"Hey, hey," Drew said. She wanted to give her a hug but couldn't because the inner tube was in the way. She had to settle for holding her hand and gently putting her palm against Callie's cheek. "Don't you dare cry! There's nothing to cry about, for God's sake," Drew exclaimed.

It didn't help much - Callie's face scrunched up and she started crying softly. Drew gently tipped Callie into the water and, with her doing all of the work, she treaded water and kept them both afloat as she hugged her tightly.

Callie sniffed and wiped her eyes, belatedly realizing how futile it was to try and keep her eyes dry in a swimming pool. She giggled a bit and Drew just hugged her tighter.

They stayed that way for several minutes, floating, and Drew treading water. As soon as Drew felt Callie relax a bit, she knew that she'd be okay.

"Hey," Drew whispered in Callie's ear. "Are you okay now?" Callie nodded her head against Drew's cheek. "In that case, can I stop treading water? I'm starting to get real tired..."

The both of them laughed. Callie giggled yes and Drew gently let her go. She went chasing after their two inner tubes but was only able to get one back. Soon they were both hanging on to the one tube as they both rested, facing each other. Callie looked deep into Drew's eyes and only saw gentleness.

"Listen," Drew said quietly. "What you told me remains between us. I won't even tell Iola."

"I know you won't. You're my friend, right?"

"Callie..."

"I know you're not like me, and you don't feel the same way I do. And I can live with that. So long as you keep on being my friend." She smiled brightly, and that made Drew feel glad.

"Y'know," Drew said, "if I had to fall for a girl, I'd want it to be you. But, I'm not..." She paused a bit. "At least not at this moment. I'm not leading you on or anything like that, but the girl-girl thing - that's not even a concern of mine. I guess that's what I'm trying to say, at least don't worry on that score. Omigod, I'm saying it so badly..."

"No, you're not," Callie replied, but Drew cut her off before she could go on.

"You're my friend," Drew interrupted, "so I have to be honest with you. I'm not closing the door on this, but let's just be friends for now, okay?"

Callie looked at her soberly. "Do I even have a chance?" she asked.

Drew looked down. There was the question she was dreading. "Callie..."

Callie looked away. "That's okay," she said disappointedly. "I understand."

"No!" Drew exclaimed. "It's not... the girl-on-girl thing..."

Callie giggled a little sadly. "S'ok, Drew. Call me a lesbian. It's what I am."

"Whatever! Callie, believe me - I don't care about that! Whether you call yourself a lesbian or a whatever. Call yourself a giraffe, even - I don't care! All I care about is that you are Callie, my friend."

Callie chortled in delight at unflappable Drew being uncharacteristically tongue-tied. "Heehee... I hope I'm a cute giraffe, at least," Callie interrupted.

Drew huffed impatiently. "Dammit! Yes, you are the cutest giraffe, I mean girl, but let me finish!"

At that, Callie laughed a hearty, soul-cleansing laugh that made everyone near enough to hear to look at the two of them. Without the inner tube, Callie would surely drown, Drew thought bemusedly as she watched her friend dissolve into laughter.

Callie eventually got her laughing under control and smiled fondly at Drew. "Listen," she said, and paused as another small attack of the giggles hit her.

"Listen... I know you're not a lez. But I'm glad you weren't scared off. And I'm glad you're willing to consider it a possibility. It can be beautiful. But I won't push. I'd rather have you just as my best friend instead of taking the chance I'd lose you forever."

Drew looked back at her. "Thanks, Callie."

Callie let go of the tube and swam next to her. Drew stiffened when she kissed her, but it was just a sisterly kiss on the cheek. "You straight girls always make things so complicated," she joked.

"If you only knew, Callie," Drew thought. "Am I really your best friend?" she asked aloud.

"Of course. Did you even doubt it?"

"No," Drew responded, "but, even so, I'm glad to hear you say it out loud. Say it again."

Callie smiled again, gave her another sisterly peck. "You are my best friend in the world, and I would love you forever. But I won't jump your bones. Unless you want me to." Callie giggled, grabbed the tube and started kicking her legs and swimming for the poolside.

