Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 16:51:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jess Krop <jess_krop@yahoo.ca>
Subject: Changing Seasons (FF)

Sharon was a student at a Catholic girl's boarding school, and had
been for some time.  Her strictly religious parents thought it
essential to instil in her a religious sensibility, although why they
believed this despite their divorce was beyond her.  She didn't really
mind.  The school was well run and chose students based more on their
abilities than their parent's wealth, meaning that most of her
classmates were keen, intelligent students.  It was her life, and she
was comfortable there.

The school was nestled in the hills a few minutes down the road from a
small town in upstate New York.  It was set back from the road; a long
driveway ran for almost a mile across a heavily wooded hill before
reaching the wide lawns that surrounded the school buildings
themselves.  The woods stretched unbroken along both sides of the
grounds to the wide river at the back of the property.  To protect
against unnatural sins of the flesh, the sisters employed only women
to cook and clean in the school.  Most of the work was done by
students from poorer families making up a part of their tuition.  Even
the groundskeeping was contracted out to a woman who employed mostly
students, and only brought men in to work during hours when the entire
student body was in lectures.  In short, Saint Ann's was a world unto
itself.

Sharon knew that some of the older students occasionally slipped away
at night to meet boys' cars waiting on the road.  The girls claimed
that if they seduced you against your will, it was technically a
venial and not a mortal sin, but even so she had never been interested
in trying.  What for?  You'd be expelled if you were ever caught off
the grounds at night, and all that ever came of it was the occasional
pregnancy.  Sharon didn't see the point.  She was happy with her life
at Saint Ann's-- especially after she met Teresa.

Teresa had also been at Saint Ann's for several years, but hadn't been
in many of Sharon's classes.  The school was big enough that you
didn't always know everyone in your grade, but when they both turned
fifteen they were able to choose some of the courses they took, and so
their common interests had placed them together in music history.
Teresa had noticed Sharon on the first day of classes.  She walked
into the classroom and scanned the room, and Sharon's quiet, friendly
smile immediately invited her to the empty seat beside her.  Teresa
beamed, and crossed over to where her new friend sat.  "Hi!" she said,
as she sat and smoothed her plaid skirt.  "I'm Teresa!"

"My name's Sharon.  Nice to meet you," the other replied.  The two
chatted about some of the courses they had chosen to take and their
hopes for the school year.  After music history was lunch, and they
walked to the dining room together, still engrossed in conversation.
By the time their meal was over, the two had become firm friends.

The next morning, Sharon discovered that Teresa was also in her gym
class.  Well, that was one consolation, she thought.  Gym was always
her least favourite subject, but at least now she had someone to talk
to.  As the stern Sister Agatha made them do laps around the track
outside to warm up, Sharon found herself watching as Teresa ran past
her in fine form.  Her braids swung from side to side, and her loose
nylon gym shorts were falling up and down with each stride as her thin
young thighs flashed back and forth.  I bet she's quite an athlete,
Sharon thought, as she tried to keep up.  In her distraction, she
drifted to one side of the track and bumped into another student
before she looked up, startled.  "Earth to Sharon!  Wake up!" shouted
Sister Agatha.  Embarrassed, Sharon looked down at the track in front
of her.  Why am I such a daydreamer?, she wondered.  But that didn't
stop her from staring blankly at a wall with a grin on her face after
Teresa flashed her a smile in the changing room later.  What's wrong
with me?, she thought.  By the time she had recovered and changed into
her school uniform, Teresa had left the room, and Sharon had to hurry
to get to math class on time.

                                    ***

During the break before dinner, Sharon decided to go for a walk by
herself along the river, since it was too early in the term for her to
have much homework.  It was a beautiful fall day, too early in
September for her to need a jacket, although it would be cool that
night.  She walked along the forest on the north side of the lawn
until she topped a small hill and the school was out of sight.  The
wildflowers growing in the brush at the tree line made her smile.  It
was nice to be back at Saint Ann's.  This was her world: no matter how
little her parents understood her, or how much it hurt to have them
fight over who got custody of her during the summer, she had a place
where she could make friends and be accepted for who she was.  Here,
if she followed the sister's rules and put effort into her homework,
she would succeed.  It was a place she could understand, unlike the
capricious worlds of her parent's lives.

