-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Tuck Some More -*- Copyright 2007 by Ellen Hayes.

Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual
persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when
used for satirical purposes.

This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and
possibly sex.  If you are legally not allowed to read materials
containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading
this.  I am not responsible.
Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it
in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally
allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish,
state, and country.

All rights reserved.  See the bottom for distribution rights.


Tuck Some More


***
23:07 6 Nov

     The pills I'd taken were finally starting to have an effect.  Or I
was tired of crying.  Well, I KNEW I was tired of crying.  But it
finally seemed to be stopping, and I was starting to feel more sleepy
than miserable.
     I went to scrub my face off, now that I wouldn't be producing more
snot and tears, and then hopefully I could sleep.

***
04:18 7 Nov

     "That," I decided, "did not work as well as I'd hoped."  I checked
the clock, wiped the dried goo out of my eyes, then looked harder.
"Five, six hours..."  Damn, now I was REALLY going to have to think
about whether or not to take the new pills.  When I could think again; I
still felt groggy.

***
04:31 7 Nov

     "Aw, man," I sighed.  Jill wanted me to pick her up, which I
should've guessed.  I had no idea why she wanted me to pick her up at a
gas station, though.
     I decided to replay the voicemail, in case there was a reason I'd
missed.

***
06:14 7 Nov

     *Cle-VER,* I thought, sarcastically.  The computer Debbie had
pimped me into fixing, had actually had a power supply go out; but
Windows had taken the excuse to attempt suicide as well.
     However, very little of this festering lump of feces Microsoft
claimed was an operating system could defeat me and my software friends,
and I'd counter-fucked Windows with a checksum-based 'if it's hosed
replace it from the good copy' operation, and it was now booting.
     It really really cried out for a goat's head on startup, but I was
being strong and resisting.
     Now to copy the hard drive - juuuuust in case - and to find that
file and certify the date and time.  Which would take ME little time at
all.

***
07:11 7 Nov

     "Whaa?" Mom croaked.
     "Feeding my little brother, Mom.  Jeez, don't you EVER feed him?"
The way he was eating, it seemed almost like a reasonable possibility
she'd forgotten the last couple of days.  Or weeks.  He was at least at
the level of Mike, and might be close to George.  In appetite anyway.
At least he hadn't complained about what I was cooking.  Not like he
could really complain; he'd have had to stop stuffing food into his
pie-hole.  *Speaking of...*  "Want something?"
     "Uhhhhhh," Mom said, meaning she wanted more coffee.  I could've
fixed some, but they had an X10 coffeepot we were forbidden to look at
much less touch, and it was already brewed up.

***
07:17 7 Nov

     "Want something to eat?"
     Dad strained for a while, then generated, "Uhuh."
     *Must've been the smell driving his spinal cord,* I decided.

***
07:19 7 Nov

     "Why aren't you in school?" Mom asked out of nowhere.
     "Wh-  Because they're having an inservice today."
     "Dork," Brian said to remind me he was jealous.  Not that I needed
reminding; half the reason to come downstairs and fix food for him was
to rub it in his face that I wasn't going to school today.

***
08:37 7 Nov

     "Are you taking that girl, uh-"
     "Jill."
     "-to the range today?" Dad asked as he loaded the dishwasher and I
watched.  This was another fun part of cooking, watching someone else
clean up.
     "Uh, yeah.  Ten o'clock.  And tonight.  I can do the gun range, you
don't have to come," I said.  Not that we'd be doing anything even
mildly romantic for him to interfere with. Guns were not toys, no matter
how fun they were to play with.  *Come to think of it, a lot of adult
things are like that,* I realized suddenly.  *Welding, power too-*
     "You sure?"
     "Huh?  Oh, yeah.  I get to shoot her if she turns around with a gun
in her hands, right?"
     "Unless it's T-blocked or dry," Dad nodded.  And we didn't have a
T-block.  "Or reversed."
     "Right," I nodded back.
     "Hnnh," he mumbled, looking suspicious.  "I might want to go..."
     "Didn't you go already this week?"
     "The more you sweat in peace-"
     I hurriedly interrupted, "The more you stink."
     He chuckled appreciatively.  But, best of all, he didn't continue
the Wise Saying.
     "Hey can I get some money?"  He stopped.  "For range fees."
     "What're you taking?"
     "My nineteen, spare nineteen, my Galil, one of the .22 rifles."
     "Mmmm.  Take a twenty."
     "Why?"  Shotgun fees were almost punitive.
     "It's been a while since you did that, and she might like it."
     "Eh, well..."
     But he seemed to be digging his wallet out.  "Is she staying here
tonight too?"
     "Uh, yeah, I sort of thought so..."  His eyebrows went up and his
hand stopped.  "I don't know what she wants to do, but she said she
wanted to do something tonight."  I wasn't sure what yet, but as long as
it wasn't bowling...  "I'm sort of hoping she'll stay overnight, at
least."  I slept better with her in my bed, anyway; I was gonna have to
see if I could convince her to stay.  "So I was sort of planning for it.
We HAD planned to do something tonight anyway, so..."  A memory finally
popped up.  "I put this in the log already!"
     "I was just checking," he lied.
     "Bull-  Gimme money!"
     He restarted digging for his wallet, but complained, "Luring pretty
young girls in with promises of firearms... 'Hey, honey, wanna come up
and see my gun collection?'"
     "Isn't that how you got Mom?"

