Angels and Guardians Pt. 05

Joe said, "Yeah, but we beat Northwood last week. It should be a good game." Joe went behind the bar in the game room next door and asked if they wanted a drink. Her dad joked that he could go for a scotch on the rocks, but was surprised when Joe actually brought him a good one and handed Ashley's mom a glass of Sprite. He admired that Joe didn't fix a drink for himself, at least with company around, even though he had complete access to the liquor. The girls soon joined them and the group laughed and told stories for a couple of hours while the game played softly in the background.

The conversation wound down as they got tired and Ashley's parents said their goodbyes. Ashley walked them to their car, explained that the gate would open as they approached it from this side, and hugged them both tightly as she said good night. On the way home, her parents remarked to each other how they felt like they were just at a married friend's house, rather than some teenaged party they were expecting when they accepted Joe's invitation.

The girls went upstairs to change after Ashley's parents left. All three came back down wearing only t-shirts and panties. He handed them each a strong mixed drink of their choosing, now that they were alone, and they sat around and talked. Joe didn't drink before a game day. As the girls got tipsy, they started joking around with each other, and soon they pushed each other around the room, sometimes taking the sofa pillows to swat at someone. They horsed around with each other in front of Joe, and he knew they were teasing him on purpose. At some point, Ashley came up to Joe and straddled his lap.

"I'm drunk," she slurred, giggling.

"Then you're a cheap drunk. That was only one," he replied.

"Then, fine. I'm a cheap horny drunk," she mumbled as she squirmed in his lap.

Jill and Jasmine laid on the sofas on either side of them. Ashley rose onto her knees, thrusting her t-shirt covered chest into Joe's nose. He took the opportunity to kiss the nipples sticking through the cotton material. The other two girls individually started tracing lazy circles on their clothed sensitive parts while they watched the foreplay. "Joe," Ashley sighed in a baby doll voice, "you told my dad that you were one of the richest in these parts. What are you worth?"

He buried his face between her breasts, enjoying the warm softness and giving himself time to think before answering. Finally, he sat back, allowing her to rock her hips against him. "Would you still love me if I told you I was millions in debt?" he asked.

"Yess," she moaned as the seam of his jeans' fly pleasured her. "What are you worth? You haven't ever told me."

Jasmine sighed heavily, as she openly diddled herself now through her thin underwear. "With or without the trust?" she asked.

"Both," Ashley giggled.

Seeing Jasmine working herself had gotten Jill even hotter. She finally gave into her bodily needs and was now playing with her slit without any pretenses. "Without the trust his parents are leaving him, Joe has about $14 million in various accounts. His trust will be worth another $250 million," Jill stated matter-of-factly.

To Joe's relief, Ashley seemed unmoved. She was neither elated, nor scared by the numbers as many would have been. Ashley simply took off her shirt and leaned into him, changing the subject entirely, saying, "that was the best time I've ever had with my parents. Thank you."

Joe kissed her and said "you're welcome, baby." Ashley got his pants undone and started grinding her panties against his hardness. He bent down slightly to suck on her breasts. She pulled her underwear to the side and mounted Joe, riding his length without hurry. Jill and Jasmine had their hands inside their panties, masturbating themselves to the same tempo as the couple, watching them make love in front of them.

Chapter 19

The next morning, they allowed themselves to wake up naturally. Even though they were in separate rooms, they seemed to wake at the same time. Joe and Ashley packed their bags, as the plan was to stay overnight at a motel after the game. Jill made everyone's breakfast as Joe loaded all the bags into the van. Jill asked why they weren't taking her SUV, and Joe said that the van was more comfortable. Plus, it had a small fridge for drinks and sandwiches. An hour later, they were on the road at 11:00.

The beautiful weather they enjoyed most of the fall had turned chilly and wet. It had started raining when Joe pulled out of the driveway, and it followed them the whole way. They stopped twice on their way, even though it was only a two and a half hour drive. Joe suggested the stops so that they could change drivers, and so the girls' potty reservoirs stayed comfortable. Jill welcomed the stops, so she could smoke. In her uniform, she got more than a few disapproving looks, but she was beyond caring what others thought of her nasty, but wonderfully relaxing habit. Joe had the first shift driving, as he would need the rest later for the game. Jill took the second shift, and Ashley had the third.

