Summer College Surprises

Arch still sat. He held out his hand.

"Oh, you want these?" Tess said, holding up his shorts in one hand as she pulled hers up with the other. She danced back a step, and waved his garment over her head. "If I lose my grip, they could fall into the ravine. Who knows where they could land?"

He stood. "All right Tess, now please--"

"Just think of the artistic statement you could make," she said, dodging him. "And lose the shirt too, give the public your whole beautiful body." She thought, Damn, yes! Both of us naked! Walking around out in the open, stopping now and then to bang!

He glared. "What do you want?"

"Not a fucking poem!" She threw his shorts at his face. "Treat me like I'm a human being, whose mind you respect, and whose company you value! I don't know if you can even do that. Time to find out." She smiled wickedly. "Or I'll start visiting Dennis."

Once they were ready, Tess texted Ziri and Eldon: <<All done here>> She decided they didn't have to know every meaning of that.

***

The discussion about softening the seat resumed after they all returned to the Driscolls'. Ziri knocked rapidly on Tess's bedroom door. When Tess opened up, Ziri held out The Neat Seat, unzipped, with detritus inside that included a soiled condom. Ziri said, "EEEUUUWWW!!"

Tess smiled and said, "Further research. You're welcome. What happened on The Neat Seat sticks to a towel you absconded."

Discussion progressed to the effect on a sitting person who also bore the weight of another, and swiveled while doing so. Tess and Ziri barged into Arch's room and demanded to see indentations and scrapes on buttocks which, even Ziri had to concede, were well-constructed, as buttocks go. Arch smiled through this, which struck Tess as miraculous.

***

The university's Maker Lab was open in the summer the way most of the school was, to catch up from time lost to COVID-19. Mr. Driscoll put up the money for the production of the half-dozen prototype Neat Seats that would go to Piranha Pool. He donated his knowledge of the best materials to be used.

He also wanted to play with the lab's 3D printers. So did Ziri, sometimes for components of The Neat Seats (clips, fasteners, etc.), sometimes not. So did Tess. So did Mrs. Driscoll, a fiber artist and origamist, in addition to everything else.

With thicker, stronger foam, and sturdy but flexible sheathing, the prototypes were far superior to the original, which was now relegated to the floor clutter in a corner of Ziri's room. Due diligence, however, spurred another test.

This time, Tess and Arch guarded the forest preserve trail, on another beautiful summer Thursday morning.

Eldon settled on the fresh terry cloth of the new prototype, in lotus position. He rolled a condom down his dork, and began a breathing exercise. Ziri looked at her phone list uneasily. "Sex outdoors," she said. "It doesn't have to be for me. It's for The Neat Seat."

She denuded her lower half and leaned to put cargos and underwear in the prototype's snazzy, light-green vinyl pack. As she did, she frowned at Eldon. "You okay?"

"Yeah," said Eldon, certain that he had a glassy look. Should have prepared her for this, he thought, now it's a different kind of awkward. Weeks of learning had him at the point where he thought he could now try for quiet body during sex. "Just go ahead, I'm fine."

Ziri set herself the way Tess had described, but still had some balance issues, and had to grab his shoulders. Yet when she lowered her cleft onto and past Eldon's glans, he was calm and sturdy.

The sun on his bare crotch was warm. Her crotch on his was much warmer.

He held her sides. Ziri, never one for exercise, came to enjoy the slight squats.

Ziri wasn't enclosed, but she felt pleasure beyond the sex. Eldon did something, she realized. For me? I don't mind him all anxious. But this is better. She got a feeling, for him, that made her tremble. Can't this just be smart and happy?

After a few seconds of pride at being her stud, Eldon drank in the sight of his lover. Her hair was outlined by sunlight to a rich crimson, her lips were parted, her eyes were wide behind the glasses (and oh, so green, with her pupils shrunk by the sun). She's pretty, he thought in wonder. Or am I the only one who sees her that way, and for an obvious reason?

His erection swelled and her ring muscles squeezed and their brains sent chemicals to receptors.

Her arms encircled his neck, and she damped her desire for enclosure by accepting his need to breathe.

His drowsiness was deeper than ever, because of his meditated calm. He freed a hand and squeezed fingernails into his palm to stay awake.

