Chapter 87

November 10, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

[It suddenly dawned on me, that I had forgotten to note here, Ms. Diary, that our Thanksgiving plans got canceled by the state tournament. I knew this weeks ago, and this illustrates the primary reason that it pains me not to be able to write every day. I forget things, although this seems to be the first thing of real import that I’ve forgotten here.]

Our three-night sleepover starts tonight!

I woke early and managed to get yesterday’s account written before Heather woke up. She eased out of bed and joined me by my desk. We initiated a discussion about last night’s conversation about Meka, Celeste, and the family. We were both still sure about Meka joining the family, but we couldn’t decide about Celeste. When Rhee woke, the three of us took the conversation into the shower, where we agreed that we weren’t ready to add her now. We had little doubt that she would fit with us, but we did have some doubt, but we agreed that we might lose that doubt with more time spent with and around her.

Practice, full-field scrimmage, was short today, but Coach promised that we’d have longer practices Tuesday through Thursday next week. As she’s done all week, Coach had Nicole Parker fill Gracey’s slot and had Gracey critique her performance one-to-one. Gracey has said that she feels weird telling an older girl how to do the left pivot job better. However, we’ve told her that the position, the job was designed around Gracey’s skills, so who better to teach Nicole how to play it. Nicole is coming along well.

I quickly wrote up the account of today before all our sleepover guests arrived. This should be fun!

[Written November 14]

Civia and her parents came over about a half-hour earlier than the other invitees so that we could spend time with Kalina and Jeff. They, Dad, and the Moms stayed long enough to greet everyone and wish them a good time. The Paleceks headed off on their weekend without Civia and our parents went to the Devlin house. I know Carol insists that it is “our” house, but...

Liya volunteered to lay out the plan for the weekend, and we let her.

“Everybody knows everyone here, except possibly that Charlize has not been introduced to Katie, although they’ve been on the Central pitch at the same time. Katie Weeks, this is Charlize Sanderson, who is the center forward for Grass Valley’s premier and high-school teams. To the Elkton premier team, she is the ‘dreaded Sanderson,’ as she is as good as Rhee at their position. Charlize, this is Katie Weeks, one of Central’s three co-captains and leader of the midfield, and our only senior outside the back line and goal. Beth and Rhee played with Charlize on an 8-11 team here in Elkton before her family moved to Grass Valley. We Central freshmen plus Civia know Charlize well, as she volunteered to be an assistant for Coach at the state tournament and we wound up spending a lot of time with her. She fits in very well with us, and all of us wish that she had not moved to Grass Valley.

“Ann De Jong, who was our premier team’s center back and West High’s starting center back, will be here but cannot make it until Sunday morning due to existing family plans.

“We have access to all three bedrooms plus what we call the Monstrosity, a double-queen mattress here in the living room. The king mattresses in each of the bedrooms comfortably sleep three, cozily sleep four, and, if you’re really good friends, can sleep five, although there’s obviously no reason to do that this weekend if no one wants. Our parents have offered their bedroom to Meka and whomever cares to share with her. The two bedrooms upstairs are claimed by residents, the front bedroom by Beth, Rhee, and Heather, and the back bedroom by Gracey and me. However, we don’t care this weekend where any of us sleep, so ... whatever.

“While we hosts are willing to organize meals and provide them out of the house’s resources, we would appreciate help with prep. We plan to order takeout or delivery on either Saturday or Sunday nights, and we can all come to a consensus about from where. The parents will return on Monday morning in order to prepare for the lunch cookout to which all of your parents have been invited.

“We’re casual about clothing in the house, so don’t be surprised to see any of us naked. Except for me, all of us here have been naked together at some time or other in various locker rooms, so we will not be embarrassed to be naked around you or by you being naked around us. Obviously, when the parents return on Monday, we’ll all need to be suitably clothed and that will also be true if or when we have dinner delivered. We are not casual about clothes in the hot tub, which is just outside the back door; nudity is de rigeur there. We have lots of towels out there, so please don’t take towels from inside the house to go out there.

“From the hosts and residents here, thank you all for coming. This should be a fun weekend.”

