by Jillian Neal
When Logan and Rainer had managed to collect enough maturity between them to stop howling with laughter, Logan had adamantly declared that he simply could not stay there, and begged Adeline to pick somewhere else.
A few minutes later, Adeline emerged from their bedroom. She was no longer wearing scrubs, and she was giving Logan and Rainer incredulous, albeit adoring, looks.
“You ready, baby?” Logan beamed at her.
“Yeah, I’m just gonna grab a Dr. Pepper,” she informed Logan. This had Rainer and Logan guffawing again as Adeline shook her head.
“I really, really miss Emily,” she sighed as she removed a Dr. Pepper from the refrigerator and headed to the garage.
Rainer opened the envelope Logan had handed him a few minutes earlier. He added it to a stack of car brochures that Emily’s brothers had compiled for Rainer, in an effort to help.
Anger and dejected sadness coursed through his veins. He fought not to pout. He reconsidered and removed the rather substantial check for the total worth of the Mustang from the envelope and put it in his wallet.
With a defeated sigh, he picked up his cell. Emily still hadn’t texted. Fionna, Emily, and Chloe were throwing a slumber party for Aida and all of her friends. Rainer knew Emily wouldn’t be able to text much that evening, but he desperately wanted to hear from her.
Emily had phoned her mother, and Mrs. Haydenshire had flown several large boxes containing popcorn, candy, movies, and silly string, via Capt. Namphis, to Rio. Garrett had picked it up for them. When the supplies had arrived, the girls were ready to party.
Loneliness swirled around Rainer. It threatened to drown him. He knew that he needed to get out of the house. He crawled into the Hummer and debated. He was certainly always welcome at the farmhouse. It would always be the home that had raised him, but he didn’t want to interrupt Logan and Adeline’s meeting with Jack.
The charges against Adeline were mounting, due to her mother’s venomous lies about why drugs were found in the apartment when she’d been arrested. She was blaming Adeline for everything. Thus far, Adeline had been given eight random urine tests in an effort to prove that she’d never used.
Rainer cranked the Hummer. There was always work to do. Maybe he could come up with something more damming in the evidence against Pendergrath.
Before he’d left work that evening, he’d come across some information on a man who had signed over his life savings to Pendergrath just before committing suicide. As the man had shown no signs of depression or erratic behavior, Rainer had spoken to the man’s ex-wife. Though she was not Gifted, she identified Pendergrath in a picture.
Vindico was set to interview her Monday, and Rainer decided he could sort through some more of the information on her case beforehand.
After he flashed his badge, he moved into the Iodex offices. The lights were still on. He was certain that Vindico was still working in his office. Vindico worked all weekend, every weekend. He was relentless.
As Rainer considered the loneliness that had driven him from his own home, he understood Vindico’s obsession so much more.
He sank down at his desk, and pulled up the files on his computer that he’d been working on earlier in the day.
His head shot up as he heard something crash in Vindico’s office. With his heart racing, Rainer pulled his pistol, chambered a round, and edged towards the closed office door. Then he heard laughter.
He leaned in and listened intently. A low moan and a voice that was distinctly Bridgette’s calling out Vindico’s name had Rainer holstering his weapon and moving from the door quickly. He cringed as Vindico began informing her that she liked it like that.
He broke out into a frantic sprint, fled through the Iodex doors, and bounded back into the Hummer. While willing his brain to forget everything he’d just heard, Rainer cranked the car and popped his phone into the speaker doc. He cranked up Radiohead as loud as the enhanced speakers would play.
14
Gifted Sex Ed. - 101
By Monday, Rainer was trying his best not to be irritated with everyone around him. He and Logan reported for the morning meeting, and then headed to Venton.
Clarence had spent the majority of his weekend in detention, and was being quite belligerent about the experience. They escorted him to his first class and stood outside the door, while Clarence began studying different ways to use the magnetrons that Gifted people had in their bodies.
“You ever done anything with the magnetron thing besides make popcorn?” Logan quizzed.
