For a change, Joshua was one of the first into the lunchroom that afternoon. Normally, while not wanting to stand out or be noticed as much as possible, it was his habit to wait until lunch was almost over before going to stand in line and get his meal – but not today. Today, lunch couldn’t come fast enough to feed Joshua’s curiosity, and as soon as the bell rang at the end of his math class, he was out the door and pushing his way down the hall to the cafeteria.

Finding a spot close to the main doors, Joshua sat and impatiently waited for either of the girls to come waltzing in. As seconds dragged into tens of seconds, Joshua’s patience was nearing its limit as he tore into his school-sized carton of milk and drained it in a single gulp. By the time Olivia and Rebecca finally came through the door – a whole two minutes after the bell had rang – Joshua had already wafted down over half his plate of food without even tasting it.

“Where have you guys been?” The moment the approached the table, Joshua pounced on them with a series of questions. “And what the heck have you both been doing? And why couldn’t you wait on me to do it?!”

“Come on Becca,” Olivia giggled, before carefully sitting her books down upon the table and then walking off and heading to get into the line. “Let’s leave Mr. Inquisitor alone for now and go get our food. We’ll have plenty of time to talk while we’re eating.” Glancing back over her shoulder, she stuck her tongue out at Joshua as she tugged Rebecca off, arm in arm.

“What the heack! Heack! Hic! Awwww…. Dammit! Now I got the heacckups!!” Sighing deeply, Joshua thumped his chest with his fist to no avail, before trying to coax even another sip out of his already empty milk carton. “Dammicck!” Pouting visibly, Joshua crossed his arms across his chest and tried to stubborn wait out the hiccups while the girls were gone to get their plates of food.

The moment they sat down, Joshua reached over and stole Olivia’s carton of milk off her plate and proceeded to take a big drink of it. Belching happily afterwards, he sheepishly handed the half-empty container back to her while she glared daggers in his direction. “Now see,” she warned him, “it’s things like this that are the reason why you can’t find yourself a girlfriend, you know.” Smirking slightly, she half giggled at the confused expression that flashed across his face, before finally sticking her tongue back out at him again.

“So just what the heck have you two been doing all morning?” Refusing to lose himself to such childish provocations, Joshua was determined to find out exactly what all had been going on.

“Oh, nothing much,” Rebecca shrugged slightly. “Olivia spent most of the morning in the study room with me, trying to fill in all the blanks you’d left in your explanation, and we tried to get to know each other somewhat better. Otherwise, we haven’t really done anything much.”

“And why didn’t the two of you wait for me, before spending points on me?” Joshua asked crossly, knowing he was coming across as sounding half-peeved.

“Why should we?” Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. “They were Rebecca’s points. Shouldn’t she be able to spend them however she wants? And did you bother to ask before spending points for your personal underwear fetish?”

Even in his own annoyed state, Joshua’s brain was still functioning enough to catch the warning glare in Olivia’s eyes to stop him from saying anything crappy back in return. “Of course, it’s her points,” he back-peddled suddenly. “She’s more than welcome to spend them however she wants. It’d just be nice if she discussed things with me first.”

“Sorry,” Rebecca apologized, sounding much meeker than Olivia at the moment. “Did you want to spend them on something else instead? Olivia assured me that you’d be happy with what we purchase, and she was just trying to teach me how the system worked better.”

“It’s fine,” Joshua sighed. He couldn’t help but think that he was beginning to learn how a suspect might feel at the police station, when facing a good-cop, bad-cop situation.

“But why did you choose two more concubines, Olivia? I thought you were going to wait for a while before choosing another?” Turning his attention back over to Olivia, Joshua tried to gently steer the conversation over to what he was really curious about.

“I didn’t,” Olivia shrugged. “I’ve still got my two open slots. I haven’t chosen anyone extra today.”

“Then what the hel…??” Blinking stupidly, Joshua’s face showed he was completely lost as he tried to sort out what had happened this morning in class.

“I chose them,” Rebecca answered, interrupting his confusion. “As Second Woman of the Harem, I have two slots available to choose concubines with, so I went ahead and chose both of mine – Susan and Bailee.”

“Susan and Bailee? Who’re they?” Putting down her fork, Olivia was obviously puzzled as well. “Do we know them?”