After Liya’s intro, various conversations broke out, although Katie buttonholed Charlize and they got to know each other, a conversation that Civia joined. None of the Go6 got naked until various of us began drifting to the hot tub. It was quite nippy outside, so we didn’t dilly-dally about getting in it. Eventually, all nine of us were in the tub, naked. As it had been a school day, with soccer practice for all of us but Charlize, we called it a night a bit after 11. Katie joined Meka in the master bedroom, while Charlize asked to sleep with Rhee and me. Although Gracey’s doctor gave her permission to go without the crutches for short periods of time for the next few days, she opted to sleep downstairs, so Liya, Heather, and Civia opted to join her in the Monstrosity, although they put Gracey on the outside.

In bed, Charlize said, “Although I usually sleep nude, I’ve not slept with anyone since the sleepover here when we were ... ten, I think.”

Rhee responded, “We can wear something.”

“Nah. You two turned me onto sleeping naked, and I’m good with this.”

“I’d wondered,” replied Rhee. “I’m glad. I can’t think of the last time I slept with clothes on, it happens so infrequently.”

“I suppose you’ve converted Heather. What about Civia?”

Rhee grinned and answered, “Oh, yeah. She’s even taken to being naked in her room at home. She’s not quite the nudist that Heather is, but she’s not all that far behind.”

“So, Liya was right? You guys hang out without clothes most of the time?”

“When it’s appropriate,” I responded. “Certainly, whenever the parents aren’t here.”

“The five of us had an entire naked weekend. Well, from Friday night to Sunday morning. We had practice that morning.”

“I assume your parents weren’t here.”

“Yup. That was their honeymoon weekend.”

Charlize looked at Rhee strangely, then said, “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh. Sorry. I’m used to everyone knowing. Hopefully, this doesn’t ... disgust you, but my mom married – unofficially, of course – Beth’s parents.”

“Ahhh. I had wondered. They seemed much ... closer than I remembered them being.”

“There you go. Beth and I ... and the others are all happy about it. I get to live here, and this is now the official gang hangout. We’ve all become much closer friends, partly as a result of Mom marrying into the Williams family. In fact, Mom’s in the process of changing her name from Devlin. I haven’t decided whether I will.”

Charlize drew her head back in surprise, then shook her head with a little smile.

“I had wondered, but I got nowhere near the reality. That’s ... crazy. But you two are happy about it?”

“Absolutely!”

I nodded in agreement with Rhee.

“Okay. You two have a very cool set of three parents. I should congratulate them.”

“Not everyone here knows, so...”

“Okay. I’ll be discreet.”

“Since you’re the guest,” I said, “you can have your pick of inside or ... Would you be okay with being in the middle?”

“I really don’t care.”

“If you don’t care,” Rhee replied, “then why don’t you take the middle, as the two of us sleep next to each other a lot. Also, when the six of us are here, we usually randomize bed partners. We could do that for tomorrow night, if you want.”

She thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded, saying, “That’s cool.”

The three of us talked for a while, but the conversation quickly became softer and desultory, all of us drifting to sleep.

November 11, 2017 (continued)

Dear Ms. Diary,

[Written November 14]

I woke with my face in Charlize’s chest. Once I realized that, I slowly moved my head back, then rolled onto my back, keeping my eyes closed.

“You didn’t have to do that on my account,” Charlize whispered. “It was kind of nice.”

Equally quietly I responded, “I’m sure that many would get ... squicky about that, so didn’t want to take a chance.”

“Squicky?”

“Yeah. ‘Squicky.’ Do you have a problem with that?”

I turned my head to her and grinned.

“Squeamish and icky? Yes?”

“I suppose. It’s not like it’s in the hard-cover dictionary, although I have little doubt it’s in an online dictionary.”

“Actually, as I told you back at the tournament, sort of, anyway. Even though the three of us weren’t the friends that you two have been, that’s still the thing I miss most since moving. I’ve never had a friend in GV as close as we were here, to say little of how close you two have been, and all ... five or six of you are. I ... I still think of you ... you two ... as my best friends.”

She ducked her head as tears gathered in her eyes. I rolled toward her and put my right arm over her onto her back and pulled her in tightly and tucked her head onto my right shoulder.

I whispered in her ear, “We’ve not letting you go, again. Even for us, soccer is almost over. We’ll have more free time. We can invite you more often.”

I could feel her nodding her head on my shoulder, then she said, “Hanging with your team at state was the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. I’d really like to be able to hang with you and the gang.”

