Showing Her the Ropes

I brought the SUV to a stop at the front door, lining up the rear hatch perfectly with the event center's front doors. Clicking my seat belt off, I opened the door and slid out of the air conditioning into the warm afternoon air.

"Yo! We're here! Get your nose out of your phone and let's move it!" I hollered at my nephew. He was still belted into the passenger seat, playing some sort of game on his phone and oblivious to the world.

"Huh? Oh!" he mumbled as he opened the door and tried to escape the confines of the BMW. Another grunt followed as he discovered that his seat belt was still attached, keeping him from climbing down.

"Sorry, Uncle Dave!"

He continued to make a project out of exiting the vehicle while I opened the hatch and started to pull together the boxes and things that we had arrived to deliver. Tonight was the homecoming dance for my nephew's school and I had volunteered to help him in his setup duties as well as come back later that evening as a chaperon for the event. Seth was the oldest of my sister's kids and I always offered to help out when I could. The younger kids had packed schedules and watching 7-year-olds play sports was not something that thrilled me. Going on high school field trips and chatting with the other adults at the dances, however, was far more interesting, so since I was a committed bachelor with nothing better to do with my time, I volunteered to handle those duties to give my sister and brother-in-law a bit of a break. Today, I was there to carry stuff in and lend a general hand as the student committee in charge of the dance took care of getting things set up.

After finally freeing himself from the prison he made of the front seat, Seth came around to the back of the car and we busied ourselves collecting the various bags and boxes to carry them in. The logical part of my brain knew that there was far too much for the two of us to carry, but the impatient part was screaming that we should do it in one trip. We started trying to load the boxes in our arms, stacking them precariously on top of each other, and then tried gathering the handles of the bags with the tips of our fingers. Seth was on the verge of dropping two of his boxes and my entire stack was ready to slip when I heard a familiar voice.

"Oh, Mr. Landrum! Let me help you with..." was the last thing I heard before the crash of boxes clattering back into the SUV as they slipped from my hands. Apparently carrying the three boxes and trying to snag the handles on two more bags was just too much for me to balance. The voice belonged to Jenna, one of the seniors who was also on the planning committee with my nephew. She was running towards us from the parking lot dressed for the weather in a loose t-shirt and tight denim shorts. Despite the effect that gravity was having on the decorating supplies, I was not too preoccupied to appreciate the bouncing that indicated she was not wearing a sports bra under that t-shirt. Since she was Seth's classmate, I had been around Jenna a few times over the last four years between field trips, school dances, and an occasional party at my sister's house. She was on the lacrosse team and her athleticism was obvious as she approached us. The top of her brown hair was about three inches below my eye line, making her about 5'4". Her denim shorts were showing off her legs, muscular yet very feminine; toned and sculpted but not bulging. The loose-fitting t-shirt was concealing her generous chest that I was trying not to stare at.

"Looks like you showed up just in time to save us cavemen from our own pride!" I replied, once the clattering of boxes ceased. "We were determined to make it one trip."

"Well, you two lunks were biting off way more than you can chew," Jenna grinned. "If you need help with your package, I'd be happy to grab it for you".

At least, that's what it sounded like she said. I had paused for a moment and she was giving me a slightly raised eyebrow with her tongue just peeking out to run along her upper lip. Did she just say she wanted to grab your package and subtly lick her lips? Was she trying to flirt with Seth? He was acting completely oblivious to her, still trying to gather up the boxes and their contents that had spilled back into the car. Did I just mishear what she was saying over all the other noise that was happening? My brain sort of locked up for a second and I wound up just staring at her for what seemed like an hour, but what was probably only about a second, before I shook myself loose.

"Jenna, I think we absolutely need some help carrying all this stuff in. Thank you!"

I thought I was recovering from that pretty well as I gave her a smile and stepped back from the hatch to let her choose what she would carry in for us. After I stepped back, I was off to the left of the vehicle, while Seth was still standing on the right side, taking up about half the space that made up the hatch opening. Jenna approached the back of the SUV, but instead of getting closer to her classmate, she approached to the far left, close to me, and bent forward to grab one of the boxes that hadn't spilled its contents.

