An Awkward Beginning - Ch 1: First Days Back

“The Catalyst” Series

Chapter 01: First Days Back

This is the second volume of the history of our founder and visionary, Alex Jennings. The proceedings of the prior volume detailed how he first discovered his unique abilities and those drawn to him. That was the beginning of the movement that now encompasses, supports and protects us all.

This volume details Alex’s attempt to resume his normal existence, even if only for a short time. At the time of his return, Alex had only a little more than two months remaining in his high school career. He had plans to attend college in the fall, but hadn’t had a chance to decide how his circumstances might have changed that. Alex wanted, as much as he could, to retain a shred of his former social invisibility. However, the events that happened during this short period, while he was busy trying to hide who he had become, were to prove very important in what he was to eventually achieve. Not only that, but understanding what he went through allows the reader to understand more of just who Alex really was, as it reveals much of his personality he was afraid to reveal while he was in New Orleans.

Finally, it reveals the three categories that Alex began to categorize his followers under. There were those that actively sought him out, and who necessarily took priority. Then there were those that could determine there was something important about him, but didn’t know much more than that. And finally there was the third category, all the normal people that chose to follow him, simply because of what he stood for or because of the force of his personality. This book focuses largely on Alex’s ability to deal with this new, third group.

The next day, Saturday, I was just as bad as I was the night before. I woke late, alone, although I could tell that both Anh and Allison had slept beside me during the night. Apparently everyone thought it better just to let me sleep it off.

My family and I had just returned from a one week vacation to New Orleans for my sister Cate’s and my spring break from high school. The events of the past week were highly unusual. I’d gone from a very uneventful childhood and a high school career of being largely ignored, to suddenly finding myself being watched and approached by a variety of women. But they weren’t interested in me as a hot young piece of flesh. No, they were interested in me because they could sense some sort of power I was giving off, a power I’d never noticed. Actually, no one had ever detected it before because it was apparently some new type of energy that had never been discovered before.

It seemed certain people could unwittingly detect this new type of energy which seemed to surround all living things. Kind of hard to believe every scientist in the world had missed such an occurrence, but that appeared to be the case. Anyway, the people who could detect this energy were all attracted to me, and I mean attracted like a magnet attracts things. They were just drawn to me, fascinated with me. There were two classes of these people, the ones who simply watched me in fascination, unable to figure out why I was so interesting, and those that would come directly up and confront me.

While the first group alerted Cate and me that something was up, it was the second group that took most of my attention during the past week. As soon as I made eye contact with them, something would happen. They’d get this glazed look in their eyes and they would jerk back like something had hit them, then they’d get these visions. It seemed I was some kind of a catalyst that attracted certain people then triggered a change in them, allowing them to actually see a new form of energy in people. The ability to see it revealed a lot about people – it showed their emotions, details about their health, and many things we simply didn’t understand yet. Oh, it also gave all of us the power of telepathy as well.

Unfortunately, just when we were finally on our way home and I was filled with hopes of putting all this craziness behind me for a little while, I encountered a strange woman traveling in a car going the other way. I managed to trigger her despite all the obstacles between us, but there was no way to track her, so we’d lost her. That meant there was a young woman out there who needed me, who needed us, but that we couldn’t help.

We couldn’t tell her what was going on, we couldn’t give her a sympathetic ear or understanding companions, and most importantly, I couldn’t take care of her, as I’d promised to do with each of the other women, all who, despite my inexperience, had come to depend on me.

That was why I’d fallen apart the night before; I simply couldn’t deal with losing one of these special women. I’d told myself I’d watch out for them and I’d failed. It wouldn’t take much from me, just giving them some direction and guidance, but even that I couldn’t provide if I didn’t know who I’d unwittingly triggered.

I eventually wandered downstairs, meandering aimlessly. Cate came up to me and steered me to the breakfast nook, reassuring me as she seated me and let Anh get me some food. They showed concern but my despair wasn’t mollified. Finally they just left me as they went about their various tasks. They were busy unpacking, calling friends, making arrangements, sorting stuff to make room for the new additions to the house. Both those already here and those who planned to arrive in the coming weeks. Life didn’t stop just because a stranger was lost along the way.

Finally I just got sick of my own sense of loss. I tried to think of a way of contacting her. There just wasn’t any way to do it. It wasn’t my fault she was lost. Besides, she might have been fine without us. She’d apparently done fine without us for a couple of decades at least. And I wasn’t doing anyone any good by fretting about it. Not her and certainly not those people that were depending on me. I could and would put it out of my mind, but I couldn’t forget it. It would follow me and worry me for some time to come.

I got back into the spirit of things, getting together with everyone to play some games. Everyone consisted of my mother, Linda, and my sister, Cate, along with Anh and Allison, two of the women who had followed me home from New Orleans. We started with Scrabble, but Anh had trouble as she kept trying to play Vietnamese words. I supplied her some American words she could use, but everyone agreed that constituted cheating. I suggested she use a dictionary, like our parents allowed us when we first learned the game, but was outvoted on the basic concept that reading words one didn’t recognize wasn’t a lot of fun. So we ended up playing Monopoly instead, which brought Dad into the game. We knew we didn’t have enough time to finish the game, but it was fun anyway. Anh had played the game before and knew the basic concepts, even though I had to translate all the various Community Chest cards; something her kids had done for her before.

