An early morning study date with Helen

You end up in the old graveyard at the brink of dawn, questioning your existence. It is too damn early to be up. And yet, if there’s any girl that you would get up early for, it’s this one.

“You’re looking contemplative today,” Helen says, sidling up beside you.

Your classmate is dressed in a white button down and a pleated skirt, the blue bowtie in her hair matching the sparkle in her eyes.

“You’re looking beautiful today,” you reply, earning yourself a well-deserved eye roll in the process.

“A little too much,” she says.

So she says, but you can tell from the way she smiles afterwards that she loves it all the same. You and Helen walk through the graveyard in a companionable silence, listening to the birds twittering above and the leaves crunching underfoot. It’s well and truly fall now, the greenery in the surrounding trees giving way to a variety of reds and yellows. You come to a spot on top of a small hill on the riverbank, overlooking a bridge in the distance.

“You get up this early just to study?” you ask her. “I mean it’s beautiful, but… still. Five AM!”

“I like the quiet in the morning,” Helen replies, pulling out her notebook. You follow in turn, getting out the latest problem set that Professor Valerie Ward has assigned. “I focus better when there aren’t others around.”

“Sorry for bothering you with my presence then, your highness,” you say.

Helen laughs, shaking her head.

“You’re welcome company. Though I should say, there is another reason I like this spot at this particular time of day,” she says.

“What’s that?” you ask.

“You’ll see,” she smiles.

Soon enough, the two of you are lost solving some complicated problem about a firm trying to optimize its production of different kinds of sex toys. As you’re grinding through some fiendish calculations, you see Helen suddenly perk up. You follow her gaze over the riverbend, and that’s when you see them.

The rowers look like they’ve been chiseled straight out of marble, bulging white muscles and definition glinting in the early sunrise.

“I should have guessed this would be it,” you laugh. “The crew team always rises early for practice.”

“As they say, the early bird gets the worm,” Helen says, not the least bit ashamed at admiring these physical specimens.

Admittedly, they are good looking guys. It’s almost enough to make you insecure.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Helen says, as if reading your mind. “If I were really into them, I wouldn’t be up here doing my homework. I’d be riding on their big, long boats instead. They have a position for that, you know.”

“Of course, the cock-swain,” you grin, and then cough into your hand. “Sorry, I meant to say coxswain.”

“You get the idea,” she laughs, leaning against you.

The two of you watch the rowers for a minute longer until they pass out of sight, and then she clears her throat.

“You know, I was surprised the other day. You and Jack, all of that nonsense. Really? Just for me?”

“And for Mal,” you say.

“And for Mal,” she agrees, the cryptic smile on her face unchanging.

“Jack was just itching for an excuse to make trouble,” you say. “He would have started something over nothing.”

{if JackOff == 1} “But you took the bait,” she says, tapping your shoulder.

“Only because we were fighting over a very special something,” you reply, tapping her shoulder in turn.

Helen grins, shaking her head.

“You boys are something foolish,” she says. “Watching two guys fight over you gets old after high school.”

“Wow, look at Ms. Popular over here,” you laugh, giving her another poke at the shoulder. “Got too many boys chasing you?”

“Just one too many, not two,” she replies. “May the best man win.”
{else} “I’m glad you didn’t lose your head,” she says. “Honestly, I don’t even know what Jack was thinking, trying to start something like that. And bringing his sister into it!”

“Ridiculous,” you say, although secretly, you wouldn’t mind getting some action there…

“You definitely handled that with maturity,” she says, resting a hand on your leg.

“You like that?” you ask, giving her a look.

“I do like a man who can keep his cool,” she smiles, squeezing your thigh. “There’s a reason you’re here, and not someone else.”
{endif}

Helen +20