Sharon was a student at a Catholic girl's boarding school, and had been for some time. Her strictly religious parents thought it essential to instil in her a religious sensibility, although why they believed this despite their divorce was beyond her. She didn't really mind. The school was well run and chose students based more on their abilities than their parent's wealth, meaning that most of her classmates were keen, intelligent students. It was her life, and she was comfortable there.
The school was nestled in the hills a few minutes down the road from a small town in upstate New York. It was set back from the road; a long driveway ran for almost a mile across a heavily wooded hill before reaching the wide lawns that surrounded the school buildings themselves. The woods stretched unbroken along both sides of the grounds to the wide river at the back of the property. To protect against unnatural sins of the flesh, the sisters employed only women to cook and clean in the school. Most of the work was done by students from poorer families making up a part of their tuition. Even the groundskeeping was contracted out to a woman who employed mostly students, and only brought men in to work during hours when the entire student body was in lectures. In short, Saint Ann's was a world unto itself.
Sharon knew that some of the older students occasionally slipped away at night to meet boys' cars waiting on the road. The girls claimed that if they seduced you against your will, it was technically a venial and not a mortal sin, but even so she had never been interested in trying. What for? You'd be expelled if you were ever caught off the grounds at night, and all that ever came of it was the occasional pregnancy. Sharon didn't see the point. She was happy with her life at Saint Ann's-- especially after she met Teresa.
Teresa had also been at Saint Ann's for several years, but hadn't been in many of Sharon's classes. The school was big enough that you didn't always know everyone in your grade, but when they both turned fifteen they were able to choose some of the courses they took, and so their common interests had placed them together in music history. Teresa had noticed Sharon on the first day of classes. She walked into the classroom and scanned the room, and Sharon's quiet, friendly smile immediately invited her to the empty seat beside her. Teresa beamed, and crossed over to where her new friend sat. "Hi!" she said, as she sat and smoothed her plaid skirt. "I'm Teresa!"
"My name's Sharon. Nice to meet you," the other replied. The two chatted about some of the courses they had chosen to take and their hopes for the school year. After music history was lunch, and they walked to the dining room together, still engrossed in conversation. By the time their meal was over, the two had become firm friends.
The next morning, Sharon discovered that Teresa was also in her gym class. Well, that was one consolation, she thought. Gym was always her least favourite subject, but at least now she had someone to talk to. As the stern Sister Agatha made them do laps around the track outside to warm up, Sharon found herself watching as Teresa ran past her in fine form. Her braids swung from side to side, and her loose nylon gym shorts were falling up and down with each stride as her thin young thighs flashed back and forth. I bet she's quite an athlete, Sharon thought, as she tried to keep up. In her distraction, she drifted to one side of the track and bumped into another student before she looked up, startled. "Earth to Sharon! Wake up!" shouted Sister Agatha. Embarrassed, Sharon looked down at the track in front of her. Why am I such a daydreamer?, she wondered. But that didn't stop her from staring blankly at a wall with a grin on her face after Teresa flashed her a smile in the changing room later. What's wrong with me?, she thought. By the time she had recovered and changed into her school uniform, Teresa had left the room, and Sharon had to hurry to get to math class on time.
During the break before dinner, Sharon decided to go for a walk by herself along the river, since it was too early in the term for her to have much homework. It was a beautiful fall day, too early in September for her to need a jacket, although it would be cool that night. She walked along the forest on the north side of the lawn until she topped a small hill and the school was out of sight. The wildflowers growing in the brush at the tree line made her smile. It was nice to be back at Saint Ann's. This was her world: no matter how little her parents understood her, or how much it hurt to have them fight over who got custody of her during the summer, she had a place where she could make friends and be accepted for who she was. Here, if she followed the sister's rules and put effort into her homework, she would succeed. It was a place she could understand, unlike the capricious worlds of her parent's lives.
When she reached the river's bank, she turned right and took a trail that followed the water. It turned inland to skirt a small marsh replete with bulrushes that lay in a hollow, and then bounded away over the grassy knolls which were Saint Ann's yards. Further on, a line of trees guarded meadow from encroaching bank, and bushes grew thick on the water's edge. Sharon was happy, and found her thoughts wandering back to that morning's gym class. In her mind Teresa was running in front of her again, her chest heaving with exertion, her thighs thrusting strongly past each other again and again in endless succession, her head turning ever so slowly as she looked around to smile at Sharon with light pink lips and with her warm inviting eyes...