In the shade of the lower trail, Tess listened hard for anything louder than crows and bluejays.

Soon, Tess heard a loud and cheerful "All clear!" From two voices?

Tess grinned when she reached the peak. Eldon was already grinning, and flushed. He held up the closed Neat Seat. "Best! Invention! Everrr!"

Ziri was tending to her phone, and may not have known she said this out loud. "Sex outdoors: So far so good."

Arch joined them, looking bored. "Can we go now?"

Ziri later confirmed that Eldon's butt cheeks were undamaged. Despite the rough terrain, and the hiding of evidence, the prototype required only moderate cleaning, inside and out, to be good as new.

***

"Hi Ziri," said a tall woman who offered a hand for a single clasp and release. "I'm Karina, I'll be producing your segment. So good to have you here. Are you nervous?"

"A little," Ziri said, trying to play that down.

"First thing, we need you to stand at that mark. The lights there are what would be on you when you face the Piranhas. Trevor here will work out what make-up you need."

Ziri knit her brow. "I don't wear make-up."

"It's just so you'll like you under the lights. Trevor, can you do that?"

The slender man leaned down to be eye-to-eye with Ziri. "I'm afraid the base will mute the freckles. Are they part of your look, Ms. Klefstadt?"

Ziri giggled, and wished she hadn't. "They're what my skin does. I never asked for them." She suppressed the next giggle, from recalling how Eldon kissed the ones on her breasts. She was getting to like that kissing, he kept it dry.

Trevor walked her to one side, where the light was even and indirect. He snapped three quick phone pics of her face, at different angles, then slide-showed them to her. "Is this how you'd like to look on television?"

Ziri shrugged. "I suppose." Then a thought arose. "But then, people will recognize me as the dumpy girl on Piranha Pool who made something for naked butts."

Trevor and Karina shared a glance. Karina asked, "Would you rather not be recognized?"

Ziri forced herself into old memories. Being teased. Laughed at. Ridiculed. For the way she looked, for what she said, for how she acted. At the time, those incidents had merely confused her. Only later did they hurt, a little.

She had seen other picked-on kids cry or run away, and had wondered what bothered them so much. As she grew, Ziri was content that she seemed to have a thick skin, thanks in part to being on the spectrum. By not crumbling to bullies, she may have won something.

Did she still have a thick skin? She'd had only one bad situation in her life, and it still existed, but she was almost used to it now. She didn't think that could be a problem on this TV show.

But so much had changed for her. She was still trying to understand what she felt for Eldon. Maybe it's because I've never had anyone, she thought. Is that true for him? Does he wish he had someone else?

Ziri wondered about venturing further into the neurotypical world. Would insults finally hurt her the way schoolyard teasing never did?

She looked at Trevor, feeling herself wanting something from him. "Can you make me pretty?"

Trevor seemed taken aback. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

Ziri took that as a yes. "It is."

"Well then, Sister, brace yourself!" Trevor grinned. He turned to Karina. "Tell the control room to get her in a lot of head shots." To Ziri again: "Those green eyes just stole my heart! I'll get them to do that to the whole country!"

***

Ziri's show prep continued while Trevor worked on her. "You should know," said Karina, "that the Piranhas are already looking over the items for this show in their dressing rooms. They have access to your video, and your data on cost and materials. This isn't obvious to people watching the show, but it's how the Piranhas can make what seem like snap decisions about investing."

"So, when I talk to them, they'll already have their minds made up?" Ziri was a little disappointed, and a little relieved.

Karina nodded. "Usually. But your presentation might sway someone who's on the fence."

***

Eldon had nothing to do. His lanyard badge allowed him to hang around in various parts of the studio. He wasn't interested in how a television show is produced. Television seemed to him like a relic from a bygone era, seeking relevance through internet streaming.

He thought he should have stayed in the hotel room and studied.

He'd offered to hang with Ziri as the show's staffers converged on her. He asked her three times, to get through what looked to him as the most locked focus he'd ever seen from her. She looked confused that he'd asked, saying only that she was the one who was supposed to do this. His further attempt to check in seemed to annoy her, so he let her follow whatever she had in mind.

