Chapter 138: I Don't Put My Toys Away, or in Chloe's Case, Manage to Get Them Out

Thursday, April 28, 2005

I didn't wake up until after 4am, so my studying time on the new computer system(s) wasn't very long. However, it was very good, as the work flowed much easier. Two reasons stood out. First, the screens are BIG! It's amazing how much better that is for something like lectures, where working out the meaning of a tricky bit can be much easier if the surrounding material is visible. Second, my desk area is now used only for making my own handwritten notes, keeping it very clean and easy to use. My memory is so good these days that I don't make many manual notes, but I do make some. I had my two pads, two pens, and two mouses arranged so I could move between note-taking and screen scrolling very neatly. (Or "two mice"? That would be correct if they were the animal versions, but for some reason "two mouses" seems better in that sentence.) I didn't study for long enough to get any sort of useful statistics for how much faster my study rate had increased, but it felt something like what I'd guessed, about 20%.

The two girls came in, naked again. I don't understand how they can walk around naked, but I'm far too much of a genius to discourage it.

Julia pulled my robe open, saying, "I woke up horny this morning. Would you become hard please, so I can sit on you?"

"What? You want to, umm, put it in you?"

"Yes please. That would feel very nice."

"But your father could walk in at any moment!"

"So? He'll just see me sitting on your lap."

Our argument went the way of all of our arguments. When Julia was firmly 'ensconced', she asked me to demonstrate how the new computer set up worked. I had to take my hands off where they were, slide the chair forward and reach for the mouses. I like to finish my study sessions neatly - after I understand something, and before starting on the next block of new material - so I started finishing off what I'd been working on when the girls arrived.

Unfortunately for my concentration, Julia started squeezing me. Given that she was ensconced, I guess I can say that she was squeezing me with her sconce. I have several times in this biography stated that I am very good at concentrating on things, aren't easily distracted, etc. It turns out that my ability to concentrate has a limit. I don't know what that limit is, merely that being squeezed by a sconce put me way, way over it. Not only was I not studying, sometimes I even forgot to think.

Carol asked, "Do you normally study with your eyes closed? Doesn't that make it harder? Haha."

"Argh. Do you know what she's doing to me?"

"I can see her thighs flexing. I'd be asking for my turn, except we need a condom. I start the pills in a day or two, you know?"

"Oh yes, I know all right! I'm looking forward to that very much. It'll be great to be able to bounce back and forth between the two of you without having to stop to get a rubber on. Not to mention it feels much better."

"Soon you'll be able to bounce back and forth between three of us, with Ava."

"I hadn't forgotten her. It's just that I can't count to such a high number, because my math studies are always being interrupted."

Julia suggested, "How about we go back to the bedroom, and take care of the interruption properly?"

I know better than to argue. I carried Julia all the way back to the bedroom still firmly ensconced. Back in the bedroom, Carol and I ganged up on the interruption, taking very good care of it.

The moment I saw Prof at breakfast, I immediately said, "Prof, the new computer system is a GREAT help to my studying. It's too early to know for sure, but I think my 20% improvement guess was probably about right. I enjoy working with it, thanks very much."

"Good. I'm glad to hear it. Don't forget it was Julia who got the ball rolling by telling us about your poor procedure."

"I'm NOT going to thank her. She did it for entirely SELFISH reasons - this morning she demanded I spend the 20% time saved back in bed with her, making her feel good. You'd better not tell OSU that all their investment is doing is giving Julia more sex, haha."

Julia said, "I think it's worth every dollar they spent. Good for them!"

When we'd finished joking around with that, the conversation turned to the Wests. In the course of that conversation a natural opening occurred to tell The Boys about my world record marathon run. I decided to tell them about it, for a variety of reasons: It wasn't a damaging secret if it got out, I was very comfortable they wouldn't blab (and even if they did it wasn't likely to upset Ava's test as the people they'd blab to would be different), it was a good idea to find out if Andrew and Robert were trustworthy, and perhaps most important because it was more applicable, it'd give them confidence that their parents and Julia had good reason to treat me so unusually. I had several times seen that they couldn't comprehend why their parents were behaving so bizarrely around me.