When she reached the river's bank, she turned right and took a trail
that followed the water.  It turned inland to skirt a small marsh
replete with bulrushes that lay in a hollow, and then bounded away
over the grassy knolls which were Saint Ann's yards.  Further on, a
line of trees guarded meadow from encroaching bank, and bushes grew
thick on the water's edge.  Sharon was happy, and found her thoughts
wandering back to that morning's gym class.  In her mind Teresa was
running in front of her again, her chest heaving with exertion, her
thighs thrusting strongly past each other again and again in endless
succession, her head turning ever so slowly as she looked around to
smile at Sharon with light pink lips and with her warm inviting
eyes...

Someone shouted a greeting, and Sharon jumped.  Two older students
were sitting on the bank beside a tree, smiling and waving at her, not
twenty feet away.  "Hi", she managed, and blushed as she waved back.
"What's going on?" Sharon wondered.  She regained her composure as she
walked on.  Those girls would think I was nuts if they knew I was
daydreaming about Teresa, she thought, and forced herself to bring her
breathing back to normal.  I've got to stop this.  She turned back
towards the school buildings.  As she glanced back at the girls, one
put her hand around the other and leaned on her shoulder, the river
bubbling in the background.

                                    ***

Sharon's roommate's parents lived only an hour away from the school,
and took their daughter home most weekends.  So, when Sharon and
Teresa got together to work on their homework for English the next
Saturday, it was only natural that they meet in her room.  For some
reason, Sharon felt apprehensive about having Teresa over.  She found
herself nervously straightening up her room, and checking her
appearance in the mirror.  There wasn't much to do-- makeup was
frowned on by the nuns, and the school uniform was mandatory.  For
some reason, though, she wanted Teresa to like the place.

Promptly at ten, there was a knock on the door.  Sharon jumped up to
answer it, smoothing her hair as she walked across the room, and
taking a breath to regain her composure.  Teresa was at the door,
grinning, with a few textbooks clutched to her chest.  "Come in!"
Sharon said.  "How are you?" She giggled nervously.

"I'm great, thanks.  I would have come earlier, but we had pancakes
for breakfast in my wing and I spilt some syrup on my blouse, and I
had to wash it off."  Sharon looked, and saw a small damp spot on
Teresa's shirt, above her right breast.  She found her eyes drawn to
it for some reason.

"Oh, uh, that's fine," she managed.  "Here, sit down.  Umm, what story
were you thinking of writing about?"  Their assignment had been to
describe the plot and character development of a novel they had read
during the summer.  Sharon and Teresa were planning to critique each
other's papers, since Teresa had taken English with this teacher
before, and knew what she expected of her students.

"I know it's kind of cheesy, but I wanted to write about Anne of Green
Gables.  I read it for the first time last month.  I suppose it's sort
of a kids' book, but I really liked it."  Teresa came into the room
and sat on the vacant bed.

"I think that's a great idea!" replied Sharon, who had always been
fond of that book.  She giggled.  "You know, you even look a little
like Anne.  Your hair is sort of reddish, and you even have little
freckles on your nose."

"Do not!" shouted Teresa, who grabbed a pillow and threw it at her,
laughing.  She jumped across the room to where Sharon sat, and swatted
her with another pillow.  "I don't have freckles!  They're ugly.  You
take that back!"  She pushed Sharon down on her bed, and held her
there.

"Whatever you say, freckle face," Sharon said, and grinned as she
looked up at Teresa.  For a moment longer, Teresa playfully held her
down on the bed and held her gaze.  Sharon's heart raced as she looked
up into her friend's eyes, and then the moment was over, and Teresa
was sitting back down on the bed beside her.  She finally broke the
silence.

"So, you've read that book too?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Sharon replied, and smoothed her hair.  "Um, what were
you going to say about, um, imagery in the novel?"  They settled down
to business, and soon had come up with outlines for their short essays
the other agreed with.  From time to time, Sharon found herself
staring blankly at the slowly drying damp patch on Teresa's shirt, but
fortunately, her friend didn't seem to notice.  Eventually, they
agreed to meet the next afternoon to check their math homework answers
with each other, and Teresa stood up and excused herself.  There was a
field hockey tryout in half an hour, and she had to go warm up.

