Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 05:53:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Fup Duck <fupduckmd@yahoo.com>
Subject: Under Pressure 16

DISCLAIMER: Let's see: 1.  If it's illegal - don't.  2.  If you can't
accept it - don't.  3.  If you're underage - don't.  That about covers it.

Well, you're still here...do NOT try the salt peter and sugar thing.  It
can be dangerous.  I don't remember exactly the mix, or even if it was
sugar that you added.  It's what I remember, though.  I don't even know if
salt peter is still publically available.  I remember trying to find it a
few years after doing the volcano thing, but couldn't find it.  Then I was
told you needed parental permission to buy it.  So with that disclaimer....

Here is Chapter 16....

Fup

******************************************************************************
FROM CHAPTER 15

"Night, Dave," drifting off to sleep David thought he heard Kelly mumble
something else, the words muffled by his chest.

"What?"

"Nothing," came the almost intelligible reply.  Both boys then drifted off
into sleep.


UNDER PRESSURE 16 - The Good Son

The next morning, David actually woke before Kelly.  He smiled as he looked
at the back of his sleeping friend.  Sometime in the night, Kelly had moved
away and was now only a few inches from the wall, face down with his face
turned away.  He eased out of bed, and went down the hall for his usual
morning routine.  Finding Kelly still asleep when he returned, he pulled on
a pair of jeans and sat on the edge of the bed with his back propped
against the headboard.  He wished that he felt comfortable enough at home
when Kelly came over to do the kind of stuff they did last night.  But, it
just wasn't possible.  He and Kelly had joked about how David's parents
would react if they found the boys in the same bed.  Granted, with his new
attitude, David's parents seemed to be allowing more freedom, but knowing
his luck, they'd get caught.  They had their moments at David's house, but
nothing like what happened in Kelly's bed.  Some quick gropes and a kiss or
two was about the maximum they had ever attempted.  And Lynn was still hung
up on Kelly too. David half-grinned about what SHE would think if she
caught her brother and 'future husband' doing the things they did.

Life at home WAS better.  His attention to schoolwork and the path to Eagle
had eased his parents' attention on him.  They had even complimented him on
his work and new attitude. If they only knew.  He still slipped once in a
while, and took the heat for it, but those incidents were getting more and
more rare.  "You're growing up," his father had said proudly, clapping his
hand on David's shoulder.  Of course, as his parent's attention eased off
him, they began putting it on Lynn, who loved it.  David observed all this
with an inner smile.  Good.  Being under a magnifying glass wasn't his idea
of a good time anyway.  He was becoming 'predictable' - at least on the
outside.

"Speaking of predictable," he thought, looking back at the sleeping form of
his friend, and grinning.

Laying back down alongside Kelly, he propped his head on one hand and began
to bore his eyes into the back of Kelly's head.  After a few minutes of no
response, impatience took over.  He started sliding a fingernail lightly up
and down Kelly's spine.  As his actions started to raise goosebumps on
Kelly's back, his waking friend moaned, "Stop it, I'm trying to sleep."

Snickering, David replied, "Just getting even."

Sighing, Kelly turned his head to face his grinning friend.  "Why do you
have to be a pain?"

"It's my job, and gooooooood morrrrrninnnnnng, sunshine."

"You're not going to leave me alone, are you?"

"Nope, time to rise and shine, mom's coming early today, some sort of big
announcement or something," David answered, still grinning.  His fingertip
was soon exchanged for a palm as he stroked Kelly's back.

"Mmmmm," sighed Kelly, snuggling back into the pillow and closing his eyes,
"that feels good."

David's palm slowly pushed the blankets further down until Kelly's entire
back was exposed.  Then he used his other hand to poke Kelly's ribs, which
got an immediate response.

"Ahhh," exclaimed Kelly, trying to pull away from the probing finger, but
only managing to slide away the few remaining inches to the wall.
"STOP...IT!"  His closest arm swung out, punctuating each word with a smack
to David's leg.

"Goooooood morrrning, sunshine," David laughed, sliding off the bed and
standing next to it, ready for retaliation.

Kelly glared at his laughing friend, "I should make you suffer, but it's
not worth the effort."

"Yeah, yeah, you're just mad 'cos I woke you up instead of the other way
around.  Anyway, like I said, mom will be here soon."

"Ok, ok, ok," moaned Kelly, getting out of bed and heading down the
hallway.

