Chapter 103: I Have a Tough Morning Shopping

Saturday, April 23, 2005 (Continued)

Julia needed to tell her parents that we had to leave Ava behind so we could rush out to do our very important shopping (I thought of it differently), so Julia steered us to her parents' bedroom. They weren't there, so we headed downstairs. Meanwhile, Julia was explaining, "I was just setting her up for some attitude adjustment. Ava will be good if she can be trained the way I want. Of all the girls we know so far, whether you've 'initiated' them or not, she's the only one I can imagine living with us in our house at the mansion."

"At the mansion! We don't even have the money yet, and you're already thinking about populating it. With Ava? Really? I've never thought about anyone other than the three of us, and your including Ava surprises me?"

"I haven't included her yet. I meant that I imagine that she COULD work out that well. We need to get to know her a lot better yet, but Carol and I spent a long time talking to her at your place and she is VERY dedicated to you. You may not have talked to her enough to see that yet, but she is VERY hooked on you, and she has been for many weeks. That's the most important attitude a person can have. If I can get her to obey us without making a nuisance of herself by having to understand everything before she acts, if she proves trustworthy, and if several other requirements are met, then why not? It'd be fun to have her available whenever any of us want, and she can do things for us: shopping, housework, errands, etc. Why should any of us bother with any of that? The immediate difficulty is getting her to stop being annoying. Her lack of smarts is useful, but sometimes a pain. Maybe she's so independent and self-willed because she's an only-child. I hope she can learn to change for us."

We arrived in the kitchen to find the whole family and The Boys' girlfriends there. They all congratulated me for my two 100% results. I hadn't known that Sophia and Ashley were aware that I was doing any college courses, but their congratulations told me that they did.

Julia pulled her father away to quickly - valuable shopping time was being lost - tell him that Ava was in our room, and to be careful that Ashley and Sophia didn't see Ava leave, especially considering the way she'd be walking. Then we called out quick "Goodbyes," and left.

In the car Julia called Carol. There were a few topics Julia wanted to quickly discuss:

• My two 100% results and what they meant for the future. I did some wincing.

• Updating Carol about Ava. Asking Carol to keep out of contact for a couple of days, while Ava stewed. If Ava called her, Carol was just to say "I'll wait to hear what Mark decides before I see you again," and to wish Ava good luck.

• I relayed through Julia a request that Carol bring my soccer gear to the soccer grounds before the game, "Because we'll be too busy shopping to come get it." (I did my best to keep my tone polite.)

After that call was over, Julia told me, "What happened with Ava this morning was different than I'd planned. Dad's news and a few other things changed it around, but I think it worked better, especially Dad's news. That really impressed her."

"Especially after how much you inflated its importance. That was brilliant."

"{Raspberry}."

We were pulling up at our first stop, so urgent shopping matters bumped every other topic of conversations.

The first stop was Rocky's, so the rest of the day could only get better.

I got to meet Nigel. I'll just say that I felt a LOT more comfortable with Rocky, and leave that to your imagination. Shudder. There's a great deal about that visit that I don't want to think about again, but I'll mention a few.

^

Rocky said, "As you're wearing one, I guess the two outfits were a success at school?"

Julia praised the outfits, and graphically described how they'd been received. She went over the top about how wonderful they were, but that's Julia's nature.

We'd only been in the place a couple of minutes when Nigel said, "I'd LOVE to design some darling little outfits for Markie."

Julia said, "He's still growing so we'll hold off on doing much of that until he stops."

"He couldn't be growing any cuter."

Julia said, "I want a couple of very sexy outfits for Mark."

Rocky said, "I've got the perfect pants out back, I'll get them for you."

Rocky was back a few seconds later, holding up a pair of what I will call "pants", although that's even less accurate than calling yesterday's rag a "shirt". The 'pants' had VERY important parts missing.

I said, "Haha. Guys must look REALLY stupid with their underwear exposed like that."

"You don't wear underwear with these."

That means... , OH MY GOD! They were indecent! Really, truly INDECENT. Get arrested, go to jail, indecent.

