Cheerful Days

"Whoa! That's a lot of pictures," Ellie exclaimed.

"That's what I said," Skye responded, grinning as the newcomers scanned the stacks of pictures and albums with awe.

"We're putting together all our pictures of Cassandra. That way, we each have a copy of everything," Rachel explained.

"That's so cool," Robin chimed in. The sixteen-year-old hoped that she remained close to her friends in the future like these women.

"Ooh, you missed out on this batch from when our children were little. You might get a kick out of seeing your classmates as adorable kids," Bridget pointed out, sounding a little soberer.

Ellie, Cheyenne, Robin, and RJ all crowded around the pile of memories that Sean and Lacey had previously looked through. Rachel played hostess, walking them through the several stacks that had been placed on the kitchen island.

After watching for several minutes, Bridget wandered over to the dining room table. Flipping through a different album, her face lit up in joy. "Oh, my! I haven't seen this one in a decade," she revealed, slipping an old snapshot out of the photo album.

"What is it, Mrs. Tarver?" Lacey asked eagerly. She moved toward the other side of the table along with Skye.

"I would say we were seven here, I think," Bridget guessed. She then passed the picture to the curious redhead.

Three seven-year-old girls sat on a cement porch. The blonde-haired girl in the middle beamed at the camera, a red popsicle dripping from the hot weather in her hand. Next to her sat a shy girl with auburn hair, turned partly to the side as she tried to avoid having her picture taken. She held a purple-colored popsicle up in the air toward the photographer, clearly trying to tell the person not to take her picture. On the other side of the blonde-haired girl, a naughty brunette stuck out her orange-colored tongue at the camera.

"That's adorable. If that's you in the middle, then who are the others?" Skye asked Bridget.

"The two best friends a girl could ever have. Orange-tongue is Tinsley, my next-door neighbor growing up. The shy girl is Cassandra. She lived on the street behind us."

"Fred's wife?" Skye asked, receiving a nod back.

"That doesn't look like Grandma and Grandpa's house or next door. Is this at the Banks?" Sean asked.

"It is. That's what their back porch looked like until they added on a deck years later. This is another album Finn found in his grandparents' collection," his mother stated. "That was a miserable summer. Every day seemed to be a scorcher. Oh! Here's another one from the same time. This one explains so much."

Sean and Lacey peered over to see two little girls covered in mud, head to toe. A spotless Cassie stood in front of them with her hands on her hips, seemingly lecturing her two friends. Young Bridget looked sheepishly at her upset friend, but Tinny appeared proud of herself.

"What the heck did you two do?" Lacey asked in surprise. Sean just shook his head. He'd heard more than enough stories about his mom and Aunt Tinny to expect the worst.

"The Banks lived across the street from the Ridges, and Tinny--" Bridget started to explain, but Lacey interrupted.

"The Ridges? As in their family?"

"Oops, I guess that I'm still a little tipsy," Bridget explained with a laugh. Having heard their last name mentioned, RJ and Robin moved over to see. "Tinny and Elliot Ridge were both notorious pranksters, and that summer was one long war of pranks."

"That sounds exactly like Uncle Elliot." RJ shook his head while his sister laughed.

"Of course, I was Tinny's partner in crime, leaving Cassie to be so embarrassed," Bridget admitted.

"That sounds like our family," Robin added.

"Yeah, Robin's brattiness comes from Uncle Elliot, and I take after our dad," RJ commented, poking his youngest sister in the side.

"And Ellie?" Sean inquired softly, knowing her competitive side.

"Definitely after our mom," both Ridge siblings nearly said simultaneously.

"Elliot usually dragged Kirk Langley into his schemes. Kirk was a good kid, who lived a few blocks down the street. I think he had a boyhood crush on Cassie back then too and didn't want Elliot making her mad," Bridget recalled with a short-lived smile. The Ridges mentioned how much they liked it when Kirk visited his old hometown. "I've wondered what might have happened if Cassie and Kirk..."

Letting her thought hang in the air, Bridget skimmed more photos until she came across a picture of a ten-year-old Cassie. The future teacher sat curled up in a plush armchair with her gaze focused intently on the book in her hand.

