Chapter 14
Preparations -- and the Astronomy Club Meeting Begins

Having nothing better to do for the first time in several days, Nate wandered home -- and ran into his mother on arrival. Tabitha gave him a look and grunted, "Wonderpussy dump you, did she? Tol' ya!"

"Nope. She's havin' dinner with her Daddy. Been on the schedule since Monday," Nate replied.

"Well, la de da!" Tabitha retorted derisively. "You tell her 'bout me?"

"Yeh."

"Sure ya did!"

"I did. Didn't matter."

Nate's matter-of-fact attitude penetrated his mother's disbelief. "So, when am I gonna see Wonderpussy?"

"When you wanta?"

Tabitha thought about it. Tonight was Thursday, which was a pickup day for the weekend. Friday and Saturday nights WERE the weekend, and on Sunday, johns that failed to catch an amateur on Friday and Saturday were hunting out of desperation. Between business, partying, and a little sleep... "Monday. It can wait 'til Monday. IF you can cough her up!"

"Okay."

"After school. Won't last long, I'm sure." She eyed him, clearly still unconvinced. "If you lied, her Daddy'll fix your wagon wit' her tonight, Boy!"

"I ain't stupid!"

"Awright. I'm goin' ta work. There's a little money in the jar -- get some groceries." Tabitha hitched at her push-up bra, which managed to make her saggy, wasted tits presentable.

Nate was surprised; if Mama was talking about groceries, the rent was paid! "You pay the rent?"

"Yeh."

"Want me to buy any REAL food?" Nate rasped.

"Not unless you gonna cook it." One of Tabitha's failures was her inability to do anything resembling cooking. The Adams subsisted on pre-packaged convenience foods when at home. Nate just nodded. Tabitha stalked out, leaving him to examine the mess. Best start in the bathroom...

Twenty minutes later, there was a heavy hammering at the door. Nate shucked his rubber gloves and threw it open to reveal George, the landlord, a huge shambling black with a cigar. "Since ya'll are rich an' famous, why don't you give me THIS month's rent!"

"Don't gimme that shit; Mama paid you already!" Nate growled. He could afford it; he'd long since figured out how to take out the big stupid bastard if he had to.

"That was last month's," George argued.

"No... I paid you for last month -- last month! Go lookit your books an' git outta my face!"

"Somethin' fucking wrong..."

"Yeh. You're caught the fuck up! THAT's what's wrong! We actually PAID for this fleabag!" Nate hadn't practiced righteous wrath in days, and it felt kinda good; Nora was makin' him mild-mannered. But it was worth it... Nate ended the conversation by turning back to collect his gloves, swatting the door so it closed in George's face in the process. George went away grumbling, chewing his stink-weed.

"Honey, are you all right?" Beth Ann Nevins tapped on her daughter's door.

Darla Jean's eyes popped and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Dammit! She'd been making noises again! And she was SOOOO close... She snatched her hand away from her burning clit and got it back above the covers, snapping the cap on the liquid K-Y she'd been using to stretch her natural lubricant for what was turning out to be a marathon masturbation session and tossing it in her open night table drawer. "I'm fine, Mother!"

Beth Ann frowned. She KNEW she'd heard her daughter whimper. "Honey, are you sure?" The forms had been obeyed; she could open the door... Darla Jean was lying in bed, looking a little flushed. "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Darla Jean rolled her eyes. 'Like what? Get out of here, so I can finish getting off?' "No, Mother, everything's fine. I just..." Darla Jean looked around. She'd been GOING to say 'sneezed', but her mother might decide she was getting a cold and retract her permission for tomorrow night! "...banged my arm on the damned drawer!"

"Don't curse, Dear." Beth Ann stood there a moment. They'd had these little confrontations before, and Darla Jean refused to open up and tell her what was bothering her. Well, maybe when she slept over with Mary Nally, the girls would talk... "All right..." She turned to leave. "If you're sure..."