Julia laughed, and said, "Sorry. I meant for wearing in public. To impress the girls at school. Although those pants would impress them, all right, haha. Maybe Mark will buy that outfit for me, for my birthday."

#1: <Mental notes to self: (a) Find out when Julia's birthday is. (b) Buy flowers.>

Nigel asked, "Why not try them on now, Markie?"

Markie told him why not. In no uncertain terms, loudly and twice! I wanted there to be NO doubt!

Rocky and Nigel fussed around - no one can "fuss" like Nigel - looking for something for me to be embarrassed in that wasn't a federal offense. After seeing those pants I was tempted to believe that nothing could ever embarrass me again, but I knew something would, that it was bound to be in this store, and that Julia would buy it for me to wear.

^

As a special treat (I swear that's what she said), Julia bought me a pair of pants that I couldn't wear underwear with. Fortunately they were NOTHING like as bad as the previous pair, or I would have mutinied. These had two- or three-inch gaps on the outside of each leg, which were held together by criss-crossing leather cords. The bad news was that the gaps ran ALL the way up the outside of each leg, from the cuff to the waistband, so my hips were exposed, hence no underwear.

Julia said, "They're probably a bit too much for school," I didn't correct her (they were actually a quite a lot too little for school), "but you can wear them on special occasions." Like the next time I attended a dinner party on the moon.

I kicked up a surprising (to me) lack of fuss. I must've still been in shock over the previous pair of pants.

^

Do you remember how I felt secure knowing that it was not possible for there to be a shirt more embarrassing than the cut-off, cut-out, curse of a shirt that I'd had to wear yesterday? It turned out that I was mistaken. Rocky suggested, "What about a mesh shirt?"

Julia said, "GOOD idea!"

I didn't know what Rocky was talking about, but I didn't like the enthusiastic sound of Julia's agreement. I should have worried more. Rocky held up a fishing net that had been shaped into a travesty of a shirt. It was 99% holes and 1% strands of whatever the fabric was, arranged in a diamond pattern with the strands about a quarter of an inch apart. It was completely and utterly absurd.

Julia said, "I'll take two, in white and black."

"Hang on a minute! I can't wear those. I'd look ridiculous. I'd be the laughing stock of school. I'd rather go topless than wear one of those things."

"It's a rule that you have to wear a shirt to school. One of these would be PERFECT for when you have lunch with Donna's friends on Thursday."

"You want me to be the laughing stock of the entire high AND middle schools!"

Julia turned to Rocky to ask, "Do you have them in pink?"

I talked Julia into buying only the white and black ones.

The strands of the black one had thin, shiny threads inside them. Wasn't that nice? The shininess distracted from my nipples, so I preferred it to the white, which accentuated them (Nigel had pointed that out).

^

Did you know they make see-through shirts for guys? They do. Isn't that good to know? (Hint: the answer's got two letters.) Julia picked out several of them, one of which was vermilion.

^

Rocky never once mentioned my missing sisters, which was a bit of discretion I appreciated.

I found out that most of Rocky's business didn't come from local Corvallis residents, but from mail-order and people coming to Rocky's from many of the neighboring cities. Apparently Nigel had a considerable reputation, which was no surprise at all.

We spent two hours in Rocky's before I could make my escape. Fortunately the rest of our shopping was merely tedious, as clothes shopping should be, as opposed to terrifying and traumatizing. Especially the latter, as I couldn't get rid of the image of a guy wearing those first no-underwear 'pants'.

We got me some nice, sensible clothes. "Not many, because you're still growing." Where was that logic when I needed it, at Rocky's?

Julia also bought me a couple of VERY nice outfits, "So you can look wealthy when you go to casinos. They'll be suspicious if you look poor and are betting so much." It's very easy to make yourself look wealthy, you just spend all your wealth on one outfit. Julia did it twice. That's just my way of saying they were REALLY expensive. Julia's shopping process is completely different from anyone's in my family. We're on one side of profligate; she's on the other side, vanishing in the distance.