"It's crazy how much you look like her at these moments, Sean. I'll never forget the day Cassie bought you your first book as a toddler. Your face lit up at the pictures." Bridget pinched her son's cheek, causing him to blush. "I'm happy that you took after her and not Tinny. I didn't need the stress of a little troublemaker in the house. Having Lana as half my daughter is quite enough."

"I would've gladly traded her for Peyton anytime," Lacey stated in all seriousness.

Right as Bridget moved on to another album, Chastity reappeared. The blonde had gone to the bathroom to hastily clean up after her baking. Skye quietly brought the blonde up to speed on what she missed. Her attention to detail impressed Sean; not many women would be interested in seeing their boyfriend's deceased wife's photos.

"Look at that this, Bee," Gabriela instructed. "They both look so little." The captured memory showed Cassie, probably around the same age as the last picture they had just seen, holding a tiny baby in her arms. The auburn-haired girl looked down at the little figure with a loving and concerned face.

"Who's the baby?" Skye inquired.

"Brandy, my little sister," Bridget supplied. Upon seeing Skye's look of surprise, Sean's mother further explained. "She's a full ten years younger than me. My parents refused to use the word accident about her, but let's just say she wasn't planned."

"I'll say she wasn't. I've never forgotten the day your mom told my stunned mom the news. I wouldn't see that face again until she caught me having sex a few years later," Gabby recalled with a grin and a wink at Sean.

"Wow, you girls all seem to have been friends for so long," Skye remarked with envy.

"Our fathers were friends, but we didn't become good friends until junior high school," Bridget noted. "Gabby was too cool to hang out with little kids a whole year younger."

"I was not! Rachel and I were busy being proper young girls, not like the riffraff on your street," Gabby stated indignantly.

"Please, I'd bet my last dollar that you were never a proper young lady," remarked Kimberly. "You sure weren't when I met you in high school."

"Got me on that," conceded Gabriela.

"Riffraff? Us young girls of Oakfield Park helped make you older bitches acceptable for polite society," Bridget teased.

"Yeah, right. You're the one that taught me to pick a lock," Rachel commented, surprising Lacey and Gabby.

"Hey, I could've taught you that!" the dark-haired woman told her BFF.

"Can you teach me?" Lacey asked her mom.

"No!"

"Don't worry, sweetie. One of us will," Gabby stage-whispered to the teen.

"Wait, you grew up in the Oakfield Park neighborhood?" Skye asked.

"Yep, me and Tinny grew up across the street from the park. Our parents both live in the same houses. Why do you ask?" Bridget queried, attempting to slide her wine glass closer to her.

"Bad girl!" Gabby snapped, slapping Bridget's hand. "No more wine until later."

"I had a friend that lived a few blocks away," Skye explained after laughing at their antics. "I kind of assumed you all grew up in a fancier neighborhood."

"Why because we leech off of Harvey to enjoy this giant cabin?" Gabriela challenged, throwing her hands up in the air and twirling around. Tripping on her own feet, she'd have fallen to the floor if RJ hadn't shot his arm out to help.

"You're cut off, Gabs! You're cut off!" Bridget clapped like a little girl. "Take her wine away, Mommy Rachel."

"Fuck that!" Gabby responded, snatching her glass before Rachel could.

Sean and Lacey smiled at the surprised faces of the newcomers. "It's like this a lot with them," Lacey softly told RJ.

"Now, where were...oh, right. Skye thought we grew up rich," Bridget recalled where the conversation left off. "We're anything but. My dad's a private detective, and my mom was a nurse. Tinsley's dad ran his own dental practice, with her mom handling the paperwork. Hey!"

"You can't be trusted," Rachel stated, handing Sean his mom's wine glass. "Sean's the responsible Tarver in the room right now.

"Not unless we get him liquored up, too," Kimberly suggested, winking at the teen.

"Oh, no, you stay away from my little boy. Only my oldest friends get to ply him with wine," Bridget declared.

"Point taken," Gabby smirked sinisterly.

"So you didn't meet the rest of them until later, Kimberly?" Skye questioned.

