Chapter 80: Repeating My "I Love My Sister Carol" Speech

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

It was dark when I woke. I eagerly looked at my bedroom clock/radio, to see "2:10am". So just over four hours of sleep then. Cool! I jumped out of bed, and decided that I felt fully rested and energetic.

I dressed in my best, impress-the-girls-at-school, speech-making clothes, grabbed my schoolbag and the essential snack ingredients from the kitchen (it was important not to forget those). Seeing as how I was in the area, I snacked on something else I found in the fridge. Then I drove to the Williams'.

Before my recent realization that I didn't need so much, I used to average about nine hours of sleep per night. Having an extra five waking hours, especially as they'd be undisturbed hours, should allow me to achieve a great deal more studying. I'd need it because I expect college level courses to be much harder than schoolwork. Facing college courses was daunting.

The drive was uneventful. There were hardly any other cars on the street, none of which seemed to be under the control of a drunk intent on slamming his car into Julia's/mine. I arrived at the Williams' in short order, let myself in, reset the alarm, and headed up to my study. I could see a light from upstairs and soon found that they'd left the upstairs hallway light on for me.

I was a good boy, walking straight past Julia's room. That didn't stop me wishing I was a bad boy though. The knowledge that Julia and I could be as noisy as we wanted in her soundproof bedroom was a temptation. But, as I said, I was a good boy.

The first thing I noticed when I found and turned on the study light, was a plate of cookies and a bottle of water in the middle of my desk. I tested a cookie while I read the note propped up next to the plate:

^

To my wonderful, incredible, darling, Lord,

I hope you are reading this because that will mean you are even more impressive and fantastic than I previously thought, and you know how much that was. It will also mean that we will spend most of the night close to each other. Not as close as I would like (don't you hate it when fathers are right?), but it's still very nice for me to go to sleep knowing that you might be near me.

In his wisdom, my father has consented to my setting my alarm clock fifteen minutes earlier than normal, provided I go to bed that much earlier to compensate. I will do so, but expect to be too excited to sleep easily. That ability of yours would be welcome. When I awake I will immediately run to see if you are in the study. In my haste I might forget to put any clothes on ;)

With that thought, I wish you a good night's studying.
All my love,
xxx
Julia, Wife#1

PS. Under this note are the two leadership books I'd like you to read. Placed inside the front cover of each are my notes indicating which sections I think would be the most valuable to you, although I haven't read either book all the way through yet. If you get tired of math, try these for a while. It's a very different subject, and you might find the change restful. If you get very bored with studying, please come and ravish me. Just don't wake me, Dad wouldn't like that!

PPS. Dad forgot to tell you that we don't have copies of the textbooks for your two Math courses yet, but he'll get them tomorrow. He's going to get you a diary too as he agrees that you should use one.

PPPS. I love you.

^

I chuckled at Julia's finishing a love note with 'organize Mark' instructions. Also on my desk were two manila folders, already labeled with the two courses' names and numbers, a pad, and several different colored pens. I fired up the computer and started studying.

I started with Algebra ("A" is before "C" in the simple, masculine way I make lists), and restarted from the beginning of that course's lectures, taking notes on the key points. I took quite thorough notes as I expected the material to start getting tough after the introductory lectures.

I worked for about an hour, then stopped for a break. Using my newly acquired algebra skills, I calculated that I wasn't eating the cookies fast enough, so I took the necessary corrective measures. I'd enjoyed the work so far. It was actually quite simple, as it built up very logically. It hadn't gotten hard yet, but I expected it would soon. Alternating subjects hourly sounded like a reasonable approach, so I changed to Calculus, restarting that from the beginning of lecture #1.

At the end of the second hour - ten minutes over, as I chose to finish at the end of a lecture rather than by the clock - I stopped for a picnic. I made myself a couple of chicken sandwiches, had a cookie or two and a drink. Last night I'd been urged to help myself to more food or drink from the kitchen if I wanted it, but I had enough here to last the night.