***
09:27 7 Nov

     "Hey, great," Jill said as she threw herself into the car.  "I
wasn't sure you got the message."
     "Uh, well, I always check it before school," I lied.  I ought to
start doing that.
     "So what do I have to do?  Is this okay?" she asked as she swept a
hand over herself.
     "Wh-  Oh, yeah.  You might want to change into something if
smelling like combusted powder is a problem, though," I warned her, a
little late.  "Or I guess I could loan you something," I sighed.
     "What's it smell like?" wrinkling her nose.
     "Powder."  *Duh?*

***
10:21 7 Nov

     Range safety lesson concluded and oral test passed, it was time to
fork over an extortionate sum so I could 'waste' a lot of expensive -
even though it was almost all reloads it was expensive - ammunition
without getting arrested for doing so.
     Which, when I thought of it that way, wasn't such a bad idea.

***
10:25 7 Nov

     "This is cool," Jill said, apparently referring to the radio setup
we used at the range.
     "Yeah...  You ready?"  She nodded, so I unlocked and opened the
case and removed the Springfield.  "This is a replica of a Colt design,
an M-1911A1.  This is a Springfield Armory replica, made exactly the
same way as the original."  The original modified, anyway; but I didn't
want to go into that.  I wasn't even entirely sure what the difference
between the original and the A1 was.  I checked and made sure no one was
in front of the targets - nope - then pointed the pistol that way and
turned it on its side so she could see.  "Trigger is here.  Manual
safety is here.  You work it like this... or with it in your hand, like
this," I demonstrated for her.  "Always keep the safety on until you're
ready to fire.  ALWAYS."

***
10:31 7 Nov

     "Why is yours different than this one?"
     "'Cause... I know what I need on mine.  That one's sort of a
spare."  The one she was using didn't have tritium sights on it, for one
thing.  Or the thinner grip, or the extended hammer, or the custom
trigger, or-
     "Are you gonna be shooting?"
     "In a bit.  I need to coach you first."  Also, Dad had warned me to
let her go first, so she wouldn't feel bad when she saw how I was doing,
before she even tried.  I wasn't that good, but I was way better than
anyone just starting.  "Put these on," I said, handing her the red-
lensed protective glasses we used for times like-
     "Why?"
     "Because that's got a laser sight on it, which at this stage is
cheating."
     "No it-"
     "Who's rangemaster today?" I asked.  "Put 'em on.  This is a safety
measure anyway, to see exactly where you're pointing the barrel."  The
few centimeters offset wasn't important, and it was pretty parallel to
the barrel axis; we'd checked.

***
10:34 7 Nov

     #pop#
     The red spot, representing where the barrel was pointed, went all
OVER the place as Jill yanked the trigger and the entire pistol, and I
couldn't even tell where the round had gone.
     "Whatthe-?!" Jill complained as the slide locked back.
     I laughed.  I couldn't help it.
     Jill carefully put the pistol down on the counter before turning
and advancing on me.  I backed up as fast as I could but lost my footing
and went over.

***
10:35 7 Nov

     "Ohhh.  Thanks."  She glared at me; apparently the minor kicking
she'd given my arms and legs wasn't intended to calm me down enough to
talk.  "There's a 22 conversion in there, so you're firing 22 long rifle
rounds one at a time.  C'mon, I'll show you."

***
10:38 7 Nov

     "So why did you-"
     "To show you the flinch."  And man, she had it bad-
     "The what?"

***
10:41 7 Nov

     "Clear on the left," I said after I checked, "clear on the right,
clear down the middle, shoot!"
     She concentrated, and the gun started to waver.
     "Point it down, take some breaths, then pull it up and try again."
     "I fucking hate you," she mentioned as she did what I'd told her.
     "Good.  Pretend I'm that paper target and shoot it."
     She did, and it looked like she got me in the neck.  I told her,
"That was about six inches low, but on the centerline.  Hard to breathe
with that in my throat.  Good shot."
     "It was?" she asked, sounding confused as she turned - head only -
to look back at me.
     "Yeah.  And no flinch this time," I nodded.  "See?  You can do
this."  She looked uncertain, like she thought I was teasing her or
something.  "No, you can," I insisted.

***
10:50 7 Nov

     "What?"
     "I thought I heard something..."
     "Tuck respond over," Dad said over the radio, which meant he was
fairly close by.
     "No, out," I said.
     "What?" Jill complained.  I put my finger to her lips, because the
mikes were hot, and then tapped the ear covering and the microphone.  I
almost started signing at her, but that wouldn't have worked...
Instead, I grabbed the range bag, then a pen and a scrap of paper out of
it, and scribbled, 'MY DAD IS HERE AND HAS A RADIO TOO'.
     She nodded.

***
11:16 7 Nov

     "Fuck!" Jill said, and I looked around to see what she was cursing
about.
     *Oh, yeah.*  Watching my dad shoot could be fun.  You'd think that
with glasses he'd suck at it, but he didn't.
     But I'd seen it before, and I was doing very poorly today, so I
went back to practicing.

***
11:33 7 Nov

     "Fine..."  I hated skeet shooting, and the fact that I hated it
mostly because I sucked at it, and I sucked at it because I didn't do
it, and I didn't do it because I hated it, made very little impression
on my dad.  The best way to catch birds was nets or traps anyway,
everyone knew that.  That also made very little impression.
     #WHAP!#  I went up and tracked and fired - miss - and fired - hit -
and didn't have another chance before the other target broke on the
ground.

***
11:47 7 Nov

     "Does Mom know you're doing that?" I asked Dad, who just glared at
me, before continuing to tape the other steak to the back of the water
jug.

***
11:49 7 Nov

     Jill looked kind of... I don't know, thoughtful maybe.
     "So that's why you want to be very very careful with firearms," Dad
concluded.
     The steaks now looked rather ill, and I decided I was going to eat
elsewhere tonight; another thing that sucked about shotgun hunting was
the near-impossibility of getting all the pellets out of the meat,
though with the buckshot he'd used it was merely difficult.  And with
steel shot, a magnet REALLY helped.  I didn't know why they hadn't
started using steel for shot about a hundred years ago.
     "On the other hand," I said to Jill, "think about someone you
really really DON'T like with this," I pointed at the hole, "through
their heart."
     A smile flickered over her face a few times.
     "But don't let anyone know you enjoyed the thought," Dad mentioned.

