Rosarum et Tulips Ch. 01

Murphy's hands trembled as she saw the big brown envelope in the mail. It was everything she'd ever dreamed of, right there in her hands. They began to shake in anticipation, and she was so unaware of the goings-on that Ethan came up behind her and took the envelope.

"Hey, what's this?" he asked in a teasing tone.

Snapping back to reality, Murphy swiped it away from him. "Just because you've decided to join the army, doesn't mean you can make me feel bad about going to college."

Ethan smirked and walked to the fridge. He took out a can of Coke and snapped it open. "I just don't know what the big deal is," he said, rolling his eyes as Murphy stroked the envelope. "That thing isn't Simpkin," Ethan said, his voice full of irritation.

"Simpkin...passed away seven years ago, Ethan," Murphy said hotly. "But I think my perfect Trixie is a lovely addition to the family."

"You say that because you lost your virginity to Nathan," Ethan teased. "I still don't know why you did that. He is practically our cousin and you know it!"

"It was prom night!" Murphy cried. "And he wanted to make sure that he wasn't gay..."

"What's wrong with being gay?" he asked, taking another sip of Coke. "Do you remember Amber and Mandy? Our mom's? They're gay and they got five kids out of it...and they've been together over twenty years..."

"You know that's not what I meant," Murphy said impatiently. "I have no problem with gay people, you know that."

Ethan nodded. "Oh, Murph, you've gotta know when people are kidding you," he said, a smile on his face. "Come on. I've got to do the final preparations on my army...stuff, and you've got to go get Sebastian, Devon and Lucy from school."

"Ah, Pinewood Middle School," Murphy said sarcastically as she picked up her keys. "We're lucky that Mom and Mom are lawyers," she said, giggling a little bit. "We've all got cars!"

Twenty minutes later, Murphy pulled into the Pinewood parking lot. She pulled into a parking spot and got out of the car, locking it behind her. Then she walked into the double doors, where she was not surprised to see Devon sitting in a seat outside the principals' office with his best friend, Mike Thompson, sitting beside him. They were covered with what looked like meat sauce, and pasta was in their hair.

Sebastian was standing by Devon, looking like a concerned thirteen-year-old brother, which he was. "Oh, finally!" he said dramatically when Murphy came in, his trademark lisp getting a giggle from Mike.

Murphy silenced his laughter with a look and narrowed her eyes accusingly at Devon. "What happened this time?" she asked, her tone slightly irritated and she crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

Devon gave a look to Sebastian, as if he wanted him to tell the story. When the older brother shook his head, Devon sighed, his eleven-and-a-half-year-old voice coming out like a high-pitched whine. "It was Frederick Morris, okay?!" he cried at last crossing his arms.

"Frederick Morris?" Murphy asked. "You mean, the son of Dan Morris, who Mom and Mom are representing in court next week?"

"Yes," Devon said heatedly.

Murphy bent down so she was eye-level to him. "Okay, you got into an altercation with him, that much I get. Can you please tell me the full story so when Principal James calls me in, I have something to go on?"

Devon sighed. "Okay," he said calmly. "Well...at lunch today..."

"Wait, wait," said Murphy. "You've been this dirty since lunch?!"

Devon shook his head. "Half day, remember?" he said. "We had lunch, like, half an hour ago."

"Oh," said Murphy, nodding. "Of course, of course. I'm sorry. Please go on," she said in her "this is all business" voice.

"Well, he made a rude remark about Lucy...and Sebastian," Devon said quietly to Murphy.

Murphy blinked, surprised that he would defend his twin. He loved Lucy, but he was closer to Sebastian and Ethan, and she could understand his defense of his older brother completely. "Okay," Murphy said. "What did this Frederick kid say?"

"He said that..." He leaned forward and put his lips to Murphy's ear. "...he said that Lucy was a fucking lesbo cunt and shouldn't even be in this school...and...he said that Sebastian was a goddamn faggot and should be electrocuted..." He said, quickly pulling away.

Murphy straightened up, her face flaming. Devon's dark blue eyes were teary, so she knew he was telling the truth. "And...you and Mike had a food fight?" she asked, forcing herself to remain calm.

Devon looked at Mike, and they both nodded.

