Julia Enjoys March Madness in May!

Julia set down a $20 bill to pay for her two glasses of wine, but Will just slid it back to her and motioned for her to look behind her. When she turned around, Julia saw a curvy redhead, who seemed like the only other woman in the place within a decade of her own age. "Hi, I'm Dottie!" the woman said. Will told me there was a hesitant prospective first time competitor here tonight, but he seems to have forgotten to tell you about another perk of being in the competition; all participants drink for free, before and after the contest!"

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm still..."

"Still not sure you can compete with the younger girls, I heard," Dottie interrupted, "the number of competitors never ends up being what you'd expect looking at the crowd. Most of the groups of girls end up having only one of them getting talked into entering, two at most. We do a little better with the mixed groups and couples; sometimes it looks like some girl in the group is fulfilling a fantasy for herself or possibly for a boyfriend or husband."

"Maybe so," Julia responded, "but however few of them decide to compete, I'll still be old enough to be their mom; I can't believe that would work in my favor!"

Pausing to look Julia over from head to toe, Dottie said, "you're underestimating yourself. I guarantee some of the contestants will not be anywhere near as hot as you; honestly, some of these girls have entered many times, with no chance to win, and know it. They don't put in much of an effort and get eliminated pretty quickly; I think they're just in it for the free drinks!"

"So the free drinks thing still applies even if the contestant doesn't really show anything?"

"Well," Dottie replied with a chuckle, "It IS a wet t-shirt contest, after all. As long as a contestant shows up on the stage and dances a bit after getting her shirt soaked, I live up to my side of the deal!"

"I thought these things required, isn't the saying, 'skin-to-win'?"

"There's no such requirement here," Dottie insisted, "obviously, the guys watching are hoping to see some skin, and I won't lie, showing some certainly improves your chances. That being said, I've seen girls win without actually taking anything off at all, and I've also seen girls take everything off and lose. "Teasing the audience, interacting with them, and looking like you're having fun can make all the difference."

"Interacting?" Julia asked, picturing guys reaching out to grope the contestants!

"Oh, I've given you the wrong idea, Dottie replied, there's a line on the floor, 5 feet from the stage. My bouncers don't let anyone in the audience get any closer than that to the stage. I just meant making eye contact, responding to their suggestions, if you're comfortable with them, that kind of thing. Oh, about another thing you might be worried about; my bouncers are very good at enforcing our 'no cameras allowed' rule. "

"I'm flattered you'd put so much effort into recruiting me, but I don't think it's my kind of thing," Julia told Dottie.

"No big deal if you decide to sit it out, other than you having to settle up your bar tab," Dottie said, chuckling. "How about you just think about it?"

"I can do that," Julia said. Dottie excused herself to deal with some question Will had for her. Julia continued her study of her fellow customers, revising, based on what Dottie had told her, her rough estimate of how many young women might actually be entering the contest. She finished her glass of pinot; after thinking about how long she'd been there and how long she might be around if she was going to stick around to watch the contest, she decided one more would be okay. She got Will's attention and asked for another.

"If you've changed your mind about entering the contest, as your bartender I'd advise you to take advantage of the open bar for contestants and step up from the house pinot. We have a top shelf brand that goes for $50 a glass," Will told her, almost whispering.

"I haven't changed my mind, but that IS tempting," Julia admitted. A minute later Will returned with a generous helping of the pinot she'd been enjoying and a second glass with a small sample of the top shelf brand. She tried the sample and said, "that's amazing, thanks for that taste. But I still can't imagine myself up on the stage!"

"Really, you can't?" he asked, "It's funny; I can definitely imagine it!"

Julia blushed and turned away. "He really gave me a generous pour, I'd better take my time with this glass," she thought. She noticed that the crowd had grown to what she guessed to be around 80 or 90 customers, but most of the newcomers were guys; the space in front of the stage was getting crowded even though it was only 10:45. The two waitresses adapted to the crowd, taking orders and serving the guys planted in front of the stage right where they were.

The DJ announced that the contest would start in 15 minutes, adding, "All contestants who have already signed up should go directly to the room behind the stage and see Dottie. If you haven't signed up but would like to enter, you still have time, but please see me first!"