***
12:12 7 Nov

     We left Dad with a large number of firearms - he'd 'suggested' that
I not take them with me the rest of the day, no matter how nice and
relaxed and comforted I felt with the Galil slung over my armor - and
now we were IN the car and could remove the ear muffs carefully so we
could pull out the damned ear plugs.  I DID like having hearing, but
after a while the plugs started to hurt.  *Natural limit on gun
practice,* I thought.
     "Oh shit, Tuck, could we go someplace?  I said I'd talk to Anne-
Marie today."
     "Uhhhh...  Why didn't you mention this earlier?"
     "Because I fucking forgot!  And I didn't think it would take this
long?"
     "Wh-"  I looked, and it hadn't even been two hours.
     "Can we?"
     "Uh..."  She waved a dollar at me.  "Yeah, sure," I sighed, wishing
I wasn't quite so susceptible to money.  Or my friends.  "Need to pack
the radio gear up first, though," I told her.  "Can you reach in the
back seat and get the boxes?"
     "Wh-  Oh, right," she said as she remembered that twisting my torso
wasn't my favorite thing to do lately.

***
12:54 7 Nov

     We had skipped fast food in favor of saving our money for things
like new motorcycles, and now I was at some girls' house I didn't know.
Well, I sort of knew the girl, just not real well.
     "I keep forgetting how short you are," I mentioned, as I realized
that once again I could see over Anne-Marie's head easily.
     "Tuck!" Jill complained as she punched my arm and Anne-Marie
whirled.
     "It was just a comment!  F-  Sod off!" I complained back, pushing
Jill away.  And very glad I was wearing my armor, because this had the
potential to get unusually painful, I realized a little late.
     She remembered before she gut-punched me though.  I smiled at her
in thanks and put a hand up - which she punched - before turning to
Anne-Marie and apologizing, "Really, I wasn't making fun of you or
anything like that, I just really do keep forgetting.  I keep thinking
you're just a little shorter than me," I explained, holding a hand
around the level of my hairline.
     She glanced at Jill.
     "OB-viously it's her boobs," Jill snickered, and then we both
laughed, because she knew that's not what I'd be looking at anyway.
"What size are you again?"
     "34 C," she sighed.  "Most days."
     Then she looked at me and started to blush or complain or
something.  I was already asking, "Most-"
     "Tits swell when you retain water, remember?" Jill said to me.
     "Oh, right.  Plus no bra can possibly be the same actual
measurement or fit of any other bra with the same official size, right?"
She nodded, looking sour.  Anne-Marie followed suit a second or two
later.  "See, I was paying attention," I claimed.  I had been; anything
that offended my sense of sanity like that tended to stick in my head.

***
12:58 7 Nov

     "That... is a lot of dolls," I said, neutrally I hoped.
     "Yeah I know," Anne-Marie said somewhat excitedly, enabling me to
deduce that having half a wall filled with doll-covered shelving wasn't
her mom's idea, or her grandmother's.  "I just, I mean..."  She stopped
being excited.
     "_I_ think," Jill drawled, trying to start something, "that it's a
sign of how incredibly immature she is."
     As Anne-Marie opened her mouth to object, I objected, "YOU should
talk about immaturity!"
     "Nuh UH!  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh," Jill whined in that really annoying flat
tone that kids develop.  "You're a booger-head!"
     "You're two booger-heads, shut up," I said back, and patted
Anne-Marie on the shoulder to hopefully reassure her not to take this
seriously.  "No, really, why DO you collect dolls?"
     Her face screwed up a bit.
     "I'm not gonna make fun of you for it," I told her, knowing what
she was thinking.
     "Yeah, that's my job," Jill said.
     Which needed a punch.  "Shut UP Jill!"

***
13:07 7 Nov

     "Little bitty wigs?  You're kidding."
     Anne-Marie pulled the hair off the doll she was holding, gently,
and held it in her hand.
     "You're not kidding, ohmigod," I snickered.  "That is so weird...
weird looking, I guess; it sorta makes sense."
     "Do you have like different wigs for them and stuff?" Jill asked.
     "Lemme see?" I asked Anne-Marie, and she handed me the wig and got
up.

***
13:19 7 Nov

     "Anne-Marie?  Who's here?" called a voice from downstairs.
     "Ohmigod my mom's home and I'm not supposed to have boys in the
house when she's not here-"
     As Anne-Marie babbled onward, I looked at Jill, and she looked at
me.  'You knew this was going to happen-'
     'No I didn't,' she shot back via facial telepathy, and I knew it
was true, much as I'd like it to be the other way.  'Why does this
always happen around you?'
     I sighed.  It would, in some ways, be easier to go out the window.
But not in others, and I didn't feel like paying the cost in pain.
     "Don't panic," I told Anne-Marie.  "We can trick this."
     I sighed again as I turned away and pulled off my shirt, so I could
get rid of the body armor temporarily.  Jill shut Anne-Marie up and
started talking to her urgently.

