The Exchange Student Pt. 01

Author's Note:

It's no secret I'm no spring chicken - ha - and this story is set back during my senior year of high school. At heart it's a sexual awakening story, but it's also a threesome story.

The main character is a little reluctant in the beginning but she eventually embraces her situation wholeheartedly.

It's also a long story, and I'll release it in three parts.

I really hope you enjoy it! I had a great time writing it.

Pentopaper

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Friday, August 16, 1991

"I'm so sorry, Molly, but you missed the cutoff," the guidance director told me, tossing a colorful brochure down onto her cluttered desk.

It was the first week of a new school year, my senior year, and things were already going downhill.

"What?" I said incredulously. "I can't have missed it!"

She just nodded at me. "Yes. The deadline was two weeks ago," she said sadly.

"But I...I..." I mumbled.

She glanced at me with a sad look. "All the slots are probably now filled," she said. "I can check, but don't hold your breath. People have been mailing in their applications for months now."

"No, no, no!" I groaned. This couldn't be happening! I felt a lump rise in my throat and I held my late paperwork up to my chest like an idiot. How could I have missed the deadline by two weeks?

"Isn't there something you can do?"

The guidance director shook her head, paused, then nodded and shrugged. "Well, yes, I can probably call the toll free number on the brochure and talk to somebody in charge. But slots fill up quickly, you have to understand."

"Please call," I urged her.

She looked around on her messy desk and picked up the brochure again, located the number, then picked up the phone and dialed.

I sat there numb while she "mmm-hum'd" and "okay'd" her way through what seemed to me to be a completely one-sided phone conversation.

Finally she said "thank you" and "goodbye" and she hung up the phone. I looked at her with renewed hope, but the look on her face left me chilled inside.

"I'm so sorry, Molly, but it's just as I thought, the slots are all filled. They went ahead and put you on a waiting list today, but don't get your hopes up too high. A student would have to get hospital-ill to drop out of the program at this late date."

I closed my eyes and a tear slipped down my face. "Thanks Mrs. Kinkaid. For calling and checking, I mean," I mumbled.

"Anytime, Molly. Again, I'm sorry."

I nodded and stood up, dejected, and left her office. I tossed my completed paperwork into the first trash can I found. What good was it to me now?

I couldn't believe it. I had missed the deadline for the study abroad program! I had wanted to be an exchange student for as long as I could remember, and now it looked like, from my own stupidity and a mix-up on dates, that I wasn't going to be able to go.

I barely got through my classes the rest of the day, I was so upset. Even worse I now had to tell my parents. They would not be happy, to say the least.

"Molly, how could you have messed up so badly?" My mother said to me at dinner.

I just sat at the kitchen table and shook my head, my usually tasty Chinese food completely inedible.

"You're smarter than that, kiddo," my dad chimed in.

I let out a sigh. My parents were always so hard on me. I had wanted to be an exchange student because I, yes, wanted the experience of traveling to and of living in another country. But I also wanted a blissful semester away from my parents and from the pressure of being their only daughter. Only child, actually.

But now it looked like it wasn't going to happen.

"I'll stop payment on the check," my mom said.

I sighed again, feeling the tears start to fall. It was embarrassing and humiliating, screwing up like that in front of my parents. My mother was an ER doctor and my father was a pharmacist. Their jobs demanded exact precision and preciseness. Too bad they'd had a daughter who was such a disappointment.

"May I be excused now?" I whispered. My few bites of dinner I had managed to choke down were now sitting like lead in my stomach.

"You need to really think about this, Molly," my mother said, though she nodded at me. "Think about your role in this. Mistakes can sometimes literally cost lives," she said.

My father nodded. "That's very true."

I stood up from the kitchen table, nodded at them, then ran upstairs into my bedroom. I shut my bedroom door and then threw myself on my bed and started to really cry.

It wasn't fair. Why was I born to such exacting parents? And why hadn't they had any other kids? They were microscopically involved in my life and I hated it. They even knew when I thought something wrong, let alone when I did something wrong. Perhaps if I had had a brother or sister things wouldn't have been so intense for me. But as it was, I was an only child, and would always be just that.

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Monday, August 19, 1991

The next Monday at school had me walking from class to class in a lethargic daze. I ate lunch with my only school friend, Hannah, and she was only my friend by default, because our parents knew each other, and because we both didn't have any other friends to speak of.

