Prologue.

It began with a season, a wall, and two children. This is not a story for children, a weather report, nor a story about architecture. Though all three feature prominently throughout. This is a story about  children. About separation, fear, and what a person will do when faced with love in a world of depravity.

It was a warm, humid summer day. The sun beat down upon the long lawn, shinning off the freshly mowed, but brown, grass, as a short, podgy young boy stared up at the enormous stone structure of what would be his home for the next three years. He stood gazing up at the wooden doors, his suitcase lay on its side on the ground. He was well dressed, his clothes neatly pressed and ironed. The only contrast to this were his shoes, mud covered every inch.

Opening the pamphlet that he held in his hand, the boy began to read the brief history that it gave of the house and how it came to be the Butterfly Boarding School for Boy. Around 2019 the owner, Glen Burney, vacated the house, leaving it to fall into disrepair. The plant life grew up and reclaimed the land and the property was all but forgotten by the outside world. A year passed, and it was not until the construction of the third great wall was the property noticed. The Military jumped at the chance to own such a place. Within a couple of months the grounds were cleared, leaving some of the vast forestry that had spread over the 200 odd acres, and repairs began on the house.

In 2021 the school was finally opened to the public, two years after the law to make Straightness illegal was put into place.

The school’s main purpose was directed to teaching children the right way of the world. The thoughts and desires of the country’s leaders, what they consider truth. There would be other schools, for the younger children to begin learning what the country desired of them. To teach them that to be gay is the highest honour a person is given, and that to be straight is to be below even the animals kept for pets.

Tom Wolffdene felt his stomach churn uncomfortably. The rest of the first years he was starting with had already gone inside, heading in as soon as stepping off the huge Sky Bus they used for transporting students. He shivered despite the warmth of the morning. The school was supposed to hold 350 students, plus all the teachers and staff. Most of them, maybe not the staff, would be attending the giant lunch set out to welcome the new first year students. He was supposed to be inside, along with the rest of the first years. He had fallen behind, pottered around at the back of the bus so that he could step off the bus last so that he wouldn’t have to go inside. He did not want it to be real, maybe if he pretended he had a choice not to go inside it would all turn out to be a dream.

One of the doors of the school creaked open and a man stepped out onto the porch. He looked around, blinking in the bright sun. His blue mascara eyes focused on Tom and he smiled thickly through a layer of blush.

‘You seem to be lost,’ he stated. ‘Come on in, out of the heat! We have airing systems on inside. There is nothing to be frightened of,’ he assured, stepping down the half dozen steps to stand before Tom. ‘You’re missing out on the welcome.’

Tom nodded. ‘I know, Sir,’ he said quietly, licking his dry lips as he finished.

‘You don’t want to be welcomed?’ the man asked.

Tom shook his head.

‘Hmm,’ the man frowned slightly; his eyes gave off a twinkle. ‘We have some great boys inside who wish to get to know you. I know its daunting entering a new school, filled with strange people and habits and teachings, but you will grow to like it here. Only the finest are allowed to enrol. You know that?’

‘Yes, Sir,’ Tom nodded as he said so. He held up the pamphlet.

‘I see. Well my name is Eugene Blaech, if that will help you get comfortable. I will be your biology teacher. What’s your name?’

‘Thomas Wolffdene, Sir.’

‘It’s nice to meet you. You’re sure to be in my class, most first years are. Come on, I’ll lead you in and show you where to go. I can introduce you to a couple of boys I know who’ll look after you, if you want? You will get on like a house on fire.’

After a hesitant moment where Tom felt like turning and running, he forced himself to nod reluctantly. If he turned and ran then the teacher would just run after him and catch him.

‘Come on, Tom.’ The teacher placed a comforting hand on Tom’s shoulder and gently edged him towards the front steps. Tom stepped up lightly and followed them up to the door where Eugene Blaech took the lead.

