Chapter 121

January 5, 2018

Dear Ms. Diary,

At lunch, I asked the LTG, “Who can make the workout today? We’re sorry we had to cancel it yesterday.”

A show of hands had everyone but Hope at the pitch after school. I noticed that Meka seemed not to be paying attention, even though she had raised her hand.

“You seem a bit antsy, Girl. What’s up?”

“Oh, I’ve just been thinking about a few things. I’ll try to pay closer attention, Coach.”

When she stuck her tongue out at me, we all laughed, laughter that was interrupted.

“Please pardon the interruption to your delicious and nutritious lunches.”

At our table, there was some chuckling and some eye-rolling, then the principal carried on over the speakers.

“We received some information this morning that makes this interruption worthwhile and involves our girls’ soccer team.”

I hissed a not quite whispered question at Meka, “Is this why you’re antsy?”

She gave me a crooked smile and nodded.

“You might recall that the team made it to the regional final only to lose 2-1 to the team that went on to win the state tournament. What you may not know is that our team was the only one to give Delta-North a close game in the entire state tournament, including the state final, a game Delta-North won 4-1. While there are many reasons why our team played so well against Delta-North, the primary one is the skills of the team, skills and records that were recognized by the state high-school athletics association that announced the All-State team today. I am thrilled to announce that the Central High girls’ team won more positions on the All-State team than any other team but one, Delta-North.”

There was much whistling, stomping, and cheering ... which cut off quickly when the principal continued.

“I will start with the five Honorable Mentions. For this category, I will list the honorees in alphabetical order and provide one or two of the reasons that the individuals were named to the All-State team. Thanks to Coach Virtanen for giving me the rundown. Please hold any applause until I’ve read off the whole listing so that all honorees can share in it.

“Rachel Beck, defender, a critical component of the fourth-best defense in the state. Jess Bhamra, midfielder, crucial to controlling the most important part of the field ... er, pitch, I’m told. She also tallied four goals and three assists. Rhee Devlin [some of us cheered quietly], offense, her 20 goals was the fifth-best tally in the state, and she also had nine assists. Folks, she’s just a freshman. Jules Paxton, midfielder, crucial to controlling the most important part of the pitch, and two goals, five assists. Kim Shadoan, defender, a critical component of the fourth-best defense in the state.

“The team had one Second-team honoree: Beth Williams [I did not hear much after this, so I had to get the details from Rhee], playmaker for the offense, captain of the offense, and her 27 assists was the second highest tally in the state. Like Rhee Devlin, she’s a freshman and the only freshman on either the first or second All-State teams. [Despite the principal’s plea, the cheering at our table was a bit loud, but it also woke me from my stupor.]

“Finally, the First-team honorees. Yes, that is plural. Last year, we had one of the eleven on the All-State first team, and we’ve doubled that this year. Only Delta-North had as many. For this category, I will not follow alphabetical order. Our newest, and only second-ever First-team All-State honoree is Katie Weeks [more, but quiet, cheering at our table], captain of the midfield, controller of the most critical portion of the pitch.

“The entire administration would like to thank the now twice-named First-team All-state team member, Shameka Johnson, for bringing such acclaim to our school. She is the overall team captain and the rock against which other teams’ offenses shattered. She also scored 11 goals, the 2^nd-highest on the team, and provided three assists. I want to heap further praise on Shameka, as she is also the school’s Debate Team captain and has one of the highest GPAs of all seniors. We will miss her when she graduates this spring, but we wish her the best in her future endeavors.”

The principal probably said more, but we didn’t hear it over the thunderous applause for Meka, particularly from our table.

At the pitch during stretching, Brit asked Meka, “How did you know about the All-State announcement?”

“I didn’t know, but they announced them last year on the first Friday of the year, so thought they might come out today.”

Brit continued, “Meka, we’re all so proud of you, and I’m amazed that I’m friends with not just a senior, but a senior who’s a two-time All-State selection in a sport. I’m not sure I rate, but I’m very happy to have your friendship.”

“You do rate,” responded Meka, “particularly now that you’ve come out of the shell that hid your talents from your friends. I’m happy you consider me a friend.”

Later, but still during stretching, Rhee asked, “How are we going to do next year? We’re losing four All-State mentions, all on D. Yes, we’ll have four returning All-State mentions, but none are on D.”

Gracey replied, “Our backups were good this year, but I think the O will need to pick up some of the slack, as I doubt that we’ll have even one All-State mention on D next year, much less two First-team All-State selections.”

Katie responded, “You poor thing,” then grinned at Gracey.

Gracey stepped over to her and wrapped her up, then said, “Thanks for teaching me so much. I truly doubt I’d ever be an All-State selection as a midfielder, but I feel I can do a creditable job at the position because of you.”

