Chapter 15: A Dinner, a Bun, a Celebration and a Rescue Rewarded

I woke to an even more crowded bed than normal the next morning. There were two additional bodies, three if you count Nikki, on an even smaller bed than usual. There were arms, legs and hair everywhere. Since everyone liked to cuddle me, I found myself at the bottom of the heap. I figured I couldn't get up without dumping everyone on the floor, so I proceeded to clear my throat several times, in ever increasing volume.

I guess I'm becoming more regimented as I now wake up without an alarm clock, since so many things are happening to me each day that I don't want to miss it. When I'd spent all my time reading and playing games, I found it hard to wake up in time for school each day. Now that I was performing miracles, discovering new people, starting sororities and foundations, and buying a loft; getting up each day seemed much easier, despite the worries I faced walking into school every day.

Finally people started moving. Amy had to look a few times to figure out where she was. She looked a little panicky when she first found herself in a pile of naked girl flesh. She seemed relieved when she noticed me lying under everyone. I got everyone up and moving, allowing me to finally climb out of bed. I helped the other girls up as well, especially Cate, since she always slept curled up around me.

"Alex, you won't believe what last night meant to us," Tina said, speaking for both Amy and her. "We'll always treasure it, and we plan on using the new abilities to help you as much as we can."

"That's nice to hear, but don't forget to have some fun along the way. And make sure you use it to help yourselves and protect those around you as well. That's why we're starting the sorority, after all," I told them. "Now let's get moving. There are a lot of bodies to pass through the shower this morning."

"Don't worry, you go shower," Amy told me. "We'll go downstairs and help get everything ready. We can leave after the rest of you are gone. Allison and Shani said they'd give us a lift to the Amtrak station."

So I followed the stream of naked butts to the bathroom. While I was relieving myself, Nikki came up and stood beside me, watching me handle myself. When I looked questioningly at her she responded.

"Just wanted to make sure it was human sized," she told me with a smile. "With what everyone keeps saying I wasn't so sure. So what does it do? Shoot laser beams or something?" Then she turned serious before I had a chance to think of a clever reply. "You know, you can do the same thing with me you did with Tina. You didn't ask about my sexual history, but I really didn't fool around all that much. Several semi-boyfriends who, each time I caught them cheating, I had myself checked afterwards. I was really paranoid about AIDS and STD transmitted cancers. But the use of a prophylactic should make you feel better. You'll have to wait to see if I'm really a whack job, though," she concluded with a teasing smile. I just had to lean over and give her a quick kiss, before sprinkling a few drops on her leg for effect. She squawked and backed up quickly. By then I was already climbing into the shower.

"It'll have to wait till I get home from school," I called back as I wiggled in between a couple of enticingly cute naked bodies. "And then you'll have to fit it in between my session with Betty and my dinner with Kitty's parents. But you'll be at the top of the list after all of that."

The shower was, as expected, crowded. It wasn't very large, as it was just a typical prefab shower/bath stall. Allison, Natalie and Cate were all crowded in there, and four really didn't fit very well. In fact, it was so tight I had to hold on to a spare set of breasts just to keep from being jostled out of the shower.

"I'm done. I'll give you some room," Allison told us. "Shani and Anh already laid out your clothes for you, Alex, and they've set out your evening wear for this evening as well." Once she left we had enough room for me to steal a kiss or two.

"Don't get me started," Cate told me. "If you keep acting provocative, we may never make it to school. Once I start on you everyone here will want a piece of you, and next thing you know you'll be late for your dinner tonight."

I grumbled, but couldn't complain too much when my mouth was otherwise engaged. I stopped so I could concentrate on my shower. I didn't have time to wash everyone's hair, but it was still fun washing the one nearest me.

When we exited there was the usual mix of people coming and going into the shower. Anh was currently occupying the toilet, which meant she was eye-level with Shani's crotch as she walked by.

