The day Jack and Vixen had been waiting on for what seemed like years finally arrived. There would be no more waiting, no more putting things off. They had anticipations that could only be matched by the time ten months before when they went on what was advertised as an overnight birding trip, but which they would both better remember as the first night they slept together, the night they both lost their virginity. But this was something different, an even bigger step into the future.

It was something of a miracle that either of them managed to sleep at all, even going late the night before. They had ridden down to Coldwater, thirty-five miles south, to watch the Spearfish Lake Marlins in their season opening game. Up until the previous year the team had not won a game with the Icebergs for a dozen years, and that one had been a fluke. The previous year’s win by a young and inexperienced team had seemed like something of a fluke at the time, too, but that wasn’t the case this year.

The Icebergs had been in serious trouble right from the opening whistle. Howie’s strong and accurate arm was a big part of the Marlin’s 35-6 victory over their long-time rivals, and it clearly indicated that the Marlins meant business this year.

On the way home, Jack had to admit to his friends that he was just a little bit sorry he wouldn’t be around to cheer his brother on the rest of the season – but only a little bit. Heading off to Southern Michigan University was a much bigger deal to him.

Loading Nancy’s things in the rental trailer without letting Mary Lou know what was happening, had proved easy. Since Jack and Vixen were fanatic birders, getting up with the birds was routine for them. Alan and Summer were used to their odd hours, so – while not happy about it – they were at least awake and stumbling around when Jack backed the trailer up to the Halifax garage door just before sunup. Nancy was waiting for them, having set not just one, but two alarm clocks in order to be sure of getting up in time. The five of them made quick work of loading the trailer and couldn’t have been there more than ten minutes.

Nancy still had a few things to pack, and didn’t want to be seen outside anyway, so she went back inside to finish loading a small bag, and presumably to get a little more sleep. Still, she was visibly relieved that things had gone so well.

That left the four with a lot of other loading to do. Summer had already packed her car with most of the things she would need, so they only had to make a brief stop at her house to pick up a couple of pieces that were too large for her car. Since this part of the trip wasn’t a secret, her parents helped with the loading, and then they had a long, quiet goodbye. There was a similar scene at Vixen’s house, though she had considerably more to load; some of it went into the Cherokee.

Then it was on to Jack’s house, where there was even more to load as much of the furniture they were taking had been concentrated in the garage there. This took a little longer for the four of them, even though Jack’s parents helped while a yawning, scratching, but proud Howie stumbled around trying to be useful.

Once again, there was a long goodbye. This was a major change in Jack’s life and everyone knew it. While he might be home again from time to time, for practical purposes he hoped this would represent moving out permanently. He would be on his own – really on his own – for the first time. Though nothing had been said to or by Howie or his parents, everyone seemed to realize that this meant another change, in that he and Vixen would be living and sleeping together starting that night, and presumably far into the future, except maybe for the odd break at holidays.

There might not be too many of those, either; Southern Michigan University was a long way away, so they couldn’t expect to be home often. There had been some discussion of not coming home for spring break, but instead going to Florida to get in some birding. That was still up in the air until they had some idea if they would be able to afford it, and if they didn’t have too much critical studying to do.

Even as anxious as Jack was to get on with doing the next thing, he couldn’t help feeling a little sadness, a little apprehension, as he drove the Cherokee out of the driveway, towing the trailer.

The final stop was at Alan’s house. Again, his parents helped the four of them load up; by now space was getting tight enough that his things had to be distributed between the Cherokee, the trailer, and Summer’s car. There wasn’t a lot of space left over, but enough; even with Nancy’s things included in the load, all of them had some concerns about how they were going to cram everything into the apartment waiting for them. Again there were goodbyes, standing around and talking, including a short and very surprising happenstance stop by a former high school classmate who’d been a hated enemy of the four but now apologized and wished them well. No one wanted to let things go, but they knew they had to – they faced a long drive down to SMU and wanted to get it done today.

Finally, Jack and Vixen got in the Cherokee and headed for the state road, the first leg of their journey. As planned, Alan and Summer took her car over to Nancy’s; she was out of the house and into the back seat in seconds, and soon they were on the road too, several minutes behind Jack and Vixen.

