A lot happened the first year I was in Oceanview. In the English program, I met Satomi and Asuna, and we became fast friends. I'd lived in Hawaii and New York a little bit, so maybe my English was a bit better, but Satomi is a smart girl, and studied hard. She is quite the character too, always exclaiming "Like ohmigod!" as if she is a valley girl or something, even though all three of us are Japanese. She was long hair, dyed fairly light brown at the point, creamy white skin, almond eyes, natural lashes. Asuna was fairly quiet that first year, but the one thing she did have was Ryosuke, her cousin, who would soon become my boyfriend. Asuna was a sparkly little sprite wide eyed, a year younger than Satomi and I at 18, but a good friend even so. Her hair was pitch black, and she work it straight or in two pony tails. The three of us were inseparable for a while there.
I liked Ryosuke from early on. He was older, 21, and had been in Oceanview longer. He was more than happy to teach us more about the university, and what we should be doing. I could tell he liked me too, because he kept dropping by at the ESL department to check in on Asuna, and tell us some jokes. He's a handsome guy, tanned, hair dyed brown, relaxed, confident.
His closest two friends were Futoshi and Kenta. Ryosuke was kind of the brains of that group, their leader, but Futoshi and Kenta helped us a lot too. Futoshi is a very good dancer, and that's how we ended up checking out this club. He's got an easy smile, big earlobes which make him look cute, and mousses his hair so it sticks straight up. Futoshi has fairly sharp eyes, but Kenta looks sleepy or aloof at least, peering at you with his eyes half closed. Kenta's face is flatter too somehow, no cheek bones, just smooth skin. I didn't know them as well as I knew Ryosuke, but they were good to us too. The six of us were very close that first year or two.
Oh I guess I should explain what I look like too. My hair is fairly long, but shorter than Asuna's. At the time, it was black, shiny. I'd been experimenting with different hairstyles, pigtails, braids, but I think that night I wore it down long to look more adult. I think of the three of us girls I look the most pure, innocent, like a girl next door. I don't wear a lot of make up, no false eyelashes or things like that, but I have good skin, a cheerful grin, wispy eyebrows. Some guys say I look cute. A lot of people seem to think I'm a "good girl." I try to be.
So anyway, Futoshi wanted us all to go check out a dance club. I'm trying to think if I'd ever been dancing before. Maybe a little bit during Orientation or bon-odori at festivals in Japan, but not that much. I like music though and music videos, and could imitate some of the moves.
Anyway, the first time we went to this club, they wouldn't even let us in. I thought it was because Asuna didn't have ID, but the way Futoshi tells it, it was more the way we were dressed. I think a lot of the Americans at that club were dressed like Goths, all in black, while we three girls were more dressed like entries in the square dance competition at a county fair. After that, Ryosuke ended up taking me downtown, and we bought a "halter ladder" dress with lace up sides made of shiny black faux leather.
The next time we went we were dressed to the nines, so they let us in no problem. I wore that dress and a leather choker and black leather knee-high boots with zippers running up the sides. Satomi came in a black halter-top and cross necklace I lent her with tight black jeans. Asuna was still in a long frilly flower dress. The boys dressed kind of cute too. Ryosuke had this steely grey club shirt and cool sunglasses. Futoshi looked like a disco boy from a movie, white suit, white vest, shirt unbuttoned to show his chest hair. Kenta looked sharp too, a bit dressed up for him.
I had a good time at first, but I didn't know what to order to drink. The menu was all drinks I'd never heard of, mojitos or margaritas. I ended up getting a strawberry daiquiri (or two) for the first time, and might have got a bit drunk. Satomi says I went to the washroom, and in my mixed up state, took my panties off. I think she managed to rescue me before too many people saw.
After the club, I was too drunk to go home. Kenta invited us over to his place to sleep over. I think he was the only one of us living on his own. When we got there, I had some barley tea, and slowly, my head started to clear. I was kind of regretting shedding my panties earlier, but maybe it wasn't so bad. I think Kenta might have got a peek at my pussy, but anyway, we were all pretty drunk, so hopefully, he wouldn't remember.
