Chapter 197

May 3, 2018 (Thursday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

I got a very good night’s sleep but awoke with a need beyond emptying my bladder, although that was nearly a desperate need, so crawled out of bed as carefully as I could. I met Gracey coming out of one of the stalls and she held the door open for me, then turned to talk.

“I can’t believe that we girls tallied only a single orgasm on a Wednesday night.”

As I released, I responded, “Yes. That was an oddity, but I’m feeling that need now that this more pressing need is being relieved.”

She smiled, then replied, “I figure I got nearly eight-and-a-half hours. Kath’s already upstairs and she said something about starting breakfast. I ... I got to thinking about Wednesdays in a month or so and wondered how they’d go, both in the W and here in bed. We’ll be out of school; some, most, or all of us will be fully sexual with ... our guys; and we’ll have a lot more free time most days. If it weren’t for Jim not being here on weekends, I’d argue for moving Wednesday’s get-togethers to Fridays or Saturdays, which would give us more time. Of course, that might require us to tell Civia and Maren about our other sexual ... connections.”

“I’ve been thinking along those lines but hadn’t gotten to the C & M concern; thanks for bringing it up. That would be something of a problem, except that we’ll be able to have them with us during the week to make up for it.” I furrowed my brow briefly, then added, “Actually, having them here during the week might be better for a lot of reasons. It would work with the team and Emma, Jeff, and Kalina could spend more time with their daughters with us not taking up their weekends.”

“That does seem to work better.”

As I wiped and made to stand, she held her hand up, so I put my butt back on the seat and looked into her eyes.

“I think we missed something critical Tuesday night. Don’t I recall that Lana’s parents were going to be living at Matt and Steph’s house when they returned?”

I had only begun to furrow my brow when my eyebrow muscles went the other way and I quietly exclaimed, “Holy shit! If I’m correctly inferring what you’re implying, we certainly missed something ... huge on Tuesday.”

“Yes. I first thought that, perhaps, Steph’s timing was off and that the wall between the two bedrooms wouldn’t be removed by early July, but the last remodel of the W involved an outside wall and an interior load-bearing wall and still took nowhere near that much time. Should we mention this to Brett and Lana and, if so, should we let the others in or do it quietly?”

I thought for a few moments, then answered, “Quietly. Whichever of us can first get her alone should ask her.”

“Ask who what?”

“Speak of the Devil,” I said to Lana as she walked up.

“Me? The Devil? Possibly, at least until I can pee.”

I partially bowed and swept my right arm so that it pointed at the toilet I’d just left. She smirked at me and then ensconced herself on the throne I’d just vacated.

I quietly said, “I’ll guard the door.”

I stepped to the bathroom entrance where all I could hear was mumbling until Lana squeaked quite loudly.

Since I could see no one else stirring in the bedroom, I rejoined them as Lana asked, “How’d we all miss that on Tuesday?”

“Yes. With a roomful of honors students, how did we miss that?”

I nodded at Gracey’s words and asked Lana, “Do you see any explanation other than the two sets of parents being ... intimate?”

As I approached our outside tables, I saw Jess there with Kim, Cera, Brit, and Katie.

“Hey, Jess. Welcome back. We’ve missed you.”

“Thanks, Beth. I’ve been mostly studying and reviewing notes. Final exams aren’t that far away, and I need to do better this quarter than I did last quarter. The fam is going back home for a month or so at the end of May, so I’ve gotten permission to take my exams early. I’d have been studying now, but I need a break, so I thought I’d join you guys ‘cause I’ve missed hanging with you.”

Kim asked, “Will you be taking them when we seniors are?” When Jess nodded, Kim looked around at us, then turned back to Jess and asked, “Could we invite you to hang with us sometime before you leave, like on a weekend day?”

Jess looked at Kim for a few moments, then replied, “I’d fancy that,” as others of us arrived.

“Hey, Jess,” greeted Lana. “Did we just invite you to visit with us sometime?”

“Hi, Lana, Rhee. Yes.” Jess looked around, then told us, “I’ll have to ask, but I know this Saturday is out for me, but Sunday might be possible. Sometime next weekend might be possible, but if Sunday will work for you, that would probably be best for me.”

We discussed how to get her to the J and when, but we tentatively agreed on Sunday.

Brit’s mom, Tina, joined us for her first Thursday evening and was introduced around before dinner, although she was pretty quiet this evening, only once asking a question. Otherwise, she was willing to answer direct questions but seemed to just watch and absorb all evening.