***
13:21 7 Nov

     "Oh!  Hello," Anne-Marie's mom, or whatever, said to me as I came
out of the closet.
     "Oh hey," I said with a smile.  "I'm Valerie?"  Why girls tended to
make that sort of thing a question I did not know, but they did,
especially the younger ones.
     "Gloria Huston," she said, holding out her hand, which I shook like
the girls did.
     "I'm one of Jill's friends, with a car," I smiled, and she smiled
back at me as Jill protested that wasn't why she was my friend.
     Then Miz Huston turned away, but before she could say anything Jill
said scornfully to Anne-Marie, "See?  It looks DUMB on her, 'cause she's
so small in the chest."
     "Jill!" I complained without thinking about it.
     "Well, I just wanted to see who was home," Miz Huston said to us.
     "And now you can go back downstairs, right?" Anne-Marie prompted,
sounding way too hopeful and not at all certain about it.  At least she
wasn't hyperventilating; she didn't sound very spazzed either.
     But her mom laughed, and said some stuff, and left, shutting the
door behind her.
     Pause.
     *I really don't want to explain this...*
     "Here, change out of that and into this," Jill said as she unzipped
her jean jacket and dropped it on the floor.
     "What, your-"  *No, her shirt,* I realized as she started pulling
that off too.
     "That way you don't end up borrowing her clothes when you escape
from here," Jill mumbled through the shirt, which was now over her face.
     "Oh, yah, good-  Wait, what are you gonna do?  Don't you work
today?"
     "Well, I need to borrow something," she said as she tossed me the
shirt and started putting her jacket back on, though she had a plain
white T shirt still on.  "Either from you, or you, or I need to go home
for a couple minutes and get something," she said.
     "Hey, you're just doing this to get more rides outta me," I
complained as I realized it.
     Jill laughed, then stopped as she looked over at Anne-Marie.  I did
too, because she was, and Anne-Marie looked like she'd been stunned and
hadn't yet made her IQ roll.  "What, you've never had someone lie to
your mom before?" Jill asked.
     Anne-Marie finally made the roll and recovered, and demanded, "How
did you DO that?  Are you GAY?"
     I snorted, half-angry, then burst out laughing, then fell over -
though I made sure I fell on my left side.  The idea that the two were
connected was just ludicrous at the moment.  I wanted to stop laughing
at it, or her, because it hurt, but this was like James assuming I was
gay because I was baking, except for some reason funnier.
     "Didn't you see him with makeup on at his party?" Jill demanded.  I
thought she did, anyway; it was kind of hard to hear anyone else.
     "Ih-  It's my superpower!" I managed to gasp out.  *Fuck, I
need...*  I scrabbled in my fanny pack for an inhaler and took a nice
long hit on it and started counting, holding my breath of course.
     However, stupidly, I looked up at Jill, who looking dopey and said,
"Duuuuuuuuude," real slow like she was stoned.
     "Damnit!" I gasped out, losing the vapor, and kicked the shit out
of her leg before taking another.  *Onetwothreefourfive, twotwothree-
fourfive, threetwothreefourfive...*
     "Sorry Val," she said, but I wasn't dumb enough to look again.
"You okay?"
     *-Tentwothreefourfive, a-twothreefourfive, b-twothreefourfive...*
I nodded at her.  My ribs hurt.

***
13:24 7 Nov

     "I just figured it was better than getting in trouble with your
mom!" Jill snapped, though unusually quietly.  "Cork it or you'll get
her back in here!  V-  You okay?" she asked me.
     "I think so..."  I'd live, though I was getting REALLY tired of my
ribs hurting like this.  "Gahhhh.  Fuck."  Anne-Marie gagged at that.
"Don't EVEN," I warned her.  I wasn't sure what she would take it to be
a warning against, and after I thought about it neither was I, but I
didn't care.
     Right now, actually, I was wishing I'd stayed home this morning.
It seemed simpler.  So did school...

***
13:26 7 Nov

     "Wait, where did you get the name 'Valerie'?" Anne-Marie asked,
just as I thought we'd gotten done burying this topic for a while.  Or
hoped; I was being overoptimistic in interpreting the fifteen second
pause we'd just had.
     Jill looked at me as I looked at her.  "Debbie came up with it," I
answered.  "It was a while ago."
     "Not from," Anne-Marie said, and I looked back at her.  "Not from
Valerie Faciszewski?"
     "Wha-  Oh, no," I said, as Jill agreed, "No."  Jill added, "Before
any of us met her."
     "And don't ask," I put in, hoping she wouldn't.  "Because we're not
going to tell you," I added, hoping 'we' wouldn't.

***
13:28 7 Nov

     "It doesn't bug you?" Anne-Marie asked gingerly, like she was
afraid I hadn't remembered that it did before now and asking me would
remind me to have a fit about it.
     "Not as long as nobody gives me shit about it," I said, relatively
truthfully.
     "And," Jill said to her, "I'd really appreciate it if you DIDN'T go
blabbing this to all your friends, okay?"
     I snorted, "Gay," and then I had to pound myself in the leg to stop
another giggle fit.  "Gahhhhh, I f- HATE asthma," I commented when I
could talk.

***
13:32 7 Nov

     "Annie?" Jill said to get Anne-Marie's attention.  "Chill out,
okay?  Weren't- you were there at the other dance last week, right?  The
Freaks' Show one?"
     "Yeah but-"  She cut herself off as her eyes flicked towards me.
"It's just so weird," she said lamely.
     I thought Jill would come up with something weirder, like from the
Freaks' Show dance, but she didn't.  Instead, she said sternly, "You're
friends with Kelly, right?"
     "Yeah, but it's not the same thing!" she complained.
     "Yes it-"
     "No, it's not," I interrupted.  "It's NOT!"  Jill and I glared at
each other.
     I turned away and said to Anne-Marie, "Look, I know it's od- really
weird," I admitted.  "But it's something I can do sometimes, and it
comes in handy once in a while."  I smirked.  "Like last year, when I
was dating Debbie?  I could stay overnight, and her mom wouldn't get
upset."
     Jill sniggered, "Oh man I for-"
     "You DID?!" Anne-Marie gasped.
     I nodded, looking smug, even though I didn't quite feel that way.
     "Wait," Jill said, "what about your- I mean, last weekend-"
     "Oh, uh, they said that after, um, this- my parents said that after
this year they REALLY wanted me doing that sort of stuff at home," I
told her.  I hadn't really believed it when they'd said it before Susan
left.  "MY home.  And yes, they knew about that Friday night."  I needed
better soundproofing but had no idea how to do it without ripping my
room apart.
     "You two had SEX?" Anne-Marie accused me.
     I wondered how she'd figured THAT out.  I thought I was being
obtuse.
     "What, jealous?  Wanna do a threesome?" Jill leered at her.  I hit
Jill as she started to cackle.
     "Excuse-  Damnit!" I cursed as I disengaged.
     "What?"
     "I can't beat her like she deserves with my ribs the way they are
and my armor off.  Could you beat her?" I asked Anne-Marie.  Jill fell
backwards howling in perverse amusement.  "Just kick her really hard a
few times, that'll-"  Jill kicked at me, but I was out of range.  "-Do
it," I finished.
     Anne-Marie declined wordlessly, as Jill ran herself down.