While he was gone, David packed his clothes and other items that had made
their way out of his bag, pulling on his sweatshirt and sneakers.  A
bleary-eyed Kelly came back into the room as he was reaching down to get
his bag, and gently nudged him.

"Don't I deserve a reward for putting up with you this morning?"

"Depends," answered David, now standing and looking at Kelly's sleepy eyes.

"On what?"

"Whether or not you're gonna hit me any more," grinned David.

Not really in the mood for David's unusual morning cheerfulness, Kelly
leaned forward and pecked David's cheek with his lips, then pulled back
smiling, "Good morning sunshine."

"You just want me for my body," laughed David.

Kelly's smile faded, "Is that what you think?"

Realizing his friend didn't take the comment as expected, he answered, "Of
course not."

"'Cos it's more than that," responded Kelly with an expression David was
starting to see more and more on his face.

"I know Kel, I was just kidding," David replied seriously, giving Kelly a
quick hug.

"I mean, well...ummm....it's just more than that."

The moment was interrupted by a knock and Mike's voice, "Dave, your mom's
here."

Startled, both boys jumped a little, and a grin came over Kelly's face,
"The warden's waiting."

Giggling, David play-punched his friend, and turned to leave.  As his hand
reached the knob, he turned back and gave a heartfelt smile to his still
half-naked friend.  "I had a blast."

"Yeah ya did," with a smile, "me too."

Snickering at the double meaning, David opened the door and went downstair
to meet his mom, who was in the car idling in the driveway.  Looking up to
Kelly's window, he gave a smile and wave at the blurry image behind the
glass and slipped into the passenger seat.

"Have a good time?" asked his mother, in a better mood than he had seen her
in a while.

"Yeah, as usual.  You should see our volcano!"

On the drive home, David regaled his mother about their project, hardly
pausing for breath. When he was done, his mom looked over and smiled, "Just
hope you don't blow up the school.  Are you sure making it work is safe?"

"Yeah, it's only little, and anyway it doesn't take much of that stuff to
make it look cool."

"Ok, I'm just a little worried that you'll burn something up playing with
that stuff."

"Mooom," David whined, "we haven't yet."

"Ok, as long as Mr. and Mrs. Sites aren't worried, I guess I shouldn't be,
huh?"

Somewhat surprised at the response, David answered, "No mom, it's cool,
ok?"

"Alright, David, I won't worry...much," said his mom with a small grin.

Arriving home, David retrieved his bag from the back seat and went inside.
Going to his room, he began unpacking, throwing the dirty clothes in the
hamper and putting the bag back on the top shelf of his closet, like a good
boy.  Then, glancing around his room, he saw the Barbie doll on his bureau.
He picked it up and threw it on his sister's bed without a word, startling
his sister who was busily writing in her 'diary'.  Giving a half-smile, he
said, "You left that in my room."  Then he turned away, and went to the
kitchen, grabbing a Pop-Tart and a glass of milk.  His parents came out and
stood in the kitchen, across the bar top from where he was and said, "We
have something to tell you."

Raising his eyebrows, he looked at his parents, busily chewing his
breakfast - good sons didn't talk with their mouths full.

"We're moving."

Startled at the announcement, David choked on the Pop-Tart and quickly took
a swig of milk, clearing his mouth to ask, "What?  When?  Where?"

His parents smiled, "Now don't get your bowels in an uproar (one of his
dad's favorite sayings - the mental visual of what bowels in an uproar
would look like always made him smile), I said we're moving, probably this
summer around August, and it's out on Eyler's Road."

His initial panic settled somewhat by the revelation that they weren't
moving 'away,' David started asking questions, his half-eaten Pop-Tart
forgotten.

Answering his questions, his parents were more than happy to see that their
worries over David's reaction were unfounded.  "Well," his dad was saying,
"we're finally able to afford a bigger house, with a bigger yard, and out
in the country a little more.  The house should be finished by early August
and we'll be able to move before school starts again."

"Cool!" David exclaimed.

"Now don't get too excited," laughed his mother, "there's going to be a lot
of work to do, and we're relying on you to help out a lot, since you're the
oldest."

"When can we go see it?"

David's father laughed, "David, they haven't even started digging yet.
Can't see something that's not built."

"Oh yeah, guess you're right," David giggled.  Then switching gears, "Ummm,
Lynn was in my room this weekend."

