Everybody Wins

Thomas raced down the stairs, hoping against hope that he would finally have some semblance of clothing again.

"Hurry, Tommy," Candi called out, "Jan is driving and she says we have to get going."

With that the car slowly started to pull away. Candi dangled the shorts out of her window and Thomas ran after them, Mel's undies failing to contain his butt cheeks.

As the car began to put real distance between Thomas and his shorts, Candi flung them into the air, where they arced and twirled before falling to the ground.

Thomas, heaving and out of breath, picked up his shorts and dusted them off.

The squad had written all over them. They had treated the shorts like a hallmark card.

Each girl had signed her name, written a little note and, well, it looked like each girl had drawn a picture of his penis. He didn't care. He felt a sense of triumph as he slipped them on, not even noticing Jan's note that read, "with any luck, I'll see you again before the summer is over."

Thomas had his best night of the trip, luxuriating in his "penis shorts" as they were dubbed. It was not until the next morning that his new dilemma dawned on him.

If he could convince the girls to loan him money for clothes, what would he wear into the store. He didn't have a shirt and the "penis shorts" were not exactly appropriate.

Eventually, it was all sorted out. Thomas would borrow one of Mel's T-shirts (since he obviously enjoyed wearing her clothes) which would almost be long enough to cover the offending artwork on the shorts. Almost.

Once in town, the girls went off to do other shopping since they had plenty of clothes.

Thomas was relieved to be rid of them until he walked into the store and saw two girls his age behind the counter and another one putting out stock. Thomas froze for a moment, started to turn to leave and then remembered that he really had no choice.

That had been a mistake. He had brought attention to himself. "Don't be shy sweetie," one of them said, "we don't bite."

The sales girl on the floor, Donna, walked over and asked Thomas if she could help him. Even though the shorts were mostly covered, she zoned right in on them.

"I, I need some shirts and shorts and...," he found he couldn't say "underwear."

"I'll say, that shirt looks like a girls shirt, and those shorts. Looks like somebody wrote all over them. And drew something", she said as she lifted up the shirt.

"Oh my gosh," she gasped and giggled, "Amy, Sarah come look at this."

With that the two girls came out from behind the counter to take a look. They started reading some of the "greetings" until one of the girls noticed Mel's undies peeking out in back and practically gave Thomas a wedgie as she pulled on them to show the other girls. Thomas quickly pulled away and as fast as he possibly could, grabbed three pairs of shorts, three shirts and three pairs of underwear.

Amy rang him up, commenting that the underwear he had picked up was for men and was he sure that was what he wanted. They all laughed as Thomas turned bright red.

"I just need your address sweetie."

"Why," Thomas asked suspiciously.

"Because it is my job to get it," she said, "see," and showed him a sales ledger filled with local addresses. "No address, no sale."

"Fine," Thomas said, giving her the address and his wad of cash.

"Let me just bag those up for you, "Amy said and ducked down to grab a bag and stuff in the clothes.

Thomas had originally planned to change in one of the shops dressing rooms, but now he was eager to get out of there as fast as he could. Amy cinched up the drawstrings on the bag and handed it to Thomas along with his change.

"Bye bye sweetie," they all cooed as Thomas made his hasty exit. He could hear them laughing as he walked away from the store.

"So, Amy," Donna asked, "why did you make him give you his address? You know we only get that from people with 'Lake Accounts'."

"Because, when we realize that we gave him the wrong bag, we're going to need to know where to bring these," she said picking up a bag and dumping the contents of Thomas' purchase onto the counter.

"You mean," gasped Sara...

"Yep," said Amy smiling, "I accidentally gave him the bag that we are holding for Mrs. Cooper's daughter."

As Thomas left the shop, he saw that the other girls were already in the car waiting for him. "We're hungry," Teresa said, we want to get home and make sandwiches. She had taken his usual seat up front, so he slid in the middle row next to Laura, with Meg and Rachel in the back. Melanie looked at him from the rear view mirror and asked him why he hadn't changed there. He told her that he had been in too much of a hurry, but they were able to piece together what had happened with very little elaboration from Thomas.

"Let's see what you got," said Meg, grabbing the bag out of his hands.

"Hey," said Thomas as he made a failed attempt to grab it back.

