by Amy DeMeritt
“After I got off the phone with her, Awenasa said…”
“Wait, you all had a video chat with Awenasa without me?” I take a deep breath and look over at her as I wait for a light to change. “No, it wasn’t like that. I was talking to her before they got home. Shannon came in and then Madison came in five minutes later. We stayed on and talked to her a little bit, but it wasn’t planned as a group call.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Well, she commented that I have a skill with diplomacy and would be good on tribal council, then Shannon said I’d probably make a good counselor. We talked about that a little bit, and then we talked about animal totems.”
“What are those?”
I smile and explain to her the conversation and what mine and Awenasa’s totems are.
“How did you go from talking about being a counselor to talking about animal totems and spirit guides?” I blush and look in the rearview mirror at Madison and Shannon.
Madison smiles at me in the mirror and says, “Awenasa called Kayla by her pet name she has for her and she had to explain where it came from.” Sam jerks her head around to look at her. “What is it?” Madison laughs a little. “Puppy.” Sam looks at me with a grin and ruffles my hair. “That’s cute, baby. How long has she called you that?”
“Since before I gave her the promise ring when we were ten.”
“Wow, that’s a long time. Shannon, why do you think Kayla should change majors? Just because of how she handled Madison’s parents?”
“Well, that’s a big part of it, but I just think she’d be good it. How she handled Shane’s girlfriend was amazing too.”
“Shane? You’re talking to her again? When the fuck did this happen and what happened with her girlfriend?”
Shit, I forgot to tell Sam about that. I was so disturbed by what I had done that I had to take a shower right away and then just laid with Shannon and Madison all night. I had nightmares for several nights afterwards. I woke up in a panic and Shannon and Madison had to hold me and help me get back to sleep. Each night was a weird meshed blend of my nightmares I had after Darren beat me up and then dreams of me whipping the shit out of people and making them do horrible and humiliating things. It was terrifying. That first night was the worst. I woke up in a cold sweat and had to rush to the bathroom to throw up because my stomach was so sick from what I had dreamt.
“Why aren’t you answering me?” I swallow hard and look over at her. She looks pissed, but her look softens as she looks in my eyes. “Kayla, what happened?” I shake my head. “I had to do something that is completely against who I am and it tore me up. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It happened a couple weeks ago.”
I quickly tell her about that entire day and what I went through internally afterwards. By the time I finish, I’m pulling into my parents’ driveway. After I turn the engine off, I lean my head back and close my eyes, trying to clear my mind and get my head right again before I go in to see my family.
It’s been really hard to get over, but so far, Shane and Vic are doing really good after having done it, so I guess it was worth it. Shane’s back has completely healed and she’s back to dressing how she likes to dress. We’ve hung out a couple times, even once with all three of us together. Vic does seem like a good fit for Shane, as long as she can control her desires to inflict pain.
Sam gently places a hand on my cheek and turns my face to look at her. Her eyes are glossy and she looks pained.
“Baby, I’m so sorry. You are always throwing yourself on a sacrificial alter for people in one way or another. I just don’t know how you find the strength to keep allowing yourself to be beaten and torn inside and outside like that.” I give her a small smile and kiss her lips. “I have my beautiful and loving babies that tend to my wounds, so it makes it very easy to do.” She smiles and pulls me into a slow soft kiss. As she pulls back, she runs her fingers through my hair. “I love you.”
“I love you too, baby. I’m sorry you missed a chat with Awenasa. I really didn’t plan it like that.”
She smiles and pulls me back into a kiss. There’s so much heat and passion in her kiss that I release a small moan and I feel myself being pulled into her. I grab her hip and grip her firmly, tugging her closer. Without losing pace with my mouth, she straddles my lap. While she continues to kiss me, I feel the back of the seat slowly moving backwards into a reclining position.
