Harper started to give me the telltale signs of an impending orgasm. This time I felt her clamp down with her internal muscles. I was right there with her. As I approached my peak, I reached under her, grabbed both her nipples and twisted them. It was too much for her.
“JEEEEZZZZuzzz,” she yelled as she collapsed under me.
I was surprised I was a little unsteady on my feet on my way to the bathroom to clean up and dispose of the condom.
When I got back into bed, Harper was wasted. I grabbed a couple of pillows and climbed into bed. I pulled her to me and then wrapped my arms around her. She put her head on my chest and drifted off. It didn’t take me long to join her in a happy slumber.
Monday March 2
WHEN I WENT TO SCHOOL this morning, there was an extra bounce in my step. I had a girl whom I loved, my movie obligations were done for now, and best of all was baseball tryouts started today. I was excited about this season. We were finally going to get to play varsity ball.
I noticed they’d broken ground on the new field house. They planned on having it done by the start of the coming school year, next August. I could hardly wait to be able to use it. Dad was also excited. He, Tom, Coach Hope and Mrs. Sullivan had worked hard to make this a reality. I was proud of them.
I found Jeff and Alan had waited for me in front of the school.
“Are you done?” asked Alan.
“I did some voice work this weekend. I also added some fight scenes on Sunday. They told me I was done until they’re going to launch the movie. Then I might have to do promotional work,” I said to fill them in.
“Did I see Harper with you on Facebook?” Jeff asked.
“She came out for the weekend,” I said with a big smile.
Our Friday night Stryker experience had not gone unnoticed by our mothers. Saturday had involved some very direct discussions. I think Mrs. Mass was surprised when I didn’t try to cover it up or sugarcoat it. She appreciated my honesty. Harper was a different story. She didn’t want her mom to know we’d had sex. She was more than a little surprised that her mother knew she’d been sexually active with both Ray and me.
When I came back from working on Saturday, Harper and her mom had come to grips with her having me as a boyfriend and everything that entailed. I think part of it was due to them shopping all day with my mom. The other part was due to Craig scoring us invites to another Chubby Feldman party. This one was much tamer. Unlike last time, I actually got to see all of the house and grounds.
At the party, Craig, Bree, Elizabeth and I all got a chance to talk about possible future movie deals for the Star Academy series. I filled them in on Janice’s initial offer to me. Elizabeth had also been made an offer and hers was much less. To me, that wasn’t surprising. One of the big studios had been hacked, and it came to light that women made less than their male counterparts. We were split, at first, on how to proceed. The girls wanted us to negotiate the same pay for everyone. Craig, after he heard what Elizabeth was offered, thought he’d be better off going it alone.
I hadn’t decided what I should do, so I went looking for Kent. The other three were still arguing when I brought him back. He listened to all four of us. My biggest concern was I didn’t want to take the time to make two more movies. The other three didn’t understand my point of view, because this was their full-time job. Kent made a suggestion which surprised me: he proposed we try and get the studio to shoot the next two films at the same time.
I was glad Kent also insisted on all four of us negotiating together. I had read the books and knew that the four of us were the core group. We also agreed that Kent, through Craig’s agent, would lead the negotiations. We all liked and trusted Kent to do what was best for our team. I think the girls were relieved that they would make more money.
Alan and Jeff filled me in on their weekend. They had double-dated Saturday night. It sounded like they’d had a good time.
MOOSE GATHERED US ALL around to give us his opening speech of the season.
"Okay, settle down. I’m Moose. Just so we’re clear, I answer to Coach or Moose. Either one is fine. Coach Diamond is going to work with the outfielders. Coach Herndon will work with the pitchers and catchers. The rest of the infield will be with me. The JV team will go with Coaches Haskins and Hope.
"I also want to clear something up for you freshmen and first-year players. You will not be playing varsity ball. I don’t believe in throwing anyone onto the varsity squad before they have at least a year of high school ball under their belt. This is nonnegotiable. The first one of you that has his momma or daddy call me about it will be running until they either drop or quit; I don’t really care which.
"There will be two teams this year, varsity and JV. Normally I try to put only first-year players on JV. If you are cut from varsity I will consider. Did you hear that? I will consider letting you try out for JV. I use the JV team to give first-year players a chance to learn. If I feel that you could develop, I’ll let you play JV ball. I know that sounds harsh, but it has worked for twenty-six years. Are there any questions before we get started?"
I remembered how pissed I’d been when I heard that speech last year. I still thought that if you had the talent, you should be able to play varsity ball. Just because you hadn’t played under him yet didn’t mean you should have to play junior varsity. The Callahan twins raised their hands. I had a hard time telling which was which. Moose pointed at them.
“We played varsity last year at our old high school. Do we get a chance at playing varsity here?”
“No,” was Moose’s one-word answer.
I needed to talk to them before they pissed him off. When we broke up I trotted over to the twins.
“Sorry about that, but you’ll never change his mind,” I told them.
“But he said that he didn’t believe in letting anyone play varsity unless they had a year of high school ball under their belts. We both started last year,” one of them complained.
“I understand what you’re saying. All I know is Moose is old-school. I tried to get him to let me play last year. I felt I was better than their starting shortstop. Moose almost kicked me off the team for challenging him,” I said, and then looked around to make sure no one was listening in. “If you repeat this, I’ll deny it. Once I knew that I wasn’t going to make varsity, I decided to just have fun. Looking back, I had a lot more fun playing JV ball than the varsity squad did. I suggest you do the same. Just have fun and play ball.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You get to play varsity,” the other one said.
“I don’t have any guarantees I’ll play varsity ball,” I said.
They both laughed at me and then went to where the JV was going to work out. I smiled when I thought of what Coach Hope had in store for them. I was sure he’d run their asses off before long.
“Tim, David, get your butts over here!” Moose bellowed.
Shit, we’d only been at practice for like ten minutes and Tim and I were getting yelled at.
“We’re going to change things up this year. I want you to take them to the track and run steps. You know how to do that, don’t you?” he asked.
I nodded, and Tim looked at me and sighed. I thought we’d gotten away from having to do this now that we were trying out for varsity. We got everybody and jogged over to the track. Coach Haskins smiled as we came up and joined the JV.
“Okay, Dawson and Foresee. Get them started,” Coach Hope ordered us.
We escorted the team to the starting line. Tim and I broke them into groups of five. Tim took the first group out and they ran one hundred yards and then began walking the next one hundred. I sent the next group when the first was halfway done. I kept them spaced out until I joined the last group. By now, they knew what to do. The next step was two hundred yards running and one hundred walking. The final step was a four-hundred-yard run and walk one hundred. When we completed the first set of steps, Coach Hope told us to go again.