Ashley woke Joe when she started seeing signs for Tallahassee exits through the driving rain. He navigated her driving to a chicken eatery that was located a short distance from the stadium. They ate a light meal, and Joe hopped back into the driver's seat. As he pulled onto Stadium Drive, Jasmine saw Doak Campbell Stadium and asked, "whoa, are we playing here?"

Joe gave a small chuckle. "No, we're just meeting the bus here. Florida High uses the field inside the track a short walk north. Sorry to disappoint, but at least we're still playing on campus."

Ashley saw the weather worsen outside and something he said made her stomach turn. "Did you just say walk? In this?"

At first he smiled, thinking she was trying to make a joke. But then he realized she was serious and he got concerned. "You brought your jacket, yes?"

She answered glumly, "well, sure. And I'm wearing pantyhose, which is supposed to keep me warm, but I'm a California girl. This rain is so cold."

Jill fell into her role as captain for a second, saying, "buck up kiddo! A little walk ain't gonna kill you. We're gonna be cheering in this for hours, so the walk is the least of our worries." Ashley dropped her head at being coached.

"Yes, ma'am," she responded soberly.

Joe found the bus and parked nearby. He got free of his seat and made his way to the back. Looking at Jill as he passed her, he said, "told you the van was better for this trip. We don't even have to climb over the seats." He fished out his and the girls' jackets from the bags and handed them out. Then he put their game bags near the door and the overnight ones deeper inside. He put on his jacket and the girls followed suit. "Let's go," he said as he opened the back doors.

They picked up their bags and headed over to the bus. Joe's coat was tailored to accommodate his pads while on the sideline during a game. Since he wasn't currently wearing his pads, Ashley quickly found her way under his arm to let the shell protect her from the nipping cold rain.

"Wuss," Jill jabbed at her.

"Whatever, at least I'm warm," she quipped from under the large shoulder of the jacket.

They reached the bus and the doors opened. Joe stepped on, and several players and cheerleaders chuckled at the sight of tiny Ashley peeking out from the half open zipper, still completely dry. She stuck her tongue out at them. "3:30 on the nose," Joe cheered. "Who won the bet?" When no one answered, he said, "come on guys, I know y'all had a bet on when I'd show up...who won?" His friends started calling out times.

"I had 3:09."

Joe responded with, "suck up."

"3:40"

"I said 3:36"

The times went on until Joe asked, "What, no one had me at ON TIME?" They shook their heads. He looked at Coach Mike in the front row.

"I said that because of the girls you were with, 4:13."

The bus all laughed at the unexpected statement. Joe said, "Oh, come on! I was wanting you to say who won the bet. I didn't know you had one posted as well!" This sparked more guffaws, as apparently, Joe's arrival time was the topic of conversation in the crowded bus for the last several minutes.

The cheer coach said from her seat on the other side, "I said that Ashley would probably hold you up. I put in $10 on arriving at kickoff."

Ashley yelled over the new laughter from her spot in his jacket, "Hey! That's not fair. I wouldn't make him late."

Her coach eyed her in Joe's half closed jacket and said quickly, "Hand Check!" It was an inside half-joke to call those words during a coed trip on the bus. The instinct is to look around at your neighbors' hands to make sure they were visible and not in a naughty place. At this call, all could see Ashley's arms were trapped as his large coat engulfed her inside with him. She blushed furiously at being caught.

"Not fair!" she protested. "I'm not doing that."

Jasmine called from just inside the door, "Yeah right! Look how red you are!"

After a heap of laughter, she said, "fine. You caught me."

Joe grinned broadly and bobbed his head up and down for the benefit of those on the bus to confirm that she actually was caught.

"I was just trying to keep them warm," she offered.

A booming voice came from the back of the bus, "your hands or Joe's nuts?"

Ashley shot back, "Shut up, Jarred!"

The bus went berserk. Even the coaches were near tears. A couple of the cheerleaders were dangerously close to wetting their pants.