"I'm hungry," she said over her shoulder. "Let's go find Iola and get something to eat."

Drew swam next to Callie, easily keeping pace with her. More mobile without the inner tube, Drew swam around Callie, looking at her in a new light. For some reason, Drew never saw her as a possible girlfriend. She guessed it was because she was stuck on Iola and didn't even consider it. But she was in Iola's "friend zone." Not a good place to be under the circumstances.

She wondered why she hadn't noticed before - Callie was incredibly beautiful!

Drew and Callie both swam easily, in a direction that would land them by the ladder nearest Iola, and talked about the usual - schoolwork, their friends, TV, boys (and girls), and other important things. They spied Iola from far away, surrounded by a bunch of guys. She was holding a beach ball as she posed, simpered and flirted with the boys.

They eventually got to the ladder after a few more minutes of lazy swimming. Callie climbed up the ladder and Drew slung the inner tube out of the water and climbed onto the concrete deck as well.

"Hurry up, Drew," Callie said.

"Hold your horses, girl," Drew said as she climbed up. "You can't be that hungry."

After she got out of the water, Callie grabbed her by the hand and scampered towards Iola, dragging Drew along. Drew didn't mind since Callie seemed the most cheerful she had ever seen her friend ever.

When they got to their spot, they found Iola sitting on her towel alone, sulking.

"Where were you guys," Iola said.

"Swimming," Callie dimpled. "Where did the boys go?"

"They had to go and play Marco Polo or something."

"What?" Drew exclaimed. "They didn't invite you?"

"Well, they did," Iola said sheepishly and turned away a bit, looking embarrassed.

"Iola doesn't swim so good," Callie stage-whispered to Drew.

"Oh..." Drew said.

Callie sat on Iola's blanket and gave her a small peck. "Well, listen, honey," Callie said. "Drew and I wanted to get a bite. Coming?" Callie looked at Drew. "What do you suggest, Drew?"

Drew looked at her watch. "Girls, it's four thirty. My pop promised to pick us up at five."

"Pick us up? Why?" Iola asked.

"He insisted," Drew said. "So let's get showered and changed. I'll sweet talk Pop into treating us out to dinner before we drop you guys off at your houses." They picked up their stuff and headed for the lockers.

"Goody," Callie said and clapped her hands like a little girl. The effect was ruined, though, when she started rubbing her hands together and cackling like the bad guy in a bad B-movie, a mercenary gleam in her eye. Iola bopped Callie's head playfully but Callie continued to rub her hands together chuckling evilly.

"Really, Callie," Drew said dryly, "the evil-doctor-in-a-bikini routine?"

"You girls are no fun at all," Callie pouted. Iola and Drew laughed.

Eventually, they got to their lockers. Following the others' lead, Drew got her shower stuff and a fresh towel, except she got out her gaff and bra as well, and walked over to the girls' showers.

Right off the bat, Drew had a problem - although there were indeed individual shower stalls with individual showerheads, the stalls didn't have doors.

With great trepidation, Drew selected the stall, which was in between the ones that Callie and Iola selected. All three stalls were directly across from their lockers. She put her showering paraphernalia on the shelf built into the wall and hung her underwear and towel in one of two non-removable plastic hangers. There was no choice so, sighing, she kept her back turned towards the door side of the stall, started to skin her wet suit down to her waist, preparatory to taking it off to hang on the other plastic hanger. Praying no one would see, she quickly pulled down and took off her gaff along with the suit, and rushed through her shower with her legs together, and her back towards her stall's doorway.

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After washing down and shampooing in record time, she used her towel to dry off the excess water and hurriedly put on her dry gaff. After she had unobtrusively adjusted herself in her gaff, she sighed in relief and turned around. She finished drying more leisurely and rubbed on her usual liberal amount of moisturizing lotion, rubbing it all over herself, including her face.

When she was almost done, a voice harrumphed at her and she looked up in panic.