Calculus had been a similar experience to Algebra, both easier than I'd expected for college courses. No doubt that'd change soon. I wasn't treating the leadership books as a subject for study tonight, so I alternated back to Algebra.

At the end of my fourth period (two sessions on each course, with a few lectures being read per hourly session, so I was going faster than they'd been in real time) both courses were rolling along nicely. Calculus seemed a little slower than Algebra, but neither was hard. I'd covered what I thought took me well beyond anything that could be considered an "introduction", and the lectures not yet getting hard puzzled me.

The time was about 6:45am and I wouldn't have time for another rotation, especially as I was expecting a naked Julia soon. I did a calculation of how long it'd take me to complete all the lectures at the current rate. Assuming four nights of study per week (Mom had prohibited two, leaving five as the maximum, and one was bound to be lost for some reason or other), and five hours per night, then both courses would be finished in nine weeks. That was close enough to how much time there was left before exams that I would have been happy if I hadn't been worried about the material getting harder soon. I didn't allow any time for schoolwork because I could do that during the normal hours of late-afternoon or early-evening.

I decided to write Prof a note for when he got up and checked outside his door, as it seemed rude to be in his house without letting him know. I wrote: "I went to bed at 10:00pm. Woke at 2:10am, so just over 4 hours sleep needed. I feel good, and I think Vanessa's suggestion worked. Arrived here before 2:30. Have done about 4.25 hours of study, half each Algebra and Calculus. At current rate will finish both in nine weeks. No problems requiring your professorial input, surprisingly easy in fact, which puzzles me. Will read a leadership book until someone comes for me. I expect Julia soon."

I took the note to the hallway outside his room and left it as instructed. I went back to the study and cracked open the leadership book that happened to be on top. I familiarized myself with its structure and made sure I could understand Julia's pointers to what she considered important. I was just settling in properly, thinking about the last cookie that I was saving for her, when the her in question opened the door and stuck her head in to see if I was here.

Seeing that I was, a very happy, naked Julia came in and jumped onto my lap, kissing me repeatedly and making a big deal about my being here. She clearly didn't consider my reading leadership textbooks to be as important as making out, so I dropped it on my desk and used both hands to make her feel welcome. She was in a joyful rather than sexual mood, so I treated her accordingly. That Prof or Vanessa might walk through the door any second might've been a consideration.

After Julia calmed down sufficiently, which took a surprisingly long time, she asked me some questions about how it went.

I answered those readily, including my saying that, "The only problem I have is that the material seems too easy. Not trivial, but not as difficult as I expected either. I don't understand that. I thought passing college courses was supposed to be an accomplishment because they're HARD, but these two aren't yet. At the rate I did this morning, it'll take me nine weeks to finish the two courses. I wrote a note to that effect and put it outside your parents' room, so your father might come in soon."

Julia said, "Good. Are you saving me this cookie?"

"Yes. I thought you might want to break your fast, before you had breakfast, especially if you got up early. Thanks for your lovely note too. I was delighted to read it, and to see how well you prepared for my visit. You're a lovely wife#1."

"Thank you my most deserving Lord. I am happy to serve. You can have the cookie, if you want. I'll wait for breakfast."

"Okay, {munch}. Umm. {munch}, {swallow}. Shouldn't you put some clothes on in case your parents come?"

"I'm more interested in taking your clothes off." Whereupon she started unbuttoning my shirt. I can, theoretically, accept that she doesn't mind her parents seeing her naked. Personally I'd find that very embarrassing, but if she's comfortable with it then good for her. However, her stripping me while being naked herself and making increasingly sexy noises was not something I could accept being seen doing by Prof or Vanessa.

I was struggling to slow her down, when there was a knock on the door. Thank goodness they didn't open the door immediately.

I was trying to decide whether to button up my shirt or grab my jacket off Carol's desk to cover Julia, when Julia called, "Come in. We're not doing anything yet, UNFORTUNATELY."

By the time she'd finished saying that Prof and Vanessa were in the room, wearing PJs and robes, as a certain girl should have been. I was the only one that seemed to care though.