“Wow, made it,” Nancy said as she settled herself into a tight space in the back seat, even while Alan was backing out of her driveway. “I never dreamed it would go that smoothly. I’ll bet Mary Lou won’t be up for hours yet.”

“I hate to say this,” Summer replied, “But she’s going to figure out what happened to you sooner or later.”

“I know,” Nancy sighed. “But at least I’ll have made it clear that I’m not going to Meriwether. Maybe she’ll get the message. I know sooner or later she’ll figure out that I’m at Southern, since she knew that was where I was planning on going. But I hope she won’t be able to find me easily. She won’t know where I’m living off campus, and my university address is a post office box.”

“If she comes after you down there, you might want to consider getting a personal protection order from the court,” Alan suggested. “That worked out pretty well for me when we were going through that fracas last summer. I don’t know how it works in Hawthorne, but busting a PPO in Spearfish County is a quick ticket to thirty days in the local slammer.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Nancy sighed. “I wish I had. It might have made the last few months a little easier. I just wish I’d never gotten involved with her in the first place. I’m sure glad the four of you were willing to help me out on this. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you hadn’t.”

“Of course we’d help,” Summer replied. “Why wouldn’t we?”

Nancy shook her head. “Because I was having an affair with Mary Lou, and it seemed like everyone knew that. I mean, I know those lesbian rumors that floated around the school about me for years, and I’ll be the first person to admit that I was a little curious about it. But being curious about it is one thing, and being blatant about it was something different. Putting up with the rumors wasn’t easy, but her mouthing off about it outed me for sure. It means I’m really branded now in Spearfish Lake, and I’m glad I won’t be back here very often.”

Alan and Summer glanced at each other, exchanging subtle head shakes. Their secret might or might not come out, what with Nancy living in the same building, but this wasn’t the time to reveal that concern. “What you’re saying is that you thought we might not help you out because you’re a lesbian?” Summer asked.

“Well, yeah,” Nancy admitted. “Actually, the truth is that I don’t know whether I’m a lesbian or not. At one time I thought I might be, and I did have some fun with Mary Lou, I’ll admit it. But damn, the way this has turned out, I’ve been having a lot of second thoughts about it. Trying out a boy is not the number one thing on my to-do list at Southern, but I’m willing to give it a fair shot if the opportunity arises.”

“I can’t help you with that,” Alan laughed. “Summer might not be very happy with me if I did.”

“I’m not asking,” Nancy sighed. “After the way this has turned out, I really don’t want to get involved with anyone for a while, boy or girl.”

Summer shook her head. “How did you ever manage to get hooked up with a skank like Mary Lou, anyway?”

“Little by little. It all started when she had her jaw broken and couldn’t be a cheerleader anymore, just about the time all the football business happened, and all of the old-status apple carts got upset. So many of those kids had been good friends with each other, and all of a sudden they were all at each other’s throats. She wasn’t the queen of the hill anymore because there wasn’t any hill left to be queen of.”

“I know how that worked,” Summer agreed. “We watched it. It was actually kind of fun to see it happen.”

“It was for me, too,” Nancy smiled. “I mean they were mostly the kids who had put me down, called me a lesbian, and all that shit, but I didn’t dare say anything. Anyway, Mary Lou was kind of left out and lonely, and one day we got talking over lunch, and we got a little friendly. It was a couple of months before she said that she’d had all the screwing by football players she needed for a lifetime, since they didn’t do anything for her. And then she said she wondered if maybe it would be better on the other side of the street. I mean, I figured out what she was talking about right on the spot, but this was Mary Lou, you know, cheerleader after any jock in pants? I thought she was just talking, maybe trying to draw me out a little.”

“But she was serious,” Summer nodded.

“Yeah, and I didn’t realize how serious.” Nancy let out a sigh, shook her head, and went on. “Like I said, I didn’t have any experience with it, but I was a little curious too, and I figured it might be a good chance to find out a few things. Well, I did, and the biggest thing I found out was that I should have found someone other than Mary Lou to try them out with. Look, I may or may not be a lesbian, I still don’t know yet. But there’s no doubt that she is, now. She’s getting a little more butch, and she’s something of a pillow queen.”

