(WMD = Winter Men's Dilemma; My own irreverent spin on the BBC mythology)

*Editing magic performed by KJ24 and Shyqash, plus contributions by the regular gang of brigands and neer-do-wells*

*This story is NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!*

* Vlad ~ "You actually expect me to believe my father, brothers and I have the genetic capability to addict every woman we have sex with to our schlongs? That's nuts!"

Mom ~ "As opposed to thinking the color, length and girth of a phallus makes any woman lose all sense of loyalty, morality and decorum so she can become a man's sex sleeve -- whore -- bitch -- property? Yes, I do." *

*Lastly, this story is rather flippant with the entire concept of sexual assault. Those who have read my previous tales know this is not my attitude at all. For the sake of this genre, I had to grapple with the concept of forcing a woman and 'making them love that dick'*

(THE FAMILY: Father -- Nikolay 'Nik' Samsonov; Mother -- Gayle Fonteneau Samsonov; the Triplets -- Alexander 'Alex', Mikhail and Vladimir 'Vlad' [the POV character])

{ALMOST RIGHT WHERE WE LEFT OFF}

Kaelyne was curled up on the sofa of the living room being comforted by Vicky when Mikhail and I came bounding down the stairs.

"Oh fuck," I muttered. I started heading their way. Mikhail looked from me to the passageway which led out back to where we had left 'our' girls, Mom an Alexander.

"Mikhail and Vlad, your Mother wants to talk to you both," Vicky frowned. Her best friend's pain was a spiritual stab to her heart as well.

Mikhail followed orders. I deviated long enough to slip over to Kaelyne and kiss the top of her head. When I arrived, the first round of the confrontation was already going on.

"Mikhail, I want you to take Kaelyne and Vicky home," Mom declared.

"They are Vlad's friends, not mine," he gallantly protested.

"Mikhail, your courage is worthy of your Father. If you want to wake up tomorrow morning with a lick of hair on your body, you will do as I say," Mom stared him down. Taliyah snickered. The rest of us knew Mom was dead serious.

"Fuck you! he snarled before storming into the house.

"I'll go with him," Taliyah tried to follow.

"You -- stay," Mom snarled. I had visions of me digging a Taliyah-sized hole somewhere deep inside our back-property.

Thank God Taliyah felt the same way. She sullenly retreated to her spot beside Brandy. Brandy looked suitably terrified ~ having experience the tip of Mom's evil iceberg. I decided Brandy needed me more than I needed to placate Mom. I settled in at Brandy's side and hugged her to me. She wrapped her arms around my waist.

"Let me make something crystal clear. If Kaelyne sheds one more tear, I will take it out on both your asses," Mom glared at the two girls. "Telling her you weren't interested would have done it. You didn't need to mock her, Taliyah. Kaelyne's pain isn't what is at issue here -- me loving Kaelyne as if she was my own daughter is. You've crossed me. A rare few do it twice. No one alive has tried to do it three times."

"Are you telling me you expect me to sleep with that little faggot?" Taliyah snapped. That was moronic. Before I could warn Taliyah how foolish it was, Mom was on her. There are a multitude of spots on the body which can cause you intense pain if someone hits them correctly. Mom knew them all. Taliyah fell down to the ground, screaming in pain.

I added to the idiocy by trying to get between Taliyah and Mom. I went airborne, took most of the fall's momentum and turned it into a roll and came up in a fighting stance. Mom wasn't even looking my way.

"Are you going to do something equally stupid?" she glared at Brandy. Brandy wilted. Mom bent down and returned Taliyah to a 'pain-free' status.

"Mother-fucker," Taliyah whimpered. My parental unit stood up and back off by two steps.

"Brandy, I am proud of you," she told my girlfriend. Huh?

"Oh?" Brandy pursed her lips.

"You've made Vlad do something incredibly stupid," she explained to the quivering blonde. "His actions went way beyond hormones. He likes you enough to defy me. You do see how that turned out though. Right?"

Brandy nodded vigorously. Taliyah struggled to her feet.

"Now that we have that out of the way, here is the new game plan," Mom put her hands on her hips imperiously.

"Bitch," Taliyah ground out -- then stumbled away to escape the expected attack.

"Taliyah, do you understand why I sent Mikhail away?" Mom pierced the girl with her eyes.

"Cause he would have kicked your crazy ass?" Taliyah replied.

"No. He would have tried to kick my crazy ass and failed -- just like Vladimir did. My boys are unerringly loyal and courageous. Unlike my kind-hearted and thoughtful Vlad, Mikhail is utterly fearless, vicious and pig-headed. I would have had to really hurt him to stop him from stopping me from hurting you. Think about that before you utter one more imbecilic word."

"He really likes me?" Taliyah murmured.

"Good girl. Now before we all have to suffer through your next bout of stupidity, remember Mikhail is not here. Vlad will try because he's a decent sort and you are Brandy's BFF. I'll still crush him to get at you. Do we understand one another?"

"You are still crazy," Taliyah muttered.

"I think that is the group consensus. Alexander and Vladimir, go sit on the front porch a bit," Mom stated her demand in a courteous tone. I screwed up my resolve. Brandy body language was pleading with me to stay.

"Prince?" she whispered.

"Don't sweat it, ladies," Alexander took me by the elbow. "Mom has no compunction about hurting you with me and Vlad around, so her sending us away has to do with the twisted way her mind works, not pain. Besides Brandy, what do you think my idiot middle brother would do if you cried out?"

"Um ... help?"

"Not right off the bat," Alexander gave her a half-smile. "First he'd run to the armory and get a stave. He's smarter than Mikhail that way. Come on, Bro." I let him drag me away. Once inside ...

"You do realize we are all eighteen now, Alex. We can do what we want. Dad isn't going to let her throw us out," I reminded my oldest brother (by less than a minute).

"Wrong head, Brother," Alex chortled. "Which one of you has the best chance of helping Kaelyne and Taliyah get along ~ you, or Mom?"

We walked in silence to the front porch.

"Duh ... Thanks Alexander. I totally zoned on that."

"So what's with the 'Prince'?"

"Ah, it turns out Brandy can be rather clever when her tonsils aren't floating in semen," I explained. We sat down on a swing and chatted.

[MEANWHILE, ON THE BACK PORCH]

"Rationalizing is Vlad's thing, not Mikhail's, Taliyah. Mikhail likes things simple. Do you really think Mikhail is going to 'get over that'? Answer me, damn you!"

"Can you imagine the discussion between my youngest concerning you and your sexual experiences? Let's just say whatever I asked would get the same answer ~ none of your damn business, Mom."

It dawned on both girls, like a flash of lightning across a clear night sky, they had been suborned to Gayle Fonteneau Samsonov's agenda ... to the point where they were asking the older woman -- the hated, feared enemy-bitch -- for practical advice. The World had turned upside down.

[...]

For me and Mikhail it meant no sex without being privileged to know why we were being punished. Dad came home with our young English teacher, Ms. Blanchard, only to have to drive Brandy and Taliyah back to school to pick up Taliyah's car ... so she could drive Brandy home, not me.

Alexander didn't have sex either (as far as I could tell), yet was gifted with an attentive Ms. Andrea Blanchard who 'appreciated' his gallant nature. Stunningly, Alexander's infirmity reappeared and Ms. Blanchard felt obliged to dote on him in a confusing flirtatious-mothering style. It took me a bit to figure out there was a fearful nervousness behind her actions as well.

The situation was exacerbated by Mom deciding to get naked ... ugh ... just as everyone else was clearing the table.

"Nik," Mom purred.

"Huh?" from Dad.

"Here -- now!"

"Huh?"

"Sex."

"We have company, Gayle."

"And?"

"Quick!" I jumped up. "Everyone grab a plate and run for it."

Isabo hurried the children from the room while the rest of us stacked up the plates and serving trays as rapidly as possible before making our own exits. Andrea was flabbergasted. To add to her surreal feelings, as soon as we made our escape, the rest of the house life returned to normalcy. Even Bebe, who had been initially (in her case -- weeks ago) freaked out by Mom's eccentric sexual behavior, appeared amused. I left it to Alexander to help Andrea adjust.

"Mom's ... eccentric ... erratic ... and free spirited," he shrugged.

"So, this happens -- ah -- often?" she whispered. No one else was whispering, but we understood the impulse.

"Two, or three, times a week," Alexander admitted.

"... a week?" Andrea gulped.

"Oh yeah," smirked Mikhail. "Don't worry. We understand Mom is beyond unusual. You won't see anyone else doing that ... around here."

"Okay ..." she hesitated. Ms. Blanchard caught his pause.

"What my brother is referring to is an earlier, unfortunate episode up at the hunting lodge," I punched Mikhail as I explained. He chuckled.

By the look on Ms. Blanchard's face, she was unsure if she wanted further clarification. Alexander took a slightly defensive posture hovering close by. Bebe, normally so silent around us boys, miraculously came to her rescue.

"Andrea -- Mrs. Samsonov is a wonderful woman. She's also off her rocker and everyone in the house knows it. What is important is her true affection for those she holds close is genuine, her dedication is fierce in all she does and her husband and sons carry that intense devotion into their own friendships."

"Thank you, Bebe," I nodded. "As an outsider looking in ... well, I couldn't have possibly said it better myself ... being on the inside."

Andrea nodded as well. After all, Mom's insanity translated over to a bloodily beaten, abusive former Principle, five plus beaten students who had harassed her, a school escort, new locks on all her windows and doors, and a completely unsolicited whole house-cleaning.

A feminine feline purr rumbled from the dining room. The five of us exchanged awkward looks.

"Ms. Blanchard, have you seen the stables?" I intervened. Her eyes flickered to me.

"No."

"Great."

Mom's moan faded into Dad's growl. While my Pa was generally oblivious on the uptake and slow out of the starting gate, he was the Hammer of the Gods once he got going ~ 1 hour minimum. Considering we three were most likely going to grow up to be similar in stamina to him ... we had high hopes for our long term sexual futures.

"Alexander, why don't you show Ms. Blanchard the stables. Bebe, why don't you make yourself and Ms. Blanchard something to drink with a kick to it while Mikhail gets himself and Alexander something legit to drink," I took command.

"Why am I involved in any of this?" Mikhail scoffed.

"I have to do the dishes because I was elsewhere ..." I reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Mikhail snorted. Off he went. Bebe gave me a tiny smile before turning and heading for the library and its bar.

"Ms. Blanchard?" Alexander offered to direct the educator outside via another, 'safer' route.

"Oh ... maybe I should go?" she hedged.

"Aaaaahhhh ..." Mom.

"Your purse is ...?" Alexander asked. We knew the answer. It was in the hallway ... right outside the entrance to the dining room. It would be offsetting, or so it might appear. In actuality, my brothers and I had snuck thru the 'danger zone' many times before.

"Let's go see the stables," Andrea redirected Alexander. I had a kitchen to clean up, so I missed the detailed tour of the stables as well as Ms. Blanchard's decision to spend the night -- again.

{TUESDAY}

To maintain the illusion of Ms. Blanchard not spending time with Alexander (even though there was nothing sexual going on), we triplets were sitting in her gravel driveway while she ran inside to change and got a few things. 'A few things' meant a shot of vodka. She'd take a breath mint afterwards, but come on now; we were from Russian stock and vodka was our national beverage. It still made Alexander nervous.

Mom had taken a different tactic in dealing with Ms. Blanchard's alcoholism. After she and Consuela cleaned up the place, Mom had come back with vodka bottles big and small and hidden them all over her small home -- a shot glass with each big bottle. She'd left sticky notes to let her know where each bottle was hidden. I imagined the sticky notes were gone now, yet ...

The psychology was a shot glass would mean less alcohol per desperate desire to bury her pain and misery. The 'game' would allow Andrea to indulge while not turning her domicile into a drunkard's den. In theory, she could safely have company over now. Lastly, if Ms. Blanchard got too drunk, she couldn't remember where the bottles were hidden, or so the reasoning went.

At school, Alexander (with our help) would diminish the root cause of her anguish -- the sexual blackmail her students inflicted on her. At 'home', Mom and Bebe were befriending Andrea Blanchard -- giving her female friends to connect with outside of the school's still poisonous BBC atmosphere.

I was ruminating over that when ...

"Do you really believe Mom's bullshit about 'magic dicks'?" Mikhail asked me out of the blue. Alexander was out of the Mustang, sitting on Ms. Blanchard's stoop. Today, Mikhail had ridden his motorcycle over, so I had the car momentarily to myself. I hesitated.

"Fuck," he groaned. In our triplet group, I was the 'clever' one. We didn't resent our designations ~ Alexander -- kind, Vlad -- clever, and Mikhail -- violent ~ because it allowed us leeway in our actions. See, Mikhail could react physically to problems because he knew if he was doing something exceedingly stupid, I'd stop him.

If he was being 'too' brutal, Alexander would reign him in. Likewise, if Mikhail's gut instinct was to lash out, we respected it. Sometimes instinct trumped reason. If Alexander was being too sappy, we'd let him know. If I was over-thinking something, either brother could step in. By the time we hit our mid-teens, we couldn't imagine any other way of living.

By our 18th birthdays we figured we'd spend the rest of our live together -- we were an awesome trio and rightly proud of our co-dependence. Even if we ended up on the run with Uncle Theo, we'd all go down together. It was how we faced the family and our world. The blood-kin Samsonov's weren't the easiest people to deal with. We had Mom to thank for us not quite fitting in.

We loved and admired Dad and his family. Mom's upbringing had tainted our way of thinking though. Time and again, Mom skirted, bent, or bastardized the 'ordinary' way of approaching life's pitfalls and pleasures. We three would never truly be 'Samsonovs'. I think Dad knew that as well. The one time an older cousin slipped us a catalog on the best Criminal Justice College programs in Alaska ... Dad frowned. The man quietly withdrew his 'suggestion'.

In a way, it was a blessing to the clan. Thanks to Mom, we were also gifted with the ability to navigate the machinations of the Samsonov brides and grooms -- those folks who married into our lineage. Since they were all somewhat nutty, our ability to separate them when the lunacy set in was appreciated. That way, the rest of them didn't have to become overly confrontational ... which was the way the blood-Samsonovs liked it.

Being the clever one, I also clued into Mikhail's subliminal anger. He didn't want to cheat to get Taliyah's affections. He might even start trying not to be a jackass around her because of it -- making them both miserable.

"Mikhail, you had her on the kitchen counter and backing that ass up against you in the recliner before any 'magic' kicked in. She likes you for reasons which defy even 'magic dicks'," I punched him in the arm.

"Thanks," he nodded then hit me back. "So, what's next?"

"Gang-bang."

"You really think we are going to pull it off?"

"Yeah. Mom sketched out the general plan to me a while ago," I nodded.

"Cool. I've wanted to stick my cock down Alondra Lamb's throat ever since the first time I saw her lips part," Mikhail rubbed his hands together.

"Taliyah is going to whoop up on you if she hears you talk like that," I cautioned him.

"Yeah," he grinned like the Heath Leger's Joker. "Cool, ain't it?"

"Being slapped by a girl?"

"Nah," he cavalierly dismissed any misconceptions. "Making her angry with me. Then she gets this look in her eyes like she's going to own me ... it is a huge fucking turn on."

"Mom would be so proud," I muttered.

"Then I'm going to nail Jewel Lafontanté," Mikhail's eyes shown with relish.

"She's not on the Cheer Squad," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but she's sexy, smart and thinks she a 'top' bitch," he chuckled.

"Isn't she dating somebody?"

"So? I only want to borrow her -- take her out for a spin," he laughed. He was a jackass and ambitious and ...

"Mikhail, both those girls are Black. Do you have a thing for Black chicks?"

"I like 'em dark," he mused. "Hadn't really thought about it as a preference, but you're right. My Top Ten 'Most Fuckable List is filled with Ladies of Color. I guess that means you get the blondes and Alexander gets the red-heads and brunettes."

"Top Ten List? You're a pig," I chided him.

"Grunt, grunt, oink."

To put things in perspective, Alondra Lamb was a medium height, tawny skin Black lass with straight, black hair past her shoulders and a killer body with decent tits, perfect for her athletic body type, and a divine ass.