'Go, Mother, go!' "I'm sure."

Beth Ann let herself out, closing the door quietly. Why Darla Jean wouldn't tell her what was bothering her was beyond understanding...

Darla Jean puffed out a sigh. If Mother ever figured out she was grunting and whimpering her way to orgasm rather than crying, she'd FREAK! Maybe if she chewed a pillow...

Ironically, if the pair of them could have gotten past the revelations, Beth Ann would have sympathized. Andre, her husband, was a wonderful man, and a better than average lover, in Beth Ann's opinion, but he wasn't keeping up... Beth Ann was just hitting her peak, but Andre had peaked some time ago -- if it weren't for his staying power lasting longer than his ability to have multiple orgasms, Beth Ann might not have been able to control the urges that rushed upon her periodically. As it was, she'd slipped a couple of times...

Darla Jean decided not to attempt to continue; Mother was on the alert, and fear had largely replaced desire as her primary emotion. Besides, she'd gotten four cums already -- fairly quickly, too! The fantasies that anticipation of tomorrow night's activities had generated had her going like a house afire! How she was going to keep her cool tomorrow night was beyond her understanding, even though she KNEW she'd manage to lock up like a statue if anything were to really happen. Still, it was a blast to fantasize... She'd bury both hands in Randall's kinky hair and drag him to her itchy crotch and let him lick and suck and work her clit with his tongue... About that time, she realized that she was at it again, her right hand toying with her nether lips, rolling her clit between two wet fingers while her left tugged a nipple. The idea of a boy finally touching her was so seductive that she just couldn't resist... This time, a pillow corner muffled her moans as she stiffened and shook her way through another pulsing roller coaster of an orgasm, dampening her sheets with sweat and vaginal fluids. It took three MORE wild cums before, exhausted and sated, she drifted off to sleep.

Mary Nally spent the evening planning and laying in supplies for Friday night. If they managed to keep things fairly quiet, Mom wouldn't have any reason to come busting in like she had last Sunday morning. The only reason she'd done it was because she'd expected to find Mary in a blue funk from the dance... This weekend, all things being equal, Mom would leave her alone, particularly on Saturday morning, when she habitually slept in. The boys would be up and out before Mom had any idea she was awake... Mary hit the cupboards in the kitchen for party goodies, under the guise of restocking her kitchenette. Beer -- well, she'd have to hope Stick didn't drink her whole supply of the good stuff...

Stick was on his second night of relative boredom, while Teddy was recovering from the excesses of the previous evening. Both boys were looking forward to Friday night... If Stick had realized that both Nate and Draper were on the loose, he might have planned something, but communications between the boys were down; in the past, they'd laid their plans right after school, but taking girls home screwed THAT up!

Friday morning dawned kind of iffy; windy, with low clouds scudding quickly along. The forecast called for a thirty percent chance of showers, which might cause issues for the planned observation -- but no one involved expected much, anyway, with the possible exception of Darla Jean. When Teddy's mother brought it up, Teddy responded, "Worst case, we'll all hang out at Jimmy Hightower's pool house." Given that she knew that she tended to be over-protective of her only son, Teddy's mother left it at that; a night with the boys was a night with the boys, inside or out. Darla Jean had no such worries, officially; a trip to Mary's wasn't weather-dependent. If the observation was cancelled, though, she might be at loose ends. THAT would be par for the course...