Lifting that box along with a large paper shopping bag, she stepped back from the car, moving back and to her left instead of going straight back. This brought the backside of her tight jean shorts right up against me, but instead of stopping I could feel her push into me as she turned to her right and started towards the door. I was left standing there for a moment, unsure of what had just happened, as she turned back to look at me while she climbed the steps to go inside. There was the slightest smile across her lips and I could suddenly feel my own shorts were shrinking on me, slowly getting tighter. I quickly grabbed a couple boxes to hide the growing bulge and took a deep breath before closing the hatch and walking inside.

Once inside, the din of the dance committee filled the event center as the students and parents were busy hanging decorations, setting up lights, and moving tables and chairs around. After we had set down our cargo, I set about helping Seth put tablecloths on and arrange the centerpieces. After a while, that task was wrapped up and one of Seth's friends asked us to help set up the mood lighting. Taking the lights from their bins, we distributed them along the floor and began running the power cables along the baseboard, Seth worked on the north wall while I started down the east wall. I was busying myself with taping down the cables on my side when Jenna's voice broke my concentration.

"Mr. Landrum?" her voice seemed lower than usual. "Can I help you with those lights?"

I was sitting on the ground and she was standing over me, bending down. Her t-shirt had a loose neck and it was hanging down as she bent forward. As I looked up from my task, my eyes went directly past the low-hanging collar, into the shirt, and to her c-cup cleavage, barely contained by a lacy blue bra. I froze for what seemed like five minutes, knowing that I needed to break my gaze, finally commanding my eyeballs to rotate upwards to meet her green eyes. Her face was spreading into an amused smile and she darted her eyes down, probably noticing the bulge that was again growing in my shorts. Oh, she was definitely doing this on purpose and it was for my benefit, not Seth's! I swallowed hard and tried to get my brain to remember what the task at hand was. Being the creepy uncle wasn't the reputation I wanted to build, so I had to rein it in and focus on the lights. Or focus on anything other than the young and attractive Jenna who was clearly amusing herself by teasing me.

"Oh, uh, yeah, uhm," I sputtered, clearing my throat. "Yeah, so we're just trying to set all these lights up against the wall and then tape down the power cords so nobody trips. You want to position the lights, and I'll go behind you with the tape?"

I figured that if I put her in front of me, at least she wouldn't be able to see the effect she was having on me.

"I can do that!" she bubbled, getting down on her hands and knees in front of me.

This was almost worse! She crawled along the wall in front of me while her jean shorts perfectly sculpted her ass right in front of me. I could feel my eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets as I witnessed the show she was putting on for me. Sitting on the floor behind her I tried to focus on taping the power cords, but it was a hopeless endeavor and I was a mess of tape sticking to itself. We worked like this for about a half hour, her crawling on all fours moving from light to light along the wall and me trying -- and failing -- to think about anything other than coming up behind her, grabbing her by her hips, and then...

"Hey, Uncle Dave?" Seth snapped me out of the developing fantasy like he had flipped a switch in my brain. It actually startled me; I was so absorbed in thinking about Jenna that I had no idea that he had walked over towards us. Due to the fact that I had an erection that seemed like it was about to cause my zipper to fail, I was sitting on the floor with the box of tape on my lap and getting up and moving was something that was going to have to wait. "It's about time for us to go. I've got to be back home in a half hour, remember?"

At first my mind was a total blank, but then as some of the blood re-entered my brain, the day's plan started coming back to me. Yes, we were supposed to leave the setup a little bit early so he could go get his haircut and do whatever else he needed to do for the dance. My plan was to run a few of my normal Saturday errands and then come back to the hall a little bit before seven to perform chaperon duties. I found myself being disappointed that the Jenna show was going to have to come to an end, but it was probably for the best that I got out of there. Still trying to avoid that creepy uncle reputation!

"Sure thing, dude. Why don't you finish taping down these power cords with Jenna, and I'll go get ready to head out?"