She was also ... to put it politely -- mentally-underwhelming. Beyond her exemplary looks, she was an above-average gymnast and on most days capable of tying her own shoes -- the ones with the Velcro straps. Her hazel eyes were always wide open and her lips pursed in an 'o' unless she was blathering on about something inane and off-topic, or just giggling for no understandable reason.

She found simple things amusing (kind of adorable) and didn't 'date' a member of the football team ... she barely could remember their names and normally got passed around like a living onahole. I felt sorry for her. Usually, she hung out with Betty Jo Starling (one of the team's other two Blondes) who shared her mentally-endearing qualities. The rest of the squad treated those two rather poorly.

In contrast, Jewel Lafontanté was from a new (to Kingston) nouveau riche Black Family. Her Dad worked for the Government [rumors abounded] years ago before setting out and founding his own IT company here in Arkansas. He and his Choctaw wife had retired here in Kingston a few years back. They bought a nice spread and became pillars of the community. Jewel was a late child. The rest of her brothers and sisters were grown, with families of their own. So she was effectively an Only Child, doted on by her aged parents.

Jewel was also one of the smartest kids in school, one of the best members of the local studio's Dance troupe and possessed a crippling wit. At 5' 11", she was noticed and her curvaceous and sporty build was widely admired, although when her dark eyes danced with amusement at the suffering her 'diversions' caused, the timid backed away. Her preference for a different hairstyle, or two, every week kept the local hair stylists in business.

She was bright, sassy and vicious with her own little group of Black women called the ZPP (Zulu Princess Posse, i.e. ~ 6 rich Black girls and their one token rich White girl). They only dated 'rich' Black guys, yet consistently cheated with impoverished, or medium-income, White underclassmen. They toyed with the boys and finally let their official 'boyfriends' know of the White boy's indiscretions. If you somehow resisted their advances, they lied about what happened instead. Either way, beatings always followed.

During Darius' reign, Jewel had kept a low profile from 7:15 to 2:15 pm and hadn't participated in the school's sports religion. No; she'd stayed safely away doing stuff with the other rich kids on the evenings and weekends. Darius must have decided her dad, while old, was an uncertain enough quantity to not screw around with his youngest child.

[BRIEF SEGWAY]

Beyond my understanding at the time, Jewel also represented another fabric of Kingston/Davis society -- those from the post-divide i.e. higher-income families from out-of-State who moved in after 2000 CE [Common Era], both Black and White, who weren't invested in the bitter interracial struggle of the 1970's and took the status quo at face value.

They'd moved here when Arkansas State put a satellite campus in down the road and the natural recreation industry gained a regional recognition -- sports-fishing, hunting and hiking. ASU-Kingston was a Medical Technical School which taught, as you might guess, various programs for technicians in the medical field as well as nursing. Not only did the graduates not normally go on to top tier careers, ASU-K wasn't a research university, so the teaching staff, while well-to-do in this rural dystopia, weren't filthy rich either.

ASU-K had a small campus with a faculty and student population under 2,000 and was, like the White Middle-class enclave of Sunshine Terrace, its own little microcosm in Davis County. Yep; ASU-K had its own Campus Police Force while Sunshine Terrace had a contracted private security service.

Anyway, as Kingston prospered and the Middle Class Whites fled to their own segregated hamlet, these new Blacks moved into Kingston. Likewise, more 'country' Blacks moved in from Davis County as well, further segregating the races. Forty years after Taliyah's grandfather was first elected mayor, Kingston had tripled in size (2,100 to 6,400) while Davis County as a whole was roughly 60% larger (13,500 to 21,700), thus the Town being 'Black' while the County was 'White'.

Inside, the town's Black community was another divide and it was best expressed in their 'womenfolk' and what was expected of them. Dominique, for all her power and influence, basically worried about her daughter dating the 'popular' Black guy because this was BBC country and women defined their positions by the masculine auras around them.

In contrast, Jewel's mother didn't worry over-much about who Jewel dated, because Jewel WAS going to college (somewhere else). High school and high school boys were just stepping stones. BBC was still out there, but 'the Modern Black Woman' had developed a host of weaponry of their own. To the outside world, such a distinction made Jewel and her Mamma feminists.

Later on Jewel was to qualify that for us -- she was a Feminist with a capital 'F'. Whereas Taliyah wanted to own Mikhail's body and soul because he challenged and completed her, Jewel wanted to own us -- period -- all three of us Samsonov boys.

Why?

Excuses were for people who needed to explain themselves to their fellow losers. Winners like Jewel 'achieved' and took what rewards they wished.

Apparently seeking Equal Rights was a hallmark of the unambitious, being 'just as a good as a man' was settling for less and Racial Equality implied there might be something a White Person could do that a Woman of Color couldn't do better ... according to her doctrine. Had they (Jewel, her mom and our Mom) not all been Class-A Bitches, they would have gotten along famously.

To be fair, had Mikhail not gone gunning for her, she would have most likely left us alone ... but he did. My youngest brother is an asshole at times, as well as relentless, and after so many years having Mom controlling our social lives, he now was sexually 'off his leash'.

[RESUME]

"How about we just stick with the Cheer Squad for the rest of the week," I tried to divert him. "Perhaps you might find ten other women enough for you."

"Nope," Mikhail shook his head and laughed.

"How about Taliyah's feelings?" I launched as a 'Hail Mary'.

"No," he kept shaking his head. "I'm not boyfriend material, Vlad. Sex is too much fun. I really like Taliyah, but ... no. No promises, no lies and no illusions. There is going to be no ring on my finger, or through my nose. I'll hold her hand, and hold her if she's weeping, but I'm not going to mistake sex for friendship, or vice versa. I'm 18, damn it! I want to roam."

The rest of the conversation was truncated by Ms. Blanchard's appearance. Mikhail returned to his motorcycle, Alexander got into the Mustang and she got into her battered, green 1997 Toyota Camry. Off we went. Close to the main entrance of the main building, most of the Cheer Squad was waiting for us. They were dressed in 'regular' clothes; we knew them by their faces.

As soon as we rolled up, Rashaan Quinterre and a few of the football team members made an appearance. Taliyah frowned. Her frown only deepened when another cheerleader -- this one White, Randi Leigh Upshaw, went into his arms. He did his best to look triumphant. Randi Leigh certainly looked pleased with herself.

"Coach is making Rashaan the new Team Captain," she informed the crowd.

"Ha!" Mikhail laughed at the couple. "Anyone who thinks Rashaan Quinterre is even half the man Darius was, raise your hands." His mockery was eviscerating. Worse, it took several seconds for several of Rashaan's teammates to raise their hands. "You are only Captain because your Daddy is Police Chief, not because anyone thinks you can replace Darius, you loser."

"I'm going to kick your teeth in, Cracker," Rashaan seethed. He had six other footballers versus Mikhail and me. How the Cheer Squad would break down was an unknown. Alexander had already deviated for the Teacher's Parking Lot. There were maybe a periphery of forty other students at that moment plus ...

"Boys," softly drawled a voice of an adult I hadn't seen before. He was a BIG (as in muscular) White guy with a 'five o'clock' shadow at seven in the morning, unkempt, dark-russet hair, darting, soulless brown eyes and a weathered, sun-creased complexion.

Of more critical importance he had my Samsonov Law Dog senses tingling at first sight ~ he was a human predator. His easy-going mannerisms were deceptive and his leadership skills were exhibited by the aura of dominion he seemed to project over the eight rednecks he had accompanying him.

"Buck!" Misty Dawn Sizemore burst forth from the Cheer Squad and ran up to the lead hillbilly. He wrapped her up in a bear hug while keeping his eyes on the rest of us. "I didn't think you were coming back."

"The new nigger Principle made a deal with my wetback Parole Officer. I graduate and they cut the last three and a half years off my parole," he replied nonchalantly.

'Nigger' didn't go over well at all. It was telling to me that it took Rashaan several seconds to step up into his new leadership role. 'Wetback' on the other hand was just ...

"Buck, watch your fucking mouth before you get your teeth kicked in," Rashaan tried to sound brave, but wasn't very convincing. Buck looked him up and down, then chortled.

"Rashaan, ya ain't no Darius, NIGGER," he sneered. "Fuck with me and I'll gut you like the sweaty little piglet you are." He emphasized his point by casually pushing Rashaan back a step. The light of Justice flared up against the forces of Intolerance and Intimidation.

"Taliyah, who is this latest knuckle-dragger?" Mikhail grinned at Buck.

"Your bad attitude makes you Mikhail," Buck responded first, grinning. He'd already scouted us out -- which made him even more dangerous. "That makes you ...," nodding to me and since I was closer, he moved toward me for the handshake (he tried to break my phalanges and got nowhere), "... Vlad cause your brother Alex went hobbling off already. I'm Chester Ray Tooney, but everyone calls me Buck."

"Hi Buck, I'm Vladimir Samsonov."

"So, you are the guy who made Brandy's ass 'All Access'," he leered. He hadn't let go of my hand. He was about to regret that.

"Oh, so it is going to be like that then. Buck, I'll give you the same options I gave Darius on Day One. Let's settle this Man-to-Man. I'm challenging you to a duel," I hadn't let go of his hand yet either.

"A duel?" he muttered as he pushed Misty Dawn away.

"That's a fight between two men with some semblance of rules."

"Like an MMA bout?" he studied me.

"Sure. You dropped the insult. I issued the challenge. Now you get to pick the weapons, or lack thereof. I then pick the time and location," I explained.

"Do this a lot?"

"You'll be the first."

"You are really pissed over me calling Brandy a slut? Everyone knows she was Darius' wwwhhhhrrrrrgg," he grumbled. He'd just lost the hand-grinding war. His guys were tensing up even as I was grinding his knuckles together in my grip.

"Don't Vlad," Taliyah spoke up. "Back in the day, Buck was Darius' brother Cyrus's bitch. Holding his hand might make him feel lonely." She then taunted Buck by adding, "Missing Cyrus much while he's in prison?" Buck took the opportunity to sucker-punch me. To avoid the blow, I'd have had to release his hand. Instead, I took the newly proffered arm, channeled his momentum into a hip-toss and planted him on the ground.

I had his wrist twisted painfully, his arm locked up and my foot was on his throat. Buck was on his back on the asphalt with a furious expression on his face.

"Motherfucker," the closest redneck made ready to rush me.

"Take that step and I'll break his arm," I informed them both angrily. "Buck, I'd appreciate it if you would apologize to Brandy now."

"Get off me," Buck snarled. "I'll fucking kill you."

"Vlad," Misty Dawn hesitantly reached for me.

"Vlad, let him up. He's not worth it," Brandy intervened. When it was clear she was the one I was listening to, I backed off. I even offered Buck a hand up. Oddly, he took it ... without the expected sneak attack.

"Duel, huh?" Buck scowled.

"Yeah."

"I'll think about it."

"I'm not hard to find," I stepped aside as he and his group forced their way forward. His departure left Rashaan and his crew staring at me, Mikhail and the Cheer Squad once more.

"Don't worry, Misty Dawn. I wouldn't have let Vlad hurt your cousin much," Brandy roped in her fellow cheerleader. Brandy shot me a dazzling smile in the process.

"Thanks, Vlad," Misty smiled my way as well.

What was going on? Well Brandy and Taliyah's position as leaders of the Cheer Squad was endangered. Misty Dawn was a Brandy/Taliyah ally, so 'me' being nice to her was apparently good for my gal's prestige. I'd accidently done right. As a side effect, I'd stolen an opportunity from Rashaan to show real masculine leadership in front of his teammates and his new lady -- Randi Leigh.

Bizarrely, it was the White Buck brandishing a 'Thug' mystique which had intimidated the law-abiding Black Rashaan, thus making him look bad to his peers. Ugh. Taliyah rounded up the cheerleaders, Mikhail touched base with Alexander to make sure he'd escorted Ms. Blanchard to class okay and then we made our way to Homeroom.

Outside of Mikhail's room, Brandy pulled him and me aside, telling Taliyah we'd catch up in a few seconds. That is when she dropped 'The Plan' on us.

"Vlad ... Mikhail, what you did was very brave," she pretended to be demur with her eyes at the same time she shifted her cleavage to the best vantage point and rubbing her blue jean-clad thighs together suggestively. "How about we hook up at the Music Room during 3rd period and ... you know ... have me show you how grateful I can be?"

"You mean ~ like an orgy?" Mikhail leaned in on her wolfishly. Brandy flashed me an exited/frightened look then gave a tiny nod. "Oh, Hell yeah," he rumbled. "Bro?" Mikhail's salivation wasn't play-acting. I knew the difference. I was okay with it though. I felt pretty lucky to be with Brandy (now).

"What about Taliyah?" I tossed out there.

"Maybe you can ... entertain her next time?" Brandy hinted there was more to come.

"Count me in," I grinned. A -- I had zero multiple-partner experience while Brandy had plenty, and B -- Brandy seemed up for it, so I felt fine with playing along with this part of Mom's scheme.

"How do we get in?" I kept with what I figured was the script.

"I have a key," Brandy's face exploded in as a bright, toothy smile. Mikhail slapped me in the triceps, winked and mouthed 'orgy' behind Brandy's back before going into his Homeroom. Brandy and I headed down the hall.

"Brandy, this was Mom's idea, wasn't it?" I gently inquired. She responded by wrapping an arm around my waist and squeezing me tight. "I'll take that to be a 'yes'." I ordered my thoughts. "Brandy, you know you are my first girlfriend, right?"

"Yes," she snuck a look up at me, trying to gauge my mood.

"I want you to know I'm okay with you being my only girlfriend to ... whenever."

I let that sink in. As we entered our Homeroom, I was the recipient of another tight hug from my girl. Taliyah was already at her seat. Brandy took the seat beside her while I walked on further to my assigned location. Behind me was Kaelyne's chair and she wasn't in it. I took a deep breath of relief when, right before class, she came slinking into the room right ahead of our teacher, Ms. Thompson.

We went through the normal Homeroom business, the bell rang and I noticed Taliyah shooting glances Kaelyne's way. As we headed for the door, Taliyah pulled up short, stopping me and Brandy as well. Kaelyne fearfully approached us.

"I said some stupid stuff yesterday," Taliyah announced in a loud, clear voice as she handed Kaelyne a black, silk rose. "I apologize. I was a dumbass. Do you forgive me?"

There was a lot of 'what the?' and 'what's up?'s floating around. Kaelyne stammered.

"If you don't take it, I'm simply going to apologize again outside of your first period class, and your second, and so on until you do," Taliyah persisted.

"I -- okay," Kaelyne took the proffered token.

"Cool. Me, Brandy and some of the girls are having a party Saturday at Brandy's house. You and your freaky friend are invited," Taliyah tacked on. Kaelyne looked at me. I shrugged.

"They are invited too," Brandy added.

"I am?" I shot her way along with a confused tilt of my head.

"I was planning on telling you ... later," Brandy eyebrow pumped.

"I'll check my busy social calendar and be back in touch," I gybed.

"By 'freaky friend' do you mean Vicky?" Kaelyne glowered.

"The one with the hair that looks like she stole it off a doll -- that one," Taliyah smirked. Kaelyne was about to swat the bigger Black girl with the flower when Taliyah added, "Yeah, Vicky."

"Yes ... thank you. I'll tell her -- Vicky. Vlad, can I talk with you for a second?" Kaelyne struggled with the words before turning to me.

"Sure." We stepped out into the hall because kids actually had to exit to their regularly scheduled classes and we were standing in their way. A few lockers down ... "I had nothing to do with this," I headed her off.

"Oh," Kaelyne frowned. "Your Mom?"

"Probably," I agreed, "I bet the idea was Mom's, but the actually wording and details were Taliyah's. Mom's mood was damn near murderous after you, Vicky and Mikhail left yesterday. She sent Alexander and me away so she could have some private time with Taliyah and Brandy. I don't know precisely what went down."

"Oh," Kaelyne was back to being uncertain about a whole host of issues.

"Taking into consideration my neophyte nature in dealing with women, ~ I felt Taliyah's apology was genuine. I really did and still do."

"I want it to be, Vlad," Kaelyne gazed at me desperately. She absently stroked the petals of the artificial rose against her cheek. Alexander and Mikhail were close by. "Thanks," my earliest friend hugged me, then scurried away.