"My family lived out in the county until right before I started high school. I met Cassandra that summer at the public library. Of course, I didn't know anyone, but she took me under her wing. That's the kind, caring person she was, showing me around town, and introducing me to her friends. She's the one that dragged me to the cheerleader tryouts."

"She sounded like a wonderful person to encourage you to join the cheer squad with her," Skye commented.

"Oh, Cass wasn't a cheerleader," Kimberly replied.

Seeing the surprise on Skye's face, Bridget stepped in to explain about her best friend. "Cassie never had even the tiniest bit of interest in being a cheerleader. Most people that didn't know her would always be shocked to hear that. Why? Because she never missed one of our practices."

"What did she do at them?" Skye inquired.

"Mostly read. Tinsley and I were her best friends since before we started school. The three of us went everywhere up until high school. And even then, with Cassie's different interests, she wanted to spend time with us."

"Here, this should help explain what it was like," Rachel said, placing a photo down on the table. "I think you girls were eighth-graders here."

In the snapshot, several junior high girls could be seen in the background practicing their cheer routine. The foreground showed a young teenager lying on her back on the grass field. With girls shouting behind her, Cassie focused on a novel.

"And this would be my senior year, so her junior year," Gabriela said, adding another photograph.

A similar scene was shown, only now Cassie laid on her stomach on the school bleachers, reading while her closest friends practiced. Damn, for a bookworm, Aunt Cassie had one toned ass, thought Sean, even though he felt guilty to think it.

"If someone asked, Cassie would tell them that she wasn't on the squad, but to us, she was a member," Bridget said. "The junior varsity squad is coached by the assistant cheer coach. Miss Stall, the art teacher, was that coach, and she loved that Cassie wanted to be there with us."

"However, Mrs. Kessler, the varsity coach, hated it. She demanded that Cassie stay away from our practices. A stickler for the rules, Kessler could be such a bitch," Gabby further explained. "I believe you know her niece."

"Ugh, Mrs. Vutcher," Lacey groaned, earning head nods from the other high school students. They all dreaded dealing with the assistant principal in charge of school discipline.

"What happened?" asked a captivated Chastity.

"We revolted, refused to practice. There were a few seniors that didn't want to upset Kessler, but they came around to our side quickly," Rachel told her.

"Because you told them to," Gabby stated, proud of her best friend. "You were a great captain; you took charge of the problem."

"I may have helped, but I wasn't the person that convinced Kessler to drop the matter," Rachel said, turning to look at the others. "Kessler went to the principal, and he demanded we stop. Right there, in the middle of the meeting with several faculty members and us, Sela Wynwick walked to the front of the room. She announced her plans to quit the squad and do an interview with the town paper about the situation. Needless to say, the Wynwick name carries weight in this town, and our principal caved. An angry, embarrassed Kessler retired at the end of the school year, and Stall became the next head cheer coach."

"To us, Cassie was a cross between our squad manager and our squad mascot," Gabby explained. "Always worried about us, she made sure we had water to drink or played nurse if one of us got scratched or banged up."

"She might have had zero interest but was always willing to help. She'd even make suggestions," Bridget said, sliding over a picture of Cassie holding a boombox for a cheer performance at a football game.

"I had some good friends growing, but nothing like you girls. I'm envious of your friendships and wish I could have met Cassandra. Fred rarely talks about her; it seems like a sensitive subject for him," Skye remarked.

"I think my mom's dance squad was almost as close as you cheerleaders," Cheyenne spoke up. "But she also said they feuded amongst themselves sometimes."

"And with us," Gabby remarked proudly.

"Aw, look at this one," Lacey announced from the end of the kitchen island. The petite redhead carried over several photos. They showed a semi-circle of kindergarteners sitting in front of a teenager dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. "Aunt Cassie looks awesome."

"I don't remember this at all," Bridget stated in surprise. "Where did these come from?"

"They're mine," Kimberly replied. "This would have been when we were still fifteen, so early winter of our sophomore year. Cassie and I would go and help out for the storytime events at the public library."

"Even as a teenager, she looks like the teacher I had when I was in her class," Lacey recalled. "Her storytime was amazing. She would dress up and do all the characters in different voices."

