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Little Tucklings -*- Copyright 2002 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.


Little Tucklings


***
10:27 13 Sep

     Sheila said, "So, your mom called and said you had an appointment
with...  What was it?"
     "An endo..."
     "Endocrinologist?"
     I was going to have to practice that word; apparently everyone knew
it but me.  "Yeah.  And a geneticist."

***
10:32 13 Sep

     "So, I dunno..." I said, and shrugged.  My leg hurt again, where
the stitches were.  "I just, I mean...  I don't know what to do."
     She nodded.  "It's very confusing."
     "That is so simplified it's ridiculous," I objected.
     "Is it wrong?"
     Damnit.  "No."
     "So what do you want to do?  With what you know now, anyway," she
amended.
     "I don't...  Right now," I admitted, "I don't want to do anything."
     "Then, don't do anything."
     "But, I mean, don't I have to?"
     "Not right now, you don't.  Right now, from what you said, they're
still running tests to figure out exactly what it is, right?"  I nodded.
"So..."
     "So I can just pretend like it isn't happening?"
     "No..." she said slowly, like I'd thought she would.  "But, at this
point, you don't actually have to make any decisions - and any decision
you make would probably be a bad one, since you don't have enough
information yet.  Right?"  I nodded reluctant agreement.  "So, at least
until next week, don't worry about it too much.  We've got an extra-long
session scheduled afterwards, so-"
     "Oh, god," I groaned, remembering.
     "Well, this way we can all discuss it at one time," she said.

***
11:25 13 Sep

     "Mmmm, so now we get ready for the party?" I said dazedly.
     "James," Mike said.  "We have to get James."
     "Oh yeah," I smiled.
     "And the rest, too, while we're at it," Mike said, stretching.
     "How are you feeling?" I asked him.
     "Dana said I was feeling better, and I think I'm feeling better,"
he answered.  "The world looks more like I remember, and I'm not seeing
auras and stuff any more.  And I'm not having the emotional explosions,
either," he said, looking solemn.
     "That's good," I nodded.  He nodded agreement.
     Pause.
     "Where's the girls?" I asked.
     "Jill said, Kathy picked Kim up and took her home; Kim said if she
got home early enough, her family wouldn't notice she'd been gone all
night.  I think Jill went back to bed in Susan's room.  And," Mike said,
"I had an idea for this afternoon."
     "Is this gonna hurt?"
     "Immensely, Tuck, immensely."
     "I no like-a you ideas when dey hurt."
     "Trossst me," he said, putting an arm around my shoulder.  "Now,
how are we gonna get Kelly?"

***
11:27 13 Sep

     "Hello?" said a woman's voice.
     "Hi, can I speak to Kelly please?" I said, using sort of a neutral
voice.  "It's Tucker."
     "Oh, sure, just a moment," she said, and put the phone down.

***
11:51 13 Sep

     Kelly was waiting for us in the parking lot, nose buried in a book
as she sat on top of a backpack.  When we honked, she looked up, then
got up and came over quickly.
     "You're wearing that to a party?" I teased as she got in.  She just
gave me a look.

***
12:09 13 Sep

     We knocked on the door of James' house.  I wanted to see the inside
of this place, sort of.
     When someone opened it, I wasn't especially disappointed.  It was
indeed a shrine to Roddenberry's creation and its children.
     "New orders," Mike said to her, and I started paying attention to
what was in front of me as he handed her the sheets of paper.
     Mike had added a scarily-realistic logo and some other things to
the message I'd come up with, and printed his part first on his inkjet,
and my part on my dot-matrix this morning, so that it looked like the
letterhead had been printed separately on continuous-feed paper and a
message had come through the Teletype.
     That was my part, and it read:

     STARDATE: 0094.84
     FROM: STARFLEET PREPARATORY ACADEMY MCALLEN/SA2804-31
     TO: PARENTS OF CADET COOPER JAMES T
     SUBJECT: ADDITIONAL TRAINING
     MESSAGE BEGINS
     CADET COOPER JAMES T IS ORDERED TO REPORT TO SENIOR CADETS
     JOHANNSON AND TUCKER AT 1200 LOCAL TIME FOR REMEDIAL CULINARY
     TRAINING PURSUANT TO DIRECTIVE JF82381/2289B REGARDING REMOVAL
     OF GENDER BIASES STOP SD0094.77 IN PRESENCE OF SENIOR CADETS
     JOHANSSON AND TUCKER CADET COOPER JAMES T STATED...

     ...and on and on it went, in the weird-assed military telegraphic
lingo that Dad liked to use when he was being a pedantic fuck about
something in email.  I had years of examples to pull from, and a few
other bits I'd gathered off the Web and other places, so I knew it would
look terrifyingly banal and bureaucratic, and thus completely official.
     When the woman looked up again, we both saluted.
     "I'll go wake him up," she smiled.  "Would you like to come in
while he gets dressed?  I don't think he was expecting this."
     "Good," Mike grinned back.

***
12:28 13 Sep

     There were already a lot of people in front of my house, and it
wasn't even noon yet.
     *Well,* I realized after I checked my watch, *it is, but-*
     "So what are we doing?" Kelly asked.

***
12:49 13 Sep

     James hadn't been too happy when he found out what he was going to
be doing, and he was less happy when his parents (bizarre, but pleasant
enough) agreed with us.  Of course, when we went to collect the other
freshthings, someone noticed James' attitude, and asked him, and when he
refused to answer they asked me and Mike.
     Which is why he was now glowering at me over a bowl of flour.  And
everyone else was yelling comments and suggestions.
     "Don't blame me, this is your own fault," I smirked.
     "Fuck you," he said, trying to sound forceful and failing as his
voice broke.
     "Sorry, I only have intercourse with people from the Babylon Five
multiverse," I shot back, which got me almost half a minute of
hysterical laughter from the peanut gallery.  And James turned
completely red.

