I'm running a little behind, the hurricane and floods slowed me down quite a bit. If you've not read the earlier chapters you may want to go back and catch-up with the story line. Thanks for your comments and good wishes; as always please vote!
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At the Davis place Mary Ann's twin brother Joe was cleaning horse stalls while his dad checked on feed stores and tested the automatic filler switches on a pesky water trough. Mary Ann walked through the barn to tell her dad she was leaving, on her mother's orders. "Dad, I'm off with Monica to work on a paper for school and I'm staying over with her," Mary Ann said.
Mr. Davis was on the best of days, impatient and suspicious. "Yeah, your mother told me. But there's once condition."
Mary Ann looked at her father, "Yes Dad, what?"
"Joe's going with you, he can come back here tomorrow to help me work the farm," his voice was flat and lacking any real energy, it was like a pronouncement from on high.
She squinted, turning her head slightly like a curious dog, "May I ask why?"
"You think I don't hear about all the shenanigans going on at that school of yours, well I do. I don't trust the Ortega's or that school. I'm sending your brother along to keep you out of trouble. If you don't like it you can just follow your brother Jimmy on out the door!" his voice remained oddly flat, it was as though he really didn't care about the outcome.
Mary Ann sighed, "Whatever you say Dad."
In the meantime her brother Joe listened and watched. He was genuinely surprised and a little nervous. One thing was for sure, he did not want his sister mad at him. They were very close until high school, then for some mysterious reason she became distant and cold toward him ... it was a mystery he'd yet to understand.
Mary Ann looked at him with irritation, "Well come on Joe, Monica's going to be here soon. You need to take a bath and put a bag together ... Damn it, come on!"
Joe rushed into the house, showered and packed an overnight bag at top speed and ran to the front porch joining Mary Ann. "Hey, I'm ready," he said breathlessly.
"I can see that," she said with quiet sarcasm.
Suddenly Joe had had enough,"Fuck you Mary Ann. I didn't ask to go with you, I didn't do shit to you, most of the time I do my best to keep my distance. So if you want me to stay home just say the word. The idea of being around you and Monica and your uppity ways tires my ass ..."
Mary Ann turned looking at her brother with wide eyes. She'd not heard him speak in with such conviction in years; she was a little shocked, the farmer boy spoke up for himself.
"No Joe, I don't want you to stay. I guess I'm just tired of Dad. If I could afford it, I'd have beat Jimmy out the door. I'm just hanging on until I graduate and then I'm going to Sacramento and get my Bachelors Degree," her quiet voice echoed sadness and resignation.
She signed to herself and said, "I don't know why you piss me off so much, but you do. I guess it's all my fault. I don't know, maybe I'm just a bitchy old maid in a 20 year old body ..."
Just then she saw Monica's old Chevy turn into their driveway. "Come on little brother, time to go."
Joe laughed, it was a common description when they were little, he'd been born 7 minutes and 28 seconds after her. It was the first time he'd heard her say that in years, it reminded him when they'd been happy to be with one another.
As they walked to the care, Monica got out and pointed at Joe and said, "What ...?"
"Dad says he has to go or I can't go," Mary Ann said.
Monica leaned close to Mary Ann and said, "Does he know?"
"NO, I'll tell him in the car; why is your mom with you?" said Mary Ann in a soft whisper.
Monica said, "She knows, Mrs. Campbell invited her; I'll tell you more later."
Tencia Ortega turned in her seat to welcome Joe with an inquiring look to which Mary Ann responded, "My dad said Joe has to go with me to keep me out of trouble. It's not his idea."
Tencia smiled knowingly, "Does he know?"
Joe couldn't take it anymore, "OK, I heard Monica tell Mary Ann that she'd tell me in the car. That's right, I can hear and now Mrs. Ortega wants to know if I know ... What am I supposed to know?" his voice was impatient and irritated.
Everybody sat in silence as Tencia down drove the country road towards the Campbell place. Finally, Mary Ann said, "Alright, Joe it's like this, David, Monica and I are in a Human Sexuality class at school. We have to finish it to graduate in December. We have an assignment to be naked all day tomorrow, at school and at home and write a paper about it."
"No Shit ..." Joe looked around the car with astonishment, "You're really going to be naked in public ..."
Monica twisted around in her seat looking at Joe, "There's more. Apparently your dad would go nuts if he knew and my dad would shit a load of bricks. So we talked to Davey, his mom is extremely cool about it, and so we planned to be at his house today to sort of practice and work on the first draft of our paper."
Just then Mary Ann interrupted, "Here's the deal, everybody at David's house is going to be naked. Got it? Naked, David, his mom, his sister, me, Monica, Mrs. Ortega and YOU!"
Tim's eyes were wide and his face pretty shocked when he said, "NO FUCKING WAY!" although not loud his words were said with firm conviction.
Tencia Ortega began to laugh loudly, "You guys are so funny; I swear, so funny. Joe honey, really just lighten up or you'll end up a bitchy old man like my husband and your dad. What's the problem with bouncing boobies and floppy dicks ... really Joe honey, lighten up!"
Joe lapsed into an uncomfortable silence while the girls chatted about their day and their plans for the paper. No more than 25 minutes later, Tencia pulled into the long gravel drive back to the Campbell home. David and Leah were standing in the living room holding one another, upon hearing the crunch of tires on gravel Leah kissed his chest and they stepped to the front door.