Afterwards, Cate quietly announced that although everyone was giving me as much latitude as they could, I better get my act together as she’d called my other sisters, Melinda and Becky, over for Sunday evening for a family discussion. She wanted us to tell them what had been happening, as she thought they’d both be helpful in researching the details. Becky worked for a medical research firm and was doing graduate work on related topics, and could use those resources to run various tests. I wasn’t sure what Melinda would be able to do, but she was tied into the whole college environment, so she may have access to more resources than I did on my own. I simply told her I’d be ready by the time they arrived. She nodded, gave me a quick reassuring hug, which she held for a while, and went off on her own again.

I had missed the excitement of the various activities of the day; the apartment hunting and the last minute school shopping, although I did enjoy the lack of excitement from completing last minute assignments due when we returned. Both Cate and I were so far ahead in our school work that we didn’t have anything to worry about in that regard. Cate’s and my relationship had returned to what it’d been before. Actually it was better for some odd reason. Not only was she speaking to me again, but she was going out of her way to be nice, giving me hugs, complimenting me and such. The only thing was, she seemed to be reluctant to tease like we used to, but I figured I could adjust to that.

I reminded her of Shani’s desire for me to get into a semi-serious relationship and asked if she had any ideas. I’d thought about it ahead of time and figured that, if Shani was right, Cate might just take up the challenge as a chance to gawk at several of the prettier girls at school.

“Geez, bro, you’re a senior; we’re not exactly in the same class. Besides, I have no idea of what you’re looking for in a girl. You haven’t exactly shown a preference before.”

“No, unless you count the many, many magazines I hide in my room,” I teased, fully aware my stash was by no means a secret to anyone in the house.

“Yeah, I’ve tended to avoid catching up on your reading material. You know, sticky pages and all that,” Cate replied, making a face at the idea.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m well familiar with ‘sticky pages’.”

“You should, it’s your sticky stuff that stuck them,” she laughed.

“So, you gonna help or not?” I challenged her.

“Hmmm, I’ll think about it. I’ll take a look around school and see if anyone strikes me as being a potential match for you.” I figured that’d be her attitude. I didn’t think I knew a female that didn’t dream of matchmaking at one point or another.

“Thanks, I’d appreciate it. I don’t have much of a clue myself, obviously,” I commented, disparaging myself in a playful way.

“Hey, don’t knock yourself,” she responded, surprising me since I had been expecting some sort of sharp comeback. “You’ve already proven you can handle any number of attractive women. You managed all those people in New Orleans without a problem.”

“Yeah, but...”

“No buts,” she responded quickly. “You faced an unusual situation and took control of it quickly. You went from being all on your own and were soon leading a bunch of people. You’ve always had the ability to get anyone you’ve ever desired.” Here she hesitated before continuing. “But I’ve held you back by always criticizing you with silly jokes that were only meant to make me feel smart. You deserve better. You’re a handsome, attractive, personable guy. I’ve always known that, but I simply never bothered to tell you that before. I want you to get it through your head that you are very desirable.”

I simply stood there, a little stunned at the strength of her response. However, a moment later she continued, filling in my silence.

“Still, isn’t there anyone you’ve lusted after all these years?”

“Not really. The girls most of the guys lust after are the cheerleader types, who just don’t do it for me. They’re a bit too full of themselves. They hang around with Football Players,” I sighed exasperatedly, as if the very idea of football players was a huge turn off. “Plus the ones I’ve fantasized about were just fantasies. I’ve learned enough in the last week to know that I want more than just a pretty face.”

“So what kind of girl rings your bell?” she asked, warming up to the subject.

“I don’t know. I like simple girls. Cute but not gorgeous. Smart, thoughtful, quick and potentially funny. I like thin girls but that’s not really necessary. Active and somewhat athletic I guess.” She looked at me askance.

“You realize you just described me, don’t you?”

“You? I just described myself! I think I’m looking for myself. Now if I was only gay I’d be ready to settle down,” I laughed.

“Yeah, before this last week you settled down with yourself every night for the last several years,” she giggled back.

“You’ve been checking at my door for the last several years?” I asked, playfully leering at her. I was enjoying the renewal of our relaxed playful relationship that I’d missed since our difficulties of the last several days.

“Granted, and your behavior has been a bit hard to miss, bro. All that time spent in the bathroom, the extra-long showers, the exit in the middle of a movie on TV to take a sudden nap, the ‘wacka-wacka’ sound whenever I passed by your room.” She certainly had a lot of examples handy of my secret activities over the years.

“Yeah, unfortunately I’ve missed all the ‘squish-squish’ sounds coming out of yours.”

“What makes you think I ‘squish-squish’?” she asked with a ‘who me’ innocence.

“I’ve spent several nights ‘wacka-wacking’ while you were ‘squish-squishing’ in the other bed,” I laughed along with her. While the statement was true, we’d only shared such activities in the past week, and I was hardly doing the ‘wacka-wacking’ she was referring to.