***
13:12 13 Sep

     "Get out!" I yelled at the jackals that had been lurking around the
oven and had just lurked a little too close.  "NOT you," I said as I
grabbed James before he could warp out of there.  "You have to watch the
racks."
     "What racks?"
     "Don't you ever bake or anything?" I asked.
     "No," he said, coloring.
     "Ooookay, so.  Tell me why you thought I was gay for baking," I
demanded.  I really wanted to hear this.
     "Nothing, okay!" he snarled.
     "Okay, then we'll just tell your folks that you need to cook a full
dinner for everyone tomorrow night too-"
     "What is your PROBLEM?" he gasped.
     "I gave myself to the Dark Side a few years ago in exchange for an
A in eighth-grade English class," I lied.  "Tell me."

***
13:16 13 Sep

     "Just..."  He slumped against a counter.  "There was this guy, a
friend of Mom and Dad's, that we used to see a lot at cons and stuff,
and he was always bringing in like cookies and cakes and pastries and
stuff...  Really good," he said, I think not to me but to the guy.
"He'd make a lot, give 'em out to his friends and the workers and guests
of honor and stuff."  He took a breath.  "Then he stopped coming..."
     "And?"
     James sighed deeply, looking at the floor, and growled out, "And I
asked why, why he didn't come any more, and Dad told me he died of AIDS.
Okay?!" he kind of sobbed, and left.
     "I still don't see why that makes ME gay, though," I said to the
empty kitchen after a bit.  "Most illogical assumption, cadet."  Even if
it did happen to be true.

***
13:41 13 Sep

     Amazingly, they were all humming hosannas of praise through their
noses, because their mouths were full of the first sheet of cookies.
     "James did most of the work," I smiled.
     The faces turned towards James and continued humming happily.
James looked like he didn't know what to do.  "Bow to the audience," I
suggested.

***
13:45 13 Sep

     "I think I got here just in time," Kim grinned as she came in.
     "Where's Jill?" I asked.
     "I dropped her off at work, we'll go get her at eight," she said
offhandedly as she homed in on the cookies.  "Who baked?"
     "James!" I lied.
     "For real?  Cool!" she said as she bobbed her head at James.
"Thanks...  MMMMPH!" she gasped through a mouthful.
     "I think she likes them," Mike grinned.
     "Fancy that," I smirked as Kim nodded frantically and grabbed
another one.

***
14:18 13 Sep

     "Quake practice!" Mike insisted.

***
14:43 13 Sep

     We'd finally got a port-a-LAN set up with spare boxen - Dad was
probably the only person around who kept spare fully-loaded P-166's with
nothing to do but burn-in testing - and Quake loaded and the server
running in my room upstairs, and the non-players were gathered around
behind us.
     "We are just going to explore this time," Mike reminded everyone,
"so don't shoot people, since we're all on the same side at this point.
We're checking timings and so on, when stuff spawns, lines of sight,
things like that.  Got it?"
     He waited until we'd all answered before he gave me the nod, and I
started the 'game'.

***
16:32 13 Sep

     "You people are insane," Kim declared as we took a well-deserved
break.  We'd been playing hard for a while, teaching Kelly the tactical
commands she'd need, and refreshing all of us with the game and the way
it worked.  We had to do it without cheats, too, which sort of cut down
on the fun, but I had a feeling they wouldn't let me run the server for
my own team on Field Day.  Though I had my fingers crossed...

***
17:19 13 Sep

     Mike had taken the rest of Da Boyz up to my room, to brief them on
what had happened the night before, while I was supervising freshthings
as they lugged computers and monitors back to where I'd stolen them
from.  Dad would have made me do this anyway, and if I was going to have
a party here, with normal people - Sabrina at least counted as somewhat
normal, as did Pam and Amanda, and I didn't know what the Little Sisters
were like yet - so it would be best if expensive electronics were not
sitting around anywhere someone might want to spill a drink.
     "Almost done," Paul said, right before the doorbell rang.
     I commented, "Bloody hell," and went up to go see who it was.
     "Maybe it's Jehovah's Witnesses!" someone said behind me, and then
they were all behind me as I looked through the peephole.
     "No such luck," I announced, and opened the door to admit Kathy and
some tall girl I didn't know.
     "TUCK!" Kathy squealed, and I would've run for it except there were
all these little geeks blocking my escape route, and before I could
thrash my way through them, Kathy had caught me from behind, tossed me
in the air, and re-caught me so we were face to face.
     "How are you?" she smiled affectionately at me from way too close.
     "Terrified," I gasped.  "How're you?"
     She chuckled and put me down, which I was so thankful for, I ended
up hugging her.  I realized after a while that this was kind of
incongruous, but immediately after that I realized that having my face
stuffed into Kathy's cleavage was a pleasant place to be, as long as I
was on my own feet and could breathe.
     She smelled nice too.
     "Okay, Tuck," she eventually said, "get your face out of my tits
now," as she patted me affectionately on the shoulder.
     "Okay," I sighed as I pulled out.  She introduced me to her
'Little' Sister Cory.  Cory was about as tall as my dad, or taller; way
taller than me, though shorter than Kathy or Travis.  Kind of nice
looking, except she looked like she'd just grown several inches; she had
that sort of on-stilts look about her.  And dressed sort of nice, like
Kathy was; dance-party kind of outfits.
     "Don't stick your face in her tits; you don't know her well enough
yet," Kathy warned me.
     "Ha ha," I said.  "Nice to meet you.  Want some cookies?"
     "What kind?" Cory asked.
     I grinned, "Fresh baked."
     "Anything," Kathy said to Cory as she immediately headed for the
kitchen, "Tuck cooks is probably worth eating."  Cory looked at me, and
I shrugged modestly and followed Kathy.

