{ "submission_id": "2603422", "keywords": [ { "keyword_id": "6353", "keyword_name": "appaloosa", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "93" }, { "keyword_id": "1166", "keyword_name": "arabian", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "321" }, { "keyword_id": "768", "keyword_name": "bobcat", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "2138" }, { "keyword_id": "123", "keyword_name": "female", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1105217" }, { "keyword_id": "165", "keyword_name": "male", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1215391" }, { "keyword_id": "11507", "keyword_name": "male/female", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "98702" }, { "keyword_id": "4219", "keyword_name": "puma", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "3843" }, { "keyword_id": "20784", "keyword_name": "samoyed", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "835" } ], "hidden": "f", "scraps": "f", "favorite": "f", "favorites_count": "0", "create_datetime": "2021-12-15 23:48:33.444726+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "16 Dec 2021 00:48 CET", "last_file_update_datetime": "2021-12-15 23:32:33.881557+00", "last_file_update_datetime_usertime": "16 Dec 2021 00:32 CET", "username": "daveb63", "user_id": "235945", "user_icon_file_name": "63947_daveb63_dafyddowen.gif", "user_icon_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/63/63947_daveb63_dafyddowen.gif", "user_icon_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/63/63947_daveb63_dafyddowen.gif", "user_icon_url_small": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/63/63947_daveb63_dafyddowen.gif", "file_name": "3843046_daveb63_steppingout_7.doc", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/3843/3843046_daveb63_steppingout_7.doc", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/3843/3843046_daveb63_steppingout_7.doc", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/3843/3843046_daveb63_steppingout_7.doc", "files": [ { "file_id": "3843046", "file_name": "3843046_daveb63_steppingout_7.doc", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/3843/3843046_daveb63_steppingout_7.doc", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/3843/3843046_daveb63_steppingout_7.doc", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/3843/3843046_daveb63_steppingout_7.doc", "mimetype": "application/msword", "submission_id": "2603422", "user_id": "235945", "submission_file_order": "0", "full_size_x": null, "full_size_y": null, "screen_size_x": null, "screen_size_y": null, "preview_size_x": null, "preview_size_y": null, "initial_file_md5": "6fbfe409af7fcd6fbcf6ad06c3f4e10e", "full_file_md5": "6fbfe409af7fcd6fbcf6ad06c3f4e10e", "large_file_md5": "", "small_file_md5": "", "thumbnail_md5": "", "deleted": "f", "create_datetime": "2021-12-15 23:32:33.881557+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "16 Dec 2021 00:32 CET" } ], "pools": [ { "pool_id": "75573", "name": "Stepping Out", "description": "Terry has a secret. It's about to be revealed.", "count": "12", "submission_left_submission_id": "2602483", "submission_left_file_name": "3841680_daveb63_steppingout_6-tango.doc", "submission_right_submission_id": "2604807", "submission_right_file_name": "3845170_daveb63_steppingout8.doc" } ], "description": "Dramatis personae:\n\nTerrence Oscar Marks - answers to either Terry or Tom. Equine (arabian). New transfer to the senior class at Cole Valley High. High-level gymnast but \"not your typical jock\".\n\nDanette Clarke - equine (appaloosa) - Junior at Cole Valley High. \"late bloomer\", convinced that she's \"not pretty\" but in fact has become quite a striking young woman.\n\nIrina Ostrakova - Samoyed. Has been Terry's regular dance partner for five years. Junior at St. Margarets Catholic High School\n\nFrancis Wilson - Labrador. General theater nerd and regular member of the stage crew at Cole Valley High.\n\nMike Harris - Bobcat. Senior at Cole Valley High, Athlete, gym-rat, polyamorous but devoted to...\nBrandy Carlson - Puma. Senior at Cole Valley High and captain of the cheer squad. Also enthusiastically polyamorous but as devoted to Mike as he is to her.\n\nCharles and Clara Clarke - Danette's parents.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Dramatis personae:

Terrence Oscar Marks - answers to either Terry or Tom. Equine (arabian). New transfer to the senior class at Cole Valley High. High-level gymnast but "not your typical jock".

