The Book of Firsts

Thirteen

Friday was the last school day before the mid-term break. I was hoping for Kyou, but found Bran sitting on one edge of the picnic table. I straddled the top of the wall for a moment, contemplating him. If it had been Kyou, I would have asked why Rin was in such a filthy mood, and then we would have enjoyed each other a lot, and I would have slept well tonight. Reminding myself that, if nothing else, Bran was an exquisite kisser, I dropped down into the garden and walked over to him.

He looked at me expressionlessly, then took out one of his wireless earbuds and offered it to me.

I tilted my head, put the earbud in, and listened to the strains of The Blue Danube.

"Now, if I see you wearing headphones, this is what I’m going to picture you listening to," I said.

"You wouldn’t necessarily be wrong," he said, his harsh voice flat. He stood up and held out a hand to me. "Basic waltz is simple enough. Once you’ve learned the steps it’s more a matter of practice so that you can talk to your partner and avoid colliding with things."

Lessons at Corascur. Today, dance steps. Yesterday, a guide to oral sex. I worked to hide my amusement, taking Bran’s hand and putting my other on his shoulder. He talked briefly about hand position, and then had me listen for the beat in the music.

"We step with each beat. First beat, right foot back, next beat, left foot back and left. Shift weight to your left foot without moving your right. Slide your right foot to your left."

Once I discovered Bran and Meggan had been dance partners, I’d had some doubts about waltzing with him, but he sounded mainly bored, not upset, so I decided there would be little drama and concentrated on the dancing. I didn’t master the motions immediately, and had to count to keep the beat, but I at least didn’t step on him.

"A couple of sessions should be enough to at least get you looking somewhere other than your feet," Bran said, at a point where I’d grown thoroughly sick of The Blue Danube. He let go of my hand and turned off the music.

"I’ll thank you for your patience in advance, then," I said, handing him back the earbud. "I usually pick up sports reasonably quickly, but keeping to the beat seems to be tripping me up somehow."

"You can download waltzes where the 123 123 is dubbed over the top of the track, which can help in the early stages. Shadow dance to it until the basic motion is automatic."

This said, he reached out one hand to partially frame my face, lifted my chin a little, and kissed me.

It can’t be overstated enough that Bran really is an impossibly good kisser. I got very caught up very quickly, and found myself breathless and flushed and wanting more. And realised he had hold of both of my hands, keeping them firmly down by our sides whenever I made a motion to move them.

He didn’t want me to touch him?

I didn’t know how to react to that, letting him kiss me without making any effort to respond, for the first time really regretting agreeing to this game. If he didn’t want to be here, I didn’t want to do this anymore. But before I could decide whether to declare that twenty minutes were up after no more than five minutes, he let go of my hands and put his hands on my shoulders, a downward pressure that I realised meant he wanted us to sit down.

The move caught me off-guard, and I knelt before I thought it through, then drew my breath to end things, only to be pushed onto my back so abruptly I let out a little squeak.

He stopped moving, frowning eyes checking my expression. His own was very intent, and his porcelain pale skin had been consumed by a hectic flush which made me re-evaluate his level of involvement. When I only blinked at him in confusion, he turned his attention to my body, and began undoing my shirt, placing a great deal of concentration on carefully undoing each button, all the way to the waistband of my shirt. He pulled it completely open, then almost tentatively shifted my bra upward, and then just sat regarding me.

"Smallish was an overstatement," he said. "Invisible when lying down."

"Don’t like them, don’t eat them."

The smile this produced was positively wolfish, and he bent his head immediately and bit me. Not lightly, either. I responded by pulling his ear, only to have my hands captured again, and pressed down so that Bran could spend what I swear was considerably more than twenty minutes appreciating my chest, thankfully with no more biting. He then lay on top of me and kissed me for a good ten minutes more.

I couldn’t be more surprised at this shift from moody and reluctant to ravenous and enthused, but it did make me a lot more comfortable going ahead. He was very aroused, and so was I, and I think he came very close to skipping a few challenges. But instead, he hauled himself off me as abruptly as he’d pushed me down, and turned away.

"Back in your tree, Cheshire. We’ll play again some other day."

I reassembled my clothes, picked up my backpack, and left without a word, but had to find the nearest restroom to splash my face a lot and change to my spare underwear. It was impossible to deny that Bran’s behaviour had aroused me far more than it had annoyed me.

Only when I’d completely regained my composure did I head on to the Art Club, which was quieter than the last time I visited since there were no major Club projects on.

"Hello stranger!" Lania said, smiling at me as I came in. "I was beginning to wonder if you’d ditched the Club."

"Just caught up in things."

"I’ve been meaning to ask what changed your mind about the school trip."

Shrugging, I put my backpack down on the chair beside hers and considered the delicate watercolour she was close to completing. "I ended up in an impromptu counselling session and have been told to calm down or burn out. I don’t fully agree, but I thought of a constructive compromise that I’ll enjoy. Do you know what are the limits to how much we can use out of the storeroom?"

