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New Years Day . . .
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It was another sad day when the girls had to pack their bags and head home. They had another week until school started again, but Heather and Alice were both going to be looking for jobs, so they wanted a head start. They thanked Jane’s parents again for letting them used the beach house and Jane, Freddie and Michelle for the plane tickets. Michelle made Alice promise to call more often, which Alice agreed to and Heather made Jane promise to call when her physical relationship with her lovers was back on track, which Jane reluctantly agreed to. Pleasantries and fond farewells exchanged, the girls headed back to the university. Their hostesses had given all the girls travel games so that their increasingly frequent trips weren’t quite so tedious. They had word games and magnetic board games to occupy their time. There was one game where the participants were asked to provide nouns, proper nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs that were to be fit into a story, but they didn’t know what the story was about. They had to have Alice read the stories back to them since neither of the other two could do it with a straight face. At one point, when Alice was driving, Heather attempted to teach Laurie to play chess. After a while, she reluctantly acknowledged that it was a lot like trying to teach a dolphin how to roller-skate: it was kind of sad and doomed to failure, but it was also a lot of fun to watch.
When they got home, finding part-time jobs turned out to be easier than expected. Jenny and Mike dropped by to see them after they got back to town. Mike and Jenny had been visiting Mike’s parents over the break and, when they were given their plane tickets and informed of the plan for spring break, had gone to their boss and helped get all three girls jobs at O’Malley’s. They had even managed to guarantee the time for spring break, particularly since the girls were willing to work weekends. Even Laurie had decided to go to work, mostly since all her friends were going to be there anyway. She was going to work as a waitress, Alice was going to be in the kitchen and Heather was washing dishes and bussing tables. Some people might have been insulted by getting assigned to latter duties, but Heather preferred physical labor to anything else, and her social skills still needed a bit of work.
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A few days later . . .
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All three girls had just gotten back from their first day of training. Heather was actually in better spirits than her friends were for possibly the first time in known history. It was the type of work she was used to. Alice was mostly complaining about the heat of the kitchen, but that she would survive. Laurie was moaning about how no one had warned her not to wear heels. Heather finally got her to stop complaining by reminding her that this was just an excuse for her to go buy a new pair of comfortable shoes. Laurie perked up immediately, then used the pout attack to get Heather to go with her. Heather didn’t mind as much, since SHE wasn’t the one who would have to be trying anything on.
When they got back to Heather and Alice’s room, they found a note on the door that was addressed to Heather. The dark-haired girl grabbed it and read it out loud. It said:
“Look out behind you.”
Suddenly, Heather was grabbed and lifted off her feet and wrestled to the grass outside the dorm. Alice was taken aback and Laurie grabbed her cell phone as if to call the police. Then something happened that stopped her. Heather was laughing, and not just a little bit. She was laughing her head off. And she was fighting back. She had managed to out of her assailant’s grasp and had what appeared to be another woman locked around the waist in some sort of scissors grip with her legs. The woman had one of Heather’s arms and was twisting in a way which had to be painful. But this other woman was laughing too. Laurie and Alice both sat down on a bench a stared in total befuddlement at what was transpiring. Heather and the mystery woman wrestled for at least ten minutes before things ended. The mystery woman had Heather in a headlock with one arm, but Heather had grabbed the woman’s other arm and was threatening to bite her thumb off.
“Okay ya little cheater,” said the new woman, “we’ll call it a draw, but only ’cause I want to keep that thumb.” Heather mumbled some kind of agreement without removing her teeth from their current positions. “On the count of three. One . . . Two . . . Three!” Both girls let go at the same time, and then Heather gave a very ‘manly’ hug to the stranger.
Now that they weren’t rolling around on the ground like wild animals, Alice and Laurie got their first look at the woman. She was tall, appearing to be about six feet two inches. She was wearing dirty blue jeans and leather chaps. Her denim shirt was tied in a knot below her smallish breasts. She had a long lean body that, like Heather’s, was obviously low in fat content. She wasn’t quite the beauty queen that Laurie was, but her face had a fair amount of appeal, though some people might say it looked a little stern. A couple of things helped alleviate that sternness. For one, she was smiling one of the most brilliant, perfect, ear-to-ear smiles anyone had ever seen. It reminded Laurie of Shannon Elizabeth’s smile from the American Pie movies. Secondly, the girl’s eyes were an incredibly light-blue color that was incredibly striking. Her long hair was pale blonde; so pale it might be seen as white or silvery in direct sunlight. And the eyes and hair were made more striking by a deep, rich tan that covered all viewable areas of her body. Alice found herself needing to remember to breathe.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” asked a still-grinning Heather.
