Chapter 29

CASEY & PEYTON

Rebecca had planned it carefully. It was pretty easy to get it set up in only one day, though. The Marshall’s had it done to a science by now, and were actually looking for excuses. Gretchen’s kitchen was able to easily pack and send a whole dinner of twenty or more with no problem. Because Drew was taking more days off, all was set up for after school at her office.

Casey and Peyton knew what was happening, and Rebecca made them strip upon entering her office. Drew and Kelli had accompanied them, but remained in the outer office until signaled by Rebecca to enter.

Rebecca then explained the evening she had planned.

“Guy Marshall really got Transformations thinking about this idea of personal enhancement using nudity,” Rebecca explained to Kelli, Drew, Casey, and Peyton. “He actually got into the nudity because his wife, Ginny, enrolled at Rejuve. He took to heart the concerns about different comfort levels with nudity creating tension in the family. More than anyone else they had seen, he took steps to make sure it did not stress his family.

“Dr. Caroline Worth, one of the psychiatrists at Transformations, detected something about Guy’s level of satisfaction with his career. She began pushing him to extend his exposure in ways beyond what Ginny’s time at Rejuve would have required. Well, he can tell you how that all turned out. You four are going over there tomorrow for dinner and the evening.

“Now, there will be lots of people there. Just so you know, the seven people who normally live at the Marshalls’ spend a lot of their time nude. Everyone one else you will encounter also spends a lot of time nude. Many of the others are associated with Transformations in one way or another. Casey, Peyton, and Drew, you will undress when you enter the house and dress again only when you leave. This will be one of those shock introductions we have found so effective. I am not going to tell you more, but I believe it will turn out to be a fantastic evening and help you take a huge step toward where you want to be.

“Oh, the Marshalls are cooperating with Transformations in a number of ways and have agreed to host the Gang’s projects like this wherever possible.”

Cam was at a friend’s for the evening when the four were greeted by Ginny Marshall’s infectious smile and genuine welcoming attitude. Since the three who would be nude had worn minimal garments, they stripped right by the door and put things in the entry closet. Rebecca had been insistent that the three wear absolutely nothing. She was finding that just having footwear on decreased the sense of exposure and vulnerability that total nudity produced. Tonight’s objective was to take a quantum leap in adjustment.

Everyone else they met that evening would be clothed. The fact that Caleb had clothes on did not prevent Casey and Peyton from almost freezing up when introduced to him. Another male looking at their bodies was a shock they were nowhere near being accustomed to. When it was a large, beautiful male their age, the shock was amplified. Meeting Pen, then Guy after Caleb was not easy, but more manageable.

Cilla, Guy’s sister and Madelyn, a coworker arrived next, almost together. They homed in on Drew immediately while the five teens, Krissy, Pen, Jess, Cammie, and Caleb talked with the nude girls.

The next to arrive was Walt with Katy and Ellie. It had been decided the expected long evening would not be a thrill for the girls.

The hardest part on the girls was when a minivan from Transformations arrived. It carried Dr. Caroline Worth, Greg and Alysia, and four boys from Lindsey’s who lugged in food containers.

Among the boys was Krissy’s Josh and three from Casey and Peyton’s school. Kelli had been warned and stayed close to the two. They were stunned, but did not panic. The boys did a marvelous job of making conversation and reducing the girls’ anxiety.

Caroline spoke to Kelli as soon as she arrived and warned her that she would be hovering around Drew quite a bit. Her interest was in men like Guy and Drew who were seriously attempting to ‘remake’ themselves. “I’m trying to watch gestures, body positioning, penis twitching, and...” Kelli broke into giggles at that. Caroline waited her out, smiling, then said “He is talking with three men and three women. He is only what, two weeks into his project? Seeing if he reacts differently now then a month from now will be informative.

“Kelli, we have found ourselves much more involved with husbands and sons of Rejuve women than we ever were with the Tee. And that’s my job. Any thing I can come up with that might help more men feel their lives have improved because their women went to Rejuve, the better we can do our mission.”

“Are you finding things?” Kelli asked.

“Definitely. Admittedly, some are obstacles we did not expect, but over the time we have been open, we have compiled a lot of notes.”

“Has it affected how you deal with most husbands?”

“Oh, yes. One thing is we always investigate his career status and satisfaction level. We try to do that with his pants off, but that does not always happen.”