They entered a brightly lit room, and immediately a cool breeze covered Tom’s body. He followed the man down a short corridor and through a large hall into an open area filled with nothing. They came to a set of doors that stood higher than the front door and Eugene Blaech pushed them open.

The sound of loud voices chattering happily and cutlery against china plates, the clinking of glass on wood filled the air. A couple of the tables fell silent as Eugene Blaech led Tom who felt as though he was being swept away by a river as he followed, his large body shook like a bowl of jelly with nerves.

A tall, blond haired boy rose up as the biology teacher waved a hand, and presently he joined them.

‘Tom, this is Maudsland Oxford. Our finest Second Year student. Maudsland, this is Thomas Wolffdene, the latest addition to the school. I want you to look after him and see that he settles in, okay?’

Tom stared up in wonder at the boy before him who flashed him a smile and extended his hand in greeting. He goggled; Maudsland was the most beautiful boy he had ever laid eyes on. His form was amazing, a strong physique, and sparkling blues eyes. As his smile broadened at Tom, Tom felt the world slipping away from him and he grabbed Maudsland hand in haste to prevent himself from falling away.

‘Pleased to meet you,’ he said in a rush, the words spilling out and falling over themselves. He felt his cheeks heat up in sudden embarrassment as he dropped his gaze to the floor.

Maudsland laughed. ‘It’s nice to meet you, Tom,’ he said, releasing his hand from Tom’s. ‘There’s a spare seat where I was sitting, come on. You can tell me all about yourself.’

‘Uh huh,’ Tom managed to murmur, his tongue tied and clamped to the roof of his mouth.

Maudsland spun on his heels with a flourish and returned to his seat. When Tom didn’t follow him he turned and cast a worried look around. He spotted Tom still standing in the same spot and a grin of relief washed over him. ‘Come on, Tom,’ he called out. ‘I’ll introduce you to a couple of other boys; I think they came in on the Sky Bus with you.’

Tom nodded, the words entering his ears and leaving out the other side as he willed his feet to move. They lifted from the floor and carried him across before letting him sink into a chair next to the beautiful boy.

In another time, the sun shone down just as it did that first day. It reflected off the large river that ran through the grounds, a vast and twisting snake that not even the wall could contain. The wall was built of roughhewn stone blocks, closely fitted together with cement and mortar. Bound to stand forever with concrete, steel supports and mounds. It towered up from the grounds, 10 feet high and 3 feet wide, spanning far as the eye can see in both directions. Its job was to cut off both sexes from each other.

It was 14 months later. Time had wrought change across Tom as no other force can do. He was now in the beginning of his second year at the school. He knew the ins and outs of study, the holes with which to hide in to be alone on rainy days or to use from the all-seeing eyes of teachers. The rules were etched inside his mind in burning scarlet letters that flared every time an opportunity to break them came along. He knew what he could get away with and what he could not. The cost of lies and the nobility and dangers of truth.

As children, they were all told stories of honesty and lies and what cost the bearer has to pay for them. They are told to obey their elders, trust in them, be good and they will all get their rewards. They all try their hardest, but something gets in the way. Despite all good intentions and influences that they push upon them from birth, they still have hidden desires. The desire to do evil. They battle with themselves over what they desire. Is it good or is it bad? What harm can it do? Nobody needs to know about it, so they keep it a secret and hope it will be fine. If no one knows about it then nothing bad will happen. What do they keep hidden, that they are so eager to explore but so hesitant to let anyone know about?

Tom studied his reflection in the water as he chewed the nails on his fingers. He was down by the wall where it reaches the water. It was against the rules of the school to be down there by yourself without a teacher to watch you. The scarlet rules inside his head had flashed for the first minute or so before fading out completely. The first time he had set foot down there the letters did not fade away until he headed back to the school. Each time since the letters flared, but the more he went the less time they stayed alight.

