Valentine's Dance

"It looks like you're wearing a backpack under there," sighed Mai.

"I have to wear a bra," insisted Lanh, "I don't want everyone in class to see my... my..."

"Nipples?" asked Kim-ly in a voice loud enough to embarrass the hell out of her little sister. "We all got 'em, what's the problem?"

Lanh covered her small, firm breasts with her forearms, "I'm not sharing! They're reserved!"

"It's a silk dress," said Tam softly, trying to mellow out Lanh. "The bra straps show through, you look like you're wearing a pack frame under that dress honey." Kim-ly lives to get their little sister agitated, it seems like all Tam does any more is calm down Lanh!

Kim-ly was not going to give Lanh a break. "And what's with the granny panties? It looks like you're smuggling towels." Lanh tensed up and began to shudder, her hands bunched to fists under her chin, her eyes were screwed closed, and she was getting ready to scream. Kim-ly whispered in Lanh's ear, "I got the fix, don't worry." She then looked at Tam and Mai and said "This is sister stuff, you two have to give us room.

"I'm her sister," insisted Tam.

"Shoo! You raised her, not a sister! Now go away!" And Kim-ly was correct, even though Tam is Lanh's oldest sister, when Lanh was born prematurely, she needed round the clock care. Kim-ly and her twin brother Bao were two years older than Lanh and a handful, so Tam began to care for her tiny baby sister while their mother Mai wrangled the twins. Tam had become Lanh's de facto mom for the first eight years of her life.

When they were alone, Kim-ly sat Lanh on the end of the bed and her little sister looked terrified. It finally struck Kim-ly that Lanh truly was her baby sister. In her youth Kim-ly treated Lanh as a doll, a toy to play with then ignore as something else captured her attention. The events of the past two years forced Kim-ly to see Lanh in a whole new light, Kim-ly now realized how far Lanh has advanced emotionally. The tiny girl as a fiancé that she loves dearly and is planning to travel around the world with him, to have marvelous adventures, and to have his children. Meanwhile Kim-ly is still a "party girl," a Friday night hell raiser whose only steady boyfriend is her twin brother.

Lanh was about to say something but Kim-ly held a finger up to her lips then crept silently to the bedroom door then banged on it with her fist with a strike that rattled the house and scared Lanh even worse. Kim-ly held a finger up to silence Lanh and shortly they could hear footsteps slinking away.

"How did you know they were out there?" Lanh asked.

"They gave up too easily," said Kim-ly and she sat down next to Lanh. After a moment she gently took her trembling little sister in her arms. "I am so jealous of you tôm..."

"If you were really that jealous you wouldn't call me shrimp all the time," Lanh pouted. She didn't mind being called shrimp or tôm by people like Don's father Ralph but coming from Kim-ly it felt like an insult. Kim-ly once said that tôm actually meant "Stinky sea-bug."

"If I didn't, you would think that something is up." Kim-ly picked up a brush and started to brush out Lanh's long, perfectly straight black hair. "I never had a Valentine's Dance, neither of us did. Did you know that Bao and I volunteered to chaperone to make this our Valentine's Dance too?" She leaned in and whispered, "We both passed the exam, we got our CPAs! This is like our senior prom; school is finally over for us!" Their eyes met in the mirror and Lanh could see how excited her older sister was. "Bao and I are going into business together, Nguyen Accounting. We each have a client to start with too! I have Campbell's Dairy Farm and Bao has mom and dad's restaurant. We start going over the books on Monday."

How anyone could be excited about accounting was beyond Lanh, but the twins Bao and Kim-ly ate that stuff up and they worked very hard to meet this goal at their young age. Lanh hugged Kim-ly and said, "I'm happy for you." Then looking at her reflection in the mirror she sagged and frowned at what she saw. "I don't know how anyone could be jealous of me."

"I am," insisted Kim-ly, "I have been for a long time." Lanh looked at her like Kim-ly just ate a worm. "I really am, you found a good man who loves you so much... you two were made for each other, and I want you to know that Bao and I will be blind to whatever mischief you two get into. But if anyone picks on you tonight..." Her fist suddenly appeared in front of Lanh's face with lightning speed. "They get Jackie Channed."

Lanh stared wide eyed at Kim-ly's fist just an inch from her nose. She knew that Tam had been dragging Kim-ly and Bao to her martial arts classes and that Jackie Chan was Kim-ly's favorite martial arts champion, but she'd never seen any of them show off one iota of their skills until just now. Lanh very slowly said, "I don't think you're allowed to hit anyone."

