Chapter 40: Track and field

[June/July 2374 AD – POV Timotheus Sinterguth]

On her birthday in June I had agreed to be Primrose's boyfriend, after getting her parents' permission for that; after all, she was still a minor, for one more year, and I was nine years older than she was. Primrose and I had agreed that there was no reason at all to even try to keep our new relation a secret, and I was quite happy about that. It had been hard for me to believe that this tall blond girl actually had a crush on me, and I had to overcome my own shyness to continue talking to her, but our weekly dates on Tuesdays had worked well so far, and I had already told her more about me than I had ever told any other girl, with the exception of relatives like my cousin Daniela.

On the Sunday right after Primrose's birthday I went to church, and I was a little bit early, as I liked to spend a few quiet minutes in my seat and look around and admire the various paintings and ornaments on the walls all around and specifically on the gallery balustrades. Thus, I was already in my seat when the entire Seeberger family walked in, both parents with their three girls, all dressed in proper Sunday attire. They were usually sitting in another pew, not close to me at all, but today Primrose quickly said something to her parents and then moved in my direction to sit next to me, smiling. Before we had a chance to even greet each other properly, there was another person rushing over – Corinna came to me as well, and she even tried to squeeze herself between my girlfriend and me. However, Primrose herself told her off, so that Corinna needed to sit on her sister's other side rather than between us. She pouted a little, and I had a hard time not to laugh – apparently, she took her chaperoning 'duties' very seriously. Primrose made sure to sit very close to me so that our bodies were touching each other, and during the sermon later on Primrose took my hand, and every few minutes she looked at me and smiled happily. As her Sunday dress actually left the legs below the knees bare, I had to force myself not to stare at the parts of her legs I could see, but my attention to the sermon might have been not quite as it normally used to be. At least later on I could focus on the hymns, and I held my hymnal so that she could also look into it.

When we mingled right after the service and stood together in a group with her parents, quite a few friends and other people we knew, who had obviously seen us sitting side by side, asked about us, and we saw no reason not to answer truthfully. In fact, Primrose seemed to be rather proud confirming that she was my girlfriend to all who cared, and probably even to some who did not really care, but that was perfectly fine for me, too.

And of course, on Monday evening I was told in the home bible study group:

"You two really make a nice pair. We saw you sitting together in church."

"Well, I guess we could as well have put an ad in the local newspaper, too."

The others laughed, but I felt quite all right with that. Being seen with such a lovely girl was certainly not something to be ashamed of. And indeed, sitting next to each other in church holding hands was, at least to us church community members, one or two levels higher than, for instance, walking in a park holding hands. A lot of people one knew were likely to see that, including the pastor and the church elders, and this step required a certain level of dedication and, specifically, the desire to let everyone know, like 'shout it from the rooftops', as some prewar song had proclaimed in different context.

After the service one week later I had another chat with Prim՚s parents, and Mrs. Seeberger told me with a big smile:

"I would not really have thought that this is possible, but I have to admit that I have probably not seen Primrose that happy since she was in kindergarten or so. We also got told from the doctor's office that all of a sudden Primrose has been paying attention again and even wears a smile for most of the day; they wonder what might have happened. Whatever you are doing, you seem to do the right thing. Thank you, Mr. Sinterguth, for making our daughter happy."

"You are welcome, Mrs. Seeberger" I replied. "However, it is not really much I am doing at all, but I enjoy seeing that as well. Seeing her happy makes me happy as well. Maybe I am just the right person at the right place at the right time."

I did not really feel like I was doing a lot. It had been her admitting her crush, after all, and all I had had to do was to overcome my initial instinct to run away. My 'normal' behavior seemed to be quite right for her, though, and there was no special effort required on my side to have a proper conversation and even to make her smile. Maybe I was indeed just the right person at the right place at the right time? Was there a catch coming up soon?

