you in the restaurant. I overheard every single word you both said. And that's why I want to apologize."

Christine became highly irate in an instant. "You did WHAT?!" she thundered.

Katherine looked up into Christine's eyes pleadingly. "I am SOOO sorry! Since then, I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I've realized how immature I've been about the whole thing. Whatever your relationship with Alan is should be a matter just between the two of you. It's silly for me to be so possessive. I mean, come on; I'm not his keeper! So please. Can you forgive me? Maybe not today, but someday? I know what I did was wrong - that's why I'm confessing. I feel so bad, and I want to make it up to you somehow."

Christine could be extremely emotional, but at the same time she had a very rational and analytical mind. The emotional part of her was outraged at Katherine. Privacy was extremely important to her, and she didn't forgive slights easily. But the intellectual part of her brain realized that there was much to be said about being friends with Katherine. For one thing, the opportunities that could provide her to get closer to Alan were obvious, and being with Alan was Christine's top priority at that moment. For another, she realized that she had very few true friends. She genuinely looked forward to being Katherine's friend.

Christine had many casual friends and acquaintances at school, but none of them were close friends that she could confide in with deep issues. Everyone was scared of her brutal honesty and demanding moral code, and with good reason. Furthermore, her outstanding looks and stellar academic achievements put her on such a high pedestal that people admired her and were friendly to her, but no one felt worthy of casually talking to her one on one as equals. Yet that was exactly how Katherine had been treating her ever since she'd sat down, like an unintimidated equal. In fact, Katherine was being as brutally frank and honest to Christine as Christine usually was to others.

Christine was impressed, even as feelings of intense anger surged through her. Normally she would have exploded in an angry tirade at such an outrageous violation of her privacy, but she very deliberately kept her mouth shut and tried to let the feelings pass. A whole range of emotions crossed her face as she stared at Katherine with almost-comically shut lips and lividly twitching eyebrows. Then she closed her eyes and frowned mightily.

Katherine was sweating bullets as a minute passed and Christine still hadn't said a word. But she'd given a lot of thought on how to best approach Christine and she knew this was an important test. Christine was an unintentional master of the "look that could kill." It was very tempting for Katherine to look away, but she knew it was important not to cower in fear. So, while her eyes continued to stare at Christine, in her mind she forced herself to think happy thoughts about Alan instead, to calm her nerves. She imagined how proud he would be if she successfully befriended Christine, even as she told her the truth about the spying and apologized for it.

Surely he'll reward me, she thought. When I tell him the good news, I'll bet he's going to unzip his shorts and drop his big fat schlong right in my face. Tickle my nose with it even, hee-hee. A good fuck toy gets rewarded, and Alan is a generous master. Just think if Big Brother allows me to suck his cock when I get home! Wouldn't that be lovely? Wouldn't that just be to die for? Whatever Brother wants me to do, whatever he wants me to say to Christine or anyone else, I'll do it!

Katherine had gotten so far into her fantasy that her eyes glazed over and a small smile came to her face.

Chapter 2

Katherine's strange smile finally made Christine break the strained quiet between them, after two solid minutes of total silence. Christine's eyes narrowed and her gaze sharpened as she said suspiciously, "Katherine? Why are you smiling?"

Katherine quickly snapped back to reality. "Yes. Uh, I was just thinking. I was thinking that you were going to yell at me, but after a while you didn't say anything so I was smiling because I was happy that you weren't going to yell."

She mentally patted herself on the back, as that sounded fairly plausible. Again, she thought, If Christine only knew! If she could read minds, I guess I'd discover just how good she is at kicking ass, firsthand.

Christine grumbled, not at all mollified, "Well, I SHOULD yell at you, that's for sure. But who am I to cast the first stone? I've been thinking. How can I really blame you, because I understand how Alan inspires feelings of intense loyalty. The truth is, I've been doing more than my fair share of spying lately too, mostly because I want to protect him from harm. So I shouldn't be that angry. But I am! I'm DAMN angry!" She felt the bitter feelings rise again, but somehow she just barely managed to bring those feelings under control.

Finally, she sat back and sighed. Most of the tension seemed to flow out of her. She looked up and down the hallway (belatedly realizing with alarm that she'd gotten so involved with Katherine that she'd been failing to keep a good lookout). She sighed in relief as she realized no one was there.

After another but less awkward long pause to collect her thoughts, she said, "I'm upset, but it'll pass. Don't worry. As you can tell, I'm a little high strung and temperamental. My parents have so many high expectations for me. I think I take things too seriously."

She let out yet another world-weary sigh and looked up and down the hallway. "For instance, I'm probably taking guarding Alan far too seriously. It's not like the football players are going to burst into the classroom behind us and assault him while he's with a teacher, but here I am, waiting for the off chance he might leave early. You seem like a reasonable person. Can you tell me when I'm taking this whole bodyguarding thing too far?"

Katherine smiled. "Sure. But you'd have to go pretty far before I'd say anything, because I obviously don't want any harm to come to him either. No way, José!"