“Pillow queen?” Alan asked. “I never heard that one before.”

“I got it off the Internet,” Nancy explained. “I mean, I was trying to learn what I could about it and I saw it on some site. That means she likes to have things done to her but she isn’t as eager to do things to someone else.”

“Sounds like Mary Lou through and through,” Summer shook her head. “Wants what she wants and expects to have it given to her because she’s the great Mary Lou Kempa.”

“That about sums it up,” Nancy agreed. “Of course, I was too dumb to see it. All of the shit that’s gone on with her in the last few months comes right back to that. She wants things her way, and isn’t going to take no for an answer. Well, she’s getting told no and she’s going to have to like it. She wouldn’t take it when I told her that in so many words, so me leaving town is going to have to be what sends her the message.”

“Nancy,” Alan spoke up. “I realize this is kind of a dumb question, but do you know if she’s actually going to Meriwether like she said she was?”

“Good question. I haven’t talked to her since she threw that scene at graduation, begging me to give up my plans and go down there with her. Christ, that was disgusting, right out there in front of everyone! I’ll bet she does, but I’ll also bet she’s expecting me to be there and will be real pissed when she can’t find me.”

“That might be interesting to watch, but from a good distance,” Alan laughed.

“I don’t want to watch it at all, as much of a pain in the ass as she’s been the last few months.”

“You know,” Summer said with a grin on her face. “Maybe it’s time we let Lyle and Ashley know about this.”

“Lyle and Ashley? What do they have to do with this?”

“Lyle and Ashley are starting at Meriwether next week, too,” Summer explained. “They’re down there already, since Lyle has football practice, and Ashley, well, they’re pretty close. But you know how much of a gossip Ashley is. If they keep their eyes open, they might well be able to pick up how well Mary Lou handles the situation.”

“It could be, but I’m afraid I don’t know them very well.”

“We don’t know them well ourselves, though we’ve gotten together with them a few times,” Alan explained. “Nancy, I don’t know if you know it or not, but Summer and I have been developing a role-playing game. Lyle and Ashley along with some other kids have come over and helped us test it out. We’ve gotten friendly. Besides, you know Ashley will be ready for any gossip that comes her way.”

“It might be,” she replied thoughtfully. “Maybe you’d better ask them, just so they don’t get the idea I’m directly involved. But I never heard anything about this role-playing game. I always thought something like that would be fun to get involved with, but I’ve never known anyone who liked them.”

“Boy, I wish we’d known that a year ago,” Summer shook her head. “You could have been right in the thick of some pretty fun evenings.”

“What’s this all about?”

“It’s set up pretty much like the typical role-playing game,” Alan explained. “But the rules and the characters are a little different. It involves witches versus inquisitors, back in the Middle Ages. The inquisitors are trying to find the witches so they can burn them at the stake, while the witches, well, they’d rather not get burned and want to take a chunk out of the inquisitors by casting spells on them that will turn them into rocks or trees or something. But the witches have to get hold of a piece of the inquisitors’ karma or the spell won’t work.”

“That sounds interesting,” Nancy grinned brightly, glad to have something to think about other than Mary Lou stalking her. “Tell me more.”

“I think you’ve done it, Alan,” Summer laughed.

“What’s that?” he replied, seeing Jack and Vixen up in front of them – they were catching up already.

“Gotten our first recruit.”

*   *   *

It was a long day. Jack didn’t want to drive as fast pulling the trailer as he might have without it, and they took several breaks and meal stops, all of which took time. Thus in spite of the relatively early start it was after dark when the caravan pulled to a stop in front of the apartment house where Cody, Jan, and Susan had been expecting them.

There was time for a brief round of introductions. While Susan didn’t know any of the new arrivals, several of them knew her, or at least who she was, thanks to her parents’ involvement with the Record-Herald. Nancy was totally new to Cody, Jan, and Susan.

“We can help you kids unload,” Cody told the five new tenants. “After all, we all know how long a drive it is from Spearfish Lake. This is really unusual for us, since all of us in the house are from there. With all of us working at it, it shouldn’t take too long to finish, at least to dump your stuff in your apartments. Jan, Susan, and I talked it over, and after things get pretty well along we’ll order some pizzas.”

