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From: "Rev. Cotton Mather" <revcottonmather@hotmail.com>
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Subject: {ASSM} Playing the Game II: Playing to Win, Ch. 15 (mf rom)
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 18:10:04 -0500
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And the story continues...

Thanks, once again, to Gary Jordan for being my beta reader, and to The 
Purvv, for his proofreading tenacity.

Enjoy.






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Welcome to the Church of The Reverend Cotton Mather. This story is
the sole property of the author, and may not be copied or downloaded
for the intent of profit. Permission is freely given for anyone to
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(Copyright 2002, Rev. Cotton Mather)

E-Mail all comments to RevCottonMather@hotmail.com
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PLAYING TO WIN:
PLAYING THE GAME, BOOK II


by Reverend Cotton Mather




- 15 -

BUILDING A FLOAT



We fell into our school routine through the fall.  Becky decided I
was dirt, and, except for when she had to, she stopped talking to me.
Kristina seemed to work through her guilt and anger, and was pretty
much back to her old self again.  Molly was skipping school with some
regularity, and on the days she did show up, she was looking paler
and thinner than ever.  I noticed that she had taken to wearing much
heavier makeup, perhaps to try to cover the dark circles that were
forming under her eyes.  I had heard, through the school grapevine,
that the cheerleading coach had tried to intervene on her behalf,
even going so far as to call her parents, but it didn't seem to help
much.  I knew that Josh was very worried about her, too, but she
wasn't listening to him any more than she cared about what Mrs.
Halliburton, the cheerleading coach, had to say to her.

Homecoming was scheduled for the first weekend in October.  A couple
of weeks before that, a committee of students from each class, with
faculty advisers, came up with float designs.  The locations where
these floats were to be constructed were supposed to be a secret, so
that there would be no sabotage raids between the freshmen,
sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  The Junior Class float was going
to be built inside a big old barn on some land owned by Shayna
Gallagher's parents, located just a couple of miles out of town.  The
Gallaghers also provided a hay wagon for the float, and construction
time was scheduled for every weekday night for whoever could come.
It was a fun diversion to go over there and shape chicken wire over
the wood framing, and to tie colored crepe paper into the wire.
Because of practice schedules and homework, I wasn't able to go over
there more than a couple of times the first week, but there were
usually about 20 or 25 kids and adults there every night.

On Thursday, I was just sitting down for dinner with my family,
anxious to be done so I could run over, pick up Jake, and head out to
the barn.  Both my mom and my dad were amused, watching me shovel
food into my mouth in such a hurry.  My younger brother Stephen was
just picking at his food, acting distracted.

As I forced down that last mouthful, I dropped my silverware and
asked, "May I be excused?"

Stephen piped up right after me, "Me, too, please?"

"All right," said my mom with a small laugh.  "Go, before you
explode."

I ran upstairs to change my clothes.  I was pulling on my jeans when
Stephen knocked on my door, and opened it.

"Come on in," I said as I tucked in my shirt.  "What's up?"

"Sean, I... uh, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, pal," I replied.  "What's bothering you?"

He had his head down, and one foot was tapping.

"Ah, never mind," he said uncomfortably, and he turned to leave.

I took two steps over to him and grabbed his arm and turned him back
around to face me.

"Hold it there, Stephen.  What's going on?  I know it's something
you don't want the parents to find out about, right?"

"Yeah, well, right," he reluctantly agreed.

"So talk to me."

He sighed.  "I... well, I..."

I sat down on my bed and folded my arms across my chest.

"I'm not going anywhere until you spit it out, buddy," I said.

"All right, all right.  It's just that I don't know... what I mean
is... Sean, if somebody says they're giving somebody head, what do
they mean?"

No wonder he didn't want to talk to Mom or Dad.  "Well, it means
oral sex.  They're sucking cock.  Why?  Who's giving head?"

"It's Tara.  You know, Jaimie's sister?  She told me she wants to do
that to me, and I didn't know what she meant."

"Tara?  I guess it doesn't really surprise me," I said.

"Yeah," said Stephen as he pulled out my desk chair and sat down.
"She's kind of a wild kid, you know?  My friend Tommy claims he
fucked her.  I don't know if that's true, but I know she's done some
stuff."

