After breakfast I changed back to Mike, which was lucky, because Crystal came home just as I was finishing up getting packed. She was a little upset that I'd slept in her bed, so I helped her strip it off and put new sheets on it.

Susan's Mom took me to met Chief Perkins at the Police Station at eleven. Susan had to stay home and look after her sister. Waiting in his office was Judge Lloyd. She was an elderly Lady, probably in her late fifties, but she looked a lot older, but dressed very proper. She had come in on her way to midday church. I was left alone with her so she could ask me questions. She read out my statement and asked me if there was anything else I'd like to add. When I said no, she asked me a few other questions about my dressing up, and my relationships.
Finally she asked about my parents. I told her they were staying at my step grandparents, and that they had no idea about Monica. She advised me that if this was to go forward and if a trial was inevitable, that I'd have to tell them. She could protect me a little by closing the courtroom, but the Defendant and Counsel would need to know who I was. I could chose to appear as either Mike or Monica, but I'd have to swear in as my legal name.

But at the same time, she told me she could advise the Defendants Counsel to plead guilty at arraignment to avoid a trial and the exposure it would entail. Given Marks family, their reputation and standing in the community, she felt that they would push for a settlement as early as possible. She asked if I was seeking damages, and when I said no, she said that would be wise, and certainly help with any settlement and alleviate the need for a trial.

After I got home, there was a message on the phone answering machine. Maria had called this morning. Jack had taken a bad turn, rejecting the current chemotherapy treatment.

By Tuesday, word had got out at school that someone had come forward about the attack on Mark. I had to laugh when someone said that to me and I restrained myself from telling them it had been Mark who had attacked. On Wednesday, it had been rumored that Mark had raped a schoolgirl, and she had defended herself. By Wednesday, there was a rumor that it wasn't actually a girl, but a boy who had been raped. A lot of people weren't so shocked about this, especially many of the girls. Mark had been at school on Monday, but was conspicuously absent the rest of the week, and was unavailable for comment.

By Saturday, it was leaked that the Rogers Family Computer had been confiscated, and in the browsing history were a number of porn sites, specifically bondage, and rough sex. There were also sites on homosexual and shemale sex. Although it could have been Marks father with an internet addiction, most people believed it was Mark. There were also rumors that the police had found evidence of Ketamine, the date rape drug in the house.
Early the following week there had also been reports that three other girls had approached the police, having been either coerced by Mark into having sex, or may have been drugged and had sex. Ceecee had been questioned again about her relationship with Mark, and she had confirmed Marks predilection for anal sex.

Needless to say, the Rogers did not put up any fight, preferring to want to have it all go away quickly. Wednesday of that week, Mark was arraigned and charged a misdemeanor under section 261.5, attempt for unlawful intercourse with a minor, to which he pleaded guilty. He was put on a years probation, and fined $5000, which was gifted to a local support house for the support of rape victims. Because of his age, he was not convicted under a statute that would register him as a sex offender, nor would he do any time in a juvenile facility.

With all of the rumors and innuendo at school, Mark didn't return to Chaparral High School. He had been sent to stay with an Uncle down by San Jose until the new school year. His parents had put their house on the market.

The following week was Finals. Samantha broke up with Dave during the lunch period on Monday. It was not clear to me the true reason, but I think that Dave's ongoing support for Mark had probably contributed. They had been fighting a lot over the past two weeks, and I know that Samantha was now considering that the drop in her grades had a lot to do with Dave. He certainly didn't help her study, and she had admitted that he distracted her a lot with his silly childish behavior. I was a little surprised that she wasn't particularly upset.

Dave blamed some of their problems on me, saying that I got to see more of Samantha than he did.

Their breakup upset me a lot. probably more than it upset Samantha. How much of that was due to the fact that I had had a crush on Samantha for close on three years I'm not sure. Samantha had become a good friend to not just me, but to Susan as well, and I felt kind of protective of her. But I also didn't want to lose Dave as a friend either, no matter how bad his judgment was. I just hoped he'd come around, grow up a bit and realize that Football and Lacrosse weren't the be all of life.