So after telling them it was a secret not to be repeated, I told them about my run. They were amazed, and then amazed again that I didn't care.

I explained its purpose had been to confirm my guess about my body, and also to test Ava. I ended with, "Donna asked to come along at the last minute. That didn't work out too well for her, unfortunately."

Which started a discussion with Vanessa about how to handle Donna. Vanessa's advice boiled down to, "She's got the message now, so you don't need to punish her anymore. Don't trust her with any more secrets, but treat her much the same as you have been in the past, otherwise you risk damaging your relationship with her."

I was very aware that the Ducklings' lunch was planned for today. I discussed that issue with Vanessa, who advised, "Have the lunch. To cancel it would be to punish Donna pointlessly. Just don't do anything that requires more trust. Remember that the reason you took her on your marathon test was to check out her suitability for greater secrets in the future. That she failed means her future won't have new secrets in it, but it doesn't mean you should subtract non-secret things from your existing relationship with her."

"We were planning a fairly sexy lunch. Not so much planning, as it was probably going to happen that way."

"Don't allow anything that would get you in trouble if it became known. Hopefully you wouldn't have taken too much risk anyway, but play even safer now."

Julia's phone went off, she checked the caller ID. Julia said, "It's Chloe. I'll answer her but keep it short. You might enjoy listening in, Mark."

^-- "Good morning, Chloe. How are you?"

"Yes, sorry about that. We had a big dinner party last night, and I crashed right after. I've only just turned my phone on, but I'm at the breakfast table. Is there something quick you wanted to talk about?"

"Oh, Mark. I agree that's an important topic. What about him?"

"I don't know. Didn't he say he wanted a long-term relationship with you? If so, there's no great hurry, is there?"

"Why don't you ask him, Chloe?"

"You don't have his number. I actually meant you should ask him at school. Face to face is always better."

"It wouldn't be right for me to give you his number. I'm sorry, but you can imagine how bad it'd be if every girl that fancied Mark had his number. His phone would never stop ringing, mostly from girls he has no interest in. He's too smart to waste his time on most of the silly girls who would try to chase him. Even though I know he thinks you're special, even very special, I have to respect the importance of his time by not giving it out myself."

"You can ask. No harm in that, but expect to be turned down. I'd be stunned if he gave you his number. If he does, it'd be an enormous compliment to you."

"No, he hasn't asked me for your number. He's BUSY. It's only been one evening since you started showing Mark how much you love him."

"What's that? You DON'T love him? Okay. I'll be talking to him soon, so I'll tell him that."

"But if you don't love him, what's the harm in my telling him that?"

"Haha. I'm sorry Chloe, I'm teasing you. Remember that when you showed yourself topless to Mark, it only took him a second to understand everything, including what your true feelings were. He understood you better than you understood yourself, and far faster too. So he already knows you love him. How could you possibly think you could hide something as big as that from Mark? I was teasing about my telling him you didn't love him. He'd look at me like I was stupid if I tried to tell him that."

"Just tell him you love him, Chloe. Get it in the open so you can stop worrying about it. Mark's in no doubt, I'm in no doubt, you're the only one who is worried about being open and honest. That probably means you don't trust him yet, which you might want to think about."

"I'm sorry, Chloe, I don't have time to discuss that now. I have to finish my breakfast. I suggest you talk with Mark about it. He understands this a lot better than we do. See you at school, bye."

Robert asked, "I'm curious how many girlfriends you think Mark needs?"

Julia said, "She's a nice girl with spectacular tits. Even I have to say that, and I don't normally think of girls that way. She'll make a great temporary girlfriend for Mark, until she gets her attitude straightened out, and then she'll probably find someone more suitable for her."

Which proved to me that I did NOT "understand this a lot better than Chloe and Julia do." Which I knew already, as everything I understood about Chloe I got directly from Julia in the first place. I asked, "Ahh, 'temporary'? That's the first time you've mentioned that."