Sighing, his mom said, "We've told her to stay out of there while you're
gone, David, but we can't watch her every minute."

Biting back his once-typical response, he answered calmly, "Ok, I just
thought I'd tell you. I really don't like her being in there, I don't go
into hers."

"We know, David, we'll tell her that she needs to have permission from you
to go into your room."

"Ok, thanks."  David was proud of himself.  His calm and cool demeanor had
kept him out of trouble, AND he had made his point.  Finishing his
breakfast, he smiled at his parents and went outside to ride around his
soon-to-be-ex-neighborhood.

That Monday, he and Kelly handed in their project.  Mr. Severance was
impressed with the amount of work the boys had put into it and after some
pleading, he agreed to let them demonstrate it the next day, after he got
the principal's approval.  That evening, David and Kelly got together to
prepare for the next day.  For some unknown reason - at least to them - it
had taken A LOT more salt peter and sugar mixture to fill it up.  They had
to go out and buy more.  Since Kelly's parents weren't able to take them to
the store, they rode their bikes.  They decided they'd better buy extra, in
case they ran out again.  Arriving back home, they mixed it up and kept
pouring it in.  Finally, using almost all the extra they had bought, it was
full.  The boys, excited about the next day, hardly got any sleep.  Tuesday
during science, the class went out to the playground, and Kelly lit the
fuse.  The result was impressive, to say the least.  Forgetting that their
previous experiment had used a cardboard tube to limit the amount of salt
peter and sugar, this time the mixture had filled in most of the hollow
space under the shell.  Almost as soon as the fuse had ignited the volcano,
the resulting 'blast' lifted the paper mache volcano off the plywood almost
six inches, flames and smoke shooting out from underneath as well as out
the normal 'crater'.

Surprised, and half-scared, the class backed up a step, ready to run.  Soon
the eruption ended, and the volcano settled back onto it's base.  Silence,
then laughing, then excited discussion as the class recovered from what
they had just witnessed.  Shaking his head and approaching the two boys,
who were still wide-eyed, staring at the blackened projected, he laughed,
"I didn't know you two were building Krakatoa!"

The teacher's comment brought them out of their stupor.  "Neither did we.
Man, that was COOL!"

Chuckling, Mr. Severance shook his head, and ushered the class back inside,
prudently leaving the still-smoking volcano outside.  After class, they
retrieved the volcano, and put it in the science teacher's office until
they could take it home that evening.  They got their 'A'.

Meanwhile, the excitement of moving made the following weeks go by quickly.
Toward the end of April, his new 'attitude' had another reward.  He was
made Patrol Leader of a newly formed patrol of just-graduated Webelos in
his Scout troop.  It was an unspoken agreement between the Scoutmaster and
Cubmaster that the Webelos be kept together for their first year to lighten
the burden of joining a bunch of older boys in separate patrols. David was
pleasantly surprised at his Scoutmaster's trust.  Patrol Leader at 12 1/2?
Wow. He found out later that the Scoutmaster had been impressed with his
work over the last few months, and had checked with his parents to see if
they had a problem with his decision.  Getting their approval was easy, and
parental pride made it even easier.

Now, on Thursday night, David was at the meeting early, getting final
instructions and advice from his Scoutmaster.  As the boys began to arrive,
the 'tenderfeet' were introduced to their new leader.  David knew most of
them, they were only a year or two younger, so it wasn't a real big deal.
There were five of them joining the troop.

Scott, John's little brother, arrived with another dark haired boy, who
David didn't really know, named Neal.  Matt showed up next, a boy David
also knew from around town.  The last two to arrive were Tom and Josh,
friends of Matt's.  After the opening ceremony, the boys broke up into
their patrols to plan the next camping trip, two weeks away.  They would
once again be going to the same place as before, but this time instead of a
free weekend, they would concentrate on various merit badges.  David
explained to his 'boys' what to expect on the trip, and then had them start
planning a menu for Saturday, since his patrol was going to cook breakfast
and supper.  Scott, Matt, and Neal seemed to be the most enthusiastic about
the planning, while Tom and Josh seemed sort of disinterested.  David
turned his attention to them, "You know, you should be doing this, it's
part of the Cooking merit badge."

