FANTASTIC FINISHES By Stardog Champion jprobx@webtv.net “You have got to be crazy Mr. Melendez...why me?” the matronly 38 year old social science professor said to her boss as if she was dumbfounded by his offer. “I can’t do that...I have a four year old that needs to be picked up at Day Care and a 10 year old that has soccer practice every afternoon...it’s just...” “Listen.... I’m really in a tough spot here,” The 50ish principal of Millard Fillmore Junior College said softly, knowing he was in the process of a tough sell. “None of us could have foreseen Mrs. Bettman getting her third DUI yesterday. I had no other option than to let her go...the team is devastated.... but we have to finish the season.... we have commitments.” “But.... why me?” Cynthia Paulson asked incredulously. “I’ve never played competitive basketball in my life.” “Yes....I know that Cyndi,” Mr. Melendez replied, anticipating the teacher’s every response.” But you did play soccer and field hockey in high school and it seems a few of the girls on the team really like you. And besides... you are the only female faculty member whose under 50 and can still get out and run with the girls. Cyndi sat across the large cluttered desk from Mr. Melendez, her mouth agape as she stewed. “Look Cyndi...there are only four games left...and frankly we are not very good...the playoffs are out of the question. Two more weeks and the season will be over. The work will look great on your resume...you’ll get the added salary for the month...plus I’ll be in debt to you...for...a...very...long...time, how ‘bout it?” Mr. Melendez smiled, begging with as much charm as he could. Never one her whole life to say ‘no’ when she probably should have, Cyndi looked in the dark eyes of her Latin boss and with a low sigh of surrender said, “Guess I don’t have a choice, do I?” “Thank you…thank you...thank you Cyndi,” Melendez beamed, relieved he had finally talked her into it. “I owe you big time!” If Cyndi Paulson thought trying to convince her boss that the proposition he made for her to become the interim head coach of Millard Fillmore Junior College’s girls’ basketball team wasn’t a good idea, than trying to convince her husband of 14 years, Gary, to go along with it would be that much harder. Gary did not take the news well. Having hit his stride with the real estate company he had toiled at for 12 years, Gary Paulson’s work calendar was now always booked at least 2 months in advance. In the never ending cost/benefit analysis in his brain, Gary could not see the logic of losing possible commission opportunities so his wife could stay at school every night until 6 or 7 for the next five weeks to coach basketball. With Cyndi stuck at work, it would mean Gary would have to pick the kids up from school, run the errands, do some shopping and on occasion, fix dinner. He knew his place at the real estate agency provided a little more wiggle room than Cyndi’s situation at school and even though he got sexually aroused each time he cashed his large commission checks from work, he did deeply love his wife and wanted to spend more time with the kids and here was his chance to prove he was sincere on both accounts. Gary decided to suck it up for 5 weeks and allow Cyndi to do what she had to do for her career for once. Cyndi didn’t know quite where to start with her new endeavor. With the team’s former coach and her personal friend, Claire Bettman, in a rehab center after her arrest for her third DUI, Cyndi didn’t feel up to going to see her for a one on one meeting to determine the state of the team. Cyndi found herself checking 3 books about basketball theory out from the school library, studied the team’s media guide intently to gain some insight and background about the players she’d be coaching and then set up both individual meetings and a collective team meeting to help make the transition as smooth as possible. What Cyndi had found in those team meetings gave her serious pause. The team she had inherited had a disappointing record of 9 wins and 14 losses and even though there was 4 games left, there was no hope that the team could achieve a post season berth. After meeting with each player separately and then with the entire team together Cyndi Paulson found the morale of the team to be brutally low. Evidentially, in Coach Bettman’s downward spiral of addiction, she had let the discipline and expectations for the players to fall to severely low levels. “At least there’s no pressure,” Cyndi deadpanned to herself as she headed for her first practice with the team. “I can’t screw this up anymore than it already is.” As Cyndi Paulson scribbled a few notes beside each player listed on her roster trying to map out what she wanted to accomplish during her first practice, she felt the butterflies flutter in her stomach the same way she had on her wedding day or the first day she had a classroom to herself. In the back of her mind, Cyndi kept telling herself just to relax, that she just got tossed into a screwed up situation and she couldn’t really do anything to make it any better...or worse. However, just