Randall was phlegmatic when braced with the issue. "Jimmy has this remote-control setup that runs down the hill to his pool house, and the scope can be computer controlled, if things get too cold or whatever. Worst case, we can go over the latest Saturn data from JPL -- we can get that from the net." That settled THAT, particularly when Jimmy nodded confirmation while playing with a rook. Jimmy and Randall were playing chess, and Randall was two pieces ahead. Amy was there, looking unGodly happy, it seemed to Darla Jean, rubbing Jimmy's back while gabbing away at FrankenThelma, who was ALSO looking surprisingly mellow with her narrow frame parked on the lap of Danny the Wop. What a Mutt and Jeff pair THEY made! But Danny was rubbing on her in that invasive way that broadcast 'We're having sex', and Thelma seemed to be soaking it up instead of hissing and scratching, so... Darla Jean couldn't fathom how FrankenThelma had managed to attract ANY man; she was skinny as a stick figure, had virtually NO tits, a droopy nose that made her look like the Wicked Witch of the West, and a nasty temper to top it all off. That SHE had a man, and Darla Jean didn't was as close to an indictment of reality for its injustice as anyone was likely to get... "We have setup to do before dark, so, about six?" Randall queried.

"Okay." Nothing else apparently needed saying, so Darla Jean wandered off. The guys seemed to be including her, after a fashion, so maybe this wasn't just a joke at her expense...

Jimmy waited until she'd disappeared and he'd moved the rook to comment, "Nice. Now, we'll have to set up the remotes, of course..." Jimmy and Amy were in on things, to be sure; Amy was all for seeing Darla Jean get some dick, as long as it wasn't Jimmy's. And if torrid necking with Jimmy would make Darla Jean brave, well, that was just another reason to do it, the first being the obvious benefit of enjoying Jimmy's attentions.

Amy turned to Thelma, "Are you going up there?"

Danny answered for the pair, "Naw, looking at tiny white lights gets boring, quick. We're gonna stay down the hill in the pool house with the walkie-talkies. If ya'll need help with the other thing, I'll turn it on so you can catch Thel's scream when she cums..."

"Danny!" Thelma squealed in outrage, and tried to get in a swat, but it was like an ant attacking an elephant. Danny just grinned and collected her hands, then attacked her neck with his lips; very quickly, Thelma moved on to a contented purr.

The day went fast. Everybody at school was looking toward the weekend, even the teachers, so there was a full-court press to get things done and over with. At lunch, Nora brought Mary up to date on the weird happenings at her father's house and his grand plan to reunite the family. "Shit! For real? What's your Mom gonna say?"

"She'll freak, undoubtedly. I would, if I was her. But Daddy gets his way, almost all the time, and he's pretty firm about this. I'm not too worried for me; Daddy and I appear to have an understanding that doesn't involve sex. But Mom's in for a helluva couple of weeks, I think, before she caves and does what Daddy tells her to do -- and she will..."

"So you'll be moving?"

"Up to the north end. It won't affect school, and Daddy says it won't affect Nate; for the record, I believe him. I think he's done making us pinch pennies, too -- there could be substantial bribes in the deal, if you know what I mean..." Nora winked and Mary laughed.

"If your Daddy hears THAT, it might backfire!"

"Or it might put an idea in his head..." There was another shared titter.

After school, Nate and Nora rushed to Nora's, burned their way through homework, and headed off to a movie; there was a loose plan to meet Tenisha and Draper Travis at the theater, if possible. Nate had relayed his mother's demand for an audience, and Nora had shrugged, and said, "Fine. You've survived this long -- she won't kill me."

No sooner were they out the door than Armand called. After the preliminaries, Armand kicked things off with, "Have you thoroughly debriefed our daughter on her visit yet?"

"Yes. I'm amazed -- it's as awful there as I'd imagined," Sharon replied.

Armand chuckled. "My point about keeping her away until now is made, then. However, she handled it VERY well, and now that you're braced for it, I believe you can visit me here, too. Why don't you come to lunch tomorrow? Say, twelve? I'll have you retrieved by Jorge."

"Why? We just..."

"...Had sex? That's irrelevant. Well, not quite, perhaps, but it would seem to operate in your favor. We need to discuss our daughter's future."

"All right," Sharon agreed reluctantly. She smelled a trap, but then, Armand's presence was ALWAYS a trap. What did she have to lose? All she had left was her sanity and her life; Armand had been chipping away at the former for decades, but seemed uninterested in the latter...