I considered all the hours I'd worked in my summer job the last three summers, and how many minutes the total accumulated sum would have lasted in Julia's hands. Being with a girl on a shopping spree is a scary experience. One I hoped never to repeat. I already knew it was a foolish hope, no matter how strong I hoped it, because Julia was already planning on a BIG shopping spree for when I stop growing and are rich (which I suspect will only be a temporary condition).

I was starting to get very concerned about how much this was all costing. What she was spending today plus last Saturday's shopping with Carol had to add up to a ridiculous amount. Poor Prof and Vanessa. They may not have been poor a week and half ago, but they must be by now.

[I found out later, in a conversation about the roulette scheme, that Prof and Vanessa were fairly well off. Not rich, but they'd inherited a very useful amount of money many years ago. They'd made the serious mistake of letting their daughter into a teenager, but other than that, they'd looked after their money well.]

Julia gave me a break in the middle of all our clothes shopping. She told me she'd make an 11 o'clock appointment for me at a hairdressers.

"I won't need a haircut for a few more weeks yet."

After my haircut we had lunch. I couldn't believe:

• How long it takes to get a haircut in one of those fancy places, and

• That I'd managed to get my way with anything during this excursion. She'd actually agreed when I begged, "PLEASE can we stop for lunch?"

After a hurried lunch, one of us dragged the other back to clothes shopping.

The relatively unimportant clothes were left to last (I say "relatively", because they were still clothes, and therefore VERY important): just some casual shirts and pants, and even a pair of jeans. For the price of my new jeans I could've bought at least five pairs from my usual store.

I got a billfold, and Julia suggested a watch because mine was so ugly.

I said, "It'll only be a few weeks, maybe only two or three, until we earn the big money from my business idea. Wouldn't it make sense to wait until then, and buy a good one?" My current watch did annoy me, so I did want a good watch, maybe even a very good one. Once we'd earned millions I'd be perfectly happy to spend as much as two hundred dollars on a very good one, so buying a reasonable one now was silly.

Apparently my current watch was so ugly that waiting a few weeks was not something that Julia could bear, so I got a cheap, but much better looking, new watch. My old watch was immediately removed and my new one put on. I caught Julia about to throw my old one in a trash can, but I rescued it for a spare.

On the topic of time, I was getting worried over the lack of it, as I like to have a LITTLE time with my teammates and coach before a game. They like to discuss the opposing team, strategy and other things they consider more important than shopping.

Julia said, "I suppose we've got enough to last you for a while. We can always come back another day."

That was close enough to an agreement to stop that I kept my mouth shut. We headed back to the car.

We drove to our opponent's school, parked and locked the car up very carefully, as I'd HATE to have to repeat all that shopping if my new clothes were stolen. I found Dad's car and all of my family waiting by it. I didn't have much time, so I asked them to keep a look out while I got changed in their car. Donna kept a look in, thus all directions were covered. Then we headed off to the field and to find my teammates.

When we rounded the last of the school buildings, and should've been able to see the field, we couldn't because of all the girls in the way. I'm exaggerating somewhat, but the difference from what the spectator numbers 'should' have been was immediately apparent. This was only a friendly game because both teams had the weekend off from our normal game schedule, so there should've been very few spectators: some of the immediate family for some of the players, a few friends, the coach, and if we were lucky, a water boy. And that's about it. Sadly not even the cheerleaders since this was only a "friendly". But today, as well as the expected spectators, there were LOTS of nubile young girls (as young girls go, nubile ones are my personal favorites).

Mom said, "There are a lot of girls here."

Julia and Carol laughed.

We were almost immediately spotted, with many of the lovely nubiles greeting us as we got close enough to them. My names (usually "Egg", but sometimes my real name) were called out, with plenty of "Julia's" and a few "Carol's". Most of the girls had come because they were interested in me. Merely "interested", not madly in love or anything extreme like that, so we weren't mobbed. It was a friendly, orderly scene. Thank goodness, because 40-odd disorderly girls would be scary. Most of them merely called and waved a greeting, content to wait and see what happened. Several approached us though, when they had some reason. Laila, for example, who introduced me to her girlfriend Hannah. I had to be abrupt with them all, telling them, "I'll talk after the game, because I have to talk with my teammates now. Sorry."