I run my hands up her thighs and firmly grip her small round ass, pulling her down hard against me. She releases a deep moan and quickly grabs to unclasp my jacket. Just as she’s pulling my jacket apart and palming up my stomach and over my breasts, there’s a tapping on the window. We quickly pull apart and see Sara grinning in at us. Sam groans and leans her head on my shoulder.
“Sorry, baby. I’ll make it up to you later.” Sam lifts her head and smiles. “I know you will.”
We climb out of the car and Sara roughly wraps an arm around my shoulders and messes up my hair.
“You might have actually been able to sneak in a trip to happy town if you had gone to your bedroom and said you needed to unpack. We have work to do, so hurry up with the hellos and change into something you can dance in.”
“Yeah, yeah, boss.”
She laughs and releases me to scoop up Madison in her arms. Madison laughs and returns her hug and then Sara scoops up Shannon. As she sets Shannon down, Sara looks at Sam and waves a flippant hand at her.
“I’ve already seen you.”
Sam laughs and smacks at her shoulder, but Sara dodges it and quickly bends down to grab a handful of snow to toss at her. Sam gasps as the cold snow peppers her face and she leaps at Sara, tackling her to the ground. I watch them wrestle for a minute and laugh.
“I thought we had work to do?” Sara looks up at me and laughs. “Your woman just attacked me for no reason.”
Sam scoffs and grabs a handful of snow and tosses it in Sara’s face. Sara laughs and squirms to pin Sam down, but she can’t get Sam to move.
“How is your tiny ass so strong?” Sam laughs in a proud way and looks over at me, making me smile really big. I walk over and hold my hand out to her. “Come on, baby.”
She smiles and hops up off of Sara and Sam wraps an arm around my waist. I help Sara up and we go inside.
Per Sara’s request and sideline reminders as I work through the house, we make quick hellos to my family and then go to my bedroom so I can change. The house is really warm, so I opt for a pair of knee length thin sweatpants and a loose tank top. I put my hair up into a ponytail and then we go down to the basement.
As soon as Keira sees me, she beams and pushes passed Sara to hug me. I smile and we wrap our arms around each other in a tight embrace.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“Pretty good. The rib bothers me sometimes, but it’s mostly healed up.”
She smiles and gives a quick wave to my girls and then takes my hand and pulls me over to a group of girls I’ve never met before.
“Ok, so introductions.” She points to a girl with a deep chocolate complexion and short pixie hair with one side shaved and the top kind of spiked up. She has a pretty face with a rough edge. “This a Tonya; she’s been dancing her whole life like Sara, but hip-hop and the robot are her specialties.” She points to a really pretty Asian girl. “This is Jade. She’s a bit of freak show.” Jade smiles and Keira explains, “She combines some really wild double jointed body tricks with her dancing. Its wild stuff. And this is Symone. She’s pretty much like you and Sara; she can do it all.”
Symone is a gorgeous light skinned black girl, almost like chocolate milk, with bright sage green eyes that remind me of Sam’s eyes. She smiles and looks me up and down in a way that makes me blush.
“Hello, baby sister.” I blush a little deeper and she smiles really big. “So, you’re the puppet master?” I rub the back of my neck and shrug a shoulder. “I guess.” She smiles and steps over, taking my hand from Keira. “Give us some music, Sara.”
/>
A moment later, a good medium tempo song is on and Symone has us in the center of the dance floor facing me with only a couple inches between us.
“Play with me.” I laugh a little and shake my head. “I thought we were working here?” She steps closer with her body firmly pressed to mine. “Move me, if you can.”
I smile and immediately grab her hips and start guiding her. She’s good, but I can feel her fighting me.
“You’re purposefully not feeling my instructions in sync with me.” She smiles and nods. “Make me want to follow you.”
I scrunch my brow in confusion, but then remember my dances with Sam when she purposefully fights me and I have to be more forceful. I spin her around and she plants her ass hard in my center. I use more force and deliberate movements and she starts to follow me perfectly. When the song ends, she turns to look at me with a smile.