Danette Clarke - equine (appaloosa) - Junior at Cole Valley High. "late bloomer", convinced that she's "not pretty" but in fact has become quite a striking young woman.

Irina Ostrakova - Samoyed. Has been Terry's regular dance partner for five years. Junior at St. Margarets Catholic High School

Francis Wilson - Labrador. General theater nerd and regular member of the stage crew at Cole Valley High.

Mike Harris - Bobcat. Senior at Cole Valley High, Athlete, gym-rat, polyamorous but devoted to...
Brandy Carlson - Puma. Senior at Cole Valley High and captain of the cheer squad. Also enthusiastically polyamorous but as devoted to Mike as he is to her.

Charles and Clara Clarke - Danette's parents.", "writing": "“Welcome to Ostrakov’s… Oh! I think I remember you from the High School dance. It’s Brandy, isn’t it? I was watching you from the tech booth.”\n\n“If I’d been in that tech booth you’d have heard me screaming from out on the floor. Frank had me when I was a sophomore and it was only the once, because he nearly ripped me in half. He’s enormous.”\n\nIrina blushed.\n\n“I wasn’t up there [i]planning [/i]to get laid but I sorta found that out later. Frank and I have been a bit of a regular item since the dance. He’s sweet.”\n\n“Don’t mind me. I make no secret that I like variety in men, it’s just simpler and more honest that way, and I never poach. You probably had him drooling like a bloodhound inside five seconds anyway. He’s really into big tits and – no offence – yours are even bigger than mine. How the heck do you stand it? Mine give me the backache from hell sometimes”\n\n“Hey, I might make a sale today after all… Come over here… See, these are just like regular everyday tops but look, there’s this extra layer of lycra there and this sewn-in sorta shelf, almost as much support as a sports bra but [i]much [/i]more comfortable. The double layer of fabric means you don’t show too much nip as well, which has to be a concern for you as much it is for me since hefty tits usually means hefty nips as well. They are made for dancers but for girls like us they are heaven. Hell of a lot more convenient than my mom dragging me two hours down the road to a city department store to get bras fitted too. I hear from their sales rep that the company is actually considering expanding their line to market to bustier women for casual wear but they haven’t yet.”\n\n“Gimme that dark green one, I got to go try this on. You could have the whole cheer team in here next week. We sorta have to shake ‘em at the games and the level of bitching in the showers after is legendary.”\n\n“Only downside is you can’t show cleavage with this system. You want that and you have to go back to a regular boob-hammock.”\n\nThree minutes later, the curvy puma was walking out of the fitting room, still wearing the dark green top and grinning as she riffled through the rack and picked out a couple of additional colors.\n\n“I’m taking these three, but I need to talk to you about dragging my boyfriend down here for some classes.”\n\n“You’re pretty good. That’s why I remember you.”\n\nBrandy laughed.\n\n“Pretty good didn’t stop me getting my ass kicked though. Thing is, Mike’s got this idea in his head about a proper dance routine for Prom, so he’s going to have to learn. I’ve tried to teach him but I don’t know formal dances that well… I’ll probably have to haul him through the door kicking and screaming but I thought maybe a proper teacher would be able to do better.”\n\n“There’s classes on upstairs at the moment if you’d like to take a look, see what to expect. I’ll just ring these up for you and I can take you up there.”\n\n“I’d love to.”\n\n-----=====-----\n\n“We’ve got three studio rooms up here. Mom’s got intermediate Latin in the main one at the moment, Dad’s in number three with a ballet class. Doubt your man’s interested in that though. There’s an advanced couple rehearsing in number two.”\n\n“That wouldn’t be Tom and Danette, now, would it?”\n\n“Actually, yes. Mom’s got them entered in a contest and they are working their tails off to get ready. That’s why she’s teaching the Latin class, normally she’d have Tom take that one.”