"What's up?" Alexander asked.

"I think Taliyah did a good thing," I replied.

"Oh. Good. Let's move her up in the rotation," Mikhail suggested.

"What?" I sputtered in disbelief.

"Yeah," he grinned wickedly. "Brandy will understand." How he came to that conclusion -- I didn't know. "Besides, I figure my best bet with the others will be if we screw Taliyah into incoherent bliss," Mikhail revealed his true motivations. "If she comes in the second wave, getting around her will involve too much pain on my part."

"What are you two talking about?" Alexander leaned in conspiratorially.

"Mom and one of her dark plans," I sighed. Unfortunately, Mikhail had a point about Taliyah having done a good thing (after her fuck-up) and also her not letting Mikhail at any other member of the Cheer Squad unless he and I first screwed her into semi-consciousness. So we explained the deal to Alexander.

"You remain a pig," Alexander directed at Mikhail.

"Muahh ha-ha-haaa...," he laughed maniacally.

"You two figure out what you're going to do. I'll go tell Brandy and Taliyah," I told my other two-thirds. Alex, despite his injuries, would be showing up at the start of 4th period, because there was no way Mikhail and I could show all those young women the attention they deserved with just the two of us. I had to rush off and inform Brandy and Taliyah of the change in plans, though not the motivation behind them.

I thought Taliyah would be the difficult one. No -- I told her it was Mikhail's idea and she accepted that at face value. Brandy was upset, so I promised her I'd come over to her place early Saturday to help set up things for their shindig ... 7:30 a.m. early for a 2 p.m. outdoor BBQ. And I'd stay late -- like 2 a.m. Sunday night / Monday morning 'late'.

[A QUICK ASIDE ON THE CHEER SQUAD]

There were twelve members of the Cheer Squad. Brandy Crystal Carson and Taliyah Malik were co-Captains -- one White and one Black. The other Black members were Sultana Berry, Vantrice Kirby and Alondra Lamb. The other White members were Amber Lee Huffington, Mia Ryker, Misty Dawn Sizemore, Betty Jo Starling and Randi Leigh Upshaw. Two member I had initially confused as being 'Black' turned out to be 'Mixed' ... meaning Noémie Lucie Desdunes was Creole and Le 'Pearl' Yates was half-Black/half-Vietnamese.

Brandy and Taliyah were 'odd' in that they were 'co-captains' -- normally there was only one leader of the squad. It had been 'assumed' Brandy held the top spot because she was Darius' main cum-dump. The same 'assumptions' had people thinking Taliyah was 'co-captain' solely because she was Brandy's BFF ~ and no other reason. This, in turn, led both Randi Lee and Sultana to believe that by rubbing up against Rashaan, they could both get the choice BBC and the top Cheerleading spots too.

Our girls weren't planning to give up their primo social position without a fight though. And they were confidant Noémie, Amber Lee and Misty Dawn supported them. Sultana Berry had only been able to wrangle Vantrice's and Mia's support in the opposing coalition. Randi Leigh had 'rounded up' Alondra, Betty Jo and Pearl (the 'not too bright ones') to her side ... plus she'd already made a public display of being Rashaan's girlfriend. Working against her was the reality her 'supporters' would fold up under any real pressure and Rashaan's teammates would want him to share Randi Leigh ~ she WAS Hot!

[THE MUSIC ROOM]

"My, oh my," Taliyah murmured. She had felt the two Samsonov boys pressing in on her, Mikhail behind her and Vlad to the front. She hoped she had them right. With her heart racing and her fervor rising, she wasn't 100% sure. "Mikhail," she looked over her shoulder as she moved her ass up and down his crotch, "this is only for you." Her declaration was in a throaty moan.

"That's unfair," I chuckled to Taliyah.

"Don't worry," her head tilted up, "I know some tricks Brandy doesn't know." I didn't know if that was true, or not. Finding out would be fun. I kissed her on the lips. At the same time, my brother nipped down on her shirt-covered shoulder.

"Don't be cruel," he teased her. "You know he was sneaking peeks at the lodge."

"My body -- my rules," Taliyah insisted somewhat breathlessly.

"Okay. I'll work on changing your mind," I growled before diving in for another kiss. Our tongues battled. Taliyah placed her hands on either side of my chin, taking control of our passion. In doing so, I sensed her reticence quickly passing.

"Y'alls first time with one girl?" she purred when we came up for air. She knew it was, so I was left trying to figure out her game.

For Taliyah this was a totally new experience too. The sense she had such a level of control over the masculine power encompassing her was dizzying. She hated to admit it, but looking into Vlad's eyes felt nice. His gaze was focused on her. His perceptions were seeking out her reactions and her responses, not still hooked on Brandy.

In the back of her mind had been the gnawing fear she was a substitute fuck ~ a Brandy-surrogate in Vlad's mind. She saw none of that. His attention was eating her up and it made her so fucking hot. Even more thrilling: she was soaked, breathing heavy and trembling... and they all three still had their DAMN CLOTHES ON!

Taliyah's fingers began fumbling with my belt.

"We've got time," I stroked her cheek. I caught a quick signal from Mikhail. We both dove down for opposite sides of her neck, suckling, licking and nibbling on her tense muscles from collar to ear lobe. In the process, I managed to pull her shirt out of her skirt; she got my belt buckle undone. Synching our oral attacks with working our shoes off with foot-action alone, we then went straight to loosening our belts and -- front first (aka me) -- yanked off our jeans and underwear in one brutal maneuver.

"Ah," Taliyah gasped as my lips and tongue played along the crux of her windpipe and chin, "you two practice that much?"

"Yeah," Mikhail chortled. "We do."

Taliyah's hand on my shoulders caused me to bring about a pause in our actions.

"Seriously?" she looked over her shoulder at my vigorous triplet.

"Why would I make up something so bizarre?" was his take on things. I could tell Taliyah 'wanted' to know more. But she simply wanted more of us both right now and figured she could interrogate us about our unusual sexual indoctrination later -- post-coitus. They began kissing and their kisses became an oral battle replete with growls, rumbles and other hungry sounds.

I took the distraction to rapidly unbutton Taliyah's shirt, pull it open and -- Lord Hallelujah! -- she had on a front-opening bra -- and unleash her 'puppies'. I had talked about her preferences with neither Mikhail nor Brandy, but I'd witnessed and rewound (hey, I'm 18 years old) the footage of the lakeside orgy enough times to know she liked her nipples played with.

"Uh ... uh ... uh ... aaahhh ..." the dark-skinned beauty moaned. "Are you two telepathic?" she said in response to our hands reaching inside her panties and moving along her vulva and perineum, coming at her from different directions at the same time. I wasn't quite sure what inspired us ... I put my thumb upon her aroused clit ~ it felt almost the size of the first digit of my pinkie ~ and reached around to insert my ring finger against her sphincter.

At the same time, Mikhail was working his thumb up her bunghole and rubbing his forefinger into her vagina. She was already wet and getting wetter by the second. By the oily texture of my brother's digits, he'd somehow snuck some lubricant on them while our partner was distracted.

The combination of our height differentials, our ministrations and her obvious pleasure forced my brother and I to go to our knees.

"Oh God! I need a picture of this," Taliyah exulted. "Both of you on your knees around me."

"I promise," I looked up, "we'll do this again."

"You'd better," she beamed, looking down at me, wreathed in a cocktail of majesty and carnality. She added to that image by cupping her left breast into a mouth-watering mound. No words were necessary. I licked the rich, dark brown areola before latching onto her stubby, darker nipple. My thumb and finger were working in tandem with Mikhail's over her cunt and anus to bring her to fruition.

Taliyah was struggling to keep it together. She fed her other breast to Vlad who attentively latched on and began applying a tantalizing level of suction which was driving her wild.

"We are in a soundproof room for a reason," he grinned. She sensed the connection. He wasn't out to steal anything from her. Her lover was famished for even more of her sensuality and that desire was showing through. Taliyah looked heavenward ... and then HOWLED!

[4th PERIOD BELL]

Sultana Berry stumbled into the front of the room first. We were on our knees; Mikhail had his back to the newcomers, Taliyah was on all-fours with Mikhail doing her pussy from behind while she was giving me yet another blowjob. I was looking right at Sultana and the other cheerleaders as they entered.

"I hope this doesn't take too long," Sultana got out, "because I'd ..." and her head turned from looking over her shoulder at her fellow cheerleaders in the hallway to the three of us a dozen feet away.

"Holy Shit!" she exclaimed.

"What?" wondered Randi Leigh who was right behind Sultana. Before she could comment, Alondra Lamb, stumbled in, with Brandy herding her and Betty Jo Starling ahead of her. "Oh fuck," gasped Randi Leigh, her surprise turning quickly vindictive, "Brandy, your guy seems to be fucking your best friend."

Alondra scanned around seeking direction. Sultana's eyes flicked to Brandy before latching back onto my 'midsection' as Taliyah unleashed my cock from her lips allowing it to sort of sway there ... hypnotically.

"'Bout time you got here," Taliyah slurred happily to Brandy. "I'm tapping out."

With that, she slouched down on her left side, head resting on her biceps, serene smile on her face. Earlier we'd spread out the piano cover so we didn't have to deal with the much colder floor. Even as Mikhail let her down gently, his tool came free with a loud 'PLOP!', revealing its rock-hard, 'full mast' status.

"Hey Brandy, what is Randi Leigh doing here?" I beamed lust-filled affection at my girlfriend. "I thought you said she wasn't invited." According to my Mother (the Evil Psychic Mistress of Misdirection), insinuating to one girl another woman didn't want you close by 'her man' made her want to get close to you. It didn't make much sense to me, but then what did I know about women? Sure enough, Randi Leigh shot Brandy an evil look.

Mikhail extended his sweaty body over Taliyah, planted a few feather-light kisses on her shoulder and ear then rose up, right leg first. He quarter-turned their way.

"Alondra," he emoted wolfishly. The smoky hot young lady blinked in surprise then pointed to herself as if to affirm she was the one he was talking to ... as if there was another Alondra in this High School. There wasn't.

"Come here," he beckoned her with a finger.

"Me?" she gulped.

"I've wanted to kiss you since the first time I saw you," Mikhail rumbled.

"Me?" she repeated. Alondra wasn't going to win any debates with that level of verbal repertoire.

"Hold on now," Sultana interposed herself, facing her ladies. Her mistake was taking her eyes off my brother.

"But I think he needs help getting dressed," Alondra tried to explain. How cute.

"Brandy, what's going on here?" Sultana was looking past Alondra to the Team Co-Captain. Mikhail snuck up on Sultana quickly and quietly. I was right behind him. Randi Leigh was trying to get Sultana's attention. Too late. He moved straight into Sultana's back, driving her face to face with Alondra.

"So you think you are better than Taliyah, do you?" he breathed into Sultana's ear. She recoiled as much as she could, putting a weak elbow into his ribs. She was only partially effective in turning around. For my part, I slipped around them and went directly into Randi Leigh's personal space. Take into account both my brother and I were naked, glistening with sweat, and highly aroused ...

"Randi Leigh (apparently middle names were important in cases such as this), why doesn't Brandy want you and I hanging out?" I lied.

"I never said that," Brandy protested. If someone I had known for more than half my life told me one thing and a near-stranger told me the opposite, I would believe the person I knew well. Mom insisted Randi wouldn't believe Brandy ...

"Sure you didn't," Randi Leigh simmered while reaching down and wrapping a hand around my cock. She gave me a little yank. "Not bad."

"Get off me!" Sultana demanded of Mikhail. She got her wish. Mikhail moved her aside and went after Alondra. He astonished everyone by cupping the chestnut-complexioned girl's jaw romantically in both hands and placing a kiss on her lips.

"Fucking fantastic," he purred, then went in pursuit of a far more brutal and demanding lip-lock which took hostage the air from deep within Alondra's lungs.

"Hey," Sultana protested. "Stop that." She tried to separate my brother from his prey. Alondra complicated the issue by entwining one arm behind his head and the other around his waist, keeping him close. Wanton moans echoed from her unfathomed sensual core.

Randi Leigh drank in the scene.

"I'm Rashaan's girl now," she grinned up at me, hand still on my rod.

"I'm not going to tell him a damn thing," I looked down at her. My left hand went along her right elbow to her shoulder all friendly-like. When Randi Leigh didn't resist, I moved my right from her hip to her ass and began bringing her close.

"I'm not going to fuck you," her lips insisted at the same time her hand began jacking me off. "I don't do White guys."

"Does cunnilingus count?" I whispered into her ear.

"Aaaaahhhh ..." she murmured. "Maybe not," she finished off with a foxy grin of her own.

I could begin to see the calculations going off behind those eyes. Perhaps ~ just perhaps ~ there was a reason Brandy had risked Darius' wrath to fuck me -- on multiple occasions. I let my hand on her ass creep to her cleft.

"Clothes," I teased her ... as she had me on too many occasions. Meanwhile ...

"Brandy?" Sultana looked to the functioning Co-Captain for intervention. Brandy had already kicked off her tennis shoes and was currently stripping down out of her jeans and panties. She was also still by the door. Only later would I realize it was because she'd sent Misty Dawn and Betty Jo Starling to escort a semi-crippled Alexander here and the door was locked, so they would need to be let in ... thus necessitating her remaining close to the door.

Brandy's allies on the squad, Noémie and Amber Lee, were keeping three 'opposing' cheerleaders (Vantrice, Mia and Pearl) preoccupied this lunch period. Dealing with five new cheerleaders would be stressing the three of us guys to our limits. In theory, I guessed that meant we'd pick those other five off later in the week, or on Saturday at Brandy's house.

"Taliyah and I can't keep up with these three," Brandy exaggerated. "I was hoping y'all could help out this one time. Please?"

"But ..." Sultana sputtered. I was willing to bet 'they're White' almost spilled forth. But she spared another look to the sexually sated Taliyah instead.

"By all means, leave my Man alone," Taliyah threatened, then yawned, stretching out like a savannah lioness. "I'll leave you Rashaan."

According to Mom, that wasn't an offer, it was a challenge ... for Sultana to go after Mikhail. To my naïve way of thinking, he could have made it easier by switching his attention from Alondra to Sultana, who was the more dominant woman anyway. Not only was that 'not' Mikhail, it wasn't what a man did if he wanted a woman's interest. We -- the men -- had to play hard to get.

I'd told Mom I preferred honesty. She'd told me to keep my preferences to myself and do what I was told ... and I would somehow end up happier. I truly believe my Mom loves me, so I went along with her madcap advice. It worked gang-busters. The more Mikhail persisted in focusing on Alondra, the harder Sultana worked on enticing and seducing him ... because he was a bastard?

In comparison, I had it easier. Brandy was clearly horny for me and Randi Leigh got off on thwarting Brandy's lusts by corralling my attentions with her body motions. The more frustrated Brandy became, the more Randi Leigh's inhibitions flew out the window. She had me on my back, hand still on my cock as she guided it into her steamy folds in under two minutes. Putting on a condom? 'No time for that,' or so she claimed. Funny. I thought we had fifty minutes.

Here I was feeling bad about leaving Brandy out and here she was with her triumphant smile from over Randi Leigh's shoulder. She had totally suckered Randi Leigh and me with her passionate resistance. She mouthed 'I love you' before scampering off to get the door. Alexander, Misty Dawn and Betty Jo had arrived.

Under anything approaching normal group dynamics, at least one of the young ladies could have been expected to bolt this unusual erotic encounter; however the Cheer Squad was used to their Lunch Time and post-Practice orgies. In the immediate post-Darius Era, they hadn't been getting any and suddenly they had three hunky, hot and ready (even if White) guys in front of them, willing to perform.

Alexander had it the easiest. He was 'infirm', so Misty Dawn decided to transfer all the gratitude she had for me not getting into a slugfest with Cousin Buck in the Parking Lot this morning to him, thus lavishing him with some intense, solo loving care. Betty Jo, momentarily at loose ends, was called over to Mikhail by Alondra, who insisted she was still trying to get him dressed ...

