Chapter 2

That night, Jim didn’t try to touch me and snored loudly for most of the night. My husband was angry with me for choosing to go ahead with the NIS Program even though he seemed okay with it earlier. Our sex life hadn’t been great for many years, and I finished myself off with an electric vibrator that I kept hidden under the cabinet in the bathroom of our master bedroom (like usual).

When I was finally able to fall asleep, I had a dream in which a group of giggling boys from high school chased me while pointing to my enlarged buttocks and swollen, fat stomach. My dreams were haunted by a fear of the unknown. dreams. The uncertainty about what this Program entails was driving me bonkers. I would like to know more about it, if anything to satisfy my curiosity so that I wouldn’t freak out.

I knew if I went with Julie to school, that I would probably agree to it. I told myself I needed to be prepared to turn around and walk out the door if it was too crazy. However, I am the type of person that has a hard time saying no to sales people simply because I don’t want to hurt their feelings. I wouldn’t want to come all the way to school with Julie and then break her heart by saying no.

I assumed that the school wouldn’t offer a Program that was TOO crazy, and that I was just overthinking things as I often did.

I get up before Jim starts his coffee and make breakfast for the kids. I thought about walking downstairs completely naked, just to see how it feels to streak in my own home. I didn’t want to shock the kids at breakfast and freak them out. I decided to wear my usual morning attire and follow my typical routine. There was no point in changing things yet.

Jim wakes up close to the time he has to leave for work and throws his work clothes on. He remained gruff and aloof as he grabbed his coffee. He didn’t say anything to me, but he seldom did in the morning. We’ve been married long enough to have heard all of each other’s stories, and because we spend so much time together, there’s not much left to say.

The kids came down the stairs together. Reese teased Julie for not being naked. “I thought you were joining the Program?”

“It doesn’t start until later today after orientation at the Pep Rally,” Julie huffed. She was such a pretty girl. She always had chipmunk cheeks and a slight dapple of freckles across her nose when she was little and she had matured into it. It was now a defining feature of her natural good looks. I was proud of all my kids, and while I probably play favorites with my baby boy Dewey, I was probably proudest of Julie the most.

I could imagine her making something of her life, and becoming President of the United States one day or doing something really important as a Scientist or a great Doctor.

“You should get a jump on it,” Reese said playfully, attempting to strip his sister’s shorts off. He tried to “pants” her by pulling her shorts down.

Julie grabbed her little brother’s hands and smacked them. “You need to go through consent counseling, Reese Garner! Just because I am in the Program, and even if I were naked, that doesn’t give you the right to reach out and touch me.”

“Sorr-ree,” Reese apologized but drew out the words to make it sound like he wasn’t really apologizing at all. He withdrew his hands and held them up, seemingly surrendering. “I was just goofing on you.”

“Give her a proper apology,” I told Reese. I usually handled the trivial sibling spats, while Jim handled the bigger issues and disagreements around the house. Jim agreed with me, and Reese offered an apology.

“You are right, Sis. Establishing consent is important. I shouldn’t have just grabbed your shorts and yanked them down. It was wrong, and I am sorry,” he said quite seriously.

“So, at your school, it’s not simply a constant game of grab-ass?” Jim scoffed and rolled his eyes.

He assumed, like my parents did when I was my daughter’s age, that it was some sort of free-for-all orgy for teenagers of grabbing titties and asses.”

“Consent is the bedrock foundation of the NIS Program, Dad. Without consent, there is no Program,” Julie explained patiently. She thanked me for breakfast, sat down and dug in with her brothers.

“That’s not true,” Dewey interrupted and provided an example of schools that had mandatory Programs. “In Maryland, students are required to participate and hold a lottery every year.” They also make students participate in lieu of detention. They don’t consent. They get drafted.”

Dewey could be naïve, but he was whip-smart and full of random trivia. There was no telling how he knew that, but I didn’t bother to look it up to confirm it. Julie didn’t either.

“Although attendance at school and completion of homework is obligatory, that does not mean one may engage in frivolous behavior or inappropriate finger placement, correct? right?” Julie countered her little brother with a clever response. “The students in those public schools know there is a lottery, and they choose to go there. I don’t think it’s ideal to draft students who don’t volunteer, but here there are plenty of people interested in the NIS program.”