On the last weekend in June, Saturday June 29th, there was Peeta՚s wedding in Appacolia. Peeta was my cousin, and of course I was invited. I was not going to stay for long, and I had a connection getting me there on Friday and back on Monday. For a moment I had considered to ask Primrose, my new girlfriend, if she'd want to come with me, but she did not know anybody over there, and we had just started to be together; that was too quick, and her parents might not have approved anyway.

The Mellark family was well known and popular, and they had the wedding ceremony itself take place in the city cathedral, followed by a big party in the town hall. My parents had been too busy to come, which had not surprised me, and so I was sitting at a table not far from the small table bride and groom had all for themselves, and I had my twin cousin and his family sitting with me, plus little Rue. I had of course known Uncle Albert, Aunt Dorothee and my cousins since early childhood, but this was the first time I ever met Rue. Naturally, from my cousin's letters and calls, I knew a lot about her, and I was fully up-to-date on her status of now being Tim's girlfriend.

When we got seated, little Rue looked at me, at her boyfriend, and back at me again, and she said:

"Wow, you two do actually look almost like twins!"

"Yes, we do, don't we? And you, Rue, look even more amazing that on the photos my cousin sent me."

"Really? I hope you do not have a problem with me being here; I am not family, after all."

"Not at all, Rue. It is an honor for me to meet you and spend time with you for the first time. I wish that I could also have my girlfriend with me today, but we just got together, and this would have been too much and too quick, I guess."

"Yes, and I heard that your girlfriend has her birthday on the same day as mine and Ruth's, on June 11th, right?"

"Yes, indeed; what a wonderful coincidence."

The soup was now served, and we spent a few minutes with eating. Rue was placed between Tim and Ruth, and my little cousin looked at her and at me sometimes with warm eyes and a smile on her face. When Rue and Ruth were sitting next to each other, like right now, one could have assumed that Ruth might be the older one of the two. She was a little bit less skinny, she was a few centimeters taller, and she was much less shy than Rue. For today, somebody had been taking care to dress the two girls in a very similar and matching way, and their two dresses made both of them look like little angels. I mentioned that, and Ruth explained:

"Yep, I made Mom go shopping with me until we found those two dresses. They had been created with twin girls in mind, and I insisted that we take both of them for Rue and me. She does not like to go shopping at all, but her taste in clothes is very similar to mine. She only had to make the belt a little tighter and it fit perfectly. Don't we look great?"

With those words, Ruth got up, turned her body around a few times very quickly, so that the lower part of the dress extended and showed the lower sections of the leggings she wore. My cousin's parents smiled at her, and so did I.

The wedding party extended well into the night, but following a convention which had been popular for quite some time, bride and groom took their leave in early evening to start their honeymoon. This ended the official part, and while many others decided to stay longer, I started to yawn; my body was on European time, and I was really tired now. As Rue was also getting antsy and Rue looked exhausted, we – my twin cousin, his girlfriend, little Ruth, and myself – decided that this was enough for us. Primrose Mellark was going to stay longer with her parents, but the four of us left the building and walked home, which was not very far.

Uncle and aunt had tried to get some cherished guests into the guestrooms of the Mellark residence, and my twin cousin had even given up his own room for this weekend. I had also been asked if I could compromise, and Ruth had invited me into her bed right away. It would be a little bit crowded, but we had already managed the night before – I was going to be with Ruth in her bed, and Rue and Tim M would be on the additional bed one could pull out from under Ruth's bed. With Ruth close to me, this was going to be like old times and perfectly all right, and I knew that Tim and Rue shared a bed frequently anyway. We took turns in the bathroom; Rue and Ruth went in there first, and afterwards my twin cousin and I changed into our pajamas and brushed our teeth.

Soon we were all in our beds, and at some later time Primrose would slip in and go to her own bed, which she was not sharing with anybody. When the lights were out, I heard Rue giggling, and she asked in my direction:

"Timotheus Sinterguth, are you going to tell your new girlfriend that you had a girl in your bed when staying here with us?"

I laughed a little, and then I replied:

"Yes, I think that I will do that. Having my baby cousin in bed with me is nothing to be ashamed of. Said baby cousin was very busy today and did a great job, and I will gladly help and hold her to sleep in peace."

