Don and Lanh survived the holidays with their virginity intact, and now with only six months left in school followed by their wedding will Lanh make to the altar in white? Or will her other dream come true and wear a maternity gown to the graduation ceremony?

We're a Wonderful Wife

Chapter 4

The Graduates

Don carried another load of dishes into the kitchen at the Nguyen's restaurant, it was a crazy Saturday after Christmas, the local Grant Valley MN folk were relaxing from the Christmas holiday and were gearing up for New Year's Eve, an occasion that Don didn't really celebrate. To him it only meant that he needed to be prepared to start writing a different year on checks and school papers.

He was cleaning dishes and cookware, and bussing tables today, same as usual, plus he was waiting three rarely used tables, and with today's crowd, he had a few customers. As he scraped dishes and loaded the dishwasher, Kim-ly came up behind him and began preparing an order for carry out. They worked back-to-back in the kitchen until he decided to ask her a question that has been on his mind since Christmas. He slid the hood closed and started the dish washing machine, then turned around and asked, "Hey Kim-ly, what does Mẹ kiếp tôi mean?"

"It means you're in a world full of hurt if Lanh finds out you told me that," she said without turning around.

"Who said that?" said Tam as she turned around from her cooking station.

"Lanh. I was just trying to find out what it means," said Don as he helped Kim-ly bag the to-go order.

"OUR Lanh said that?" asked a shocked Tam.

"The same Lanh that wouldn't say shit if she had a mouthful?" asked an equally shocked Kim-ly.

"Yeah, what does it mean?"

Tam looked around to see if anyone was listening. "It means fuck me," she said in a very hushed tone of voice.

"Oh," said Don, then he chuckled to himself, "so she said it in two languages." He picked up the bag of carry out, "Ok, good to know, thanks." And he turned his back on the sisters to put the food at the cashier's station. As soon as he set it down, Tam and Kim-ly grabbed him by the arms and dragged him to Nguyen's attached apartment.

"Two languages? Talk mister!" demanded Kim-ly.

"Yeah, English and Vietnamese," answered a confused Don. "I'm sure that's all she speaks... I think she knows some French too..."

Tam snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention. "What the hell were you doing with my sister to make her say that?" demanded Tam, her seething anger rising to the surface. Lanh hinted that Tam had a black belt in kung fu or karate or something. Right now, she looked like she was going to rip open Don's throat, with her teeth. "Or should I say what the hell were you doing TO my sister?"

"That's kind of a personal question..."

"TALK!"

"I was going down on her, OK? Geez, we're engaged, and we're over eighteen, she's still a virgin... we both are and that's none of your business."

"Uff da," muttered Kim-ly using the universal Norwegian oath that translates to "oh shit."

"Uff da for sure," groaned Tam. "I thought you warned her," she said to Kim-ly.

"I did! I thought you did too!" cried Kim-ly.

"Clearly she didn't pay attention to either of us," Tam turned to Don, "How good was it for her?"

"I don't know... I never did that before an all..." shrugged Don and both sisters breathed a sigh of relief. Then he continued "...besides, she fainted."

Both women were stunned. "You knocked her out?" Tam finally asked.

"I did no such thing!" cried Don, "she fainted. I didn't hit her or anything. Same thing happened last night too, but she didn't say mẹ kiếp tôi."

Kim-ly looked shocked. She turned and threw her hands up in anguish. "I don't get it! I go to all the right parties, meet all the right guys, and LANH gets first time lucky with her high school crush."

"Fiancé."

"Whatever."

"Why did you tell her not to do it?" asked Don.

"You guys were having... trouble earlier," said Tam. "Imagine the problems you would have if this didn't work either. It's pretty intense, and if she froze up it could have caused serious problems."

"Oh, we took care of that months ago," said Don as he tried to get back to work. "I thought she told you, she's fully functional now."

"How did you do that?" demanded Tam as they grabbed his arms again.

Don looked from Kim-ly to Tam and back. "That's pretty sad, the both of you living vicariously through your little sisters sex life."

"Yeah, so what?" said Kim-ly with a shrug. "Spill it!"

Tam just shook her head, she felt a headache coming on. "Get back to work, the both of you."

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Lanh and Don snuggled under a blanket watching TV and eating popcorn as Ralph gave them instruction before he headed out, "It's cold out there, keep an eye on the plumbing, especially in the bunk house, check on the cows every hour, if there's a problem call me at the Legion Hall, I'll come a-running, ok?"

"No problem dad," called out Don as he tossed a popped kernel of corn in the air to catch in his mouth and missed. They were watching some half-baked murder mystery and neither one actually was paying attention to the show.

"Say hi to Sandy for us," called out Lanh without looking up.

"How did you know that I was taking Sandy with me?" asked Ralph.

Both Don and Lanh peeked around the back of the wing back chair they were curled up in. "Seriously?" Don asked.

"Say hi to mom and dad for me!" called Lanh. If it was an event at the American Legion post, her dad and mom were sure to be there.

As soon as the door closed, Lanh squealed and arched her back. Don's finger has been tracing gentle circles around her clit for the past ten minutes and now the orgasm that he's been coaxing out of her is starting to crest. Don kicked off the blanket revealing that Lanh's skirt was rolled up and her panties... she didn't wear any panties today Don discovered. He slipped to the floor, rolled her skirt up and eased her slim legs apart. He paused to admire her pussy and the silky "black forest" which was as straight and silky as the hair atop her head.

"Quá chậm," she groaned, and she twined her fingers in his hair and forcefully pulled his mouth to her pussy. She gasped as his lips met her nether lips and she held her breath as his tongue began flickering over her clit. "So good," she groaned, and she lifted her hips giving him fuller access to her pussy. He opened her flower with his thumbs and began licking, from her taint to her clit, long slow licks, his tongue slithering into her vagina as he reached the opening. His licks were slow and deliberately crafted to drive her wild. His tonguing of vaginal entrance was firm, yet when he reached her clit, he was fluttery and delicate.

"Quá chậm!" she moaned again, desperate to cum. He stopped licking and she whimpered sadly and was placated slightly when his finger began strumming her clit again.

"What does quá chậm mean?" Don asked. She whimpered again and tried to pull his head back to her crotch, but he held firm. "What does quá chậm mean? I can ask your sister..."

"Too slow!" she groaned, "It means you're too slow."

She gasped as his finger started to enter her pussy sending more thrills through her young body. The feeling of the warm, moist depths tempted Don like nothing else on earth, the feeling of her velvety smooth, moist, warm interior practically begged for his cock. It took every bit of will power to not just drop his pants and shove his cock in her wet depths. And Don was sure that Lanh would give in to the temptation herself, but he somehow controlled himself and continued to fingerfuck his darling. In and out slowly, his finger set her nerve endings ablaze and jolts of sexual lightning blasted through her. "Is this too slow?" Don asked.

"Vâng, em yêu, yes sweetheart," her gasps became moans of desire, her voice husky with passion. "Too slow!" She was practically weeping, his fingers were enough to fan the fires of her desire, but she was constantly teetering at the edge of an orgasm, never enough to set her off.

"Take your blouse off," whispered Don. With a little mewl she opened her blouse and pulled it off, as she did, Don took off his shirt. "No bra? No panties? You sexy little vixen!"

Lanh grinned that sweet innocent grin that he first saw two years ago when he asked her to dance. Somehow, he fell in love with her all over again. Along with a white blouse and skirt she wore knee socks and wore her hair pulled into long flowing pigtails like a little girl, and he wondered if he had the right to corrupt this little girl.

Lanh on the other hand was intent on corrupting this young boy. That day in the barn where she unlocked the ability to overcome her fear, she also unlocked a pandora's box of sexual desires. Her talks with Tam used to center on dealing with teachers and other kids, now they centered on dealing with men, in particular dealing with sex. Now that Tam has moved permanently to nearby Bemidji, Tam's in a much better mood and more open, and is giving Lanh advice on men, like how to read her man's reactions. She also gives Lanh interesting ideas, like the horny little schoolgirl - hair in pigtails, white blouse and knee length skirt, knee high socks, and no underwear.

As Lanh leaned back on the wingback chair wearing knee socks and her skirt up around her waist, she realized that Don picked up on the naughty little schoolgirl clues and was getting ready to treat her like a not so innocent little schoolgirl. Don told her to lift her hips and she eagerly allowed him to pull her skirt off, but he seemed to want to drag this out. His balls must be aching, she certainly was. It's time to show him the naughty! "Show me your pee-pee," she giggled like a little girl, her teeth holding the tip of her index finger.

"Pee-pee? oh, for silly!" he taunted as he stood.

She watched as Don rose and unbuckled his belt and dropped his pants, pushing down his underwear at the same time. This was the time! Tam once told her that a man was most vulnerable with his pants around his ankles, he can't run to follow you, and he can't run away. Don missed the evil glee in Lanh's eyes as she pounced. His cock was still bobbing from springing free, he stood up with his pants around his ankles and she was on him, pushing him back on the floor.

It's hard to be aggressive and careful at the same time Lanh discovered. Her lover bumped his head against the floor when he landed as she pushed him back, but almost as bad, in her enthusiasm she almost ended their virginity. She read about something called a "Pussy Glide" in a woman's magazine and asked Tam about it. Three days later Tam came back and said it was as good as sex, of course Doctor Nguyen used five-dollar terms like "comparable to penetrative vaginal stimulation but contains a substantial risk of penetration if you're overly enthusiastic" but Lanh knew what she meant. With Don laying on the floor, she squatted down on his cock, her pussy pushing his cock flat against his abdomen, the lips of her pussy spread around his cock, her clit pressed against his throbbing hardness.

They lay on the floor, both in sudden shock, their sex now in direct contact with their lovers' sex for the first time ever. For a long moment their eyes locked on to each other's, their breathing stopped as this moment dragged on for moment after delicious moment, then Lanh began to move. Her hips eased forward, and her pussy and clit dragged up the length of his cock... like a flint being dragged across steel, sparks erupted from their first cock to pussy contact. Then back, her flowing juices now easing the friction. Back and forth she moved her hips, feelings she has never experienced in her life radiated from her labia and clit. It was so exhilarating!

Now her hips began moving on their own volition, she had no control over them, and she let them take over. Don looked up and saw Lanh's eyes were unfocused, her mouth hung open slightly and with each stroke of her hips she uttered a cute little whimper. But the sensations! Her pudgy little labia wrapped around his cock and the wet, warm, friction of her sex dragging up and down his cock was breathtaking. Her pussy lips whispered tantalizing secrets to his cock, coaxing him to be a man! Daring him to roll her over and fuck her like a man and a woman were meant to fuck!

The two teenage virgins shuddered and gasped at the power that they were unleashing, they both soon realized that they were playing with fire. Lanh's hips were sliding back and forth, back and forth, the natural lubrication of her pussy coating them both, the slipping sliding so easy, the sexual excitement building and building... Suddenly Lanh pulled forward too far, when she started to move back the head of Don's cock was aligned with her vagina and she felt it start to edge inside of her. His fantasies ceased as the real world crashed in on them; he grabbed her hips and stopped her. They paused right there, panting and sweating, their bodies trembling with the desire to complete the thrust and end their self-imposed virginity. No one would know what they did, it was none of their business! Their dreams of a family could start right now!

Their eyes searched each other's eyes hoping to find a decision in their partner, each was so far gone in their passionate love that neither wanted to say stop. Finally, Don whispered, "not now, let's save it for later," and he pulled her forward. "We're so close, we can do it."

She wanted him in her so badly! Her empty pussy ached for the man she loved so deeply, the one who cares so much for her, loves her as much as she loves him. She leaned over and kissed him deeply, and as their lips separated, she whispered sadly, "We can wait."

Lanh felt his cock retreat and she was hoping beyond hope that he was preparing to thrust into her, to call an end to this unbearable abstinence, but it was not to be. When the pressure released from her pussy, she felt both disappointment and relief at the same time, and she still gets to wear white at her wedding... for now. Next time they might not stop. Now she knows what Tam's warning was all about, one wrong move and he's in you and all your careful abstinence is for naught. Trying to remain cautious Lanh went back to the pussy glide and placed his cock between her nether lips again. It was less than a minute and she was back on track, her hips sliding her pussy back and forth, making that climb to release.

The sexual tension building and building! His cock was now a smooth, slippery, hot and throbbing instrument of her pleasure as her pussy literally did glide back and forth on it. Constant wet and warm friction on her clit and her pussy, her juices covering them both merely made her desire the real thing even more. Her orgasm was building, and building. She saw Don's face tighten as he neared his own orgasm, "Cum with me! Cum with me!" she groaned with each stroke, "I'm going to cum!" when suddenly her mind went blank.

Without warning her orgasm crashed over her, wave after wave of mind shattering pleasure cascaded over the tiny woman, her body shuddering uncontrollably, she cried "DAAAHHHHHNNNNNN!!!!"

Her convulsions scared Don with their intensity, and Don was worried that she would impale herself on his cock as she thrashed and shrieked in ecstasy. He held her close and delighted in the strength of her little body and they rolled to their sides on the floor, her convulsions slowly easing. Lanh's mind returned to her body from the land of pure bliss that sex with Don has sent her several times to find her body safe in Don's arms. She opened her eyes and saw Don's eyes, so alien and so blue. She was raised with Asian eyes all around her, so to see his ocean blue eyes makes her heart skip a beat with excitement every time she gazes into them.

"Mmmmmm, that was so nice," she purred. They lay cuddled together and kissed gently, little words of love floating softly between them. As they cuddled her right leg started shaking, her pussy started clenching as a little orgasm radiated from her pussy. "Oh wow," she said softly, I think I just came again." She stretched and pulled herself closer to Don, if possible, then she urged him back on his back and rolled on top of him again. She found his cock still hard as iron. "You didn't cum?" she asked sadly.

"Nope, I was too busy watching you," he smiled. "You are so hot!"