Julia answered, "Sorry. We spend so much time planning her falling in, I haven't had time to talk about her falling out. Isn't it fairly obvious?"

"Last night Ava forgot I wasn't a girl. This morning you're making the same mistake. Remember I'm a BOY! We don't understand ANY of this stuff."

"Haha. I'm tempted to classify this as one of those situations that you'll enjoy more if you don't know in advance, but for her sake I'd better explain. She doesn't love you. She never talked to you until Sunday and barely knows you. She just thinks it's love because she's never had a boy interested in her that she believed she could trust. That sudden freedom from paranoia and fear is a wonderful relief for her. She WANTS to love you, even thinks that she should love you, but she doesn't. Infatuated yes; in love no. Once she learns she can trust other guys, she'll start discovering there are plenty of nice ones around. Sooner or later she'll find one to fall in real love with. That is why we're teaching her she can trust other guys, after all."

"Oh yeah, I guess it is. I didn't think it through that far. I guess everything you said is kind of obvious, but I'm glad you were here to explain it to me. Umm, if she doesn't really love me, why were you pushing her into admitting that she does?"

"Once she admits it, she'll stop questioning herself about it. There'll be two benefits, and you can decide for yourself which is the most important: we'll be able to help her a lot more if she's not holding herself back in any way, and you'll be able to have a LOT MORE FUN if she's not holding herself back in any way. Haha."

"Hmm. Tough call on deciding which is the most important. I guess it'll depend on whether my existing girlfriends have been treating me properly recently."

"I can't say I'll treat you properly as often as you want, because that's physically dangerous. Robert, that's another reason why Mark needs several girlfriends: he'd wear out only two or three. Mark demolished the marathon world record, so imagine what that fitness would do to your poor, helpless, little sister."

Robert imagined, "Put a smile on her face?"

We chatted some more about Ava, but nothing new came up. Julia asked for a copy of the fake dust jacket to give to Ava. "Ava appreciated it a lot, so it'd be nice to give it to her as a souvenir."

Robert said, "Sure. I'll get it for you after breakfast."

Robert came in for some more praise for having done that. He insisted he'd only done it because his car was dirty.

I let Vanessa and Prof know that I'd be having dinner at my house after visiting Katelin's, but I'd come over afterward to talk about the business progress.

As soon as we were in the car, on the way to my place to pick up Donna, I asked Julia something I'd been too bashful to ask around the breakfast table, "Julia, why don't you think Chloe will fall in love with me? Don't you think I'm lovable?"

"You KNOW I think you are, and I've got EXCELLENT taste and very high standards, haha. Chloe's infatuation will be temporary because YOU won't let her be a permanent girlfriend. I think she's probably too much like Carol, which will attract you to her initially, but won't work in the long run because she'll suffer from the comparison. She'll get a crush on you, and maybe even fall for you more than that, but she'll eventually see that she doesn't have enough of your heart and she'll move on. That's my current opinion, which could change as we get to know her better. Especially if she turns out to be more dissimilar to Carol than I expect."

"Okay. Thanks."

Carol asked, "Don't you think another girl like me would be good?"

I wasn't sure whether she was asking me or Julia, but I answered anyway, "I was just daydreaming about that! Two identical Carols would be WONDERFUL, but Julia worded it well when she said Chloe would suffer from the comparison. She's going to get unhappy at coming second all the time. That doesn't happen with you and Julia, because I don't compare you. You're so different from each other that it doesn't make sense to compare you. Ava's different in another way too, although that's less important because we're not thinking of her as a wife. But I can't see Chloe being happy at being considered a half-Carol."

#2: <Imagine two Julia's! Scary thought, huh? Haha.>

Julia asked, "Mark do you know what to say if Chloe declares that she loves you?"

"Pretty much the same as I say to almost anything she asks: 'She's not ready yet.' I'd wrap it up in compliments and thank yous, but I'd refuse to act on it, or allow her to act on it. Right?"

"Yes, good. What about if she asks for your phone number?"

"Hmm, that's bit hard to refuse. I could say 'she's not ready' again, but it's not as if giving her my phone number is a major commitment."