"We sort of got the whole cafeteria to join in," Mike admitted sheepishly, lowering his eyes

Murphy sighed as the principal's office opened and the beautiful Principal James stepped out. She'd been in her first year as principal when Murphy was in the eighth grade, and she had a small wooden apple on her desk, to symbolize five years as principal. She smiled at Murphy, who felt herself tingling slightly at the attention.

"Hello, Murphy," said Principal James.

"Hey, Principal James," she said politely.

The gorgeous principal smiled. "Why don't you step into my office?" she asked, allowing the Frederick child step out, who was covered in meat sauce as well.

"Of course," Murphy said, giving a look to Sebastian to keep an eye on the boys for her. She walked into the office, and was careful to take the seat not covered in meat sauce.

"How have you been?" Principal James asked, walking over to her mini-fridge by her desk. "I've still got drinks in here. Would you like anything?" she asked, her green eyes practically shimmering in the sunlight which crept in through the blinds.

Murphy forced herself to pay attention and nodded, a jerked movement which seemed forced, even to her. "Yeah, um...water would be great," she managed to get out.

The principal nodded and took out two bottles of water. She put one on the side of the desk which Murphy sat at and kept the other in her hand. "So, I suppose Devon and Mike gave you their side of the story," she said, tapping her fingers on her desk.

Murphy nodded at her. "Yes, Principal James," she said.

She smiled back at her. "Oh, please, Murphy," she said to her, her pink lip-glossed lips forming into a grin. "Please call me Gloria. You're not my student anymore. Besides, you graduate from Clairmount in June. You're eighteen, too," she said.

Murphy nodded a second time. "Yes, erm, Gloria," she replied. "I am eighteen and I am graduating from Clairmount."

"Got any college plans?" Gloria asked. "Have you been accepted anywhere famous yet?"

"Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, UCLA, USC, Berkeley, Arizona State, University of Phoenix, NYU, Cornell... The list goes on, Gloria," Murphy said, allowing herself to blush a little to appear modest.

"Wow, that's very impressive," she said. "Have you made up your mind about where you might go?"

"Well, I've declined UCLA, USC, Berkeley, Arizona State, and the University of Phoenix," she admitted. "I just want to stay close to home. I'm considering Dartmouth and NYU," she went on. "I'm reluctant to choose Harvard or Yale, though, because they're known for breeding lawyers and stuff... I find law interesting, but I don't want to do it for a living."

"What do you think you might want to do?" Gloria asked.

"I would love to teach literature, or something," Murphy said. "I just love books and reading, and the thought of assigning essays has been a dream of mine since sophomore year. I just love the idea..."

Gloria smiled, tucking a bit of blonde hair behind her ear. "Wow... So, back to the boys," she said, trying to make her tone stern.

"Y-yes," Murphy said. "O-of course."

"What they did was wrong; throwing food is just not acceptable, no matter what a person says," she said.

Murphy nodded. "I completely agree," she said. "But...did Frederick happen to tell you what exactly was said to put the throwing of food into motion?" she asked tentatively.

Gloria nodded. "He made rude remarks about Sebastian and Lucy's sexual orientation," she said.

"Exactly."

"We are going to suspend Frederick for a week," she said quietly. "I stand by the rule that retaliation is just as bad, but in this case, I feel that Devon did it in self-defense. Devon and Mike will be suspended for three days, and it won't go on their record."

Murphy nodded, sad that the meeting was drawing to a close. She loved the smell, sight...everything about Gloria, and now that she was eighteen, she could finally do something about it. Suddenly her mind went blank. Why would she want to do something about it? She was straight...straight! Not that she had any problem with gay people, God knew that Sebastian was one of them.

It was almost as if Gloria picked up on Murphy's uncertain feelings and gave her a smile. "Would you like to come over for dinner next Friday night?" she asked her.

Murphy blinked. "Won't Mr. James mind?" she asked.

Gloria laughed a little sadly. "I don't know if you heard, but Mr. James died two years ago," she said. "Come on, it'll be fun. I'll whip something up, we can put in a movie... What do you say? Do you have plans?"

Murphy regarded the woman in front of her. At twenty-six, she tried to wonder how Gloria had raised in the ranks so quickly. But, she didn't want to question her new found affection's job, so she nodded at her. "No, I don't have any plans," she said with a smile. "I'd love to have dinner," Murphy said, and grinned.

"Great," Gloria said, standing up and putting out her hand. "Is your email still murphyisgr8101@hotmail.com?" she asked.

