# Car 54

####
© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 2:
Detour - Washout Ahead

I was hoping that by Monday morning when we went to school all the nonsense about the party would have died down. Fat chance of that though! Instead things soon became even stranger and much more outrageous.

I didn't even get to the school door before Corinna had shoved Tom aside and was walking next to me saying, 'Good morning! Do you feel okay? You were sure a lot of fun at the party, but I was hoping you'd call me and we could ...' Then somehow George was was no longer walking on my other side, instead Carissa was walking there and she was yammering just as much as her sister, but she was holding onto one of my arms as well. For some reason that made me feel really uncomfortable. Only it got worse, because when we went inside Debbie was waiting to talk to me too. I was feeling surrounded, almost under attack and was looking for a way to escape their attention, but none seemed handy.

However, my little sister came to my rescue. Beth had ridden on the bus and had left while I was still doing my chores, so she'd gotten to school before me and she'd seen what was developing. She cut me out of that crowd of girls like a well trained quarter horse cutting a lone steer out of a herd of heifers.

"Chris, please, can I talk to you? Chris please, please? Sorry girls, I gotta talk to my brother in private, it's important family stuff," then she dragged me off to a corner where we could be relatively alone, leaving the three girls to fume, impatiently waiting for me to get free of my 'nasty' little sister. Only I decided that right then I'd rather be with Beth than with them.

"I don't know what you really did, but the rumour going around the school is that you not only left Debbie delirious with delight on Friday night, but that you got into both of the 'Ice Cube's panties. I don't care if you did or not, but having all three of them chasing after you like this the very next day of school is so much of an admission of guilt on their parts that no matter what they say, everyone is going to believe the rumour, dear Brother. So WAY TO FUCKING GO!" she was trying to look like she was frowning and she was whispering, but she was so excited she was almost bouncing. "Now, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Nothing much, but thank you for the rescue. Now, how the hell am I going to stay away from them for the rest of the school year, Miss Genius? Even you can't rescue me all the time!"

"Easy, you take them aside one at a time. Then you tell each one that you're so desperately worried about your finals and about making a good grade for a scholarship, so you'd really look at it as a great favour if they would wait until after school was done, then you can think about dating."

"But Dad and I have arranged that I'll go to the city to work right after ... OH!"

"Bingo!" she grinned. "For once in my life I am going to get to see the 'Ice Cubes' get frozen out."

"Little sister, you aren't careful you're going to become a cast-iron, ball-busting, bitch."

"Make that a bitch busting witch and I'll agree," she giggled, just as the class warning bell rang and she had to run off.

So I put on a worried frown and let that tenacious trio escort me to home room and my first class of the day. By the end of the day, I had managed to get each of them aside and alone for a few minutes. With my knees quaking in fear at even being alone with a girl to talk to her, I told each one that I really couldn't afford to even think about going out with anyone right then. I found myself telling each one that I absolutely had to do well on my finals and that I definitely had to concentrate on school work, but if she were a real doll ... Well, you get the picture, I was trying my best to let each of them down easily and not tell too big a whopper while I was doing it.

And I thought the whole thing would just fade away after that. Only it didn't, because ... do you remember that camera I mentioned seeing in their folks bedroom? Uh huh, well when I opened my locker the next morning there was a picture lying there, staring me in the eye! It had obviously been slid under the door of the locker for me to find and it must have been taken shortly before I woke up. It was certainly me and it was definitely the twins. The only thing different from when I had woken up was that both of them had their legs together then, but in the picture their legs were open a bit and I even had one hand resting on each girl's butt. Not just that, but from the angle the picture was taken it almost looked like both of the girls were trying to hold 'Mr. Happy' through my shorts. I just stared at that damn picture, but I didn't have any idea what to do. Then the first bell rang to call everyone to their classrooms, so stupid me did nothing. I just went off to class. Oh, I intended to talk to the Coulter girls, but I didn't know what to say, so I put it off for the time being while I tried to think of a way to tell them that someone had taken a picture of us while we'd been asleep.

I'd hidden the picture, but I soon realized it wasn't the only copy around. When I saw Debbie, she just stuck her nose in the air, then turned around and walked away. I was hoping she was just reacting to the fact that she had seen me talking with Carissa the day before. Neither of the twins could have seen the picture yet though, since they were being perfect angels, smiling in my direction, but not bothering me so I could 'concentrate.' Only during lunch break the shit hit the fan! I watched in helpless horror as a younger kid ran up to the twins with an envelope for each of them, saying that some guy had sent them. When the girls asked who it was, the kid didn't know the guy's name, just that he was a grade twelve student who'd said he had to leave for the day and couldn't deliver the envelopes himself.

I knew what was in those envelopes, but I still didn't have a clue what to do about it, so I just stared in horrified fascination. Both of the girls opened the envelopes, glanced inside, then screamed and ran. I guess they were headed for home, but at that point I saw red and I lost my temper. I headed straight for the principal's office, well almost straight, I stopped at my locker first. If I had wanted revenge I don't suppose I would have done that, but damn it I felt that no girls deserved to be treated like that, not even the 'Ice Cubes.' Just as I turned into the office door, I saw my little sister come charging down the hall, waving her hand and calling my name. I assumed that she must have seen one of those damn pictures, but I wasn't in the mood to discuss anything like that with her right then.

