Double Take
Chapter 33
“Technology! How can any man who means to keep his sanity go far in such an art?”
—Fred Saberhagen, Empire of the East
“GAH! HOW ARE WE ever going to decide this?” I said in frustration. We were all gathered at Joan’s house on Saturday afternoon to review the last batch of videos from security. “We’ve got ten weeks of video less four days off school. That’s forty-six videos of kids coming into the lunchroom, rearranging tables, and leaving. Every video has four lunch periods on it. That’s a total of a hundred eighty-four lunch periods at twenty-five minutes each. Four thousand six hundred minutes of footage! Over seventy-five hours. What’s even the purpose?”
“Jacob!” Beca commanded. “Sit down and shut up if all you can do is recite statistics about how futile it is. I swear, you sound like an old man trying to ruin everyone’s fun.”
I sat down and shut up. I was an old man. I didn’t mean to ruin everyone’s fun, but I didn’t see how we were going to make sense out of all the data we’d collected. The project had sounded both interesting and exciting when we conceived it but I was only just realizing the flaws. We had failed to adequately plan the project. Our only plan was to collect video and try to learn from it.
“You guys need to relax and lower your high expectations a little,” Rachel said.
“What?” Beca practically screamed at her.
“What is the purpose of the Human Geography project?” she calmly responded.
“It is,” I read from my notes, “To show an understanding of maps and spatial data. To show understanding and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in places. To show understanding of the relationship among patterns and processes. To demonstrate defining regions and evaluate the regionalization process. To be able to characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places.”
“Wait,” Rachel said, adopting a teacher-like expression. “I did not hear you say that the purpose was to add to the knowledge and science of human geography. Where was that?”
“It’s not in there,” I said.
“Exactly! You two are acting like you are going to discover some new scientific information and reveal to the world how a high school lunchroom leads to nuclear war. You don’t have to kill yourselves over this. You have to show a high school AP level of understanding,” she said. She scowled at us and plopped back on the sofa with her arms folded.
I sat there looking first at Rachel and then at Rebeca. That was ridiculous. I grinned at her and started laughing. It just came up from inside and started bubbling out so hard I couldn’t contain it. My side started to hurt and the girls started laughing at me. When I thought I was going to pass out, I started gasping for breath and settling down.
“What the fuck got into you?” Joan asked.
“Sometimes I forget we’re in high school,” I snorted. “Really. I’ve been stressing over this like it was my PhD dissertation. I’m sorry, Beca. I didn’t mean to get so frustrated or be so frustrating.”
“I know,” she sighed. “I guess I got caught up in it, too. Sorry.”
“Kiss and make up,” Desi insisted.
“I… uh… We…”
“Oh, shut up, Jacob. Come here and kiss me nicely.” I did as told. Very nicely. “You do know I’m not going to magically turn straight, don’t you? I mean, if there was no chance of me making out with Joan… Or Rachel… Or Desi… I could probably close my eyes and convince myself you were just one of the girls.”
“Nice. Fourth choice. I’ll live with that.”
“You know what we need?” Desi asked. “We need to take a break. Well, I do, anyway. I can’t remember the last time I spent a day without one or more of you. Even though no one went out last night, we still saw each other at school and hung out at lunch.”
“Getting tired of us, hot stuff?” Joan jabbed at her.
“No! But I’ve got like eight weeks of farts bottled up inside that I haven’t dared let out and I want to go someplace alone where I can let ’em rip.” We all started laughing again.
“I haven’t spent any quality time with my little brother in a long time either,” Rachel said. “I gave him a certificate for a movie of his choice for Christmas and we still haven’t gone.”
“I should do something special with Pey, too,” I said. “She was so scared during the thunderstorm last weekend that she came and crawled in bed with me. I see Em at school and in the car almost every day, but I don’t spend enough time with Pey.”
“Probably a good idea all the way around,” Joan said. “I have a couple of websites I haven’t changed in a long time. I should do something creative for myself before I tackle the big animation for this project.”
“And you guys aren’t even getting credit for it,” Beca sighed. “Why don’t we take tomorrow off. No studying together, no phone calls, no text messages to each other.”