We gathered in the living room, too worked up to sleep. I noticed on the table, there were decks of cards and little plastic disks.
"What are those?" I asked.
"Poker chips," Ryosuke replied. "The three of us have been learning."
The six of us had played cards a couple of times before, but we usually played Japanese games like Daihimin daifugou (President?).
"Is poker hard?"
"No, no, it's easy. Do you want to play?"
Asuna had fallen asleep, so we moved her to Kenta's bed, and then came back, and played. As I kneeled down though, I realized they could see up my short skirt. This must have set Ryosuke off, because the next thing he said was,
"Why don't we play strip poker?"
The rest of them went silent, but I just calmly asked,
"How do you play?" curious.
"How about we give everyone two chips each to start, and if you need more, you buy them with your clothing," Ryosuke explained. "Someone has to be the banker."
"I'll do it!" Satomi cried out.
"But the banker still has to play though."
"Oh," she said sheepishly. I think she just wanted to sit here, and watch the rest of us strip. She's usually so shy, so I was surprised that she seemed so excited.
"You get one chip each every time you hand over necklaces, shoes or socks to the banker," Ryosuke went on. "A shirt or blouse will be worth two. Pants 4. A bra or undershirt 5. Emi's dress 6. Panties or underpants 9 chips. Once you take something off, you can't put it back on again even if you win it back."
"Hey, that's no fair. I'm not wearing a bra," I protested. Kenta and Futoshi spun to look at my breasts! Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. My breasts aren't huge (none of us are), but In this shiny black dress they were quite noticeable. I covered up my bust with my arms.
"And what do you mean you can't put things back on?"
"That's how you play," Ryosuke countered.
"How come you know so much about this?" I sniffed, defiant.
"There's, like, official rules for strip poker, and that's what they say."
I broke out laughing. Obviously, he was just making this up.
"You mean like there's some kind of international strip poker federation, and they hold championships? "
"Sure. You haven't heard 'bout it? It's big news. It's in all the papers."
Ryosuke is so funny sometimes. I knew he was kidding, but Kenta and Futoshi nodded to back him up. Satomi just sat there, scrunching up her cute little nose.
"OK, OK. Well anyway, how do you play?"
"Everyone ante's up one chip, and then you get five cards. In the first round, you go around the circle till someone opens the betting with a chip, say. The other people have to match that bet or fold. Oh, and they can raise the bet higher if they want. Once everyone has matched the bet, or folded, you can draw up to three cards—four if you have an ace—to try to make a better hand."
I guess I had played poker before, although I didn't know it that well.
"And how do you decide who wins?"
"Once everyone's matched the last raise, the people who haven't folded show their cards, and the best hand wins. OK, here, I'll write it all down. The best hand is a straight flush, then four of a kind, a full house, a flush, then a straight, three of a kind, two pair and then a pair. If no one has any of these, high card wins. If there's a tie, the winners split the pot. I'll write down what the clothes are worth too. Anyway, let's just try. You'll get the hang of it as we go along."
Satomi, Futoshi and Kenta hadn't said they were going to play yet. I guess I should tell you in Japan, they have yakyuuken, a kind of strip game, on TV, every new year's. Everyone makes a big deal whenever a girl takes off some item of clothing, but actually, no one ever gets naked. It's just for fun. I thought strip poker would be like that—we play until someone said to stop. I guess Satomi must have thought that too, because normally, she would never be caught dead stripping. She's a bit of a goody two shoes that way. I don't know what Kenta and Futoshi thought, but they seemed willing to go along with whatever. I don't really know who Futoshi likes, but he had suggested we all go dancing in the first place. Maybe he is sweet on Satomi.
Ryosuke gave us each two chips, and then already we had to put one in the center to ante up. I looked down at my clothes. I'd left my boots at the door, so all I had on was my dress, panties and choker. Hey! This isn't fair at all! All the rest of them were fully dressed. I looked at my cards.
"You go first, Emi. You have to have at least a pair of jacks to open."
"I pass then."
Satomi was looking at the chart. She finally found whatever she had, but she didn't look too pleased. The three boys all had poker faces. They all passed too, but then Satomi piped up,