After the Finals, I thought I'd done really well in all subjects, although I know I did screw up one section in French. Susan and Samantha had both thought they had done well also. All in all, by Friday, school had returned to normalcy. People were excited about the Prom Saturday night, and that discussion on who was taking who had quickly replaced the scandal that was Mark Rogers.

Samantha accompanied Susan and I to the Prom since she no longer had a date. It was very nice having a lady on each arm, and it caused a lot of tongues to wag. Things got a little tense soon after we had sat down when Dave turned up with a Sophomore as his date, but he gravitated over to the tables populated with the football and basketball players, whereas we stayed on the other side of the room. Susan insisted that I dance several times with Samantha, although I didn't really need to. There had been several guys arrive stag, and when the gossip had spread that Samantha Reading was without a formal date, she had several of them on a string.

We dropped Samantha off after the Prom at around midnight, and went back to my place. Monica hadn't made an appearance since the night of the police statement as Susan advised me to keep Monica between ourselves for the time being, but she wanted Monica to have a part of Prom as well. She had brought her Winter Dance dress over for me to dress up in. I loved it. It was full length black silk dress, with a halter top, and a deep V right down to the small of the back. It felt so soft but it fit like a glove, probably better on me than on her. She also had brought the black sandals she had worn. 5 inches of heel, but they stretched out the calves wonderfully. After Monica was all dressed, we danced together for about an hour before collapsing, giggling onto the bed. Monica wanted to go out and party some more, but Susan wanted to go to bed. Susan won.

We arose around ten in the morning. Dad and Maria were due to arrive around noon for another carload of boxes and small furniture. Most of the house was packed now, only my room was sort of intact. After a shower together, we packed up all of Susan's and Monica's clothes into a couple of boxes, then went to have a late breakfast. The pantry and freezer were pretty bare, but we managed to rustle up a couple of omelettes.

Dad and Maria arrived shortly afterward. They both went through each room, sorting out the last of the items to be packed, and whether they would be for the townhouse, for them, or to go into storage. They were still looking to buy up by Maria's Moms place, but they were also now contemplating building a new home up there instead. Either way, a lot of the big furniture would go into storage for the meantime.

We loaded them up with the last of the boxes for them to take and they left around four. Dad said he'd be back down Wednesday for the settlement on the townhouse on Thursday. I had dinner at Susan's that night. Her Mom wanted to know all about Prom, and Susan showed her some of the photos she had taken.

The first couple of days of the last week of the school year dragged. It didn't help that it took almost twice as long in the morning to do my paper delivery. I was training a middle schooler named Brian to take over the delivery, and he was just slow! Not the sharpest tool upstairs, and not particularly fit either. He was huffing along by just finishing the first half of the run, and still had the uphill section to go.

It also didn't help that we were just doing review exercises in class as finals were done.

Wednesday, we got our results. I had aced Calculus, 100 in the final. Chem was a 98. English I surprised myself with a 93, the same in European History, and still managed an 90 in French even after screwing up one section. The rest of the subjects were high eighties.

Dave had not done well, and would have to attend summer classes to make up Chemistry and History. Otherwise he'd not be able to be on first team football in the new year.

I caught up with Susan and Samantha after school. Sam had surprised everyone, mostly herself with an 82 in Calc, and an 85 in Biology, and Susan had got a 91 in Calc, and 90 in Chem and 86 in Biology. They both said that it was my study tips and the notes from last year that got them through Biology. Susan had to go see her Mom at work, so I walked home with Samantha. Her mom was home when we got there, and was very pleased with Samantha's results.
She wanted to pay me for my tutoring, but I couldn't accept. I did however ask if she knew of any open positions for the volunteers at the Old Folks home she worked at. I had applied, but had not heard anything. She promised to follow up for me by early next week, and would put in a good word for me.

Dad was home when I got there. So was the moving company truck. They had finished loading all the items that were for long term storage and were starting to load the stuff to go to the townhouse into a U-haul trailer.
When they were finished, the only things left were my bed, a suitcase with some of my clothes, and the refrigerator.

