The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 212: Second day of camping. (Patreon)

You, Emily and Julia fucked for nearly 3 hours before you went to sleep. You were still tired from the day’s activities and the girls would have to sneak out of the tent even earlier than everyone else would get up.

Julia had no issue with it, having been given the Seldom Sleepy trait. However, she practically had to drag her younger sister out. They snuck out at your 6:00 am, after all. Emily had serious trouble waking up.

Since you’re already awake, you decide to go for a light jog at the beach as a substitute for your regular workout. You’ll probably be doing more activities later in the day anyway.

You did ask Julia if you could skip the shower turn order if you used it early enough and she said yes. Though you still have to be careful that no one comes in while you’re there, since you don’t want this to turn into a badly written anime cliché. But since it’s only 6:30 am right now, you doubt you have to worry about anyone.

With your shower done and still plenty of time for the rest to wake up, you start getting breakfast ready for your and Olivia’s group. And it’s as you’re getting things out of your bag that Emma, Mia, and Julia walk up to you, already in their track suits.

“Good morning, Mr. Walker.” Mia greets you with a knowing grin.

“Good morning.” You reciprocate with a smile, yet your fully regret in your heart that you can’t just walk up to them and give them a proper good morning kiss. Well, you did kiss Julia, but still.

It’s simply part of the measures to avoid being caught. Any student could come out of their tent at any second for whichever reason, so better keep this professional.

“Where’s Ms. Fujiwara?” You ask, remembering to call them by surname.

“Getting ready. We let her sleep a little more.” Emma tells you. “Getting breakfast ready?”

“I might as well. I have little else to do.” You nod. You start a low fire in the grill and get a pan and some oil to make some scrambled eggs.

“Did you sleep well?” Julia asks, grinning.

“Perfectly.” You answer with a nod and a small, satisfied smile. “Thank you for the yoga matts, Ms. Campbell. Putting them under the tent really helped.” You tell her.

“See? It’s easier than having to pump up an air mattress.” Emma nods.

Mia presses her fingers against her mouth to stop her laughter when she sees Julia puffing her cheeks, pouting that you’re not falling for her teasing.

“Has everything been going well?” You ask them.

“Yes, thankfully. It seems our little story did its job and very few students tried going outside.” Mia chuckles.

“I figured that was the intent.” You nod. “Still, you’re an amazing storyteller, Ms. Campbell.” You say with a frustrated sigh. “I would’ve have trouble sleeping if I… hadn’t kept myself busy with something else.”

All three of them laugh and shake their heads.

“We should go get our breakfast ready as well.” Mia says. “Talk to you later, Mr. Walker.”

As you watch them leave, you allow yourself some indulgence and stare at their butts. They look very nice in those tight pants. After that, you keep working on breakfast.

________________________________________________________________

Some time after breakfast, Julia announces the next activity. And to be perfectly honest, your heart feels like it’s a wish on a monkey’s paw.

The next activity is swimming, after all. Swimming means lots and lots of cute girls in swimsuits. However, they are boring, school issued racerback swimsuits. They wouldn’t be boring by themselves, but since every girl is wearing the same, red one piece swimsuit it completely loses the appeal.

There are so many different types of swimsuits, dammit! Why do they all have to wear the same!? There’s bikinis, crossed halters, crop top, with frills, bows and beads. Even one pieces can be unique and adapt to each woman’s unique charms!

Urgh. This is nothing but a dream killer. You’re the only man among over 80 women at the beach and yet the appeal is destroyed.

Whatever. You’ll just have to focus on whatever activity Julia has in mind.

You walk around the beach, wearing your red swimming trunks, a white t-shirt and with a towel under your arm. You see all your fellow schoolmates there, and… fine. Admittedly, they still look great. It could be infinitely better, though.

The weather isn’t exactly warm, but it isn’t chilly, either. Swimming like this shouldn’t be a problem. With that in mind, you set your towel on the sand and get your t-shirt off and why is everyone staring at you?