She looked up at the clock, it's been nearly an hour, Don kept her at the edge of an orgasm for nearly an hour. Of course, sliding on his cock probably kept his at the edge too. "Come on, we made a mess, let's go clean up." She stripped off her schoolgirl knee socks then wearing only her engagement ring she walked hand in hand with an equally naked Don, into the bunkhouse. They navigated the maze of boxes to the far back of the bunkhouse to where the old shower still stands. Two tiled walls and a tiled floor in the far corner, an old toilet and a lavatory separated from the rest of the building by an old shower curtain. It was pretty luxurious back in the day because it was indoor plumbing. Not many farms had that luxury.

Lanh adjusted the shower to the scalding temperature that she loves and pulled Don into the spray where they embraced and kissed long and passionately. As their wet, warm bodies slid together, Lanh whispered "Let's do this forever em yêu."

Before Don could respond, Lanh slid to her knees and began stroking his rock-hard cock, her hand lathered up with soap slide up and down lightning fast, driving Don to the brink in seconds "I'm not going to last," he gasped.

She looked up at him and grinned, that was the idea, "You're not supposed to last, cum for me." She leaned forward to suckle his swollen balls, but they were covered with soap, so she let the spray rinse away the soap and tried again. Don started leaning back, his head spinning, his body clenching, "I'M CUMMING! ARRRRGGGHHH!"

Lanh suddenly plunged her mouth over his cockhead, laving her tongue over the spurting head, his cock pulsated and with every throb another spurt of Don's sperm squirted into her mouth. Feeling her mouth suddenly close around his cock intensified the pleasure a hundred-fold. His orgasm seemed to go on forever, and he looked into Lanh's coal black, almond shaped eyes as she swallowed his semen and he wondered how he became so lucky to win her hand. Finally, as his orgasm gave out, so did his legs and he slumped to his knees and took the woman he loved into his arms.

There in the spray of the shower they kissed deeply and passionately. Lanh was a little surprised, Tam told her not to expect a kiss from her man if he cums in your mouth, but here was Don, kissing her as passionately as ever. The taste wasn't good, but it wasn't horrible, she could live with that, as long as these kisses keep coming.

Their evening continued to be a long, gentle series of foreplay, followed by breathlessly exploring each other's body, followed by recovering and relaxing in front of the fire. They lost count of Lanh's orgasms and Lanh swallowed three of Don's loads through the course of the evening, each one becoming easier to swallow. As Kim-ly told her, "It's an acquired taste."

"Happy new year, em yêu," (sweetheart) whispered Don as the church bells chimed in the new year. The old church was miles away, but when it's cold like this, the sound travels quite far. Lanh replied with a fervent kiss to his mouth, then to his limp cock. This was the first time she ever touched it and it didn't leap to attention, she doesn't ever remember it being soft very long at all.

"Happy new year, em yêu, but I think I killed Stanley," she said using her pet name for his cock.

"He'll be back, he just needs a little rest."

Lanh giggled and threw herself at her fiancé, she kept her promise to herself and swallowed his cum on New Year's Eve.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

"What did you guys do on New Year's Eve?" sneered Kim-ly. She had gone out party hopping and met some really awesome guys, got severely hammered, and woke up in a strange apartment. It was a great night.

"We hung out at the farm, dad took Sandy to the New Year's Eve party at the Legion, so we kept an eye on the cows, it was twenty-five below and dad worries." It was all hands-on deck at Nguyen Pho, it was New Year's Day, and they were the only restaurant in town that was open, and they were taking advantage of that. This is always their most profitable day followed by Super Rice Bowl Sunday (Kim-ly thought that one up.) They weren't expecting a lot of sit-down customers, but they expected takeout to be insane and it was. Kim-Ly and Mai were cooking while Don was setting up the takeout orders for pick-up.

Things had quieted down for a few moments, so Mai went out and took a break. Don sidled up to Kim-ly and in a quiet voice asked, "What does ăn thịt tôi mean?

"It means you're having more fun than I had," she pouted. She refused to tell him that it means "eat me" in Vietnamese.

But Don was relentless. He continued, "After a woman cums, is it normal to have these little orgasms five or ten minutes later?"

"Lanh did that?"

"Yeah," Don nodded. "Her leg starts shaking and she gets really dreamy, you know? She says it feels like a mini orgasm."

"Aftershocks." Kim-ly slammed a ladle down in a huge wok she just cleaned out. "My kid sister is having aftershocks on a dairy farm while I spend the evening with an art history major who wants to talk about the evolution of cubism." On the other side of the kitchen Tam broke out in riotous laughter. "WHAT!" demanded Kim-ly.

"Oh, nothing," snickered Tam as she started loading the industrial dish washer.

"Is that bad?" Don asked, worried that he broke Lanh somehow.

"It is for me!" yelled Kim-ly. Then she huffed and her shoulders drooped, and she went back to making Kung Pao Chicken for a takeout order. "Life just ain't fair."

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Returning to school from the holiday break was sad and difficult. While they were off, they were working long hours and putting away money for their future together but now that they're back in school classes and activities cut into their profit stream. It was the first time in her life that Lanh could think of not wanting to go to class. Class used to be her refuge from the world, it was those short moments between classes that made her life miserable. Now her refuge was Don, working with him, loving him, just talking on the phone with him. She loaded up on the most difficult college prep courses that she could take because that is what she always did, and without her realizing it, Don signed up for the same classes so he could sit with her in class. Their hectic schedule had deprived them of their time together so now he was taking classes he would never have dreamed of taking in the past, like calculus and physics, and he was doing quite well on his own. However, with Lanh's help he was crushing these classes as was she.

No one noticed her ring because as usual she and Don were still invisible to the members of the student body unless they were on the debate team or the swim team. To the majority of the population of the school they were still known as dweebs, nerds, dorks, and worse. Although he's now an A student and a leader on the swim team, he still wears taped glasses and his clothing is purchased from thrift stores and worn down to the thread making him lower than dirt. Even though Lanh's braces were gone, and her glasses were no longer thick framed, glass lensed nightmares. She was still either picked on horribly, or completely unknown. She preferred the latter.

To Don her beauty simply radiated, she was easily as beautiful as her sisters and her mother, how the rest of the school couldn't see that simply mystified him. A smile from Lanh caused Don's heart to skip a beat with joy, and the sound of her voice was a dream come true. When he spotted her entering the cafeteria the normal noise and hubbub silence and everything faded to gray when she spotted him and smiled. To Don it was ok that the school missed what he was seeing because her inner beauty was even more stunning than her outer beauty, and he didn't want to share that with anyone. Sometimes it was painful to sit next to her in class because she was so focused on the subject matter that she didn't notice him. Occasionally Lanh will find a hastily scribbled love note stuck in her notebook or textbook and she was just too focused on the subject matter to notice Don slipping it to her in class. After class she would cajole him for the note between kisses because she was terrified of being caught by the teachers.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Since the passing of Marissa this past fall, Lanh hasn't had an animal she can talk to other than the cows. She doesn't like talking to the cows because, in Lanh's words, "they can't keep a secret." Don supposed the reasoning for that was because someone was always with her when she was with the cows. They're big powerful beasts and they'll easily crush tiny Lanh, so someone is always around when Lanh is working with the cows.

Don got out of the pickup and came around to the passenger side and let Lanh out. Rather than leading Lanh to the house, he led her to the barn, they went in the stable end which they rarely did because it was the farthest end from the house. This was where the plow horses were meant to be kept, but that was one hundred years ago. They entered the stable and Lanh found that it had been cleaned out recently, and she found that one of the stables had a light turned on. She swung open the door and there facing her was a tiny goat. With a "baaaa" it looked at her and started prancing around in its stable.

"It's so cute!" cried Lanh and she dropped to her knees. "What's her name?"

"Marissa," said Don. He had found out from Tam after Marissa's funeral near the pond, that Marissa actually came from a long line of Marissas. This last Marissa lasted longer than most, which is what made her funeral so heartbreaking.

"She'll never replace the original Marissa," said Lanh as she knelt in the straw and pet Marissa.

"Who was the first Marissa?"

"A bumpy frog," said Lanh as she scratched Marissa behind the ears.

"A toad?" asked Don.

"No! Of course not. At least I don't think so. Tam wouldn't let me keep a toad, would she?"

"It doesn't matter," said Don as he sat down next to Lanh withholding his laughter, "you can talk to a Marissa, and the way things are going you may need her now." Within the hour Lanh and Marissa were best friends and Lanh was teaching Marissa Vietnamese.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Going to school was never fun for Lanh, now it's getting worse. Not because she's being picked on and taunted, she's tuned that out complexly, but everything that made it a joy other than Don is over, even the debate team was done for the year. This year Lanh no longer took an active part in the actual debates, she "retired" with a perfect record and stayed on as the coach of the team. Because she slaughtered whoever dared stand against her on the debate stage, she struck fear into any debate team that tried against Grant Valley High. Feeling that she was taking unfair advantage over other opponents was why she "retired." Even if her opponents were immaculately prepared, the moment they saw that their opponent was a tiny, cute little Asian with her hair done up in cute, braided pig tails, taking notes in her Sunshine Bunny! notebook with a brightly colored pen with a daisy on the end, they immediately underestimated her. That's when the Lanh Shark, as her opponents called her, smelled blood in the water.

Like the great leader that she is, she stepped aside to let her teammates compete without being blotted out by her shadow. She found that her skill in debate prep and her conduct during the debate was something she could easily train her teammates to emulate, and before she realized it, she was team captain. The Lanh Sharks, as her teammates called themselves, had a perfect record when the "season" closed in December, and they found themselves state class A champions thanks to her leadership, yet she never knew about the "Lanh Shark" name they gave themselves. When she heard it, she thought they said, "Land Shark," an old Saturday Night Live skit from a long time ago back when SNL was funny.

But now Debate was over, her only afterschool activity was timekeeper on the swim team, and she felt that it wasn't keeping her mentally engaged. She became disassociated with the task, recording the times automatically and becoming stoic as she stood by the finish silently with a stopwatch and clip board in one hand and a pencil in the other. As for her other activities, all she had left was Marissa and her cows. Don had closed off the Bunkhouse for some reason, it was too cold in the hayloft, so her budding sex life was over too. She was terrified of that thundering numbness that overtook her in her freshman and sophomore year, and she felt it coming back, but this time she didn't have an escape route, she gave her stash of sleeping pills to Tam and her mom has her prescription medications locked up. Only Don saved her life last time...

Don was beside himself trying to cheer Lanh up, nothing he did seemed to help at all. He just finished a good 400, twice as far as he normally swam, and was sitting on the bleachers with a towel around his shoulders cooling down and trying to figure out what to do for Lanh. Mr. Mach came up and put his foot up on the bench. "What's wrong Campbell, you look like your canary just got eaten."

"It's Lanh coach, it's been a tough year. Ever since we ended up in Weberman's class, she's been miserable. Now debate is over, Weberman's class is over and she's still miserable."

"When's the last time you challenged her?" Coach asked.

"Huh?"

Coach Mach looked at Don like he just spit on the floor. "Mister Campbell, the little lady that follows you around is not a delicate rose, she's a fighter. She needs a challenge."

"Like what?"

Coach Mach rolled his eyes. "Find something she does well and challenge her to do it better. Watch and learn." He gave a loud piercing whistle that put the silver whistle hanging around his neck to shame. The pool room echoed with the shrill shriek that emitted from his mouth without mechanical help. "Nguyen! Mendez! Over here!"

Lanh came up holding her clipboard against her chest, a confused look on her sad face, she was followed by Rosa Mendez, a happy-go-lucky Hispanic senior who has been verging at becoming a great swimmer. "Yes coach?" they said in unison.

Coach Mach gestured toward Don. "Nguyen, you whipped Campbell into shape to the point that I'm expecting something out of him at Regionals. I want you to do the same with Rosa Mendez. I want her on the podium at the regional championships for the 200."

"But that's four weeks away, coach," said a confused Lanh while Rosa broke into a huge grin.

"Then you have your work cut out for you, don't you Nguyen?" He grinned and gave her a wink. "And I want Campbell to remain sharp, no slacking. Got it?"

"Yes coach!" Her face beamed with anticipation, she turned and walked over to the pool talking with Rosa. There was pride in her step that has been missing for weeks.

Coach Mach turned to Don and patted him on the back with his clipboard. "Problem solved. You two can name your first child after me," and he walked off to "encourage" some sophomore JV swimmers.

Soon the pool room was ringing with Lanh's high, clear voice, "Nhanh lên! Nhanh lên!" (Hurry! Hurry!) as Rosa started her first training session with Coach Nguyen.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

February rolled around and still no one noticed her engagement ring, or at least if they did, they didn't say anything to Lanh about it. Sydney McCloskey was an exception; she was one of Lanh's best fact finders on the debate team, a great debater, and the closest thing she had to a girlfriend. Don knew her too; she sang at the church he attended with his dad and was an incredibly good singer. She noticed Lanh's ring but since Lanh's hand is so tiny, the ring needs to be tiny, which makes it look like a cheap promise ring at a distance.

That particular day Sydney was arguing with Rosa who also noticed the ring, Sydney said it was a promise ring, Rosa insisted that it was costume jewelry or her grandmothers ring or some Asian custom. They were walking through the cafeteria when they noticed Lanh sitting alone in Loser Corner, and they invited themselves to join her. Lanh was reviewing Don's calculus homework and she thought she spotted an error, and it turned out to be an error on her part, not his. She finished correcting her own homework when she glanced up and saw Rosa and Sydney sitting across from her. "Holy crap, you scared the hell out of me! How long have you been there?"

"About five minutes," answered Rosa.

"Crap? You said crap?" Sydney was shocked, she never heard Lanh swear or come close to swearing for the four years she's known Lanh. "What are you doing in this corner?"

Lanh pointed to her half-eaten lunch. She just couldn't eat without Don, and she was starting to lose weight too. He's going to be so disappointed in her. "Eat... homework..."

