Chapter 155

March 1, 2018

Dear Ms. Diary,

We returned to the J after the pitch workout with all the non-college, resident soccer players plus Civia and Maren, as is typical for Thursdays.

Once in the door, Civia asked me, “Would you consider inviting Seamus to Thursdays?”

I furrowed my brow at the question, then asked a question of my own, “Are you interested in him?”

She mimicked my brow-furrowing, then answered, “I don’t thhh-ink so. It just popped into my head as we were walking down the steps. I can see Thursdays being family day, so it wouldn’t make sense to invite him then. Did he visit during lunch, today?” When I replied positively, she said, “I asked as he seems to be becoming more of a friend than just another boy with whom we play soccer. At least, he seems to occupy a different ... category than Victor and Jamaal. I understand that ... Meka, do you think of Jamaal as more of a friend than Seamus? I know you’ve had more interaction with him due to the debate team.”

Meka replied, “Probably. We get along pretty well at debate-team practice, but until we began playing with the boys – and doesn’t that sound like something I don’t mean – we didn’t have other interactions. I’d say I know him better than I do Seamus, but if Seamus continues to visit with us at lunch, that will probably change, and it will definitely change once premier-team practice starts.”

“Yes! I’m very definitely looking forward to that! It’s going to be so much fun!”

“Why the questions about them?”

“While I have a ... sort-of-friend that’s a boy at school – maybe a friendly acquaintance, Brett’s the only boy I’ve spent any real time with. I’m still hesitant to add real friends from school, although I’m very much enjoying hanging with Maren.”

“I don’t know why,” Maren riposted. “It’s not like we actually like each other or anything.”

A huge grin spread across Civia’s face as she turned and hugged Maren hard, then pulled back and said, “Yes. I wonder, myself, why I hang around with you, as we’re nothing alike ... except for our senses of humor, interests, brains, vocabulary, grades, and our parents seem to like each other. Other than those things, we’re nothing alike! I mean, your hair isn’t as dark as mine, so how could we be good friends?”

Meka reminded Civia about the boy discussion, to which she responded, “Oh, yes. I ... think I’d like to see if I could be friends with another boy. Seamus seems very nice, and he’s been so supportive of us. I guess that’s really it.”

Meka responded, “Team practice will be only a few blocks away, so it wouldn’t seem a stretch to invite him for dinner after practice occasionally. I agree that he seems a nice guy, so I’d be okay with inviting him. Do you want to take lead on that?”

Civia stared at Meka for a few seconds, closed her eyes, then answered, “I suppose something like that would be good for me, make me more ... outgoing and ... open-minded about people that might be friends. Perhaps I’ll wait a week or two to see how things go at practice. Does that seem reasonable?”

“It does. I’ll pay attention. Perhaps you and some of the others of us can talk about it before tendering the first invitation.”

“That sounds ... right. Let’s do that.”

As we were prepping for showers, Civia and Maren came to me, with Civia saying, “I’ve been explaining to Maren about group showers. She’s a little nervous, but she wants to see how they work.”

I looked at Maren, “Is that right? Will you be okay in the same shower with ten other naked girls?”

“I don’t know, but I’m willing to try it. Civia says that the teams often or usually shower together, particularly the high-school team, and she says it’s not at all horrible.”

I interrupted her to say, “That sounds exactly like something Civia would say. Please carry on if you were going to do so.”

Maren smiled at me, then added, “She also said that the group showers here were ... more fun because they’re with really good friends who really ... She actually said, ‘who love each other.’ Is that right? The showers are more fun because of the ... closer relationships?”

“I think so. We girls have been doing that only since last summer, although Rhee and I have done it for a couple of years.”

“I ... I think ... I’d like to try it. Nothing else she and this group of girls have introduced me to or suggested has been bad. I mean, I’ve even liked the pitch workouts. Part of that, I think, is that I get to spend time with all of you, and I’ve ... probably been as ... lonely as Civia was before she met you. Since she seems really happy, now, I find that I’m open to ... a lot of suggestions and ideas from her.”

“Good for you! You’re more than welcome to shower with us anytime you’re here after practice. To make things easier on you at first, you should always pair with Civia until you feel comfortable enough to put your name in the regular randomization of shower partners. Does that sound okay?”

“Yes. I also wanted to thank you ... and the others for suggesting that I keep some clothes here. I didn’t think that was all that meaningful, but I’ve since come to see it as more than just ... being neighborly.”

I glanced at Civia, then responded, “We care a great deal for Civia, and we also trust her. We also like your mom, so it seemed a simple thing to do that could make it a bit easier for you to do pitch workouts with us. It might also help in the longer run in that it could allow for sudden changes of plans that might require you to spend the night here. I don’t know that that would happen, but we like to think ahead and cut off as many problems as we can anticipate.”

