The two girls were out on their bikes getting some miles in later that afternoon, when Shae came back to Emily’s house, this time dressed a little more conventionally. This time Emily was home, along with Mary Bacon, Rachel’s mother.

“So what do you think?” Mary asked.

“I think those are a couple of interesting girls,” Shae smiled. “They’re exploring who they are, and frankly I think they’re considering it pretty carefully.”

Shae’s showing up to go swimming with the girls was not an accident. True, Emily had invited her over to use the pool when she wanted to because she was well aware that pool time could ease some of the stresses of pregnancy. Shae’s appearance this afternoon had been a carefully planned setup; after the girls had stopped off at the newspaper office on their way back from their pool session in Hawthorne, Emily had called Shae and given her a heads up.

The announcement that Kayla considered herself to be a nudist had been surprising enough back in the spring, but as time went on Emily had become aware that Rachel had come to join her. With kids it’s never possible to be quite sure that what’s showing on the surface is really what’s going on beneath. Emily had been aware that Kayla and Rachel had been sunning nude and skinny-dipping in the pool, but the fact that the redhead also considered herself to be a nudist hadn’t been totally clear until Emily received a somewhat alarmed phone call from Rachel’s mother. It turned out that Rachel had told her mother that she considered herself to be a nudist as well – and had done it with Kayla present.

Shae was an adult who both girls appeared to trust and be at ease with. Emily remembered that Shae had been the instigator of some all-girl skinny-dipping sessions here and there over the years, mostly out at Mandy Paxton’s pool. It seemed like a possible way to see what might be going on below the surface.

Mary shook her head. “It could be,” she said. “But I don’t know that I raised my daughter to be a nudist. And I’m worried that it could be worse.”

“It’s all pretty innocent, from what I could see,” Shae told both of them.

“Well, it just floors me,” Mary said. “I certainly never expected it. I never even suspected this was going on.”

Shae smiled. “You never went skinny-dipping or anything like that when you were a kid? I mean, just for the thrill of it?”

“No, I never did,” Mary sighed. “That was one of those things that just wasn’t done in our household.”

“Like I told you,” Emily said. “I at least had a little exposure to it, which is why I wasn’t quite as worried. After I had a chance to think it through, I just figured it was mostly a phase the girls were going through. I figured that if we made an issue out of it and drew a line in the sand with Kayla, she’d just go behind our backs and a little innocent experimentation would become pure rebellion. I figured if I accepted it and ignored it, it’ll probably go away soon enough.”

“I don’t know,” Mary said. “What if they’re becoming lesbians?”

Shae shook her head. “I didn’t see or hear any signs of that,” she reported. “That doesn’t mean it’s not happening, because there’s often some experimentation going on at that age. But think about it: if they’re going to mess around with some sexual experimentation at that age, wouldn’t you rather it was girl on girl so they don’t have the chance of developing one of these …” she patted her belly “… at their age? Without saying much of anything, I think I made the reality of that risk pretty clear to them.”

Mary shook her head again. She’d been doing a lot of that ever since this came out of the woodwork. “In one way I suppose you’re right,” she told the tall woman. “I mean, at their age. But what if they don’t grow out of it?”

“Then they don’t,” Shae told her. “Emily and I have a psychologist friend who specializes in these issues. She’d tell you that being a lesbian is not a choice or a commitment but a fact of life, just like a lot of things. Believe me, there are lots of worse things to be in this life. But in any case, I don’t think it’s an issue right now. The girls are good friends, yes. Close friends, like you seem to be afraid of, well, I don’t see any sign of it. They both impress me as kids who have their heads firmly on their shoulders, and are doing some serious thinking about where they’re going in life. Emily, I’m sure you’re aware that Kayla has been talking to Dave and me about going to college and some of the things she might study.”

“A little bit,” Emily said. “I know I’ve overheard an interesting discussion or two, but I didn’t really think she was talking about college.”

“She is,” Shae told her. “Granted, it’s still a few years up the pike.” She turned to Mary and added, “Rachel has been talking with her about it a lot. I don’t know if you saw college in your daughter’s future, but it’s there.”

“We sort of suspected it, although there hasn’t been any real talk about it,” Mary said.

