Double Twist
Chapter 179
“I have been to the speed of God, sir… and I discommend it.”
—John Ringo, A Hymn Before Battle
WE PRACTICED ALL DAY Sunday, focused on the program. Sophie and Brittany were with us as well as the six of us playing instruments or singing. Donna was making notes in a score to work with the tech crew. Nanette, Emily, and Beca just kept us fed and hydrated.
I ran Monday and Tuesday mornings so we could rehearse in the afternoon right after school. Monday night we rehearsed until after ten and then crashed. Tuesday, we quit at dinner. We don’t go in for a lot of gifts and such, but Tuesday was Em’s twenty-first birthday. Mom and Dad came out to the farm to join us and we had to remind Andy and David that we had guests and wouldn’t be running around naked.
Until after Mom and Dad left.
Then, I took Emily to my room and made love to her for a couple of hours before she was collected by my other girlfriends and led away to be feted by the females.
“Aren’t you joining the others?” I asked.
“I like Emily, but I’d rather spend the night with you,” Cindy said. “Is that okay?”
“You know it’s always okay to me for you to sleep with me, Piper,” I said.
“Especially since… we have sex now!”
“Yeah. We sure do.”
“Do you still want to have vaginal sex with me?” she asked.
“Piper, I want to make love to you in every way possible. But we don’t need to rush to anything you aren’t ready for.”
“What if I’m never ready?”
“Do you think that’s possible? I mean, it’s okay if that’s the way you feel. It would just surprise me.”
“I mean, what if I can’t tell you I’m ready? Maybe you should just decide when and fuck me. I’ll be surprised,” she said.
“I’m not sure I could do that, Cindy. I would always wonder if it was what you really wanted. Maybe you should talk to one of the other girls about it. Maybe Donna or Nanette.”
“Nanette’s as old as my mother. I don’t know if I could talk to her.”
“Nanette loves you like a lover, though. That’s a lot different.”
“For tonight, could you maybe just hold me? I mean and kiss and stuff? But not fuck. In my pussy.”
“Anything for you, Piper,” I laughed.
Wednesday I did a light run and as soon as everyone was up, we started rehearsing. We scooted all the furniture in the sunroom back against the walls and set ourselves up at the end by the fireplace. Our pod mates got on the furniture and pulled their legs up. Brittany and Sophie did their dances as we played the music. Donna and Beca were making notes on everything. Em and Nanette fixed food. It was a hard day for about six hours.
At three, we closed everything up, gave hugs to Andy and David and took them to the airport.
“Aren’t you joining family for Thanksgiving?” I asked Remas.
“I negotiated a late Thanksgiving. You all are heading to Bloomington Friday for your big race Saturday. So, I’ll fly home on Friday when you leave. I’ll be back in DC on Sunday,” she said.
“Believe me, I’m not trying to get rid of you,” I laughed. “I like having you around.”
“Want to spend the night liking me?”
“Yeah. I’d like that a lot.”
Before that happened, though, we watched Rachel and Livy come out of the gate area and rush to us. There was a lot of loving waiting to happen yet that day.
Remas got passed from lover to lover most of the afternoon, as I got intimately reacquainted with Rachel and Livy. Eventually, Remas ended up in my bed while Rachel slept with Donna and Cindy. Livy was taken by Nanette and Emily. Beca dragged Joan, who drove in about nine-thirty, off to the game room Divine Love had occupied and the last bedroom got Desi, Brittany, and Sophie.
I explored Remas, kissed her, loved her, tasted her, and sank into her body like it was home. I watched her enter that state of bliss when I filled her and marveled at how smoothly she integrated into our pod. I wasn’t sure when we’d recognize her as truly a member, but I figured when we moved to Washington, she’d move in with us.
On Thanksgiving, everyone was up early. We got turkeys in the ovens. Everyone pitched in cleaning and setting up tables. By noon, when all our families arrived, we were in full party mode. Ray and Debbie drove down from Chicago. Sharon and her boyfriend Alex were there. We had all our pod, pod parents, and sibs. Pod two’s newest member, Kate Stevens, couldn’t join us for dinner because she had a family meal, but we invited her and her family to come later in the day.
We sat to eat at two-thirty and enjoyed the food and company. The parents were all very interested in Remas, though a few had met her before. She didn’t wear the hijab, so they were mostly interested in her music.
And there was no drama. No presidential announcements interrupted the football games. No dire emergencies tugged at us. I looked around the table and wondered how many times we would all be together. Even now, there was an empty spot in my heart that I knew was shared by my sister, parents, and pod two. That empty space that would have been filled by Pey.