"What do you mean, done some stuff?  Like drugs?  Or like sex stuff?"

"Well, maybe both.  Like, I know she was, uh, like playing show-and-
tell awhile ago."

"Show-and-tell?"

"Yeah, you know at that picnic and party a few weeks ago?  With the
baseball game in their back yard, in the field by the woods?  Well,
Tara took a bunch of us back into the woods there, me and Tommy and
Carlos and Richie and maybe a couple of others, and she told us that
if we all took our clothes off, she would, too.  So we did it.  And
so did she.  And she was laying down, and spreading her legs, and
letting us look at her, and everything.  And we were all kind of
kneeling around her, looking at her, and Carlos reached over and
touched her boob, and she kind of closed her eyes, and licked her
lips, and we were all getting boners, you know?  And she reached out
and just touched the end of Carlos's prick with her fingers after he
started playing with her.  I think if they had been alone, a lot more
would have happened, but we heard some little kids shuffling through
the leaves close by, so we all scrambled to get dressed again."

"Wow," I said.  "That's weird."

"And later, after dark, Tara and Carlos and Richie kind of
disappeared for awhile.  I think they went back into the woods, but I
don't really know for sure.  Anyway, at school the other day, she
told me she might give me head.  I didn't want to ask Tommy or Richie
or Carlos what it meant.  I didn't want to sound stupid, you know?"

I nodded.  Nobody wants to sound stupid in front of their friends.

He continued, "So I said, 'Sure, anytime,' and she said I should
call her and meet her after school.  She said that maybe we could do
some homework together, or something.  But I don't think she really
was talking about school homework."  He stood up.  "Now I know what
I'm gonna call her for, at least.  Thanks, Sean."

"Hold on there, pardner," I said.  "Just because she's kind of
offered to suck you off, doesn't necessarily mean you should be going
for it.  I mean, yeah, it feels good and all, but what about the
risks?  Think about this for awhile, Stephen.  It doesn't sound like
you want to be caught up in being Tara's boyfriend, especially if
she's out there experimenting a lot."

"Well..."

"Look, I'm just saying that she might be reading more into this
offer of hers than you are."  I grabbed my shoes and started putting
them on.  "And even if she isn't, it sure sounds to me like there are
a whole shitload of issues tied to her, and maybe you don't want to
get caught up in all that.  So just think about it, okay?"

"Yeah, you may be right," he admitted.  "Thanks, Sean."

"No problem, little brother.  Take it from me, dealing with girls is
a minefield.  You've got to be real careful.  Slow and steady, or you
just might find something blowing up in your face.  And sometimes
getting your rocks off just isn't worth the price.  Understand?"

"Got it.  Thanks."  He walked out of the room a lot happier than he
walked in.  I wasn't sure I had helped him much, but I hoped he would
pass on Tara's offer, and wait for something better to come along.

I shook my head at myself.  Here I was, giving advice to my little
brother, and my own love life was in shambles.  Why should he listen
to me?

I finished tying my shoes, ran downstairs, grabbed the keys from my
mom's outstretched hand, and ran out to her car.





When Jake and I got to the barn, I was surprised at the progress
that had been made on the float.  The wooden supports were all in
place, and most of the chicken wire was stapled up and shaped.  There
were about 15 kids working on tying crepe paper around the back of
the float, while others were snipping wire.  The teams playing the
homecoming game were us, the Bears, against the Dover Hornets, and
our float design was supposed to be a giant bear crushing a scared
hornet in its paws, so there was a lot of smaller work to be done
with wire and wood, shaping the figures.  A couple of the dads were
looking over a set of drawings, calling out measurements to kids with
saws.  Tiny was helping with carrying lumber, picking up impressive
amounts of two-by-fours at once, and Jake walked over to give him a
hand.  There were a couple of picnic tables set up in a corner, away
from the dust and commotion, and the remains of two pizzas were still
laying out.  There was also a big old refrigerator by the tables, and
Kristina was over there, getting out a couple of cans of pop out of
the refrigerator.

I walked over toward her, and reached for the door, just as she was
closing it.

"Wait a second," I said, as I reached in and grabbed a Coke.