\n\n“That dance they pulled off at the school… That was so fucking hot. After us all watching that, the man could have had any girl in the place, right there on the floor if he’d been remotely interested in anyone but the one he was dancing with.”\n\nIrina giggled.\n\n“Thank you! I wrote the routine for them. The moms made the outfits though.”\n\n“I gotta ask. [i]Was [/i]she wearing anything under that dress? I know they are designed to look like she isn’t even when she is, but I’m totally not sure.”\n\n“I’ve no idea either. We’ve got these one piece things that are really high cut so you can show some hip in a slit skirt and they help prevent ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ up top too, but they aren’t supposed to ever actually [i]show[/i]. If I’d gone to that dance with the same plans she did, I might have been tempted to leave it off, but I haven’t asked. A girl’s got to have some secrets after all. At least it wasn’t a dress she had to be sewn into like some. That could get real frustrating when you finally find yourselves alone.”\n\n“Can we look in on the Latin class? I know it would hardly work in a prom dress but I’d love to learn Salsa. Maybe make that part of the deal if Mike’s going to get what he wants and have us finish the Prom with something horribly romantic.”\n\n“Sure, that’s right through here…”\n\n-----=====-----\n\nThe two girls were still chatting as they walked back down the stairs ten minutes later. For her part, Brandy had decided she quite liked the bubbly Samoyed. Since exiting puberty, Brandy had had a highly active libido. She was fine with that and saw no point in not getting laid well and often. She had also found a steady partner who was [i]also [/i]fine with that. At first, it had resulted in some bullying and she’d developed a matter-of-fact attitude about it as a kind of defensive response. She’d started to be completely open about it. The look on another girl’s face when she’d called Brandy a slut and Brandy had looked straight back at her said “Well yes, I suppose I am. I happen to like getting fucked. A lot. Is that a problem for you?” had been priceless.\n\nThe boys had learned that she had standards. He couldn’t be off-limits, he had to be at least willing to try to be a considerate lover and she had to find him attractive.\n\nBoth the girls and the boys had learned that off-limits meant anyone that her partner wouldn’t have been happy with her going to bed with or anyone already in a relationship (unless it was a mutually consensual threesome with their partner. Brandy wasn’t that into girls but she’d found a few of them were seriously into [i]her [/i]and she was certain that two girls at once was [i]almost [/i]every teenaged males wet dream.) \n\nThey’d also learned that she [i]never [/i]broke those rules. The bullying had stopped.\n\nShe’d also discovered that there were a few in the school, both boys and girls, who were completely unbothered by her in-your-muzzle openness about her sexuality. Those had become close friends and Irina seemed to be like them.\n\n-----=====-----\n\nOnce Brandy and Mike had started showing up at the dance studio – not regularly by any means but not infrequently either – the two couples had also slowly drifted together at school. It was now a rare lunchtime that didn’t find them sharing a table\n\nOn this particular lunchtime, Mike looked up from his plate of food and cocked his head at Tom.\n\n“I dunno, man. You think it’s time for that?”\n\n“Yeah, I do. It’s like in the gym, Mike. You’ve learned enough of the individual techniques to start throwing combos – which in this case means you start to work with Irina and construct routines using the techniques you’ve learned.”\n\n“Saw the picture of you two with that trophy. Pretty cool…” he broke off as Brandy elbowed him in the ribs.\n\n“Don’t change the subject to [i]avoid [/i]the subject, furball. For what it’s worth, I think he’s right.”