"Jorge will be along at eleven-thirty." Click.

"Always the last word..." Sharon muttered to herself.

The Knob was cool and breezy, damp leftovers from the midday rain shower adding a bite to the wind. Darla Jean arrived with her backpack, carrying a sleeping bag, to discover the boys tinkering with the telescope and various attached electronics, including a camera pass-thru. Randall looked up, "We're getting GPS data for the drive motors. Why don't you give your stuff to Amy to stow in the cave?" Darla Jean nodded and circled to the cave entrance. It looked like she was going to have to get on with forgiving Amy; maybe she'd done her a favor, anyway. "Hi, Amy. Where's Mary?"

"She and Teddy couldn't make it," Amy replied, hiding a smile with some difficulty. "She said don't worry, you're still covered. She had to stay home for something." 'Two dicks!' went through Amy's mind. Jealousy didn't go through her mind -- neither black boys nor multiple sex partners were her gig, although the latter might be vaguely interesting... She just considered the whole thing to be racy and strange.

Darla Jean wondered for a moment why Amy seemed preoccupied before Randall yelled, "You done? I could use a hand with the wireless controller!"

Darla Jean nodded at Amy and turned back to the boys; obviously, that comment was meant for her, since Amy was merely decorative, here... "Coming!"

Thirty minutes later, Randall was in full lecture mode: "The CCD and its digital zoom actually offers us a better resolution than through the eyepiece. Watch the screen!" He fiddled with the scope and the laptop screen lit with a surprisingly robust image of a nebula. "This is a little tiny thing in the eyepiece; we'd have to have three times the scope to get this kind of detail directly. Come here and take a look." It was early, yet. They were looking at objects to the northeast because the sun was still blanking the western sky, despite the fact it had set a bit ago. Jimmy was laying out items like a red-lens flashlight, watching the pair (inadequately) surreptitiously.

Darla Jean got up and crossed to the scope. "Try not to touch it," Randall admonished, "we're inadequately stable. Someday, we'll put in a pedestal on a concrete mount..." Darla Jean bent over the eyepiece and Randall got on with the point of the exercise, "Let me hold your hair..."

Darla Jean froze while Randall collected every strand with clumsy fingers. Was this... innocent? For a few moments, even after he was done, a double supernova in the eyepiece would have gone unnoticed. This wasn't much, but it had to be the closest a boy had ever come to intimacy. Finally, she managed to get in focus, mentally, "Uh, yeah, I see..." It WAS pretty tiny.

"Of course, we STILL have to make raw adjustments at the scope. There is an automated tracking system built in, but it is... imprecise." Randall wasn't certain how he managed to say anything intelligent with a handful of that silky stuff to play with...

"I see..." Should she move? Maybe... Darla Jean stepped back into Randall before the thought was complete. Randall let go of her hair to catch her. "Oops! Sorry!"

"No problem..." Randall released her immediately, as protocol dictated, then started shaking like a leaf. Damn! Settle down, Man! Don't hyperventilate! He'd had his hands... Well, one around her waist, and the other on a shoulder, but still...

Darla Jean was working through HER analysis of the action, moving slowly from her release point. Randall had been... perfunctory... with his answer to her insincere apology, but her ass had taken the imprint of an iron bar along the crack during the moment they'd been in contact. So, what was real? What HE said, or what his COCK said? Darla Jean turned a glance upon Randall to find him looking back with a strange expression, one he hid quickly by turning away in obvious embarrassment. Beyond him, Jimmy was looking on with a positively evil grin on his face. "I-I'm going to check on things in the cave," Darla Jean stuttered. "You guys need anything?"

Randall wasn't really capable of rational thought, yet, so he merely shook his head, rather than adding to the load on his mental processes. Jimmy murmured, "A Coke, maybe? In the cooler..."

