...They Tend to Not Stay Secrets

"It's Jared, Mrs. Tarver. Is JoJo around? I was hoping to talk to her," the stocky teenager's muffled voice came through the door.

"She's just getting finished in the bathroom. Can you wait a couple of minutes?" Bridget asked loudly through the door after she looked down at her half-dressed body.

"Sure, I can wait."

Bridget moved to the bathroom door and knocked softly. JoJo opened the door slightly and popped her head out.

"Is someone at the door?" the young brunette asked.

"Yes, Jared wants to talk with you. Are you almost ready?"

"Almost. Wow, that's a pretty outfit," JoJo remarked upon seeing the silver lace bra and panty set the older woman wore. "Did Mr. Tarver change his mind and is coming up?"

Bridget laughed. "No, I'm wearing this for myself, not anyone else. I like to know I have something nice on underneath. It helps me feel attractive."

"You are attractive, Mrs. Tarver," JoJo replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Thanks, sweetie. We can talk later about nice underwear, but we need to get dressed. You have a handsome boy outside waiting to talk to you," Bridget said with a wink.

JoJo gave her a confused look and closed the bathroom door. With a sigh at JoJo's obliviousness with boys, Bridget moved over to grab a pair of jeans and a navy blue blouse. She quickly checked her outfit and hair in the mirror before knocking on the bathroom door once again to let JoJo know she was leaving.

Jared stood leaning against the railing and looking down into the cabin's main floor when Bridget walked out of her room. "She's just about done getting ready, Jared. You can go inside and wait for here."

The teenager took a moment to admire his mother's friend in her tight jeans as she walked away. Unlike his mother, he didn't need Kimberly's prodding to notice Sean's mom's attractiveness. Walking into the women's bedroom, Jared felt a little awkward knowing JoJo was changing in the bathroom. He stood for a couple of minutes before deciding to take a seat at the desk.

Startled to see Jared already in the bedroom, JoJo quickly hid her dirty underwear and nightgown behind her back. She hadn't realized Mrs. Tarver was going to let him in before she finished changing. Good thing I don't make a habit of walking around naked or in my underwear, JoJo thought in relief. "Um, what's up, Jared?"

"I wanted to ask you something, but that can wait. I thought we could catch up about what's going on in our lives," he answered while watching his old childhood friend slide sideways to the closet. Opening the door with the hand behind her back, JoJo shoved her clothes into the closet. Whatever happened to that confident, take-charge little girl I knew? She's become so shy these last few years.

"Oh my god! Your eye!" the brunette exclaimed after she finally made eye contact with her friend. Rushing forward quickly, JoJo intently studied the large black and blue bruise around his eye. "Does it hurt?"

"Just my pride," Jared joked, as JoJo started to reach out to touch the bruise before jerking her finger back. "But seriously, it feels okay. You're the first person to ask about it today; I guess everyone else wants to act like the fight never happened. So thanks."

"I hope Austin's lip is even fatter today," JoJo said in all seriousness.

"I hope so too, but I doubt it. The swelling is probably down already," Jared noted from past experiences. "So what's new down in Honey Hollow? You finally decide to stop playing the field and settle down with some lucky guy?"

"Jared!" JoJo cried out in embarrassment as she sat down on the edge of the bed. Looking down as a blush formed on her face, she added softly. "No, I still don't have a boyfriend."

"Why the hell not?" her friend asked but continued before she could answer. "Guys in Honey Hollow must be all idiots if they aren't asking you out constantly."

"C'mon, I'm not the kind of girl guys want to be with," JoJo remarked in a self-deprecating manner. "They want the beautiful, outgoing girls that are popular."

"Stop right there!" Jared snapped out with some heat in his voice. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to you put yourself down. You are a beautiful girl, and you are popular. I saw the way your teammates followed your lead. They looked to you for inspiration during that first-round playoff game."

"You saw my game?" JoJo's mood perked up while she lifted her head to look at him again.

"Of course, I did! Well, at least part of it. Did you really think when a girl I've been friends with since we were in diapers plays at my school, I won't find a way to watch?" Jared asked rhetorically. "I skipped part of football practice to watch you."