Once someone had told him a story to help him understand his conscience, how it worked. He was told to imagine a sharp three-pointed triangle directly beneath his heart. Every time he did something wrong, the triangle would spin and the sharp points of the triangle would poke into his heart. The sharp pains were there to alert him that he was doing something wrong. The sharp pains were there to teach you. If you did not want to feel the pain, your guilty conscience, you had to stop what you were doing. If you refused and continued, the triangle would continue to spin. Each full circle blunting the tips until you eventually grew not to notice your conscience.

The triangle inside Tom spun lazily, the sharp points poking into his hearts every time he remembered the events that unfolded earlier. Every time a new picture sprang to colours of life inside his mind, he tried to push it away by focusing on something else. His mind snatched hungrily at the images he knew he should not be seeing while his guilty conscience tried to grab other memories to remind him he had done something wrong.

He tried to remember the first time he met Maudsland Oxford, his first impression of the boy, his smile, the way he made Tom feel inside. His warm, comforting voice as he would whisper softly to Tom in the quiet of the library helping him with assignments Tom found too hard to do by himself. A black shape swirled inside Tom’s eyelids, only a faint outline of what Maudsland really was.

I’ve betrayed him, he thought, opening his mouth and licking his dry lips as the memory of what he had seen earlier flared brightly once more and enveloped his senses…

With his hands trembling, Tom untied the belt around his waist and dropped his pants. He pulled down his knickers with one hand while roughly grabbing his penis and rubbing it hard up and down.

Once his erection had hardened sufficiently he dropped to his knees and pressed his eye against the hole in the wall. It was roughly the size of a twenty-cent piece, and seemed to be bored straight through the wall in a straight line. It took him a moment to focus, and he was thrilled to see that the object of his approval was still there. They were two girls, both, as far as he could tell of their heights from the other side of the wall, of equal height and taller than he was.

One had coal black hair, short chopped in the back and long over the ears. The other had long, wavy brown hair that hung down her back. They were standing next to the wall of a woodshed, giggling and helping each other undress. The brown haired girl was already standing naked, unashamed of her appearance, and to Tom it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Her legs were long and well formed, rising straight up to an equally well formed buttock from what he could see. Her stomach was perfectly flat, something he envied terribly, and it went straight up to large, perfectly plump breasts with light pink nipples. He had seen her before, the object of his appraisal.

As soon as she had finished undressing the black haired girl they stepped towards each other until there was barely an inch gap between them. They both reached out slowly, tenderly caressing each other’s backs. Their faces closed the gap and their lips touched. The boy, whose name was ThomasWolffdene, felt his jaw drop and he lost his grip on his shaft in excitement. He hadn’t seen girls kiss before, aside from his mothers’ but that had happened when he was really young. That was years ago, and he had not seen his parents since starting at the boarding school the year before.

He rubbed slowly, not wanting to reach his peak until the girls were finished. He forced himself to release his hand and stop as he felt like cumming and waited impatiently until the girls changed to something more exciting.

Their hands roamed each other’s body, feeling every inch. They separated, the brown haired girl leaning back against the wall of the shed while the black haired girl dropped to her knees. She lifted up one of the brown haired girl’s legs and draped it over her shoulder. Tom picked up his dick again and began pumping, this time with slow ease as he watched. The girl on the ground had her hands around the brown haired girl’s waist while she moved her head side to side and occasionally up and down. She omitted low, throaty moans as she burrowed her face deeper into the brown haired girl’s flesh below her navel. Tom wished he could have been on the other side to see what she was doing.

Instead, Tom had to allow himself to be pleasured by the girl standing. She had her head back and was almost directly facing him. She was moaning heavily, her breasts heaving as she gasped and shook. She started chewing on her lips to keep herself from screaming aloud as her body began trembling violently. Sweat gleamed off her perfect, lean body from the heat of the sun above. Her hands roamed her large, supple breasts, squeezing, massaging, and tweaking and pinching the tips of her nipples.

