Relative safety and Jimmy's example encouraged more horseplay, and Stick started pressing Mary, who was surprisingly good at making virtually no noise at all when she moved. After a couple of minutes of limited success, he pulled Teddy into the conspiracy, too, the pair making loud splashes in the vicinity of Mary and diving away.
But it was Danny who eventually blundered into Darla Jean's man-trap while trying to guard Thelma. Darla Jean picked him up interspersing himself between her and his lady love, made a wild, diving grab, and came up with Danny's hip in one hand and his stiff erection in the other, "Gotcha!"
"Holy shit!" Danny roared, surprised, but Jimmy nearly bent double, laughing. "Well, if you're gonna play naked... Goodies are on-limits, everybody! Prepare to be felt up!" This brought a number of joyful shrieks, and some activity that had been heretofore surreptitious came out into the open. "Help! I'm drowning! I need a flotation device!" Jimmy yelled and began splashing after Amy his hands out questing for her breasts.
"Thelma, do you need anything while I've got him by the balls?" Darla Jean inquired, eyes dancing. Besides, this gave her further opportunity to feel poor Danny up...
"Jeez! Don't hurt 'em! I need that thing in full working order!" Thelma giggled.
"Well, okay." Turning to Danny, she added, "You're it, right? You admit it?" She gave him a gentle tug, jacking him more than anything else.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm it, I'm it!" Danny agreed. "You got me! Leggo!" Darla Jean did so and withdrew, grinning, and Danny got started, dunking and spinning while everyone else thrashed to new positions.
"That took forever," Randall noted quietly, slipping up next to Darla Jean.
"It's a big pool," Darla Jean replied, "and there are relatively few people in it."
"And only half of them are male," Randall added softly. Darla Jean flashed him a look; had she been that obvious? Pitching his voice louder, Randall added, "New rule! Danny, you have to catch a girl! When you're it, you have to catch somebody of the opposite sex!"
"Kewl!" Jimmy hollered gleefully. Stick grinned from ear to ear; Mary rolled her eyes, but didn't argue, and Amy laughed.
Darla Jean murmured quietly, "Why did you do that?"
Randall shrugged, grinning, "It seemed like a good idea... Why should everyone else have an easier time of it?" Darla Jean's stomach lurched.
Fact was, Darla Jean HAD tipped her hand to anyone watching closely; Mary was suspicious, but she wasn't sure because Stick had started messing with her, and almost everyone else had been similarly distracted. But Randall had been watching Darla Jean and ONLY Darla Jean; he not only knew that she had been limiting herself to males, but that Danny had been a choice based upon desperation -- she'd been shooting for Stick or Teddy! Randall dropped behind Darla Jean, but then an arm snaked around her waist, and his voice hissed in her ear, "Tell me!"
There was a hot iron bar between the cheeks of her ass, cool water notwithstanding. Watching Danny get under way and trying to struggle free quietly, she whispered, "Tell you what?"
"Why?"
Darla Jean began slowly moving to her left to avoid Danny's blundering threat; Randall stayed with her, matching her, move for move, and not pulling away. "Let me go!" She went to work on his encircling arm.
"Not until you tell me. I can tell THEM, you know..."
"I can't! You won't understand!"
"Shhh. Back with me." Randall began backing off, pulling her with him. Darla Jean stopped fighting -- the surface reason being the noise it would make in front of an already alert Danny. She dropped her arm over his, clasping herself to him as he quietly backed them off. Still, it took an altercation between Mary, Stick, and Teddy resulting in a loud splash off to Danny's left to get him off the scent. They were left in deep water -- as tall as she was, Darla Jean's feet weren't touching bottom; she was now dependent upon her clinch with Randall to keep her head above water. Now," Randall breathed, "or I'll dunk you AND I'll tell the others!"
"Randall!" Darla Jean was amazed! This wasn't the Randall she knew! Then again, a little bit of admiration leaked out of the cocktail of mixed emotions whirling through her. She glanced around, and Randall wasn't the only boy present giving a girl a hard time, or even the worst; Jimmy was belaboring Amy from the front -- either she was defending her breasts or trying to keep from being pushed over backwards, or both. Teddy had one of Mary's arms and Stick the other, and Stick's free arm dipped suspiciously into Mary's crotch. Only Thelma was free in the water, and she was operating in a narrow band where the depth rose only to between her waist and mid chest; she'd seceded full view of her small breasts for the ability to operate at what she considered a comfortable water level. Still, Randall's grip on Darla Jean pressed his considerable erection against her ass in a VERY familiar manner. On the other hand, they HAD slept together -- and it wasn't as if she had ruled out further occurrences. But... "That's blackmail!"
