Pond Clearing

"Shit!" I shouted as the branch broke and I fell backwards towards the stinking slimy mud.

I had been trying too hard. Anger had driven me on all morning.

Last night we had walked into the youth hostel dripping water from our cagoules. Mary, June and I had signed up for a week of 'conservation' in the hostel's grounds in exchange for free bed and board.

The driving rain as we walked the five miles from the station had been disheartening. We expected to be working outside for the whole week. If the rain continued we would have a miserable time. Our lightweight cagoules were too flimsy to wear while we were working. We would get very wet.

We had shed our cagoules and signed in to the hostel. After making up our beds we relaxed in the common room in front of the log fire. We were beginning to feel happier when Greg arrived and I got angry.

We heard his car pull up outside. He came in to the hostel shaking his umbrella. An umbrella! Hostellers didn't use umbrellas. He was wearing a dark grey pinstripe suit with immaculate shoes and looked like a city gentleman. He walked up to the hostel's counter. They didn't speak loudly but we heard every word.

"Hi Greg," said the warden "How did it go?"

"They'll let me know by letter. If it arrives next week my parents will ring here. Have the members of the working party arrived?"

"Yes. You can see them in the common room."

Greg glanced our way.

"That's all? Two women and a boy?"

"Three women, Greg."

Greg looked again.

"We won't get much done, will we? Why did I get eight punts ready if there will be only four of us?"

"The larger group rang this morning. Their driver broke his leg playing rugby and they have no one else old enough to hire the minibus."

I didn't listen to the rest of the conversation. I was seething. 'Two women and a boy?' I knew that I was the 'boy'. Mary and June's hair and breasts were obvious. Both had much more up top than I. June was very well developed. Most men looked straight at her cleavage, not at her face.

I knew that I looked like a drowned rat with my short cropped blonde hair plastered to my head but I know I'm a woman. Several former boyfriends could testify to my femaleness.

Greg walked into the common room.

"Hello," he said. "I'm Greg. I'm the working party organiser."

"I'm June."

Greg looked straight down her cleavage.

"Hello, June." He said, before looking at her face.

"I'm Mary."

"Hello, Mary."

Greg looked at Mary's face before his eyes dropped lower.

"I'm Anne."

"Hello, Anne."

He looked at my face and his eyes stayed there. I flushed with annoyance.

"We should have our evening meal in about half an hour," Greg said. "I need to change before then. I apologise for the suit. I've just been for a job interview."

"How did it go?" June asked.

"Well enough, I think. I won't know until later. I'll see you at supper and we can discuss what we have to do afterwards. See you."

He left the room. I didn't notice him putting his glasses on but when he turned to the stairs he was wearing them. He waved at us as he climbed out of sight.

"Well Anne," said Mary "How does it feel to be a boy? What do you think of Greg?"

"I think he's an expletive deleted. I doubt he'd recognise any of our faces. He was too busy looking at your tits."

"June and I have got nice ones. Shame about yours."

I jumped on her and thumped. I got thumped back. Neither thump was serious. We are friends and I tease them about their bulging tits. They tease me about mine. I do have tits but beside theirs I look undeveloped.

"I think he could make this week interesting," said June as Mary and I stopped wrestling. "He looked very impressive in his suit. I hope we'll see more of him. I think he has enough muscles and I liked his bum."

"You would," said Mary. "You have a thing about bums. You can't keep your hands off any reasonable one near you."

"So what? I appreciate the good things of life," replied June. "I like to grab a nice bum while I'm being humped."

"Shh!" I whispered. "Someone might hear. You know how much we heard Greg say."

"We heard him call you a boy, if that's what you mean," teased June.

After supper Greg explained that the task was to clear overhanging branches from the pond. The birds couldn't land or take off because the trees had blocked their flight path. He showed us some photos of the pond as it had been with a large expanse of open water. Then he produced some photos taken last week. The water was scarcely visible.

At first we would work from punts, loading the cut branches to be taken away to be burnt. Once we had cut back the branches over the water we would work outwards from the pond's edge until there was an open edge at least three yards wide all round the pond. At least that had been the idea when there would have been twenty of us. With only four he doubted we would finish clearing the overhanging branches. I got the impression that he thought we three wouldn't be much help. That annoyed me even more than I already was. Mary and June were less irritated but Greg's assumption that we wouldn't do much got to them as well.

