Chapter 1

MONDAY NIGHT: THE FIRST DAY OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

“I still don’t understand. How does showing your boobs and private parts to anyone that wants to look lead to a quality education?” My husband Jim asked my daughter to re-explain the NIS Program she had already gone over a few times.

“The Naked in School Program was piloted in Europe before moving to the United States. It’s spread to more than 20,000 high schools, and tens of thousands of students have participated in it, Dad. How do you not know about it?” Julie countered.

Jim and I knew all about the Program. It started after I graduated high school and caused a great deal of controversy with early adopters, who saw it as obscene and a distraction from education. Jim echoed many of the same tired arguments my parents made when we first learned about them.

“I still don’t see how any actual education happens, like math and science, while people are staring at each other’s private parts.”

“That’s the thing, Dad. When someone enters the Program, they don’t have private parts.” She began to offer an enlightened and mature view of the human body, that it was just skin. We had sexualized and fetishized certain parts of the body to make them feel ‘dirty’ and ‘shameful.’ “They aren’t a secret. It’s just society that defines whether female tits are naughty and men’s chests are acceptable in public.”

Her younger brothers, Reese and Dewey, were snickering at the dinner table. Jim gave them a sidelong glance to remind them to keep their comments to themselves.

“The human body is part of that education, and learning to accept nudity and deal with it without it being a distraction or a novelty is part of the experience,” Julie said. She rattled off the benefits: “Its goals are to teach body positivity and body acceptance. The Program removes the stigma about the body by revealing it to curious teenagers. The Program has led to a 64% decrease in teen pregnancy, as girls have become less inquisitive and less eager to engage in sexual activities due to their increased awareness of what boys possess. Sex crimes are down 32% among teenagers because bringing nudity out into the open, talking about it, and demonstrating it alleviates feelings of sexual repression. Our generation doesn’t experience kink-shaming, so we don’t rebel by acting like sluts because we have healthier attitudes about our bodies and sexuality.”

When I was a kid, I used to have nightmares where I somehow forgot my clothes and attended school completely naked. In the dream, I would panic and run around trying to hide myself, but somehow if I did find something to wear it fell off, had holes in it, or blew off with the wind. I think many people had that same dream. In my dreams, Everyone laughed and pointed at me, and I was ashamed of my nudity. I wondered if it would feel that in the NIS Program.

I imagine that the founder of the NIS (Naked in School) Program probably had those dreams and aimed to normalize them so that should they ever attend class in the buff, it would be perfectly acceptable.

I’ve always known that my daughter Julie would volunteer for the Program. It’s mandatory for students in some counties, but it’s still voluntary in Arkansas. The Program offers incentives like college credit and tuition assistance for college students, but usually, only about 8 or 9 students in Julie’s high school volunteer at the same time.

I doubted Reese would have the maturity to join the Program. After he came to breakfast, he often had difficulty hiding his boner in his underwear. I doubted the school wanted my son’s erect penis to be constantly on display. My youngest son, Dewey, was a different story. He was shy and sensitive but incredibly curious. I assumed he would probably volunteer for the Program when he was a little older.

The NIS Program was open to freshmen (9th graders) like Dewey. Still, as far as I knew, it generally appealed to upperclassmen like Julie, who would be looking for help going to college. They were usually much more mature about nudity.

Nudity is everywhere these days. It was the 2040s now, and society had progressed in many ways and regressed in some as well. There was no going back though, nudity was now on billboards and publicly legal anywhere.

Social media exposed the kids to nudity, it was everywhere and mainstream online. Nudity was also legal in public spaces. We didn’t see that many naked people in stores or restaurants, but every now and then, we would. Not everyone was open-minded, and some stores had a “no nudity” policy. I thought Jim was okay with public nudity, but probably the fact that it was his daughter who wanted to join the Program made him apprehensive.

“You sound like you are reading that off of a pamphlet,” Jim observed.

“All of that information and more is in the pamphlet I showed you, Daddy! It’s my senior year, and I want to do NIS this year.”

“Are you going to attend your prom naked?” Jim asked pointedly to help our daughter think about the consequences of volunteering for an entire year in the Program.

“Why not? It will save on prom dresses. “Julie was only half-joking. My husband is notoriously cheap, and saving money was one way to actually reason with him. I could tell he wasn’t convinced.

“It’s still up to me and your mother.” Jim looked at me for support. I wasn’t opposed to my daughter participating in NIS because I knew so many other teenagers did. It was still shocking that she wanted to participate. I distinctly recall Tiffany making fun of some of the girls who were in the Program when she was younger.

“In Arkansas, I just have to be 16 to sign up if I want,” my daughter reminded us stubbornly. Our state had lowered the age of consent, precisely because younger people were more mature about sexuality.

“Then why are you asking me?” Jim was frustrated by the conversation.

“I want you to support me when I take NIS this year,” she explained, waving the pamphlet to offer it to us. “There is a special Program this year, and I wanted to see if Mom was interested.”