"Yeah," Randall conceded, "but I need to know. Five seconds." He deliberately dipped her a bit, reinforcing the threat.
"Why?"
Randall paused. Should he tell her? No, not now -- it might alter her answer. "No more delays. Four... Three..."
Darla Jean cast about desperately, "It's... data collection!"
"Data collection?" Randall's grip relaxed as he pondered this, but not enough. Then he glanced up. "Danny's coming. Turn around and wrap your legs around me, quick!"
"Let me go! I told you what you wanted!"
"Not enough. How about I hand you to him?"
Danny was looming. "Okay, loosen up a bit." Darla Jean turned and wrapped her legs around his waist -- which pinned the tip of his lengthy erection against the area between her nether lips and her anus (an area suddenly discovered to be highly sensitive) -- and Randall quietly backed them off into even deeper water. Absolute silence reigned while Danny, facing increasing difficulty with the depth of the water and a drop-off in noise, quested here and there close by before Amy fell over backwards attempting to evade Jimmy, creating a loud splashing ruckus that promised better hunting. Danny rushed off.
Randall drifted to his right, maintaining the depth -- he was basically holding them on tiptoe -- and murmured, "Okay, keep it coming."
"Well, I need a bigger dataset. They're all so different!"
"You need more than one?" Randall asked. What would she say?
"No. At least I don't THINK so -- if it's the RIGHT one!" This wasn't going well...
"And you haven't found it? Most girls settle for one at a time..." Randall chided.
This DEFINITELY wasn't going well... "There isn't a lot of scientific method to that. It's just settling -- and the divorce rate says THAT doesn't work. I'm not even sure exactly what I need, yet!"
Randall absorbed this. "Dwayne was data collection?"
"Yes. It's kind of embarrassing -- I needed a direct comparison, soon after... I told you Dwayne was never under consideration for a relationship..."
"And Ted?" Randall looked up and began slowly drifting left again. Both murmured "Polo," in response to Danny's ping.
"Ted was..." What? An accident? "Ted wasn't supposed to happen -- but I still got data."
"And both of them at the same time?"
"Randall, that's not fair!" The pair were nose to nose, and Randall was poker-faced. "THAT was unexpected, too!"
"But you got data from it. Will you be repeating that particular experiment?" Darla Jean glared at him, furious. "Okay, okay. What about these guys?"
"What about them?"
"Do you plan to..."
"No!" Darla Jean tried to pull herself away, but Randall wouldn't allow it. "They're all taken -- I can get THAT information second-hand! Let me go!"
"No." Darla Jean continued to struggle in her embarrassment; Randall added, "Hear me out, will you?"
"Why should I? I can imagine what you think of me!" Darla Jean ranted.
"Apparently, you can't!" Randall looked up and began moving as rapidly to his right as he could and continue to be silent. Darla Jean turned around to assess the threat and shut up -- Danny had been drawn by their conversation again. Randall managed to get about ninety degrees to Danny and began sidling along the pool edge toward shallower water. At about that point, Mary screeched, "Stick! Get your..." There was more to it, including an intense expression as Mary finished in a sibilant whisper, and it attracted Danny away from his blind quest in the area Randall and Darla Jean had so recently occupied.
The threat dissipated, Darla Jean turned back to Randall. "What does THAT mean?"
Randall started sidling toward deeper water again; he didn't want Darla Jean going anywhere yet. "It means that I understand; we both kind of approached the idea last Saturday morning that we needed further experience. I've... been busier than expected, too."
"So I hear..."
"It's all kind of embarrassing; in some ways, I wish I didn't have to deal with it. Bottom line is that you're not the only one experimenting this week; you're not even the only GIRL doing it! Unless you have had an adventure that hasn't gotten out, we're about even." He burned a moment checking their surroundings, then sighed, "Look, I don't know how to ask you this, but do you have any preliminary conclusions?"
"Do YOU?"
"Yeah, but if you can't give any ground, I can't either!" Randall frowned. "All right; it's not the only dimension -- I can't expect to just do sex with a girl. If I can't carry on a decent conversation afterward, I can't even look forward to it. Well, that might change once I've done without again for a while, but I can't do a relationship that way."
Darla Jean nodded pensively. "Me neither. What about your dataset?"
