Chapter 199

May 6, 2018 (Sunday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

We accepted the younger girls’ offer to sleep upstairs last night, so had something of a wild night in our big bed. They offered because they’ll be sleeping in the big bed tonight, but Brett and Lana will be at home ... along with Gracey, Kim, and ... me.

I woke thinking about tonight, wondering what would happen with Steph, and whether it would be tame or crazy. Liya had made the tube and skirt that I had requested for Steph; I just had to figure out how to get her to wear them.

When I heard multiple sets of footsteps on the floor overhead, I quietly said, “We’ve probably got incoming.”

I knew not how many of us were awake when I said that, but Heather responded, also quietly, “Who wants to wager on whether they’re clothed or not?”

A few voices, including Heather’s, joined mine in voting, and it sounded something like 4-2 in favor of unclothed.

Gracey softly asked, “You really think unclothed?”

“Yes,” answered Heather. “They’re really into it, and recall that part of the reason Maren considered yesterday to be the best of her life was because she spent most of the day wearing no clothes.”

Liya agreed, “Exactly, and I’ll bet that they’ll ask to join us in bed when they get down here.”

Thirty seconds later, the words out of Maren’s mouth caused many of us to laugh out loud.

“Brett, if you’re awake, please close your eyes until we get in the bed and get covered.”

“According to Liya, you two are entirely too predictable. You can join us, but I’ll give you only 20 seconds. Closing eyes now.”

I sat up and watched as the two girls ran toward the bed from the bathroom door, then split up, with Maren going for the northwest entrance between the headboards and Civia taking the north-central one. With all 15 of the sexual portion of the LA present, as well as Rache, we were wrapped around the southeast corner of the bed, with Char, Rache, and me on the east side rather than the south where everyone else was. Rache had insisted on being on the outside (“because I’m not an LA member”), so Civia dived under the sheet next to her, while Maren rolled under the sheet at the west end next to Lana, who had Heather to her east. I recall those two loving each other deep into the night. Since I had not heard Lana vote, I assumed she was about to be jostled awake, and many of us found her groggy response to an excited Maren amusing.

“Wh-wh-what? Who is ... Oh. Maren? Y’er not supposed to be here for the sex.”

I was sitting up by then, so watched Maren toy with her.

“Don’t you remember? We called our moms last night and they gave us permission to have sex with the whole LA, but only on Sunday mornings between 6:30 and 6:45.”

That woke Lana to full lucidity.

“Girl, I’m so going to ... touch you where you’ll really ... laugh and wriggle,” and she proceeded to tickle her belly sending Maren into paroxysms of laughter and screeching. Lana kept it up for less than ten seconds, then threw her arms around Maren, pulled her in tightly to her, and stated, “I’m ... No. We’re so glad you’re in the LA. You really fit with us so incredibly well. Yesterday wouldn’t have been quite as fun had you not been here, and the way you and Civia carried yourself after Brit painted you, not being concerned about your butts being seen, and then how you both participated in our long, wonderful discussion in the living room would have been surprising for some people, particularly since Brett was wearing the only clothing item in the room. If your parents were willing to allow you to be naked in Brett’s presence, I’d have no qualms with that. Brett’s really good in situations like that in not ogling us ... or you two, and you proved to be just as good.”

Liya agreed, “Hear, hear.” She added, “Thanks for giving us the night to have sex with our spouses. If you can give us the same on future weekends, we’ll be good with you being here most or all weekends for the rest of the school year, not that that’s all that many. We’ve been discussing you two in relation to your time here after school’s out. Would your parents be willing to give you up for two or three nights over Sundays through Tuesdays? Brett and Lana wouldn’t be here overnight on any of those ... Actually, we need to rethink that, as with school out shortly after the Jacobs house remodel starts, we’ll probably have them here for a solid stretch of days, although we don’t know that for sure, yet.”

A bit more loudly, Maren answered, “Civia will correct me if I get anything wrong, but I’m pretty sure we’ll have flexibility during the week. We don’t want to seem ... needy, but we’ll take whatever time here we can get. Every time we’re here, I feel us getting more and more unlike most kids in our school. I think you’re ... boot ... Civia, what’s that word?”

“Bootstrapping.”

“Yeah, I think you girls are bootstrapping us up out of middle school.”