Ruth had indeed been very busy, and she had been fuzzing around and showing up everywhere where a problem might occur, like somebody being not happy with something. Her charms had worked like magic, and she was reasonably tired now. She did not object at all to be called 'baby cousin', and I'd probably still call her that when she was like thirty years old; she snuggled closely into my side, wrapped one of her arms around me, rested her head on my chest, and a few minutes later her steady breathing told me that she was asleep. Lacking a brother or sister of my own, I was very happy that I had such a wonderful extended family; before I got to sleep, I thought for a few moments how nice it might be to have my own girlfriend next to me in my bed instead of my baby cousin.

When I woke up in the morning after, I needed a few moments to remember where I was. I had been sleeping alone almost always during the last years, with only few exceptions, and having another body cuddling up to me was something I was not used to, particularly not when I was in bed. For a couple of seconds I thought that my teddy bear was somehow magically alive, but then I saw Ruth's angel face on my chest and recalled that I was in her bed with her. I had slept quite well, and to my own surprise I had not had much trouble actually staying asleep, despite the six hours time difference. Maybe it had been the feeling of another body so close to me which had helped, or maybe I had been really tired, but I felt well rested and ready for the challenges of another day. It was still pretty early, but the sun had already started to rise. Everybody else in the room still seemed to be sleeping, and while I did not think that I could go back to sleep again, there was no hurry to get up either. I stayed as I was for another twenty minutes or so, and when nobody else was showing any sign of waking up yet, I carefully unwrapped Ruth's arm from around me, placed her Khajiit doll into her arms and stepped out of bed, making sure to not step on Tim or Rue next to us; they seemed to be in what they had mentioned to be their usual position when sleeping, with little Rue fully on top of my twin cousin. When I was done in the bathroom, I walked out of the room and made my way to the kitchen. The clock showed seven in the morning, and I knew that the plan was to have a big family breakfast at eight. I could as well start preparations, and as I was familiar with the home here, I got busy laying the big dining table for the number of people I thought we'd be.

Aunt Dorothee showed up at about twenty minutes to eight, still yawning, and she looked surprised to see some of the work already done, with water already boiling, too, in preparation for a big pot of tea.

"Tim, you didn't have to do this!"

"But why not, Auntie? I was awake anyway, and you left the party much later than we did."

"Everybody else still asleep?"

"Last time I checked, yes, but maybe it's about time to wake them up now, I guess."

I walked back into the girls' bedroom, and indeed, everybody was still sleeping. I knew that Ruth loved to get tickled, so that I started with her and tickled her awake. She giggled and laughed, and Rue woke up from the noise. My twin cousin refused to acknowledge the noise, and Rue and Ruth teamed up now and threw themselves on him, so that he did not have a choice any longer; resistance was futile. I went over to Primrose and shook her shoulder, and now everybody in the room was awake.

"Breakfast will be in quarter of an hour!" I called before I left the room again.

We, that is myself and the Mellark family, spent a nice day together, and on Sunday evening my twin cousin drove me to the airport, so that I could board the plan for the trip home. The flight was an overnight one, but with very comfortable seats, so that I even managed to doze off a few times. From my destination, the airport outside of München, I took the maglev north, and I was back in my apartment before noon on Monday.

On Tuesday evening I picked up Primrose from her long day at work, as usual, and once more we went to eat in the nice and cozy Italian restaurant. When we had ordered, Primrose smirked and told me:

"So, my dear boyfriend, did you sleep well when you stayed over for your brother's wedding?"

"Well, yes, actually, considering the time difference. Why do you ask?"

She chuckled, got her moby out – she had an older model, but good enough – and showed me some photos. The first she shared had an image of Ruth's bedroom, and there was my twin cousin with Rue on top of him and myself with Ruth very close at my side, one of her arms resting around me and one of my arms also wrapped around her. I wondered who had taken this, but then I recalled that my cousin Primrose had come home later; she must have found us like this, all asleep. And then I finally realized that my girlfriend might not consider it great or even acceptable that I had been in bed with another girl, and I probably looked guilty when I looked at her. Primrose chuckled again, and she told me:

"Don't worry, my namesake and your twin cousin explained all of that, and your little cousin, Ruth, seems to be a really adorable little girl."

