Cindy Liu: Class Project

Copyright 2020, Javahead. All rights reserved

Author's Note: This story was my first attempt to write from a female POV. I welcome feedback on how well -- or poorly -- I did.

I'm not quite certain where the character and story line emerged from -- I jotted down some ideas, decided to borrow secondary characters from some of my earlier stories, and started writing. It was only then that I realized that I was essentially trying to write a pastiche of a Chloe Tzang story.

I don't claim to be the writer that Chloe is, but I hope that you'll enjoy Cindy's story anyway. If you do -- and quite possibly even if you don't -- you'll probably enjoy Chloe's work.

And Chloe? Thanks for the inspiration and encouragement. - Javahead

ooOoo

I blamed Abigail.

If Abby hadn't found those coupons and convinced me that this class would be 'fun', I wouldn't hurt so much right now. And it had looked so easy!

It really had sounded like fun. I don't know why the school thinks we need PE credits to get a college degree, but there it was in the syllabus: we had to take a total of 5 units worth of PE during our second year. None of the classes they offered looked all that appealing, but Abby had pointed out the small print -- classes at outside gyms could be substituted, with a long list of local providers.

I wasn't sure if my parents would approve of a ladies' fitness pole dancing class -- no, I knew they'd tell me that a good Chinese girl would never do something like that! - but it sounded like a lot more fun than beginner's golf or showing up for swim class at 7 AM every morning. I could even afford it; with the student discount they offered I could try it out for a semester without asking my parents for extra spending money.

So I hadn't put up much of a fight -- all it took was "Come on Cindy, it'll be fun! Think about how Josh will react when he finds out!" to get me to agree to come to talk with them.

Plus, the instructors would be an argument in my favor if my parents did find out -- they were a couple of Chinese sisters -- from Hong Kong, like my Mom. The older sister, Nita, had to be close to my mom's age, too, late 30's at least, but I'd never have guessed it if she hadn't mentioned the year that she came here for college. Pole dancing must be really good for your fitness and looks; they're both super fit, and Nita could almost pass as a twin of her younger sister Susan. They're kind of cool -- I could see both of them had tattoos showing where their T-back tops exposed their shoulders. Umm, I'd better not mention that last to my folks. I can't imagine my Mom getting a tattoo; she'd probably be ready to disown me if I did.

Nita and Susan were awfully nice when I came to check them out. I introduced myself -- at least with other Chinese I don't have to put up with "Cindy Lou Who" jokes when I tell them my name is "Cindy Liu." We even talked a little in Cantonese, though mine's pretty bad -- hey, Mom speaks Cantonese, Dad speaks Mandarin, so us kids just pick up bits and pieces. My Mandarin's not really any better, even if I did go to Chinese school long enough to be able to read Chinese characters a little. But they seemed to appreciate my attempt.

So I signed up for their class. The time -- 5 PM, twice a week -- worked OK with my class schedule, and the class was just a few blocks from my dorm; honestly, it was closer (and a less scary nighttime walk) than the school gym on the other side of campus.

ooOoo

I'd looked forward to starting. I hoped it got me in shape, but didn't think it could be too hard; after all, they could do it, and they're tiny, 4 or 5 inches shorter than my 5'3". I figured I could handle anything they wanted us to do.

I didn't know that they'd turn into sadistic drill sergeants when class started. Or maybe just drill sergeants, and the class was designed by sadists. The first few moves were easy enough -- just stepping around the pole, or using it to stabilize myself while I did a slow pirouette. But these so-called basic spins? They look easy, too, at least when Nita or Susan do them, but they're evil.

Who came up with the 'chair'? Who thought it would be a good idea to spin around the pole using only your hands while you curl your body up like you're sitting on a chair that isn't there? At least now I know why both of them have 6 packs -- my hands are burning, my arms are trembling, and they yell "just hold it a little longer" at me if I don't keep my body in a perfect 'chair' position as my stomach starts to cramp. While they both maintain perfect form themselves.

But we all got personal attention for every move. It's not a big class, just ten people, and they seemed to be able to watch all of us at once.