The rest of the workout was unremarkable, although we did get Lana started on learning how to control the ball with her feet, with Brit, of all people, and Cera being her primary instructors. Cera used to play the sport, but we had Brit teaching because she was a great example of someone who had just learned dribbling basics. She was quite patient with Lana.

I volunteered, and the rest of the Go6 agreed with that, to go with Meka to take Cera and Brit home. On the way, I invited them to a party tomorrow celebrating both Heather’s and Meka’s birthdays and to stay overnight.

Brit responded, “Even if I must run away, I’ll be there. I’ve been so looking forward to an overnight with the rest of the Go7. However, I’m pretty sure I won’t have to run away. I’ll have to get my mom to take me shopping for a present tonight. I ... we didn’t know when anyone’s birthdays were.”

“Ah. We’ll correct that. If you’ll send your two birthdays to Liya, she’ll reply with all of ours. She’s our organizer.”

“I’m not surprised. She always seemed so on the ball with the team. I’ve been a bit in awe of her ability in that vein.”

On the way home, “Now you know the earliest I could have some definitive word about giving in to my desires and joining you girls. I doubt that Dad would object ... Rather, I cannot imagine a reason for Dad to object unless he’s secretly been anti-homosexuality. I need to do additional thinking, but...”

“We’ll wait. We want you, and if you decide against joining us, we’ll be sad, but we’ll still love you and still want you to be our close friend. You’ve been something of an inspiration for us.”

At a red light, she looked hard at me, so I kept my eyes on hers.

As she got us moving at the green, she sighed, then said, “Whatever my decision, I just can’t ... won’t get involved with the rest of the family ... at least while Dad’s ... still here. I have a twinge of guilt thinking of making love with you girls while I’m still making love with him. Adding Charlie would be ... just ... just too much.”

I nodded, “Understood. Besides, we don’t want you to join us just so Dad will have yet another lover. If you wanted him, we’d be more than happy to share, but that’s not remotely why we want you. I know the Moms will understand.”

“Good. That’s good.”

A little later, I got a text from Lissa congratulating Rhee and me on the All-State selection. I looked; she had sent it to Rhee, too. Rhee beat me to respond, but I sent my own thank-you. That reminded me that I had wanted to contact a few from the premier team to invite them for a sleepover, although it would have to be after the remodeling is done.

We returned home just in time to get a quick shower – I greatly enjoyed the mutual washing of chests – and be seated at the table for dinner, at which Sandy made two announcements.

“In the somewhat mundane category, we’ve received the eight sets each of sheets sized for semi-super monstrosities and super monstrosities along with the blankets and comforters.”

There was much rejoicing.

“We’ll deal with those tomorrow, but most should be stored, for now, in the upstairs closets here. Now, all we need are the actual beds, but those won’t be delivered until we complete remodeling although the former sheets will be useful on three queens side-by-side should you girls need so much mattress width. My main announcement is that I’m thrilled that we now have both Meka and Celeste regularly joining us for dinner and the odd other meal. I wanted to let all of us know that, given the scanty clothing we’ve all seen each other in, if we do not have company, dress for dinner can be as casual as you care to be. We’ve had nearly all of both of Rhee’s boobs on display at this table, so I can’t see any reason that a T and gym shorts or even just a bikini would be objectionable. That’s particularly true as we’ve never been big on formality here. Additionally, since Charlie, at least, has kissed everyone here, we’d like to consider meals with this bunch to be sharing food with family.” She turned to Celeste and added, “And Andressa fits under the same rubric if you would tell her.”

Celeste stood and stepped around to Sandy and hugged her, saying, “I greatly appreciate the welcome that this family has shown me since our first meeting in your foyer. I’ve not had much of a family for many years, so I appreciate this even more,” after which she bussed her quickly on the lips then returned to her seat. Once seated, she added, “I’m even more glad that work didn’t need me today, as I can have a long, enjoyable dinner and chat with ... my new family.”

January 6, 2018

Dear Ms. Diary,

[Written January 7]

The Go5 spent much of the morning making a semi-super monstrosity with three queens in the basement bedroom of the Jacobsen house and other tasks. Civia called to talk and to let us know the progress they were making on packing up their current house in preparation for moving in a few blocks away from us.

On speaker, she said, “I was wondering why my friends didn’t let me know that some of them were named to the All-State team,” after which she laughed.

Rhee answered, “That was on our list today, but you just couldn’t wait for us to call. We’ve been cleaning the Jacobsen house all morning. I’m having second thoughts about having another house to clean, and this one is so much bigger!”

Civia chuckled, then responded, “At least you have ... What? Seven of you?”

“Well, yeah. It has the same number of bathrooms as ... the Williams house, but it’s going to have five! Bathrooms are the worst! And can you imagine thoroughly cleaning a shower even larger than ours at home?”