“OK, I’ll see if I can find any desperate copies of me who don’t mind copulation with you in exchange for the promise you’ll be too busy afterwards to bother them anymore.”

“There is that. Thanks Cate, I appreciate it.”

“Ha, you haven’t seen who I set you up with yet,” she laughed.

I was recovered enough from my trauma over the missing girl to make quiet love with both Allison and Anh later that night. They both gave me some step by step assistance in my crude attempts at cunnilingus, and they seemed to appreciate my meager attempts as well. They finished me off with an exquisite dual blowjob, they both had some excellent techniques, and we all fell fast asleep cuddling each other. I hated to say it, but I missed going to sleep with several women in my arms every night and another lying just a short distance away. I idly wondered what life would be like when I’d have to give this up after I find the girlfriend my girls wanted me to get.

Sunday was relatively relaxing. I’d stopped obsessing about the lost girl, I wasn’t worried about new women finding me and no one needed me to do anything for them, aside from helping unpack and store things. The women were all busy trying to prepare the house for the upcoming onslaught of women. Allison left a few times to investigate nearby apartment and house listings that she and the rest of the women could share.

But I hadn’t forgotten the upcoming discussions with my sisters. So far I’d always discussed our various abilities with people who had a vested interest in the topic. Aside from Mom and Dad, this was the first time I had to try to convince normal people that I was somehow special. I was especially nervous since they were my sisters. They would tend to think I was simply inventing stuff to sound more impressive than I was. I didn’t think my older sisters thought much of me to begin with; we’d see how they’d relate to this news, as I was always the annoying little brother who’d always pestered them all the time.

Mom and Cate thought it would be fun to have Allison answer the door when they arrived. They were watching the door so she could get to it before they entered on their own.

“Hi, Becky and Melinda, I take it,” she greeted them happily, her bright red hair bouncing as she hugged them both. “I’m Allison, I’m sure you’ll hear all about me in a few minutes, so I won’t bore you with any personal histories at the moment. Come on in, we’ve been expecting you.”

Both girls resembled Mom’s side of the family, in that they all tended to be thin and in great shape, and luckily they all managed to miss my wild eyebrow gene. Becky looked like a typical research assistant in that she appeared to have been too busy to have eaten much lately. Melinda looked much more relaxed, being in her junior year, she had bypassed much of the more stressful aspects of school while getting into the more interesting detailed subjects.

They both followed Allison into their own house, watching her fantastic figure jiggle its way before them. They just got into the door before they met their next surprise.

“This is Anh. She’s another of Alex’s girls. In case you don’t know it, you have an amazing brother and we’re totally crazy about him. We’d all follow him to the ends of the earth.” They both looked at her in confusion, then at me, then at mom. Anh proceeded to greet them both, in polite Vietnamese.

“She says she’s pleased to meet you both, and that she’s heard a great deal about both of you,” I translated for them, realizing she was lying as we’d never spoken much about my sisters.

“You speak...” Melinda started to ask, not sure what she was asking.

“No, I don’t speak Vietnamese, but I know what she’s saying anyway. We’ll get to that in a moment,” I told them simply as I kissed them both hello.

Mom walked up at that point and tried to give them both a hug as well.

“Wait a minute, Mom, just what the hell is going on?” Mom started to say something about Melinda’s choice of language but Becky cut her off.

“Is this what you meant when you were talking about ‘Alex’s women’?” she asked.

“Believe me, you’ll understand everything in a minute,” my father said, interrupting them. “A lot has been happening in the last week, and while you may have trouble believing it, it’s all absolutely true. Cate, why don’t you put your presentation skills to use and give them a run down on everything that’s been happening to your brother over the past week.”

So Cate proceeded to describe, in a shortened version, much of what had happened during the last week. Both girls were agog at the whole thing, but Dad kept telling them not to interrupt and to listen, as they’d want to hear it all before they began asking any questions.

Cate described the basic events, the various tests she’d conducted and what she thought they meant, the various relationships that I’d formed with the ladies, and that there were others as well. She described the difference between the watchers and, as she described it, ‘the chosen’. I’d have to talk to her about that particular terminology. I think at first they both believed it was all an elaborate joke, but the fact that we were all dead serious brought them around.

After Cate finished her presentation, my parents started next. First Mom described my budding social life, listing the sleeping arrangements and their conversations with each of the girls. Next Dad described Cate’s and my relationships and what had happened between us for the past week. I had to hide my head in embarrassment, but at least he didn’t know the whole story. I figured Cate was already humiliated enough as it is.

He finished off telling them what he knew about our fight, before launching into his theory about how I may be influencing those around me. In short, they managed to leave nothing out aside from the girls’ histories.

I’ve got to give my father credit, though, he handed the conversation over to Anh, of all people, asking her to explain about her theories as well. I immediately recognized this would accomplish two things, one, that I could in fact do amazing things, and two, that there was a precedence for what was happening to me, however remote.

When I finished the translation for Anh, asking if Becky and Melinda had any questions, they seemed to come alive all at once.