"Giữ trên một thời điểm, Shani," she said, forgetting we didn't all speak Vietnamese, but Shani took her intention and stopped. The way Anh was staring at Shani's crotch I thought she was going to comment about her needing a fresh shave, but instead Anh put her hand on Shani's pubic area, then stood up and enveloped her in a hug, completely surprising Shani.

She turned and called out to everyone nearby, "Hey, everyone, Shani is pregnant!"

Instantly pandemonium resulted. Everyone ran into the small bathroom, never designed for this many people. It seemed after everyone hugged Shani they had to give me one as well. It took a bit for me to finally get the full story.

'I saw baby aura glow, ' Anh eventually explained, having repeated the story many times. She was so excited she wasn't being quite as careful with her English anymore, but I got the gist of it. "Since you gone, we no walk round nude or pay tension to lower bits. When Shani walk pass I baby aura saw. It be no emotion or colors, just different light than mother Shani. You child aura good look. Be very pleasant," she told me, giving me a heartfelt hug.

"So, can you also tell the sex?" I asked teasingly.

"No, silly. Sex no have color, just big weenies," she teased back. I wondered how she ever got the translation of weenie.

Needless to say it took a while before we all made it downstairs, and when I did I was swarmed by well-wishers.

"I can't believe it, I'm finally going to get my psychic grandbaby I kept teasing about," my mother said, crying in my arms. "I don't know whether to be happy or scared."

"Relax, Mom, chances are it will be a normal baby. Besides, you raised me fine, and you never knew there was anything special about me."

"Oh, no," she told me, pushing me back so she could look me in my eyes. "We always knew each of you are special. There are magical abilities, but then there's simply knowing one's children. Even without your ability, you and your siblings are phenomenal people. And don't any of you ever forget it!"

Cate surprisingly seemed to have no intent on congratulating me, as she was busy running from one person to another talking about the 'blessed event'. I didn't know if she was excited about a new child or about what my girls were seeing of the week old fetus. I figured things were getting out of hand and I needed to establish some control, otherwise no one would get to work or school on time.

"Nikki, have one of the girls take you to the store to buy yourself some new clothes. They're all pretty good about picking out nice things, so you shouldn't have any trouble. I'm sorry to be leaving you on your own so much, but I'm a bit jammed these days," I told her, before turning to Tina and Amy.

"Girls, thank you for all of your help. I appreciate it tremendously, and I look forward to working together in the future. What the two of you are doing is a big help to what I'm trying to achieve." I gave them both a big hug before my mother finally directed me to my seat at the dining room table. The breakfast table was way too small for this big of a crowd. I was hungry and dying for some coffee. I might wake up on my own, but I still need caffeine to stay awake. Luckily Anh rescued me by bringing me a cup, along with a congratulatory kiss. Somehow I think I appreciated her understated approach as it was a bit of a relief.

Cate hurried me to finish my breakfast, though, as she told me I had something else to do that morning. After we both finished eating, she guided me out to her lab where she took out two mice and asked me to just give them a small dose of energy each, making sure I managed to spread the energy throughout them. She then took out two rabbits, I noticed she'd added a couple of extra ones from somewhere. She told me to drain the energy from the leg bones of each just like I'd done with Jennifer. I did as she asked and that was it. What she was testing seemed pretty clear. She would have me drain energy from the rabbits' bones, then test the strength of the bones to see if I had potentially caused Jennifer's injury. In the other, I guess she was testing to see if the animals I gave the energy to did better, health wise, than her test subject. Pretty basic, but necessary tests.

We returned, Cate and I managed to grab our stuff and we extricated ourselves from the overjoyed members of my extended family. I managed to give everyone a goodbye kiss and we were off.

I thought about the long drive to Carbondale I made each morning as we drove. Having a loft in the city would make things much easier for us. It would cut at least an hour off of our daily commute. Cate was clearly excited this morning. Both the details of my encounter with using rubbers last night and the news of Shani's condition had her full of new scientific questions, as well as a strong need to simply gossip about the news. She managed to talk most of the way there.