***
13:41 7 Nov

     "Well, that went really piss-poor," I said as I started my car.
     "I'll work on her," Jill said, and I had a feeling she meant it.  I
also had a feeling she didn't mean just by herself.
     My memory inserted an interrupt.  "Oh, damn.  Jill, I'm still
sitting today, and I don't-"  Jill's stomach interrupted me with a
growl, which made us both laugh.  "Wanna go to my house, get your shirt
back, and eat something?"
     "Uh, sure!  You're cooking?" she asked.
     "I could do that... something small," I warned, "not a big dinner
or anything.  And quick.  I still have to go to Rachel's and change."
     "Yah okay," she nodded.

***
14:02 7 Nov

     "Hey, Tuck?" Jill asked as we got out.  "Is tonight, I mean, is it
like a DATE-date, or, just..."
     "Um," I had to think about what she was talking about.  "Whatever
you want it to be.  I don't have that much money, though," I sighed.
"What were you thinking?"
     "I dunno.  Um, maybe...  I mean, I don't want to spend a lot of
money either, so..."  Which kind of cut out... most everything.  Damnit.
     "Maybe we could stay here?  It's better than your place, you said."
     "Oh god," she confirmed.  "Yes.  Um, you said your parents know?
About..."
     "Us?"  I looked at the refrigerator to see if there was a new flash
card.  There was, so I memorized it.  "Um, what?"
     "You said your parents know about us," she said.
     "Oh, yeah...  But it's like okay, they said.  And I didn't get in
trouble for it, and they SAID it was okay...  No, they said they wanted
me to do that, here, instead of anywhere else."
     "That is really fucked up," she mentioned.
     "Well...  I mean, it is," I agreed, "but... they have reasons.  And
it IS safer than some places, for me anyway.  But they wouldn't let
anything happen to you either, you know."  Not like I was real inclined
to do anything like that in my own house; if Mom found out I'd raped
someone, she'd just reach over and pull my rib cage out.  "And it's
cheap..." I enticed.
     She laughed.  "Your room's kinda small, though."
     I complained, "For what?"  *I got two places to sit, and the
computers, and-*
     She gave me an incredulous look, then burst into laughter.

***
14:22 7 Nov

     "Yo?"
     "Is Tuck," I told Mike.  "Can you do Jill a favor?"
     "She wants to dump your ass and date a real man?"
     "No, I called YOU," I said back, feeling pretty pleased with myself
momentarily.
     "Hah, fuck you fishface.  What she want?"
     "She want- uh, wants to know if you could keep her busy for an hour
or two and then take her to work.  She'll pay a dollar."
     "Yeah, I-  Why not you?"
     "'Cause I just cooked something for her-"
     "Aw MAN!" he complained.
     "-and there's some here for YOU," I said truthfully, because I had
been plotting while I was cooking Jill a BLOTCE or two, which she'd
complimented.  I'd cooked six of them.  "But _I_ gotta go pick up the
baby and stuff, and like real soon."
     "Oh.  Uh... can the guys come over?"
     "I didn't cook for them," I warned.
     "Bad idea," he agreed.  "Okay, yeah..."
     "Hurry though, I can't leave until you get here, you know.  And I
need a shower; I still smell like ignited double-base."
     "Aw man!  Why didn't you call me?!"
     "'Cause the phones were out," I said, and hung up before he could
curse me.

***
14:23 7 Nov

     It rang twice, barely, before he picked it up.  "And furthermore,
you little round-eyed fuck," Mike continued.
     "Mike," I interrupted, and he stopped.  "Debbie paid me to fix a
computer; it's done; if she calls for it, can you get it to her?  Also
the file and certification is in the envelope on top of it."
     "Where is it?"
     "In my room, on the altar."
     "How much?"
     "You worm.  Three bucks."
     "Five."
     "Four."
     "Five.  For Jill and all."
     "You fuck, I hate you.  Five."
     "Now, as I was saying, you round-eyed fuck-"
     I hung up on him again.  He could email me the rest.

***
14:58 7 Nov

     "Life is better like this, I think," I told Stella.  When the time-
panic had faded, anyway.  Which was about halfway between Mrs. Pike's
place and Ricky's school.
     "Yabruguna," she replied to start, and then made a speech.
     "Easier, anyway," I said when she was finished.  "What do you
think?"
     She told me, in detail.  What it all boiled down to, though, was
basically, 'I don't have language skill yet.'

***
15:33 7 Nov

     Cooking for everyone this morning, and Jill's late lunch - well,
I'd forced myself to eat one too; I was still underweight - had driven
me into making something really good tonight for the Parkers.  I hoped.
Well, I was pretty sure it would be good; I just didn't know how they'd
like it.  Mr. Parker in particular was kind of bigoted when it came to
food.  At least he'd eaten the stir-fry, though; and I hadn't been fired
for-
     "Oh sh-" I almost said.
     *Well,* I realized after a few moments' thought, *if I was gonna
get fired, I KNOW someone would've said something by NOW.  I mean, it's
been, what...*  I knew it couldn't actually be a couple of months, but
it kind of felt like it.  *Whatever.  They'd have done it before now if
they were going to, I think.*  Which made me feel somewhat better.  I
LIKED having regular income... and this was an easy job.