At the sound of her name, Jenna whipped her head around. "Aww, you guys have to get going so soon? We were making a really good team on these lights," she pouted. She was talking to both of us, but she was staring at me when she said it.

"Yeah," I replied, "we've both got some things to do before the dance tonight, so we're gonna roll out".

"Are you still going to be chaperoning tonight, Mr. Landrum?" she asked.

"Yep! I'll be here to keep you crazy kids in line!"

"Us!?" she feigned. "We're always well-behaved!"

She delivered that last line with a gleam in her eye and in a way that made me think that being well-behaved was not a concept with which she was very familiar. I handed the box of tape rolls to my nephew and got up judiciously, trying to readjust myself as I stood to make it a little less obvious. Seth took my place on the floor, while I went to gather my hat, phone, and keys and say my goodbyes to the other adults. As they were wrapping up, I noticed that Jenna had shifted to a kneeling position, instead of staying on all fours with her ass in Seth's face. I felt a little bad for my nephew that he was missing the show that I had gotten from her. After a couple more minutes, the lights were in place and the cords were taped down, so Seth and I headed back outside, jumped into the car, and headed off. After dropping him off at my sister's house, I made a few other stops: grocery store, hardware store, gas station. All the while my thoughts kept going back to seeing Jenna leaning down in front of me and how perfect her breasts looked in that baby blue bra she was wearing. That image seemed to be burned into my head and it kept me distracted all afternoon.

At about quarter till seven, I was parking my car at the event center again, this time in the parking lot instead of right outside the door. Wanting to set the right tone for the students, I had changed into a blue suit with a white shirt and a red tie. It was homecoming, after all. I shut down the SUV, climbed out, and headed inside to check in and get my chaperoning assignment for the night. They would always have a few specific places that they wanted some chaperons to be while two or three of us would be assigned to just roam about the ballroom, the hallways, and the outdoor patio. This time, I drew the "floater" assignment, so I'd be putting some miles on my shoes tonight. I grabbed a cup of coffee from the beverage table, and started up a conversation with one of the other chaperons. Since it was usually the same parents and faculty members that volunteered for these duties time after time, we had all gotten to know each other a little bit. They knew that I was Seth's uncle and some of the moms -- especially the single ones -- acted pretty impressed that I'd come out and help even though I didn't have any kids of my own.

The students started trickling in as the clock slid past seven o'clock, the official start time of the dance. There was quite the variety of dresses and suits. A couple of the gentlemen showed up in rented tuxedos, most of them were wearing suits, and a few were more casual. The dresses varied from straps to strapless, inappropriately short to prom-length long, with a few girls wearing pantsuits. All four years were represented at the dance, and generally the upperclassmen were dressed a little more elegantly than the freshmen. I continued to wander through the event center as the crowd grew in size and in volume. The DJ was already at full volume and the party was definitely underway. As I made my way through the entrance, Jenna was just arriving. She was wearing a very short green dress with a floral applique pattern and glittery silver heels that added about three inches to her height. Her dress had thin straps, also with the floral applique, and a plunging neckline that showed off her amazing cleavage. I instinctively started thinking about what I could put in that space between her breasts that she was showing off right now, but quickly composed myself as she noticed me and hurried over.

"Hi, Mr. Landrum!" she said over the muted music coming from the ballroom. "Keeping everybody in line so far?"

"Well, I haven't gotten to crack any skulls yet, but the night is young," I laughed. "Where's your date? He didn't abandon you already did he?"

"I decided I wanted my last high school homecoming to be the most fun I could have so I decided to be my own date this time!"

"Good for you," I replied. As much as I wanted to just stand there and take in the sight of her, it was time to move on so I started to move towards the hallway that led to the restrooms and said "Go have the best homecoming you've ever had!"

We parted ways, and I continued making my rounds. Overall, it was a fairly uneventful dance as these usually were. The biggest problems were usually the awkward freshmen boys running around and threatening to knock people over by accident or an occasional ugly-cry session in the ladies' room. Cracking freshman boy skulls was absolutely in my wheelhouse, but I got to outsource any ladies' room problems to one of the moms. This time, however, everyone was behaving themselves exceptionally well, so I spent the next hour just wandering from room to room, sipping on my coffee, refilling my coffee, and wandering some more. As my route took me down the hallway and past the restrooms again, the door to the ladies' room opened and Jenna stepped out. We were alone in the hallway and it was relatively quiet there, the bass notes of the music thrumming in the air, but most of the other noise was contained in the ballroom. She saw me, got a devious grin on her face, and made a bee-line for me.