We started next morning, in the misty sunlight, using two punts each. We stood precariously in one and filled the other with the removed debris. Greg towed them away and emptied them as soon as we had filled them. Even I was surprised at the progress we were making. All three of us were working flat out. The bow saws were sharp and well oiled. I had filled about six punts full when I made the mistake of stretching too far. I grabbed a branch to steady myself and it broke off in my hand.

"Shit!"

I fell backwards knowing I would miss the punt and fall into the mud. I didn't. I fell into Greg's arms. His punt rocked wildly as he fought to retain his balance. I flung my arms around his neck in relief. The punt wobbled again.

"Keep still!" he hissed.

I kept still, resting my head against his shoulder. Greg had muscles. He had plucked me out of the air as if I was much lighter than I am. As the punt stopped rocking he lowered me gently to my feet but still held me tight.

"Are you OK, Anne?" He sounded as if he meant it.

"Yes!" I snapped. "I just... Why didn't you shout?"

"You just reached too far. I saw what you were doing. I thought I'd startle you. I nearly didn't get here in time."

His voice was accusing as if I had deliberately intended to fall into his arms. I hadn't. I didn't know where he was. I had been trying too hard to show him that 'two women and a boy' weren't exactly useless.

He kept one arm around me. His free hand stroked my hair.

"You have been doing wonderfully. All of you. You have kept me busy taking away everything you have cut."

I leant against him lapping up the compliment. Perhaps Greg wasn't so bad after all. I turned so that I could look up at his face. His glasses were slightly askew. I reached up and straightened them.

"Perhaps I ought to get back to work?" I asked.

"No. I was on the way to tell you it is lunchtime. June and Mary have already stopped."

I looked past him. June and Mary were towing their laden punts to the only open shore of the pond.

I pulled his head down and kissed him. His lips stiffened then responded.

"That's for catching me."

I kissed him again.

"That's for appreciating our work. Now where's that lunch?"

He looked disappointed as I stepped gingerly into my punt. That's how it should be. Men kissed by me should be left wanting more.

We had sandwiches and coffee for lunch. Greg lit the pile of branches which he had placed over a ready laid stack of dry wood. The smoke rose high as the green wood hissed and spluttered. The smoke drifted away from us. Greg had allowed for the wind. I could see where the fire had been put originally. It would have sent smoke across the landing area.

The afternoon's work was brought to an early end by another downpour which threatened to flood the punts. All four of us were drenched. Even so Greg was pleased. In one day we had cleared a quarter of the way around the pond. With any luck we would finish the whole perimeter by the end of the week.

Mary and June took ages to comb the debris out of their hair. We all showered and changed into dry clothes. Mary volunteered to wash our wet things. We would do it in turns the following evenings. June and I relaxed in the empty common room. The warden brought in a jug of fresh coffee.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked idly.

"You four are it," he answered. "The hostel was closed except for the working party and now it's too late to tell anyone that we've got space. I don't mind. It's less work for me and I can do some of the jobs that were waiting until I had a moment to spare. You won't see much of me except at meal times. You might hear me banging away with a hammer."

"Anything we can do?" asked June.

"I think Greg will keep you busy. If you're not tired I know that he is. And he was worried by his job interview. He needs that job."

"What job?" I asked.

"Working in a bank. He was a sailor... sorry, a third officer in the Merchant Navy, but his eyesight isn't good enough. He took an eye test a couple of weeks ago and was told that he couldn't continue at sea. Personally I think it's nonsense. He can see well enough with his glasses on but his employers didn't want a young officer to be wearing glasses."

"Why are you telling us this?" I asked.

"Because Greg isn't himself. He's been moody and irritable. I hope he won't take out his frustration on you but he might. He's wanted to be a ship's officer ever since he was tiny. Now he can't. It is a heavy blow. I'm sure he'll get over it but you might need to be understanding this week. He is badly hurt."

"We'll do what we can," June said. "I think he was pleased today."

"He was. So am I. Both of us thought that this week would be a dead loss with so few. You have worked like Trojans. When I went down to see how you were getting on I couldn't believe how much had been done."