Frustrated, he just crossed his arms and stared straight ahead. Meg opened the bag and almost gasped, but stopped herself and just said, "well these are boring, Thomas."

"Yeah," he mumbled, "I could do with some boring right now."

Meg then slapped Rachel on the knee and secretly showed her that the bag contained two little skirts a few tops and about 5 pairs of panties. Rachel also managed to bite her lip and not make a sound.

Meg got Teresa's attention and silently held up a pair of the panties.

Teresa then suggested that Melanie might want to check her mirror. When she did, Meg held up the panties and Melanie cracked up.

"What's so funny," asked Thomas.

"Oh nothing," said Melanie, "just thinking of you doing that split yesterday."

And with that, everybody laughed. Well, almost everybody.

When they got back to the house, Meg still had Thomas' bag.

When he asked for it, she refused. He lunged for her, but the other girls intervened.

"Look Thomas, we aren't going to drag this out I promise. But have a heart, we haven't seen you naked in like a whole day and after you get this bag, our fun is over for good."

Thomas looked over at the flag-pole and idly wondered when those clothes had disappeared? Just like jumping in a cold lake after you have been out for awhile, Thomas did not relish the idea of being naked in front of these girls again.

"Thomas," Teresa shouted, snapping him out of his reverie, "either we make the trade right now or I swear we will burn this bag of clothes in the barbecue pit. Again, I swear no tricks, we will keep our word."

Each girl solemnly raised their right hands.

Thomas swallowed and peeled off his shorts and panties and handed them to Laura.

To his amazement, Meg immediately handed him his bag.

He used it to cover his crotch and then turned and jogged to the front door and up the stairs to his room, thinking that's the last time anyone will see my naked butt for a long long time...

"They are on their way," Teresa said to Thomas, referring to Donna, Amy and Sara.

Thomas had been apoplectic after he had dumped the clothes on the bed. He had wrapped himself up in his bed sheet and marched downstairs and accused the girls of having switched bags, but eventually conceded that it must have happened back at the shop.

Teresa volunteered to call and see if his bag was indeed there.

Amy had been very professional and apologetic when Teresa called, but let her guard down when Teresa complimented her on a job well done.

Teresa got Amy up to speed on all that had happened to Thomas and Amy in turn told Teresa about what they had done to him at the shop. Amy told her that they had planned to come out there with the bag, and were just waiting till they got off of work which was more or less now. "Will he be naked?" Amy asked.

"Well, he's walking around in a sheet right now," Teresa said, 'but I' m sure we'll think of something. We are very big on trades around here."

Thomas heard the car coming down the road and stood anxiously. He didn't know if he should go out to meet them, would that seem over eager, weak? He sat back down and decided to wait for them. Once again, he forgot that he was not really in control.

Mel, Teresa, Laura, Meg and Rachel marched past him on their way out to greet the new arrivals.

He heard them all introduce themselves and then it sounded like they were getting a brief tour of his humiliations; the flag pole, the cottage next door where naked cheering happened and the path down to the lake and what had happened there.

A little later, the door opened and Teresa said, "stand, Caeser for your guests have arrived." She was followed in by Amy, Sara and Donna. "Hi darlin,"Amy said. "We are so sorry about the mix up. We feel just awful, especially now that we've heard about how much you've suffered already. Look at you all wrapped up in your little sheet." Reminds me of all those frat parties back at school.

Sara chimed in, "if we can just have the other bag we can sort this all out."

Thomas saw that Donna was indeed holding what he assumed was his bag of clothes.

He had the other bag and suggested a swap.

Melanie chimed in at this point and asked if it was in fact a fair trade.

"Yes," said Thomas, "one bag for one bag, that is as fair as it gets."

"We'll," said Donna, "that's true, but we did come all the way out here to return these to you, and that includes gas money!"

"But it was your mistake," Thomas yelled.

"We'll we were so freaked out by your panities and obscene shorts, that we just got rattled," said Sara.

"How can we even this up Thomas,?" Melanie asked.

Everyone just stood there for a moment.

"Could you guys use a sheet, maybe?" Rachel asked.

Amy smiled and looked thoughtful. "You know, I really could use a sheet."