"For someone so shy, Cass would come alive when reading to those kids. It was like this hidden side of her. I tried...but could never be...as good as..." Kimberly struggled to finish but choked up as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Rachel moved to hug the crying platinum blonde as the other older women's eyes glistened. Chastity appeared close to sobbing. The domino effect caught up to the compassionate Lacey as she began to tear up. Once again, Sean placed a soothing arm around her.

"Cassie was the best person I could ever know. I miss her every day," Kimberly managed to finish, wiping her eyes. "Someone, please find happy ones before I cry again."

"Ooh, look at these fine, young women ready to dance the night away," Gabby announced, doing just that. "I know we have the group shot around here somewhere in this mess."

"You mean in that dress of yours that the chaperones called indecent?" Rachel recalled with a giggle.

"Hey, I was ahead of my time. Nowadays, that dress would barely raise an eyebrow. Maybe a few cocks." Gabby flashed an innocent look when Bridget reminded her that Sean was in the room.

Trying to ignore Jared's mother's comment, Sean and Lacey studied the photo that Bridget informed them was from her junior prom. Cassandra wore a dark green, elegant and tasteful dress that went well with her auburn hair and pale skin. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Tinsley wore an eye-catching hot pink dress. It was a tiny piece of garment on an equally tiny girl; it was strapless at the top and came to mid-thigh at the bottom. They were so pretty back then, Lacey thought while Sean's eyes zoned in on Tinny's low-cut top.

"I'm fairly sure that if Gabby's dress hadn't been so shocking, then the teachers would have been complaining about Tin's dress. That thing struggled to stay up all night with her energetic dancing," Bridget recalled with a smile.

"That's because our principal was a horny pervert," Gabby remarked, laughing.

"Oh, I saw you in this dress just last spring, Mrs. Tarver. After Whitney won prom queen, we went looking through the collection of past winners. You look amazing," Lacey commented. Bridget wore a long, deep blue formal dress. A plunging neckline showed off her prominent bust, with a slit to her upper thigh showing off her smooth leg. Topping off the attire, a crown sat on Bridget's head.

Usually, Sean walked through life, never noticing his mother's beauty, or at least he could ignore it. But seeing her around his age showing off her figure caused some uncomfortable feelings to bubble up. Fuck me! No, no, no, don't think that about her. He quickly sought a way to change the subject from his mother's dress.

"So who was crowned prom queen your junior year?" he asked Rachel and Gabriela.

"Sela always won those awards. Prom queen junior year, homecoming queen, and Miss Snowflake our senior year," Gabby replied.

"Our grade had a different winner for every dance," Kimberly recounted. "Besides Bridget for prom, Annette St. Pierre won homecoming in the fall of senior year, and then Tinsley the Miss Snowflake that December.

"Whitney took two out of three for us. If she were nicer, Sienna might have won more than Miss Snowflake a few weeks ago," Lacey stated.

The sound of the front door opening and slamming shut brought a pause to the conversation. Shortly after, footsteps brought a smile to the redhead's face as her boyfriend walked over. Lacey gave Austin a brief hug, which he struggled to return. "We're looking at old pictures our moms brought."

"Back so soon?" Rachel questioned her husband.

"Yeah, some people got bored rather fast," Clive commented, motioning toward Austin. "And Fred...I'll tell you later."

"Oh, okay," Rachel replied, sensing that her husband was upset.

"Hey, kids. Does one of you have the phone number for your uncle's cabin?" Clive inquired. Always the prepared one, Ellie rattled the number off from memory. "Thanks, I forgot to tell them something. Uh, I'll use the phone in Harvey's den."

"Tinsley sent over some great ones from our cheer days," Bridget announced as Clive left the kitchen. She scrolled through the images on Harvey's laptop as everyone crowded around her to see.

Clad in their gold uniforms with black trim, the cheerleaders appeared in photos performing at football and basketball games. Lacey clapped with glee several times at photos of the team's highflyers getting launched into the air. Rachel mentioned how all three of the smallest girls were juniors that year. Tinsley, Kimberly, and Rain, a Japanese-American girl, allowed them to be much more creative than in years past with their routines.