\n\nDanette joined the conversation. “He is right. I’ve danced with you in practice, Mike, just like Tom has with Brandy. We [i]know [/i]how far you’ve come and together you’re better. You’re becoming a solid [i]partnership[/i]. That’s why it’s time to start letting Irina work with you, because now she can. It’s how you dance [i]together [/i]she needs to work with, not what either one of you can do, and each of you is better together than in isolation. You’ve got real chemistry happening.”\n\nBrandy snorted.\n\n“Considering it was the chemistry between you two that got us started on this...”\n\nDanette just smiled.\n\n“Love does have something to do with it, Brandy, doesn’t it?”\n\nBrandy looked across at Mike with a soft expression on her face that she rarely displayed in public.\n\n“Yeah. It does. So you’d better tell Irina she’s got a challenge on her hands. We want a waltz that we can use twice. Once as the last dance of a Prom and then as the first dance at a wedding.”\n\n“Huh?” Both Tom and Danette looked surprised but Mike simply smiled.\n\n“You’ve gone and opened the can, love, you’d best pour out the rest of the beans.”\n\n“Ok, but you two keep this to yourselves, ok? If it gets out it could ruin everything.”\n\nBoth Tom and Danette nodded.\n\n“See, we’ve been planning this. Problem is that my folks hate Mike and his folks hate me. They just don’t get our lifestyle and to their mind it’s the ‘other one’ whose ‘sinful influence’ is responsible for corrupting their child. We just come out and announce we’re getting married, they’d picket the courthouse to stop us and if we dared get within half a mile of the church then when Pastor Carrick said ‘speak now, or forever hold your peace’ both dads would be on their feet, mine denouncing him as a rake and his calling me a whore. Either way it would be a shitshow of epic proportions. Would be even worse if we just stuck it out and then eloped the day after my 21st birthday. So here’s what we’re going to do.”\n\nShe leaned in a little closer over the table and spoke a little more quietly.\n\n“Mike’s already working part-time as a heavy plant mechanic at Tolliver’s. He’s good at it, they like him and they’ve promised him that if he comes to work for them after he graduates the time would count against his apprenticeship. Before next year’s class has their Homecoming he’ll have a good union job and be earning decent pay. Decent for this town anyway. So, he gets himself a place that’s big enough for both of us while I just carry on as I have been, living at my folks place working whatever stuff I can find. Meanwhile we’re getting all the plans in place for the wedding without telling a soul. Then all we need to do is force the families onside.”\n\n“That sounds like it could be the hardest bit of the whole plan.” mused Tom, but Brandy laughed quietly.\n\n“Oh no, that’s the easy part. That’s when we tell them I’m pregnant and we’d better have the wedding before I start to show. It’s the one thing will get them on board whether they like it or not.”\n\n“Sneaky.” Danette looked troubled though. “So then you fake a miscarriage once it’s a done deal?”\n\n“Oh no.” Brandy looked at Mike for a moment with her expression softening even more. “They’d be all over us to annul the marriage if that happened. We won’t be faking anything. When we tell them I’m pregnant, I will be. When we’re ready to kick it all off I stop my birth control and keep my legs closed for anyone but Mike. I’ve known for ages that this was the man I would marry and who would be the father of my cubs. So he can knock me up to get the wedding underway rather than on the honeymoon and if somebody counts the months and comes up one short well, that’s hardly unusual around here, now, is it?\n\nBut that’s why it’s got to be all under the radar until we drop the bomb. Right now I get my BC from Planned Parenthood in the next town over. Mom and Dad don’t like it but they look the other way because it’s better than the alternative services I might be getting from them without the BC. If they get even a hint of our plans they’ll march me into our family doc, and he’s as strait-laced as they are, to get me on a long-term jab I can’t just stop at our convenience.”\n\nMike growled softly.