“Oh my fucking god,” Becky stated, “this is all fucking unbelievable.”

“Becky,” my mother warned regarding her language.

“Mom, you’ve gotta admit, if there was ever a time to be profane, this is it.” That generated a laugh all around.

“Man, I can’t believe our little Alex gets to be the main actor in his own Sci-Fi adventure,” Melinda said. “I mean, all this stuff about energy sounds like something out of Star Wars. And he adds his own harem to the mix. Man, if you can set me up with some amazing ability that gets me a string of attentive guys I’d really appreciate it, Alex.”

“So far I’ve been trying to give Alex some theories about what’s happening, but I think we’ll need you to help with that, Becky, since you have more experience, more training, and better access to facilities,” Cate said.

“Yeah, I think your basic theories are pretty good as far as they go, but I’ll have to see if I can arrange some tests to get a better understanding about it. So far every idea seems to be concerning the girls, though. Any ideas on what may be going on with Alex himself?”

“I don’t have a clue,” Cate responded. “From what the girls all say, it’s clear that Alex has some direct tap into this new form of energy.”

“Uh, excuse me, the non-scientist among us, but if it surrounds all forms of life, I hardly think it’s a ‘new’ energy,” Melinda argued.

“Granted,” Becky conceded. “I agree that it sounds like Alex has some sort of connection to this ‘energy’. So what are you suggesting?”

“Well, I think he’s managing to use some aspect of it to affect people. Since we have no way of measuring this energy, there’s no way of tracing it,” Cate started explaining her newest ideas.

“OK, but how is he doing that?”

“That’s what could potentially win us both a Nobel Prize, that is, if there’s any way we could do it without compromising Alex and everything he’s working towards.”

“And just what is he working towards?” Becky asked.

“Honestly, he hasn’t quite worked it out, but we all know that’s why he’s here. Right now we’re all focusing on helping him gather his people together. We need to help him find more of both these women and these watchers. That’ll help them organize and give us more knowledge about what’s involved.”

Anh spoke up and started talking, so I began translating while she was still speaking.

“Anh says that she’s responsible for the whole ‘movement’ idea, as she came up with the idea of my having a mission.” We then rehashed Anh’s ideas of me being a spirit that had somehow crossed over from the spirit world, detailing how spirits usually feel compelled to do so in order to achieve something significant. The girls just sat still, absorbing all of this new information.

“Well, I’ve got no idea of how to test any of that,” Becky responded simply. “It’s all fascinating, but I just have no idea how to process any of it.”

“Yeah, that was my feeling,” Cate agreed with her, “but her approach explains more than my few theories do.”

“What about this mind control stuff?” Melinda asked.

I merely waved the thought off, “It’s just something Dad was suggesting. I wouldn’t give it much credence. There’s no evidence of it and there’s plenty of evidence it isn’t true.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like the fact that none of the women agree with me a lot of the time. Like the fact that Cate could still get pissed at me, and that someone managed to get pissed enough to punch me,” I told them, hoping to head off this side discussion. Of course that didn’t happen.

“You got punched? Now that you mention it I can see some bruising on your cheek. So, did one of your girls have a jealous boyfriend?”

“No, it was Anh’s son, Bao Luong. He thought I was going to take advantage of his mother.”

“So, did you?” Melinda laughed.

I simply sighed, I should have expected this. “No, and I haven’t had sex with any of these women.”

“Well,” interrupted my father, “he hasn’t had intercourse with any of them. He’s had plenty of sex with them all, though. But that wasn’t Bao’s concern. He thought Alex was a conman out to fleece his mother.”

“Man, this all just gets better and better. So, what else have you just forgotten to mention to us?” Melinda asked.

“Oh, nothing and probably everything. It’d take a long time to go over it all. But Dad came up with the idea of a mind control influence just as a remote possibility, it wasn’t a realistic suggestion,” I tried to convince them.

“Let me try a few things,” Becky suggested. She stood up and helped Allison into the middle of the room, using a handy napkin from the dining room to cover her eyes.

“You all talk about ‘seeing’ these new visions. I’d like to see whether Alex affected something in your eyes or something else. If it’s in the eyes, a simple optical examination should show anything hidden there.” She then moved everyone around the room.

“OK, now, Allison, tell me who is where in the room.”

Allison had no problem immediately locating me then Anh. She had trouble identifying anyone else, but she could pinpoint their locations as she pointed out each. She explained to do any better, she’d have to compare their auras with what she remembered about each, correctly guessing Cate and selecting my father by the size of his aura, which reflected his physical size.

“OK, then it’s clearly not a vision thing after all. I’m guessing Alex must have done something somewhere else. I’m guessing probably somewhere in the brain, as that’s the only viable organ that could sponsor such complex behavior.”

“See, I told you telling them would be a good idea,” Cate said enthusiastically. “I was getting tired of always providing all the science advice, as I was feeling like the local heavy, making all these pronouncements that no one was ready to hear yet. So, do you have any other ideas on what to look for?”

“A few. Alex?” she asked, turning towards me after removing Allison’s blindfold for her. “Have you tried contacting any of your other women since you got here?”