like anything else in her life that she had committed her time and energy to, Cyndi felt a distinct need to do the best job she could. Scanning down the list of players on the roster, she recognized the names of two of the girls listed. Both Amanda Phillips, a 5foot 2 guard and Lisa Kincaid, a 5 foot 5 forward were both students in the major in which Cyndi taught and had frequently had both girls in her classes. Cyndi seemed to have a good relationship with both girls, but as she checked the team stats, Cyndi also realized that both Amanda and Lisa rarely, if ever played, thus dulling her chances of having any sway on the real personality of the team. The one girl that could help influence the team’s morale if she could get her on board was Leandra Collins. She was only star on the team, averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. Several division 1 coaches had come to Fillmore’s campus to see her play, but many were scared off by Leandra’s spotty academic record along with her seemingly selfish play. As Cyndi pondered how to sway Leandra to make a concerted effort to be a better team player, she harkened back to the original meeting with Mr. Melendez about the preferential treatment that a player of Leandra’s talent received. It seems that in the principal’s zeal to get some national attention, hoping a player from his school could latch on at a big time four year school, he had along with many of the professors and coaches looked the other way with a lot of Leandra’s behavior. Melendez made it clear to Cyndi when she accepted the offer not to ‘rock the boat’ either. It wasn’t like the team was going to reach any majestic heights, Cyndi thought, but she knew from dealing with her own children that when you had two sets of rules, it was rather difficult to expect consistently good behavior from everyone. That was Cynthia Paulson’s biggest concern. Walking into the gymnasium dressed in her crisp new school embroidered workout suit, Cyndi took her place on the first row of bleachers and waited for the girls to file in for practice. Everything seemed to be a blur for Cyndi during her initial 2-hour practice. The role players, conditioned from an early age to always follow the coaches orders tried keeping the energy level up but focusing her attention on the biggest contributors on the floor, Cyndi was disappointed with the lackadaisical effort given by the stars on the team, especially Leandra Collins. It wasn’t that Leandra and some of the other girls were outright disruptive, but just didn’t seem to want to be there. Cyndi could clearly sense that how Leandra went so the team went. While trying her best portray a strong front to the girls, Cyndi was very threatened by Leandra’s hold over her players. By the end of the practice, Cyndi was dog-tired. Taking a deep breath, Cyndi followed the team into the locker room and congratulated them on a positive effort, even if she didn’t quite believe it herself. Sitting alone in her new office, Cyndi filled out some paperwork and entered some notes into the diary she had decided to keep documenting her month with the team. Watching as each girl walked by her door to head home, Cyndi made it a point to personally thank each young woman and that she’d see them tomorrow. Clicking off the girls’ faces in her head, Cyndi guessed the only girl left in the locker room was Leandra who was getting some ice treatment for a slightly sprained ankle. Left with a big pile of paperwork to get to, Cyndi pushed her chair back and took a long deep breath, the positive glow of one day being down beginning to outweigh the confusion and against that surrounded the first practice. Cyndi was also left with the faint aroma of an afternoon of furious hard work. Cyndi couldn’t remember the last time she had sweated so hard, half from running around for two hours, half from the nervousness that accompanied such a daunting task. Since the girls had filed out of the locker room, Cyndi decided to take a quick shower before she left, knowing that the minute she got home Gary and her kids would want her to start dinner. Taking her whistle from around her neck and laying it on her desk, Cyndi made her way out of her office and strolled down the length of the humid, still foggy locker room and found an empty locker close to the shower entrance. Standing in front of the empty locker, the humm of the fluorescent lights above the only sound in the cramped empty room, Cyndi began peeling off her sweat soaked warmup suit. Unzipping the blue and white jacket, Cyndi guided it off her shoulders and laid it inside the empty locker before sitting down on the wooden bench that ran along the length of the face of the lockers. Briskly untying her tennis shoes, Cyndi kicked them off and stood up hurriedly, digging her fingers into the waistband of her pants. Pulling them down quickly to her ankles, Cyndi stepped out of them one leg at a time. Easing the soaked gray tee-shirt covering her chest up and over her head, Cyndi was left standing there in nothing but her tight, breast condensing sports bra and white cotton