Prof said, "Good morning, Mark. You're looking very flustered. Maybe you didn't get enough sleep last night?"

Julia said, "He would've been looking a great deal more flustered if you'd taken five minutes longer, haha. Maybe I'll get up five minutes earlier tomorrow. No, better make that ten minutes earlier."

Prof hadn't bothered putting on his prosthetic yet, and was using a crutch as a temporary leg. He saw me looking and said, "I don't bother putting it on until I've had my morning shower."

After some more Mark teasing, Prof and I managed to have a sensible conversation. I expressed my puzzlement that college level courses didn't seem to be as hard as I expected. The explanation turned out to be that my expectation was wrong.

Prof said, "Nothing magical happens to people's brains between being at high school and starting college. They have a summer vacation then carry on studying, just like between any two school years. That the studying occurs in a different set of buildings is irrelevant. There are some types of abstract logic that most teenage brains can't seem to process, but whether or not that limitation would apply to you doesn't matter as none of that logic exists in any undergraduate mathematics course. Maybe in other faculties like Philosophy, but not in Math. Show me what you've done so far?"

I reached around his naked daughter, and used the mouse to show him, adding, "As I said in the note, I figure nine weeks at the current rate."

"With what assumptions?"

That's one of the things I like about mathematicians, they know that question is often more important than discussing the answer. I answered, "Four nights per week of five hours each, at the current rate of lectures per hour, which assumes the lectures don't get harder or easier."

"The time should be fairly constant. That's how they're cut up, so they fit in a standard lecture period. Most of the time variation will be because of you, because you'll pick up some concepts faster or slower than others."

"Okay. I've noticed Calculus is slightly slower than Algebra for me."

Vanessa asked, "You're only allocating four nights per week to these courses, so what are you intending to use the other three nights per week for? Your schoolwork?"

"Not schoolwork, no. I'm on top of that already and I think I can easily cover what that needs just in the usual after-school study hours. I was assuming schoolwork doesn't cut into these sessions, and I was assuming OSU's courses don't extend outside of these hours. Obviously I could do either whenever I wanted, but it was easier to assume a clear separation. I subtracted two nights because Mom won't let me drive late at night on the weekends in case of drunk drivers, and I subtracted another one just in case something happened, maybe a big assignment load at school or sickness or something, leaving the four nights I used."

Vanessa said, "When Felicity told me she didn't want you driving Friday and Saturday late at night, I assumed you'd simply drive over earlier. Come here sometime during the day, spend it with Julia, and sleep with her until it was time for you to wake up and study."

"D'oh! I'm an IDIOT! I never thought of that. You're right. I'll miss the first couple of weekends because of the court case, but after that is fine. I can't believe I didn't think of that."

Vanessa said, "I'm sure that after the trial is finished you would've very quickly worked out that you could sleep here. That correction gives you six nights per week, rather than four."

Prof said, "So six weeks to complete, rather than nine. Maybe 6.5 weeks if you miss a weekend or two because of the trial. But you could use that time to get well ahead in your schoolwork, and then do OSU study during the normal schoolwork hours, so we might as well call it six weeks regardless of the trial. The lecturers will give you some assignments to do. Part of their job is to make sure their students understand the material, so you'll lose some time doing those. Not much though because you can do them here and fax or email them in, and they'll return the marked work the same way. I'm almost tempted to try to add a third course, but I think that might be pushing it."

Vanessa said, "Definitely pushing it too far, I think. Mark's doing thirty hours a week of additional study and he's going to need to take breaks. You could even call them sanity breaks. I wouldn't like to add thirty hours of studying to my week, even if I didn't need the sleep."

Prof agreed, "Good point. We'll have to be careful of that. Unfortunately we don't have much slack to play with because the exam dates are unchangeable. OSU won't give you any leeway there, Mark, so you'll have to take the final exams the same time as the other students. I don't remember the exact dates for your courses, but sometime in the week from June 13 to 17, about eight weeks away. There's still the one night per week that you used as a reserve. You can study that night too, but at the increased risk of burnout. Did you miss not having the textbooks?"