Murphy let out a snort, and quickly blushed. "No, now it's murphaholic@ hotmail.com," she said.

"Okay," said Gloria, quickly scribbling it down onto a notepad. She then put out her hand again, and this time Murphy shook it. She noticed that Gloria held on for a bit longer than necessary, but she didn't mind. It was almost as if an electric shock had gone through her, and she didn't know what to expect at this point.

Their parents were not at all pleased with what Devon had done to the son of their client. As a result, they were replaced as a representative to him; however, when Devon explained about what really happened, and about how he'd defended Sebastian and Lucy, their parents were more sympathetic and approving.

They went to Felix and Victor's house for dinner, and took the younger kids and Ethan with them. Lightheaded from her meeting with Gloria, Murphy feigned a headache and went up to her room. Then she bolted to her window, and watched the mini-van pull out of the driveway and drive along the dark street. She let out a squeal of delight and, after making sure all the doors were locked and the curtains in her room were closed, she lay on her back on the bed.

She pulled out her laptop and checked her email, getting a message from gloriajames007@gmail.com. Huh, so it seemed that Gloria was a Bond fan, which made her even more interested. She clicked on the email, wondering what it could mean considering that it said "no subject", and waited for the page to load.

It said:

Dear Murphy,

It was so great to see you after five years! I'm very happy that you got into some good colleges, and I hope you end up happy with whichever one you end up choosing. I went to Dartmouth myself, and it was truly an eyeopening experience.

I'm so looking forward to our dinner date this Friday. Do you have any food allergies that I should be aware of? I don't want to poison you by mistake! I just want to make sure you're comfortable.

See you Friday!

Gloria

Murphy wrote a quick reply, all the while thinking of Gloria's beautiful, perfect face. She told her that it was great to see her, too, and that she was allergic to nuts. Then, she added at the end, that she would look forward to seeing her, and hoped that it wasn't too much. After sending it, she logged off from her email and sighed.

She shut her eyes and slipped her hand into her jeans, quickly discovering that her pussy was dripping wet. She nibbled her lip with delight, and began to caress her clit daintily. She began to moan every couple of seconds, all the while thinking about Gloria. Then, after about three minutes, she experienced an intense, full-body orgasm. She'd been imagining Gloria going down on her, her pretty eyes gazing up at her throughout.

Then she hopped off her bed and stripped down. She went out into the hall and put her clothes into the hamper before returning to her bedroom and going into her bathroom.

She went into the shower, and cranked up the heat. Within no time, her nipples puckered and became quite large. She massaged them every couple of minutes, and eventually allowed her hand to drift back down to her pussy. It didn't take long to bring on another orgasm while thinking of Gloria. As she turned off the shower and wrapped herself in her towel, she smiled to herself, and wondered just how long it would take for Friday to eventually come to pass.

The next night was Friday, one week before her dinner date with Gloria. She decided to pay a visit to Felix and Victor, who were more than happy to see her. She ended up watching a Will Ferrell movie, but soon Felix and Victor went out to dinner and took Joel and Theresa with them.

Nathan was upstairs, cramming for a college physics final. Grinning to herself, Murphy climbed the stairs and entered his room without knocking. Since they'd dated on and off for three years, it was a natural thing to do at this point, especially considering they'd known each other since he was in elementary school and she a baby.

"Hey," she said, lying down on her side on his bed. "Rough work?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.

He nodded. "Disgusting Dinkle," he said, talking about his physics teacher at NYU, which is where he went. "Dinkleworth...what kind of name is that, anyhow?" he demanded, throwing down his pencil in frustration. "I just don't get it. I fucking hate it!" he said loudly, taking off his shirt and lying back on Murphy's legs.

"Tell me all about it," she said, reaching out and caressing his forehead, as he closed his eyes in a wave of pleasure.

"Well, he's just inconsiderate, nosy, he doesn't bathe, doesn't explain certain problems on his exams, and totally disregards footnotes," he said, gritting his teeth. "The footnotes only matter if they're in a text book, but when we provide them on our notes, he marks us down because of it! It almost doesn't matter that we went the extra mile..."

Murphy nodded and let out a sigh. She really felt bad for Nathan. It was depressing to be a good looking guy, with a horrible science teacher, and in love with a girl who didn't love him back. Yes, she'd illegally lost her virginity to him (because he'd been twenty-one and she'd been sixteen) but worst things had happened, right?