After dinner and cleanup as the 33 of us settled snugly into the hot tub, Sandy announced, “Partly due to Thursdays having such a large list of ... attendees now and partly because we of the Williams clan want this, we’ll begin construction next week on a combo pool and hot tub.” Mom let the reactions of the various parents die, then added, “We’ve finally gotten all of our permits finalized, so the projected end of construction is on or before June 8^th, which is a Friday, although we’re hoping they’ll be finished by the 6^th so our Thursday get-together can be our first event in it.”

Kalina responded, “Wow. That sounds interesting and it provides something of a segue for a question ... we had. Once the girls are out of school, I was wondering if we could move our get-togethers to Friday. I’ve already looked at the soccer schedule and they’ve got only two Friday games. One of them is in the last full week of May away and the other is in early afternoon in July at home.”

Carol responded over murmuring and whispering among the various couples, “You beat us to the punch, as we were going to make that very suggestion. However, we’ve been enjoying all our relatively new friends so much that we don’t want to upset the apple cart.” She quickly turned to Steph and asked, “Would your sister and her husband be interested in joining us for these?”

Steph smiled, replying, “They’re planning on it. I also want to parrot Carol’s words. Matt and I have greatly enjoyed meeting everyone and spending evenings together, and we thank our girls for getting us all together. Matt and I and my sister and her husband have all thought that we had a wonderful daughter and a very nice, but very shy son, both of whom thought the world of each other, but had little in the way of outside friendships. This, what these girls have created for themselves, is ... amazing. Brett’s told us that their vice-principal has told them that their group, which the girls have named Las Amadas, accounts for a large percentage of the high school’s highest GPAs. While I’m sure that they did not put their group together in order to get their parents together, I see that as a very happy side benefit. Now that I know all of you parents, the tight quarters in this hot tub concern me not at all. When Ginny and Dennis return from Thailand in July, all of my ... and our ... favorite people will be here for our get-togethers.”

Alicia grinned and responded, “Richard and I are very happy that we were invited to these, and I agree with Steph about the close quarters. Not only do they not concern me, but I actually enjoy them, as they indicate ... at least to me ... that we suddenly have more friends than we had before our various ... girls came to be such close friends. Besides, I’m sitting here squished between my guy and another hunk of a guy married to Kalina.” She did that thing with her hand by her mouth faking an aside but saying quite loudly enough for all to hear, “I sure hope she doesn’t notice that we’re skin to skin at times.”

There was laughter and grins around the tub, particularly after Jeff mirrored Alicia’s fake aside with his hand and responded, “I won’t tell Kalina if no one else does.”

Civia stood with a smile during the laughter and forced her way onto Kalina’s lap and said after the laughter diminished, “Mom, Dad, I’m enjoying it so much that you’re enjoying my sisters’ families. I’m glad you now have the outside-the-house friends like you wanted me to have.”

Kalina hugged Civia hard, then replied to everyone, “Despite that my husband is playing ... It’s not footsie. Would it be ‘sidesie?’” After the response of chuckles from many, she continued, “Despite that Jeff’s playing sidesie with the pretty woman on his left, he and I have been surprised how quickly this group has become important to us. I’ve also greatly enjoyed attending the games with many of the women here. This conversation provides an excellent opportunity to say something else that Jeff and I would like to ask. Would invitations to individual couples, the large Williams marriage, and singles such as Emma, Jim, Kath, and Tina ... to share a meal at our house be accepted? We don’t have nearly enough room to invite everyone on the same evening but thought that inviting three to five per evening could work.”

Steph and Alicia stepped on each other’s responses, and Steph pointed at Alicia, who nodded, then replied, “Richard and I would be very happy to accept such an invitation.”

All the other parents gave the same response, after which Kalina stated, “Thanks, all. We’ll ponder our schedule and think about something for the week after next.”

Matt responded, “I want to echo Steph’s words about this group as a whole and also evenings spent at the Palecek house. However, I wanted to see what everyone here might think about ... some sort of random seating in the hot tub. I bring this up because it seems to me that we parents ought to be mimicking the girls. Look at them, scattered nearly randomly around the hot tub, and compare that to the various ... couples or groups of parents. While some of the conversations each week in the hot tub involve most or all of us, a lot of them involve much smaller subsets of us, and I’d like to have the opportunity to learn more about ... all of us that these more ... restricted conversations might allow. I don’t think we need to impose actual randomly assigned seating. If we each think about it when we arrive out here ... in the evening, perhaps I could sit next to Richard or Nira or Brit or whomever.”

Sandy responded, “That’s a lovely idea. The entire rationale for getting us all together was to learn more about each other, but I admit that I was thinking more along the lines of learning about the various couples and singles. I like your idea, Matt, even better.”

Rache surprised us a few minutes after Matt’s suggestion, arriving by the tub with her camera.