So I ignored her and stomped straight up to the school secretary, demanding to see Mr. Gable, the school principal. When the secretary asked what it was about, I slapped the photo on the desk and told her someone was out to ruin my reputation and that of two Coulter girls at the same time. It's surprising how much cooperation the reaction to a shock will get you. In a minute or two I was in the principal's office.

I'm not sure exactly what I said, but in only a few minutes both my home-room teacher and one of my other teachers were standing there, telling the principal that the photo had to be a fake, that it was completely out of character for me and for the girls. Then the phone rang and when the principal answered I could tell it was my father. I could hear him clearly and since I was standing at least ten feet away from the phone, I knew he was MAD! Beth must have called him, because he said he was on his way into town. Dad said his first stop was going to be the police station and his second stop was going to be to pick up Carissa and Corinna's father, then they were coming to the school. He told Mr. Gable that he wanted every student who had been at the party assembled in one room when they got there "because one way or another, we are going to get to the bottom of this BULLSHIT!"

I was glad Dad was angry because I was pretty well wound up myself. None of this was my fault, maybe part of it was the girl's fault, but I was willing to bet that one of their ex-'boyfriends' who had struck out was actually at the bottom of this. An hour later, we had a confession, actually we had five of them. Two guys and three girls admitted that they had played drunk while getting me and the girls hammered by spiking our drinks. When we thought we were drinking beer or wine, what we were actually drinking was mostly vodka. Considering the amount they admitted that they had fed us, it was a bloody wonder we woke up at all and hadn't all died of alcohol poisoning.

Both of the guys had not only struck out with either one or the other of the twins in the past, but they had also tangled with me, trying to beat a little 'respect' into the 'little pipsqueak farm boy' who acted so smart. However, both of them had discovered that I was tougher than they were. In fact it seemed that they had a lot of respect for how tough I was. When I had fallen asleep at the party, they had managed to take of my shirt and pants, but they said I had been ready to fight each time they had tried to take off my shorts. Finally, they'd decided they didn't want to risk having a real fight with me, even if I was almost passed out from the booze they'd fed me. If I hadn't fought I imagine I would have been just as nude as the girls. The twins hadn't been anywhere near as much trouble for the girls to strip; they'd been far too drunk to cause any problems. They admitted that the picture was posed and they'd left us in the pose afterward, probably hoping that the twins would waken first and accuse me of rape.

That did it, I was screaming mad again so Dad had to hold me back. Meanwhile Mom was busy holding back Mr. Coulter, the twin's father. But no one was holding back either of the twins, they headed for those five creeps with revenge in their eyes. The guys were certain that the twins were after them and jumped up, trying to run away. Unfortunately, when they leaped toward the door, it was also toward my little sister. Beth swore afterward that she thought the two guys were attacking her, which was a bad move on their part!

Did I mention that Beth played center on the girl's soccer team? So while the twins went after the three girls who'd been involved, Beth tried to score a couple of goals, only she didn't have any soccer balls to kick. Instead her first kick was aimed somewhere between the ring leader's belt buckle and his knees, well they weren't soccer balls, but ... Anyway, since he was a lot more solid than a soccer ball, kicking him threw her off balance, but she managed to regain her balance in time to try a left footed corner kick on his buddy. In about ten seconds both guys were falling to the floor, but it happened so fast that the cops didn't even have a chance to react. By the time they did react Beth was already scrambling to her feet, backing away and acting scared. Since the two guys were crumpled into writhing heaps on the floor, the cops went after the Coulter Twins, quickly pinning their arms and pulling them away from the three girls who were cowering on the floor and bawling like babies.

For me, seeing all of the guilty parties lying on the floor, moaning, and begging for mercy, my anger faded into the background. All that was left was a feeling of sheer disgust. I really couldn't understand how five kids could be so screwed up. The cops and the teachers finally got smart and the rest of us were separated from the culprits. In fact I think they may have had to call an ambulance since Beth had kicked that one guy so hard and I think one of the girls had a bloody nose or something.

The rest of us got taken back to the principal's office and stuck in a waiting room of sorts. It wasn't long before one of the cops took me into the office and asked me to tell my version of the story. The cop and the principal tried to get me to talk quietly, but I let on I was still mad, so I was bellowing loudly. I'll admit that was intentional. I was hoping I was loud enough that the twins could hear me next door, that way they would tell pretty much the same story. It really didn't take that long before I was led back out of the office. I was separated from everyone else then, and the principal told me to go home for the rest of the day. They must have told Mom about that though, because she caught up to me before I got to the car and asked me to drive her home.

Once we were on the road, she was really quiet for a moment or two and then said "So, do you want to tell me the real story now?"

"Mom, I don't think I know the real story. What I told you and Dad on Sunday morning was the real story as far as I was concerned. I just left out that I woke up in Mr. and Mrs. Coulter's bed with both of the twins draped over top of me and that they were totally nude. After the rumours of what Mr. Coulter would do to anyone who screwed around with his daughters, the idea of being found there like that terrified me and I panicked. Somehow I managed to slip out of bed without waking them, then I grabbed my clothes and ran. I sure as heck wasn't going to tell anyone about that, okay?"

"So you woke up with two beautiful and willing young women, yet you didn't do anything?" she sounded astounded.

"I don't know if they were willing or not. I didn't wait to find out," I snorted. "I may kick myself for the rest of my life, but right now I'm glad that I ran off when I did."