Their odd looks give you unpleasant flashbacks to the start of the year. You suppose they’re still uneasy having you around, but even more so when they’re all wearing swimsuits. The rumors did paint you as a sexual offender.

But as you think that, something very soft presses against your back and a couple of arms wrap around your waist. A brief look back tells you it’s Megan.

“Uh… What are you doing?” You ask tentatively.

“Marking territory.” She says, pouting with puffed cheeks.

“What?”

“It pisses me off.” Emily says, grunting as she also appears from behind you with Sophia and Katherine. All of them wearing the same school swimsuit. “These are the same girls who were glaring daggers at you at the start of the year. But now that you’ve gotten fit, they’re all salivating.”

“Again. What?” You ask, raising an eyebrow.

“They think you’re hot, David.” Sophia tells you bluntly. “Can’t you read the atmosphere?”

“Let him be. When you get used to people giving you mean looks, it’s harder to believe they can even look at you positively.” Katherine says, sighing as she defends you.

“Yeah, I guess.” Sophia shrugs. “So? Anyone strike your fancy?” She asks you with a teasing grin.

“Other than you four? Not particularly. I do think most of them are very attractive, but I’m not about to try anything.” You admit.

“Good.” Megan nods approvingly.

“That saves us having to screen them.” Sophia agrees.

“Ahahaha…” You laugh nervously. It seems your… tendencies are a cause of concern for the girls for completely different reasons than one might expect.

“Megan. You better let him go or we might get in trouble.” Katherine suggests.

“Oh! Right. Hahaha!” She laughs as she breaks the hug.

And thank god you’re not the person you were at the beginning of the school year, or you’d have a very prominent tent in your swimming trunks because of that hug.

“Okay. Everyone gather around so we can give you the instructions for this activity.” Julia says with the loud voice of a teacher. Her, Anzu, Mia and Emma aren’t wearing exactly the same school swimsuits, but they’re the same type. Julia’s is blue, Anzu’s is red, Mia’s is black and Emma’s is brown.

Once people are close, Julia continues. “This beach is pretty quiet. The waves aren’t very strong and it’s not very deep, either. If you look over there,” She points her finger towards the sea. “You’ll see a bunch of orange buoys. That marks the end of the safe area. We’ll be doing team races. HOWEVER!” She raises her voice, making several people flinch. “I want you to pay especial attention to this because it’s the most important part. Respect the sea!” She narrows her eyes and it’s like she’s looking at every single student directly. “I don’t want any of you thinking you know better. I don’t want any of you thinking that going further would be funny or that pushing a classmate under the water would be a good joke. The sea is unpredictable. If I or any of us,” She points to herself, her fellow teachers and Anzu. “tell you to get out of the water, you do it immediately. I don’t want to scare you about going in, but I want you to understand that doing something stupid can be very dangerous.”

“She’s right.” Katherine whispers to you and the others. “People who don’t respect the sea get injured or worse.”

“Oh?” Sophia exclaims.

“It happened to my uncle. He almost drowned because he believed precisely that going beyond the buoys would be alright. He’s fine now, but he very nearly wasn’t.”

“We should take her advice to heart, then.” You nod.

With that, you start getting ready. Since teams need to be of five people, you and your girls decide to just stick together. You do your stretches and form a line.

The format of the race is simple. Four teams will race at the same time. One member of the team will get in the water, swim to the buoys and back, then the next member will do the same. The team to have all its members complete the race first wins.

Discussion on the order you should take starts with something that makes you smile.

“I can either go first or last.” Katherine says confidently. “If I go first, I’m sure I’ll be able to create a big lead for us. If I go last, I’ll make up for whatever time we might lose.”

That’s the tone you love to hear from her. She’s so sure of herself. It might even sound arrogant if she didn’t give off the air that she’ll definitely deliver on her words.

“I should be around the middle.” Sophia says, smiling wryly. “I’m not a very good swimmer. I’ll be the one holding you guys back here.”

“To be honest, I’m better on land than on water.” Megan admits. “Emily has better times than me in pools.”