Kim-ly lowered her fist and hugged Lanh closely. A vision filled Kim-ly's mind of the terrified, bruised Lanh sitting in the back of an ambulance after she was almost raped last year. Don saved her but he ended up getting beaten nearly to death in the process. "When Joshua Grimes attacked you, Don just jumped right in and stopped him. He didn't care that Grimes was twice his size, Don knew he'd get beaten to a pulp, but he did it without question because he loves you that much. The only one that would do that for me would be Bao, because he's my brother, it's his job."

"He'd get his ass kicked," muttered Lanh who still had nightmares over the beating Don got to protect her.

"What Don did for you... that's love." Kim-ly's beautiful eyes got misty and teary. "I'm never going to find a love like that..." She sniffed back the tears and said, "but Don loves you, and he will stand up to the world for you, that's why you want to look perfect for him." Kim-ly pulled a small package out of her purse and showed Lanh a set of flesh-colored patches. "These are nipple covers, think of them as a strapless bra."

Lanh looked at them suspiciously, they look like a larger version of those little circular band-aids that no one ever uses. "Trust me," said Kim-ly and she urged her skeptical sister to her feet. She unzipped and pulled down the top of the dress, and removed Lanh's little padded bra then applied the nipple covers with a lot more "touchy grabby" than Lanh thought was necessary, then zipped up the dress. "Perfect," smiled Kim-ly.

"I want to see," said Lanh, but Kim-ly kept her from turning to the mirror and handed Lanh a pair of ivory chopsticks that were on her dresser.

"Here, put your hair up while I work on your VPL."

"VPL?" With practiced hands Lanh rolled and wound her hair into a tight bun and pinned it in place with the chop sticks.

"Visible Panty Lines," said Kim-ly as she dropped to her knees, hoisted Lanh's skirt, and swiftly yanked down her panties. "Two pair? No wonder why it looks like you're wearing a diaper."

"I get excited when I dance with Don..." she whined as she stepped out of her panties.

"Ok, let's take a look," and Kim-ly turned Lanh to the mirror and Lanh was startled when she saw a beautiful Asian woman. Gone was the tiny body that could be somebody's kid brother, for the first time Lanh saw the curves that Don constantly assured her were there. The Cheongsam, the skintight high necked red and gold silk Chinese sheath dress, was elegant... SHE was elegant! It clung like a second skin, showing off her small round breasts, her tight waist, her rounded hips. The dress was slit up from the sides to mid-thigh showing off her perfect, deliciously sculpted legs. Panty lines were gone, bra straps eliminated, and rock-hard nipples were safely hidden. She turned around and looked over her shoulder at her ass in the mirror and saw that Kim-ly was right about removing the panties. "What do you think?" asked Kim-ly as she wriggled into her own gown.

"It's... I..." Lanh was caught for words.

"Thank you will suffice," said Kim-ly as she turned her back to Lanh who was still trying to come to terms with the vision of the woman who stared at her from the mirror. "Zip me up please," asked Kim-ly and Lanh was awakened from her trance to see that Kim-ly had slipped off her bathrobe and pulled on her beautiful gold formal gown.

"Look!" Lanh gasped, "you're beautiful!"

They stood side by side looking at themselves in the mirror. "So, you like my taste in clothing now, do you?" said Kim-ly.

"You always dress cool," said Lanh starting to feel shame for the anger she tended to feel toward Kim-ly.

"What's that nickname your buddies on the debate team call you?" Kim-ly was thinking about something.

"Lanh Shark." Lanh was a fierce debater leaving the bodies of her opponents scattered in her wake. She knew nothing about the old Saturday Night Live "Land Shark" skit, she's far too young. That reference had to come from one of her debate team members' parents.

"That's not the one I'm thinking of. Some other nickname you have..."

Lanh just shrugged her shoulders and then the sound of Tam's voice came through the closed door, "The swim team calls her the Dragon Lady."

"That's the one," Kim-ly nodded. "Tonight, you are The Dragon Lady. Cool, arrogant, the mystery Vietnamese kingpin with the power of life or death over the peons and petty tyrants."

"I can't do that," whined Lanh.