"Do you mind?" a perfectly gorgeous tanned older woman was there, tapping her foot impatiently. "Other people need to shower, too, you know." She was completely nude except for flip-flops on her feet, a towel over her shoulder, a small bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap in her hands. Wow!

After retrieving her eyes from the floor, Drew hurriedly collected her stuff.

"Sorry," she mumbled, praying the gaff would work.

"First time?" the woman asked.

Ohmigod, she thought. She saw! "Pardon?" she asked nervously.

"First time in a public shower?"

"Oh! Yes, I'm afraid so." She sighed in relief.

The woman nodded. "Yep, it's easy to tell you rich kids from the rest of us."

Drew wanted to argue, but seeing as she had broken some rule on public shower etiquette, she let it slide.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," Drew apologized. "I didn't know the rules."

"S'all right, girlie," the woman answered. "Next time, after you're done showering and drying yourself, you leave the shower right away and finish moisturizing and powdering and all that next to your locker. Okay?"

Drew nodded.

"And here's a tip - don't bring your underwear in the stall so they don't get wet. Get dressed by your locker. No need to be shy. Nobody but us girls around here. Okay?"

Drew looked at the woman's naked glory goggle-eyed, nodded mutely and went to her locker.

"Hey, Drew," Callie said, already fully dressed, and brushing and rubbing her hair dry. Right beside her, Iola was just finishing putting on her makeup. "Feeling a little cold?"

"Not really. Why do you ask?"

Callie gestured at her nipples, which were noticeably erect. Drew blushed, and Callie giggled. Callie couldn't help noticing how gorgeous Drew's boobies were. And her nips were at attention. Woohoo! Callie then noted how flustered and agitated she was. "What's wrong?"

"Got lectured at by that lady over there," Drew pointed over her shoulder as she fumbled around in her locker. Iola and Callie looked, and saw two little girls and the woman showering in stalls next to each other. Obviously, she was referring to the woman in the middle stall.

The two started to laugh.

"Oh, don't mind her," Iola said. "That's just Polly. She's here most weekends when the pool’s open. Everyone knows her. She just likes to pick on the newbies. She doesn't mean anything by it. Ain't she pretty?" Iola went back to her makeup.

Callie, having finished dressing, turned to look at Drew while she dressed. Callie noted that the girl had extremely nice curves. Not exaggeratedly curvaceous, but with clearly more than enough curves to make her look hot - super-sexy-girl hot. Callie thought no other girl ever looked as sexy.

"One thing that God was generous with was her boobies," she thought. Drew had what looked like a pair of gorgeous, firm, high C-cup breasts, the tips of which were tantalizingly at attention at the moment. They had classmates with larger breasts, but Drew's were by far the sexiest she'd ever seen. And then she looked back to Polly showering in Drew's stall, and then back to Drew. She also thought of the way she seemed so taken by Iola. This practically confirmed it. "I might have a chance at her, after all," she thought and giggled to herself. "That is, if she's not yet completely stuck on Iola..."

She watched, disappointed, as Drew put her t-shirt bra on, covering up her magnificent assets. She then watched her pull on a very old, extremely faded pair of skinny flare, or maybe boot cut, jeans. They were so old and thin the fabric was practically translucent, and they hugged her curves like a second skin. Her skin-tight thong panties (which looked to be made of nylon or some similar shiny fabric) made no line under her pants. OMG!

She then watched Drew put on an extremely loose and extremely old, short faded-pink crop-top tee, with the hem not even low enough to cover her bellybutton.

She then towel-dried her short locks, ran a wide metal-toothed comb through them to remove tangles, and then used a circular brush to tease some volume into them. It was so short, it towel-dried easily. The perm made her hair fall almost automatically into place, and the brushing volumized it naturally. She then expertly applied lipstick. Drew didn't put any other makeup on but Callie thought she didn't need any more - she thought Drew was beautiful the way she was.

Drew noticed Callie watching her so intently, so she smacked her lips, looked at Callie, struck a pose, and giggled at her own vamping.