Civia got serious, saying, “You know I’ll always help with that. I’m family, not a guest.”

“True that,” Meka replied. “What I want to talk about, is someone beating Beth at being the youngest ever named to the first or second teams on the All-State list.”

There was silence on the other end for quite a while, until Heather softly said, “There’s no pressure on you to achieve that, but so long as you continue to learn and improve, it will come. That shouldn’t be your goal, though. Your goal is simply to be the best you that you can be, whatever that is, and you know we’ll all help. You’re family.”

She got out a burbly, “I love you guys.” After a slight pause, she added a less liquid, “I can’t wait to move next weekend and be within walking distance, although I promise always to text or call first.”

Heather added, “Would you be able to use your Go6-withdrawal pass next week?”

After a slight delay, she responded, “Probably. Tuesday might work best, as Mom could pick me up there after we get back from the gym and she gets off work on Wednesday.”

“Would your parents be interested in dinner here on Wednesday?”

“They might. We always eat late on Wednesdays, and that would also mean one less dinner we’d have to worry about here before moving. Why don’t you ask them when you pick me up? I wish I could stay over tonight, but this is our last full weekend here to get everything packed and cleaned.”

In mid-afternoon, Meka drove all of us in the Sprinter to pick up Cera and Brit at Cera’s, then Civia at her house. Jeff and Kalina accepted the invitation to dinner on Wednesday and thanked us. We had a grand old time gabbing on the way back home, returning shortly before 4:30. Surprisingly, we’d managed to get Katie, Kim, and Hope to come to the party on short notice, with the cooler weather today possibly helping in that vein relative to Katie; they arrived together at 5 and we kicked off making home-made pizzas. As usual, it was fun, although the kitchen was a bit crowded.

At one point when we were eating at the two tables together in the living room, I noticed Mom just looking around with an odd, but happy looking, smile on her face. When she noticed me looking at her, she nodded. I managed to catch her alone in the kitchen a few minutes later during a moving of pizzas out of and into the oven.

“Mom, you had an odd look on your face a bit ago. You really did want more children. Didn’t you?”

“Yes! I was looking around feeling so happy because this is the sort of thing we envisioned before starting on the grueling process of making you.” She grinned at me, a grin I returned, then added, “We love it when you fill our house with happy, smart, and fun friends. My childhood was nowhere near this enjoyable, and I’m so glad that we could enable yours to be so much better than mine. I really was very lonely until I met Bethany.”

I slid the pizza I had onto the stone, closed the oven door, then turned and hugged Mom tightly.

“It is, and it has been,” I whispered in her ear, “and thank you for that. Although we are very grateful for you helping make it so we didn’t suffer teenaged angst over sex, I think I can speak for all my sisters that our appreciation of Dad and you Moms extends far beyond just that one facet of our lives. I’m personally very thankful that you’ve adopted all my friends and even provided us with a house in which to enjoy them. I just cannot imagine any other girls in our school having such fun and satisfying lives.”

Her mien suddenly became serious as she looked into my eyes, then said, “I’m going to tell Charlie soon. I’m so scared.”

I looked into her eyes, resumed my tight hug of her, then whispered, “I wonder if he already knows ... or, at least, suspects.” When she flinched in my arms, I added, “I don’t have any certain clues, but I’ve just gotten this feeling occasionally when I see him looking at you. Mom, he loves you very, very much. I can’t know, obviously, but it would surprise me greatly if he were to respond by dissolving your marriage.” I leaned back and looked back into her eyes, then asked, “Does Carol know?” When she nodded, I asked, “Are you going to have her be present? It does affect her.”

“I don’t know. I need to tell him. I could use the moral support of having Carol there, but I want Charlie’s ... I want Charlie to give me his honest reaction. If Carol were there, he might moderate it, and I don’t want or deserve that.”

The party was most enjoyable. Carol had gone all out and made a cake for each of our birthday girls, and we girls celebrated both birthdays by having a piece of each, although Brit had only half-pieces. In keeping with tradition, we girls chipped in on a new ball for Meka, while Dad and the Moms had framed the short article from the paper about Meka winning her second All-State selection. It was only six paragraphs, with the final noting the other All-State selections from Central but presented her achievement in the spotlight it deserved.

After Jeff and Kalina retrieved Civia and the visiting seniors had all departed, the Go7, Meka, and Celeste were gathering our stuff when Carol asked, “Are you all sleeping at the J house tonight?”

“Yes. We need to come up with a new scheme to take over the world,” Heather replied. “Wish us luck.”

Carol grinned, wrapped Heather in a hug, and said, “I’m so very happy I married into this family and got so many wonderful daughters.” She released Heather, then looked at Cera and Brit and said, “And if you two are going to be regulars now, I hope you’ll allow me to consider you daughters, as well.”