Tom and Josh just shrugged and said they weren't going anyway, their
families had other plans and they'd have to do it the next time.  Once
again, their seeming disinterest sort of worried David, but he turned his
attention back to what the other three were doing.  Neal, Scott, and Matt
had already planned the menu and were working on a shopping list. Surprised
at this, David's unasked question was answered by Scott.

"John told us that we needed to do a shopping list too, before we got
here," Scott laughed, followed by a grin from Neal.  Smiling over at John,
involved in his own patrol's planning, he shook his head.  As he watched
the three of them work on the list, he noticed how Matt kept trying to get
his two other friends involved.  Finally their disinterest got under his
skin.

"Why did you guys even come?"

Tom answered, "Our parents made us.  Webelos was fun, but this is like
work."

Matt shook his head, gave an apologetic look to David, and went back to
planning with the other two.  David pulled the other two aside and said,
"Look, I know it looks like work, but it ends up being fun.  We have a
blast."

"Well, camping is just full of bugs and sleeping on hard ground," replied
Josh.

"Sometimes, but we're staying in a cabin with bunk beds and all," attempted
David.

"Who cares?" Josh shrugged.

Giving up, David rejoined the rest of his patrol.  Tom and Josh returned
and sat in their chairs and just looked around the room until it was time
for the closing circle.  After the closing, the Scoutmaster called David
aside.

"Looks like you have a problem."

"Yeah, they just don't seem interested."

"Well, some are and some aren't, you can't please everyone.  Maybe it's
just not for them."

"I guess," responded David.  He was kind of worried about how this would
reflect on his leadership abilities.

Sensing the boy's concern, the Scoutmaster smiled, "Don't worry about it.
You can't help people who don't want it."

"I guess," replied David, still a little disheartened.

"Just remember, you have three other boys who are very interested.  Don't
let the other two worry you.  I'll take care of it."

Normally after each meeting, the boys hung around outside socializing,
while waiting on their parents.  Tonight, John and David were joined by the
three new boys.  Full of enthusiasm, the younger boys asked questions and
joked around, comfortable with their older peers.

"So what did you do?" asked Scott to his older bother.

John grimaced and then broke out in an evil grin, "We planned you all's
initiation."  This last word was said with a sinister tone.

Hiding his grin, he watched the younger boys' enthusiasm dim a little bit
at this news, knowing it was all a put-on.  "Oooooh," he directed at John,
"you all got that job?  Lucky."

With a hint of nervousness, Neal asked David, "Initiation?  What's going to
happen?"

"Can't tell you," he answered, "but I'll look after you guys."

"Ummmm, ok," Neal exchanged glances with the other two, then asked, "it's
nothing bad is it?"

"No, we just strip you to your underwear and tie you to a tree in the
graveyard," answered John in mock seriousness.

"Oh....ummm....I guess that's not so bad."  Then he looked again at David,
"Did it happen to you too?"

David smiled and nodded at John, who nodded, "Both of us.  It's over before
you know it.  And we'll be around to make sure nothing bad happens."

Matt started grinning, "Better than being stripped in front of the whole
troop like my cousin was."

Nodding their agreement, the three boys returned to their normal
exuberance.  One by one, the parents arrived to pick their boys up.  Soon
it was only David, Neal, and one or two other boys who were left.

"Dave, you don't really strip us do you?"

David looked at Neal and smiled, "It'll be ok, promise."

"Ok, if you say so," answered Neal as his ride arrived.  Giving David a
parting smile, he ran to the car and was gone.  A few minutes later,
David's mom drove up, smiling.

"So how was your first meeting as a Patrol Leader?" she asked when David
got in.

"How come you didn't tell me, Mr. Frantz was planning this?"

"Well, we thought it would be a nice surprise, and knowing you, if we would
have told you before, you would have worried about it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right.  And it's pretty neat being a Patrol Leader."

"Well, don't let all that power go to your head," laughed his mom.

"I won't, mom.  Jeez."

Getting back home, David took off his uniform, hung it up, and slipped on a
pair of sweats, said goodnight to his mom, and went to bed.  His last
thought before he drifted off was, "Where did John come up with that
initiation thing?"  But he was smiling as he slipped into sleep.

******************************************************************************

Yes, once again no sex.  But I had to shift gears, and I like to use the
clutch when I do.  So this was the clutch chapter.  The next chapter will
work up through the gears to cruising speed. :-)

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback.  Thanks!

email:  fupduckmd@yahoo.com
AIM and Yahoo: fupduckmd

Fup