"As long as you’re not hauling supplies home, or simply wasting them, there’s not a lot of restrictions. And you can order in stock within reason, if you explain the project. Here, I’ll show you how."

She took me out of the room to a small office and showed me the ordering facility.

"The teachers and the Club President can approve purchases. Carr will be around later, so fill in anything you want. I don’t expect there’ll be any problems."

I thanked her and went to the storeroom to review what was on hand. They didn’t have the array of fine cutting tools I preferred, but I had that at home and could bring them in as necessary, and the rest was just a matter of increasing what supplies were already on hand. I filled in the order form and submitted it for approval, and then went to the workroom attached to the storeroom to build a base.

By the time Carr arrived I had finished attaching four bevelled strips of wood to the edges of a suitably-sized piece of composite board, and was looking around for a good storage spot for the overlarge rectangle.

"But what are you planning to make?" Carr asked, giving the base a curious glance.

"Just an architectural model. It’s good practice for me, can be used for my portfolio, and I love doing them, so it works out in all ways. But I’ll go through a lot of foamboard and card stock. I also need somewhere flat to keep it, since it can’t be stored vertically like the canvases. It’ll take several months, so I can’t just use up a table."

"The top of the coat cupboard’s probably the best, then," Carr said. "How heavy will it get?"

"Probably twice this," I said, raising one corner of the base.

He tested the weight, then nodded. "Use the stepladder from the storeroom, but don’t put it up and down without help."

I fetched the stepladder, and cleaned the top of the coat cupboard first. The school’s cleaners weren’t slack, but I always liked to keep my models dust-free. Carr helped me lift the base up, and decided the amount it jutted over the cupboard edge didn’t constitute a safety hazard. Then he reviewed the stock order and approved it.

"We’ve plans to keep you busy later in the year with the festival and then the dance, so now’s a good opportunity to do a meaty personal project. The school likes it if we have display items for the festival as well."

"What’s the festival like?" I asked as we returned to the main room.

"Hectic for us," Carr said.

"Competitive," Lania added, looking up. "There’s a vote for best display or performance by each Home Room, and a photo competition, which I’m in charge of organising this year, worse luck. There are special awards and privileges that everyone wants to win. Plus, because it’s wretchedly cold at that time of year, everyone squabbles over the best indoor locations, wanting more space than just their Home Room. And then parents get involved, and there’s always some sort of drama, and why did I join the student council? I must have been mad."

"The price you pay for wanting to know everything that’s going on," Carr said, with an indulgent smile.

Lania laughed, but blushed. "I’m a gossip, I admit it. Mika, does your new-found determination not to burn out mean that you’ll come with us to the Tokley Centre? It’s Dance Dance Revolution night."

I hesitated. "Would it be bad for me to come along and then ditch you? I need to go shopping for a swimsuit and other necessities for the trip, now that I’ve been talked into going."

"I need to update my swimsuit too! We can go early and shop before the meet-up time, and Carr can tell us which ones look best on us."

Carr, possibly in response to a faint shift in my expression, said: "I’ve preparations of my own to do, so you’ll need to give each other your opinions."

"Let’s do it!"

Lania looked effervescently happy, which made me laugh. I don’t think going to pick out swimsuits with me was really a big deal for her, but I appreciated her efforts to make me feel welcome.

My problem, of course, was the line of hickeys down my spine, which had not quite faded. Given hickeys were Bran’s next challenge, and I could not guarantee that Kyou would not continue to mark me, I made my selection from the sun-wise swimsuits, picking an electric blue and black two-piece with a boy-style bottom half, and a top that covered my stomach, back, and shoulders. With the addition of a towel, a black and white striped piece of sheer cloth that could work as sarong or wrap, and a pair of flip-flops, I had my beachwear.

"Your legs, Mika…" Lania sighed, and glanced down at her own red and white ensemble. She was a short girl, attractively shaped, but definitely at a disadvantage for leg comparisons.

"Your chest," I replied, because Bran had been perfectly honest about mine.

Lania adjusted her bikini bodice complacently, then bounced up and down a few times.

"Have to make sure I won’t pop out," she explained.

"Now you’re just boasting," I said. "All that’s left to find is some kind of small bag I can wear, for hotel keys and my phone."

"Oh, good plan."

We met up with Carr soon after, and I allowed myself to be persuaded down to the game centre. It wasn’t until I returned home after an inexpert evening of dancing that I remembered that I hadn’t scored the now-completed third challenge.

I placed Bran last. Whatever else, for a moment he’d made me not want to be there, and that had to be an immediate fail. Rin and Kyou were a lot more difficult to separate. Kyou, as usual, had been teasing and challenging. Rin—and his cupcakes—had been deceptively sweet. I was conscious of Rin not having been placed first in the earlier two challenges, but even so, I decided I had to give first to Kyou. I’d sit on him any day.

Next week was a break, and I had already decided I’d spend it studying to make up for the time I’d slacked, and to give myself permission for Friday to truly be a break day.