"Let's go get it done," she said, turning from the other girls, not caring that they weren't ready.
She went out of the locker room and sat on the porch to the gym, looking out over the sunlit campus. Utilitarian buildings squatted in what she supposed some military architect had decided were strategic locations. Here and there was a big, old tree – no small ones, no new ones beginning long life. It wasn't in the nature of Bronson Academy to foster fresh, new life.
Except down by the lake. Actually, Vera didn't mind going around the lake. It was wild and fresh, overgrown and pure, with dank smells coming from things that had lived out their time and fallen and made ground for the new to grow. Other than the dam at one end of the lake, the only way the Army, had spoiled the woods around the lake was to clear a path for the cadets to run around. Now and then they held war games of sorts to let everybody crawl through the bushes in preparation for the big event at the beginning of summer, but that was all.
Off in the distance, she saw a company of men marching in drill. They were halted, barked at, and dismissed. She saw the unmistakable figure of Frank Cobb walking toward his dorm.
She watched him intently, feeling very strange inside. The resemblance of him to her father was uncanny. He even walked like her father, the same kind of loping stride. She couldn't take her eyes from him. She watched him disappear into the building and kept watching the door to see if he would come back out and walk in front of her some more.
"Shit, Vera, be in a rush, why don't you!" Sandy bitched coming out behind her with Wilma. Her pert little tits poked at her top, and her red shorts were like a second skin over her round butt cheeks.
"I didn't want to cramp your style, honey," she said in a sugary way, her violet eyes on Wilma. She wasn't really surprised when the girl looked away, flustered.
"It's all right, Wilma," she said, not quite able to keep the cattiness out of her tone. "I let Sandy fuck all my friends. We have it worked out."
"God, you're a bitch today, Vera!" Sandy squeeled. "What's the matter with you? I hope seven boys catch you down at the lake and fuck your ass off! Come on, Wilma, let's get away from this bitch. Her trouble is, her cunt's drying up from lack of use, and the rot is beginning to stink."
"Somehow, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened," Vera said quietly, looking across the campus again, squinting against the sun.
"What?" Sandy asked, pouting cutely. "If what happened?"
"Never mind," Vera said, stretching out her long, slim legs and rising. She began walking toward the lake. In a moment the other girls caught up with her, hanging back a little, as if being led.
It had taken them nearly an hour to do the first lap. They hadn't pushed it. In fact, they'd farted around about it, stopping to sit under the trees and look across the water, enjoying thy sun and the birds and a solitary wild flower here and there. As anticipated, Beth was waling for them at the starting point. Judy was with her. They were both in their fatigues, looking butchy as hell, bars on their collars, name tags stitched across their tits, scowling out from under the creased bills of their hats, like rodents looking at the world from under a shelf.
"I want a little speed to it, girls," Beth barked, looking pointedly at her watch. "At the rate you're going, you'll be late for supper. Are you trying to rack up more demerits?"
"Saturday afternoon is supposed to be free time, Beth," Sandy said angrily, her tight tits heaving under the stretched top.
Beth looked at her coldly for a long moment and then opened her big mouth and let out an unbelievable torrent. "You will address your superior officers by their rank and surname and in a respectful tone of voice, Perkins!!" she bellowed. "Do you want an extra lap?"
"No, Ma'am!" Sandy barked back, snapping to attention, whether from fear or out of ridicule, Vera couldn't quite tell.
"Then get moving, all of you! I want to see you pass this point again in thirty minutes, is that clear?" She grinned oddly, giving a sideways glance at Judy. "Thirty minutes! Dismissed!"
Vera watched the by play between the two older girls. Something was up. She could feel it. But she turned and began jogging away, entering the secluded, tree-shrouded path again. In a moment, Sandy and Wilma caught up with her, puffing.
"Screw this!" Sandy bitched feverently. "Just screw this Goddamn place, Vera! I'm leaving with you, by God! I've had it!"
"You're leaving?" Wilma cried. "You're quitting? Oh, shit, you guys! You're going to leave me here all alone?"
Vera opened her mouth. She was going to say, it depends on Daddy. She set her jaw, instead. "Yes!" she declared firmly.
They were just passing the dam, a third of the way around the lake, when they jogged past two of the boys, who were skipping stones across the water down at the edge of the lake.
"Hey! Wilma! Hold up!"
All three girls stopped. They watched Bill Bast and Frank Cobb clamber up the bank and stand in the shade beside them, their eyes taking in the curves under the tight red shorts and the way Vera's tits particularly thrust out in big-nippled beauty.
"What's with all the running?" Bill asked. "You didn't get enough drill practice today or something?"
"That bitch Smith ordered us to do three laps around the lake, Bill," Wilma complained, leaning against her boy friends pushing her tits into his arm.
"Shit, Willie, she can't do that," he said easily, patting her ass, leaving his hand there for a squeeze while he looked directly at Sandy. "Tell her to fuck off. Speaking of which." He grinned, grabbing a handful of Wilma's ass, making her squeal. "There's something you girls ought to see up there in the bushes."
"I've seen it," Wilma said, pulling a face and running her open palm over his crotch. "But you can show it to me again tonight, after we've finished these damn laps."
"What's with the laps, baby? I told you to tell her to fuck off."
"And get reported?"
"There's no getting reported. This is free time. This isn't the Goddamn Army yet, it's only an academy, and the rule here is that you're off now. Man, did you girls eat a handful of her shit, huh, Frank?"
"Sounds like it," Frank said. He was looking at Vera, trying not to stare but not doing too well at it. She was having the same problem.
"Are you guys sure?" Sandy asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Positive," Bill said. "Now, about that thing up there in the bushes." Bill grinned.
Wilma giggled and looked at Sandy. "Think we ought to trust them? This one will say anything for a piece of ass."
"You impugn my honor, Willie!"
"No, he's right," Frank said quickly – too quickly, it seemed to Vera. But his tone and manner were sincere, and she believed him. She had a good idea what was going to happen in the bushes, though, and didn't want any part of it. Or did she?
"I think I'll get on back, then," she said.
Frank touched her arm gently. "Don't go," he said quietly.
"Well, you two can stand here and waste the afternoon if you want," Wilma said, "but I know what I'm going to do." She pulled on Bill's arm, leading him up the slope away from the path toward a densely screened patch of woods. She looked back over her shoulder. "Coming, Sandy?"
Sandy looked startled. Bill grinned widely. "Hell yes!" she said brightly, scampering after them.
Frank shifted his feet after they'd left. "Want to go with them?" he asked, swallowing. "See what they're doing?"
"I know what they're doing," Vera said coolly.
"We don't… you know. We can just talk."
Vera looked at him. She felt her pulse pound. She wanted to move on, circle around Beth and Judy and head back to the room, leaving them there waiting. After her father came tonight, it wouldn't matter what those two did, or Captain Garner, either.
"Now, I know." Frank said, pointing his finger at her mouth. "That's what's so familiar about you. I knew I'd seen that somewhere before."