they came in, the first thing they did was to apologize for staying as long as they had the time before. Kelly and I assured them that it wasn't a problem; after a little prodding, they finally admitted that each set of parents had a little perturbed by it – only because they'd been worried that the girls had stayed longer than Kelly and I were willing to have them. Kelly's solution to that was to ask the girls if they wanted to have a sleep over, so they could talk pretty much for as long as they wanted. All of them thought it was a great idea, of course – until Evelyn pointed out that their folks would likely think it was the girls idea and shut the whole idea down. Kelly simply told them 'Pooh. I'll call them, and tell them we're inviting you'. They weren't sure it would work, but Kelly just smiled at them. When she wanted to, Kelly could be almost as stubborn and persistent as I could.
With that out of the way, we all headed for the den and another session of the girls talking from their hearts – as well as any other body parts that spoke to them. When it was time for them to go, they and Kelly worked out just when the sleep over would be: starting the second Friday from then, about 6:00, and lasting until sometime Sunday; most likely early Sunday afternoon.
The following week, Kelly called all of their parents and made the invitation; Claire's father and Evelyn's mother were fairly adamant about denying their permission until Kelly convinced them to call me for confirmation that it really had been Kelly's idea, and that the girls really were welcome. It didn't take much talking for me to settle their minds on both counts.
The week also saw Marilyn head back to the Philippines for the summer, and the kids getting ready to head out for their first ever experiences at summer camps: two weeks at a 'generic' summer camp, where they'd get to do all the regular camp stuff: hiking, camping out in tents, horses, swimming, and all the rest. Both were eagerly looking forward to it. Kelly and I were looking forward to a couple of weeks – to ourselves – as well.
The girls showed up in a couple of bunches: Claire and Evelyn had each gotten their driver's licenses (much to the envy of the other three); Claire brought Bonita, while Evelyn provided transportation for Crissy and Sheri. Each of them brought in a small bag with whatever clothing and other things she'd need, which we had them put in Marilyn's room. All of them were surprised when they saw that Jan had joined us, too. As she explained to them 'While any of you were in one of my classes, it wouldn't have been ethical for me to be here like this. However much I like you – and I do! – while you were in my classes, I had to grade you solely on the work you did, not on what I knew about you outside of class. But now that that's over, I want you to know that I'm more than happy to be here. You already know that I'm one of the people that Dan helped when I was your age, and I'm here to help you the same way Kelly and Dan are.'
Once everyone was settled in, it was time for supper – ordered barbecue by unanimous consent. Cat made an appearance immediately after the food arrived, and managed to wheedle the girls out of the odd bit of pork or beef. The damn animal had learned to 'sit up and beg' like a dog would, which worked more often than not in separating people from tidbits of food. Once she had a full belly, it was back under the couch to rest up so she'd have the energy to come trolling for attention later.
When everybody had cleaned up from the barbecue, it didn't take long for the girls to start talking, and asking questions. One of the first was Crissy asking Jan 'You said it wouldn't have been ethical for you to be here like this, before. What did you mean?'
'I mean just that, the way I explained it to you. As long as one of you was in one of my classes, it was up to me to judge the work you turned in by how good that work was, and not let myself be influenced by anything else that I knew about you – such as something I might have learned if I'd been here before. I don't expect that anyone else would have minded or cared, but I would have; so I didn't take any chance of it happening.'
Bonita asked 'Why are you willing to be here, then?'
Jan gave me a loving look before replying 'Because after I learned what Dan had to teach me, I realized that I could never pay him back for everything that he'd done to help me; what he told all of us was that what we should do, then, was to take what we'd learned and pass it along to other people. And that's what I try to do. I have a boyfriend that is starting to understand, for example.'
Bonita followed up with 'How DO you try to 'pass it along'?'