This needed commemorating. I called John and asked if he would take a few minutes to come out to the farm and photograph all of us together. Kate and her parents arrived just a few minutes before we gathered in the waning sunlight of Thanksgiving Day and managed to get all forty-one of us in one picture.
Epic.
It had taken Em some work at the school district transportation office to get them to agree that we needed to take a bus to Bloomington for the race. Her logic was that even though there was just the driver, coach, trainer, and one athlete, there were fans who wanted to go watch the race. The school finally agreed that if there were ten fans who paid $5 each, we could take a bus. No problem. Nine fans were in our pod. Mom and Dad decided they’d like to come and watch my last high school race. It turned out that Lacie and her entire pod wanted to cheer me on since I’d helped Lacie with her 10k. Jock’s wife joined him and I discovered he had a little baby girl. They were cute together.
We dropped Remas off at the airport and boarded the bus to the Hoosier Classic. Of course, we all had rooms at a local Days Inn and invaded Olive Garden for dinner. Nanette and I got carbed up.
The rooms at Days Inn just weren’t big enough for all twelve of us. We ended up with three rooms and were really cozy. Even at the farm we were usually spread around four bedrooms and now, sometimes five. Nanette and I cuddled together in one bed in our room with Livy and Rachel in the other. We did some kissing and petting, but didn’t make love. We’d need all our energy in the morning.
We got to the starting line at seven, an hour before the race started. What a zoo! Fifteen hundred participants, half of whom were running the 5k, leaving 735 runners in the half marathon. Everyone started together at 8:00. The first mile and three-quarters was run together through city streets. Then the 5k split off one direction and the half marathon continued onto the Indiana University campus. That’s a beautiful campus to run through. I’d done the 10k here last year when Nanette did a full marathon. With the increasing popularity of distance running, the shape of races had changed this year. We were seeing more events and more specialized events. Of course, the seventy-two high school runners competing for the state championship were featured in the event, but the race was a big competition among the sororities and fraternities on campus, too.
I gave Nan a hug and kiss as we split to go to our separate start zones. Jock accompanied me to the high school competition zone where all the contenders were given starting instructions and our timers were checked. With this many starters, it could be a couple of minutes before you even reached the starting line. The judge, however, lined up the racers and called ten runners to the front. He explained that we had the fastest qualifying times in the state and would be first at the starting line. I recognized a couple of the guys from races I’d run. The other sixty-plus runners crowded behind us.
Next to us were the elite men and women of all ages. These were men who qualified at under 1:15:00 and women who qualified under 1:40:00. Nanette had only managed 1:45 in the Covered Bridge race, so she was back in the crowd a bit with the remaining 625 half marathoners. On the far side—what would be the inside of the left-turning course—were the 750 or so 5k runners. I assumed there was some division among them that pushed elite runners to the front as well.
At 8:00 sharp, the starter’s gun fired and we were off. This was a street run and the first part was west from campus, south a mile, then back east onto campus. Before the second mile we were running through the beautiful old campus. The weather was sunny and crisp—perfect for running. The only part where the race narrowed to paths instead of streets was through the arboretum but by then the runners were stretched out for nearly a mile. Maybe fifty of us were running at the front of the pack.
A little before the four-mile marker, we turned onto Jordan Avenue—Greek Row. Every fraternity and sorority had people parked on their lawns, cheering on their favorite runners and waving beer bottles. Before 8:30 in the morning. That’s college life, I guess. One of the curious things was that the average age on campus was twenty-two now. Before National Service, the average age on college campuses was twenty. That also meant the college athletes running were in their prime at twenty-three and twenty-four years old.
I’d asked Livy if she was going to run with us. I was pretty sure she’d be considered an elite runner after the training she’d been undergoing. She said there would definitely be National Service Corps members in the race, but she was restricted from running independent races while she was in training for team USA. The Hoosier Classic hadn’t been certified by the USATF this year.
Just south of Greek Row, we left the campus to run on city streets. It was about mile six the race got hairy. That’s where we turned south again for four miles of twisting, turning, hilly running. I’d set a pretty good pace and was still running near the back of the first pack. By the sounds of people cheering in the distance, I could tell that the real leaders in this race were a mile or more ahead of us and running at a sub-six-minute pace. Once we hit the hills, people staggered. They weren’t incredibly steep hills like we had at Pokagon, but they were long enough that it really took the wind out of a lot of runners. I’d learned a lot about running hills at Parke County and Pokagon. Instead of slowing down and trying to keep the same stride length, I shortened my stride and kept the same rhythm. Yes, it meant I took half again as many steps going uphill and I moved slower, but it also meant I wasn’t stressing my legs as much with each stride. Then, when the road opened up to a downhill section, I lengthened stride to even longer than my normal stride, and really sailed.
