Double Twist
Chapter 160
“She was something new.”
—G.S. Jennsen, Dissonance
I SUPPOSE LAUGHING when you see a girl naked for the first time isn’t really the appropriate response, but I couldn’t help myself. Remas scowled at me and stomped her foot, which did nice things for her ample breasts. Despite the humor, my cock was rising in her direction.
“What? What’s so funny about my naked body?” she demanded. Cindy and Desi returned from the bathroom with their toothbrushes in their mouths and both snorted when they saw Remas. “You, too? Is this some kind of ritual hazing you put auditioners through?”
“No. I’m sorry, Remas. Honest,” I sputtered. “It was an inside joke and we are being unkind by not sharing it with you. You’re beautiful! Sit here beside me and I’ll explain.”
“I hope it’s good. I’d like a laugh, too, if it’s not at me.”
“You made a big impression on us when we were in DC,” I began. I took her hand and tried to keep my erection out of her direct line of sight. It wasn’t being helped by looking at her shapely figure and breasts. At least sitting down, I wasn’t able to focus on the slit between her legs. “Then you suggested you’d like to audition with us. The conversation turned to how little we really knew about you and Cindy said we didn’t even have any idea what you were hiding under the hijab. You could be bleach-blonde or even bald. It was just so completely unexpected that you would take it off and actually be blonde! We couldn’t help ourselves.”
“I’m not blonde,” Remas insisted. “I have brown hair. Light… brown.”
“It is not the black or dark brown hair we’d expect from a Middle Eastern woman,” Desi said as she returned, wiping her face with a towel. “And you’re really beautiful. Not that we expected you to be ugly but I mean really beautiful.”
“In the first place, I’m not Middle Eastern. I’m not an Arab if that’s what you’re thinking,” Remas said.
“Well, with the hijab, I guess we kind of assumed you were.”
“Yeah. Well, we all have our secrets, you know.” She sighed. “I figured this would all come out this week but I didn’t plan to just strip and reveal everything at once. I’m Romany. My father immigrated to the US when the borders first opened in 1990. He met my mother here and I was born in 2002. I got the light hair from her and the darker skin from him.”
“And which is Muslim?” Cindy asked.
“Neither. I’m not Muslim.”
“But… the hijab?”
“My mother always tied my hair in a headscarf. Someplace along the line in school, kids started taunting me about being a Muslim terrorist. I lived in a pretty redneck area down south. You’d be amazed at how racist they still are. We got threats all the time, even though we went to a Presbyterian church. Being a devious creature, I capitalized on it. I started wearing the hijab in junior high and discovered the school had to make allowances for me on the assumption of religious freedom. I had to either be excused from gym or have a separate dressing area. Imagine my surprise when I found it works the same way in National Service. Anyone can have special accommodations if needed for physical, mental, religious, or cultural reasons.”
“Well, it sure worked with us.”
“And everyone else in the National School, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t blow my cover. Besides, you wouldn’t believe the response of the rednecks when I go home to visit. If someone starts to hassle me, all I have to do is raise my hand in a loose fist with my thumb raised as if on a detonator and they scatter.”
“Wow,” I said. “I hope you won’t hide yourself or your story from the rest of the pod.”
“I came here to audition. I figured that would mean full disclosure eventually. I wasn’t expecting it to be full exposure the first night!”
“Do you want a shower before bed?” I asked.
“Are you offering to wash my back?”
“Um… As attractive as that sounds—and looks—it’s probably not a good thing right yet,” I said. “And I’ve had a couple of showers already today. As soon as I brush my teeth, I’m ready for bed.”
“I prefer to shower in the morning,” she laughed. “Lead on.”
“Do you want to sleep next to Jacob?” Cindy asked. “Or between Desi and me? We’re pretty safe but Jacob responds to naked girls cuddled up to him. Desi’s the best bet for keeping him under control.”
“Um… Not that I’m all that opposed to Jacob responding to me, but since he just said it wasn’t the right thing yet, I’ll choose you and Desi. Um… Unless you and Desi want to sandwich Jacob. I can take an outside edge.”
“Oh… it’s not the right thing yet for us, either,” Cindy said.
Nanette and I had a light run—just three miles—Thursday morning and I was back in time for a shower and to load my viol into the truck before we headed for school. I had a first period lesson with Herr Richter and he didn’t like to start late. I was surprised to find Remas ready to leave with her cello in hand. She had her hair down at breakfast and explained her heritage to all our pod, but she was back in her hijab as we walked out to the truck.