Somehow, I managed to last through that first class. And the next one -- I even got a little praise. I didn't hurt quite as much afterward, either. Abby had been right, too -- Josh did seem excited by the idea when I told him about it on our Saturday night date.

Of course, Josh is another one of those things I don't tell my parents. Dating a gwai loh? Why couldn't I date a good Chinese boy, or at least Korean or Vietnamese? Maybe even a Japanese guy in a pinch. But a white guy? Everyone knows what they want from a good Chinese girl like me! Yeah, my folks are pretty old fashioned in some ways, but they do love us.

So how many Chinese guys, or even Asian guys, will you find in a High School class in Fresno, California? Not many. As in "none," most of the time. This is why the only "dates" I had in High School were the Junior and Senior proms, when I went with a guy -- not a boyfriend -- from our church youth group (and went to his, so he had a date).

Of course, even if there had been someone to date, I wouldn't have had much free time to do it. When your folks own a handful of convenience stores, "teenage child" means "free labor". No, that's not true, they do pay us minimum wage, just like the other clerks. Deposited directly into our college funds, that is, except for a few dollars a week spending money.

I shouldn't complain. With that, and my folks help, I had enough money to go to a State college without taking out a student loan. They'd actually approved of my coming to the Bay area; the college has a pretty solid business and accounting program. Plus they thought it would give me a chance to get to meet and socialize with more Chinese people my own age. Maybe even find someone I'd like to date. Yay, me!

And I did. Find someone -- Chinese, even! - who I liked enough to date. Not that I told my parents -- I'm pretty sure that finding out that she was Chinese would have had them wanting to commit me to a nunnery. Convent? We're not even Catholic! (Or maybe not. If your daughter likes other girls, wouldn't that be a really bad idea?)

It didn't last, though. Neither of us had really expected it to -- both of us like guys a lot, but we were both curious. We still had a lot of fun together, and Shelly gave me my first orgasm ever with another person. Lots of others after that, every time she had the chance. I had fun giving her some, too. But it broke up pretty naturally when she found a guy that she wanted to date -- we're still friends, but nothing more.

Not that I was alone too long. Just a couple of weeks later Josh asked me out and proved to me that I may be bi but I'm definitely not a total lez. Sex with Josh was different than it was with Shelly, but I enjoyed it just as much.

So I had fun, and I learned new things. Lots of fun new things. I was actually kind of smug when he told me "Cindy, you are one hell of a good cock sucker!" - I'd worked hard to learn how! I liked regular, cock-in-pussy sex a lot, too, in just about every position we tried. I even kind of liked being butt-fucked occasionally, as long as he took his time and used plenty of lube.

So between Shelly and Josh, I had pretty much made up for my High School dating drought by the end of my freshman year.

Summer had been a pain. I was back working more-than-full-time in Fresno, and Josh was home in San Diego.

We did manage to get together for one long weekend; I told my folks I was "meeting college friends at Disneyland." It was even true, sort of -- we did go there for one afternoon, the second day. But most of the rides were on Josh. Or on me. Hey, I'm flexible! It was great -- but after having sex several times a week for most of the school year, getting together just once all summer long was a really long stretch.

It felt great to be back at school. It was still a little awkward. My parents had insisted that I stay in the dorms again, telling me "maybe next year" when I told them I wanted to rent a house with -- ahem -- friends. And I had a double room, not a suite, so we had to schedule around our classes and our roommates. It was hard to get together during the week, but that gave me weekday evenings free for things like studying or taking pole dancing classes. And we could still get together on the weekend, even overnight, sometimes.

I still had lots of free time during the week. I may not be the stereotypical overachieving Asian student (my parents had been a little disappointed that I didn't want to be a doctor, or at least an engineer) but, really, accounting classes weren't all that hard. And once I got over the aches and pains and started getting better at it, pole dancing had turned out to be just as much fun as I'd hoped. So I started hanging around the studio looking for a chance to practice when I had nothing else going on.

Nita and Susan encouraged me, once they saw I was serious about what I was doing. They let me practice if there wasn't a class going on, and even gave me some one-on-one instruction in exchange for helping clean up in the evening, or helping the real beginners -- like I'd been a couple of months ago -- learn the basic moves.