Austin's attention perked up when he saw his mother, Miranda, and her best friend, Annette, appear on the screen. In many ways, it felt like he was looking at Aurora and Beyza with only slight differences in their faces. Too bad Beyza never became a cheerleader. I bet she would look hot in those new styles of uniforms. The horny quarterback also appreciated the bodies of the other women. The tits on Lacey's mom always caught his eye, and he begrudgingly admitted that Sean's mom looked incredible.

"Here's the six juniors on the squad that year," Bridget announced. Three girls stood in the picture, with three more sitting on their knees in front of their cheermates. "There's Tinsley, Kimberly, and Rain Onishi in the front. Then me, Annette St.Pierre, Beyza's mom, and Austin's mom, Miranda Underwood."

"So most of your friends on the squad now have children that go to school together? That's so cool!" Skye remarked.

"Besides me, Rain's the only other one there that didn't have kids," Kimberly informed Skye. "Rain was a brainy girl, who we all knew would go places."

"Last I heard, she was working overseas for Diamond Corp, but that was years ago," Rachel said. "I need to remember to ask Harvey if she's still with them."

"Ooh, ooh! I know, I know!" Chastity bounced up and down.

"Yes, Miss Kupp," Rachel said, acting as if she called on a student in class.

"Ms. Onishi is still on the payroll but on a special project," the honey blonde revealed.

"Well, that's good to know."

"And there's our grade," Gabby announced. "There's Rachel, our captain, Sela Wynick, the co-captain, and myself. Then there's Lauren Caputo, Alexis Laffont--ugh, this must be from right at the start of the year if she's in this one."

"Who?"

"Triana Taft. Gawd, she was always a problem."

"Taft? As in--"

"Yes, Sean, that's Micah's aunt," Rachel said, cutting him off. Lacey felt relieved that Ramsey wasn't around. The subject of her ex-boyfriend could depress her friend.

"Here, this is a better one," announced Bridget. Now instead of a tall, blond-haired girl, a short, dark-skinned girl stood with her cheermates."

"Holy smokes, what happened?" Chastity asked, befuddled.

"Triana and Sela never could get along. So when Rachel and Sela were voted captain and co-captain at the end of junior year, Triana was pissed. She fumed all summer over it. Then a month into senior year, a big blow-up occurred after the thing with Cassie and Mrs. Kessler," Gabriela recounted.

"I still wonder if Carmella Zuccaro, sorry, Carmella Bruno pushed her to make a scene," Rachel added.

"Oh, you know she did! Carmella wanted to embarrass you!" Gabby insisted on a point she'd argued over for more than twenty years.

"Why would anyone want to embarrass you?" Skye asked in surprise. Rachel seemed like one of the nicest persons she had ever met.

Rachel sighed. "There's been a long-running feud between Carmella's family and mine for decades. I'm not even sure where it started. Maybe our great-grandmothers? All I know is that my mom never took part in it, but my aunt and Carmella's mother were bitter rivals in high school. Our older sisters took it to another level. When we ended up on the sophomore cheer squad, I told her I had nothing to do with it and hoped we could be friends or at least be civil to each other."

"Yeah, that worked well."

"Gabs, I needed to try. Now, my mom's side of the family had a long tradition of being the cheer captain. The JV captains are appointed, unlike the varsity squad. So I was appointed the captain and Carmella the co-captain. It was a long year, and when our junior year started, she chose to join the Sugarbees instead of returning to the cheer squad."

"The sophomore squad has eight members, but the varsity has only twelve members. So you can see that most years, there's going to be a few girls that don't make the squad when we move up to the eleventh grade. Sometimes those rejected girls join the dance squad, the Sugarbees. Some girls prefer to dance anyways. But some bitter ex-cheerleaders end up there too," Gabby explained. "Carmella exploited that bitterness both our junior and senior years."

"Carmella convinced my mom not to attend the varsity cheer squad tryouts. They were close friends back then, so Mom became a Sugarbee. But she never liked Triana," Cheyenne recounted. "That whole rivalry is what turned me off from wanting to be on either squad."