Kelly told her 'I think you'll learn that going out and trying to tell people something doesn't always work very well; what you usually have to do is try and give it to them a little bit at a time. With what all of us – I, and Kelly, and the rest – know is that with what we've learned, the best thing is if we do it the same way Dan does: by example, with the way we live our lives, and then being ready to explain to anyone that wants to know how.'
Evelyn wanted to know 'Why do you wait for someone to ask you about it?'
Kelly answered by saying 'You've all probably noticed that there are people that seem to go around without having any idea of what's happening around them, right?'
They laughed, and she went on 'What you may not have noticed is that there are people that simply don't care – they just want to live their lives, without having to think about things like that. I'll bet that you five aren't all that much different than any of your other friends, right? I mean, you like the same kinds of clothes, music, and all that kind of stuff?'
They agreed that that was pretty much the case, and I asked them 'Then what is the difference between YOU girls, and your friends?' Seeing them start to wonder at the problem, I couldn't help suggesting 'The answer is sitting right in front of you' – to the amusement of Kelly and Jan.
It took them a couple of minutes before Sheri brightened up and exclaimed 'We wanted to find somebody with the questions and problems we had, so we talked to Kelly, and started coming over here. The answer is you, Dan, and Kelly and Miss Hardin: you're sitting right here in front of us! We want to know if there isn't something better than just wandering around not knowing anything.'
Hearing that, the others nodded their heads in understanding as Jan answered 'You can call me Jan, now, if you want. Yes, that's it.. Now you also know the reason that we wait for people to show us that they're interested before we try to tell them about the things we've learned.'
It took the girls only a moment to figure it out. 'Somebody that wants to learn will listen to you better; if you just start talking to people, they just blow you off', Crissy suggested.
Jan smiled before answering 'Exactly.'
All of them looked more than a little uncomfortable as Crissy replied 'Yeah – that's pretty much what we were doing, at first. I mean, we were talking and all that, but we weren't really paying attention – not the way we should have. But we realized that Kelly and Dan were taking the time, and showing us that they cared enough, to keep doing it; so we figured we needed to start doing better.' She glanced over at me, and added 'Once we did that, we realized that the whole reason we went to Kelly in the first place was because she was showing us that she was the kind of person that we wanted to be like; and we should be listening to her and Dan so we could learn what they know.'
'Don't feel too bad', Kelly told them. 'When I and the others – except Jan – first met Dan, we didn't always really appreciate all the things that he was telling us, either. But like you said, after a bit, we realized he was somebody we wanted to be like, so we did start really listening to him.' Kelly told them.
That seemed to comfort them somewhat, and Evelyn changed the subject to ask about something else. From there, it wasn't long until the conversation was in full swing.
After a while, the girls decided that it was late enough that they wanted to change into their nightclothes. Kelly and Jan both agreed that that sounded like a great idea. Bonita hesitantly asked 'Um, what about Dan?'
I got them all laughing when I answered 'Sorry – I don't wear nightgowns!'
Still smiling, Bonita said 'I didn't think you did. No, what I meant was, are you going to be getting ready for bed, too?'
Kelly smiled and told them 'Dan sleeps naked, so he'll probably stay dressed until he's actually ready for bed.'
That bit of information got me a few appraising looks before all of them trooped out to get ready.
The girls were more than little surprised when they got back into the den and saw that Kelly and Jan were both naked. Seeing the looks on their faces, Kelly told them 'I told you that Dan sleeps naked. I didn't tell you that I do, too. So does Jan, as you can see', with a smile.
For their parts, the girls had apparently decided that after the 'lessons' on male and female anatomy there wasn't any reason not to bring the kinds of outfits that they'd normally wear to each other's homes for a sleep over. Claire was wearing a sheer white baby doll outfit with French cut panties. Bonita was in something that looked like a harem girl outfit in pale yellow, while Evelyn sported a red teddy and pant set. The twins were in identical pale green bra-and-panty sets that just barely covered the essentials – but didn't do much to conceal their charms, since