Rainer considered and then shook his head.
“Magnetrons are what make Gifted people able to pick up on all of the different energies in an area. They are essentially our radar,” Logan and Rainer listened to Mentor Sullivan explain.
“Oh,” Logan looked impressed. Rainer chuckled at the fact that he had a rather strong radar as an Ioses Predilect, but that he hadn’t really known how it worked.
Just then, Mentor Bryant approached Logan and Rainer. She smiled, and appeared to have just come from the Admin building. She’d been Emily’s Creative Writing Mentor, but Rainer hadn’t had her.
“Chancellor Wilshire asked me to give you this. We’re a little worried Clarence might cause trouble today, with everything going on. He wanted to make sure that you both attended his Health and Wellness class with him. He has to be in these classes. They’re required by the Senate.” She blushed slightly as Rainer furrowed his brow. Logan took the note from Mentor Bryant.
“Ok, sure, no problem.” Rainer wondered why they needed to be inside the classroom with Clarence.
“Thank you, Rainer. Tell Emily I said hello.” Mentor Bryant made a quick retreat.
Logan unfolded the note. “Ah geez, really, today?” He rolled his eyes and handed off the note to Rainer. Rainer flipped it over and began reading.
“Great,” he sighed. “It’s Amative and Erogenous Energies week. That’s perfect.” Rainer had been through a health and wellness class every year of his six years at the Academy. One week of each semester was dedicated to the energies related to having intercourse. He recalled those weeks of his adolescence as being extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing.
The male and female students were divided, and instructed on the energy created during lovemaking, ejaculation, and the energy in the release itself.
The ejaculate held the male DNA that would ultimately create a Gifted child. It was extremely potent, in terms of the sheer amount of energy it held.
All bodily fluids held the owner’s energy, but Rainer recalled that male ejaculate held more than any other bodily fluid. It was seconded by the female lubricant made just before having sex. Tears held a great deal of energy as well.
By Friday, every female on campus would have to have performed the cast to seal her womb for the school nurse, in order to pass the class. The first days of the week, the girls would be casted by the female mentors or campus nurses so that they could feel what it should feel like to be sealed off, and therefore be able to know if they’d performed the cast correctly on themselves.
This tended to make the majority of the boys on campus extremely lascivious in their knowledge that the girls on campus, for the next few days anyway, couldn’t be impregnated.
Anyone with any dating prospects at all was keenly aware of their partner’s sexual energies, as it was forced to the forefront of their mind. Many Gifted couples held off on having intercourse, because of their lack of knowledge of how to perform the cast and the fear of what might happen if it should be done incorrectly.
As Rainer recalled the sheer number of girls that had gotten pregnant while he was in school, he thought that the class should be taught the first week of school, with frequent reminders throughout the year.
The air on campus would be thick with erotic energy and tension. Rainer recalled the temptation to try to talk Emily into taking a drive with him many times during these particular weeks of the school year. His fear that she might not be ready and of disappointing
her parents had kept him from ever making the request.
When Emily had started asking, however, it became almost unbearable to even be at school during the Amative and Erogenous Energy week. His mind would be full to bursting with erotic thoughts of her, until he would be terrified she or someone else would notice the effects of thinking about her during class would cause.
“When is his health class?” Rainer quizzed dejectedly.
“Next,” Logan sighed as he showed Rainer the copy of Clarence’s schedule.
“Great.”
“At least my brothers aren’t here this year,” Logan offered hopefully.
Since most of the Haydenshires were only about a year apart in school, Connor, Cal, Levi, and Patrick had been in different years at the Academy when Rainer and Logan had begun. They’d had a great deal of fun harassing Logan and Rainer their first couple of years during Amative energies week.
It was a source of contention among Gifted families that the boys’ sexual energies classes provided them knowledge of other forms of birth control, but did not teach the boys the process of closing a woman’s womb. The reasoning had always been that it should be the woman’s choice if she was closed off.