My teammates were gathered on the field, all but the one of them who's nearly always the last to arrive every game. They were amused, bemused - and I'd like to write "ceemused" but will have to use "happy" - by the appearance of so many girls. They knew the girls had come to see me - "They kept asking us where you were" - but that didn't stop my teammates admiring the many pretty girls. Eye candy is still eye candy, even if it's looking for another guy.

I explained, "Julia and Carol have been spreading the word about how well I played last week, and telling their friends to come see me. I'm sorry there's so many of them. I'll get Julia and Carol to stop inviting other girls along. The last thing we need is a bunch of girls distracting us from playing well." I like teasing my teammates.

As expected, my teammates strongly disagreed with my suggestion. One of them suggested, "He was right to apologize, because they've ALL come to see him. Don't you know that teammates should share equally?"

Another of them (Fred), "I'll be fine, as there are bound to be a few girls who are happy with the team's second best player." Fred was about our tenth best player, in a team of eleven (plus a couple of reserves), so he got booed down.

The coach said, "If we've finished dividing up the spoils of victory, let's discuss strategy. First question: Mark, will you be playing as well as you did last week, or was that a fluke?"

"It would be terrible if any of the girls had to lower their standards down to Fred's level, so I think I'll play like last week." My proximity sense was still working, as it always does these days because I've become almost perfect at keeping center, so I had no worries about that.

So Coach's preferred strategy was, "Pass the ball to Mark." Then he discussed our Plan B, in case I had an off day.

Our last player arrived, apologized again, was reprimanded again, and coach carried on talking.

I saw Vanessa, Prof and Robert join my family five minutes before the whistle blew, so I had every reason to play well. I knew I would. The only way this game wasn't going to go the same way as the last one was if I chose to turn my proximity sense off by uncentering. With everyone important in my life here, not to mention lots of nubile girls too - which I will mention, because they're nubile - that wasn't going to happen. While I remember to mention it, most of my Liaisons were here too, including the newly appointed Pat. Ava was notably absent though, and I didn't expect her. She had both physical and emotional reasons to stay away.

The whistle blew for the start of the game.

Two minutes later I got my first goal. That was a feat that I accomplished a total of fourteen times during the game. I looked AWESOME. I dodged and weaved past the defenders time and time again. I was near perfect at zigging whenever they zagged, and zagging whenever they zigged. I was unstoppable. Maybe not all the time, but the difference between my getting a goal 90% of the time I got the ball, or 100%, was not nearly enough to save the game for CV.

Final score 20 to 2. The other six goals we got were because CV had put too many defenders on me, leaving easy goals for my teammates. That is a truly absurd score in soccer. Even 10 to 2 is absurd. We got 20 goals because it was a "friendly" (so to speak). By halftime their team morale was very poor. They started the second half with a bit of extra effort, but after I got two more quick goals, most of them stopped caring and they played out the game with no heart. They were already beaten, had no chance of clawing it back, and there was nothing at stake; not even their pride because that was long gone. They stopped putting any effort into it.

It wasn't a good game for the spectators either, because the second half was so halfhearted. Even my team stopped playing their best, which is mostly how CV's second goal happened. I was the only one who played properly the whole game, trying to keep the game's energy levels up. Being watched by so many nubile girls might've had an influence too. The only good things that could be said about the game were:

• The first quarter of an hour had been truly exciting watching, as everyone had played hard. The drama of watching CV try their best to fight off my assaults was an exciting element.

• The rest of the first half was moderately enjoyable soccer.

• The weather was reasonable, so the second half wasn't too unpleasant to wait through.

• Everybody knew that I'd DESTROYED the opposing team.

Before the game ended I decided that it might be a good idea for me to sit out friendly games in the future. I'd mention that to our coach, so he could tell their coach, or else they may never want another friendly game with us.