With the eight of them working, it wasn’t long before the trailer had been unloaded down to Nancy’s things; since they had to go upstairs, that took longer but it was finally done. The Cherokee and Summer’s car went quickly by comparison, since almost everything went into the two-bedroom apartment downstairs.

Finally, the last box was carried in and stacked among the mess in the living room of the two-bedroom apartment, and just about that time Susan got back carrying a couple boxes of pizzas. Since her apartment was relatively empty, the gang congregated there to dive into them.

“Welcome to what we’ve started to call ‘Spearfish Lake House,’” Cody told them as they ate. “You kids are going to have a pretty full day tomorrow getting things set up. If you have problems, call on Jan or me to help. I don’t know if Susan is going to be around. Even though tomorrow is Sunday, she’s been pulling some long hours getting the new-student orientation set up along with some other jobs she has to do. It’s good that you got here a little early, since as soon as orientation starts you’re going to be pretty busy. It comes at you fast, and one of her jobs is to help you digest it.”

“I won’t go into it now,” Susan told them, “but orientation is very important, more so here than at other universities. We’re going to throw a lot at you to get you ready for all that you’re going to get thrown at you in your classes, so it’s important that you pay attention and take it seriously. Once you get used to the pace of this place it can be pretty exciting, but nobody skates through here.”

“My advice is to listen to what she says,” Cody went on. “It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. Now, while I have your attention, let me repeat what you’ve all been told about the rules in this place, which is to say, no noise, no drinking, no smoking, and especially no drugs. Jan and I don’t have to tolerate it, and we won’t. We are not your fathers and mothers, but we are your landlords, so we won’t hesitate to deal with one of those problems if they happen. However, from what we know about all of you, we don’t expect that to be a problem. However, if something does come up, let us know, especially as you dig in here. We may be able to help. Jan and I are students, just like the rest of you except Susan. Once school starts we will be very busy with both work and classes, so if there’s anything we can help you iron out in the next few days, better now than later.”

“I have something I need to talk to you about,” Nancy spoke up. “But I’d just as soon not do it right now. Tomorrow, maybe.”

“That’ll be fine,” Cody told her. “I can’t promise that Jan or I are going to be able to help, but we’ll see. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to grab another slice of pizza.”

They sat around talking for a while, just getting to know each other. Cody talked a little more about living in Spearfish Lake House, things like what to do about garbage and to go easy on the hot water, since there was only one water heater, albeit a big one, for the four apartments. Soon the pizza was gone, and Jack offered to haul the empty boxes to the dumpster out back.

“One final thing,” Cody said before they split up. “I know all of you are anxious to get your places set up, and I don’t blame you. But I worked a night shift last night, so I really need to get my sleep tonight. It’s one of the reasons for a ‘no noise’ rule since I sometimes have to work nights and Jan occasionally does, too. So I’d appreciate it if you kept it dialed down the rest of the evening. You have tomorrow to get things set up. There are times you may have to pull all-nighters, and we understand that. We’ve done it too, so just show a little consideration, please.”

They hung around Susan’s apartment for a few more minutes. “I don’t know about the rest of you,” Nancy yawned, “But I’m bushed. I didn’t sleep well last night and had to get up at bird watcher’s hours this morning. I think I’m going to go get my bed set up and use it.”

“That’s one thing about birding, it’s pretty much early to bed and early to rise,” Jack agreed. “Vixen and I are well past our bedtimes.”

“I can’t speak for Summer,” Alan said. “But I’m ready to hang it up, too. Besides, I wouldn’t want to keep you guys awake.”

“Bed sounds pretty good to me, too,” Summer agreed with a smirk on her face that indicated she had something more in mind for bed than just sleeping, and she suspected the other three in their apartment had something similar on their minds.

Fifteen minutes later she and Alan were in bed together, nude, and not doing anything that indicated sleep would be along anytime soon. “Wow,” she whispered. “I’m glad to be able to do this and not have to sneak around about it.”

“It won’t be the last time,” Alan replied, hearing a slight squeaking coming from the other bedroom. It sounded like bedsprings to him, and he hoped Jack and Vixen were enjoying themselves. “Not the last time at all.” Then his mouth was too busy to use for things like words.

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