Everybody Wins

Thomas was excited about the trip to the lake. No parents, just his cousins and some friends. This would be the second year that his cousin Melanie would be in charge and that made it even better. Before that, the weekend had always been supervised by one of his father's teaching assistants and that was a mixed bag at best. At any rate, Melanie wasn't nearly as concerned with his father's rules as a TA who depended on him for their grades, recommendations, and paychecks!

Thomas's father was an economics professor at a small college and this early summer vacation was something that he had come up with years ago. Sure it was mainly about swimming, camping and just hanging out, but he had added an economic component.

Each kid was given a certain amount of money at the start of the week, which they then had to use for everything from food and supplies to movies and whatever else came up.

They could also use it to, say, acquire the best room in the cabin, purchase someone else's bag of cookies or pay someone to make dinner. You could make money if you could convince others to pay you for services. This was not restricted to the house. You could get paid by a neighboring cabin to cut their grass or weed their garden and then live like a king...till the money dried out.

Bartering was not only allowed but also encouraged so that every meal did not necessarily become a fiscal orgy, but could be as simple as "you cook, I'll clean."

Thomas had yet to win this little competition, but hoped to do better this year. For one thing, he was not bringing a friend. Last summer, Luke had been a disaster. Luke certainly didn't care about winning, the "friends" rarely did. He spent his money carelessly, and encouraged Thomas to do the same. When his money ran out, he would pester Thomas to loan him funds or just buy him stuff. Even worse, Luke flirted with Melanie all the time and Thomas hated that!

Melanie was 18. She was a high school senior, head cheerleader, home coming queen and beautiful. Thomas was infatuated with her. She was perfect and had always taken care of him when his other cousin gave him a hard time. She never won the competition either, because of her kind heart. She had probably given Luke more money than Thomas had last summer. He was thrilled to learn that Melanie was also not bringing a friend this year. In his mind, that meant that they could spend a lot more time together.

Melanie was glad to be getting away. Her idyllic high school years had soured right at the finish line. At prom she found her boyfriend making out with one of her best friends. Turns out they had been carrying on behind her back for months and everyone but Melanie seemed to know about it. Totally humiliating. So then she had started dating this older guy she had met at a yoga class. On their third date they ran into his wife. HIS WIFE!! She had had no idea. Again, total humiliation. Suddenly, men were not her favorite species.

And she was wait-listed at State. That too was embarrassing. "We aren't talking about Harvard here," her uncle had teased. Her guidance counselor had explained, dripping with condescension, that they had probably filled their quota of cheerleaders and Homecoming Queens and were looking for girls who were maybe a little more interesting.

So, a week at the lake to sulk and have a pity party sounded pretty good right about now. She'd let the other kids do what they wanted, just so long as they left her and her gallon of Chocolate Mint alone. She was not thrilled to learn that Thomas was also not bringing a friend. He would probably want to follow her around like a sick puppy and she was not in the mood. Besides, he was of the male species, the enemy.

Teresa was Melanie's twin sister. They had one thing in common, their age. But where Melanie was beautiful, Teresa was pretty, but she hid it well. Where Melanie was kind, Teresa had a cynical edge. Since neither Thomas or Melanie were bringing a friend, she would make up for it by bringing three! She was bringing Laura, because Laura had proved to be very useful last year. And this year, she was also bringing Rachael and Meghan, two more high school pals who would enjoy one last summer fling before heading off to separate colleges.

None of them were too thrilled that Thomas was coming. Without him this could have been a fun "girls trip." Also, without him, no one would have cared about the stupid "Econ Challenge," but Thomas' dad paid for the cabin and Thomas took it very seriously.

He was the golden boy, adored by his parents, and on his way to being adored by the world, well the socially conservative part of it anyway. He would be heading to Dartmouth in the fall. Thomas, like his dad, felt that women were very definitely the weaker, less intelligent sex. He won everything he participated in, except for the "Econ challenge." Teresa had won this little money thing every year and planned to again this year. She won, because she was shrewd and maybe cheated a little when it suited. But come on, what student of economics doesn't know that cheating is part of the game!

It gave her so much satisfaction to see the disappointment on both Thomas' and his father's face every year when she won.