Thursday was the last day of school, and a half day at that. Dad had finished the settlement in the morning and had taken the U-haul to the townhouse. Susan and I met him there in the afternoon to help unload, and put the boxes into the appropriate rooms. Susan concentrated on unloading the bedroom boxes, while dad and I did the kitchen and living area. The Cable guy turned up around 3.00, and by dinner, Dad had the TV and Internet all connected.

After a Subway dinner, Dad stayed at the townhouse, on the sofa-bed, whilst I dropped Susan home and went back to the house for the night. Dad arrived early the next morning and we broke down my bed and put it, with the refrigerator into the U-haul. The rest of the day was spent cleaning and vacuuming the house.

When we'd finished just after midday, the place looked barren. Dad got out a couple of bottles of beer from the car, and offered me one. They were only just cold. He said that we should toast the house goodbye. This was the house in which Mom and Monica had last lived in, and remembering that, we both said our goodbyes in silence.
I went out into the backyard, and first toasted a small peach tree. Dad had planted it on the first memoriam of Moms passing. On the other side of the yard was a smaller orange tree that was only now starting to bear fruit, planted for Monica. I knew the new owners of the house would never know the significance of those two trees, and that made me cry. For all the excitement of moving into the new townhouse, I only then realized what we were giving up.

When I went back inside, Dad was waiting by the door, ready to lock up. In his arms was a flat box. He gave it to me to carry out to the car. When we got to the townhouse, he told me to open it. Inside was a photo album and a couple of framed photos of Mom and Monica, and one of the whole family, from about 8 years ago when we had vacationed at Disneyland. His only words were "to remember them by".

After we'd unloaded the refrigerator, and made up my bed, we took a look around the place. It was starting to look like home. Dad commented that my walk-in wardrobe looked more like a girls room with all of the dresses, skirts, tops and shoes in there. Susan had hung all of her and Monica's clothes up, and had left my clothes in the boxes and suitcase.

He gave me a list of items that needed to be bought and a debit card to buy them with. He said that there was $1500 on it now, and he'd set up a monthly transfer of $1000 onto that card to cover groceries and incidentals like school costs. Anything left over was for me, so if I lived frugally, I'd have more spare cash. But at the same time, the same rules from the house applied here. I had to keep it clean, and the kitchen stocked so that he'd have a place to come to when he was here. And the same rules for Susan. She could stay over once a week, and he'd be checking with Susan's mother in due course.

It was a little after three when Dad left. I wondered around the place, my place, for awhile looking through some of the remaining boxes. I finished setting up my computer and printer in the office area, and started to put the books into one of the bookcases against the far wall. Most of them were dads work books, but there were a few Novels in there as well. When I got to the photo album and picture frames, I took them out and put the frames on the mantle over the gas fireplace. Now the townhouse felt like a home. I put the photo album into one of my dresser drawers.

Just after six, Samantha rang. Her mom had just got home with some news. Although I wasn't initially on the list of volunteers accepted for working in the old folks home, when one of the people on the list had pulled out, she had recommended me in that persons place. And Samantha was excited because I was going to be able to work the same days and times as her. We would have 3 hours each Monday and Tuesday in the morning for breakfast, and 3.5 hrs each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for lunch for 4 weeks. Most of the work was serving and doing the dishes afterward, but that was ok. What surprised me was that we were starting in a little over two weeks.

Those first two weeks of vacation went by so quickly. I had finished all of my unpacking, restocked the pantry and freezer and had bought a bunch of new small appliances, hopefully of reasonable quality. But who can resist a George Foreman Grill & Rotisserie on sale for less than the normal price of the Rotisserie. Add to that a overnight breadmaker and a coffee maker/expresso machine that also brewed tea and I was set!

Susan had been on a family vacation since the first day of the summer break. They had gone on a road trip, camper van style, via Reno, Salt Lake, Boise, and were now heading toward Seattle and Portland. I received an email every couple of days, and a text message each night detailing where they were and what they had done. Although she said she missed me, it was obvious that she was actually having fun. They were still hoping to be home a couple of days before July 4th

Late in the first week Susan was away, I went up to visit Dad, Maria and the twins. Jack was still struggling along, now confined to a wheelchair. Dad had done some work around their house installing ramps, and Jack had been relocated to one of the guest bedrooms on the ground floor, whilst Dad and Maria had taken the Master room upstairs. I stayed the Thursday and Friday nights, and I slept on the sofa in the living room. Maria was pleased that I'd come up to see her and her folks, and I spent some time with the twins, whom had grown a lot since I'd last seen them at Christmas.