When we got to Becky's, Cate insisted on rushing inside where she quickly informed everyone of Shani's news. I only reached the house in time to hear the tail end of her description of events, but everyone had to congratulate me. Both Becky and Melinda felt emboldened by the events of Sunday to give me big good morning kisses, although I'm not sure it was even noticed in the excitement of the morning. Caroline asked Cate if she was OK with the news, but my sister assured her she was excited by it, and she was ready to welcome a whole series of nieces and nephews. Cate then informed her she had no plans for any children of her own, either by me or otherwise for some time to come.

Becky and Melinda were all atwitter over the idea of a new baby, telling me how much they planned on spoiling it for me. I told them both it was fine, as long as they didn't mind babysitting and changing it for us occasionally, though I doubt I'll have to worry about volunteers for that. If anything, Shani might feel like she won't be able to play with her own baby enough.

When I finally picked Kitty up, both she and Chalise were excited at discussing Shani's condition, as well as the activities at the big sorority party, and didn't seem to be particularly interested in what did or didn't happen between Tina, Amy and me. I tried to tell them anyway, but Cate just pressed her finger to my lips, letting me know they weren't concerned with the details. They trusted me to do the right thing. So we ended up discussing all the various girls they'd met on Sunday, and what Shani's child may grow up to become for the rest of the journey. Since the girls' ability to see auras did nothing in determining a child's sex, we were still in the dark about certain details.

Somehow Kitty and Chalise seem to have decided they were going to attend SIU, and their education plans now revolved around what would help me the most. I guess they talked about a lot more than I suspected during their nightly phone conversations. I wisely decided to keep my own contributions to that discussion at a minimum.

Once we arrived at school we all headed across the parking lot. Cate asked again to be let off a ways from the parking lot, though now I realized why.

As we walked to the school, I noticed Tony and a few other guys who disliked me, like Tyler Cox and his pals. Kitty and Chalise moved closer to me, but I didn't want a repeat of the other day. Tyler and his cronies sidled up to Tony, perhaps to face off against me, but Tony wanted nothing to do with them. As a result they all glared at us separately as we walked past them. However, I wasn't about to let them disturb my excellent mood this morning, so I just marched past them without as much as a glance at them. Luckily no one tried anything. Perhaps because the entire school was watching what anyone tried on me. It had taken a while for Shani's news to finally sink in, but I wasn't about to let my good mood over recent events be disturbed by a couple of angry individuals.

There were no confrontations in school, but there was news. It seems the events of the Friday evening games were running rampant through the school. The girl who had been rushed to the hospital for the broken arm no one had previously detected, and the soccer player who had been cleared to play by the girls, seemed to have the whole athletic crowd positively enthused. It seems each of them wanted to personally thank me for what I'd managed to arrange for the school. I surely didn't want to tip any of them off that the girls providing the service were all living with me, though.

Luckily no one at school had any clue we were involved at SIU yesterday. Lunch was interesting. All the kids suspected something was up with us, and kept trying to get us to tell them what had happened over the weekend, but none of us would talk of anything other than generalities. Cate kept dropping subtle hints, but no one seemed to pick them up, so they didn't guess what had happened this morning. However the conversation soon turned to the dinner at my house the next day. I had little doubt the news would leak out once everyone was gathered at the house. Of course, Betty could hardly sit still the entire lunch period she was so excited about tonight. I half expected to find her seat wet when she finally stood up, though from what source, I wasn't sure.

I passed Mike during the day. He glared, but since he knew everything he might say to me would be reported he wisely kept his mouth shut for once.

At the end of the day I found Betty waiting for me outside. She was nervous about walking to the car where Kitty and Chalise were waiting on her own, so I escorted her. Both Kitty and Chalise were extremely nice to her, telling her how much she was going to appreciate it, and what all the other girls had said about the experience. Betty's eyes were big, but whether she couldn't believe she was finally going to sleep with me, or she couldn't believe my girlfriends' attitude, I wasn't sure.