panties. Unsnapping the two snaps of her sports bra, Cyndi removed it allowing her small jiggly titties to fall free from their ultra snug constraints. Rolling her panties down her long, trim legs, Cyndi stepped out of them before bending down and taking the pile of dirty clothes in her arms and casting them inside the locker, closing the metal door shut behind them. Now completely naked, Cyndi reached for the heavy white towel beside her and covered her body with it, tying it tightly against her chest. After laying out a pair of jeans and a clean tee-shirt that she had brought to change into for her trip home on the bench, Cyndi turned and made the short walk into the still foggy shower room. Feeling the cool linoleum under her bare feet, Cyndi was overcome with the memories of her teenage and college years when she had gym classes and played sports. She had forgotten the unique smells and feelings that came with being in a well-used locker room. Disappearing into the shower, Cyndi untied the towel covering her body and found a shower head along the center of the wall. Turning the water on and taking a step back waiting for it to heat up, Cyndi was left with the private thoughts of how awkward she had felt in similar situations growing up, especially when she was in college playing for the girls’ field hockey team. Although she had always had an athletic figure, she still had more of a long distance runner’s physique. Kind of gangly, long legs, trim hips and small breasts. Cyndi always felt an indescribable insecurity with the girls from her team, especially in the shower when they would vocally flaunt their more endowed and muscular bodies. As she walked over and drenched herself under the rapid rush of the hot shower, letting the soothing jet spray erase the sweat and grim from her workout, Cyndi was grateful she had the whole shower room to herself. Other than her husband and her doctor, no one else had seen Cyndi Paulson naked in nearly 15 years. Right as she began lathering up, something in the periphery of Cyndi’s visual field startled her and caused her to turn nervously. “AAAHHHHH...you scared me,” Cyndi cried, watching as Leandra Collins limped into the shower, her 6 foot frame covered in a towel similar to one that Cyndi had just taken off. “Had to get some ice on ankle in the training room...didn’t mean to scare you, Coach,” Lenadra said dryly. Suddenly, all the insecurities from her teenage years returned abruptly when the 19 year old Sophomore untied her towel and took her place two shower spots down from where Cyndi was standing numbly, the steaming water incessantly coating her lean body. Despite the fact that she had given birth to two children, Cyndi Paulson was privately proud of the way she had maintained her figure. Not proud enough however to let anyone else see it. She had even developed the need to have the lights off when she and Gary had sex, the rare occurrence they ever made time to do it. Cyndi felt a high level of discomfort now as she stood in the shower, hot droplets of water beading on every crevasse on her body as the well endowed and very muscular young black girl that was the basketball team’s leader, showered right beside her. Not being able to handle the stress, Cyndi clumsily raised her hand and cut off the shower, cutting her cleansing short. Blindly reaching for her towel, Cyndi quickly covered her drenched naked body and hastily made her way back towards her locker to get dressed. For a fleeting moment however, as she turned to leave, Cyndi couldn’t help but notice Leandra’s powerfully built naked thighs and hips from behind as Leandra worked up a lather over her beautiful black body, impervious to the fact that her new coach watching from behind. “I’ll...ahh...see you tomorrow...Leandra,” Cyndi said, barely audible over the hiss of the running shower, dropping her ashamed gaze to the floor. “OK Coach, see you then, “ Leandra replied without turning around. Feeling her nerves gnaw at the pit of her stomach as she dressed, Cyndi wanted nothing more than to get out of the locker room before Leandra emerged from the shower to dry off and get dressed as well. On her way out of the locker room door when she heard the shower cut off behind her, Cyndi quickly hurried home, her mind racing in a series of different directions, none of which she had a firm grasp upon. It had on many levels been the most stressful day in recent memory and the curve that it took as she tried to take a peaceful, solitary shower bothered Cyndi in ways she couldn’t quite understand. With a week’s worth of work on her new endeavor behind her, Cyndi finally felt like her feet were firmly planted on the ground underneath her. With her first real chance to see if she had made any progress with the team only a day away, the first game with her on the sidelines as head coach loomed in front of her like sphinx. Cyndi was sure she’d show up and that the team would suit up, beyond that, she had no clue how it would turn out. What was more certain was that her home life was taking a temporary hit. Her son and daughter both were