Tom licked his dry lips, panting heavily as he rubbed the skin of his shaft up and down. Pulling down hard in long, jerky motions and then gentler in shorter, more vigorous, movements.

After quarter of an hour, Tom's hand sore from rubbing his shaft, his head sore from leaning against the wall and watching, the brown haired girl came. Her back arched, her hands vigorously squeezing her breasts, her head still tilted back. She opened her eyes and screamed out, biting back the scream as soon as it had passed her lips. The black haired girl licked around for a bit then finally stood up.

While they embraced in a kiss, Tom came against the brick wall. Warm, pale cum splashed against the wall, glistening in the sun as it stayed where it hit for a moment before creeping down to the grass and the dirt.

Tom collapsed exhausted. His fingers wiped the excess cum from his shaft's head and wiped it on the ground.

My God, I masturbated to a girl being fucked! He thought, horrified with himself. I can’t believe it! It was the third time. Pleasure lasts for a moment, but if it is not done in the right way for the right reasons, guilt will follow behind it for a lifetime. For the third time Tom had watched the girls as they explored themselves on the other side of the wall. For the third time he pleasured himself, revealing in the excitement and the thrill that it brought as he neared ecstasy. Then, also for the third time, he reached his peak and plummeted. Guilt and horror overwhelmed his senses as he had struggled to his feet, pulling his pants up and tying his belt. His heat beat fast; the triangle spun sending fierce jabs through his sensitive body.

Far away in the distance, a bell rang. It began low in pitch, gradually rising higher until it reached Tom’s ears. After a few short minutes, a bell on the other side of the wall also began to wail. Tom's head shot up, his eyes and mouth open in shock.He rose quickly from the water’s edge, a sudden surge of energy powering his body as he set off on the long walk back to the school.

He swallowed nervously as he ran, too worried about the fact that the school was calling for him to stop and loosen his belt which was too tight. There was fear too, that prevented him from stopping. He had wasted enough time, and now he would have to pay. It was not as if the girl was even his type! He tried to push the thought out of his head. It was forbidden to think about it. It was a crime worthy of life imprisonment to go out with a girl. Talking to one also got you into trouble, but Tom did not think you went to prison for it. However, he had heard nothing about what happened to men who masturbated to the thought of females. He shuddered to think.

Tom noticed, as he thought about the times he had shared with Maudsland, that he wasn’t aroused. He thought about the things they had done, the experiments they had performed, but nothing happened. The image of the brown haired girl with a look of delight on her face as she squeezed her breasts shook Tom from head to foot and his dick began to swell. His face paled. The girl turned him on more than his boyfriend did.

Tom licked his lips, feeling the rough dry inside of his mouth as he did so. He was thirsty. The sun was rising higher in the sky and with it the heat. The air was turning stifling. He could not remember how many glasses of water he had drunk that morning, but he was aware that it was not enough and any water in his body was quickly being used up.

But what of the girl?His mind still demanded to know, angrily butting in on the thoughts of hating summer.You're not allowed to do what you did, it's illegal. Boys to boys, girls to girls, you can't gender swap. It is against the law. Boys to boys, girls to girl. Boys to boys, girls to girls…

The words echoed through Tom's mind. Sweat dripped down his face; he was not used to so much exercise. The school required that he attend Sports, but somehow he always managed to stay on the side and attend without participating. Some of the teachers were aware, but they did not push him to enter.

I’ll just forget about it. I’ll stay away from the wall for a while, Maud doesn’t need to know about it. It’s not as if I’ll ever do this again. It’s just the heat getting to me, I didn’t know what I was doing…

He didn't have any more time to think about it as in front of him loomed a giant shape. A boy of about 6 foot, tall, athletic, powerfully built with broad shoulders, dark grey eyes and blond hair almost as pale as snow. Tom's heart leapt at the sight Maudsland and he almost swooned. The tall boy reached out and gripped Tom in a great bear hug.