“What percentage of husbands ever get into the all nude section with their wives?”

“Hmmmm. I don’t know if that is considered confidential. I can’t see why it would be. I don’t know an exact figure, but it has increased as we have become better at dealing with husbands. It’s over half, now.”

“Really. That surprises me,” Kelli exclaimed.

“Let’s face it, Kelli, Rejuve is a premium service requiring a good income. With higher income usually comes a greater sophistication. I need to clarify that over half number. That includes only the women with husbands. Right now, that is running under 75%. Well, Drew is talking to Alysia. I need to keep an eye on his penis!” The two women parted giggling.

After dinner, the boys from Lindsey’s indicated it was time for the martial arts class to start. One of them made sure to invite Casey and Peyton to join them. Peyton got to the bottom of the stairs and actually sat backwards on the steps as she saw nine teens stripping. The real cause of her stumble was that Caleb was stripping right in front of her.

After the normal part of the class was over, Krissy and Jess hurried upstairs for snacks and drinks and they all sat and shared stories. Both Casey and Peyton had tear streaks much of the time.

Upstairs, Kelli asked Ginny about the three additional teens as soon as the kids headed downstairs. “Transformations is trying to spread its influence and help more kids than can live at Lindsey’s,” Ginny explained. “We are really excited by the chance. Jess doesn’t technically live here, but she only sleeps at her parents house. She and Cammie have been Krissy’s best friends for many years. Cammie and Caleb’s mothers were brainwashed by a pastor that turned a fundamentalist church into his own little cult. It’s a pretty grim story, but they are definitely a couple. We think they will someday celebrate their fiftieth.”

Greg entered in at that point. “Alysia and I, oh, we’re engaged, were hired as students from Addison to help plan Rejuve. We also got into lots of other things and introduced the idea of ‘community’. Well, management expanded that to trying to do some of what Lindsey’s does through homes that are able to take in teens that Lindsey’s cannot accommodate. We are still working on what kinds of things Transportations needs to provide for these homes.”

“I can tell you one thing that has already proved priceless,” Guy spoke up. “Legal support. When Cammie’s parents stormed in here to take her home, I had a folder with copies of the legal documents showing why they could not take her.”

That discussion lasted a few more minutes before the Magnuson name came up, and things took a business shift. Drew was completely fascinated by Guy’s story. Where he had been in his company was so similar. As the conversation went on, he was amazed at both the similarities and the contrasts in the several different businesses represented by Guy, Madelyn, Cilla, and Walt.

Meanwhile, Kelli was chatting with Caroline, Alysia, Greg, Ginny, Ellie, and Kathy. Mostly, their conversation was Transformations stories, but there were lots of questions about how they all could help in expanding Transformations’ reach. Ginny explained about the nudity in the home and how it started.

When it was time to break up the gathering, Casey and Peyton seemed to just float up the stairs from the lower level. Kelli noticed and had an idea. She grabbed the girls’ clothes from the closet, leaving the shoes, and took the clothes to the car. She started it and made sure a large, soft blanket was laid out on the back seat. Back in the house, she said all the goodbyes and told the girls their clothes were in the car. They made some dramatic but completely insincere complaints about running outside at night just before they went shrieking out the door.

As Drew drove off, the girls were in eight-year-old mode in the back seat for about two minutes. Then, there was a long silence followed by actual boo-hooing. Casey was finally able to say “We had the best time tonight! I just didn’t know there were so many really nice kids out there. We’re going to find all the Lindsey’s kids at school. Can we have some of them come out sometimes?”

Neither Kelli nor Drew was able to answer immediately until Kelli was able to stammer out “an ... anytime you want, Honey.”

Casey heard the catch in her mother’s voice and knew what it meant. Forgetting the windshield was much more transparent than the windows, she leaned between the seats trying to hug both parents. “This is what you worried about me missing, isn’t it? Well we’re not going to miss it! We’ve got new friends already and more we haven’t met yet. And mom, it wasn’t just jabbering about clothes and music and TV and stuff. You should hear some of those stories. It made me feel almost guilty because I’m so fortunate.”

Casey very uncharacteristically did not shut up until they got home. Peyton entered in plenty, as well. After a quick trip to the bathroom, the two went to Casey’s room. Instead of getting in her own bed, though, Casey waited for Peyton to get into the spare and slid in behind her. “We’ve got to get us some boyfriends, ‘P’. But until we do, I’ve got a major problem!”