“That’s getting kind of extreme,” Joan said. “I might want you to see something on my private snapchat.” Beca looked at her and grinned.
“You know what I miss?” she said. “I miss you coming in dressed to kill on Mondays and sitting across where I could just watch you all through lunch while guy after guy came to hit on you.”
“I’ll do it if you come to hit on me, too. Then I won’t have to actually pick one of them for a date next week.”
“Only if you do the whole week’s routine with the tight jeans and Friday yoga pants.”
We finally broke up our Saturday meeting promising to give the project a rest and hit it fresh on Monday. And we’d all take Sunday off from each other.
“Hey, baby sister,” I said in the car after church Sunday. “Want to come to the park with me?”
“And what? Make sure you don’t fall over on your walk?”
“Harsh! Maybe I could find a different third grade girl who’d like to learn how to operate my drone.” I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
“Really? You’d teach me how to do your helicopter thing?”
“Quadcopter. And yeah. As long as you agree to make sure I don’t fall over.”
“I’m meeting a friend at the mall this afternoon,” Em said. “I can drop you off if you want.”
“Why’d you want to do this?” Pey asked as she deftly guided the quadcopter to a stop ten feet in front of us. “Smile!” I put an arm around her shoulders as she triggered the remote camera button to capture the latest in selfies.
“Well, aside from the fact that I like to spend time with you and haven’t done that much since I got back to school, I kind of realized last weekend when you were scared of the storm that I missed just spending time with you.”
“I like to be with you but you always have girls around now.”
“Yeah. That’s weird, isn’t it? Who ever thought I’d have even one girlfriend?”
“They’re nice. I like them.”
“Good. Let’s go sit down over there. I want to tell you about a story I read not long ago.”
“You haven’t told me a story in, like, ten years.”
“You’re only eight, Pey.”
“Yeah.” We settled on a picnic bench and I started disassembling the drone to put it in the carrying case.
“So, the story was about an old guy. I mean like older than grandma and grandpa.”
“Ancient. Prehistoric. Antediluvian.”
“Where the heck did you learn that word?”
“I read, too, you know.”
“Okay. Well, this guy was thinking back over his Methuselan life and remembered that he had two sisters. The older one was kind of angry and bitter. She resented having to share a bedroom with her sister. She thought her brother was a pain in the ass. She didn’t even like her parents much. Everybody pretty much felt the same way about her. As soon as she could get out of the house, she ran away, got married, and had kids of her own. And those kids were every bit as resentful and miserable as she’d been.”
“Ish. Is this a sad story?”
“Yeah. I guess it is.”
“What about the other sister?”
“The old man hardly remembered his little sister. He’d ignored her when she was growing up and didn’t even come home to watch her graduate from high school. To him, she’d just been someone who got under foot, or who he had to stay home to take care of when his parents were away.”
“I don’t think I like this old man.”
“The more I think about him, the less I like him, too. So, I won’t dwell on the details other than to say that both of his sisters had died and he had hardly noticed. But as he lay there on his deathbed, he thought back to his sisters and how different things could have been if he’d reached out to them and just been a friend. The old man died, wishing he’d told his sisters that he loved them.” I paused and looked at my little sister. “Pey, I don’t want to be like that old man. When I look back on my life, I want to remember what a good time we had together and how much I loved you and Em.”
Pey snuggled up against me and hugged me around my waist.
“I want to read that story,” she said.
“Oh. I guess I’ll have to write it, then.”
I’d finished my homework for the weekend and even made some notes that I thought we could riff on for our project. Everybody was getting ready for bed and I was sitting in my room with my guitar and some music Vinnie gave me spread out on my bed. It was a simple Slovenian folk song but I was working on coordinating my fingers with what I saw on the page. I got lost in the music and just let my fingers travel the strings. I finished the piece and shuffled the sheets around to look at Etude No. 9 that was another simple piece working with the C major scale.
“I haven’t heard you play that piece in a long time,” Em said from my doorway.
“I’m trying to get my brain reconnected to my fingers. Vinnie’s got me working on some pretty basic stuff.”