Someone shouted a greeting, and Sharon jumped. Two older students were sitting on the bank beside a tree, smiling and waving at her, not twenty feet away. "Hi", she managed, and blushed as she waved back. "What's going on?" Sharon wondered. She regained her composure as she walked on. Those girls would think I was nuts if they knew I was daydreaming about Teresa, she thought, and forced herself to bring her breathing back to normal. I've got to stop this. She turned back towards the school buildings. As she glanced back at the girls, one put her hand around the other and leaned on her shoulder, the river bubbling in the background.
Sharon's roommate's parents lived only an hour away from the school, and took their daughter home most weekends. So, when Sharon and Teresa got together to work on their homework for English the next Saturday, it was only natural that they meet in her room. For some reason, Sharon felt apprehensive about having Teresa over. She found herself nervously straightening up her room, and checking her appearance in the mirror. There wasn't much to do-- makeup was frowned on by the nuns, and the school uniform was mandatory. For some reason, though, she wanted Teresa to like the place.
Promptly at ten, there was a knock on the door. Sharon jumped up to answer it, smoothing her hair as she walked across the room, and taking a breath to regain her composure. Teresa was at the door, grinning, with a few textbooks clutched to her chest. "Come in!" Sharon said. "How are you?" She giggled nervously.
"I'm great, thanks. I would have come earlier, but we had pancakes for breakfast in my wing and I spilt some syrup on my blouse, and I had to wash it off." Sharon looked, and saw a small damp spot on Teresa's shirt, above her right breast. She found her eyes drawn to it for some reason.
"Oh, uh, that's fine," she managed. "Here, sit down. Umm, what story were you thinking of writing about?" Their assignment had been to describe the plot and character development of a novel they had read during the summer. Sharon and Teresa were planning to critique each other's papers, since Teresa had taken English with this teacher before, and knew what she expected of her students.
"I know it's kind of cheesy, but I wanted to write about Anne of Green Gables. I read it for the first time last month. I suppose it's sort of a kids' book, but I really liked it." Teresa came into the room and sat on the vacant bed.
"I think that's a great idea!" replied Sharon, who had always been fond of that book. She giggled. "You know, you even look a little like Anne. Your hair is sort of reddish, and you even have little freckles on your nose."
"Do not!" shouted Teresa, who grabbed a pillow and threw it at her, laughing. She jumped across the room to where Sharon sat, and swatted her with another pillow. "I don't have freckles! They're ugly. You take that back!" She pushed Sharon down on her bed, and held her there.
"Whatever you say, freckle face," Sharon said, and grinned as she looked up at Teresa. For a moment longer, Teresa playfully held her down on the bed and held her gaze. Sharon's heart raced as she looked up into her friend's eyes, and then the moment was over, and Teresa was sitting back down on the bed beside her. She finally broke the silence.
"So, you've read that book too?"
"Oh, uh, yeah," Sharon replied, and smoothed her hair. "Um, what were you going to say about, um, imagery in the novel?" They settled down to business, and soon had come up with outlines for their short essays the other agreed with. From time to time, Sharon found herself staring blankly at the slowly drying damp patch on Teresa's shirt, but fortunately, her friend didn't seem to notice. Eventually, they agreed to meet the next afternoon to check their math homework answers with each other, and Teresa stood up and excused herself. There was a field hockey tryout in half an hour, and she had to go warm up.
"See you tomorrow," Teresa said, as she gathered up her books.
"Yeah, see you." Sharon stood and opened the door. Teresa turned and gave her a perfunctory peck on the cheek, then turned and was gone. Sharon found herself watching as her friend strode off purposely down the hall, plaid skirt swaying behind her. After Teresa turned the corner, Sharon walked back to her bed and sat down to write out the paper they had planned together. Her mind kept wandering, however, as over and over it replayed the moment when Teresa had held her down on the bed, about to... what?
Something about that scene had confused her, but no explanation seemed forthcoming. Sharon's mind eventually turned to her paper, which at least she understood, and resolved to think more about Teresa's actions later.
Later that weekend, Sharon found time to phone a friend of hers from home. Ashleigh was the daughter of a couple her parents had known for years, and the two girls had known each other for most of their lives. Ashleigh attended a public school near her house, and thought Sharon was nuts for preferring the quiet boarding school life.
As usual, the conversation soon turned to Ashleigh's current romantic obsession, who in this case was a boy named Brian whom she had met at school. Ashleigh, as always, was hopelessly smitten and completely gaga over her latest find; although Sharon soon found out that the object of her affections was not as of yet aware of them.
"Oh, Sharon, I know you'd just love him! He's got the cutest smile ever, and he looks so nice in this pair of snug jeans he wears sometimes!"
"Really. How is he any better than your last flavour-of-the-month?"
