[Chapter One was submitted as Scorpio44 some time ago (years). An email or twenty prompted my rereading it and my notes. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are the result. There are some surprises for those familiar with my mind through reading Scorpio44 (120 submissions) and Scorpio 44A (100+).]
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When I got to class Monday morning I was met by four students who had calculated that they were not going to get the grades they needed from my class. They were better with their arguments about why they "needed" a better grade than they had been with their assignments. The four almost seemed to have practiced their pitch together to convince me to give them a better grade.
When all the other students for the class entered the room they softened their voices and when I said, "It's class time" they shut up and took their seats. While they had pleaded their collective cases to me I had realized they were pleading with the wrong person. The grade they got wasn't from me!
I asked, "Class, by raise of hands, how many of you would say the assignment you had for this class was a challenge?" Every hand went up.
"And, how many of you would say you worked hard on the assignment?" Every hand again went up, even for those who didn't do well.
"And, how many of you gave someone and inflated grade for whatever reason?" Not a single hand went up.
"Before class today I was asked to raise the grades of four people. They told me how they "Needed" a better grade than the one they calculated they would get for the class. I didn't give them the grade they got. You did. I would invalidate all the grades you gave if I changed a grade for a student. So, I will allow any of the four who wants the opportunity to plead their case to you. If they convince you to give them a grade they don't deserve we will give each of them a grade they don't deserve. I will flip a coin and if it lands Heads they get a grade one grade higher than they deserve. If it lands Tails they get a grade one lower than they deserve. What they asked me for was a grade they didn't earn, didn't deserve, don't deserve and so if you, the people who gave them the grade they earned and deserve are willing I will change their grades."
A hand went up. The person with her hand up was not one of the four who had asked for the changed grade. I called on her. "If they want a different grade, the new grade will either be one higher or one lower than the one they already have. Right?"
"Exactly. Now which of the four who asked for the new grade are willing to take the risk? Or, to quote and old movie, "Do you feel lucky?"
Not one of the four stood up. I smiled and said, "I'm glad it turned out this way. Is one of you curious about how your coin toss would go?"
The scruffiest of the four raised his hand. I asked, "Do you want to flip the coin or may I?" He said, "You do it." I took out a quarter and flipped in into the air. It landed on the floor, bounced three times and stopped right by the foot of a female student. She bent towards it and announced, "Tails!"
When the commotion died down I asked, "How can you get the grade you need from this or any other class?"
"Earn it!" The scruffy man answered. I nodded. We went on with the class and I released them half an hour early. We were done. No sooner were the majority of the students out the door when I noticed Barb coming into the room. She stayed by the door and when the last student left she closed the door.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I didn't sleep well last night. I've been thinking about this relationship." She came close, kissed me with both passion and a little holdback, and then sat in the first row. She looked up at me and I could see tears. They hadn't escaped, but they were there. "I understand that we're in this relationship with you so you, Melissa, Walt and Brenda can help each of us find our Nick. I'm twenty-five years old. I've known three men in my life worth loving... and all three of you are taken!"
"Who are the three men?"
"You, Walt and my Dad."
"It could be worse. You could only know two men and one of them could be Walt and be your Dad."
"This is serious!"
"Ok. I apologize. I believe there are other men besides Walt and me. The odds of finding them improved when we teamed up and have seven people looking instead of just you. Thirty some students just left this room. Sixteen of them were male. I looked at every one of them to see if there was an opening in one or more of them to see the treasure I could show them. I have another class this afternoon. I've been looking. Now we need to organize and look other places."
"Where do we look for men as interested in relationships as you and Walt?"
"Call a family meeting. Organize dinner and conversation, a brainstorming session. Let's get serious about this. I want brothers!"
The sounds of people testing the door were heard. Barb kissed me again, all passion and promises and went to open the door. Jo and Melissa entered. They reclosed the door and we shared lunch. The brainstorming dinner was scheduled for Wednesday evening.
Walt didn't come for dinner. He had a banking thing he needed to attend. Brenda came. Shannon didn't come either. By midnight each person had an assignment, a research project, to help us aim in the right direction. Barb stayed the night. Three in a bed is, or can be, a wonderful thing. Melissa got eaten and joined while Barb got eaten, manipulated and eaten again. We slept well.