Julia asked Will, "Where is the DJ, anyway?"

"You decided to enter after all?" Will said, smiling.

"Nah, I'm just curious, I haven't seen him at all," she explained.

"Oh," he said, obviously disappointed, "you see that low wall next to the right side of the stage? He's got a booth right behind it,"

As Julia was talking with Will, she saw girls scattered around the tables and bar get up and make their way to the DJ or the room back beyond him. Dottie's predictions had turned out to be correct; she saw several tables now missing a single woman, and a couple guys who each had been sharing a table with their wife or girlfriend, each now sitting alone and looking pretty nervous. She watched most of the contestants file past the DJ, down a corridor she couldn't see much of from her place at the bar, which she assumed led to the room backstage he had mentioned. She also saw what she she guessed were a couple of last-minute entrants at his booth to do whatever paperwork, checking of ID was required.

Just because she was curious about what sort of woman would enter this kind of contest, and also wondered how well Dottie's predictions would hold up, Julia tried to quickly size up the entrants before they disappeared down the corridor. She managed to get a look at six of them, but thought she might have missed one or two. All in all she wasn't overly impressed with their appearance, though she had to admit one or two were pretty good looking. Even as far away as she was, Julia could see that one of the entrants was noticeably nervous. "I can't blame her," she thought, "I know I'd be as shaking if I was in her shoes!" Of course, she had no idea at all what sort of show any of the entrants she was studying from afar were about to give, but Dottie's claim that Julia might not be out of place in the group did seem plausible.

Once the group of already registered girls had moved beyond her view, Julia shifted her attention back to the two latecomers talking with the DJ. One contestant had her back to Julia, but Julia didn't think seeing the girl's front would change her opinion; this girl was short and stout, probably not the preferred look. The other entrant was, based on nothing more than a distant side view of her, Julia's unofficial pick to win, assuming she was willing to give the audience a good show. Tall and shapely with short blonde hair, she was laughing about something. Julia thought that other than her hair color and short style, her pick to win looked a lot like Cara. "Our most recent video call was a couple weeks ago," Julia thought, "but she'd have told me if she was changing her hair so drastically!"

"Wouldn't she?" Julia asked herself, suddenly remembering how she'd come home after her first semester with purple streaks mixed in her dark brown hair! She called Cara's phone, but the call went straight to voicemail. She hopped off her barstool and walked toward the stage, eager to get a closer look at the tall blonde. Though it seemed unlikely that her daughter could be the woman she was looking at, she wanted to be sure it wasn't Cara she was seeing! Julia didn't get too much closer before getting slowed by the crowd, but she was close enough to think she recognized the distinctive way her Cara tipped her head back and squeezed her eyes shut when she laughed hard!

For a few seconds after she became sure she was seeing Cara, Julia stood still, frozen in place. She shook off her shock and pushed her way to the DJ's booth. There was no sign of the last two entrants she'd seen at the booth or anywhere in the corridor, so she kept going until she found the door to the backstage room; it was easy to spot, as it was the only door in the corridor guarded by a very large, very serious man.

"I need to get in there," Julia insisted when the bouncer blocked her, "my daughter is in there and I need to talk to her!"

"Is she under 21 years old?" he asked.

"No," Julia answered, "what difference does that make?"

"It means she's an adult," he replied, "and if she's in there it's because she signed up to compete in the contest. Nobody who hasn't signed up to be in the contest gets to go through this door!"

"We'll see about that!" Julia said as she walked away. She looked around the bar, hoping to get Dottie to help her, but didn't see her anywhere. She pushed her way through the crowd of men near the stage and looked for a door leading to the room behind the stage. She saw two doors on the back wall behind the stage, and climbed the small flight of stairs to the stage, but was stopped by another bouncer before she could reach either door. The bouncer gently but firmly led her back down to the floor level. Unable to think of any other way to contact Cara, she went straight to the DJ's booth as soon as the bouncer let her go. The DJ began to warn her to stay away from the stage, but she stopped him in mid-sentence.

"I want to enter the contest!"

