KEVIN LED US onto the porch and explained the game.

“Tonight, you two are going to be squirrels gathering acorns for the winter. That’s phase 1. The more acorns you collect, the better chances you will have in phase 2. So be sure and gather as many as you can.”

“Do we get a bucket or something?” I asked. I knew a storm drain where there would surely be lots of acorns, but I needed a way to carry them all.

“Do squirrels get buckets?” he replied. “Of course not! Although, I suppose you can store them in your cheeks.” At that, he pinched my cheek jokingly before I swatted him away. Lucy didn’t react. She looked like she was still distracted thinking about her birthday suit.

Kevin handed us each a timer and said “Ok, you have 15 minutes for phase 1. You can go anywhere in the neighborhood. But when these go off, you have to come straight back to the porch. No cheating and grabbing extra acorns along the way. Ok, go!”

Lucy scrambled down the porch and started collecting the few acorns that were dispersed in our yard. But then she noticed me walking briskly away and had the smart idea to follow. She soon realized I was headed toward the grove of trees in the greenway behind our neighborhood. I couldn’t stop her, so I just let her tag along. That’s all little sisters ever did anyway.

It was almost dusk when we got to the grove which was technically outside the neighborhood, but I figured Kevin wouldn’t rebuke. The sun had set but light still lingered. There were more than enough acorns to go around. My hands were soon full, so I resorted to lifting the bottom of my shirt into a hammock. Lucy was similarly struggling with her load and decided to do the same thing. Only, she was wearing her nightgown instead of a shirt. When she pulled up her hem to make a hammock, I could see her panties peeking out underneath.

Pretty soon even the hammock was not big enough and every time I bent over to pick up an acorn, some would spill out the gaps. That’s when I struck upon an ingenious idea. I took off my shirt, turned it upside down and tied the arms over the neck. It made a perfect sack!

I shivered. The breeze had turned colder and blew the leaves around us which made it harder to spot acorns. The cold front was moving in.

“Hey! No Fair! You’re cheating.” Lucy finally noticed my makeshift sack.

“I am not!”, I retorted, “Kevin just said ‘No buckets’. He didn’t say anything about shirts.”

Checkmate. Lucy clearly wasn’t about to let me win on a technicality. Her hammock was already at its limit. At this rate, she would never survive phase 2. She only had one choice. She dumped out her acorns and stripped her nightgown up and off her body.

I couldn’t believe it. It was still light out! There were at least 5 houses with direct sight of this grove. Someone inside any one of them could simply look outside and see my sister walking around it in nothing but her panties! I was momentarily distracted by the sight and forgot my own task.

She had definitely changed since I last saw her this undressed. Her panties hugged her bottom tightly, the only place that was starting to fill out. Her stomach had the slightest hourglass shape. And on her chest sat two little pink rosebuds. Her nipples were poking out, whether from excitement or from the cold, I couldn’t tell. When she walked, her hips rocked slightly side to side. When did that start happening?

Pretty soon I realized studying my sister’s body was making me fall behind and I returned to my task. It was now getting dark quickly and becoming harder and harder to see the acorns. But I had a secret weapon. With just a couple minutes remaining, I made my way over to the storm drain. Just as I hoped, there were piles and piles of acorns stuck in the grate. I greedily shoveled them into my sack as fast as I could. Some of them were just empty shells or rotted from the moisture, but I must have gathered over a hundred good ones.

Lucy finally realized I was up to something and came over to investigate. She had copied my every move in this game, following me to the grove, and making a hammock then a sack out of her clothes. But this time I had outplayed her. Before she could grab even one acorn from the storm drain, the timers went off.

Furious and almost in tears, she turned and stomped for home, her cute little panty-clad bottom jiggling with every step. As I started to follow, a few icy drops of rain fell on my bare skin, and I shivered again, suddenly wishing I could put my shirt back on. My sister had it worse, though. At least I was wearing pants. She was out her in the cold with only her panties for warmth. And they didn’t look like they did much to block the wind. She didn’t appear to have any body fat for warmth, either. Poor girl.

“Well, well, well” Kevin commented when Lucy approached and he saw that she had turned her nightgown into a sack and was now in just her panties, “looks like somebody is finally starting to get into the birthday spirit.”

Her arms were crossed tightly across her little chest, maybe because of the bitter breeze or maybe to keep her nipples hidden from her dreamboat babysitter, at least a bit longer. She handed Kevin her sack and stuck out her bottom lip in a pout.

“Mikey cheated.” She declared, then proceeded to recount the story on the verge of tears the whole time. How could anyone fall for that?

I should have expected Kevin to side with her. I had assumed that no one in his right mind would accept Lucy’s evidence. But Kevin wasn’t really thinking with his right mind. He called it the ‘birthday girl bonus’ then he reached into my pile and transferred a giant handful of acorns over to her sack. My haul had started out at least three times bigger than hers. Now it was down to about double. But I couldn’t really complain. After all, I had bent the rules a few times and I still had a major advantage.