“I’m so glad you decided to keep working with him.”
“Yeah. Mom said if I wanted to keep studying and promised to practice, she’d pay for another set.”
“Pey said you told her a sad story today.”
“Um… Maybe. I didn’t mean to make her sad.”
“No. She isn’t. I think, somehow, she is sort of hopeful.”
“You want me to tell you?”
“No. She told me.” Em came and sat on the edge of my bed and gave me a hug. “I don’t know what inspired it, J, or who you thought the old man was, but you aren’t him. I know that for a fact.” She gave me a little kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight, J.”
“Goodnight, Em.”
I put away the guitar and stripped for bed.
Lunch Monday was fun. Joan walked into the lunchroom dressed in a micro-miniskirt and a crop top. I was sure I’d read something in the school handbook that said girls weren’t supposed to have their navels exposed, though I don’t think it was enforced that much. But there was Joan with a cluster of rhinestones embedded in her tummy. Well, I guess technically you couldn’t see her navel. She walked through the lunchroom twice, eating an apple, and then sat with her back to the table across from us and crossed her legs. I was sure I saw a flash of pink panties. They weren’t very big.
“So, I thought maybe we could structure the project according to the steps we’re supposed to cover,” I said. “We could overlay a fake map, like they put inside the cover of fantasy books and show the settlement patterns as people invade the country.”
“Not now, Jacob,” Beca said. She had her eyes fastened on Joan as a boy came up and started chatting her up. “I think I need to make my move.” I glanced over at Beca and realized she wasn’t in her usual baggy clothes. Oh, she was in faded blue jeans, all right, but these were snug. I hadn’t realized what a nice shaped butt Beca had until she stood up beside me. And the geometrically patterned sweater she was wearing wasn’t baggy, either. It had a high neck and long sleeves, but clung to her curves like a second skin. Beca wasn’t stacked like Desi or Joan, but she had a really nice shape that I’d seen only when she wore her party dress to the Winter Dance. Nice!
Desi slid into the seat she vacated.
“Our little girl has some sexy, doesn’t she?” Desi said.
“Look at the number of guys who are watching her walk across the lunch room,” Rachel added from my other side. “Joan hasn’t taken her eyes off her since she stood up.”
“She looks like a deer caught in the headlights,” I chuckled.
“Speaking of headlights, hers just popped up to high beam.”
“I think there’s some chemistry going on there.”
I felt a hand on each of my thighs and dropped mine below the table to find the legs of my two companions. Desi, of course, had nylons and garters under her mid-thigh skirt. Rachel’s legs were bare. I was hard.
“Look, they completely ignored that guy who tried to cut in.”
“Are they coming back to the table?”
“No! They’re leaving together! Holding hands.”
“There are six guys within spitting distance with boners they can’t hide,” I said.
“Including you,” Desi giggled. She stroked up my leg and almost touched my straining cock.
“I think we have you to ourselves this weekend,” Rachel said.
“Mmm. What could the three of us do to get in trouble?” Desi asked. “Or do you want us each to have a different night?”
“Um… I… My parents laid down the law and said that with my study dates, I could only go out once a weekend.”
“I guess that means that Desi and I will pick you up Friday night about six,” Rachel said. “Since I’m the only one of the three of us who can drive.”
The bell rang and we stood to join the exodus. I shouldered my pack and the girls each took a hand as we headed for the door. I kissed Desi and she went on to her class. Rachel and I kept holding hands all the way to Geometry.
“One day soon,” Rachel whispered as she reached up to give me a quick peck before we found our seats.
The rest of the week was a torment. Oh, Beca and I worked on our project Monday and Wednesday after school. But I think she went shopping over the weekend. All her clothes were a lot more feminine than the baggy things she’d been wearing all year. I think she was even using a little makeup. Just a touch of lipstick and mascara. I’m pretty sure the blush was all natural. She kind of changed overnight from a nondescript kid to a ripening dish.
Not that she had an eye toward me. Joan put on the full show all week. Jeans I hadn’t seen since Christmas were back. There was one pair that was cut so low and tight that the T in the back of her panties showed—just a string around her waist and one running straight down into her crack.