***
17:22 13 Sep

     "So, this is the party?" Kathy asked as we all clustered around the
living room; George had some new anime stuff on tape, and the best video
setup was in the living room.
     "No, this is the post-practice, pre-party, in-between setup party,"
Mike said.
     "Ah, I see," Kathy lied as she nodded.  Cory just looked vaguely
uncomfortable.
     "And we need to set up," I mentioned.  There was stuff to lock up
and more stuff to make sure was already locked up, and then there were
the rest of the cookies to bake, and extra food and drinks to get ready,
and all that.
     "You have any music?" Kathy asked.
     "Oh, my dear darling sweetheart," I smirked at her.  "Do I have
music?  Whatcha want?"
     "Dance music," she smiled back at me.

***
17:44 13 Sep

     You could sort of dance while setting up for a party, I was
discovering.  That was kind of neat.  And Kathy was helping, which sort
of guilted Cory and the rest into helping too, and then Kim was making
some phone calls to people to make sure they were coming, and the non-
public parts of the basement and Dad's office were secured quickly
enough, and the other bedrooms too, and I'd changed into some nicer
clean clothes, and James had been ordered to handle the second load of
cookie-baking, which I figured he could handle at this point, and Dan
had run off with some money to get some other goodies...
     I heard a noise, and looked around and saw Dana, who was looking a
little irritated.  I waved and smiled at her.

***
17:46 13 Sep

     "You weren't supposed to start until six," she reminded me.
     "Hey, Kathy wanted music, and we're setting up for the party now.
Kath showed up about, uh, five twenty or something, with her Little
Sister- that's the school thing, remember?  And what was I supposed to
do, tell her to take off?"
     She sighed at me, sounding a lot like my mother.
     I stuck my head back in the house and screamed, "KATHY!  I NEED
YOU!  KITCHEN!"  I pulled my head back in and said to Dana, "You'll
see," and waited through the lecture until Kathy stuck her head out and
Dana stopped.  "Kathy, Dana's chaperoning for the weekend.  Come out
here for a second."
     Dana watched as Kathy came out, and then Dana was looking up at
Kathy.  UP at Kathy.
     "See?  How could I say no when she arrived at my front door?  Or
wanted to hear music a little early?"
     "Oh, uh, I didn't mean to get you in trouble," Kathy said a bit
nervously, looking at me.  I wondered how she'd picked that up so
quickly.  Maybe it was the mention of 'chaperone'.  "I just asked..."
     When Kathy looked back at Dana, and Dana was looking at me, I
pointed up at Kathy, and then at myself, and then made various motions
highlighting the relative sizes of the two of us.  Me small, her big.
     Dana's head started yawing back and forth, but she was smiling just
a bit.  "You were the one that taught the first aid class, right?" she
asked Kathy.
     "Oh, yeah," Kathy nodded.  "One of 'em, this friend of mine was the
other instructor..."
     When it looked like that was going to develop into a conversation,
I eased myself back inside and ran away to find something else to do.
There was a lot, but it seemed to be happening quickly.

***
18:02 13 Sep

     "Oh, my," Julia said as I opened the door and music poured out.
     "Hey!" I grinned, and got a hug from her as she came in.  I decided
not to hug her Little Sister, though - another one taller than me,
though shorter than Kathy's.  I did say, "Hope you like dancing.  I'm
Tucker."
     "Janet," she replied, and we shook hands.
     I explained, "Upstairs is a bathroom, everything else is locked up;
on the main floor we have a stereo in front, refreshments in back, and
another bathroom, and in the basement we have light video and couches.
And a third bathroom."
     "You ought to do it the other way 'round," Julia said over the
music.  "Have the dancing in the basement, conversation upstairs."
     "You think?" I asked.  "I thought it'd work better this way.  And
the audio's better upstairs."

***
18:05 13 Sep

     "It's good enough downstairs," Mike said.
     "Well...  I guess," I said, scratching my neck.
     "Trust me," Julia smiled at me, and put an arm across my shoulders,
as Dana came in.  I smiled and waved, but the doorbell rang again.

***
18:06 13 Sep

     "I love dancing!" Amanda shrieked, so of course that was when the
stereo was shut off.
     Her expression, though, made me wish I had my camera ready.
     "Uh, they're moving the music and dancing downstairs," I got out
without laughing.  It was a strain, though.
     "Oh, okay," she smiled, looking relieved.  "Uh, mm-Tuck, this is
Sally, my Little Sister.  Sal, this is Tucker."
     "Hi," I smiled.  Sally was a smallish Asian girl with a neat
haircut, a lot like Kelly's.
     "Hello," she said, a bit awkwardly.
     "Come in, come in, you two look great," I said, and took the hug
from Amanda she gave me as she went past.  "This is Dana, the referee
for the evening," I said as I let go of Amanda.  "You know Kathy
already-"
     "Hey!" called George over the radio, "Can we put anime back on?"
     "Uh, sure!" I yelled back after I was sure that I wouldn't be
yelling in anyone's ear.  "Rewind it!"

***
18:10 13 Sep

     "This is weird," Cory commented as she sat on the sofa - having
outmassed most of the rest of us, she got one of the getting-rarer
actual seats.
     "Yeah, but it's not quite kid's stuff," Mike mentioned as he
reappeared.  "Tuck, you wanna check the sound in the basement?"