If Mikhail felt any reticence over reliving the sexual exploits of his Varangian ancestors, he didn't show it in the slightest. He soon had Alondra and Betty Jo kneeling with their haunches on their heels, licking his balls and cock-shaft while Sultana stood by his side, kissing him longingly as he massaged her pubic mound -- no penetration yet. It took me a few seconds to realize he was teasing her; plus, he was able to pat the kneeling lasses on their heads when they particularly pleased him. What a fortuitous pig.

I didn't have the time to verbally chastise him. As I began to work in and out of Randi Leigh's love box, twisting my hips during every intrusion, looking to increase her stimulations, she began to get really responsive and incredibly vocal. The combination of the 'aphrodisiacs' Mom had given us, plus my interrupted blowjob with Taliyah, prompted me to begin ejaculating into her womb. Whoops!

"Ugh ... ugh ... ugh -- ugh -- ugh -- ugh --ugh-ugh-uh-uh-uggggg!!!" escaped from her lips and then she went off like no woman I'd ever seen before. Randi Leigh was acting as if she was having a seizure. Her long, brunette hair, normally in a ponytail, but worn loose today, whipped around her head as she thrashed and jerked atop of me. Fingernails drew bloody rivets across my pectorals as her hands scarred me from collar to mid-stomach.

Her mahogany skin (she was White, but well-tanned) was more flushed than normal, her small nipples were a bright crimson within her rich reddish-brown half-dollar-sized areolas equally blood-flushed and puff. Her breathing came in staggered gasps. Then she completely locked up perpendicular to my waist, back bowed and her face finally ending up staring down at me in disbelief.

All I could think of, looking back up at her, trying to make sense of the electricity spreading like fire through her veins was ~ 'if you figure out what I just did to you, please let me know what it was ... because I may want to be more careful who I do it to in the future'.

"Uuuueeeeee ..." escaped from her tightly constricted airways right before Randi Leigh's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed on my chest, utterly spent.

"Brandy?" I looked past the unconscious woman on my chest toward my vastly more experienced lover. She looked stunned. The rest of the room was quiet.

"I think ... that was Randi Leigh ... having an orgasm," Brandy gasped.

"You go, Bro!" Mikhail saluted me, slamming his closed-fist over his heart -- twice. With the way the three women were looking at him, he should have been more careful. I suspected they were expecting the same treatment.

"Are you sure you are okay with having sex?" Misty Dawn inquired of Alexander, even as she started yanking his pants down.

"For you -- sure. I'll get my belt," he gently caressed her cheek, "if you could get my shoes?"

I had to push Randi Leigh up, then maneuver us around so I could carry the still blissfully unaware Randi Leigh to the piano cover to be lain beside Taliyah before returning my attentions to Brandy. I caught sight of some worry in her eyes until she realized my eyes were nearly bugged out of my head and my cock was throbbing upright and returning to duty ... her completely naked body had that effect on me.

"Oh," she giggled. "You're hurt."

"It'll heal," I ignored the pain. We met halfway. My hands went to her right breast and left face cheek to steer her head up to a kiss. Hers went to my cock -- still no condom. So much for 'safe' sex.

"Ladies, Sultana's going to ruin our fun, so I gotta take care of her first before I can get back to the both of you," Mikhail boasted.

"You think so?" Sultana Berry put forth with provocative bravado.

"Yeah," Mikhail snorted. "Alondra and Betty Jo like me, so I'd like to spend some quality time with them. You'd like to think you are better than me, but we both know you aren't. So I'm about to prove it to you."

Seriously? Isn't this the moment the woman slaps the man in the face, throws a drink at him, calls him an 'asshole' (or something even less flattering), then storms out?

"I'm going to ruin you for every other women you ever try to get with," Sultana rose to the challenge.

Okay then ...

"If she wasn't such a bitch," Brandy whispered to me as she followed me to the floor, her riding me cowgirl, "I'd warn her."

All I could do was grunt.

"What was that?" Brandy's brow furrowed and her cute nose twitched. Had my Mother not told me this would happen ~ scary and far beyond weird ~ I would have thought I was doing something wrong. This was Brandy seeking affirmation.

"You ... above me ... every time it is so wonderful and new, Brandy Crystal Carson," I replied in a soft, rich romantic voice. Just because I knew the question was coming, didn't mean I'd rehearsed a response. I went with my gut and by Brandy's near-tearful reaction, I was right on the money. Brandy leaned in, squishing her breasts against me and gave me a famished kiss.

"I feel the same way," she murmured.

"You like blonde-haired girls with big boobs sitting on top of you too?" I joked.

"Oh," she sat up, feigning indignation well, "Poo!" then she smacked my chest. Then, to further punish me, she flexed her thighs -- going up and down -- and undulated her vaginal walls -- to give my cock a very friendly 'welcome back'.

'Yikes!' Man, but that felt really good. Brandy clued in to my pleasure and was looking a bit too pleased with herself, so I pushed up with one arm and went like a lamprey for her right breast.

"Hey!" she gasped. "Not so rough." Which meant 'keep at it'. "I said not so rough, Vlad. I'm a bit tender," she sighed happily, reinforcing her misdirection by placing a hand on the back of my head, keeping my lips and teeth tight to her tit.

'Nom-nom-nom-nom,' I happily suckled along for six, or seven minutes until ...

"Hey y'all," Alondra appeared above me/us. "Can I join in?"

Reluctantly I released Brandy's mammary to get a quick peek at what Mikhail was up to.

He was going for some hot-muff action on Sultana where she lay on top of the piano, which was, in turn, on the elevated stage. Her legs were upraised in a 'V' with her hands holding the back of each knee to hold the pose. My brother was alternating between kisses to her clit and slit and teasing her labia with his tongue and teeth ~ gentle-like for now. When he figured out her sensitive spots, he'd be doubling down on them rapid-fire soon enough.

"Unless my Princess claws me like a scratching post -- Hell ya!" I grinned. That was a concession to my Lady's #1 status without making me sound pussy-whipped. Brandy gave a playful harrumph married to her own saucy smile. The problem was ...

"Princess? Who is that?" Alondra struggled to concentrate.

"Me," Brandy seductively wiggled off my cock. "He's my Prince, so I'm his Princess."

"Oh! Like Disney?" Alondra beamed innocent understanding. "That's so cool."

"Yeah," Brandy shot me a wink. "Like Disney. Here, have a seat and share in the 'magic'."

"Oh goodie!" the tawny athlete mounted my penis which Brandy was 'kind' enough to hold erect for her. She wasn't tight, but, to be honest, Alondra was snugger than my first time with Brandy -- which was a thought I'd take to my grave. Her toes were on the floor, knees off the ground, gymnast's thighs like coiled springs and hands splayed on my chest -- she got to bounding up and down.

"Yay!" At least I was making someone definitely happy. When I made eye contact ... I ... felt for Alondra. She had one -- no -- two marketable commodities; her exotic good looks and a willingness to work hard. Cheerleading was as much of a demanding sport as basketball. She knew the Cheer Squad's routines, and with her limited intellect, that had to mean she truly applied herself when given the chance.

What Alondra needed was good friends ... and someone, right now, to fuck her.

"I've never fucked a White guy before," she blithely informed me. "I thought you'd be ... smaller."

"Vlad is full of surprises," Brandy moved to my side, still smiling.

"Don't let me neglect you, Babe," I offered. She knew what I was saying and took me up on the suggesting.

She made a production of standing over my head, facing Alondra then slowly lowering herself down to my waiting mouth.

"How's he going to breath?" Alondra inquired.

"He's got great lungs," Brandy answered. My tongue was busy sculpting out her vulva and penetrating her labia.

My right hand went around the back to massage a luscious ass cheek and tickler her along her tailbone. Then the left went up and rediscovered her breasts. I could almost hate my Mother for keeping us from sex for so long -- almost. To be fair, she'd also helped train us to be aggressive, appreciative and attentive lovers.

It wasn't like the BBC Masters didn't do cunnilingus. Some did. The difference was we approached it as a facet of a full-on orgasmic orchestra. It wasn't just licking and sucking that clit, or labia pulling. Depending on the partner, it was spreading your attention along the upper thighs, pubic mound perineum and buttocks.

Fingers, lips, tongue, nose and even whiskers could be parts of our arsenals. Keep all your senses focused on your lover as well. A twinge, chance in scent, or a stifled gasp could all be clues to what secretly turned them on. Thankfully for this encounter, I already knew Brandy pretty well and Alondra wasn't overly demanding. She wanted a nice, stiff dick and I gave her that in spades ~ no pun intended.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck," Sultana began hissing. Taliyah had done wonders for Mikhail's confidence which rebounded into this pattern of quickly overwhelming whatever mental defenses she tried to put up between him and the climax he wished to tear from her.

"OH FUCK!" she screamed. Yep. Mom's choice of the sound-proof Music Room was prescient.

"Ooooohhhh ..." she moaned. "Wait ..."

"No way," Mikhail taunted her. "I'm not going to stop until you say you'll only do White boys." Pretty much a complete race reversal, and cruelly pointless.

"Not going to ... oh FUCK!" she began to caterwaul again. I couldn't see what he was doing, but by the sound of moist slapping, I figured he had advanced to screwing her face-to-face and furiously hard.

"What's going on?" Randi Leigh finally rejoined the gathering.

"He fucked you into transcendence, you silly Cunt," Taliyah mocked the girl.

"I ... ah ... it wasn't ..." Randi Leigh blathered.

"Don't even try," Taliyah chuckled.

"By all means," I could feel Brandy twist her upper body around, "if you never want to fuck my guy ever again ..."

"Or mine," Taliyah tacked on.

"Any of the Samsonov boys ever again," Brandy dictated, "that's fine by me -- us."

"That's damn right," Taliyah added.

"Oooohhhhheeeeewwwww ... I'm getting all tingly," Alondra sang out.

"When is it going to be my turn?" I had no doubt Betty Jo was pouting over her exclusion by Mikhail's devotion to Sultana.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck," became a familiar refrain. "OH FUCK!" and Sultana surrendered another orgasm to my bratty younger triplet. "Noooo ..." she panted.

"Don't break her," Taliyah sounded a tad jealous as well as cautionary.

"Say it," he growled.

"Aaahhh ..." was all Sultana could emote.

"Say it," he remained ferocious. I felt obliged to tap Brandy's thigh. She was closing on her own fruition, but I wasn't sure Sultana had the time.

"Give it a rest," Alexander protested.

Brandy dismounted. Mikhail hadn't relented yet.

"Bro, Alondra's over here ~ dying for a three-way," I tried a different approach. I wasn't going to swap out Alondra for Betty Jo -- that would be treating the ladies like mix-and-match Legos. Betty Jo was still the only girl-neglected, but I knew from our earlier conversation Mikhail had a special hankering for Alondra -- which I couldn't bring up directly without being cruel to Taliyah.

Mikhail looked over his shoulder, his body still hovering over the slack form of a sated Sultana. His look was volcanic ~ primal, fiery ...

"We aren't done," was his parting shot to Sultana. Betty Jo was still on her knees where he'd left her. Mikhail didn't spare her a glance, advancing swiftly to us.

Meanwhile ...

"I do? I am?" Alondra hiccupped both surprised and happy with 'her' suggestion.

For a second I was afraid Mikhail would go directly for a face-fuck. Alondra was certainly set up for it. Instead, at the last second he went in for a deep French kiss full of tongue, mutual nose-breathing and finishing with his teeth pulling playfully on her upper lip.

"I'm bouncing on your brother," Alondra gleefully, breathlessly and pointlessly related.

"I can see," he chuckled. My youngest triplet didn't HAVE to be an asshole. "I think I'm going to be pouncing on you."

Alondra had no comeback. My bet was she didn't know what 'pounce' meant. Mikhail moved behind the medium-brown beauty. It occurred to me the deeply-tanned Brandy and natural-complexioned Alondra were virtually the same skin color.

Otherwise they were different enough. Brandy was a natural blonde. Alondra had kinky, black hair with blonde highlights. One with dark-blue eyes and the other hazel. Alondra was taller by a few inches. Brandy had the larger bust and hips. Alondra's buttocks were accentuated to the top while Brandy's were more balanced hemispheres. I couldn't tell whose smile I liked more.

"I like White boys," she huffed as a way of greeting Mikhail's transition from 'kisser' to man-boy pressing in behind her. There was no way he was going for her ass without causing her a great deal of pain. He had another idea.

"Seesaw?" he looked over her shoulder. Oh!

I put my hands under each of her thighs and lifted her up and forward.

"Eeep!" she squeaked followed by "Hey -- Noooo," when my cock popped out.

"Here you go," Mikhail soothed her. In his cock went.

"Ooooohhhh yeah," she was immediately mollified.

"Why does she get two of them?" Betty Jo complained.

"Yeah," Randi Leigh grumbled. "Why does she get both of them?"

"Because she asked really, really nice," Mikhail addressed the others. Brandy shot me a curious look. Since she had her back to the others I felt it was safe to share my own confusion.

"When did that happen?" Taliyah pseudo-teased 'us'.

At the same time, Alondra rocked forward. When she settled back, it was my cock inside her once more. Taliyah had gotten dual-vaginal & anal after we had 'prepped' her.

"We're telepathic," Mikhail responded. Alondra didn't care.

"You'd better not be," Taliyah muttered.

Yeah, we had to do something about this. The next time we switched back, I pulled myself further up and away from Alondra. Mikhail picked up on my clues and went to regular doggy-style, his back pressing on hers, his left arm supporting his weight while his right reached under and began to manipulate her clit between two of his fingers in a tender, circular motion.

"Ah-ah-ah SHIT!," Misty Dawn announced her own eruption to all of us. It turned out she and Alexander shared their 'moment' ~ their synergy further multiplying their sensory overload.

I had barely moved into a kneeling position in front of Alondra. We kissed which left me rather unprepared for ...

"Now it's my turn," Betty Jo pushed Brandy aside in her rush to grapple with me. OH JOY!

[MOM AND DOMINQUE ~ PART II]

Worse, Dom had agreed to leave their kids be ... for the time being. Also, as bizarre as it sounded, if Taliyah did 'love' that young boy ... that could be serious trouble and yet useful to her at the same time. All Dominque Fox Malik knew for certain when Gayle Fonteneau left her office was she had to be more alert than ever.

[THE END OF THE DAY]

Alondra joined Brandy and Taliyah, plus Noémie, Amber Lee and Misty Dawn in the group of cheerleaders who congregated in the basketball bleachers toward the end of practice that Tuesday afternoon, signaling her move from Randi Leigh's faction over to theirs.

Now they had enough votes to stop any legitimate takeover by either Randi Leigh, or Sultana. Technically, Mrs. Hagman, the Cheer Coach, could do so, but she was unlikely to do so right now with the school's hierarchy in turmoil ~ or so Mom predicted.

Somewhat amazingly, Kaja did NOT like this -- especially the attention being directed Mikhail's way. The rest of the team basked in what they thought was the rising prominence of the Basketball Squad over that of the now somewhat rudderless Football Team. I didn't see a need to bust their bubble. A few tried to 'play' with the cheerleaders. Brandy and Taliyah 'played' right back.

We were in good spirits as we were dismissed. Our weasel of a coach had decided Alexander had four weeks to be able to 'suit up' before he would be replaced, thus effectively keeping him on the team. We considered that another victory for the Samsonovs and fair play. After all, it wasn't Alexander's fault he'd had the crap beaten out of him.

On Monday's, Wednesdays and Fridays, Alexander would peel off independently to make his way to Ms. Blanchard's Augmented Benchmark Examinations (ABE) Retest Group. Since Mikhail and I had trounced all her rowdy students' asses, we felt a wounded Alex, armed with crutches he knew how to wield, was safe enough.

Otherwise, per the new norm, we three had Shaquille McGregor, his lady, Monique Williams, the other White teammate, Steven Astor (with his rich mother), plus Vicky Orem and Kaelyne Harlow as an integral part of our posse. Vicky and Kaelyne's buddy, Leone, had a Goth boyfriend and had retreated to safer pastures. Steven was a rather decent sort, if a bit dull, and definitely dense about deadly undercurrents whirling around the school.

As we transitioned from the locker room via the short bit of hallway to the Parking Lot, a problem developed. Three ladies 'collided' on Mikhail: ... Taliyah, Alondra and Kaja. Kaja had suddenly decided she did mind him being around other women and she had the physical confidence to make an issue of it.