"See you tomorrow," Teresa said, as she gathered up her books.

"Yeah, see you."  Sharon stood and opened the door.  Teresa turned and
gave her a perfunctory peck on the cheek, then turned and was gone.
Sharon found herself watching as her friend strode off purposely down
the hall, plaid skirt swaying behind her.  After Teresa turned the
corner, Sharon walked back to her bed and sat down to write out the
paper they had planned together.  Her mind kept wandering, however, as
over and over it replayed the moment when Teresa had held her down on
the bed, about to... what?

Something about that scene had confused her, but no explanation seemed
forthcoming.  Sharon's mind eventually turned to her paper, which at
least she understood, and resolved to think more about Teresa's
actions later.

                                    ***

Later that weekend, Sharon found time to phone a friend of hers from
home.  Ashleigh was the daughter of a couple her parents had known for
years, and the two girls had known each other for most of their lives.
Ashleigh attended a public school near her house, and thought Sharon
was nuts for preferring the quiet boarding school life.

As usual, the conversation soon turned to Ashleigh's current romantic
obsession, who in this case was a boy named Brian whom she had met at
school.  Ashleigh, as always, was hopelessly smitten and completely
gaga over her latest find; although Sharon soon found out that the
object of her affections was not as of yet aware of them.

"Oh, Sharon, I know you'd just love him!  He's got the cutest smile
ever, and he looks so nice in this pair of snug jeans he wears
sometimes!"

"Really.  How is he any better than your last flavour-of-the-month?"

"Sharon, you just don't understand.  He's so adorable.  And I waved at
him when I saw him at his locker yesterday, and he, like, totally
smiled back at me."

"Can't you think about anything else?"

"I guess... but I don't really want to.  Oh, don't huff at me."

"Sorry."

"And besides, are you telling me you didn't meet anyone last summer?
You must have seen lots of cute boys when you were working at that big
bookstore.  Lots of people go through there."

"I got all the dumb ones."

"No special someone to make you go dreamy, too?"

"Nope.  And there's no boys here, anyway.  I guess I'll just have to
study instead."

"You do that.  Look, I gotta go, my dad's calling.  Talk to you later,
'kay?"

"Sure, bye for now."

Sharon hung up the phone and sighed.  Surely someday, she thought,
she'd meet someone who'd make her go "dreamy", too.  Why did it always
happen to Ashleigh?  Sure, she was pretty, but it wasn't just about
looks, right?  She sat back on her bed and gazed out the window.

>From her third floor room, she could see the river at the edge of the
school's yards, and the wooded hill that rose up from the opposite
bank.  The leaves were just beginning to change colour on the tops of
the hills, and she found the warm red patches of her landscape
comforting.  Soon the trees would stand bare as the last of the summer
left them, reminding her that nothing lasted forever.

Ashleigh's words came back to her.  Her friend had always maintained
that you could tell when you were in love because you acted like a
goof.  So far, she was taking this on faith.  Maybe I just don't get
that way, she thought.  Granted, over the past week or two she had
been a little bit scatterbrained, but for some reason it had been
happening around Teresa, so that didn't count.  That would mean she
had a crush on another girl, but that was a silly idea.

Sharon suddenly felt lonely as she sat by herself in her room.
Normally she enjoyed these brief periods of quiet in her weekly
routine, but she was jealous of her friend's success in love and her
long history of failures.  There had been a couple of dates, mostly
arranged by well-meaning friends, but somehow nothing had come of
those boys and she had always ended up alone at the end of the
evening.

I guess I just have to keep myself happy, she mused.  She thought back
to those few, furtive make out sessions with over-eager boys in
backseats and basement recrooms.  She hadn't wanted to do anything
more with them at the time, but now she realized that she had wanted
wanting to, wanted to be passionately carried away on wings of desire.
Yes, that would be wonderful...

