Karyn and Jaye shared a conspiratorial smile before giggling at one another and languidly rising from their loungers, simultaneously displaying themselves for and ignoring the five boys in speedos lined up before them as they casually made their way across the pool deck and into the cabana on the opposite side, presumably the women's cabana.
Jon wanted to move. Without Karyn's eyes locking him into place, he felt he should be able to move. But he didn't. He stood, shoulder to shoulder, alongside Tyler Robinson, Andrew Stoppard, Mitchell Webb, and Frank Simon. And they stood shoulder to shoulder alongside him. And they all stared straight out into the distance, as though traumatized by war.
Eventually, the two girls emerged, fully clothed in Lake Point High School cheerleader uniforms. They sauntered past the line of boys, bidding them follow with a curved finger as Karyn said "We're moving the party inside."
"Shouldn't we change back into our clothes?" Mitchell asked.
Karyn tilted her head and pursed her lips, feigning an expression of deep thought. "Hmm. No," her expression changed to a devious grin, "I like you boys like this."
Despite himself, Jon could feel a stirring down below as his own shocked eyes made contact with Karyn's half-lidded ones. And, despite himself, he went along with the rest of the boys, following Karyn and Jaye indoors, wearing nothing but speedos.
It occurred to Jon, during the walk indoors, that the cheerleader outfit was designed to show off the body, was designed to be, if not revealing exactly, at least enticing. But as he followed behind two such outfits, even as his eyes were locked onto the bobbing ponytails and swaying backsides before him, all Jon's mind kept telling him was that he was the one whose body was being showed off. He was the one whose outfit was enticing. Somehow, he just couldn't view the girls in front of him as sexual objects, so long as he sat with the fundamental understanding that he was the one being sexually objectified.
And then he sat down on a barstool, at Karyn's instruction.
Who the hell has an actual billiard room in their house? What was this, a game of Clue? There were four pool tables of varying sizes. A foosball table. A bumper pool table. A crokinole table. Dart boards lining one wall. Bar stools lining the other.
Karyn and Jaye racked up for a game of pool as the boys sat restlessly on the line of bar stools. Any time one of them had to bend over to make a shot, the curves of their bodies were displayed wonderfully for the boys. Jon could feel an involuntary and instinctual swelling at the sights, and he imagined his compatriots must be feeling the same.
But each and every time, after the cue ball was struck and the girl in question returned to her normal posture, each boy found himself the target of a very hungry look that filled him with embarrassment and caused his swelling to diminish. They were the objects on display. Their arousals were obviously visible through the thin scrap of elastic that covered their organs. And the two cheerleaders took delight in watching those scraps of elastic stretch up, and collapse down in turn.
"Can I get next?" Tyler asked as Karyn pocketed the 8-ball and won the first round.
Jon wanted to object, wanted to call next for himself, but he found that he could not speak. Why couldn't Jon speak if Tyler could?
"This is a cheerleader sleepover," Karyn lectured. "You boys are invited guests, but if you want to participate then you have to be a cheerleader."
Tyler nodded. Jon found he couldn't even nod.
Miles away, a girl entered Tyler Robinson's bedroom.
The girls racked up for a second game and Karyn positioned herself for break.
"Can I be a cheerleader?" Tyler asked.
Karyn paused. She stood back up, and looked Tyler up and down. "Do you think you're ready to be a cheerleader?"
He turned his head to his knees.
And miles away, a girl placed her hand on some acne cream, and it turned into skin lotion and nail polish.
Karyn fired off a break shot, and with the great clatter of billiards, Jon almost didn't notice the hand that had placed itself on his thigh. He couldn't look down, but he could feel himself growing at the physical touch, as the hand swept closer to his hip.
Karyn gave the row of boys a look, telling Jon precisely where his place was, and shrinking him once again. But this time she also smiled approvingly towards Tyler.
Miles away, a feminine hand pressed down upon a single comb, and it sprouted into an army of brushes and hair ties and irons for both curling and straightening.
Tyler's hand squeezed Jon's thigh, and Jon could hear a low moan escaping his neighbor's lips.
Jon couldn't even think about Jaye's butt, which was in that moment poking out into the air precisely in his direction, as her cheerleader skirt rode up while she stretched to line up her next shot. His body gave no reaction while it processed the physical sensations coming from his thigh.
"I want to be a cheerleader," the voice wasn't quite Tyler's. It was huskier, but somehow higher in pitch as well.
A hand reached into a closet that was miles away, and basketball jerseys became cheer uniforms.
"I am a cheerleader." The voice was completely feminine now, and Tyler's hand gently swept its way down Jon's thigh as the former boy got up from his bar stool and stepped over to Karyn and Jaye, now wearing a navy bikini.
Karyn gave a quick appraisal. "Well, so you are. Now why don't you pop out and change into your uniform. You should be back in time for the next game."
Changes continued, both to Tyler's body and to her bedroom, as she navigated her way back to the women's cabana and exchanged her bikini for a cheerleading uniform. And several minutes later, Twyla Robinson returned to the billiard room, and began racking up balls beneath a new rack of her own.