Christine frowned, momentarily deep in thought as she pondered some of the different ways Alan might come to harm. But then she said, "Of course when I spy on people, or my friends spy on people, those are enemies. It's one thing to spy on an enemy, but quite another to spy on a friend. Maybe up until last night you thought of me as an enemy, but if you're sincere about being friends, I can give it my best shot too."

She turned around to face Katherine as she said this and gave her a wonderful smile. For someone known as icy, she could nonetheless turn on the charm, and when she did it was almost always with genuine emotion.

"I think we both could learn from each other and help each other. But there's one thing I want to get clear. I'm not trying to steal Alan away from Amy. After all, it's not like he'd ever want to go out with the likes of ME."

Christine sighed again as she thought about that last sentence. She was a complicated person, and one such complication was that while she was supremely confident in most things, she had nearly zero self-confidence when it came to anything sexual or romantic, despite her extremely outstanding good looks. While she realized objectively that people thought of her as beautiful, deep down she felt like she was big and ugly. Given a choice, she'd rather have been cute and petite than the broad shouldered, curvy, athletic shape her body had become.

Katherine replied, "What, are you mental? You're so totally hot that it hurts. You know the only reason why all the guys in this school aren't falling all over each other to ask you out? It's because you're so beautiful that they're intimidated."

Christine gave a wan smile. Her anger at Katherine had mostly passed because now she was busy feeling sorry for herself. "Thanks. That's kind of you to say, but I know that's not the only reason they're shy around me. I'm the school's notorious 'Ice Queen.' Maybe you and I could talk about that some time and you could give me some pointers on how I can change that. I'd like that. But I still want to clear the air about my intentions with Alan."

She paused, and then continued, "Damn, now that I think about it, you heard everything last night already. Oh God, how embarrassing! It's a good thing we're going to be friends; otherwise I'd have to kick your ass!" She said this only half in jest, and in fact her hands were still clenching at her sides. "I meant what I said, what you overheard. You know from that that I'm not um, well, romantically experienced..."

She blushed and had another surge of anger as it started to hit her just how much Katherine had overheard, but she pressed on, "And, well, since Alan already has a girlfriend, all I really want from him is for him to, you know, kind of..."

Katherine could see Christine's extreme embarrassment and helped her finish her thought: "Help you out in the inexperience department?"

"Yes. Well..." Christine was grateful for the assistance, but nonetheless she blushed even more furiously. "It's not like I want to be his girlfriend ... Well, okay, that's not entirely truthful either. I would, if it weren't for Amy, but I am NOT going to try to steal him away from her. No way! For one thing, she's so kind and so nice. Who in their right mind would ever want to hurt her? And it's not like he'd ever want me over her in a million years in the first place ... Oh God. Listen to me! I sound so pathetic. One minute I'm pissed off and the next minute I'm wallowing - you must think I'm totally schizo."

She sighed, then recovered. "But you know what? I feel a lot better, just talking about it. I never talk about this stuff with anyone." Suddenly, her voice sharpened again and she glared at Katherine. "You WILL keep all of this completely confidential, won't you?"

Katherine merely nodded. "My lips are sealed on anything we say, including what I overheard last night."

Katherine found it hard not to be intimidated by Christine, this close up and personal. Christine simply radiated charisma and authority. But every time she felt like cowering and groveling before the "Ice Queen" for her forgiveness, her jealousy surged up hot and fierce again. She thought, I will NOT prostrate myself to beg for mercy from the likes of Christine!

"How can I trust you?" Christine demanded. "After what you did last night, give me one good reason to believe I'm not making a huge mistake even telling you the things I just did." Her confidence came back now that the topic had moved to safer ground.

"Well, for one thing," Katherine replied, "after I got home last night I told everyone in my family exactly what I'd done. Amy was there too, since it affected her as well. I made a solemn vow that I would never do that kind of thing again, and that, in fact, I'd find a way to make it up to you. Ask Alan or Amy. If I screw up again, believe me, Alan especially will have my ass."

As soon as those words left her mouth, Katherine had a hard time keeping a straight face. She had to pause and pretend like there was something in her eye. I hope that's true, in a very literal way! She pulled herself together and finished, "He specifically told me that if I made any further mistakes with you he'd go postal. Ask him about that yourself if you want."

Christine thought about that. "Good. That gives me some reassurance, at least. I'd like to try this friendship thing out, but if you say one word..."

Suddenly, Christine's mind got distracted by other thoughts. "Hey. I have a question. My idea about Alan helping me with my inexperience, that's predicated on this whole notion of Amy not really caring about sharing him with others. Is that really for real? I mean, really? Completely truly? I keep hearing that, even from Amy's lips, but I just don't believe it."

Katherine smiled broadly. "Yep. Alan has a LOT of lovers. All of them are gorgeous girls. And Amy really is totally cool with it."

Christine's bewilderment was written all over her face. "But why?"