"Who did you come here with?" I asked, glancing at the two cans in
her hand.

"Oh, this is for Tessa," she said with a smile.  "I caught a ride
with her and Austin."  She pointed back toward the float.  I saw them
then, working with the crepe paper.

"Is that where you're working, too?" I asked.

She blushed just a little.  "Yes," she said quietly.

I knew where I wanted to work.  "Is there room for one more?" I asked.

She glanced quickly at me as we strolled toward the float.  "Maybe,"
she replied with a smile.

She handed Tessa one of the cans, and scrambled up on top of the
flatbed wagon.  She bent over to pick up a roll of green crepe paper,
and then looked over to me questioningly, a slight grin on her face.

I took the hint, and followed her up to work on tying paper to one
of the forms.

Two hours later, my hands were dyed blue and green from the paper,
and my fingers were cramping from shoving bits of crepe through the
openings in the wire and tying them off.  I stood and stretched my
aching back muscles, and stopped, looking around in surprise.

It was quiet in the barn.  Most of the kids had already left, and
most of the ones still there were manning brooms to clean up the area
a little.  I hopped down from the wagon, and reached up to give
Kristina a hand as she clambered down.  Tessa and Austin were just
finishing up the section they had been working on, and Jake and Tiny
were sitting at one of the picnic tables, polishing off the last of
the cold pizza.  I walked over toward them, opened the fridge, and
took out two cans of soda.

"Hey, Sean, if you're going to stay here and work some more, I think
I'll catch a ride home with Tiny," said Jake.

"Yeah, that's fine," I said.  "Maybe Kristina and I will help Tessa
and Austin finish up that back part."

Jake smirked just a little, but he tried to keep a straight face.
"Yeah, okay, you work on that with Kristina."

Tiny laughed out loud, and they both stood.  They had to sit on
opposite sides of the table, or it would have tipped over.  Even at
that, the table rocked when they both stood up.  I could imagine it
groaning in relief, after having those two big bodies pressing down
on it.

I walked back over and handed a can to Kristina.  We were content to
stand there, watching Tessa and Austin as they tied the last few
pieces of paper on.  Tessa stood back and eyed their work critically.

"It looks like it could use just a little more over there, on that
side," she said, pointing.  "See?"

Austin got up off his knees and moved back to where Tessa was
standing, draping an arm casually around her shoulder.  He looked to
where she was pointing.

"Yeah, I agree," he said.  "But it's going to have to wait until
tomorrow.  I'm beat."

By then, there was just Shayna and her dad left in the barn, and it
was obvious they were waiting for us to leave, so they could lock up.
The four of us strolled out into the night.  Kristina reached out and
held my hand as we walked slowly toward our cars.

"Goodnight, you guys," said Tessa with a smile.  She and Austin
walked to Austin's car, while Kristina and I hung back for a moment,
before walking hand in hand to my car, parked about 20 feet away.  I
unlocked the car, and we climbed into the front seat.  Kristina slid
over to sit next to me, and I put my arm around her shoulder.  She
turned to me expectantly as I dropped my head down to her uplifted
face, and kissed her softly, tenderly.

We stayed that way for a long time, enjoying soft, undemanding
kisses.  I glanced up once, and was not surprised to see that
Austin's car hadn't moved, either.  It was a nice, quiet, dark spot.
Lights splashed across us briefly as the Gallaghers pulled out and
drove away shortly after we had gotten in the car, but other than
that, it was quiet and peaceful.

It was getting colder out, but I didn't want to start the car to run
the heater.  Besides, we were starting to generate our own heat.  I
slipped my arm inside her jacket, holding her waist as I kissed her,
taking great care to keep my hand firm and steady along her middle,
straying neither north nor south.  She reached up and held my neck,
opening her mouth just a little, letting her tongue creep out to
teasingly brush against my lips.  I let her taste my closed lips,
waiting for her to indicate that she was ready for more, until I felt
her pushing the tip of her tongue between my lips, trying to get me
to open up just a little.  I allowed her to push my lips apart just
enough so that my tongue just touched hers, and we teased each other
in an oral game of hide-and-seek.