Alondra, being clueless to the shit-storm she was in the midst of, actually did help a tiny bit. I was able to 'rescue' her by pulling her close before Kaja put her into a wall. Taliyah, on the other hand, neither wanted nor would have accepted my aid, so I didn't bother.

"You got a problem?" Taliyah postured.

"Ya. You're a coyote -- latching on to a better prospect now that you've finally realized what a fraud your previous boyfriend was," Kaja spat.

"I'm standing on my own two feet, Kaja," Taliyah snapped back. "I don't need any man -- certainly not this ..."

"Cretin?" Mikhail offered.

"Yeah -- cretin," Taliyah grumbled, then snuck a nasty Charlie Horse on him.

"OW! Shit," Mikhail squalled. "What the ..."

"Don't interrupt me," Taliyah stated ... then Kaja shoved her halfway across the hall. She almost went tumbling down.

Shaquille wrapped up Kaja from behind while I raced to put my body between the two, facing Taliyah.

"This is not happening," I commanded.

"Get out of my way," Taliyah snarled.

"Let go, damn it!" Kaja hollered. From the sounds of thrashing, Shaquille wasn't listening to his enraged cousin.

"Ow, ow, ow ... shit, that hurts," Mikhail complained. "Really ... fucking ... hurts."

Noémie, with her long, deep brown, wavy locks, golden-brown skin and sporty build, joined me in keeping Taliyah at bay. Brandy and Amber Lee moved to confront Kaja. Misty Dawn went to Alexander for no better reason than to snuggle into his warmth as far as I could tell. Monique rallied to Kaja's side of things.

"Kaja, what the heck do you mean attacking Taliyah like that?" Brandy got all feisty.

"What are you and your cum dumpsters doing showing up around the basketball team?" Monique countered.

Suddenly it made sense -- I considered Monique and Kaja both attractive in their own way, but each of the cheerleaders was much hotter. Kaja hadn't needed to worry about Mikhail and Taliyah because the cheer Co-Captain was unobtainable to him, or so she thought. In the same way, Monique hadn't worried about Shaquille's eyes wandering for basically the same reason. Now ...

I needed to be too in many places at once. Alexander was still too infirm, so I grabbed Steven by his forearm and propelled him toward Taliyah and Noémie. That traffic jam would hopefully buy me enough time to ...

"Brandy -- Amber Lee," I hefted them both up by reaching around from behind and lifting them up, forearm under their bust lines, "she didn't mean it like that."

Which was total shit. Monique did mean it 'like that'. Thankfully, Alexander was able to lurch forward between my two thrashing bundles and Monique.

"Mikhail, why don't you take Kaja home now," Alexander directed. Mikhail shot him a dirty look, yet realized this was the only alternative which wouldn't result in violence and ill will.

Alexander had to give the order because if I gave it, Taliyah would hold it against me and that would bode poorly for me and Brandy.

"Yeah ... come on, Kaja," he murmured, still rubbing his sore upper arm.

"I'd rather walk," she defied all reason.

"Shit, Kaja. It is going to suck me pushing my bike the four miles to your place then," Mikhail shot her an impish look, "but so be it."

"I don't want to be around you," Kaja yelled at him.

"Cool. I haven't a fucking clue why you are so angry, anyway."

"You're .... Grrrrrrr ... Impossible!" Kaja screamed at Mikhail. Shaquille released her and out she stormed.

"Later, gang," Mikhail waved good-bye.

"Mikhail, let her go," Taliyah simmered.

"There ain't a ring on these fingers, or in this nose," he tapped his proboscis then gave the rest of us a jaunty salute.

"Bastard," Taliyah hissed.

I took the interlude to spin around and deposit Brandy and Amber Lee facing Taliyah. I kept a gentle hold on Brandy who twisted in my grip.

"She called us cum dumpsters," Brandy frowned. Yeah ... the truth hurts. The problem was in the old school dynamic, Darius would have humiliated Shaquille and 'slutted-out' Monique for Monique's defiance -- truth be damned.

"Monique," I looked over my shoulder, "we are all working on a fresh start. Darius is gone. Let's leave him and all that sickness in the past. Please."

"Monique -- Sugar, you are still the only one I see," Shaquille moved up and put both arms around her waist from the side.

"You say that now," she turned on him, still within his encircling embrace.

"And tomorrow and next week and next month and next year too, Sugar," Shaquille promised.

"You'd better keep saying that," Monique threatened, but with less heat.

"Brandy -- let's go," Taliyah abruptly stomped out as well.

"Prince?" Brandy sent a worried expression my way.

"Call me tonight and we'll make plans," I gave her hand a quick squeeze. The other cheerleaders joined Brandy and Taliyah in their exodus.

"What was that all about?" Steven finally got around to asking.

"Steven -- we'll talk about it tomorrow when cooler heads prevail," I said. "Why don't you give Shaquille and Monique a ride home?"

"Huh?"

"Vicky and Kaelyne need me to give them rides home and with Alexander laid up, more than four is going to be a bit uncomfortable," I lied.

"Okay," he nodded.

Once he had Monique steering toward the exit, Shaquille sent a 'thumbs up' my way ~ one crisis averted. We were able to get ourselves outside, loaded up and on the road before Vicky broke the silence.

"So Vlad, what's really going on?"

"Please be more specific," I glanced into the rearview mirror. She was in the back with Kaelyne and Alexander was up front with me.

"Taliyah being nice to Kaelyne today after being a homophobic bitch yesterday, us being invited to the Cheerleaders Soiree at Miss Brandy's this Saturday, or the whole bitchfest between Kaja and Taliyah over Mikhail -- take your pick wherever you want to start," she proposed.

"Okay. I'll do my best. First off, don't call her Miss Brandy. Her name is Brandy and I'm trying to help with her congeniality. I'm not sure what is going on inside Taliyah's head. I do know Mom had a chat with her about what happened yesterday, but we boys weren't privy to it ... so, if you're feeling particularly bold, you can ask Mom."

"The bitchfest ... I've had precisely one girlfriend my entire life. I suspect that given prior bad behavior, Monique and Kaja expect me and my brothers to behave like dogs and the Cheer Squad to behave like 'bitches in heat' at the drop of a hat without consideration for the feelings of those being trampled by the lusts of others. We should all be working overtime to make sure that doesn't happen anymore."

"We are in High School," Vicky chortled. "Good luck with that."

"So, Vicky," Alexander turned in his seat despite the pain. "Are there any guys you are interested in?"

"You mean besides you?" she smiled at him.

"Huh? Really?" he grunted.

"Well ... yeah. You're hot, intelligent, not a douche and, as far as I can tell, not currently taken," Vicky outlined her boyfriend priorities. "Unlike Kaelyne, I'm not a lesbian, or even bi-sexual. Because none of you three have had much girl experience and because of your recent full-body bruising, I'm not going to hold you missing me eye-balling you like a choice slab of meat against you."

"Wow," I chuckled.

"Gee ... thanks," Alexander murmured. "Vicky, I am sort of interested in somebody else."

"Which cheerleader is it?"

"None of them," he shook his head. "It's ... ah ... complicated."

"It's a teacher," I put out there.

"Oh," from Vicky.

"That makes sense," Kaelyne nodded.

"Can we just have sex then?" Vicky asked Alexander.

"I ... ah ..." he stammered.

"It's okay," Vicky sulked.

"NO," Alexander protested. "I'd like to. It is just so sudden. I like you, Vicky. I've simply had so many other things on my plate I'd never really thought about an 'us'."

Vicky studied him intently for half a minute.

"Fine, but don't go bragging around school about it," she demanded.

"I'm not that kind of guy," Alexander assured her.

"No; she's a 'put her name and number on a bathroom stall' kind of girl," Kaelyne broke the uneasy mood with her joke. Vicky gave her a finger-flick to the head. I caught Alexander giving me a sideways glance. I had the feeling he hadn't considered Vicky AT ALL ... oh boy.

[AND THE BEAT GOES ON ...]

Tuesday night, in the asphalt-covered rear loading area of the Wal-Mart there was a Redneck throw down. Buck Tooney was wasting no time in cementing his leadership position over the White portion of our High School. His job was made more difficult by Darius' ruthless efficiency in allowing no other organizations, no matter how informal, to challenge his dominion. That translated over to Buck having to bust more heads to bring the 'rednecks' all in line.

If that worked out, the city-Whites would be next. The problem for everyone else was the High School had been a succession of autocratic tyrannies for so long, it was difficult for the students to successfully even balkanize, much less unify. Everyone assumed another 'Darius' would eventually arise to restore a brutal school order ~ as long as 'he' was Black.

That meant Buck needed a Black figurehead to parade in front of the 'establishment' to get things done. So far, no such person existed. Rashaan not only had the mistaken impression he could resist Buck, he was the Chief of Police's son ~ so not a prime candidate to be a figurehead for a criminal like Buck. Therefore he had to get Rashaan out of the way -- figuratively speaking.

Another problem for Buck was the school already had an existing Black criminal element. Darius had not been a part of it, but like so many other aspects of school society, when he told the leaders of the school subcultures to do something, or not to do something, he expected compliance. If not -- pain would definitely follow. These characters weren't going to easily knuckle under to Buck Tooney though. After all, he'd been Darius' brother's 'boy', not the other way around.

If anyone seriously thought Buck had returned to High School to be the Black Man's Bitch (again), they were clearly high, brain damaged, and/or delusional. I wouldn't have put money on who could have taken who in a Buck vs. Darius brawl ... except Darius wouldn't have been lured into that kind of fight.

[...]

Absent Darius, the school's Black community only had two confederates with sufficient intellect and charisma to lead the forces on that side of the racial divide. Sadly for the disciples of the Almighty BBC, both were women. Not only was Taliyah's mom the Mayor, she herself was co-Captain of one of the establishment's most recognized bodies ~ the Cheer Squad.

The other was Jewel 'C. S.' Lafontanté. She was more infamous than famous, intelligent, un-aligned with any club, or activity, which awarded accolades, yet was overly endowed with a host of natural abilities as well as learned skills & talents. And, unlike Taliyah, -- absent Darius -- she felt the top spot was hers for the taking from the get go.

Step one had been to sit at the feet of her mother and father, taking their counsel on the principles of asymmetric warfare, transforming weaknesses into strengths and how to locate, isolate and exploit the weaknesses of her enemies. Step two was accomplished Tuesday night when she and the rest of the Zulu Princess Posse jettisoned their boyfriends. From here on out, the ladies would be taking whatever dick they wanted. The times ~ they were a-changing.

[...]

I had two more imminent problems with my life. The first was Riley Pasternak, Mayor Malik's aide and a woman I'd put my dick into ... without my Mother's permission. By the way she kept licking absolutely everything off her fingertips at dinner Tuesday night while staring at me, I was sure she was expecting another performance.

Before I could worry about how to finally put the brakes on my out of control sex drive, we had a caller at the gate -- for me. It was Randi Leigh Upshaw. That was more than a tad unexpected. I'd stuck my dick in her, so I felt obliged to provide hospitality now that she came calling, but promised myself 'no sex'. We met on the porch.

"Hey, Vlad," Randi Leigh appeared distracted and a bit distraught and couldn't meet my gaze.

"Hello, Randi Leigh. Care to sit down?" I motioned toward the porch swing.

"Sure," she walked that way. It wasn't all that cold, she was in a team jacket, yet she still felt the need to wrap herself in her arms.

"What's going on?" I said once we'd taken our seats and swung back and forth twice.

"I ... do you like Brandy?" she turned on me, putting a both her hands on my right forearm.

"Yes, I do," I nodded. "Very much."

"I can make you happier than she can," bubbled forth from her lips.

'What gives you that idea', seemed inappropriate so ..."I thought you were happy with Rashaan," was my second, and apparently equally bad, choice. Her look said it all: Rashaan wasn't getting the job done in a fundamental way.

"He's nothing like you," she purred with the understated passion of an addict needing fix ~ me being the drug.

"Vlad, what is going on out here?" Mom called out. With Mom's propensity to sneak up on things like a Martian and listen in on conversations, this had to be a clue about something more. We both hopped out of the swing.

"This is Randi Leigh Upshaw. She's a ... ah friend of Brandy and on the Cheer Squad. She's dating Rashaan Quinterre now."

"Nice to meet you," Mom was full with the feigned politeness, "Randi Leigh. I need a moment of Vlad's time, then I'll give him back."

She pulled me aside and back down the walk around porch until we were out of earshot then ...

"Care to explain?"

So I did -- everything from the encounter in the Parking Lot to the Music Room banter, her going off in an epileptic seizure and ending with her here -- now. Mom put her hand to her chin as she lowered her head slightly. Her far-off look dictated she wanted a few moments to think things through.

"With some girls ~ it goes straight to the brain like some allergic reaction," she related. "In 1898, one of your ancestors was felled by a delirium and was cared for in a cat house in Dawson City. Three 'Ladies of the Evening' quickly fell to fighting over him and concluding with two fighting a duel with pistols in the middle of Front Street to decide who got 'their man'. Clearly some ladies can go a bit nuts over what your family has in your nut sack."

"That's totally nu ... crazy and unfair to poor Randi Leigh," I frowned. I kicked at the planks on the porch for good measure.

"Didn't you just tell me she is gladly whoring herself out for Rashaan Quinterre? Do you think she's doing that for love?"

"What about Brandy? I don't want to cheat on her ... any more than I've already cheated on her," I muttered. Man, I sounded pathetic!

"Here's what you do," my Mother stroked my cheek. "You tell Randi Leigh she had better become Brandy's #2 friend from here on out, or you won't have anything to do with her. You aren't going to cheat on Brandy, but Brandy might see a way to share you from time to time if she behaves. No more Big Black Cock for her though."

"Okay," I felt partially relieved. Now that I had a moment alone, I added, "What about Riley?"

"I got her."

"You?"

"Yes. Me and your Da are going to take her to bed for some pulse-pounding, three-way action," she grinned like an orca about to devour a baby seal.

I had no idea Dad was so ... kinky.

"Once I get your Da going, he's quite the animal," Mom enlightened me. "I'll get me and Riley going in the bedroom. When he walks in, he'll protest ~ like he always does ~ then he'll come around and ..."

"Enough, Mom," I raised my hands. "Enough."

She laughed. I retreated to the semi-sanity of Randi Leigh who was waiting on me expectantly.

"Here are the rules," I began ticking off my points, finger by finger.

"I'm Brandy's boyfriend. If you want to spend time with me you had better become Brandy's #2 best friend."

"You don't sleep around with anyone else besides me and my brothers without clearing it with us first."

"You don't pick fights with anyone unless you 'okay' it with myself, or my brothers first."

"You break the rules three times and we never even talk with you ... ever again."

That would have been the point I at which would have expected her to scoff at me at least, possibly slap me, or at least cry as a form of manipulation. Randi Leigh simply nodded. I walked her off the porch to her vehicle. We hugged, but didn't kiss. Afterwards I called Brandy and gave her the basics of what had gone down without explaining the toxic stew which lay behind it.

I avoided my family the rest of the night -- choosing to go to bed early instead. As I lay reclined on my back, staring out the tall window into the clear, highland night sky, I felt sick to my stomach. Slowly a revelation came to me. What my family had was definitely a curse, not a blessing because it was wed to a sense of conscience and responsibility.

I had often thought about why Mom sought out Dad as the 'One' for her, but until that night, never really considered why he had chosen her to be his 'One'. Looking back, I realized it wouldn't have made sense until that point because I didn't have enough pieces of Mom's puzzle. I had the belief Dad sensed the intense pain within Mom's soul and nothing short of the grave, or what he had within him, could soothe her.

By Mom's own admission, she was a Wild Child. She would have never settled down. Never had us kids. Never felt the love of a family if Dad hadn't decided to share his genetic curse with her. He'd loved her enough to become her lodestone -- the center of her life and to take on all the pain such a position entailed.

Everything I knew about my Dad suggested Mom was the LAST type of woman he would have wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Dad liked his life calm, quiet and orderly. Mom was the polar opposite of those desires -- impulsive, loud and chaotic. I didn't doubt his love for her in the slightest, yet my Father had sacrificed his dreams of tranquility to save my Mother.