As close as they'd become, Eldon was still trying to understand Ziri, and worried when he couldn't. A few days ago, they were alone together, sitting on the front porch swing at the Driscolls'. He thought they should learn more about each other. Knowing that she wouldn't start a conversation like this, he volunteered info on his family, to which she didn't respond.

Then he asked about her family.

Her expression went from relaxed to blank and affectless. She stood, said "I have to study," and went briskly into the house, without a look back.

Now Eldon wandered around the studio. Show staffers flitted here and there, but none was assigned to him.

He was alone in a corridor when a door opened. He was able to read the name on the door's plaque: Gerald Stansbury. Eldon knew, from Ziri's research on the show, that this was the name of a Piranha.

When the door closed, Eldon saw the back of a tall man in a red jogging suit. He headed away down the corridor, then knocked on another door.

He was carrying a Neat Seat.

The door opened. It was too far away for Eldon to read the name, but he heard a woman's voice. There was laughter, and Eldon made out her voice saying "lame excuse," before Stansbury entered the room and the door closed.

Eldon crept down the hall, insisting to himself that he had perfectly good reasons for gathering information about this.

He stopped at the door with a plaque reading Justine Merrill.

Her image was clear in Eldon's mind. Wavy brown hair, sleek legs always on display, Cupid's-bow lips and violet eyes in an age-defying face.

She had once modeled in a magazine's swimsuit issue--which Eldon, as a Gen-Z, had seen online rather than on paper.

Eldon's ear at the door made out a few chuckles, objects moving on other objects, unclear murmurs. He wondered about listening with a water glass, not knowing if that would even work, deciding there was no time to search for one.

Speech was soon replaced by breath sounds, and slight rhythmic impacts.

Eldon's hand slid lightly across his crotch.

The breathing and impacts picked up volume and speed. Eldon realized what he was doing, took his hand away, and desperately tried to find tranquility through meditation.

Eventually, baritone and soprano voices expressed themselves without words.

Eldon almost fell out of his crouch. He leaned back and breathed at the ceiling, so he wouldn't be heard on the other side of the door.

When he regained some composure, and posture stability, he heard the high voice say something that seemed to include "best desk fuck ever," and the low voice say "more desirable market than nudists."

Eldon straightened up, smiling.

Turning to leave the corridor, he saw a woman at a different door, staring at him. She pushed a cart that seemed to include a hair dryer, among other things.

He gasped, and flinched back a few feet.

She opened the door, and pushed the cart inside, still looking at him. Finally she closed the door.

Eldon's temples throbbed as he retreated along the corridor, wheezing. He tried to celebrate the knowledge that at least two Piranhas would bid for The Neat Seat. Should I tell Ziri? Would it ease her mind during the show, or would she let slip what she knew in advance?

First, Eldon had to find a bathroom stall, to deal with a different excitement. He wondered if Justine Merrill's nude flesh had been on the prototype he had tested on the trail with Ziri.

***

Staging of the show began before Eldon could touch base with Ziri. He worried about her, despite what he knew. In rehearsals at the Driscoll house, the day before the trip, Ziri was steady during her pitch (which was mechanical, and there seemed no way around that), but faltered sometimes during Q&A. Tess had worked up some questions specifically to throw her off, like "What made you think so much about people being nude?" In the post-mortem the boarders and Driscolls helped her devise answers, and Eldon suggested ways for her to keep her composure.

Now Eldon stood far to the side, behind show staffers and video and sound equipment, as the recording of Ziri's segment began. He saw her behind the roll-up door to the 'pool,' checking something on her phone. She nodded, then smiled, then nodded again. She straightened up and pocketed the phone while a staffer gave her a finger-countdown. Then the door lifted, and Ziri strode past it in her extra-erect pitching posture.

In the brighter light, Eldon saw her styled hair, her thickened eyelashes, and the gloss on her smiling lips. His jaw dropped.

Her pitch seemed smoother now, and energetic, a big improvement over her robot recitation. She smiled nearly all the time, favoring each Piranha with pleasant looks.

She met questions about nudism, and her own interests, with mild amusement. She said nothing that would prolong snickering. Eldon dared to observe, Maybe she's got this.

Stansbury, now in a navy blue suit, asked, "Have you thought about how The Neat Seat might be used in other walks of life?"