"Well, I am too," she laughed, and it sounded almost like a laugh of relief. "For a few minutes there, I was actually worried that you might be gay. I mean, a healthy teenaged boy who found himself in bed with two nude girls and you didn't do anything?"

I almost drove off the road in surprise. Then I laughed and decided to pull over for a minute. Let's face it, we were on a winding country road and I wanted to talk. I couldn't look at her face and drive too, so I pulled into a field approach and I shut off the car. We must have talked for close to half an hour as I explained how shy I was around girls. In fact we might have talked for even longer, but Dad and Beth came driving up and pulled in behind us.

"Have you guys got car trouble?" Dad leaned out his window and called.

"Nope, we were just talking, Dad," I turned and called back.

"I think I'll ride back home with your father," Mom smiled. "I see Beth is there, would you mind giving her a ride home. I think your Father and I need to discuss a few things."

"Sure I can give Beth a ride, but am I in trouble?" I asked.

"No," she laughed, "But, your father might be. Could you find some way to take at least an hour or two to get home? He and I need to talk about this and a few other things, so we need a little time when we won't be disturbed."

Then she winked at me and I had an idea that she might be planning on doing more than talking, but I definitely didn't ask. Instead I think I blushed as she gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, then slipped out of the car, but left the door open for Beth. Beth looked like she was on top of the world when she jumped into the car. At least she was grinning from ear to ear.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

"You and me and the Coulter twins are suspended for the rest of the week for trying to start a riot," she grinned, then as Dad's truck pulled out and raced down the road, she broke into a giggle. "I'm not supposed to let you go home until chore time," she crowed. "I think that picture got Mom a bit aroused, so I suspect that she wants to go home and play with Daddy."

I just stared at her. I didn't really care about Mom and Dad at the moment. I was wondering just what the hell was going on otherwise.

"Why are you suspended?" I finally asked.

"Oh Principal Gable thinks I kicked Slimy Sid and Rotten Raymond in the nuts," she giggled. "It looked worse than it was, I mostly hit one of the muscles in Sid's leg, so he's gonna limp for a while and I actually hit Raymond flat footed, across his thigh. I didn't do as much damage as people think. The two of them are just wimps and can't take a licking."

"Okay, and the twins are suspended because they attacked the girls I guess, but why am I suspended?"

"I think just on general principles. You were involved so you must be guilty, that sort of thing. Oh, by the way, the five idiots got expelled. A week's classes and two weeks of tests before they finish high school, but they can't come back to school, ever!"

"What?" I stared at her.

"Yep, and Mr. Coulter is thinking of taking them to civil court."

"That would not be a good idea. His girls aren't totally innocent."

"I know," she giggled, "and neither are you, you bugger."

"Huh?"

"Well, I was pretty sure who had taken those pictures, so right after I called Daddy I ran down and broke into Sid's locker. Well, I picked the lock on the door and I found more pictures, the negatives too – I guess he didn't dare keep them at home or something. Did you think they'd only take one picture? He was planning a real smear campaign on you guys," she said quietly. "I'm almost sorry I didn't kick him square in the balls."

"Oh, my gosh! You did take the pictures out of his locker though, didn't you?"

"Unh huh, of course! Now, Mom says we can't go home and we're kicked out of school; it's a nice day though and we have a whole bunch of pictures to look over and maybe destroy. Where do you think we should go?"

"You've got the pictures?"

"Unh huh, in a safe place, but before you get all mad and want to burn them, you should look at them and we should show them to the twins too."

"WHAT?" I literally screamed.

"Oh come on," she grinned. "Please, I want to see their faces when they see these pictures. I want to see yours too for that matter. Besides, doesn't every guy want a set of porn pictures of himself in bed with two gorgeous blondes, twin blondes who are totally nude?"

"I think you'd better just give them here and I'll ..."

"Oh no," she interrupted. "I'm not giving them to you without the Coulter girls being right there with us. They need to know what they do when they get too drunk to know better and I want to put an end to that stupid 'ice cube' act of theirs."

"Have you looked at them all?"

"Nope, just the first one, and only long enough to see that it was different from the one you had. After that I crammed them back in the envelope, tucked it under my shirt, closed up Sid's locker and ran like hell to be at the door to meet Mom and Dad. Now, are you going to phone the Coulter girls or am I going to have to do that too?"

I hemmed and hawwed, but in the long run she got her way, as usual. We went back to town, then I phoned the Coulter house. Only it was Mr. Coulter who answered my call.

"Hi Mr. Coulter, it's Chris. I was just calling to make sure that the girls were okay," I spoke quickly, wishing that he hadn't been the person who had picked up the phone.

"Oh hello, Chris. You're just the young man I wanted to speak to," he said loudly and I thought I heard one or the other of the twins say something in the background. "The girls are okay, thanks to you. Although after hearing what they actually admitted to doing ..." he paused. "Chris, do you think you could drop around the house as soon as possible, I believe my daughters have a confession to make to you."

"If you mean that they were involved in the original plan to get me drunk and embarrass me, I'd already come to that conclusion, Mr. Coulter."

"And you still wanted to protect them? My goodness, you really are a gentleman, aren't you?"

"Oh, I don't know about that," I laughed uneasily. "But, if you want me to drop around the house, do you mind if my little sister comes along? She and I are both in town and we were thinking of heading down to the river, just to get completely away from this stupid mess. I guess we could drop by for a few minutes."