"No," insisted Rosa, "what are you doing in THIS corner? This is the loser's corner."

"If notice, not lot of peoples to come see me... you only friends." Oh God, she moaned to herself. It sounds like I just got off the boat from Hanoi. Whenever she's agitated her accent asserts itself.

"Shit," spat Sydney, Don had mentioned this to her months ago. When Lanh starts beating on herself, her English goes to hell. She got up, came around to Lanh's side of the table and sat down next to her and put her arms around Lanh. "Ok, we may be the only ones, but we're the BEST ones, right Rosa?"

Realizing something was up Rosa took a seat on the other side of Lanh, "Damn tootin! See that table of cheerleaders? See that blond?"

"They're all blond," said Lanh sadly.

"The blond with big tits," said Rosa narrowing down the choices.

"They all got big tits," said Sydney.

"I said tits, not a bra full of Kleenex," grinned Rosa. "That blond there, last Saturday morning she came back from her Friday night out and her daddy said, "How much did you make giving blowjobs last night?" and she said, "Fifty-one dollars." Her Daddy said, "Who gave you one dollar for a blowjob?" And she said, "All of them."

Sydney groaned but laughed at the same time. Lanh looked like she was struggling with tears then suddenly she burst out laughing. "That was so awful," she said when the laughing fit finally eased.

"Yeah, and it worked too," said Sydney as the three of them rocked side to side, their arms around Lanh.

"Seriously, what are you doing at THIS table?" asked Rosa.

"What planet did you come from? Don and I are the biggest jokes in the school. We met when some jerks bullied Don into asking me to dance with him at the Christmas dance. So, he asked, and I said yes just to get away from those cheerleaders, and it turned out to be a slow romantic song. They just wanted to laugh at us being embarrassed."

"So, what happened chica?" asked Rosa.

"We danced... and we talked... and it was nice... and..." she held out her left hand and the girls gasped at her engagement ring then squealed loudly.

"Oh my God, is that real? Is that the real thing?" gasped Sydney. She held Lanh's hand and inspected the ring like she was appraising it for an insurance claim. "How big is it?"

"It's about a half carat," said Lanh.

"On your hand anything larger would look comical," said Rosa as she got her closeup look too. "Who's the lucky guy?" Sydney and Lanh stared at her like she was crazy. "Hey, I don't keep a social calendar," Rosa shrugged, "Who?"

"Duhhhh" taunted Sydney, "Don Campbell? You never noticed?"

"DON? OUR Don Campbell?" gasped Rosa.

"MY Don Campbell," corrected Lanh.

"No shit! Wow... I never wouldda guessed," gasped Rosa. "Everyone says he's gay."

"What?" gasped Lanh. "What do they say about me?"

Rosa shrugged, "They say you're his beard, he hangs out with you, so people will think he's straight."

"SEE? Now you know why we sit here," pouted Lanh as she slumped down in her chair.

"Are your folks going to make you wait until you're eighteen before...?" Sydney waggled her eyebrows at Lanh.

Lanh looked at Rosa then at Sydney, both were waiting, mouth open, for an answer. "Yes."

"Awwww," frowned Sydney.

"When is that going to be?" asked Rosa sadly.

Lanh grinned. "Eight months ago."

"NO! Really?" squeaked Sydney, "Everyone thinks you're fifteen!"

"Another reason to sit here," frowned Lanh. She told them about being a preemie and being raised by her older sister Tam. "All my brothers and sisters had graduated high school by the time they were fifteen, I was a freshman at fifteen."

"Why? What's wrong, your GPA is perfect."

"I couldn't load up on courses, I'd get exhausted and faint. Má and Tam got tired of being called to the nurse's office, so I had to back off and take a normal class load. I picked up some in High School, and I can graduate now, but I didn't."

"Why not?" asked Rosa.

"Because if I graduated and went on to university, Don would drop out and follow me. He couldn't enlist then," Lanh said sadly.

"I didn't realize I was holding you back," said Don. His voice startled all three girls but he was standing behind them listening and they never noticed him.

"No!" gasped Lanh, "You didn't hold me back! I don't want to go to some university all alone!" she spun around in her seat as Don knelt down. She threw her arms around his neck and peppered his face with kisses.

"I can pass a GED with my eyes closed, thanks to you," Don said as he started to return the kisses.

"And what would that do to our wedding date?" she asked as she slyly squeezed his balls through his hand-me-down jeans.

"Good point."

"When is your wedding date?" asked Rosa as she and Sydney moved back to the other side of the table so Don could sit next to Lanh.

"June seventeenth."

"Holy crap! That's right after graduation!" gasped Sydney. "Who picked that date?"

"Her dad," smiled Don as Lanh eased onto his lap.

Lanh crossed her arms and rocked side to side as she imitated her father, "I'm not going to have a hormonal teenage daughter wandering in my halls waiting for her fiancé to come home from basic training."

"You laugh but it's true," said Don over Sydney and Rosa's laughter. "Which reminds me, Syd, would you sing at our wedding? You are just so incredible at church."

Sydney thought for a moment, "Is it true that Craig Lewicki is going to be your best man?"

"Yes, it is."

"SOLD!" cried Sydney.

"I knew you were hot for him! I knew it!" laughed Rosa.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

And really, that's what Lanh needed as much as the challenge that Coach Mach gave her, a chance to laugh with a couple of friends, a chance to be accepted into a group no matter how small. A chance to be a girl. Before she knew it Sydney and Rosa were instrumental in the planning of Lanh's wedding. The three of them along with Mai, Tam, and Kim-ly would gather at Nguyen's Pho and plan for the upcoming celebration while Don and occasionally Trung or Bao would serve them drinks or sandwiches.

One stumbling block, in Lanh's mind anyhow, was that her family was Roman Catholic, they escaped Vietnam to avoid the coming oppression by the communists. Lanh wanted it to be a Roman Catholic service. Even though she ignores the traditions of her ancestors, this one was important because it's why they were here in America. However, Don and almost all of his relatives were Lutheran, she wanted them to be part of their celebration. This was brought up at one of their meetings that was being held at the farm right after school and Sandy was there and listened in. The girls were getting an idea of the lay of the land and to discuss music. As a concert pianist Sandy came to join the planning. Lanh was serving the girls glasses of fresh, unpasturized whole milk, something they said they never tried. Soon Sydney's and Rosa's eyes were rolling in delight. "Now you can see why I love being out here," grinned Lanh underneath her milk moustache.

"This is so awesome!" cried Sydney. "I didn't realize what we take out in the pasteurization and homogenization process!"

"¡Me voy a casar con un granjero!" sighed Rosa as she hugged her glass to her cheek in pleasure.

"Huh?" asked Sydney.

"She said she's going to marry a farmer," said Sandy as she walked into the room.

"Me too," sighed Lanh, "Tôi sẽ cưới một nông dân! I just don't know how."

"What do you mean?" Sandy asked as she sat down and laid out the sheet music that she selected for Lanh to review.

"I mean, we're Catholic, and I can't give that up, but I want Don's church involved too, for his relatives."

Sandy opened her church calendar appointment book and said, "Who is the priest you want?"

"Father Steinbach."

"Over at St. Pauls," smiled Sandy, "nice man." As she rose to get the cordless phone she said, "Let me teach you something about the church in America. The Catholics have their pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests, and the Lutherans have their Synod Presidents, bishops and pastors," she said as she started dialing without looking up a number, "but the real power is the church secretary... Hello, Marcy? This is Sandy... yes! And how are you?... That's wonderful. Hey, we have a couple that want to do a 50/50, Father Steinbach and Pastor Loomis... June seventeenth here at the groom's farm... Uh huh... uh huh... perfect! Donovan Campbell and Lanh Nguyen... yeah! That's right, Lanh... we all love her here too... of course, let's do the pre-cana at her home, I'm sure Duong and Mai would love it... ok... sure, brunch on Sunday? I'll be there with Ralph... love you too, bye-bye."

She hung up the phone and smiled at Lanh. "That's it, you're married. All we have to do now is seat the guests and find you a dress."

The discussion now changed to music, the discussion was mostly hung up on the recessional, what to play? During this discussion Don and Bao emerged from the bunkhouse covered in white dust. "What is this?" Lanh asked as she kissed Don.

"Cocaine," he answered with a straight face, "how's the planning going?"

"Pastor Loomis and Father Steinbach are going to do the ceremony, we start Pre-Cana classes next week, and here's what we have for music." She showed him the list of songs they had selected. "What do you think?"

"Two solos?" Don gave Sydney a hug, "Thank you so much, we will definitely double your salary!"

Rosa looked impressed and Sydney remarked "Twice nothing is still nothing."

"It's the thought that counts," said Don as he kissed the top of her head. "Who's doing the accompaniment on the Wedding Song?"

"Sandy," said Lanh.

"It would sound better with a guitar," said Don.

"Who can we get to play it? It may be too late to book someone."

Bao cleared his throat and Don asked, "Would you play at our wedding, bro?"

"To help get my hormonal teenage sister out of my father's house? I'd be glad to."

Lanh punched her brother in the ribs with her tiny fist and he laughed and gave her a hug. "It's an honor em gái." (sister)

"One other input," said Don, "I would like the whole wedding party in on the recessional, which includes Sandy and Sydney." Lanh gave him a confused look, but he continued, "I'm thinking joyful, a real celebration, confetti and party poppers kind of happy. And everyone grabs their wife, husband, significant other, date, whoever, and follows us, including Sandy, so it will have to be recorded music."

"Speaking of wedding party, you're going to have to find another groomsman," said Lanh, "I'm going to ask Rosa to be a bride's maid."

Don smiled and gave his teammate a high five, "Ok, I'll ask Trung, but that's it, you're out of brothers."

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Don has never been so busy in his entire life. Not counting school and work on the farm and at the restaurant, he had enough work to fill his life. First and foremost was The Project in the bunkhouse. He was redoing the entire thing, with his dad and his future brothers and sisters in law helping out here and there, and he even had help from Torry Loomis a bathroom and kitchen designer and installer; he was also pastor of their church. A couple of times Lanh almost discovered what was going on, she peeked in and saw walls of plastic to keep the dust out of the main house, so she stayed away, she realized there was work going on in there, but she didn't realize it was all for her, every nail and screw.

"What are you doing in there?" she finally asked as she did homework at the table next to her dust covered fiancé.

He sighed, he needed to be honest with her, but not too honest. "We found some mold behind the drywall so we're fixing up the walls and stuff. I promised dad that we could get it done before I left for basic training."

She huffed then went back to work. It had better be worth it, closing off the "office" cut her budding sex life in half.

Then came Regionals, he had to do good in that, top five hopefully, and maybe somewhere on the podium, and he worked with Rosa too. In the past few weeks Rosa and Lanh became very close, maybe it was the fact that they were the only representatives of their culture in this school, Lanh was the only Asian, Rosa was the only Hispanic, and that's how it goes in these small town, northwestern schools.

Lanh and Rosa were exact opposites of each other, Rosa was a rude, crude party girl who loved to laugh, a product of a dozen foster homes who turned her pain into a comedy special - sort of like Kim-ly but without the 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile Lanh was a bookworm nerd who just recently learned to laugh, and somehow, they fit perfectly together. Along with Sydney they made "three of a kind that could beat a full house" as Ralph put it.

Not only is the work in the bunkhouse a gift for Lanh, but the upcoming race at the regional's competition was dedicated to Lanh. Every stroke of the arm, every kick of the leg, every tortured breath was Don's gift to Lanh. Lanh was the racer; Don was just making it happen for her.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Don and Rosa were actually able to get extra pool time to practice for Regionals, sometimes they could only get one lane in the pool while freshmen used the rest of the pool for gym class. In that case they would dive start, swim a length, flip turn, then sprint for the finish. As soon as that person touched the second person would dive start, swim a length, flip turn, then sprint for the finish. By that time the first person was on the blocks and started all over again. Sometimes they would have two lanes and race the whole race, eight lengths, and with luck Lanh could join them and coach their swimming.

As they clung to the edge of the pool, catching their breath, waiting for Lanh to calculate their times, Rosa asked Don "Why does she keep yelling yang lang?"

"She's saying nhanh lên which means hurry up in Vietnamese," he answered, then before she could ask, "and đi đi mau means Go! Go! but it's not polite."

Rosa grinned, "She's swearing at us?"

"No, it means "go fast" but it's considered rude." Rosa looked disappointed; she's hoping to catch Lanh swearing.

Before they realized it, Regionals was on them. The contest was being held at Eden United, a big school with a big pool. Because it was so close to their home area, a lot of Grant Valley "Woodcutter" fans were in attendance. Don and Rosa did well in the preliminaries, no record setting times, but good enough to stay in the race for a medal.

Lanh was frustrated because she couldn't pace Don and Rosa as they swam, she had to remain in her seat in the first row, but that didn't stop her piercing cry of "Nhanh lên!" whenever they took a breath. And on the last half length of the race her cry changed to "đi đi mau!" with every stroke. Don didn't always hear it, but he knew it was there.

When the times were posted Don and Rosa found that they were in the finals; Don's stomach was in an uproar. He's never received so much as a participation trophy thanks to his injuries at the hands of Joshua Grimes last year and now here he is in the finals. He was completely overwhelmed. He barely remembered celebrating and congratulating Rosa earning a bronze medal in the girls' 200, first medal in 200 for Grant Valley girls in many years. It's been over a decade since Grant Valley boys could stand on the regionals podium in the 200 and each year of that dry spell was weighing on him like an elephant standing on his chest.

And now he was stepping up to the starting block. Paul Mach stepped away from the usual coaches' position behind the starting block and Lanh was there to encourage her swimmer. She couldn't hold herself back, he looked so sexy in those tight swim trunks, his lean frame calling to her fingers to caress him, and his shoulders, so much broader now than when they met. That shower they took together on New Year's Eve sprang to mind, which now brought that memory of skinny dipping in the pond last September...