***
16:17 7 Nov

     "Oh man... I forgot what shopping at this time of day is like."
And it wasn't even five o'clock yet.
     "So why are you DOING it?" Ricky accused.
     "Because I need some things for what I want to cook tonight," I
told him.
     "So why do _I_ have to come?"
     "Because I'm babysitting YOU as well as Stella, and so you 'get' to
come along any time I leave the house," I told him, scanning for a
parking spot.  "It's part of the 'fun' of being a child.  They do that
so you'll move out, you know," I mentioned as I thought I saw a space.
     "What?"
     "What, you didn't know that?  Half the things they do that p- annoy
you, are to convince you to move out.  In about ten years," I added.
"It adds up."

***
17:39 7 Nov

     "Oh wow," Miz Parker said, her pupils dilating.  Ricky was already
half-crazed from the smells, and half-comatose from taste-testing.  I
hoped he had enough room for the actual meal.
     "So you think you'll like it?" I asked, smiling uncontrollably.
     "What all did you do?"
     "Uh, well, there's the roast, of course - it's still going so don't
take it out yet - and then I did some stuffed bell peppers, and a couple
of different veggies, and..."

***
18:02 7 Nov

     "Valerie?"  I looked up.  "You need to sit more l- gracefully," Miz
Parker told me, before she demonstrated.
     "I...  Like this?"  I tried to copy what she'd just done.  She
nodded, and looked vaguely happier with me.  I tried it again, and she
nodded again.  *Ooookay...*  But if it made her happier... and it wasn't
that hard to do, just to remember.

***
19:10 7 Nov

     "No, really, if I stay here to eat I will get in serious trouble,"
I told them.  "And the smell is starting to drive me crazy."  I'd
written the instructions Miz Parker would need for the rest of the
'cooking' tonight.  There wasn't much.
     "But-"
     "Valerie," Mister Parker interrupted Miz Parker, "you didn't have
to go to all this trouble."
     "Yeah, you say that now," I started, grinning, and had a flash of
prudence and shut my mouth.  "Besides, you can carve chunks off the
roast all weekend which is why I got a big one.  AND it's pretty healthy
too, if you like meat.  Some people," I said to Mister Parker, and
looped a finger around my ear to indicate what I thought of their mental
processes.  He laughed.  "Um, anyway, I wondered if I could borrow a
cooler or something?  I can clean it and bring it back Monday."
     "What for?"

***
20:06 7 Nov

     "Get in!" I insisted.  "I am SO hungry..."
     "Yeah I-  Oh MAN, what were you COOKING?" Jill demanded before she
started sniffing hungrily, her eyes closed.
     "Roast-"
     "Oh crap, this was over at their place right?  The babysitting
thing?"
     "Yeah b-"
     "Damnit!"  She gave me an apologetic look.  "I mean, it just smells
so GOOD..."
     "That's why I made another roast," I grinned.  "And brought it
with."
     "You did not!"
     "I did," I said, feeling VERY smug indeed.

***
20:44 7 Nov

     "Eugene, you did not-"
     "I did!  And with MY money, too, so I didn't rip them off!"  I had
carefully circled what I'd purchased so they wouldn't accidentally pay
for that either.  I hadn't discounted the parts of things I'd used, like
half a clove of garlic, but then any decent human being should have
fresh garlic in their kitchen anyway.  And I'd bought a lot.
     Mom looked mournfully at the roast.
     "Want a few bites?" I asked.

***
21:26 7 Nov

     Mom had gotten this sort of weird look, and stopped eating, so I
managed to gather Jill up, clean up as much as necessary, and then
escape to my room.  With a number of roast beef sandwiches in the cooler
in case civilization collapsed or we got hungry or something.
     I never knew, when Mom started looking weird like that, what was
going to come out; and I didn't feel like risking it tonight.
     There was a note on my door.  I pulled it off before I entered the
code, then remembered I didn't have a door lock any more.
     "Oh, man, I LOVE you Tuck," Jill sighed as she flopped on my bed.
"Can we get married this weekend?"
     "Can't, I gotta...  Oh lord, I got so much to do," I complained.
"Move over, bitch."  She did, and I lowered myself to horizontal on my
bed.
     She put an arm under my neck and moved closer, which felt nice.
     The note was Mike cursing me out and demanding his own trip to the
range sometime soon.  I sighed.

***
21:45 7 Nov

     "Nobody ever cooked for me before," Jill said softly.  "Not for a
date."
     "You have been dating the wrong sorts of guys," I told her, as if
she hadn't figured that one out by now.  "Or girls," I snickered.  She
made a fist and slow-motion-punched me in the stomach, to show me what I
deserved.  "Heh.  Hey, do you cook?"
     "Not real well," she said.  "And not stuff like you come up with. I
still have to do stuff on weekends, and help my mom and stuff. Sometimes
when she's sick or something," she added.  Then she sighed, and asked,
"Can we change the subject?"
     "Sure.  Uh, so you like the garlic on the roast?"
     She grinned at me.

***
22:19 7 Nov

     I guess it was inevitable, or maybe the way to Jill's heart was
through her stomach.  Though it wasn't her heart I was fondling, with
encouragement.  But I liked it.  Selfishly, I guess, I liked more what
she was doing to and with me, than what I was doing to and with her, but
we seemed to be having a meeting of the minds, so to speak.