"First off, she really is as sweet and sharing as she appears. Plus, most of his other relationships pre-dated when they started going out, so it just seemed natural to keep things going. She knows he couldn't give them up - he's too addicted to the variety, and he loves some of them too much - so she didn't ask him to. Also, she knows that if she didn't agree to that arrangement, a lot of other very desirable girls would be in line who would."

"Is that all? So she's basically agreeing under duress?"

"Not hardly! I mean, if you have a boyfriend and he does something impressive, that's a feather in your cap too, right?"

"Yeah?" Christine could see where this was going, and didn't like it.

"So ... Amy likes it when Alan sleeps with other women. The more impressive they are, the better. It just proves what a great catch he is, you know? And Amy doesn't have a jealous bone in her body, so why not?"

Chapter 3

Katherine could see that this line of reasoning was only going to provoke an argument, so she quickly shifted gears. "But if I could change the topic, I hate to bring up my eavesdropping again, but I heard you basically ask to be one of his helpers, as you put it. What happened to your outrage about that arrangement?"

Christine dropped her head in shame. "I know. I should be outraged. But I get these ... urges. And dreams. I keep having all these different dreams about Alan. I've become fixated about him being the one who will ... you know..." She didn't need to complete her sentence, as it was clear she was talking about him taking her virginity.

Katherine slipped into the mannerisms of a psychologist. "I see. There's nothing to be ashamed about with that. Every girl your age has similar urges and dreams." She then dropped the psychologist act to add, "I've even got them myself, so it's not like you're the only one with that sort of problem."

"Really?" Christine looked up at Katherine with uncertain hope and more than a little surprise.

Katherine thought, Hee! If you only knew just how similar my dreams are to yours. They even star the same guy! Hee-hee! But you poor thing, you seem to think having any sexual urge is a sin. What cave have you been living in? She replied, "Speaking for myself, I have all kinds of crazy dreams and fantasies. It's just a part of life."

But Christine persisted, "You don't understand. My dreams are very ... disturbing. They're weird! Bizarre! I don't act like myself, not like I should act at all. I act like ... Well, I can't tell you."

Katherine joked, "Who do you act like? Wonder Woman?"

Christine's jaw dropped. She was absolutely floored. She blushed down to her chest as she stared at Katherine like she was some kind of mind reader. "Wha... ? How? How did you know?!"

Now it was Katherine's turn to be surprised. Whoa! What's this? The queen of the "Goody-goodies" is having kinky Wonder Woman dreams? Maybe there's hope for her yet!

But seeing panic rising in Christine's face, she quickly explained, "Um, sorry, that was just a wild guess, just something completely off the wall. You said really bizarre, and then for some reason I got to thinking about your Wonder Woman T-shirt. It really sticks out because you don't wear any other clothes with any kind of logos or sayings on them at all; everything is very high class. But then you have that simple shirt with the Wonder Woman artwork on it."

Still dreadfully embarrassed, Christine explained, "I know. I got that as a present from my parents. I kind of have to wear it every now and then or they'd be offended. Plus, I've kind of always been a big fan."

Christine paused, and then buried her head in her hands as the implications of all that was said became clear. Oh no! My deepest secret is out! I'll never be able to live it down! She looked ready to cry.

Katherine thought about this. What's going on here? Obviously she's not freaking just because she's a fan of Wonder Woman. That's no big deal. Dreams of herself as Wonder Woman are no big deal either. But I remember that old show and Alan used to have a bunch of the comic books. There was a kind of sexual bondage theme going on, now that I think about it. Wonder Woman was always getting caught and tied up. I'll go out on a limb and bet THOSE are the kinds of dreams she's having. Especially since she's got the hots for Big Brother. There's something about him that makes a girl all weak-kneed and submissive and wanting to suck cock with her hands tied behind her back. Or maybe that last bit is just me, tee-hee!

I could totally picture Christine as Wonder Woman, held captive by Alan and forced to strip off her own uniform, forced to SERVE! Her super powers would be completely useless against my brother's super cock, hee-hee! That would be really hot. It would almost be worth it to have her join the harem, just so I could see Brother titfuck her while she's all helpless and angry, still wearing bits and pieces of her Wonder Woman outfit.

She had a Eureka moment as she continued to think. I know! This could be my big chance to solve the whole Christine problem and save the harem from her relentless curiosity. It's risky, but I've got to give it a shot.

She said, "Christine, look. First of all, your secrets are completely safe with me. I'm on big time probation with Alan and if I mess up again he'll totally kill me. So don't worry about that. In fact, the dreams you have aren't strange at all. I have all kinds of similar dreams myself. For instance, sometimes I dream that I'm one of the Bond girls, working for the enemy. James Bond captures me - personally, I prefer the Pierce Brosnan version, though he's a bit old - and tortures vital secrets out of me. Sexually tortures me. He ties me up and does all kinds of stuff to me."

Shock again crossed Christine's face, but now it was from curiosity, not shame. "What kind of stuff?"