“Then let’s have Katherine go first. Sophia can go second, I’ll go third, Megan fourth and Emily at the end.” You suggest.

“I’m okay with that.” Emily nods.

You all get in positions, with the other teams to your left and right. You notice Olivia’s group teamed up with two other girls and they’ll be racing against you. You wonder how fast they are.

“Okay then. We’ll start at the sound of the whistle.” Julia announces.

After the count of three, the loud whistle resounds along the beach and the first members of each team break into a dash. And the moment Katherine’s body is in the water, she starts advancing even faster than she was running on sand.

“Holy crap!” Sophia exclaims, and you can’t help but wholeheartedly agree.

She’s leaving the other girls in the dust! Er… splashes? Whatever. She’s stupidly fast!

“Go Katherine!” Megan yells her encouragement.

“Go! Go! Go!” Emily joins.

“You’re amazing! Keep going!” You yell.

In only a couple of minutes she’s already reached the buoys and is making her way back while the other girls are only at midway point.

She makes it out of the water first, runs up to your group and high-fives Sophia so the brunette can start running.

“Katherine, that was incredible!” You praise.

“No kidding! I know you said you liked swimming, but holy crap!” Emily agrees.

Katherine is catching her breath, gasping heavily for air as the water drips from her, yet she has a big smile on her face.

“Thanks!” She giggles. “But… we need to… cheer for Sophia now.” She says between breaths.

“Right!” Megan nods firmly. “Goooo! Sophiaaaa!” She yells.

You and Emily join her cheers, but it’s obvious that Sophia is having troubles. She’s barely reaching the midway point by the time the second swimmers of the other teams are making their start.

“You’ll have to cover for her, David.” Emily tells you.

“Yeah.” You nod.

You don’t consider yourself a bad swimmer. You’re not as fast as Katherine, not by a longshot, and Emily might still be better than you, but you feel confident you can pull this off. Your previous house had a pool, so you’re comfortable in the water.

With how much time Katherine made and how much it took Sophia to complete the course, you start running almost at the same time as the third members of the other teams, but you focus simply on swimming your best.

You jump into the water, unhesitant, but the cold still makes you flinch a bit. Thankfully, it’s not balls-freezing cold. You swim with all your might, and you notice that you can still touch the bottom even as you go further into the ocean.

“Gah! Ugg!” The sound of someone struggling behind you reaches your left ear. You instinctively turn and see something worrying. A blonde head struggling to stay above the surface.

You click your tongue, and at the same time you start moving your arms and legs to go to her, you hear Julia yelling from the beach.

“David! Get her!” She orders as she starts running into the water.

You abandon the race and swim towards the girl as fast as you can. Your heart pounds wildly with worry, yet you try to stay as calm as you can. Flailing your arms around won’t make you swim faster.

When you reach her, you grab her by the waist and she doesn’t hesitate to hold on to you.

Wait. Is this Lilian!?

“Calm down,” You tell the still struggling girl. “We can still touch the bottom. We’re safe.”

Lilian’s visibly calms at that, but she still doesn’t let go of you. Her breathing is heavy.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“…My leg cramped up.” She says, catching her breath as she holds onto you for support.

“I see. Well, let’s get you to Ms. Fujiwara.” Slowly but surely, you start carrying Lilian to the shore. Her breathing is slowly getting steadier, and she calms down even more once her foot touches the bottom.

“T-Thanks.” She tells you, still looking down at the water.

“No problem.” You smile. “Good thing this beach isn’t very deep.”

She wasn’t in serious danger. If she had started to drown she could’ve still used her good leg to jump up to the surface until someone noticed her. Still, it’s good you managed to hear her.

Julia meets you as you’re getting close to the shore and helps you carry Lilian, having her hold onto your and her shoulders. You let her in Anzu’s care, who asks her if she stretched properly before starting.

When Lilian’s answer is a hesitant no, both the nurse and the P.E. teacher let out frustrated groans before giving her a proper scolding.