During the second week, Dave came around with his new girlfriend, Helen (the sophomore from Prom), to check out my new place. It got the Dave 'two thumbs up' stamp of approval. They stayed for awhile and chatted, but it felt strained. The fallout from his relationship with Samantha was still hanging over both of us, and he seemed put out that I had gotten a job at the old folks home with her. It was obvious to me he still had feelings for Sam, but Helen seemed a nice girl too, although it was obvious that he was interested in the physical aspects she brought to the relationship. But I'd be surprised if it lasted the summer break.

On Friday, I had dinner at Samantha's place, and we went to see Transformers 2 together. I gave her a hard time because she looks very similar to Megan Fox. It was a fun movie, and we both had a good time, but at the same time, it felt a little strange. After I had dropped her off and got home, I wondered why the evening had seemed strange. My guess that although it was strictly a date, it wasn't, I didn't want to go there. It was just two friends going out together. But both of us obviously seemed a little tense about it which was probably the cause of the strangeness. I supposed that if Susan was right, and Samantha was interested in me 'that' way, that would have created some tension as well.

Monday morning, I pulled up at her place at a little before 5.15 am. It was lucky that I had phoned her a little before 5.00 as I was leaving my place because she had still been asleep. As it was, it was obvious that Samantha was not a morning person. She was more than a little on the bitchy side.

As we pulled into the parking lot at the old home, she asked
"so how come you're so bright-eyed and happy?"
"What do you mean?" I replied
"Well, its only just going light, and you're all 'chirpy'. Its still way to early to be up" she moaned.
I laughed.
"This was normal for me. I delivered papers for the past three and a bit years. It's nice this time of day, like everything is new"
"Blah" she muttered. "I like my sleep better."
"well for the next four Mondays, its an early rise'n'shine. Besides, you can catch up on sleep later."

We had arrived just in time for the first week debrief, and we were divided into 3 teams, three people per team. Samantha was on the 'white' team, and they would primarily help the old folks to their chairs and to serve and assist them. I was assigned to the 'green' team, which was primarily responsible for collecting dishes, and loading the dishwashers, and clearing the garbage. The good thing was that we both got to start 30 minutes after the 'red' team, which was assigned to work with the cooks doing food preparation and such.

The work wasn't particularly taxing, and the other two on my team seemed ok. Min Ki was a small Korean guy, and for me to say he was small means he was. He was only a freshman, but his mother worked as a housekeeping manager here, so he had been offered one of the positions. Robert, or Howee as he preferred, was in my grade but not in any of my classes. I seemed to recall that he tried out for the football team last year, but had not made the cut. He hated doing the dishes, so Min Ki and I let him handle all of the garbage duty and heavy lifting.

The work went quickly, and it was 9 o'clock before we knew it. When I saw Samantha, she had been outfitted with a uniform, sort of like a nurses dress, but in blue. She was tired, but her mood was better.
After I dropped her home, I did some grocery shopping. While I was checking out, I noticed they were offering part-time positions for checkout operators and shelving restockers. I was too tired, and not to mention a little smelly, to apply there and then, so I took an application form to fill out later.

Once home, I showered and then collapsed into bed. It was just past one when I got up and had something to eat. It was a nice day, so I decided to go down to the pool and do some laps. There were a bunch of people there from school enjoying the sun outside, and I spoke to a couple of them. Steve was even there with Ceecee, and she seemed pleasant enough.
I went into the inside pool and eased into it by slowly finishing ten laps. I was having problems with the length of my hair. It kept dropping over my eyes and sometimes into my mouth when I breathed. I'd need to get it cut, or start wearing a cap. It was in that in-between length, shaggy and uneven and with no shape, and heading toward a mullet.
I completed another twenty laps, and then went back outside into the sunshine. The outside pool was now quite crowded. Dave and Helen had turned up, along with about half of the football team. Have to admit, Helen wasn't hard to look at and her skimpy little bikini didn't cover much.