Darla Jean nodded and ducked down the slope, stopping just over the peak and looking back. Jimmy, grinning wolfishly, was harrassing Randall. Darla Jean couldn't make out the whispered comments, but Randall was obviously disconcerted. Jimmy could be saying ANYTHING, but he was probably putting his spin on recent events... Darla Jean ducked through the tarp flap, wondering what that slant was.

Amy had turned on an electric lantern and was reading by its light. Darla Jean went to the cooler and collected a Coke. Amy murmured, "Next time, let me know, and I'll turn on the red light so you don't lose your night vision."

Darla Jean turned to Amy. "Amy, why are you here?"

Amy shrugged. "Because Jimmy is."

"Why am I here?"

Amy paused -- a dead giveaway. But she recovered somewhat, "Because you're a member of the Club? You're too smart for it to be JUST because of Randall, although that might be reason enough..."

Darla Jean's stomach fluttered. "What are you saying?"

Amy just looked at her for a moment, then: "Thelma's my best friend. I've nursed her through I don't know HOW many unhappy nights."

"This isn't about Jimmy, is it?"

"Thelma said you were clear about that when you spoke to her. If it's true, that pretty much leaves Randall..." Amy eyed her sidelong.

"Mary told me that they were both..."

"Mary! I should have guessed!" Amy tittered. "Well, I'd be willing to bet Mary doesn't know this first hand, so HER source..."

"Teddy!"

"Exactly. Teddy WOULD know. Thelma didn't lie to you, so if Teddy didn't lie to Mary, then Randall's..." Amy measured out several inches between her palms. She eyed Darla Jean sardonically, "Is that good news?" Darla Jean blushed, but didn't respond. Amy examined her manicure. "You can handle this one of three ways: You can be a member of the Astronomy Club. You can hunt Randall. Or you can do both."

"I-I..."

"If you give him a sign," Amy continued, still pretending her manicure was important, "Randall will hunt YOU!"

"I've got to get back!" Darla Jean blurted, and ducked back outside the flap.

Up above, Jimmy had ridden Randall hard. "So, Man, is she bony? How's the hair? She WANTS you, Man -- that clumsy thing was an invite!"

Randall, who was laboring under a massive dose of fear and too many inputs, held up his hands to fend off his friend's attacks. "I-I dunno, Man. She didn't exactly hang around..."

"Hey, she has to cover HER ass, too! You two are both so busy pretending you're not chasing each other, nobody can tell the difference! You gotta tip your hand, Man! Take the shot! If she runs, it's a waste of time, but if she doesn't..."

"Well, maybe." Randall's stomach was a mess; was it empty, or full of some fluttering thing? "I dunno if I can just..."

"Well, if you can't do something big, you can always do a bunch of small stuff... She'll catch on -- Darla Jean's no idiot." Jimmy looked up to see the subject of conversation round the corner. "Show time!"

Darla Jean caught THAT, too, but she ignored it; it was reasonable to assume that the boys were just critiquing the performance of their newest member -- probably complete with sexist comments. After all, this had been a males-only organization until this evening... She handed Jimmy his Coke and stepped over to the laptop. "How do you control the zoom on the CCD?"

"From the app," Randall stepped over and squatted on her right, reaching in and manipulating the touchpad to open menus on the screen. "The CCD is capable of about a 10x digital zoom, but things get grainy above about seven..."

"Oh, okay," Darla Jean leaned in and took over the keyboard, trying different things, while Randall found himself gazing at the strip of bare skin on her lower back between her short blouse and her jeans. It was... nice. Darla Jean didn't have a belly to speak of, and wasn't carrying saddlebags on her hips, but she wasn't positively bony, either. Was this an opportunity?

Well, maybe it was, and maybe it wasn't. Darla Jean wasn't going to appreciate his sweaty palm on her bare back, but maybe if he worked above, he could kill two birds with one stone; he could get them both used to him touching her AND he could dry the hand a bit... He leaned in, mock-casually placing his hand on her back above the strip of flesh while taking over the touchpad, "You can select areas to zoom without moving the scope, as long as they're decently inside the frame..." He demonstrated, zooming on a star in the upper left corner of the frame.