Why wasn't Mom furious with him over enslaving her to his cock ~ his magic sperm? She probably had been, once she figured out the family secret ... for a short while. Then she realized the import his love had, saw the course her life was taking her down and what she obviously meant to him. But Mom being Mom ~ she still made him pay with her explosively eccentric behavior and her bizarre tutelage of his boys.

And Dad had accepted it all as the price necessary to save my Mother's life ... and that was that. Dad could have had any woman he wanted. Any Samsonov man could have. Why weren't we a clan of billionaires then? Why didn't we have oriental-style harems and dozens of mistresses on the side?

Because we saw what we possessed as a curse ... which we sometimes shared with truly crazy people to give them a real world focus for their lives so they wouldn't finally be consumed by their peculiar forms of madness. My hypothesis certainly fit what I knew about my kinfolk. I took that uneasy psychic compromise with me to my dreams.

[WEDNESDAY]

Wednesday morning, the storm clouds began to gather. The big news was Jewel Lafontanté had dumped Thomas 'Shaka' Sneed, Student Body President. Certain notorious Redneck troublemakers were either absent, or had shown up bruised and battered from last night's rumble with Buck's crew.

That wasn't the only bruising going on. Rashaan had gone from one cheerleader to none, to two, to none once more ... inside a week. The damage to both his ego and prestige was immense. Into the void stepped a rather brutal individual named Porter Walmsley, the Football Squad's Defensive Team Captain. While he was big, bad and Black, Taliyah and Brandy insisted his thick sausage was also very short -- a definite deal-breaker when it came to BBC Mastery.

Not to be outdone, Alonzo Hollingsworth, son of the richest (Black) man in Kingston made a play for Taliyah at lunch. He was long on talking solidarity while showing no solidarity with any of the other social 'front-runners'. Taliyah told him she'd 'think about it' in a blatant attempt to rile Mikhail. It didn't, which only soured her mood more.

At practice, the Assistant Athletic Director (aka Coach Weasel, aka Coach George Wilcox), named Deon Manley Team Captain. He was (surprise, surprise) Black, in my position (Point Guard) and on record as performing sexual favors for the coach (letting the coach suck his cock).

After practice, I got a message -- via Brandy -- that Jed Lee Earl wanted to talk with me and my brothers. She had to give me the 411. He was from one of Kingston's old White Rich families, led a clique of rich and 'almost rich' White kids and she thought he was gay. Most likely, with Buck on a rampage, he was looking for some 'muscle of his own,' she added with a giggle. I swatted her ass over that one.

At least this time we avoided any name calling as we made our exit from school. Alexander was off to Ms. Blanchard's class. Mikhail took Kaja home on his KTM 690 Enduro R motorcycle without argument. I took Monique and Shaquille home (her house actually) with Vicky and Kaelyne tagging along. Brandy and Taliyah took Alondra and Noémie to their homes before the rendezvous at the Fonteneau mansion.

The routine cycle resumed: homework, working out, showering, then a small amount of friend time before dinner. Unlike Tuesday, Mikhail was downright responsive to Taliyah -- playful if not contrite. Taliyah countered by being friendly to Kaelyne and Vicky. I had my hands full with Brandy the entire time, so I was of no help.

Vicky surprised us all by asking to learn a few wrestling and Sambo moves as we migrated to the backyard. I was 'nominated' to be her instructor. Things were complicated by her relative small size (5'2" / 157.5 cm) and mass (98 lbs. / 44.45 kg.). Figuring out all she really wanted to do was grab my cock, or nuts (both clothed) and pinch my nipples took all of thirty seconds.

While tickling is not in your regularly accepted repertoire of wrestling moves, I had grown up with two brothers and plenty of young cousins. With my superior reach and strength, Vicky never stood a chance ... so Kaelyne rushed in as well. When she proved unable to turn the tide (recall: I'm one of three -- triplets), Brandy jumped me as well. This time I had the good sense to go down under their combined might, cry and beg for mercy.

[THURSDAY]

With Brandy's acquiescence, if not outright permission, I gave Randi Leigh a blowjob opportunity before Home Room on Thursday. Mikhail was in the stall next to mine doing the exact same thing with Alondra. The difference was Alondra left with bounce in her stride and a smile on her face. Randi Leigh was fidgeting and uneasy.

We missed Lunch Period, replacing it with a truncated orgy session which included Taliyah and Brandy plus Vantrice Kirby, Mia Ryker and Le 'Pearl' Yates. That left only Noémie Lucie Desdunes (in her case the middle name was a Creole thing) and Amber Lee Huffington, who were both in the B&T camp anyway. We could get them Saturday, or so the plotting went.

The (Football) Coach and Principal decided since Friday was a 'home' game, we would have a 'memorial' service for Darius Pope ~ not that he had actually died, or anything ~ instead of the standard 'victory' party after the game. Apparently the Principal thought Brandy, as Darius' girlfriend, could help coordinate the function. Help as in work with the suddenly school-active Jewel Lafontanté.

The other event was HELL MUST HAVE FROZEN OVER and Satan had Klansmen shoveling coal like mad while he shivered in his igloo chateau ... at least as far as the Kingston & Davis County social scene was concerned. The family of Gayle Fonteneau was invited to dinner at ... the house of the Madam Mayor aka Dominique and Chinedu Malik.

Her father had broken the hold the Fonteneau's had over the town which once bore their name -- but now was Kingston, back in the late 1960's and early 70's, ushering an age of Black Supremacy into this burgh. It hadn't been an easy, or happy, transition either. Generations of Fonteneaus had treated the town as an extension of their own estate and hadn't welcomed the march of democratic progress.

My Mom's rape, Uncle Theo's rampage of vengeance, and the resulting cover-up had severed the links between the Fonteneau Clan and the town of Kingston. That was the other, hidden, part of 'The Deal' which saw Uncle Theo going to a military school, not straight-out prison, for the punishment he'd visited on my mother's attackers.

It could be argued Mom was now violating the 'corrupt' bargain between old Mayor Fox and Great Aunt Matilda. I also imagined neither ever thought their heirs would ever find 'common cause'. Both were now safely dead and if his daughter, Dominque, was bothered by this, she was doing the opposite of complaining.

Had I realized how much Mom was sending Dominque's way, I would have been stunned. Had I realized how little of the Fonteneau fortune her support represented, I'd have cringed. The Fonteneau has been rife with eccentric, often wicked, geniuses for over two centuries.

They'd invented and patented stuff, they swindled, robbed & stole from kinfolk, neighbors, towns, tribes, corporations and countries, and they invested that wealth with prescient ability. Unlike other famous American capitalists and industrialists, they hadn't felt obliged to build theater halls, university buildings, or jack-squat to remind the Rest Of The World how rich they'd become.

No -- they had miserly hoarded their wealth with one family member in each generation getting the lion's share along with the tacit understanding they took care of one another. That had equated to Great-Aunt Matilda being the inheritor in her generation, yet taking care of her sister's children as if they were her own.

How much did 'we' have? Mom snorted and told me the Fonteneau never kept all their money in one place -- in case something happened. Still, it wasn't like Uncle Cassius in that Indonesian prison didn't have his own 'resources' to keep him safe, or Uncle Theo kept evading prosecution based solely on his military training. Had either of those funds been traced back to our family, there could have been trouble ... and those were just two examples of how Great-Aunt Matilda dispersed the family fortune.

Anyway, I decided to bring Brandy along as my date/protective shielding. Mikhail laughingly suggested Alexander bring Ms. Blanchard. He suggested Vicky. I suggested Alondra. He scoffed. I suggested we'd need the distraction plus someone we could rely on to keep their mouth shut if something untoward happened (or, in Alondra's case, failed to understand the significance of).

[...]

After 'dressing up', Mikhail and I had to double-back to school to pick up Brandy, Taliyah and Alondra for dinner. They, and about forty other students, had been shanghaied by Jewel into making the auditorium into a tribute to Darius Pope ~ odd since I imagined she despised the guy and rejoiced at his departure.

"Hey there," Jewel greeted us as we entered the largely empty arena. "Vlad, is it? Mikhail?"

Jewel was a tall (nearly 6 feet) woman with skin a soft shade of brown enhanced with coppery highlights. Currently her long, kinky black hair was worn braided with a mixture of beads and ribbons which 'clacked' when she moved. Her figure was dynamite, more a powerful Amazonian 'C' to Brandy's curvaceous 'D', but an ass just as scrumptious.

Her lips were wide and her nose broad, but her most sensual quality, in my eyes, was her smoldering dark eyes -- so dark they seemed totally devoid of an iris, yet keenly perceptive and subtly intelligent, surrounded by the longest, most natural-appearing eyelashes I'd ever witnessed.

Today she was in a leather, electric blue mini-skirt, white knee socks and a long sleeved, skin-tight white shirt with the torso-sized images of a rampant phoenix and tiger facing one another on both front and back.

"Yes. Vladimir and Mikhail Samsonov, Ms. Lafontanté. A pleasure to meet you," I stated since we'd never been formerly introduced. Likewise, I'd been raised a gentleman who waited for a lady to offer her hand to be shaken before a man shook it.

She gave me an appraising, almost predatory, up-and-down gaze.

"Call me Jewel," she extended me her hand.

"Vlad!" Brandy called out. Her someone must be trying to poach my Man sense must have gone off because I was definitely getting that sensation as her fingertips played across my fingers and palm before we shook hands. She had a confident, solid grip.

"Princess," I was continuing to 'test drive' Brandy's pet name as I looked around Jewel.

"We are almost done," Jewel shifted so as to interrupt my view (almost worked -- but I was taller than she was).

"Let me help then," I offered, even as I realized she hadn't let go of my hand yet.

"I'm planning on it," she smirked, then released my hand and spun quickly around.

"Alright!" she addressed the room, the word accentuated with a sharp clap of her hands. "Let's finish getting those banners hung -- Brandy?"

Brandy was decidedly ignoring Jewel by throwing herself into my embrace and including an impressive, tongue-hungry lip-lock. 'Ummmm ... tasty'. I kept her off the ground, so she decide to kick up both her legs until her heels almost touched her buttocks. When our mouths separated, she gave off a breathless giggle.

"Strawberry?" I questioned the flavor of her lip balm.

"Yes," she grinned. With exaggerated slowness, Brandy turned to Jewel. "Almost done, Jefe?"

"So Jewel, I understand your regular cock wasn't getting the job done," were the first words out of Mikhail's mouth -- the Jackass! The assumption was he was referencing her dumping her last boyfriend ... who was also here tonight.

"Mikhail!" Brandy gawked.

"Damn it, Mikhail," I pivoted and glared at him.

"You auditioning for the job?" Jewel took a provocative pose. So much for the possibility of being offended. It was at times like this I didn't get women at all.

"I'm willing to put you in my rotation," he bantered back courageously.

"What is mine, is mine. I don't share," Jewel volleyed.

"You won't be the first Top Bitch I've had to deal with. Won't be the last," he chuckled.

"Am I 'your type'?"

"Babe, you are hitting on all cylinders -- you're smart, fierce, built like a true athlete ... plus you think you are better than me," he leered.

"I'm AM better than you, Samsonov."

"By all means," he took two steps her way. "Prove it."

"Mikhail, we are here to retrieve our dates and go to dinner with our parents," I reminded him. "Speaking of which ~ where are Taliyah and Alondra?"

"Which one of you is dating Alondra?" Jewel scoffed. With the way she said 'Alondra' she might as well have said 'The Chihuahua'. I put Brandy down.

"Alexander," Brandy simmered. "They bonded over having a soul ... unlike some people." Gosh, that was awful feisty of Brandy. "Vlad, they went to get some colored light filters for the spotlights. They should be back soon."

"Hey now," I patted Brandy's butt. "Needless hostility isn't getting the work done." I used that hand on the butt to press her against my hard-on to remind her of our primal connection.

Her eyes flashed up, she gave me a salacious look, two hip wiggles, and then sauntered off to complete whatever project she was assigned. I tagged along because I both liked that ass and decided keeping close to her was my best bet to stay safe. Jewel directed Mikhail to help with something else. When Taliyah returned with Alondra and Misty Dawn in tow (along with several boxes of something), she immediately alerted to his distraction.

She gave him no warning of her approach. Unfortunately for her, growing up triplets left us all a bit hyper-situationally aware and always ready for some rough and tumble, so Mikhail clued into the impending threat right before Taliyah repeated her Charlie Horse from Hell. Instead, he caught her blow, pulling her in and pinning one of her arms behind her back.

"Care to explain that?" Mikhail mused ~ 'that' being the incoming pain.

"I saw you scoping her out," Taliyah sizzled.

"Well-duh," he snorted, "but I wasn't touching, or anything."

"You'd better not be."

"Don't you have some work to do?" Jewel intervened.

"Yeah ... if this Neanderthal would unhand me ..."

"You going to take another swing at me?"

"You going to give me a reason to remind you to behave?" Taliyah snapped.

"Most likely," my triplet shrugged then let her go.

"Come on Alondra," Taliyah called over to the cheerleader. They went off to stack up the proper colored light filters by the various spot lights. The actual work would be done by the custodial staff sometime tomorrow.

[...]

Soon enough we finished all our assignments. Jewel's No. 1 minion -- a short, Sepia-complexioned, sharp-looking young lady named Dana Owens -- checked off each completed item on her tablet as the group leaders reported to Jewel. She ran a very tight, almost scarily-so, regime. Notable absent were the student-athletes.

Notably present was Jewel's ex-boyfriend, Shaka Sneed. He was handsome enough, chestnut-hued, slight acne-scarring along his cheeks with lighting-bolts cut on each side of his more-on-top, closer-cropped-on-the-side/back curly hair. He was right as 6' and broad enough in the chest and narrow enough in the hip to suggest he worked out once, or twice, a week, but his attempt to physically intimidate Mikhail was woefully ill-considered.

His shiny, black tennis shoes, dark-grey slacks and black t-shirt were all top quality and tight enough to suggest he was 'aroused', but he was playing out of his league when comparing himself to any of us. Clearly not every BBC stud was packing a 10" Passion Piston inside his boxers and with all the hot chicks Jewel had assembled, it would have been pretty discernable it he'd had one.

"I don't like the way you were talking to Jewel," he approached my brother as we were exiting the school.

With so many polite replies to choose from and a proper dinner to get to ..."What are you going to do about it?" we turned and regarded him.

"I ... ah ..." Shaka stammered. Open, obvious defiance wasn't what he expected, despite some of the clear signs we Samsonovs weren't playing by the established rules.

"Listen up, Shaky," Mikhail feigned annoyance, "I've got a dinner to go to. If all you are going to do is spit at me, I'm going to get to it. I'll catch up with you at lunch tomorrow and we'll settle Jewel's perceptions of your penile inadequacies then."

"It is Shaka," he insisted angrily.

"Whatever," Mikhail shrugged.

"I'm going to inform Principal Jean-Georges of your threats," Shaka pledged.

"What threats?" Mikhail gave a lopsided grin.

"You threatened to fight me at lunch tomorrow," he looked left then right. We had quite a gathering. Since none of them looked ready to fight, it wasn't a problem.

"My exact words," my triplet sounded bored, "we'll settle Jewel's perceptions of your penile inadequacies. Not once did I mention the words 'fight', punishment, or violence of any kind, Shaky."

"It is Shaka!" he growled.

"It is Thomas," Jewel announced in an amused tone. She'd been locking up.

"Shaky's real name is Thomas?" Mikhail's gaze settled on Jewel. "Why the fuck did he pick a shitty nickname like Shaky when he had a perfectly good name like Thomas to go by?"

"IT IS SHAKA -- you pinhead!" Shaka shouted.

"Shaka? What kind of lame name is that?" Mikhail mocked him.

"It is Zulu, you dumbass cracker," he glared.

"Why didn't you pick a more relevant name ... like ... Vlad, help me out here?" Mikhail's countenance lost all its humor.

"Like Agaja, Askia, Ewuare, or Samori?" I supplied some viable alternatives.

"Yeah ~ them. You know; West African war leaders you might have some relation to as opposed to a South African butcher who is as likely related to you as I am to Christopher Columbus, you dumbass nigger."