“Susan is…” Looking around the cafeteria, Rebecca paused for a moment, before pointing to a girl sitting back in the darkest corner of the room. “…That girl,” she continued, unfaltered.

The girl she was pointing at – Susan McDaniel – had short, spikey black hair, and was dressed from head to toe in complete black. Her eyeliner was black. Her nails were black. Her lips were colored black. “It’s almost like she’s allergic to the colors of the rainbow,” Joshua sighed, wrinkling his nose slightly. “Why the heck did you choose her?”

“Oh, she’s not for you,” Rebecca assured him, smirking slightly. “She’s for me. That bitch has been driving me crazy, trying to get me to tell her how much life sucks and how much better off I’ll be when I die…” Snorting in disgust, Rebecca glared daggers over in Susan’s direction. “It’s my job to train my lessor members of the harem – my chosen concubines – and I figure it’s Susan’s job to become my pet ‘Spanky’. I’m going to use her as a living example to show the others not to fuck around and to focus on their job properly.”

“Wait! You just chose her to beat the shit out of her?” Joshua’s eyes were large and round, as he turned to stare at Olivia incredulously. The expression she returned back to him was just as shocked and uncertain.

“I… I didn’t have any part in this,” Olivia assured him, holding her hands up defensively.

“Like I said,” Rebecca shrugged, “you guys can just pretend she doesn’t exist. As she is now, she’s not worthy to be around you guys, and she sure as hell isn’t worthy to be in your bed. If we’re going in turns, or something, then I’ll simply take her place until I train the Susan out of her.” Taking a small sip from her milk – Joshua was a little surprised to see that Rebecca was one of the odd teen girls at his school who drank chocolate milk ---- Isn’t it surprising what the brain can focus on when one is in disbelief? – as if nothing was strange at all about what she was saying.

“And… who’s this Bailee Smithton?” Olivia asked quietly, not certain if she really wanted to know now or not.

“Oh, you guys have to know her,” Rebecca laughed, waving her hands slightly. “She’s my gift to Joshua to make up for taking Susan as my own. She’s one of those top glamour models and is currently the “up and coming, rising star” of the celebrity world.”

“The actress?” Once again, Joshua felt as if his eyeballs were going to pop out of his head. It was almost unbelievable! “HOW?? When I tried to add her earlier, I was told she was ‘too far away’.”

“Oh, I got that message as well,” Rebecca shrugged, acting as if it was nothing. “I had to argue with the system a bit – this thing is really responsive you know; if you’re persistent! For a ‘beta app’, whoever created this thing is certainly listening and responding to all the feedback from their users. I just explained to the system that the distance from here to Hollywood really wasn’t that great in this modern world, and that Bailee really wasn’t much more than a couple of hours away, if you look at flight time alone.”

“The system popped up some sort of message like ‘Analyzing Data’,” Rebecca shrugged, not realizing how odd such an interaction was, “and then after a few moments, it jingled and notified me that I’d successfully added Bailee Smithton to my subordinate concubines.”

“So… So… You argued with the system and it responded to you?” Olivia obviously didn’t care who the girl was that had joined the harem – celebrity, supermodel, or divine priestess, it really didn’t matter. At the end of the day, she still outranked the girl who outranked that girl – First Woman was higher than Second Woman, and Bailee was just a plain Second Woman’s Second Choice for concubine… Barely worth remembering at all – but the fact that she’d argued a point with the system, and it’d responded?!

“That’s… That’s… AMAZING!” Olivia felt almost as if she was ready to burst out of her skin with excitement. “Joshua! Hey Joshua!” Turning and excitedly shaking Joshua by the arm, Olivia’s face was beaming as she laughed brightly in his direction. “Argue with that damn system and tell it to change underwear to the more modern definition of underwear!”

“O… O… Okay! If you don’t shake me to death, I will!” Chuckling slightly, Joshua couldn’t believe that that was the very first thing that Olivia thought about arguing over. If he were in her shoes, the first thing he’d probably fight with the system about was being chosen without giving any sort of consent. He’d call it immoral, unethical, and wrong, and demand to become a free participant and not someone’s unwilling companion! In his own way, Joshua was actually quite touched that Olivia’s thoughts didn’t run in the same process as his own.