My mom and dad hadn't let me go to many classmates' birthday parties or to many sleepovers when I was younger like other kids had, and so I hadn't had a chance to make tight-knit friends like other kids now had in high school. Instead I was always kept to the side, or on a shelf - a trophy kid - one whose parents were always helicoptering around.

"So you're not going to France this semester?" Hannah asked me.

I shook my head. "No. Doesn't look like it. I screwed up and didn't get my paperwork turned in on time," I said.

Hannah chuckled, but when she saw the look of deep hurt that I shot her way she stopped. "Oh. Well, Molly, I'm really sorry. Maybe you can go next semester?"

I shook my head. "No, I can't do it next semester. My parents have me signed up for those advanced high school/college classes and they're paying college tuition for them. They won't let me miss them," I said.

Hannah blew out a puff of air. "So, what are you going to do?"

I just shook my head. "Nothing. It's done," I said.

The last period of the day rolled around, which was, unfortunately, French class. It made me feel awful all over again because it reminded me of the place where I would not be going.

But today was different, because a school pass runner knocked on the classroom door and entered the room and gave me a hall pass. It said to see the guidance director immediately.

I got permission from my French teacher to leave, and I hurried down to the guidance office. Did I dare hope?

"Molly, sit down with me for a second. I have perhaps some good news for you," the guidance director told me.

"A spot opened up?!" I said hopefully.

Mrs. Kinkaid scrunched up her face. "Well, not exactly. But hear me out."

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"Ohio?" I said flatly, two minutes later. "Not France, but Ohio?" I said unenthusiastically.

Mrs. Kinkaid nodded. "Like I said, it's an exchange program within the United States. You'd spend this semester with a family in Ohio and you'd go to school there."

I just shook my head. "Ohio?"

Mrs. Kinkaid nodded enthusiastically. "It's a program to showcase different areas of the United States. Ideally, the exchange student comes from farther away in the country, but this is all so very last minute. There's a spot for you in Ohio if you want it," she told me.

I sighed. "Fine. Put me down. I'll have to run it past my parents but I'd like to do it," I said.

Mrs. Kinkaid grinned. "Yes, ma'am."

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My parents weren't thrilled with the idea of me going to Ohio, but I somehow managed to talk them into it. I heavily sold the experience of me being broadened socially by living with another family. The family they had in mind for me, as Mrs. Kinkaid had described them, had two kids - twins - both 18, and both high school seniors just like me. This was a bonus since I didn't have any siblings. I figured it would be good for me to experience living with peers my own age before I had to do it for the first time in college.

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Saturday, August 24, 1991

A week of school passed, then on Saturday afternoon, my parents drove me to the airport when it was time for me to fly out.

"Make us proud," my father said to me.

"Focus and study hard," my mother told me.

Neither parent hugged or kissed me goodbye, as was their usual. I did not come from a touchy-feely family.

The flight was uneventful, but when I landed in Cincinnati, my stomach reflected my anxiety. How would I know the family? Everything had happened so quickly that I didn't even have a picture of them, just their names on a piece of paper I had stuffed into a jean pocket after I'd memorized the names off of it.

I didn't have to worry, however. There was a family of four standing close to the gate with a big poster board covered with hearts and sparkles and glitter that said, "Welcome to Ohio, Molly!"

The dad was very handsome. He looked like a poor man's version of Jackson Browne. The wife was very pretty and she slightly resembled Nicole Kidman. They were both in their early 40's.

I shyly waved and I made my way over to them.

Diana, their daughter, was jumping up and down. "Hey! Welcome!" She said, wrapping me up in a big hug. It took me off guard, and I awkwardly stood there with my arms down at my sides as she hugged me.

"Hey! Thanks!" I said, uncomfortably. I squirmed a little and she finally let me go.

"You're Diana, right?" I asked her.

"Yes!" She said, grabbing my hands. We are so happy you're here!" She said. "I've always wanted a sister!"

I grinned, then looked at the boy standing with the family. "Hey," he said to me.

"Hi," I said. "You're Lloyd, right?"

He shook his head. "Technically it's Lloyd Charles, but everybody just calls me LC.

I nodded at him with a grin. "Okay."