"Hmm, your sister is with you is she? How long would it take for you to get here?"

"Getting to your house? Just a couple of minutes, we're only at the drugstore. But as for the river, we have to be home by five at the latest to milk the cows."

"And a responsible young man like you would always be home to do his chores wouldn't he?" he chuckled. "I'll tell you what Chris, I'm supposed to keep a tight rein on these two, but after the responsibility you and your sister displayed at school, and since I have to do some work at the office yet today ... Well, I'm not sure I should let these two out of the house, but it might be easier for them to admit the truth if I'm not with you, so I'm going to release these two to you and your sister's care until this evening. In fact, I think the two of them owe you two a very large thank-you, so I'm going to suggest that you take them with you and have them help you with your chores this evening, hows that?"

"Unh, okay I guess, but can't we bring them straight home from the river?"

"You sound as if you're somewhat afraid of the girls?"

"In a word, yes!"

"Even if you have their parole to behave?"

"Sir, I am very shy, while they are very forward. It's like oil and water. We're simply not a good mix."

"Oh, I disagree! I think you three are an excellent mix," he laughed loudly. "I'll see you in a few minutes," and with that, he hung up the phone.

Beth took one look at my face as I came out of the phone booth and asked, "What's wrong? Can't they come with us?"

"That's the problem, their dad is insisting that they do come with us, then that we take them home with us afterward. He wants to have them help us with the chores tonight."

"What?" she squeaked. "The 'Ice Cubes' milking cows, feeding the pigs, and cleaning the barn? Oh that would be just wonderful!"

Even I could see the humour in it when she put it like that. We were still chuckling when we got to their house and Mr. Coulter met us at the door, then invited us inside.

"The girls will be right down," he grinned. "I warned them that they should wear clothing that could be worn while working around animals and things that can be washed afterward. I'm not sure they were quite as enthusiastic about going with you after I told them what I had suggested you have them do."

"I can imagine," I smiled.

Beth giggled and his grin widened even more.

"I think a little time working on a farm would do them both a lot of good," he said firmly.

"Do they have a curfew when I need to have them home?"

"Well, since I saw those photos, yet they swear they are still virgins, I'm not really worried," he looked at me quite seriously.

"Unfortunately, things have changed since then," I smiled right back.

"Yes, they certainly have," he sighed deeply. "Just how old are you?"

"I'm sixteen, why?" I stared at him wondering where that had come from.

"Well son, they turned eighteen about a month ago and they just told me this afternoon that I had no legal right to tell them what to do with their bodies. Legally, they are right, but I ..." he just let the sentence die.

"Oh, poor you! But, I guess poor me too," I sighed then.

Beth started to giggle, trying to suppress it, but not managing.

"What is so darn funny?" I demanded.

"You," she laughed aloud. "Every guy inside of miles and miles has tried to make out with them and they're handing it to you on a platter, but you're acting like it was ... well, like it was a worse job than mucking out the pigs."

"I am not being handed anything," I growled, but underneath I could see her point and I was fighting a grin myself.

I didn't dare grin in front of Mr. Coulter. He looked much too serious to see the humour in Beth's wise crack.

"Beth," he said quietly, but emphatically. "Firstly, your brother is a gentleman and secondly he is an individual with a strong sense of independence. He feels he has the right of choice and he's perfectly right. At this moment, I have an extremely high regard for him, a far higher regard than I have felt for any of the other young men that my daughters have paraded through my house over the past few years. Now if the circumstances were different ..."

"Daddy, are you pontificating again?" Carissa interrupted from just behind him.

"Isn't he always?" Corinna asked.

They were dressed in tight shorts and tighter halters, with tennis shoes on their feet and everything they were wearing was white. In other words, not what I would have worn on a farm under any circumstances. Beth and I simply stared at them.

"You aren't wearing that are you?" Beth said disbelievingly, "not out to the farm? Surely?"

"What's wrong with this?" Carissa demanded. "We did bring other clothes just in case we get dirty and need to change," she held up a small bag and pointed to a matching bag that her sister carried.

"We figured that we could wash off and these clothes are old, so if we get them dirty enough that they'd be too tough to get clean, we can just toss them," Corinna added.

"Oh boy," I just shook my head. "Mr. Coulter, your daughters are spoiled and they obviously haven't a clue about farm life or hard work."

That broke him up. "Oh I wish they could spend a month helping out on your farm," he chortled.

Beth giggled, then slipped over to him and gesture for him to bend down. She whispered something in his ear and he roared with laughter.

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea. Thank you, Beth, I think I'll do that."

"But, let's keep it a secret for now, okay?" Beth giggled.

"Absolutely, now you should get going or you'll have to rush straight home to do your chores," he hurried us out of the house.

Beth ran ahead and slid into the front passenger seat of my car, making it plain that the twins were going to be relegated to riding in the back seat. Although the twins frowned a bit, they seemed as if they expected that.

As I drove away, one of the twins asked if we were really going to ask them to help with the chores. Since I was concentrating on my driving I didn't really know which one it was, but before I could answer, Beth did.

"Yep that was the only way your dad would let you come with us at all," she fibbed. "He said you were to help us by doing exactly the same things we have to do."

"But how will he know if we just help a little bit."

"I imagine he'll ask," Beth said sharply. "And I'm sure not going to lie about it, not after what you two almost did to my brother."