"She's going to want to talk with you for HOURS! I can almost guarantee that she's going to be effusive. What are you going to do if she calls you every night before going to sleep, and wants to spend ages talking romantic nonsense back and forth?"

"That would be VERY bad. Impossibly bad. There's nearly always something going on, and not the sort of thing I want to stop in the middle of for a long, mushy, telephone conversation."

"If you simply give her your number, she's going to assume the usual boyfriend-girlfriend start-of-relationship etiquette, which would probably cost you at least an hour a night, or if you cut it short, cost you a very distraught girl the next day. So you have to change that expectation. Do it when she asks for your number, and do it kindly. Can you do that?"

"I can't think of a kind way now, but I think I will in time. It's obviously going to happen sooner or later, so I'd better start thinking about it." Which means getting my two spare minds onto the job.

"It'll happen early today. Chloe was frustrated and anxious because she couldn't talk with you yesterday. She won't want that to happen again. On the topic of girls consuming your time, Robert's question about how many girlfriends you want is a good one. We don't so much need a specific limit on the number of them, but we do have to be careful they don't consume too much of your time. Ava will take quite a lot, although she'll effectively give some back by being helpful."

Without doubt, having to go to school is a damned nuisance. It consumes a vast amount of time, which could be put to much more enjoyable use with multiple girlfriends. Roll on summer!

During the drive to my place, Julia gave Ava a quick call. Ava did most of the talking, so after the call was ended Julia reported, "Everything's good at her end. Her parents still can't get their head around how unique you are, but they appreciate how much support we're offering her. I was worried they'd wake up this morning and realize Mom manipulated them, or they'd suddenly decide the sex situation was unacceptable, but neither of those seems to have happened. I think her parents will work out fine."

At home a very contrite Donna apologized again, while Mom looked on. I replied, "Yes. I understand that, Donna." I resisted saying several things that I wanted to say, because of Vanessa's advice.

In the car I told her, "Donna, if you want we'll still have lunch with the Ducklings today. HOWEVER," I loudly stressed, to stem Donna's resurgence of enthusiasm, "it will NOT be anything like as sexy as we discussed before. It'll be much more like an ordinary lunch. We'll just sit around and talk."

"Oh. Umm, what about RPS? They've all been practicing."

"I don't care if they have. We're not going to be doing anything sexy like I did with that girl at Carol's lunch."

"Oh."

Julia said, "Mark. The Ducklings are very excited to meet you, and it's not their fault that Donna couldn't keep a secret. Since they've been practicing so much, how about having a real RPS competition. An elimination tournament until only one girl is left. Let her sit on your lap and cuddle for a few minutes. Something to make the winner happy, and get them all to think that you're a very fair and reasonable guy. What do you think?"

I thought her saying "fair and reasonable guy" was a bit of a giveaway that Julia was politely manipulating me. That didn't mean she was wrong though. In fact, it probably meant I was wrong, as that's the way these things often seem to work. I said, "Okay, we'll do something with RPS, but it won't be much. It CERTAINLY won't be anything like giving her an orgasm. Girls that age are too young for that sort of stuff anyway."

"Ahh..." started Donna.

Julia interrupted, "Leave it, Donna. If you behave like a 9-year old, then you're going to be treated like a 9-year old. Mark sees your friends as similar to you, so they'll be treated that way too."

"But I didn't mean to act like that. I was just..."

Julia interrupted, "You DID mean to act like that! You deliberately looked right at Mark while you told your mother. Mature people do NOT behave like that. Last night you saw Mark ask my parents not to tell anyone, and they all quietly and maturely agreed. They didn't kick up a fuss and argue like you did. Stop saying thing like, 'I didn't mean to', 'I didn't realize', and 'I didn't understand'. You KNEW it was Mark's secret, and you deliberately chose to break your promise to him. Everything you did is 100% your fault, and everybody in both families knows you did a bad thing, including you. The sooner you stop denying it and start taking responsibility for your childish decision, the better. You've seriously disappointed all of us, and it's going to take you months of behaving perfectly before Mark's going to trust you again."

