Chapter 13: A New Home

The principal’s letter to the new term’s students and their parents had arrived in mid-August. It consisted of a welcome letter to the new and returning students, materials about performance and sports schedules, team tryouts, class schedules, and a reminder that any student whose last physical exam was completed prior to the previous March, must provide a copy of a current exam. Nothing was mentioned about the Naked in School Program.

When the Ritter family had returned from their vacation, they were busy getting Michael all packed and ready to go off to college; he was going to be at Penn State and needed to be there on the Tuesday before Labor Day.

When high school began that same Tuesday, Drew and Connor were happy to see that no school-wide assembly had been scheduled. On the Monday following Labor Day, however, their home-room teacher had an announcement to make to the class.

“Class, during this school year, the Naked in School Program is still a required part of the curriculum. Students will be selected to participate beginning on Mondays and their names will be announced during the home-room period. The named students will go to the assistant principal’s office, where they will receive their instructions and then will disrobe. All of the Program participation rules will be the same as last year.”

Then she named two students as the current week’s participants, but both of them responded that they were claiming their religious exemption and refused to leave the classroom. The identical scene occurred in each classroom that morning; every student chosen as a Program participant gave the same response, with the result that no student agreed to participate that week. Or the following weeks too.

During the next several weeks, all Monday calls for participants went unheeded. Sylvia Overmeyer, the Program coordinator, traveled from one classroom to another, trying to get students to comply, but after several teachers, exasperated by her interruptions, told her to stay out of their classrooms, she began trying to track kids down at lunch. That’s when William Bennett decided to confront her. Will was a senior now and was one of the resistance group’s initial planning members.

“Mrs Overmeyer?” he said when he approached her as she was badgering a student in the lunchroom.

“What is it?” she responded.

“Are you aware that your harassment of the kids here violates that court injunction?”

“Just who are you? You can’t threaten a federal official like that; I’ll arrange to put you in the Program for the rest of the school year!”

William just laughed. “Really? First, the Program is defunct here. Second, you have no right to put me in it; I’m eighteen. I have an adult’s right to privacy. Next, if I see you bothering one more kid, I’m getting a cop in here and making a complaint against you and the school...”

“Local police have no authority over a federal official...” she started.

“Is that what you think? Maybe you better read the court injunction. You are aware that the injunction was upheld by a federal court, and therefore it’s a federal court’s order, aren’t you?”

Overmeyer glared at him, then she turned and stomped away as the kids around them cheered and applauded.

During September, Connor had learned that the fire-insurance lawsuit on his home had been finally settled and paid out, and that his father’s estate had received the insurance payment for the destroyed car. Also, Connor had turned sixteen years old and was able to apply for a Pennsylvania motorcycle driver’s license, effective immediately. Gelb’s legal office was able to get some of the usual delays and waiting period loosened for him so he didn’t have to take the instruction course and the waiting period was waived. It took a private meeting with a judge from the county Court of Common Pleas to obtain those waivers; the judge was sympathetic after hearing about Connor’s past. Connor also applied for a regular learner’s permit because he intended to eventually purchase a car.

Drew’s soccer team was enjoying a good season this term, and by mid-October, they had clinched a spot in the regionals. Drew’s play was an essential part of the team’s success. The team reached the state class-3A quarter-finals but then lost that game on a penalty-kick shootout.

Jennifer, Michael, and the twins had been in touch with their nudist resort friends over the fall; they were following the news from them about how those kids were doing as their schools adopted the Program. The stories were varied; not all of their high schools had begun running it for many reasons. In the couple of schools that did run it, Jennifer learned from those kids that they had taken Emma’s advice to heart. Their parents had warned the school officials that if anyone used force to strip their child, their parents would get the police involved. Thus the word had spread to all of the other kids in those schools that nobody would be forcibly stripped, but even so, still the Program had kids willing to participate in it.

In late January, Connor received troubling news. He received a phone call from Alphonse Garcia. Connor told Frantz about the call the following day.

“Frantz, one of my dad’s ... um, former associates, called me. He’s sort of watched out for my interests back in my home town and he’s a straight-shooter. Anyway, he found out that some malcontents from one of the gangs back there that my dad used to supply has decided to go looking for me—that’s what the police and prosecutor had told me could happen. Anyway, my contact told me that those guys found out about that last group home where I was living, and they tried to get the operator to tell them where I was living now. I heard that he had no idea where I had moved to, but they still shook him up a bit. You think that they could track me down to here?”

Eva had come into the room while Connor was speaking and had sat down across from them.