“Hi, everyone.” After various of the parents greeted her, she explained, “I’m the official ... chronicler of the Las Amadas, and my charge is to capture the girls’ lives on digital ‘film’ [air quotes]. Because I’m not part of the Las Amadas, I’m not part of Thursdays ... and I’m not trying to backdoor an invitation.”

She was going to say more, but various of the mothers objected to her not being part of Thursdays.

Rache let it wind down a little, then held her hand up and stated, “If I decide to join the LA, then I’ll reconsider. However, I’m here this evening to ask if anyone would object to me taking a few photos of the girls hanging with their parents in the tub.”

There were no objections, in fact, many vocal suggestions were stated that she feel free to take what photos she desired.

“Thanks, Mrs. Martin. I’d...”

“Please,” Alicia interrupted, “I’m Alicia and my husband is Richard. This is a social event, and we’ve insisted that all the girls use our first names when addressing us. I think I can speak for all the parents here to ask you to do the same as our ... progeny do.”

When Rache heard no pushback to Alicia’s words, she smiled at Cera’s mom and responded, “Thanks, Alicia. I’ll do that. Can all of you pretend that I’m not here or that I’m invisible or something so I can take candid shots? After, that is, I take photos with all of you in them.” When she got affirmation, she asked, “Sandy, Beth, and Meka, would you find other seating so that I can shoot the photos from this end?”

Mom replied, “There’s no room to sit anywhere but on laps, so, Kalina, might I impose on you to sit on...”

Kalina interrupted with a grin and, “You need to ask Jeff about that.”

“No. I was going to ask to sit on your lap.”

Kalina’s eyes went wide, but then she grinned again, and answered, “Absolutely. Come have a seat, baby girl Sandy!”

Meka jumped on Sandy’s schtick and asked, “Jeff, may I sit in your lap?”

Jeff gave a sidelong glance at Kalina, grinned, and then answered, “Come have a seat, baby girl Meka!”

Civia, who was still in Kalina’s lap, extricated herself and asked, “Jim, may I sit in your lap?”

“Come have a seat, baby girl Civia!”

When Civia glanced with a huge grin at Meka, Meka stuck her tongue out at Civia and gave her a raspberry.

There was much chuckling, and Alicia said to me, “Beth, Richard’s lap is available.”

I smiled, waded nearly the length of the hot tub, and made myself comfortable in Richard’s lap, after which Matt commented, “This! This is what I suggested, although I wasn’t suggesting sitting in laps.”

Richard was a tiny bit nervous and was keeping his arms well away from me, so I told him, “Please, don’t let me fall off your lap into the deep water. I don’t want to drown.”

I said that with as straight of a face as I could manage, but a smile broke out despite my best efforts when there was much chuckling around the tub. Alicia chuckled the loudest and nudged Richard with her left shoulder. Richard shook his head, then put his arms around me to hold me on his lap.

Meka ran with my play, saying, “Jeff, I’m not sure I could get my head above the surface, so please don’t let me slip off your lap.”

Kalina lost it in laughter, eventually saying, “Yes. You’re so very short that you might need a snorkel in this pelvis-deep water.”

I heard Rache’s camera go off many, many times. I looked around the tub quickly, and very few of the tub occupants were looking at Rache and her camera. The evening continued with lots of scattered conversations, in some of which I participated, some of which I overheard. Apparently, everyone was comfortable with Rache and her camera, as she continued to grab photos of incognizant sets of subjects.

Around 8:00, after we had been in the hot tub for more than an hour, Inez announced, “We have flan for dessert that we’ll eat in the living room. Come into the kitchen where my second daughter, Liya, and I will be serving, then congregate in the living room to eat it.”

I was surprised to realize that I was still on Richard’s lap, so quickly looked at Meka who was just climbing off Jeff’s lap, and also saw Sandy standing from Kalina’s lap. I noted Civia turning on Jim’s lap and hugging him.

I could just hear her say, “Thanks, Jim. I’m really glad you’re part of Thursdays, now.”

“I am, too, Civia girl. I am, too.”

Weeks ago, it had become de rigueur that we didn’t change out of tubwear just to eat dessert, and that was true this evening. I noted no changes in tubwear other than the one I had noted when I was sitting on Richard’s lap; he was wearing a rather tighter, shorter-legged trunk than he had on previous Thursdays.

As the evening came to a close and everyone had helped with post-dessert cleanup, various non-resident adults were disappearing into bathrooms and bedrooms to change out of tubwear.

When Steph came out of the downstairs bathroom, she said, “On future Thursdays ... or Fridays, I’m just going to wear a wrap over my suit. Would that be something others would think just too outre?”

