I called Dad to let him know we were letting out early, and he told me to go get salt for the driveway and sidewalks. He also wanted me to go get the five-gallon gas cans filled up. We had a house generator in the basement. It was a holdover from when we bought the home. Each fall Dad would service it and make sure it was working. The only thing we didn’t do was keep the extra gas on hand. We had four five-gallon cans. If there was a storm coming and we thought we would lose power from it, we would get gas. The four cans were enough to keep us going for a couple of days. If the storm didn’t take the power out, we would just put it in the cars.
I went home, got the cans, and headed to Farm and Fleet to get salt. They had 25-pound bags. I got three of them, figuring it would be enough for the winter. I then went to the gas station, filled up the Jeep and then the four cans. When I got home, Tracy’s car and another one I didn’t recognize were parked in front of the house.
I opened the garage door and put the gas and salt away. I parked in the garage. I could always pull out when Mom and Dad got home. I went to my apartment to find Tracy, Pam, Mona, Kim and Sammie getting lunch together. It looked like Kim had gone to her aunt and uncle’s restaurant and gotten fried chicken with all the fixings.
Tracy saw me and pulled me into my room.
“How come everyone’s here? I don’t remember you telling me about this,” I said.
“It was a last-minute thing. Well, that’s not completely true. We were planning to have a girls’ afternoon together over Thanksgiving weekend. When we got let out of school early, we decided to do it early.”
“Okay, that explains the girls getting together. What it doesn’t explain is why my place?” I asked.
“Two reasons. The first is you have the perfect place.”
“Which I’m not really excited about a bunch of people being in,” I complained.
“I know, but let me finish,” she said. I nodded. “We all talked, and we wanted you to be the male model.”
I had no idea what she was talking about.
“I guess I should tell you why we’re getting together.”
“That might help,” I snapped back.
Tracy kissed me to calm me down.
“We’re having a lingerie party.”
“A what?” I asked a little loudly.
“A lingerie party. I found a girl who goes to State that sells lingerie. She’ll be here in a little bit,” she said, as if it was no big deal.
“I guess I don’t understand. Why me?”
“David, don’t make me spell this out for you,” Tracy said, and saw she was going to have to do just that, and sighed. “There’s not another guy we like and trust enough to have here. You’re going to see ALL the cheerleaders in sexy underwear. Does that help you understand?”
“Ah yes, it does,” I agreed, and then something worked its way to the front of my mind.
“What did you mean when you said you needed a male model?”
“They have a men’s line also. We might want to have you try on some things,” she said, looking at her shoes.
“I’m not going to have to wear assless chaps, am I?” I asked, suddenly worried.
“You have a cute butt. You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Tracy said with a hint of a grin.
“I guess I’ve modeled in less,” I admitted.
“That’s the spirit. Oh, and something else: we’ll be drinking to help the girls relax,” she announced.
“Tracy, you know I don’t want drinking in my place.”
“But you do want to see girls in itty bitty thongs,” she shot back.
“I hear you, but, it’s my place, my rules.”
I had a bad feeling I’d made a mistake. I wasn’t worried about school tomorrow. If we got the ice, like I thought we would, there was no way we’d have to go. I just would need to keep an eye on everything and make sure the girls didn’t get out of control. I mentally kicked myself. I knew better. There was no way I was going to control these girls.
I went back out and had just hung up my coat when there was a knock at my door. I opened it to find Emma, Piper, Faith and Kylie. Reese and Carol, the last two varsity cheerleaders, were coming up the walk with a college girl I didn’t know pulling two big rolling suitcases. Reese had driven her van and picked up the freshmen.
“Reese, could you park your van on the street? Mom and Dad need to be able to get their cars into the garage.”
“No problem,” she said, and she went to repark her van.
“David,” I said to introduce myself.
“Uma. Thank you for hosting the party. As the host, you get a special gift based on how much the girls buy,” she told me as she shook my hand.
I somehow ended up carrying her suitcases upstairs.
When I got upstairs, I saw Tracy must have gotten extra chairs out of the garage with a couple of folding tables. Pam came up to me and looked a little nervous.
“You’re okay with this?” she asked.
“It’s fine. I just don’t want to turn this into teen central. Mom and Dad have been pretty cool about letting me use the apartment. I don’t want to lose the privilege by throwing any parties.”
“So, you’d have a problem if we were drinking a little?” she asked.
I looked around and the girls had what looked to be cranberry, orange or grapefruit juice. I spotted a big bottle of vodka. Tracy saw my mood change and quickly ushered Pam and me into my bedroom.
“I think I better tell the big guy what’s going on,” she started, and rubbed my chest to calm me down. “We thought a little liquid courage was in order for some of the girls.”
Did I hear that right? She had let them drink when I said ‘no’?
“What part of ‘no drinking’ didn’t you understand?” I asked.
“Sorry, we won’t have anymore. Tracy didn’t know I made the drinks,” Pam confessed.
I went out, got the bottle of vodka, and put it in my closet.
“David, I’m sorry I didn’t tell Pam in time,” Tracy said. “I went and got the chairs, and came back and they were drinking.”
I had to take her word for it, or get mad and kick everyone out. Then Pam tried to lighten the mood.
“Don’t worry, we have some assless chaps for you,” Pam said with a huge smile.
No effing way was I going to wear that. I guess my look was hilarious because they were laughing so hard I thought they were going to pee their pants. I just glared when I realized Tracy put her up to telling me that. I went back out to get some chicken. I decided I might need some liquid courage and made myself a drink. Of course, drinking alcohol a couple days before the state championship game was never happening.
When we had finished eating, we cleaned up. I put all the trash into a big bag and hauled it to the garbage bin. I noticed it was starting to get icy, so I went to the garage, got out a fertilizer spreader, and put salt in it. For now, I was just worried about the driveway and the path between the house and the garage. I took care of that and headed back upstairs.
When I got there, I found the girls had gone to my bedroom. The girls were all in silk robes.
“It’s starting to freeze. If it gets any worse, you might get stuck here,” I advised.
Okay, my dad dropped me on my head.
“Just ignore me,” I said.
They thought I was funny. Then Tracy decided to take control of the day’s events.
“David, you’re overdressed,” she ordered me as she handed me a bag.
I figured I’d made enough dumb comments. I went into the bathroom, stripped and put on the red silk boxers Tracy had given me. I looked in the mirror, and they looked good. When I came back out there were some inappropriate comments. They had me sit between Piper and Sammie Piper and Sammie were single, so I could see Tracy’s hand in this. I suspected she still wanted me to sleep with Piper. I also thought Sammie must have told her she was interested. My only concern was Jeff. They had taken each other’s virginity only a couple of weeks ago, according to Alan. I felt it was way too soon to go there, if ever.