“Consider yourselves lucky,” Shae smiled. “If those two continue to run the way they have been in races, they could well both be getting full-ride athletic scholarships. That’s up the road a ways, of course. Speaking as a woman who got through college on an athletic scholarship, I think it’s good that the girls at this stage aren’t talking about what they can do as athletes, but how athletics can carry them onto the next step, whatever it is. I wish I’d had a view of the difference more like theirs when I was their age. Back then, all I could think about was basketball, and I never figured out that something had to come after it.”

“That’s all well and good,” Mary said. “But even so, what are we going to do about having a couple of young nudists running around? I mean, when you get right down to it, it’s not that normal a thing.”

“Actually, I don’t know that I disagree with you,” Emily said. “It could get very awkward if we let it get out of hand.”

“It may just be something you have to learn to live with,” Shae counseled.

“I sure wish I knew how committed to it they are,” Mary sighed. “I mean, if I thought this was one of those growing up things that will be gone next summer, it’d be one thing. But I’m really afraid it’s going to be more than that. After all, they seem to be pretty committed and serious runners. What’s to keep them from being committed and serious nudists?” She was silent for a moment, and then went on. “As far as I know, it’s just been very casual up to this point, just the two girls that I know of, and I wonder if they dared each other into it. It’d be interesting to get them out in a nudist situation and see just how deep their commitment is.”

“Does that mean you’re volunteering to take them to a nudist camp?” Emily laughed. “From what little I know you have to be either eighteen or accompanied by a parent.”

“What part of ‘not just no, but hell no’ don’t you understand?” Mary snorted. “Even if my daughter wants to do it, that’s one thing, but me? No way!”

“Well, I really can’t either,” Emily sighed. “Mostly because of my position in the community. I guess there’s an idea that’s shot in the butt.”

“Well,” Shae grinned. “Maybe not. I do have one idea.”

The following weekend was the first of the mini triathlons that Rachel’s father had told them about. This would be a new experience for both of the girls; though they were competent runners for their age and experience levels, they were at best only average swimmers despite some coaching at the pool in Hawthorne. Though they were in good shape and had some practice, they weren’t exactly bicycle racers, either, and the road bikes they used to ride around town and to the pool also weren’t racing bikes.

“I can tell you right now that you’re not going to set the world on fire,” Rachel’s father told them both. “You’re almost certainly going to be the youngest girls there, and maybe the youngest people, period, so don’t be surprised if you wind up finishing toward the tail of the field. There probably won’t be anyone there with less experience than you have. But if you decide you want to do it, it will be good experience for you, and it will certainly tell you what you need to work on.”

“I don’t suppose it will hurt to give it a try,” Kayla replied thoughtfully. “I mean, I’m pretty sure I can do a one-kilometer swim but I know I won’t be very fast at it. I know I can do a 25k bike ride, because we do almost that when we go to and from Hawthorne. But a 10k run on top of that, well, I can see I’m going to be pretty pooped out before I even start.”

“Yeah,” Rachel agreed. “We just have to keep the early pace down so as to not kill ourselves before we get to the run.”

“That’s the good part about this,” Rachel’s father replied. “It’ll teach you pacing and how to expend your energy wisely. That’s an important part of the whole race. Now, do you still want to do it? It’s going to be a pretty big challenge at your ages.”

Kayla thought about it for a moment. Now that the reality of the challenge was in front of her, it seemed a lot bigger than it had been when they had just been talking about it. “Yeah, I guess,” she replied. “If I do lousy, at least I can look forward to doing better the next time.”

It actually took Rachel’s dad a little talking to sell Kayla’s parents on letting her do the mini triathlon, since it was much more ambitious than anything she’d tried in the past, but eventually they came around to the idea. Rachel’s dad suggested that Kayla get a one-piece swimsuit so she wouldn’t have to change clothes, other than to put on shorts for the bike ride and run. For once, the idea of wearing shoes and a one-piece didn’t bother her much, though her mother seemed surprised at both. Since it was just a first attempt at a triathlon, the girls would use their normal road bikes, not special racing ones.

Unfortunately, both Kayla’s mom and dad had things to do that Saturday, so it was worked out that she would stay with Rachel at her house the night before the race. They had to get up very early on Saturday morning to make it to the race, which was being held at Meriwether College, sixty or seventy miles north of Bradford. Rachel’s brother Casey would also be running, as would Rachel’s father. Rachel’s mother was not running but would be there to support all of them.

