“Why do you have your gym bag?”
“I don’t know. He told me to bring it.” Ava answered, pointing at me.
“I’m gonna take her to the company gym after school. I want to teach her some self defense.”
Both of them looked at me with big surprised eyes, as I started moving away from the car.
“You’re going to teach me self defense?” Ava asked.
“What? You think I’m not qualified?” I asked back, with mock offense in my voice.
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that! I don’t know anyone I’d trust more to know about that stuff after what you did in that parking lot.” She sounded way more apologetic than necessary. Almost pleading. Like she was actually afraid I could be offended or something. “But why do you want me to learn that?”
“Can’t hurt, can it?”
I knew they didn’t believe that I would teach Ava something like this for no reason. But they, once again, refrained from questioning me further. After they got to their classes, I sat down in the library and continued my research from the morning.
Pulling out the photo I took of Ava’s birth control pills, I surprisingly quickly found a bunch of sugar pills that bore a remarkable resemblance in an online store for ... certain kinky activities. I could even get them in the right colors: Eggshell-White and Yellow-Ocher. There were a few obvious differences, but I was confident she wouldn’t notice those unless she took a closer look, and I thought I could play it so she wouldn’t. I also chose a few toys I thought could be fun to try on my sisterly fucktoy and pending cumdumpster. Same Day Delivery would fit perfectly, since Ava would be exhausted after the training, making it easier for me to mess with her head.
With that taken care of, I started my research on the money issue, pursuing the idea I had the evening before.
I was surprised how many buildings in this city were in foreclosure. And more specifically, how many of them were within walking distance of the local community college Ava and Maggie were planning to attend. A few of them didn’t even look too run down. More like the original owners were pissed about getting kicked out, and wanted to lessen the property value so the bank wouldn’t make too much of a profit.
I thought about expanding the plan to the area around UT Austin and utilize Golden Boy’s college attendance, but the listings in that area were way out of my price range. I knew, however, that I couldn’t pull this off on my own even in the areas that were in my price range. Even for the cheaper buildings, I needed help from an adult with a credit score.
Preferably, I wanted someone with a good credit score, so the parents were out of the question. I couldn’t trust the grandparents after calling social services on me, and thereby displaying yet another blatant disregard for my needs and wishes, so they were out too. I also didn’t want to include any of the guys from work in this. The only other person I knew would fit the criteria for certain, would be Mr. Miller, Mia’s father. But the speech he gave me, after learning that Nora had chosen me as a lover, made it quite clear he wouldn’t even consider it. That left John and Danielle. And I was SO not happy about that prospect. I admit, it was more the total lack of alternatives than my willingness to risk it, that made me give Danielle a call.
“Hey, Tim! Don’t tell me you already want me to pick up Ava.” she greeted me, half amused but also clearly concerned.
“No. Not yet, anyway. Listen...” I said, as I took a deep breath and tried to gather my courage to take this leap of faith. “I kinda need to ask you and John a big favor. I need help with something, and I absolutely need you to not tell the others.”
“Yes.” she said in a matter of fact tone.
“You ... really? Just like that?”
“Absolutely.” She sounded absolutely serious. When I didn’t comment, she probably suspected I had a hard time believing her, so she elaborated. “Tim, that’s what we’ve been waiting for! You CAN trust us, and this is finally an opportunity to prove it to you! Even if it wasn’t about that, after everything you did for us over the last month alone, we owe you.”
“Okay ... then ... Could we meet up sometime tomorrow? I still need to work out my sales pitch, but I suspect we won’t take long. You’ll probably know pretty quickly if you want to get involved or not. Maybe an hour, depending on how many questions come up on your side.”
“I’ll tell John. Let’s meet at our place at Twelve tomorrow? By then I’ll be done with the grocery shopping, so we’ll have time. And Maggie will be out with her friends, so we can talk without worrying about her listening in again.”
“Sounds good. Thanks, Danny.” I said before ending the call.
Ava’s and Mia’s classes ended relatively early, at around Two in the afternoon, on Fridays. I had used the remaining time to look for a few more estates in foreclosure and printed the most promising ones for the meeting with John and Danielle. The longer I thought about my idea, the more I thought that it could actually work. But in the end, I absolutely had to trust John and Danielle to not screw me over on this deal. All the paperwork would be in their names, so they would be the sole beneficiaries, while I would be financing it and doing all the work in secret with no documented ties to it. I hated that prospect, though if they screwed me over, at least it wouldn’t be that big of a loss. I wasn’t meant to have that money anyway.
When Ava and Mia arrived in the Hallway, they were unusually giddy and seemed excited. They spent the drive to Mia’s home speculating about the training I mentioned. Only when I had parked the car, and we were about to enter the house, did I finally pick up on what they were actually saying.
“This is exciting! I really wonder what he’ll be teaching us.” I heard Mia say, causing me to stop in my tracks.
“Eh ... Mia? What do you mean by ‘teaching us’? I told you that I would be teaching Ava.” I asked her, but she just kept walking into the living room where she found her parents and brother, and told them about ‘our’ afternoon plans. Then she told them how I wanted to exclude her from them.
“Why don’t you want to teach my little girl how to defend herself!?” Nora asked, with a barely noticeable accusation in her voice, that was betrayed by the smirk on her lips.
“Well, when I said that I’m gonna teach Ava self defense, I used those words so they knew what I’m talking about. But the thing is ... There is no such thing as a self defense technique. Basically, if you want to know how to possibly get out of a choke hold, you first need to know how a choke hold works. That’s not something you learn from someone telling you or watching a video. I’ll have to teach you how to put someone in a choke hold yourself. Yes, there will be a few techniques, but I don’t think you’d want your daughter to learn that. Especially since the techniques we learn at Carter are ... rough.”
“No, I actually do!” George, Mia’s father suddenly proclaimed. The demanding voice surprised even Nora and his two children. “She’s going to attend college in the fall. As much as I would like to, I won’t be able to watch out for her anymore, and we all heard the stories about drunk frat boys. I would sleep a lot better knowing she’d be able to defend herself.”
“And it’s not like you really have a choice in this matter.” Mia added, smirking when I raised an eyebrow in doubt. “You said you’d drive me where I want, when I want. Well, now I want you to drive me and Ava to your company gym. And when we’re already there, you can just as well include me in that training.”