When Spring finally arrived and things got busy again with the team, coach Mark Evans found the usual routine of working with his group of high school girls was not quite as routine as it had been only one year earlier. That was before anything had happened with his recently graduated athletes Dee and Bobbi, and before they filled him in on the intimate details about two of his current seniors, Lisa and Kim.
His work with the team had always been genuine and above board. Having athletic girls around was a temptation perhaps, but he'd never really let himself think about it. He had a great rapport with his girls, and he didn't want to jeopardize either his job or his relationships with them by doing anything foolish. His style of coaching was not to be stand-offish, but rather to be far more casual and friendly. This wasn't a conscious choice necessarily, but more representative of who he was and how he interacted with people. But now, knowing what he knew and having done what he'd done, his viewpoint would be forever altered. Now that he had tasted the fruit, and found ways to keep that concealed, the temptations he previously eschewed were increasingly considered.
Of the two girls in question, Kim would probably cause him less anguish. The fact that she'd come out as lesbian and had been seeing Lisa since last summer was definitely intriguing, but was unlikely to lead to any indiscretions involving him personally. Kim, whose mocha skin and long loose curls belied her mixed African American blood, was amiable and enthusiastic. But while he got along well with her, she wasn't as familiar with him as some of the others. The only trouble he could see would be the self-imposed mental torment of knowing what might be going on in her hotel room when the team traveled overnight to events.
The greater difficulty would come from how he handled his interactions with Lisa. The team had, as expected, voted her captain, which meant that she would be working closer with him as coach than the average player, although his relationship with her had already been pretty close, both professionally and platonically. She was bright and talented, and had for several seasons now been a favorite of his on those merits alone.
The real problem was two-fold. One, he was undeniably attracted to her. She stood only 5'2", weighed only 115lbs, and was cute as a button, with short curly brown hair, a marvelous set of 34Cs, and a sweet little butt atop her full, strong thighs. He might easily have been able to dismiss his physical interest in her had it not been for the second half of the problem: he'd found out from Dee that she herself had been fantasizing about him. Lisa had confessed her desires in confidence, a confidence that was soon broken by her precocious friend whom she had no idea was already fucking her coach.
To make matters worse, Lisa apparently had a fondness for spanking, and specifically, a desire to be spanked by him. This added kink would almost surely be his undoing. It was one thing to be surrounded daily by young girls in their spandex athletic shorts, but something else entirely to know one of those cute little bums was yearning for the cool slap of his hand. How then was he going to get through the season without obliging her? It didn't seem possible, or fair, but then again, there were worse problems one could have. The obvious choice, the right choice, was to ignore these things until she graduated in two months, at which point if she still harbored these thoughts they could perhaps be acted upon with a far lesser element of risk. If by then she no longer had an interest, then it would all be discounted as the fleeting whims of a teenage girl.
And so, midway through the season he found that things were both easier and harder than he'd expected. Easier because time was going by quickly now. There was more than enough to do day to day between organizing practice, getting ready for each week's competition, and keeping the equipment maintained; all the usual drudgery of coaching a team. Lisa turned out to be as fine a captain as he'd expected. She was an excellent go to girl when he had problems with the squad, or needed help after practice. But that was also the hard part. She was eager to assist him, and was frequently around longer than most of the girls. They got along as well as ever, if not better, and it was torture for him wondering what thoughts were really going through her head.
And all the while, on a daily basis, there was her cute little spandex clad butt an arm's length away. It was killing him to think about it. It had been months since the last time Dee had visited, and he was nearly beside himself with the longing to hold any part of the feminine form in his hands. He'd grown accustomed to grabbing Dee's ass whenever she was around, and there were times when he had almost grabbed Lisa's out of habit. If they were in his office or the storage area, their proximity was often such that he quite easily could have necessarily and legitimately crossed that boundary of personal space. And whether he imagined it or not, from time to time it seemed Lisa was cutting it closer than need be as well.