“We’ll invite you for a ... weekends, then. Actually, because of...” I almost blurted out about Meka but caught myself, continuing with, “because her parents have become quite comfortable with Civia hanging with a bunch of girls three years older than her, I’m pretty sure that we could get a weekend here at the house for just the seven of us. Dad and the Moms will probably be fine with that, and they’ll stay at Carol’s house or use it for an excuse for the three of them to go off together. It would probably have to be after the holidays.”

“I’d really like that.”

A few minutes later, Rhee woke up, and the three of us got up, hit the bathroom, and then tiptoed downstairs; tiptoed, because we hadn’t heard any commotion down there. Unsurprisingly, the first eyes I saw in the Monstrosity were Heather’s. She grinned at me, then gave a little nod at Charlize.

“Yes, Heather, I’m cool with this state of ... undress.”

That caused Heather to shine that happy face of hers, sparkling eyes and gamine grin. She then looked to her right at Civia’s head, and then there was some movement under the covers. I suspect Heather poked Civia, as Civia’s head popped up and her eyes opened. When she saw Charlize, her eyes really opened. She moved the covers off herself and onto Heather and got out of the bed, Heather following suit.

Civia whispered, “You’re okay being ... naked?” When Charlize nodded, she quietly asked, “May I hug you?”

She let out her happiest grin when Charlize nodded again, then threw her arms around her and hugged her tightly.

Still whispering, Civia said, “The gang turned me onto this. I love it. I was really nervous at first, but I love it. Are ... are you gonna stay naked today?”

Charlize shrugged her shoulders, then replied, “We’ll see. Obviously not if we go anywhere.”

“Are you five planning on how to take over the world?”

We turned or looked up to see Liya smiling at us.

Civia replied, “It’s what we do every day, Pinky.”

Liya quickly put a hand over her mouth after Civia surprised a chortle out of her. She then shook her finger at Civia, grinning all the while.

Charlize had snickered at Civia’s response, then said, “Ah, another set of Pinky and the Brain afficionados, I see.”

Civia whirled back to Charlize, saying, “I knew it. You fit with us, Girl.” Her shoulders dropped a bit as she added, “I wish you weren’t so far away,” following that with another hug.

“Me, too, Civia. Me, too.”

Once everyone was up, and with Katie giving the seven of us a double-eyebrow raise when she saw us all naked in the kitchen, we made a big breakfast.

Shortly before she sat to eat, Meka said, “Ah, screw it,” and divested herself of shirt and panty, then sat and dug in.

Katie looked hard at Meka, then shrugged her shoulders and copied her. As we approached repletion, I stood, juice glass in hand.

“Most of my best friends are here and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for joining me on this holiday weekend. I have lived a happy life, and friends like you are a large part of that happiness.” I raised my glass and said, “Here’s to friends.”

They sent back a slightly out-of-synch reply of “Friends.”

As we could not come up with something to do at home, we all dressed and Meka drove us to the practice pitch.

Rhee posited, “At the risk of making Charlize even more dangerous, perhaps we could teach her and others rockets or roulettes.”

There was general agreement, so we started with stretches and warmups. Although Gracey could not take part, generally, she helped shag balls and teach.

With a smile on her face, Charlize asked, “Why is it that I’m learning ball-handling skills from a fullback?”

There was much chuckling, after which Meka said, “Charlize, you should have seen the roulette that Gracey pulled off against Petaluma.”

“Really?”

“Yup. Open field on a brilliant counterattack that she started and for which she got the assist. And not an assist for a bomb to a streaking forward. No, she carried the ball most of the way upfield and made the assisting pass at the box after she had maneuvered herself and their D into the juxtaposition that she wanted. I think Beth would have been hard-pressed to do the whole thing any better.”

“Now you’re just exaggerating,” Gracey said, a bit incensed.

“No, Gracey,” I responded. “Meka’s right. The only thing that would have made that any better would have been you having Meka’s speed.” When she looked at me hard, I said, “Honestly. That was a brilliant piece of ... tactical effort, on-the-fly tactical effort. You’re becoming a good midfielder.”

“I agree,” Katie put in.

Gracey looked around with a dumbfounded expression, then shook her head as if to clear the cobwebs.

“Thanks. I thought I was doing just okay, and that because most of my duties are really those of a fullback.”

I looked with intent at Meka and lifted my chin at her. She nodded slightly.