Randall shrugged. "There wasn't much in the way of competition. You?"
Darla Jean sighed. "The same. But there is a problem."
"What?"
"I... need to collect more data."
"Oh." Randall assumed a deflated look.
"Look, that doesn't mean..."
"What?"
"It doesn't mean I think I can do better, but -- oh, you'll think I'm a total slut!" She turned her head. "My mother surprised me recently -- she took the whole Dwayne and Ted thing in stride and said she'd been positively wild at my age. The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree, I guess..."
"So, you want to get a little wild?" Randall asked.
"Well, yeah. Experience things, you know?" Darla Jean could NOT look Randall in the eye.
"So the relationship thing is out."
"Well..."
"Well, what?"
"That's not up to me."
"Meaning?"
"Randall, this is HARD..." Darla Jean gathered herself, "I can't ask you to put up with..."
Randall chuckled, "You getting your sample?"
"Yes."
"Maybe I won't mind... I like to think that I'm capable of being rational about such things." He eyed her, "What about me? Would I be able to collect MY sample?"
"That's fair." Darla Jean's eyes slid away again, "Some things might take both of us."
"Um, yeah," Randall replied distantly, while he thought about possible permutations. "We'll need ground rules."
Darla Jean opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a loud squeal as Danny collected Thelma. The uproar ending Danny's turn allowed others to talk, and Jimmy yelled, "Hey, what are you two doing over there?"
"Who wants to know?" Randall returned.
"Looks pretty cozy from here!" Jimmy chuckled. "I've heard you two -- if you go at it, you'll get caught!"
Darla Jean put up a brief struggle, but Randall wasn't having any. "We still have things to talk about -- screw them!" Pitching his voice to carry, he replied to Jimmy, "You have a dirty mind, is all. I'm taller than Darla Jean, so she can go deeper if she hangs on. Besides, what the Hell was Stick doing to Mary? And was that patty-cake that got Amy all wet?"
"Don't tell him!" Mary screeched, plowing for deeper water, the boys' grip on her arms momentarily broken.
"Awright, awright!" Jimmy grinned. "Go ahead and get started, Thelma!"
"What do I..." Thelma began, but Danny came up and began providing instructions. "Stick my head... !" More mumbles. "Can't I just... ?"
Danny looked up, "Guys, Thel doesn't do water. She's kinda scared. Can't I just spin her around or something?"
Everyone glanced around, collecting agreement. "Sure," Jimmy replied. "She has to stand still with her hands over her ears for fifteen seconds so you can get clear."
"Okay."
"Boys, Thelma," Jimmy added. "You're hunting boys!" Everyone laughed. There was a lot of splashing as Mary's boys started chasing her and Danny started disorienting Thelma. Randall shifted to his left as Mary started crowding him. Darla Jean, watching things over her shoulder, murmured, "What kind of ground rules?"
"Umm, well, we need to be honest with each other. I guess..." He pondered a moment. "I guess if one of us wants to do something that might bother the other one, there is no veto, but he or she should be informed, anyway. If you want to do things I can't handle -- or vice-versa -- we'll just have to deal with the consequences."
"Do you have anything in mind?" Darla Jean asked.
"Noooo," Randall replied. "I like to think I'm open-minded. What about you?"
"Ummm," Darla Jean glanced over at Mary, Stick, and Teddy. "No, nothing in particular. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, I guess. What if one of us wants to see the other do something... ?"
Randall's glance followed Darla Jeans. Did she mean doubling up, or queer-bait stuff? "I... really hope we can, umm, operate on a higher plane. You should be able to ask, and you should be able to say no. And if one of us asks, and the other says no, they should respect that, but if they want to go elsewhere to get that particular thing, that should also be okay."
"That's... pretty open..."
"Well, yeah," Randall replied. "But sex isn't the relationship. It's part of it, and it needs to be a good part -- a BIG part -- but we're looking at emotional attachment and friendship -- that kind of thing. Other dimensions. We should be doing romance, teamwork, friendship, mutual dependence. Sex between us should incorporate those other things, and sex with others, when we do it, should not; if it does, then maybe we have an issue -- but we can deal with that if and when it happens."
"Maybe you can have those things with more than one person..." Darla Jean remarked, watching Mary wrestle with Stick as Teddy looked on, grinning.
Randall stopped, thought about it. "Maybe. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Shhh, now..." Thelma was counting to fifteen.
Turn us around," Darla Jean directed.