"Pretend that Coach Mach told you that every one of those people at the Valentine's Dance was your next swimmer to train, and you want them to know that you're not going to be messed with," said Kim-ly. Lanh drew herself up into a pose of strident arrogance. "Perfect!" cried Kim-ly. "Now you have to be like that for the next five hours."

Lanh was the timekeeper for the swim team, and she also helped coach both Don and Rosa Mendez to medals and soon they would be competing at the state championships. She was so intense with her coaching, the swim team began calling her Dragon Lady, little knowing that the Dragon Lady was a pirate character in a comic strip enjoyed by their grandparents decades ago. You could probably claim that there was something racial in that nickname, and maybe it started as a racist slur, but for the members of the Grant Valley High School swim team it was a moniker of admiration and fellowship. Along with Don, the entire swim team would crush anyone who caused any distress to their assistant coach, timekeeper, and good luck mascot.

Kim-ly grabbed the fire engine red lipstick and started to touch up Lanh's lips. "That's mom's dress you're wearing."

"It is?" All Lanh knew was that Tam said it would be perfect for her and Aunt Suong made some adjustments for her.

"Yep, she told me that ba gave it to her for their first Christmas and she wore it to the New Year's Eve party on base where dad was stationed; nine months and ten minutes later Tam was born."

"She did not say that!"

"Tam's birthday is September, count on your fingers. You need to come to grips with the fact that our parents are sexual beings, hell, they're still rocking the foundations... Stop moving! I'll mess up the eyeliner." Kim-ly completed Lanh's war paint with a red eye shadow that matched the lipstick and the crimson Chinese sheath dress that Lanh was wearing. "There, if you don't get laid tonight, you can't get laid."

"We're not getting laid tonight; we have four months to go!" insisted Lanh with a stomp of her tiny foot. Even though both she and Don were eighteen and aching to have sex, they both agreed to save vaginal sex until their wedding in June. Until then they'll just have to put up with every other sexual practice that they can dream up... and as Don finds out, his sweet little fiancé has a vivid imagination.

"Well, just in case, Bao and I got a two-bedroom suite at the Deep Woods Inn where you and your little buddies can party the night away, and if you guys get carried away and break your vows," she bent down to whisper, "It'll be our little secret."

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

"Come on you two, the boys are here!" called Tam from somewhere downstairs.

"Ok, you ready?" Kim-ly asked, and with that she and Lanh headed down the stairs slowly, building suspense. Make 'em suffer. Beauty like this must be administered slowly, cautiously. Kim-ly went down the stairs first in order to catch Lanh if she should fall. Kim-ly's full length gown was a spectacular, form fitting creation that left one shoulder bare and shocked her mother and sisters, they had never seen Kim-ly wear something so incredibly beautiful before. Kim-ly is either a tomboy or a party girl when it comes to her taste in clothing, this is the first time since her first communion when she was a child that she had a reason to dress up like this.

Kim-ly hammed it up as she descended the stairs, back straight, chin up, eyes forward, hips swaying with each step she descended and when she reached the ground floor, she was disappointed to find her mom, sister, and Sandy. "I wasted all that energy on my entrance. Where's Bao? Where's dad? Where's..."

"They got tired of waiting for you, so they went out front for coffee," said Mai. She was scowling but her scowl was hiding a smile, her two little girls were finally going to the Valentine's Dance!

Now it was Lanh's turn to come down the stairs. She'd never worn a sheath dress before and even though it was slit up the side to mid-thigh it felt like her legs were tied together when she was on the stairs. It was tempting to hoist the skirt up to her waist and jog down the stairs, but she promised Kim-ly that she would try to look like a fashion model. She thought she was going to fall several times, but when she got down the stairs her reaction was "Where is my fiancé?"

"He's waiting out front with your dad and his dad," said Sandy softly. She's watched the love between Lanh and Don blossom and mature over the past two years, it's so hard to believe that these children will be married in just a matter of a couple months, then they will be heading off somewhere in the world where Don's career in the USAF sends him.

The Nguyen's house was attached to their restaurant and when someone said "out front" they always meant the restaurant. Mai led the way through the kitchen and asked the girls to wait a moment before they came out. Don and Bao waited nervously at the front of the restaurant, already being eyed up by curious customers. They chatted nervously wondering what Mai and Sandy had planned. "Now remember," Kim-ly whispered, "Small steps, don't hurry, and place one foot directly in front of the other foot, let your hips swing."

"I wish I had hips," muttered Lanh at the same time Mai called out from the front "Come out now girls."

