by Daring Diane
Darby asked, “What style panties did you think were the best?”
“Hip huggers.” Lee answered without thinking as he made a move to go in the family room.
Darby said, “I like those too. Just not covered in lace. I like the ones with spandex. Did you think the solid colors were cuter or the ones with patterns?”
Lee was realizing this was a bad conversation. “I don’t know. Why would I care?”
“Which ones are cuter? You said you noticed and looked. We know you were there.”
“I liked the ones with flowers. Different colors and flowers.”
Darby had him now, “So, you liked the spandex ones too. Because the flowers aren’t on the ones in lace. Right?”
“Yes, spandex.” Lee answered clearly frustrated. “Can we talk about something else?”
Sally had enjoyed the banter but wanted to avoid getting Lee too upset, “Darby, why don’t you stop pressing Lee. I was the one who dragged him into the store. We were just having some shopping time together.”
Darby laughed, “I’m just having fun. Hey, Lee next time you go lingerie shopping can I go with you? Wouldn’t it be more fun to shop for lingerie with someone your own age?”
To end the conversation, Lee agreed, “Sure Darby. The next time I decide to go buy myself some panties and bras, I’ll invite you. Mom, remind me next time.” He turned the TV on and plopped onto the couch.
Sally couldn’t resist joining in at the last minute. Lee had given her the opening, “I’ll make sure we bring her along next time. She would be much better at helping you select bra and panty combinations that are age appropriate. Sometimes a mother is out of touch.”
All three of them were laughing. But they all had different reasons. Lee and Darby were sitting there watching TV and Darby was still trying to get a rise out of Lee. She reached over and shoved her finger under his lowest rib and began to tickle him. As Lee backed away with his back rubbing on the couch he was suddenly reminded that he was wearing his new periwinkle bra under his camisole under the black t-shirt. He looked down at her hand attacking him and imagined small breasts in the way of his vision.
Lee launched out of the couch and said, “I’ll be right back.”
He ran up to his room and fought to remove the bra. Redressing in his camisole and t-shirt, Lee joined Darby back on the couch.
Sunday morning after their run, Lee took a long shower and decided to try the leg shaving. It took a while. His legs felt tingly afterwards. He applied lotion like his mother had recommended. Given the colder weather and his newly shaved legs, Lee decided to try a pair of the leggings for sitting around the house.
The feeling of pulling the leggings up his newly shaved legs gave him shivers. It felt wonderful. Lee worked on his homework and Darby joined him after a while. Later that afternoon, Darby ran home to get changed for practice. Lee donned his red cheer shorts, a sleeveless top and his warmups. He pulled his hair into a mid-height ponytail and added a black scrunchie.
As practice began, Marcia elbowed Darby, “Good job.”
Not having any idea what she was talking about, Darby asked, “What?”
Marcia indicated Lee and whispered in her ear, “Legs. His legs look better than many of the girls. What do you think?”
Darby spent most of the practice comparing Lee’s legs to the girls on the squad. It was driving her nuts. She had never looked at Lee’s legs in that way before. He did have great legs. Why did he have such great legs? Why did she care? Darby was totally preoccupied.
As they walked home, Darby said, “Lee, I noticed you shaved your legs. They really look nice.
“My mom said I needed to do it because of all the competitions and the shorts and that I had to be well groomed. Do you think everyone will know?”
Darby thought as they walked, “I doubt anyone except someone on the squad will ever notice. Lots of guys at school have still not started growing any hair. They don’t keep track of who has hair so they can identify if they shave. None of them care.”
They walked quietly for a few more minutes before Lee turned, “Do you really think my legs look nice?”
Darby looked over, “Yes, I really do. I would never tell you something like that unless it was true. You can always count on me.”
As they walked along further Lee asked in a serious voice, “Do girls like guys to have nice looking legs? I’ve never heard that.”
“You know Lee, girls just like guys and every girl focuses on different things. I can tell you that bad looking legs are a negative. I can tell you that I like guys with nice legs. I can tell you that lots of girls I know like a guy whose exposed body is in good shape. And if you are unsure at all, your body is in great shape. You’re not a big football player. But you are almost all muscle from the running and working out. When girls start looking at you, they are going to like what they see.”
As Darby gave this serious answer to Lee something seemed strange. At first she could not figure out what it was. As she was talking, she looked at his sleeveless top, his cheer shorts, his great legs, his shoes, his hair looked great as always and that allowed the earrings to be visible to everyone. His face looked the same.
WHAT? Eyes exploding in surprise, “LEE, you got your ears pierced. It’s so perfect I almost didn’t notice. Why didn’t you tell me?” Darby grabbed his earlobe and looked. Then she held his head and looked at both sides of his face. “God you are a looker. They are so natural on you. I can’t believe I missed it.
“My mom got them pierced when we were at the mall. She said it was so I could wear my cheer earrings. But, I think they are too girly. On the flip side, you and I have talked about it in the past and now I went and did it. I think it will be fun.”