"Why?"
"Thelma's chasing boys. Not fair for you to hide behind me." Randall did as he was told. "Back up a bit -- she'll never go this deep." Randall backed until both their nipples were exposed. "Anything else?"
"Ummm, we don't embarrass one another. Try to keep things low-key. When you plan to do something, you tell the other person so nobody gets surprised and hurt. They can't say no, but they should be aware. If anything spur of the moment happens, you pass the word as quickly as possible. Honesty and communication. If one of us can't take the heat, well..."
"Well?"
"I guess then it's time to negotiate. Ultimately, there is a trade- off to commitment -- but it shouldn't be blackmail. I... can't think of anything that you'd do that I couldn't put up with once -- but it could happen..."
There was a loud splash to Randall's right, someone moving rapidly across the pool -- right through Thelma's narrow operating area. It was Teddy. A moment before, Mary had whispered to Stick and Teddy, "Thelma's never going to go too deep, so she's limited. We could all avoid her, just by going over there..." She nodded at the deep end. "Darla Jean just made Randall move into Thelma's zone; I think we oughta zip through every once in a while and give her a shot." Teddy had nodded and gone barreling across the pool, sweeping around Thelma and making LOTS of noise.
"What's going on?" Randall asked.
"They're giving Thelma something to shoot at," Darla Jean replied. "We're making enough noise, talking, though." Even a whisper carried enough to know something was up in utter silence. "So, if there is something you can't put up with?"
Randall shrugged. "Well, it might be YOU that can't!" he responded, even though he wasn't at all sure of it. "In any case, then I guess you have to make the call whether that particular thing is worth dissolving the relationship or not. It shouldn't be a first pass thing, though -- that's childish, and it's blackmail. I don't see it happening over a single experiment -- even repeated. It'd probably end up being something one of us decides they like to do regularly that the other can't handle." He frowned. "I think that'd kill things, anyway." He eyed her. "Sound fair? Can you handle that kind of thing? It's not just me..." From Randall's viewpoint, this was just bluster, but if she was going to play by different rules, he needed to know, now!
"That's a pretty serious commitment," Darla Jean murmured, but she was smiling. "No jealousy? Live and let live? Watch that column of girls cycle through Stud Braithewaite's revolving door?" Randall rolled his eyes. "Well, I think it's worth a try. If the basics aren't going to work, I think we're going to figure that out pretty quickly, don't you?"
"Yeah, I think so. How do you want to seal the deal?"
"Kissing is good." Darla Jean offered her lips, and Randall tilted his head to take them. The action caused him to hunch a bit, which brought a solid reminder of other things -- namely the erection poking her in the area between her twat and her anus. The thing had been bumping her -- perhaps with his pulse, or maybe in unconscious reaction to things that they said -- for several minutes, disconcerting her at the oddest times. Now it was solidly in contact -- and the area was EXTREMELY sensitive! She started to wriggle -- which only made things worse. Breaking the kiss, she murmured, "I've got an even better idea..."
"Hmmm?" Randall was distracted, both by the kiss and from sensing the contact from his own perspective. Man, that wiggling! If she'd just move a little bit...
Darla Jean moved, pushing her ass back and rubbing his blunt glans along her labia. Then she started wriggling again. It didn't take much -- almost immediately, her inner lips opened to admit him to the pink groove that ran from her clitoris to her vaginal opening. "Back off a little more, so I can drop lower," she husked.
"Here?" he grunted. Like he was going to stop her. He started backing.
"Might as well," she husked, more wriggling seating his glans in her opening. "At best, it'll be two iterations before I can play again. This way..." Randall groaned as she began to absorb him. "You're almost sure to get caught..."
"What if... ?" Randall's mind blanked as his glans slipped inside the warm, wet tunnel. Darla Jean had her head back, eyes closed, savoring the penetration. The water was only so-so as a lubricant -- it worked, and it didn't. Darla Jean settled slowly, both of them feeling every millimeter of the slow march of the insertion.
Amy saw Darla Jean throw her head back and nudged Jimmy. "Okay," Jimmy chortled, "NOW they're fucking! Woo Hoo!" Stick, Mary, and Teddy applauded and catcalled. Thelma spun in all directions, trying to get a bead on the closest noisemaker.
Darla Jean started panting. "What if what?" she gasped.
Randall started lifting her and lowering her, slowly -- which was all that the water would allow. "What if... we don't... finish?"