Meka responded, “Maren, you two have, as long as we’ve known you, been ahead of your age peers. Celeste and I have chatted about this recently, and we thought the same thing you just said. The thing is ... we’re not moving you out of childhood ... Hmm. Yes. We’re not moving you out of childhood. Witness the tickle fit that Lana just put you through. You responded like a child should. However, I think the change we’re enabling in you, and which the Go5 did with Civia before most of us knew her, is that we’re ... elevating ... no, expanding what you girls find fun, enjoyable. The conversation that kept us all in paint and talking for so long yesterday was, at times, very ... adult-ish, and you two held your own, and seemed to greatly enjoy it.”

Civia replied, “We did. It was so fun, that I’d go 20 or 30 minutes between realizations that I was, essentially, naked across the floor from Brett, and that no one was really looking at me like it was odd for me to be like that. We were simply having a good time both learning about each other and stretching all our minds. I’ve had great conversations with my parents like that, but that ... what was it ... four hours of conversation was probably the most enjoyable discussion in which I’ve taken part. Ever. I’m always so happy when I’m with you girls, and so is Maren, and last night was a perfect example of why.”

I said, “Rache, please wrap her up for me.”

“I’ll do it for both of us.” After she had her arms around Civia and had pulled her into her, she added, “Civia, I agree with everything you said. I was naked, completely so, but I rarely thought about that because the conversation was so enjoyable and, at times, riveting. It’s the sort of thing ... that I’ve missed so much since ... apparently ... Meka and Kim ran away from each other.” Civia began to respond, but Rache said, “Hang on, Civia. You just said something that’s been rattling around in my brain, and I’m trying to come to grips with ... what I think it means for me. You said that part of the aspect of last night’s discussion was that we were ‘stretching all our minds.’ That’s exactly right, but once you said that, my mind’s been whirling around, and I need to spend some time focused on thinking about ... those important four words you said in ... concert with some other stuff that’s been zinging through my conscious mind every so often of late. I think your four words are going to be very important for me. Thanks, Civia.”

Since I was still sitting up, I could see Civia turn within Rache’s arm to fully face her and respond, “You’re welcome. I’ve really enjoyed you hanging with the LA. I feel I know you much better now than I did last fall on the team, partly because you’ve been much more ... open of late, but also because I think I’m seeing the real you, the you that you didn’t seem to show the world except on the pitch. Rache, I really, really like this you.”

Out of the mouths of ... relative babes. Civia wrapped her arms tightly around Rache as the senior lost control. Not totally, but there were certainly tears. I reached over Civia to put my left hand on Rache’s face, then moved it onto her crown and just held it there for a few seconds, then withdrew my hand.

A few minutes later, Rache asked Civia, “Would you ... come upstairs with me? We could start on breakfast, but mostly I’d like to talk with you about something.”

I quietly said, “There’s a big package of chorizo in the meat drawer that we got for today’s breakfast.”

Both Civia and Rache responded, “Okay,” after which Rache said, “Could everyone please give us ten or 15 minutes in the kitchen alone?”

I did not even look around, just replied, “Of course, Rache.”

The two pushed the sheet down, crawled to the gap in the headboard that Civia had entered, and then headed upstairs.

As she and Rache exited the room, Civia said over her shoulder, “If you’d have been looking, Brett, you’d have seen my bare butt again.”

“Civia, please stop, but stay facing away.” When she obliged him, Brett stated, “It seems that the three of us have reached a ... an unspoken agreement about things like that. Do you feel it to be true?”

Over her shoulder, she replied, “Yes, and that’s what Maren and I want. We want to be accepted as LA members, although we understand that we’ll still have to keep ... parts of our bodies from each other’s sight. However, I think ... and I believe Maren agrees with me, that bare butts are no longer a big deal. You won’t stare at ours and we won’t stare at yours. Deal?”

Brett gazed at, I am certain, the back of Civia’s head for a few seconds then smiled slightly and answered, “That’s a deal. I didn’t think we’d get here next month, much less at the beginning of this month. I’m sorry that you two need to be ... in some regard ... lesser members of the LA, particularly since you’ve been with the Go5 longer than anyone matriculating at Central High other than the Go5. I’d really rather you two incredible girls not have to do some things differently just because you’re ... not part of the sexual part of the LA. That does not seem at all fair to me.”

Civia turned with her hands covering her vulva and replied, “Thanks for that, Brett, but we do need to have that distinction, despite that I agree with you. Even though I was naked except for less than two square feet of painted body surface, whenever I saw your eyes on me last night, they were always aimed at my eyes. Maren and I appreciate you greatly for that, although both of us wish that were not necessary. However, we’ll appreciate it if you can maintain that and we’ll never object if your eyes occasionally see our bare butts. I tell you that because Maren and I will be here as much as possible this summer and we’re both hoping ... we discussed it last night in bed ... that Rache will come up with additional ideas for LA portraits.”