"I'm sure there could be other uses," Ziri replied smoothly, "And I look forward to hearing any you might suggest, Gerald. But I know that a clear benefit of The Neat Seat is what it can provide for people pursuing healthful outdoor activities, and showing respect for others in social events."

Damn! thought Eldon, She got back on message! He looked at the five Piranhas. The three upon whom he hadn't eavesdropped looked totally charmed.

There were bids from all five. In the end, Stansbury and Merrill won, bidding jointly for twice as much as Ziri had requested, while leaving Ziri as the sole inventor and patent applicant, and ensuring that all sourcing, manufacture, and distribution would be done by American companies. Stansbury gave no details on camera about 'other walks of life.'

There was a standard after-moment, with the Piranhas standing and chatting with Ziri long enough for end credits to be added later. Then there was a loud declaration, maybe from a control room, of "That's a wrap." Almost at once, the Piranhas swam away, quickly tended by show staffers and personal assistants. A tall woman walked up to Ziri and gave her a hug/handshake, and guided her to the side where Eldon waited.

He walked towards her, with no idea of what her mood would be.

She saw him, piped "Eldon!" and ran up to him, beaming.

He was thrilled by her hug, but puzzled when she said, "I did it! I was somebody else!"

***

She motormouthed through the limo ride, the elevator ascent, and the entry to the hotel room. The gist was that after the makeup artist had made her look like someone else, she looked up role playing in her list of Sex Things. She interacted with the Piranhas like someone trying to seduce them. What came across was an affect that was friendly, a little flirty, but not overtly sexual.

Ziri looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. "Eeeuw! Do you like this?"

He stepped to her side so she could see him too. Some makeup had rubbed off on his face and shirt, even though they hadn't kissed. "It looked better before, trust me," he said.

She looked at the free stuff on the vanity. "Cleansing cream," she read, and picked it up.

"I'll leave you to it," he said, moving to depart.

"Wait, wait," she said, getting out her phone. She scrolled, then said, "Sex in a shower." She looked at him neutrally. "We can't do that at Driscolls.'"

"You don't think that's yucky?"

"I like feeling the water in a shower. I like feeling you."

She really, really liked the two together.

They couldn't make penetration work there, but she orgasmed with his fingers in her vagina as they hugged. When he fucked between her squeezed thighs, he was loud and jerky when he came, in a way that she liked, busting through his meditation. I can still do that to him! she thought.

He kissed her breasts, but she was okay with it because of the warm water and his massage-like washing of her whole body. She approved that he stayed away from her face as she scrubbed off the makeup.

Later, dry and in bed, and after a satisfying, enclosing fuck, she said, "This is different."

She said it in her affectless way. It was up to Eldon to interpret. He felt her body to be relaxed, so the 'different' probably wasn't bad.

"How do you mean?"

"Lying here, with you...it's ordinary now."

He was relaxed, too, and he stayed that way physically, even as he started worrying. The quiet body from meditation hadn't carried over to quiet mind.

He didn't want to lead her to say something just to reassure him. If I'm the most insecure person here, he thought, I shouldn't load my neediness on her.

He said, "Is that bad?"

"No," she said, looking nowhere in particular. "It's okay. Like when I'm sitting and reading, not trying to do something. Or eating, if it doesn't bother my mouth. It's...nice."

His arm was around her back, on her far shoulder. He gave it a little squeeze. She still didn't look at him, or give him a physical return, but she smiled a little.

He made himself settle for that. It was probably the most he could hope for, from her, and it probably meant that she was happy with him.

There was now enough silence that he could tell her what he learned in the corridor of dressing rooms.

She jerked uprght. Her face scrunched hard. "EEEEUWWW! Is that what they want it for? So people can, can--" She grabbed her phone from a nightstand. "Sex in a workplace?" she scrolled, and got to notes she had written under this heading. She held the phone to his face. "It's not just weird and stupid! It's how people cheat! And stop loving! The deal's off!"

"WHAAAAT?"

"They used my invention to do sex on a desk!"

Weakly he tried, "And it's okay on a trail?" Then, in shock, he saw that this could be traced back to him. He was haunted by the scowl of the woman in the corridor. The awareness that he hadn't actually done anything illegal didn't overcome his expected universal judgment that he was a creep.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she wailed.

"I never got a chance!"

She started punching numbers on the phone.