Team Manager 1: SWISH!
Chapter 17
“I CAN’T BELIEVE that little fart broke my nose!” Jerry said with his head tilted back as they drove away from the school. “I’m gonna kill him!”
“Put that cheerleader wannabe on your list!” Lee moaned from in back. “A broken nose is nothing compared to broken balls.”
“Probably improve both of you,” Harry snarked. “We agreed to lay low and not get any attention until we were ready to do Denny’s daddy. You had to get your prick wet in your baby sister and now everyone’s heard the declaration we were going to pound her and sell her. If anything happens to her now, even Tom won’t be able to help us.”
“All he needs to do is keep his old man on the take and off our backs,” Jerry said. “Fuck! Get me to a hospital. This is killing me.” Harry sighed and headed toward Des Moines. They had urgent care clinics there and wouldn’t go through the hassle of a hospital visit.
“Why haven’t we heard anything about Denny’s daddy?” Harry asked. “He dry out?”
“My pa says this happens whenever he gets a job. He’s driving snowplow for the county. As soon as the snow stops falling, he’ll be back on the bottle,” Lee said. His father still kept the money and ran the still, but as soon as Lee was old enough, the boy was given the job of protecting the handoffs.
“We shouldn’t have too long to wait then. Snow season is almost over,” Jerry said.
“Don’t you have a calendar?” Harry asked. “It’s fucking January. We could be having snowstorms into March. Remember last year? We got snowed on the day they threw us out of school.”
“Fuck!” the other boys said.
“Who’s the man?” Phil Hagen asked light-heartedly when he approached the table where Dennis sat with Leanne, Diane, and Natalie at lunch the next day. Dennis tensed up. Phil was generally a decent guy. He was like Paul Klinefelter in 12th grade but was only a sophomore. He was smart, tall, good looking, sang in the school choir, and played French horn in the band. The only sport he played was baseball in the summer. Still, he’d never approached Dennis before. Dennis was invisible.
“What do you want, Phil?” Natalie asked. “Don’t you start messing with Dennis now.”
Phil held up his hands in surrender. “No, ma’am. In fact, I’m here on a mission from the class. I get to be here as class president to tell Dennis we’re sorry.”
“For what?” Dennis asked. As far as he knew his class hadn’t done anything specific to him.
“None of us know for sure what went down last year, but we all know Lee, Harry, and Jerry were expelled for bullying. About time, since they’d been hassling people for ten years. It wasn’t too hard to find out you were at the heart of getting them suspended and getting the basketball season cut short.”
“You didn’t have anything to do with it,” Dennis said.
“Maybe. Maybe not. We know that there were six freshmen on the JV team. Three of them didn’t make the cut this year. One moved away. We figure they were all in on whatever it was,” Phil said. “But that’s not what we’re sorry about. We’re sorry we’ve been classmates for ten years and no one ever bothered to become your friend. Then, all of a sudden you’ve got three of the hottest girls in our class hanging on you.” He looked at Natalie, Leanne, and Diane. “And we hear you decked Jerry when he tried to rape his sister. We treated you like shit and that’s why I’m apologizing.”
“Nobody really treated me badly,” Dennis laughed. “It was more like not at all. And I didn’t really deck Jerry. I just got lucky and landed one on his nose.”
“Hey, man. I talked to our class advisor and she warned me about apologizing. I don’t blame you if you don’t want to accept it. An apology scarcely makes up for ten years of just not being included in anything. Just, we’ll try to do better.” Phil looked at the girls and smiled. “And congratulations on your girlfriends, too. Every guy and some of the girls are a little envious.” He got up and left their table. Dennis took a deep breath and dropped his chin against his chest.
“What the fuck?” he whispered.
“Don’t worry about it,” Natalie said. “I doubt anything will change. Everybody will have a moment of realization and will acknowledge your presence, but nobody’s really going to change the way they act. Ten years of habit is pretty ingrained.”