Turning to look over his shoulder Maudsland shouted. 'I've found him!'

Around the corner of the large boarding house came half a dozen boys in blazing blue blazers and rainbow ties. Half of them wore shorts while the other half were looking uncomfortable in long black pants. With the group came a teacher, supervising and making sure that the boys behaved themselves. Professor Glen Nathan taught geometry, and had the angles to help him teach. He was six and a half feet tall; bone thin, his cheekbones more prominent than his nose. His eyes were thin slits covered by a pair of bushy brown eyebrows. His head was unfortunately bald. He was also the youngest teacher there at the age of 41.

'There you are,' he exclaimed in high falsetto, waving one hand as though it were a fan. 'We were so worried about you. When you didn't show up for lunch roll call we thought perhaps you were lying somewhere in pain unable to move!'

'I'm all right,' Tom mumbled, embarrassed at the attention the boys behind the teacher were giving him. One of the boys, a prefect by the name of Burley Griffin, was greatly enjoying it.

'This is the third time you have failed to appear for roll call this month! Where were you?’ Maudsland asked.

This speaker made Tom redden and look at the gravel path in shame.

'I was down by the river...' he mumbled in reply to the group silently waiting for an answer. His mind flashed back to the event that had taken place by the wall and he could feel a wave of heat washing over himself. 'Paddling,' he added after a pause. 'My feet,' just to make things clear.

At the silence that answered him, Tom looked up.

'It's not my fault! I don't have a watch or anything to tell the time with!' He exclaimed suddenly and loudly. After the outburst, he bit his lip and waited for his teacher to say something.

'Well,' his teacher said after a short pause. 'I guess as you're not hurt there was nothing to worry about. But I wish to see you on time from now on.'

Tom nodded sullenly in reply. Then, as a silent group, they trooped inside the towering structure of the Butterfly Boarding School for Boys beside them.

A parallel takes place on the other side of the wall. The image is unequal and diffracted, but it is a parallel none the less.

The Chrystal Clear Boarding School was for girls. It offered the same experiences as the boys, but instead of offering military training at the end of the three-year term it offered jobs within the government itself. Many years ago, it was completely unheard of for females to control the army, but times change. Gay Pride declared neutrality between sexes. They could never cross and breed together and act in couples of straightness, but they were, in essences, the same.

As contradictory as the government ever was, despite the equality proclaimed, neither school allowed the teaching of the biology of the other sex. To do so was felt that it would encourage the students to find a member of the opposite sex to try what was natural between them. The schools wanted to encourage as little as possible the natural way of sex while encouraging the other way. They reasoned that it was impossible if they knew that a man's penis was not supposed to enter another man's anal channel, but was made, instead, to enter a female's vagina. And it was this way that reproduction took place.

In all, the students were not kept totally in the dark about such things, they were merely told the barest minimum to understand. Just enough to explain, but not enough to make them wish to be straight. That was way, at such a young age the children were told straight away of the illegality of straight sex.

It was also in this way -as they could not completely outlaw male parents from having female children and female parents having male children- that those mix-matched were closely watched for signs of change and more pressure thrust upon them to remember the way of the world.

Candy DeLeour was late. She ran across the crisp lawn, the sharp pointed blades of grass poking into her soft, bare feet. She cursed softly under her breath and glanced at the girl running beside her. Her name was Dot, short for Dorothy.

Somehow feeling Candy's eye on her, Dot glanced over and smiled apologetically. 'Sorry,' she told Candy, 'I can't believe we forgot the time!'

Candy grinned cheekily, 'Time passes when you're having fun,' she replied, and returned to look where she was running. Together the girl's run up the dozen stone steps to the front door of the school, pushed it open, and ran towards the giant dining room where all the students and teachers were gathered. They pushed open one of the large oak doors, hurried down through the middle of the dozen tables, and came to a stop in front of the teachers table.