"You can do it," she whispered, "you've swam faster than any of these guys when you qualified for the team."

"That time was a personal best," he said.

"So? Just go a little faster. Simple! Problem solved!" she smiled. In return he smiled and swatted her pretty round bottom.

Now was the warning from the race official, "Thirty seconds."

"Go get it for us," said Lanh. "Donovan à, em yêu em." (I love you)

Don smiled, "This is all for you babe, Lanh à, em yêu chi."

And with a kiss he turned and ascended the starting block. He was in lane 7, the fastest swimmers were always given to lanes four and five, then progressively slower swimmers in the outer lanes. He didn't worry about that as he adjusted his goggles and then his stance. "Swimmers... READY!" He crouched, not glancing to the crowd, as far as he was concerned there was only one person here that mattered anyhow and she was standing behind him, the finishing end of the pool. And then the chirp of the whistle and he was airborne.

It felt like he was in the air forever, he actually thought that he dove so hard that he's going to miss the pool! then Bang! He hit the water hard. "Kick, kick, kick, kick," he thought to himself, and driving his legs hard he propelled himself like a torpedo. Then up he came, he was now on the surface, and his arms started to claw his way through the water. He found his pace and he was able to maintain it because he heard her - "Nhanh lên! Nhanh lên!" - with every breath. He drove himself harder than he ever imagined, her cries of "Nhanh lên!" getting louder and louder, and suddenly he realized the Grant Valley crowd was chanting with her, "N'yen yen! N'yen yen!" They didn't know what she was saying but they were chanting with her.

Turn coming up... Bang! Nailed it! Now back digging, digging digging " Nhanh lên ! ... Nhanh lên!" Breath! Concentrate on breathing! Turn coming up... Bang! Awesome! How many was that? Seven, last one! Stop counting and drive! Drive! Drive! Faster, faster, faster! Take nothing home, leave it all in the pool!

Suddenly the chant changed, "Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau!" Half a length left! He drove as hard and as fast as he could, ignoring the pain. His lungs were ready to burst, his arms ached, his legs were ready to give out, but he kicked as hard and as fast as he could, he pulled even harder, now he was reaching out, his fingers touched the wall and it was over! Complete exhaustion set in. He took a breath and looked to his left and his right, and he was alone... what? Did he stop too soon? It's happened in the past... the cheering and screaming, is that jeering? Did he fuck up? Then suddenly other swimmers appeared, lane four touched, then lane three, then lane five... what is going on?

The crowd was going crazy, then splash! Lanh was in the water with him! "You did it em yêu!" she shrieked, "You won!"

Then another splash, now Rosa was in the water with him! More splashes, more teammates, guys who would barely talk to him were now slapping him on the back congratulating him... Lanh and Rosa and a couple of the other girl swimmers were kissing him, what the hell was going on? All he wanted to do was take this damn swimming cap off and kiss Lanh.

One by one his teammates climbed out of the pool, and Don tried but he had nothing left, his arms felt like wet noodles, everything ached. He made sure that Lanh was out of the pool safe before he allowed himself to be hoisted up onto the deck to a standing ovation from the stands. Coach Mach shook his hand and said, "You beat the school record by two full seconds, son."

He didn't remember a thing about standing on the podium and receiving a real medal and a rolled-up document. It was a generic document; he was told he would receive the official certificate signed and framed later. Then it was pictures with Rosa, the only two Woodcutters to medal in the games, and Grant Valley's only two swimmers to advance to State. They insisted that all photographs be taken with their coaches, both Lanh and Paul Mach who smiled and didn't say a word. Luckily, Lanh had worn her swimsuit under her shorts and polo shirt, which she peeled off the moment it looked like Don was going to win, so after she dried off, she had a dry uniform to wear. She stood beaming between her two swimmers wearing their medals, Rosa had received a bouquet of flowers that she gave to Lanh, and they insisted that all photos contained all three of them.

The school paper and the local newspaper would run with that picture, with the headline that Rosa insisted on, Nguyen for the Win! Few people can pronounce Nguyen (n'win) properly so they will miss out on the alliteration, but Lanh was their hero.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

"Ok, if you need anything, I'll be at Sandy's," called Ralph as he headed out the door.

"He's asleep again," said Lanh softly, "we'll be ok."

Sunday, the day after the regional championships. Don was still exhausted, he barely made it through church. Lanh and Sandy filled in for him with the milking this morning, and he has been sleeping off and on all morning. The only thing on the TV was the Sunday morning blab fests, an old comedy, and bowling, so that was off and Lanh read while Don napped.

As soon as Ralph's car left for Sunday brunch with Sandy, Lanh locked the front door, closed the curtains, turned on the stereo to some soft "yacht rock" and slipped off her clothes. It was time to properly congratulate her hero. She peeled back the quilt he was napping under and knelt at his feet as she unbuttoned the fly on his pajama shorts.

She's only seen his cock in this state once before, it's always been either solidly erect ready to penetrate her, to ravish and impregnate her, or it was tumescent, still puffy after releasing his potent seed. She remembered the first time she saw it and she was so terrified of it, but Don was so gentle and understanding. He let her explore and touch; he even let her measure it - seven and half inches. "Don't shortchange me, check it again!" he insisted and sure enough, seven and five eighths' inches. That eventually became a joke between them. Later in the spring as they prepared for the Senior Prom she modeled a high collared red silk Chinese dress with gold trim, he fell in love with the skintight sheath and dubbed her "The Dragon Lady." Then he tried out a simple black tuxedo with simple white shirt black bow tie and black cummerbund. To Lanh he looked like a skinny James Bond, so she dubbed him Agent Double Oh Seven and Five Eighths.

He showed her how boys masturbated, and he didn't force her to do anything to him, but she tried. When he stimulated her with his fingers, she loved it! But there, at the verge of her first orgasm brought on by someone else, she panicked, and the feeling fled.

Once again Don's patience and understanding took over, and they tried and tried, but each time she panicked, and they failed. But when she got home and replayed the scene in her mind, her fingers were able to bring her to orgasm every time. Then, in tears of frustration she tied up Don and masturbated in front of him, their eyes locked, and her orgasm was explosive. Now when she thinks of the things he can do with his lips and his tongue and his fingers, she could almost weep for the time she lost shuddering in fear when she could have spent that time on her back with Don's head between her legs escorting her to heaven. Or as Don puts it "rounding third base and heading for home."

Now his cock was soft and smallish, no threat to anyone. She remembered how alien it was to her. Lanh is so small she rarely got a chance as a young girl to babysit, but when she did, she remembered seeing a little boy's penis, it was so tiny and cute, but seeing Don's was so much bigger. She remembered thinking how different it was from a woman's reproductive system, hers is neat, everything tucked neatly inside, safe from harm, where a guy's system is out in the open, almost separate from their body. Is that why guys think differently about sex than girls?

She took his cock in her mouth and began to lave her tongue over it, even after showers there was still a hint of swimming pool chlorine she noted as her tongue caressed his cock. An interesting thought came to her, something that Rosa and Sydney spoke about when their conversations started to get strange, and she decided to see if she could make it happen. She began to suckle, to nurse at his cock, like the milking machines treat her cows' teats, like Don treats her own tits. Very soon she was aware of a throbbing in the spongy tissue of his cock, and it started to expand. Slowly, almost like a balloon inflating his cock grew, she went back to washing her tongue over the surface of his cock and it responded. It started swelling, growing thicker and longer, the head of his cock moving further back in her mouth, the shaft growing thicker, forcing her jaw to open wider. Deeper and deeper his cock pushed, she twisted and adjusted herself to give his cock a straight path to her throat.

Don felt a little chilly, except for his cock, it was swaddled in a warm moist orifice. With each beat of his heart his cock grew, and he could feel the head of his cock being squeezed into something that wasn't as nice and smooth as before, yet a delicious wet slithery friction continued on his cock. He reached for his cock and found something solid and covered with hair, and when he forced his eyes open, he found it was Lanh! She was completely naked, her nose pressed tight into his stomach, her tongue slithering over his hardening cock which was fully engulfed in her throat!

He could feel her gagging, her throat constricting around his cock. It felt incredible, but he felt guilty at taking pleasure from her discomfort. She eased his cock out of her throat until half his length was in her mouth, her tongue sliding over the sensitive flesh. She took a deep breath through her nose and swallowed him again. Don's eyes closed and he groaned as he threw his head back in ecstasy as his cock was trapped in the tight constrains of her throat.

"Kim-ly was right!" Lanh thought as she remembered what her sister told her, "Your man's moans and groans are applause." Over and over, she swallowed Don enjoying the fact that his body was tightening up like a bowstring, she even loved having her nose tickled with his curly pubic hair. His hands went to her head holding tight and taking control. Something deep inside of her loved letting him guide her head up and down, owning her, using her for his pleasure like she used him when he went down on her. Her hand crept down and began massaging her tingling clit and soon it was soaked with the lubricating fluids that literally drooled from her pussy.

Even though he was holding her, she knew that she was the one in control, and soon his hips started to lift up off the couch, his encouraging groans became unintelligible, his cock even harder if that were possible. She eased the head of his cock out of her throat and held it in her mouth, her tongue slipping and sliding over it and suddenly, with a roar, he came. Squirt after squirt of life creating semen splashed into her mouth, his hips jerked as he fired volleys of cum into her hungry mouth. At the same time her own orgasm started, she squealed around his pulsating cock, her own cum causing her to suck harder.

Soon the pleasure was too much, but Lanh wasn't backing off, her ravenous mouth driven by her own climax continued to devour his dick, he had to pull her off of his cock. She released it reluctantly and lay against him kissing his deflating cock as her own climax subsided.

As their orgasms faded into a delicious afterglow, they both relaxed, he pulled her up and gave her a deep passionate kiss. He marveled at how warm her mouth was, her lips so soft and swollen from the workout she gave them. He was about to tell her how incredible that was, but she put her fingers that were soaked with her pussy juice into his mouth. He sucked and licked her fingers clean of her delectable nectar, but they were interrupted by the sound of the coffee pot in the kitchen gurgling as it started its brew cycle. Neither one of them started the coffee pot, so they looked in the direction of the sound and there was Tam and Kim-ly standing in the doorway between the dining room and the living room. Tam had a look of shock and disbelief on her face, and Kim-ly had a broad grin and gave them a thumbs up.

Lanh was mortified and Don was shocked, but at least the sisters disappeared into the kitchen allowing Don and Lanh privacy to get dressed. "Oh God, I want to die," groaned Lanh.

"No, what you did for me was beautiful," he held his future wife close and reveled in the feeling of her firm small breasts against his chest.

"I'm so embarrassed," she whimpered.

"Don't be, please," he begged. "That was the most beautiful, sexual, and even romantic thing anyone has ever done for me, I can't let it be ruined by interlopers."

"Romantic?" she squeaked as she pulled her blouse back on.

He put a crooked finger under her chin and tipped her head up and looked into her deep, coal black eyes. "You wouldn't have even dreamed of doing that if you didn't love me as much as you do, and I could feel that love," and he sealed that statement with a gentle kiss. "You can't begin to understand how much I love you for doing that."

Lanh felt a lot better after that, but she still wanted to crawl under the couch and die, her sisters saw her! Don led her into the kitchen where Tam and Kim-ly were waiting for the coffee that they started to finish brewing. As Don entered the kitchen, he looked mad enough to kill. Lanh hid behind him, mortified and afraid to show her face. "Ok you two," growled Don, "If you want to live vicariously through our sex life, the least you could do is make popcorn before the show."

He meant that to be mean and sarcastic, but Kim-ly snorted with laughter, which caused Lanh to do the same behind Don. Tam turned and saw Lanh hiding her face like she did when she was a little girl and terrified. She ran to Lanh; she pulled her little sister out from behind Don and gave her a huge hug. "I'm so sorry baby, we shouldn't have done that, but you two... you were doing so good!"

"Huh?" Lanh was utterly confused.

"That was totally our fault," said Kim-ly. "We walked in the back door and went to find you and you were just so... awesome!"

"What?" first Lanh was mortified that she forgot to lock the back door, but now her older sisters are critiquing her blowjob? She looked from Tam to Kim-ly and back.

"You should be mad at us," said Tam, "but I've never been able... how do you do it?"

"Serious," said Kim-ly, "we're sorry about watching, we should have just turned around and left, but damn! You guys rock!"

"I... I don't..." Lanh stuttered and looked back at Don in confusion.

"Don't feel bad, or sad baby girl," said Tam as she wiped a tear from Lanh's eye, "what you were doing was right and good. God how I wish I could do that right now."

"Sorry," said Don as his anger subsided, "but I'm taken. Besides, it's going to take me a little while to..."

Kim-ly looked at him and started to laugh, "shut the fuck up, you big dick monster. You know what she means." She made a shooing motion with her hands. "Shoo! Go! This is girl talk. No boys allowed. Go watch sports or something. We have talking to do."

Lanh looked at Don, he could see that the terror in her expression was fading. "Ok, I'll go," then pointing at Tam and Kim-ly he said, "Bring me out a cup of that Joe when it's ready, double cream, just a touch of sugar. Thanks babe." And he turned and went back to the living room.

"Did he just call me babe?" snarled Tam, her fist cocked and ready to let fly.

"Uh, yeah. I think there's a few other words he could use, like peeping tom, pervert, voyeur, ogler, reprobate, voluptuary, scopophiliac..." said Lanh as she sat on the stool at the end of the kitchen island.

Tam looked impressed but Kim-ly said, "Scoopto what?"

"It means peeping tom, pervert, voyeur, ogler..." Lanh glared at her sisters in anger.

"It means that young Lanh was reading my textbooks when I was a psych major," said Tam as she caressed Lanh's cheek. "I'm sorry honey, but what you were doing for Don was incredible," said Tam as she pulled up a stool next to Lanh. "It's something I've always wanted to do, but I always freaked out, or gagged or something. How do you do it?"