“No, they’re all back in New Orleans.”

“So, are you going to try?” she responded simply, unperturbed by my unspoken argument. I took a moment and tried to reach them. Shani answered immediately. Surprised, I tried Patricia next and she too responded right away.

“Yeah, I could speak with them without any problem.”

“Amazing! I know it’s a silly question, seeing how quickly you responded, but what about a time delay? Was there a wait between when you spoke with them and they responded?”

“No, they responded instantly and the distance didn’t make any difference in the strength of the signal,” I answered, knowing full well I was using cell phone terminology.

“That says a lot in itself. It shows your telepathy isn’t likely carried by any kind of broadcast waves, so you must be using another means of communication. Somehow you’ve created some kind of complex communication facility in the short amount of time it takes to look someone in the eyes.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. I’d never have been able to figure all that out,” our father said, congratulating Becky.

“Now, the only question is whether they already had the mechanics necessary in their brains, or whether he somehow put it there,” Becky continued.

“How could he do something like that? It’d take complex digital manipulation, plus engineering skills and neurological familiarity,” Melinda argued.

“Exactly,” agreed Becky, “but I don’t think it’s as complex as it sounds. I’m guessing he’s somehow tapping into some kind of simple solution that we simply don’t understand yet. It’d have to be something that doesn’t take a lot of thought, planning or knowledge to accomplish.”

“Still, if he’s doing something to their brains, he’d have to know just where to operate in their brain in order to prevent causing substantial brain damage,” Melinda argued.

“There is that,” conceded Becky. “Again, I have no clue how he’s doing any of that. All I know is it’s got to be something simple so that he can do it all without any conscious thought. I’m also guessing it’s going to be something incredibly small, so he doesn’t have to risk destroying any surrounding tissue when he does it.”

“That’s a brilliant deduction if I do say so myself,” Dad said.

“Please, honey, you’ve already got enough kids with swelled heads as it is,” my mother told him.

“Hey, I think I’ve been handling all of this pretty well,” I argued.

“And you have,” Dad said. “I don’t know anyone who could have handled it as well as you have. Despite your initial panic,” he added, whispering just loudly enough for everyone to hear him.

“So you’ve been able to see this same energy signature in plants as well as people?” Becky asked, trying to keep the focus on her questions.

“Yeah, I made sure to check. It’s not as strong but it’s still there,” Allison replied. When Anh agreed as well, Becky just shook her head.

“Man, that is so weird. She can understand everything we say?” Becky asked.

“As long as I or one of the girls is here to act as a go between,” I answered.

“Anyway,” she replied, shaking her head slightly in an attempt to refocus her mind. “Does it look substantially different?”

“Well, yeah, it’s just a dull, flat color without any of the variations that show things like emotions and other things.”

“What about the health signs you notice by the variations in the energy’s strength?”

Allison stopped and thought a moment, then Anh spoke to her for a few moments. Finally she turned back and responded to Becky. “We don’t really know. We haven’t had much of a chance to examine a lot of sick plants,” she answered with a smile.

“No, I can understand that. Here, let me try something.” Becky then took my hand and walked into the other room, where she took a piece of paper and rubbed her hand against it, then told me to do the same with another piece. We also did the same thing with hand towels. Then we walked back into the den. She placed the items around the room.

“Now, can either of you see any energy signature in any of those items?” she asked.

“Yeah, those two are clearly Alex’s,” Allison replied. “I’m assuming the other two are yours, although the cloth seems to hold the energy better than the paper does.”

“Interesting,” said Becky. “I suspected as much. Although both are biological products, the cotton isn’t as processed as the paper is, so I’m assuming it holds the left over energy better. I’m betting man-made products would hold it even less well, if at all.”

“I’ll get a cutting board,” Mom suggested, as she got up and headed into the kitchen.

It turned out a plastic cutting board still held some remnants of our energy, but not nearly as well as the cloth did. Becky seemed pleased and said she’d have to consider how she could use this knowledge.

“Could you use your lab to do anything?” Melinda asked.

“Mel, I work in a DNA lab. I could do a DNA test, but we’d have no idea of what to look for. A simple DNA test only looks for certain significant markers. Trying to locate any DNA that might be producing this would take a full DNA workup, and we’d have to do it for everyone we know with any of these abilities. Not only would that be expensive, but we wouldn’t be able to hide the information we gathered from prying eyes at the lab. Beyond that, even identifying a possible suspect gene wouldn’t tell us anything. It would merely tell us that it’s genetic and where we could do future research, but it wouldn’t help us at all. Personally, those little tests I’ve just done tell us more than full DNA scans would.”

“I can see Cate and Becky taking a lead in this, but is there anything that I can do to help?” Melinda asked, looking like she was anxious to get involved.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Even if you can’t help with the research, I’m sure there are a million things you could help with. Personally, I’m busy trying to figure out what it all means, what I need to do for everyone, and who is going to be waiting for me around the next corner,” I complained. “Besides, you’ve already sacrificed your bedrooms,” I informed them, laughing gently.