They seemed to like having me around. After a while, they almost adopted me as a baby sister, even inviting me over for dinner a few times - I'd really missed good homemade Chinese food. And when Susan learned I was studying accounting, she sort of took me under her wing -- though she loves teaching at the studio, her day job is as a CPA! So I had an unofficial professional mentor, too.

I got to know them pretty well. After a while I figured out that they aren't really sisters, but cousins -- their mothers are sisters, I think. Though they do look almost like twins and call each other "sis" most of the time. They enjoy teasing each other like sisters, too -- apparently, Nita's a "cock teasing tart" and Susan's the "slutty little sister" or "nasty little whore" when there aren't any outsiders around to shock. It shocked me until I saw how they both laughed -- name-calling and all, they get along a lot better than I do with either of my own sisters.

Figuring out their relationships took me a little longer -- it turns out they're both married to white guys named "Dave", but not the same guy. (For a while, I'd wondered if they were Mormons or Muslims or something.)

I met both their guys the first time Nita asked me over to dinner at her house. Her Dave - "Dave1" -- is a guy about my dad's age, reasonably fit, and good looking in a middle-aged kind of way. It was easy to see that she's crazy about him, and that he feels the same way about her and their two little girls.

Susan's Dave - "Dave2" - is younger, but still a few years older than Susan. Early or mid 30's maybe. And really, seriously, fit. He moves like my karate sensei did, almost like a big cat. Not exactly handsome, but sexy -- if he'd been a few years younger (and, you know, not married to Susan) he'd have made my panties damp. But it was plain that he and Susan are just as crazy in love with each other as Nita and her Dave are.

I felt a little envious, really. I liked Josh, and we were having a lot of fun, but I was pretty sure he didn't look at me that way.

So, anyhow, I got to know them. They really are nice, even though I knew my folks wouldn't approve of their guy. Especially when I learned that they give private classes at Susan's place for women who want to learn adult pole dancing -- stripping - to get a job. It was pretty easy to figure out the first time she invited me to dinner -- the setup that Susan's got in her living room looks like it belongs in a strip club. And that Nita and Susan have stripped, too.

That did shock me. Quite a bit. But I had got to know them by then - they're both smart, sweet, well educated, hardworking and love their guys . . . Really, everything that my folks want me to be. If they could get by the "pole dancing" thing.

So I was a little vague when I told my folks about the dance classes I was taking for PE credit. I just said that it was fun, that I was paying for extra instruction by helping out around the studio, and that the teachers were a couple of married ladies from Hong Kong. Put like that, they had no problems, and even encouraged me to continue on for the spring semester.

Things seemed to fall in place: I saw Josh every weekend, kept my grades up, and spent most of my free time hanging around the studio with Susan or Nita. Like I said, "little sister" - they gave me good advice, they had me over for dinner regularly . . . It was almost like having family close by.

ooOoo

And they were there to pick me up when I learned that I wasn't Josh's only girlfriend. Far from it, apparently. Not that he ever told me, the rat! No, that was Health Services, telling me that I should get tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia -- apparently, good ol' Josh didn't use condoms with any of his other girls, either. I felt like screaming! I was mad, scared, hurt, confused - I needed advice, and I really, really didn't want to talk to my mom about it.

So I went to the only people here I knew cared about me. It was the right choice. Both of them were mad enough to want to do something nasty to dear old Josh. (Castration with a rusty file? Really, Nita?) But smart enough to know it wasn't a good idea. Instead, they took turns comforting me and helping me pull things back together.

It was Susan who took charge of me and hauled me down to the clinic she uses -- apparently, she knows a lot about stuff like this. And she listens really well -- she didn't seem a bit shocked when I told her about everything I'd done with Josh ... and Shelly. (She just grinned and said "Well, I am the slutty sister, I've done worse!" when I asked about it).

I was about ready to take up Nita's suggestion about the rusty file when I tested positive for gonorrhea. But Susan pulled me back together again, held my hand during the treatment, and convinced me that no, going off birth control because I was giving up sex forever was probably not a good idea.