That was the end of Donna for the rest of the trip. I was glad she was sitting behind me, so I couldn't see her face.

When we got to school, Julia told Donna to stay in the car so the two of them could have a talk. Carol and I were asked to leave them to it.

When Julia caught up to me a few minutes later, I asked her what she'd said to Donna.

"I talked about the future and what she has to do from now on. She'll be all right. I expect she'll be EXTREMELY well behaved for a while, haha."

It didn't take Chloe long to find me, spotting me still some distance from my first class. She rushed up to me, then stopped short, not sure what to do next.

"Good morning, Chloe."

"Umm, good morning, Mark. And Julia too." Julia was attached to my arm, of course. Chloe continued, "Umm. I was hoping to talk with you yesterday Mark, but I, ahh, didn't have your phone number."

"Well, we can talk now. What did you want to talk with me about?"

"Umm, about you and me."

"That's a nice topic. Oh, while I remember, here's your pizza container back. Thank you VERY much for that, both toppings were delicious. You make very nice pizza." I dug her container out of my backpack, and gave it to her, adding, "What did you want to say about you and me?"

"Umm. I'm not sure, exactly. I just wanted to talk with you, to find out what you thought about what happened yesterday, and what's going to happen next?"

Now was an EXCELLENT time to make the point about me being busy, especially because the events in a couple of days might not sound nearly as impressive as what I could say now (I'd been thinking about this on the way to school). I said, "Chloe, I spent all of yesterday evening, from before dinner to bedtime, with two old people who're dying of cancer shortly. They've got some major responsibilities in their lives which I'm taking over for them when they die, and last night I was proving to them that even though I'm only fifteen, I'm capable and trustworthy. In many respects, they were making the biggest decision of their lives, to trust me with something so important to them, so it was an intense evening.

^-- "After school today, but before dinner, I'm visiting a family that has some serious problems with the kids being horrible to each other. I'm trying to help them become more loving, like my sisters and I are.

^-- "After dinner I've got a meeting to work on a business idea of mine. I've got two... , 'employees' I guess you'd call them, who've been doing some important research for me for several days, and they need to inform me of their findings and then we have to decide what we do next. There's a lot of money at stake, at least $100,000, and about a dozen people are relying on me to do it right. The business totally depends on me, as it was my idea originally and no one else can do what I can do for it, so everybody is waiting for me.

^-- "So which of those activities should I interrupt so I can talk with you?"

It was an unanswerable question, not made any easier when Julia said, "Not to mention Mark's doing two grades and college. He has an enormous amount of homework from those, because while he's sitting in one class, he's missing what happens in the other grade and the college lectures, both of which he has to read through when he gets a chance. Mark does at least ten times as many hours of homework as me, to keep up all his studies."

Julia made it sound much worse than it was, because school is actually REALLY inefficient. It only takes a fraction as long to learn a class's worth of material as an actual class takes. In practice I do virtually all my 11th grade reading for one day during the next day's 10th grade classes, and still follow everything that's occurring in class. Usually the only schoolwork I have to do outside of school hours is assignments that I can't easily do in class. I should mention that since my second merge to four minds, this process has become substantially easier. Even just in the last few weeks, I'm finding it easier and easier to keep up with all my schoolwork. Not dramatically easier, but certainly usefully so.

Chloe was dumbstruck, but still managed to say - because "dumbstruck" is only a figure of speech with a girl - "You really do all those things?" A silly question, but she needed to say something, as it's a genetic compulsion.

"Sure..."

Julia said, "I've told you that Mark is not a normal teenage boy, Chloe. He doesn't sit at home playing computer games, or whatever other silly activities most teenage boys do. Mark does Mark-level things, appropriate to his enormous abilities."

#3: <Can you imagine how incredible we'd be at Minesweeper now! We haven't played that since we had only two minds. With four we'd be clicking nonstop. That'd be VERY impressive!>

#1: <Our computer at home probably still has our best times in it. When we get a chance we should try it with four minds. We should be able to beat our previous best easily now. That'd be fun to do.>

#4: <I'll say. Certainly fun enough to prefer over an inane conversation with Chloe, haha.>

"Oh. I didn't know."