"Sharon, you just don't understand. He's so adorable. And I waved at him when I saw him at his locker yesterday, and he, like, totally smiled back at me."
"Can't you think about anything else?"
"I guess... but I don't really want to. Oh, don't huff at me."
"Sorry."
"And besides, are you telling me you didn't meet anyone last summer? You must have seen lots of cute boys when you were working at that big bookstore. Lots of people go through there."
"I got all the dumb ones."
"No special someone to make you go dreamy, too?"
"Nope. And there's no boys here, anyway. I guess I'll just have to study instead."
"You do that. Look, I gotta go, my dad's calling. Talk to you later, 'kay?"
"Sure, bye for now."
Sharon hung up the phone and sighed. Surely someday, she thought, she'd meet someone who'd make her go "dreamy", too. Why did it always happen to Ashleigh? Sure, she was pretty, but it wasn't just about looks, right? She sat back on her bed and gazed out the window.
From her third floor room, she could see the river at the edge of the school's yards, and the wooded hill that rose up from the opposite bank. The leaves were just beginning to change colour on the tops of the hills, and she found the warm red patches of her landscape comforting. Soon the trees would stand bare as the last of the summer left them, reminding her that nothing lasted forever.
Ashleigh's words came back to her. Her friend had always maintained that you could tell when you were in love because you acted like a goof. So far, she was taking this on faith. Maybe I just don't get that way, she thought. Granted, over the past week or two she had been a little bit scatterbrained, but for some reason it had been happening around Teresa, so that didn't count. That would mean she had a crush on another girl, but that was a silly idea.
Sharon suddenly felt lonely as she sat by herself in her room. Normally she enjoyed these brief periods of quiet in her weekly routine, but she was jealous of her friend's success in love and her long history of failures. There had been a couple of dates, mostly arranged by well-meaning friends, but somehow nothing had come of those boys and she had always ended up alone at the end of the evening.
I guess I just have to keep myself happy, she mused. She thought back to those few, furtive make out sessions with over-eager boys in backseats and basement recrooms. She hadn't wanted to do anything more with them at the time, but now she realized that she had wanted wanting to, wanted to be passionately carried away on wings of desire. Yes, that would be wonderful...
Looking down, Sharon realized that she had been absently stroking herself. I guess I do want sex, she thought-- I wonder who with. Her hand was pressing firmly now, and she could feel a desire building inside her. Pausing only to look up quickly to check that the door was locked, she lay back down on her bed and began undoing the buttons of her blouse with her left hand. She pulled the blouse out from her skirt, and reached up to cup her breasts with one hand, leaving the other in her lap. Her fingers slid under the material of her bra, and she kneaded her breast intently, pulling lightly on her nipple. Her lips parted slightly as it came erect and caught her fingers.
Sharon pulled the bottom of her bra up to expose her breasts, and started to create a mental image for her fantasy. In her mind, she called up a young man who had been a regular customer of hers at the bookstore. They had chatted a few times about various authors. She tried to imagine that it was his hands caressing her breast, that he was the one who pulled up her plaid skirt to her waist in order to expose her underwear. It was his hand that slipped under her waistband and ran a finger lightly along the length of her sex, spreading wetness along her lips. Her invisible lover teased her, and then slowly inserted a finger, moving it in and out while keeping pressure with a palm on her clitoris. Slowly at first, and then increasingly faster, her lover pleasured her and stoked her desire, until she looked up at her imaginary partner and saw, as she arched back in the throes of passion, Teresa.
Sharon's mouth opened in astonishment, but all that escaped was a low moan as her climax crashed down upon her. Oh, my god!, she thought. I just fantasized that I was being fingered by Teresa. What's wrong with me! As the afterglow of her orgasm wore off, she felt confused and betrayed by her body, although at the same time she immediately knew that it hadn't been an accident. What if she finds out? She'll think I'm a freak! What if she never wants to talk to me again? Sharon lay dishevelled on the bed, not moving. What the hell am I going to do about this, she wondered. If her love life had seemed difficult before, it looked impossible now. Why do I get hot over this girl? How could I ever hope that she would be interested in me? It all seemed so unfair. If only I could be like Ashleigh-- or better yet, be that boy from the store, so that I could have a chance with Teresa. The utter impossibility of that just served to make her more depressed, however, and so, unable to think of anything better do, Sharon decided to lay on the bed and watch the imminent autumn roll down the hills towards the school.