I really did give up sex, though. At least with other people. I spent a little more time with my school friends (usually Sunday and Monday nights, when the studio was closed) and started Saturday afternoon pole classes, too. Not as a student, but as an assistant -- they both thought I was good enough to help the beginners.

It all kept me busy enough I didn't really miss dating. Much. On the times that I did, I just had to think about Josh and the urge went away again fast. I'd been lucky; they caught it early enough that there wouldn't be any long-term side effects, but there could have been. And I'd trusted Josh, maybe even loved him a little.

Not any more. Bastard!

But everything else in my life was good. Thanks to Susan's coaching, I was carrying solid As in all my classes. For a beginner, I was getting really good on the pole -- nowhere near what Nita and Susan could do, but I was doing things I'd have never believed possible just a few months back. I was probably in the best shape of my life, too.

ooOoo

I didn't go home for Thanksgiving break. I didn't have a car, so it wasn't practical unless I wanted to spend a couple of days on a bus coming and going. So the winter break (you're not supposed to say "Christmas", even though that's what it is) was the first time I'd gone home since August.

I was surprised at how different it felt -- after all, I'd grown up there, and been there all last summer. Maybe it was hanging out with adults instead of others my own age -- Susan and Nita aren't old old, but even though they're both very playful they're a lot more ... something ... than my classmates. It gave me a little better perspective. Like seeing that my Mom and Dad weren't old old either -- really, they're not that much older than Nita and her Dave. I'd never even thought about my parents as, well, people, just "Mom" and "Dad". But I could see that they worried about us, and were doing the best they could to make sure we all had good lives, even if money was tight.

So it was a good trip back, in a lot of ways. I really do love my family. But it reinforced the determination to move AFFF (Away From Fresno Forever) as soon as I could support myself. I really don't want to spend my life behind the counter of a convenience store, or even help running a chain of them.

A good part of supporting me through college had been giving me all the hours I could work and moving most of my scrupulously-paid wages into my college savings. Ditto for my brother and sisters -- as soon as they were old enough, they'd be behind the counter too.

ooOoo

The first couple of weeks back were tough. Classes weren't bad, but in my time away I'd lost more ground than I'd liked on my dance skills. Even though I'd done what exercises I could, I didn't have a pole to practice with; there were some serious aches and pains until my body adjusted again.

Still, by the end of January, I was back in shape and working on new moves instead of trying to regain lost ground. I was still helping out several hours a week in the beginner's and regular fitness training classes, but I was also enrolled in the Saturday afternoon competition training sessions and getting occasional one-on-one coaching from whichever of them was free.

The Saturday sessions were fun. They had occasional guests giving demos -- advanced students, a couple of dancers from local clubs (Nita has apparently trained quite a few), a lady in her 50s (and still in great shape) that had been Nita's teacher, once a visiting friend of Susan's from the Philippines who dances in a cabaret show (married to one of Dave2's army buddies, she said). I'm still a ways from being able to do some of the moves they demonstrated, but one of these days...

I spent more time with them away from the studio, too. I didn't usually see them on days it was closed, like Sunday evenings, or any time Monday (that no-car thing again). Plus Nita needed time with her kids, and they both needed one-on-one time with their guys. But I still got invited to both their places fairly regularly, for dinner or just to hang out.

Sometimes I could even help -- I babysat for Nita a couple of times when she and Dave1 wanted a night out. I look forward to turning 21 year so I can visit some of these places myself -- they'd roll in some time after two in the morning, him in slacks and a sports jacket and her in a sexy little dress and really high heels, and you could see they'd had fun and it was all they could do to keep their hands off each other. And they've been together nearly as long as my folks have! (I wonder if my mom and dad still feel that way about each other? I kind of hope they do.)

So things were pretty steady until early April. I missed regular sex -- a lot! - but I still didn't feel ready to date again. I was horny -- I had fantasies about attractive men and women (including a rather embarrassing one about being being double-teamed by Susan and Dave -- I couldn't look her in the eye for a couple of days) but I kept them bottled up. My fingers would get a workout when I got too frustrated, but that was it. I'd usually socialize with school friends on Sunday or Monday nights and hung around with Nita or Susan the rest of the time.