\n\n“That [i]would [/i]actually be assault with a deadly weapon – that’s what the law calls a ‘non-consensual medical procedure’ – and since you’d still be under 21, child abuse too.”\n\n“Making that stick in [i]this [/i]state? Get real. Besides, once the stuff’s in me the deed’s done isn’t it? Our plans would be as thoroughly screwed as Irina when Frank’s around. Or worse yet, if I kicked up enough of a fuss to avoid the jab they’d get him to sign off on my ‘promiscuity’ being a sign of mental illness and stick me in an institution somewhere far away from you. You [i]know [/i]they would.”\n\nDanette reached out and laid her hand softly on top of Brandy’s which was balled into a fist on the table with her claws extending and almost puncturing her own skin.\n\n“Nobody will hear it from us. If we can help in any way, just say the word.”\n\n-----=====-----\n\n“Danette, I’m going to take a gap year before going to college. Work full-time at the dance studio.”\n\n“What brought this on?”\n\n“Two things. That chat we had with Brandy and Mike at lunch today and what I’m feeling here, now, with you. I can’t face the thought of being far away from you for that long.”\n\n“So we’ll be applying for college the same year?”\n\n“Yep. And if we play our cards right maybe it could even be the same one. At worst we should be able to get to be close enough to see each other.”\n\n“We ought to make some plans then. You know, I’ve never even asked what you planned on studying at college?” \n\n“Sports physio. But I want to specialise in the kinds of injury dancers get. If I make a career as a pro dancer and open my own studio then I’ll be well suited to take [i]care [/i]of any of my students that get injured that way. If I don’t then I’ve got a marketable skill that can make me a career without taking me away from the dance business. What about you?”\n\n“Library science. I can go anywhere, be anything with that. Every town, every school, every college has a library and they will never stop needing qualified librarians. A lot of them go on to be things like museum curators too. All jobs that will let me keep dancing with you, although I made those plans before I ever met you.”\n\n“Yeah, a lot of pro dancers have ‘day jobs’ too, just like musicians and actors.”\n\n“So tomorrow we start making a list of colleges where both programs could happen.”\n\n“Why not tonight?”\n\n“Because I’ve been thinking about Brandy and Mike too. There’s something I need to tell you.”\n\n“Oh?”\n\n“If I get pregnant naturally, a genetic condition I carry will kill half of our sons and leave half our daughters as carriers like I am. If we ever have kids it has to be by IVF so they can stop that happening.”\n\n“wait a sec – [i]our [/i]sons? [i]Our [/i]daughters?”\n\n“Mhmmm. I don’t want kids [i]yet [/i]Tom, but when I do I want them to be [i]yours[/i]. I need you to tell me if you’re ok with that.”\n\n“Love, if you’d surprised me right now by telling me you were pregnant I’d be scared out of my skull but so happy it wouldn’t have mattered. Now you’ve told me what you have I’d be more scared but I’d be praying with all my soul that we’d hit the 50% odds right and everything would be fine.”\n\n“You want a family with me?”\n\n“You just said it best for both of us, Danette. Not yet, but when we do, they will be ours.”\n\n“And that’s why we aren’t looking at colleges now, Love. Even though we both know it can’t happen tonight, my stallion, come here and love me like it could.”\n\n“Hmmm. Did I just propose to you?”\n\n“I think you did. And I want to give you the most enthusiastic yes in history, so come heeeeeeeeere… oh… aaaaaah…”\n\n-----=====-----\n\n“Clara, we need to soundproof that girl’s room.”\n\n“No we don’t, Charles. We just need to join in the noise.”\n\n“Have I ever told you that you’re a smart woman, Clara?”\n\n“Once or twice. When nobody was listening. And you’ve got about ten seconds to prove you’re not a stupid man…”\n\n“Could take me a mite longer than that, dear… “\n\n“Oh good. Start trying.”\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "“Welcome to Ostrakov’s… Oh! I think I remember you from the High School dance. It’s Brandy, isn’t it? I was watching you from the tech booth.”

