12: Surprise!

By the time we were finished with the horses and I managed to get back to the bunkhouse and get a shower, I was almost late for dinner. It seemed that every time I was ready to leave the barn, Hal or Tim had some other little job for me to do, or wanted to tell me another funny story. It was 6:30 on the nose when I walked into the chow hall.

"Surprise!"

I was gobsmacked. There was a big banner made out of some of the tablecloth paper and magic markers that said "Happy 14 Our Hero!" The staff was standing there and Cookie had a birthday cake in her hand with the candles lit. The girls and their troop leaders were standing in a semi-circle. Crap! I didn't even know these girls before last night and I didn't think they liked me all that much.

"I thought you didn't believe it was my birthday," I said as I stepped forward. My face was so hot I knew I had to be red as an apple.

"It's on your registration form for the weekend," Becc said. "Cookie checked and we all decided to surprise you."

"That's really ... so nice."

"I can't believe you came to a Dude Ranch on your birthday with no one to celebrate," Debbie said. "Don't you have friends and family to celebrate with?" Then she thought about what she'd said and gasped. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean ... Oh my god!"

"Take it easy, Debbie! I've got friends and family. I just won this trip like I said and thought it would be cool to just be, you know, out on my own on my fourteenth birthday. You know. Feeling what it was like to be independent. I never expected any of this."

"Is it okay?" Jennifer asked.

"Sure."

"You'd better blow these candles out before they burn the frosting," Cookie laughed. I stepped up to the cake and blew. Got them all. Thought about my wish and kind of whispered something to Rhonda in my head.

Dinner, cake and ice cream, and a fire in the fireplace were all cool. There was an official ceremony as the girls were each awarded their horsemanship badge. The leaders called them by name and asked if I would hand out the badges. A boy in an official Girl Scout ceremony. Where were the cookies? I listened to them sing and joined softly when I knew one of the songs. We didn't really sing much at science camp and besides, I still didn't know what note I was going to sing when I opened my mouth. Eventually, the long day caught up with me again and I excused myself to go to bed. I figured the girls might be up half the night singing and stuff.

I brushed my teeth and went straight to bed. I wasn't too sleepy though to go through the list of the girls one by one and think about what they looked like while I stroked my dick. I used my underwear to clean up and threw it on the floor beside the bed. I hardly ever wore anything to bed anymore and no one else was in this cabin, so why bother?

I felt a chilly draft and rolled over on my side to get away from it. It got warmer. In fact, it got a lot warmer as I felt skin against my skin and two boobs pressed into my back. I let out a startled "Aack!" as I rolled toward the invader. She snorted as she tried not to laugh out loud.

"Jennifer?"

"As if that wasn't a dead give-away. I hate my laugh."

"When you let go and laugh your laugh is great. It's only when you try to stifle it that you snort. What are you doing?"

"Really? You like my laugh? Really?"

"Yes. Now answer my question. What are you doing?"

"Um ... isn't it obvious? I'm naked in bed with you. I came to have sex with my hero. You rescued me three times today."

"Jennifer, I didn't do it so you'd have sex with me. Honest! I can't just have sex with you. I've never done it before."

"I have. I'll show you everything you need to do." She pulled at my hand and put it right on a really nice squishy big boob. There was a hard little nub right in the middle of my palm. "So which is better? My boob or my butt?" she asked, dragging my hand down her side and moving it to her butt. Crap! She didn't have panties on either! She pushed her crotch up against my leg and put one leg over the top.

"Jennifer, stop!" I demanded. "I cannot have sex with you. I have a girlfriend."

"You do?"

"Yes, and I'm not going to have sex with someone else. No matter how beautiful and nice and willing she is. Please, Jennifer, I just can't do this." She let go of my hand on her butt so I could move it. It took me a couple seconds to get the message from my brain to my hand. Her leg was touching my cock and she rubbed it a little as she rolled away from me. Oh, god have mercy! I had a really pretty girl who I realized has been flirting all afternoon naked in my sleeping bag wanting to have sex with me!

"You must really love her," Jennifer said. She was no longer touching my cock, but she wasn't really moving to get out of my sleeping bag either. She put her head on my shoulder and I could smell her shampoo. I could still feel her boobs pressed against my side, too. But in spite of all that, I realized that maybe what she said was true.

"I don't know for sure," I said. Somehow I had my right arm around her shoulders and she was just cuddling against me. Just cuddling naked against me. I wasn't getting any softer, but I was really thinking about Rhonda now. "I'm not sure I know what love is. Rhonda has become about the best friend I've ever had. We do everything together. She even delivered my papers for me this morning. She's fun and funny and I just never want to hurt her."

"I think that's love. Do you make love to her?"

"Uh ... no. We don't hardly even hold hands or anything. We're not ready for it and it doesn't matter."

"I know from what I felt down there that it matters, but it's cool that you aren't pushing her. Not like I pushed you. I just thought it was what all boys want."

"Believe me; it's not that I don't want it. It's really something more important than that." Jennifer wiggled up to get out of the sleeping bag and she kind of made sure that just about every part of her naked body touched me on the way out. Crap. Maybe I was doing the touching. She stood beside my bunk absolutely naked with just the bathroom night light letting me see her. She turned around and bent over to pick up her pajamas and robe. Slowly. It was all I could do not to beg her to come back.

She put her pajama pants on and I was sad to see her pussy disappear from view. Then the top went on and then her robe. It took a long time for her to get dressed and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She put her feet in her slippers and approached me again. She picked up my t-shirt from off the floor and handed it to me.