Thomas's cousins lived between his town and the site of their cottage, so his parents would traditionally drive up the night before, have dinner with everyone and then drive back home leaving Thomas behind. Dinner was par for the course, mostly Thomas's dad holding court about all of his achievements since the last time the families had been together. He also lectured his sister on all the things she was doing wrong and quizzed the girls on political events. Thomas joined in here, chiding his cousins and his aunt for not being better informed.

After dinner, Thomas's parents got ready to leave. His dad asked if maybe there was something Thomas needed before they left.

"Oh right, my bag!"

"Yes, your bag. Now son, you're on your own from here on out. You can't be careless and expect to win the econ challenge!"

Teresa let out a derisive snort and was shot a dirty look by her older sister. Her mother, however, covered her mouth to hide a secret smile.

Thomas walked with his parents back to the car, endured another lecture from his father and retrieved his bag.

When he walked back in the house, the only one left about was his aunt.

"Where is everyone" he asked.

"Well they've all gone up to their rooms. You've got a big day tomorrow and I know Melanie wants to get an early start, so you should head up as well."

"Okay, goodnight Aunt Margaret."

"Goodnight Thomas, and don't let those girls take advantage of you up there." "Don't worry, I can handle them."

"Well, that makes one of us," she said.

Thomas knocked on Melanie's door and when she said come in, he did.

"Just wanted to say goodnight." "Okay, goodnight."

Thomas just stood there. "Anything else Thomas?"

"Um no. So we're leaving early tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Um okay. G'night."

With that Thomas left, closing the door behind him. Melanie just shook her head.

Across the hall, Laura asked Teresa "isn't he going to say goodnight to us?" "No, Teresa said, "we are not goddess material.

"Well I don't think I like that, said Laura. "Nope, I don't like that one bit."

Rachel walked into Teresa's room after brushing her teeth.

"Just passed your cousin in the hall. He's kinda cute. Have you ever seen him naked?"

Teresa groaned and said, "No, I don't think so."

Rachel put her hand on her hip and pointed her toothbrush at Teresa.

"Don't think so! I would think you would remember if you had!"

" Yeah" Teresa laughed, "I guess I would."

"Well let's see what we can do about that this week, it will be our little vacation project", Meghan said as she crawled into bed and turned out the light.

Teresa, laughed to herself, thinking that doubly humiliating Thomas would be fun. She'd have to warn the girls not to let Melanie know what they were doing or she'd put a stop to it.

The next morning was predictably chaotic as everyone took shifts showering, packing and eating breakfast.

Thomas came down for breakfast and was greeted by Teresa, Laura, Meg and Rachel. "Shower is free," he said.

"Who hasn't showered yet?" Margaret asked.

"Me," said Rachel.

"Well you better get a move on. Teresa, go show your guest where everything is."

The two girls headed upstairs.

Teresa showed Rachel where the towels were and then headed back to her room.

A few minutes later Rachel reappeared still dressed with a bundle in her hands.

"What is that?" Teresa asked.

"His underwear and his swimsuit," said Rachel.

"What," Snickered Meg.

"Yeah," said Rachel a little breathless, "I took them out of his bag, I figure this will help us in our quest. Where can we hide them?"

"Rachel no, we can't do that!"

"I already did."

"Well put them back!"

"What is going on? What are those?"

With that, both girls turned and saw Meghan standing in the doorway.

"Are those Thomas's underpants?"

"Yes, but Rachel was just about to put them back," Teresa said.

"The hell she is," said Meghan. "Quick, where can we hide them."

Teresa relented and buried Thomas's undies deep in a drawer in the back of her closet, and headed back downstairs. She got about halfway down the stairs when inspiration struck. Back upstairs she went. First to Melanie's room, she had joined the rest for breakfast, then to Thomas's room and finally back to hers.

This trip was looking better and better.

The drive was uneventful. Just as Melanie had feared, Thomas rode shotgun and pestered her the whole way. Teresa and Laura were no help in the back. Their conversations seemed to consist of a lot of Teresa whispering and Laura "NO WAYing." And Meg and Rachel in the way back were even worse.