Silence.

A White Boy had called a Black Man a 'nigger' and not just the 'n-word'.

"What did you call me?" Shaka puffed himself up.

"Whatever was the appropriate abusive racial insulting counter to 'cracker', pencil-dick," Mikhail huffed.

"Say it."

"Shaky."

"You little bitch," he said in a low voice.

"I promised we'd revisit your penile inadequacies at lunch tomorrow, Shaky, not now. If you are not going to 'jump', I've got a dinner to go to."

"Chicken-shit."

"I really don't have the time to go down the long list of all the things Jewel called you as she kicked you out of bed, Shaky ..." and then Shaka shoved him.

"That'll do, Pig. That'll do," Mikhail chortled. He was getting ready to fight. We really didn't have the time to clean up this mess ~ I had no doubt Mikhail would destroy Shaka in ten seconds flat. The problem was we'd have to stick around and deal with the fallout which was time we didn't have.

"Enough," Jewel intervened both verbally and vocally. She had two of her ladies backing her up. I had a firm hand on Mikhail's shoulder as a reminder we had to be elsewhere. "Shaka, I thought better of you," she looked at her ex. "He's playing you."

"You've been playing with him," Shaka countered.

"Even if I was -- which I was not (she wasn't?), I'm not your property, or your woman," she sneered. "You are pathetic. I dumped you because I know I can do better."

Ouch! That was harsh.

"No ~ you can't," Taliyah spoke up aka demarcating Mikhail. "Not while I'm standing."

"Damn you, Jewel," Shaka grabbed his former girl by the arm. "I ..."

And then she laid into him. I was pretty sure it was elbow to the solar plexus, a stomp on the instep and then an arm grab into judo flip, but head-over-heels Shaka went. I say 'pretty sure' because it was dusk and Jewel move freaky-fast. Shaka had been completely flipped over onto his back in that final, fluid move.

Even though Jewel still had a painful hold of his wrist, it was clear Shaka was out of the fight. Any sane combatant would have stopped at that point. Not Jewel. Up came her foot and down came that heel on his crotch. Shaka hissed like a punctured Zeppelin. Every single guy who witnessed the blow recoiled instinctively in sympathetic agony as well. Not to be outdone though ...

"I guess Shaka Zulu is now just another Bushman Brother," Mikhail quipped jokingly.

"You are useless," Taliyah began to drag him away.

"How is any of this my fault?" Mikhail laughed. "I didn't lay a hand on him."

"You opened your fool-mouth," she groused. She was dragging him off though.

"Alright everyone!" Jewel announced. "Time to go home."

Quickly enough there were only nine of us left standing there; Jewel, her six posse members, me and Brandy. Alondra had retreated with Taliyah and Mikhail. Shaka was still on the ground, hands cupping his tenderized privates.

"Yes?" Jewel tilted her head as she examined me.

"I'm hanging around to make sure Shaka makes it to his car okay."

"I'll see to it."

"I'll wait."

"I said I'll see to it," she reiterated as her eyes narrowed.

"Vlad, let's go," Brandy tugged on my dress jacket.

"I heard you the first time, Ms. Lafontanté. You are also the one who put him in his current incapacitated condition, so I am going to stick around until I know he can take care of himself."

"Do you think you can take me?" she shifted into a fighting stance ~ all subtle-like.

"I don't know. It isn't about me thinking I can beat you up. It is about not leaving any person at the mercy of those who would do them harm," I explained coolly.

"Really?" she blinked.

"Really."

"And if I tell you to get lost, or else?"

I heard a car trunk shut rather gently ~ it was the 'click' of the lock engaging. Then came the crunch of the loose gravel on asphalt as my brother returned. Jewel's eyes shifted passed me, to him then back to me.

"You were stalling for time?"

"Pretty much," I relaxed minutely.

"Here you go," Mikhail handed me a padded, rattan practice broadsword. He had another broadsword plus a targe (a ~ 20" diameter shield of Scottish origin).

"It is still seven on two odds." from Jewel.

"We'll fight," Brandy stated defensively.

"You and I ~" Taliyah directly addressed Jewel.

"Means nothing," Jewel snorted. I could virtually see her work out the fight in her mind, going over and then discarding the various possibilities and resulting outcomes. Too many left her and hers with too many welts and bruises (rattan swords really sting) without a completely positive outcome.

"You don't even like him," she motioned to the still moaning Shaka.

"That never matters," Mikhail shrugged. "The moment you stomped on Shaky's peanuts, I knew Vlad wouldn't leave him here -- at your mercy ... so here we are."

"Vlad?" Jewel searched my eyes for answers.

"Right is right and wrong is wrong," I responded. "There is just and unjust punishment. You had every right to throw Mr. Sneed to the ground."

"The heel to the groin was excessive," I could hear myself channeling my Father. "At that point, he became a victim too. As my Brother said, I couldn't leave him at your mercy uncertain of your intentions."

"So you do think you can take me," she grinned like a Moray eel.

"I was really unsure until my Brother put this practice sword in my hand and returned to my side," I related. "Even now, I'm not 100% positive. I've never witnessed your style of marital arts and you are certainly very good. That doesn't matter. Since I doubted Brandy would have gotten involved no matter what and I doubted you would have wantonly harmed her, I had to at least try and protect Mr. Snead. I couldn't be 'me' any other way."

Jewel dissected my words, body language and the reactions of the three people at my side before tossing her hair and walking away.

"ZPP! (Zulu Princess Posse) Usuthu! Let's go get some milkshakes," she announced with a fist raised high in the air.

"Usuthu!" the rest cried out, fists raised. Then they too departed.

"Let's pour Shaka into his vehicle. He should be safe inside," I told the others. Three minutes later, a bleary-eyed Student Body President was able to roll his Burgundy 2014 Honda Accord Sport away, then it was our turn. On the way to the Malik homestead, I drove while Brandy cuddled up to me. Mikhail, Taliyah and Alondra shared the back seat, yet all remained quiet.

[THE DINNER]

***************Alexander***Alondra***Mikhail***Taliyah

Dominique***************************************************Chinedu

***************Gayle********Nikolay****Brandy****Vlad

Dinner was awkward ... no -- bizarre. After the introductions went around, Mom and Madame Mayor started talking politics, or more precisely - the politics of practicality, and essentially ignored the rest of us. That left Taliyah's Dad, Chinedu to glare at us with varying degrees of anger (at the start) and lust (as dinner wore on).

Dad was Dad. After the greetings, he remained utterly calm and unengaging. Brandy started out nervous and became more playful/cuddly as the night progressed. Alexander was rather quiet as well. Taliyah was icy, so Mikhail started up a banter with Alondra.

Alondra appeared to be having the time of her life. She complemented the Malik's on their house and Dominique on the meal (though I suspected it had been 'catered'). If she realized she was being ogled by Mr. Malik, she gave no sign. She came from a Working-class family, so wasn't used to all of this 'excess'.

Brandy and Taliyah were bringing in the various courses of the meal then removing them as the dinner progressed. The Malik dining table wasn't big enough for a group this large and the whole meal had to be placed at the same time. After the first time, I offered to help and was 'shushed', so I kept my place and silence.

I was halfway through my Brandy-Banana Pudding (named for the alcoholic beverage) when 'shit happened'.

"So Alondra, do you like dating a White boy?" Mr. Malik asked Alondra.

She turned, looked at him with open-faced innocence and asked "Who?"

"That dog," he poked a pudding laden spoon at Mikhail.

"We are on a date?" she turned and asked Mikhail.

"Well, you are," he smiled, "with him," he pointed past her to Alexander.

"Oh right," she turned to Alexander. "Thank you," she turned her pleasure on our oldest triplet.

"Dad," Taliyah gave a warning hiss. He tried to silence her with a glare.

"Oh come on, Alondra, how many of these Samsonov boys are you letting white wash you?" he leered.

"Chine," Dominique snapped from the far end of the table.

"Huh?" Alondra returned her gaze to the (masculine) head of the table.

"Fuck you," Mr. Malik clarified what 'white washing' was ~ having White boys put their sperm in/on you.

"Chinedu, where are your manners?" Dominique stood up, righteously pissed.

Alondra was looking to her fellow cheerleaders for direction. Taliyah was shocked by her father's outburst, so it fell to Brandy to motion Alondra to 'wait'.

"Come on now," Chinedu faked amusement. "No harm in finding out what's been going on at school since Darius Pope was fucking crippled."

"Mr. Malik," my Father stood and addressed the Man of the House in a stoic manner, "if you wish information on the case, perhaps we should step outside on your back porch and have our talk there."

"Yeah ... right," he sneered.

"Sir, you are distressing your household for no good purpose. How about we take a step back and ..."

"This is MY house," Chinedu Malik did rise out of his chair this time.

"Gayle -- time to go," Dad addressed my Mom in a formal, yet respectful manner. "Mrs. Malik, it was a pleasure meeting you and thank you very much for the dinner and hospitality."

"That's right, get your ass outta here," Chinedu muttered.

"Mrs. Malik -- Taliyah -- Mr. Malik," my brothers and I chorused. It was the polite thing to do. We began to escort our dates away with us. It was obvious to me Brandy wanted to stay with her BFF. That wasn't going to happen with her dad this upset.

We were in the entryway, filing out to the cars when Dominique came out to say good-bye to us all. It was an incredibly brittle affair. She'd been humiliated by her husband's behavior. Taliyah flew up the stairs to her room without a word. This time it wasn't going to be possible for Mikhail to interfere.

Two minutes later, we had been pulled over by the Kingston PD ~ all six police cruisers because we'd taken two vehicles -- Dad's pick-up truck (Mom and Dad) and Mom's Mustang (the rest of us) and in short order, all the people had been pulled out and put up against the hoods of our rides; the men on one side and the ladies on the other. We had our hands on some metal and our legs spread.

They knew exactly who we were. After all, it was Kingston's Chief of Police, Demetrius Quinterre himself leading the 'interrogation'.

"I'm going to have to search you, Gayle," he leered at our Mom. From the front of my car I could see him lean in and whisper something into her ear. The Black officer behind Dad was poised for trouble.

"Hey!" Brandy yelped. She was getting 'frisked' too.

"Calm down," her tormentor chuckled. It wasn't lost on me I had a Black cop behind me and Mikhail as well just waiting for us to do something stupid. The headlights coming our way were initially overlooked ... until its emergency LED's flashed and siren squawked once. The whole police crew jolted.

Chief Quinterre took a step back from Mom. I couldn't see his face, but I could imagine from his body posture he was furious because this was a Sheriff's SUV. Sheriff Big Bob Carson stepped out of the driver's side, putting on his 'cowboy' hat as he did so.

"Carson," Chief Quinterre growled, "this ain't your jurisdiction."

And then, from the passenger side, stepped that 'nice' lady from the Arkansas Highway Patrol's Criminal Investigation Division, Sergeant Louisa Petrakis.

"I agree," she spoke up.

"Daddy!" came from Brandy at the same time.

"Demetrius, I was dining at Bosco's {one of Northwest Arkansas' premier BBQ restaurants} with the Sergeant here when I got word from my Senior Deputy your entire department had rolled out ... for something," Sheriff Carson presented his open hands.

"Six cars seems a bit excessive for a regular traffic stop, Chief Quinterre," the Sergeant added.

"This ain't your jurisdiction either, Sergeant Petrakis," he turned on the State Investigator. "And I find it suspicious you eat'n with this Cracker while looking into what happened to poor Darius."

"Why?" she looked him over. "He doesn't match the description of any of the assailants, he had no motive to attack any of those boys and he has been completely cooperative with my investigation. Are you withholding any piece of information which might be helpful?"

"Everyone knows he didn't like Darius -- or any Black buck dating his daughter," Demetrius grumbled.

"Really? That has little relevance since Ms. Carson broke up with Mr. Pope the week before and started dating Vladimir Samsonov ... both of whom appear to be here tonight," the detective pointed out. "No one recalls Mr. Pope and Mr. Samsonov having words over the matter."

Okay, having spent most of my life around law enforcement, I KNEW she knew she was being lied to. She simply couldn't figure out by whom over what. I was a suspect even though I had an alibi. Women were one of the top five reasons men hurt/killed one another and had been forever. I did fit the description ~ size-wise ~ of one of the assailants. I certainly appeared to be capable.

There HAD to be a reason people weren't telling the State Investigator the truth, which had to be annoying the shit out of her. Now she was rolling up on all six of Kingston's night patrol staff who had pulled over the Samsonov clan plus dates ... and with no 'Wants or Warrants' in evidence. Then there was the ugly reaction she was getting from those cops.

It didn't take a patrolwoman a year out of the Academy to realize this stunk to High Heavens and had nothing to do with jurisdiction. Big Bob wasn't even interfering. He had 'stopped by' which was totally legit and the local law enforcement was acting as if they has been caught doing something wrong ... because they were doing something wrong.

There was a stand-off.

"Chief Quinterre, what is going on here?" Sgt. Petrakis inquired.

"Traffic stop. I suspect they're under the influence," he lied.

"Perhaps you might want to reconsider that," she hardened, "when you learn Mrs. Samsonov's phone has been on the entire time -- up to and including your little chat with her a few seconds ago."

"Wha-what?" he gobbled.

"I think we should go back to the station and work this out," she continued.

"I ... uh ... she," he turned and glared hate at Mom. "It is her fault," he raved. "She set me up!"

"How so? She set this traffic stop up?" she came around the SUV, hand on her hip-holstered sidearm.

"I ... ah ..." Demetrius took in the greater circumstances. Whatever kind of scumbag he was, it was a long leap from asking his 'boys' to mess us up a bit to participate in murdering us all.

"Elijah, isn't it?" my Father turned to the cop warding him. "This is probably the point where you and your friends want to get back in your vehicles and call the City Attorney."

"Huh?" the officer whose first name had to be Elijah gulped. Dad was good with names.

"Fuck you, Samsonov," the Chief sputtered. "You don't give my men orders."

"Yes. There is going to be an official investigation into this and you and the other four need to get your ducks in a row as well as prepare the city of Kingston for the possibility of a criminal investigation," Dad continued.

"What? Why? I didn't do anything wrong?" he protested.

"Shut up!" Demetrius hollered.

"I believe you," Dad nodded, "but we both know non-law enforcement are going to be asking some embarrassing questions such as did you find it odd for the Chief to have ..."

"I said ..." the Chief threatened.

"I wouldn't if I were you," the Sergeant countered.

"... you and four other officers out for a pre-planned operation such as this," Dad finished up. "You need to think about your families as well as the city's reputation."

My Father had been speaking in a steady, compassionate voice, yet it had carried to all of the people present. The problem for Demetrius was my Dad was making sense, speaking like a fellow cop and it looked like the Chief was suddenly in serious trouble. It was 'all rats racing to desert the sinking ship' time now.

[...]

Mind you, this didn't result in the instantaneous destruction of Demetrius Quinterre. It did, after Sergeant Petrakis brought in a few more Highway Patrol Officers, mean an official investigation was opened. Then the dominoes began falling. See, by harassing Mom, Demetrius had threatened Madam Mayor's future. Worse for him, he'd sided with her husband in their family feud.

In the morning, after Mom and Brandy filed charges, the Mayor harangued the City Council into suspending the Chief and the officer who had felt up Brandy -- Without Pay. They didn't want to. The Chief especially was 'one of their own', but the Mayor insisted his 'corrupt' handling of the department made Kingston look bad ... so under the bus he went ... with his buddies assuring him he'd get his job back once the heat died down.

It was a poorly kept secret it was Chinedu Malik who had tipped off Chief Quinterre to our dinner arrangements and our departure into his trap. That became yet another reason for our Madam Mayor to rage against her spouse. With those two's lives beginning to unravel, the final conspirator who had raped my Mom all those years ago, Xerxes Pope, should have been sweating bullets. I would have been. That's for sure.

[FRIDAY]

We were all dragging ass Friday morning after our long stay in downtown Kingston. Taliyah, when we met her before Homeroom, was mopey, strongly suggesting she was suffering through a tumultuous home life. Before lunch, I was shanghaied into the Boy's Restroom by Randi Leigh for a short, brutal round of fucking.