"Uh huh." Darla managed a response, but her eyes were glassy, not that Randall could see them while he pretended nonchalance and concentration on the screen. Was this a move? What exactly did this signify?

Jimmy, who had been looking on with some amusement, decided that Randall was going to run out of excuses in a second, so he came around. "Hey, Guys, can I see?"

"Uh, sure!" Randall backed off. Darla Jean split to the left, and the pair squatted, looking at each other over Jimmy's back. Neither of them was allowing anything resembling an expression to cross their features.

Jimmy murmured, "So, have we captured a shot?"

"Uhhh, no," Randall admitted. "We're still live. I thought we'd let the ambient light level settle down a bit more."

"Okay." Jimmy looked around. "About ten minutes, I think. I'll go check on Amy. You guys get the shot and give me a call when you're ready to set up for the next sighting." He rose and strode off, hiding his grin.

"Okay," Randall said to his retreating back. Turning to Darla Jean, he asked, "So, you want to fool around while we wait? With the interface, I mean..." Jeezus! What the FUCK was he thinking?

Darla Jean snickered. Gee, THAT was subtle...

Randall couldn't let it go -- he'd likely fucked up the entire evening! "That, uh, didn't come out right..."

"Well, if I was Jimmy, the meaning would have been different. Maybe I should be flattered that you think of me as one of the guys..."

"Uhhhh, something like that..." Shit! He didn't want to back off THAT far! "I, uh, DO know the difference..."

"Oh?" Darla Jean's eyes teased him for a moment before she shifted back in front of the laptop.

Randall wanted to hit something -- HARD! If there was a way to fuck up that conversation, he'd managed to find it! What the Hell was he thinking? WAS he thinking? And what was SHE thinking?

Darla Jean was scrolling the menu bar of the CCD capture program idly while she tried to figure out just what had happened. HAD Randall committed a Freudian slip? If he hadn't, why was he back and forth on the recovery? She'd given him an out, and he'd taken it -- then... He'd like, backpedaled AGAIN -- but she'd gotten stupid and shoved it down his throat -- THAT was sheer genius... She wanted to slap her forehead. Sure, that's it, draw him out and stick a pin in him! Really fucking smart... Better get him in here... "How are we going to capture a picture?"

Randall composed himself. Once more into the breach... Maybe Jimmy was right; small stuff, often. Put the hand back... He waddled up and replaced his hand gently while leaning down next to her. "See the Capture menu? There are a bunch of options..." Waitaminnit! She wasn't THAT stupid! Not even close...

"Oh, yeah, I saw that. But the options seemed confusing..." Next time, she was going to have to be a little smarter about that; a sidelong glance at Randall had caught HIM giving HER one; the 'stupid girl' ploy wouldn't work with the current audience... Well, it got her the hand again... That hand seemed like it was about a hundred forty degrees, where it touched her -- she felt the heat right through her shirt...

The two pretended to ignore recent events while discussing frequency-range filtering, image inversion, and other options.

Jimmy rattled the flap. "Amy?"

Amy switched the lantern off and turned on a red bulls-eye lamp, oriented on the ceiling. This was all new -- she hoped she got it right. "Okay." Jimmy came through the flap and sank down beside her. "How's it going?"

Jimmy sighed. "It's taken less than a week for me to forget how hard it all is..." He collected her hand. "They're scared to death, both of 'em."

"It takes guts to run the risks..." Amy ventured.

"Good thing you had 'em," Jimmy chuckled ruefully. "God knows, I'd have never managed..." He drew her in for a kiss. A week ago, the action would have been unthinkable; now, it was just joyous. If you could call THAT 'just'...

"We were lucky, Honey. We had Dina to jumpstart us..."

