Chapter 8

That night, Denise and Ann seemed to start believing me about the cave. When I got dressed that morning, I was a mass of bruises. When I got undressed, they were all gone. I even made up for the previous evening. I had been too sore to do anything but hold them.

As we did the chores Sunday, we tried to come up with an answer. Why did the place only affect me? It had no effect on them, whatsoever. What exactly did it do? Was there a correlation between my size, and that place? More importantly, would I continue to get bigger, if I kept going there? There was no denying the fact that the bruises and aches didn't go away that fast by themselves. Something was happening. We didn't have a clue, of course. As an experiment, we decided to go there after every game. If I kept growing, we would have to stop. I didn't want to be a freak, and we didn't know if there might be any other side-effects that we hadn't noticed. We also agreed not to tell the folks about the strange things that seemed to happen there. They kept trying to tie in the 'animal thing' to what went on there, but I didn't see any possible connection.

I got more confused at school Monday than I have ever been in my life. The pats on the back for playing a decent game were nice, it was the other things that bothered me. Girls I had never met before were stopping me to talk, or catching me at my locker. They needed some lessons in being subtle, too. Even the ones that weren't rubbing themselves on me were obviously flirting. A couple of them practically asked me out! A few of them were pretty rude, too. Ann and Denise were even nudged out of the way a couple of times. The smirks those two gave me didn't help much. I was glad when school was over and I could go to practice!

We watched film on Mondays. Some schools did that on the Saturday after the game, but this was a farming community. Some of us had work to do on the weekends. I learned more from watching the film than I did from the coaches. Seeing how the opposing defense reacted to what we did gave me some ideas on what to do the next time. Watching our defense was painful. The only big guys we had were needed at the interior line positions. Without tem there, teams would be able to run at will. We just didn't have enough big guys to get any kind of pressure on the other team's quarterback. Our defensive backs were good, but they couldn't cover somebody forever. The coach must have been thinking the same thing, because he made a little speech after the film session.

"Paul has agreed to do us a favor", he began. "As you all know, we normally don't ask our quarterback to play defense, but I'm afraid we won't win many games this year unless we start. I think we're only one player short of having a good defensive team. We need an outside rush, and with him playing defensive end, I think we'll be a lot harder to beat."

It was kind of embarrassing when the team started cheering and clapping. I didn't see why it was such a big deal. Almost everyone played both ways.

I guess the coach was getting a better ideas as to what we might be good at, because he had us working on a few different plays. Some of them were pretty sneaky, and I was looking forward to seeing how they would work in a game. To me, it looked like he was trying to exploit the fact that we might be smaller, but we were a heck of a lot faster than most teams.

I was really feeling guilty after the meeting. Listening to the conversation let me know that everybody was pretty sore. I hadn't realized it was a normal occurrence, and felt like a wimp after overhearing one of the seniors commenting on the fact that he always hurt until about Wednesday. That didn't mean I was going to avoid not doing the same, though. Whether I felt bad about it or not, hurting when I didn't have to didn't make a whole lot of sense.

After talking to the girls, I finally found out why we didn't have more big guys. I figured with all the farms and ranches around the area, there should have been more players who were muscular. I was surprised to find that there was only one ranch besides ours in the district, and three farms besides the ones on our land. There were only eleven guys in the whole school that lived on them. All but three weren't old enough to play. All of the others were 'townies'. I wouldn't call any of them weak, but they didn't work at home like the rest of us did.

Ann was the one who brought up my sudden 'popularity' that night, saying "You're not only on the football team, you're the quarterback. If you weren't a freshman, it would be a lot worse. The junior and senior girls wouldn't be caught dead with a ninth grader, no matter who he is. We're not going to be much help, either. As far as they're concerned, we're your sisters. That makes us no competition at all. I can't believe we overlooked this when we asked if you'd play. I'm afraid it's going to be a huge problem."

"What if Paul had a girlfriend?", Denise suggested. "If he was going steady with someone, that would make him off limits, right?"

"Hold on there, sweetie", I interrupted, "Just what are you suggesting? I'm not going to hang out with some girl I don't even like, just to keep the others off my back. I'm not about to use someone, either. Besides that, what if it was a girl that I did like? How would you two deal with that?"

"Pretty well, I think", supplied Ann. "In fact, I just happen to have an idea of who might fill the bill. Tell us what you find attractive in a girl, Paul."

There were land mines all over the place, so I tread carefully. "Lets, see ... She would have to be smart, used to hard work, strong, have a sense of humor, and most of all, be able to deal with the fact that I consider the two of you to be my wives. Not only would she have to accept that fact, she'd have to keep quiet about it. I figure that ought to just about eliminate any female in the county, don't you?"

I knew it didn't, when I saw Ann's smirk. After glancing at Denise, she filled me in. "O.K., you don't know this girl. She's not one of the ones bugging you. I don't think you've even noticed her. I wouldn't worry about that, though. Nobody notices her anymore. She's gotten really good at being invisible. Not many people will even talk to her. In fact, I'm probably the only one who does. You'll have to be really careful with her, though."

I guess I'm just too curious for my own good. I had to know more. "Tell me about her", I sighed. "She sounds like a couple of other people I know. They used to be the same way."

One look at Denise told me she knew I was talking about us. I could tell she wanted to help the girl, too.

Ann gave us a 'thumbs up', and told the whole story.

"Her name is Bernice Duncan, and she lives on a farm bordering our west pasture. That creek we like to go to is the boundary. She's in the tenth grade, and up until the eighth, was like anyone else. That's when all the trouble started. She had a boyfriend, and he started telling other guys that they were doing more than 'fooling around'. She found out, and it pissed her off. Breaking up with him didn't end the problem. The asshole had his buddies start spreading nasty rumors about her."

Ann had stopped, and I asked "Is that it? I know that sucks, but how would it turn somebody into a hermit? Surely it blew over!"

"It might have", Ann admitted, "if not for Deanne Baker. I saved the worst for last. She was a townie who used to live here. There were rumors about her, too. People thought she was a lesbian. Around here, that's a death sentence for popularity. I heard fifty different versions of the story, but I think all they were doing was hugging. It was enough, and the 'lezzie' taunts sent Bernice over the edge. Deanne was practically run out of town, but Bernice had to stay. That farm has been in her family as long as the ranch has been in ours. It's just her and her dad, and when he's gone, I think she will be too."

Denise asked the question before I could. "What do you mean 'sent her over the edge'? Did she have a nervous breakdown or something?"

"Bernice?", snorted Ann, "hardly! She's much too strong for that. She just stopped talking. The only words she has said at school since then is when a teacher asks her a question. She won't even talk to me, unless we're alone."

Now I was even more confused. "What makes you think she would talk to me? It sounds like she's going to tell me to fuck off as soon as I get within ten feet of her! Worse than that, she sounds exactly like someone I'd rather cut my arm off than hurt!"

"Exactly!", Ann interrupted. "That's what makes her perfect. She's everything you mentioned, and then some. You're not going to hurt her, Paul. She needs someone like you. She needs someone like us. Even if the two of you don't get involved, she needs friends. She's a fantastic person, and I just know that you and Denise will be crazy about her. If she can accept you, anyway. She's very careful who she'll trust. It took me a week to get her to talk to me, after all the crap she went through."

It dawned on me that I hadn't even asked what she looked like, but when I did, Ann laughed.