Once again, I left her a shaken, shattered mess and once again, I felt more like her drug pusher than her lover. It sucked for both of us. At least Brandy was somewhat sympathetic ... if also horny.

Thomas 'Shaka' Sneed failed to cross the lunch area to settle any issues concerning Jewel Lafontanté with Mikhail. Maybe he was grateful to us for helping him to his car. Maybe he decided, after the colossal ass-whooping Jewel had visited on him, that they were definitely 'broken up'. Mikhail could have cared less as Alondra and Taliyah played 'King of the Hill' with the goal being his lap for most of the time period.

By the time we were dragging our sorry asses out at the end of 7th period, I was praying to put my head on a pillow. Jed Lee Early and three other rich, White folks were waiting for us ~ just me and Mikhail this time around.

"Jed," I nodded to him. We shared two classes, so we'd exchanged greetings a few times before.

"Vlad," he stopped leaning on the Shelby, "we should talk."

"Talk away," I sighed. This didn't sound like a 'fun' talk.

"Buck is going to be a serious problem at our school and ... I was wondering what, if anything, you Samsonov's plan to do about it?"

"What do you suggest we do?" Mikhail shrugged.

"Listen Jed, until he does something wrong ... I mean, we aren't the Law," I stated firmly. "What makes you think Buck is going to violate the terms of his probation and if he does, why don't you think the Sheriff and his Probation Officer won't be able to handle it?"

Under 'normal' circumstances I figured Jed would have taken his worries to Darius, or whoever held Darius' place before him in the Black hierarchy ... which was probably Darius' brother ... the one in prison.

"It is ... well, after y'all took out Darius ... students are wondering what you'll do about Buck before Buck decides to do something about you," Jed hedged.

"One -- we didn't take out Darius. Two -- we aren't out for the top spot -- period. We'd like to go to classes, play some basketball, date and eventually graduate in June. That's our Grand Plan. If our grades remain high enough, we'll go to a college somewhere."

"For fuck sake," Mikhail laughed bitterly. "This is High School. We should all be figuring out how to escape this place, like every other sixteen, seventeen and eighteen year old in this country. This is not the 'end-all -- be-all' of existence. Stop acting like it is."

"But if Buck really starts to cause problems ..." Jed persisted.

"We call the cops, like regular, sane people," I cut him off. "We've got plenty; city, county and State are all right around here."

"Plus over 8,000 National Guardsmen," Mikhail piled on the facts. "I hear they fly the A-10 Thunderbolts too."

"You aren't taking this seriously," Jed frowned.

"Jed, what do you want us to do?" I glared.

"I ... uh ... be careful ... about Buck ... he's ..." he stumbled over his bad intentions.

"Preemptively attacking Buck would make us as criminal as Buck, Jed," I explained. "We aren't criminals. We simply don't like bullies, thugs and injustice."

"But Darius ..."

"Vigilantism only happens when every other avenue of legal justice fails, Jed," I put a hand on his shoulder. "For that matter, the easiest way to check Buck's power is to not give him any. Don't knuckle under. What is he going to do? Fight us all? And the teachers? And the cops?"

"He hurts people."

"Then report him to the authorities," I countered.

"Did that help with Alexander?" he volleyed.

"I don't know," I lied. "No one seems to have seen what happened to Alexander. Pity about that too, because we Samsonov's are truly curious about who beat up our brother."

"Ah ..."

"That's right, Jed," Mikhail's eyes shifted over Jed's small crowd. "We'd sure like to know the names of the individuals who put a beat-down on our triplet."

"Oh ... okay," Jed nodded.

"We need to get home and grab a bite to eat before the game," I reminded Jed.

He nodded then parted so we could access the car. On the ride home, Mikhail was grim.

"Think any of them know who did it?"

"Not directly, but they might be able to find out from loose lips ... which might be sealed around us," I suggested.

"They should have done it already, not because their terrified of Buck."

"It is an imperfect world, Mikhail," I stated. "We don't surrender to it. We don't pretend it is what it isn't either."

"Alexander remains unavenged," he grumbled. "I know we didn't get all those bastards -- not by a longshot."

"Mom says to be patient," I counseled. "They can't come forward with what they did because that is admitting to Assault and Battery with Special Circumstances [their premeditation in ambushing Alexander], ... plus they would have to implicate Darius as well, which would ruin his martyr status."

"It still is infuriating. They bring in a fucking State Investigator for Darius -- everyone else seems eager to forget what happened to Alexander," Mikhail griped.

"Thus the 'imperfect world' and what happened," I consoled him. "Plus, do you think Mom has either forgiven, or forgotten? Or me? Or Dad?"

"Ha," he snorted. "They'd better pray Dad finds them before the rest of us do," he gave me a feral snarl. "I sure as shit hope he doesn't."

"Let's keep with the plan. We are still Strangers in a Strange Land."

That reminder was enough for the time.

[REQUIEM]

Once more, our esteemed academic Captain, Dr. Pierre O'Rourke Jean-Georges, led us through a rather confused and unhappy post-game liturgy in honor of ... well in support of racial unity, I guessed. It was really hard to tell with the way he would ramble off-point every few minutes. The Football Team was in chairs on the floor of the gym with the Cheer Squad and Student Government. The rest of the student body was squeezed into the bleachers ~ very cozy.

The Special Investigator also spoke briefly to the assembly, asking for our help on the case. The school was also hiring a 'Racial Grievance Counselor' who was, surprise, surprise, Dr. Nubia Franklin Jean-Georges -- our Principal's wife. I was kind of curious who was making the school system pony up the money for her services as well as precisely when the 'interview' process had taken place.

"I wonder if she's qualified," Kaelyne whispered.

"I wonder where they are going to stick her," Vicky mused.

"Oh, I imagine she is going to get 'stuck' alright," Mikhail snickered beneath his hand. Oh yeah, she was statuesque, smart, Black and projected complete confidence ~ right up my youngest triplets' alley.

"Ow," he play-protested after Kaelyne smacked him.

"I did that for Taliyah," she declared.

"She'll appreciate that," I promised.

"I know she will," Kaelyne smiled at me. After that disastrous Monday, Taliyah had been making steady headway in gaining Kaelyne's forgiveness which showed both her character (it was the right thing to do) and smarts (fear of my Mom).

"So ... Alexander, what kind of bathing suit should I wear tomorrow?" Vicky teased our eldest.

"One made out of edible body paint," he turned and winked. "Big Bob is gone all weekend to some Sheriff's convention in Miami, Florida. He goes to it every year." Alexander being sexy-nice to Vicky was ALSO a good sign for our upcoming weekend.

A withering glance from the Coach stilled our conversation. It was bad enough we were 'disrespecting' Darius' shindig. Our team had gotten their asses handed to them tonight in a game they should have won even without our star Running Back. It was easy to see having his father face criminal charges and loss of employment had shaken up Rashaan.

His first outing as Team Captain had been a disaster ... and now he had to sit here and listen to the various tributes to the guy he'd failed to replace instead of going anywhere else and getting shit-faced drunk and LAID. The prognosis for both were pretty grim too, ...what with the law enforcement being extra vigilant and the Cheer Squad being surprisingly inattentive to the Football Team's needs ... which he was also getting blamed for.

Darius had not only provided his players with victories, he had provided them status and perks as the premier athletes at school with the heritage of multiple highly successful teams being handed to them. Everyone 'looked the other way' because they were on the FOOTBALL TEAM. All the girls wanted to be with them. Their parties always had plenty of alcohol and weed. They got good grades with minimal, if any, studying. Life had been good.

Rashaan was having a horrific time maintaining that legacy. Not only could he not supply for his team, he couldn't even keep his own house in order. He had gone from 'three' hot-ass bitches (running true to type, the BBCs still refused to believe Taliyah had left him for Mikhail a week ago but now she, Sultana Berry and Randi Leigh Upshaw were openly gone) to none.

Sure, they could still get 2nd and 3rd tier 'skanks', but just seeing all that prime booty walking around and knowing it SHOULD be theirs and wasn't really bothered those student-athletes. A further complication was that under Darius, he kept the prime pussy specifically regulated both coming and going. That way the boys didn't have to worry about condoms, pregnancies and STDs.

He kept the players clean by keeping the mouths, asses and vaginas they were fucking clean. No player stuck his dick into an unauthorized hole because if you did, Darius would destroy you. The object was to fuck who you wished in a safe hunting ground. Rashaan couldn't keep that level of discipline among either the women, or his own teammates.

Rashaan also couldn't keep the booze and weed freely flowing. Darius hadn't shared his drug pipeline and wasn't likely to. Rashaan wasn't even trusted with the names of the entities capable and willing to buy and distribute alcohol to the under 21 crowd, plus Sheriff Big Bob's deputies were on the lookout for such shenanigans -- more than happy to slap the cuffs on anyone 'Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor'.

As a final blow, his dad was no longer Chief of Police. Sure, he was being promised that ruling would soon be reversed; but for Rashaan, it was yet another blow landing at an unfortunate time. His problems weren't mine, and I had more than enough of my own. He'd have to sink, or swim, on his own.

We were released at 10:37 pm -- far past the time for any of us to have any fun. The Cheer Squad angled for us as we left the bleachers with Taliyah looking particularly livid. A few football players were making a nuisance of themselves, but I sensed her troubles ran deeper.

"Hey, Betty Jo," one of our linemen tried to separate out the pale-haired blonde, "let's head out and party." Two more moved to put a wall between my brothers and her.

"I'm tired," she complained.

"You'll feel better soon," he promised.

"Without your help," I grumbled. I wedged between the two, they put their hands on me and then Mikhail and Alexander drove fingers into each of their Solar Plexus. With them temporarily gasping for air, we put a perimeter around the other ladies while I put an arm around Betty Jo's waist.

"Boy," the athlete hissed, "you best let go of this piece of ass."

Betty Jo's eyes flashed from him to me, caught between shame and hunger.

"I'm not a boy, your boy, or anyone, but my parent's boy," I hardened. "I'd appreciate it you never demean Betty Jo like you just did either."

"Is there a problem?" a White Deputy working his way through the crowd called out.

"This ain't over, Peckerwood," the lineman snarled under his breath.

"Thanks for the warning, Dumbo," I mocked him. He had big ears.

"It is Greg, Shithead," he corrected me angrily.

"Separate -- you two," the Deputy demanded.

"Yes, officer," I backed off. I had the girl which was the important thing.

"Vlad?" Brandy cuddled up to me as we left the auditorium.

"All's good," I assured her. "Normal threats and insults. Nothing more."

"Betty Jo -- are you okay?" she turned her attention to the woman I was escorting along.

"Oh, I'm okay. Greg wanted to talk with me, but I'm not really interested in him anymore," and then she smiled over at Alexander.

"He doesn't do it you for anymore?" Brandy teased.

"Who?" Betty Jo pursed her lips.

"Greg ... the defensive tackle."

"Oh him!" she seemed surprise. She was Alondra's cross-racial twin alright. "Yeah. He and the other guys just want to push and pump me ... it feels so ... boring really."

"Not like Alexander?" Brandy led her along.

"Oh no!" she exulted. "Alexander makes me feel all tingly ... and he doesn't call me bitch, or whore, or nothing like that," she tacked on.

The crowd was dissipating as we moved into the Parking Lot.

Alexander was in the lead with Vicky and Alondra on either side should he need support. Mikhail was slightly detached off to my left, arm around Taliyah, deep in conversation with her. His normal cheerful carelessness was gone, replaced by a serious mein. Kaelyne was behind Alex, with the other cheerleaders spread out between us. At the rear of our clump, herding us along, was ... Mom and Jewel ... huh?

They were chatting amiably, one adult to another, not a teenager to a mother. That worried me for reasons I couldn't pinpoint. A little tug from Brandy reminded me where I was suppose to be paying attention.

"Some of the girls are coming over tonight," she murmured seductively.

"The only one I want to be with is you," I frowned.

A million mega-lumens-bright smile flashed across Brandy's face.

"Not bored with me?"

"How would that ever even be possible?" I gasped.

More pure, unfiltered happiness from my Lady.

"You make me very happy, Vlad," she snuggled in.

"Ditto, Princess," I kissed the top of her head.

"Hey," Betty Jo interrupted. "Are you anything like your brother?" (?? because, ya know, we were only identical triplets??)

"We are triplets, Betty Jo," I instructed. "We are identical -- in all physical regards."

"Does that mean your dick is just as big?" she asked with innocent intent.

"Yes," Brandy confirmed. "Yes, it is."

"Oh ... nice," she smiled at Brandy.

"Betty Jo, why don't we get your stuff and head out?" Brandy suggested. Betty Jo left my side with that smile still on her lips. "Will I see you tonight?" Brandy directed my way.

"I'll try," I grinned.

"Okay," she winked then off she went to round up the others. Mikhail brushed passed me, going the other way -- toward Mom.

"I'll be hanging out with Taliyah tonight, Mom," he addressed our maternal unit.

"Is there a problem?" she studied him. Jewel was silently observant.

"I'm eighteen, tomorrow isn't a school day and I don't have any chores to do I'm aware of," he ticked off his salient points.

"Why don't you say 'hello' to Ms. Lafontanté?" Mom was falsely polite.

"Hey, Jewel," his words were brutally sparse of emotion.

"Hey, Mikhail," she was somewhat amused.

"Hey, Vlad," she was a tad more polite toward me.

"Hello, Jewel," I projected much more civility than my brother. If Mom found it necessary to chat with Jewel, it was worth all our time to be more polite and Mikhail should have known better.

"Jewel, please give me a moment with my youngest," Mom separated from that imposing young lady and walked five steps away with Mikhail.

"I'm glad we didn't have a misunderstanding last night," I proffered.

"Why?" Jewel tilted her head and appeared to dissect my every word and move.

"Violence without purpose is beyond wasteful -- it is stupid and the product of nonadaptive minds," I stated.

"I don't recognize the quote," she smiled after a moment.

"It is a Vladimir original," I smiled back.

"I think I could have taken you," she added.

I had to think over that for a few seconds myself.

"Is that what you were talking to Mom about ~ asking to come over to our house and spar?"

"Perhaps ... that and a few other things," she allowed.

Mom was coming back. Mikhail was going off with Taliyah. Why? I didn't know.

"Night Ms. Lafontanté," Mom nodded.

"Good night, Ms. Samsonov. Night Vlad."

"Night Jewel and ... you would have lost," I affirmed as I turned to leave.

There was no reply. Before we split up -- I was going back home with Alexander -- she was hanging around until Dad finished up and dismissed the other Deputies -- Mom gave me a shoulder 'bump'.

"Nice one," she grinned up at me.

"Huh?"

"With Jewel."

"She thought she could take me with a rattan practice weapon and I thought to dissuade her of that delusion," I explained. It was the truth after all.

"Girls like Jewel ... don't take 'no', or 'you can't do that' for an answer, Vlad," she enlightened me.

"Even when it is the truth?"

"Especially if it is the truth," she smirked. "Girls like Jewel want to change the World, not accept anyone's assignment for them in it."

"Well ... she is Mikhail's problem, not mine. He's hot for her. I'm perfectly happy with Brandy."

If only that was the way the World worked ...

Cheer Squad (12 Girls: 4 Black, 6 White and 2 Mixed)

(B) Sultana Berry (Very Light ~ fawn)

(W) Brandy Crystal Carson [Co-Captain]

(M) Noémie Lucie Desdunes (Creole)

(W) Amber Lee Huffington (Brunette)

(B) Vantrice Kirby (Very Dark ~ umber) (dyed florescent red-black striped, shoulder-length hair)

(B) Alondra Lamb (Very Light ~ tawny)

(B) Taliyah Malik [Co-Captain]

(W) Mia Ryker (blonde)

(W) Misty Dawn Sizemore (Russet)

(W) Betty Jo Starling (Blonde)

(W) Randi Leigh Upshaw (Brunette)

(M) Le 'Pearl' Yates -- (Black) Raven-haired, half-Vietnamese/half-Black

Zulu Princess Posse

1) Jewel 'C. S.' Lafontanté, 2) Dana Owens, 3) Régine Hunt, 4) Maxine Shaw, 5) Shayla Karen White, 6) Sunny Cobb, 7) Lana Michelle Moore (W)