Thomas said no, but his heart wasn't really in it. After all, he knew he had no power in this negotiation.

Laura walked over to him and started to unwrap the sheet. "Honestly, Thomas,"she said, "I'm starting to get a little tired of seeing your naked little body. But you know what never gets boring, seeing that look of total humiliation in your eyes when others get to see it for the first time." And with that she smiled and pulled the sheet away. At the same moment, Rachel grabbed the other bag out of Thomas' hands and tossed it to Amy.

"We'll now," Amy said, "it doesn't look like you have anything left to trade."

But then Donna said," now, now fair is fair and a deal is a deal, so here you go," and she handed Thomas' bag...to Teresa.

The girls said that they had to get back home and headed for the door. "Oh" Amy said, "we almost forgot, we wanted to sign your shorts," and with this she pulled out a sharpie from her back pocket.

"Oh I'm afraid we threw those nasty shorts away, said Melanie, "along with a pair of my underwear," she said, giving Thomas a disgusted look.

"Gosh, said Amy, I'm so disappointed. Aren't you girls? Both Sara and Donna shook their heads in mock sadness.

"That was partially why we were happy to come all this way and bring you your clothes, Thomas," said Donna.

"Oh, that is so sad," said Melanie. "I wonder, well, no it probably wouldn't do."

"What?" asked Amy.

"Well, I was just thinking, what if you just pretended he was still wearing the shorts. You could just write on Thomas as if the shorts were still there."

"I don't know," said Amy, and then she let out a heavy sigh and said, "we'll, I guess it's worth a try."

And with that things happened fast! Amy sat down on the couch and Teresa and Laura grabbed Thomas and pushed/pulled him onto Amy's lap. They held his arms and Meg and Rachel grabbed his feet. Not that they need to hold him very hard. In this position, he would need help just to get up!

But he didn't need help getting "it" up. Amy was teasing him something awful.

"You mean here," she said, "I should just write right here?"

And with that she caressed his right butt check and traced a path with her finger. Thomas moaned and Teresa slapped his other butt cheek and told him to behave.

Amy then wrote, "Thomas it was lovely to see you. Come back soon."

"And now for my drawing" she said.

Thomas could only imagine.

Next was Sara's turn on the left butt cheek and she was even more of a tease than Amy.

"Well where do I get to write," asked Donna? "Oh," she said, as they helped Thomas to his feet. She grabbed Thomas' little helmet and he shuddered and moaned a little bit.

"Don't you dare," Donna said, "at least not until I'm done!"

Donna tried to write something, but between laughing fits and Thomas' jerks, it just looked like black smudges. She finally gave up and took a lipstick and drew a pretty decent pair of lips! The girls then hugged Thomas goodbye and begged him to come back next year.

After they left, Thomas asked for his bag, but the girls just laughed and told him no.

He went up to his room and lay down on his bed and thought about his week so far. He was glad they were heading home tomorrow. He hoped he wouldn't have to ride home naked.

A minute later he raised his right hand to his face and saw that it was smeared with black ink and lipstick.

Melanie was packing up the next morning when the phone rang. It was her mother and she was very excited. "Mel, YOU GOT IN! An admissions officer from State called and said you're in, off the wait list! She said that a current student, a Jan somebody or other, recommended you so strongly that it tipped the scales in your favor.

She said that she had spent a few days with you at the lake and that your leadership and team building abilities were just what she was looking for on her cheer squad."

Melanie squealed with delight and jumped up and down.

"But Mel," her mother said, "then it gets a little weird. She said that this Jan person has invited you and your whole crew to stay in her sorority house the week before freshmen orientation. She was very insistent that Thomas be there. And Mel, I know this sounds strange, but I kind of got the feeling that this was not negotiable."

Melanie let out a sigh and all of her joy of a few moments ago seemed to go with it.

Thomas would of course never agree to go and even if he wanted to his father, who looked down on State, would see no reason to allow him to go.

"Mel," her mother said, "what exactly has been going on up there?"

Melanie let out another sigh, and decided to tell her mother everything.

Melanie knew she had made the right decision when her mother laughed more than she gasped as she related what had indeed been going on.