For phase 2, Kevin produced a blindfold (that explains the name of the game) and two completely white acorns he had found. I guess they were albino or something. He called them the ‘Seeds of Spring’ and mixed one into each of our sacks.

“The object is to keep pulling out acorns from your opponent’s haul. Whoever finds their Seed of Spring in the shortest number of tries is the winner. The loser has to stay out here and “bury” the rest of the seeds in order to survive the winter while the winner gets to go inside where it’s warm and eat pizza!”

My stomach grumbled at the mention of pizza. Kevin declared that the birthday girl should get to go first. He affixed Lucy’s blindfold and guided her hand into my sack. She made the cutest sight, blindfolded and sitting on her knees wearing nothing but the briefest panties modestly trying to keep one arm and hand covering her little chest.

She pulled out a regular, old acorn and Kevin called out “no luck for the blind squirrel on her first attempt. Keep trying.”

Lucy kept trying, and kept pulling out regular, old acorns. As Kevin kept tally, my confidence kept growing.

At some point, Lucy gave up trying to cover herself and I was treated to an up-close view of her nipples. They were small but stiff, like little pink rosebuds with lighter pink around the outside. The rest of her skin was flawless. Her chest was still flat, but if you looked closely, you could start to make out the outline of where her breasts would soon begin sprouting.

I noticed Kevin checking her out as well. Between repeatedly studying her little nipples, he kept shifting around to admire her behind.

Finally, after 48 tries, she got the right one and Kevin declared “The Seed of Spring!”.

When the blindfold had shifted to me, I took a deep breath and started pulling acorns. I wasn’t too worried, at least at first. Lucy’s collection was much smaller. Surely, I could find the white acorn in 48 tries. But soon my tally grew into the 20’s then the 30’s and I started getting nervous.

I tried to think back if Kevin had said specifically what the punishment was for losing and couldn’t remember. Last time, he had made Lucy serve me naked breakfast in bed. I would die of embarrassment if I had to do that to her. Especially now that I had started puberty.

At 40 I started sweating. And although I couldn’t see her because of my blindfold, I could sense Lucy’s excitement at her growing prospect of winning. She started holding her breath, and every time I pulled out a normal acorn, she let out a gasp of relief.

When I hit 45, she couldn’t resist the urge to taunt me.

“What’s the matter, Mikey. Is the blind squirrel having trouble finding his little nut?” she jabbed me in my ribs, then squealed with delight when I pulled out number 46.

“Shut up, Goosey” I replied, knowing that she hated that nickname.

1…try…left. With trepidation, I felt around the bag and took inventory. There were too many acorns left. Twenty, at least. I knew from math class that gave me less than 5% chance. I wracked my brain for any clue. Anything that would aid me. Time was running out. I was about to give up and just pick one, when I was suddenly struck with inspiration.

“There’s got to be something about that acorn.” I thought, “It looks different…maybe…it feels different, too!”

Desperately, I started fondling each acorn for anything that felt out of place.

“Come on, kiddo. Stop stalling.” Kevin urged.

Then, I felt it! An acorn with tiny grooves in it which made it clearly rougher than the others. This had to be it!

I heroically pulled it from the bag and held it above my head to Lucy’s audible dismay. Kevin called out “The Seed of Spring!” as a gust of wind swirled the leaves in our yard in a dramatic display.

Kevin declared me the winner. He got out a Ziplock bag and poured all the acorns into it. Then turned to my sister ominously. Lucy was distraught. She had come so close only to lose on the last acorn. She stood and huddled in her panties, her back against wind, awaiting punishment.

“Lucy, as the losing squirrel, you have to go bury all the acorns in order to survive the winter. Go around and place exactly one acorn on each doorstep. Keep going until this bag is empty.”

Kevin had worked out a way to send my little sister around to the front door of every single house nearby wearing nothing but her panties. Each encounter would bring her dangerously close to being caught by someone. And there had to be at least 150 acorns in that bag! She might even have to go to other neighborhoods to complete her task.

And the temperature was dropping by the minute. A tiny pair of panties would be little to no help. I shivered at the thought. At least the rain had held off. I started to feel bad for her. After all, I had not honored the spirit of the game by figuring out how to detect the right acorn. But then I remembered how she had taunted me, and I didn’t feel so bad anymore.

Lucy took the bag, saying nothing. To her credit, she didn’t argue or complain. She merely took a deep breath as if gathering her nerve for the task, then turned toward the street. But before she took off, Kevin added one more thing.

“Cheer up, Lucy. You’ll be back in no time.” He said, “In fact, it could be fun. I bet you could even do it in your birthday suit. I dare you!”

Dare.

There it was. I had no idea how much that one word would change everything. Lucy’s eyes fluttered and she looked taken aback. Like she had never heard that word before. Something clicked in her brain, and I could tell, somehow, that she was going to accept and complete Kevin’s dare, risks be damned.

