Chapter 21: 21 Another Job

“Are you really going to... you know.” Kelly asked.

“Hmm? Oh. I don't know.” Heather said to tease her, then she chuckled. “We have homework to do.” She said. “Even though I'm really horny, I suppose I can't enjoy that right now.”

“Probably not.” Kelly said. “I... ah... need to wash my hands.” She said and went to Heather's bathroom and turned on the faucet in the sink, then paused when she reached for the soap. She stared at the hand Heather had held, then almost against her will, the hand moved towards her face. She took in a long sniff with her nose.

“What are you doing?” Heather asked from right beside her.

“Ah!” Kelly gasped and jumped from the scare.

Heather laughed at her reaction. “Hey, if you want a better smell, here.” She held her hand up to her friend's face. “Go ahead and get a good whiff.”

Kelly tried to move away, so Heather moved her hand in and rubbed it all over her friend's face.

“EWW!” Kelly yelled and ignored her curiosity and washed her hands and then her face. “I can't believe you just did that.” She said and dried them off.

Heather washed her hands, too. “I can't believe you liked seeing Arnold's penis enough to try smelling it second hand!”

“I... that's not... I was just...” Kelly's face went red. “You're going to twist anything I say.”

Heather laughed again and put an arm over her shoulders. “Kelly, you're my best friend.” She said and led her back into the bedroom. “You know I'm going to tease you until you get your first serious boyfriend.”

“Where am I going to find a serious boyfriend when most of them act like those idiots at school?”

“Don't I know it!” Heather laughed and sat down. “I'm so glad that I didn't date Brad when he asked.”

“Saying no is such a stupid reason for him to keep picking on you.” Kelly said and sat beside her.

“I know, and there's nothing I can really do about it.” Heather said. “Even if I didn't have such a great boyfriend like Arnold, I still wouldn't date Brad, even if it would get him to shut up.”

“That wouldn't shut him up.” Kelly laughed. “He'd just be bragging about you to everyone.”

“Ain't that the truth!” Heather laughed with her. “I'm the best!”

They sat there for several moments in silence, then Heather spoke.

“I think you deserve to have a boyfriend as great as Arnold, too.” Heather said.

“H-Heather, you're the one that deserves it.” Kelly turned to sit facing her friend.

“You're so sweet and cute that the thought of you being stuck with one of the neanderthals at school makes me want to gag.”

Kelly snorted a laugh. “Neanderthals?”

“It fits as a good description of Brad and his friends, doesn't it?” Heather grinned at her and then saw someone step into the doorway of her room. “Hey, look! It's my now clothed handsome boyfriend!”

Kelly turned her head to look at Arnold and saw that he wore a nice pair of jeans and a mostly buttoned shirt. To her credit, she didn't look at his crotch to see if he was still hard. It had been quite difficult for her to fight that instinct, however.

“Do we have homework?” Arnold asked.

“Yes. It's not nearly the same amount as yesterday, thankfully.” Heather said.

“Can you show me what needs to be done?”

“We have all weekend to work on it.” Heather said.

“We do; but, Arnold isn't staying here this weekend.” Kelly said, then she had a wicked thought. “Is he staying here with us?”

“I really doubt that mom would let my boyfriend stay over for the whole weekend.” Heather said, then she looked at Arnold. “Then again... maybe... if I asked nicely...”

“Let's go downstairs and do our homework first.” Kelly said. “If we do it now, we won't have to worry about trying to get it done on Sunday night.”

“I guess that's a good point.” Heather said and stood up. “Mom might be in a good mood if she sees us getting it done first thing.”

“Plus, it leaves us the whole weekend to do whatever we want!” Kelly said.

“Let's do it.” Heather said and they stood and went with Arnold downstairs, grabbed their backpacks, and went to the dining room to do their homework.

Claire saw them and walked over to see them unpack their school things, even though it was Friday. “Okay, Heather. Who are you and where's my real daughter?”