"You can still masturbate tonight while you think of me," she whispered. "I'll be doing it while I'm thinking of you." She leaned over and kissed me softly on the cheek and then headed toward the door. Before she opened it, she turned and looked at me again. "Brian? Just so you know. I lied to you. I've never done it before, either. Thank you for rescuing me. Again." With that she opened the door and left. I sure hoped she didn't get in trouble for sneaking out. If she did, it was about certain that I would. Still, the image of her standing naked beside my bed and bending over and the feel of her boobs on my side and her leg sliding up my cock ... I quickly shoved my t-shirt into the bed to catch my come. Crap. I hadn't even touched myself.

"So, the staff and the troop leaders tell me you were a hero again," Mom said as we left the ranch.

It had taken a few minutes to get out of there because each of the girls had stopped to give me a really nice full-front hug. Even the leaders. Phyllis hugged my face right into her boobs. I almost suffocated. Debbie was really nice and just said, "Hang in there brother. If you ever need a sister, let me know." Jennifer went last and gave me a slip of paper with her name, address, and phone number on it.

"I'd like to be your friend," she said. "If you, uh ... ever need a girlfriend, I might be interested, too. Just saying." I hugged her and sprouted an instant boner just feeling her boobs against my chest and thinking about last night. "Thanks again, Brian. You really are a great guy. My hero."

She got into one of the vans and when they saw their charges were all on board, Becc and Phyllis quit talking to my mom and drove away. So, that was what they were telling Mom.

"I was just in the right place at the right time," I said non-committedly. I just knew Mom wasn't going to let this alone.

"It makes me very proud to know these things about my son," she said. "It was more than accidentally being in the right place. It was fast action that saved that little girl." Oh, Mom. She's not that little.

"Really, Mom. Please don't make a big deal out of it. I'd really appreciate it if none of my friends found out about this. I don't need any more reputation. It's hard enough as it is." Mom was quiet for a few miles.

"Is it really that bad, Brian?"

"Yeah, Mom. It really is."

"Well, I have to tell your Dad. He deserves to be proud of you, too. But we'll honor your wish and we won't tell anyone else." I didn't want to say anything else because every time I thought about Jennifer, I got a boner. I'd put the paper in my pocket. Boyfriend? Not likely. The troop was from Kokomo. Even when I could drive, I would never be allowed to date someone that far away. Besides, if I had any say in it, I'd still be dating Rhonda. Hmm. I wonder how much of anything we'd done together counted as a date. Surely you couldn't count riding on my collections as a date, could you?

"Rhonda did a good job delivering your papers Saturday," Mom said as if she was reading my mind.

"I knew she would. Did she tell you about the Saturday we got chased by a German shepherd?"

"No! I didn't know there were any mean dogs on your route ... anymore." I grinned at Mom.

"It was when we were riding to her house after I was done last week," I said. "She is really fast on her bike. She said she didn't have to outrun the dog, she just had to outrun me."

"That joke is older than I am," Mom laughed. "She is such a nice girl. You are taking it slow, aren't you, Brian?" Slow? What... ? Oh crap!

"Mom, I like Rhonda a whole lot. And I like the fact that she's my girlfriend and we do lots of fun stuff together. But really, Mom. We just play. We don't do anything wrong." I hoped that would end the conversation. I really didn't want to go into detail about what we didn't do. Besides, that made me think of Jennifer and I was getting hard again. Thankfully, Mom let it drop.

"How was the ranch, Dude?" Carl asked at lunch. Everybody turned and looked at me. I just wasn't going to say that much about it—and nothing at all about there being a Girl Scout troop there.

"It was neat. You know, being off and independent on my birthday was pretty awesome. Even though we had a family celebration at home on Sunday. I set a new arena record in Rescue Barrels."

"You're kidding! Who did you rescue?" Liz said. She always thought it was cool that we had horses and I got to ride at the county fair. It wasn't that big a deal. I wished I had a good quarter horse like they had at the ranch instead of Betts' Arabians. I'd never turned barrels anywhere near as fast on Gypsy as on Jingo. Of course, Gypsy was older. And Theresa's little pinto was a demon with four hooves. That got us off the general subject of my birthday and the ranch and focused on who had horses and could ride.

"Oh, uh, just another one of the campers at the ranch. There were a few."

"You should go riding with Brian someday," Brenda said to Rhonda. "That would be so romantic."

"Could we go riding sometime?" Rhonda asked enthusiastically.

"Oh. Well, we can't ride Princess because she's Betts' show horse. I suppose we could ride double on Gypsy, though. If you'd like. Saturday after collections?"

"Yes!" Now that one I knew was a date. And Brenda was right. Having Rhonda with her arms wrapped around my waist as we rode out through the woods would be romantic. I hoped.

"Homecoming is going to be so cool," Reggie said. "You should come to the game, Bri. Bring your girlfriend. The cheerleaders are going to hold a flaming hoop for us to run through onto the field."

"Flaming? How are they going to do that?"

"Oh they're just soaking some rags in kerosene and wrapping them around the hoop then setting it on fire."

"NO!" I was louder than I should have been and Mr. J looked up at us. We focused on the experiment we were running. I whispered. "You can't do that. Kerosene burns really hot. You'd get set on fire and the cheerleaders couldn't hold the hoop."

"It should be just like a lion jumping through a fiery hoop, shouldn't it?"

"How many of the team does it actually take to win the game?" I asked.