"Seriously sissy," said Kim-ly as she poured a cup of coffee for Don, "and then the way he kissed you... it was like wow, you got a talent!"

Lanh was startled at a few things, one was this "talent" that Kim-ly mentioned, it wasn't something she was crazy about doing, but Don loved it, so she's learning to like it, and as Rosa liked to say, a swallow is the only bird that always beats the stork. But the fact that Tam, the woman that practically raised her, is asking for sex advice and Kim-ly is making Don the cup of coffee he practically demanded... things were changing in Lanh's life. "Ok, first of all, what do you mean calling my husband a big dick monster?"

Kim-ly laughed as she prepared Don's coffee. "You don't know?"

"Why are you calling Don a dick?" demanded a highly angry Lanh.

Kim-ly shook her head sadly, "she doesn't know."

Tam called out, "Of course not, how would she know?"

"Know what?" asked Lanh confused.

"Honey," said Kim-ly as she carried Don's coffee to him, "I didn't say he is a big dick, I said he's GOT a big dick." As she served Don his coffee, she suppressed her internal emotional uproar but Kim-ly will never forget that she saw the dick of her dreams all the way down her little sister's throat.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

So much to do! So little time! But as Don's house project was coming together, and his final school year was being finalized, the State Championships hung like a cloud blotting out all sunlight. Don, Rosa, Lanh, and Paul Mach were at the school every morning immediately after the cows' morning milking to practice, and again ten hours later after school. Rosa's performance was on the increase, her times got better with every practice race, Don's time's fluctuated and so far his personal best remains unchanged from his performance at regionals.

The day finally came when the team and a surprisingly large group of fans including Craig Lewicki and Sydney McCloskey boarded a school bus and headed to Brooklyn Park MN, to the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, on the campus of the University of Minnesota for the state championships. Unfortunately for Sydney, Craig brought his girlfriend with; Cindy Reese was a blond cheerleader whose personality annoyed Don, Lanh, Sydney, and Rosa. She was a Minnesota "Valley Girl" whose life was tied up in makeup and shopping, and she hated Asians with a passion. Being the only Asian in Grant Valley High School, Cindy's bigotry was narrowly focused on Lanh and has been since that Christmas Dance when Lanh and Don met.

Don and Lanh had reverted to their old selves, sitting silently in the last row, watching people they barely knew enjoy life around them while their only solace was each other. Don wasn't worried about the race, he was worried about meeting dozens, maybe scores of future relatives. Lanh's family landed in Minneapolis after a long painful journey to freedom and celebrated their arrival at their new home with lots and lots of babies. He carried a pocket notebook with the names of many of his future relatives, many of whom he had spoken to on the phone.

Lanh's main worry was that Tam and Huy would spend their time together showing off the university campus that Lanh turned her back on for a life with Don. Tam understood, but Huy didn't, he tried to convince Lanh to go to school and get a degree while her husband "played army" overseas. Lanh eventually informed him that he was about to get a hormonal teenage sister coming down on him like the wrath of God if he came up with another dumb idea like that. Huy respected Lanh's threat and in the end they became closer. She snuggled closer to Don, and he put his arm around her. Soon she was asleep, secure in his arms; but as for Don, he remained wide awake. Don hasn't slept for days, the swim meet wasn't causing him the loss of sleep, for some reason meeting his future family terrified him.

Rosa had a grand old time on the trip, she chatted with the girls, flirted with the guys and danced in the aisle as someone cranked up their boom box. Sydney somehow got a seat across from Craig and Cindy and she was able to talk with Craig the entire trip, much to Cindy's displeasure.

When they got off the bus, they were led to the Dorm rooms that they were provided. Don picked up their bags and as they walked up to their rooms, Lanh told Don all about the campus. Tam and Huy had given Lanh numerous tours, and she was intimately familiar with many of the buildings. Don recognized it as nervous chatter, something she only does with himself and Tam.

As they walked down the hallway looking for the room that Lanh would be sharing with Rosa, they were blocked by a fellow in a Battleview High School jacket, Grant Valley's main rival. "Hey buddy, didn't you know that your coolie is supposed to carry YOUR bag?" He then turned to Lanh and said loudly, "Me so hawwwwneee!"

Don glared at the Battleview swimmer, he was trying to get a rise out of Don, trying to get Don to hit him and get disqualified from the race and Mr. Mach was too far down the hall to stop him if he snapped. With a tiny whimper Lanh hid behind Don and started to tremble, the terror she felt when she was attacked by Joshua Grimes came flooding back. "That's my fiancé you're talking about, chum," said Don with a growl in his voice.

"So what?" shrugged the Battleview swimmer, a gesture that said fuck you.

"Just going to advise you not to look over there," Don said as he nodded his head toward the hallway behind the Battleview swimmer.

"Or what? What are you going to do?" the Battleview swimmer sneered, and he turned in the direction that Don indicated. When he did, he found himself staring into the scowling, anger filled face of Tam.

"Me love you long time," snarled Tam completing the quote from Full Metal Jacket. Her cocked arm released, and her fist crossed the distance to the jerk's face in a quarter of a second. Her punch connected solidly, and the Battleview swimmer's head recoiled off of her fist and slammed into the wall. He sagged to the floor dazed as Mr. Mach and the Battleview coach walked up.

"Tried to warn you dude," said Don as he stepped over the prone jerk's body.

"Who is that?" asked Mr. Mach.

"I don't know, I was going to ask his name, but he decided to take a nap," said Don.

"I'll take care of it," growled the Battleview coach who heard every word. "Torito, get on your stupid feet!"

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

On Friday afternoon Don and Rosa won their elimination heats easily, since they did so well in the Regionals, they were paired against weaker schools, but the rest of the team failed to fare so well and all were eliminated, but at least they made it to state this year. On the upside, Don and Rosa would have a large cheering section for finals. And Rosa and Sydney had a new Superhero in Tam. At one point Rosa compared Tam to her favorite Asian action star Jackie Chan. "Not a chance," insisted Tam, "He's a nice guy, I haven't been nice since you were six."

The class A finals were going to be held Saturday evening, so the Grant Valley team had all day to let the anxiety build. Luckily, Lanh's worst nightmare didn't occur, and the campus tour never happened, instead something she never dreamed of happened. They were taken, along with Rosa and Sydney, to a restaurant in Lanh's old neighborhood. "Oh no," whispered Lanh as they pulled up to Pham Pho, "this is my uncle's restaurant."

They got out of the car and Tam led them indoors to a melee of Asian faces and voices, it looked like all of Lanh's relatives were there. They were overwhelmed by a very un-Asian show of affection, hugs, handshakes, congratulations, and squeals of joy from Lanh's Aunts and female cousins as they inspected her engagement ring. Lanh and Don got pulled apart and she worried about him, but he seemed to be doing ok. While Lanh introduced Rosa and Sydney to her cousins, Don and Tam were with her uncles, aunts, and grandparents. He acted like he knew them! She didn't realize yet that he had spent hours on the phone with many of them.

Shortly Mia, Duong, Ralph, Sandy, Kim-ly, Trung, and Bao arrived and joined the melee. The conversations between the older relatives were in Vietnamese, the younger folks, first generation citizens and their children, were in English and made for an uproar that confused Sydney. Rosa having fostered in big families that spoke Spanish and English all at the same time felt right at home, even though she couldn't understand the Vietnamese.

They all sat down to lunch that was started with grace led by Lanh's cousin, Roman Catholic priest Father Nhan Pham. There were four men from the group that emigrated to the US as little boys in Lanh's family that went into the priesthood, echoing what Don saw in the history of his Irish Catholic ancestors when they emigrated into the US. Many of their sons entered the priesthood too.

The conversation was cheerful and Sydney got a lot of ribbing when she announced how surprised she was that the food was so delicious. "What did you expect? Beansprouts and dog meat?" asked one of Lanh's cousins.

"Uh, yeah, kindda," she said.

"How do you know it's not?" he grinned. The whole room burst into laughter at Sydney's shocked reaction, until she realized she was being played. Meanwhile, Rosa went on and on about Lanh's coaching skills and how the whole school now chants "diddy mao" and "yen yen" when she and Don are racing and how it helps her.

"We will have to come and teach them how to pronounce it properly," laughed one of Lanh's many uncles.

As the dinner wound to an end, Rosa, a devout catholic herself, asked Father Pham to bless their efforts at the state championship today, which he did, and he also took the opportunity to ask for a blessing on Don and Lanh's marriage, "Father, we know that our little sister Lanh is worried that there may be some backlash from us for marrying a white man. We want to thank you for bringing her this man and thank you for letting us meet him. Please let her know that this is why we fought so hard to come here, to have the freedom to love who you put in our heart, that we love her and support her and Don, and will always be here for them whenever they need our help." He then did something un-Catholic-like and looked at his family, "Can I get an Amen?"

"AMEN!" shouted her huge family and suddenly a feeling of relief washed over Lanh, and she nearly wept with joy. She didn't realize how heavily the fear that her family would reject her for marrying a non-Asian was weighing on her heart. She hugged Don's arm in a renewed passion, knowing that her family will not reject the young couple. Don, however, wasn't as relieved as Lanh. Half of his family was extremely Irish, and the other half was incredibly Norwegian, neither ethnicity was known as "open" with their feelings... especially his mother's folks, Lars and Hilde Odegaard.

As they were hustled back to the aquatic center, followed by a contingent of Lanh's extended family, Lanh said to Don, "I didn't realize how worried I was that they would be upset for me marrying a non-Asian." She snuggled up tight against him in the back of the car they were riding in. "I feel so much better now."

"Now all we have to worry about is my family, and we'll have it made," sighed Don.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

As time for Rosa to mount the starting block grew near, Lanh explained to her family and her teammates how critical it was to chant in time with the swimmers breathing. "They can hear you best when they turn their head to breath. You'll see their rhythm," she said, "so that's when we yell. When they get to the last length, you'll hear a bell ring. When Rosa gets to the halfway point, we change from Nhanh lên to Đi đi mau! Ok? Just listen for me."

"What if we can't hear you?" asked a cousin.

"Oh, you'll hear her alright," laughed Sydney.

"They'll hear her at the airport!" said Rosa as she started to pull her swimming cap onto her thick ebony plume of hair. Just then, Don walked up, and he didn't look happy.

"What's the matter honey?" asked Lanh.

Don pulled Lanh close and with an angry, yet sad expression said "Em yêu, I have to introduce you to Danny Torito, you've already met him." Just then the Battleview swimmer with the beginnings of a black eye stepped around the corner. He saw Lanh standing with what appeared to be over twenty-five Asians and he began to sweat. He went to apologize to Don, but Don said that it was meaningless unless he apologized to Lanh, and the Battleview coach agreed.

"I want to apologize for what I said to you, it was mean and arrogant," he nervously looked at the crowd who was staring at him. "I didn't mean to imply anything; I was trying to get your boyfriend..."

"Fiancé!" Don corrected.

"...fiancé to take a swing at me which would get him ejected from the race."

"No problem. Coolie is a Chinese slur, I'm not Chinese," said Lanh innocently. She still refuses to believe how racists think.

"Now tell her what that other line meant," said Don. "She's ever seen the movie, so you have to explain to her what you implied."

Danny looked terrified, now there were twenty-five pairs of Asian eyes glaring at him, he froze. Then he heard his coach say, "Tell her!" Glancing over his shoulder he could see his coach, the coach of Grant Valley, and that scary woman that hit him. She was cracking her knuckles.

Then an Asian woman in the stands said, "What did you say?" From the tone of her voice Danny knew immediately that it was Lanh's mom that asked. He decided it was time to man up and get it over with.

"The line "me so horny" came from a war movie, it was spoken by a Vietnamese prostitute."

There was a collective intake of breath behind her, all of her relatives knew the scene, her grandparents and great uncles and aunts lived through that nightmare, but Lanh doesn't watch war movies, so she has been spared from that scene. "Why would you say that about me?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"I'm really sorry..." he mumbled.

"I asked you a question," she demanded. She suddenly had iron in her words, this is a Lanh that no one has ever seen before unless they've seen her on the debate stage. "Why did you call me a whore in front of my husband?"

"I didn't, I just..."

"Tôi là một trinh nữ!" Lanh shrieked at the top of her lungs, she just announced to all Vietnamese speaking people in the building that she was a virgin. "In two months I am going to my husband untouched, but now how many people think I am a whore because of your words? HOW MANY?"

"I'm sorry... I wasn't thinking..."

"Wasn't thinking," she sneered, "that must reflect on Battleview educational standards. You disgust me. Go away." Her family stood up and started to move toward Danny, who suddenly realized he had no exit because Tam, Trung, and Bao stood immediately behind him. Danny went pale when he realized that he was in serious trouble. But it was Lanh who yelled "Dừng lại! Stop! Let him go!"

Danny looked at her in terror, and Don walked up to him and hissed "You better remember that the woman you called a whore just saved your life. Git the fuck out of here." And Danny fled as fast as he could. His coach came up to Lanh who was now shaking and holding Don's arm as tight as she could.

"I'm sorry Miss Nguyen, I don't know what got into his head and I won't insult you with excuses. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Lanh shook her head and buried her face in Don's chest. "We're used to it coach," said Don, then he brightened slightly, "this is the first time we won, right em yêu?" She nodded, then wiped her nose on his jacket, mostly because it will annoy him, so she wanted to show that her sense of humor was intact. "Go coach Rosa," he said, and after a little kiss. "Go make her win." Lanh nodded her head and was off to coach her friend. Then, shaking hands with as many of Lanh's family as he could, Don sat down with his new relatives to watch the girls' races.

Normally he would have made his way back to his waiting area to concentrate on his upcoming race, but now that Lanh is involved in Rosa's race, it's important for him to cheer Rosa on. The last spectators were now filing in, and Grandma Tri was among them. Kim-ly and one of her cousins went to escort her to their section, and when they came back, they also brough Ralph and Sandy whom they found sitting at the other end of the stands.