Both Heather and Kelly laughed.

“Very funny, mom.” Heather said. “We're doing it so we won't have to worry about doing it later.”

“I detect Kelly's influence...” Claire said and looked at Arnold. “...and perhaps you want to impress a certain young man that I am looking at right now.”

“Thanks for being subtle about it, mom.”

Claire let out a soft laugh. “I'm glad you're being proactive, no matter the reason, sweetie.” She said. “I'll try to time supper for when you finish.”

“We don't have as much this time, even though it's the weekend.” Kelly said.

“Oh?” Claire looked at their books and saw that it was significantly less than it was before. “Then I'll put the pasta on right now.”

“I don't think we can be done that quickly, mom.” Heather said, because she knew pasta could be done anywhere from ten to twenty minutes. Her mom made a lot of different kinds of pasta.

Claire laughed. “It's all right. The spaghetti can be cooked and left to sit, as long as you don't overcook it. If you add some butter and a little bit of sauce after you drain it, it will keep for as long as you need it to.”

“Won't it be cold?” Kelly asked.

“It will be, until I add some lightly simmering spaghetti sauce and a few meatballs. It warms the thin strands of pasta right up.” Claire said. “You don't have to worry about the food, dear. You three get to work and I'll take care of it.”

Arnold, Heather and Kelly worked on their homework and the girls had been right. There wasn't as much to do and the questions weren't as difficult. They were finished after only forty-five minutes and quickly packed everything up.

“I am so glad Mr. Hammish didn't assign any essay questions this time.” Kelly said and put her backpack on the floor beside her chair. “Those are always a pain!”

“They sure are.” Heather said and shook her head. “What a waste of time just copying paragraphs out of the sociology book.”

“It's so you'll reread the content and remember it better when asked about it later.” Claire said and brought out a huge platter that was heaped with spaghetti bolognese, with a little extra sauce in the center, and it had a row of meatballs around the rim.

“Mom, who are you feeding?” Heather started to laugh. “I don't see any giants around, do you?”

“Mrs. Bradshaw, I think you outdid yourself.” Kelly said and couldn't help herself and laughed, too.

Claire put the platter down. “I spilled the whole damn box of spaghetti into the pot by mistake.”

“Mom!” Heather gasped. “You're not perfect!”

“Ha. Ha.” Claire said. “You be quiet or I'll use these tongs to swat your backside.”

Heather's and Kelly's laughter died down and Claire served them fairly normal sized servings.

“I expected you to force us to eat it all.” Heather said and started to eat.

“I'm not that cruel to young and developing girls.” Claire said. “I'll be doing an extra set of squats in the morning to counter all the extra protein and carbs.”

“Just one set?” Kelly asked and looked at the mound of spaghetti and meatballs.

“Okay, maybe two.” Claire said and they all ate. She took a bit more for herself, since it tasted so good, and she gave another helping to Arnold. Seeing that the two of them were still eating, Kelly snuck a bit more and another meatball. When they were done, Claire sat back and rubbed her slightly puffier belly. Arnold gathered up their plates without being asked and took them to the sink.

“I shouldn't have eaten that sixth meatball.” Claire said.

“Me, either.” Kelly said and copied her. “It was delicious, Mrs. Bradshaw. Thank you.”

“You're welcome, Kelly.” Claire said and went to stand up. “Ugh.” She groaned and sat back down. “I think I need to digest this for a little while before I can drive you home, Arnold.” She said. “Can you carry the platter back into the kitchen for me and put it on the counter?”

Arnold nodded and took the platter into the kitchen.

“Mom, you can't just...”

“Arnold can carry ten platters and not even bat an eye.” Claire said. “There are things you need to worry about; but, him carrying food into the kitchen is not one of them.”

Heather stopped herself from sighing.

“We'll have a nice long talk tomorrow while Arnold is working.”

“What? I thought... aren't the hedges done?” Heather asked as Arnold came back into the room.