There was an edge to her voice that I had never heard before and I risked a glance at her. Her jaw was set and she was staring straight ahead.

"Oh God, we are sorry about that."

"Yeah, sure. You're sorry you got caught," Beth snarled through gritted teeth. "I've seen you two frost every guy around you and make some darn nice guys look foolish."

"Maybe we did, before," I heard tears in that, or awful close and glanced in the rear view mirror. Carissa, at least, was teary eyed, I couldn't see Corinna since she was sitting right behind me.

"You saw us on Monday though," Now there were definitely tears and they started the twin seesaw with their conversation.

"The only trouble is there are two of us ..."

"and only one Chris ..."

"so dammit, we've got to be good ..."

"maybe he'll pick one of us ..."

"even if we'd share."

"Oh quit blubbering," Beth snapped, turning around in her seat. "And you might as well face it, Chris is shy and he doesn't seem to think he's ready for a lover yet, so don't either one of you get pushy with him. I happen to think he's swell and since he's my favourite brother – well for me, his happiness is tops, okay? If either one of you hurts him in any way you'll answer to me, and you saw what I can do to bullies in the principal's office."

"Unh huh ... Okay," they whispered.

"Good. However, we could use a couple of new friends," she smiled. "Besides, I think I have something you want, which I'm going to give to you and Chris as a sign of pure friendship, no cost at all and no strings attached in any way."

"Pardon me?" I could see the frown on Carissa's tear stained face in the mirror.

"Well, you know that picture you saw?"

"Yes?"

"You didn't think that Stinky Sid would be satisfied with just one pose did you?"

"OH MY GOD!"

"SHIT, HE HAS MORE PICTURES?"

"Not anymore he doesn't," Beth giggled. "But I do and I have the negatives as well. That's why we're going to the river. We decided that it was only right that since the pictures were of all three of you, then all you guys should see them and after that, you can burn them, or do whatever you want with them."

"Why not just destroy them now?" Carissa snapped.

"Yeah, why go through the trouble of ..."

"Oh for crying in the bloody sink," Beth said loudly. "Am I the only person around who would love to have a picture of herself when she gets old and her hair turns grey. A picture that showed just how sexy I was when I was young?"

"But if someone found the pictures and blackmailed ..."

"Carissa, that one picture that the cops have is going to guarantee that you and Corinna can't be blackmailed, at least not for a picture taken when you're with Chris. However, if you were really worried, what you could do is take out a joint safety deposit box in all three of your names and arrange that Chris has to be with one or the other of you to open it."

"Why should you get to see them then?"

"Well, first, I risked my fat ass to steal them. Second, because I happen to be the one who has possession of them now. Third, because I want to look after Chris's interests too and offer him my opinion. And finally, because I took the time to glance at one of them before and I wouldn't mind seeing more. Whoever took them might become a porn photographer one day and I might never get another chance to see the sort of pictures he took."

"Oh GOD, did you say porn?"

"Yes dear, I said PORN!" Beth said loudly, then giggled. "You look very sexy and some of the shots are very suggestive. The only problem is that they are quite amateurish and they need retouching with an airbrush. Chris' shorts show in almost every shot."

"You mean it looks like we were ..."

"Yes dear, it looks very much like you were!" Beth crowed in glee, loving every moment of the torment she was giving them.

"Don't call me dear, dammit."

"Okay, which one is 'Ice' and which one is 'Cube'?" Beth giggled just as we turned into the riverside campsite.

"We'll 'Ice Cube' you, you little bitch," Carissa said loudly, opening her door just as I stopped.

But, Beth was out her door and running before either of them had even set foot out of the car. I just walked over and found a seat in the shade, laughing as Beth easily outdistanced them. Then she teased them into chasing her again and again until both twins were panting heavily and completely out of breath.

Beth simply trotted over to me finally, and to my amazement she turned away and slipped her blue jeans down to her knees. She yanked off two pieces of surgical tape that she had used to fasten the envelope of pictures to her inner thigh. That must have hurt because she was still grimacing as she yanked up her jeans and turned to face me.

"Damn, you're sneaky," I grinned at her, "I would have thought you'd have had them in your book bag."

"Don't be silly," she grinned. "Whoever heard of a good spy being dumb enough to carry something incriminating in such an obvious spot."

"And the cops wouldn't pat your ass?" I grinned.

"My inner thigh is not my fat ass, dear brother, and there were no woman cops there to pat anywhere near where I had these pictures stashed."

"Jeez, he talks," Carissa panted as she flopped down near us.

"Yeah, but only to a damn antelope that masquerades as a girl," Corinna puffed, flopping at her side.

"And I can't even get close to Chris in a foot race, so don't count on catching him," Beth giggled as she handed me the envelope. "Here you are, signed, sealed, and delivered. I lied when I said I'd looked at them. I only glanced at the top one. Actually I figure that they're you three's business and what you do with them is your business too."

She adjusted her jeans and started to walk away, but I reacted.

"Beth! Get your ass back over here," I growled.

She stopped and turned to stare at me.

"I'm not insisting that you look at these with us," I said, gesturing with the envelope, "But, since you did all the work and thought fast enough, plus risked that fat little ass, I'm damn well inviting you to look at what kind of fool your big brother is. That is if you still want to."

To my utter surprise, she broke into tears. I just tossed the envelope to the twins and stood to scoop Beth into my arms and hug her. When she calmed down and we turned toward the twins, only to find that both of them were crying.