When they got to the college, Kayla was a little surprised to see a couple hundred people hanging around the registration desk, stretching, talking with each other, and loosening up. She recognized a few people she had met at the 10k at Woodstock a few weeks before, and some of them apparently remembered her. It gave her a warm feeling to understand that there was a community of runners like her, and she figured she’d get to know some of them better.

The college also impressed her – it was the first time she’d even been on a college campus, although she’d ridden by colleges with her parents once or twice. The place was big and green, with a number of solid buildings, somehow like the buildings at the school in Bradford, but very different, too. Somehow, she knew that there were things she could learn here, and she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to learn them.

As big as the pool at the college was – and it was the biggest one Kayla had ever seen, much bigger than the community pool they were familiar with at Hawthorne – even this pool wasn’t big enough to accommodate all the entrants at once. They were divided up into several groups, with those who were expected to have the slowest times starting first. That meant Kayla and Rachel were in the first group to swim. It wasn’t surprising that they fell behind most of the other people in their group fairly quickly – the girls weren’t competitive swimmers, after all – but at least they didn’t do as badly as they feared. One of the surprising things was that Kayla was better than Rachel, finishing more than a pool lap ahead of her as the next group of swimmers was starting to get lined up for their swims.

While the race was being run against the clock, there weren’t any breaks to change clothes, so Kayla didn’t stop to cheer Rachel on or see how much she’d beaten her by. She raced into the locker room, pulled on shorts over her swimsuit and pulled on her bike shoes, and was out the door to her waiting bike in less than a minute, still dripping from the pool.

The route the bike race was taking was flagged across the campus, and then down a lightly-used side street to a paved trail, a former rail grade. Kayla had been only dimly aware of that fact, but as she turned onto the trail she realized that at least she wouldn’t have to deal with any hills, although the inability to coast down hills would take some of the fun out. It was pretty clear that she couldn’t pedal just as fast as she could since she knew she had a long way to go, but guessing how fast she should go was just that – a guess. At least she was close to several other competitors, so she decided to ride along with them at their speed. Still, it was a pretty good speed and the miles passed rapidly; the only times the bike trail crossed busy roads was on overpasses or underpasses. A couple of times they had to cross lightly used roads, and there were flagmen there to stop cars as the competitors passed.

Almost more quickly than she could imagine, they reached the turn point on the trail. She had to stop there very quickly to get her race bib stamped as proof that she’d made it to the turn point; she grabbed a cup of water, swished it around in her mouth, and spat it out before getting back in motion.

As she headed back toward the college she could see a few racers coming the other way, and all of a sudden there was Rachel, just coming into the turn point, maybe a minute behind her, no more. They just said “hi” to each other and kept pedaling, although Kayla was thinking that Rachel must have made up at least some of the distance she’d fallen back in the pool. That made her think that maybe she’d better pedal a little bit harder, so she did, passing a couple of other competitors on her way back to the college.

There wasn’t much of a stop at the college; Kayla just dropped her bike at the bike rack, got her bib stamped again, kicked off her shoes, and followed the flags on a different route back to the rail-trail. She knew it would again be an out-and-back, but going the other way from the bike ride. As she raced across campus, she could see Rachel coming into the end of the bike ride; it was hard to tell if she’d gained any ground on her on the second half of the bike ride but she hadn’t lost any, so that was for the best. She and Rachel may have been the best of friends, but when a race started they were competitors and there were no holds barred.

Once again, Kayla had no idea of how fast she should run the final ten kilometers of the race. She was tired, and she knew it; she knew she wasn’t going anything like as fast as she would have run for a five-k on the Bradford High School Cross-Country course. She came upon a small mixed group of men and women runners who seemed to be going at what she thought was a reasonable speed, and decided it was good enough for her.

It seemed like a long, long way out to the turn point, in the middle of the woods. Once again she got her bib stamped and started back, to discover Rachel was coming into the turn point – still a ways behind her, but it seemed like she was closing. There was nothing much to do but to continue with the group she’d been running with, and in the last three or four kilometers she even passed two or three of them. Just thinking about it – and she really didn’t have the energy to think much – she realized that all of these people had to have started at the same time she did, so she had to be doing pretty well for her group.