"I hardly gave them a thought."

"I'll bring them home tonight. You'll need them for some of the assignments anyway. The course notes are meant to be self-contained, but you might find some material is covered better by the text than by the notes."

"Thanks. I have a couple of thoughts. First, I kept expecting the material to get harder, so I was going slower than I needed to. I was trying to build a solid foundation, expecting to need it. If the work doesn't get harder I can speed up. I'd guess 20 to 25%. Second, I enjoy math, and I enjoyed myself in this session. Maybe having fun will help prevent burnout."

Prof said, "That'd take you down to 4.5 to 5 weeks. Allowing half a week for assignments, which is probably excessive, give us 5 to 5.5 weeks. Provided you don't burn out, then that'll work. You'll have to be disciplined though. You can't make a habit of visiting some new girl's house and staying with her overnight. To get both courses done in time, you can't miss many nights. I wonder if it's better for you to study one course all the way through, then do the other, that way you're bound to be ready to take at least one exam. What do you think?"

"I'd like to keep alternating courses the way I am now. I can keep an eye on my rate of progress and revert to one if there's a projected problem, but hopefully not."

Vanessa said, "Good. That looks excellent to me. Julia, take note that there's not a lot of slack in this for Mark, so don't overload him with too much, especially frivolous sex. There are always more fish in the sea and there'll always be some waiting for him."

"Yes, Mom. Isn't it great he'll be able to sleep here every Friday and Saturday? I'll have to reschedule the other boys that visit me those nights, but I'll do that for my main man, {giggle}."

I said, "Talk about an empty threat."

Prof said, "Some of us need to get changed, or in Julia's case, dressed. Mark, please keep us informed about your progress rate and whether you feel burned out or just fatigued or bored. It'd probably be a good idea to keep an eye on how much sleep you need too. Now you're into these courses, I definitely want to take you to OSU to introduce you to your teaching assistants, some of the faculty and others. Ideally not today, but very soon. Tomorrow would be perfect."

I said, "Tomorrow is fine with me, except we've told Carol we'll have lunch in her area that day. You said before that you'd prefer me to visit OSU over lunchtime?"

"Definitely, that's the one time most of the faculty will be free. I'll email them today that you are coming tomorrow for lunch, so any of them that want to meet you can reschedule any clashes they have. I'll show you around for about an hour before lunch, then we'll have lunch with the faculty, then back to school for you. You'll miss a couple of hours, or slightly more."

"I'm not worried about missing classes, just about letting Carol down."

Julia said, "Tell her on the way to school today that you have to go to OSU Thursday, so her lunch will be Friday. I don't think she's told anyone yet, or if she has she can tell them again. It's an easy change. I had something on Friday, but that can be pushed back too. OSU tomorrow, Carol Friday, my roster Monday to Wednesday, Donna Thursday. Okay?"

"Yes. Fine by me. It's a deal, Prof, tomorrow it is."

Prof said, "Excellent. I'll pick you up from school as finding your way around OSU the first time can be daunting. I'll show you where to park, where the Math building is, etc., so you'll have no trouble on later visits."

Prof and Vanessa wandered off, very happily in Prof's case.

Julia said, "Are you wearing the clothes you want to wear to school?"

"Ahh, yes. I thought I'd better wear my best clothes for my speeches. That's all right, isn't it?"

"That's fine. The problem is you were wearing them all night as well. We've GOT to get you some new clothes soon! If you've finished in here, let's go have a shower together." I couldn't finish fast enough.

While I was getting undressed for the shower, I mentioned my telephone security fear to the conveniently close Julia, as she was helping me undress. She agreed it should be raised at breakfast.

After our shower she made me sprinkle some girly smelling stuff on before redressing, so I smelled 'fresh'. I decided that shopping was the lesser of two evils, compared to smelling like a girl, so I hoped we went shopping soon. I'll have to remember to bring some more clothes when I come here tomorrow.