"Aww fuck," I growled. "I suppose you guys need hugs too."

"There he goes again," Beth broke into laughter. "Two beautiful blondes want hugs and he acts like it's a fucking chore."

"I know you said we couldn't rush him, but can we at least sit on him and beat some sense into his stupid head," Carissa said, trying to giggle and bawl at the same time.

"You can beat on him if you want," Corinna snorted, "but if you're holding him down, I'm going to shove a tit in his mouth to prove I'm not a guy. That wouldn't count as rushing him would it? I mean, there's already a picture of me doing it after the party. Since it's been shown around the whole school and it's even down in the cop's office, all the darn town must know about it by now."

Since all three of them were busy laughing about it, I grabbed the envelope off the ground and pulled out the pictures. Almost instantly I had one twin pressed on either side of me and Beth leaning over my shoulder. Actually the shot we had seen at school was definitely the best photo of the bunch. To start with, several of the others were so badly out of focus you couldn't even make out who was in the picture. There were at least two 'crotch' shots and apparently from their body language as they saw them, the photographer had gotten one of each girl, but to be honest I couldn't see much difference. There was one shot in which neither of the girls could really be identified, but my face was clear and another two - each a clear shot of one of the twins, but with the other girl and I unidentifiable.

"Shit, what a waste of good film," Beth said loudly.

"Yeah," I laughed, sorting out the shot where only my face was visible. "If I were to save a porn shot for posterity, this is the one I'd keep."

Carissa and Corinna giggled, and sorted out the other two shots that showed only one face.

"You can have that one," Carissa suggested, "... if we can have these two," Corinna added, "... but, let's burn the rest," Carissa added, "... and the negatives too," Corinna finished.

So, since we were at the campsite we built a tiny fire in the fire pit, then slowly fed the pictures into it, one picture at a time. Then when the fire had burned down we stirred the ashes and doused them with lots of water, stirring them over and over again. Now we were all in a good mood when we hopped into the car and drove out to the farm.

When we got there, Mom and Dad were sitting on the front steps drinking a cup of coffee, which was quite weird since it was almost chore time.

"Hello, kids, we had a visitor a short while ago," Mom grinned as we all got out of the car.

"Mr. Coulter?" I guessed immediately.

"You see, dear, I told you that you didn't scramble his brains, that time you dropped him on his head," Dad winked at Mom.

"All right, smarty britches," Mom grinned at me, "Since you know so much, just what did we decide?"

"The twins are staying here tonight?" I guessed.

"No, not just the night. Since all of you are being disciplined by the school for the rest of the week, the girl's will actually be staying here with us and helping out on the farm. John is coming back to pick them up on Sunday evening," she smiled. "He went to a store and bought clothing for them that he felt was a little bit more suitable for farm work, rather than what they have on now."

Carissa and Corinna stared, open mouthed.

"Daddy bought clothes," one of the twins stammered, "... for us to wear?" the other finished.

"Yes, because he thought it would be good for you to spend some time working on a real farm," Dad smiled at them, then turned to look at me, "And since you act so shy with them, Chris, he felt it would be good for you to have them around for a while as well."

"And we agree with him," Mom added. "So we've put the girl's new clothes in the spare bedroom."

"Now, since it's chore time, everyone inside and change your clothes," Dad ordered.

I think even the animals had a chuckle or two that evening. The twins were true greenhorns. They didn't even know for sure where milk came from, so they were astounded when Dad and I sat down to milk the cows. But to my surprise, they were game to try anything and they were surprisingly upbeat the whole time. They did complain about the lack of style of their clothes at first, but after they found out just how much dirt, muck, and manure there was on a farm, they didn't seem to mind the long sleeved shirts, blue jeans and gumboots at all. They thought it funny when Beth was feeding one pen of pigs and she almost got knocked off her feet, but when she insisted that they had to feed the next two pens it suddenly didn't seem so funny.

However, they did develop a love affair; they saw Beth's horses out in the pasture. She had three Appaloosa mares that we'd been crossing with my Quarter Horse stud. So as well as the mares, she had one yearling and two colts from the three mares and the twins fell in love with Beth's little Appaloosa herd. I think they were actually envious of the young girl that they had been thinking of as a kid only a short while before. When that 'kid' flipped herself onto the back of the oldest mare right from the ground and raced off down the pasture, riding bareback, you could have shoved a bale of hay into either one's mouth. Beth wasn't using a saddle, she didn't even have a bridle, all she used was a piece of baling twine tied to the mare's halter.

"Oh hell, she's showing off again," Dad sighed, but you could see the pride in his eyes.

I just grinned, finishing the feeding the other horses, but turned back as Beth came trotting back toward us.

"You might check the mare's left hind foot. I think she's favouring that leg a bit, Beth," I called, noticing the mare's off beat gait for the first time.

"Could you help?" Beth called back instantly, stopping the mare where she was and dismounting quickly.

Dad and I walked out to Beth and the mare, but asking the girls to wait outside the fence. I took the mare's head and Dad lifted her hoof. She had a small pebble pressing on the frog of her hoof, but it hadn't been there long enough to aggravate her that much. It was only a few seconds work for Dad to flip it free. When I lead her forward and away from Dad, he gave me the okay sign. I pulled the bail twine free of the halter and let the mare go.