“That was good, but you’re holding back, a lot. I know you’re capable of way more than what you just gave me. While we’re doing this, you can’t hold back. You have to give us everything you have. That’s the only way we’re winning this thing. We want your puppet technique to be a big part of the dance, so you need to kick it up. Can you give me everything?”
I nervously look around, and they’re all looking at me expectantly. Sara has an almost begging look on her face. I nod once and rub the back of my neck.
“Ok, I won’t hold back.” Symone smiles and playfully pats my cheek. “Good, let’s get to work.”
Sara moves out to the front and we form a line, just behind her, facing the mirrors. Without saying anything, she turns the music on and we start to mirror her in a very fast hip-hop dance. As she’s dancing, she slowly starts to work her way closer to me. Suddenly, she turns to face me and I have to immediately change the side of everything she’s doing so it looks like I’m still mirroring her image. She smiles and kicks it up even more.
After I mirror her perfectly for a full song, she throws her arms out, pushing me off balance and we start to dance battle. The longer we dance, the more my confidence grows and the more relaxed I become. As she’s lunging at me, I slide on my knees and stand up next to Keira. I take her hand and spin her around with me to face Sara. Keira starts to mirror me in our battle with Sara. Sara smiles really big and lunges for me again. I flip backwards, landing next to Symone and pull her in to face off with Sara.
With them dancing with me on either side, Sara continues her dancing taunts. She throws her hands out at Keira and Symone, and tugs them forward with invisible ropes, as if she literally just lassoed them and is taking them from me. I quickly place a hand on their backs and they freeze. I push them to their knees, and they rest. Sara and I dance battle fast and hard. It’s very acrobatic and I’m starting to get out of breath. Sara glances over at Tonya, as if she’s about to pull her to her side. I smile and do a back handstand and immediately flip back up on my feet next to Tonya. I move around her and mimic securing hooks and rope to her and slide up behind her.
Tonya follows my lead better than Symone had and I puppet her over to the center of Keira and Symone. I lift my hands above them, and they rise up. They follow my reflection in the mirror and dance battle with Sara in front of me. I slowly push them forward, backing Sara into the mirrors. Once her back is to the mirror, she concedes defeat and puts her arms up in surrender.
All of them turn to look at me and are smiling really big and slightly panting. I bend over laughing a little as I try to catch my breath. With my hands on my knees, I look up and they walk over closer. Symone grabs my chin and lifts me to stand up. She playfully pats my cheek while she looks in my eyes, making me blush again.
“Sara was right, you’re fucking amazing. I can’t believe you were able to do that, but it’s even more impressive because that was the plan and we never shared it with you. Sara said you’d be able to sense her intensions if she battled with you.”
“Seriously? That’s what you want to do for the video?”
“We’ll need to work out actual choreography, but yeah, that’s the general idea.” I smile and look at Sara, who’s cheesing really big. “I told you that you’re a fucking dancer, baby sister.”
“You need to turn it up though. That was awesome, but it needs to be sexier. We’re trying to appeal to judges looking for dancers for a music video. It needs to show exactly what we just did, but it also needs to show we’re not afraid to get a little raunchy with it.”
“Raunchy? What the fuck?” I look at Sara and she laughs a little, shaking her head. “Don’t listen to Symone. We’re not making a fucking sex tape or anything, but you know damn well how to make it sexier. We’ve all seen your dances with Sam and I’ve seen you at parties and dances, so don’t act like you don’t know what we’re talking about.” I nervously rub my neck and take a deep breath. Keira smiles and takes my hand. “Dance with me. Sara, give us a slow song.”
Keira walks me several feet away from them and places my left hand on her hip while I hold her other hand out to the side. She steps in so close that we’re almost touching.
“Dance with me like you’re making love to me.” My jaw falls open. “Excuse me?” She laughs and looks over at Sara. “Your sister is adorable. Kayla, it’s just a dance. Loosen up.” I take a deep breath and nod. “Ok, fine.”