We played little kissing games like that, neither of us wanting to
press any further and possibly spoil the moment.  I knew I had to go
very slowly with her, now that she had taken this big step in my
direction, and I was determined not to blow my chances with her
again.  We were warm enough, holding each other and kissing.

Again, lights flashed across my windshield.  We instinctively ducked
down, out of sight, in case it was Mr. Gallagher, coming back to
retrieve something he might have forgotten.  I caught a glimpse of
Austin's car, still in the same spot, but I could see two heads
through the windows, looking at the oncoming headlights.  I got a bad
feeling when I saw that there were two sets of headlights coming
toward us.  When the cars driving up got closer, their lights
suddenly went out, and I knew it wasn't Mr. Gallagher.  I had a
sinking feeling we were going to be caught in the middle of something
we really didn't want any part of, and I was suddenly regretting that
we didn't find a different place to park.  I poked my head up, and
was able to watch the two cars come barreling up the deserted road.
They swerved, and almost missed the driveway to the barn, their tires
kicking up dust and stones as they spun and finally caught, sending
the cars careening up.  I heard them come to a sliding stop, and then
I heard car doors opening and slamming, and the sound of voices.

I didn't know what was going on, but I didn't want to get Kristina
in any trouble.  The problem was, if I started my car now, we would
certainly be noticed, so we sat there for a moment.  I saw a bunch of
bodies moving from the cars toward the barn, until they disappeared
around a corner.  We heard the sound of pounding, metal on metal, and
then the screech of the barn door being opened.  Somebody was
breaking in.

I opened my car door.  Kristina's face was pale with fright when I
looked over at her, and she shook her head at me, frantically waving
her hands to get me to get back into the car.  I motioned for her to
stay there, but she scooted over, and slid out of the car and closed
the door softly.  I glanced over, and saw Austin and Tessa getting
quietly out of their car, too.  We met up, and tiptoed up to the
barn, trying to sneak up on whoever was inside.

There was a long, dirty window that was cracked open, along one side
of the barn, on a wall facing a cornfield, so we snuck over toward
it.  The four of us could stand, side by side, and peer in.  We could
hear the drunken voices of the Bulls and some of their girls, holding
flashlights as they examined our float.  I could recognize Joey
Amonte, Jilly Del Toro, Harold Barnes, and Vinnie Arilio as they
walked around, and there were a couple of other guys I didn't
recognize with them.  Shockingly, Pammy Lipschutz and Molly O'Toole
were also there, but rather less willingly, it seemed.  In fact, both
Molly and Pammy had studded dog collars around their necks, and
leashes were attached.  Harold held Pammy's leash, and Jilly was
clutching the leash attached to Molly's collar.  Every now and then
he would yank on the leash, pulling Molly stumblingly toward him, and
in his other hand he held a bottle in a paper bag, which he would
occasionally lift to his lips.

"What the fuck is this pussy float supposed to be?" sneered Jilly.

"It's a real piece of shit," said Joey.

Jilly yanked on the leash.  "You're a junior, bitch.  You should
know.  What's this pussy float supposed to be?"

Molly's voice was weak and submissive.  "I don't know.  I think it's
a bear and a hornet."

"What's the bear doing?  Fucking the hornet?" laughed Jilly.  All
the other Bulls laughed raucously, dutifully.  He dragged Molly over
to the other side of the float.  "Shit, it don't look like nothin'.
How long they been workin' on this?"

"Just a few days, I think," said Pammy, sounding anxious to please.

Harold snapped the slack out of the leash he was holding.  "Shut
up," he hissed.  "You'll shut up unless you're spoken to, bitch."

"I think the bitch is askin' for it," suggested Vinnie.

Harold looked at Pammy's frightened face.  "You think?" he said.

"No!" Jilly's voice cracked across the room.  "Leave her alone,
Vinnie.  Maybe we'll all bang her later, but for now we've got work
to do."

Vinnie said, "Yeah, maybe we can bang both these bitches later
tonight."

Jilly just looked at him.  Vinnie shuffled his feet and said,
"Sorry, Jilly.  I got carried away."

"Yeah, well, just watch your fucking mouth, Vinnie, or I'll make
fucking sure you're carried away.  When I'm tired of her, you'll get
your fucking chance.  Until then, just shut the fuck up."