“We need to mulch up the huge piles of debris at the back of the property.” Claire said. “I'm also tempted to reseed the grass and maybe add a bit of fertilizer.”

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“Wow.” Kelly whispered. “You have him actually working and he's not just... well...”

“Walking around and looking handsome?” Claire asked and laughed as Kelly blushed. “I'm not running a charity and just giving money away. He's going to be well paid for the work he's doing.” She said. “I've already had a few of the neighbours ask about him, too.”

“What? Really?” Heather asked.

“Arnold is a hard worker and that's kind of rare to find these days.”

“So, he could be working a lot on the weekends.” Heather said, a little sadly.

“Don't jump ahead of yourself.” Claire cautioned her. “I think we need to help guide him a bit more before he can accept doing yard work for other people.”

Heather gave her mother a knowing look and slowly nodded.

“Well, while I waddle over to the living room to let this food settle, the three of you can go on upstairs for a while.” Claire said and stood up and chuckled. “Yes, I definitely ate too much.”

“Is it sore?” Arnold asked and Heather caught her breath.

“No, it isn't sore. Thank you, Arnold.” Claire said and walked away.

Heather took Arnold's hand and the three of them went down the hallway and up the stairs to go to Heather's room. Once inside, she shut the door and walked over to the bed. She sat down and Arnold sat next to her, and Kelly wasn't sure what to do because Arnold now sat in her normal spot. She thought about sitting on Heather's other side; but, that just seemed weird. Sitting beside Arnold also seemed weird, so she turned and saw the desk with the computer.

Kelly went to it and turned it on, then sat down to wait for it to start. “Heather, did you have any luck working with that program?”

“Hell no.” Heather laughed. “I can't figure out much more than what we did the other night.”

Kelly chuckled. “If someone could develop a good user interface, the program would kick ass.”

The computer came on and Kelly started checking on a few things.

“Do you want me to kiss it and make it feel better?” Arnold asked Heather.

“I don't feel like it right now. Thank you, though.” Heather said and gave him a kiss, then she kissed him a bit more, then moved off of his lips and kissed his cheek, then moved down to nuzzle his neck.

Kelly relaxed and hadn't realized she had tensed up. She was worried that Heather was actually going to go through with it and let her see them going at it. The problem was that she was disappointed that she wasn't going to see them going at it. With that on her mind, it immediately showed her the mental picture she had taken of Heather casually stroking Arnold right in front of her.

Kelly's face turned bright red and she desperately needed something to distract her. VR! She thought and quickly set up the demo program she liked so much. She liked some of the available games; but, she wasn't at home and didn't have access to her own accounts. Plus, the demos were just mindless fun and didn't require a lot of thought. She reached for Heather's VR headset and then she felt a set of eyes bore into the back of her skull. She turned her head and saw Arnold was staring at her with such intensity that it gave her a shiver.

“I'm... just... playing a demo.” Kelly said and couldn't tell if it was a good shiver or a bad shiver.

Heather stopped nuzzling Arnold and looked at her as well. “What one?”

“Puzzle Panorama.” Kelly said.

“Oh, that old thing.” Heather said. “You beat that a hundred times already.”

Kelly shrugged. “I like it.”

“Can I watch?” Arnold asked.

Kelly looked at Heather and back at him. “But... shouldn't you...”

“It's fine.” Heather said with a smile. “Arnold's coming here tomorrow to work.”

Which means it should be easy for you to come up with an excuse to let him stay for the night. Kelly thought and nodded understanding. “Okay, you can watch.”

Arnold stood up and walked over to her, eased the chair back slightly from the desk and moved her legs apart, then he sat down on the floor between her legs and stared at the screen. Kelly looked down at him in surprise and then looked at Heather.

“That's what I do when he's using the computer.” Heather said and stood up. “I'm going to be busy for a bit, so don't have too much fun without me.” She walked over to the bathroom and shut the door.