"She is, indeed, and she is a cuddler. Peeta is not so much the cuddling type, and neither is her father, and Ruth claims most of the body contact she wants from her oldest brother and me; this started at toddler age already. But, how did you get those photos?"

"Your twin cousin sent them to me via email, together with some others."

"Nothing really embarrassing, I hope?"

"No, not at all. It's nice to see how your family over there looks like, and I almost wish that I could have been with you."

Our dinner was now served, and we ate in silence. When we were done, had paid and left, Primrose asked:

"Say, would you like to join Christine and me day after tomorrow? We are going to do track and field training, and you had mentioned that you might want to come at some time, too."

It turned out that the time was all right for me, and I agreed. When I delivered Primrose at her parents' apartment and took my leave, I was looking forward to seeing her again in two days, in a different environment.

On Thursday late afternoon I picked up the two sisters and drove them to the sports ground in my car. Once we had arrived at the athletic ground and changed, we started by doing a few slow laps around the place. While we trotted to get our muscles warmed up, Primrose and Christine introduced me to the others in the group, some boys and some girls, almost all of them being teenagers. When they learned that I was Prim՚s boyfriend, they were impressed that I took my time to exercise with them, as I was somewhat out of their typical age group, but one of the older boys picked up on my motives:

"Hey, come on, of course he's using the opportunity to ogle his girlfriend in short sports clothes and getting all sweaty. Why do you think I am here?"

"Hey!" one of the girls, presumably his own girlfriend, complained. "This goes in both directions! And actually, you are usually sweating more than I do!"

We all laughed, but Primrose looked at me in a strange way, probably contemplating if that was indeed my main motivation for being here. I did not offer a comment, but I had to admit to myself that I enjoyed looking at her athletic body, with shoulders, arms and legs being not covered by shorts and sleeveless shirt. I suspected that she might even have clearly defined chest and stomach muscles, but that part of her body was of course hidden from my view.

We trained for about two hours, and I liked the group we were with. I had not done most of the exercises a lot before, and for doing the shot put properly, some of the others needed to tell me about proper technique first. However, due to my bodybuilding and gym training, at least I had the muscles to achieve decent results. I skipped doing high jump, although I was told that I might be doing well with my tall frame.

Seeing Prim do the various exercises was quite a sight. I came to notice that she jumped further than most of the boys and she also ran faster; only two of them were able to pass her in sprinting. Of course, she had told me about the martial arts training she had done for years, and this had probably helped to get her body toned and fit. As a matter of fact, I had trouble keeping up with her when doing a short sprint, and she beat me by half a second or so. When the others had seen that, one of the boys chuckled:

"How does it feel to be beaten by your girlfriend?"

Rather than replying verbally, I opened my arms for a sweaty Primrose and hugged her tightly, and I told her:

"I am really proud to have a girlfriend who is not only extremely good looking, but also has a very fit body, and I will be happily beaten by you on any day."

Despite our sweaty bodies, we kept hugging each other right here with everybody watching, and once the training time had ended and we went to have a shower and change, I happily agreed to come and join on a more regular basis, like every other week or so.

When we drove home, my girlfriend stated the obvious:

"So, you did like to see me in sports clothes and all sweaty."

I smiled and truthfully replied:

"Yes, I did, but I also really enjoyed training with the group. About the clothes, I think that I may even want to take this one step further, if possible."

She looked at me with eyebrows raised, not sure what I had in mind, and thus I explained:

"What about going swimming at some time? Do you own a nice bikini?"

That of course got her blushed again, and I did not receive an answer. Imagining my girlfriend in a tight bikini, though, kept my mind occupied for some time before I managed to fall asleep at night. Just before I dozed off, I recalled that I had planned to find a good opportunity for a first kiss, but had not managed to find the courage for that today.