***
18:12 13 Sep

     Someone had fiddled with the equalizer, but I set that right and
reran the THX sound check.  "Ooooh, yeah," I said to myself as it
whipped through the channels and flared up and hung over me for several
long glorious seconds before racing away into the distance.
     "Does it need to be that loud?" Dana yelled from the top of the
stairs.
     "Oh yeah!" I yelled back, and then the 'second' track, the first
real one, kicked in.
     "Door!" she yelled.
     "Damnit," I sighed, and stopped dancing before I really got started
and went to go see who it was.

***
18:16 13 Sep

     "Hey, thanks a lot," I said to Ellen as we carried stuff into the
house.  "I really appreciate it."
     "It's okay," she said, kind of absently.  "Who's here?"
     "Um, well, Kathy, Julia..."

***
18:21 13 Sep

     "Ginger?" I asked Ginger, who was standing at my front door after
having apparently rung the doorbell.
     "Uh, yeah, hi," she said, and pushed her glasses back up.  "Um,
George said you were having a party tonight?  I brought some chips and
stuff," she said as she held up a bag.  She was also dressed nicely, for
her - she'd taken off her jeans for once.  Well, I was certain she had
more than one pair of jeans, but she wasn't currently wearing any of
them, having picked a long flowing skirt instead.
     "Oh, yeah, come on in," I said, and opened the door for her.

***
18:23 13 Sep

     "Well, she's cool," George told me, "and you said it was a party,
so when I asked her if she wanted to come, she said yes."
     "Uhhhh..."  I hadn't really intended this to be an 'X and guest'
party, but then I hadn't specified that it WASN'T, either.  And Ginger
was alright.  A bit geeky, but it wasn't like we could complain.  And as
far as I knew, she'd never spat on any of us.
     Then I noticed that the living room was pretty empty.  "Where is
everybody?"

***
18:24 13 Sep

     "You have to let 'em cool off for a while," I insisted as I pushed
my way through the crowd.  "Or you'll burn yourself."
     "Shut up, Tuck!" Kim cursed from the sink where she was running
cold water over her fingers.
     "Get," I yelled, then took another breath.  "OOOUUUTTT!"
     "Did you really bake those?" Amanda asked James.

***
18:28 13 Sep

     "I dunno...  I just feel kinda weird, like this," Kelly said.  "I
mean, you didn't say we had to dress up for it..."
     "Black tie and tails!" George cackled, and Kelly glared at him
before turning a wounded look on me.
     "What he means," I explained as I dished out cookie dough onto a
sheet, "is that the last time we said that, we had black ties, as belts,
and these like tails that we tied on the back of our pants.  Like fake
raccoon tails and things like that.  Dan had a rope one, but he tufted
up the end of it so it looked like a poodle..."
     "Oh, okay," she nodded.  She still didn't look comfortable.
     "Want someone to run you home real quick so you can change?" I
offered.
     "Maybe Tuck has something you can wear," George smirked.
     We both glared at him as he laughed to himself.  "Go watch your
tape," I demanded.  "No, wait."

***
18:31 13 Sep

     "You sure this is okay?" Kelly asked nervously.
     "Sure I'm sure!  She's my sister, isn't she?"  I was counting on
Kelly's being an only child, because then she wouldn't realize that
that was sort of like McCarthy going 'He's a Communist, isn't he?'
     I got the stick on the wedge, and pushed, and then I could stand
back up and open the door normally.  "Ummm..."  I went to go investigate
Susan's closet. "Holy crap!"
     "What?"
     "I forgot how much she had in here..."  I started paging through
the hangers and clothes, looking for something...  "Oh.  Oh yeah."  I
pulled it off the rod, and it was the dress I remembered.  "This one."
It was a deep wine color, with wide-ish straps but no sleeves, and
flared a bit below the hips so the skirt would swing more when dancing,
and some black lace around the cleavage.

***
18:32 13 Sep

     "No!"
     "Oh, come on.  It won't hurt-"
     "No!"
     "Just, come on, try it..."
     "No, I can't!"
     "Oh, come on, please?  For me?"

***
18:36 13 Sep

     "I look stupid!" Kelly growled.
     "No, you don't.  Well, a little," I admitted, "but if you took off
that T shirt and just wore the dress, it'd look great."
     "No it wouldn't!"

***
18:38 13 Sep

     "Hey guys!" I called, and Kelly made a mighty heave, but I had been
expecting that so she didn't escape.  "Whatcha think?"
     "Whoa," Kim said appreciatively as Kelly stopped struggling
momentarily.  Then she stomped on my foot, whacked me in the face, and
took off.
     "Still got that special way with the ladies," Julia quipped as I
staggered around, trying not to fall down.
     "Did it look good?" I panted.
     "Oh, yeah," she agreed.  Kim had already figured out what was going
on and had chased after Kelly.
     "So go tell HER that," I demanded.

***
18:44 13 Sep

     It had taken longer than I'd thought it would, but apparently the
combined talents of Kathy, Kim, and Julia, were equal to Debbie's,
because eventually Kelly - surrounded by the other three - came back in,
barefoot but wearing the dress without the T shirt.
     "That DOES look good," I said smugly.
     "Yes," Sally nodded at Kelly.
     "I look stupid!" Kelly moaned.

***
18:46 13 Sep

     "But I don't know HOW to do makeup!"
     Mike put his head in his hands and moaned something I didn't catch.

***
18:49 13 Sep

     "Only you, Tuck," Sabrina said from over my shoulder.
     "Hey, you made it!" I said as I put the eyeliner down and got up.
     "We'll get it," Julia assured me as she moved into my chair at the
kitchen table.  "You go play hostess."
     I got a hug from Sabrina, who looked fantastic as usual in a black
leather miniskirt and a white halter top so I told her so, then said hi
to Valerie the Younger, who also looked good in a 'nice' pair of white
shorts and a light blue string-strapped top.  "Want some fresh cookies?"
     "Did you BAKE?" Sabrina gasped.  "Oh my god," she grinned.
     "What are you doing?" Valerie the Younger asked.
     "Same thing I did to you earlier," Sabrina answered over her
shoulder as she picked up some chocolate chip heaven, and Valerie
blushed around her ears and neck.