When the final whistle blew the crowd was, for the most part, not excited. They congratulated me and were obviously impressed, but I'd been so much better than my opponents that most of the spectators didn't know what to make of it. It was like an adult soccer player playing to the best of his ability on a field of seven-year olds. How could you get excited about his performance? This wasn't quite the same as that, because I appeared equivalent to all the other players (in our baggy shirts, I did look like the others), but I was so obviously in an entirely different league that ordinary excitement seemed misplaced.

I went to stand with my family, and most of my team followed me. My team were excited because we'd lost hard games against CV before, so winning one was enjoyable for them. My family and the Williamses were excited, because my demonstration confirmed their opinions of my special nature, which had implications in other, more important, areas.

[They were also somewhat worried, and seeing me in such impressive action prompted a later conversation about the risk of public displays of such a high degree of athleticism. The four parents were obviously much more worried about my showing my TK publicly than my athleticism, but they suggested that even the physical side of my abilities needed to be displayed with some caution. Nothing bad was expected from my being a great soccer player, but they advised against running marathons in sub-world record times, or bowling multiple 300-point games.]

There were also a few spectators who understood soccer enough to appreciate what they'd witnessed, and they sought me out too. One such was CV's coach, who was unstinting in his praise, expressing total amazement at my improvement since the last time he'd seen me play. He then left, to go talk with his team. As a result of there being a group of people around me who were genuinely happy, the atmosphere was raised around us. Girls who joined our group had their spirits lifted too. I didn't worry about anyone else. At worst they'd be awed and confused. With any luck they'd ask Julia for her advice, and if they were pretty girls, they'd soon be in my bed.

I'd met nearly all the girls who'd come to see me play, either from my 10th grade classes, or from lunch with Carol's friends. I was able to greet them all by name, which especially pleased Carol's friends. My remembering all their names surprised me too. I'd partly used the colors of their clothes at that lunch, and they'd changed clothes since then, but I still managed to get them all right. I had to temporarily uncenter to get a couple of them, but I did get them all.

After some conversation that's not worth reporting, Laila did a good thing. Not intentionally, but it worked out well. Laila brought Hannah back to meet me again, and we got to chatting a bit. Hannah was a friend of Laila's four-year older sister, which made Hannah about twenty. Laila quietly aked Julia and me (Julia being attached to my arm), "Is it okay to talk about sex stuff now?"

I looked around: my girlfriend, her parents and one brother, my parents and younger sisters, assorted other girls and teammates. No problem that I could see. "Sure. No problem, say whatever you want." Julia had already agreed.

Laila said to Julia, in a normal tone of voice, "I told Hannah that Mark is as good at sex as he is at soccer, and she'd like to find out for herself. She's not at school, so I wasn't sure whether the Liaison system applied or not?" It's a funny thing about human nature: mention the word "sex" in a crowd, and EVERYONE notices. Any other word and no one even hears it. The noise level of the conversations around me dropped dramatically, as people listened in.

Julia said, "He's better at sex. Soccer is competitive and the other team got depressed and gave up. I haven't thought about what to do with girls from outside of school. Mark will be getting to know some of those, but I haven't bothered thinking about it yet. If Hannah just wants to have a screw, that's probably easier to arrange, but I need to think about that. I'll get back to you later. Let's say you're her Liaison for now, okay?"

All the Liaisons had been told to be very open about how good I was at sex - even to advertise it - and that our families were cool with it. Laila also knew first-hand that Julia's family was accepting of these things, so she knew she was on safe ground. Most of the listening girls and all of my teammates weren't aware that our attitudes were so open, and were shocked to various degrees. They were expecting an explosion.

Laila answered Julia, "Okay. That's what I expected. I told Hannah how many orgasms Mark gave me on Thursday and she was very envious."

"I'll say," confirmed Hannah. "No guy has given me anywhere near that many. Most guys think they're Mr. Wonderful if they can get me to cum once."

Julia declared, "I'm so lucky having Mark. He can always give me as many as I want."