#4: <We'd better not depress her too much. Or worse still, convince her we'd be a terrible boyfriend because we'd never have time for her.>

I said, "Chloe. You know I like you, don't you? In fact, a great deal?"

"You do?"

#1: <Good grief! After everything we've done it's obvious!>

#4: <Should I say, "Look down, luscious"? Haha. We'd better reassure the poor girl.>

"How could I not like you a great deal? You're a lovely person. Now that I think of it, you heard me use those exact same words to describe you to Julia. You were in the cubicle, remember?"

She didn't even pretend to have forgotten, simply saying, "Yes, I remember."

"Good. I like you a lot and you know that for a fact, thanks to my big mouth. However - and this is an important 'however' - we are not yet boyfriend and girlfriend."

"We're not?"

"Have I asked you for a date? Have I rubbed pizza all over your naked breasts and licked it off?"

#1: <Haha, look at her blush.>

She eventually lifted her head, and asked me, "Why haven't you?"

"You mean, apart from me being so hungry I ate all the pizza, so didn't have any left to do that with? Haha..."

#1: <I don't think we're winning any prizes for maturity with the girls. We'd better keep to the plan.>

" ... Sorry, Chloe. Sometimes I have a stupid sense of humor. I haven't asked you for a date because it's too soon. You're not ready yet. Remember how I knew in the bathroom that you weren't ready to trust me? Your trust in me has improved, but you're still not ready to be a good girlfriend yet. Relationships are important - especially with someone as nice as you - so we don't want to start ours too early, do we?"

"I don't understand?"

"Yes, I know you don't. I'm not teasing you though; I'm thinking ahead. One day you'll understand. Unfortunately I can't tell you what you have to do. It has to come from within you to be an honest reflection of who you are. It's important to your life, and I don't want to shortcut the process just because I'm greedy and impatient to have you as my girlfriend."

There wasn't much she could say to that, which had been my intention. The plan was for me to be mysterious and tell her to keep trying. She'd turn to Julia, and Julia would be a lot more convincing and believable than I could be; while still giving me all the credit. How's that for a fair division of the work?

Chloe asked, "Are you really impatient to have me as your girlfriend?"

With gusto, I declared, "ABSOLUTELY! No doubt about that at all." Chloe smiled happily. "But more importantly than having you as my girlfriend, is having a relationship which is good for both of us. As much as I want to take you in my arms, in a good relationship the people care for each other in ways far beyond just wanting to be in bed with them. Your life will be a lot better if I restrain my impatience, so that's what I'm forcing myself to do." I was very pleased to see that Chloe certainly noticed my "in bed" comment, but she didn't react negatively. She didn't lick her lips or anything as overt as that, but that didn't matter too much. If she didn't refuse, then it would happen. And if it happened, I'd rock her inexperienced little world, and she'd be all mine.

She was lost for words again. Knowing that it wouldn't take her long to find some, I said, "Good things take time, sweetie, and I think you're a VERY good thing. I'll wait until you're ready, no matter how long that takes." I particularly enjoyed saying that, as Chloe didn't want me to wait at all; she wanted it NOW! This would drive her to Julia in even more desperation, and at the same time make her think I was a very honorable guy. It was a lovely little piece of trickery.

"But how long ... I don't know what you're waiting for, or how long, or anything. What do I have to do to be your girlfriend?"

"I don't know whether you've noticed this before Chloe, but there are some boys who are just interested in girls for sex. Have you noticed that?" Chloe understood I was joking, and giggled. "I'm one of the guys who is NOT like that. I want to have a very good relationship with you. I can't understand why guys are so superficial, as having a true friend is a wonderful feeling AND it transforms the sex into lovemaking, which is so much better. If I wait, that's the sort of relationship we could have. If we started our relationship now, it'd be starting without a good foundation, and would end up just being a sexual relationship. You are far too nice a person for me to settle just for sex. I want sex AND friendship with you... ,"

#4: <Don't forget more pizza!>