As of Friday at noon I was on semester break for two weeks. So were Jo, Barb and Melissa. Emma had a job to go to. On Saturday Emma called at about nine and said, "It's a beautiful day. Let's do something fun together." Later the five of us were driving north and found ourselves on the pier in Santa Barbara. We coached each other about being friendly and actually speaking to people. Barb and Emma were quite shy and believed it wasn't safe to just start talking to men. I pointed out that with five of us they were pretty safe. We met some interesting people that day. We got some ideas of other places to go where maybe "Nick" was there.
Since I was signed up to teach a summer session of six weeks Melissa took a class too. Jo and Emma drove home to Nevada where Jo stayed for a week and Emma flew home after the weekend. Barb went with us on the weekends to the resort and got to know Shannon much more personally. I was grateful Barb was there to "take care of" Melissa when Shannon wanted my personal attention. When she wanted more personal attention early on Sunday Melissa stayed in the cabin with us and discovered it wasn't the trauma she thought it would be. She and Shannon bonded using their combined juices and my glue as part of the bonding.
Walt called me when there was only a week left of the summer semester and offered us a chance to get on a cruise to Mexico. I said it would need to be a really good deal for us to go. He told me to call the family and ask what they could afford for a seven-day trip with all the food covered. I made the calls and when he called back I said, "These cruises are priced by the person, right?"
"Yes, but don't worry about that. I assume you're Ok with the five of you sharing rooms."
"Oops!" I said. "I called Shannon too. There are six of us. Is that a problem?"
"No. How much can the six of you afford?"
"Walt, to tell you the truth Shannon and I have the most money. Emma makes enough to stay afloat and Jo, Barb and Melissa depend on the love and donations of family. Just tell me how much and I'll talk with Shannon about the possibility."
"OK. Look on the Internet. An inside room goes for six-hundred-eighty-nine dollars per person. There are six of you. That's a hair over four thousand dollars. I can get all six of you aboard for the six-hundred-eighty-nine dollars!"
"That's four thousand dollars!" I said.
"No! It's six-hundred-eighty-nine dollars... for all six of you. The cruise ship company arranged a rather large loan through us and they offered us this deal as a Thank You. Brenda and I will be going too. Shall I sign the six of you up?"
"Yes!" I wrote down all the details and called Shannon. I gave her almost all the details and then I called the cell phones of Melissa, Jo, Emma and Barb. I was forced to listen to repeated screams, yells, kisses through the phone and promises of great meals, wonderful sex and that I would never need to sleep alone another night of my life. Many of those promises came home with Melissa and were amplified, augmented and supplemented by her co-wives. Walt also got calls. He and I agreed that what we told our ladies was that he and I paid for the trip. It was true.
That night I read something on the Internet that woke me up to something I wasn't doing. The article said that most men didn't know these five things: Their wife's birthday... Her social security number... What size pants she wears... What size shoes... or Her favorite color clothes. I realized I could answer those five questions easily... for Joan. Being a little sneaky I didn't just ask the women in the kitchen about their data. I went snooping.
Driver's licenses gave me birthdays. Clothes hanging in our closets gave me sizes and I wrote down shirt, pants, skirt, bra and shoe sizes. I looked in Melissa's closet and it was evident she favored deep greens. I would need to be really observant to learn favorite things for the women who didn't live with me. I wanted to know all I could about these women. The article pointed out that remembering details would be important to almost any woman. I believed it was true of all the women in my life. It was part of loving them.
At dinner that night, as we ate a wonderful Salmon Salad, I asked, "When you think of yourself are you a girl, a woman, a lady or something else?"
Melissa said, "Up until I met you I thought of myself as a girl. After all, you need to be sexually active to be a woman and I wasn't. Now, I'm a woman." She smiled and blew me a kiss."
Emma said, "Sometimes some of us at work decide to go out after work and have a drink. They call it a night out with the girls or girl's night out. I don't think of myself as a girl. I was one." She hefted her breasts and said, "I outgrew the label. My behavior isn't ladylike, so woman is what I am."
Jo smiled and said, "Until the weekend where we had the BBQ I didn't think girl, woman, lady... I thought lesbian. Since you ask, I'm not a lesbian. I'm having trouble using one of those other terms as well. I guess I'm bisexual with damned little experience with penis'." Her answer got some smiles.
Barb said, "All the time I was growing up my Mother and my Aunts kept telling me, "Don't do that, it isn't ladylike." I don't think I've ever felt like a lady. I thought I would when I got all dressed up for the senior prom but all that day and night I had bad cramps and bled like crazy. I felt more like a dying pig than a lady. I'm a woman."