Dewey nodded and accepted his sister’s explanation. He said he didn’t know enough about the NIS Program and had been looking up information about it.

Julie assured her little brother that he could ask her or anyone in NIS any question at any time. “The NIS participants are basically ambassadors to the program. It’s our duty to dispel myths and have honest conversations about issues anyone has with the program. They will hold a Pep Rally to kick off the NIS program today, and they send you to short seminars where you learn etiquette for the program and what it’s all about. I commend you for seeking to understand the program.”

Julie and Dewey had an age gap, but they were often on the same wavelength when it came to deep discussions. Reese on the other grunted and chalked it up to “It’s a bunch of naked people, running around doing naked people stuff.”

“Naked people stuff?” Dewey asked.

“Reasonable requests and stuff,” Reese replied but didn’t really answer his brother’s question.

Julie took another stab at explaining. “After completing orientation and receiving acceptance into the Program, I will have given my consent to participate in my role as a Trainer. They will expect me to take the role seriously and adhere to the guidelines. That does not imply that anyone may approach me, thrust their dong in my face, and demand that I suck it. I will however consider Reasonable Requests and oblige, if someone is curious about something.”

“I honestly can’t believe that the school board would allow this Program at all,” Jim interrupted. “I just don’t see the point in putting kids in a situation where there may be a viable scenario where a guy COULD put his dick in your face.” He sounded like he was genuinely trying to get his head around the Program. I could understand his point, but I had faith that the school board had thought this through.

“Girls have always had to deal with inappropriate touching and guys ogling them, long before the NIS Program ever was a thought in the back of somebody’s mind.” We’ve been dealing with creeps who try to go too far since before this ever happened. What’s that old movie from when you were a kid, Porky’s?”

“Porky’s? That’s going way back, even before my time, that was the 1980s, more like my Dad’s time,” Jim admitted, acknowledging that he had seen the movie but not understanding its relevance.

“They use clips from this movie and others from back then, about the way things were in a fictional high school in the 1950s to teach us about consent,” Julie explained. “The attitude bred unhealthy attitudes about peeping on nudity and sexual repression.”

“That is the one in which the nerds covertly installed cameras to observe the sorority girls playing with themselves?” Reese asked.

“No, that’s Revenge On The Nerds, but it’s the same basic premise,” Julie said it was another of the movies they watched.

“It’s actually Revenge OF the Nerds,” Dewey corrected his sister.

“You would know, NERD,” Reese punched his little brother in the arm for being right all the time, and the two of them went back and forth playfully trading barbs at the breakfast table. I enjoyed these little spats but Jim didn’t and put a stop to it.

I had seen both of those movies Julie was talking about. I thought they were hilarious. I didn’t see the problem with them. Jim didn’t either and he said they were just old movies.

“They reinforced a time when boys would be sneaky and deviant to try to drill holes in the shower to watch girls in their most intimate moments without their knowledge,” Julie countered. She was always worried about issues like that, and this was nothing new for breakfast discussion.

“Those were fictional movies. They weren’t real, Julie! They were just for entertainment.” Jim dismissed her point.

“Real guys watched those movies that reinforced those unacceptable behaviors. The movies sent a powerful message that if you couldn’t get the girl, you could drug her and have your way with her. In the movie Sixteen Candles, the nerdy boy ends up with the teen heartthrob’s girlfriend only because he drugged her. Somehow, she was okay with it at the end. I can’t imagine wanting to be with someone who drugged me. There is another scene in Police Academy where a woman gives a non-consensual blow job to a guy giving a speech, and he apparently can’t stop the speech to tell her to stop.”

“It was a different time, Julie,” Jim sipped his coffee. He was losing his patience but didn’t raise his voice.

“It was a culture, and the NIS Program has been working to teach that sex can only be healthy and natural if it is consensual, Dad.”

“It’s hard to argue with that, but why does it have to be so graphic?” he asked his daughter.