Diana let go of my hands and I really looked at her. She was absolutely gorgeous with long, wavy, almost white-blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

Lloyd Charles was blonde too, good-looking, with floppy hair, and he was wearing a T-shirt and oversized basketball shorts. His eyes were the exact same color of blue as Diana's.

"Hi, Molly, darling!" Their mother said to me. She also enveloped me into a big, uncomfortable hug. "I'm Celeste, your host mom, and this is Robert, your host dad!"

"Hey, sweetheart," Robert said with a grin.

"Hi," I mumbled to my new host father. He extended a hand and patted my back in greeting while Celeste still hugged me.

Celeste had long, blonde hair just like Diana's, though it was a darker blonde and it was thicker. She had the same blue eyes as her kids, and she smelled like baby powder. She also had a funky, boho style to her person, and she was wearing a flowing white blouse and a long, colorful skirt, and she had Birkenstock sandals on her feet.

Robert was dressed in the corporate worker's casual uniform: khaki pants paired with a polo shirt that happened to be sky blue in color. He had longish dark brown hair and big, brown eyes. He looked like he had just come from work, though it was a Saturday. He must have dressed for the occasion.

My three hard-shelled maroon suitcases suddenly came around the luggage carousel. Lloyd and Diana each took one, and Robert took the last one. Celeste threw her arm over my shoulder and pulled me close as we started to walk towards the short-term parking lot.

"We're so happy you're here!" Celeste said to me again. "Let's head home and get you settled!"

Robert drove the van and Diana and I sat in the back seats. Lloyd sat alone in the third row. Celeste spent the entire drive turned around in her front seat, asking me rather invasive questions about my life.

"How do your parents handle your discipline?" Celeste asked me.

I snorted. "They don't. I just know better than to do anything wrong," I said.

Celeste chuckled.

Just then Robert pulled the van into the driveway of a very normal-looking, two story brick house in an upper-affluent subdivision on a cul-de-sac, in small town, Morgan, Ohio.

"Oh my gosh, you have to come with my friends and me to the movies sometime!" Diana was saying as Robert deftly parked the van into the garage.

We came into the tastefully-decorated home and Diana grabbed my hand and pulled me up the staircase. "Everybody up to her room with her suitcases!" She announced. "I'll have her unpacked in no time!" She said.

Diana had the bedroom at the end of the hallway, and therefore the biggest bedroom of either kid. LC had the next biggest room, and my room was the third, tiny bedroom that was probably more suited to be used as an office. Then there was a hall bathroom that both kids shared, and Celeste and Robert's large master suite was at the other end of that same hall.

Diana grabbed each suitcase when the males dropped the other two off at the upper floor landing. One by one she opened them on my flowery pink comforter. She did this faster than I could stop her.

"Wait!" I said. I was mortified. I didn't want Diana rummaging around my things and going through my panties and bras!

"Cool panties!" Diana said. She held up a frilly yellow bikini pair and inspected them frontwards and backwards before she put them into a drawer.

"I can do that!" I said uncomfortably.

"Oh, no! Don't even worry about it!" She said. "I'm helping, and that way we'll get you unpacked so much faster!"

I sighed, since I had been overruled, and so instead I worked from a different suitcase and I hung up my jeans, shorts, t-shirts, and sweatshirts on empty hangers in the closet.

Diana took my two teddy bears out of a suitcase. "Awwww. Who are these two lovelies?" She asked me.

I chuckled. "Oh. That's Pete and Repeat," I said. I'd had those two brown, stuffed bears since I was a little girl. I had seen them one time my parents had taken me to the mall and I had cried because I had wanted one. My parents picked up one for me, but then I had cried even harder because I had actually wanted two of them. My parents had explained how they were only going to get me the one bear. But then I told them that I wanted two because I didn't want the first bear to get lonely. That had caused them to chuckle and so they'd bought me the two bears that were in every way identical.

"Well, they're adorable!" She said. Diana placed well-played-with Pete and Repeat onto my bed, laying both their heads gently down on my pillow.

Diana had been right. It didn't take long at all to unpack me. She put my three now empty suitcases in the back of my closet next to my extra shoes and she grabbed my hand. "Come on! The 'rents are ordering pizza!"

We came downstairs into the living room and made our way into the kitchen. Celeste was setting the table and Robert was filling glasses with ice cubes.