No longer knowing how to act around Teresa, and not trusting herself to behave as if she wasn't infatuated with her, Sharon began finding ways to avoid spending time with her friend. By now, they had become accustomed to passing evenings and going on walks together. Thinking back, Sharon began to see how the crush on her friend had grown. She had attended a field hockey game with no possible motive other than to watch Teresa play, and to congratulate her when her team won. How great it had been to hug Teresa as she came off the field, jumping and cheering for her team, with her hair tucked back in a tight ponytail and a healthy glow radiating from her sweaty body. She had even taken up jogging so as to join Teresa on long runs around the property, to the astonishment of her parents, when she had told them during a phone call home. Teresa had goaded her into it, although she hadn't needed much convincing for someone as disinclined towards exercise as she was. Now Sharon began to plead too much homework and stayed in her room to study, although as often as not she'd sit at the window to watch Teresa as she ran away from the school buildings and over the hill along the tree line, and then sit with the mental image of Teresa running along the path in her head instead of French verb charts or the capitals of Europe.
She and Teresa had become accustomed to doing their math homework together. They were in different classes, but had the same teacher, who always assigned her classes precisely the same exercises, and had probably been using the same ones for twenty years. Now, however, Sharon kept finishing the assignments on her own, or at least claiming to, because she felt awkward spending time alone in her small room with Teresa, with no one around to rescue her from potentially embarrassing situations. Teresa, for her part, was becoming very frustrated by this behaviour. It was clear to her that Sharon still greatly enjoyed spending time with her, but at the same time, she was limiting how often it happened. Teresa wanted to see her friend more often, and was getting annoyed at being rebuffed. After two weeks of this, the situation came to a head when Sharon mentioned wanting to work together on a music project with Teresa while chatting in the library one evening, and then suddenly changed her mind and fled back to her room. Furious, Teresa stalked deliberately down the hall to the dormitories and flung open Sharon's door, where she found her friend lying face down on the bed with her head in her arms, crying into her pillow.
"What the hell's wrong with you!" Teresa shouted as she slammed the door behind her. "Why don't you like me anymore!"
Sharon turned over and sat up on the bed. "Teresa, I do like you. I really like you, honest."
"So why have you been running away from me and avoiding me?"
"If I tell you, you'll never talk to me again", Sharon sobbed.
Teresa stood beside the bed with her arms crossed, pouting, and glaring at Sharon. "Look, it's okay if I you're mad at me because I did something. But if we're friends, I have a right to know what this is about, because I have no idea. All I know is that you started acting weird. We were best friends, and then last evening, you wouldn't even let me give you a hug. Don't you want to hug me anymore?"
"Sure I do, Teresa." Sharon had settled down a little by this point; her eyes were still red, but her breathing had calmed down.
"Then give me a hug so I know you're not cross with me."
Sharon began to get up, and then stopped herself. "Okay", she said, and looked up at her friend defiantly. With a rush of courage, she stood up, seized Teresa's head in her hands, and kissed her full on the mouth.
"I still want to be your friend, but I have this crush on you and I didn't know how to tell you," she continued, awkwardly looking away. "And now you'll probably never want to see me again."
Teresa recovered from her surprise, and looked at her friend with new understanding. "This was about a crush? Why didn't you just tell me that?"
"You mean you wouldn't have minded?"
"No. Come on, that happens all the time."
"But... I mean, I thought you'd be mad, because you don't like me like that. And I can't be in love with you because, well, you're..."
"A girl?" finished Teresa, rolling her eyes. "Who else would you have a crush on around here? You're not the first one around here to fall for another student."
With slowly dawning realization, Sharon asked, "Really?"
"Sure. The older girls do it all the time. As long as you're not too overt about it, the sisters don't mind." Several things Sharon had seen at the school over the past few years began to make more sense as this new knowledge slowly sunk in. "In fact," Teresa continued, "I kind of had a crush on you too, but when you didn't react when I tried to flirt with you I figured you weren't interested."
"You tried to flirt with me?"
"I don't just hug anyone, you know."
"You didn't `just hug' me."
"That's right. I used to do this, too." With that, Teresa leaned over and planted a soft kiss on Sharon's cheek. "Did you think I was like that with everyone?" she asked, and stroked her hand along Sharon's arm to reassure her.
"I guess I didn't think about it."
"Well, now you know." Teresa encircled Sharon with her arms, and then leaned forward to give her a kiss. In total bliss, Sharon held Teresa and kissed her back. When they finally broke apart, Sharon had tears of joy shining in her eyes.
"Um, Teresa?"
"Yes?"
"Have you ever, like, had a girlfriend before?"
Teresa smiled, sat down, and patted the edge of the bed beside her. Sharon joined her, and Teresa put her arm around her shoulders. "Yes", she said, "I was seeing someone else from school for a while, but she was a little older than me and we broke up when she transferred away a year ago."