"Triana started a fight at our third football game, quit the team, and joined her close friend, Carmella, on the dance squad. The rivalry was heated that year. Their co-captain, Valentina Campos, Caterina's mom, tried to keep the peace, but she was outnumbered," Rachel related. "To replace Triana, we chose to promote the best sophomore to varsity. That was Shayla Cooke."

"Delilah O'Dell's mom and Jayden's aunt," Lacey revealed to Austin and Sean. The petite redhead had heard the stories about the infighting and rivalries so often that it was part of her childhood memories.

"Shayla was a natural. It's somewhat surprising that her daughter didn't take after her," Kimberly said, prompting Lacey to explain.

"We loved Delilah on the squad in tenth grade, but her heart wasn't into it. She's an incredible dancer, so it made sense for her to join the Sugarbees. And just like Cat's mom, Delilah's tried to cool down the rivalry. Too bad she wasn't voted captain over Bianca Zuccaro."

"Wait, there's more of these Zuccaros?" Skye asked.

"Oh yeah. Lana and Teresa Zuccaro carried on the feud as captains of the two teams. They hate each other. Her sister, Bianca, thinks we're mortal enemies, but I don't have any interest in that. As long as she stops trying to steal Austin, I don't want to argue with her."

"Don't worry, Lace. I'm not interested in her," Austin said, making Lacey's heart melt. It's probably a good thing that I never mentioned how often Bianca flirts with me. Now that's a girl that won't take no for an answer.

A sharp cry came from Bridget. The others had turned away from the laptop during the story of the cheer and dance squads. Now they turned back with curiosity.

"Why that little shit! It looks like there's photo evidence of our carwash fundraiser!"

"Oh, no," Rachel groaned while Kimberly moaned, putting her face in her hands. Only Gabby appeared excited over the announcement.

"Really? I thought Cassie said she threw out the rolls of film?"

"That's what she promised to do, but they went missing from her bag before she could. It looks like Tinny's the little thief," Bridget responded.

"Wait, carwash fundraiser? Do you mean THE carwash fundraiser? The one so scandalous that the school banned them afterward?" Lacey asked in awe. That fundraiser had turned into almost an urban legend over the last twenty years.

"Whoa, even I heard of this thing," Cheyenne sounded in awe.

"That's the one."

"Holy shit, it is!" Gabby screamed in joy.

"What's the big deal with this fundraiser?" asked Skye.

"Is there something wrong with washing cars?" Chastity questioned.

"The squad's co-captain is usually put in charge of holding the first fundraiser in late August for the squad every year. Sela, our co-captain, passed the chore onto Gabby. You've met Gabriela. Imagine what her wilder version in high school would dream up," Rachel said dryly.

"Oh, my."

"My finest moment. I don't care what anyone else said," Gabby proudly stated.

"The normal setup for a carwash fundraiser is in a fast-food parking lot, but Gabby wanted to make it an event. She somehow convinced Sela to let us a house owned by her family that was set to be torn down. It gave us way more room. I had my concerns, but she kept on telling me to trust her."

"And it was an awesome idea, Rachel. It gave us a little more privacy to wear those bikinis I picked out for everyone."

"You spent more than we usually made on those bikinis!"

"And we set a record for the most money we ever raised, and that's with the police shutting us down early," Gabby bragged. Leaning over to take control of the laptop, she quickly found an image of herself. "Doesn't that bikini look worth the money?"

On the screen, a younger Gabriela flaunted her body in a scandalously tiny purple bikini. Her ample tits poured out of the small triangles, barely covering her nipples. The next image showed a minuscule thong that one could almost overlook in-between her firm ass cheeks.

She next appeared with her arm around a blushing Kimberly, decked out in a similar brown version of Gabby's bikini.

"Oh, gawd!" moaned the platinum blonde at her image.

"Uh, maybe Sean and Austin shouldn't see these ones," Bridget said, glancing at the two teenage boys who stared hungrily at the computer screen.

"What about RJ?" Robin teased.

"Well, his mom's not in these, so I guess."

"Nonsense, this is history that they're seeing!" Gabby declared.