***
18:53 13 Sep

     "'But gosh, Mister Wizard!'" Mike repeated what I hadn't heard
earlier.  "'How could you make anything blow up?'  'Well, kids, like
this!'  I mean, shit, Tuck!  Did you two work this out upstairs or
something?"
     "No!" I protested.  "Remember, she, we..."  I motioned him close
and whispered in his ear, "Remember the stuff in the park?  I don't
think she ever learned the dress and makeup and hair stuff, because she
never wanted to attract boys with it."
     "You may be right," Mike admitted as I pulled away.  "But still,
Tuck, come on..."
     "She felt bad, and out of place," I told him, "because everyone
else was dressed nicer than her.  Even James," who had at least changed
into a NextGen uniform tunic and pants, and looked halfway decent except
for his glasses and the fact that his clothing screamed 'FANBOY GEEK!'.
"I didn't want her to feel like that at my party."
     Mike shook his head.
     "Tuck?" Dana asked.  "Why are they putting makeup on in the
kitchen?"
     The doorbell rang, saving me from having to answer the question.
     When I opened the door it was Rachel.  "Hey!" I said.
     "Hi!" chirped Rachel.  "How's it going?"
     "Pretty good, come on in!"  I hugged her for a while, then let her
go.
     "Who's this?" Dana asked.  She sure seemed to be following me a lot
tonight.
     "Uh, Dana, this is Rachel - haven't you met at Sunday dinner once
or twice?"  I couldn't remember who'd been here at which Sunday any
more.  "She's in college.  This is Dana, the chaperone for the party
this evening..."  Dana was giving me this WEIRD look, but I couldn't
figure out what else to call her.
     "Oh, hey Rachel!" Sabrina called from the living room, and Rachel
waved.

***
18:58 13 Sep

     "No, it looks nice, for a party," Dana assured Kelly.
     Kelly asked limply, "It does?"
     Dana nodded confidently.
     "Yeah, this is way too much for school or work," Sabrina said
assuredly, "but for a party, you want to wear more."
     "I'm wearing more than usual, tonight," Dana admitted.  I peered at
her, and she was.  "What?"
     "I hadn't thought about it," I said.  "It looks good."
     "Uh, thanks," she said, sounding lightly puzzled.
     "You're not wearing any," Kelly said.  "Tuck," she grinned.
     Pause.
     As the girls swung to grin at me, I said, "NO no nononononono..."
and started backing up.

***
19:01 13 Sep

     "We'll buy pizza for everybody!" Kathy bid over the noise.
     *Oh crap!*  I'd forgotten about dinner.  Even though we had chips
and stuff...
     "Come on, give me the money if you want to see Tuck in makeup,"
Kathy announced.  She could really do a good imitation of a PA system
when she wanted to.
     And bills started appearing in Kathy's hands.
     And I'd hesitated too long.  I realized that the only ways to stop
it now, would be to have a complete hissy fit, or start shooting them,
and they WERE my friends and I DID want them to have fun at the party.
     Though it looked like they were going to be having way too much
fun, real quick, judging by the wad of cash Kathy was accumulating.
     "Good one, Tuck," Mike said into my ear.
     "ME?!"

***
19:06 13 Sep

     I'd gotten them to agree to let me change into a tank top so I
wouldn't get makeup all over the collar of the shirt I'd been wearing,
and when I'd finished leaving a receipt for the dress I'd borrowed from
Susan, as well as made sure both bedrooms were locked up again, I was
coming back downstairs as the doorbell rang.  "I got it!" I yelled, and
went to go see who it was.
     Pam and three kids I didn't know, it turned out.  "Hey!" Pam said
as she came in, "How's the party going?"
     "It's about to get real weird," I sighed into her neck.
     "Well, this is Bridgette, my Little Sister," Pam said after we
broke the hug, "and her twin brother Sean, and this is Anne Marie,
Jill's Little.  Jill's at work still," she explained to anyone who
didn't know that yet.  "How is it getting weird?"

***
19:12 13 Sep

     Dana had her hands covering her eyes, but she couldn't resist
looking every so often.
     "See, with blue eyes," Sabrina said, "we wanna use something
that'll complement it, not copy it or take away from it.  Julia,
where's-"
     "This one?" Julia asked as she handed an eye shadow to Sabrina.  It
was purple.

***
19:19 13 Sep

     "You and your fat mouth," I grumbled at Kelly after the applause
had died down.
     "I was just kidding," she said sullenly, her arms wrapped around
her body.  And my sister's dress.
     "Why..." Dana asked me, looking stunned.
     "Oh hell, it's just makeup," I sighed.  "I mean, if I'd really
complained, they wouldn't have done it.  Right?" I asked Sabrina.
     "Oh, yeah," she nodded.  "I mean, you could have said no."
     I could have, but then they probably would have talked me into it
anyway, so I hadn't bothered this time.  Besides, Mike or someone was
calling to order a MASSIVE stack of pizza, which I was not required to
pay for.
     "It's just for fun," Julia assured Dana.  "Right?"
     "Right!"  *Fun.  Hmm.*  "Hey, c'mere," I said as I put a hand on
Julia's shoulder and pulled her closer.
     "What?" she asked, but I grabbed her head and kissed her on the
cheek, very precisely.  Well, it was more of a stamping sort of motion.
"Oh, Tuck," she grinned at me as I let go.  "You perv, now I'm gonna
look like the girls have been kissing on ME all night!"
     "Ha, ha-ha, ha-ha," I sang at her as Sabrina did the same thing on
the other side.  Julia just rolled her eyes and stood there.
     Dana just shook her head.  "Tuck, if you're sure you're okay with
it..."  She trailed off.
     "It's fine.  Nobody's gonna laugh," I guessed, deliberately a bit
loud, "because they don't want it happening to them next."
     That kind of quieted things for a while, as the guys heard what I'd
said.  Heh.