“Oh dear, Frantz,” she said. “Could they find out where Connor’s living?”

“Not sure, dear, but possibly this isn’t good,” Frantz exclaimed. “This could be a problem. I really don’t know how secure the social services people are back there about protecting kids’ information—we’ll need to talk to Wayne. But, ah, maybe this is a good time to tell the kids the change that’s likely to occur.”

“I think you’re right. Let me get Jennifer and Drew.”

She went to the stairs and Connor heard her call to them; they were in the basement apartment, where Connor and Drew slept when they stayed over. Then Eva called Timmy to come. When they had all gathered, Frantz looked at each of them.

“Let me start with a little preamble so you have some background,” he said. “You know that I’m a professor here at the medical school in Hershey and a doc at the Hershey hospital and the Penn State clinic. I’m board certified in pediatrics and adolescent medicine and in endocrinology...”

They all nodded.

“ ... and I’m the director of the Diabetes Center at the hospital; also I’m a clinical investigator doing patient-oriented research on pediatric type-2 diabetes. This summer, when we were at the nudist resort, I met a prof from the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore. We started to talk shop and he mentioned that there’s a senior opening coming up in their med school at the end of the academic year; an associate dean is retiring, and their Division of Pediatric Endocrinology has begun to search for a senior faculty member to fill a named chair in diabetes research and patient care. They’d like one person to fill both slots if they find the right candidate.

“I was curious about the position or positions so he made a few phone calls. They’ve been searching since last May but hadn’t yet contacted some of the few prospects they’ve identified as their preferred candidates. To my surprise, I learned that I was one of them, Apparently I had been identified by their search committee for possible recruitment. Then, two weeks ago, that trip I took? They had me come out for a visit and interviews and it looks like they’ll make me an offer. It was so quick ... they must have fast-tracked this recruitment. It seems that I have the exact qualifications and experience they were looking for—my diabetes research background together with my clinical work in both the hospital here and the satellite clinic was an added plus.”

“So we’d be moving then?” Jennifer asked.

“Looks very much like it,” Frantz told her. “If we do, it’ll be the end of the school year.”

“But I’ll miss my friends,” Timmy moaned.

“If we do move,” Eva told him, “you’ll be in a new middle school where you’d make many new friends anyway.”

“Will we live near other kids?” he asked. “There’s nobody nearby here to play with.”

“That’s something to check out, isn’t it, sport?” Frantz asked. “Jennifer? How do you feel about moving?”

“Um, well ... most of my friends are seniors and they’ll be graduating this spring and will go away to college ... hey, if we do move, that means that we could live really close to our resort? It’s right near Baltimore. Could we? The resort has events going on all year ‘round and I have lots of friends there too and I’ll get to see them all the time, right? And our friends from here go there every summer too and...”

“Jennifer, cool your jets, okay?” Frantz laughed, interrupting her. “So I take it that moving away wouldn’t break your heart.”

“Well, I’d kinda miss being a senior and top of the heap here, but since Stacy’s family moved away last fall, going to school isn’t as much fun now. I miss her. But there’s a bunch of girls from the resort who I hang with when we’re there and I like them, they go to Baltimore-area high schools. So maybe we can live nearby?”

Frantz laughed again. “We can check it out. Remember, they haven’t made me an offer yet. But I brought this up, Connor, because this could solve the problem you mentioned.”

“Yeah, I guess so; moving again would make it extremely hard to find me. What’ll be strange is that we’d be seniors in the new school ... and ... hey, Drew? You’d need to change soccer teams again...”

“Somehow I don’t think that Drew would have a difficult time getting on a school team,” Frantz chuckled. “First team All-State honors; named as one of the top-three defensive players in the Eastern Region two seasons running, and two prep-school scouting/rating websites named her as one of the top defensive players in the state.”

Drew smiled. “Yeah, I’ve been scouted. Several college recruiters have already spoken to me; they’ve been watching my games. Division 1 schools too, so they have scholarships to offer. If we move, I’d like to get in a school with a competitive team.”

Frantz rubbed his face. “Oh boy. Lots of factors in play. We’ll see; one step at a time.”

The middle of the spring term in their high school was uneventful. The federal pressure on the school from the OSA about the lack of student participation was virtually gone, since Overmeyer had been recalled and reassigned to a school in Philadelphia over the winter holiday break. The high school was still naming students to participate by posting their names on a bulletin board outside the office each Monday. That list was completely ignored by everyone and the named students simply went blithely on with their day. The school officials’ threats about failure to graduate never materialized; at the end of the previous spring term, all the seniors had been allowed to graduate—and were allowed to attend the commencement ceremony too, including those who had claimed a religious exemption.