"Well, why didn't you just come here first? I'll need to see your ID, and have you sign this release," he said, and handed her the release form and a pen. She dug her license out and handed it to him, then scrawled her signature on the form. He looked down the corridor and yelled to get the attention of the bouncer who'd stopped her before, "Yo, Jake! This one's a contestant!" Jake nodded and opened the door for Julia, who was already on her way.

Julia was surprised to see only three other women in the room, which was much smaller than the stage. The door to the stage was easy enough to see, with "STAGE" painted on it, but she only saw one stage door; she knew she'd seen two doors at the back wall of the stage. Seeing no trace of Cara in the room she'd been led to, she guessed there must be another room with the rest of the contestants in it, and was about to go back to the corridor when Dottie appeared, coming in through the door to the stage!

"Hello, ladies," Dottie said, "I need to have your attention for a minute to explain how we do this here. This contest is set up just like a playoff tournament bracket. Since we've got 8 contestants tonight, we'll have a quarterfinal round with 4 sets of 2 contestants, followed by a semifinal round to eliminate 2 more contestants, leading up to the last 2 contestants facing off in the final! I've already ranked you from #1 to #8, with you 4 in this room having even numbers and the girls in the room next door having odd numbers. The first round matchups will be as follows;

1 vs 8

2 vs 7

3 vs 6

4 vs 5

Winners of each individual match are decided by how many decibels the audience reaction reaches on my reader. Losers can gather up anything they've left back here and go to the dining room at the end of the corridor, where we'll have some snacks and beverages waiting for you. Winners go back to the room where they started, to take a short break and make any adjustments their outfits need before the next round. Speaking of your outfits; yes, if you somehow lose track of your t-shirt, we'll provide you with a replacement. As far as losing your shirt is concerned, or for that matter any other piece of clothing, it's entirely up to you! Any questions?"

"I have one," a skinny redhead said, "How do we even know what number we're supposed to be?"

"Yeah, good question, sorry" Dottie replied, "Listen for the DJ to introduce you by the stage name you gave him when you signed up, as well as your number. If there are no more questions, we'll get this thing started in five minutes!"

Julia had jumped in to the contest well after most of the other girls, and it showed; she was still dressed exactly as she had been when she arrived, button down shirt, short denim shorts, and generic lingerie. The others had obviously been doing some preparation, hacking away at the shirts provided by the bar with scissors to open up the necklines, cut back or eliminate completely their arms, and cropping the shirt so it hardly covered any more than a bra! Even the one girl whose shirt still looked fairly close to normal had made enough slits to make some areas effectively see-through!

Fortunately for Julia, Dottie had a waitress temporarily assigned to the waiting room to help the contestants prepare for their moment on the stage. Since the other three contestants were all set, the waitress could focus on Julia. "Hi, I'm Jackie," she introduced herself, "Would you like a little help getting ready?"

Julia began mumbling about needing to find her daughter, how she didn't know how to do any of this, and a whole stream of words which struck Jackie as just a bad case of pre-contest jitters typical in first-timers. She repeated the question, and this time Julia nodded and said, "yes, please."

Before she began working at Dotties, Jackie had been a winner of a few of these contests, so Julia was in expert hands; she looked at her copy of the schedule and said, "you're the number 6 seed, which is good, the 1 vs 8 and 2 vs 7 pairs will go before you, so it gives us around 8 extra minutes to prep you. Julia was lost in thought, trying to figure out where Cara was and how she could get to her before she did anything too crazy.

Julia focused on what she did know, then what she didn't. She knew that Cara wasn't in her group, the even numbered contestants, so she must be in another room with three other odd numbered girls. She knew that she'd be up against the number 3 seed herself, who would be the only one of the four odd girls she could be sure of seeing. If it turned out that Cara was number 3, she might have a chance to talk to her before they got started.

Looking at the differences between the number 2 and 8 girls in her room, Julia guessed that the seedings were actually rankings, where girls with lower numbers being hotter than higher numbered girls! Assuming the contestants were ranked as she thought, she was sure that Cara had to be either number 1 or 3, probably 1. She wasn't objective about Cara, but she also wasn't wrong; her daughter was gorgeous, both pretty and sexy.

