Chapter 12

After my talk with John Anderson, Katy and I had a long talk and we decided that we would join the local swim team as well as the one at our school. Fortunately both were run by the same coach. This meant we were training every morning of the week and two or three evenings as well. When we took in our homework and some of our house duties this did not leave us much free time.

Shortly after we started training Isa arranged for Katy to see the Doctor and go on birth Control. This meant that shortly after Christmas her birth control would be effective. Partly because of our busy schedule it took something like this to make us aware that Christmas would soon be upon us. After some further discussion Katy and I decided we would club together and get Christmas presents for Isa and Bill. We felt this made sense because if we put our money together we could get them something more substantial that buying for them separately.

We had a meet for the Local Bath's team toward the end of October against four other teams from the county. Once again I was up against John Anderson in the two hundred and four hundred metres Individual Medley. He beat me in the two hundred by about a yard, but in the longer swim my training paid off and I just got the touch to beat him by half a second. As we shook hands, he grinned at me,

"I see you have decided to take this up seriously," He said. "Now I am going to have to step up my training just to keep up with you. I don't think my girlfriend is going to like you much if I spend more time in the pool. You are lucky that yours is a swimmer too."

"If you would like to swim some Saturday why don't you bring her along to our place?" I asked him. "We could all do some swimming in the morning and then have lunch. Afterwards we could let the girls have some retail therapy and carry the packages and we might just be able to fit in a short training short training session before dinner. I am sure my aunt and Katy's dad would love to have you for the day".

"If you are serious about this I will ask her once I get changed and let you know." He said.

"I am totally serious," I said with a grin. "We could make it for a week on Saturday if you like"

"I will get back to you as soon as I see her." John replied. "I tell you what," I said' "Why don't you meet us in the cafe and you can introduce us to her and I will introduce you to my aunt and uncle who is Katy's dad."

We were in the cafe overlooking the pool when they arrived. I had already informed my aunt and uncle that I had issued the invitation. They said that this was fine, but they had theatre tickets for the Saturday evening, so after dinner we would have to entertain ourselves. I had told them we would have no difficulty with that as Joe had a stock of films on video, many of which I had never seen. John's girlfriend was a stunning looking blonde, who like him, was about a year older than me. He introduced her as Alice.

Because I am repeating a year due to my accident and mixing everyday with fourteen year olds, I keep forgetting that I am almost a year older than some of my class mates, my birthday being in late January. It takes incidents like this to remind me that in my new body I am a year older than Katy even although I am in the same academic year.

Our School work and training was fairly routine over the next week. We still met with Di, Jenny, Charlie and Bobby and ate lunch with them, but at my invitation Jim Smith from the swim team had joined us. He did not have a girlfriend and I think from the outset Di had determined that this had to be remedied and she was on the lookout for a likely girl. We spent a lot of time with them between meetings at lunch break and training together morning and evening. Katy reckoned that since Jim spent as much time as us doing these things Di was going to have a hard task finding a girlfriend for him unless she was in the team.

On the Saturday John and Alice joined us and were impressed by the set up of our hot tub and pool. As a concession to the October weather the heating system on the pool was now turned on even though we were enjoying a bit of an Indian summer. Sadly though, our temperatures were a good bit lower than the South of England and the sky a bit more overcast. We often feel pretty deprived because of this. Despite this, Alice had brought a bikini swimsuit and the effect on the young males present and I suspect on the adult one was instantaneous.

She was a wet dream walking. She was about five foot seven with long legs, curvaceous hips, a slim waist and boobs to die for. Add to this that she was naturally blond and had an angelic face. You can see why men would drool over her. She herself, however, seemed singularly unaware of the effect that her charms had on the male population. She turned out to be a quiet and studious girl with a good academic record, and she seemed besotted by John.

They made a handsome couple for he was long and lean like most good butterfly swimmers. He had the swimmer's broad shoulders and because of his weightlifting, well developed abs. He was no slouch in the looks department either. Indeed, as Katy pointer out to me; they made they made a truly handsome couple. Katy decided she would swim with Alice and keep her company while John and I swam some lengths. From the way they chatted as they swam it seemed that they were getting on well together.