Tuesday was much the same, although Samantha was at least up and ready when I picked her up. My work was tedious, mostly cleaning pots and pans, and collecting the dishes from the tables and loading and unloading the industrial dishwashers. The old folks home catered for about eighty people, and many of them were early risers and were seated by 6.30. After the Tuesday shift, Sam introduced me to her 'white team'. Roni, short for Veronica, and Caz, for Caroline. Both were juniors from Dioceses Christian Girls.

I hit the sack again after I had showered. I was awoken at midday by someone knocking on the door. I pulled on a pair of shorts and went to the door. It was just Dave and Helen. They were on their way into Sacramento and stopped by to see if I wanted to join them. I begged off, saying that I had plans already for the afternoon, but maybe next time.
After some lunch, I went over to the pool. The weather wasn't as nice as the previous day, but the outside pool was still busy. I bought a swimmers cap from the shop, and found my rhythm much more quickly, rattling off 30 laps easily.
Afterward I watched a couple of girls from the diving team warm up.

"I wouldn't let Susan catch you checking out the girls like that" laughed Sam as she sneaked up behind me.
"Sheesh, don't do that" I stammered. She had made me jump.
She sat down beside me, with her feet in the water.
"That cap looks funny" she said. "You won't catch their attention wearing that"
She pulled off the swimmers cap and threw it into the pool.
"I wasn't trying to get their attention" I replied. "I was just admiring their moves."
"yeah, right" she said, rolling her eyes and then winking.
"The girl in the black swimsuit, she's trying to complete a forward 2.5 somersaults tuck, but not pulling out cleanly. The girl in red has got it a couple of times." I said, ignoring her sarcasm.
"When did you get to know all the moves?" she asked, impressed.
"I watch, I take note. Besides Susan used to dive, thought I'd learn a little about it."
"But you picked that up from just watching?" she asked.
"Yep. Eidetic memory. I learn by watching. I watch something 3 or 4 times, and I can remember it. I learned a lot about volleyball by watching you and your team" I said.
"And we thought that you were just looking at our legs and boobs" she laughed, but she also blushed a little.
"Well that too" I said laughing. "And you know we judged you girls on how hot you looked"
"What? Really?"
I nodded, smiling.
"So who won?" she asked.
"Well, that depended on who was voting. But most of the time it came down to either Kathy or you. Sometimes Julia if Al was watching. I have to admit, we all like the Blue and Gold outfit best. The shorts seem to be shorter and tighter"
She didn't say anything, but I could see in her face she was trying to figure out something to respond with. I retrieved the cap and got out of the pool, and we went outside. We managed to find a couple of sunchairs together.

We sat in the sun and chatted about nothing in particular. Several of her friends came over and chatted, although not so much with me. I got the feeling that many were trying to figure out why Samantha was sitting with me. I offered to drive Sam home, but she said her Dad was picking her up after work.
That night I got a call from Susan. They were going to be home on Thursday, and she told me to keep Saturday night open. She wouldn't give me any more details, just that we were going out, all dressed up.
I assumed from that comment that she wanted Monica to go out.

Wednesday was completely different at the old folks home. Not everyone there ate lunch. That means there wasn't as much dishes to do. Howie and I were reassigned to Laundry. Min Ki was left to fend the dishes by himself. As such I didn't see Sam until the end of our shift. She had be assigned reception duties today, but would rotate each day with Roni and Caz back to the serving duties.

On the way back from the old folks home, Samantha asked what I was doing later that afternoon. She wanted to know if I'd like to go to the mall, and maybe see a movie. She wanted to go see Sandra Bullock in 'The Proposal', but felt funny going by herself. One of the downfalls of not having a boyfriend she said. Since I didn't have anything going on, I said I'd like to go. We arranged to meet in a couple of hours back at her place.