Murphy knew that she had to do the right thing here, tell him that she thought she was falling for another woman, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, to say it. She bit her lip as Nathan's pure blue eyes looked up at her, almost as if he was pleading. She let out a groan and leaned down to kiss him, feeling awful.

It probably did more for him than it did for her. He began pulling at her clothes, but she pulled away from him. She climbed off the bed and got down on her knees, then unzipped his pants. She then proceeded to give him a slow and steady hand job, the kind he loved. It was more of a massage, really, so that when he came, it had the potential to be all over the place, and all over her.

She got out of the way just in time, thankful that he seemed out of breath and tired. She left the room and washed her hands, then looked at herself in the mirror. She didn't look like Murphy, and wondered why that was. Then she realized that it was because she was a lesbian, and she had to stop at nothing to be with Gloria, if only for one night.

One week later, while Murphy's mom's went on a double date with Felix and Victor, and Nathan came over to help Sebastian with Devon and Lucy, Murphy made an excuse about going over to her friend Clara Matthews' house and got into her car.

She had a clear picture of Gloria in her mind, and proceeded to masturbate the whole way to her house. She then took a moist towelette from her glove compartment and quickly wiped her hands, before grabbing the bouquet of yellow tulips she'd brought for Gloria.

Gloria lived on Maple Drive, a nice neighborhood that was the same upscale type as Murphy's, which was Argyle Road. She parked in the driveway next to Gloria's dark blue Mercedes, as she'd instructed. As she got out of the car, she smiled as she thought her lime green Fiat looked very good next to Gloria's car.

She walked down the curved path and climbed the two perfect steps to the half oval shaped door. She knocked three times, and heard high-heeled footsteps on the inside just a moment later. And then Gloria was there in the doorway, smiling and looking happy to see her.

"Come on in," she said, stepping out of the way as she'd done at Devon's school last week.

"Thanks, Gloria," Murphy said, stepping in. "Oh, I got you these," she said, grinning at her.

Gloria's eyes lit up as she closed the door behind Murphy. "Oh, tulips!" she cried, taking them from her. She inhaled, her perfect nose sucking in just the right amount. "Oh, they're gorgeous. Follow me into the kitchen," she said with a wave of her hand. "I'll put these in some water and finish dinner," she said over her shoulder.

Murphy took in the expensive furnishings and admired the various paintings on all the walls. Gloria took her through the foyer, down a hall, through the living room, dining room, and into the kitchen. "Your house is lovely," she said, taking a seat at the bar that Gloria directed.

"Thank you," she said, taking out a blue crystal vase. "My husband Andrew left it to me in the will." She got a little sad look in her eyes as she filled the vase with water.

"Are you all right?" Murphy said, standing up and crossing the room to her, and putting a hand on her shoulder. "You look sad," she went on as Gloria turned off the water and cut the plastic which held the flowers.

"Oh, no, I'm all right," Gloria said, cutting the ends off the tulips and putting them in the vase. "Here...go in that bottom drawer there and pick a tablecloth," she instructed. "You can put it on the dining room table and put these in the middle."

Not knowing what else to do, Murphy did as she was told. She went through the motions of straightening out the green tablecloth, and positioning the vase just right in the center. When she'd finished with that, Gloria told her to pick napkins, plates, glasses, candles, and the candlesticks. When the table was completed fifteen minutes later, so was the meal.

Gloria told Murphy to sit at the foot of the table while she brought out every dish she'd made that evening. There was tomato soup, a roast chicken, scalloped potatoes, green beans, carrots, a berry plate (including raspberries, blackberries, grapes, blueberries, cherries, and strawberries), and a hot chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream and sweet raspberry sauce for dessert.

Murphy was very impressed that Gloria went all out to prepare this meal for them, and it wasn't even Thanksgiving. She praised the meal and began to eat rather quickly, much to Gloria's delight. There was a twenty minute lull or so into the meal, after everything had been consumed with the exception of the cake.

"Can I ask...why were you sad a little bit ago?" Murphy asked, looking up at Gloria from under her eyelashes.

She sighed and set down her fork. "Well, it's not easy to say," she said quietly, shaking her head.

Murphy reached across the table and took her hand, the electric current which began last week quickly resuming. Fighting it a bit, she said, "It's all right. You can tell me."