Nude On A Bearskin Rug

"China claims sovereignty over the tiny nation and the UN, the world in general is not willing to take on the world's second largest economy," Professor Gendusa continued, now holding a plastic covered report over his head.

"I know we didn't..." Joanne said, rapidly flipping through her notes.

"Being a smaller nation, Taiwan is not able to confront China militarily," Professor Gendusa said, urging his bulk up the three steps to where a cowering Joee Breaux sat. "So, one student struck upon the brilliant idea; Taiwan could buy up Chinese currency, several trillions of huan worth. Then suddenly unload the bulk of their huan. Other nations would see the Chinese huan flooding the market, would assume the huan's value is plummeting, and unload their own holdings. When China is teetering on the brink of financial ruin, Taiwan could offer to pay off China's debts, in exchange for their independence."

Professor Gendusa placed the report, circled '100' in front of Joee. He smiled down at her and the red head attempted to return his smile.

"To the rest of you? I have already read 'Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail' and did not need to read your book report on the publication. And, while Adam Smith's 'Wealth Of Nations' has many valid points, surely there have been other books written between two hundred and fifty years ago to today that you could have read?"

"OMG, how, where did you come up with that?" Joanne gushed when they hustled out of the class.

"Honestly?" Joee asked.

"No, Joee, lie to me please," Joanne said.

"I baked a batch of brownies, accidentally put too much weed in it, and when I came to, I'd written seventeen pages about Taiwan and China. I read it, it looked pretty good to me, so I just looked up a bunch of stuff that backed what I'd said, and..." Joee confessed.

"Joee Breaux, you are my hero," Joanne laughed, turning to hustle to her next class.

Exams started on Wednesday and ended on Friday. Joee and Joanne did not see each other during exams, but each night, they talked on their phones for a few hours. Each call and each text message ended with declarations of love. Thursday night's phone call started with declarations of love and ended with declarations of love.

The World Economics exam was on Friday morning at eight am. The TA and two monitors handed out the seven page exam; Professor Gendusa was not present. Joee and Joanne carefully read each question before scribbling their answers. Joanne gave a satisfied little sigh when she finished, then raised her hand to let the TA know she'd finished her exam. A few moments later, Joee also raised her hand and the male monitor smiled as he accepted their completed exams.

"Okay, Geology and I'm done," Joee said as she and Joanne walked out of the classroom.

"Ha! I'm done," Joanne sang out and even did a little dance in the hallway.

"OMG, you are so silly," Joee smiled.

They chanced a quick little kiss before Joee pushed open the door of the building. Joanne watched Joee's skirt swish back and forth as Joee scurried away. Then with a sigh, Joanne turned toward Murphy's Dormitory.

"Knock knock," Joee sang out from the doorway of Joanne's dorm room.

"Hey! Hi; how, how did you do?" Joanne asked happily.

"Pretty sure I aced it," Joee answered. "You just about done?"

"Yeah," Joanne said and the two girls chanced a quick kiss, sucking on each other's tongues.

"So, what you got left to do?" Joee asked.

"Strip my bed, turn in my key," Joanne said. "Bus leaves out of here tomorrow."

"Bus? How, how long's a bus take?" Joee asked.

"Hmm? From here, about five, six hours," Joanne said.

"Five or six...how long if I take you?" Joee asked, hefting one of Joanne's suitcases.

"Huh? About half that, I guess. But Joanne, I, I couldn't ask you to do that," Joanne protested.

"You didn't. I offered," Joee said. "Come on. Strip the bed."

"I, okay," Joanne agreed and did strip the linens off the bed.

It took two trips to lug everything of Joanne's down to Joee's car. Joee sat in the air-conditioned car while Joanne ran back up to do a final check of her room. Roberta came in just as Joanne was leaving and the two roommates wished one another a good summer. Joanne then handed her key to the third floor Dorm Monitor.

"Know what? I, I've been thinking about getting a pickup," Joee mused and turned the wheel to the right instead of the left as they pulled out of the parking lot.

Boudreaux Ford had a pristine Alpine white 2018 F150 in their pre-owned car lot. The salesperson was unable to meet Joee's eyes or the eyes of her beautiful blonde friend. Especially when a light breeze blew Joee's skirt up just as she was stepping into the cab of the pickup truck. Her chubby buttocks were framed by pale pink thong panties; for the briefest of moments, it almost looked as if Joee was nude underneath the sundress.

After a test drive, Joee announced she would take it, and yes, she wanted the extended warranty. The young man finally met Joee's brilliant green eyes and asked if she was trading in her Mustang.

