Odalisque
Fifty
WE’D HAD DINNER and most of the team was in a party mood. Brent, Franklin, Allison, and I were going to pass on the parties. We had finals tomorrow. I was glad that Allison was accompanying me this time, but I couldn’t find Lissa. I thought maybe she’d be in the room. No such luck.
“Where’s Lissa?” I asked.
“Mmm. Well. See there are some players who don’t have matches tomorrow, so I think she went out partying with them.”
“Al-li-son? What’s going on?”
“Lissa is staying with Whitney and Amanda tonight. She didn’t think she could survive the night in our room with both of us on edge.”
“That means it’s…”
“… just you and me, bud. Just like Chicago,” Allie supplied.
We kissed. I wasn’t hung up about doing anything with Allie like I was in Chicago last spring. We both shed our clothes and headed for the shower where we got really soapy and slid all around each other. I missed having Allie with us like she’d been in Seattle and Nebraska.
“You know, I’m looking forward to having you in Seattle,” I said. “I miss seeing you.”
“Well, look all you want,” she laughed as she unwrapped the towel from around her and sprawled on the bed. “That’s all you get tonight. And maybe a few kisses,” she added as I dropped next to her. “And maybe a little touchy… oh Tony!” I felt her hand wrap around my cock as I dipped a finger into her hot center. She rolled away from me and backed into my spoon. “Remember this, Tony? I want you here all night long. And tomorrow night, I want you inside me. Okay?”
“You’d better believe it’s okay,” I said. I cupped one of her big breasts in my hand as I felt her juices dripping onto me. I kissed her shoulders and she shuddered. We finally managed to drift off to sleep.
I woke up with my hard cock still trapped between Allison’s legs. I don’t think I’d stayed hard all night, but I was sure going to be hard all day. We kissed, dressed, and got ready to leave when there was a knock. I opened it and room service rolled a cart in, followed by Lissa.
“Just wanted to make sure you were up and fed and ready to be champions today,” Lissa said. Man, she was chipper this morning.
“No fair,” I said. “You’re refreshed and well-laid and we’re still on edge. Where’s this team solidarity that I’ve heard so much about?”
“Oh, I think you are solid enough,” she laughed. “Eat and let’s get some racquetball going.”
The final day of the championships were set up so that all the lower divisions that had final rounds preceded the Women’s and then the Men’s finals. They wouldn’t be played at the same time this time. Brent and Franklin went up at ten o’clock and scraped out our first Gold Bracket championship. The guys were flying. At the medal ceremony, they were told that they had been reclassified as Division 1 players for next season. I was really proud. Those guys worked hard for this.
Allison’s championship match was at two o’clock. This was the Allison we’d seen at Opens. Absolutely consistent on her killer serves. She gave up only two serves during the first game and her opponent scored once. She got the serve after her opponent had scored two in the second game and then served a dozen aces in a row. Allison walked off the court and into our arms as the new Women’s Champion.
Because she’d finished her round so fast, we had fifteen minutes before my final round. I plugged into my music and laid down a hard rock soundtrack. Nobody spoke to me until Lissa said, “It’s time.”
I’d like to say that I took my opponent down the same way Allison did, but it was a lot more work. I played hard and by the end of the first game there was no place the guy could put the ball that I wasn’t there to return it. The same held true for him. I couldn’t get one past him. As short as Allison’s match was, we made up for it in ours. He absolutely drove me to the wall a few times but at the end of three games, I’d finally managed to carry off my first Intercollegiate Championship. What I’d completely forgotten was that this championship qualified Allison and me as members of Team USA. Holy crap!
“I understand that we have a special announcement,” the Competition Director said as he finished awarding the team trophies. Since I was the only Division 1 player on our team, we’d missed the team awards, but we were still ranked number five over all. Not bad for a first year team. We were all standing together to watch the final awards. Bree went up and stood next to the Director. What?