“You’re right about that, but you’ve learned a lot this fall, and much of what you’ve learned is a wider understanding of the game, not just how to be a fullback. You were a crucial part in a couple of counterattacks that the D initiated and completed. Oh, you couldn’t do Katie’s job well ... yet, but I suspect if you wanted to do it, you could learn it. In fact, you are the starter that has improved most this season.” When Gracey started to interrupt, she added, “Yes, you were the starter that knew the least about her position, but you didn’t let that slow you down. You watched, you asked good questions, you learned. That’s how everyone does it ... that learns. You wanted to learn, and that’s most of the battle. It’s been ... enjoyable watching you get better.”

“Excuse me,” Gracey said as she stepped over to Meka and hugged her.

We continued with practice and teaching and were headed home when Heather asked, “Meka, do you have contact info for Jamaal?”

She looked in the rearview at Heather and answered, “Yes. Why ... Oh, were you thinking about a pickup game with the boys?” When Heather nodded, she finished with, “I’ll text him when we get home. Would tomorrow after lunch be good with everyone?”

Back in the kitchen with all of us nude, we made lunch and were eating when Meka got a text back from Jamaal. She read it, then looked up.

“We’re on! We could almost field our own team, particularly if Gracey could play.”

“That wouldn’t work, Meka,” answered Heather, “as, even without a true goalie, we would probably beat them.”

“I wonder if Mila would be interested in playing,” I put out there. “I would have suggested Hope, but we have two good reasons to exclude the rest of the seniors from this weekend, the primary one of which is that Dad and the Moms restricted us to ten here. I’d hate to invite Hope and not Kim and Rachel.”

“Yes,” Civia responded, “but could you imagine the boys trying to get through a back line of Meka, Ann, and Gracey? I’m not trying to be mean, but we’d have the better O and the better D, although we’d have only Katie in the midfield, so-o-o-o...”

There was much laughing.

Civia grinned around the room and met Meka’s offered fist with hers.

Meka turned to Katie, saying, “This is why I like hanging out with this crew. Yeah, Civia’s only 11, but she does not act like it, nor does she think like it. This is a great gang of girls and I’m going to miss hanging with them when I go to college.”

“But aren’t you thinking about going here, at least at first?”

“I am, but that will still preclude a lot of the time that I spend with you, the rest of the seniors, and these girls. They’ll have the high-school season, and my longtime friends here will be scattered to the four winds going to college. By the way, has Rachel said anything definitive about that scholarship offer?”

Katie shook her head, saying, “No, but it’s still early, yet. It would certainly make my parents – and my bank account – happy if I could get a scholarship. It would probably have to be at some small school, but I think I wouldn’t mind that.”

That initiated a long discussion about women’s soccer at colleges, the difference in the abilities of large and small schools to support scholarships for a relatively less-important athletic program, and other aspects of being a collegiate athlete. That discussion made us quite happy that we had gotten a chance to pick Andressa’s brain on those topics. While the university here is not a small school, it is certainly not one of which most students in the country would have heard, though reasonably well known in the state. That discussion segued to what Civia should do.

Meka started it off with, “You know, Civia, that you would be best served by being on one of those residential clubs where you’d have year-round training.”

Civia lowered her head, then looked up.

“Yes. That’s what my dad said, but we can’t afford that. Also, there aren’t any close clubs, and now that I have friends, really good friends, I don’t want to leave them.” I started to say something, but she held up her hand and said, “I know that I have to prioritize what I want, but it doesn’t really matter, as we really can’t afford one of those clubs.”

“I was afraid of that,” Meka replied. “Of all the good players on this team, I think you’re the one most likely to play pro. That would be a damned shame if you couldn’t do it solely because it’s too freaking expensive to do what you need to do. That really pisses me off.” She inhaled deeply, let it out, then said, “We’ll all do what we can do for you, and you’ll just have to beat the odds and get good enough, anyway.”

Civia stood and quickly walked around the table to wrap her arms around Meka. She thanked her, then returned to her chair.

Rhee said to Civia, “One of the things we can do for you, is teach you defensive skills. The pros often use forwards to press hard when losing the ball in the D’s end of the pitch in order to get the ball back far upfield. That’s why I worked on that so hard. Right now, you know a sizable percentage of the best fullbacks in the state.” She turned to Meka and Katie and asked, “Would the others be willing to work with her?”