“You have,” Dennis whispered. All three nodded.
“We were kind of thrown into your presence,” Leanne said. “And you just came onto the gym floor and took charge. No one even considered that you weren’t the boss.”
“Except Carol,” Diane said. “She’s a basic bitch and everyone knows it.”
“The thing is, though, that when we allowed ourselves to get to know you, we discovered we really liked you,” Natalie said. “And yeah, we tease a lot, but all the girls on the team think you’re great. We wouldn’t be doing any of the stuff we’ve done if we didn’t really like you.” Natalie’s face looked a little flushed. Dennis was pretty sure his face was heating up, too.
“So, I guess that means I’m girlfriend number five,” Diane said. “Do you mind having so many girlfriends?”
“Um… Mind? I haven’t even figured out what a girlfriend really is, you know? I like all of you. If you’re okay with being Number Five, I guess I am. But you all need to know, Natalie’s Number One.” He reached over under the table and squeezed Natalie’s hand. She squeezed back and grinned.
“Well, there’s two more just waiting their turn. Judith and Rosie are just trying to figure out what circumstance they can contrive to be next to you,” Diane said.
“And my sisters,” Natalie added. “I keep having to beat them down with a stick, but that won’t last forever. I can’t believe Daniella is hot for you. She might just be acting that way to tease me, but I think she’s serious.”
Saturday evening, Dennis’s mom dropped him off at the school for the basketball game. He assured her that he could get a ride home with his friends after the dance, but would call if he needed a lift. The whole team sat together at the game and were their own cheer block for the Wolverines. The girls and Dennis all wore their warmup jackets.
They were quite popular. So far this season, the boys’ varsity had won only one game. The girls were four and one. It seemed that everyone wanted to stop and congratulate them for their winning season. One particularly geeky freshman boy sat down next to Dennis.
“Hey, dude,” he said. He sounded a little fake. “Could you use like an assistant team manager? I’d love to stay around all these gorgeous girls. Like, do you have fun on the team bus to and from games? Damn! It sounds exciting.” Dennis was about to respond when Diane pushed between the two.
“You want to know what Dennis has that you don’t?” she demanded of the boy. “He has respect and good manners. He respects us and we respect him. He doesn’t come around because he wants to be with hot girls. He knows what he’s doing. He proved himself on the court when he met a challenge by sinking nineteen out of twenty free throws. Yeah. With his eyesight. You know how many free throws the varsity has hit in this game? Zero. He proved himself off the court when he protected one of your classmates in the parking lot. What are you going to do to earn the respect of a team you want to manage? You don’t have to be big or strong or handsome. But you need to get your team to trust you. Otherwise, you’d just be a pain in the butt.”
“God! Are they all such bitches?” the kid asked. “Never mind. I don’t need some fat girl telling me off to get the message. You’re just as stuck up as they are.” He got up and left.
“I hope he’s not getting picked on,” Dennis said as he watched the boy disappear into the stands.
“He’s not,” Judith said. Somehow, she’d managed to wiggle in opposite her sister. Both girls were sitting very close to him and he put an arm around Diane to comfort her. “That kid was really mean. He’s a smartass and is always making rude suggestions to the girls in class. Really, Dennis, there’s a huge difference between you and him.”
Dennis nodded, still glancing over toward where the boy went. Maybe he deserved the treatment he got, but it still made Dennis uncomfortable.
The varsity did not disappoint. They had another spectacular loss to one of the smallest schools in the area. Dennis had to wonder if anyone was training them at all.
The whole team went to the dance after the game. It was the big end-of-semester celebration. Dennis had thought he’d get to go on his third pretend date with Natalie and maybe kiss her, but it had been strongly suggested that he pretend to date Diane at the dance. Diane shocked everyone when she took off her warmup jacket and was wearing a scoop-neck blouse that went just barely down to her cleavage. School rules said girls couldn’t actually show their cleavage, which was a real challenge to a couple of girls. Nonetheless, the blouse was loose enough that it continually gapped so that Dennis got a clear view down between her boobs. Diane never went without a bra except when she was headed for the shower but the view was still pretty spectacular.