Julie explained, “Because metaphors about birds and bees aren’t enough, and curious kids are likely to try dangerous things because they don’t know any better. The program offers healthy exploration opportunities, minimizes risk, reduces body shaming, and has proven results.”

“Well, I’d love to say and hear how this lecture ends, Professor, but I have to go to work. I’ll leave you and your mother to undo the damage of some of the most beloved movies ever made,” Jim said sarcastically as he left his coffee cup on the table and went to work.

I cleaned up the table and drove the kids to school. They typically took the bus, but today was orientation, and I needed to be there to sign up. Julie was very excited, and I knew I’d probably just go along with it. The butterflies in my tummy started warming up, and I could tell they were going to get worse as the day went on.

“Are you still excited about this, Mom?” Julie asked from the passenger’s side. Her brothers took the back seat since she was the oldest.

“I am nervous,” I admitted reluctantly. I told my daughter I wanted to be the kind of daring mom who would jump in with both feet and embrace this like an adventure, but I was also reluctant because I wasn’t sure that I could actually do this.

“It’s okay to be nervous. You always told us that first day of school jitters are perfectly normal. If you aren’t feeling a little nervous then that’s when you should worry. You’ll do fine; I appreciate you doing this for me, Mom!” Julie reassured me.

“Doing this for you?” Reese quipped from the back seat and added, “She’s doing this for the $50,000. Where are we going on vacation, Mom?”

“Disney World!” Dewey suggested.

Reese countered with the suggestion that we visit France with the money.

“What’s in France?” Dewey asked.

“Your under pants!” Reese teased his brother and began to tickle him roughly in the backseat.

Reese is quite a bit bigger than his older brother. He’s still not as big as Julie, but he had a growth spurt before entering 10th grade. He could easily manhandle his little brother, and before long, Reese was croaking out laughter and shouting, “I don’t consent, I don’t consent!” while laughing and smiling.

“Don’t make a joke out of consent,” Julie reminded the boys when Reese finally let up on his little brother.

“It’s okay; I actually do consent,” Dewey smirked, attempting to launch a tickle counterattack on his older brother. “I consent to fart on you!”

I decided to just let them have their fun. If Jim were there, he would put a stop to it. I enjoyed listening to my kids playfully argue. It reminded me of when I was a kid, and I knew I’d miss this when they were grown and moved away.

A thought did occur to me, while my sons were preoccupied with giving each other wet willies, noogies, and tickles, I asked my daughter a question. “Once I am a Breeder and you are a Trainer, I’d still be able to deal with this situation, right?” I asked her and pointed my thumb to the backseat squabble.

“What exactly are you doing to deal with it now?” She pointed out that I was ignoring it because the play slaps were harmless, and the boys constantly wrestled and did stuff like this in the backseat until they eventually ran out of steam, or we arrived at our destination. “Hey, knock it the fuck off; Mom is driving.” Julie reached back into the backseat and swung her arm hard enough to get her brother’s attention but not hard enough to hurt them.

They instantly stopped fighting. “Hey, I didn’t consent to having the crap knocked out of me,” Reese half-joked when his sister ended their backseat games.

“Consent doesn’t free you from consequences,” Julie explained. I didn’t understand what she meant, but it sounded like the boys had heard the term before. I asked her what that meant. Julie told her brother to explain it to me.

“It’s just like something they say at school. It means that you don’t have to consent to consequences for your actions. If you commit a crime, you can’t say that you don’t consent to pay the penalty for that crime and get out of it.”

“That’s good, Reese.” Julie acknowledged her brother’s answer and added, “If you know what you are about to do has possible negative consequences, then you are consenting to the possibility of facing those consequences by committing the action.”

“You sound like a lawyer,” Dewey observed.

“Thanks; I was thinking about studying law when I am in college, but don’t worry, Dewey. I’ll visit you after I graduate! Reese, I’ll represent you for free at your first trial!”

“Hardee-har-har,” Reese stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry at his sister for suggesting he’d probably end up in prison. “I’ll probably sign up for the Program next year if they are giving out college degrees,” Reese said. I was surprised he’d be so open to it.