"You did? Didn't you get in trouble?"

"Yep, coach benched me for the first quarter in our next game. I only regret I didn't get a chance to talk to you after the game," Jared admitted. "But my coach sent a couple of my teammates to drag me back. You wanna know something?"

"Um, sure."

"Those teammates went back to practice talking all about my hot friend that single-handedly destroyed our team," he informed her while nodding. "It was the talk around school the next day that I was old friends with that scary brunette."

"Oh, come on, they didn't say that."

"They sure did. When you play soccer, you turn into that fierce little girl I remember. The one that bossed Sean and me around. The same one who defended little pudgy Jared on the playground when other kids made fun of me. What happened to her?" Jared reminded JoJo. The shy teen didn't answer his question, but she flicked her eyes down to the two large mounds on her chest. "Maybe besides being idiots, the guys at your school are too scared to approach you."

"Uh, that's not helping me, Jared." After getting cheered up by her friend's praise, JoJo felt herself becoming depressed again.

"It should. Why? Because now you know what to do."

"What's that?"

"When you get back to school, I want you to walk up to a guy you like and ask him out," Jared instructed her.

"I can't do that! Guys don't like that," JoJo pointed out.

"Yeah, they do. Most guys love it if a girl asks them out. It saves them the worry that she might not be interested, and they love the confidence she's showing."

"But what if the guy isn't interested in me?"

"Trust me; he will be," Jared stated.

"I don't know," JoJo nervously responded.

"Ugh! What is it with all of you down here? You three seem to think asking someone out is rocket science," the football star groaned. Popular with girls, Jared couldn't get their fear of rejection. "I even told Newt I would give him help in asking that Paige back out or another girl. Maybe some ways to approach and talk to her. And you know what? He says he's not sure."

Giggles first started to sound from JoJo before she broke out into a fit of laughter. Jared watched his busty friend roll around the bed, laughing at what he said. He found himself getting annoyed and a little bit pissed that the idea of his giving another guy dating advice was so funny to JoJo.

"Hey, I get girls to go out on dates all the time. Why does everyone think I don't know what I'm doing?" Jared snapped out, thinking of his mother's lack of respect for his dating advice yesterday morning.

"It's not...that," JoJo managed to get out as she tried to stop laughing. "I'm just picturing Newt using your pickup lines on a girl. 'Hey, babe. Your eyes are melting my heart. Wanna go screw?'"

"I don't talk like that!"

"Yeah, but if you told Newt you do, he might believe you," JoJo said with a snicker.

"Fuck, he would, wouldn't he?" Jared remarked before breaking into short laughter of his own. Watching JoJo wipe tears from her eyes; he stopped laughing and gave the girl a serious look.

"What?" the brunette asked.

"JoJo, I'm going to ask you a question, and I need an honest answer," Jared began in a way that put JoJo on guard. "Does Sean have a crush on Ramsey?"

Sean turned off the faucet and wrung out his wet socks. They needed to be washed properly, but it would be a waste to put a lone pair of socks in such a big washing machine. He thought maybe he could ask Whitney later if there were some other dirty items he could throw in with his socks. Placing them over the short clothesline that hung in the laundry room, Sean noticed an odd sight.

Over in the corner of the room hung Lacey's coat on a hook. Sean took a couple of steps toward it and noticed that one whole sleeve appeared to be soaking wet. That's weird. When would she have gotten it so wet? She never left the cabin this morning, or at least I'm pretty sure she didn't. And why is it down here, hidden in a corner, drying? Kind of hard to figure out what's going on in her head this morning.

At a loss for an explanation, Sean left the laundry room and then the cabin via the rec room's sliding glass doors. The wind had picked up speed compared to when he woke up this morning. It wasn't too bad yet, but the cold air whipping into his face made it hard to concentrate on his thoughts.

He needed to grab a clean change of clothes and his toiletries before heading back and taking a shower in the Stratton's bathroom. Mentally, he created a checklist in his head of all the things he needed to do for the day. At the top of my list is calming down Lacey. I need to find a way to talk to her without raising any suspicions. Number two should be coming up with a way to get close to Ramsey and get her to notice me. Having Lacey's help would be great. Finally, I need to deal with Jared. Should I tell him about my feelings for Rammy?