too young to understand the rational explanation of why their Mommy wasn’t spending nearly as much time with them, and her husband Gary, even though supportive, never let a night go by without a subtle jab about certain things around the house not getting done or having to eat KFC takeout every other night. Four more weeks, Cyndi painfully thought to herself, as she sat up in bed beside her sleeping husband, drawing up a game plan for the next afternoon’s game with Fillmore’s biggest rival, Franklin Pierce Community College. As she sat there, fretting and stressing over what to do against a team she had never seen play before with a group of her own players that she, for that matter, had never seen play either, suddenly Cyndi realized Gary was not asleep beside her like she thought. Feeling her husband’s warm hand rest against her thigh through the fabric of her flannel pajamas, Cyndi felt a distant tingle smolder inside of her as her husband slowly guided his hand up the length of her leg. Although her body was thrilled Gary was showing her some attention and because it had been weeks since they had taken the time to have sex before bed, Cyndi couldn’t deny that she needed it. Still though, the game plan couldn’t wait, it had to get done. “I’d love to Gary,” Cyndi said softly, trying to let her husband down gently. “But I have to get this finished before meeting with the team in the morning.” Gary looked up into his wife stressed green eyes and sighed harshly. Disappointingly removing his hand from her thigh, Gary Paulson turned over in a frustrated huff and tried to go to sleep. Retuning with a big smile on her face to her locker room office, the din of 500 screaming students still ringing in her head, Cyndi Paulson had every reason to be proud of the effort her girls had given. They had played a much better team, tooth and nail, for 38 minutes and it wasn’t until Leandra Collins and two other starters fouled out that Fillmore finally succumb to Pierce by only three points. Now bitten by the competition bug, Cyndi stared wantonly at the next game circled on her large office calendar in five days versus Benedictine, one of the few teams below Fillmore in the standings. “We can win that one,” Cyndi said out loud to herself as the girls showered and dressed outside. Meeting her husband atone of the finer steakhouses in town, his treat to her for such a great effort by the team, the two had a great meal and talked jovially for nearly an hour while slowly eating dessert. Gary Paulson hoped his plan to show his wife just how much he supported her by taking her out to dinner to celebrate along with an hour of quality conversation would be enough to get them back home so that he could relieve the hard on that had been left over from the last few nights empty attempts at seducing his wife. Gary thought he had it in the bag as the two headed back to their respective cars. Whispering softly into his wife’s ear,” I’ll follow you Cyndi...do you still have that slinky...black...nighty...I got you for Valentine’s Day last year?” “Yes Honey...I do...whatever for?” Cyndi replied slyly. “Tell you what Darling, go home and set something up, get comfy and I’ll be home as fast as I can. There are a few things back at school I want to take care of before tomorrow, but I promise...I’ll be home before you know it.” Gary, frustrated Cyndi wasn’t coming home that very moment, sighed disappointingly to himself but bit his lip before he said anything. Looking into his wife’s eyes he saw that he still had her on the hook and that tonight could still be his lucky night. “OK Babe...hurry home,” He said suppressing his lust. “I’ll be waiting for you.” Both Gary and Cyndi got into their separate vehicles and went their separate ways, rightly expecting to meet up an hour or so later. On her drive back to the school, Cyndi’s mind raced in several different directions. She could tell by her husband’s body language and manner before they had split up that he desperately wanted to make love to her when she got home. With the stress from her first game coaching out of the way and the positive if not victorious result, Cyndi felt more at ease concentrating on those same pent up desires herself. She could feel the car seat underneath her bottom warm significantly as she drove along through the California night. Sticking her key into the lock guarding the locker room door, Cyndi’s heart sank realizing that the door was already unlocked. As she pushed the heavy door open slightly, listening quietly for any unusual sounds coming from inside, Cyndi also noticed that all the florescent lights were still shining bright inside the expanse of the room as well. “Damn Debbie!” Cyndi muttered under her breath, slowly making her way into the main area of the locker room, “Debbie” being Debra Kapler, the team’s student trainer who was responsible for looking up every night after all the jerseys had been washed and equipment put away. Confident no one was in the locker room, that it was just an oversight by one of her teenage trainers, Cyndi turned and closed the heavy door behind