I wandered around a little bit and came back to the living room. There, out of the living room windows, was the prettiest backyard I'd ever seen! They had a big, inground pool with a hot tub built into it. There were lots of bushes and small evergreen trees both scattered around in attractive, brick-lined gatherings, and taller evergreen trees were used as privacy greenery around the pool.

There was decorative concrete that surrounded the pool, and several chairs surrounded a built-in fire pit. Pool loungers surrounded the pool on its three other sides.

"Diana! Your backyard!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah. It's pretty nice," she said offhandedly. "We're out there often. We haven't lived here very long; this house is only two years old. We had a pool at our old house too, though it wasn't as big," she said.

Later when we were all at the kitchen table about to eat, Celeste indicated that we should all hold hands. I nearly balked, but in the end I held Diana's and Robert's warm hand, while Celeste prayed to the moon goddess that we'd have a wonderful meal. I myself was thankful when the holding-hand prayer circle ended, and plus the prayer was sort of weird, too.

But the pizza was good and we all ate and talked.

I told the family about my mom and dad and they told me more about themselves.

Robert was an electrical engineer at a local company that designed computers and new technology.

"I keep telling you kids, everybody is going to have their own mobile phone in the future," Robert said, with a twinkle in his eye.

Diana and LC loudly burst out laughing.

"Yeah, right, Dad. So you say," Diana said.

"What would every person even do with their own phone that they lugged around everywhere with them? There aren't even that many phone calls to be made, and probably aren't even enough phone numbers to make that work!" LC said.

Robert shot them both a just-you-wait-and-see look complete with a single raised eyebrow and a smirk.

Celeste was currently not working. She'd done a plethora of jobs in her life from birth doula to life coach. She was now full-time focusing on her creative side and her art.

"I do all sorts of painting and pottery," she said.

"Do you have a pottery wheel?" I asked her.

"I sure do!" She brightened. "But that's not the only way to make a mug," she told me. "We have a building out back that houses all my artist stuff. Oh, and I also do tarot card readings and tea leaves for people," Celeste said. "Later tonight I'll do your cards!"

"Okay," I said.

I wondered at Celeste and Robert's relationship. They seemed like two very different people. Maybe that was the glue that held them together. Who knew?

"My friends are headed to The Barn tonight. Can I go?" LC asked his parents.

Robert cleared his throat. "Why don't you take Diana and Molly with you tonight?"

LC scowled at his father. "Dad, it's just me and the guys going. There aren't any girls gonna be there."

"Ewww. I wouldn't go there tonight. Not my scene," Diana said.

"What's The Barn?" I asked.

"Oh, it's a place where the high school kids go and hang out. No parents allowed," Diana added.

"It's been there for over a hundred years. It's a barn on a slice of disputed land. It's claimed by both the Jones family and the Simon family," Robert said. "No changes have ever been made to the barn because of the dispute."

"It's kind of a Hatfield and McCoy kind of situation," Celeste said. "Without all the gun play," she chuckled.

"Oh," I said. "Feuding families equals high school fun?"

"Yes. It was an old, old barn already back when we were in high school," Robert said with a chuckle, indicating Celeste and him. "Your mother and I even used to go there."

"You guys must have watched the original builders raise it," Diana joked.

"Ha, ha," Robert said sourly.

"Now some of the roof is caving in and it's real spooky," LC said. "It's great," he said.

"But you won't go tonight. I want to get to know you better!" Diana said.

LC soon left. "Bye! I'm taking the car!" He called out as he shut the kitchen door that led to the garage.

"Ooh, Dad, can Molly drive the car sometimes?" Diana asked.

Robert looked at me and gave me an embarrassed look. "She's not on our insurance, baby," he said.

"Well, crap!" Diana said. "Oh, well. We can take you places. That'll work out okay."

I nodded. Seemed fair.

After dinner Celeste put the pizza away in the fridge and Robert rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher.

Diana and I went back up to her room. We sat on her bed and she grilled me for a long time on questions like: "What's your hometown like?" And "tell me more about your parents!" And "what's it like being an only?"

I tried to answer her as succinctly as I could, but she asked me so many follow-up questions that my head was spinning.

"You look tired. Why don't you go take a shower? I'll let you go first," Diana said.