“Give me a second,” he murmured, as he visualized pulling up his display and sending thoughts towards it. “I’ll tell you in a moment what type of response I get from it – if I get any at all.”

“So, what’s this underwear thing anyway,” Rebecca asked, chuckling slightly. “The way the two of you talk, it sounds almost like some sort of inside joke, but I don’t get it at all. Earlier you talked about waiting to give me some sort of underwear restriction? And now Olivia is obsessed with the definition? What’s up with that?”

“It’s Joshua’s pet fetish,” Olivia smirked, answering for him as he was too busy interacting with his invisible interface at the moment. “He claims he was just testing things out with the system when he maxed out a serious dislike for underwear for me. Now, if I have a pair on, the panties ride up my crack, the bra comes unsnapped, or the wire jabs me in the breast… They’re such a complete pain in the rump that I absolutely won’t wear them unless I just have to; like for gym class or cheerleading practice.”

“Oh, so I should probably take mine off then? I should’ve guessed a guy would come up with some sort of rule like that for his harem-ites.” Putting her folk down, Rebecca slid her arm up into the sleeve of her sweater and then shuffled it around for a few moments, before pulling it back out and laying a lacy black bra on the table. “I’ve got to hit the bathroom to slide out of my pants to take my panties off,” Rebecca shrugged, “but I’ll do that as soon as we finish eating, and then I simply won’t put any on again.”

“And that doesn’t bother you at all?” Olivia asked, looking a little puzzled. “Not even a little bit?” Honestly, Olivia was a girl who tended to hate wearing a bra herself, and it was her habit to get out of hers the very first moment when she got home, but it was still slightly annoying not to be able to wear one if she wanted, if she was honest with herself.

“Hell,” Rebecca chuckled, “if Joshy-poo wanted me to yank off my top and do the Hoola-Hoola here on the tabletop, I’d be happy to do it for him! At this point, I would’ve only had about seven hours left to live, and my brain tells me that I’d probably be sprawled out on the table here right now either screaming in pain, or else passed out and already dead to the world – more-or-less.

“Who gives a shit if I offend some old biddy teacher over there,” Rebecca snorted. “Or if I end up making every boy in school walk around with a boner in their pants all afternoon? Or if I get an hour’s detention? Or expelled? I’m alive,” she stressed, laughing happily. “Getting in trouble and pissing off the world? That just goes to prove one is living! When you’re dead and gone, you don’t have any influence on the world any longer.

“Hell,” Rebecca chuckled again, “I honestly ought to just get out of these damn bloomers right here. There’s no need to wait to yank them off, if he really doesn’t want us to wear any. To hell with whatever anyone else might think!” Half standing, Rebecca starting unbuttoning and unzipping her pants, fully intent to just yank them off in the middle of the cafeteria.

“Don’t you dare!” Turning bright red, Olivia looked completely scandalized as she leaned across the table and grabbed ahold of Rebecca’s wrist, stopping her. “Not here, you don’t,” she whispered as hard as she could. The look she shot Rebecca’s way was firm and unwavering as she stared directly into her eyes. "Use your damn brain for a moment,” Olivia snorted at her. “Josh might not want you wearing them, and he’d probably love to watch you take them off, but do you really think he wants the rest of these jackasses to see you like that? Or do you think he might want to keep you as one of his private treasures?”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Fastening the button on her pants back, Rebecca tugged her pants back up around her hips firmly and then sat back down again. “I’m a personal harem-ite and not a lowly concubine. I’ll have to remember that,” she nodded, sincerely taking the lesson to heart. “I’m only for Joshua to enjoy.”

“And me,” Olivia said, smirking slightly. “I’m First and you’re under me, so I can enjoy if I want.” Feeling like she’d just dodged a bullet, Olivia was trying vainly to make a joke.

“Sorry,” Rebecca apologized. “I’m only for Joshua and you to enjoy,” she corrected. “I didn’t know you swung that way though,” she chuckled slightly. “Got to admit, I’d never considered it in the past, but it might be something fun to get used to, now that I have a future again!”

“Wait… No… I’m not… Not that there’s anything wrong with…” Turning beet red, Olivia couldn’t do anything but stammer.