They made room for Ralph and Sandy near the front row next to where Don was sitting, and before they sat down Don turned to the Phams and the Nguyens and said "Folks, this is my dad Ralph and his friend Sandy. Dad... this is the in-laws." After shaking as many hands as possible they sat down to watch the girls' races.

Ralph leaned over and asked Don, "Are they all coming to the wedding?"

"You betcha."

"We're going to have to get a few more chairs and porta-potties."

Rosa was completely ready, until she stepped up on the block and heard over the loudspeaker, "In lane six, from Grant Valley High School, making their first appearance in girls two-hundred-yard free style final in over twenty years, Rosa Mendez." Twenty years! She had no idea that the drought was that long, now she was terrified of becoming the girl who had a chance and blew it. She waved nervously and one whole section of the stands rose cheering for her loudly, it was her team and Lanh's family.

"Go get 'em chica!" called Lanh from behind her, and Rosa grinned, it was time to kick ass. Then she heard the PA, "Swimmers ready..." She crouched in her stance until GO!

Rosa's form was flawless, her entry dive off the block was a thing of beauty, and her pace was faster than normal, but she was feeling good. Soon she could hear the crowd crying Nhanh lên! with every breath. Always pushing to go faster she churned through the water, as the pain began to set in, there was the bell, last length! The chant changed to Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau! That's when Rosa really dug in, pulling and kicking like never before, her arms and legs aching, her lungs burning but the cheers and chants spurred her on, then suddenly, there was the wall. Her arm shot out and she hit the wall perfectly, it's over! She looked up at the board and saw that the victory went to lane six. She looked to her left, then to her right before she realized "Holy crap, it's me!" She was in lane six!

The cheering was deafening, and the other swimmers came over to congratulate her. Coach Mach and Lanh helped her out of the pool to more cheering and hugs and Don came out of the stands to congratulate her. "That's my girl!" said Don.

"So, if Lanh stands you up, I'm next, right?" Rosa grinned.

"I think it goes, Tam, then Kim-ly, then you."

"There's hope!" she laughed, then swatted him on the butt, "Go get ready farm boy!"

"Aye, aye ma'am." Then after congratulating Lanh with a kiss, he headed back to the ready area.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Don stood behind his block, shaking his arms to loosen them up, his cap on, goggles at the ready. As they introduced the swimmer in lane two, he turned to Lanh and said, "I love you, this is all because of you and your faith in me."

Her response startled him, "Shut up and win you sexy thing. I may have a new surprise for you." She wagged her perfect eyebrows at him, then pointed to the block. "Go win for me."

There was no time for a response because over the PA they heard "In lane three, from Grant Valley high school, Don Campbell." He climbed up on the block and waved to the cheering crowd then began to visualize his start. He played the starting dive over and over in his head, so deep in concentration he didn't hear "In lane five, from Battleview High School, current state class A champion, Danny Torito."

He put on his goggles then crouched, toes gripping the edge of the block. "Swimmers ready..." GO! He felt like the dive was awful, he was positive he was slow off the block and the dive took him too deep. He swam underwater as hard as he could to make up for his blunder, dolphin kicking as hard as possible in the vain attempt to catch up to the pack, then he pulled as hard as he could with both arms to breech the surface. A huge lungful of air because he was so behind in breathing that he's going to have to go several strokes before he can take the next breath. Now go!

Cursing himself for such a blunder he thrashed the water, his legs kicking the pool to foam, "I gotta catch up, I can't embarrass Lanh." Then the thought of what Torito did to her caused his anger to boil in his blood, he was no better than Joshua Grimes, and Grimes tried to rape her. Those bastards! OH DAMNIT! Because he was concentrating on those assholes, he lost track of his position and nearly plowed into the wall. He was so late when he did his flip turn that he was closer to the wall than normal. He kicked off as hard as he could and now, he was seething with anger for three people, Torito, Grimes, and himself for screwing up so bad. Damnit, damnit, damnit!

Not knowing that his entry dive was the best he's ever done, and his last turn actually kicked him in the lead, Don swam hard, believing he had to catch up. Now he could hear the crowd chant with every breath, Nhanh lên! Nhanh lên! Faster! Faster! His last turn brought the bell clanging and he was now on the last length and as usual the cheers grew, and now Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau! GO GO ! GO GO! Last chance to catch up! Still believing he was behind Don dragged himself through the water, his pace now at a blazing sprint, the crowd on their feet cheering and screaming, and finally he got one thing right; he stretched out at the start of a stroke and tagged the wall! He looked up at the scoreboard and for some perverse reason he looked at the time for lane five first, damn! That's a state record time... but he didn't win, the win light is on for lane three!

"I won?" he gasped as the crowd went crazy. His time was a full half second faster than Torito, and Torito's time was almost a second faster than the state record, Don finished his last race winning the State Championship and set a record in doing it.

Lanh knelt at the edge of the pool and smiled at him "Yeah, you won!" He reached up and lifted her into the pool with him. She kissed him, which was a shock, normally they don't kiss in public because her family frowns on it, and if they do it's a chaste little peck, but this was a kiss full of passion and fire, a kiss that promised so many things to come. He couldn't wait to find out what this new surprise she promised him would be.

Later at the medal presentations, Lanh zipped up Don's warm-up jacket and they touched foreheads as they whispered to each other, ignoring the world around them. "I'm so proud of you," she said softly.

"I couldn't have done it without you. Every stroke was for you. You're two and oh coach."

She gave him her naughty girl smile, "I hope you have a few more strokes saved up for next month... oops, you're up!" A race official came to take Don to the podium. Lanh urged him to go and soon Don was standing on a podium for the second time. After the medals were presented, a reporter came up to Don and asked him how he did it.

Don smiled and said "I couldn't have done it without my coaches, my dad, and some last-minute inspiration from my buddy Danny Torito at Battleview. Tell 'em what you told me Danny!"

Danny gave Don a hate filled look and just muttered "Fuck you," and he slunk away.

As they rode back home in the comfort of Mai and Duong's caddy, he tried to get her to whisper what the secret was to him, but she refused, and eventually he stopped asking when overtaken by a well-deserved sleep.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Don and Lanh were studying in the cafeteria near the end of the day in the corner where the outcasts sit in silence, at the table they call "our table." Rosa and Sydney were also there, quietly making their plans for the wedding when the guidance counselor/athletic director, Mr. Mach caught up with them. "I've been trying to get ahold of you Miss Nguyen, can we talk?"

"We need to finish up here before head out to work," said Lanh, not looking up from the paper she was writing, "we don't have much time." Don has a shift at her parents' restaurant, and she promised Don's dad that she would help with calf inoculations right after school.

"I'll just make it quick," he said. He sat down in a chair and said, "At the graduation, the school board has said that they won't let the principal introduce you as Mrs. Donovan Campbell if you're not married yet."

"So?" Lanh was confused, that never came up as a request on her part, and Don wouldn't have requested that, would he? Their wedding is planned for three days after the graduation ceremony, not before.

"So, instead the principal is going to have to introduce the class valedictorian as Miss Lanh Nguyen."

"Hmmm? Ok." Lanh clearly didn't get it. But Don picked up on it right away, with a loud whoop he jumped up and scooped Lanh out of her chair and spun around holding her tight.

"You did it em yêu! You did it!" he cried.

To be honest, there was never a question about who was going to be the valedictorian at the graduation ceremony, Lanh Nguyen's GPA was perfect, the real battle was for salutatorian. There was not a stain on her academic record, and she had two letters, one for debate team (captain), and one letter for swimming when she became the timekeeper for the swim team. Her only regret was that Don was not in the running for salutatorian, but he had a disastrous freshman year, so his graduating in the top ten percent was quite an achievement. Lanh was so happy for his academic turn-around that she reveled in his accomplishments and standing, and almost completely ignored hers.

She honestly didn't know where she stood in the academic race for top honors, and unlike her siblings she didn't care, tutoring Don was the most important academic achievement to her. Suddenly realizing what Mr. Mach said, Lanh found herself laughing and hugging Don in the cafeteria, and a photographer for the school paper who was alerted to Mr. Mach's plans captured the moment on film.

The position of valedictorian was completely forgotten by Lanh. School, work, swim team, debate team, and wedding plans, so much to do, and then trying to find time to be alone with Don! so the announcement came as a complete surprise. Lanh wasn't sure if she was more excited by the honor, or by Don's excitement in her receiving the honor. He spun her around and held her tight before he set her feet back on the ground and gave her a gentle kiss.

Mr. Mach caught sight of the gold on Lanh's finger, "You guys are really going to do it, aren't you?" She showed him her engagement ring and he asked, "When did you start wearing that?"

"Christmas eve," she said.

"You didn't notice?" asked Don.

"I guess not..." sputtered Mr. Mach.

"Wait a minute, we have something for you," said Lanh and she threw her bookbag on the table and opened it. "I couldn't find your address so I couldn't mail it," she muttered as she rifled through her bookbag, she finally produced a white and gold envelope and handed it to Mr. Mach just as the dismissal bell rang.

"Sorry sir, gotta go," said Don as he and Lanh collected their papers and books, "Gotta drop her off at my farm where my dad is going to put her to work, and I have to report in at her restaurant for my job."

"By-ee!" cried Lanh as the two hustled out the door.

Mr. Mach smiled and carefully opened the ornate envelope; a wedding invitation decorated in gold flowers and dragons. He's never received a wedding invitation from two of his students before, at least not while they were still his students. He shook his head and smiled then went to find a phone. His wife, Leann, is going to want to hear this new chapter in the saga of Don and Lanh.

As they rattled out to Campbell's farm in Don's beat up old GMC pickup truck, Lanh was running down her list of things to do before the wedding, which now included writing a valedictorian address to the graduating class. "I don't know how to write a valedictory!" she complained, "what do I say?"

"You have five older brothers and sisters, you probably sat through five graduations," said Don, "what did their valedictorians say?"

"There was only four, Bao and Kim-ly graduated together. They went something like this: Blah, blah, blah, our best years are ahead of us... yadda, yadda, yadda, don't ever forget our years together... blah, blah, blah, we're going to change the world, yadda, yadda, yadda, I owe it all to my parents and my teachers. Amen." While she recited her memories of forgettable valedictory speeches, Lanh had stripped down to bra and panties and was folding up her nice slacks and blouse. She put her tiny foot up on the dashboard and rolled down her thigh high stockings one by one and coiled them all up and put her clothes in the gym bag that was left in the pick-up.

"God, your feet are cute, hey... wasn't Tam her class valedictorian?"

"Yeah," said Lanh as she dug her bluejeans and t-shirt out of her gym bag. "So was Huy and Trung."

"Why don't you ask them?"

Lanh turned to Don, her eyes wide in shock that he would say such a thing. "Because I want to make a GOOD speech!"

"Awwwww, you wore a bra," complained Don once he finished laughing, "why did you do that?"

"Because this happens whenever I see you!" she complained and lifted up her bra cups to expose her delightful, firm teacup size breasts with prominent, and erect, dark pink nipples. Without her bra, her nipples would have been clearly on display. "They are for you to see, not the whole school." She put her bra back and began to unfold her blue jeans. It had taken her forever to find a pair of jeans that looks good on a tiny pair of hips like hers. Don swung into a neighbor's field access driveway and stopped the truck. As soon as Lanh heard the ratchet of the emergency brake pedal, she launched herself at Don.

They ended up stretched out on the front seat, Lanh wearing only her panties laying on Don and kissing deeply, her bra now on the dashboard. Their hands roamed over each other's bodies, and Lanh's entire left breast ended up in Don's mouth. He suckled at the trembling eighteen-year-old's flesh voraciously. Finally, she pushed up, reluctantly pulling her breast from its delicious trap with a pop. "Stop," she gasped, "I still want to wear white at our wedding."

"You keep rubbing against my crotch like that and we'll both be wearing white in a few seconds," he said with a lecherous grin.

She gave him a playful swat on the arm. "Work first, then reward." They will have time for rewards later tonight after work.

"You only say that because you know I'll do anything for you," sighed the young man as he pulled his tiny fiancé close. He had opened his shirt so he could feel her warm skin pressing against his.

"Say it," she whispered into his ear as she snuggled as close as she could, "Tell me again."

Don knew exactly what she wanted to hear. "I Donovan Aloysius Campbell, take you, Nguyen Huong Lanh, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do us part."

Lanh ran her hand on his chest under his shirt and hummed her approval, then "I, Nguyen Huong Lanh, take you Donovan Aloysius Campbell to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do us part." They kissed and wished that this was the last time they had to say these words. Just a few more weeks!

Finally, Don asked, "why don't we say, 'all the days of my life'? 'Till death do us part' is so morbid."

"Because what if one of us dies?" Lanh looked shocked. "All the days of my life means that one of us ends up a lonely widow. I don't do well on my own, I bored six goldfish to death, my poor little goat runs away when I talk to her. If you go before me, I'm going to go find one of the frat boys that Kim-ly tosses aside and make him buy me a new farm."

"Fair enough," smiled Don, "Nothing to worry about, I plan to live forever. What does your middle name Huong mean?"

"It means I have a big penis," she said with a straight face, "it's where the English phrase 'well huong' comes from. She held her serious expression long enough for Don to think she truly was serious, then she started laughing.

"No, serious."

"I do! Like yours!"

"If you had a penis, I would have seen it by now," said Don.

"I gave it up for lent," she insisted, then she started giggling and rubbing her crotch against his hardening cock.

"Seriously, what does it mean?"

"Huong is a flower, a pink rose. That's why rose quartz is my favorite mineral." Which explained the samples of pink rose quartz rocks she showed him on the one time she allowed him in her room to meet her goldfish, Marissa. "Your turn," she countered, "what does Aloysius mean?"

"It means Famous Warrior."

She kissed him one last time before they had to get going, "What are you famous for?"