Upon entering the boathouse, Sean gagged at the smell coming out of the bathroom. Dammit, Austin, you need to get your ass over here and clean that up. He rushed away from the scent taking two stairs at a time. Looking around at the empty bunkroom, he wished he could just stay for a little while to get away from everything and everyone. However, Sean knew the Strattons wouldn't be cooking breakfast for much longer, so he didn't have much time to waste. Knowing they would be indoors for the day, he grabbed a button-up shirt he liked and a pair of slacks.

On the way back down, Sean braced himself at the landing in the middle of the stairs, took a deep breath, and raced down. Practically exploding through the door, he gasped for air. Damn, that kid sure has some rotten smelling vomit. Hmm, I wonder if he's still sick and got some on Lacey's coat. That could explain why she was so worked up. It's not like she was doing anything else to get it dirty since last--"Oh fuck!"

Sean's trip back to the cabin screeched to a halt as the troubling thought burst into his brain. "No, no, no...I couldn't have...could I have? Shit! I sure fucking could have," he talked aloud to himself. Fuck, I totally bet I came on her coat last night when we watched her parents. No wonder she's freaking out this morning.

With this disconcerting possibility looking more and more likely, Sean started briskly walking back to the cabin. I need to talk to Lacey and talk to her now. Did anyone else see it? Did Austin? No, if he had, he would have gone nuts and jumped me.

Suddenly, Sean noticed a very unusual sight ahead of him. A bucket sat next to a tree just off the path. Was that there before? Sean slowed down and walked over. Peering down, he saw it was full of a couple of cans, bottles, and a roll of paper towel. Are those cleaning supplies?

Sean sensed a person stepping out from behind the tree, but he never saw the blow coming.

"What? Why would you think that?" asked JoJo, but Jared thought he saw her flinch slightly.

"Look, I know you don't want to tell me Sean's secrets, but listen to me. The first night when we were in the hot tub, Ramsey and I talked quite a bit. Sean seemed a little upset. I thought at first it was maybe that I sort of ignored him after not seeing each other for a while, or it had to do with Austin being a dick. But then yesterday morning, when my mom and Mrs. Stratton talked about potential girlfriends for Sean, he got a little uncomfortable when her name was mentioned. It was enough that I asked him straight up if he liked Ramsey. You know what he said?"

"Uh, what?" JoJo fidgeted in discomfort as she knew where this line of questioning was headed.

"He told me no. I believed him so much that I planned on making a move on her. Then the whole clusterfuck with her, me, Lacey, and Austin happened. I might have been upset last night over everything, but I noticed Sean seemed upset about something too. So, between tossing and turning all last night on that couch, I started to think more about Rammy. She's worth more than a vacation fling. She's possible girlfriend material, but not until college if we end up at the same one."

JoJo tried to hold back a gasp when Jared said Ramsey could be a girlfriend for him, but it came out as sort of a hiccup sound.

"This morning at breakfast, I told Sean that I was thinking about her like that and asked if he could give me any advice. Instead of any type of answer, he gave me the cold shoulder. He has all morning. I might be a dumb jock in a lot of ways, but I'm smart of enough to see a pattern here."

The brown-haired teen didn't know if she was supposed to ask what that pattern was or not, so she kept her mouth shut.

"To me, there can be only two real possibilities. One is that Sean likes Ramsey, and he lied to me. The second is that he doesn't have a thing for her, but he thinks I'm not good enough for her. To be honest, both kind of hurt me. So I need you to tell me."

"Jared, can't you just ask Sean yourself? I don't feel comfortable talking about who he likes and doesn't like," JoJo desperately suggested.

"I think I've tried that enough times already. Hell, I even tried to ask Newt," Jared shook his head at the last part. "So, are you going to finally answer my question or not?"

"I think you should talk--," JoJo tried again before she trailed off as Jared stood up and walked over toward her. "Uh, what?"

"I didn't want to do this, I swear. Keep that in mind, okay," Jared stated in a serious tone while he looked down at her sitting on the bed.