"Did you love her?"
Teresa looked over at the wall in front of her. "Well, I thought that maybe I did for a while, but no, I don't think so."
"What would you say if, um, I told you I loved you?"
Teresa reached for Sharon's hand, and gazed into her eyes. "I'd say I'm a very lucky girl."
Teresa leaned forward, and deliberately kissed Sharon's lips, who thought she had died and gone to heaven. "Um, Teresa?" she asked shyly, "What sorts of things do you do with your girlfriends?"
Teresa smiled, and said, "Let me show you."
Teresa kissed her again, and without breaking the kiss began to undo the buttons of Sharon's blouse. She pulled Sharon's shirt off her shoulders, and pushed Sharon's bra up and cupped her breasts from below, holding the nipples with her fingers while pushing her body down on the bed until she was lying on top of her. Sharon gasped and wrapped her arms around Teresa, holding her close as she mounted on top of her. Teresa began thrusting one thigh against Sharon's sex, making her uniform skirt ride up to her waist.
Sharon moaned, but retained the presence of mind to fumble for the buttons of Teresa's blouse and open it. While Teresa continued to ride her leg into her, Sharon hungrily tore aside Teresa's bra and began sucking her nipple. Soon the growing feeling between her legs drove even this thought from her mind, and Sharon could only grab onto Teresa's ass, clutching her lover tightly as she spasmed against her thigh, a small shriek escaping her lips before she collapsed back against the bed, spent.
Teresa leaned over, still panting as well, to kiss Sharon deeply. "Did you like that?" she asked.
Sharon looked back with love in her eyes. "You're even better in person than you are in my dreams," she answered.
"We're just getting started, lover", Teresa said, and ran her hands up Sharon's thighs. She grabbed Sharon's panties and pulled them down to her knees. Sharon kicked one foot free, and spread her legs wide, opening herself up to Teresa's eager hands, which lost no time in caressing her sex. Teresa gently ran a finger along Sharon's moist slit, and then slowly reached inside her, pulling her finger in and out while rubbing a thumb along the side of her clit.
Still thrusting with her fingers, Teresa leaned forward and kissed Sharon on the mouth as her eyes closed in ecstasy. She then bent down and began kissing Sharon's thighs, rubbing her face in the hair between her legs. She licked along the line between her thigh and crotch, then began kissing the area around her clit. Soon she was pumping two fingers into Sharon and licking her slit like a kitten on speed.
Sharon moaned and arched her back, clutching at Teresa and bucking her hips. Teresa sensed Sharon's climax approaching, and put a hand out over her mouth to stifle her noises. There was only so much you could get away with in a Catholic boarding school, unfortunately. Teresa continued her ministrations, and then suddenly Sharon's orgasm swept over her and collapsed gasping on the bed, while Teresa finished sucking up her sticky cream.
Sharon shuddered, and grabbed her lover's head. She pulled her up for a long, deep kiss, licking her own juice off Teresa's face. Finally, she lay back, and smiled. "Teresa?" said Sharon, as she ran a stray hand along her thigh. "Can I do that do you now?"
Teresa laughed. "I thought you'd never ask", she replied, and began undoing her skirt.
It was autumn again, and Sharon and Teresa were out walking behind the school. Once out of sight of the school they had wordlessly reached for each other, and now strolled hand in hand along the top of the riverbank. Together they came across a sheltered alcove and sat down together to watch the water. Teresa threw pebbles into the current while Sharon put her head in her lap and watched her.
Although they'd been together for almost a year now, Sharon still felt a sublime bliss lying in her lover's arms. She couldn't imagine being any happier than she was with the girl she loved. Despite her initial fear, no-one interfered with them at school: they weren't the only students in a relationship, and even the sisters were surprisingly understanding if you were willing to keep your relationship more or less discreet. And thanks to the school's policy of letting honour roll students have a say in choosing their dorm roommates, they had been living together since the start of the school year.
The past summer Teresa had come to visit her at home for a few weeks, and even shared her tent when they went on a camping trip with some old friends from the neighbourhood. Her mom was happy she'd made a new "friend" at school, although perhaps she'd wait a while before telling her just how close a friend Teresa was to her. It would be okay, she knew: her mom would understand eventually. But for now, she had a whole year away from her parents with Teresa, and she was going to enjoy every moment of it.
Teresa sat up, and tenderly gave her lover a kiss.
==============================================================
== I hope you liked my story! If you did, please write. ==
== Your kind words make me want to write more. Love, Jess. ==
==============================================================