“It’s fine,” Rebecca snickered. “Just ‘cause I’d never considered it, that doesn’t mean I’m not more than willing to try it. I should be dying right now… I’m just excited to be able to enjoy life and try anything from this point on out!”

“It… It’s… It’s not that simple,” Olivia stammered, trying desperately to change the subject. “The underwear rule, that is,” she coughed, obviously flustered.

“What’s not that simple?” Now it was Rebecca’s turn to look confused, as it felt like they were ping-ponging back and forth with subjects all at once.

“The underwear rule,” Olivia reiterated. “It doesn’t just apply to what we consider to be underwear, by today’s standards.” Olivia sighed deeply, enjoying the feeling as the flush was slowly draining back down out of her cheeks. “By underwear, it means basically ‘anything worn under something else’. In other words, your socks or hose will annoy the heck out of you – as well as the shirt you’re wearing, if you put a coat on overtop of it. At night, you can’t wear anything underneath your blanket, and you can only wear a single blanket to sleep in.

“It’s more than just underwear,” Olivia chuckled, happy to feel like she was back in charge of the conversation again. “It’s anything worn under something else which is a no-no.”

“And that explains why he mentioned waiting until I’d gained some cold resistance! That makes sense now,” Rebecca laughed. “It sounds like a perfect tradeoff to me! One layer of clothing, for an advantage which makes it so that you really don’t need to wear more than that single layer. What’s wrong with that?”

“Hopefully, nothing,” Joshua sighed, shaking his head slightly. “Sorry Olivia. I finally got the system to respond to me, but the result I was given was, ‘Too much time has passed to alter or change your custom disadvantage at this time. Please wait for the system timers to reset and then buy off the disadvantage, before creating the version you truly wish for.’”

“And that’s still over three months away,” Olivia sighed, before muttering under her breath about how stupid the system could be.

“Sorry,” Joshua apologized once again.

“S’okay,” Olivia mumbled, pushing her tray away moodily.

“So, when are you zapping me with it?” Smirking slightly, Rebecca chuckled and looked almost like she was enjoying the idea somehow.

“Ummm…” Caught off guard, Joshua really didn’t have any clue how to answer.

“Right now,” Olivia snorted. “Even if she can’t take her panties off right now, she can at least learn how it feels when she’s wearing them under her clothes. And tell her that women aren’t supposed to be wearing pants,” Olivia pouted, moodily.

“And what’s wrong with pants?” Looking puzzled, Rebecca quirked an eyebrow up quizzically at Olivia.

“How’s he supposed to reach up and get to your goodies when you’re wearing them?” Olivia replied, snorting slightly.

“Oh! That makes sense,” Rebecca nodded, agreeing as if a lightbulb had just gone off in her head. “I’ll have to get some skirts and dresses. I don’t think I actually own any,” she admitted after a moment.

“You don’t have to,” Joshua assured her, sighing deeply. “Olivia’s family doesn’t think women should wear pants, but I really don’t have a problem with them. If I really ‘wanted to get to the goodies’, wouldn’t all I have to do is give them a tug down or unbutton them?”

“That’s true,” Rebecca chuckled, nodding in agreement. “If you want them down, feel free to tug them off anytime, if they’re in the way.”

“Fine. Whatever,” Olivia sighed, obviously not liking the way lunch was going. Joshua stole half her milk. Rebecca tried to strip in the middle of the cafeteria. There wasn’t any changing the restriction on things. Rebecca thought she was into girls now… “You should probably pick her a class, or a title soon,” Olivia sighed, as she slowly lowered her head down atop the table to rest it on her arms. “The sooner the better, as it seems to help unlock extra tasks to do which can earn points and help her grow.”

“I’ve thought on that,” Joshua admitted. “How would you like to be my Eternal Shadow, Rebecca?”

“Sure,” she agreed instantly, without even asking what it was. “Sounds fine to me.”

Ping!

WRP Announcement: The title of your Eternally Loyal Companion Rebecca Thompson has been upgraded to become your Eternally Loyal Shadow Rebecca Thompson.

“Well, that was simple,” Joshua chuckled. “And she’s now got the same massive dislike for layering clothes that you do,” he assured Olivia.

“Really?” Lifting her head up from her arms, she stared over at Rebecca for several moments, seeking solace in the shared suffering of another.