Once Coach Mike gained his composure, he called out, "there's the rest of our team. Let's get suited up!" They all clamored off the bus as four cars parked next to Joe. Ashley walked next to Joe, never leaving his jacket. She could hear the rain pelt his jacket's shell as she disappeared from sight. A few commented on the odd scene, one figure with two sets of legs. She couldn't see where she was going, letting Joe guide her with his arm, and looking down to watch for obstacles as her feet strode to keep up. She sloshed under her full-body umbrella for five minutes before the sound of rain stopped on his jacket and the sidewalk got darker.

"We're here," Joe said while unzipping his jacket. "You fit perfectly in there," he continued in surprise.

"Thanks, Joe!" she said happily. They were under an overhang of the modest field house that serviced the Mike Long track and field. Ashley fielded several unhappy looks from the drenched underclassmen cheerleaders. "What?" she asked them. "If you want to stay dry, get your own senior football player!" She had endured enough ribbing on the bus to not have to put up with their jealousy.

The players filed into their locker room to get suited up while the cheerleaders sat against the wall under the overhang. They watched as two buses unloaded the Florida High players, coaches, and cheerleaders at the gate of the facility and then drive off to park. Ashley asked her coach why Florida High needed buses for a home game. The answer was that their school was once much smaller and located directly behind one of the dorms on campus. A few years back, FSU decided to expand their science college and start a medical school. So, they moved the high school off campus to a much larger complex. The football games are still played on FSU's campus to save money until funding could be found to build a new stadium. The area around the campus is not affluent, so the game participants carpool, walk or bike to their school, and the school buses them to Florida State's campus.

While Ashley received the history lesson, Jill had been counting. Their opponent had no fewer than 50 players, and 20 cheerleaders. "Damn, they're big," she commented. Catholic's squads had roughly half those numbers.

"Yeah, there's a lot of them, too," Jasmine added.

Their players skipped the locker room for now and went straight into warm-ups. A few minutes later, Joe and his team appeared and started jogging laps. The cheerleaders jumped up and joined the players, dropping off their bags on their way past the visitor benches. They always waited to jog with the players on away games for safety reasons.

Ashley ran to catch up to Joe, settling her pace to match his. He looked at her in her soaking jacket and said, "sorry I can't keep you dry any more."

She huffed beside him, asking finally, "that's okay. Bound to happen. Why does your uniform look different?"

Joe grinned at her, his hair now a matted mess. "I sewed it around my pads."

She was confused. "Why'd you do that?"

He answered, "well, in this rain, they're gonna grab me any place they can. I decided to tighten up anything that was loose and could be used as a handle."

"Well, you look amazing. Ugh, this rain sucks!"

"At least it's an early game. The rain will suck worse when the sun goes down in about an hour and a half." He looked up and noticed a sizable crowd gathering along the fence on top of the hill behind the bleachers. "That's a lot of college students hanging around for a rainy evening..."

Ashley looked up, but didn't give it a second thought.

Little to their knowledge, Florida State's student paper, The FSView, had caught wind that their football team was looking hard at Joe. Earlier in the week, they printed an article on the front page about tonight's game, stating that Joe's team was visiting. It included a story about his heroism in saving a cheerleader who was now his girlfriend. The picture of their senior night kiss was reprinted in full color with permission of his hometown's newspaper. Joe's stats that were published were rivaling those of FSU's opponents. Disgruntled with their own team's disappointing string of inconsistent quarterbacks, the students who stayed behind during the Thanksgiving break were bored enough to come out in ponchos and heckle the potential recruit. Thanks to the picture showing off Ashley's red hair, the rowdy college students picked out Joe right away. As the couple jogged the side of the track nearest them (it also happened to be the "home" side of the field) they heard shouts of "you're gonna get creamed, Joe!" and "are the cheerleaders playing too?"

Joe heard them and smiled. Ashley asked if it bothered him that they had so fewer players than their opponent. "It's still 11 vs. 11 on the field," he replied. She didn't tell him that what she really worried about was the other side's 11 were twice as big. The warm-up run ended and the squads separated for the rest of their drills.

Just before the pre-game ceremonies, the ticket tenders gave up their watch at the gates, as spectator attendance was low because of the rain. The college students took advantage and filed in for seats in the stands.