Frantz did receive the offer from Hopkins and it combined the administrative dean’s position and the named professorship. It was an amazing opportunity and much too good for him to turn down, so during the school’s spring break, the Ritter family, together with Drew and Connor, traveled to Baltimore to look for a home. Frantz had gotten in touch with a recommended realtor there and had given her their minimum requirements. The parents had spoken to Drew and Connor about their lodging situation; clearly their living apart from the Ritters wasn’t feasible now. The agent found several five-bedroom homes in the areas where Frantz had specified, and three of them had separate in-law apartments. She sent the listings to Frantz before their trip.

Jennifer had contacted her resort friends too; she had sent texts to them to ask them where they lived and which school they attended, while Drew looked at the websites of the high schools in the areas where those houses were located to try to get information about their soccer teams. She didn’t want to ask the Ritters to pay the approximate $1,200 annual cost for her to join a Premier League club.

After several days of touring the available real estate, the Ritter parents had narrowed the choices down to three homes. All were located in Anne Arundel County, a southern suburb of Baltimore; they were reasonably close to the medical school; and each home had a separate apartment suitable for Drew and Connor. When Connor offered to pay rent, Frantz firmly refused.

What delighted Jennifer was that two of the homes were within fifteen miles of the nudist resort. Drew laughed when Jennifer mentioned that tidbit of information.

“You really do love nudism, don’t you?” she asked and Jennifer nodded enthusiastically.

“Sure, I really do,” she replied. “If we live close, we can go lots more often. Look. Mom and Dad are talking with Mrs Howland about some details about the areas and the schools. Let’s see what they found.”

Frantz and Eva were looking at an area map with the agent, Susan Howland, who was giving her own analysis of the relative merits of the areas around the three homes.

“This first home, the high school isn’t the best of the three, and the local street traffic might be higher—that might not be good for Timmy, and the middle school is a distance away. Oh, here’s Drew. Drew, did you find out about the soccer teams in these areas?”

“I did. None of the three high schools have a great team right now, but kids come and go, so when I was back home, I had emailed some of the schools’ athletic directors and told them that I would be moving into the area and was a good soccer player. Could they tell me about their coaches’ backgrounds, like career team records and if they themselves played. I told them that, if possible, I wanted to be on a team where I would get good exposure to college scouts. So I got the three responses. They were okay but one was very good. That coach played in a professional league but had to stop because of an injury. She has a lot of D1 college contacts and a number of kids that she’s coached get scholarship offers. She’s the coach at Glen Burnie High—and that house is the one we all liked best too.”

Howland nodded, “That school is one of the better ones in the county, it’s in the top ten, and the middle school is located nearby as well.”

Jennifer was hopping with excitement now. “Oh, that’s the school where Sherrill and Wilma Robbins go!”

“You know people from here? Are they sisters?” Howland asked.

“Cousins. They’re gonna be seniors in the fall like me.”

“Ah, Frantz and I know those families too,” Eva said. “We’ve met both Robbins families socially when we’ve been here on our summer vacations; we like them too,” Eva told her. “I think that we’ve decided, Susan. Let’s get things moving so we can make our offer.”

Later that day, Eva asked Jennifer, “How is it that the house we picked is the one near where your friends live?”

“I’ve got, ah, eleven really good friends from the resort who live all around Baltimore, Mom. The Robbins girls are just two of them.”

While Howland went off to negotiate the purchase with the selling agent, Eva decided to contact both of the Robbins families to tell them that they were moving to the Baltimore area. When Eva reached Delia Robbins and told her, she was in her car and had her phone connected to the car’s audio. Their daughter Wilma was with her and her squeal was ear-splitting when she heard Eva’s news; this was followed by a rush of exclamations and questions.

Eva laughed, “Goodness, Wilma, I can see why you and Jennifer get on so well. You both have enough enthusiasm to power the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders! Yes, Frantz has been offered a position at the Hopkins Medical School and our agent is negotiating a house purchase. Block your ears now, Dalia. The house is in Glen Bur...”

She was drowned out by Wilma’s squeal again.

“Wow, wow! Jen’s going to be in Glen Burnie?” Wilma shouted.

Eva had turned on her own phone’s speaker, so Jennifer heard this.

“Hi, Wilma, it’s Jen. Yeah, looks like I’ll be a classmate.”

The two celebrated.