“You’re going to school today?” I asked.
“Without you and Cindy here to work with, it seemed like a good thing. I’m teaching master classes today as an exchange student from the National School. Dr. Donahue set everything up when we decided I should come out to work with you directly. And tomorrow, we have time set aside to work on the arrangement and performance of Glory.”
“We do? Cindy and I normally rehearse first period Friday but then I’ve got my regularly scheduled classes.”
“I don’t think so.”
I think Herr Richter was happier to have Remas with her cello in my lesson than me with my viol. I guess that was understandable since he’s a cellist. It was like they had a secret code language they could use as members of the same club. I still got attention because we were working on the viol part for Glory. It would be a little tricky as I’d be changing from viol to guitar about a minute into the piece. He suggested Remas carry the drone continuity on the cello.
That, finally, brought us to the discussion we were bound to have eventually. We’d toyed with it the night before. Would Remas play with Cindy, Desi, and me when we did our recording. I refused to commit until I’d heard it all put together.
When I got to orchestra, it was to find that Remas was already there and consulting with Mr. LeBlanc. He set an extra chair and music stand at the end of the cello section and Remas took her place, greeting the other cello players.
“We are pleased to have Ms. Hayek of the National School of the Arts with us this morning,” LeBlanc said. “She will be conducting a master class in the second half of our class. But for this first, we thought it would be entertaining to do some sight reading. On your stands you will find Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile. This piece is normally just strings but you will find a full orchestra adaptation, which Ms. Hayek provided. We’re using this piece to give you a chance to hear and appreciate her performance on the cello solo. Later you will all get a chance to sight read and play that passage. Ms. Hayek, if you would give us the tone for tuning, please?”
Remas sounded a clean smooth A and we all came to tune with her. LeBlanc raised his baton and counted out the tempo then brought us in. It was as ragged as a high school orchestra sight reading a new piece of music could be, but when we all fell silent for the solo, Remas brought tones out of her cello that made my chest vibrate.
“We’re going to learn so much this afternoon!” Cindy said as she led Remas to our table at lunch.
“How was your first morning at Mad Anthony High School?” Beca asked Remas.
“I’ve had fun. It’s great being treated like a guest celebrity, even when I know there are professionals there who could teach things better than I ever could. Herr Richter is a sweetheart,” Remas bubbled.
“You’re going to work with the band sixth period,” I said. “What is your plan for seventh?”
“I thought I’d tag along to your constitutional government class,” she said. There was a bit of a glint in her eye.
“We’re still into some pretty basic elements of just reading and discussing the document,” I said. “I’m looking forward to when we get into the application of the constitution to law and governance.”
“We’ll see. It’s always fun to review.”
Remas led the orchestra through a lengthy exercise in sight reading. I was amused to see Herr Richter take her seat in the cello section as she moved to the front of the class. Mr. LeBlanc sat at the piano and gave her his attention as well. Either of the men could have taught the section and I wondered what Remas would bring to it.
It was interesting. We found pads of sticky notes on our music stands with the music.
“I want you to read the first measure. Just read, no playing,” she said. We did as she said. I could hear a few people humming it. “Now, use a sticky note and cover the measure. I want you to play that measure while you read the second measure.” There was a lot of stumbling around as she gave us a count and we attempted to remember and play what was in the first measure while we read the second measure. “We’re not going back yet,” she said. “Cover the second measure with a sticky and prepare to play it while we read the third measure.”
We continued through this process until we had played through four measures. She tapped her baton and we gave her our attention.
“Sight reading music is divided into two parts as I’ve just demonstrated. The first part is reading the notes and understanding them. The second part is playing them. But if you read at the same time that you are playing, you don’t know what is coming and can’t adjust your playing. So, the trick we will continue to practice is playing what we’ve just read as we read what comes next.” She smiled at our confused faces. “We’ll divide into pairs for the next portion. I will count out the first measure while you read. Your partner will then cover that measure as you begin to play it and as you read the next measure. We’ll progress measure for measure until we reach the third bar. Let’s see how it goes.”
It was difficult. In the first exercise, we’d paused between measures while reading and playing. This time we were supposed to flow smoothly from measure to measure as we read ahead of the moving sheet of paper our partner held for us. Then we switched positions and I discovered moving the paper at the right speed was as challenging as playing the correct notes. By the end of class, though, we’d all shown improvement and got lost less frequently. I could certainly see the benefit in the exercise. I wondered if it worked the same way reading a text passage aloud. Do we read the words as we speak them or do we get a better rendition if our eyes are constantly moving ahead of what our voice speaks?