As they pulled in to the little town, Melanie decided to shut Thomas up by playing tour guide for Rachel and Meghan, since they had never been here. "So this is the town that we use for groceries and other supplies. It has a cute little bookstore, but the video store is long gone. It's about ten miles from the cottages, so we kind of like to plan out our trips so we don't waste time or gas. The cottages dot the lake and are grouped together in pairs, threes and up depending on their size. Since ours has four bedrooms, it's one of the bigger ones, so we just have two neighbors. One is owned by the State College..."

"...that you didn't get into" shot Teresa.

"...Where I am wait listed, and they've been known to accept people as late as July."

Yeah right, said Teresa.

"...and the other cottage is owned by the Ferguson's but they won't be up this week. It's always possible that neither one will be occupied."

After a few more minutes of driving, they pulled up to their cottage.

As they piled out of the mini van, Melanie announced, "okay, let's figure out who gets which room. The four bedrooms were all upstairs, the two in the middle faced the lake and the ones on either side faced the two other cabins.

"Well," Teresa said, "since you and Thomas are solo, you should get the smaller rooms on the ends."

Melanie was used to having one of the bigger rooms with the view, but she decided to let it go. She called after Teresa and Thomas, "Remember, first we do general clean up, put sheets on the beds, unpack and then we'll go swimming. And remember to hoist the family flag."

"Family flag?" Asked Meghan.

"Yeah," sighed Teresa, we are kind of weird family I guess."

Thomas headed to his room. The first thing he did was look out the window to see if anyone was next door. He saw a car parked out front, so he knew the house was occupied. His father swore to him that one year the state cheerleaders had stayed there, but every year he had come up, the house had either been empty or in use by a professor or two and their families.

He got his bed made and then went to see if there were any other chores that needed to be done. He swept off the back porch, took the cover off of the grill and then headed up stairs to change into his swimsuit.

Teresa and Laura watched as Thomas walked into his room and then started to laugh as they changed into their suits. Meg and Rachel were already downstairs encouraging everyone else to hurry up.

Melanie wrapped a beach towel over her suit and was about to head downstairs when she heard the laughter coming from Teresa's room.

"What's so funny," she asked, walking into their room.

"Oh nothing," said Laura, looking at Teresa, "we uh, just heard Thomas cussing, and we thought it was funny."

Melanie headed to Thomas's room to see what was up.

Thomas hadn't bothered to close his door because he hadn't found his suit yet.

"Damn it, I know I packed it! Where is it?" He rooted around again and felt something strange. He pulled it out and it was a pair of women's underwear. He just stared at them.

He was dumfounded. Were they his moms? Did she wear underwear like this!?

"Thomas, everything okay?"

At the sound of Melanie's voice Thomas jumped and immediately stuffed the underwear back into his bag.

Teresa and Laura walked out of their room and crept towards Thomas's room, signaling for Meg and Rachel to come up.

"I, I can't find my suit. I was sure that I packed it, but I guess I didn't."

"God Thomas, you're just like Teresa. You have to dump everything out before you just give up." And before he could stop her, she dumped his bag on the bed and started rooting through his stuff.

"What the hell is this? What the hell is MY UNDERWEAR doing in your bag?"

Thomas felt dizzy. All he could think was that he had touched Melanie's underwear.

"You little pervert!"

"No I didn't..."

"You didn't what, they are right here, on your bed, because they fell out of your bag."

"Whoa! That is sick."

Both Melanie and Thomas turned to see the other four girls crowded in the doorway.

Melanie stormed out of the room got about halfway down the hall and then came back and said "and if you don't have a damn swimsuit then you can just swim in your underwear."

And then she looked at his bed and back at Thomas. "Where is your underwear?"

"Holy crap," Thomas said, realizing for the first time that he didn't have any.

"Good grief Thomas," said Melanie, shaking her head and walking back out.

Thomas followed the rest of them down to the lake but wasn't about to strip down to his underwear and swim. He could just swim in his shorts if it came to that. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten both his underwear and his swimsuit. He groaned thinking about his father discovering them still on his bed back home.

Now he'd have to buy some, using money he could ill afford to spend.

"I can't believe he didn't just assume that you did it," said Laura as they treaded water out in the lake.

"I know," Teresa said, "he's just not wired that way. Same with Melanie, she saw the underwear fall out of his bag, so he must of put them in there. She's a very literal person."