Darby snidely said, “Oh, you’ll wear your cheer earrings. I don’t know when. But, you and I are going to both wear our cheer earrings. This is so great.” She threw her arm around his shoulder and they walked on home together talking about friends and other gossip. The smiles never left either of their faces.
Chapter 16 – Week Two
Lee and Sylvia talked at length about how to score well for a first year team. They decided three key elements were important. They needed to choreograph the routine and lay out the timing. Second, timing was intensely important so that people doing parallel activities were in unison. Third was uniformity. Every routine that was the same had to be as close to identical as possible. If they focused on these three elements they felt the team would perform well as rookies.
Lee and Darby went through the nuances of the rules and decided that the other priority should be to avoid any penalties. If you are not sure how well you will compete, at least make sure you don’t give up points due to stupid mistakes.
Lee, Darby and Sylvia spent time discussing the uniforms and behavior at the events. They decided that the squad needed to be as close to identical as possible. Same clothes, socks, shoes, accessories. Coaches would wear the squad shorts. Other than that everything would be the same. Lee, thinking like a boy, paid little attention to the implications of these agreements.
Some practice sessions were cut a little short to spend time talking about behavior at the event both before and during the program. The girls did not realize that behavior off the matt could cause deductions in points. The squad would stay together as a group. Bathroom breaks and moving around would be done as a group to avoid confrontations with other teams or potential problems. On the matt, deductions could be taken for language, unnecessary shouting, and rowdy behavior before or after the program. During the program, touching any area outside of the matt led to major point loss.
On Wednesdays, the squad watched videos of previous competitions and everyone was asked to review other videos online.
Lee and Sylvia decided to collapse the amount of the matt their routine would use to avoid anyone touching or falling outside of the designated program area.
Sylvia had suggested that several of the routines Lee designed for the half-time
programs would be unusual and ideal for the competition. One of the things Lee’s group had done miraculously well was the timing aspects of mirroring actions of the participants. If they could add in more of the cheer and team aspects it would be ideal.
Chapter 17 – Week Three
Practice times were limited in the next week since end of term finals were taking place. Lee and Darby were spending all their free time studying and used the cheer review activities as exercises to break up the studying.
That first night after shopping, Lee had stood in his room running his fingers through the soft panties and camisoles in his drawers. They were his and he loved them. While feeling like it might be wrong, he never wanted to let them go. Lee loved his existing cheer panties and he knew they were the best thing to wear during practice and running. He usually ended up wearing two or three pair of underwear a day since after working out everything was pretty sweaty. He decided to wear his VS underwear for during the day and his cheer panties for working out. He might still wear the cheer underwear at other times. It struck him as odd that he was assigning his underwear to times of day. On the other hand maybe it just made sense. Women had sports bras for working out and others for different times of day. Bras were often selected based on their outer clothing. Men wore different outer clothing and inner clothing based on what they were doing. It just made sense, he reasoned.
When studying for finals, Lee and Darby switched back and forth between their houses, sometimes multiple times a night. Depending on the subject, they would hang out in the family room or in one of their bedrooms. The parents trusted the kids implicitly so there were no concerns. On Tuesday evening as they were studying in Lee’s bedroom, he ran downstairs to help his mother with taking out the trash and emptying the dishwasher. “I’ll be back in 5-10 minutes.” He claimed as he ran out the door.
Darby found herself alone in his bedroom. She jumped up and ran to the door. Verifying that Lee was in the kitchen, she quickly pulled open the drawer to his dresser. Ever since she had stumbled on his secret, she wanted to make sure it was not a dream. She wanted to make sure that she was not jumping to conclusions. She was not prepared for what greeted her inside the drawer. Lee’s panty drawer, for there was no question anymore, was packed with even more panties than last time. Now, there were more styles and with a moments checking she realized a lot of the panties were from Victoria’s Secret. She was stunned. She did not see his camisoles and opening the second drawer, found more additions to the camisole choices and in the back of the drawer were matching bras. There were several styles and various colors. Darby couldn’t help herself and checked the sizes quickly. Lee even had a couple of padded camisoles.
Closing the drawers, she checked outside the door and looked towards the closet. It looked the same as before. She had never seen him wear the pair of boots in the closet. She did not see anything else that caught her eye and quickly returned to the bed where she had been studying.
The problem was that all she could think about was that Lee had a drawer full of panties just like she did. And, she was actually a bit jealous that he had a few panties she really wished were in her own drawer. She was also trying to figure out if it was good or bad that other than Lee’s bras, the panties and camisoles were all the same size as her own. She was a b-cup and Lee apparently owned a-cups, but a couple of his bras were stretchy enough that they might fit her. Even thinking ‘his’ bras was uncomfortable.
After a few moments, she realized that all that banter about going lingerie shopping with his mom was poppycock. When she had been ribbing him, she was actually right on the mark. The one thing Darby resolved was that she and her best friend were going to go panty shopping together someday. She thought back to that night after they went shopping. She had been tickling Lee and he suddenly shot out of the room and came back moments later all flustered. She wondered if she had almost found out his secret that night. Maybe he had been wearing one of his new bras.