“Really,” Rebecca chuckled. “Even though I don’t think it’s going to be an issue with my panties for long. I think the stings already came untied on my thong, and the dang thing is slowly working its way down my pants moment by moment. I’ll probably walk out of it when I get up,” she admitted, smiling softly as she seemed to find the whole thing rather amusing.

“Well, now that the panty problem is out of the way,” Joshua chuckled slightly, “let me ask you about the supermodel problem. Exactly how the heck are you planning on getting Bailee to make the trip all the way from Hollywood to here? You might’ve convinced the system that it’s not that far of a distance, but it’s still world’s apart, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Oh, that.” Rebecca waved her hand dismissively as if it weren’t a problem at all. “I’m not going to do anything about it at all. Let her stay out west for a while if that’s what fate wants. That’s fine with me!”

“Then… Wait… What?” Blinking several times, Joshua was finding that he was having a harder time trying to sort out Rebecca’s logic than he normally did with Olivia’s – and she was almost always a complete mystery to him! Exactly how many points should a guy spend on Enhanced Intelligence, before they can decipher the thought process of a woman?? “I… I thought… I thought she was supposed to be some sort of gift for me,” Joshua stammered, stupidly.

“She is,” Rebecca agreed happily. “But what makes you think it’s time for you to get a gift right now? It’s not Christmas, and it’s not your birthday. Heck, it’s not even Groundhog’s day! Why the heck do you need some sort of gift now, for goodness’s sake?! Talk about being entitled!”

“That’s just the way boys are,” Olivia agreed, instantly jumping on the ‘let’s put down the opposite sex’ bandwagon.

“Besides, you don’t need her right now,” Rebecca snorted. “You haven’t even broken my chastity yet! Why the heck would I let you have my underling’s first?”

“But I wasn…”

“Yeah!” Joshua tried to defend himself by saying he wasn’t asking for the sake of his loins – he was really simply curious how they were going to ever get Bailee across the continent – but Olivia interrupted him before he could even start. “You’ve got both of us, plus mother and Maria,” she pressed, relentlessly. “What do you need some supermodel for anyway? You barely even graduated up from your hand so far!”

“Graduated to your mouth the other day,” Joshua muttered back, moodily – albeit he muttered much too softly for either of the girls to hear. He might feel insulted, but that didn’t mean he was brain dead!

“I think,” Rebecca giggled, seeing how flustered he was becoming, “that it’s best if you just stick with me for now. If I’m supposed to teach my subordinates how to please you, then I’ll need to personally know how to do that first, myself. There’s no need for them to enter into the picture at the moment and complicate things any.”

“Wait! What do you mean, ‘just stick with you’?” This time, it was Olivia who was glaring over at Rebecca harshly. “If he’s just going to stick with anyone, shouldn’t he just stick with me, since I was here first?”

“Not really,” Rebecca snorted, waving her hand dismissively at Olivia. “Didn’t you tell me earlier that the two of you had an agreement where you’d save your first time until after prom? There’s no reason for him to wait six months for me like that! I’m more than willing to share the physical joy of life with him now.”

“You can’t,” Olivia snorted back. “You haven’t purchased Ovulation Control yet. You don’t want to accidentally get knocked up, now do you?” Smirking over at Rebecca, Olivia was grinning like the cat that’d just ate the canary in the coal mine.

“I don’t need it,” Rebecca shrugged, dismissively. “Everyone may have worked together and fixed my cardiovascular disease, but that hasn’t changed what it’s done to my body. My strength is still low – Joshua can easily overpower me anytime he wants you know,” Rebecca smirked, wickedly, “and I still have the Baren disadvantage. Someone would have to spend points to buy that off first before I’d have to worry about any baby bump in the belly.”

“I’ll be a son of a…”

“Now. Now. Let’s break it up ladies.” Stepping in before things could get too out of control, Joshua interrupted the conversation the two were having. “You know,” he told them, reasonably enough, “I’d think I’d get to be the one to decide who I’m going to be with – and how, and how often…”

“You just stay out of this!”

“Button it!”

As both of the girls interrupted him, glaring daggers at each other, Joshua felt the utmost relief when the lunch bell rang, giving him an excuse to bolt up and get out of there!