"Well, I think she's in on THIS, too, but at a great distance..." Jimmy shrugged. "Astronomy isn't the draw it used to be -- I wonder why?"

Amy tittered. "I'm not here to replace your other interests, Honey. I'm here to take away the problems that got in their way..." It was sweet that he was preoccupied with her, but she didn't want him paralyzed.

"Well, you do that," Jimmy replied. "Frankly, nothing we're doing tonight is urgent; we've done all of these images before. This is for Darla Jean's benefit."

"Well, I'm sure she'll appreciate it," Amy murmured. "We'll just keep an eye on things and turn up the heat if they need it. That's something I'm MORE than happy to do..." The pair got on to serious necking. Jimmy seemed to have more arms than an octopus; how DID he get her bra unsnapped? But his hands cradling her fat titties were VERY welcome, anyway, so who cared? Things started getting seriously urgent; Amy was having trouble breathing in her excitement and her hand was burning from the heat of Jimmy's rigid erection... "Jimmy? Don't you think we ought to save this until we have witnesses?"

Shit. "I guess..." Randall better be REAL grateful for this... "Maybe I better go back up."

"Okay, Honey." Amy drew him down and kissed him, an effort full of promise. Whatever happened between Randall and Darla Jean, Jimmy was going to get HIS ashes hauled tonight! Jimmy ducked out and Amy took a moment to flip off her sweater and pull off her bra before replacing it. There! Jimmy would be pleased, and it might stimulate some action elsewhere...

Randall and Darla Jean were just finishing up a low frequency capture as Jimmy hove into sight, looking vaguely mussed. "Get lost?" Randall teased gently. He hadn't had a whole lot of opportunity to harass Jimmy yet, and it was pleasant, putting the shoe on the other foot. Darla Jean turned too, her wide mouth grinning, her eyes alight.

Jimmy noticed that Randall had his hand on Darla Jean's back again, and she was carefully not dislodging it, limiting her turn to just her head so her trunk wouldn't shift. He wanted to laugh -- the idiots! Instead, he smiled ruefully, "A bit, I guess. Ready?"

"Yeah." Randall reluctantly backed off. "Why don't you get the coordinates for the next object, and I'll show Darla Jean how to operate the scope?"

"Okay." Jimmy picked up the list -- an old one the boys had long since gotten really good pictures from -- and waited while Randall described the controller and its features. When Randall glanced up, he started reeling off figures for the next nebula, component by component, waiting between while Randall talked Darla Jean through the practical exercise. Jimmy watched them working, thinking that maybe they SHOULDN'T have run her off with squirt guns that night when they were thirteen. But she'd have put a damper on other pursuits, and who knew even now if she was going to step up to the plate and be a girl...

It was time for fine adjustments, and Randall again took charge of Darla Jean's hair as she bent over the eyepiece. This time, she didn't let it stop her from doing her job -- not that she ignored it. Working the controller to control an inverted image took some concentration, but finally, she announced, "Got it!"

Jimmy eyed the screen; yeah, it was a good shot. "Yeah, looks fine!"

Darla Jean rose from the eyepiece, but Randall wasn't giving up the hair just yet. She turned a look of innocent inquiry on him, and he woke up and stepped back, not really saying anything one way or another -- Randall was thinking that his mouth had gotten him into enough trouble. He just toughed it out as she passed him, eyeing him sidelong on her way to the laptop.

Jimmy got up and backed off, so Darla Jean could see the results of her efforts. They were pretty good; the small nebula was centered and capable of the full 10x zoom, if they wanted it. She deliberately knelt off-side to the laptop, as she'd done before, and Randall moved in beside her, returning his hand to the usual place on her back. A damp breeze blew up from behind, and Darla Jean shivered. "Where's your jacket?" Randall asked, concerned. "I told you..."

"It's in the cave," Darla Jean interrupted. "I'll get it in a bit."