"Okay, Jilly.  Sorry."  Vinnie moved a little further away from
Jilly, just in case.  He shot a glance at Joey, who had a very sour
look on his face.  Apparently, he wasn't too happy about losing Molly
to Del Toro.  I wondered if he gave her up willingly.  I couldn't
believe that Molly would have agreed.  In fact, I would say she
probably wasn't consulted at all, from the looks of things.

The four of us dropped down to crouch below the window.  Both Tessa
and Kristina had tears in their eyes.

"Can you believe that shit?" said Austin incredulously.

"We've got to do something," said Tessa.

"I know, but what?" I said.  "If they find us here, we'll be toast.
But you're right, we've got to get some help."

We stood up again to peer through the window.  We needed to know
that they weren't coming out of the barn and stumbling across us.

They had found the supply of sodas in the refrigerator, and were
loading up.  They scavenged some paper grocery bags from the garbage,
and filled them with cans, setting them down on the ground just
outside the door.  Jilly stood to one side, directing the others,
with Molly standing obediently to the side and a couple of steps
behind him.  After they got the refrigerator emptied, Jilly
instructed them to squirt the float with lighter fluid.  Vinnie and
Joey pranced around the wagon, squirting the lighter fluid all over,
while Harold, pulling Pammy along beside him, paced back and forth
along one of the longer sides.

"Goddammit, they're going to set it on fire!" Austin roughly
whispered.

"Shhh!" warned Kristina.

There wasn't really anything we could do.  It was a helpless
feeling.  We watched as Jilly stepped up to the wagon, dragging Molly
behind him.  He dug into his jeans pocket, pulling out a Zippo
lighter.  We could hear the metallic snick as he flicked open the top
and spun the wheel with his thumb.  A small flame danced atop the
lighter, and he slowly brought the flame over to a wisp of crepe
paper.  It must have been pretty well soaked, because it caught and
flared, sending tendrils of flames up and out, until the entire
section was burning.  He tossed the lighter over to Joey, standing on
the other side, and he set another blaze opposite the first.  Joey
walked around the wagon to hand the lighter back to Jilly, apparently
unwilling to trust his toss of the lighter back to his leader, and
the four boys, dragging the two girls along by the leashes, headed
over toward the door.  They watched, passing the bottle back and
forth among them, as the float burned.

I was afraid that the flames might reach the rooftop, and the Bulls
must have had the same thought.  Jilly glanced up toward the roof,
nudged Harold in the ribs, and said, "Okay, guys, I think our work
here is finished.  Let's get the fuck out of here."  He threw the
empty bottle into the middle of the fire, and they all turned and
jogged to their cars.  They piled in, and spun their wheels leaving
the gravel parking area, heading down the empty, dark road.

As soon as we saw them drive away, Austin, Tessa, Kristina and I
raced around to the door.  There was a fire extinguisher just inside
the doorway, and I grabbed it, hoping against hope that it wasn't too
old.

"I've got a little extinguisher in my car," shouted Austin, and he
ran out to retrieve it.  Meanwhile, I pulled the pin on the one from
the barn, and squeezed the handle.  Fortunately, it was fully
charged, and it began spraying foam.

The paper was pretty much burned off, but the wood frame was still
burning, and the floorboards of the wagon were smoldering.  I aimed
my extinguisher at the higher parts of the framework, hoping to douse
the flames before the roof caught.  Austin came running back in, and
aimed his extinguisher at the floorboards of the wagon.

Between the two extinguishers, plus the four of us getting up on the
wagon and stomping out the remaining sparks, we were able to put out
the fire before the barn caught.  But it was a close thing, far
closer than we wanted to think about.  We clustered around the open
door, watching the last few tendrils of smoke rise up from the mess,
tired and sweaty and nervous.

And now we had some real concerns.  We weren't supposed to have been
here, and, even though we saved the barn, we lost the float, and we
couldn't tell hardly anybody about it.  And, suddenly, we had some
serious worries about Molly and the Bulls.

We knew we had to do something.  But we had no idea what we were
going to be able to do.




(Continued in Chapter 16)





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