Chapter 1

Dave Adams had often been told that he had been born lucky and after considerable self reflection he had come to the conclusion that those who said it were probably right for the most part. If he had been a character featuring in a fictional story, he more than likely would have failed the Mary-Sue litmus test as far as looks, skills, and knowledge were concerned.

He was tall for his age, and quite athletic. His bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence was significantly above average, allowing him to learn new body-movements more easily than most people and giving him an edge in both his martial arts training and his ability to learn new dances, the latter making him rather popular with the ladies. His eyes were an unusual shade of green which girls seemed to find simply mesmerising. He had good skin, and pleasant features which were showing the beginnings of the ruggedly handsome look. That had made him popular with both girls his age as well as older girls ... until the older girls found out about his true age and broke off all meaningful contact. Then there was the fact that the other facets of his intelligence enabled him to maintain near perfect marks in challenging classes with relatively little effort. He could have skipped at least one grade, but his mother, Angelica Adams née Lawson, had urged him to enjoy his youth while he could.

If Dave had to make an educated guess, he would have attributed her philosophy to the fact that she gave birth to him a month after her fourteenth birthday, just like her mother had given birth to her a month past her fourteenth birthday. She was now twenty-eight, and if his grandmother hadn't died of unexpected complications after giving birth to his baby aunt, she would have been forty-two.

Still, his maternal grandparents had managed to make a decent living. They finished high-school and obtained college degrees despite their jobs and young twins taking up most of their time. Grandpa Mike had helped Dave's mother and father in whatever way he could when they fell prey to the bad luck that had started with his maternal grandmother and contraception. Well, in his grandparents' case it had been teenaged carelessness, but in his parents' case it was definitely bad luck.

Dave was conceived when a condom broke. His younger brother Edward proved that the birth-control pill wasn't infallible, and in the case of his youngest brother — well, his parents didn't even have intercourse! They had decided to wait until they were older and financially stable, making do with oral sex and other alternatives to intercourse. Still, it only took a surface bombardment of his mother's vagina for his father's sperm to leak inside and get her pregnant for the third time. She had her tubes tied after turning eighteen, and his father had a vasectomy, because they deemed themselves too fertile for their own good, and because it was a condition his paternal grandparents insisted on before allowing his parents to remain with them after two pregnancies. As a result, Dave lived at his paternal grandparents' place until his father got his medical residency six years ago, when they moved into a small place of their own in Winnipeg.

With five people to support and his mother working only part-time in order to be there for them after school, things were financially tight. Moreover, his parents hadn't had as much time for them as they would have liked, with his father working an average of seventy hours a week and his mother attending evening classes to earn her Masters in business administration.

Financially, things turned around a year ago when his father finally became a full fledged neurologist and his mother got her Master's degree and the accompanying raise. Family time, however, remained elusive, with Dave assuming responsibility over his younger brothers in the afternoons because his mother started working fulltime. Still, his parents' increased cash flow meant that there was no need whatsoever for financial aid from his paternal grandparents anymore.

Good thing too, since his paternal grandmother passed away six months ago, taking his paternal grandfather's pension with her. She hadn't been young, because Dave's dad was born when she was forty. At sixty-nine, however, she hadn't been old either, and her fatal heart attack was obviously the result of her unhealthy lifestyle.

Consequently, this would be their first Christmas without any grandparents present. His paternal grandmother had flown to Winnipeg every Christmas after Dave and his family moved out of her house. Grandpa Mike moved away from Toronto with his mother's twin brother Bryan and baby sister Iris in 1981. At first they moved to Barrie, which was about a seventy-five minute drive away, and Dave saw him every Christmas until 1985, when he moved to Vancouver to put Iris at ease. She had been at home with her babysitter when the tornado destroyed its upper floor, leaving her with a phobia for severe weather.

His Dad's elder sister, Aunt Michelle, was also living in Barrie at the time, and that was where she hooked up with Uncle Bryan. They moved to Edmonton together as soon as Bryan finished high school. He was fourteen when he got Michelle pregnant with their eldest, and fifteen when he got her pregnant with their youngest. She was ten years his senior, and an overzealous judicial official tried to make a fuss. Since no one had pressed charges, however, (Bryan had been old enough to consent to intercourse, and Michelle hadn't been someone in a position of authority over him, ) the matter ended with no more than some frowns and sounds of disapproval. However, they were still going strong after being together for almost eleven years, so the critics had to eat their words!

Still, he didn't see Bryan, Michelle and their daughters more than once a year either.

This year was different, although Dave wished it wasn't. Uncle Bryan, Aunt Michelle, and their daughters were staying over for Christmas, as was his baby aunt, Iris. It was a good thing that Grandpa Mike was spending Christmas in Paris with his new wife, because Dave doubted there would have been room for them. As it was, the crowdedness was getting on his nerves, as was the fact that he had to sleep on a lumpy futon in the downstairs office that doubled as a guest room.

His parents had taken his bedroom, which was the largest second floor bedroom. The second largest room on the second floor went to his aunt and uncle. His middle and youngest brother shared his youngest brother's room, and the master bedroom on the ground floor had been turned into the teenaged girl dormitory for his baby aunt and two twin-cousins.

Dave sighed. His mother's chipper mood meant that his parents had done unspeakable things on his beloved queen-sized bed, and he realised in hindsight that his Christmas list should have included a new mattress. Not that he didn't see sex as a beautiful thing, of course. Like every kid his age, he couldn't wait to have it. The thought of his parents doing it, however, sent shivers running down his spine, although it also excited him.

He attributed the excitement to the fact that he hadn't been able to sexually relieve himself since the guests arrived. Wary of conditioning himself into becoming a premature ejaculator, Dave always took his sweet time, often playing with himself for almost an hour before allowing himself over the edge. But he didn't have that kind of time now, and he refused to compromise by resorting to quickies. To make matters worse, his visiting female relatives were also extremely attractive, putting additional strain on his libido.

Allowing himself to daydream, he began visualising the girls sharing the master bedroom.

The youngest was Erica. She had auburn hair, which ran in both sides of their family. Like Dave, she had green eyes, although she was said to share her hazel green eyes with their Great-aunt Oliva, and not the sea green eyes which he had: or the emerald green that also ran in his mother and her father's side of the family. She was extremely pale, although she didn't have any freckles typical of redheads.

While she was still a few months shy of twelve, she had probably inherited her height from her father's side of the family because she only surrendered about an inch and a half to her mother. Much to his youngest brother Frank's fury, their cousin—who was three days younger—stood half an inch taller at an even 5'4". He had insisted on a measurement because he'd been unwilling to accept it after standing face to face with her. And even though she was slender, her curves were also quite ample for her age and build.

Dave supposed that was a congenital inevitability. Her mother had ample breasts, and the women on her father's side of the family all had D-cups, or so Dave's mother claimed after taking a good look at her younger sister and humorously welcoming her to the D-cup club and proceeding to tell her that all their aunts and cousins also had them. Then they mutually complained about the lack of proper sports bras for women with their endowments.

Dahlia was Erica's elder sister by thirteen months and a day, and whereas Erica's Cheshire cat grin, sparkling eyes and slightly upturned nose would be described as cute, her elder sister's black locks, perfect Grecian nose, full lips, pronounced cheekbones, and piecing violet eyes gave made her an unapproachable, aristocratic beauty. A guy had to have a lot of self confidence to ask her out, because she was that kind of girl most guys would automatically label as out of their league.