Joe usually never let statistics get in his head, but FHS's numbers were hard to ignore. His class 3A team was going head-to-head against a class 6A team. They were ranked number 4. Nationally. Three straight 6A state titles, one national runner-up. They held their last five opponents to 12 points. Combined. "What the hell were you thinking when you agreed to this last year, Sister K?" Joe wondered to himself as he strode out for the coin toss. It really did look like David v. Goliath as Joe was alone when he met the official, while the Seminoles (same team name as their mother school) sent six linemen as captains. There was no doubt the home team wanted to intimidate him.

Joe was on the field leading a modest drive when the first quarter siren sounded. He looked at the scoreboard to check himself. Sure enough, it confirmed that they were tied with no score. "Huh," he pondered to himself as he made his way back to his coach. "They haven't scored, and I haven't heard any heckling lately. I think we're doing pretty good."

The game remained tied at zero until the start of the second half, when the Seminoles ran the kickoff back for a touchdown. Joe led his team down the field on the next series, only to be stopped at the 20. After sliding and pushing against the larger sized defense, the offensive players just got tired at the end of the drive and they settled for a field goal. Fatigue and cold also affected the opponents, and they watched their field goal try miss horribly to the left when their kicker slipped.

And so the game went. Lots of dropped balls, lots of errors from fatigue at the end of drives. Near the end of the fourth quarter, Joe was lined up as defensive back. The signaled call was for him to blitz. Joe left his assignment and sprinted straight for the QB. He arrived just as the signal caller had cocked his arm back to throw. Joe dove and aimed his fist at the ball, punching it sharply and ending up sliding, baseball style behind the quarterback. He looked back to watch one of his linebackers scoop up the ball and race the 40 yards to the endzone.

The next series seemed as though it would never end. The Seminoles used a ground attack that had their runners grabbing what yardage they could and scooting out of bounds. They chewed up thirty yards to make it to the 50, but with time running out, they were forced to throw the ball. Four straight passes bounced harmlessly to the ground. Joe took his offense onto the field and was able to simply kneel twice to end the game. David had killed Goliath for the second straight week.

After breakfast the next morning, the three girls said they wanted to see more of the university, as it had stopped raining. Joe drove the van back on campus and parked near the stadium. The girls donned their parkas as it had gotten considerably colder since the front passed through last night. The campus was quiet, as most students had gone home for the holiday. The stadium side of campus looked nice, except for the northern edge where several dorms were located. They saw Sorority Row, and the girls drooled. The sorority houses could pass for mansions, a result of the long history of FSU being an all girls school. All those years of alumni sisters feeding back support did wonders for keeping the sorority houses in pristine condition.

The east side of campus was older, and beautiful. Joe fell in love with the oak trees and the spanish moss hanging from their limbs. The old architecture of this side's dorms and class buildings seemed somehow like home to him. He told his group that he decided that he wanted to go here.

They went to the eatery in the student union, and Joe paid for their meals. While they were eating, Ashley noticed that what she had read about the school was right about the female to male ratio. The whole time they were walking or eating, she only noticed three males who weren't university employees. The females they came across were very attractive and most said hi as they passed Joe.

"So, are they going to be trouble, Joe?" she asked.

"What's that?" he asked between bites of his hamburger.

"The girls here. Like the ones who just said hi to you. Are they going to be trouble?"

Joe tipped his head in a shrug and said, "you could take them."

Jill and Jasmine just sat and smiled as Ashley worked through her jealousy.

Ashley started to get frustrated. "Not as in fight. Are they going to cause trouble between you and I?"

"Nope," Joe said plainly.

"How do you know that?"

Joe started singing, "'cause I only have eyes for you..."

Jill and Jasmine laughed and applauded Joe's response.

Joe sighed, noting his girlfriend's disapproval. "It's only gonna cause trouble in your head, Ash. I've never slept with anyone outside this group, and the way I feel now about you, that doesn't look to change any time soon."

The other two gave a chorus of "awww."

Ashley had to admit it was a good answer. She considered how Joe didn't so much as glance at the girls walking by, unless they said hi. Even then, he only looked at them long enough to return the greeting. Maybe she should let her head stop thinking in these matters.