“We don’t really have to wait until we’re both sixteen, you know,” Desi said as we followed them out of the lunchroom Thursday.
“Down, girl,” Rachel said. “You made your deal. I made mine. And mine closes first.”
“Your deal closes when your legs open,” Desi said.
“It won’t be long now,” Rachel snapped back.
Thursday afternoon, Francie was feeling more playful than she’d been lately. She wanted me to massage her, but very intimately. And then we found a comfortable position and she sucked me to a luxurious and badly needed come.
“Why haven’t you replaced me with one of your girlfriends, Jacob?” she asked as I tried to recover a sense of the world.
“We… uh… Francie… I’m not going to…”
“We’re going to go all the way again next week, I promise,” Francie said. “I don’t want to stop until I pop. And it’s feeling a lot closer these days. Then you’ll be free, Jacob. I know how you’ve been putting off getting involved with your other girls. You’re sweet to think of me. But it won’t be long now. I promise.”
I licked her up to another come before we got dressed.
Friday, Joan wore the infamous yoga pants with an unusually baggy sweater with a wide neck that kept slipping off one shoulder. Or the other. I saw why she wore that the first time she bent over at our table to kiss Beca. There was nothing under the sweater.
And Beca was a knockout, too. I’d only seen her in skirts or dresses twice—at Christmas and at our Valentine party. This was a demure red and blue plaid with a white collar. It had short puffed sleeves and came down just short of her knees. She’d gone with white anklets and tennis shoes. I really didn’t want to think the kind of thoughts about Beca that were intruding on my mind. She was just too sweet. And cute. And innocent. And sexy.
Not that I had time to notice. Really. Rachel and Desi were competing for my attention. Desi was wearing a black leather miniskirt with black tights. She wasn’t cosplaying any Victorian anime this time. She wore a red semi-sheer blouse that still showed off her ample cleavage. Rachel was in a pale blue cashmere sweater dress that was so soft I couldn’t keep my hands off it. I guess that was her intent.
We kissed everyone goodbye after lunch and wished each other a nice date. We agreed to meet at Joan’s to choose the background video Saturday afternoon.
By the time our date rolled around at six, Desi and Rachel had changed to jeans and we headed out to go bowling. We’d had a long talk about what to do with three people on a date and agreed we didn’t want to try to just make out in a dark movie theater. Well, they didn’t. I was willing enough. But bowling was fun.
V1 had been a fair bowler back in the sixties when it was popular. Had my own shoes and ball and even played in a league for a few years. I guess that was where I started smoking cigars. Every time I thought about that I had a mental craving for a nice relaxing smoke. I’d started with some innocuous sweet stick with a tip on it so I wouldn’t get the tobacco in my mouth. I’d tried a couple of ‘real’ cigars offered to me by friends and one night found myself hunched over a toilet from inhaling too much smoke. Really got to me. It took years before I found a nice corona with Nicaraguan filler and a Connecticut wrapper. Just being in a bowling alley made me want one of those succulent Oliva Connecticut Reserves.
Of course, the Indoor Clean Air Act stopped that. By the time I was sixty, the only place I could smoke was on the back deck and it got too damned cold out there in the winter. I’d still go out for one occasionally but mostly only enjoyed my smoke on summer evenings in front of a gas firepit.
“Your turn. Stop day-dreaming, boyfriend,” Rachel said. My eyes snapped back to her and I winked.
“The dreams are only matched by the reality of being with you.”
“Bowl.”
Okay, so we got plenty of making out in, too. Rachel drove us to Desi’s house while I sat in the back seat with Desi and pawed her tits while she tried to put her tongue down my throat. I think Rachel took the long way around to give us time. Rachel made me sit in the car while she walked Desi to the door and did her own bit of pawing as they kissed goodnight. Then she drove me home… by way of the parking lot at the school.
That’s where Rachel and I leaned the seat back and spent twenty minutes locked together. Her rule about no hands on privates didn’t stop us from rubbing them together.
“My bed. Spring break. Be there,” she whispered when she kissed me goodnight at the door.
Oh, hell yeah!
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