her and began walking towards her small adjacent office. Before she could reach her small cubicle, a whiff of something earthy and pungeant teased Cyndi’s senses as it mingled with the normal smells of a locker room. Although she had never smoken the stuff in her life, she remembered the smell clearly from her days in the freshman dorms when she attended Cal Poly. I was the distinct odor of marijuana. As the smell was registering in her brain, Cyndi froze, thinking she could hear the faint sounds of hushed voices as well coming from deep inside the locker area. Rational to the end, Cyndi couldn’t imagine anyone breaking into the locker room to steal anything or do any damage only to stop for a smoke while they went about their business. Besides that, the hushed voice inside sounding feminine and Cyndi had a good idea it was one of her players and Cyndi feared this was going to be her first opportunity to have to meet out some discipline. Preparing to peek her head around the corner, suddenly the feminine sounds coming from inside the room were muted out by a more masculine gasp and moan, causing Cyndi to stop in her tracks. The instant Cyndi heard the male voice from inside, she knew the dynamics of the impending confrontation had just changed. Sheepishly tilting her head around the corner, Cyndi’s eyes widened as she took int he sight in front of her. Cyndi’s gaze fell and fixated on the image of the team’s best player, Leandra Collins, sitting on a bench at the far end of the locker room, her long sleeved denim shirt half way unbuttoned with a rather tall and broad shouldered black kid sitting next to her, kissing Leandra on the neck, their eager hands buried between each other’s parted legs. Cyndi recognized the guy as Malcolm Coombs, a forward from Fillmore’s Men’s team, and rumored boyfriend to Leandra as well as many other females on Fillmore’s campus. Malcolm’s identity around the campus was that he was a ‘player’ in every sense of the word. Cyndi’s first reaction was to turn and leave. She could plainly see the remnants of two joints on the concrete floor beside Malcolm and Leandra. Cyndi watched intently as the hulking 6 foot 6 inch young man pressed his thick lips against the nape of Leandra’s neck then traced his long swirling pink tongue down the line of her collarbone before kissing Leanrda’s bare shoulder lovingly. Feeling her knees wobble underneath her, Cyndi watched as the two young lovers hands explored the splayed expanse of each other’s parted legs. Cyndi focused intently on the way the muscles in Leandra’s forearms tensed as they massaged something of obvious substance near Malcolm’s groin. Cyndi had never seen two black people make out. The rare times her husband had rented an adult movie to stimulate their sex life, it had always been a generic scene with a blonde bimbo and a steroid created man having scripted sex. What was unfolding in front of her in the locker room was the furthest thing from scripted. Cyndi watched as two beautiful young ebony physical specimens groped and explored each other’s body with their hands and mouth. Like a awestruck fan of a painting, Cyndi stood there admiring the beauty unfolding before her. Watching as Leandra’s grinded her wide hips against the bench beneath her, gyrating her seated 6 foot frame against Malcolm’s insistent touch, Cyndi decided the best thing she could do was to let the kids have their moment, to turn around and leave quietly. Even though one of her players was clearly breaking several school and team rules in doing what she was doing, Cyndi harkened back to the marching orders given to her by her boss, Mr. Melendez about letting Leandra Collins have a little more ‘slack’ than the other girls. As Cyndi turned to leave, the door of the locker room almost within reach, suddenly she heard Malcolm’s deep soulful voice cry out,” Ohhh shit!..Leann...it’s your coach!” Cyndi couldn’t help but feel her feet were stuck in quicksand hearing Malcolm tell Leandra that he had seen her coach watching them make out. Cyndi could have continued walking, but something stopped her internally, realizing that since she had been discovered her role as coach, even though temporary would somehow be compromised if she didn’t at least acknowledge the situation. Turning grimly back towards the young couple, Cyndi saw that Malcolm had stood up and was clumsily trying to kick the roach clips on the floor underneath the bench, out of sight. Leandra looked back over her shoulder at her coach with a mix of frustrated unfulfillment and bitter contempt with her dark, scathing eyes as Cyndi stood there, unsure of what to do next. “Looks like the party’s over,” Cyndi heard herself say in the same scolding tone she used on her children. “That was real good, stupid,” Cyndi thought to herself hearing how inept her own words sounded, “That will really scare them.” Malcolm, not wanting to get into any more trouble than he already was in, like Leandra he already had enough X’s against his name and was on his coach’s four star shit list, decided to leave the locker room as quick as he could and not