However, a fair number of Gifted families felt strongly that the male participant should be able to seal her if he so chose, which always led to nasty letters and phone calls to the Academy during the week.
Once, a few parents had even picketed. The knowledge of how to close the female womb was widespread around the Academy. Rainer had been instructed in the proper way to close off a woman’s womb by Garrett.
There was a very small group of students on campus, led by Mentor Hannon, that would protest the class altogether. They believed that not educating the students on healthy sexual relationships, or on how to bring pleasure to your partner, or even how to seal the womb, would mean that students wouldn’t participate in the act.
That always seemed very far-fetched to Rainer. It was difficult to fight what you were genetically coded to do.
The Haydenshires had long been of the belief that it was a natural part of life, and that all of their children should be aware of the ways to have a healthy relationship. Communication was encouraged, and often thrust upon them randomly. That hadn’t seemed to make it any easier on the Governor when Rainer had started sleeping with Emily, however. Rainer smirked as he recalled those trying few weeks.
As all Academy classes ran for two and a half hours, Rainer glanced at his watch and tried not to think about Clarence in a Sex Ed. Class. He shuddered.
“What are we going to do when he starts acting like the prick he is?” Logan gestured toward Mentor Sullivan’s classroom.
“I don’t know, but it didn’t sound like we can take him out,” he reminded Logan of Mentor Bryant’s warning.
Logan nodded. “As if that class isn’t awkward enough without a kid like him in there.”
“Who’s teaching his health class?” Rainer hoped it was one of the rather mundane mentors. Logan flipped the schedule back open and shuddered. He closed his eyes in his horror.
“No,” Rainer pled, “please, no.”
Logan nodded his defeat. Rainer grabbed the schedule to read the name himself. Mentor Soleus was the Physical Education mentor, and the Health and Wellness teacher for the lower grades. He took to his role as mentor during Amative energies week with just a little too much gusto. He would always offer to answer any question any of the boys asked, and vowed adamantly that no one should be embarrassed to ask anything at all.
Rainer recalled one class during his pre-freshman year when Mentor Soleus had spent a solid hour going over masturbation techniques, and insisting that it was a normal healthy part of life. Although no one would dispute that, it was a particularly horrifying hour of Rainer and Logan’s adolescence.
“Logan, man,” Rainer started, but then halted abruptly from his whining. He wasn’t certain how Logan would feel about hearing what he had to say. He paused and studied Logan for a moment. Logan gave him his wry smile.
“Need me to do that ‘I pretend you’re banging someone who’s not my little sister’ thing for a while?”
Rainer nodded.
“Done,” Logan vowed.
“Thank you,” Rainer continued his lamenting. “Man, I have spent the past two weeks trying desperately not to think about sex. It just makes it so much worse. This is not cool,” he held up the note from the Chancellor about Amative energies week.
Logan gave him a truly sorrowful look. “I know; believe me, I’ve been there,” Logan hesitantly reminded Rainer of his and Adeline’s hiatus while she’d been suffering and then recovering from her ovarian cyst.
“Hey, I’m sure Soleus would be happy to discuss ways you could take care of the problem,” Logan teased. He was clearly having the same memory of Mentor Soleus as Rainer was. He convulsed at the thought of discussing something like that with Mentor Soleus.
“Thanks,” Rainer quipped sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, man. That she’ll be home Friday is the only thing I can think to tell you.”
The bell rang, and Mentor Sullivan opened the door to the rather rowdy group of sub-freshman. He dismissed the class with a sigh, and turned to Logan and Rainer. Sullivan had always been their favorite mentor, and Rainer got the impression that the feeling was mutual.
“I despise Amative Energies week,” he offered Logan and Rainer with a slightly dejected chuckle. They understood why his class was so talkative.
“Yeah, well, we’re about to go sit through sub-freshman Amative Energies with Soleus… again,” Rainer quipped.
Mentor Sullivan laughed heartily. “Hey, you never know, you might learn something new.”