“They aren’t GIVING out college degrees. To get those, you have to work hard and study. They are making it possible for me to AFFORD to go to college to complete the Program,” Julie clarified.

“Whatever, then. I’ll just go in and walk around naked for nine months, show off this killer bod to all the chicks, helicopter my ding-a-ling anytime they want to see it, and then collect my college tuition,” Reese predicted with the same kind of cocky attitude that his father had at that age. I hadn’t seen my son naked before, but I doubted he was ripped and muscular under his shirt and grossly overestimated his sex appeal to girls his own age.

“Helicopter?” Dewey asked.

“You know? When you swing your pecker in a circle by jiggling your hips?” Reese explained, but Dewey had no concept. “Don’t worry, Dewey. I’ll teach you how to do it when your pecker grows long enough.”

Dewey frowned, and the boys started tumbling again.

“They don’t give full-ride scholarships for doing the regular Program,” Julie slapped them both on the knees and made them stop. She said that the full-ride scholarship was only for the Breeder Program and that, normally, NIS awards only tuition assistance and three college credits for a full year. “You two stop horsing around. Mom is trying to drive!”

“Cool, Mom, will you do it again next year? Pop one out for me too.” Reese asked rather flippantly that I’d get pregnant again so he could get tuition.

I hadn’t even thought about that scenario. I was fortunate because we had arrived at their school, and I had managed to find a parking space, so I didn’t have to answer. “I don’t even know if I can get in the program, and we will just have to wait and see.”

On the way to the school, I didn’t see anyone who was naked. The school year had recently begun, and teenagers were talking and laughing as they made their way to class, just like they did when I was their age. I had gone to this very high school when I was younger. I grew up in Northern Little Rock and this school had been here for decades.

Students were clustered together, having conversations as they prepared for morning classes. No one paid attention to us.

I wondered how I would handle this new situation once I was naked. I wondered if they would all stare at us if we were nude. I admit that I had doubts and second thoughts, enough that I was ready to get back in the car and go home. Julie squeezed my hand and walked with me as if she instinctively knew I felt insecure and nervous.

The first thing we had to do was pass through a metal detector line. We didn’t have those when I went to school there. The line moved slowly, and my daughter and I chatted as we waited for our turn. When it came time for me to go through the metal detector, a guard waved a magic wand around my body to check me for any foreign objects.

As I was a visitor, I had to sign in. “They really take security seriously, huh?” I said this after we passed through the gate.

“Yes, no one can come in without passing through those metal detectors, and the only way we can go out any side doors is during an emergency.”

“That will keep random strangers from peeping around the school,” I mused.

“Oh, mom, it’s not like that. Nudity is pretty passé these days. People can get it on the internet, and it’s legal in public. They don’t have to creep around a school just to see naked butts,” Julie said dismissively.

She was right, but it still made me feel better knowing that the school took security seriously.

My daughter led me to the front office. There was a beautiful young red-headed woman in her mid-twenties sitting completely nude in the front office behind glass. She did not attempt to hide her nudity. The other office workers wore clothes, but she was obviously Miss Collins.

The NIS Coordinator must have had plastic surgery to enlarge her perfect bullet-shaped tits and keep them jutting straight out. Those big and inviting firm tits were the first thing that I noticed about her. She smiled warmly at me when she saw me. There were some roses on her desk that matched the color of her hair.

“Hi, Julie,” Ms. Collins greeted my daughter. “It’s the first day of the Program!” I thought you would be one of the first subjects this year to voluntarily strip.”

“It’s not mandatory until the pep rally, isn’t it?” Julie asked.

“It’s not mandatory, but it is not against the rules either, and we allow eager beavers to voluntarily go nude anywhere on campus grounds,” Ms. Collins indicated with her bare chest. She sat at the desk, and I presumed she was also not wearing bottoms. I wondered if she even wore shoes to the office.

I was so nervous that I felt like I had to make an awkward joke to break the silence. “I guess it saves on laundry b laundry bills.

Ms. Collins smiled and giggled politely, but I got the impression she had heard that joke more than once. She introduced herself as Jen and told me that I could address her that way for now. “You look so young; I would have believed you were Julie’s sister.”