"I don't know, I think it's one of those names you have to aspire to." Then thinking ahead to his upcoming enlistment he said, "Hopefully, I will become famous for not getting blown up."

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Lanh loves calf vaccinations because she gets to comfort the calves, even though they're bigger than she is. After the last calf was vaccinated and the calf returned to its mother, Lanh was going to head up to the hay loft to pull down a few bales for the evening milking when she noticed a wire broken on the barbed wire fence not far from the barn. She headed over to the tractor shed for the fencing tools and found that the coffee can that holds the soft metal crimps was empty. The soft metal crimps make repairing broken barbed wire fences easy. "Don must have been working the fence line again," she muttered. The pasture fence had several breaks from the winter that they've been repairing as the snow melted.

Lanh doesn't do fencing, it's tough, demanding work, and male or female, she's pretty tiny, so Don does all of that. But she's seen him fix the fence often enough with and without crimps, so she grabbed the fencing pliers, fence stretcher, vice grips, heavy leather gloves, and a length of new barbed wire off the spool, then headed back to the fence. In just a matter of fifteen minutes she had spliced in a length of new barbed wire and made sure that the wire was good and tight.

"Nice job," said Ralph as he inspected her work. "Did Don teach you this?"

"No, he doesn't let me do fencing. He says it's too hard for me, and I think he's right." She let her sore arms droop down, "I only did that one break, and my arms are worn out." It's tough on the arms to mend the wire and keep it tight.

"Ja, you betcha, it's tough work holding that tension the whole time and getting the wires wrapped good and tight. He didn't teach you this?"

"Nope," she said, "I watched him often enough though. He will do fencing while I go with him and review his English assignments."

"Ja sure, it's a good teacher that learns from her students," said Ralph as they headed back to the tractor shed.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Ralph headed into town to drop Lanh at her family's restaurant not long after the evening milking was complete. She sat in the back seat of Ralph's truck, happy with herself for being able to fix the fence AND haul down enough hay for not one but two milking's. She flexed her aching arms and Ralph noticed them in his rear-view mirror. He smiled, "You're building up some muscle tone there, missy."

Sandy Robertson, seated next to Ralph, chimed in, "Lord yes! I don't think I've seen Don nor his father work that hard in one afternoon."

Lanh smiled and couldn't wait to tell Don what Sandy had said. Good thing tomorrow was Saturday so after the morning milking she could go back to bed! Duong had invited them over to the restaurant for dinner, which caught Lanh by surprise, her father was notoriously cheap, and the words "free food" were an alien concept to him. But when they pulled up to the restaurant, the place looked packed. In a town where burgers and fries were king, Nguyen Pho was becoming popular, but to be packed that full, even on a Friday evening was unusual.

Ralph found a parking spot right in front and even opened the door for the ladies he transported. Sandy even let Lanh enter first, "Beauty before age," she chuckled when Lanh balked. But Lanh eventually did step in first and was shocked to the core and actually leapt back into Sandy in surprise when the entire restaurant jumped up and yelled "CONGRATULATIONS!" A large hand letter sign that said, "Congratulations Valedictorian!" appeared on the wall.

Her entire family was there! Má, Ba, Tam, Huy, Trung, Bao, and Kim-ly, the entire Nguyen family hasn't been together since Christmas when Don proposed to her. But the room was full! There were several teachers, her entire debate team, and plenty of guys and girls from the swim team! She wanted to crawl into a hole and die, she wanted to laugh and join in the celebration, and she wanted to punch Don in the ribs as hard as she could. Tam scooped her up and spun her around, "A chip off the ol' block!" she cried happily.

"Put me down!" demanded Lanh, but to no avail, her brothers Huy and Trung took her from Tam's happy arms and paraded her around the crowd on their shoulders.

"All hail the conquering scholar!"

"Put me down!"

Her protests couldn't be heard over the cheering and laughing crowd. She knew that this was all in fun, but she really was starting to get scared. She didn't mind when Don carries her in his arms like a baby, she feels safe and secure when he does that, but this feels like she's being tossed around like a rag doll. "DON!" she screamed, where was he?

Huy and Trung were strong young men, they wouldn't drop their baby sister for any reason, but her head was getting close to the hanging light fixtures. Mai and Duong Nguyen laughed along with everyone else, they weren't worried in the least, were used to the antics of their half dozen children. They had to be, especially with Trung, a scholar whose idea of relaxation is playing hockey against semi-professional teams out of Canada and skating away with bruises, black eyes, and broken ribs. Her dad Duong did try to tell them to put Lanh down, but they just turned and headed into another section of the crowd.

"DON!" she shouted again, looking around desperately.

"Don't worry about him, he's safe," laughed Huy. They turned back toward the kitchen door to find Don standing there, glaring at them.

Trung gasped, "How did you get out of the..."

"...broom closet?" said Don, finishing the sentence for him. In answer he handed Huy the doorknob and locking mechanism from the closet in which his future brothers-in-law locked him. Defeated, the brothers lowered Lanh to the ground where she hugged Don, then punched him. "What was that for?"

"For telling everybody! I wanted to tell them!" shouted Lanh.

"Don't blame me, they all knew before I got here," said Don, pointing to a booth where Mr. Mach and his wife Leann were sitting. "Ask him; he was here before I got here."

"Oh," said Lanh who paused then said, "I'm sorry... then that was for next time." Then clinging tightly to his arm, she tried to drag Don with her as she went around the room talking to well-wishers, but he had to pull his arm free.

"I'm still on the clock, baby," and with a kiss he went about clearing tables and serving drinks.

Lanh kept an eye on Don while she greeted well-wishers. Occasionally she would help, and when she could, she'd station herself near the kitchen door, so they could brush against each other as he walked by. At some point, one of the swimmers on the team came up to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "I can't believe he's working instead of celebrating with his girlfriend." It was Richard Dombrowski, a self-absorbed jerk who started hitting on her after regionals.

"He has something going for him that you'll never have," she said while lifting Richard's arm off her shoulder like it was a dead rat, "me." She never did like that guy, luckily Bao came looking for her.

"Grandma Tri is on the phone for you," called Bao from the kitchen door. Lanh dashed into the kitchen and took the wall phone receiver from her brother.

Grandma Tri congratulated Lanh and promised her that she would be in town for the wedding, and she told Lanh that she wanted to talk to Don. "Bao! Get Don! Grandma Tri wants to talk to him!"

Bao turned and shrugged, "She doesn't speak very good English."

"Neither do you! I'll translate, go get him!"

Soon Don and Lanh were cheek to cheek, holding the phone between them so they both could speak. Don finally said "Xin chào bà ngoại Tri," which Lanh taught him before Christmas, it means Hello grandmother Tri.

Grandma Tri started chattering away happily, either she forgot that Lanh had to translate, or she just didn't care. "Grandma says hi... she's happy to hear from you..." Lanh had to ask Grandma to repeat something a few times, then said "Grandma says she's happy you were a good student for me so I could learn and become Valedictorian," then Lanh shrugged.

Don just smiled. "My dad says that the best way to learn something is to teach it."

Lanh translated for Grandma Tri who laughed, then Lanh smiled at Don. "She says he's right."

They kissed gently and quietly, but apparently Grandma heard them because Don could hear her say "No kissy-kissy!"

"Yes grandma, we will be good, we will wait," said Lanh in English and Vietnamese.

"Tạm biệt bà ngoại Tri," said Don.

"Bye, bye Donovan!" grandma called out.

Lanh hung up the phone and led Don out to the dining area where guests were starting to thin out and it was time for him to start finishing up his shift. Seeing Richard Dombrowski was looking at her, Lanh turned and gave Don a kiss that seemed to have gone on for ages. "Mmmmm, what was that for?" said Don, not seeing Dombrowski glaring at him behind his back.

"I now know what the theme of my address will be," grinned Lanh, then she ran off to pack her overnight bag. If she takes either Bao or Kim-ly with her, she gets to stay at the farm on Friday and Saturday nights. It's probably more sexually frustrating than spending the night at home where she could masturbate and ease her sexual tension, but if she stays at the farm, they don't have to say good-bye at the end of the evening, they can say good night. Besides, Tam is staying at má and ba's house while she's looking for a place to live in town, she got a position at Bemidji state and is moving up here. There would be no advantage to staying at home, she shares her room with Tam, so satisfying her urges by herself would be either impossible or embarrassing.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

The weeks and days leading up to mid-June were dizzying. The farmyard was given a makeover the likes of which it has never seen before, including at Lanh's request, a tire swing was put on the big old maple tree on the front lawn. "I want this to be fun for the kids too," she insisted, so two years after she envisioned a tire swing in the front yard, it became a reality, and she was the first one to try it. Even the old John Deere tractor, which was Ralph and Don's hobby project, was cleaned up and moved into a place of honor next to the old Ford tractor which was washed to a gleaming shine.

Huy's wedding gift to his little sister was a wedding photographer whose work was well known for his beautiful, joyful, images. The photographer saw the farm and ancient barn as a delightful challenge, and when he walked around the north side of the barn which faces old highway 32 with the faded remnants of the Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco sign painted on the side, he was ecstatic. He worked with Don and Ralph to set up rustic backdrops made from hay bales and cedar fence sections, but when he saw the tire swing in front of the beautiful old farmhouse, he began to beg Ralph to be allowed to use this farm as a location for future photo shoots.

Lanh and Tam actually moved into the farmhouse, much to Lanh's delight. She was now able to care for her cows twenty-four hours a day if needed, and when the stress of getting ready for the wedding or writing her valedictory address got to be too much, she could always be found in the barnyard with the newborn calves and Marissa who loved the calves as much as Lanh did. "They're not pets, you know," said Tam as she watched Lanh from behind the safety of the barbed wire fence.

"Of course not," replied Lanh, "you can't make soup out of a pet."

Tam just rolled her eyes and went back to the project that she, Don, Huy, Bao, Trung and Ralph were working on in the bunkhouse portion of the farmhouse. Every evening Tam would spend an hour or two on the phone, the long-coiled cord removed from the kitchen phone receiver so someone couldn't overhear her and she spoke on the cordless phone in bunkhouse room for privacy.

"I think she has a boyfriend," Lanh whispered to Don as she tried to listen to Tam through the door between the bunkhouse and the dining room. She was taking a break from writing her valedictory speech.

"Then let her be," said Don, "she will tell us when she's ready."

"I don't think he's Vietnamese either," whispered Lanh as Don pulled her away from the door.

Lanh was about to whisper to Don that if he were Vietnamese, Tam would be speaking to her mystery man in their language, but before she could say anything Tam answered the question. "He's not!" and Tam went back to her hushed conversation.

"She heard me!" gasped Lanh as she raced back to the dining room where she was working on her speech. "I forgot how good her ears are."

"I suppose raising you, they came in handy," grinned Don as he sat next to her. Lanh frowned, crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it at him. "By the way," continued Don as he bent to pick up the wad of paper, "his name is Jake. Jake Johnson."

"How did you find out?" Lanh was aghast.

"I asked her." He ducked out of the room chased by a volley of wadded paper.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

The spring was a whirlwind of activity, and for Lanh the highlight of which was marriage classes with Father Steinbach and Pastor Loomis. Father Steinbach is a short, round, happy man with an iron grip when he shakes hands, and he has a 233 average at bowling. Pastor Loomis is a tall, slim Lutheran minister who can play almost any stringed instrument and has a full-time job installing kitchens and bathrooms. The two men are great friends and were happy to share the limelight at Don and Lanh's wedding as well as the "Pre-Cana" marriage preparation class. The class was exciting for Lanh because it meant to her that it was really happening, she and Don were really going to get married.

Since Don didn't have a mother, Ralph's friend Sandy volunteered to fill that position, but they decided not to use her services in honor of his departed mother. Lanh's problem was the opposite of that, she had two mothers. Mai and Tam both showed up whenever the mother of the bride was called for, and there was never a disagreement about their arrangement.

Their crowning glory was Lanh's beautiful áo dài. An áo dài is the simple traditional outfit of Vietnam and can be worn by men as well as women, it is made up of breezy loose leg slacks and a blouse that hangs down to mid-calf, a perfect outfit for a hot climate. The wedding áo dài traditionally is red but Lanh's was pure white silk, light and smooth, and as Tam discovered, about as transparent as a screen door. Two layers would be sufficient for modesty, but a single layer alone would not, and Lanh was adamant that she would not risk lines with bra or panties. The blouse which hung to mid-calf would cover the silk slacks even though it was split up the sides to the waist, but Lanh was going to need more up top to prevent the guests from seeing her dark pink nipples. In the end, Grandma Tri hand stitched a white silk vest with flowers and dragons embroidered in gold which did the trick nicely.

Mai brought the vest out to Campbell's farm the afternoon it arrived, she found Tam in the bunkhouse. After a tour of how the project was coming, Mai said she wanted to see Lanh try on the vest, but they couldn't find Lanh. "Those kids have been going non-stop since four o'clock in the morning," said Tam. "I swear the only time they get any sleep is at school."

"The last time I saw them, they were cleaning out the hayloft getting it ready for the wedding dance" said Ralph, then he, Tam, and Mai went looking for Lanh and Don. The hayloft was immaculate, they could see several new boards on the floor where Don had replaced old and broken boards. The hay, which took up a lot of room, had been stacked neatly on one end of the hayloft into a haybale mountain easily three stories tall. But that was only part of the hay, a good portion of hay had been moved out of the barn and stacked neatly then covered with tarps on the north end of the pasture.

Mai noticed that a staircase was built out of hay bales on the mountain of hay, so she climbed up the steps and found that on top of that mountain of hay, Don and Lanh had made themselves a nest and were fast asleep in each other's arms.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Graduation day started for Lanh with a trip to her gynecologist, she wanted a checkup to make sure that she was healthy and ready for her wedding night. "I can help you if you're afraid of the pain," he said and indicated he could "snip" her hymen.

