Chapter 2

I pulled the cord open, lifted the robe self-consciously from my shoulders, and stood in the circle with the others, facing the fire, with the darkness to our backs.

We could only see the full moon overhead now and then as the threatening clouds swept across the almost dark sky, and sparks flew erratically from the fire we stood around. Nancy was controlling the event, and all thirteen of us followed instructions to take the hands of the girl on either side, after throwing the robes behind us on the grass. Okay, I was surprised we were going ahead with it. I thought someone would chicken out, and now it was too late for me to be the one.

As an only slightly organised group we danced left and right around the circle. I stared. I'd seen most of these girls without their clothes before, but this wasn't gym. Dancing in firelight was a whole lot more interesting than changing in the girl's locker room, I can tell you.

Nancy was calling out her commands from across the other side of the circle, and I could only see her now and then, but I had a good view of the girls either side of me, and then one or two more stretched out in each direction.

Even tanned skin looks pale in firelight, and those with tans were mostly fairly patchy. Breasts and buttocks shone like beacons in the warm flicker. Under duress earlier in the day I'd promised my boyfriend Michael that I would give him some stats on the things he cared about, and I used that as my excuse to stare so blatantly.

I knew he would be specifically interested in the girl to my left. I'd been foolish enough to confess my curiosity to him, and it turned out we both thought Amanda was sexy. And here I was, naked, and holding her hand. I grinned at her as we danced, and I took the time to catalogue how she looked for the inevitable interrogation.

First off, her breasts were a good example of the selective tanning. She wasn't tall, and her chest wasn't big, but they looked just about right. Of course they were bouncing around at the moment, just like mine were.

I looked down for a moment to confirm, and glanced to my right at another girl who seemed to have no tan at all, but certainly had breasts. She was in danger of hurting herself, from the look of it.

The dancing changed direction again at Nancy's command, and I looked back at Mandy. Okay, so I could report back that firstly she hadn't entirely shaved herself downstairs, and as a direct result I could also tell that she didn't seem to be artificially blonde.

I looked up then to find my stare returned. I'm sure I blushed, but with all this movement and the flickering light, I was pretty sure she couldn't tell.

While I'm confessing both being interested and actively staring, could I just point out that I'm not actually a lesbian or anything? I'm just ... nosy. Alright, curious.

We were still following instructions, and Nancy had us stop and let each other go, spinning on the spot to stare momentarily into what seemed to have quickly become much more blatant darkness, and then back to the orange light of the fire.

It was readily apparent that no one knew what they were doing, much less why we were really here. Fact is, most of us were just taking the opportunity to do something silly without the boys around. Probably Nancy was the only one who really cared about the whole thing, in fact.

Lacking any other options that we could think of, we spun around in fairly random ways and then linked hands in the same way as before, but with all of us rearranged somewhat. Somehow or other after all the changes I was again holding Mandy's hand, though she and I had switched sides. She squeezed my hand in recognition of the coincidence as we veered clockwise around the fire before returning more or less to where we came from.

Stopping again, we turned as pairs, one left, the other right, and I was staring directly at Mandy. Honestly, just then, I was more than interested. There was something intriguing about the girl that I couldn't quite figure. She was, as Michael had admitted earlier, delicious.

Nancy called to each of us to take both hands of the girl in front of us, and part of my mind realised that with thirteen of us in the circle someone must be missing out, but the rest of me was in control. I took hold of Mandy's hands, and we danced in a small circle, just the two of us, grinning childishly at each other and daring a hug before we came to rest again, released one pair of hands, and once more faced the fire.

That was when the reason for the sudden darkness became clear. The weather that had been threatening all afternoon had finally arrived, and as Nancy called for everyone to lift their hands to the no longer visible full moon, the skies opened, and a torrential rain began to fall.

It only took a few seconds for the small fire to be reduced to a dimly glowing steam bath, and the temperature dropped considerably. I still had Mandy's hand in mine when Nancy yelled for everyone quit this silliness and head back to the cars.

I turned from the fire with Mandy, scooped a suddenly heavy robe from the grass and threw it on. As Mandy followed suit I took off for my car. Mandy called to me and asked if I could give her a lift, as she didn't have her car here. I nodded and grabbed her hand again, and we ran as fast as we could for my car, along with the rest of the decidedly amateur coven. I grinned at the thought that maybe we would be better as rain dancers.

Someone had a flashlight of some sort, and we all stumbled across near the gate where all the cars were parked. My car was unlocked and we threw ourselves through the doors to get out of the rain, laughing the whole time.

All the girls fell into the collection of cars, and then there was plenty of light as people started engines up and headed back into town.

I sat there for a minute, laughing and puffing from the short run, and just as the other remaining car headed for the gate I reached into my robe pocket for my keys. It took me just a moment to realise how fundamentally stupid I had been. In the rush and the darkness, I must have picked up the wrong robe.

You know how it is with these things, right? It takes a moment to work out what has happened, then another to figure what the implications are, and then a third moment to realise that you need to act, and quickly, if you want to avoid those implications.

Just as Nancy's car disappeared out the gate, I scrambled out of my car, yelling and waving at her in the rain. Neither she nor the other girls in her car, nor any of the other cars ahead of her, took the slightest notice. It was noisy out there, and dark now that all the cars were heading away from us.

I stood in the rain then, just wondering quite what I could do, until the rain got heavier again, and I was forced back to the car. Mandy was sitting there, and perhaps had just realised what had happened. We were both dripping wet.

She looked up and me and managed a grin. "So ... umm ... where did you hide the keys?"