Still, the last kilometer or so was pure agony. She was exhausted; she wasn’t thinking well, but the finish line was up there somewhere and she was bound and determined that she was going to cross it, no matter if everyone in the field passed her in the last few hundred meters, even if Rachel passed her.

Her group came back onto the Meriwether College campus. The finish line was there, just a little more … and all of a sudden she was across it! She’d made it!

Somehow the final triumph of finishing far and away the toughest race she’d ever run gave her enough energy to stay on her feet – she knew better than to just collapse, although every muscle in her body was screaming at her to do just that. “Great time, Kayla,” Rachel’s mom called. “I’ve got your time, just unwind. Breathe deep, and keep moving. Don’t let your muscles cramp up.”

Breathing deep was not an issue; she’d been doing it for miles, but at least now she wasn’t expending oxygen faster than she was taking it in. Her muscles ached more than they’d ever done for a race before, and she wasn’t really aware of everything around her – but she at least noticed Rachel coming through the finish, apparently just as beat out as she was.

It took a few minutes for both of them to get their breathing somewhat back to normal again, and not be so desperately tired. In the process both girls virtually inhaled a bottle of Gatorade each. “You girls both did better than I expected you to,” Mary suggested. “You were first and second in your age group, but then you were the only ones in your age group. Still, you did well against some others in your heat. Why don’t you head into the locker room, get showers, and get some dry clothes on? Then you can sit and relax for a bit.”

That sounded like a great idea to Kayla. She was aware that her swimsuit was just about as wet as it had been when she’d gotten out of the pool, but this time from sweat, so it was gross and felt especially grubby. The swim, ride, and run had taken a lot out of her, and she knew it was going to take a while to recover.

Somehow she and Rachel made it into the locker room, which was fairly busy. There weren’t as many women in the race as there were men, but the last group had yet to even start, and there were some fast clothes changes going on by women just coming out of the pool.

It only took Kayla an instant to get her shorts off. The swimsuit felt even grubbier and more constricting now than it had before, so it didn’t take much longer for it to be in a wet pile on the floor, either. She knew she ought to head for the shower, but right at that moment she just didn’t have the energy to contemplate it, much less do it. She stood there in the nude for a minute or two, just dazed, before she slowly walked into the shower room. It felt good; the warm water pounding on her body was almost like a massage. People came and went, but she just stood there luxuriating in the feel. She was dimly aware that Rachel was beside her under the next shower, probably feeling much the same.

Finally, with great reluctance, she shut off the shower and went back out to the lockers. She pulled a towel from her gear bag, dried herself off fairly well, then spread the towel out on the bench lightly and sat down on it, still trying to gather her strength. Rachel did the same thing, then sat down beside her. “Wow,” her friend said. “We did it.”

“Yeah,” Kayla replied quietly, still pretty worn out from the experience. “I think we did pretty good too.”

“You want to do it again?”

“Not today. But yeah, maybe again sometime.”

“Got to work on my swimming,” Rachel sighed. “I got behind you in the pool early and I never could catch up. I just about killed myself trying.”

“I think I could have done a little better on the bike, but it would have blown me out for the run.”

“How old are you two, anyway?” they heard a woman ask. They looked up to see a woman who was maybe in her twenties slowly getting dressed. “You got ahead of me in the swim and I never did catch up.”

“We’re both thirteen,” Rachel replied.

“Thirteen?” the woman smiled as she pulled on a pair of shorts. “You’ve got a lot of room for improvement, but you’ve got the time to improve. Stay with it, kids. I’m really impressed.”

The two nude girls wound up talking with the woman for several minutes. She was an experienced runner, but less so at biking and swimming. She’d set a personal best in the triathlon, but both Kayla and Rachel had beaten her time. Both the girls felt good about that. Finally, she finished dressing, packed up her bag and left.

“I suppose we ought to do that,” Kayla said after the woman went out the door. “I could stand the naked time, but your mother would wonder what happened to us.”

“I suppose,” Rachel smiled. “I wonder if it would ever be possible to do a race like that naked?”

“Probably not,” Kayla replied. “Oh, there might be a nudist place somewhere that does it, but it’d be years before we’ll get to try it, if there even is one.”

“Maybe someday. But I’ll tell you what, I sure would like to see what it would be like.”

“Yeah, well,” Kayla nodded as she submitted to the inevitable and began to dig in her gear bag for her street clothes. “Maybe someday.”

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