Darla Jean tucked her head into his shoulder. "We'll finish," she gasped. "Later, maybe, but... I promise." The friction was incredible. The water didn't allow it to burn, but it wasn't slick, either. Her tunnel felt and grappled with every ridge and bump... "Maybe better later. Now you need to... help me..."
"What if I... don't want to?" Randall gasped. Slow and bumpy or not, this was intense!
"You already promised..."
Had he? Yes, he had -- it was implicit in their commitment. "Guess I did." He put more power into lifting her -- and Darla Jean started using her hips and knees. There was no way the activity could continue to be silent -- and it wasn't. "I dunno... how long..."
Darla Jean opened her eyes. Everyone else in the pool was standing still, watching -- except Thelma, who was approaching, head cocked. "Go ahead," she gasped. "I won't make it, now, but later..." She began clasping her vagina, and bouncing even more vigorously, "Cummmm..."
Randall's attempt to limit himself to a strained grunt was a waste of time; Thelma touched his back just as he let go! "EEYAAAAHHH!" he yelped -- in surprise, more than anything else. He leaped in surprise, then crushed himself to Darla Jean as his seed pulsed from him
Randall's surprised leap smashed his groin into Darla Jean's, and his follow-up crush and the excitement brought her a small pop, too, which surprised her, "Uungh!" She clutched herself to him.
"Feel 'em up! Feel 'em up! Feel 'em up!"Jimmy chanted gleefully.
"Yeah, see what they're doin'!" Stick egged Thelma on.
Danny nodded, grinning and Thelma eyed the pair's underwater joining, hard, from close up, then slipped her hand between Randall's spread legs from behind. Randall's balls were in the way, so she rapidly but gently worked her hand past them to try to get a grip on Randall's root -- but there was none to be had, since the next thing she felt was Darla Jean... Snatching her hand back as if it were burned, Thelma erupted, "Omigawd! They really ARE!" Whoops, shrieks, and catcalls filled the pool area.
Randall, shock adding to his embarrassment, turned bright red, but Darla Jean merely smiled a Mona Lisa smile and bored in for a kiss. When they broke, she murmured, "Walk me over to the edge? We don't want to mess up Jimmy's pool any more than we have to..." Something had snapped in Darla Jean as she watched Thelma boring down on them and realized they were going to get caught. Any tendency to fear and embarrassment had fled, replaced by an exhibitionistic thrill. The wild games, the insane happenings in the boy's locker room, the thrills and Randall's clear, sober acceptance and support combined to unlock all of Darla Jean's doors. Sex was fun, these were her friends, and she had a boy -- no, a MAN -- who wanted her. She didn't HAVE to hide -- in fact, she could even show off!
"Okay, it's your turn!" Thelma pressed.
"Sure, one second!" Randall agreed, and started slogging toward the shallows. This made Darla Jean's position VERY clear, eliciting a second round of catcalls. Darla Jean just smiled over his shoulder. At the corner steps, Randall lifted Darla Jean off him and placed her on the pool edge while she covered her twat with a hand to discourage drips.
As Darla Jean started to get up, Jimmy yelled, "Drag him back by his dick!"
Thelma, caught up in the game and beyond personal embarrassment, took a look and snatched her hand back. "Ewwww! I'm not touching THAT! It's gooey!" The group screamed laughter.
Darla Jean crooked a finger at Randall and waddled to the steps, holding her crotch. Randall gingerly followed and came up the steps until he was standing on the top one. Darla Jean put her hand on his hip, and without ceremony, leaned forward and engulfed his cock. There was a shocked gasp as Randall threw his head back -- he was still VERY sensitive from his recent orgasm -- and dead silence as she milked him with her lips once, then withdrew and vacuumed along his shaft with her wide lips. Rising, she swallowed and complained, "Yuck! Chlorine!" then addressed Thelma, "Okay, it's clean now! Don't break it -- it's mine!" She got up and waddled toward the pool house, adding gaily "Wait for me -- I'll be right back!"
"Omigawd!" Mary erupted against the background of whoops and laughter, "I'll be back -- I've gotta pee!" She started plowing toward the steps.
"Go ahead, Thel," Amy encouraged, laughing, and Thelma gingerly wrapped her hand around Randall's hard-on. Randall's meat hadn't had a chance to go down, and wrapping a hand around his cock certainly didn't encourage it to droop; Thelma gently oriented him and urged him along, while reflecting that he was obviously another cock-monster like Jimmy; she could have used both hands on his rock-hard shaft and still not covered everything...