“Didn’t Grandpa tell you? I’m going to get my Masters degree.”
“Why? I thought you had a great job?”
“I do. It’s just . . .”
“AHEM!” This came from Laurie, who had found herself wondering who this woman was who had wrestled her girlfriend and gotten her all dirty and sweaty and . . . sweaty. Laurie’s mind snapped back to reality when Heather started to speak.
“Sorry. It’s just been a long time since we’ve seen each other . . .”
“Or pummeled each other,” the other woman added.
“Yeah. Anyway, this is Elizabeth Price. Mr. Price’s granddaughter.”
Laurie looked confused. “Wait, your old teacher, Mr. Price? You never said he had a granddaughter,” she said as she moved to stand beside her girlfriend. For some reason, she was feeling a bit threatened, though that threat diminished a bit when the Elizabeth gave another great big smile and offered Laurie her hand.
“Sorry for the disturbance ma’am. Call me Liz.” Liz turned to look at Heather. “So this is the fluff you’ve been dating that Grandpa told me about? Nice! Definitely better than some of those militants you used to date, and certainly better than that one guy you took for a spin.” Heather blushed as Laurie shot her a look that indicated that her girlfriend had some explaining to do. Then Liz turned back to look at Laurie, and more specifically to stare at her chest. “Damn, those things are big! Are they real? Can I touch them?” she said, wiggling her fingers.
“No!” said Heather and Laurie together as Heather moved between the two. The dark-haired girl had a vexed but amused look when she said, “Hands off, pig. Yes they’re real, and no, you can’t touch them.” Laurie gave a ‘So-there’ nod of her head.
“So,” Liz said with a glance at Alice, “who’s the skirt?” Alice blushed from head to toe.
“That’s Alice. She’s my roommate, friend and an extraordinary songwriter.” This made Alice lower her head shyly.
“Nice to meet you,” said Liz. Then she turned to Heather. “So what Grandpa said is true? You’re singing again?”
“Yeah. Mostly karaoke so far, but we’ve got a little band going and we’re going to start playing some bars, clubs and coffee houses this semester. Alice has given us almost a full set. Throw in a couple cover tunes and we’re almost ready to roll.”
Liz gave Heather a big hug. “It’s about friggin’ time.”
When released, Heather took Laurie’s hand. “I had some help getting back on track.”
Liz grabbed Laurie’s hand. “Then the world owes you a debt,” she said, giving Laurie’s hand a kiss. The she winked and released Laurie’s hand. Laurie blushed. With the blonde girl, flattery got you almost everywhere.
The four women went inside the dorm. “Hey,” Heather said to Alice, “would you mind entertaining Liz for a minute? I just need to take a shower.” She looked at Laurie and motioned her head in the direction of the shower. The two girls disappeared before Alice was able to object.
“Oh great,” she muttered, trying to avoid staring directly at the stranger in their midst. “This could take a while.” She sat on the edge of the bed with her hands on her knees, trying to think of something witty to say. “So . . . tell me about yourself.”
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In the shower . . .
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Heather turned on the shower quickly. She figured there were a few things Laurie needed to know, but she didn’t want to keep the other two girls waiting. Laurie was already undressed and giving her a ‘you’d better explain yourself’ look.
“First of all, you have nothing to worry about,” said Heather with a smile and a kiss. “She’s no threat to you. Secondly, I had no idea she was going to be here. Thirdly, there’s something you should probably know about her and I.” Heather actually started to blush. “She was my first.”
Laurie’s eyes shot open and that sense of nervous defensiveness returned. “You never said anything about Mr. Price having a granddaughter, much less that you had sex with her! How could you . . . ooh!” she said before climbing into the shower. Heather sighed, realizing that she was really going to have to work to get Laurie calmed down. She stripped and climbed in with her girlfriend. Laurie was trying to be petulant, but Heather started kissing her on the shoulder as the water cascaded over, and this greatly reduced Laurie’s desire to be difficult.