I saw it coming, but I still couldn’t believe it when my sister lowered her panties to the ground and stepped out of them. There was fear and humiliation on her face, but it was also mixed with determination. Without a word, my naked sister stepped off the porch and set out into the night; the after-image of her little round bottom burned into my memory.

Kevin and I went to the kitchen and grabbed some pizza. Then we moved to the living room where we setup the movie and sat to await her return. 10 minutes we waited, then 20. Still Lucy was not back. It was starting to get cold in there, so I went and got a blanket. I knew she would want it when she got back. But in solidarity, I didn’t use it, nor did I put my own shirt back on yet.

I waited and worried for her, trying to imagine what she was going through. Walking from house to house completely naked. Forcing herself to walk all the way up to each front door over and over and place an acorn on each doorstep.

What if she got caught? Would someone call the police? And what about the cold? Was she going to get sick from this? She must be freezing by now!

Then, finally, after 35 minutes, the front doorbell rang. I jumped up and opened it to see my naked sister holding an empty Ziplock bag. She had one last acorn in her hand which she bent over to place on our own doorstep.

“I did it, Mikey!” she said with a weak smile, then added “I’m cold.”

Her whole body was pink. I ushered her into the living room and sat her down on the couch. Her teeth were chattering. I unfolded the blanket and as soon as I sat down, she burrowed under the covers and crawled on top of me. Her skin was like ice, and I regretted that I had not put my own shirt on first. But with her curled up in my lap, I don’t think I could get back up.

“Warm me up, Mikey. Warm me up.” she begged. Her big doe-eyes looked up at me pleadingly while her whole body clung to me for warmth. Her teeth were still chattering.

I had to do something, so I started rubbing her arms, then her back. She had goosebumps everywhere. I thought my hands were cold, but her skin was colder. I just kept rubbing and I guess the friction along with our shared body heat started to thaw her out.

The rubbing warmed my hands until, finally, she stopped shivering and nestled her head into the crick of my neck. Kevin reluctantly started the movie. He was clearly envious of my position. With the goosebumps faded, her skin was the softest thing I had ever felt, and I couldn’t seem to stop.

She whispered up to me conspiratorially, “Mr. Beski saw me.”

“What? How?” I wondered aloud.

“He opened his door just as I was walking up.” She was blushing as she told the story.

“How did you get away? Did you run?” I asked.

“I couldn’t run. I had to finish. So, I just walked up to him and handed him his acorn. I said ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ and just turned and walked away.” She said, then added “Stop it, that tickles” as my hands had reached her ribcage and smooth stomach. She wriggled on my lap, grabbed my hands and pushed them down onto her bottom, which I’m not sure she intended.

I froze. I was touching a naked girl’s bottom! My hands, acting on instinct, gave her cheeks a little squeeze which provoked another reaction from her. She grabbed my hands and moved them further down on her legs.

“Warm my legs up, Mikey” she pleaded. And so, I did. Anything for my little sister.

Then I noticed something poking my side and made the mistake of looking down. Her little nipples were still rock-hard, and I wondered idly if she needed me to warm them up, too. That’s when I realized her nipples weren’t the only thing that was rock hard. My penis was engorged but bent down uncomfortably between my legs. And the way Lucy was sitting made it impossible for me to adjust.

I tried to ignore my discomfort and just watch the movie, but every time my hands stopped moving, Lucy let out a whimper of dissatisfaction. I guess Kevin finally got fed up with the situation and intervened.

He paused the movie and ordered me to go put the pizza boxes in the trash and put away the leftovers. I reluctantly complied, and as I was leaving the room, I realized his true motive. He snatched away the blanket that Lucy and I had been using and laid it over himself. By the time I got back from my chore, Lucy was eagerly snuggling up to Kevin and he got to spend the rest of the movie keeping my naked sister warm.

Worn out from all the excitement and exertion, Lucy didn’t make it to the end of the movie. Kevin scooped her up and she wrapped her naked arms and legs around him. He supported her by her bottom and carried her upstairs to bed. I followed behind and eavesdropped before going to my own bedroom.

“Do I get to put on my nightgown now?” she asked.

“Not yet, Lucy” he said, “If you can make it the whole night, you’ll have good luck for the next year. In fact, I dare you to sleep in your birthday suit every birthday from now on.”

Lucy yawned a tired “ok” and practically sank into her bed as Kevin tucked her in. I wouldn’t have guessed that she even heard his dare. But I should have known better. I have since been able to confirm that Lucy still honors that dare and sleeps naked every year on her birthday. But that’s a story for another time.

The next morning, Lucy came downstairs in regular play clothes. I don’t know why I expected her to still be naked. I guess I was just getting used to it. Kevin left mid-morning since mom was due back. As soon as he was gone, I asked Lucy if she had a good time.

“Oh, no!” she replied, seriously, “I couldn’t relax because I kept waiting for Mr. Kevin to give me my birthday spankings. It’s a good thing he forgot!”