I was flattered by the offer. Julie and I used to be inseparable when she was younger. She was like my little shadow, wanting to go everywhere that I went. As Julie started to mature, she had less and less time to hang out with me. Because I was a stay-at-home mom, I had plenty of free time, and I was interested in what she had to say.

“Oh no, you aren’t roping your mother and me into this,” Jim insisted.

“Jim, let’s hear her out. What is the Program, dear?” I asked politely as I leafed through the pamphlet. It featured a lot of naked younger women, as well as some women my age. They were all pregnant.

My daughter explained that if I agreed to the Program, she would receive 12 college credits for electives and a full scholarship to West Arkansas University. It wasn’t the most prestigious university, but it was fairly close. I liked the sound of that. College tuition was so expensive.

Jim seemed skeptical and unmoved by my daughter’s sales pitch. He was stubborn just like her.

“You would also receive $50,000 as a base stipend after successfully completing the Program!” Julie said excitedly.

That was a lot of money! Jim seemed a little moved by the sound of that, but it was still practical. He asked how long the Program would last.

My daughter assured me that we would do it together and face it together. I didn’t tell her about the dreams I used to have, but she could sense my apprehension and she was very reassuring.

“About 9 months, give it or take,” Julie answered that the Program lasted pretty much the entire school year. My kids had only just started school the new school year. I’d have to go with her the following day to sign up and be evaluated.

“Mom, would you be in the NIS Program?” Dewey asked me brightly when it came up.

My heart began to race. Until I heard my youngest son say, “IN the NIS Program,” it really hadn’t hit me that I would be one of those naked women in the pamphlet. My parents were still alive and visited us sometimes. My immediate reaction was to blush and start thinking about how I’d explain any of this to them, or to my neighbors and friends.

“Are you going to walk around my school with your boobs out?” Reese added with a smirk. His father glared at him.

“Would my being naked at your school upset you?” I asked. I wasn’t a natural nudist, but I had walked around in front of my boys in bras and pants before. I hadn’t thought much about it. I wasn’t a fuddy duddy, but I also wasn’t a total extrovert.

“No, I think it’s cool!”

“Well, I might, but with all the younger girls there, I doubt many people will be looking at what I have,” I said. I was glad that Reese said he was comfortable with me being naked. I wouldn’t want him to be ashamed of me.

“All the women in this pamphlet are pregnant, Julie.” After I finished looking over the pamphlet, I slid it to her father to read it.

“It’s a new Breeder Program,” Julie said.

My heart sank. “Breeder” didn’t sound appealing. I didn’t like the sound of it.

“The breeding what-now?” Jim’s mouth dropped open. Everyone else at the table, including Reese and Dewey, seemed shocked.

“This year, there are six slots for Breeders. A loving family gets to adopt the baby, and at the end, we educate students on the miracles of birth. We will demonstrate the entire process and destigmatize pregnancy while teaching healthy birthing techniques and alternative lifestyle choices.”

I was intrigued on some level. It sounded so far out and over the top that I couldn’t believe the school was serious. I had always wanted a much bigger family, but after three kids, Jim decided that was all we could afford.

I knew I was still fertile, but I wasn’t in my prime any longer. My large breasts had dropped and become jiggly. I usually wore tight bras that never fit right. They just didn’t make them for my boob size. I also wore baggy clothes so that I could hide them. I felt like they made me look fat.

I also possessed significantly more curves than when I was the same age as my daughter. My butt had widened, and I felt like I’d probably scare some of the kids at school if they saw me naked. I wasn’t petite and cute like the young teenagers that were in the Program now.

“So, basically, a surrogate mother?” Jim asked for clarification on what my role would be in the Program. I had the same general idea that is what I’d be.

My daughter didn’t understand the term. She squinted in confusion, repeating that it was a Breeder Program and that a loving family would adopt the child shortly after birth. She said that the Breeder Program had additional responsibilities to adjust societal norms and behavior modification, but it went over my head.

“That means the same thing,” Jim clarified for her. “The answer is obvious.” Jim paused and looked at me. I was excited about the prospect of doing this.

My daughter started to counter with her own arguments about why the Program would be beneficial for all parties. I cleared my throat. I didn’t like confrontation, but I wanted to make my own thoughts on the matter clear.

“Jim, think about the money? We could pay off the house and have something left over to take the kids on a proper vacation.”

“You are seriously considering this?” Jim asked me. Before he rejected my daughter’s suggestion, he had not asked me my thoughts. I felt like he was being rhetorical, because my husband had already made up his mind.

“I’d like to discuss it. It’s obviously a big change for all of us,” I said.

“Why would an adoptive family want an older woman to bear the child?” Jim changed the subject and asked Julie to explain. “Why wouldn’t you be the Breeder?”

That was a fair point, although I doubted my husband would be comfortable with Julie going through with it.