DREW

It took two days for Drew’s lawyer, Roy, to get back to him. Drew went into work those two days. He made a point of going out for lunch both days. Every time he left the office, he took as many personal things as he could without being noticed. If for some crazy reason he had to just flee, everything really important would be saved. That was extreme paranoia on his part, of course. It made him realize how really traumatic leaving such a long-term job would be.

Roy had him come in after work and they discussed a couple of low probability moves the company might try. Otherwise, it was a go.

There was not much preparation he had to do. The resignation letter only said he was resigning effective immediately and using accrued vacation time to fulfill his two week notification requirement.

His direct boss was not in yet when he went to the boss’s office, so he left the letter on the desk chair. He then walked to the HR department and gave a copy to the receptionist. The HR Director was CCed on the letter and Drew had handwritten instructions to direct deposit anything owed him.

Roy had told him that using accrued days to fulfill the two weeks was questionable, but they decided to try it. Most tech companies did not want key employees around once they had resigned, anyway. He said goodbye to a few people he cared about and just left.

Apparently his boss had taken time to meet with higher management and legal because he was not called until three hours after he had left. When the call came, it was from the legal department, not from his boss. “Mr. Rosen, we need to have you sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before you leave.”

Drew could not restrain a laugh. “Maybe I’m missing something here, but the time for those is when you start a job, not when you leave it. There is nothing I need to sign. If you disagree, here is my lawyer’s name and number.”

“Do we really need to get an outside lawyer involved? Can’t we settle this between us?”

“Settle what?”

“Well, protection of things that you know about our products and business, of course.”

“Well, I must not know anything valuable. I’m only a staff scientist. There is no way I will sign anything, and I think you know that there is no reason I should. Just call my lawyer.” As Drew and Roy had guessed, it was an elementary bluff. Company legal never called Roy. Actually, there was little Drew knew that would be valuable to a competitor. When he and Roy had talked through that, Drew realized just how bad his situation had become.

CASEY

Casey’s project had been going for several weeks, now. Besides not wearing clothes at home and spending time at Peyton’s with her brothers, she and Peyton had a memorable trip to Lindsey’s for a late night skinny-dip and a very well attended pool party at Rebecca’s aunt’s indoor pool where the two girls were the only ones without suits. Of course, there were the seemingly unending stream of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins.

Casey had been watching for a couple of weeks and had noticed that Josh Nagel, the boy whose finger she had broken, always arrived in the lunchroom first. He did not always choose the same table, and his teammates joined him wherever he sat. Today, she had screwed up her courage and joined him as soon as he sat down. “Josh, can we talk?”

“Um, sure, uh, the guys...”

“If I sit here, don’t you think they’ll go somewhere else?” she suggested.

“I, uh, suppose.”

Almost hyperventilating, she managed to sit down, starting to talk before she was completely seated. “I want to apologize for your finger, Josh. I know it is late, but I couldn’t get up the nerve before.”

“I’m amazed you can do it now,” he commented.

Ignoring the implied compliment, she continued with what she wanted to say. “Believe me, if I had taken time to see that it was you, I wouldn’t have done that. I know you’re not like those...”

Releasing a big sigh, Josh stood and waved his friends toward another table. “Casey, the problem is I was getting more and more like those assholes. I mean, I have to play with them on the team, but I should have kept it to that.

“My parents did some digging and found out what they had been doing to you. Believe me, the hurt from the finger was nothing compared to what my parents threatened if I didn’t stay away from that crowd.

“In a way, you did me a favor, Casey. You made me see I was turning into a stupid follower. Do you know I got straight As last quarter? Next year I should be in all of your AP classes.”

“That’s great, Josh. I still feel bad about what happened.”

“And I see the assholes are still being as crude and mean as ever. I hope you noticed I’m staying away from them,” he snarled.

“I did, and it made me feel worse about the mistake.”

“It wasn’t a mistake, Casey. I shouldn’t have touched you for any reason, especially after what you had been through. Say, Casey, what has happened to you? You’ve changed so much.”

“Some really great people have been helping me,” was all she was willing to say. “I’ve gained some weight - all muscle. I’ve been learning martial arts, and that makes me feel more confident, too.”

“But the way you’ve been talking to people and talking in class! All those years, that never happened. I mean, even now...!”

“Have you noticed that Peyton has changed, too?”