"I just want to know if I'm ready to have babies," replied Lanh. She hated being in his office, but it was something that had to be done.

"You're as ready as you'll ever be," said the Doctor, "you're young and healthy, and my physical exam tells me there's no reason not to... other than being a virgin."

Lanh grinned as she hopped off the exam table, "I intend to take care of that issue in three days."

"Good luck Mrs. Campbell," said the doctor as he left to give her privacy.

Still glowing from being called Mrs. Campbell, Lanh met up with Tam in the waiting room and they headed straight for the door. "Good to go?" asked Tam.

"Yeah," said Lanh without looking back over her shoulder. "He said that those frat parties that Bao and Kim-ly introduced me to didn't cause any permanent damage," as they got in Tam's beat up Toyota. She gave Tam an innocent wide-eyed look.

"You are such a brat!" fumed Tam and gave her baby sister a hug in the car. Lanh never would have said anything like that before she fell in love. "What did that boy do you?"

"Nothing... yet" sighed Lanh.

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

"Hello, my name is Lanh Nguyen. It wasn't a shock to me to be selected valedictorian, after all, I worked harder and longer than any of you, and earned higher grades than all of you. Most of you don't know me, but the ones that do know me, know me because you spent my high school years trying to crush my spirit, rape my body, and destroy my relationship with the one man in this school who loves me. You hate me for my size, you hate me for my race, you hate me for my sex. But I earned two letters, I have a perfect GPA, a man who loves me, and scholarship offers from four ivy league universities, so FUCK YOU, I'm leaving you behind me in the dust. Choke on it."

Lanh looked up at her audience who stared at her for a moment, then started applauding. Kim-ly actually rose from her seat and hugged Lanh, "It was perfect baby girl, I DARE you to give that one at the ceremony tonight."

Her audience, composed solely of her brothers, sisters, and Don, surrounded her and congratulated her one last time before they left the hayloft where Lanh held her last practice speech, but she didn't look happy or even slightly amused from her satirical speech. Huy gave Don a crushing one arm side hug and said "I don't know what you did to my baby sister, but I like it. Keep up the good work."

Trung gave him a shot in the arm and added "Two years ago she wouldn't say shit if she had a mouthful, and now, she'd shame a hockey team. It's amazing."

"I've got a gift," said Don without humor. When he got to Lanh, she threw her arms around him and began crying. Huge, uncontrollable spasms of sorrow shook her tiny frame, and Don was crying too, holding her tight, and whispering softly, "It's over em yêu, we beat those bastards, we're safe now..."

"What the hell?" asked Bao, as he and his brothers watched their baby sister and her fiancé cry. Don slowly led her out into the night where they could be alone.

"That wasn't a joke," said Kim-ly looking like she was getting ready to cry.

Tam stood in front of the three brothers with a stern scowl. "Everything she said was true, it was from the heart, those assholes dragged her and Don through hell, this was her way of purging the pain."

"Remember those bruises and black eye Don had when you first met him ice skating?" asked Kim-ly. Her brothers nodded. "That wasn't from a hockey game, they beat him up for dancing with Lanh, after they first conned him into doing it."

"They beat him a couple of times," muttered Tam as Don and Lanh came back in, gathered up their caps, gowns, and honor society ribbons and headed down the earthen ramp outside. "Remember the wired jaw, the arm in a sling, the knee brace, the broken ribs when you had to help Don pull the dock and the boat out of the water?"

"Don said it was a diving accident," said Bao.

"Some assholes decided to gangbang your baby sister," growled Kim-ly. "Don stopped them, and they beat the living fuck out of him."

"Who was it? I'll fucking kill the little shit," roared Trung.

"It was several little shits," said Kim-ly. "And they stalked him for two years."

Tam, just a few inches taller than Lanh, planted herself in front of her brothers with an angry glare that held them in check. "Lanh asked him to tell you that it was a diving accident because she knows what you would do. You would go to prison for beating up a teenager."

"Killing a teenager," corrected Trung.

"Does má and ba know?" asked Huy.

"Yes, they had to go get Lanh from the hospital after they ran a rape kit on her," continued Tam. "They can never know it was just a part of the harassment. If they found out that moving to a small town caused Lanh so much pain, it would kill them."

"She fell in love with a guy that both má and ba approve, even if he isn't Asian," said Kim-ly who was still impressed that her father accepted Don.

"The truth they need to know is that the harassment ended," said Tam. "I don't know what you guys really think about Don, and honestly, I don't care what you think. All you need to know is that your baby sister's Prince Charming just showed up at the door with her lost glass slipper. Got it?"

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

The valedictory address Lanh gave the school was quite different than the satire she used to purge her demons in the hayloft. She never sank to reminiscing on their time in high school, as far as she was concerned, that was over. She started by thanking her teachers and the staff of the school, and whoever was nice enough to place a milk crate behind the lectern for her to stand on so she could be seen. She spoke on teaching and learning outside of the classroom, of absorbing and sharing the knowledge gained at work and life in general and how it applies at work and at home.

"...and as you are mentoring your new co-workers, and as you teach your children, most importantly, observe them as you teach them, because quite often the lessons they teach you will be more important than the lessons they learned from you.

"In my sophomore year I was given the opportunity to tutor a fellow Woodcutter, and the rewards were incredible. He paid attention to me and went from a D student to an A plus student. At the same time, I paid attention to him and a whole new world opened up to me. I have been involved in the restaurant business my entire life and never thought once about where the food comes from. Now, thanks to my student, and thanks to what he taught me as I was teaching him, I am raising the vegetables, milk, and beef served at my family's restaurant. At the same time, I found my knowledge of the subjects I tutored to be exponentially greater than ever before. When I told my Grandma Tri that I was going to be your valedictorian she said that she was happy that the student I tutored was a good student so that I could learn my subject matter and become valedictorian."

"What Grandma Tri said to me, was what other people said to me; she just said it in Vietnamese. She said that the best way to learn something is to teach it..." At this point, Lanh's eyes began to mist up, she fought the urge to run into the audience and throw herself at Don. Instead, she went off script. She tore up her three by five cards that contained her talking points and said, "My parents, and teachers, and brothers and sisters all taught me so much, and I can never repay them properly, but my student, the one that taught me so much... he asked me for my hand... and I said yes," she said holding up her left hand, displaying her ring. "We still have so much to teach each other, and we have a lifetime together to do it." As she stepped back from the lectern she waved to her graduating class.

Never in the history of that high school had a valedictory address been ended in such a fashion, a mousy little Asian girl, the only Asian student in the school, announced her nuptials to conclude her valedictory address, an amused sense of mild shock run through the audience before a rousing standing ovation. During the ovation, Lanh shook hands with the standing and applauding members of the School Board who were seated on stage, all wearing cap and gown, several of them were wearing the octagonal tam to show they were PhD's.

Paul Mach took the podium. "Miss Nguyen, I need you back here." Lanh looked shocked, this clearly wasn't scripted, she doesn't do good with anything impromptu. She walked back to the lectern where Mr. Mach moved the milk crate to the side of the lectern. Automatically Lanh stepped up on the milk crate and forced a smile on to her lips, the audience chuckled. Mr. Mach continued. "Miss Nguyen, isn't it true that the debate team took State Class A championships for the past four years?"

He held the microphone to her, and she meekly said "Yes."

After applause he then asked, "For each of those four years, who was the captain of the debate team?"

Again, he held the microphone to her until she meekly said, "I was."

After more enthusiastic applause he asked, "Lanh what does your team call themselves?"

She blushed and giggled then said, "Lanh Sharks." Now there was laughter, applause, and a chant of "Sharks! Sharks! Sharks!" from her team members.

Mr. Mach continued. "This year our swim team had their best year in two decades. We had a boy and girl swimmer both medal in the regional championship in Eden Prairie, and both took gold at the state class A championship at Brooklyn Park, a first for the Grant Valley Woodcutters! And both of those swimmers were personally coached by who, Lanh?"

"Me," she said in a tiny voice.

When the wild applause died down, Mr. Mach turned to talk directly to Lanh. "You've had quite a year, captain of the championship debate team, timekeeper for the boys and girls swim teams, you coached two swimmers to gold medals at state... hmm?" Lanh had muttered something that the audience couldn't hear "Oh yes, excuse me, and at regionals," said Mr. Mach rolling his eyes causing more laughter. "Two letters, you've been tutoring students bringing them up to A plus, working at your families' restaurant, working at a dairy farm and raising the vegetables served at your restaurant, you received scholarship offers from Brown, Cornell, Princeton, and Columbia, all this and maintaining a four point oh GPA, and became class Valedictorian." It was apparent that abundant applause was being ignored by Lanh who finally found Don in the audience and was looking to her left and smiling at Don. She was facing away from the lectern, so she didn't notice that the speaker had changed.

"Miss Nguyen," said Mrs. Gunderson, the principal, "For the reasons listed by Mr. Mach, and many more, we at Grant Valley High School are honored to award you Student of the Year." Now another rousing standing ovation drown out Lanh's squeak of surprise as Mr. Landry brought out the trophy. The trophy was huge, almost as big as Lanh, and she wouldn't let them hold it for her, she wanted to personally hand it to her parents.

Now it was time for the diplomas to be handed out. Mrs. Gunderson whispered to Lanh to remain on stage as she handed out the diplomas, and the school secretary had Lanh step back from the lectern and stand by the school board. Luckily, the class is under 100 students, so Lanh won't have to stand on stage awfully long with the "whole world" staring at her until the N's are called and she could get her diploma.

Thinking about how much she hates to stand on stage Lanh almost lost track of the names being called by Mr. Landry, the assistant principal. He called out Angela Byers by the time she realized that she was zoning out. Angela is the last of the B's and Don is the first of the C's. She moved forward, maybe she could brush against him as he walked by to get the diploma that he worked so hard to receive.

There he is, right on the edge of the stage waiting for his name to be called, his two gold medals hanging from his neck, his honor society regalia, her man! The whole school saw her pretty face light up with an excited smile when she saw him standing there, and his return smile was just as luminous. But when Mr. Landry called out "Donovan Campbell and Lanh Nguyen" their smiles turned to shock and surprise. Wait, what? She was stunned but the secretary urged her forward and she shyly fell in step with Don as he came across the stage, he grinned, and they walked hand in hand up to Mrs. Gunderson. Lanh stood next to Don, and they received their leather-bound diplomas from the principal with barely disguised joy. Don had to carry Lanh's diploma for her as she refused to let go of her trophy. Far back in line, in the M's, Rosa and Sydney were whooping and clapping and generally embarrassing Lanh and Don to death.

"I'll see you two Saturday," smiled Mrs. Gunderson as Jennifer Carter's name was called. Hands full, they walked back to their seats, their hearts beating as one, their minds focusing on their next hand-in-hand walk planned for Saturday. Sitting in the ancient auditorium chairs, they snuggled in the dark as their classmates received their diplomas.

Afterwards Lanh and Don were beset by parents, relatives, friends of parents, it was like a preview of their wedding. Even two of Sandy's daughters showed up, Stephanie and Doris. Don and Lanh were both expecting ugly spinsters, but they were both beautiful Scottish/Norwegian beauties in their twenties, and Doris was eight months pregnant, so much for the spinster title.

It was the typical post-graduation gathering outside of the school, numerous photographs were taken by family and friends. The couple insisted that all their photos be taken together, but Ralph, Sandy, Duong, and Mai insisted that individual photos be taken also. In the end, their parents' joy was overshadowed by their own love. When they HAD to take separate pictures, it was always within eyesight of each other.

Don and Lanh had agreed with their parents, no graduation parties. There's too much going on, tomorrow is Thursday, wedding set-up and bachelor/bachelorette cookout at the pond, so that can be a graduation party too. Friday is the final setup, rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner, then Saturday is the Big Event, the biggest party of them all.

They weren't looking forward to Friday, they had agreed (with their parent's "urging") that Lanh would spend her last night as a Nguyen under the Nguyen roof. They had gotten used to being able to kiss goodnight, and even though they were sleeping in separate rooms down the hall from each other with chaperons to prevent "midnight commuting" they were under the same roof. That also means that Lanh would miss the Saturday morning milking, it would be the first time in two weeks that she missed a milking, her girls were going to miss her!

Still, tonight was their night, they had a graduation dinner at the Restaurant and early to bed, this is just halfway through an exceedingly long week, they have to set up table and chairs for the wedding tomorrow! But for right now, pictures, pictures, pictures. Lanh demanded that Don be in the pictures of her with her trophy, because in her mind it was his trophy too. Except for the Debate team, all of her triumphs were due to him. "I learned from you! Didn't you listen to my speech?"

"To be honest," Don whispered in her ear, "I was picturing you naked under those robes and thinking of how much I wanted to carry you off." Mai wondered what Don said to get her daughter's eyes to roll and sparkle, and her face to light up so brightly, but Tam's unspoken guess was pretty darn close.

Duong and Ralph stood off to the side while Mai, Tam, and Sandy arranged Don and Lanh, and occasionally Rosa and Sydney into various poses. Then the shots with all of Lanh's brothers and sisters, plus parents... should Sandy stand in as mom for Don? Maybe Mai? Duong and Ralph decided it was safer just to stand to the side and watch.

"How are they ever going to survive eight weeks of separation while he is in Basic Training?" asked Duong.

Ralph just shrugged as the soon-to-be in-laws watched Mai try to arrange Lanh and Don into the perfect pose. "I don't know... how did you do it?"

"I was in the Army; we didn't worry about things like lovers and family. We were tough," said Duong puffing up his chest.

Ralph just rolled his eyes. "Yeah right." He sighed. "I didn't marry Emily until after boot..." his voice trailed off, the pain of her passing still resounds in his soul, even with Sandy at his side. Ralph rarely talked about his service, something happened and either he can't, or he won't talk about it.

"You marines are tough, it was tough on all of us, but that's part of the process," said Duong.

"Roger dat," said Ralph sadly.