Mrs Eunice Goldberg, the headmistress, a woman of 80 years of age, pure white hair and a face so wrinkly and droopy it was almost impossible to interpret her facial expressions, looked up from her bowl of soup. She turned to the woman seated beside her, a prim and proper woman with a prominent upper lip and slanted eyes and crew cut. The woman glared as she watched the two students before her.

'Mrs Strung,' the Headmistress warbled out, her voice breaking and almost dying on her as she said the words. 'Mrs Strung,' she repeated again, just to make sure that she was heard, 'what do they want?'

'They are late!' snapped Mrs Strung. 'They were late for roll call. They must sign off and then miss out on lunch as punishment, Headmistress.'

Goldberg nodded her white head and turned to the girls before her, opened her mouth to say something, shut it as she forgot what to say, and then opened it again. 'Enjoy yourselves,' she told them, forgetting completely what was going on.

Candy giggled loudly and looped her fingers through Dot's, and together they hurried back down the aisle and through the door of the hall.

'Delightful,' Goldberg murmured to Strung beside her as she picked up her spoon to take a mouthful of soup. It dribbled down her chin.

The two girls made their way through twisting, short corridors to their dorm room. They both slept in different dorms, which were separated, each one being on the opposite corner of each other. But as with the rooms there was no rule that said the students could not enter the other rooms, they just had to be back in their dorm before lights out and were not allowed to spend the night in someone else’s bed.

The dorm living room was high ceilinged, with a vast chandelier hanging from the roof shedding light into every little space and crevice of the room. Four bright pink couches sat spread out around the room, two of which sat facing an empty fireplace. Heath and throw rugs also lay scattered around the room, on each one sat a small coffee table, either round, rectangular, or square. Lace doilies covered the tops and draped over the edges.

Flopping down onto one of the couches, Candy grabbed a magazine and flipped aimlessly through, stopping every now and again on interesting articles about summer dresses or make up. Dot moved around the room, chewing on one lip while she watched Candy's unconcerned attitude. She stopped, pursing her lips, looking as if she wished to say something, before continuing her walking. Her route took her past Candy and she put on an act, swinging her hips and walking seductively. Dot glanced back over her shoulder at Candy to see whether the girl had noticed, and felt her heart sink as Candy didn't even raise her eyes.

Temper flared inside Dot's chest, she huffed and collapsed next to Candy, resting her head on the brown haired girl's shoulder.

'So what happens to us now?' she asked.

'What do you mean?' asked Candy, keeping her eyes level with the pages she was turning. She sighed, tossed it aside, and picked up the one that had been sitting underneath it.

'I mean us. Was what happened earlier all there is? Are we together, or was it just a fling to you and nothing more?'

'Together?' asked Candy, her face breaking into a scornful smile. 'We're not together. I don't get emotionally involved in “flings”. Which is all it was to me, so you know. I don't believe in relationships, they are a waste of time and nothing comes from them. I mean, why get involved emotionally? All that happens is you end up getting hurt. And as for the physical, why stay with one when you can branch out and try all?'

Dot’s face changed to a dramatic red as she pushed herself away from Candy. 'You led me on!’ She settled on the other side of the couch. ‘You asked me out!'

Candy laughed richly, tossing the magazine to join its pal on the floor. 'I didn't ask you out on a date!' she replied with a scoff, rolling her eyes. 'I asked if you wanted to join me for a roll in the metaphorical hay down by the wall. I mean, how stupid are you that you think I want to go out with you just because I asked you for sex.'

Tears welled in Dot's eyes but Candy hardly noticed them as she had picked up her magazine again.

'No one's ever asked me for sex before!' Dot cried, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and then under her nose. 'And we were so busy having fun we missed roll call and you made us miss out on lunch!'