Cate took that opportunity to explain about the lost girl and how it had upset me. Everyone sympathized, but I figured that was enough for me so I wandered into the other room to grab something to eat while everyone else started to go over even more details about me.

I came back out to see how much had progressed, and was surprised to find my mother, my own mother, gossiping with my sisters about the details of my nascent sex life, while Anh and Allison were happily agreeing with everything she said. Dad was nowhere in sight. I figured now would be a good time to head off to bed, so I quietly slipped out and found myself a good book. I hadn’t managed to read anything for quite a while, and I thought it would be good to empty my mind of all my other concerns before I had to return to school in the morning.

I awakened slightly as the girls climbed into bed with me. I’d apparently fallen asleep while reading. As I sat up, meaning to show the two girls some appreciation, Anh pressed me back to the bed.

“Don’t get up. You need your sleep for your return to school in the morning. It’ll be a big day for you. Allison and I will help you sleep. Besides,” she giggled a little, “she’s promised to show me a few new things and, as you may have heard, we old bitches like to learn new tricks.” So I happily laid back and allowed two happy ladies to practice their craft. Anh managed to improve her already excellent techniques as she learned from a true professional.

The next morning I jolted awake to the shrill ring of my alarm. I quickly shut it off, hoping to avoid waking the two women beside me, but I could see it was already a lost cause. They both slowly sat up, rubbing their eyes.

“Go and get... showered and ready, Alex,” Allison told me, yawning. “Anh’s going downstairs to fix everyone a nice traditional Vietnamese breakfast, and I want to take some time getting dressed this morning.” So I took her advice and took a quick shower, something which most kids in high school have perfected. I was quickly heading downstairs.

Most everyone was already there, although Cate was just rounding the corner and Allison was still getting dressed. She had seemed reluctant to let me see her getting dressed this morning for some reason. Dad had already left for work, as was usual on a school day. As I sat down, Becky leaned forward.

“I want to do one more experiment, Alex,” she told me as she grabbed my arm and pulled out a scalpel. How she ever found a fresh scalpel in our house I have no idea, but I wasn’t overly fond of whatever she was thinking of. I quickly jerked my arm back.

“What the hell are you planning on doing?”

“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you, but I want to see if this energy you’re generating impacts your physical responses. I promise I’ll inflict the least damage possible,” she responded, smiling like a cat that’s just cornered a wary bird. Reluctantly, I let her take my arm again. She steadied it before her, wiped it with an alcohol swab, then quickly slit my arm with the scalpel. True, it wasn’t very deep, but still.

My arm quickly began to bleed and Becky was checking her watch, counting down the seconds that passed. It didn’t take much creativity to figure out that she was checking my blood clotting response time. When the tiny cut finally stopped bleeding, she called out a figure which Melinda wrote down on a notepad I hadn’t noticed.

“OK, your clotting response appears to be normal. Now I’m going to do it again, but this time when I do, I want you to apply some energy to it like this Brooke woman had you do. Use the same controlled flow you did then, OK?” I was tempted to tell her I had no idea how much energy I’d used then, but felt it would be a wasted argument, so I simply watched as she cut me once again. I used my other hand to try to apply a small amount of energy to my newest cut. Immediately, more blood started to pour out, which Becky hurried to sop up.

“Oops, that wasn’t what I was expecting. OK, let’s try again, and this time try to focus on clotting the blood or healing the cut and we’ll see if the response is any different.” Once again she slit a small incision on my arm, and, while it didn’t bleed quite as profusely, it didn’t seem to make any difference in how much I bled.

“Interesting,” she observed, once again telling Melinda the time that had passed before the bleeding had stopped. “Apparently it’s not as simple as I was hoping. At least we know you don’t have any control over cellular events, although why it would bleed more is a bit of a mystery. I’ll have to consider these results a little bit.”

“Fine,” I said, finally pulling my arm away. “Is it OK if I stop bleeding for a bit so I can eat some breakfast and regain some of my strength?” Becky had the good grace to giggle at me before she patted my arm and proceeded to clean up my new wounds.

As we proceeded to eat Anh’s delicious breakfast, which I was sure would soon become a staple around here, Anh informed me that I wouldn’t be driving today. When everyone looked questioningly at me I explained what she’d said, adding that Allison wanted to show me off this morning. Cate seemed to take this all perfectly well, although I knew there wasn’t room for three people in Allison’s tiny 2 seat BMW convertible.

When we were finally ready to go I called upstairs to see if Allison was ready yet, and she proceeded to descend the stairs. She’d been waiting to make a big scene, as she was really decked out. To show off her bright red hair, she wore an equally bright, low cut, short, fire red dress, along with bright red lipstick that all really contrasted against her pale, flawless skin. She looked absolutely amazing. I knew she’d definitely have an impact on the students at school looking like that.

We trooped out to her car after I received goodbye kisses from my mother and sisters, although Anh’s was a bit more inspiring than the others. When we reached the car, Cate simply told me to get in and then proceeded to sit in my lap. I knew we’d be in trouble if we were to be stopped by the police, but I fastened the seat belt around the both of us, forcing Cate to squeeze against me even more than she already was. I could feel practically every inch of Cate pressing against me, and it was generating a few unbrotherly thoughts on my part, but we quickly got underway.