There were two aspects to this thought. One, it excited her that she might have caught him. Two, inside her mind and her body there was a tingle of excitement. She wanted to share this experience with her best friend. But, there was no way Lee was going to admit he liked all these intimate under things. She would have to tread carefully.
Lee returned moments later and she relaxed comfortable in the knowledge that she knew some of his secrets and he did not know that she was aware. They continued their studying. Both of them were comfortable in the knowledge they would ace their exams.
Since it was exam week, there were free periods to study during the day. Lee and Darby worked with Sylvia on the details of their program and they recommended steps for training.
Lee had come up with an interesting strategy. He suggested that they choreograph everything while at the event. This started with how they would walk around or walk into the event and how they would sit down. The plan was to deal with the entire event as if it was all a program.
As previously agreed, everyone going to the event would dress identically. Everything for the event would be in the cheer bag with their name on it. Since everyone had the same items, they would agree on a packing format so that the inside of everyone’s bag would be identical. There was a side pocket where people could store personal items. Everyone would carry their bag on their right shoulder with their name on the outside of the bag. Right hand would hold the strap straight out from the elbow. Left arm would be held straight and swing in time with the right leg when moving.
The team members would each be assigned a partner. The squad would move from place to place in a formation of twos. When the squad selected a location to stand, the captain would identify a formation and they would align themselves in rows. Bags would be placed down on the ground parallel to each other. Members would then sit or stand next to their bags.
When going to the bathroom, everyone would move in pairs and in a fixed formation. At the time for programs, members would hold their pom-poms at their sides and walk in an identical formation side by side to the floor. They would choreograph how the team members would move to positon on the matt so that it was identical and mirrored.
At first squad members thought it was odd. But they began to spend a portion of their practice on walking, carrying their bags, and going to different places in the room in formation. When doing their program, they would incorporate the moving towards the program area and getting into position as part of the process and practice.
Exams were done on Thursday. The team decided to have a long practice on Friday where everyone would bring their cheer bag to practice and try to walk through a version of the entire program from walking into the gym through completion of the routines. It was not a dress rehearsal, they would wear the typical Friday practice outfit.
The squad gathered in a hall outside of the gymnasium. Lee called everyone to attention and stated in a tone they could hear but not yelling, “Line positions.”
Everyone picked up their bag and stood next to their partner. Darby and Marcia were at the front of the line while Sylvia and Lee would tail the team because at competition, Lee and Sylvia would have similar uniforms slightly different from the team.
Lee said, “Enter, to staging area.” Darby and Marcia started walking. Everyone stepped in unison and walked into the gym to an area on the side. Darby stopped. “Two rows on the wall. Pause for two counts. Bags down. Everyone sit.” Lee snapped his fingers for the count.
Lee and Sylvia were at one end. Two rows of seven along the wall. They had agreed on how everyone would sit in the same position with their knees together and legs to the side. Lee corrected everyone and worked with them to make sure everyone looked the same.
Lee announced that the next step would be going to the floor. “Squad gather pom-poms.” Lee snapped his fingers. On a count, everyone unzipped their bags in unison. They waited a count, then they reached in and pulled out the pom-poms. Another count had their bags zipped closed.
“Squad up.” Everyone s
tood up in unison. “Squad to the floor.” In unison, the squad snaked their way to the floor area which had been marked off by Lee ahead of time. They entered the floor at a corner, snaked to the middle of the floor and then spread out in a pattern to their starting positions. They decided to start their program with the circle routine they perfected at their half-time shows.
They discussed their behavior at the starting and end of each program. They discussed how they would approach, and leave the floor area. Lee and Sylvia pushed everyone to the point where people were getting testy.
Being on Christmas break, the squad had no obligations. Since Christmas was on Wednesday of the coming week, most of the squad members needed to do some shopping.
Because the special practice on Friday was more oriented to behavior, the practice was mentally trying without being as physically demanding. This meant the squad members were not all sweaty at the end of practice. The squad decided to have an impromptu lunch at a local restaurant popular with the kids. Since it was Friday, the entire squad was wearing their tank tops and cheer squad leggings. The squad decided to simply wear their cheer warmup coats to lunch so everyone would match.
Marcia gave Darby and Lee a ride to lunch. Everyone threw their cheer bags in the car. The 12 squad members along with Lee walked into the restaurant in a timed formation, empty tables together, circled the tables and stood behind their chairs. Everyone looked to Lee. Lee smiled and then nodded. Everyone pulled out their chairs and sat down together. Everyone broke out laughing. Lee loved it.
Thirteen giggling high school students with high spirits talked of the holidays, school, boys and the upcoming cheer squad competition. Lee was talking to Marcia about where she wanted to go shopping when Marcia noticed a couple of the girls elbowing each other. Money had been gathered on the tables and several of the girls were sitting erect looking at Lee. Within thirty seconds, everyone was sitting erect and suddenly Marcia got quiet and looked at Lee.
Lee noticed the sudden lack of banter and noticed June sitting next to Marcia staring at him with a smile on her face. Glancing towards the table, it was obvious everyone was expectantly looking at Lee. The mild smirks on everyone’s faces told him what he needed to know.