Despite disliking each other, the two guys turned to look at each other in shock at how their day was turning out. They both gave a subtle nod before turning back to the screen.

"Holy crap! Mom, I've...never... you look like Lana!" Lacey stammered out.

"Whoa," whispered Sean.

"Fuck me," Austin murmured.

Rachel Stratton (then Rachel McCraken) wore a gold bikini that looked even more obscene on her than Gabby's. The largest pair of breasts on the squad, the gold top worked as a pushup bra, making her tits look huge. With her hair up in a ponytail, Rachel likely showed the most skin in her life, outside of being naked.

"Don't be embarrassed, Rach. You look fucking hot!" Gabriela yelled at her humiliated friend. Turning to the teens, she added, "See, sometimes peer pressure works."

Sean and Austin nodded in awe. Both of their dicks were now hard as rocks and brushing the sides of Lacey's waist on each side. Yet, the petite redhead didn't notice as she stood flabbergasted at the sight of her mom in the past.

A dark-haired Lauren Caputo turned her body away as a stream of water from a hose drenched her yellow bikini. Tinsley Day laughed maniacally as she next turned the hose on a screaming Sela Wynwick, clad in a gray bikini.

"I can't believe you bought Sela a gray bikini. You know how petrified she was of her hair turning gray," Bridget commented.

"Yeah, I would say she was a little pissed, but not as pissed as when Tinny turned that hose on her hair. I've always wondered if she was already dyeing it back then," Gabby responded.

"Well, does anyone even know for sure if she dyes it now?" Kimberly questioned.

"I think so. Very few of the Wynwicks don't go gray by thirty. Look at her sister, Fiona; she went full-on silver-haired by her mid-twenties," Bridget replied. She then pointed to a blonde girl around twelve in a one-piece swimsuit, who held a sign with prices for the fundraiser. "Fiona's hair practically looked the same as her sister's."

"I'm pretty sure we screwed up her and the rest of the kids for life that day," Rachel speculated with an uneasy look on her face.

"I'm pretty sure Teddy had memories to keep him horny for years from that day," Gabby joked, about Tinsley's younger brother, who held a sign promoting the carwash.

"My mom accused me of corrupting Brandy that day. Hey, she's the one that told the customers there was a tame line, a medium-level line, and a wild line. And that the prices varied per line," Bridget related, still in shock that her little sister thought that idea up.

"Aunt Brandy was there with you?"

"Well, she couldn't stay home by herself," Bridget replied to her son.

"Here's the so-called wilder wash," Gabby announced.

Of course, she was a part of that group. Triana Taft appeared to be pinching her nipples to flaunt in her white bikini as Alexis Laffont shook her head in her striped swimsuit. Annette St. Pierre's leopard print bikini sent a jolt through Sean's cock as he thought back to the times he spent at her house when he dated Beyza. Jesus, maybe I screwed up not giving my all to Bezya. She's hot and might turn out to be wilder than I imagined based on her mom's behavior when she was younger. The blonde-haired girl standing next to her in an orange bikini caused more comments.

"Damn, your mom looks sexy, Austin!" Lacey exclaimed. Miranda Underwood, an uptight woman, usually wore middle-of-the-road outfits.

"Yeah, she does look--I mean, she looks a lot like Aurora," Austin said, earning a smirk from several people around the room who caught his slip up. Damn, Mom does look incredible. Why doesn't she dress more like that these days? Is it because Dad won't let her?

Sean's delight at Austin's discomfort quickly faded as he saw the next picture. Tinsley, wearing a pink bikini, appeared to be singing as she held a turned-off hose nozzle to her mouth like a microphone. Sharing the microphone was a breathtaking beauty in a black bikini, her breasts swaying to the side as she likely swung her hips while singing. Sean's efforts to never notice his mother's hotness failed at this moment. He took in every detail—the sexy, devilish look on her face, flawless skin, smooth legs, and amazing breasts. I'm not checking out my mom's tits. I'm not checking out my mom's tits. Holy fuck, her tits are amazing! Blinking several times, he managed to pry his eyes away from the screen, but not before noticing both Kimberly and Gabriela looking at him.