Cindy and I bracketed Remas in our constitutional government class. We introduced her to Mr. Richards. I’d been pretty happy to discover my freshman human geography teacher was going to be my senior constitutional government teacher. I liked his style and even though there was no separate honors or AP section of the class, he was considerably more intense in teaching it than he’d been in the non-AP portion of human geography.
“Let’s talk a little about what’s going on with the National Service,” Mr. Richards said in introducing the class. “Remas Hayek from the National School of the Arts is with us this afternoon and even though she is in school, she is already in her first year of service. I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about what the president announced a few weeks ago regarding reworking the laws governing the service. Remas, what effect are you seeing so far among your fellow corps members as the process begins under the president’s aggressive timeline for rewriting the law?”
“Mr. Richards, it’s too early to see any concrete results from the effort, of course, but I’d have to say there is a sense of jubilation among the corps members who see the effort as a culmination of their own efforts,” Remas said.
“Are you saying the corps members themselves had something to do with pressuring the president to act?”
“Not just the current corps members, but Jacob and Cindy here, as well. And, lest you think these two are something extraordinary, which they are, I should say there are other public individuals in many fields who have achieved much the same kind of recognition for their efforts as Jacob and Cindy have. If you didn’t watch back in February, check out the acceptance speech by Cali Marx for best supporting actress. She delivered a blistering indictment on the conditions forced upon corps members forced to work in the fields of California. In the wake of her address, the field workers demanded the service live up to its commitment regarding the length of work days and time off. These are things that are going on all over the country at all levels including pre-service, in-service, post-service, and exempt personalities.”
The conversation was pretty intense and I got to know Remas a lot better through her point of view on her service. It was different than Emily’s, but in general, she felt the service was a positive experience but needed reform.
Jock pushed for me to do ten six-minute miles in practice Thursday afternoon. It would be my last long run workout until the half marathon on Monday. When I got home, I was way past exhausted. Cindy, of course, was at her home for the night so we didn’t practice. It was fun to see Remas without her headscarf at home. Her light brown hair flowed around her shoulders. Donna and Nanette took charge of her for the night and soon after I found my way to bed upstairs, Em crawled into bed with me.
Having her wrap me in her arms was like having my anchor again. I felt truly safe and at peace for the first time in more than a month. I wanted to make love to her, but nestled against her breast, I slipped off to dreamland before I could do more than give her nipple a kiss.
Nanette didn’t join us for our light run in the morning, so Em and I cut it short and made love in the shower. When we arrived at the breakfast table, Donna had already left for school. Nanette and Remas both looked a little glazed. I thought maybe Remas had a rigorous audition the night before.
Nan left for work when Remas and I got in the truck with our instruments to head to school. Em said she had an interview at Citilink, the bus company. I shuddered a little at that and wondered what happened to the bus driver who hit me when I walked in front of her bus.
Cindy was waiting in our practice room when we arrived and Desi walked in a few minutes later.
“I didn’t know you could rehearse this morning,” I said. “Don’t you have a class?”
“We have this rehearsal room for the day,” Desi said, handing Cindy and me notes. I glanced at the copy of a class excuse form she’d given me. It said I was excused from all classes on September 3 for rehearsal. Cindy was puzzling over a similar note. I looked at Remas and she grinned.
“Dr. Donahue can be very influential,” she said. “I think we’d better be working, though.”
It was an intense day, broken only by the four of us going to orchestra and performing our arrangement in class. It was clear that Remas was going to perform with us in DC now. The most awkward part of our performance was still me switching from viol to guitar. Cindy could make the shift from piccolo to flute with relative ease but getting my viol secure in its stand and pulling out the guitar was still awkward. I just needed to practice a few more times. Otherwise, the trial run went great.
We were still missing a critical element, though. We didn’t have a venue for recording in DC. At least I didn’t know of one. Remas said she and Donna were working on it. I could live with that.
The whole pod was together on Saturday and we ended up with a typical mostly naked day and Remas joined right in. Her nudity did not detract at all from the beauty of my girlfriends. I found myself occasionally slipping into a fantasy of holding her shapely breasts as I slipped into the slit I frequently saw winking at me. I didn’t have to travel with the team to Penn because I was traveling to Noblesville on Monday.