***
19:24 13 Sep

     I'd finally gotten to dance, and I was greatly enjoying dancing
with Kathy and a few other girls.  And there were guys there too,
dancing instead of hugging the wall and looking stupid, but it was Kathy
who was occupying most of my attention, because she was occupying most
of the space, or so it seemed.
     Kelly was starting to get into it too, though, which was good.

***
20:22 13 Sep

     Jill came in with Kathy, and when she saw me, sitting and steaming
on the couch as I rehydrated and chatted, she immediately fell over,
laughing and pointing.
     A few seconds later, I turned to Julia and said, "Ya know, she's
laughing.  And, what did we say was going to happen to anyone that
laughed?"
     Julia's mouth opened, but she didn't say anything, she just smiled
and raised a finger up.
     "We must approach this with stealth and cunning," she said subtly.
     "I like your style," I grinned.  She grinned back.

***
20:27 13 Sep

     Jill came up and put an arm around my waist and purred, "I'm so
glad you're madly in love with me."  I smiled back until I realized she
was wearing my clothes.
     "Hey!" I complained.  "That's my shirt!  And my pants!"
     "Well I had to wear something clean to work!" she complained back.
     "Y-  Y-  But-"
     She smiled at me.
     *Fuck stealth,* I decided.  "Hey, Jill, seen the food yet?"

***
20:31 13 Sep

     "Oh, god," Jill wailed.  "Stoooooppppp!"
     "Come on, Jill, stop whining," I commanded.  Eyeliner was hard
enough to do without her complaining at the same time.
     Matt added, "Yeah, take it like a man."
     We all busted up on the floor, even Jill.

***
20:46 13 Sep

     "Huh huh huh," Jill grunted, "yeah, nice ass on that one!"
     "Huh, yeah!" I snorted.  "Show us sumptin', honey!"
     Kim wriggled for us and licked a finger in a most provocative way,
and we almost fell off the porch we were laughing so hard.

***
20:55 13 Sep

     We went back in for pizza, still chuckling, at least until I saw
Dana sitting at the dining room table with her arms over her head.
     "Dana?" I asked as I sat down next to her.  "You feeling okay?"
     She pulled her arms off and lifted her head enough to look at me.
"What," she asked quietly, but not very calmly, "can I POSSIBLY tell
your parents?"
     "Um...  Well, tell them we had guys and girls over, and there was
dancing, and videos, and pizza, and nobody was drinking," that I could
tell anyway, "and that we had a lot of fun and nobody got hurt?"
     She put her head back down.
     "Dana, come on," I pleaded.  "It's not like anything BAD has
happened or anything!  I mean, we're laughing our asses- uh, our butts
off, and we're doing it at ourselves, not at other people like we're
making fun of them or anything.  Even Kelly's starting to get
comfortable.  She was dancing before," I said.  "And nobody was laughing
at her for wearing a dress or the makeup or anything; we all thought she
looked good."
     Dana just sighed heavily.
     "Come on...  You didn't think _I_ was going to have a NORMAL party,
did you?"
     She looked up again, and kind of snorted, like I'd scored no matter
how much she didn't want me to.
     "Is anyone doing stupid- I mean, DANGEROUS stupid stuff?" I
prodded.  George being around people activated some sort of a walking
stupid-stuff generator.  And girls usually made it worse.  "Is anyone in
trouble?  No?  Are people having fun?  Are there enough different people
and places so if they want to talk or dance or laugh at something, we
won't all run over each other and ruin each other's time?  Huh?"
     She sighed again.  "Tuck..."
     I waited.
     A long time.
     "I guess," she said as she shook her head and got up.
     "Besides," I claimed, "it's not me doing it, it's all those icky
girls doing it."
     "Ohhhhh, PLEASE!" she groaned emphatically at me.  But she was
smiling as my watch went off.

***
21:02 13 Sep

     "Everything's okay out here," Dad said.  "How's the party, over?"
     "Oh, great.  We set your bed on fire, but the fire department
brought some kegs and we found a band...  Over," I said when my lies
momentarily failed me.
     "Great, wonderful, glad to hear it," Dad said, and I got
suspicious.  "You should stay home tomorrow, and make it easier for the
assassins to find you; they have a daily rate.  Anything else?  How's
Brian?  Over."
     "Last I saw of him, this morning, he was fine.  Went over to
Whatsisname's house and took the stupid cat with him.  Everything else,
I left a report.  Over."
     "Report on what?"
     "Unsecure channel.  Over."
     Pause.
     "Still on course and on time?" I asked.  "Over."
     "Yeah," Dad said, "we should be home around the ETA."  A short gap
in transmission, then he said, "Mom and I love you, kid.  Over."
     "Love you too, Dad.  Stand by..."  I looked at Dana and she shook
her head.  "Dana says she misses you and your sweet lips but that's it.
Over."  I had my chuckles when I let go of the mike button, as Dana
started spluttering before she stomped out.
     After several seconds, Dad said, "Jeez, not in front of my wife,
you idiot!" sounding authentically anxious, but I could hear chuckling
in the background.  "Anything else, over?"
     "Negative, over."
     "See you then," he said, and cleared the channel.  I listened for
a bit longer, just to be safe, then shut everything down and went to go
rejoin the party.