All the girls kind of clustered around Dennis, dancing as a group until a slow song came on and then Dennis danced with Diane and the girls paired up among themselves. Dennis wondered why Roberta wasn’t dancing with her boyfriend, but then he saw the tall center with another girl and assumed they must have broken up.
A couple of guys asked team members to dance and they sometimes went out for one, but mostly they just shrugged off any invitation and said they were sticking with their team tonight.
“I’m not sure but what I was better off being ignored by everyone than having everyone envying me for the girls I’m with,” Dennis joked. “You girls sure draw attention.”
“Yes, but we have eyes only for you,” Brenda said. “Let them all envy you. It’s much better than being pitied.” Dennis nodded. He guessed that was true.
“Besides, tonight, you’re only with me,” Diane said. “These others are just hanging on to be near our aura. It shines kindly on them.” She was quite haughty and dramatic in her declaration and everyone laughed.
“Well, being only with you sure isn’t going to lessen anyone else’s jealousy. Any guy here would like to bask in your aura,” Dennis said.
“Ooo! Panty check!” Daniella said. “Bet they’re all wet.”
“I know mine are,” Diane said.
The dance wound down and everyone grabbed their coats to head for the cars. Dennis slid into the front seat of Diane’s car and looked around. No one was in the back seat.
“Um… where’s Judith? Don’t you have to take her home with you?”
“No. Not really. You see, the girls are all having a slumber party at Natalie’s house. So, they all headed there and I get to take you home all by myself so we can pretend we are on a date and make out.”
“I… What?”
“I’m kidding. Sort of. I mean, we are on a pretend date but you don’t have to pretend to make out with me. I mean… That didn’t come out right either. It’s just that… Well, you’ve seen my breasts! That’s a really big thing to me, but I’ve never been kissed. It seems like if I’m going to show you my breasts—and I intend to do that again—I ought to at least get kissed a little. If you don’t want to, I understand. I just thought…”
“Diane, I would love to kiss you. I don’t have much experience, but I’ll try to show you how much I appreciate you and how much I like pretending to date you,” he said. They parked in front of Dennis’s house and tried to work out the logistics of kissing across the console in a car with bucket seats.
“Oh, heck with this. A proper kiss is given at the door. Come on. I’ll walk you to your door and we can do it right,” Diane said. She hopped out of the car and waited for Dennis to catch up with her. Taking his hand, she led him to the front door and turned toward him. He leaned forward to try to kiss her, realizing her lips were three inches higher than his. She took both his hands and pulled them around her waist, wrapping her own around his neck and tilting her head down enough to match their lips.
The kiss was nice. Her lips were soft against his and he tried to match what she was doing, just kind of quivering her lips against his as they held together for several seconds. It seemed like forever to both of them and like it was way too fast. They stood with their arms around each other looking into one another’s eyes. Both heaved a deep breath and let go.
“That was really nice,” Dennis said. “Thank you for a lovely evening.”
“Yeah. Thank you. Soon you’ll be able to date for real and we’ll kiss for real. I’m sure it will be even better than pretending. ’Night!” She turned and scampered off the steps. He watched her get in her car and waved as she drove away.
Dennis opened the door to find his mother just inside.
“Who was that?” his mother asked, more in disbelief than demand.
“Um… Number Five,” Dennis said. He pecked his mother on the cheek and headed for bed.
“I could feel him,” Diane squeaked. The girls all wanted details about taking Dennis home and their good night kiss. “I mean we had a really nice kiss and I could feel him growing against my leg and all I wanted to do was rub my slit against him. He was huge!” The girls all gasped at her description.
“Yeah, I know,” Amy sighed. They looked at her and she turned beet red.