Candy sighed and dropped the magazine again as she twisted in her seat and found eye contact with Dot. 'I didn't mean to miss roll call. I've never done that before. How was I to know that Mrs Highly Strung would punish us by ordering us to miss lunch? That's not my fault, and you can't blame me for it. And what do you mean no one's ever asked you for sex before?' Candy added a moment later, a heat rising to her cheeks at the accusations against her. 'You were wonderful, almost a professional! I thought you'd done it a hundred times!'

Dot shook her head and wiped her eyes again. 'I've never had pussy before. I only know how to do it because I've looked it up and watched some videos.'

Candy stared incredulously at the girl before her. Her body felt numb with shock, as was her mind. 'You were amazing! I can't believe it. This was your first time?'

Dot nodded, then shook her head. 'No, I've done it before, with myself,' she admitted quietly.

Waving a hand dismissively Candy said, 'That doesn't count, everyone does that. It doesn't class as sex. This was your first time and I hogged you! If I'd known I would have shared and given you a real treat. Though if I'd known you were a virgin before I asked you out I never would have. They're always amateurs and don't know what to do and always fumble and it's justhell,' she exclaimed, throwing up her hands and raising her eyes theatrically. 'But if you'dsaidafter I'd had you in practice, well…' she sighed, 'it's too late thinking about it now.'

Dot stared, eyes wide, mouth open in a small O. 'Y-you really think I'm good?'

'Oh baby!' Candy exclaimed, sitting up and sliding over to wrap her arms around Dot. 'You were beyond compare.'

'Really?' Dot asked again, her voice cracking with excitement, her eyes, red from her tears, now gleamed brightly.

'Oh yes,' Candy breathed heavily, her hand resting on her nape of Dot's neck as she fluttered her eyes. She leaned in slowly.

Forgetting their argument completely, now fuelled by Candy's complements, Dot rested her arms around Candy's waist and pulled herself forwards until their lips touched.

The door opened quietly and then shut firmly. There was a sudden sharp intake of breath and then a shrill screech. The two girls on the couch jumped, breaking apart instantly and staring wide eyed and mouthed at the teacher standing in the doorway.

'Mrs Strung!' Candy managed to stumble her tongue to saying the words. 'What are you doing here?'

'Doing here?' the woman demanded, her eyes flashing a warning red. 'I am a teacher, I don't need a reason to be anywhere. What were you two girls just doing?'

'Um,' Candy stumbled, glancing quickly at Dot who was ashen faced. Sex was not generally allowed. The teachers taught it and the students knew of it and were aware of the feelings inside them at the thought of it, but it was against the rules of the school to partake. The head teachers believed that sex was something for the bedroom of a married couple. An out-dated thought in a marred world. In a world so beyond right and wrong, they had no say.

'She had, had something…' Candy stuttered, hand pointing to her lips then Dot's. 'Dirt,' she said at last. 'Dirt,' she repeated firmly, nodding her head and Dot quickly followed suit.

'I had dirt on my face and Candy was helping me wipe it off.'

Mrs Strung's face grew a darker shade of red and both girls pressed themselves back against the couch in case she exploded.

'Dirt?' she asked icily. 'You expect me to believe that? You lie blatantly to my face after what I have just seen and that is the best you can come up with?'

Neither girl answered, their mouths clamped firmly shut.

'Speak up!' Mrs Strung screamed, looking from one girl to the other.

'It's true, Mrs Strung! I was only helping Dot clean her face! We weren't doing anything.'

Some of the red seemed to dissipate from her face, but both girls could see that she still didn't believe them.

'If I see either of you again in a compromising position like that again, whether you are doing what I think and know you were doing, or doing what you proclaim you were really doing, it doesn't matter! I will ground you both to the kitchen and you will spend every spare moment you gain in cleaning for one month! Is that completely understood?'

Both girl's nodded, terrified and moved to different ends of the couch.

With a sharp nod to both of them, Mrs Sharp withdrew and Candy glanced over at Dot, her heart pounding with relief.

'I guess we're not together then,' she said, and burst into a fit of nervous laughter.