Kelly sat there for a moment to gather her thoughts, then she took a breath and let it out. “Okay, the screen is going to show you the basic view while I get the full VR view.”

“What's that mean?” Arnold asked.

“You see it on a flat screen and I see it all around me.”

“How does that work?” Arnold asked. “Our eyes face forward.”

Kelly smiled. “I can turn my head in the game and can see all around inside the game.”

“Are all the games like that?”

“A lot of the commercial ones are, yes.” Kelly said. “The basic VR setup can handle a lot of things; but, it's a little clunky because it relies on hand controls and your physical responses.”

“You make it sound like there's a better VR setup.” Arnold said.

“If you had lots of money, you could buy a full immersion setup.” Kelly said and slipped on the VR headset and started the program. “When you load a program with it, it's like you're really there.”

“Do you have one?” Arnold asked.

“I wish!” Kelly said and went through the menu options and chose the puzzle she wanted. “I'd love to do this game in full immersion!”

Arnold watched the screen as a planet he never saw before zoomed in, then he saw an odd-shaped continent, an island, and then a set of ruins. It was amazing. Just watching it like that set his mind alight with possibilities, and then two disembodied hands appeared and grabbed the screen and the ruins zoomed in closer.

“Wow.” Arnold said. “Do that again.”

Kelly did and the ruins zoomed past and showed an intricate floating puzzle made of stone bricks.

“What is that?” Arnold asked.

“A puzzle I need to figure out.” Kelly said and the disembodied hands grabbed the puzzle and spun it. “I've done it a lot, and even so, I still enjoy coming back and doing it again.” She pushed one of the blocks in and three popped out.

“How do you decide what to do?” Arnold asked.

“You don't.” Kelly said.

“Huh?”

“It's a guessing game.” Kelly said. “I could have pushed any of the bricks and other bricks would have popped out. Depending on what you do, they react in a different way.”

“How do you know you solved it?” Arnold asked, confused.

“For this one, green is good and red is bad.” Kelly said and pushed a brick back into the pile and two bricks popped out and showed red underneath. “You keep pushing bricks until none pop out.”

“I don't understand.” Arnold said. “How do you find a pattern in the randomness?”

Kelly chuckled. “If you do puzzles all the time like I do, you'll discover the truth.” She said. “Randomness is a pattern all on its own.”

“What... what did you say?” Arnold said quite loudly and turned around to kneel between her legs and looked at her face.

Kelly paused the game when she felt him move and put the controls down, then slipped off the headset. “When you see something that seems to be random, that tells you there's a pattern to discover.” She said. “Randomness is only a trick that the mind plays on you until you can make sense of things.”

Arnold stared into her eyes for several moments as he thought about her words. “Kelly, you're really smart.”

Kelly opened her mouth to say that she wasn't, then she realized he had complimented her. Arnold, the stoic and cold boy that people didn't talk to because he seemed so odd, actually gave her a compliment. She really didn't know how to respond to that.

“How's it going out here?” Heather asked as she opened her bathroom door and came out wearing just a towel.

“Heather!” Kelly exclaimed. “Arnold is... he just... you're only wearing a towel!”

Heather laughed and walked over to her dresser and grabbed a pair of underwear, tiny shorts, and a tiny t-shirt. “He's seen me mostly naked already.”

“He has, has he?” Claire asked and opened Heather's bedroom door all the way.

“MOM!” Heather exclaimed. “You... were you spying on me?”

“I came up to get Arnold, actually.” Claire said. “Arnold, grab your things and wait for me by the front door. It's time I take you home.”

“Okay.” Arnold said and stood up.

Heather stepped towards him. “Can I at least say good-”

“No.” Claire cut her off. “You and I need to have a talk later.” She said. “A nice long talk.”

Oh, shit. Heather thought, then all she could do was nod.

Claire stepped out of the way to let Arnold pass, then gave her daughter a pointed stare and left.

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