She smiles and Sara starts playing a song. I start the dance off innocent, with just dancing her around with a basic waltz, then grip her hip, encouraging her body closer to mine. She presses against me and I slowly wrap her other hand to my shoulder, before I glide my hand down her side to her hip. With both hands on her hips, I pull her in firmly against me and our hips move in a deeper sway from side to side with each other. I glide my hands up her sides, up her arms, and lift her arms above her head.
I spin her a few times and then wrap hers and my arms down around the front of her, pulling her back against my front. We dance slowly with her in my arms for a moment, before I slowly lift her arms up to wrap behind my head. I bend into her neck as I glide my hands back down her sides. I give just the tiniest bit of pressure to the back of her ribs to encourage her to arch some. She tilts her head back and slightly pops her chest out, as if she is rising against my touch.
As my hands glide over her hips, she digs her ass into me and twists her thick round ass against me slowly, but deeply. Keira has long hair like me, so I take inspiration from my first puppet dance with Candi and wrap my hand in her ponytail. I gently press a hand to the center of her back and guide her in a half circle bent over with me holding her ponytail. I gently tug her hair, and she rolls her body back up to press against me. I spin her, and as our bodies firmly press together, I tug her hair back and bend into her neck, as if I’m going to kiss or bite her.
I release her hair and trail my hands down her sides and down the sides of her ass, to grip her thighs, encouraging her to hop up and wrap her legs around me. I hold her in my arm, two stepping in a slow circle, before she gracefully steps down. Our bodies rock and slide against her other, then I spin her to plant her ass in my groin again, as I wrap my arms around her. Before I can execute my next move to spin her out away from me, we’re being roughly shoved apart. I stumble backwards and Sam immediately steps over and grabs my shirt.
“What the fuck was that?”
“It was just a dance. Jesus, Sam, she’s my sister’s girlfriend.” Sam glares at me, and without warning, she shoves her hand down my pants. She blushes and her face relaxes as she realizes I’m dry and that dance didn’t turn me on at all. She pulls her hand out and leans into me. I wrap my arms around her and she whispers, “I’m sorry.”
I kiss her head and she looks up at me and smiles. As she releases me and turns, her eyes narrow at Keira. Keira laughs and holds her hands up.
“You are not shoving your hand down my pants. Look, this is what we do. If you can’t handle watching us dance with Kayla, maybe you shouldn’t stay to watch our practices. This is only the beginning and we can’t keep stopping because you get jealous o
r whatever.”
Sam glares at her, but Keira doesn’t seem phased at all. Sam looks at me and wraps her arms around my neck.
“Do you want me to leave?” I smile and shake my head. “No, I like having you in the audience, but Keira’s right. If it makes you uncomfortable, maybe you shouldn’t stay. I don’t want you to be upset.” She lifts up on her toes a little so she can reach my ear and whispers, “I’ll stay, but Symone better watch it. She’s been looking at you like you’re a dessert since we came down here.” I laugh a little and she bites my earlobe. “I’m serious.”
She pulls back to look in my eyes again and I bend down to kiss her for a moment. I smack her ass and nod in the direction of where Madison and Shannon are sitting against the sidelines.
“Get back over there, brat.”
She smiles and pecks my lips before she walks back over to sit with our girls. As I turn back to the dance group, they’re all watching me with amused smiles, but I do detect something else in the look Symone is giving me. Sara just shakes her head in amusement and then runs her fingers through her hair.
“Ok, so anyway. What do you guys think of that dance? Anything you want to use from it?” Symone steps over to stand in front of me. “Yeah, a lot of it. So, when Kayla is battling you and she comes over to puppet us, she should have to seduce us into following her. Kayla, let me play with you a moment.”
“No.” She quirks an eyebrow and I hear a small laugh from the sidelines, which probably came from Sam. “What do you mean, no?”
“No one puppets me, but my babies.” She grins and looks over at my girls for a moment and then at Sara. “Seriously? How are we supposed to work out choreography if you’re still going to hold back?”