Her mother, she knew, resented her brother's condescending attitude towards her and her girls and wasn't crazy about the fact that Thomas acted just like him.

"Well," she said, when Melanie was done, "the key is getting Philip (Thomas' father) to think this is a good thing. Talk to Teresa, this is the sort of thing she is good at. Come up with a plan and call me back!"

Before this week, Teresa would have been the last person Melanie would have gone to for advice, mainly because Teresa would simply refuse to help. But the week had brought her closer to Teresa and she hoped Teresa felt the same way.

Indeed she did. Teresa had been impressed that Melanie had joined in, been one of the girls as it were. She loved the notion of another week to torment Thomas at the end of the summer.

The two girls did come up with a plan, but it involved getting Thomas back to his old haughty self in just a few hours!

They called their mother, who told them that they were brilliant and said she would plant the seed for "Operation State!"

Melanie and Teresa included the others in on the plan and they got to it. First thing they did was give Thomas his bag and told him that his torment was officially over.

He was dubious, but this time when he dumped the bag on the bed, it was indeed his clothes. His overnight bag was returned to him along with the pajama bottoms a shirt or two and a stray sock. They told him that they would finish cleaning up if he wanted to take one last walk to the lake. He took them up on this, figuring "out of site" would mean fewer opportunities to be "out of clothes."

The girls took this time to fine tune their plan, but really it was pretty simple, so mostly they reminisced about the last few days and fantasized about what might lay ahead.

When Thomas returned from his walk, the girls had cleaned the cabin and packed up the car. After they had been on the road a short while, Teresa snapped her fingers and turned to Thomas and said "oh yeah, here is the money that was in the shorts you, um, left down at the lake that first day."

Thomas was too amazed to even say thanks. And then a little later, Melanie told Thomas that they had all been talking and decided that he didn't need to pay any of them back the money he had borrowed. And then a little farther down the road, Teresa spoke up. "And Thomas, you won't mention any of this to our Mom, right?"

And there it was, Thomas thought, that's what all this kindness has been about.

"Did they really think I would tell anyone about all of this!?"

But Thomas liked this new found power, so he said that he couldn't promise anything.

When they pulled into the driveway, everyone came outside, the girl's mom and Thomas' mom and dad.

"Welcome welcome," his dad boomed. "How was the trip? Let's count up the money."

"Oh Philip, honestly can't you give them five minutes to catch their breath," said his sister.

As they walked inside, Thomas' dad put his arm around Thomas' shoulder and said "so, I hear you were quite the ladies man up at the lake."

Thomas was startled by this comment, and confused, because his dad seemed so proud.

Not as proud, however, as he was when all the money was totaled up and Thomas was declared the winner of the Econ challenge. As a matter of fact, Thomas couldn't remember the last time he had seen his father this happy.

"I'll let you in on a little secret sport." Your Aunt goaded me into a little side bet this morning. If Teresa had won again, then your mom and I were going to have to baby sit your cousins for two weeks in July when your Aunt goes to visit friends in San Diego. But since I won, your Aunt will have to host you for two weeks in August, while I am prepping for the new school year.

Thomas wasn't particularly happy about this until he remembered how scared the girls were about their mother finding out. Come to think of it, they were probably the ones who told their mother that he had been a real lady's man at the lake. So maybe he could keep them in line in August by threatening to spill the beans if they didn't behave. Shoot, maybe he could even extract a little revenge!

"That sounds great," he said.

As Thomas and his parents got in their car to leave, all the girls gave Thomas a hug and told him how much they were looking forward to August. "If you only knew," he thought.

As his Dad slowly backed out of the driveway, he called out to his sister, "I'm sure Thomas will help you around the house with whatever you need during those two weeks, so really, in a way, everybody wins."

"You're right about that," and then she walked up to the car and said, "but really it is only for one week. During the second week the kids have all been invited to State for the week to help Melanie settle in."

"Well great said, Thomas' dad, "maybe you can get something going with one of those hot college cheerleaders." And with that he gave Thomas a little wink.

"Oh I think that will definitely happen," said his Aunt with a little laugh in her voice.

As they started to drive away, it all began to sink in. Thomas was headed to State. And what had Jan said, "Oh Tommy, what I could do with you if I had a week!"

And now she did...