“How do you know?” Natalie demanded.
“Um… You all know I’ve spent a couple of nights at his house. The first time he was sitting on the couch and I was lying down with my head on his leg and I felt him growing right against my face. And I thought, that is never going to fit in me when we make love.”
“When you make love?” Rosie said. “When is that going to be?”
“Oh, you know. Sometime in the future. It’s not going to be tomorrow. Or probably not this year. I’m only fifteen. Maybe I’ll grow enough to um… accommodate him.”
“Don’t worry, it will fit,” Roberta said. “Women can stretch enough to get a baby out; I doubt very much he’s bigger than that.”
“It is pretty huge,” Brenda said.
“You, too?”
“Well, Amy and I stayed at his house Thursday night after that awful time with her brother. We all camped out on the living room floor. I kind of woke up with him poking me in the butt. It’s not like holding a tape measure, but it felt pretty damn huge,” she concluded.
“I still can’t believe his mother not only allowed you to sleep over, but that it was with Dennis,” Leanne moaned. “I would like that, too.”
“His mom is so cool,” Amy said. “And his dad… Believe me, you don’t want to do anything bad to Dennis and face his dad afterward.”
“What do you mean?” Rosie asked.
“Um… Just that he looks really fierce sometimes. I think he’s very protective.”
“He’s also very drunk most of the time. I wouldn’t trust being in the same house with him,” Daniella said.
“I think he’s really nice,” Amy said. “I think that’s where Dennis learned to be kind and respectful. And protective. I don’t think any of us would be in any danger around Mr. Enders. Ever.”
The girls went about getting their pajamas on, but none of them had any intent to go to bed. They laughed and joked and told stories, each one challenging the others to ‘prove it.’ Of course, they were only stories.
“You aren’t telling something,” Brenda whispered to Amy when they were finally lying down next to each other. “What do you know about Dennis’s father?”
“I don’t want to get him in trouble. He probably saved my life,” Amy told her friend.
“How? When?”
Amy wasn’t sure she wanted to reveal her big secret, but Brenda had become her best friend except for Rosie and even now was gently rubbing the tit balm onto Amy’s breasts under the blanket they shared.
“I spied on my brother and his cronies to get pictures during one of their drug deliveries,” Amy confessed.
“No!” Brenda almost shouted. “That’s too dangerous. Don’t do it again.”
“I did it again. I got away clean the first time, but the second time Lee ambushed me. Just as he was grabbing me, someone hit him in the head with a baseball bat and told me to run. Harry was coming after us with a gun.”
“Are you saying Dennis’s father…?”
“Yeah. He’s the one who hit Lee with a baseball bat. But you can’t tell anyone! He saved me and they’d arrest him if they found out,” Amy pled, regretting already having told Brenda.
“You’re right. We need to make sure he’s protected as much as possible. Don’t tell anyone else. If you need to talk about it, just come to me. It will be our secret, the same as me putting cream on your breasts. Or Dennis doing it.”
“Yeah.” Amy paused and moved very close to Brenda to continue whispering. “I might have told someone else.”
“Who?”
“I reported the drug deal to the DEA. An Agent Brisco gave me his email and I sent him all the photos I took in the few times I spied. The thing is that I think I was in too much of a hurry when I sent the last batch and Mr. Enders’ picture might have been in there.”
“But you didn’t say who it was, did you?”
“No. But I explained to the Agent that the man had saved my life. He said to call him again if I had any hard evidence. The pictures I had didn’t show enough. I haven’t talked to him in a couple of months,” Amy said. “I don’t think he’s going to do anything.”
“Maybe if some of the others of us reported…”
“Don’t do that!” Amy said. “No one should send anything to him unless we know for sure and have real evidence. Promise!”
“I promise, sweetie. Don’t worry.” Brenda’s lips brushed against Amy’s as she whispered the promise. She pulled back a little to look at the surprised girl. Then she closed the space and kissed her again. For real.
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