Pat, who was hovering nearby, agreed vehemently, "God yes! Mark's awesome. I've never heard of anyone having as good a time as Lily and I did Thursday night." Pat had obviously been waiting for the chance to do so, and she continued right on with, "Thank you very much for letting me be a Liaison, Mark. I'll do a really good job, and I won't be greedy like Dakota was."

I was saying, "You're welcome," when Julia quietly told me, "Kiss her."

That was obviously a MUCH better way of showing appreciation, as it was both for my benefit and for the benefit of all the girls watching, so I did so. Pat cooperated enthusiastically.

A few seconds into it I heard Julia laugh, then say, "Don't look like you expect me to complain. It was me who suggested to Pat that she sleep with Mark in the first place, so I'm hardly going to object to them kissing."

Pat finished our kiss as Julia finished talking to the watching girls. Pat turned to Julia and said, "That's true. I owe it all to you Julia. Can I thank you too?"

Julia agreed, and my teammates couldn't believe what happened next. Pat's recent discovery of the joys of bisexuality and her knowing that Julia was an active participant in it, had motivated Pat's choice of method to expression appreciation.

"Christ, Egg! You lucky bastard. You score even better off the field than on it."

Julia, with a few supporting comments from me, spent the next few minutes explaining to the nearby crowd that there was going to be a great deal of sex going on around me while I looked for a new girlfriend or two to compensate for Julia spending so much time with Carol. Julia affectionately introduced Carol to everyone, as some of them didn't know who she was. The explanation was made in front of both sets of parents. It was one thing for some of these girls to be told at lunch that our parents were cool with it, but it was FAR more convincing for them to see it voiced in front of all the parents involved. The conversation lasted until nearly 4 o'clock (in soccer, each half is forty five minutes. With the half-time break and sometimes a little injury time, a game lasts SLIGHTLY more than one and a half hours. Compared to football's incessantly boring stop-go-stop nature, soccer is nonstop).

Prof said, "I've got to drop the family home, then head off for a fun conversation with the Dean. So we'll make our departure now. Impressive game, Mark."

In the middle of the goodbyes Julia said, "We should head off too, Mark. We've got to unload the car, and decide which half of it goes in my house or in yours. That'll take a while."

Groan. I'd thought the whole shopping thing was behind me. Hoping to diminish the pain I said, "Why don't we just dump them all at your place, as there's no room in my closet at home?"

"We OBVIOUSLY have to take some of them to your place, otherwise you'd have nothing to wear when you go to school from your home."

OBVIOUSLY I would have something to wear: the clothes that I've already got at home. For some reason Julia was assuming they didn't exist any longer. I feared I knew the reason for that, but I was too scared to ask. Carol wanted to come with us, to see ALL my clothes at Julia's place. I pointed out, "You'll see them all eventually anyway, when I wear them."

Carol and Julia looked at me like I was either simple-minded or male (it was difficult to discern which of those two they were blaming me for). It'd probably be best if I said nothing. It was clearly going to take quite a long time to sort through my clothes at Julia's place (groan), and I'd hate to delay dinner, so we had to leave too. That broke up the party. Julia made me kiss all the Liaisons, but only them, "Because we've got more important things to do." I've got a girlfriend that thinks sorting through already purchased clothes is more important than my kissing beautiful, nubile girls. There's something seriously wrong with my life.

In the car Julia said, "I'll send a text message to Ava, to encourage her."

Julia sent: "Soccer 20-2 bc Mark deadly. Carol strongly insists u can be good girl. Mark n I still undecided about u."

Carol was telling us about Gia's begging for forgiveness this morning, when Julia's phone received a reply from Ava, "Sorry I miss game, 2 sore. Congrats to Mark. I can be VERY good girl, promise. Pls 1 more try?"

Julia didn't reply, and the conversation with Carol about Gia resumed. Then Carol's phone got a message from Ava, "Tyvm for help w Mark. U wonderful. I love u, xxx."

Julia and Carol had a good laugh. I was puzzled, so Julia explained, "Ava has never said she loves Carol before. It's excessive as a thank you. She's trying to motivate Carol to help her even more."