We continued to rehearse, but a lot of our rehearsal time was spent working on integrating Sophie and Britt as dancers with the music. Sophie was showing her talent as a real choreographer. Other than the work she did on The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, everything had seemed pretty improvisational. It was cool to see her with a copy of the score in front of her, making notes and instructing Britt as she plotted out dance moves. Then we’d play a section and they’d try the moves before going back to pencil and paper to deconstruct and make choreography notes.
Naked Sophie and Brittany going through their dance moves provided more distraction now and then. A giggle and a little swat on my arm would bring my attention back to Cindy and I’d immediately get distracted by the slight movement of her bare tiddies. If that wasn’t enough, I had Desi’s breasts and the new experience of Remas’s breasts and flowing hair to distract me. I finally set aside my guitar and flopped back in the chair. I was seriously considering a nap when Remas perched on my lap.
“What do you think?” she asked as she made herself comfortable.
“I think if you wiggle any more, I might make a mess,” I said.
“I mean about the music. But I’ll wiggle some more if you want.”
“Not so fast, sister,” Cindy said crawling on top of her. I was glad neither of them weighed much. “No wiggling until after we’ve decided we have this thing down. What are we now? Marvel, Hopkins, Whitcomb, and Hayek? Maybe we should think up a new name.”
“No,” Remas said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You have an identity.” Desi leaned over the back of the chair and repositioned my head so I was pillowed on her… pillows. “I think your primary identity should stay Marvel and Hopkins. When others of us join you, you can either add ‘and company’ like you did with the Mountain Monster and GBU, or you can say ‘with Desi Whitcomb’ when you just have one other principal performer with you. I don’t want to get tacked on at the end of your name.”
“But you’re contributing as much as we are,” I protested. “Without your arrangement, we’d never get this far.”
“Donna and Beca and Sophie and Brittany are contributing to the whole performance, too,” Remas protested. “And if Nanette gives you the kind of back rub she gave me last night, you’ll have to admit she’s just as important a part of the ensemble as those who hold instruments.”
“I admit that,” I sighed. There was nothing like getting a massage from Nanette.
“Desi, what do you think?” Cindy asked.
“I have to agree,” she said. “I think the consistent part that will always be the same is Marvel and Hopkins. The rest of us come and go as we’re needed and may be out performing solo or with others. Remas isn’t going to stop playing with the youth orchestra. I’m going to take stage roles and I’ll bet both Sophie and Brittany are still planning to dance with or without you.”
“We’ve rebranded, by the way,” Remas said. “This fall we launched as the Young America Orchestra.”
“How very patriotic,” I said.
“It fits. Over half of us are in the National Service and the rest soon will be. When I leave the service, I’ll be competing for a place in the National Orchestra or a different one. I want to be with you and play with you and arrange for you, but you two are the deputation team the service is looking for.”
“I guess,” I said. “I just want to be fair to everyone.”
“And company,” Desi said. “I’ll be proud to put that on my resume.”
For the second time this week, I found myself in bed with Cindy, Desi, and Remas. Only this time, instead of Desi providing a buffer between me and the other two, Remas was smashed tight against one side and Cindy against the other.
“Um… Where is this going?” I asked. Having these two cuddled up to me was going to make it hard sleeping.
“I’m being held securely by my boyfriend where I’m safe and loved,” Cindy said. “It might take us a while before we become lovers like you are with our other girlfriends, but I know that I belong in your arms, Jacob.” I turned my head and met her lips. Her firm and tender breasts pressed into my side and I just let myself become lost in the moment. I discovered my hand cupped her butt when we came up for air.
“I’ve come to love you, Cindy. That’s all that’s necessary.”
“I understand that for the first time in my life,” Remas said from the other side. “I understand what it is to be safe and cared for. I know you don’t love me, Jacob. We haven’t known each other long enough for that. I appreciate that it isn’t time for us. Not now and maybe not ever. But I’m lying with my naked body pressed against the naked body of a boy I could really come to care about. Maybe I’m not ready to be part of the pod, nor are you ready to just add someone. But I feel like this is a place where I can really be me and drop any pretenses. I just want to revel in this feeling.”
I turned my head toward her and looked into her brown eyes. I could see a number of possibilities there and I felt them when she lifted her lips to mine and we kissed for the first time. Intimate friends, if not lovers. Possibly even lovers, even if not pod mates.
“Now we’re going to join Sophie and Brittany,” Cindy said. “I think you need some quality time with Desi.” Cindy and Remas slipped out of bed and Desi rolled over to join me. Completely.
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