“Whatever the reason or reasons, I still appreciate it.”

Liya had remained quiet, but now said, “Civia, do you want to run the randomization?”

Civia’s eyes lit as she pulled out her phone. As she set up the parameters in the spreadsheet, she explained to Maren what she was doing.

“Rhee and Meka, Lana and ... Gracey, Brit and Beth, Kim and Heather, Cera and Liya.”

We stripped and stepped into the shower but did the basic version of the buddy-wash system. Civia explained the system to Maren, and the two started in on it. I did notice a bit of hesitation when Maren reached the point where she would have to wash Civia’s butt, but she got through it without any obvious discomfort. We toweled dry, but then I was surprised by Civia suggesting to Maren that they help with Rhee’s hair.

“It’s really long and really thick, so it takes a long time to get it dry, so Rhee dries it with two towels, then one of us brushes it out quickly, and two of us run hair dryers on it. I love helping because she has the most wonderful hair. When it’s clean and dry and not in a braid, it’s ... exquisite.”

Maren shrugged and agreed. The rest of us left the three to it and went to the closet to pick out clothes for the evening, then dressed. I returned to the bathroom to check on Rhee and company; they were in the final stages of the process.

“What do you think, Maren?”

“Civia was right. Her hair is incredible.”

I said, “Rhee, it’s now down to the middle of your butt.”

“Yeah, I probably need to get a trim, and probably before practice starts. I’ve been thinking that I’ll have it cut at my waist this time.”

“Ohhhh,” whined Civia. “That would be shorter than I’ve ever seen it.”

“Yes, but it’ll grow back, and for at least the first part of soccer season, it won’t be quite so much a pain to deal with post-shower.”

Civia nodded, then I looked at Maren and said, “You’ve been naked with others, now, for nearly 20 minutes. What do you think?”

“I’ve tried not to think about it, but I guess it’s not too bad, although it is weird. Civia says that you girls are naked most of the time at home and that she is when she’s by herself in her room. I don’t know what I think, except that it’s ... not at all horrible.” Civia and I snickered as Maren continued, “I might be willing to do this again. It was enjoyable dealing with your hair, Rhee. You have gorgeous hair.”

“Thanks. Every time I consider getting it cut much shorter, I remember that my friends all really like it long, and, mostly, they even seem to enjoy helping me deal with it. If I had to do all the work on it every time, it would already be much shorter.”

Due to the predicted nice weather for this evening, dinner was grilled bleu-cheese-filled lamb burgers, a dish that, since we first made it for one of the original Thursday nights, has become a regular menu item. We rounded out the menu with typical picnic foods, such as potato salad, cole slaw (homemade), and side salads. Because she said it was one of her favorite foods to which we had introduced her, Celeste was taking lessons from Dad about dealing with burgers that, because of the filling, had a higher chance of falling apart. Of course, one of the ways we combatted that is simply to make them larger. That required more care in assessing their core temperature. Because he used a thermometer on each one, he could take requests for certain done-ness categories. Everyone was on the deck, and the grillmaster and his apprentice often had kibitzers.

After we finished cleanup post-dinner, Sandy announced, “For those that care to join us in the hot tub, now would be a good time to change into appropriate apparel. We have three bedrooms and two bathrooms to use for changing. I suspect that the various girls will all use Beth’s old bedroom, so the other upstairs bedroom is available, as are the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms.”

We girls, including Maren, did change in my old room. Civia donned a one-piece swimsuit, while Maren brought a conservative two-piece. The rest of us donned two-piece outfits that were as conservative as we had, although they were not as conservative as Maren’s. Heather had on a swimsuit bottom, but a medium-width tube on her torso. When everyone was in the tub, I noted that the Moms all wore semi-conservative two-piece outfits, as did Steph, but Kalina and Emma wore one-pieces. All four guys were wearing moderate to conservative trunks.

While conversation began slowly probably due to nervousness on the parts of some, it eventually got rolling well, and even the more conservative among us – Jeff, Kalina, and Matt – became heavily involved in it. Even Maren took part.

As the conversation began winding down, Kalina stated, “This has been most enjoyable. While I’m not convinced we should do the hot tub every week, it was certainly pleasant this evening. If we continue the Thursday dinners into the summer, I’m fairly sure that I’d appreciate not dunking myself into hot water to have an enjoyable conversation with friends.”

Steph responded, “Why don’t we all bring appropriate apparel for the hot tub every week, but see how everyone feels once we congregate here? I agree with Kalina that this was most enjoyable, over and above the excellent conversation. I’d never heard of nor seen a hot tub this large, and even with 22 of us in it, it didn’t feel cramped. I’m fine with spending many of the Thursday evenings in it. Heck, that could even mean that Matt and I can forego the expense of getting our own!”