"Do what?"

"We go way back, Jo. So I remember all those little details about you," the stocky teen noted right before his look turned a little sinister. "Like your biggest weakness."

At first, confused about where Jared was going with his talk, JoJo's eyes shot open at his last sentence. "N-no...you don't...you wouldn't..."

"Sorry, Jo, but I think it's time you met the Tickle Monster again."

Damn, that's impressive, Jared thought. JoJo showed off her athletic skills by hopping her body back away from him. However, she had been sitting on the edge of the bed, so it wasn't a good position to have much leverage. That led to her falling back onto the middle of the bed. Jared reached out, grabbed her ankles, and pulled her back towards him.

"Don't you dare! Let me go--no!" JoJo started to argue, but then she felt the first light touch on her waist just above her jeans.

"You going to tell me about Sean and Ramsey?" Seeing her shake her head no. Jared slid his hand under her shirt and started to dance his fingers over her stomach. "Remember when Keira would do this to you when you started acting like a brat?"

"I was never a brat," the squirming brunette spat out.

"No, I guess you weren't. But you could get bossy. Keira sure knew how to keep us in line whenever she babysat." Jared grinned at both her discomfort and memories from his childhood. Lost in thought, he didn't see JoJo's leg cock back and unleash a fierce kick to his stomach.

Momentarily free, JoJo managed to scramble back to the other side of the bed before Jared leaped onto the bed and caught her. "Jared!" she whined as he sat on the back of her upper thighs, pinning her stomach to the bed.

"Damn, you kick harder than Austin punches," joked Jared. He quickly moved both his hands back to her sides, resuming his tickle ****.

"Stop...please," JoJo begged between giggles.

"Not until you answer my question. Are you going to tell me what I want to know?"

"Never!" the soccer star vowed, looking back over her shoulder at her tormentor.

"There's the feisty furball I remember," Jared pointed out happily. "That's the JoJo I want to see more of."

"Oh...yeah, you're going to...see her put her foot...up your ass when she's free," JoJo struggled to say between the effect of his hands dancing around her sides.

"Hmm, I guess it's time to escalate things." JoJo's head whipped back around just as she felt his left hand leave her side. He moved it behind him and grabbed her ankle, pulling her leg up and toward him. If her eyes could possibly have opened wider, they would have at that moment.

"Don't you fucking--no!" JoJo warned him before she began moaning as he tickled the bottom of her foot.

"Jar...ed, please," JoJo tried to speak between her combined moans and laughter. "I'll pee!"

"Uh-oh, that's going to be awkward when you explain to Mr. Diamond that you peed all over his guest bed," Jared teased her. He knew JoJo was getting close to her breaking point, so he moved to seal the deal.

"What are you doing? I mean it! If you don't stop, I'm going to pee myself," she was able to speak in full sentences as his right hand stopped tickling her side. Unfortunately, his hand moved further and further up the side of her body. The hand slowed momentarily when it felt her sports bra but continued toward its target: JoJo's armpit.

"I'll cut you a break, Jo. You don't even have to say the words; just nod yes or no," her tormentor informed her right before he resumed his attack.

"Oooh! Gawd...please...I'm going...to..."

"Does Sean have a crush on Ramsey?" Jared repeated once again. He knew she was close to having an accident, so this was his last chance before he would have to stop. Jared would never take it so far as to cause JoJo to piss all over the bed. "JoJo?"

The brunette looked back and nodded.

The punch to his stomach knocked the air out of Sean, and he staggered backward. Sean tried to gather his wits and balance, but two hands grabbed him and slammed him back into a tree. Pain shot up his back to his shoulder blades.

"What did you do to her?" roared the blurry vision in front of Sean.

Another blow to his stomach followed, causing Sean to gasp for air again. When a third blow came, he feared he would join Austin in vomiting as he started to dry heave.

"What did you do to my girlfriend?" the voice demanded again. Sean's eyes were now filled with tears from the pain, but he recognized the voice.

"Austin...what the hell?"

"What did you do to Lacey? I'm not going to ask again."