I suddenly wasn't really in the mood for jokes. "Robe."

"Ah."

"Yeah. But I seem to have picked up the wrong one."

"Oh. Well." Mandy reached into the pockets of the robe she had on, and retrieved a tiny pink teddy bear. "That isn't going to help is it?"

"That yours?"

"I'll deny it tomorrow, but yup."

"Cute."

"I thought so. But I don't think you can start a car with it."

"Nope. You know anything about hot-wiring vehicles?"

She really smiled then. "Do I look like a car thief?"

I calmed down a little and smiled back. "No. Cat burglar, perhaps."

"They don't wear towelling robes, Charlotte. Especially not in white."

"Vinyl, right?"

"Yeah, something skin-tight. I think we'd be thrown out of the union, Charlotte.

"You can call me Charlie, you know. They probably know enough to keep out of the rain, too. Shit, my bag was with my robe."

"Bag? Bag of what?"

"Well, panties. Shorts. Shirt."

"No point in getting overdressed. My stuff is all in Sarah's hatchback. You'd make me self-concious."

"Think she'll miss you?"

"Probably not. I was going to go back with Keisha. They'll both think I went with the other."

"Crap."

"Yeah. Charlie?"

"Uh huh?"

"Anyone expecting you back home?"

"Nope. Well, not immediately, anyway. You?"

"Uh uh. I didn't tell my mother where we were going. She wouldn't have approved."

"She religious, Mandy?"

"Paranoid, more likely. I get the impression she got into a lot of trouble as a teenager, and she thinks she can protect me from growing up."

"Hell, plenty of things we could have done that have more danger than rural witchcraft."

"True. Something with booze."

"Or boys."

"Or cars!"

We both sat and laughed for a while, and then I thought we should get a little more organised. It was getting cold. I looked around, and then hit the lever to incline the seat right back, before climbing into the back. The rear seats folded down, and that was going to be better than getting back out in the rain. So I knelt on one, and levered the other down. I looked through the gap, stretched through and pulled back an old blanket. I thought about it for a moment and then, after checking there was nothing else that might be useful, I popped the seat back up. Then I turned back to the front.

"Umm ... Mandy?"

"Yup."

"How shy are you?"

"Not very. Not sure you noticed, but we were just dancing nekkid out there. Holding hands."

"Yeah. But ... well, look. If we might not be missed for a while ... we have two damp robes and this old quilt thing."

"Yeah. Oh."

"And ... well if it was just me here - or if Michael was here with me, I'd suggest we ditch the robes, and wrap up in the blanket."

"I could do that."

"Sure?"

"Yeah. Well, unless you have cold feet."

"You mean generally, or just now?"

"Sounds like you should answer carefully, Charlie. Mind you, I have no leverage. I'm the guest here, and I showed up with nothing but wet towelling."

"And the teddy."

"Yeah, and that."

"So we're even. After all, I enticed you into a car that has no keys. Relax. I've been thinking. I told Michael I'd phone him later, so eventually he'll probably try to call me, and then he'll put two and two together, and probably come and get me."

"That's a lot of probablies. But in any case, he can't."

"No? Why not?"

"Charlotte, he doesn't know where we are."

"Sure he does."

"But ... we promised."

"Huh? Oh, Mandy, that's right. Well, in that case..."

"You told him?"

"Sorta."

"Charlie, you are a bad girl. I'm proud."

"So Michael tells me repeatedly. The first part, anyway. Okay, so how can we do this?"

"Don't make things so complicated." Mandy wriggled in the seat, and when she turned back to me her shoulders were bare. "Your turn."

"What?"

"Look, we're going to wrap up in the blanket, right? A wet towelling robe is not going to help. Lose it."

"Yeah, but..."

"Look, you asked me if I was shy, Charlie. Lose it."

"Jeeze, when I offered to share my quilt I didn't realise you were so bossy."

"Practical."

"Pig-headed."

We were still grinning, so I wriggled out of the drenched robe and handed it to Mandy. She threw it on the floor in front of her seat, and then crawled back where I was. She looked at me and spoke just before I did.

"Okay, it's a little weird, agreed."

"A little?"

"Yeah. How we going to do this?"

"I'm getting cold. Let's just lie down here, and tuck it down under us, both sides."

"You want the 'squashed against the seat backs' side, or the 'fall off on the floor' side, Charlie?"

"Umm ... we'll have to take turns. I'll take 'squashed' first."

"Deal."

To tell the truth, once we'd made the decisions, it was all easy enough. We turned the light off in case we needed it later, and tried to work out how to fit in the space. We finished up with my back against the seats, and my breasts pressed up against Mandy's spine. Once the blanket was tucked in around us, we just lay there quietly for a while, until Mandy broke the silence.

"You had this quilt for a while?"

"Since I was a little girl."

"Washed it since then?"

"You don't like the standard of the accommodations?"

"It's not five star."

"Complain to the management."

"I am!"

"Demand a refund."

"Oh, good idea. Hmmm..." Then she did something unexpected. She rolled over until she was facing me, and our faces were close together. "You know, there would be a lot more room in here without the elephant."

"The what?" Our breasts were pressed together as well, and I was distracted.

"The elephant. You know. The thing that we're not talking about, but is here with us, taking up lots of space."

"Are we not discussing something?"

"We certainly are."

"Oh?"

"Charlie, you know what I mean."

"I'm not sure I do."

"Sure you do."

"Well then, Amanda Brown, how about you just say it, instead of talking in circles?"

Mandy hesitated, and I wished I could have seen her eyes. "Have you ever?"