"Good eyes, son," Dad said quietly. "I never noticed the limp until you pointed it out."

"No big deal, didn't see it until then myself," I grinned, then hearing a noise I whirled, just in time to catch a flying sister in my arms.

"Thanks Lummox," she hugged me and kissed my cheek. "She'd have been limping a lot by morning and I'd hate to have her in pain."

"No problem, Sunshine," I grinned, tossing her up so she was draped over my shoulder and heading for the house. "Come on girls, chores are done. Now that the animals are fed and cared for, we can go eat."

They were staring at us like we were from Mars and Beth jabbed me in the ribs.

"Let me down, fool, something is bugging them," she whispered.

Dad had gone ahead, so we went back to see what was wrong.

"So, what's up?" Beth smiled at them, but looked sympathetic, which rather surprised me.

"You guys are so tuned into each other," Carissa whispered, "... when you helped that horse, it was like three bodies and one brain," Corinna added.

I started laughing so hard that I was almost falling down.

Beth was almost the same, but she managed to wheeze "Look who's talking."

"That doesn't count, we're twins," Carissa stomped her foot.

"Other people don't do it," Corinna continued.

"Hah, you should see Chris work on a car with Tom and George," Beth grinned. "It's the same thing then, only there they talk 'advanced wrench' and not very much of that."

So I started to explain about what happened when people did repetitive jobs, how they became used to each other's foibles and habits as well as with the job's natural timing. You knew what the other person needed and when they needed it, because you had done the same thing so many times before.

"That's why we kid and tease a lot, we're simply bored," Beth added. "Besides, we like each other."

"Now come on, Mom will have supper ready and waiting for us, but we need to wash up first," I turned and headed for the house.

The twins were surprisingly quiet all through our evening meal, at least until we all sat back and relaxed over coffee afterward. Then they looked at each other and Corinna nodded her head slightly.

Carissa actually cleared her throat.

"Look. We feel like complete asses," she said emphatically and held up her hand when I was about to speak. "Wait me out Chris, please. We've always felt we were so special, we always seemed to know what the other one was talking about and we always seemed to be able to complete each others thoughts. But, we just worked with you guys out there and lots of times you didn't even have to ask for help from each other if you had a problem. Instead you all seemed to be in exactly the right place and doing just the perfect thing the other person needed at the precise time when the other person needed help. You guys out-twinned us and it rattled us."

"I thought I explained that before," I grinned. "We work together and we play together, so we know each other."

Just then there was a knock on the door and without even getting up, Dad hollered "Come on in."

He knew it would be either Tom, or George, or perhaps Tom and George. Actually, I'd been expecting them at any time – after all, they would have had to catch the bus home. I knew that they'd be letting me know that they didn't exactly love that idea. As it was, Tom led the pair into the room.

"Chris, what's this I hear about you getting kicked out of school for a week by being involved with the 'Ice Cuuuu ..." Tom's voice trailed of as he saw the twins.

For once George wasn't talking, he just stared.

"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't give you guys a ride home and that you'll have to ride the bus the rest of the week, but I did what I thought was needed, okay? Unfortunately now I have to pay the price," I wanted to grin, but managed to keep a straight face.

The guys still weren't talking, it was as if they were suddenly the shy guys.

"You do know Carissa and Corinna don't you?" Beth grinned, loving every second of their discomfort.

"Unh Hi," the two guys both stammered, but I couldn't hold it any longer and broke into laughter as the twins giggled, but said 'Hi' to the guys.

I think Mom and Dad were enjoying the guy's discomfort as well, but when Mom asked them if they'd like a coffee, it seemed to break the spell. They actually had come over to see if I would like to work on one of the other old cars that we had gotten from Mr. Dolens. I turned and looked at Dad, then Mom. After getting a nod from each of them, I reached over and opened the mail drawer, then handed Tom an envelope.

"You guys have helped me so much with my cars that I think you deserve this," I grinned. "Mom, Dad, and even Beth, agree with me and we've cleared this with your folks. Now, your birthdays aren't for another month for Tom and almost two months for George, but knowing you two, you can have that second car we got from Mr. Dolens all fixed up by then. That means by this fall you can drive yourselves to school."

Tom stared at me, then slowly opened the envelope, inside was a transfer of ownership. I'd given the other operational car to the two of them. For once both of them were speechless. Then suddenly they looked at each other. After a pair of shouted 'thank you's, they seemed to evaporate, but we all knew they were off to work on their 'new' car.

Dad grinned and gave me an okay sign, while Mom and Beth were both smiling in approval, but the weird thing was the reaction from the twins. They just stared at me like I was from Mars. I just shook my head and decided I didn't want to try to explain anything more to them, instead I excused myself to go join the guys as they worked on fixing their car.

Tom was in seventh heaven, this was their car, so they could fix it the way they wanted to. George wasn't much better, so by the time I had walked down to the shed where their car and the old junker were stored, they had the hood off of their car and were stripping parts from the engine, both yammering a mile a minute. I don't think they even saw me for a few minutes. I just sat on a nearby barrel and watched for a while.

"Gee guys, if I'd known you were just going to take it apart, maybe I should have given you the junker," I said loud enough for them to hear.

That brought their heads out of the engine, then suddenly they were standing in front of me and I was having my hand shaken while being thanked almost as much as if I'd given them a million dollars. Tom was holding my right hand and pumping it like he was trying to get water and George was talking so fast that he was hardly making sense.