Soon after the route had twisted south and west, we turned north onto the long straightaway of Henderson Street for the final two and a half miles home. I was definitely feeling the effect of running hills in my legs, but my lungs were good and I just kept humming my favorite Mozart piece in my mind. It’s not like Henderson Street is completely flat, but knowing it was a straight shot to the finish line made it seem more manageable. There were probably still thirty runners ahead of me and I didn’t have much hope of catching any of them. There wasn’t much hope of anyone behind me catching up, either. By this stage of a half marathon, the positions are pretty much set unless you’ve been running in a pack and manage to break free. You just keep running.
I entered the chute and looked up to see the electronic leader board light up with my name and the recorded time of 1:34:23. The pace was 7:12 per mile. It was a new personal best and no matter who was ahead or behind me, I could be proud of it. Jock met me with a bottle of water and we waited at the end of the chute for nine minutes. Nanette came in at 1:43:17. It was a new personal best for her, as well. We exited the finish area after receiving our finisher’s medals. I’d finished 33rd overall. Nanette finished 86th. We’d have to wait a while before we found out where in our divisions we placed.
The rest of the pod and parents and fans met us in the Kroger tent where we could replenish fluids, eat some yogurt and bananas and generally bask in our accomplishments. It was just coming up on ten o’clock and we planned to be on the road before noon to drive back to Fort Wayne. That would give Nan and me enough time to go back to the motel and grab a quick shower before we checked out.
The winning time for the half marathon was 1:10:40. A twenty-five-year-old elite runner had maintained a 5:23 pace for 13.1 miles! It turned out that a 16-year-old from the tiny town of French Lick, Indiana won the high school state championship with a time of 1:29:06. His pace was 6:48. I was the second-place winner.
Nanette had also placed second in her division. The winner in her division had come in just five minutes behind me. Wow!
Eventually, we piled onto the bus and had a rowdy celebration the entire six hours back home. I hugged my parents and thanked them for coming to my last race. I told Jock what a pleasure it had been to be coached by him through my high school career. I got a tonsil-washing kiss from Lacie, who introduced the others in her pod and expressed again how she hoped our two pods could get together for a little party sometime now that racing season was over. With our schedule for performances, that wasn’t likely until at least after the first of the year, if ever. Still, I noticed there was some fire in the kiss she gave Livy and the girls exchanged phone info.
Then, at last, I was home with my mates. Livy and Rachel had to fly back to their bases Sunday and it would be almost four weeks before we saw them for Christmas. The three of us spent the night in slow lovemaking, just reaffirming that we were there for each other and always in our thoughts. It was beginning to look like our pod was going to get through the hardest time of our separations. Rachel had been given a permanent station in DC after finishing her NSO training. I was amused to find that she’d been assigned to work as a coordinator for the Reform Commission. I wondered if they were anticipating continuing the commission in some kind of oversight capacity after the new bill went to congress or if they were anticipating a long and drawn-out battle in congress.
Regardless, when the rest of us got to Washington in July, Rachel would still be there waiting for us.
We were back in double rehearsals on Monday. Our orchestra concert was a week away and Cindy and I both had solos—just not together. I thought it was interesting that LeBlanc had decided to feature us as individuals instead of a duet. But in a way, it let each of us shine without worrying about the other. My own solo was mercifully short, being the second movement of the Vivaldi concerto. I’d improved on playing the mandolin, but it still wasn’t my favorite instrument. I’d progressed, however, to the point where I could vibrate the pick on the strings for a richer sound than a single pluck.
LeBlanc was practicing particular groups of musicians after school and then Cindy, Desi, and I practiced our music. I’d use all four of my instruments at various times during the concert tour in California. It was sure different, though, to practice this music without the cello, percussion, and extra voice. But, like all music, we were expected to have our parts down cold before we went into rehearsal with all the pieces.
In addition, the girls were all excited about attending what was to be our last high school semi-formal winter dance on Saturday. It was funny in a way. Suddenly, we’d started looking at things we did as being ‘for the last time.’ Desi had been in her last play at Mad Anthony as far as Henderson was concerned. I’d run my last race for Mad Anthony. We were going to our last winter dance at Mad Anthony.