I also remembered to call Mom at the right time to tell her, "Everything worked perfectly and I accomplished a lot of very useful studying. Prof and Vanessa are very pleased by my progress rate. I'll be there to pick up Carol and Donna at the usual time for the driver; it'll just a different driver this time." Mom was fine.

Everyone was at breakfast when Julia announced, "Mark has a security issue he wants to raise." She passed the floor to me, and I repeated the comments I'd made to my family. The Williamses agreed to be careful with what they said over the phone or in emails.

During the discussion, the thought of our car being bugged crossed my mind. I decided it'd probably pay to be cautious until after the damned trial. My make-out session with Carol last night probably shouldn't have happened, but it was too late to worry about that now, and it was only kissing. After the trial I was surely safe from any targeted snooping. To think otherwise was being overly paranoid. The Government's continuous massive phone and email bugging operations were a concern though. They insisted they were only doing it to international calls and emails, but no one in their right mind would trust what they said, especially because a few months ago they insisted they weren't snooping illegally at all.

Prof asked, "While I remember, have you chosen a project for your leadership exercise?"

"Umm, yes."

"Relax, Mark. You don't have to tell me what it is if you feel bashful. Just try to make the decisions yourself, preferably not even asking Julia for advice. Okay?"

"Yes, sir."

I helped Julia make our bagged lunch, and we were soon on our way to my home to get my sisters. My first day driving to school! It felt good, even if the car wasn't really mine.

^

On the drive to my home, Julia said, "I'm so happy that your sleep and studying are so amazing. That's going to be a huge help to you in your life. I hope it doesn't get too boring or mentally tiring for you."

"Based on the one night at your house, I enjoy doing the new Math courses. They weren't boring or tiring. The schoolwork reviewing that I've been doing at home is boring, but new math material is fun. I think I'll be fine so long as that remains the case, which it should. I'll let you know if I find I'm getting bored and we can try to think of a solution."

"Good. I was thinking about your speeches today. It's likely I'll get some hassling before first class, so you can use that as a reason if you like, but I think all you really need to do is at the start of each class just stand up and ask the teacher for permission to speak, and then just give your speech. I don't think you need to worry much about having a pretext. If you appear upset over Carol and me being hassled, then people will assume we have been, which is very believable."

"I'm sure you will be hassled, but I agree the speech doesn't need it. Later in the day when most of your grade should have heard it, it might be more difficult to have a natural reason to give it yet again."

"Yeah, I was going to mention that point too. Before each speech you could ask for show of hands for who have already heard it. Just look at the girls because you can trust them to put their hands up if they've heard it, and it's only them we care about anyway. If more than about half already have, you can probably skip giving it in that class. We don't need 100% coverage. You'll probably only have to say it a couple of times in my classes, and maybe a couple of times in yours when they're different."

"I agree with all of that. I probably won't ask for a show of hands in the first class though. From what you said about yesterday, the idiots will still be behaving like idiots."

When we arrived at my place, I pulled up and got out in order to go inside to talk with the family, but the family came out to us.

Carol was looking particularly nice, which reminded me that she was nervous about meeting Julia friends, so I said, "Carol, you're looking particularly lovely today. I like that dress on you." I'd liked every dress she'd bought with Julia so far, which was a compliment to both Julia's shopping ability and Carol's looks.

Despite my knowing virtually nothing about females' clothing issues, Carol appreciated my reassurance.

I held the door open, saying, "Ladies."

Carol said, "Thank you, driver. You're more polite and much more handsome than our last driver. I think we'll get along well."

"I think so too, ma'am."

Mom had to ask more questions to make sure that I really was all right, "Did you have any problem during the late night drive?", "Do you feel tired?", "Here's your lunch?"

The day turned into a great day because Vanessa had gotten Julia to make me a lunch too, so I now had two of them! Mom's questioning was going to get old if she did it every morning, as well as requiring me to call her every 7:30 too. I pointed out the delightful mistake with the doubled-up lunches, and politely suggested to mom that calling her at 7:30 every morning might disrupt her morning routines unnecessarily, so hopefully she'll soon feel comfortable with the Williams' ability to look after me in the mornings.