Cate calmly informed me she was driving today, and I'd have to sit in the crowded back seat between my two girlfriends while everyone talked to Betty on the way home. I didn't make any immediate connection to the comment. The girls all talked on and on. Although they avoided the topic of Shani's pregnancy, they did discuss their plans on attending SIU and the plans for the new sorority which we'd started. Betty decided right there she'd change all her college application plans to attend along with them.

I was surprised when I finally noticed we were heading in the wrong direction, driving away and not towards Carbondale. When I asked Cate where she was heading she simply told me to focus on what was important, which were the three women currently fawning over me. I figured I'd find out in good time, so I followed my sister's excellent advice. Everyone around me was much too focused on my succeeding in life for them to overlook anything important.

I was further surprised when we drove up to our house in Shawneetown. But Cate simply smiled when she turned back to me.

"The girls decided you didn't have time to drive Chalise all the way to Carbondale if you're going to do Betty any justice and still make it to dinner tonight. So I'll drive everyone home for you. You just focus on what's important," she reminded me again. I took her advice and escorted Betty into the house, hearing Cate beep my own horn at me as they drove away. They probably appreciated the ability to gossip without me there, anyway.

Betty was impressed by everyone in the house, even though she missed those currently at work. The girls introduced themselves, as well as detailing their personal histories and what their own abilities were. I practically had to drag her away so we'd have enough time to do the deed we'd gotten together for. I tried to make our time together special, but she was so excited to finally be in bed with me, I thought I might as well not be there. She managed to have her first orgasm while I was sucking on her breasts before we'd even gotten all of our clothes off. I playfully reminded her that preliminary orgasms didn't count, and she still had to have one with me in order to reap any benefits. She then started to tell me how just 'being with me was more than she'd ever wanted or needed'. I finally had to shut her up by kissing her. After all, we only had so much time.

Like everyone else, she was much more interested in my making love to her than in any preliminaries, so we got into it pretty soon. It seems that someone had been telling her about the benefits of full body contact with me were. I still took my time and made sure it was wonderful for her, but she was already going off like a Chinese New Year, so my efforts seemed to be overkill. When I finally came she promptly passed out. When she came to, Nikki and Natalie were there with a damp towel and some drinks to help revive her. We cuddled a little longer, and then she reminded me I was under a deadline.

"As much as I loved our time together," she told me, "I know you've got an important dinner planned. Thanks for introducing me to your family, to all my new sisters, for everything you've done for me. I'll treasure this for a long time."

She saw I was nervous, so she kissed me tenderly. "Alex, don't worry. Cate told me about your meeting with Kitty's parents. It seems no matter what you do, you always manage to do it with style. Either it will work or it won't. You worrying about it won't affect the outcome. He'll either love you or hate you, there doesn't seem to be much middle ground with you, but I'm betting on the former."

As soon as she released me, Anh, Nikki and Natalie swooped in and started laying out my clothes while they pushed me into the shower. They had the whole thing carefully timed.

When I came downstairs the girls fed me a quick snack, handed me three individual red roses and asked me if I knew what to do with them. "Yeah," I responded, "give one to Fredrick, and if he takes a swing at me, give him the other two." They laughed and told me "Exactly". They each kissed me, being careful to not leave any lipstick stains, reminded me not to sit down while driving to Carbondale for the next hour, and pushed me out the front door in just enough time to make it to my dinnertime rendezvous.

I arrived early, so I was waiting when the Washersteins arrived, the table waiting for us. As they came in I walked up to Kitty's father and shook his hand using both hands, then kissed Martha on the cheek and extended a single red rose to her, followed by another rose and another kiss on the cheek to Chalise with a wink on the side, followed by a final kiss for Kitty and her own rose delivered last.

As I was doing this I drank in the beauty of my dinner companions. Both Kitty and Chalise were gorgeous, dressed in long dresses which really showed off their physiques without revealing too much. They had made some excellent choices. I also noted they both had some new unique jewelry. I'd have to ask them about their new additions, since it was hard to find unique pieces this far from anything. Kitty's mother, Martha, was also dressed exquisitely and took my breath away. If Kitty was going to end up looking like her mother, then I planned on growing old with her.