"Wait for me to call you," said Kim-ly and she made her way through the kitchen. Kim-ly stepped out of the kitchen like she's done hundreds of times when she was working, but this time it wasn't just one table waiting for her to show up with their dinner, it was an entire restaurant waiting to see her. Not only did her brothers Huy and Trung come to watch, but it also looked to Kim-ly like her parents' entire families came up from Minneapolis to see this. Uncles, aunts, and cousins she hadn't seen in ages were all in the dining area waiting for her with cameras. They even started to applaud!

Kim-ly stopped, did a slow turn, then posed and beckoned to her brother Bao who stepped forward with a corsage, a light pink carnation, and pinned it on her dress, then he awkwardly posed with Kim-ly for pictures. When their moment in the spotlight was done, Kim-ly turned to the kitchen and called, "Come on Lanh!"

For her part, Lanh had been watching everything Kim-ly did and decided to emulate everything that she did. "They're waiting for you honey," said Margaret, their cook.

Lanh nodded and took a deep breath then like she did before every debate with the debate club, she became somebody else. She took slow, measured steps through the kitchen and into the dining area and like Kim-ly she was shocked at the crowd that was there to see her. She even heard their collective gasp as she stepped out of the kitchen, and she was the space of one breath away from dashing back into the kitchen when she saw Don. He was standing just next to Kim-ly in front of the crowd and... my God that suit looked good on him!

Keeping her eyes fixed on Don, she stepped forward. Slow, careful steps, hips shifting as she moved, her eyes locked on to his. He looked so happy to see her, it made Lanh want to giggle but she was somebody else, she was the Dragon Lady. The cameras started to flash as she walked toward Don, but they didn't matter. Don's expression started to become hungry, and a quick glance downward showed that she was causing an erection, which is what mattered.

Don stepped up to her and they stood scant inches apart in front of friends and relatives and all that Lanh could notice was the heat radiating from Don's body. She looked up into his blue eyes, as he looked down in her beautiful, almost black, almond shaped eyes, their lips growing closer, dare they kiss in front of everyone? For a brief, breath taking moment their lips touched, in that moment Don could have unzipped her dress and had his way with her in front of her entire family and all she could have said would have been, "more!" But Don was a gentleman and their lips just brushed and he eased back to the disappointment of the photographers in the room.

Clearing his throat, Don produced a pure white orchid wrist corsage in a clear box, Lanh sighed in relief that he didn't have to run a pin through this silk dress, and in a matter of moments the orchid was adorning Lanh's wrist. She responded in kind by pinning a smaller matching orchid to his lapel. "You look so beautiful," Don whispered.

Lanh now realized that Don was not going to look this hot for their wedding, this $25 suit was tailored for him and the tux they rented was not, which came as a bit of a relief to her, she would need to keep her mind on the ceremony and Don looking this hot at the altar would not help at all.

They turned to face the crowd of gawkers and their hands met, their fingers entwined, and they both wished they could convince their chaperones to skip the dance and head straight to the motel for a quiet evening with friends.

Don and Lanh suffered through pictures with each other, then pictures with Bao and Kim-ly, then when Sydney and Rosa showed up, pictures with various combinations. Getting anxious to get this over Lanh quietly huffed to Don, "We can get the swim team and debate team here to pose with us too!"

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Don, Lanh, Sydney, and Rosa arrived at the school and faced the "walk in" where couples entered through a ''gauntlet" of parents, relatives, and friends all armed with cameras. Bao and Kim-ly were already there at the school having left the restaurant early while photo sessions continued. It was a cold, blustery evening, so the girls wore their long coats over their gowns while the guys toughed it out in blazers and sometimes just vests. Don was lucky and borrowed an overcoat from his dad.

Don hung their coats on coat hooks in the hallway then they entered the multi-purpose room, a gymnasium with a stage at one end and a kitchen at the other end. It was once used as the main auditorium and the gymnasium, and cafeteria but with the additions to the building, it is now primarily used as a secondary gymnasium and the stage is used for drama club and band practice. What was once the balcony is now a weight room.

When they entered the multipurpose room, it was a symphony in red, pink, and white. Valentines' hearts, cupids, and flowers were everywhere, the walls were festooned with posters and cut-outs made from pink and red posterboard. Each table had a centerpiece made of tissue paper flowers and Valentine hearts sprouting from a glass vase filled with pink and red glass beads.