Katie's Wet Wedding; Rachel's Story

Rachel was happy in her new job. Dating Billy helped her a lot; Rachel had never been in a good relationship before and now she had a new purpose, fun, and excitement in her life! Billy was a good lad, but Rachel was not sure about all his friends. Some of them were a rough lot. A couple of times Billy had got really drunk while out with his friends. Once he'd come around to Rachel's house very, very late at night when he was on his way home. Rachel ushered him away quickly. She didn't want her parents to see him in that state!

Rachel was getting used to working her shifts at Hillview on her own. She got on alright most of the time, but she got a bit stressed when it was really busy. She made a couple of errors on the till. Once, there was too much cash for the number of swimmers recorded. Another time the cash was short. On both occasions, the amount of the error was equal to an exact number of adult admissions. Katie had a code that she could use to overwrite the till entries, and on both occasions, she used it to make the till balance.

Rachel was not as outgoing as Katie, but she got along with everyone well enough. On one occasion she, rather timidly, asked a group of teenagers in the pool to stop swearing. They laughed at her. Some adult swimmers intervened and one said that if they did not behave, he would go and report them to the site manager. Rachel added that she only had to press a button to call the security officers. Then the boys would be told to leave the pool, they might be barred from the pool all week or their parents might even be told to cut their holidays short and leave the site altogether. They all behaved after that.

Rachel liked to go for a swim during her lunch break when the pool was closed. It was nice to slip out of her work kit; she felt so feminine in just her shiny black swimsuit. She enjoyed getting into the warm water and to feel the smooth wetness of it against her skin. Rachel swam width after width. Her swimming was getting better and better. She would hurry out of the pool just before it was time to open the doors again, for the afternoon session. She would towel herself down, replace her costume with a dry one and get back into her yellow "Hillview" top and red skirt. Then she would serve the first customers with clumps of wet hair falling over her shoulders.

One morning a breathless-sounding Katie rushed into reception, not long after opening.

"Everything OK?" Katie enquired.

"Yes! It's quiet so far!"

Katie thrust her left hand in front of Rachel's face. Her diamond ring glistened brightly.

"Oh, that's lovely!" Rachel hesitated, "Is it an eng...um, what sort of ring is it?"

"I'm getting married!" Katie almost shouted out the words, "It's an engagement ring!"

"Wow, that's fantastic! You lucky thing! I'm so pleased!"

"And I want you to be one of the bridesmaids!"

Katie explained that the wedding was to be held in six weeks' time at the Episcopalian Church. The other bridesmaid was to be Kevin's sister. They were having the reception in the restaurant at Hillview. Rachel had never been a bridesmaid before; she was so excited too that she was hardly aware of the customers that she was paying in, while they talked. Katie's regulars, however, were quick to catch onto what was happening.

"Getting married? Wonderful! Katie and Kevin! What a lovely young couple you are!"

A few weeks later, Katie presented Rachel with a beautiful long dress for the day. She attended a rehearsal at the Church, where she met Kevin's sister. She was called Julie. Their dresses matched perfectly. Katie kept giggling when she had to say her words. The pastor seemed to be very kind and tolerant; he just smiled and asked Katie to try again. From what people were saying Rachel gathered that there had been some problems with Kevin's family. Julie seemed to be upset about it. How could anyone try to spoil Katie's big day? It seemed ever so mean.

The day of the wedding arrived. There were about fifty people inside the Church. Kevin's dad seemed to be ever so grumpy. Katie stumbled over her words several times. She had never called Kevin by all his middle names before! Julie looked a bit worried. She kept glancing back at her family as if she was worried that she was not doing everything correctly. The register was signed and now Kevin and Katie were man and wife!

The photographs after the service seemed to take ages. The photographer kept telling everyone to move a little bit this way, or move a little bit back.

Finally, they all piled onto a coach to take them the few miles to Hillview. The atmosphere relaxed a little and everyone started chatting to those around them.

Rachel sat at the top table for the meal, with the pastor, Julie, Katie, and Kevin, and both their parents. Katie's mum was very kind and talked to Rachel all the time, about her job and some of the things she had learned to do at work.

"It's been a great job for Katie too," she concluded, "But I think it distracted her from her studies last year. Katie is going to have to really concentrate, back at University next month!"

Katie's mum knew little about the real reasons for the breakdown last year, and nothing at all of her daughter's earlier pregnancy and abortion.

Kevin's dad looked disapprovingly at the sparkling wine being served. His family were served only fruit juice. Julie looked a little forlorn.

Billy and George were sitting at a long table together, with the guests who were staff at Hillview. George was entertaining them with his usual anecdotes and a discreet, humorous commentary on what was going on.

There were speeches from the pastor, Kevin, and Katie's dad. Rachel had to propose a toast. All she had to say was, "To Katie and Kevin!"