They turned to guide Clarence to the Health and Wellness building.
The upper grades’ Amative Energies classes were combined among Predilects. Ioses, Vis Virres, and Valeduto Predilects typically took the class together in one of the large lecture halls. The sub-freshman and pre-freshman classes were not combined, as the school felt they needed more direct instruction and more time to ask questions.
Without really thinking about it, Rainer and Logan sank into the seats in the very back of class where they’d sat when they were students. Logan shoved Clarence into the seat directly in front of him.
“You just keep your mouth shut, and don’t cause any problems,” he ordered.
Clarence gave him a dramatic eye-roll and then promptly flipped Logan off.
“Nice,” Logan huffed.
Mentor Soleus floated into the room, and gave everyone a broad grin. He noted Logan and Rainer’s presence immediately, as they were decidedly older than all of the other people seated at desks in his classroom.
“Well, always nice to have visitors to our Amative and Erogenous energies class, and Crown Governors’ sons to boot. What an honor,” Mentor Soleus made a dramatic bow to Rainer and Logan, who both sank further down into their seats.
“We’re just here to make sure our boy Clarence keeps his mouth shut and acts like a human being,” Logan spat.
Mentor Soleus clearly didn’t care for Logan’s declaration, and shook his head. “No, no, now, if Mr. Pendergrath has any questions, we want him to ask, but perhaps you two could help me with our class today.”
Rainer’s eyes goggled as Logan’s mouth fell open. Soleus positioned himself on an empty desktop near Rainer.
“Now, I do recall reading that you are both engaged, correct?”
Not at all liking where this was going, Rainer and Logan nodded hesitantly. The group of sixteen-year-old boys studied Rainer and Logan with a mix of curious intrigue and nervousness.
“And would you both consider yourselves to be in sexually- satisfying relationships?” Soleus quizzed flippantly.
Stunned mortification etched Logan’s face as Rainer huffed.
“Uh, Officer Haydenshire and I will not be answering that or any other questions. Just pretend we’re not here... please,” Rainer demanded.
&nb
sp; “Well, I really wish you would reconsider. You’re among friends,” Soleus stood and gestured grandly around the room. “I’m sure the men would enjoy hearing about some of your experiences. Perhaps how old you were the first time you engaged in intercourse. You could tell us about the energy exchange. You’re such an excellent resource for our class.”
“No,” Logan and Rainer stated in unison.
With a shrug, Soleus went to stand at the front of the classroom, after announcing that perhaps Officer Haydenshire and Officer Lawson would feel more comfortable sharing the next day.
He began discussing the energy flow passed from kissing, and then how the energy was heightened from what he called ‘engaging the oral erogenous zone’ with a kiss using the tongue. He explained how one Gifted person could draw from the energy held in saliva and breath, with a slight suck of the mouth during the kiss.
Rainer was considering beating his head against the desk he was currently seated in, when Clarence grinned, “I really like it when girls engage other zones with their tongues.”
“I told you to keep it shut,” Logan threatened furiously.
“Now, now it’s perfectly normal to have questions about other erogenous zones and, Clarence, we will get to oral sex, but not just yet,” Soleus assured.
As several rounds of, “That’s what she said” echoed around the room, Rainer let his head drop in defeat.
Soleus summoned, and projected two diagrams of Gifted male and female bodies, from his laptop. He pointed out erogenous zones, which were highlighted in red. Then he explained which areas contained the most erotic energy in Gifted individuals. He then stupidly asked a group of sixteen-year-old boys different ways to activate the sexual energy in either a male or female body.
“Oh geez. Seriously?” Logan whimpered as Clarence’s hand shot up.
“Yes, Mr. Pendergrath?” Soleus smiled.
Clarence shot Rainer a goading glare. “I’ve seen pictures of his girl,” he jerked his thumb towards Rainer. “She’s all over the Angels programs. She’s got a great rack, bet he likes to activate those with his tongue,” Clarence laughed as Rainer glared at him furiously.