"We're not just pretty faces," said June, "we can work hard."

"So I saw. If you can keep that rate up all week you'll do as much as I would have expected the larger group to have done. The larger working parties tend to treat the week as a holiday and don't work as hard as smaller numbers would. Greg has been here a week already preparing. He had to repair all the punts and sharpen the saws. He cleared the landing area yesterday morning before cleaning himself up for the interview."

"OK," said June, "We'll try to help Greg both with the work and try to keep his mind off his troubles."

I said nothing. The word 'boy' still rankled even if Greg had responded satisfactorily to my kisses.

That Saturday evening was quiet. We sat around the log fire warming our aching muscles.

Sunday morning we were back at work. The rain soaked us morning and afternoon. Despite the rain we did nearly as much as on Saturday. That evening we had one worry. We were running out of clothes. Each of had brought two changes of work clothes but now we had soaked two sets in one day. If it continued to rain we would have nothing to wear. Greg was embarrassed when we suggested that we would be naked on Monday. But his eyes dropped to June's tits as if thinking that a naked June would be a good idea.

"Are there any charity shops in the town?" I asked.

"Yes. At least three," replied the warden. "No. I think there are five. Why?"

"We girls need some more dry clothes. It doesn't matter what. We should be able to find something in the charity shops – if Greg would take us there and back in his car. Would you, Greg?"

"Yes. Of course. How long would you take?"

We three laughed. How long would shopping take? As long as we wanted it to take.

"How about this? I take you in to arrive about ten o'clock and collect you about one. That do?"

I looked at June and Mary. They nodded.

"Then we could be back on the pond in the afternoon. We need at least one more change of clothes, two would be better, but one would do."

"OK. After breakfast tomorrow we hit the high spots of the town."

We did. We found a couple of changes of clothes each. In one shop they had a basket full of headscarves. We bought a handful each. They would keep the twigs out of our hair.

The last charity shop was some way out of the town centre. We nearly decided to give it a miss because we had all the clothes we needed. We had time left so we decided we might as well see what they had. We were glad we did. They had a wonderful range of dressing-up clothes. The assistant explained that the local amateur dramatic group had donated all their old costumes because they had run out of space.

We rummaged through rail after rail of exotic costumes. We tried on several. June was spectacular as a medieval wench with her tits bulging out. She bought that dress. I found a suitcase full of 'Arabian Harem Girl' costumes and bought the case as it was. If nothing else the material could be made into other dressing up items. We had so much when we finished that Mary went back to the town to ask Greg to meet us at the shop.

I went into the chemist's shop next door and bought some cheap cosmetics really intended for small girls to play with. They were more like face paints than true cosmetics.

When Greg drove up with Mary, June and I had bought more. The whole day's purchases cost less than we would expect to pay for a pair of slacks or a basic skirt. We had trouble getting all of it into Greg's car. We weren't worried about getting it back home. Mary's father would be collecting us at the end of the week in his large estate car. As long as we could get it back to the hostel we had plenty of room in the women's dormitory to keep everything.

We could barely see out of the car by the time our purchases had been piled on our laps. Mary was in the front seat with a couple of bags. June and I were swamped in swathes of rich fabrics and heaps of net petticoats.

Greg didn't comment but his lips were set in a thin line. His disapproval was obvious.

Back at the hostel we had to make several trips from the car to the dormitory. We just flung everything across vacant beds and changed into work clothes. We were as quick as we could be but we didn't get out on to the pond until nearly three o'clock. The sun began to shine weakly. Greg stripped down to his T-shirt which distracted us. His muscles were not spectacular but defined enough to make all three of us warm.

By suppertime we had cleared the branches from more than half the pond. We were proud of ourselves. The warden was pleased. But Greg was still icy which was a shame because we wanted to get our hands on him. June and Mary just wanted to handle a nice specimen. I wanted more.

That evening we went to bed early. We were tired. Greg was in no mood to be any company and the warden was too busy, and to our eyes far to old to be interesting. The warden must be older than our parents. Ancient!