Rache, who had turned to face the bed during the conversation between Brett and Civia, pulled Civia into a full-body hug, and then whispered in her ear, which resulted in Civia loudly saying, “Yes!”

Since Celeste is slowly pulling out of her pizza delivery job, she had today off. After Brit returned from spending much of the morning with her mom, she offered to do nails and everyone took her up on it, even Kath. With Cera’s assistance, Brit spent the afternoon painting nails, while the rest of us goofed off with soccer balls in the backyard and/or watched the painting. The goofing off with soccer balls wound up having an important component that we plan on taking to Coach for consideration.

Weeks ago, we had painted an accurate outline of a soccer goal on the back fence. In order to help keep the ball inside the fence, Jim made a wooden extension of the fence upward that was now permanently attached to the fence ... at least until Rhee or Meka smashed a rocket into it.

While we were messing around, Civia asked, “Could we put ... something like targets inside the goal? I mean have ... Oh, could we mark up the fence into some sort of quadrants or sections and have shooting practice? Shots near the posts would get more points, and those in the corners would get the most.”

Char got excited ... Well, a lot of us got excited, but Char got more excited than most, so we began discussing how many points certain sections of the goal would be worth.

Heather said, “Actually, that would depend upon the location of ... the shooter. From straightaway, the portions near the posts and, as Civia said, in the four corners are most valuable. However, given a very oblique angle, the close side would be worth very little ... or nothing, while the far corners would be worth a lot.”

Civia responded excitedly, “Exactly! And those shots need English ... that is spin to get them to curve around the goalie. I can’t think of any way to account for speed of flight, which is important, but we can at least work on precision.”

We had a bunch of brown craft paper with which we covered the entire goal, then began ... discussing where we would put lines to differentiate zones.

Meka suggested, “I’d say three height zones of equal width and five equal-width zones for now, but we could change that in the future.”

Gracey asked, “You think this should be ... at least semi-permanent?”

“Yes! I think this would be a good drill for the team. I know Rhee, Char, and Heather can hit just about anywhere they want, but most soccer players at this level can’t. Civia, could you do that, too?”

“Sometimes, but this is why I got excited. I think I need more practice at hitting particular parts of the goal.”

Since all the parents were home, we were all wearing gym shorts and tubes, which turned out to be a good thing, as all five parents joined us in the yard when they noticed the commotion.

“What are you doing to our fence, now,” Inez asked.

“Shooting practice,” replied Char.

Dad, with an audible smirk, responded, “That’s why we opted for the sturdy fence dug well into the ground. I figured you girls would eventually think of something like this.”

I saw that Maren was ignoring the repartee and was just staring at the goal, so I said, “What are you trying to solve, Maren?”

“I’m trying to figure out a way to make sections that are ... combinable, maybe, into larger areas.”

“I’m not quite understanding.”

Without looking back, she reached her arm back and I interpreted that she wanted me to come with her, so I took her hand and she pulled me to the fence near the left post.

Indicating with her hands, she said, “This chunk of the goal right next to the post is the ... most valuable part, and the ... air space gets less valuable as you move to the center, then gets more valuable as you approach the other post.”

As I felt a few of the others approach us quietly, I gave her a noncommittal grunt that she interpreted correctly as ‘Keep going.’

“As Heather said, if you’re trying to curve the ball into the far side of the net from an oblique angle, I would think the value of the ... the value of sections of air space would rapidly decline as you go toward the center ... at a higher rate, I think, than a shot from straight out. I’m trying to figure out how to divide the goal mouth into smaller chunks that can be combined into larger sections that are all worth the same point value from individual angles. Like ... assume that every one-foot square section was defined. When setting up from straight out, you could combine, say, the outer four or five sections at one level into a single block that’s worth x number of points. Then the next, I don’t know, two or three one-foot sections are worth x-1 points or something. However, if you were at a wildly oblique angle, only the outermost one or two sections would be worth the max value, instead of four or five sections.”

Excitedly, I responded, “I get it! That’s good thinking!” Since I could feel her behind me, I said, “Rhee, what do you think?”

“Maren’s bang on. So, Maren, what you’re suggesting is something like marking up every one-foot square with a number that isn’t a value per se, but just an indicator of what square it is. Right?”

“Yes!”

“And, depending on the point from which you’re shooting, you ... or we ... or whatever decide which squares to combine into large blocks of similar-value squares,”