A Song of Change

Chapter 11
Intimacies
*at school*
Today class started off completely different than it had all the other times. Today our teacher didn't go into the same speech, instead he started talking to us about our Comings.
"Now, as you all know your Comings are in a few days so you need to be prepared for what will happen when that time comes. However, I will of be teaching you. Instead Mrs. Waters will be teaching you until you leave for your Coming," as he said this a very tall and slender woman with golden blonde hair walked in.
She smiled at us as she stood in the front of the room, her brown eyes shining brightly. "Thank you for the introduction but I think I can handle it from here, am I right girls?" Mrs. Waters teased our teacher. He left, as Mrs. Waters had asked and then she turned her warm gaze on the five of us.
"Before we begin any lessons I would like to know you girls better. Put a face to a name if you will." She suggested warmly, "My name is Catherine Waters, you can call me Catherine if you want to. Now how about you to the left." Our desks had been st up by our age, meaning that she had picked the youngest of the five.
Monica stood up returning a smile to Mrs. Waters before speaking in her bright, cheerful voice, "Hello Catherine, my name is Monica Brown," "Thank you Monica. Now its your turn," Mrs. Waters hinted at Carter. Carter stood up and meet Mrs. Waters with her signature stare. "Carter West," she said confidently before sitting back down.
"That was nice Carter, now how about you sweetheart," she said turning her gaze on Lucille. Lucille stood up hesitantly and moved her hair out of her face to get a better look at Mrs. Waters before she looked back to her desk. "M-my name is L-Lucille Herondale," she half whispered.
"What a beautiful name, it matches you perfectly," Mrs. Waters said trying to get Lucille to open up. Lucille smiled and when she sat back down she kept her hair out of her face. It was a great improvement from her normal stance. "Your turn," Mrs. Waters had turned to look at me.
I stood up and smiled warmly at her, "Hello, my name is Annabelle Gray." "Its very nice to meet you, Annabelle," Mrs. Waters said warmly. I sat back down as she moved on to Theresa . She stood up and gave a small smile to Mrs. Waters. "I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Waters. My name is Theresa Yates."
"Its wonderful to meet all of you! Now let's get started on our lessons," Mrs. Waters said as she walked back up to the front of the room. "As you all know already you will turn eighteen in a few days meaning you will get your own house, have a husband, and you will become real caregivers. You spread know how to be caregivers and I'm sure you will all be excellent at it. My job is to teach you about your life at home.
Most of you probably know how to clean and maintain a household from experience or by watching your parents, that part is fairly easy," Mrs. Waters said looking at each of us in turn, "The part that I was specifically chosen to teach you girls about is the coupling part."
I stared at her as I thought about what she was saying. I had plenty of experience at housework from helping my parents and she was right. Most of the work was fairly easy. What I was having trouble understanding was the coupling part. What did she mean by that?
"I'm sure you all know that each couple is required to have a child. They don't need to procreate a child right after their Coming but at some point both you and your husband will need to move with the relationship. This and less intimidating intimacies is what I will be teaching you."
I knew what the process of reproduction was and had a ruff idea of how to do it but that was all they had taught us about an intimate relationship. I had always just assumed that I wouldn't have to worry about such things until I was coupled with my husband and now that we were learning about it I was grateful.
"How about we start with the least intimidating intimacies and move on from there?" Mrs. Waters suggested, "pet names for example is an intimacy that does not need interaction of any sort and is really simple. A pet name is a nickname that your significant other comes up with that describes you, a play on your name, etc. An example of a pet name would be darling or if you wanted a play on a name you could use Lu or Lulu for Lucille. Simple right?" Mrs. Waters finished as she looked expectantly at us.
"Are there any questions so far?" She asked with her smile back in place. Mrs. Waters seemed the type of person that was hard to anger and was always understanding. I'm glad they chose her to teach these things to us because she didn't make anything seem awkward in the least. She gave off a comforting vibe that seemed to soothe even the most timid of the five of us.
When no one seemed to have any comments or questions on the subject Mrs. Waters continued, "let's move on to the next level then," she said seemingly pleased with how we were progressing so far, "there are two for this one. I'm sure you all have experience d these two already with your parents. Hand holding and hugging are both fairly simple and innocent at the most, depending on when, how, and where. I'm not going to explain these because they are pretty self explanatory."
"Now that you girls now about those three things you get to find out what they lead to. They can lead to a kiss. A kiss can be very intimate or mild depending on how you do it. A kiss on the cheek or forehead, which most of you probably have received from your parents, is one of the milder versions and a small peck on the lips is also along the lesser of intimacies that a kiss can bring," Mrs. Waters paused as she looked at the five of us
"Are there any questions so far," she asked looking at each of us in turn. I kept quiet, afraid that I might reveal what had happened between Julian and me. I thought about how Mrs. Waters was completely correct about the vast differences in kisses. My father's soft kisses on my forehead before I went to bed or my mothers gentle kiss on my cuts and bruises to 'kiss the pain away' were far from the same compared to Julian's tender lips placed on my own.
Though they were all kisses they left different feelings inside of me. My parents left a warming feeling in my heart that soothe me in times of stress and let me know they would always love me. Julian brought on a feeling of freedom and a tender love, although that love was fairly new it spoke measures of what was to come.
I was drawn out of my dazed state by someone's voice. Carter's voice. "Mrs. Waters?" she asked. Mrs. Waters seemed elated that someone was finally asking questions, "what is it Carter?" she asked her vibrant smile back in place. "You said there were many types of kisses. What are those types exactly?" Carter asked, "Just for knowledge purposes," she hastily added on the last part.
Mrs. Waters placed a hand to her mouth as if to stifle a laugh but quickly covered it up as a cough. "Yes, of course, deary. There are quick kisses that are just a brief touch of lips, there are some where you or your partner even use your tongue." "Excuse, me Mrs. Waters but that last one just sounds gross," Monica said as she wrinkled up her nose. Mrs. Waters didn't try to stifle her laugh that time as she let it ring out.