Randall looked exasperated and repositioned Jimmy with a look and a jerk of his head, then he scuttled behind Darla Jean to cut off the wind. The hand on her back never lost contact; instead, it slid around her left side while he opened his windbreaker with his right and closed up behind her, blocking the wind. When his chest was in contact with her back and he leaned over her right shoulder, he met her look of surprise with a grunt of, "You're too delicate to be doing such a lousy job of taking care of yourself. I'm not gonna have your mom on my ass because you caught a cold up here. Go ahead, set up the full-spectrum shot." He nudged her to get her going.

Darla Jean frankly did NOT know what to make of this; it could have been Randall's idea of an approach, but it didn't feel like sex was involved -- or even serious intimacy! That DESPITE the fact that his left hand had snaked around her bare midriff! Whatever it was, though, Darla Jean wasn't going to fight it -- Randall had his arm around her and was snuggled up tight... And he was pushing her to work, to think about what she was doing...

Randall couldn't believe himself! It was SO weird! He couldn't touch her for sex, but when the silly twit displayed the intention to catch a chill for no good reason, he was all over her! Well, not ALL over... his position carefully held his hard-on AWAY from her ass... He pushed her through the shots -- high frequency, low frequency, broad spectrum, long exposure Ten or twelve minutes later, he shuffled back and grunted, "Now go get your jacket. We'll wait on you."

Darla Jean rose, gave Randall another startled look and took off -- but she stopped at a sharp sound as she rounded the corner. Sneaking back, she peered around at the boys to see what was up...

"What the Hell are YOU doing?" Randall grunted truculently.

"I'm applauding the Master! That was some stunt you pulled -- it took real guts!" Jimmy shook his head in admiration.

"Yeah, I'm a real genius!" Randall groused, "That's the closest I'll be to her all night, and I just put an end to it! Besides, it was all about the silly thing shivering in that little teeny blouse... I just couldn't sit by and let her DO that!"

"She was fine with it, Man..."

"Well, I wasn't. Of course, now I'll have to put up with her coat, but..."

"Dude, you're a trip!"

Darla Jean backed quietly away from her vantage point. So it WASN'T a grope -- even though Randall WANTED to grope... She hurried down slope and rattled the tarp. "Amy!"

"One second!" Amy's muffled voice returned. "Okay."

Darla Jean entered the red-lit cavern. "I need my jacket."

Amy nodded. She was wearing a sweater, and was out of the wind, but would have preferred the Coleman lantern to the electric one she was using due to the heat it added to the light. Later, no doubt, when they'd had their fill of looking through the scope... She envied Thelma, who was down the hill at the Pool House, cuddled up to Danny. No chill in the air THERE... "How's it going?"

"Okay." Darla Jean shrugged into her jean jacket. "How much is this about Randall putting the moves on me?"

Amy rolled with the punch, blinking. "Well, it wouldn't hurt if he managed to accomplish something. He IS a boy, after all, despite being a geek..."

"That's not an issue..."

"Well, that makes you special, then -- until last week, it would have been an issue with ME!"

"Jeezus, Amy! Is this some kind of game?"

"Well, yeah. A real old one. But you can make up your own rules, and Randall will abide by them. Look, Honey, you need to make up your mind -- do you want Randall, or don't you? This is just like anywhere else and any other time -- you can walk, or you can be one of the boys, or you can be more TO one of the boys. Take your pick. This isn't a trap -- it's an opportunity, like a zillion others. You can take advantage of it -- or not."

Darla Jean shrugged, exasperated, and passed back through the tarp. Amy wasn't being much help; basically, she was accusing her of being thick-headed and suspicious. But she WAS suspicious. Problem was -- and Amy had put her finger on it -- did it REALLY matter? If the sole reason they were up here staring at stars in the chill was so Randall could work on her resistance, was that so bad? It was kind of a compliment, wasn't it? She headed back up the hill to take the next observation.