Realizing that she was actually staring, Callie did a small double take, shook herself out of it and laughed along with Drew. With her glistening lips, cute pixie cut, chic little watch, white high-heel-platform flip-flops, wayfarer glasses perched on the top of her head, skinny flare jeans, and a tiny, scruffy, loose crop-top, Drew looked pretty sexy and classy to Callie, despite the old clothes. Or maybe because of them. Callie had seen her other friends wear similar outfits before but none made them look as sexy and sassy as Drew did. She was like a Victoria's Secret model.

Drew slammed her now empty locker closed, slung her poncho bag over her shoulder and turned to her two friends. "Ready?" she asked.

Without further prompting, Callie stood up and rushed to put her arm through Drew's, and waved to Iola.

"Let's go," Callie said. She marveled at Drew's softness yet she felt the muscles just underneath. Callie found it sexy. After a few moments, she said, "ummm, where?"

Drew giggled at that. She looked at her watch and noted it was almost five. "We're supposed to meet Pop near the Fifth Avenue entrance. Betcha he's there now. So let's book!"

They briskly walked out of the pool compound and traced the path that Drew had walked earlier. Drew saw the trashcan she used as a dead-drop earlier, but it was green now. She could only assume Lieutenant Hardy had taken the black one, which had her envelope in it.

They stood around the Fifth Avenue entrance, and in less than a minute, Drew's dad came and pulled up at the tow-away zone.

"Hey, girls," Carson Nance called out as he waved to Drew and her friends.

Drew came and sat in the front passenger seat while Iola and Callie bundled themselves in the back. Drew gave her dad a kiss on the cheek while the girls chorused, "Hi, Mr. Nance!"

"So, had a bit of swimming, huh?"

"Drew and I did, Mr. Nance," Callie answered. "Iola didn't - she's scared of the water."

Iola playfully hit her on the shoulder. "Am not!"

"Are, too!" And a mock slap-fight commenced.

"As you can see, Pop, nothin's changed," Drew said. "Hey, you two!"

Carson smiled. "S'all right. Did your new friend Gina and her BFFs show up?"

"No. I guess they chickened out." Drew looked through the window. "Which route are we taking?" she asked.

"Stop being a backseat driver," Carson commented. "I'm going to take FDR and then I-278. We should be home in less than thirty minutes. The bridge shouldn't be too much of a problem on a Sunday."

"I'm not in the back seat. Callie and Iola are."

"Smarty-pants..."

"Y'know," Drew said conversationally. "It'll be near six o'clock when we get home."

Carson raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Callie and Iola will probably miss dinner..."

"All right - what are you trying to say?"

Drew hummed innocently and fiddled around with some of the dashboard controls. "It's been hours since we had lunch. Aren't you hungry at all?"

Carson sighed. "All right! I can take a hint. And stop fiddling with the dash. Where do you girls want to go for dinner?"

"Yayyy!" Callie cheered.

They ended up at a street-side place called Red on Fulton Street, just a block from FDR. It was a Sunday and it was still early, so the drinking crowd wasn't around, and most of the patrons were of the younger kind - couples and friends out in the city. Carson and the girls were one of only two family groups there. Nevertheless, they had a fun and noisy time as they enjoyed a good Mexican-style dinner of black bean soup, salad, fajitas and chimichangas, with sorbeteros ice cream for dessert.

Callie and Iola stood out a little bit, with their over-done Staten Island-preferred makeup and outfits, but not as much as they would have a few months ago. Clearly, Drew had influenced their fashion choices (as well as a lot of others). In fact, it was understated and tasteful enough that no one really took undue notice, actually.