Mary left the pool so intent on her target that she didn't even bother with a towel; Stick watched her departure and murmured to Teddy, "Somethin's up..." Teddy nodded agreement.
Amy was watching Jimmy, who had really cut loose this evening. Obviously, he didn't want the departure of the two girls to cast a pall on things, so she started a running commentary designed to hold up the girls' end despite the fact that there were only two girls, egging Thelma on and harassing poor Randall.
Mary found Darla Jean in the bathroom, trying to push out Randall's deposit, "What happened to YOU? I created a monster!"
Darla Jean smiled. "Well, maybe you just let one out."
"Were you cheating out there?" Mary accused.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I want to... feel them all."
"Feel? As in fuck?" Mary asked suspiciously.
"No, they're taken," Darla Jean shrugged. "I just wanted to experience variety."
"Hon, I never meant to make you a slut..." Mary apologized.
"You didn't," Darla Jean replied. "It was there all along. I had a surprising talk with my mother the other day -- she says she was absolutely wild at school, and Dad had his work cut out for him settling her down."
"Oh." Mary pondered this. "Well, you're gonna get one helluva rep..."
"They're all friends," Darla Jean replied. "This game makes things kind of privileged. We worked to embarrass everybody equally -- I have my blackmail material, too! Besides, I'm just looking to touch..."
"And you and Randall?"
Darla Jean wiped and got up, surrendering the toilet to Mary. "He's intelligent, sophisticated, and tolerant -- at least he THINKS he is, and I HOPE he is! We're starting a relationship -- sort of semi-exclusive, like you suggested."
Mary concentrated until she got a trickle going, then asked, "Semi- exclusive gonna work, then?"
Darla Jean shrugged. "We're both scientifically trained; neither of us wants a pig in a poke. So we both want to experiment. On the other hand, we seem to be well-matched emotionally and intellectually, and open- minded enough to put up with experimentation. We've kind of set some ground rules to keep communication flowing and not embarrass one another, but the plan is to be there for each other. Love... love isn't the same when you think about things the way Randall and I do. We're logical types -- dispassionate, objective. Neither of us is inclined to toss logic out the window and ride on the wings of wild emotions."
Mary collected a wad of paper and wiped. "It's a lot more fun if you do."
"Well, I think we're already started, but the takeoff is slower. We're still busy checking our parachutes and stuff. But once we get going, I expect a long, smooth flight."
Mary nodded. "What's the plan for tonight?"
"Well, I want to try to get a little more mileage out of this unique opportunity, so you can guess who Randall is going to catch. Then somehow, somewhere, we're gonna do a lot better job on one another than we just did in the pool!"
Mary pondered this. "How ready do you think Randall is for wild stuff?"
"Well, we just got pretty wild in the pool..." Darla Jean hazarded.
"Concentrate on Jimmy, then. If you're not gonna try to steal my boys, I think I can promise you a lot more than a quick grope."
"REALLY?" They were outside already when Darla Jean turned to Mary in surprise.
"I'm not promising anything, but we might arrange a bit more show and tell. I've got a few mild worries, but I think I'm safe from you. On the other hand, if you give them ideas and they go looking for something better, I'm not gonna be happy..." Mary murmured, keeping her voice down.
"I have Randall. He's all I want to keep," Darla Jean insisted.
"Okay. I'll give you the high sign if things look good," Mary replied. "I need to talk to the boys -- or at least Stick."
"Okay." The pair descended the stairs into the water before Darla Jean caught Mary's arm, "Mary, does Stick... run things?"
Mary smiled. "Let's just say he's first among equals." She launched herself and began swimming toward her boyfriends.
"Awright, everybody's here! Le's get on with it!" Stick yelled.
"Woo hoo!" Jimmy chortled. Thelma gave Randall a couple of spins then headed off toward Danny. Darla Jean stayed in the shallows while Randall dunked himself and worked on further disorientation.
Danny gathered Thelma in and kissed her, then murmured, "Are you gonna want to stay down on the farm, now that you've seen New York?"
"Huh?" Thelma replied, mystified.
"You spent a while playin' with Randall's fire hose..."
"Oh, THAT!" Thelma waved it off. "If I wanted THAT, we could buy horses!" She worried his neck with her lips. "You want to do what they did?"
"Naw," Danny replied. "I want to do a GOOD job, later! But I can still carry you, and maybe rub you off..."
"Ummm, no rubbing -- I'm a screamer."