We eventually made our escape, followed by Mom calling, "Drive carefully!" I appreciated Mom's making another lunch for me though.

When we were rolling, Carol said, "I missed you at breakfast."

With an echo from Donna. "It's not the same without you."

I'd missed them too. We discussed that a bit, and decided that about half the time Julia and I would leave the Williams' home early to have breakfast at the Andersons'.

When we'd finished discussing our morning breakfasting procedures, I announced, "Prof asked me to practice my decision-making by picking a project. It has to involve making decisions, obviously, and also other people and be something that I'd enjoy. I picked the group of girls that Donna introduced to me the other day, plus any others that Donna wants to add to that group. I've invented a nickname for them. From now on I'm going to call them 'Donna's Ducklings' because ducklings are cute little fluffy things that go around in a group and make sweet little sounds. Donna's Ducklings are just like that."

All the girls thought that was a fun nickname. Donna was especially happy that I'd chosen to do something with her and her group, when I could have played with "older and more beautiful girls." I didn't tell her that I didn't want to 'play' with Julia's or Carol's friends, in case my doing so reflected badly on either of my wives, whereas Donna's Ducklings were so young that I didn't take them seriously.

We chatted about other subjects until we got to school. I parked in the students' area and Donna took off at her usual pace. I told the remaining girls that I had to go to the office to get permission to bring the car to school. Julia said she'd come with me, and Carol said she'd go to her school. Carol gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, then gave Julia a full-on, 15-second, mouth-to-mouth kiss. There weren't a lot of other students around, but those males that were lucky enough to see loudly expressed their approval in the time-honored fashion of loud cheers, wolf-whistles and catcalls.

I'd forgotten about Carol's coming out, but it sure didn't take me long to get reminded! Once I got over the surprise of their kiss, I was confused about how to react. Look on with interest because it was so hot? Look away because it was so embarrassing? Or something else? I remembered my 'official stance', as per my speech. So I looked on benevolently, but not fixedly, making sure I stayed soft.

When Carol ended her kiss I said, "I'd forgotten about your coming out. That was a good reminder though."

Julia said, "I'll say. Carol's a very enthusiastic kisser."

"I missed my morning kiss with Mark so I needed to make up. I better go to class. See you at lunch."

Carol headed off in one direction, while Julia and I went toward the office. Carol was quickly intercepted by a couple of guys who wanted to talk with her about something or other. I was too far away to hear, but it must have been of no interest to Carol because she got rid of them quickly. To my relief because I'd been worried about them being too persistent, as guys have been known to be.

Julia and I were going in the same general direction as several other people, and some of the males caught up to us. I didn't know any of them, so most were presumably seniors or maybe some 11th graders I hadn't met or remembered. They gushed the usual male comments: "That was HOT!" | "What was that all about?" | etc.

I figured that we'd be meeting these people regularly as we parked near each other at the same time every day so I might as well explain properly. I also had a sudden thought that if the two girls kissed like that regularly, they were bound to be filmed by someone with a better cellphone than mine. I made a mental note to talk with Julia about that asap.

I gave the guys around us a capsule explanation, "The other girl's my sister. She's a lesbian and has hit it off with my girlfriend. It's embarrassing but they're happy."

I had to deal with all the usual questions, my usual answer being, "She's my SISTER!" And if the guy needed reinforcement, "You need to get counseling."

No one was going into the office with us, so they peeled off. I had a chance to ask Julia, "Sooner or later some guy is going to film you two doing that. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are waiting with cameras poised tomorrow morning, just on the chance. It could end up going around the school, or even end up on the internet. How would you feel about that?"

"Hmm. I'd rather they didn't, but it's impossible to stop them. We'd have to stop doing kissing to avoid it. I'll talk with Carol but I don't think she'll want to stop it. She came out so people could see us, so hiding it from them makes no sense. The video going around school would probably please her. Having it go on the internet so random perv's all over the world can see us would be annoying, but I imagine there are plenty of other videos of girls kissing on the internet, so ours shouldn't be a big deal. That's right, isn't it?"