I went home and showered and changed. Two hours later, we were on our way to the Mall. Samantha offered to pay, since she invited me, but I couldn't accept that. We had arrived early for the movies, and had almost 45 minutes to kill. I followed Samantha around through a couple of shops, where she met up with a couple of her friends from the volleyball team. I knew one of the girls, Alice, she was in my french class, but I didn't know the other one. Her name was Tracey, and she was a year behind us. When she asked Samantha if we were going out, I said we were just friends, study buddies.

The movie wasn't to bad. I like Sandra Bullock movies. I'd guessed most of the plot twists early, but it was still fun. Samantha seemed to enjoy it as well. After the movies we had dinner in the foodcourt. Alice and Tracey came over to sit with us after we had found a table. They had been to see the Ice Age movie. They said it was pretty good, even if it was a family movie. We talked about the upcoming movies as well. Everyone wanted to go see Harry Potter of course, and Tracey and Alice had seen the previews of 'Beth Cooper', '500 Days of Summer' and 'The Ugly Truth'. Samantha and I had only seen the preview of 'The Ugly Truth', but we had also seen previews of 'The Orphan' and 'Jennifer's Body'. I had just put my vote in for 'Jennifer's Body' when Tracey commented that Samantha looked sort of like Megan Fox. That set my off laughing, and earned me a punch in the shoulder from Samantha.

The drive back to Samantha's place was a quiet one. When we got to her house, she didn't get out straight away. She seemed to want to say something, but wasn't sure if she could.
"Do you like me" she asked finally.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "You're one of my best friends, of course I like you"
"I mean, like like me" she replied. "Oh I don't know, I really like you, but you're Susan's boyfriend, and Susan is a friend. I don't know what to do."
I took one of her hands.
"Sam, you know I like you. I've crushed on you since the first week of Freshman year. I mean you are beautiful, probably the most beautiful girl I've ever met."
"Really?" she asked. "Then why didn't you ask me out or something"
"Sam, you probably don't even remember, but I did once. You hardly acknowledged I existed."
"When was that?" she asked.
"Three weeks before Homecoming Freshman year. I knew you didn't have a boyfriend then, so I plucked up the courage to ask you to the dance. I came over to your table at lunch. You were friends with Nadine Johnson back then, and when I asked you, she dragged you off in the other direction." I said.
"That was you?" she asked, surprised.
"Yep. Half the football team gave me hell for the following three weeks for even asking you. Heck, I didn't even go to Homecoming that year." I said
"Actually, neither did I" replied Samantha.

She looked a little less upset, almost wistful recalling the memory.

"Really?, why not?" I asked
"Well, no one else actually asked me seriously, but I didn't know who you were. Nadine kept telling me that one of the football or basketball team would invite me to the dance, but none of them did. She told me later that everyone had assumed that someone else had asked."
"Or they were afraid of being turned down" I said.
"Huh?" she asked.
"You do know boys are afraid of being rejected too, you know. And you know that you could have the pick of nearly any guy in school" I said. "That intimidates nearly all normal guys. It takes a lot of guts to ask one the most beautiful girls in school out, and most of us look for an easier target."
"But you asked?" she offered.
"I did, but I'm probably not normal and it also got me three weeks of hell in the PE locker room. After the dance, no one cared." I said.
She sat there, obviously thinking about what I'd told her.
"So whats all this about?" I asked.
"Nothing really." she said. "Its just that I haven't been on a date for almost two months, and no ones even asked, and you've been so good to me. And it felt so nice to go to the movies with you, like with no pressure. But at the same time, I wanted more. But you have a girlfriend, so I'm just all confused." she said as she started to tear up.

Without a second thought I put my arm around her and gave her a little squeeze. She buried her face into my shoulder. After a couple of minutes, she had gotten herself together again, and she took a small towelette from her purse and wiped her eyes.
"Are you ok?" I asked.
"I am now" she replied. "Thanks for the shoulder."
"Any time Sam, I mean that."

She leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and then got out of the car and walked to her door. I wound down the window, and said goodnight and I'd see her in the morning.

Sam was a lot more aloof the next day, and I gathered she was a little embarrassed about what she'd said the previous night. I didn't want to upset her by bringing it up, but also didn't want to ignore it either. I decided to discuss it with Susan when she got back later that afternoon.