Looking down, Sharon realized that she had been absently stroking
herself.  I guess I do want sex, she thought-- I wonder who with.  Her
hand was pressing firmly now, and she could feel a desire building
inside her.  Pausing only to look up quickly to check that the door
was locked, she lay back down on her bed and began undoing the buttons
of her blouse with her left hand.  She pulled the blouse out from her
skirt, and reached up to cup her breasts with one hand, leaving the
other in her lap.  Her fingers slid under the material of her bra, and
she kneaded her breast intently, pulling lightly on her nipple.  Her
lips parted slightly as it came erect and caught her fingers.

Sharon pulled the bottom of her bra up to expose her breasts, and
started to create a mental image for her fantasy.  In her mind, she
called up a young man who had been a regular customer of hers at the
bookstore.  They had chatted a few times about various authors.  She
tried to imagine that it was his hands caressing her breast, that he
was the one who pulled up her plaid skirt to her waist in order to
expose her underwear.  It was his hand that slipped under her
waistband and ran a finger lightly along the length of her sex,
spreading wetness along her lips.  Her invisible lover teased her, and
then slowly inserted a finger, moving it in and out while keeping
pressure with a palm on her clitoris.  Slowly at first, and then
increasingly faster, her lover pleasured her and stoked her desire,
until she looked up at her imaginary partner and saw, as she arched
back in the throes of passion, Teresa.

Sharon's mouth opened in astonishment, but all that escaped was a low
moan as her climax crashed down upon her.  Oh, my god!, she thought.
I just fantasized that I was being fingered by Teresa.  What's wrong
with me!  As the afterglow of her orgasm wore off, she felt confused
and betrayed by her body, although at the same time she immediately
knew that it hadn't been an accident.  What if she finds out?  She'll
think I'm a freak!  What if she never wants to talk to me again?
Sharon lay dishevelled on the bed, not moving.  What the hell am I
going to do about this, she wondered.  If her love life had seemed
difficult before, it looked impossible now.  Why do I get hot over
this girl?  How could I ever hope that she would be interested in me?
It all seemed so unfair.  If only I could be like Ashleigh-- or better
yet, be that boy from the store, so that I could have a chance with
Teresa.  The utter impossibility of that just served to make her more
depressed, however, and so, unable to think of anything better do,
Sharon decided to lay on the bed and watch the imminent autumn roll
down the hills towards the school.

                                    ***

No longer knowing how to act around Teresa, and not trusting herself
to behave as if she wasn't infatuated with her, Sharon began finding
ways to avoid spending time with her friend.  By now, they had become
accustomed to passing evenings and going on walks together.  Thinking
back, Sharon began to see how the crush on her friend had grown.  She
had attended a field hockey game with no possible motive other than to
watch Teresa play, and to congratulate her when her team won.  How
great it had been to hug Teresa as she came off the field, jumping and
cheering for her team, with her hair tucked back in a tight ponytail
and a healthy glow radiating from her sweaty body.  She had even taken
up jogging so as to join Teresa on long runs around the property, to
the astonishment of her parents, when she had told them during a phone
call home.  Teresa had goaded her into it, although she hadn't needed
much convincing for someone as disinclined towards exercise as she
was.  Now Sharon began to plead too much homework and stayed in her
room to study, although as often as not she'd sit at the window to
watch Teresa as she ran away from the school buildings and over the
hill along the tree line, and then sit with the mental image of Teresa
running along the path in her head instead of French verb charts or
the capitals of Europe.

She and Teresa had become accustomed to doing their math homework
together.  They were in different classes, but had the same teacher,
who always assigned her classes precisely the same exercises, and had
probably been using the same ones for twenty years.  Now, however,
Sharon kept finishing the assignments on her own, or at least claiming
to, because she felt awkward spending time alone in her small room
with Teresa, with no one around to rescue her from potentially
embarrassing situations.  Teresa, for her part, was becoming very
frustrated by this behaviour.  It was clear to her that Sharon still
greatly enjoyed spending time with her, but at the same time, she was
limiting how often it happened.  Teresa wanted to see her friend more
often, and was getting annoyed at being rebuffed.  After two weeks of
this, the situation came to a head when Sharon mentioned wanting to
work together on a music project with Teresa while chatting in the
library one evening, and then suddenly changed her mind and fled back
to her room.  Furious, Teresa stalked deliberately down the hall to
the dormitories and flung open Sharon's door, where she found her
friend lying face down on the bed with her head in her arms, crying
into her pillow.