***
21:35 13 Sep

     Dancing was good.  Dancing was fun.
     Dancing obliterated all thought, if you did it right.

***
21:49 13 Sep

     "You're pretty good," I panted to Cory, who was just about as tired
as I was.  I could understand that; she had more mass to swing around.
     "Thanks," she panted back.
     "Liking the party?"
     "Yeah..."  She trailed off, then said, more boldly, "S'alright."

***
21:53 13 Sep

     "Yeah," Cory said as we sat down on the stairs - me higher so we
could be eye to eye - to rest and drink and have some pizza.  "I mean,
when we first got here, I thought it was going to be boring..."
     "Sorry," I apologized.
     "No, it's alright," she said, and looked at the front door, or so
it seemed, as she sipped at her drink.  "I mean, what I thought was,
either it would be like this really lame thing where nothing was going
on except weird movies, or it'd be like one of those stupid get-drunk
things, you know?  But this is cool, I guess," she said slowly.
     "What, you want...  More date-able boys on the guest list?" I
guessed, and she laughed.  And nodded.  "I'll see what I can do, if I
ever have another one of these...  We're not too popular a group, you
know.  And some of the popular guys are not ones I want in my house."
     She made a quick face and asked, "Why?"
     "Because they'd turn it into one of those get-drunk things, and if
I refused to let that happen, they'd leave.  You know."  And she nodded
again.  "Now," I offered, "if you could find guys that are worth dating,
and wouldn't act like that, I think we could invite them to the next
one..."
     "Is this, like, a regular thing, you having a party?"
     "Nah, not really, but sometimes my folks go out of town, or can be
bribed to stay out real late, and if they aren't here they won't be
complaining about the stereo being too loud or what's on TV or stuff."
I shrugged.  "I mean, it's not like I have to sneak around them - Dana's
here watching, remember? - but it's just easier if they aren't home
until the party's over."
     She nodded slowly, and we had some pizza.
     After a while, she mentioned casually, "Your makeup's running."
     I froze just long enough to remember everything about tonight and
makeup, then shrugged.  "Ah, who cares...  It's not like I'm trying to
pick up the guys with it or something."
     She chuckled, and I sipped at my coke and felt relieved.

***
21:56 13 Sep

     We were having a nice chat, there on the stairs, when I saw Valerie
the Younger go past, and thought I saw something else...
     "Excuse me," I said to Cory, and got up quickly.  "Valerie!" I
called out, and she turned, and I was right.  Oh crap.  "Cory, excuse me
please, could you go into the living room?  Valerie, c'mere.  Now," I
said, trying for Dad's command voice.
     It worked well enough, because Cory got up slowly, and Valerie
stopped and came over to me, looking very confused.  I would have said
something then, but George and Paul and Matt came out of the living
room.  I tossed my head in the direction of the stairs, and when she
started up, I followed her.
     "What-"
     *Damn.*  There were people up here too, Ginger and the two twins,
whose names I'd forgotten, talking while sitting against the walls.
"Come on, excuse us," I said, and pushed Valerie along until we got to
the bathroom.  I guided her in there and went in myself and shut the
door momentarily.
     "What the hell?" she asked, looking fearfully at me.
     "You're spotting, Val," I said quietly.  "I didn't want to announce
it to everyone.  Is there anything I can get you?"
     "I'm what?"
     *Hhnnn,* I thought quizzically, *maybe that's not the right word?*
"You're leaking?" I tried.
     "What?"
     Well, at least she was looking more confused and less scared now.
     "Your shorts, you're showing, uh..."  A glance told me more than I
wanted to know; there was a small driblet of blood seeping down her
thigh.  "Uh, Val, you really need to take care of that," I said as I
shut my eyes and pointed.
     When she said, "Take care of WHAT?" my eyes popped open again.
     "Your period?" fell out of my mouth before I could stop it.
     "My what?"  She crossed her arms and glared at me.  "What are you
talking about?"
     I wondered if I'd somehow gotten some LSD tonight.
     Then I wondered if she had.
     "I haven't..."  She stopped and looked down at herself, then bent
in the middle to look further, and screamed.  A lot.
     "Waitwaitwait, itsokayitsokayitsokay-" I babbled as I tried to get
to where I could help her.  I was not expecting a fist into my face, nor
was I expecting to step into a catbox as I staggered backwards.  Kitty
litter on tile, I discovered then, is not the most grippy surface, even,
or especially, if you're wearing shoes.
     I fell almost right, even though I bounced off the wall, but got an
arm a little too far outboard and thus when I landed, instead of landing
flat on the floor, I landed nipple first onto the bar of my arm which
produced the most amazing and intense burst of pain I'd ever felt,
except maybe for the last time I'd banged them hard.  I didn't scream, I
thought, but things went kind of blank for a while.
     The frantic knocking on the door scared the hell out of me, and
Valerie, because she started screaming something else, I think at me.  I
scrambled to get up, and rammed the top-back of my head into a towel
rack I had forgotten about.  Then spasmed a bit and fell down because of
the kitty ball bearings.
     I didn't know what I landed on that time, but it hurt even worse
than the first one, and I DID scream that time.  Valerie hadn't stopped.
     "Fuck quiet," I decided, and the hammering on the door told me I'd
better get up quick and start explaining things, so I shot up, pushing
myself off the floor with my hands, sliding and spasming-
     And rammed the back of my head into the towel rack, which broke
this time, and one of the pieces managed to clonk me in the head a third
time on its way down.
     I decided I'd just lie there and think about things for a minute.
     The door busted open, slamming me in the hand, and then someone
tripped over me or something and landed on the back of my legs with
their full weight.  Then someone else landed on top of THEM and slid off
and fell on my back.  _I_ started screaming at that point; kitty gravel
in the nipples hurt an awful lot when someone was doing the tango on
your back.  Much less two.
     Then it got really confused.
     At some point I ended up pointed at the door, so I frantically
crabbed my way to it, yanked the door open, pulled myself upright, and
started to move into the hallway, but it was full of a whole BUNCH of
people standing around listening to the show; they didn't look nearly as
confused as I felt.
     I slammed the door shut and whirled around, and saw Mike staring at
me, looking rather wild-eyed, and behind him the bathtub/toilet subroom
door was shut.  *Oh fuck, I'm trapped!*
     I took a deep breath, which made me realize that I smelled
intensely of cat urine.  
     I grabbed Mike's arm with one hand, opened the bathroom door with
the other, screamed, "RUN!" as loud as I could, and everyone pretty much
did.  Including Mike, and the combination of kitty litter and panic
unbalanced one of us which because of the way we were holding on to each
other's arms unbalanced the other one and we fell down just inches short
of the threshold.
     Of course, Mike ended up falling on top of me.
     I screamed some more, but stayed still for a bit, figuring that I'd
be safer if I did, and Mike got up and ran over me, stepping on my arm.
When he left, I got up to find the people hugging the walls as Mike
screamed a lot, so I pulled the door shut and followed him, which
allowed me to make it down the stairs, through the kitchen, off the back
porch, and into the grass in the backyard without further incident.
     It was very quiet and peaceful outside.
     "Was that a flashback?" Mike asked worriedly.