"I'm sorry for springing Kitty's friend Chalise on you," Fredrick hurried to apologize. "She was visiting with Kitty and we couldn't very well abandon her. Anyway, I know it'll stretch your limited funds, so I'll cover her, at least," he offered, hinting he'd be willing to pay for the rest of them if I should feel it necessary.

"Nonsense," I assured him, "the more the merrier. Kitty told me Chalise was going to be staying over tonight, so I expected it. May I escort the two second most beautiful women to the table?" I asked, laying it on thick. Kitty and Chalise both looked nervous, but Chalise would hardly look at me for fear of giving something away. I finally stopped her, lifted her cheek until I was looking into her eyes, and just looked at her until she eventually nodded slightly, letting me know she'd leave it in my hands and simply follow my lead. With that I led them all to the table, walking just behind the maître d'. I noticed Fredrick watching me as if judging my actions, so I made sure I held the chairs for all three women. Luckily they jumped into the whole gallant young man routine quickly, so I had time to do it properly. Fredrick looked a little embarrassed by my actions—and his own inactions—but I gathered he was so surprised by them he didn't have time to adjust to it. Finally I remained standing until Kitty's father also sat, then smiled at them all and explained a little about the restaurant, about Kitty's and my first date here, and what was good and what they specialized in.

Things were going well so far. When the wine steward came by Fredrick pointedly asked me if I had any recommendations, so I blushed and said, no, but I was sure he could do the selection justice. As we were waiting and everyone was reviewing their menus I decided to dive right in.

"Mr. and Mrs. Washerstein, this is going to be a bit awkward, but I have a confession to make." When they looked up at me I went on. "Chalise's visiting you tonight was no accident, we planned it." I let that sink in for a minute, and Kitty's father just stared at me, challenging me to explain so I continued what I knew was going to be a prolonged monologue.

"You see, I'm dating both Kitty and Chalise, Mr. Washerstein," I explained. His eyebrow shot up and his face turned dark, so I resumed my explanation. "It's not what you'd normally expect, and happened quite innocently. I'd been planning on just bypassing the whole high school dating scene, figuring I'd wait until I could date slightly more mature ladies once I reached college, but an acquaintance recently convinced me I'd be missing a lot by making such a choice, so I reconsidered.

"When I started to think about dating, I was stymied because some recent events generated some rumors about me. I found no one was particularly interested in either the truth, or me as a person, simply relying on their expectations of me to make all their decisions. However, through a strange set of circumstances, I met both Kitty and Chalise through the same contact. I'll leave it to them to discuss the rumors and the circumstances, as I'm sure you'll want to hear it without me putting my own spin on things.

"However, I was immediately struck by the fact that both girls didn't prejudge me, and considered me simply for what I told them and what they heard about me. I gave them free rein to talk to whomever they wanted about me, giving them the names of the objects of the rumors, as well as my sister and each other's numbers, so they could talk amongst themselves, and then I left it up to them.

"Luckily for me they saw my potential, and I began dating them both, assuming I'd be lucky if they didn't both drop me before I had to embarrass myself by rejecting either one. However we found we all had similar temperaments and really got along well. I kind of jinxed the whole deal by asking them both not to gossip about the events in question, but giving them free rein to discuss it amongst themselves and those I put them in contact with. This ended up with the two of them soon becoming fast friends.

"The long and short of it is we decided we didn't want to end the dating ritual, and that instead we should consider ourselves an extended couple. We've been going on both combined and separate dates, and have all enjoyed ourselves. And I'm on my best behavior knowing as soon as I make a mistake, they'll both be talking about it as soon as my back is turned." Everyone giggled at this, including Fredrick, who couldn't seem to keep up the charade of being mad at me.