***
22:34 7 Nov

     Jill hadn't been touching my chest, so I was, until I opened my
eyes to see what she was doing, and saw her sort of staring at me.
"What?"
     "Just... you doing that, looks like a girl in a porno film," she
said with half a grin.  Maybe a third.
     "It feels nice," I said, feeling defensive about it.  "Hey, you
like it too!"
     "_I_ don't have a DICK," she reminded me, which sort of hurt.
     "Sucks to be you, then, doesn- Ow!"  Jill had just clamped her legs
together, and she had strong thigh muscles.  And she'd stopped.  "What,
does it bother you?" I asked as I pulled my hands away.
     "Well..." she said, but she unclamped.
     "I can stop, I guess..."
     "Play with MINE," she demanded.
     "I can't reach..."

***
22:35 7 Nov

     We'd rearranged ourselves so I could fondle Jill's breasts and we
could continue, which I liked.  I wasn't in that much of a hurry, but it
did feel good... and I liked being with her.  Enough, in fact, that I
kept smiling.
     "Are you like ENJOYING this or something?" Jill accused me.
     "No, it's pretty awful," I lied.  "In fact, if you weren't paying
me a lot of money, I'd-"
     Kissing me to shut me up was a lot more pleasant than any
alternative I could think of, I found out.

***
23:27 7 Nov

     It had taken me a long time to orgasm once, but Jill had discovered
that she could masturbate herself with me inside her, which made her
quite happy.  Several times in a row, in fact.
     "What, you don't want to shower?" I asked.
     "I dunno... I kind of like feeling like this."
     "You're weird."
     "If you want one, go ahead," she offered.
     "Uh..."  Now I was kind of caught.  I wanted to have one with her.

***
23:30 7 Nov

     "Yeah, I think I want a shower," I decided.  I could just about
handle one of us being all sweaty and sticky; but not both.
     "Mmmmm," she said, and made a vague attempt to open her eyes, which
ultimately failed.
     I smiled - well, smirked I guess - as I unwove myself from the
tangle and got up, not as carefully as I should've.
     "What?"
     "Ribs," I told her.  "Go back to sleep, sweet."
     "You 'kay?"
     "It's getting better.  I'll shower, that'll help," I half-lied.

***
23:47 7 Nov

     I felt much better, and Jill didn't seem nearly as stinky when I
lay down carefully and snuggled next to her.  She didn't say anything or
turn over, but she fumbled with her hand until she had it on my thigh.
I put an arm around her and stuck my nose against her shoulder.
     *I need to figure out a way to do this every night...*

***
07:00 8 Nov

     "Be-doop!"
     "Wh?"  *Amy...  No, Jill.*  I had my nose stuck against Jill.
*Tits,* I thought.  *Why-  Oh.  Yeah,* I smiled.

***
07:01 8 Nov

     "Be-doop!"
     "Wh?"

***
07:03 8 Nov

     "'Cause I gotta make up the nail practice shit," I complained.
"Damnit!"
     "Awwww, fuuuck," Jill whined as she started crawling out of bed.

***
07:20 8 Nov

     "No, you can go back to sleep if you want," I told Jill, forced by
some damned thing Mike or my parents had implanted in me.  I wanted her
to hurt like I was hurting at the moment, at the agony of having to get
up on a Saturday and go in and do this bullshit.  But it wasn't fair,
and I couldn't quite override that.  "You can call Mike after eight, or
something..."
     "You sure?"  She looked more awake than I felt, and I'd had a
shower.
     "Yeah...  Take a shower if you want- but DON'T steal my clothes
today, okay?"
     She grinned at me, and I turned away.  "Wait," she said, and I
stopped, and then as I turned around she wrapped her arms around me and
kissed me.

***
07:22 8 Nov

     "DAMNIT!  I gotta go!" I moaned.
     "Yeah, don't be late... see ya later, right?"  I nodded.  "So get!"
     I got.  But I didn't want to.

***
07:56 8 Nov

     "Nnnnngh, shit," I groaned as I pulled out the tank rig and slid a
strap over my left shoulder.  I didn't need any books or anything, since
this was going to be all practice, but I had to get the cart anyway.

***
08:01 8 Nov

     There were two other girls I didn't remember their names, and Mrs.
Singley, and NOBODY looked happy to be here.  I thought about mentioning
a conspiracy to defraud the licensing agency, but decided not to; Mrs.
Singley at least was old enough she ought to know what getting up and
coming in on Saturday was like, and she'd had plenty of chances to
mention something of the sort herself.
     I hated her, like I hated most everything at the moment.  I wanted
to go back to bed, with or without Jill in it - though 'with' was
definitely preferable - and sleep for the next, oh, month.  *Think I
WOULD need Jill for that,* I realized.  *Damnit.*  And she had to work
today, too.  "Damnit!"
     Which got me looks, which suggested I'd said something out loud.  I
made sure my mouth was clamped shut this time.  *DAMNIT!*

***
08:39 8 Nov

     "Can I have one of those?" one of the girls - the taller one, about
my height but too thin - asked.  "I'll give you fifty cents."
     "One of-  Oh."  She was casting covetous eyes at my twelve-pack of
Coke.  "Uh... It only cost me a quarter," I told her as I dug one out.
She pulled a quarter out of some recess in her purse and we traded.  "I
got smart moments before I left and snagged it out of the refrigerator."
And left three dollars on the counter, which would no doubt be the
smartest three dollars I could spend all weekend.
     "Good idea," she agreed as she popped it open with the practiced
one-hand move of the serious addict and drank deeply of the goodness.
     Which seemed like a good idea to me, so I did the same thing,
except not as gracefully as she'd done it.  It bit, as Coke does, but
that couldn't hurt.  Well, sort of.
     "I wish I'd done that," she continued, sounding like she had a sore
throat, before she cleared it.  "You're Tuck right?"