Luckily, Bridget didn't see her son's gaze as she took back control of the laptop from Gabby. The next series of images showed a younger group of teenagers in mix-matched bikinis and one-pieces washing a car. Some of the girls looked to be having a good time, but others looked awkward. Sean realized these girls would be the sophomore squad.

"You see, look at all those cars!" Gabby pointed out to the large circular driveway and lawn packed with cars, along with a line of vehicles that appeared to stretch down the block.

The pictures escalated in their sexual teasing of the car owners. Annette appeared to continuously brush against the teenage boys or young men whose cars she washed. Miranda looked uneasy at her friend's antics but occasionally allowed her best friend to dance or rub on her to the men's delight. Triana seemed to be grinding into one middle-aged man. Tinny, bent over to clean a tire, had her ass slapped by Bridget. Gabby topped them all by washing a windshield with her bikini-covered breasts. It became apparent that the thin bikinis the co-captain bought for the squad turned semi-transparent when they were wet, showing off numerous nipples. The vigorous washing also flashed nipples, if not whole breasts, at times. Thongs slide all the way into ass cracks, leaving almost nothing to the imagination.

Sean felt relieved not to see his father nor any of his close friends' fathers among the leering men. The side of one guy's head looked like a Tarver, but it wasn't his father. It could've been one of his dad's cousins. Either a young Principal Manske or a relative of his appeared to greatly appreciate Rain's slim figure. Elliot Ridge appeared, but to his nephew and nieces' relief, he looked to be joking around with several girls. He didn't have that creepy stare in his eyes like many watchers. With several guy friends, Graham Diamond looked to be more embarrassed than excited about attending the event. He seemed to be forcing his eyes to meet Bridget's as they chatted.

"Here come the party poopers. Boo!" Gabby announced as one picture showed a police car driving down the road. Another image had two cop cars parked amongst the cheerleaders. Gabby appeared to be arguing with one officer while Rachel tried to explain the situation to another cop, whose eyes were zeroed in on her cleavage.

"Wow, the police actually came and shut you girls down?" Skye asked in disbelief.

"They claimed they were getting complaints about indecent behavior," Gabriela said, using air quotes for the last two words. "I'll believe until the day I die that it was Carmella and her minions that kept on calling the police to complain."

"Wait until Whitney sees all this. She and Cat often speculate over what happened to cause a lifetime ban of carwash fundraisers," Lacey remarked, shocked by some of the images she saw of her mother and her friends.

"These pictures are not to be shared. It's bad enough you saw them," Rachel said towards the teens as she slammed the laptop closed. Lacey's mother was clearly embarrassed by her past actions.

"It's not like we can't just have Tinny send another set of them, Rach," Gabby commented. "I'm not ashamed of what we did. It was a fun time. I know Jeff would love to finally see how I looked that day after hearing the story over the years. And Jules' cheer squad back home never banned carwash fundraisers."

"I think it's fabulous that you guys were friends back then and are still so close today. There looks to be a ton of pictures here that you haven't even gone through yet," Skye gushed. "I would love to see more, but what led to everyone deciding to bring them here for the trip?"

"We figured it was a good time to bring together all the pictures we had of Cassie because of the charity ball," Bridget explained.

"The New Year's Eve ball? What's that have to do with it?" Skye asked, perplexed.

"The literary charity we started in honor of Cassie is the featured organization for the ball," Bridget responded. An awful feeling crept into her body as she spoke.

"I-I didn't know," Skye stuttered.

Silence overtook the room as everyone looked at the young girlfriend in surprise and shock. As Bridget's words sunk in, Skye's face showed a range of emotions. The rest of the room began to look at each other in disbelief and discomfort. Before anyone could ask the obvious question, the door from the sunroom slammed open.

Whitney stormed in, her untied robe swinging around to show off her dripping wet bikini and body. Taking a quick assessment of the room's occupants, she roared. "Where's my father?"

"Uh, at the Vandermeers," Austin answered.

"Hrmph!" Whitney clenched her fists as she started stomping over to the stairs.

"Whitney, what's wrong?" Bridget asked in concern.

"Everything!"