“I sure have. Every guy in school has.” Then Josh’s face darkened. “Um, Casey, some of the guys are claiming they’ve had sex with Peyton. I don’t believe that, but...”

“Who is claiming that?”

“Well, uh...”

“Come on, Josh. If they are claiming it, what is the harm of you repeating it? They can’t get angry at you for that. What do you owe them, anyway? I’ll bet they’re the same ones that got you a busted finger and weeks on the bench.”

When Josh told her five names, Casey had to scold herself for a moment’s anger that they didn’t claim to have sex with her. She couldn’t be jealous of her friend. Peyton was just the kindest, most supportive friend anyone could have. Why would the assholes try to ruin her reputation?

Josh could see that Casey was upset and wished he could help in some way. Nothing he said, though, could counter the boasts of those five guys.

PEYTON

As soon as Casey saw Peyton, she told her what Josh had said. “I heard you sat with him at lunch,” was Peyton’s first response. “Is something going on, there?”

“I just wanted to apologize and he kept talking about how much we both had changed. Peyton, aren’t you upset about what those guys are saying?”

“Yes I am, and I know how to fix them.”

The very next morning, Casey found Josh before home room with a challenge. “Josh, if you’re as nice a guy as I think you are, see that these get spread around in every class those five guys are in.” She handed him a sheaf of papers and watched while he read one. It said:

‘I hear that these five liars have been claiming that they had sex with me. [The five names were listed in bold type.] A quick look at the other side of this page will show them to be lying.

Not only am I a virgin, I still have not gone on my first date.

When I do, it will be with a guy who is secure enough in his manhood that he does not have to brag about things he has not done. He will also be honorable enough to say nothing about what we may or may not do on our dates.

I believe nice guys like that do exist, and I will wait until I find one.

If any of you other girls have been lied about, don’t be afraid to speak up.

Signed, Peyton Hillerman

The opposite side of the page was a copy of a note certifying that Peyton’s hymen was intact. It was signed and dated by the doctor and it was on the letterhead of an OB/Gyn clinic.

It took until second period before a copy of the paper ended up in the hands of the Principal, Mrs. Hatcher. Her secretary saw tears in the boss’s eyes and came in to see what was wrong. Mrs. Hatcher handed her the page and said “I wish I’d had the guts to do something like that! Make sure someone from security is with Miss Hillerman every moment she is on school grounds for a few days.”

“You think they might retaliate?”

“They have to do something to restore their manhood, don’t they?”

“So you had a bad experience, too?” the secretary asked.

“It wasn’t just one incident. That reputation never went away, even though everyone thought it was probably a lie,” Mrs. Hatcher lamented. “I hope they do try something. I would love to see them gone.”

“Coach would not be happy.”

“Well, maybe keeping him and his stars happy has become too important around here!”

The secretary knew many students well and kept her ear to the ground for interesting developments. Having two nieces in attendance helped a lot. Word of the lunch meeting between Casey and Josh had headlined the previous day’s gossip. The secretary thought Josh might be the one to warn his teammates about the penalty for retaliation. She also found the coach and told him about Mrs. Hatcher’s threat.

The secretary decided to follow Josh between classes after she gave him the word. He did deliver the message to the leader of the five. He had to back away quickly to avoid a wild swing. Only the presence of a teacher prevented the five from trying to punish the messenger.

The secretary warned the Principal, security, and the coach that some kind of confrontation looked certain from what she had seen.

PEYTON & JOSH

The only classes that Casey and Peyton did not share caused them to have different lunch periods. Rather than getting his lunch, Josh waited for Casey so he could warn her about the danger from the five. Since he had no classes with either girl, he insisted that they wait in their last classroom until he could escort them out of the building. He did not know about the other surveillance already planned.

Josh’s best friend was another athlete, but a swimmer. Jake was in Josh’s next class. A good guy, Jake agreed to help Josh with the escort duty and even said he would recruit two more swimmers.

Meanwhile, the phones were buzzing. Cellphones were not banned, but had to be off in classrooms. At the next break, Peyton called her mother to tell her what was happening. Christi had been concerned about repercussions from the letter, but could not help supporting her daughter’s unaccustomed show of spirit and determination.

Unable to make it to school at closing time, Christi told Peyton she would get Kelli to pick both girls up and to watch for Kelli’s car. “Can you get a teacher or someone to escort you?” Christi asked.