Even with his rattled brain, Sean could figure out from Austin's words that he didn't know what happened last night. Seizing on that shred of information, Sean moved to gain control of the situation. "Me? You're the one that upset Lacey."

Austin lunged forward, pinning Sean against the tree and pressing his forearm across his victim's chest. "So I pissed her off, and you decided to swoop in and hit on her. Is that what happened?"

"I didn't hit on her. The way you were raging last night, I wouldn't be surprised if you had tried to hit her yourself." Sean's brain was becoming less foggy, and he scrambled to think of a cover story to save Lacey and himself.

"What...I-I would never hit Lacey. I'm not--hey, don't try and trick me," Austin recovered after being thrown off by the accusation.

"I'm not trying to trick you. I came back to our room last night to find you passed out and Lacey upset. She said you had been an angry drunk, and she didn't know what to do with you anymore," Sean rapidly recounted, as he noticed Austin didn't look well. Duh, he's still hungover from last night. I bet he used most of his energy up on his attack. "When she was chasing your belligerent ass back to the boathouse, she retwisted her ankle. So I helped her get back to the cabin."

"Bullshit! That doesn't explain why she freaked out and screamed when she saw you," Austin harshly pointed out. His forearm pressed back into Sean's chest again.

"I don't know why she freaked out like that. Maybe she's embarrassed because, on the way back, she confided some stuff to me about the two of you," Sean felt terrible about lying, but it was more like lying by leaving out some facts than making up facts.

"You're fucking lying!"

Got me there, brainiac.

"Lace would never tell you anything about us," Austin continued.

"You sure about that? We're almost family with how close our parents and sisters are," Sean pointed out. "I don't know what happened before I showed up last night, but I will guarantee that if you ever hurt Lacey, I'll fuck you up."

Austin started to laugh at Sean's bravado. "Tarver, you don't scare me."

"Funny, I remember you begging me to stop back in sixth grade," Sean reminded him.

Austin's laughter abruptly ended. "Yo--You swore never to bring that up again," he sputtered out. "I've never bothered Denton since. That was the deal!"

"But you still run your mouth about me all the time."

"That wasn't part of the deal, Tarver," Austin replied with a short laugh. "Now that you brought it up, the deal should end. I wonder what your nerdy friend will think when the football team makes him their bitch."

Austin's attempt to goad Sean didn't work. He calmly looked at the more athletic and more muscular teen. "I'm not afraid of you, Austin."

"You should be."

"No, I don't think so."

With that, Sean forcefully slammed his knee into Austin's groin, bringing out a howl of pain. As the school's quarterback staggered back, he hunched over in agony. This opened up the side of his face for the punch that Sean swung down at him. The blow connected right in the exact spot where Jared had given him a fat lip the night before.

"Last time I bruised your ribs. You hurt Lacey or start bullying Newt again, and maybe I break a couple of your ribs the next time." Sean stood over his groaning rival.

Walking back to pick up his bag that he had dropped, Sean realized far too late that he had been overconfident. Austin might have played quarterback, but that didn't mean he didn't know how to tackle. The blow from behind sent both boys to the ground.

The melee that followed contained punches, kicks, a headbutt from Austin, and later Sean would be pretty sure he bit the quarterback's throwing arm. Finally, Austin's hangover reared its head, and he stopped to throw up on the ground next to Sean.

"Jesus Christ! What the fuck is going on here?"

Both boys looked up to see Owen running over to them. He quickly pulled Austin off of Sean. After separating the two teens, who gulped for more air in their lungs, the college student looked at the two combatants.

"What the hell is wrong with you people. Another fight? Another fight!" Owen bellowed before turning to Austin. "Are you a fucking moron, Rusk? You know if you get caught fighting again, you're getting sent home. How would your parents and girlfriend like that?"

At this point, Austin realized he was in deep shit if this got out. "Nobody has to know about this."

Owen looked from him to Sean. "Fine, I won't say shit. But only if you leave me the fuck alone," Sean agreed but with that condition.

"Ugh, fine." Austin then grabbed his bucket of cleaning supplies and marched back to the boathouse.

Owen looked back and forth between the two teenagers before following Austin.