“If I’d been in that tech booth you’d have heard me screaming from out on the floor. Frank had me when I was a sophomore and it was only the once, because he nearly ripped me in half. He’s enormous.”

Irina blushed.

“I wasn’t up there planning to get laid but I sorta found that out later. Frank and I have been a bit of a regular item since the dance. He’s sweet.”

“Don’t mind me. I make no secret that I like variety in men, it’s just simpler and more honest that way, and I never poach. You probably had him drooling like a bloodhound inside five seconds anyway. He’s really into big tits and – no offence – yours are even bigger than mine. How the heck do you stand it? Mine give me the backache from hell sometimes”

“Hey, I might make a sale today after all… Come over here… See, these are just like regular everyday tops but look, there’s this extra layer of lycra there and this sewn-in sorta shelf, almost as much support as a sports bra but much more comfortable. The double layer of fabric means you don’t show too much nip as well, which has to be a concern for you as much it is for me since hefty tits usually means hefty nips as well. They are made for dancers but for girls like us they are heaven. Hell of a lot more convenient than my mom dragging me two hours down the road to a city department store to get bras fitted too. I hear from their sales rep that the company is actually considering expanding their line to market to bustier women for casual wear but they haven’t yet.”

“Gimme that dark green one, I got to go try this on. You could have the whole cheer team in here next week. We sorta have to shake ‘em at the games and the level of bitching in the showers after is legendary.”

“Only downside is you can’t show cleavage with this system. You want that and you have to go back to a regular boob-hammock.”

Three minutes later, the curvy puma was walking out of the fitting room, still wearing the dark green top and grinning as she riffled through the rack and picked out a couple of additional colors.

“I’m taking these three, but I need to talk to you about dragging my boyfriend down here for some classes.”

“You’re pretty good. That’s why I remember you.”

Brandy laughed.

“Pretty good didn’t stop me getting my ass kicked though. Thing is, Mike’s got this idea in his head about a proper dance routine for Prom, so he’s going to have to learn. I’ve tried to teach him but I don’t know formal dances that well… I’ll probably have to haul him through the door kicking and screaming but I thought maybe a proper teacher would be able to do better.”

“There’s classes on upstairs at the moment if you’d like to take a look, see what to expect. I’ll just ring these up for you and I can take you up there.”

“I’d love to.”

-----=====-----

“We’ve got three studio rooms up here. Mom’s got intermediate Latin in the main one at the moment, Dad’s in number three with a ballet class. Doubt your man’s interested in that though. There’s an advanced couple rehearsing in number two.”

“That wouldn’t be Tom and Danette, now, would it?”

“Actually, yes. Mom’s got them entered in a contest and they are working their tails off to get ready. That’s why she’s teaching the Latin class, normally she’d have Tom take that one.”

“That dance they pulled off at the school… That was so fucking hot. After us all watching that, the man could have had any girl in the place, right there on the floor if he’d been remotely interested in anyone but the one he was dancing with.”

Irina giggled.

“Thank you! I wrote the routine for them. The moms made the outfits though.”

“I gotta ask. Was she wearing anything under that dress? I know they are designed to look like she isn’t even when she is, but I’m totally not sure.”

“I’ve no idea either. We’ve got these one piece things that are really high cut so you can show  some hip in a slit skirt and they help prevent ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ up top too, but they aren’t supposed to ever actually show. If I’d gone to that dance with the same plans she did, I might have been tempted to leave it off, but I haven’t asked. A girl’s got to have some secrets after all. At least it wasn’t a dress she had to be sewn into like some. That could get real frustrating when you finally find yourselves alone.”

“Can we look in on the Latin class? I know it would hardly work in a prom dress but I’d love to learn Salsa. Maybe make that part of the deal if Mike’s going to get what he wants and have us finish the Prom with something horribly romantic.”

“Sure, that’s right through here…”

-----=====-----

The two girls were still chatting as they walked back down the stairs ten minutes later. For her part, Brandy had decided she quite liked the bubbly Samoyed. Since exiting puberty, Brandy had had a highly active libido. She was fine with that and saw no point in not getting laid well and often. She had also found a steady partner who was also fine with that. At first, it had resulted in some bullying and she’d developed a matter-of-fact attitude about it as a kind of defensive response. She’d started to be completely open about it. The look on another girl’s face when she’d called Brandy a slut and Brandy had looked straight back at her said “Well yes, I suppose I am. I happen to like getting fucked. A lot. Is that a problem for you?” had been priceless.

The boys had learned that she had standards. He couldn’t be off-limits, he had to be at least willing to try to be a considerate lover and she had to find him attractive.

Both the girls and the boys had learned that off-limits meant anyone that her partner wouldn’t have been happy with her going to bed with or anyone already in a relationship (unless it was a mutually consensual threesome with their partner. Brandy wasn’t that into girls but she’d found a few of them were seriously into her and she was certain that two girls at once was almost every teenaged males wet dream.)

They’d also learned that she never broke those rules. The bullying had stopped.