***
22:02 13 Sep

     "Tuck?  Mike?" Kim called from the porch.  "Are you out there?"
     "Don't answer, it might be a trap!" I whispered at Mike.
     "Don't fuck with my head right now," Mike snapped back, and stood
up and waved.  "Yeah, over here!" he called.
     "Dumbass!" I hissed and started crawling away, which was going
painfully but well until Mike put a foot on my back.

***
22:04 13 Sep

     "I was TRYING to be discreet!" I complained.
     "THAT was DISCREET?!" Julia yelped disbelievingly.
     "I TRIED!" I screeched.  "Oh, god, I really did," I moaned quieter,
"I mean, I didn't just announce it right there when I saw it...  I tried
to get her someplace she could take care of it, but she acted like she
didn't know what I was talking about!  Then she started screaming!"
     "She DIDN'T know what you were talking about," Kim told me.
     "What?" Mike and I said simultaneously.
     Julia sighed and said, "That was her first one.  Tonight.  Here."
     "Oh, nooooo..." I moaned, and curled into a shameful guilt-ridden
ball on the porch.

***
22:08 13 Sep

     The boys had been banned from the entire top floor, and so they
came to annoy the next most interesting thing - me.  And some of my girl
'friends' as well.
     I'd worried about Valerie getting teased - if you can call the
usual psychological abuse I'd observed and occasionally participated in,
'teasing' - but the girls just slightly outnumbered the boys tonight,
and furthermore Kathy had apparently decided she was more needed
outdoors as a social control than with Valerie.  And Kathy had a certain
way with words, especially when she was twisting your arm and lifting
you to your tiptoes.  She had 'explained' to everyone what the etiquette
of the situation was going to be, and even George hadn't been dumb
enough to fool around after that pronouncement.
     Of course, that left all the other screaming and the thumping as a
conversational topic.
     And I still wasn't entirely sure of what had happened up there.
That bathroom was proven too small for three siblings at one time; we'd
had four people in there, the other three of them upset with me, before
I could bail out, and I was going to have the bruises to prove it.
     Mike had the jist of it, though, and they were inventing the rest
to their own satisfaction, while I tried to melt into the ground or call
lightning upon myself or something.
     "Scrubs and soap," someone announced from the porch, and threw out
some bundles into the yard.  Mike and I went to go pick them up, shower
with the garden hose, and change.  I could have worried about them
laughing at me almost-naked, but the yard lights were off, and it wasn't
like I could feel much worse than I did already.

***
22:34 13 Sep

     That had sort of capped off the party, especially when people
started noticing they were pushing their curfew times.
     Everyone was very complimentary about the party, which was a very
nice lie, and one I dimly appreciated.  And most of the girls hugged me
on the way out.
     When Valerie came out, though, flanked by Dana and Sabrina and
wearing a set of scrub pants - her shorts were in the wash - I got down
on my knees in front of her and clasped my hands, though I couldn't
quite manage to look at her.
     "Valerie," I ground out, "I am REALLY sorry that...  That all this,
happened tonight, and that I couldn't think of a better way to, uh, to
handle things.  A-Are you, are you okay?  Or sort of?"
     "Yeah," she sighed, sounding so tired and dejected I almost cried
right there.  "Um, look," she said.  "I, I mean, it's, it's not your
fault..."
     "Yeah, it is," I said, feeling sick.
     "No, I mean...  You tried, really, to be quiet about it...  It was
me, 'cause I didn't get it, what you were trying to tell me.  Could you
get off your knees?  It's making me feel worse."
     I stood up, which hurt - lots of things were going to hurt for a
while.  Breathing hurt.
     A motion caught my eye, and I looked up enough to see her holding
her arms up, as if...
     "For real?"
     "Tuck!" Sabrina complained.
     So I hugged Valerie, like she wanted.  It hurt.  But not as bad.

***


"There's this to say for blood and breath,
 They give a man a taste for death."         -- Housman


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+ ==[--------   Ellen Hayes   @>--,--'---      ellen@barkingduck.net +
PGP DH/DSS keyfing: 33D4 156A AE39 53E2 0313  6714 2878 56A8 61B0 9CDC
+ http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes -=[1990]=- vicki .sig virus 11.4 +


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