"What the hell's wrong with you!" Teresa shouted as she slammed the
door behind her.  "Why don't you like me anymore!"

Sharon turned over and sat up on the bed.  "Teresa, I do like you.  I
really like you, honest."

"So why have you been running away from me and avoiding me?"

"If I tell you, you'll never talk to me again", Sharon sobbed.

Teresa stood beside the bed with her arms crossed, pouting, and
glaring at Sharon.  "Look, it's okay if I you're mad at me because I
did something.  But if we're friends, I have a right to know what this
is about, because I have no idea.  All I know is that you started
acting weird.  We were best friends, and then last evening, you
wouldn't even let me give you a hug.  Don't you want to hug me
anymore?"

"Sure I do, Teresa."  Sharon had settled down a little by this point;
her eyes were still red, but her breathing had calmed down.

"Then give me a hug so I know you're not cross with me."

Sharon began to get up, and then stopped herself.  "Okay", she said,
and looked up at her friend defiantly.  With a rush of courage, she
stood up, seized Teresa's head in her hands, and kissed her full on
the mouth.

"I still want to be your friend, but I have this crush on you and I
didn't know how to tell you," she continued, awkwardly looking away.
"And now you'll probably never want to see me again."

Teresa recovered from her surprise, and looked at her friend with new
understanding.  "This was about a crush?  Why didn't you just tell me
that?"

"You mean you wouldn't have minded?"

"No.  Come on, that happens all the time."

"But... I mean, I thought you'd be mad, because you don't like me like
that.  And I can't be in love with you because, well, you're..."

"A girl?" finished Teresa, rolling her eyes.  "Who else would you have
a crush on around here?  You're not the first one around here to fall
for another student."

With slowly dawning realization, Sharon asked, "Really?"

"Sure.  The older girls do it all the time.  As long as you're not too
overt about it, the sisters don't mind."  Several things Sharon had
seen at the school over the past few years began to make more sense as
this new knowledge slowly sunk in.  "In fact," Teresa continued, "I
kind of had a crush on you too, but when you didn't react when I tried
to flirt with you I figured you weren't interested."

"You tried to flirt with me?"

"I don't just hug anyone, you know."

"You didn't `just hug' me."

"That's right.  I used to do this, too."  With that, Teresa leaned
over and planted a soft kiss on Sharon's cheek.  "Did you think I was
like that with everyone?" she asked, and stroked her hand along
Sharon's arm to reassure her.

"I guess I didn't think about it."

"Well, now you know."  Teresa encircled Sharon with her arms, and then
leaned forward to give her a kiss.  In total bliss, Sharon held Teresa
and kissed her back.  When they finally broke apart, Sharon had tears
of joy shining in her eyes.

"Um, Teresa?"

"Yes?"

"Have you ever, like, had a girlfriend before?"

Teresa smiled, sat down, and patted the edge of the bed beside her.
Sharon joined her, and Teresa put her arm around her shoulders.
"Yes", she said, "I was seeing someone else from school for a while,
but she was a little older than me and we broke up when she
transferred away a year ago."

"Did you love her?"

Teresa looked over at the wall in front of her.  "Well, I thought that
maybe I did for a while, but no, I don't think so."

"What would you say if, um, I told you I loved you?"

Teresa reached for Sharon's hand, and gazed into her eyes.  "I'd say
I'm a very lucky girl."

Teresa leaned forward, and deliberately kissed Sharon's lips, who
thought she had died and gone to heaven.  "Um, Teresa?" she asked
shyly, "What sorts of things do you do with your girlfriends?"

Teresa smiled, and said, "Let me show you."