"Well, that's about it. I'm sure you both have questions for me now. Go ahead and ask me anything," I challenged. Of course, we all knew the only one with any serious questions would be Fredrick, as Martha was already firmly on my side in this discussion. I also had a feeling that both Kitty and Martha had been slowly working on Fredrick since the previous Sunday. They both sat and thought and I felt two nervous hands grasping mine.

"This is a bit abrupt, isn't it? Just how long have you been ... dating the two of them?" he asked me.

"Only for four weeks, sir; it's been a very busy time, and we've managed to learn quite a bit since then. Personally, they already know enough about me they could easily blackmail me if they had any desire to, but we each trust each other implicitly. You've raised a very wonderful individual," I stated in complete honesty. "However they seem to accept me, warts and all."

"Yes," he replied, "I'd like to discuss some of these warts, but since you said 'any questions', I'll take you up on that offer. Are you sleeping with my daughter?"

"I'm glad you asked that, so I won't have to be so indiscreet as to bring it up myself. The answer is yes. We first slept together the Friday before I first met you, when you helped us rearrange our house. It again was a group decision, with all three of us together so no one would have to worry about the others pulling something over on them, but I imagine in the future we'll get together in a combination of group and isolated dates."

"Hmm, I suspected as much, but I thought maybe it had been going on for a while before then as well," he said. "This honesty thing seems to be recent, though, since you didn't bother to introduce yourself, or tell me you were dating my daughter, and you were also very secretive about what you were all discussing that Sunday."

I blushed a bit. "I'm sorry about that, sir, but I guess everyone felt a little embarrassed. You see, your daughter was helping a friend of mine teach me how to lie to them. It seems they've been worried about my inability to lie convincingly for some time."

He glanced at me hesitantly, not sure if I was pulling his leg or not.

"I'll be honest; I have a lot of secrets. I can't tell either of you most of them, but let's just say I have many women in my life. Each of whom feels they owe me a great deal. I also feel it is my duty to watch over each and every one of them, just like I feel it is my responsibility to take care of your daughter.

"Just like I told Kitty, I won't lie to you, except by omission. There are several things you simply aren't ready to know yet, mainly because you aren't directly connected to the events in question. It would be hard for anyone outside of our group to understand what we have, but—"

Fredrick broke in at this point, apparently unable to hold his questions.

"Your 'group'? You don't mean you, Kitty and Chalise? You mean you've got a little cult, don't you?"

"Well, I'd hardly consider it a cult, but you aren't far from the truth, either. However, to divulge more would be to risk the safety of those I've sworn to protect. I would no more endanger them than I would Kitty or Chalise. I take everyone's trust seriously. I also take both of your trust just as seriously. I assure you I have no plans to lead your daughter on, to expose her to any danger, or to unexpectedly leave her in the lurch."

Fredrick sat there and considered my words for a few moments.

"You always seem to provide more questions than you do answers," he commented.

"Ha, just wait until you hear everything he has to say, you'll have even more questions," Kitty suggested. I wasn't sure now was the best time to bring this up, but she had a good point.

"He's right, of course," Martha said, coming clean. "We didn't think it was appropriate to tell you before, but I was involved with helping train Alex to lie to Kitty and Chalise. They convinced me it was necessary, even without knowing all the details of his life. We didn't mean to hurt you, but we thought you should have time to get used to things before we sprung too much on you," she told her husband.

"And you don't think inviting me over to move my daughter's new lover's furniture was springing too much on me too soon?" he asked. She shifted a little nervously in her chair.

"There's a lot to deal with in my life," I explained to him. "It took Kitty and Chalise a while to come to terms with them. Then it took your wife a while as well. When they decided to refrain from telling you, they were still in doubt themselves, so some missteps aren't unexpected. However I'll be frank with you. I'm currently living with five women, not including my family—even though I consider them all to be my family. I also have two who have an apartment in Carbondale, one in St. Louis, and a whole city full of fans in New Orleans. I recently visited St. Louis where I picked up about 20 new admirers, and I recently started up a new sorority to help shelter my followers at SIU, where we picked up about the same number of new additions."