She’d also discovered that there were a few in the school, both boys and girls, who were completely unbothered by her in-your-muzzle openness about her sexuality. Those had become close friends and Irina seemed to be like them.

-----=====-----

Once Brandy and Mike had started showing up at the dance studio – not regularly by any means but not infrequently either – the two couples had also slowly drifted together at school. It was now a rare lunchtime that didn’t find them sharing a table

On this particular lunchtime, Mike looked up from his plate of food and cocked his head at Tom.

“I dunno, man. You think it’s time for that?”

“Yeah, I do. It’s like in the gym, Mike. You’ve learned enough of the individual techniques to start throwing combos – which in this case means you start to work with Irina and construct routines using the techniques you’ve learned.”

“Saw the picture of you two with that trophy. Pretty cool…” he broke off as Brandy elbowed him in the ribs.

“Don’t change the subject to avoid the subject, furball. For what it’s worth, I think he’s right.”

Danette joined the conversation. “He is right. I’ve danced with you in practice, Mike, just like Tom has with Brandy. We know how far you’ve come and together you’re better. You’re becoming a solid partnership. That’s why it’s time to start letting Irina work with you, because now she can. It’s how you dance together she needs to work with, not what either one of you can do, and each of you is better together than in isolation. You’ve got real chemistry happening.”

Brandy snorted.

“Considering it was the chemistry between you two that got us started on this...”

Danette just smiled.

“Love does have something to do with it, Brandy, doesn’t it?”

Brandy looked across at Mike with a soft expression on her face that she rarely displayed in public.

“Yeah. It does. So you’d better tell Irina she’s got a challenge on her hands. We want a waltz that we can use twice. Once as the last dance of a Prom and then as the first dance at a wedding.”

“Huh?” Both Tom and Danette looked surprised but Mike simply smiled.

“You’ve gone and opened the can, love, you’d best pour out the rest of the beans.”

“Ok, but you two keep this to yourselves, ok? If it gets out it could ruin everything.”

Both Tom and Danette nodded.

“See, we’ve been planning this. Problem is that my folks hate Mike and his folks hate me. They just don’t get our lifestyle and to their mind it’s the ‘other one’ whose ‘sinful influence’ is responsible for corrupting their child. We just come out and announce we’re getting married, they’d picket the courthouse to stop us and if we dared get within half a mile of the church then when Pastor Carrick said ‘speak now, or forever hold your peace’ both dads would be on their feet, mine denouncing him as a rake and his calling me a whore. Either way it would be a shitshow of epic proportions. Would be even worse if we just stuck it out and then eloped the day after my 21st birthday. So here’s what we’re going to do.”

She leaned in a little closer over the table and spoke a little more quietly.

“Mike’s already working part-time as a heavy plant mechanic at Tolliver’s. He’s good at it, they like him and they’ve promised him that if he comes to work for them after he graduates the time would count against his apprenticeship. Before next year’s class has their Homecoming he’ll have a good union job and be earning decent pay. Decent for this town anyway. So, he gets himself a place that’s big enough for both of us while I just carry on as I have been, living at my folks place working whatever stuff I can find. Meanwhile we’re getting all the plans in place for the wedding without telling a soul. Then all we need to do is force the families onside.”

“That sounds like it could be the hardest bit of the whole plan.” mused Tom, but Brandy laughed quietly.

“Oh no, that’s the easy part. That’s when we tell them I’m pregnant and we’d better have the wedding before I start to show. It’s the one thing will get them on board whether they like it or not.”

“Sneaky.” Danette looked troubled though. “So then you fake a miscarriage once it’s a done deal?”

“Oh no.” Brandy looked at Mike for a moment with her expression softening even more. “They’d be all over us to annul the marriage if that happened. We won’t be faking anything. When we tell them I’m pregnant, I will be. When we’re ready to kick it all off I stop my birth control and keep my legs closed for anyone but Mike. I’ve known for ages that this was the man I would marry and who would be the father of my cubs. So he can knock me up to get the wedding underway rather than on the honeymoon and if somebody counts the months and comes up one short well, that’s hardly unusual around here, now, is it?