"Nope," Joee said, calling Ronnie Edwards, her insurance agent with Young Insurance. "Hi Mr. Edwards, hi, listen, I want to add someone to my policy; Joanne, you do have a driver's license, right?"

The salesperson was slightly miffed when he was unable to gouge Joee with a payment plan with exorbitant interest fees. Joee handed him her American Express card and paid for the truck.

Joanne admitted she did not know the way to Joee's house so followed Joee in the Mustang. At the gate to the gated community, Joee had the guard register her new vehicle and he smiled and gave her a temporary tag.

"Now, you need to go ahead of me," Joee told Joanne. "I don't have a clicker for the garage."

Safely inside of Joee's home, Joanne squealed in indignation; there was only one cookie left. She demanded to know just how many cookies Joee had eaten.

"Uh, bitch? They my cookies," Joee laughed. "You like peanut butter cookies? I'm fixing make some right now."

"Peanut butter? OMG, those, those are my favorites!" Joanne enthused. "Well, really? It's the Girl Scout thin mints, but..."

"Oh yeah? You buy my cookies?" Joee asked, snuggling against Joanne.

"You know it," Joanne giggled. "Girl Scout thin mints marijuana cookies? OMG!"

"They'd be the bomb," Joee declared.

"The bomb? The Bomb? No one says the bomb anymore," Joanne hooted.

"And no one says OMG anymore," Joee retorted, sifting together the dry ingredients.

"I wish you weren't going," Joee admitted as the first batch of oversized cookies baked.

"I, yeah, me too," Joanne said.

Joanne pouted when Joee insisted they wait until after their supper before Joanne could have a cookie. Joee used a food processor to make a cauliflower puree which she formed into a pizza crust. Joanne made gagging sounds, then squealed with laughter when Joee used a spatula to deliver a stinging slap to Joanne's buttocks.

"It's not terrible," Joanne conceded as they ate the chicken and pineapple pizza.

"Now?" Joanne demanded, already prying two cookies from the baking sheet.

Joanne came to, lying on Joee's plush bed. Her nude breasts rested against Joee's bare back. Her breasts tingled and her crotch tingled; apparently they'd made love earlier.

"Love. I, I love you," Joanne murmured.

"Love you too," Joee whispered. "Still want to take a bubble bath?"

"Uh huh," Joanne agreed.

In the semi-darkness, they filled the tub with scented bubbles. Joanne did think, if kiwi fruit did taste like the bubbles smelled, she probably wouldn't like them very much.

"Oh, shit!" Joanne cried out, seeing the glint of light from her nipple chain and symbol.

"What? What's wrong?" Joee asked.

"Aw crap, my, when my mom sees my nips, she's going blow a gasket," Joanne admitted.

"I, you, I got some pliers in the garage; you want me take them out?" Joee asked.

"No!" Joanne screeched.

If putting them in had been painful, Joanne was sure taking them out would really be painful. Her mother's wrath was frightening to think of, but Joanne was sure the pain of being yelled at would last far shorter than the physical pain.

"Good," Joee said, tugging at the symbol. "It's too cute."

"Should have seen some of the looks I got, taking showers?" Joanne giggled.

"Oh, I bet," Joee giggled, thinking of some of the admiring glances her own nipple rings and hairless crotch had garnered in the shower at Shapes Wellness Center.

In the large tub, sinking underneath the cover of the bubbles, Joee and Joanne used their fingers on one another.

After an hour, Joee roused the sluggish Joanne. Sleepily, they toweled off, then nude, they crawled into the bed and fell asleep, limbs entwined.

In the morning, Joee made an Italian omelet, pork sausage, mozzarella cheese, and marinara sauce. She also fixed grits and hash browns to go with the large omelet.

Joanne and Joee kissed several times. Joanne would prepare to get behind the wheel of the Mustang, then they'd kiss in parting. She'd see Joee's sad face just as she was about to close the car door and she would have to get out the car and they'd kiss again. Then she rolled down the car window and they kissed again.

Finally, Joee turned her back and dashed out of the garage. Joanne hit the button for the garage door and backed out of the garage. She wiped at her eyes as she watched the garage door quietly slide down again.

The Mustang was a powerful car and chewed up the miles. Several times, Joanne had to ease her foot off the accelerator. Outside of Alexandria, Louisiana, she pulled into a gas station to fill up.

"Shit, hope I have..." Joanne suddenly thought and looked into her purse.

"Joee Katherine Breaux!" she shrilled when she saw a bank envelope inside of her purse.

Inside the envelope was several one hundred dollar bills. Angrily, Joanne dug her cell phone out and hit the number '5' on the screen.

"Hello?" Joee's voice cut through the speakers of the car.