After breakfast Greg's parents rang with the news he had been dreading. He hadn't got the bank job. He tried to make light of it but we could see he was worried. We had bundled our hair up in our newly acquired scarves. He tried to make a joke about it. I offered him a spare scarf because he has as much hair as my short crop. He declined with horror.

The day's work went well. Greg was working as if his life depended on it. He attacked the trees as if they were personal enemies. We tried to match his output but we didn't have his strength or desperation. By the end of the day we were exhausted but almost all the overhanging trees were gone. A duck came in to land on the water as we walked back to the hostel building. We stopped to watch as its mate followed. Those two ducks made us feel that we were doing something worthwhile.

I hugged Greg in my excitement. His hand stroked my scarfed head but his thoughts seemed to be elsewhere.

Cleaning up took much less time now that Mary and June's hair didn't have to be untangled before washing. We were back in the common room well before suppertime.

"I want to try one of those new dresses," announced June. "I've got time. Join me after supper?"

Mary and I agreed.

"Do you mind watching a fashion parade, Greg?" June asked.

"If that's what you want to do," he replied. His lack of enthusiasm was obvious.

After supper we decided we'd try to cheer Greg up by showing some flesh.

June put on the mediaeval dress again. Why? She knew it fitted. She'd tried it on in the charity shop. Her tits pushed out of the bodice and her cleavage was squeezed together. With a long golden chain belt resting on her hips with its end dangling almost to the floor she really looked the part – except for her head.

I found a veil in my purchases. With hairpins and hair lacquer we managed to pile her hair with the veil trailing either side of her face and draped down her back to the waist.

Mary had a Victorian style crinoline dress over a hooped petticoat. Her shoulders were bare and she too showed off her cleavage. We arranged her hair in ringlets either side of her face – more hair lacquer.

Below the waist under both dresses June and Mary were going commando – no knickers. I did the same but I wasn't going to try to compete with their cleavage. I chose a Snow Queen outfit. It was close fitting in a translucent silky feel silver fabric sprinkled with sequins. It zipped up at the front to a high neckline. As I pulled the zip the dress clung like a second skin revealing the line of my bra. I unzipped myself and removed the bra. Once zipped up again my nipples were outlined under the bodice.

The sleeves and hem were trimmed with white fake-fur. The silver braided belt fitted like June's around my hips and the fluffy fur end tassle hung nearly to the floor. June protested that the contrast between us made her waist look too large. So what? If I couldn't compete with her tits, I did have a trim waist. I covered my hair with a shoulder length silver wig and a high fake diamond tiara. I used my cosmetics to make my face very pale with white lipstick and silver eyeshadow. I used some gold eyeshadow on June and made Mary very pink and white with pastel pink 'natural' lips.

We looked at ourselves.

"If this lot doesn't cheer Greg up, we've failed as females," Mary commented.

"I think your cleavages should make a corpse wake up. Aren't you overdoing it?" I asked.

"Us?" asked June, "Of course not. You're just jealous. Just as I am jealous of your figure. That dress is indecent. I can see you aren't wearing a bra or knickers. If you weren't blonde your bush would be obvious. As it is I can see it if I look carefully. I'm sure Greg will."

"I hope so. I haven't forgotten that he mistook me for a boy."

"He hadn't got his glasses on. Surely you don't hold a grudge for that?"

"I intend to prove I'm not a boy, June."

"You've convinced me. Waving your bush and nipples about should convince Greg. Do you really want to go that far?"

"Yes."

We processed down the stairs to the common room. On the staircase we didn't look out of place. The hostel was an old house and the staircase was Georgian, perfect for sweeping dresses. The common room was 19th century with cheap modern furniture. As we entered we felt exotic.

Greg turned in his chair to look as we came in. Then he jumped up.

"Wow!" He exclaimed.

That was a better response.

June glided up to him and held out her hand. He bent over and kissed it with a flourish. She moved beside him as he repeated the performance with Mary. Then he looked at me. His eyes dropped to my nipples and then down to my bush. We both blushed. His blush was more obvious. Mine was partly concealed by my make-up. He kissed my hand.

June dragged him over to the largest settee and pushed him to sit down in the middle of it. She sat on his left. Mary lifted the back of her crinoline and sat on his right. Their dresses flowed over his legs and filled the whole settee.