But that’s why it’s got to be all under the radar until we drop the bomb. Right now I get my BC from Planned Parenthood in the next town over. Mom and Dad don’t like it but they look the other way because it’s better than the alternative services I might be getting from them without the BC. If they get even a hint of our plans they’ll march me into our family doc, and he’s as strait-laced as they are, to get me on a long-term jab I can’t just stop at our convenience.”

Mike growled softly.

“That would actually be assault with a deadly weapon – that’s what the law calls a ‘non-consensual medical procedure’ – and since you’d still be under 21, child abuse too.”

“Making that stick in this state? Get real. Besides, once the stuff’s in me the deed’s done isn’t it? Our plans would be as thoroughly screwed as Irina when Frank’s around. Or worse yet, if I kicked up enough of a fuss to avoid the jab they’d get him to sign off on my ‘promiscuity’ being a sign of mental illness and stick me in an institution somewhere far away from you. You know they would.”

Danette reached out and laid her hand softly on top of Brandy’s which was balled into a fist on the table with her claws extending and almost puncturing her own skin.

“Nobody will hear it from us. If we can help in any way, just say the word.”

-----=====-----

“Danette, I’m going to take a gap year before going to college. Work full-time at the dance studio.”

“What brought this on?”

“Two things. That chat we had with Brandy and Mike at lunch today and what I’m feeling here, now, with you. I can’t face the thought of being far away from you for that long.”

“So we’ll be applying for college the same year?”

“Yep. And if we play our cards right maybe it could even be the same one. At worst we should be able to get to be close enough to see each other.”

“We ought to make some plans then. You know, I’ve never even asked what you planned on studying at college?”

“Sports physio. But I want to specialise in the kinds of injury dancers get. If I make a career as a pro dancer and open my own studio then I’ll be well suited to take care of any of my students that get injured that way. If I don’t then I’ve got a marketable skill that can make me a career without taking me away from the dance business. What about you?”

“Library science. I can go anywhere, be anything with that. Every town, every school, every college has a library and they will never stop needing qualified librarians. A lot of them go on to be things like museum curators too. All jobs that will let me keep dancing with you, although I made those plans before I ever met you.”

“Yeah, a lot of pro dancers have ‘day jobs’ too, just like musicians and actors.”

“So tomorrow we start making a list of colleges where both programs could happen.”

“Why not tonight?”

“Because I’ve been thinking about Brandy and Mike too. There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Oh?”

“If I get pregnant naturally, a genetic condition I carry will kill half of our sons and leave half our daughters as carriers like I am. If we ever have kids it has to be by IVF so they can stop that happening.”

“wait a sec – our sons? Our daughters?”

“Mhmmm. I don’t want kids yet Tom, but when I do I want them to be yours. I need you to tell me if you’re ok with that.”

“Love, if you’d surprised me right now by telling me you were pregnant I’d be scared out of my skull but so happy it wouldn’t have mattered. Now you’ve told me what you have I’d be more scared but I’d be praying with all my soul that we’d hit the 50% odds right and everything would be fine.”

“You want a family with me?”

“You just said it best for both of us, Danette. Not yet, but when we do, they will be ours.”

“And that’s why we aren’t looking at colleges now, Love. Even though we both know it can’t happen tonight, my stallion, come here and love me like it could.”

“Hmmm. Did I just propose to you?”

“I think you did. And I want to give you the most enthusiastic yes in history, so come heeeeeeeeere… oh… aaaaaah…”

-----=====-----

“Clara, we need to soundproof that girl’s room.”

“No we don’t, Charles. We just need to join in the noise.”

“Have I ever told you that you’re a smart woman, Clara?”

“Once or twice. When nobody was listening. And you’ve got about ten seconds to prove you’re not a stupid man…”

“Could take me a mite longer than that, dear… “

“Oh good. Start trying.”
", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Ch7 - Fleckerl and Promenade", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "application/msword", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "f", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "29" }