"I am so mad at you!" Joanne declared loudly.

"Me? Why? What'd I do?" Joee asked, genuinely surprised.

"The money?" Joanne accused.

"Uh, no one said you had to spend it, huh?" Joee defended.

"Yeah, but still," Joanne huffed.

The Mustang whizzed along and soon Joanne turned left onto Highway 467, heading north. In no time, she was speeding past the small grocery store and the Stepping Stone Diner.

"Hey," Joee's voice cut through the Mustang's speakers a second time as Joanne was pulling up to her mother's trailer.

"Hey, I'm home," Joanne said. "Just got off four sixty seven."

"Wow, that was good time," Joee said. "But I thought you said it was five, six hours."

"By bus," Joanne said, parking the car. "By Mustang? It's a whole lot faster."

"I love you so much," Joee admitted.

"Love you too," Joanne said, smiling as she could see her mother's face peering through the trailer's living room curtain.

"I miss you," Joee admitted.

"Miss you too," Joanne agreed.

With another 'I love you' apiece, they ended their phone call. Joanne got out of the car and scrambled up the steps of her mother's trailer. Mother and daughter squealed and hugged each other fiercely.

"Come on, I'll help you get your stuff; thought you was taking the bus?" Patty Pierce babbled as they stepped out of the trailer. "Who's car is this? I know you didn't run out and buy this. Did you? You didn't. Did you?"

"It's Joee's. Friend of mine's," Joanne said, popping the trunk open.

"Oh? It serious? You know, that Bobby's going be broken-hearted," Patty teased.

Joanne looked at her mother for a long moment, then shrugged her shoulders. Truthfully, she'd not thought of Bobby Bordelon, her former boyfriend since the first moment she'd stepped off the Greyhound bus in front of the DeGarde Inn in DeGarde, Louisiana.

After putting her suitcases in her bedroom, Joanne called April Lacombe, called a group of her high school friends. Her last call was made to Bobby. His loutish, possessive and petulant behavior made Joanne remember how and why she had forgotten her long-time boyfriend so easily.

All agreed to get together, meet at the Vend the following evening. She hung up in the middle of one of Bobby's far-fetched tales of grandeur, some exploits he'd gotten up to in her absence. She was sure she'd hear more of his immature hijinks when they met at the Bend the next evening.

The Bend was simply a bend in a small creek. The creek fed into a slightly larger creek that wound its way to the Mississippi River. The Vend had a nice grassy area where a blanket could be spread out, where ice chests could be plopped down, where couples could kiss, where friends could throw a Frisbee around. There were no house trailers for a few hundred yards, so it was rare that anyone called the police.

Over the years, many children had been conceived at the Vend. Many fist fights had broken out between lifelong friends, many hearts had been broken and mended at the Vend.

The next evening, Joanne was the third one to arrive. Bobby was there and demanded to be allowed to drive the Mustang. He whined and wheedled and begged but Joanne stuck to her guns; it was not her car to give him permission to drive it. She did pop the hood so he could see the V-6 engine. And, in front of the two males there, Bobby proved himself to be ignorant of mechanical engineering.

Bobby also attempted to put his arm around Joanne's waist, to claim ownership of her, especially in front of Adam, who had an undisguised crush on Joanne Pierce. Joanne deftly avoided Bobby's clutches by being in constant motion, talking to Angela or Sue Lynn or Angela and Sue Lynn and Angela and Angela's long-time boyfriend Nicholas.

"Woo hoo!" Angela and Sue Lynn whooped when April's 1991 Chevy Nova coughed and sputtered to a stop.

The attractive red head got out of the car, smiling triumphantly. From the bench seat of her car, April produced three plastic grocery sacks.

"Five bucks," April demanded, holding the three bags aloft.

"April, how'd you get these?" Adam asked, producing his five dollar bill.

"Five bucks?" Sue Lynn cried out. "I, I'll owe you, hear?"

"Uh huh, and I'll owe you the booze," April said.

"Aw, come on, you, you know I'm good for it," Bobby wheedled.

"Uh, yeah, I know you not good for it," April sneered at Bobby.

"Damn, Bordelon, you ain't got no luck tonight, huh?" Nicholas laughed, giving April a ten dollar bill for himself and Angela.

"Joanne handed April a ten dollar bill, five for her and five for Sue Lynn. Bobby became outraged; in his mind, Joanne should have been paying for his portion.

"And, uh, hey, ain't like you had pay nothing for it, huh?" Bobby snarled hatefully as the bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill went one way around the circle and the fifth of Iron Barrel Whiskey went in the opposite direction.

"Ain't had to...fucker, you suck Old Man Jensen's dick tell me it ain't nothing," April retorted.