make any trouble. Without saying a word, Malcolm eased past Cyndi standing in the locker room hallway, trying not to make a scene. Rushing past Cyndi, the 38 year old tall auburn haired professor couldn’t help but notice Malcolm’s subtle aroma of aroused sexuality, as it tingled her strangely to the core. Dropping her eyes nervously to the floor, trying to figure out what to do now that Malcolm was gone and she was alone with Leandra, Cyndi just stood there and rolled her tongue, thinking. Looking up and watching her tentative interim coach fight herself for the right words to say, Leandra buttoned her denim shirt back up waiting for the inevitable words of cliché wisdom to come. With Malcolm out of the room now, Cyndi was free to say whatever she wanted to Leandra but as she stood there pondering it, nothing came out of her mouth. Scolding the nineteen year old was out of the question, the look on Leandra’s face told Cyndi that a mutual female discussion of right and wrong would be a waste of time for both as well. Finally, Cyndi decided to do what she originally came back to school to do, to go into her office, fill out some paperwork and prepare her outline for the next day’s practice. Dropping her eyes weakly to the floor as she walked past Leandra, who was still dressing, Cyndi slipped into her office, switched on the light and quietly closed the door behind her without a word to her star player. Leandra watched and waited as her interim coach disappeared into her office, upset she couldn’t vent some of the frustration that had welled up inside of her from both the losing the game earlier, then getting interrupted sharing a private moment with her boyfriend. Reaching down and taking both roach clips off the floor and shoving them into her purse, Leandra left the locker room in a silent huff, headed back to her car then off to her off campus apartment. Pulling her chair closer to her cluttered desk, Cyndi lifted her elbows up and dropped them on the pile of papers resting in front of her. Putting her fingertips against her throbbing temples and rubbing them in small slow circles, Cyndi tried making the world outside slow down a little so she could figure out where everything went wrong. Hearing the door outside slam shut signaled Leandra’s departure, Cyndi took a relieved deep breath knowing now finally she was totally alone with her exhausted thoughts. “First things first,” Cyndi whispered to herself. let’s get some of this paperwork done then I’m going to take a nice long hot shower since I know nobody else is here, then maybe I can go home and at least square things with Gary.” Trying to put the whole Malcolm/Leandra ordeal out of her mind, Cyndi started to feel a little better as she completed the layout for the next day’s schedule. Assuming Leandra and Malcolm would meet somewhere else to finish what she had accidentally interrupted, Cyndi started to think that perhaps her night could have a similar ending with her husband when she finally got home herself. Hurriedly lifting herself out of the chair and walking back into the main locker area, Cyndi started to undress and prepared to take a refreshing shower. Peeling off her clothes, Cyndi quickly grabbed her towel, shampoo and soap then disappeared into the shower room. Turning on the jet spray, Cyndi didn’t hear the door of the locker room open up once again as Leandra Collins reentered the empty room looking for the car keys she had accidentally left in her locker. Alone in the shower, with the privacy of her personal thoughts, Cyndi cleansed herself thinking about what she and her husband Gary were going to do when she got home. With two kids and two careers, their sex life had taken a major hit over the past decade in both frequency and quality. Still, every once in a while when the stars were aligned just right, when the kids had fallen asleep early, if neither Gary or herself had an overwhelming amount of stress about the day past or the day ahead, and if both their bodies were ready, they still were capable of some pretty unbelievable sex. Cyndi tried telling herself the sudden sexual interest was because the looming specter of her first game was out of the way and that she was now confident she could handle the unexpected duty. That might have been part of it, but when she split up with Gary at the restaurant, Cyndi was open to the idea of making love with him when she got home but it still wasn’t a firm commitment. It wasn’t until she had accidentally stumbled onto Leandra and Malcolm’s youthful and vigorous romantic display did Cyndi realize what she was possibly missing. As she stood there bathing her body under the endless torrent of spray, Cyndi privately understood that was probably the real reason she couldn’t find the right words to scold Leanrda with when she had her chance. If anything, Cyndi scolded herself, she knew that she was simply a little envious. She knew she shouldn’t begrudge another woman from getting a little joy out of life that she was being neglected of and as she rinsed the soap of her body, Cyndi closed her eyes imagining what the sc