***
09:18 8 Nov

     Nicole had bought another two Cokes, and Jennie - with an 'ie', I'd
been informed - had bought one, and the energy levels were picking up in
here.  I don't know what Mrs. Singley was drinking but it seemed to have
the same effect.
     I had to admit, this was getting more pleasant than cleaning up the
gym after a dance, which was the last time I'd been here on a Saturday.
Not as good as the computer work I'd done, now that I thought about it;
but a lot better than cleaning vomit out of the bathrooms.  I hoped it
had been vomit.
     *I don't want to think about that,* I decided.
     "What do you think?" Jennie asked, and I couldn't quite tell if she
was being belligerent or not.  Her nail, however, was in a truly odd
shade of green.  We had discovered some off brands and colors to work
with.  Maybe 'screw around with' was a better term.
     "I-  That would look really good on a redhead," I realized.  Nicole
snickered at me.  "What?  It would!  Do something like a pale green, uh,
dress or something-"
     "So I should do mine in denim blue?" Nicole smirked, referring to
her jeans.
     "Yeah!" I challenged her.

***
10:49 8 Nov

     I was surprised to find Kelly, my 'little sister', to be a topic of
conversation.  But they probably hadn't known she was my little sister.
Until I mentioned it.
     "How did sh-"
     "You're a GUY!" Jennie observed.
     "Yeah, I have noticed that occasionally," I smirked; she pouted at
me instead of swinging at me like most of the girls I knew would've,
which left me feeling a little dumb as my parry didn't work.
     "Quit it," Nicole ordered Jennie.  "You mean like, for real?  They
did it-"
     "Couple of the cheerleaders decided apparently that it would be
funny to pair us up, since she's kind of butch looking, an-"
     "Yeah, when I heard about her going lesbo, I was like, 'What?  But
that's a guy right?'" Jennie said before laughing.
     "Yeah well I almost followed her into the girls' bathroom at lunch,
is when _I_ found out," I said, which immediately caused a number of
nail polish errors.  At least nobody dropped a bottle or knocked one
over.

***
11:26 8 Nov

     "So, like..."
     "Ask already!"  She'd been working up to it, supposedly, for a very
long time already, and I was tired of waiting.
     "A-are you gay?"
     I sighed.  *Boneheads.*  I finally answered, "If you're looking for
fashion advice, I can direct you to some good-"  I just started speaking
louder when they started protesting.  "-people; if you're looking to
pimp a male friend or relative of yours, they can't afford my rates,"
which I decided on the spot would be a few orders of magnitude above my
computer repair or babysitting rates.  "If you want..."  I couldn't
shout any louder so I gave up.
     Eventually they stopped, and Nicole said, "So you're gay."
     I realized something then.  "Wait... let ME ask YOU something.  Is
there ANYthing I could do, right now or like next week, that would
convince you that I WASN'T gay?"  I didn't think there was, and by the
looks they gave each other and me, they couldn't either.  "So, I'm like
gay by popular VOTE?"
     Nicole got it and snorted before starting to laugh.
     "Well you are, aren't you?" Jennie pressed.

***
11:27 8 Nov

     "I vote that Jennie's a lesbian now," I said, when I'd stopped
laughing enough to talk.
     Nicole agreed, "Oh, uh, yeah, um-um-um-"
     "'I second the motion'," I told her, and she repeated it.  "So, to
the vote!  In favor?"  I raised my hand and Nicole raised her arm up way
high.
     "No WAIT you CAN'T!"
     "Opposed?  Abstaining?  Jennie, I've got some news for you..."  And
then I couldn't keep a straight face any more, and I committed some nail
polish errors.

***
11:29 8 Nov

     "I CAN'T!  I haven't asked the person I'm dating right now, if they
want to make it public or not.  So I can't say anything at all."
     "Oh come on-"
     "So who are YOU dating?" I asked, hoping to turn the tables.
     "Oh, she's got to date girls now though right?" Nicole brought up.
     "No I DON'T!" Jennie squealed, sounding like Stella.  She even made
my eyes water.  Apparently it either didn't bother Nicole or she liked
it, because she just laughed some more.
     "Girls!"  If Mrs. Singley was hoping THAT would quiet things, she
blew it badly.

***
12:02 8 Nov

     "You have a car?"  Apparently me pulling the key out had tipped
them off.
     "Yeah?" I admitted before I could stop myself.  Besides, it was out
there in the parking lot, and I was going to sit in it shortly.  And I
was hungry, and I hadn't had time to make a lunch for myself.
     The two of them emitted at the same time, "Can you give us a ride?"
and, "You're going somewhere for lunch, right?"
     I sighed, which was a mistake, because the pleading started.

***


There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the
proportion. -- Sir Francis Bacon


Distribution:
No part of this work may be distributed as an original work by another
person or group.
Permission is given to redistribute this by electronic means, as long as
the entirety of the work (from the BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE header to
the END PGP SIGNATURE footer) is distributed, and credit is given to the
original author, me.  And no fee may be charged.
Archiving is permitted provided no fee is charged for access.

All rights reserved.


+ @>--,--'-----   Ellen Hayes   o===[--------      __      vicki .sig  +
                  -=[1990]=-                       \/      virus 13.4
+      http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes     PGP key: EFC9 5D55 (1996) +



-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2

iQCVAwUBRloZVHYDebnvyV1VAQEm4AQAvMgTvo33+arBV3o/RTOPs0GJ6bkVELZP
Lbui9ACAbmL0vDqb5aiZsSbLMhBNjsNqG4DwMNenEQuBAz9k2i+DnkijsIIHdYFj
UINvO5SXvm34EdnDlKNsfuSJ9EXvqeLSNndcJTk/mxbp0KjQ0sizTAXYZwG4Z+un
7fIZw6dSvKk=
=B6h7
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----