“Thank you, Director,” Bree said. “This fall, as part of our social outreach program, the students at Seattle Cascades University hosted a refuge for the homeless on our campus. But the unthinkable happened. A local terrorist attacked the encampment with firebombs. Three people died in the attack against the poorest people in our population. Tony and Wendy, will you join me?” Wendy grabbed my hand in a death-grip as we walked toward our friend. “Most of you’ve come by the Ice Queen Sportswear booth and have met Wendy. Wendy was a resident in Tent City when the explosions hit. She’s here because our new champion, Tony Ames, was on duty that night and sounded a warning that saved the lives of dozens of people, including Wendy.”
There was a lot of applause and Wendy turned to hide her face against my chest. I just held her and figured Bree must have something planned here. I just hoped she hurried up with it.
“You all remember the big blow-up last year over Tony’s drawings of players, don’t you?” There was a lot of laughter. “We’ve commissioned Tony to paint a huge mural on the side of our Athletic Pavilion and Fitness Center as a fundraiser to help the homeless. I want to announce that through your generous contributions here at the tournament, matched by Ice Queen Sportswear, Raquethon, and Denon Sports, we raised $6,972.15 to help.”
This time there was stomping and yelling and cheering. I was amazed that we’d raised so much in a week. Bree wasn’t finished.
“That’s not all,” she said, quieting everyone. “I’d like the team captains who have talked to me to join me up here.” The captains of the top three places and five other captains from some of the biggest schools came up to join Bree. She turned to Smiley Davis, the guy I’d beaten for the Gold in the last match. “Smiley,” Bree continued, “I understand you have something to announce.” She handed him the microphone.
“Bree, we’ve all got a lot of respect for the new team from SCU. Many of us have watched Tony as he competed last year as the bronze medalist here, then at National Singles, at Opens as the mixed doubles champion, and now as our Intercollegiate National Champion. Tony, you are a great competitor and an inspiration. Our eight teams have pledged to raise a thousand dollars each to donate toward the project at SCU. We’re going back home to mobilize our student bodies. Thank you for being such a great example to us.”
There was so much noise in the gym that I couldn’t hear anything else. Wendy and I both had tears running down our faces, and Lissa, Allison, and my teammates were all grinning and crying, too.
“And that concludes the National Intercollegiate Championships for this year,” the Director was calling into the microphone above the noise. “You are all competitors that make us proud of your schools and your sport. Travel safely getting home and we’ll see you next year!”
Saturday night, we joined a huge party sponsored by the ASU team and athletic department. There was a band and dancing and a big buffet of appetizers that were about all we could eat. I was amazed at how many people came up and greeted me by name at the party. A few I knew or remembered. Many were strangers. There were a couple of cute girls from University of Minnesota who wanted to start something more than a quick dance, but I had a lot of cute girls who were watching out for me and easily slid into place. Even Rachel once slipped under my arm when a girl from Clemson just wouldn’t go away.
Another dozen teams presented Bree with slips that had pledge amounts written on them for anywhere from $100 to $500. It looked like all-told we’d raised around $20,000 in cash and pledges. Raquethon was really playing nice with us and had offered to match a percentage of each team’s donation. That would easily put us over $30,000. I was beginning to feel the pressure again.
Of course, the night was pretty nice once we ditched the party and went back to the hotel room. Lissa and Allie and I made sweet love. For as keyed up as we’d been, it was amazing that we weren’t feeling desperate when we finally got together. We laughed, kissed, loved, slept, and woke up in the morning tangled together. We played in the shower and then, kind of sadly, joined our teams and headed to the airport. This time, though, it would only be a month until Allie joined us in Seattle.
I don’t mind flying but I hate getting tossed around. There was a lot of turbulence as we came through the cloud cover approaching Seattle and a few of the wind gusts had me feeling like the plane was flying sideways. The team bus met us at the airport and returned us to campus where Melody and Kate were waiting for us.
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