Teresa kissed her again, and without breaking the kiss began to undo
the buttons of Sharon's blouse.  She pulled Sharon's shirt off her
shoulders, and pushed Sharon's bra up and cupped her breasts from
below, holding the nipples with her fingers while pushing her body
down on the bed until she was lying on top of her.  Sharon gasped and
wrapped her arms around Teresa, holding her close as she mounted on
top of her.  Teresa began thrusting one thigh against Sharon's sex,
making her uniform skirt ride up to her waist.

Sharon moaned, but retained the presence of mind to fumble for the
buttons of Teresa's blouse and open it.  While Teresa continued to
ride her leg into her, Sharon hungrily tore aside Teresa's bra and
began sucking her nipple.  Soon the growing feeling between her legs
drove even this thought from her mind, and Sharon could only grab onto
Teresa's ass, clutching her lover tightly as she spasmed against her
thigh, a small shriek escaping her lips before she collapsed back
against the bed, spent.

Teresa leaned over, still panting as well, to kiss Sharon deeply.
"Did you like that?" she asked.

Sharon looked back with love in her eyes.  "You're even better in
person than you are in my dreams," she answered.

"We're just getting started, lover", Teresa said, and ran her hands up
Sharon's thighs.  She grabbed Sharon's panties and pulled them down to
her knees.  Sharon kicked one foot free, and spread her legs wide,
opening herself up to Teresa's eager hands, which lost no time in
caressing her sex.  Teresa gently ran a finger along Sharon's moist
slit, and then slowly reached inside her, pulling her finger in and
out while rubbing a thumb along the side of her clit.

Still thrusting with her fingers, Teresa leaned forward and kissed
Sharon on the mouth as her eyes closed in ecstasy.  She then bent down
and began kissing Sharon's thighs, rubbing her face in the hair
between her legs.  She licked along the line between her thigh and
crotch, then began kissing the area around her clit.  Soon she was
pumping two fingers into Sharon and licking her slit like a kitten on
speed.

Sharon moaned and arched her back, clutching at Teresa and bucking her
hips.  Teresa sensed Sharon's climax approaching, and put a hand out
over her mouth to stifle her noises.  There was only so much you could
get away with in a Catholic boarding school, unfortunately.  Teresa
continued her ministrations, and then suddenly Sharon's orgasm swept
over her and collapsed gasping on the bed, while Teresa finished
sucking up her sticky cream.

Sharon shuddered, and grabbed her lover's head.  She pulled her up for
a long, deep kiss, licking her own juice off Teresa's face.  Finally,
she lay back, and smiled.  "Teresa?" said Sharon, as she ran a stray
hand along her thigh.  "Can I do that do you now?"

Teresa laughed.  "I thought you'd never ask", she replied, and began
undoing her skirt.

                                    ***

It was autumn again, and Sharon and Teresa were out walking behind the
school.  Once out of sight of the school they had wordlessly reached
for each other, and now strolled hand in hand along the top of the
riverbank.  Together they came across a sheltered alcove and sat down
together to watch the water.  Teresa threw pebbles into the current
while Sharon put her head in her lap and watched her.

Although they'd been together for almost a year now, Sharon still felt
a sublime bliss lying in her lover's arms.  She couldn't imagine being
any happier than she was with the girl she loved.  Despite her initial
fear, no-one interfered with them at school: they weren't the only
students in a relationship, and even the sisters were surprisingly
understanding if you were willing to keep your relationship more or
less discreet.  And thanks to the school's policy of letting honour
roll students have a say in choosing their dorm roommates, they had
been living together since the start of the school year.

The past summer Teresa had come to visit her at home for a few weeks,
and even shared her tent when they went on a camping trip with some
old friends from the neighbourhood.  Her mom was happy she'd made a
new "friend" at school, although perhaps she'd wait a while before
telling her just how close a friend Teresa was to her.  It would be
okay, she knew: her mom would understand eventually.  But for now, she
had a whole year away from her parents with Teresa, and she was going
to enjoy every moment of it.

Teresa sat up, and tenderly gave her lover a kiss.


    ==============================================================
    == I hope you liked my story!  If you did, please write.    ==
    == Your kind words make me want to write more.  Love, Jess. ==
    ==============================================================