Finally, after a few weeks of the constant tension in the physical space between them, he decided he'd start experimenting with the rules. Partially out of a combination of boredom and frustration, partially because the end of the season was but a few short weeks off, he began to allow his body to accidentally encounter hers. Little things at first, and infrequently lest it seem obvious: his arm would brush her shoulder while reaching for something, his elbow would knock against hers. Gradually, and this is over the course of many days, it escalated into his hip jostling her as he passed, his arm just slightly grazing her breast as he turned, his thigh pressing against her bum. Each time it happened, nothing was said by either of them to call attention to it. At first because it wasn't enough to merit comment, but as the stakes raised, and the intrusion became more personal it became almost a game to see who was going to call it out first.
Then, with two weeks left in the season, a couple of things happened which affected his plan to resist. The first was that he got a phone call from Dee. Obviously this wasn't out of the ordinary; he'd been talking to her regularly over the course of the semester, although less so now that her exam schedule was limiting her free time. However, in this particular call he finally got the confirmation about Lisa that he'd been looking for.
"So," Dee began to ask, "what have you been doing to Lisa that's got her so freaked out?"
"What do you mean?" he responded innocently. Since Dee and Lisa were still friends, he'd been hoping they'd eventually talk about him, and that the news would filter back.
"When she called the other day she started telling me about how totally flustered you've gotten her. She said, 'It's like he keeps getting closer and closer to me all the time. Like he keeps bumping into me at practice and stuff. If it was anybody else I'd be totally suspicious, but you know he's kinda of a dork anyway, and I doubt he's coming on to me. It's really weird, and to be honest it's getting me totally hot.' What the hell are you doing to her, Mark?"
"Oops, busted," he confessed. "I got tired of being around her all the time without knowing what she was thinking, so I've been running a little experiment to see how she'd respond. Looks like the results are coming in."
"Oh, you're bad," she said. "I figured you were up to something, but I played dumb with her. Be careful, mister, you got two more weeks until she graduates. Don't do anything stupid."
Sage advice coming from the nineteen year old who started sleeping with him one month out of high school. But her point was valid, it was still important that he make it through to the end, and it was so close. But then the second event occurred, which would force his hand, so to speak.
Later that week, the team had a great game at regionals and qualified for the state championship. In the excitement and celebration of the victory, a portion of their equipment got left behind, necessitating a return trip by Mark the next day to retrieve it. While it wasn't a huge inconvenience, it certainly wasn't something he would tolerate from his otherwise well disciplined team, and they would surely here about it and pay for it at the next practice.
Then it occurred to him that he could use the incident to further test his boundaries with Lisa. He would, of course, verbally reprimand the team for their oversight. He could be very intimidating when he put his mind to it, and he rarely had any trouble because the team hated seeing him pissed off. He found it to be a wonderful deterrent and motivator. So he gave them all a solid chewing out about it. But once this was done and practice was over, he asked LIsa to stay behind to discuss it personally with her.
She came to his office once the others had left, still dressed in her spandex and t-shirt, uncertain of what she'd find. He was leaning against his desk waiting for her, with an expression that said he was in no mood to be trifled with. Being in front of his desk like he was left little room, and she stood less than a meter in front of him.
"Close the door please," he said, sounding impatient. Swinging the door shut meant that she'd momentarily have to move closer to him still to let it pass. He could smell the sweet scent of her hair as she came nearer before leaning back against the door with her hands behind her.
"So, what the hell happened after the meet Saturday?" He asked sternly. "We're so close to the end now, and this sort of mental lapse is just the kind of thing that'll ruin our chances."
"I'm just as upset as you are, believe me," she said unapologetically. She wasn't the type to back down in the face of adversity, nor would she shy away from his reproach.
"Yes, I understand that," he continued. "But unfortunately you're also somewhat responsible. As captain, part of your job is to help me control these girls. And it seems I can't even control you."
This caught her off guard. "Control me?" she said reflexively. What the hell was he talking about, controlling her. He'd never spoken to her like that before, and it certainly wasn't part of how they interacted. "I don't understand," she said, looking him in the eye.
He stood up, shortening the space between them further, deliberately close, but not moving closer. "This goes beyond what happened last weekend. You've been a little unruly for the past few weeks now, and it's been quite a distraction. It seems we keep," he slowly reached out an took hold of her upper arm, "bumping into each other." He pulled her forward so she was no longer leaning on the door.