Emma replied, “I don’t. In fact, I was considering taking the same tack rather than having to change clothes here twice, particularly now that we’re getting into summer.”

Carol stated, “Please, everyone, for our get-togethers, feel free to wear whatever you find most comfortable. We residents will follow suit ... no pun intended.”

Something that was new for Thursdays, at least as a widespread phenomenon, was the parents all hugging each other upon departure. I marveled at that while I hugged Civia.

She whispered in my ear, “I like Jim a lot. We had a great conversation there in the corner. I’m so glad he’s here more. Will Sandy be able to get him to live here ... all week?”

I heard the word she replaced with “all week,” and understood why she did not use “permanently.” I shrugged, then introduced a new topic quietly.

“When school’s out, would you and Maren want to switch weekends for midweek? I’m sure Kalina, Jeff, and Emma would like to see more of you on weekends.”

She glanced around, then very quietly replied, “I’m not sure of that about our parents. We think there’s something going on with them.”

I widened my eyes at her, and she added, “We’re not at all sure, so please don’t say anything, but they seem to like each other a lot.”

I stared into her eyes for a while, then asked, “How do you two feel about that possibility?”

Almost unhearable, she replied, “Are you kidding? We’re both all for it and have been trying to push it... very subtly. Maren and I would get to live together in, we presume, my room.”

“So-o-o-o,” I asked, “did our parents influence yours in how they think of marriage?”

Katie drove herself, Rhee, and Brit to the Jacobs house, as they were spending the night there with our wife and husband.

May 4, 2018

Dear Ms. Diary,

Liya beat me to the lunch tables with a particular box, a box that contained my birthday cake. I turned 15 years old at the approximate middle of my ... or rather the Algebra II class that I shared with the rest of the Go4, we being a year ahead of our grade in math. As has become typical, everyone waited until we were sharing the cake to wish me a happy birthday, with no one even mentioning my birthday before then.

Jess remarked, “Just one more of you to go until you’re all 15. Right?”

“Yes,” Rhee replied, “I’m the youngest ... and we have a game on my birthday. I sure hope we win it!”

Many of the girls snorted at Rhee’s wish. I was going to have to take the team to task for thinking that we would walk all over even last year’s top teams. Yes, GV would probably not give us much problem, but Watermelon Mountain was a good team (fourth last year) that, if I remember correctly, lost only three girls to graduation this year, and is senior-heavy this year like we are. They drew against Paradise, the third-best team last year, but won their other two games this year.

In the Sprinter, Lana stated, “After Brett and I talked it over yesterday evening, we left our visitors in our room and bearded Matt and Steph. Our two sets of parents are going to be ... cohabitating when my parents return.”

Brett followed with, “We’re allowed to tell you everything they told us. The scoop is that the ... four of them have been ... sexual with each other for a long time, and that’s all we can tell you ‘cause that’s all they told us, at least about the past.” We were all looking at Brett standing in the front of the Sprinter as Meka pulled up to park at the practice pitch as he continued, “They’d taken a longish hiatus in their ... group relationship but rekindled it in Asia ... and that was the impetus for discussing ... moving in together. Apparently, we ... and our relationship had something to do with that decision, as did the ... marriage of the Go5 parents.”

Lana added, “And that’s part of the reason behind Steph-Mom’s behavior with us. She’s been trying to figure out how we get along so well and with so very little conflict. We explained that we work very hard at it and discuss anything and everything immediately that has any potential for conflict. Steph said that she was amazed and very impressed with how Brett, Civia, and Maren dealt with the potential problem of the girls seeing our guy’s lovely bod in all its glory and I told her that it was a great example of how we try to deal with stuff like that.”

Brett grabbed the floor again with, “They asked us, the LA, not to say anything to the other parents until they announce the plan on a Thursday, although they seemed unsure of which Thursday, but I suspect it will not be soon.”

Because it was Brett and Lana’s weekend with us and because Civia and Maren could not join us tonight to celebrate my birthday with my family, the edict came down from on high that Wednesday clothing and ... interaction rules were in effect. I thanked Celeste for taking the night off for my birthday, and she responded by kissing me hard. Dad made his hybrid lasagna-eggplant parmesan for dinner and the olfactory outriders of it met our noses as we traipsed into the W. Other than Heather wearing one of her T-back thongs and only that, we were garbed in typical tube-and-wraparound style, although Brit was wearing that incredible top that molded to her breasts that she had gotten from Second Chance Wear.

Meka squealed when Jim stepped into the kitchen.

She wrapped him up, then asked, “How is it that you’re here tonight?”

“I got a reprieve as it’s my daughter’s birthday. Of course, I didn’t say which daughter’s birthday it was. Sandy’s taking me back tomorrow.”