Realizing any chance she had of minimizing Cara's time on the stage depended on either convincing her to back out or somehow having her be defeated, Julia put herself completely in Jackie's hands. Off came her blouse and bra, replaced by a significantly altered plain white t-shirt. The only touch of Jackie's Julia objected to was getting out of her denim shorts, insisting, "I'm not going to be seen wearing nothing but my panties!" Jackie pointed out a couple of her fellow even numbered girls wearing improvised t-shirt remnants as skirts, but Julia resisted.

Dottie's voice boomed out of the speakers on the stage as she announced the first matchup, 1 vs 8, followed by music and cheering. Julia watched the slightly plump contestant 8 go out the stage door. Less than 6 minutes later number 8, Jenna, came back, glistening from being thoroughly wet down. She had been defeated, but was smiling as she told numbers 2, 4, and 6 how she'd tried to be competitive by tossing her shirt into the crowd, but number 1 was hot enough to get by just teasing taking her shirt off!

Contestant 2 was on her way out to the stage when Jackie switched from working on Julia's outfit to giving her tips on how to win her audience over. She advised Julia to, as much as the stage lighting allowed, make eye contact with the audience, smile, and even if she wasn't planning on taking anything off, playing around with her clothes to keep her audience in suspense. "Don't try any fancy dance moves," Jackie added, "the stage floor gets pretty slippery!" All Julia could think of was the phrase "skin-to-win", and the idea that a few dozen dudes could soon be issuing that challenge to her! She felt a guilty thrill thinking about what she was doing, but told herself she was doing it for Cara!

By now the sound coming from the direction of the stage, including Dottie asking for the audience to cheer for their choice of the two contestants, was making it hard to be heard; Jackie wrapped up her advice to Julia, saying, "I'm not sure how badly you want to win, but that number 1 girl, Anna, is going to be tough to beat without showing some skin. Just have fun; once you are in the middle of it you'll be surprised at how exciting it can be to have a bar full of people cheering you on!"

Julia hadn't heard who had just won, but number 2, Tara, coming back from the stage and immediately beginning to prepare for the next round made it clear number 7, Ella had been eliminated.

"How badly do I want to win? I just want to keep Cara off the damned stage," she thought, "or at least get her off it before she does something she'll regret!" As she stepped through the stage door, she knew whatever influence she had over events would vanish if she lost to her competitor, contestant number 3. Losing meant being sent off to the dining room with the other losers; Julia realized that as it turned out she very much wanted to win!

The stage looked very different than when Julia had tried to get on it a short while ago. There were a few free-standing screens dividing the space, and a plastic kiddie pool near the back wall on each side of the screens. Each side of the stage had a table next to the pool. Each table had at least a dozen pitchers full of ice water lined up neatly, and four empty pitchers. Jackie's advice was already proving to to be useful, as Julia noticed a lot of water on the floor of the stage. "So this is where the wetting of the shirts happens," Julia thought. She remembered Jackie's advice and gave her audience a big smile and waved to them as walked up to join Dottie, close to the front of the stage.

"I hope you'll all give Julia here a warm welcome," Dottie said, "she's not the typical contestant here. You'd never know it to look at her, but she's old enough to be the mother of some of the other girls!" Julia winced at hearing her real name being announced, but she'd been in such a hurry to sign up she completely missed giving the DJ a stage name. She knew the odds of anyone she knew except her daughter being in the audience had to be ridiculously high, but couldn't help blushing as she imagined the possibilities!

Dottie stepped carefully around the edge of the screen to the other side of the stage to to introduce Julia's competition, "And on this side, welcome back Chloe!" Standing right at the edge of the screen, she said, "Alright ladies, please step into your pool." She picked two guys from the audience, asking them, "Would you mind helping us out? These lovely ladies each need someone to wet them down." To nobody's surprise, the two young men hopped up on the stage and each hurried to one of the pools. Dottie asked, "Ladies, are you ready?" Julia fought off a brief urge to shout no and run away, but both Julia and Chloe nodded yes, and the volunteers began pouring water on their contestants.