Just then Dad came into the shed though. "Chris, did you forget, you have guests."

I glanced past him to make sure he wasn't being followed and then said, "Dad, I'm afraid they don't feel like guests to me, instead the whole thing feels more like punishment. Inviting them to visit was Beth and Mr. Coulter's idea, so I'm trying to be nice, but having them here is not my idea of fun in any way."

"Are you frigging crazy?" Tom squawked. "Do you know how many guys would give their left nut to have the two of them sit at their family's table at supper time?"

"Yeah," George almost interrupted. "Jeez man, take them for a ride in your car, or ride on the horses, or go for a walk, but at least do something with them."

"You didn't really hear what this was about then?" I broke in, once more feeling the annoyance I had felt before. "Friday night I went to a party at their house and those two got me drunk, or at least they helped a lot. They were out to deliberately embarrass me. What they didn't know is that Sid and his bunch were spiking their drinks as well as mine. On top of that, no one realised that I've drunk quite a lot of alcohol before, so I had a good idea of my limits and paced myself. By the time I was drunk, almost everyone else, including the twins, were drunk too. Anyway in the end, they got me away from everyone else. I don't know what the twins thought was going to happen, but somehow they ended up stripped. I ended up only wearing my shorts and we all ended up in bed together. When I woke up Saturday morning, I saw their nude bodies in bed with me for about ten seconds, then I ran like hell."

"This morning at school someone slipped a picture of the three of us into my locker, then gave the twins each a copy during lunch break. The picture was almost pornographic. When they ran out crying, I got mad and stormed into the principal's office. After everything got sorted out, they got kicked out of school for trying to beat up on the girls that were involved, Beth got sent home out for kicking Sid and his buddy in the ... well, where it hurts. She swears she thought they were attacking her, and the principal kicked me out for ... Wait a minute! Dad, why did the principal kick me out?"

"You were temporarily suspended for calling the principal a 'dough-headed dunce and a fuckwit to boot!'" he laughed. "I should probably discipline you for your language, but I'm afraid I agreed with your assessment of that dork's intelligence, so I can't do that with a clear conscience."

I looked past his shoulder and saw Beth and the twins coming our way. "Here they come now," I sighed.

"Oh, get over it," Tom snapped, sounding exasperated and making both George and Dad laugh.

It turned out that the girls wanted to ride horses and since the oldest mare had picked up a stone when Beth had been fooling around, she wanted to borrow my gelding. Now he's a powerful horse, actually a Thoroughbred who hadn't made it on the race circuit, so I wasn't sure about Beth riding him.

Of course Dad had a solution. The twins could ride Beth's other two mares, Beth could ride the gelding, but only if I rode along on my Quarter Horse stud.

"Dad, the stud hasn't been ridden in over a week," I argued. "I'm not sure I want to get shaken up tonight, especially not after eating a big meal."

"Do you want someone else to take the edge off the stud for you?" George asked.

The thought of him volunteering was hilarious. If George was sitting on a kitchen chair and someone bumped into it so it wiggled he might fall off. So the very idea of George taking the edge off of a bucking horse got us all laughing, even George, but in the long run it got me into the saddle and on the stud's back, at least for a short while. To make a long story short, I got piled.

Yeah, with Carissa, Corinna, Beth, Dad, Tom, George, and even my Mom watching, I got dumped on my keister. Me, the guy who hadn't been bucked off of a horse in years! The guy other riders said had glue on his butt! I got to skid along on my rump in the back pasture and put grass stains on my pants.

Okay, I knew that the stud was going to be a bit lively, but I didn't expect him to really buck when I got into the saddle. I thought he'd do his usual crow hop and a few dance steps, then settle down and behave, but instead he surprised me with an all out bucking session. Maybe one of the mares was coming into season or something, maybe it was the crowd of people, or maybe he just had a bee up his butt, I don't know. All I do know is that he danced around the same as he usually did as I put the saddle on him, but when I tried to flip my leg over his back, he exploded. I had my left leg in the stirrup and my right leg in mid air when he went straight up, then spun ninety degrees in mid air. I managed to hang on through that, but I was grabbing for leather, still trying to find my other stirrup when he hit the ground. Then he pulled the same stunt, only now he was spinning the other direction. My butt had scarcely touched leather before centrifugal force was yanking me out and away from his back.

I was suddenly flying through the air and I swear I went high enough that I saw him take another little crow hop before I even hit the ground. Then to add insult to injury, that dang horse turned around and stared at me, as if asking me why I was sitting on the ground. Did I mention that I have a bit of a temper? While everyone else was still squawking and squealing, or oohing and ahhing, I was trying to scramble to my feet to head for that horse and climb back in the saddle.

But, I only managed one step before flopping back on my butt like a rock plopping into a mud puddle. My left ankle tried to fold sideways when I put my weight on that foot and my whole lower leg immediately started to hurt like hell!

It felt to me that it took forever to happen, but my folks got me to the hospital, then eventually the people there got my leg x-rayed and I heard the bad news. It turned out that I had fractured a bone in my left foot and had twisted my ankle badly, probably tearing or stretching a ligament. As a result I was going to be in cast and on crutches for at least a month or possibly six weeks. As well as that, I'd cracked a bone in my right hand, so that was going to be in a cast for a while too.

What a rotten way to start a summer.

### Chapter 3