We seemed to fly on our way to school, although it was difficult to see the speedometer with my sister pressed against me. I figured we’d deal with it if we got stopped. I’m sure the cop would have a good time if it happened, and all that would result would be the fine he’d undoubtedly slap Allison with, but I assumed we could all live with that. Allison pulled up in front of the school and parked right in front of the door. As I started to reach for my seatbelt, Allison pressed her hand against my chest to restrain me, then got out of the car and walked around it, showing herself off to the entire assembled school. She proceeded to open the door for us with a great flourish. Cate managed to wiggle off of my lap, looking almost as sexy as Allison herself. That left me to climb undignified from the low lying seat, trying to shield my erection from the onlooking crowd.

As Cate got all of our books settled, Allison gave me a very visible, short but intense kiss before patting my cheek and hurrying off, while Cate handed me my books. We proceeded into the school to quite a few surprised gawks.

Eldorado High was an older building, part way between our hometown of Shawneetown and Harrisburg, which was slightly larger, and on the way to Carbondale. There was always talk of a new Shawneetown High School but, so far, it was just an empty field with a sign on it. I assumed neither Cate nor I would ever see it, except as someplace we might pass when visiting home. Neither of us had any plans to remain in this small town any longer than we had to. Becky and Melinda had decided to go to school nearby, but they too planned on leaving to work elsewhere. The hope was that Mom and Dad would eventually relocate near one of us when they finally retired.

I walked into school with a purposeful stride, feeling like a new man. Having spent the last week in such exciting circumstances certainly did a lot for me, especially having multiple females who were all crazy about me. I felt on top of the world. I glanced around at the girls I passed in the hallways, once we were finally past those who had observed our grand entrance. Several were quite pretty, but with the wit and wisdom demonstrated to me by the women I’d met, I felt I now expected a little more than just ‘good looks’. I kept walking.

Mike welcomed me back in Home Room. He was my best friend. Well, one of my few best friends. We were mostly the shy, quiet kids, who liked to believe we were just more sophisticated and discerning than the other students. Mike was the typical geek, interested mostly in computer games, but we still found several things to enjoy together.

He was thin like me, although he sported a retro look, including 50s glasses with moderately long hair. I suppose he wasn’t particularly bad looking, but with his social standing and our shared reticence, he didn’t stand much chance with any of the ladies.

“So, Alex, how was New Orleans?” he asked me, ready for any interesting stories I might have for him.

“Very nice, I had a great time,” I replied, thinking to myself how I’d never be able to tell him a quarter of it.

“See any naked tits?” he grinned, teasing me.

“It wasn’t Marti Gras, Mike,” I informed him.

“Yeah, I know, but you never know what might happen.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I said, thinking over everything that happened over the past week. While I didn’t see any naked tits on the street, I’d seen plenty in our hotel room, including my sister’s!

“You seem a lot more relaxed,” he observed, taking in my overall demeanor. I found it a little strange considering what a wreck I had been on Friday and Saturday.

“Yeah, well it wasn’t all fun and games. There were a lot of worries. I actually got punched by a Vietnamese fisherman.”

“What? Are you kidding me?” Right then I wished I was. WHY had I told him that? About then the teacher started calling attention to the front of the class so we ended our conversation.

I spent the next several classes considering the various girls I saw but had been terrified of speaking with before. I asked Alice Swinson if I could substitute as her lab partner since both our regular partners hadn’t returned from their vacations yet. She agreed, so we spent most of the next hour talking while the teacher droned on about what we’d already covered in the weeks before Spring Break. It was fun. I was wondering why I had avoided moments like this previously.

Lunchtime rolled around and I noticed a few odd looks as I walked toward the lunchroom. I began to wonder if Dad’s theory might not have some basis in reality. Then I remembered our dramatic entrance into school this morning and promptly forgot about my concern. Entering the lunchroom I saw my group of friends sitting off by themselves, but felt I should try something a little different. So I just walked up to a table more or less at random and asked Wanda Garrard if I could sit beside her. She looked at me as if I had just climbed out of a clown car, but said OK so I sat down with her group of friends. Personally, she might have looked like that because I had never mixed with the black kids at the school before. It wasn’t anything personal, it was just that every high school has cliques, and I just figured I wouldn’t fit in with that particular one.

I talked with her and her friends about various things. They asked me about my vacation and I started talking about N’Orleans – I’d learned to say N’Orleans instead of New Orleans – and about my experiences with café au laits, po' boys, and the Vietnamese and Jamaican communities there. They were soon fascinated with the experiences I felt safe telling them about. Lunch ended way too soon.

I was beginning to feel silly having been a loner all these years, afraid to come out of my shell and simply talk with people. I guess enough had happened over the past week to finally give me a little confidence in myself. My self-esteem was bolstered by the utter adoration of several women in particular, but it seemed to infuse me with an eagerness to overcome my previous shyness. Besides, I told myself, hiding from things doesn’t mean they won’t happen to you. Who in the world could have guessed what had happened to me this past week?