"Mr. Landrum, this is for you," she purred at me once she was directly in front of me.

There was something in her right hand that she quickly stuffed into the left pocket of my suit jacket. Once it had been deposited in there, she patted the outside of the pocket, gave me a look, and turned around and walked quickly back towards the party. Having been around high school students a bit -- hell, having been a high school student! -- I was a little bit concerned about what I was going to find in my pocket. I could only imagine what sort of prank would involve something that came straight out of the bathroom at a school dance. Gritting my teeth, I stuck my hand in my pocket as I watched her turn the corner at the end of the hallway and pulled out what felt like some sort of warm, damp cloth. My gaze of her walking away having been broken, I looked down to see what was in my hands to see that it was a red lacy pair of panties. I swallowed hard and immediately jammed them back into my pocket before someone else came around the corner. What kind of prank was this? My throat started going dry and I could feel my heart rate increasing. What was I supposed to do now? Was there a protocol for reporting something like this? And if I did, would that get her into any sort of trouble?

My steps were a bit unsteady, but I resumed my patrol, going back through the entryway and then into the ballroom. It was dark and there was plenty of dancing in the center with various groups breaking off and standing and sitting across the room. I was sure that every one of them was staring at my pocket, knowing what I was carrying in there. Since coffee was the hardest beverage I was going to have access to, I went to pour myself another cup. As I was pouring, that familiar voice came from behind me again.

"So did you see my present for you? What did you think about it?"

"Uh, Jenna, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to think!"

"You should think that there's a girl who isn't wearing anything at all under her dress and you should probably investigate that" came her answer in a sultry voice that could barely be heard over the music.

At this point, all of the questions were pretty much answered. She was definitely flirting with me earlier in the day and even before that, she always seemed to find an excuse to come and talk to me at the dances and field trips, and putting those panties in my pocket was not a prank. Her flirting earlier in the day had kept me distracted all day long, and as I looked at her she looked back at me with a wanting in her eyes. She looked determined to get what she wanted and at the moment, that appeared to be me.

"Investigate, huh? And how exactly am I supposed to do that? I'm not sure that sort of thing is part of my listed duties as a chaperon."

"Mr. Landrum, I think checking for dress code violations is something you're supposed to do. There are some meeting rooms down the hallway past the restrooms. Why don't you go there now and I'll meet you in about ten minutes?"

She bit her lip, raised her eyebrows, nodded at me and flashed a smile, but didn't say another word as she turned to walk away. I set my coffee down, grabbed a bottle of water, and drained about half of it in one draw. Since I was one of the floaters, no one would really miss me, so I headed back out of the ballroom, as on patrol again. Why I was heading back this way, I didn't know. Surely this was not a good idea. I should just tell one of the other chaperons that I wasn't feeling well and get out of here. My feet, however, took me past the restrooms, around a corner in the hallway, and to the meeting rooms that were part of the event center. The door to number three was ajar, so I pushed it open and turned on the light.

It was a basic conference room with a rectangular table in the center that would seat about 12 people. I pulled a couple of the cushy office chairs away from the table and sat in one to wait, trying to figure out what I was going to say. It seemed like hours, but soon I could hear the muffled tap-tap-tap of high heels on the carpeted hallway. The noise grew louder until the door pushed open and Jenna walked into the room. She eased the door closed behind her and I heard the click of the lock being engaged. In the light of the conference room, I could see that her nails were done in a green that matched the color of her dress, her lipstick was a deep red, and she had a glittery green eye shadow on. Her normally straight hair was up in curls, framing her face and leaving her neck and shoulders uncovered. The cleavage that her low cut dress presented was even more impressive in the light. Without thinking, I stood from my chair as she entered the room.