Joe and Isa joined us in the conservatory for coffee after our swim but declined to spend time with us in the hot tub. John and Alice told us that they were already working hard for their Higher Certificate Prelims which were coming up in January because they give some indication of the grades they were likely to achieve in the higher themselves. Nowadays straight 'A's were essential if you were going to get into a University with a good reputation. It seemed that her teachers felt that Alice was a shoo in but John was having to work really hard to match her. Alice was giving him what help she could because they both wanted to go to the same university. Hot tubs seem to be a great place to learn about new friends and I think from what Katy and I told them, they also learned much about us.

After Lunch we went shopping in Edinburgh. It was a bit early to be thinking of Christmas gifts, but the shops did not seem to think so because already the promotion of the festive season was on show everywhere. We had a break for coffee in Jenner's store on Princess Street which despite the Tram Fiasco was as busy as ever. I think the girls managed to pick up some Christmas gifts for friends before we caught the bus back home.

At dinner Isa and Joe were full of questions to John about swimming and his hopes for the Commonwealth Games. Isa however soon turned her attention to Alice, asking her what her career aspirations were.

"I am not very sure," Alice had replied. "My dad would like me to follow in his footsteps and make medicine my profession. He is a surgeon at the Royal Edinburgh, but I know about the long hours he had to work to get where he is now, and I am not sure I want to go down that road. I can't see myself as a G.P either so I think he will be disappointed. I am very good at chemistry but if went into that I would want it to be in the research field which depends so much on grants unless you are and with the one of big drug firms, This means it can be precarious job wise. If you went with the Pharmaceutical Companies then to be sure of advancement you would need a Ph. D. and to get that you would need to spend as long at university as you would for medicine. I know I am dithering. but truly I don't know what I want to be. Unlike John He has his career path marked out and that makes me feel even more of a ditherer."

Isa laughed when she finished. Don't you worry about dithering over your career path Alice. You have almost a year before you decide what courses you want to follow. Add to this the fact that schools so often offer you very limited choices. Joe and I are in the business of finance. We are not financial advisers, but we talk to companies about their investment needs and with our contacts in the Banking Industry we steer them towards those institutions which are most likely to look with favour on the projects they are thinking of. We also have an I.T. Wing which advises on the setting up of computer systems and as little sideline for the one or two real computer geniuses we have come across, we have set up a small gaming company and invested the kind of money that enables them to put their skills into it. Fortunately it his turned out to be very profitable and we have made them partners in it so that they are not tempted to leave us."

"It is a big wide world out there," Isa went on, "And for a very bright girl like you there are loads of opportunities in fields that schools seldom mention. So if you would like to talk to someone outside the family about other options, I would be happy to help you and I am sure Joe would too. We might come up with some options that you have never thought of and who knows, you might just find something that really catches your interest. If you want to talk, just give us a phone call. Katy can give you a card with our home and office numbers before you leave."

John told us that he was going to do a degree in sports Psychology and then possibly look into training as a sports Physiotherapist after that so that he could work with athletes at a mental as well as physical level. He felt that this would give him two strings to his bow and that if he combined this with a successful swimming career while at University he would be well set up to run his own business if he could find the capital.

Joe laughed at this and said,

"You seem to know where you want to go John and if you succeed in your academic endeavours, you can always come and see us about where to go for the capital you might need."

"I will bear that in mind sir," he said, "I hope you won't be too surprised if I land on you office doorstep in about five years time."

We all laughed at that.

Joe and Isa went off to get dressed for their night at the theatre and we were left to pour over his Library of films so that we could choose one for the evening's entertainment. Alice's Mum was coming to pick them up at our house around 10 pm. Probably before Joe and Isa got back

Once they left for the theatre we picked out a film to watch and John sat on the floor with his back against one of the easy chairs and his legs spread in a V. Alice sat between his legs and leant back against him and he put his arms around her while Katy and I snuggled up on the sofa with only the light from the television illuminating the room. It was only about twenty minutes into the film when a little moan from Alice made me look across and I saw that not only had John's hands slid up inside her jumper but he must also have loosened her bra because it was obvious he was caressing her bare breasts and it was this that had caused her to emit the little moan.

A little later and she did again and this time it caught Katy's attention and she seemed transfixed as she watched Alice squirming under John's ministrations. It looked to me as if this was a familiar practice for them. Then I noticed that Alice had pushed up her skirt and her hand was between her legs. They seemed so bound up in each other that they had forgotten we were present or they had assumed that we would be too busy doing our own thing to notice them. I wondered how far they would go if we were not present and something told me that it would be all the way.