"So, girl, what you ben up to?" April asked Joanne as the second bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill began to make the rounds.

Nearly two hours into their gathering, the wine and whiskey was demanding release. The four girls made their way behind a cluster of sweet gum trees and the boys simply walked up to the creek and aimed to see who could piss farther.

"Joanne got pierced nipples, Angela drunkenly giggled to Nicholas when they returned.

"I, oh yeah?" Nicholas asked, now squinting to see if he could see Joanne's nipples through blouse and bra.

"Quit," Angela demanded, elbowing her boyfriend.

"I, hey, uh, y'all, where's my purse?" Joanne suddenly asked.

Six of the seven attendees looked around. Bobby smirked as he pretended to search for the missing purse. Joanne was close to tears; the key for Joee's car was in her purse. Thankfully, she'd removed the envelope with Joee's money; that was sitting on her nightstand in her old bedroom.

"Adam, you got your phone with you?" Joanne asked.

"I yeah," Adam agreed, fishing out an old flip phone.

"Wow, they still make these?" Joanne asked and rapidly punched in her cell phone number.

"I, I hear something!" April called out as she searched around the line of vehicles.

It took three calls; the call when to voice mail the first two times; but they located the purse in Bobby's pickup truck. Bobby refused to unlock the truck, refused to give Joanne her purse.

Seeing that Nicholas was about to intervene, something that would not end well for anyone, Joanne took action. She made Angela take Nicholas away, take him behind the line of sweet gum trees. Joanne then put the flip phone to her ear.

"Hi, yes, I, I'm at the Bend, yes ma'am. My dumbass ex-boyfriend's got my purse locked up in his truck," Joanne said.

"Bumps, who you on the phone with?" Sue Lynn asked, glaring hatefully at the smirking Bobby.

"Police. Taking someone's purse is theft. Refusing to give it back is aggravated theft," Joanne said. "Yes ma'am, the Bend. You will? Oh, okay, thank you."

"Here, God damned bitch," Bobby screamed, unlocking his truck's door and grabbing Joanne's purse.

He flung the cheap purse at her; fortunately it was securely zipped. However, the purse did strike her in her chest and Joanne gasped out in pain when the purse struck her squarely on her nipple. Adam retrieved the purse and handed it to Joanne. She checked and everything was still in it. Joanne then handed Adam his flip phone.

"You, you ain't going call them back, let them know they don't got to come?" Bobby whined.

"What? Never called them," Joanne smirked. "But knew you too stupid figure that out."

"Hey, Bobby, uh, maybe you got to be going, huh?" April said.

"Yeah, Adam and Nicholas backed up April's words.

In a show of machismo, Bobby attempted to spin his tires. All he managed to do was get himself stuck in the soft earth. No one was inclined to help him when their party broke up. Bobby even attempted to stand behind Joanne, attempted to prevent her from backing out. He wisely jumped out of the way when Joanne showed no sign of stopping her progress.

Joanne did not know, nor did she care how Bobby managed to get himself unstuck. He called her mother's trailer the next day and attempted to apologize. He blamed it on the booze and Joanne reminded him, he'd not had any booze.

"Know what Bobby? Your biggest problem is you got too much time on your hands. Why you not at work? Huh? Why you not in school?" Joanne asked.

"Oh. Uh, so, it's like that. You all better than us just 'cause you in college now?" Bobby sneered.

"No. Just better than you," Joanne said and hung up.

On her third day home, Joanne met with Joe Pierce and Julie, his Asian-American wife at the Stepping Stone Diner. Joe was all false cheerfulness and Julie was her usual meek self as they sat in the uncomfortable, sagging and peeling vinyl benches. The food was substandard fare but the three managed to choke it down.

"Man! This uh, this Joey, uh, what's he do for a living?" Joe asked, admiring Joee's Mustang.

"Joee's a student, just like me," Joanne said.

"So, his family's got some bucks?" Joe deduced.

Joanne wondered why she hesitated, why she couldn't admit that Joee was a girl. Joanne felt ashamed of herself for being too cowardly to say anything about her relationship with the beautiful, happy, loving Joee.

"I'm sorry, Joee," Joanne said, even as she was punching the number for Joee's phone.

Twice more, the old gang from high school met down at the Bend. Twice more, April Lacombe gave Old Man Jensen a blow job for some cheap wine and a bottle of cheap whiskey. Though no one would admit to calling him, somehow Bobby found out about the gathering and showed up. The second time, he managed to have five bucks and made damned sure he grabbed ten dollars' worth of the booze. Both times, he begged, whined and pleaded with Joanne to forgive him, to go for a ride with him.