"I'm a little disappointed that he's not out here in his underwear," said Laura.

"Oh who cares," said Teresa. "Besides, he's way too shy for that. Still, I hate to see his torment come to an end."

Just then Meg and Rachel swam over.

"I'm a little disappointed that he's not out here in his underwear," said Rachel.

Laura and Teresa laughed and explained why that was funny.

"Look at him sitting there on the pier, feet dangling in the water looking all morose," said Laura. "Let's go push him in!"

"I'm game," said Rachel.

"No wait," said Teresa, "try to make it seem like an accident."

Melanie had swum out towards the middle of the lake and was taking a breather before she headed back. She saw Laura and Rachel sitting on either side of Thomas on the pier.

"Well they are nicer than I am," thought Melanie. "I say he's getting what he deserves."

Thomas sat between the two girls enjoying the attention. He was a little nervous, what with both of them in bikinis. Right now, as they patted his bare leg and rubbed their hands on his back and arms telling him things would be okay, he was kinda glad he wasn't in a bathing suit. Then Rachel stood up and said she was getting back in.

Laura said that she was going to sit with Thomas a little longer.

When Teresa saw Rachel stand up, she knew that was her cue. She called out for Laura to get back in. Laura said no. They went back and forth for a few minutes and then Meg called out to Rachel, "push her in!"

All of a sudden, Rachel was pushing Laura who screamed, turned and grabbed Thomas's arm and let gravity do the rest. Well, gravity and a little extra help from Rachel.

When Thomas bounced up, it took him a second to take in what had happened. Teresa and Meg were laughing and clapping and Rachel was just standing there grinning at him.

At that point he remembered that most of his money was in his pocket. He shot a hand down into his pocket and was relieved to feel that it was still there.

He lumbered out of the water, intent on just heading back to the cabin, but Laura came out after him and grabbed his arm. "I'm so sorry, she said. "It was an accident. You have to believe me." Of course, I do, he said.

"Idiot," she thought. "Well look at you, you might as well swim now."

I can't he said and pulled out his soggy money. I've got to take this back to the cabin.

Laura laughed at the sight of the money, but then turned earnest.

"Thomas, by the time you run up there, put your money away and come back, we'll be getting out. Just leave the money in your shorts and the shorts on that table with your shirt and come join us."

She could tell he was weighing the options so she piled on. "Besides, if we do chicken fights like last summer, you'll have Melanie on your shoulders instead of Luke, and you know how Teresa likes to try and rip her top off."

She could see she had won. "C'mon please."

"Okay," he said. "But you go on ahead."

She knew he was shy and didn't want to push it, so she ran back into the water.

Just thinking about Melanie on his shoulders, and possibly topless had made him hard. Watching Laura run back into the water didn't help.

He peeled off his shirt and was reaching for his zipper when he noticed that they were all staring at him. Granted, they were pretty far out, but he was afraid the erection might still be obvious, not to mention he'd be in his underwear.

"You guys need to turn around."

Teresa was about to protest, but then something caught

her eye. "Oh this is just too perfect," she said. Then Laura saw and laughed. Meg and Rachel both gasped.

Melanie saw as well and called out urgently, "THOMAS there are..."

But Teresa cut her off. "Melanie! Remember, he stole your underwear."

"You're right," said Melanie.

"What?" called out Thomas.

"I was just saying that we'll turn around so that you feel more comfortable."

"Thanks," he called out.

Melanie, felt bad for a second as she turned around, but then a little smile crept onto her face. The other girls turned around as well, all except Teresa.

They are still too far away, she thought, I've got to stall him.

"Teresa," he groaned exasperated.

"Right," she said and turned around, and then turned right back.

"TERESA!"

"Oh sorry," she said. "I thought you were already in."

"Listen, why don't you sing 'Mary had a little lamb' and that way we'll know not to turn around until you are done."

"Yeah right," he said.

"C'mon, I'll pay you ten bucks."

"Done!" he called out. God knows he was going to need every penny he could get.

"Start singing and I'll turn around," she said.

And he did, loudly!

Just as Teresa had hoped, the singing got the attention of the group of girls walking down the road, but kept Thomas from hearing their approach. Their attention was now completely focused on this boy singing at the top of his lungs pulling down his shorts.