Carson, having had only Andy/Drew to take care of didn't have much experience with kids. The occasional times that Andy brought home his friends were not enough to prepare him for the shock of Drew, Callie and Iola together, but he gamely tried to keep up with Drew's friends' flirty and sometimes scandalous behavior, and to try and keep his parental aura intact - Drew's friends were quite fetching, but he didn't want to be perceived as some dirty old man. Besides, they were much too young for his taste. A further complication was that he suspected Iola had a mild crush on him. In his old office, Carson, or rather William at the time, was quite popular among the few female clients his firm had, as well as with his female staff, so this wasn't totally new. But none of them were nearly as young as Iola, nor were they best friends to his son... or daughter. It was awkward, to say the least. He suspected Iola had a thing for older men, and as a widower - a worldly, older, experienced man, and the father of her best friend - perhaps these were some of the reasons why Iola was attracted to him. He played dumb, of course, and just tried to be Drew's friendly dad.

It was a leisurely dinner, and the talk was mostly Iola and Callie embarrassing Drew. When Carson called for the check, the girls asked to have their leftovers doggy-bagged - all three of them hadn't been able to finish their food. Carson should have known, given how little Drew ate. Her friends wouldn't have been any different.

They dropped off Iola first. There were hugs all around, and just before Carson drove off, Iola leaned through the driver-side window and gave Carson a thank you and a peck on the cheek.

They dropped Callie off next, and Drew called out to remind her that she'd be giving her a ride tomorrow, and they went off to their own house.

As they parked in their garage, Carson reminded Drew to go get the stuff they were getting rid of.

When Drew went in her room, she took out the stuff she used in the pool from her bag and hung them, as well as the bag, on the shower curtain bar to air-dry prior to dumping into the hamper. She then went through her room to look for "non-Drew" stuff. In the end, all she came up with were the instruction sheets for the gaff and the plastic bags they came in. Drew took out a pair of scissors from her dresser drawer and carefully and completely cut out the labels from her gaffs. She also did the same for the one that was drying out, and the one she was wearing (changing into her girl-jockeys at the same time).

Still wearing the crop-top but having changed her thong, jeans and flip-flops for comfy shorts and sneakers, she traipsed down the stairs with the stuff.

She went out back where she found her father by the barbecue.

Carson had put a piece of scrap plywood he got from somewhere on top of the barbecue, and on top of the plywood was piled some odds and ends - wadded up pieces of paper, and all the boxes and packaging material from their recent purchases at Best Buy. The three foam wig stands were by his feet.

"Where's the stuff we bought?" Drew asked.

"The detectors and handheld scanners are in the safe, and the big RF scanner and amp are in the living room. The other stuff is on the dining table." Carson said. "I'll take care of installing the scanner and amp tomorrow."

"How about the lipstick cameras, and the pens and stuff?"

"I have four of the lipstick cameras mounted but not connected yet: one focused on the living room, another in the kitchen, another in the garage and another in the upstairs hallway. I was thinking of mounting the one focused at the front yard and the other one at the back late tonight. So no one can see me doing it."

"Great, Dad. Make sure they're near windows so we can work on them."

"Will do. Now, let's get this done, okay?"

Drew nodded. She added her own meager contribution to the pyre, and Carson lighted it with a long stove lighter. They watched as the fire consumed the junk in the fading sunshine and remained mostly silent.

"Why the plywood," Drew asked.

"We were going to burn some plastic and Styrofoam," Carson answered. "I didn't want the grill to be ruined. Speaking of which..." He stooped down and picked up one of the Styrofoam stands and put it in the flame.

Red-orange fire consumed the foam and oily black smoke rose to the sky. They watched the foam melt, drip and burn, and when it was mostly gone, Carson added the next foam stand, and when that was gone as well, Drew put in the last one.

They watched all of their junk burn away, but before the plywood itself could catch fire, Carson poured a glass of water on it.

"So that's it, huh?" Drew said to her dad.

"Yup," he answered as he looked into the dying embers. "Twenty-four-seven. Starting tomorrow. No more breaking out of character. Ever. That's the rule, until all of this is over."

Drew nodded. "No prob," she said. "You can count on me, Dad."

"I know I can," he said. He put his arm around her shoulders companionably. "Let's go in. It's getting dark."

Arms around each other's shoulders, father and "daughter" walked back into the house. To change the mood, she thought maybe it was time to show her dad the clock stuff.