"Katie and Kevin!" everyone chorused. Rachel felt overwhelmed by a sense of friendship, togetherness, and love. She knew that she was much too young to get married, herself. She didn't even know Billy all that well, yet. But wouldn't it be wonderful, one day to get married, like this!

They got up from the table and went over to watch Katie make the first cut into the cake. The staff began to clear away the tables for dancing. Kevin's mum and dad left soon after, with their children, except for Julie. Everyone seemed to relax more. There was a sudden movement of bodies towards the bar. Someone whispered into Julie's ear, and she was delighted to be presented with her first ever alcoholic drink.

Rachel joined Billy. He was guzzling a pint of beer. "Not too many of those!" she whispered.

"You've had as many drinks as me, up there!" he protested.

After the first dance, Rachel and Billy spent nearly all the time on the dance floor. Sometimes they danced just together, but mostly with a bigger group of ever-changing faces. There was much laughter, many bad dance moves, and lots of friendly hugs. Julie was up dancing most of the time, too. She seemed to be enjoying herself at last. Just about every eligible young man asked her for a dance, and most of the older ones who were married, too.

The dancing seemed to wear off the effects of the drink on Rachel, and finally, she and Billy flopped down into a couple of chairs. Billy went off to the bar while Rachel took off her shoes and nursed her sore feet. Her new shoes were digging in; it felt so good to rub her feet. Then somebody said that Katie and Kevin were going to the pool, to take photographs.

"Hey, I hope Katie isn't going to end up in the pool!" Rachel murmured.

"I bet you two drinks that she does!" Billy added.

"In her lovely wedding gown?" Rachel and Billy cuddled as they giggled at the thought. They picked up their drinks and Rachel winced as she stepped back into her shoes, before they hurried after the group who were making their way out.

Arriving at the pool, Rachel heard her name being called out over and over again. They wanted her to join the bride and groom, for pictures, at the poolside. Julie was there too. The pool looked so cool and inviting!

"Surely, Katie isn't going to jump in, is she?" Rachel thought to herself.

Then someone suggested that Katie and Kevin should pose on the steps. Rachel gasped, "She is!" she thought again, "Once Katie gets on the steps, I just know that she's going in!"
Sure enough, Katie went from one step to another, and everyone was getting very excited. Katie and Kevin were pushing her dress down into the water. Then Katie went right under. She seemed to take ages, to make sure that every bit of her gown was wet through. When she came up, a torrent of water poured off her and the front of Katie's dress slipped right down.

Rachel saw flashes of white bra and bits of Katie's big boobs, shining and dripping wet.

She put her hand in front of Billy's face.

"I wasn't looking!" he protested.

"But you've taken a photo!"

"I was taking photos anyway!"

Katie was holding the front of her dress up, and she shouted at everyone to delete that picture.

"I've deleted it!" Billy shouted back.

Suddenly Rachel felt a huge urge, for her to get in the pool too! Wouldn't it be great, to get this lovely dress wet through? This might be the only chance she would ever have! Rachel dropped her handbag beside Billy and grabbed Julie by the hand.

"Come on in, it's warm!" Rachel insisted. "It's a great laugh!"

"No!" Julie pulled away from her, "I'll get soaking wet!"

Rachel walked determinedly towards the steps. She felt many eyes pivot around, away from Katie in the water and towards her. Rachel felt her dress grip her legs as she got lower down the steps. There was shouting and raucous cheers! No chickening out now! Rachel plunged forward off the bottom step, going right under the surface. She stumbled to her feet. The dress was pressing into her all over, embracing her with warm wetness. It was a lovely feeling.

There was a dull splash beside her, as Billy jumped in. Then everyone else wanted to do the same. Jackets, suits, trousers; all around her were young men with muscular torsos wrapped around in wet dress shirts. Rachel looked across to see that her handbag was OK.

The ladies seemed a lot more reluctant, though. One young man was dragging his girlfriend towards the poolside, "No! No!" she squealed, but she was laughing. She wore a lovely floral, knee-length frock. Her sister was beside her, with her hand over her mouth, in an identical outfit. Splash! She was pushed over the side, but she managed to land on her feet in the pool. Her dress was still mostly dry, from her middle up. Until all the lads in the pool gathered around and started splashing her. She put her hands on her hips with a look of resignation.

The boyfriend had a hold of her sister, now. Despite her half-hearted resistance, it was inevitable that she was going in too. After all, it seemed only right and proper that both lovely frocks should continue to look exactly the same.

The rest of the ladies, including Julie, were screaming and had run for safety, behind the reception area.

Katie was still tugging at her dress as she struggled to get up the steps. Her wedding gown seemed to be dragging her backward, and as she finally got up from one step to another an unbelievable amount of water poured out of it.

Rachel knew that she and Billy, and Katie and Kevin too, all had spare kits in their lockers. But how on earth was everyone else going to get home, in their soaking wet clothes?

Rachel had never been a bridesmaid before. And however many times she might be a bridesmaid again, she would never have as much fun as this.