As I was heading out of the lunchroom I noticed a single girl looking at me with a look I now readily recognized. She was staring at me with rapt attention. I made a note to talk to her soon. I figured maybe there had been people watching me earlier, but I’d just never noticed it. It’s very easy to overlook a casual glance, no matter how meaningful it may be. Just before I left I turned, pointed to her and pantomimed that I’d met her here tomorrow. I’m not sure if she got the full message, but her eyes seemed about to bulge out of her head at being recognized by me. I was sure I’d get some sort of a response from her.

The rest of the day continued along a similar track. I found more and more people looking at me, both boys and girls, but I tended to notice the girls more. When the final bell sounded, we all streamed out the front doors and herded like sheep down our little path. I noticed Cate, her friend Vicky, as well as Anh, Shani and Natalie all standing around Shaniqua’s car. I guess they’d managed to finally get away and had wanted to surprise me, and they certainly did. When I reached them Shani threw her arms around me and gave me a huge hug and kiss. As soon as she finished Natalie nervously moved up to me and, after a moment’s hesitation, latched on tight in a fierce but brief kiss, followed by Anh doing the same. I was feeling a little conspicuous being hugged by several adult women in the school parking lot. When Anh finished, Cate gave me a big hug, minus the French kiss though. Then Vicky gave me a big hug and kiss, also minus the intimate portion of the kiss as well. I was blushing big time after all of this.

“What’s with the kiss, Vicky?” I asked. Vicky was Cate’s best friend and, although she frequently hung around my sister, she’d hardly ever paid any attention to me before.

“Oh, just thought I’d join in while the joining’s good,” she replied with a little wink. I laughed, feeling good. Somehow it’s hard feeling bad with multiple women giving you hugs.

“Well, that was interesting, but let’s get out of here before anyone else sees us. So how are we all fitting into one little car?”

Shani told us they’d brought a couple of cars, anticipating we’d have a few people to transport. She pointed out Anh’s worn out little car parked a short ways away.

“So,” I said, “who wants to travel with the new girls and who wants to ride in Anh’s crummy car with me?” Suddenly everyone put their hands way up in the air and called “Crummy car ride, crummy car ride!” We laughed, and finally Shani and the others took off while Cate, Vicky and I all trudged over to Anh’s car with her.

“Wow, Alex,” Vicky whispered when we were out of range of Anh’s hearing, “who’s the black chick and the Oriental lady?” Such a simple question and I was already feeling ticked off. Calling Shaniqua a ‘chick’ and segregating Anh into the ‘old lady’ category set me on edge.

“Oh, just some friends we met in N’Orleans,” I replied, trying to not overreact to things. “But, since she’s kind enough to offer you a ride, I suggest you call her by her name, which is Anh.” I then proceeded to introduce them. She was polite enough after the introduction, although she was still curious.

“What’re they doing here?” she asked, clearly a perfectly sensible question.

“They followed him here,” teased Cate. “They’re all totally nuts about him. Plus there are more who are still wrapping up loose ends and are waiting to join him soon.”

“I’d hardly say that,” I protested, wishing my sister wouldn’t speak before considering the possible ramifications of her words.

“I don’t know,” countered Vicky, completely ignoring the second half of Cate’s comment, “those kisses seemed a bit nuts worthy to me.”

“Nuts worthy, that’s a great category to be in. Sounds a lot like Sponge worthy, but just a little south of there,” replied Cate, making a comparison to the now classic Seinfeld episode.

Great, I thought, I’m never going to able to get away from this at school now. I purposely avoided asking Cate about any potential girlfriends she may have found for me, not wanting to be embarrassed in front of her friend. We teased and laughed all the way home, where Cate and Vicky said hello to Natalie and Shani again. Vicky was surprised they were both here in the house. Anh had remained silent during the car trip, so Vicky never suspected she didn’t speak English well. When informed that Anh was now living here, and that Shani and Natalie were going to be moving nearby but were both staying here until an apartment became available, Vicky’s mouth just dropped open. She turned and whispered to Cate, who turned and told us, “She wants to know where they’re all sleeping.” Anh rattled something off in Vietnamese and I just stood there, biting my lip until Cate turned to me.

“Well?” she pressed.

“Well what?” I asked, trying to appear innocent.

“Translation please?” she asked politely. I rolled my eyes.

“She said they’ll manage to find someplace comfortable to sleep,” I simply replied. Cate just rolled her eyes at Vicky and said, “And we both know the most comfortable spot in the house.” They laughed all the way to Cate’s room.

“Thanks a LOT for that,” I told the remaining girls sarcastically. At least Allison had enough sense to remain hidden. If she’d come out as well, I’m sure Vicky would have had a heart attack!

“You’re welcome,” they said as they kissed me again.

“Come on and help us unpack,” Shani said.

Next Chapter

Feedback on my stories is always welcome. Please send it to crumblywriter@gmail.com. Also visit the Story Blog. You should be warned that the blog includes a lot of information regarding the story, like what I'm trying to achieve, various reader's responses to the material, subtleties in it's tellings, so it makes sense to visit it and get a feel for what's going on.