Poor Cindy was getting short-changed. We’d all had four years in high school, but if she followed the current plan and joined the service with me a year early, she’d have only three years at Mad Anthony. I understood LeBlanc’s disappointment that she wouldn’t play with his orchestra her senior year. Maestro Sokolov had been disappointed when Cindy and I started performing together and she no longer had time to play with the community orchestra as she had for two years previously.
It would just be the five of us at the dance this year. Betty Marvel no longer asked who Cindy’s date would be. I picked up all four girls in Mom’s Impala on the big night and all four put overnight bags in the trunk of the car.
As much as I wanted to make the night special for all of us, I wanted to spend special time with Beca. She had been my first date in this world and the event had been the winter dance. I wanted to spend special time with her. Of course, that first date had ultimately included both Joan and Rachel, our soul mates. But Beca and I still had a special relationship.
She molded herself to me as we danced a slow song, shuffling around like most high school students did. We didn’t really care about fancy steps or whether we were doing it right. I just held her close.
When Brittany and I danced, on the other hand, she wanted to do all the steps and the DJ accommodated that by playing a series of three salsa numbers. It was almost like giving Brittany a stage to perform on as we were the only couple in the middle of the dance floor. When we finished the third number, we spun and I dipped her in my arms to the applause of the other dancers.
Desi and I just laughed through a few dances, commenting that it was a good thing we had other talents than dancing together.
“However, if we can do a little horizontal dancing, I’m sure we’ll be more coordinated about it,” she giggled.
“I have no complaints about our coordination vertically or horizontally,” I answered. “I’m going to miss you like crazy in January.”
“I really don’t have a choice, Jacob. What they are offering is incredible. And I understand they are arranging it so I can come back and graduate with our class. Thankfully, I’ve already done the prom thing, so I won’t miss that. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you in DC.”
Cindy danced the same way she orgasmed. She bounced a lot and seemed to lose control of her head as she swung it back and forth. A couple of times I had to catch her when she stumbled so she didn’t fall. It wasn’t elegant dancing, but she sure enjoyed it.
We got to the farm about midnight. I spent a long time kissing each of my dates goodnight as we got ready for bed. That included naked caresses and bodies pressed tightly together. Eventually, though, Desi and Brittany slipped into a bedroom where Sophie was waiting for them. Cindy followed Beca and me into my bedroom. I wasn’t sure what bed or beds Nanette, Emily, and Donna were in.
“Um… Cindy…” I started. I planned to have this night just with Beca. It was special.
“I asked her if she’d like to join us,” Beca broke in. “You don’t mind, do you, Jacob? This way I get a pussy to play with. And you get two.”
“Okay. I just wasn’t sure,” I said. I pulled Beca to me and kissed her deeply again. Then I brought Cindy into my arms and petted her pert breasts as I kissed her deeply. We all rolled into bed and did our best to kiss all over each other.
I rolled between Beca’s legs to give her a tongue bath, stimulating her clit and stroking up her chest to hold her breasts and stimulate her nipples. Beca pulled Cindy over her mouth and sucked her clit enthusiastically. Both girls had noisy climaxes. I was a little high and dry since my cock had been a long way from the action. But as Beca and Cindy kissed, they started scooting down my body.
“Now we want to take care of our boyfriend,” Beca said. “He is so good to us. And when we are both loving on his cock with our mouths, we can love each other’s tongue and finger our pussies.”
“I love you, Beca,” Cindy sighed and then took a long lick up my cock.
“I love you, too, sweetheart. Let’s have fun.”
I hope they had fun because it was killing me. Having those two tongues on my cock just sent me into overdrive. And they didn’t let me stop after one come. I filled Beca’s mouth and she shared the load with Cindy.
“Next one is all yours,” Beca said. Cindy leaned in toward my first girlfriend and they whispered to each other. Then they descended on my cock again to make sure I didn’t flag.
Cindy started kissing her way up my stomach and chest as Beca kept manipulating my cock. When Cindy’s lips reached mine, we simply got lost in the sensation. From Cindy’s gasps, I figured Beca was tending to her pussy as well as my cock. Then, as she kept hold of me, Beca moved up to join the kiss. She whispered in my ear as I felt Cindy move over the top of me to straddle my waist. She backed down and Beca ran my cock through Cindy’s juices.
“Cindy says she’s ready,” Beca said. “Are you ready for Cindy?” I held my breath and barely nodded my head as Cindy sank down the length of my cock.
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