Chapter 18: Making the Pitch

Drew was up first and her stirring woke Connor.

“Ahhh, morning, lover,” she yawned. “That was quite a scene last night. You got me so excited that after I came, I just crashed. You did a number on Jen and me.”

“Thanks, sweetheart, it was fun. But you look troubled somehow now,” Connor said.

“Oh, does it show? Yeah, unsettling dreams. Maybe my conscience is trying to get my attention or something.”

“Recall what you dreamt?”

Jennifer yawned and sat up.

“You had bad dreams?” she asked. “I’d think you’d have nice sexy ones after what Connor did to us,” she joked. “Yeah, can you remember anything from them?”

“Not that much. The thing I remember most strongly was Overmeyer, remember her?”

The others said they did and Jennifer added, “Ugh, that bitchy woman? Now she’s worthy of a nightmare!”

“Wasn’t nightmare bad, just, like, threatening and disturbing, I guess. The part I remember was that I was in school, naked, she was the teacher, and had me doing all kinds of humiliating stuff. But somehow being nude like that wasn’t the scary part...”

She trailed off in thought.

“What was scary?” Connor prompted.

“I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t tell Overmeyer that I wouldn’t do those things and couldn’t warn the other kids that what she was doing was wrong. It was like my mouth was blocked or something. But today I’ll be warning all those kids, so you think that my mind was warning me not to do that? ‘Cause Overmeyer was humiliating me?”

“Jeez, that is scary, sweetheart,” Connor agreed. “But maybe the dream’s the opposite: that your mind is telling you that you MUST warn the kids today and Overmeyer was trying to humiliate you so that you’d be scared to do it. Aren’t dreams sometimes a sign of frustrations during waking life? I think I heard that somewhere.”

“I know ... let’s look on line,” Jennifer suggested. “The source of all human knowledge is in your cell phone, right?”

They all chuckled as Jennifer rummaged through her bag and pulled her phone out.

“Huh, gotta remember to charge this. Let’s see, I’ll put in ‘can’t talk in dream.’ ... Oh, lots of hits on that. Let me read ... Drew, looks like it’s a common dream ... this one says if you can’t speak in your dreams it’s because when you’re awake, you have a sense of not being heard.”

“Um, I don’t see that,” Drew mused.

Connor laughed, “Definitely that’s not Drew.”

“Um, there’s lots more sites. Let me read a few ... Okay, most all say the same thing but go lots further since there are ... um, nuances I guess the term is, to feeling like you’re not being heard. The best one is that you don’t feel appreciated or valued for your ideas or suggestions. Or somehow you’re kept from telling others about them or that people may not be getting your message. The best one is that you might be feeling like you’re being silenced by someone who doesn’t want other people to hear your message.”

“You know, that def sounds good to me,” Drew nodded, “Yeah, it sounds somehow satisfying, like maybe my mind was trying to tell me that by not speaking up even louder in my past, I was letting people like Overmeyer get away with all those abuses. Connor, remember when I told you about my thinking about doing a social-media campaign against the Program? Well, I was lazy and never got to do that. Maybe the dream was reminding me of that. I was failing to speak.”

“Say, that sounds really right, Drew. Thanks, Jen, for the technical support,” Connor said, grinning. “Hey, ready? It’s a bit after eight and we should get breakfast...”

Someone began pounding on the door. “Jen? Connor and Drew?” came a shout. It was Timmy. “Mom and Dad went to get breakfast and said to wake...”

He stopped when Jennifer opened the door and then he peered at the bed.

“ ... to wake ... um ... you up ... um ... were you guys all sleeping together? Oh jeez, you were! Oh shit!”

His cock had sprung erect and he blushed, covering himself with his hands.

“Ooh, nice, bro,” Jennifer cooed. “You’re taking after Dad and Michael. Your girlfriends must think you’re a stud, right?”

“Quit it, Jen, c’mon. You guys didn’t ... um ... do it last night, um...”

Drew had walked over to the door.

“You mean, did we fuck? Is that a nice thing to ask? I’ll ask you then. Have you fucked a girl yet?”

Timmy blushed down to his toenails.

“I ... um ... please, Drew...”

“S’okay, Timmy, I’m teasing. Listen, if you want gals to trust you, sex acts are private, unless someone volunteers to talk. Even then, they might be bragging—guys do that lots and you can’t believe them. That’s how some girls get undeserved reps, okay? Hey, good. It worked, see? Gettin’ you humiliated got you softer. We’ll be at breakfast in a few minutes, tell the folks. See you there, kid.”

Timmy ran off, glad to escape the inquisition.

At breakfast, the teens told Frantz and Eva what they planned to talk about, and Frantz told them that he had seen the Marshall family heading to the office.

“Stuart’s the responsible adult for about sixty kids, I heard,” Frantz told them. “And thirty to forty more are coming with parents. That’s who called in advance. If it gets over 120, they might need to have the meeting in the Pavilion—too many for the clubhouse.”

They were finishing breakfast when the Marshalls arrived; their presence was unmistakable. Not because they were nude; for they were, but because Stuart Marshall was a big, husky man, about six feet tall and solidly built. He had an aura of command; it just radiated from him and everyone in the room turned to see who had entered. With him were three females, a woman, obviously his spouse, and two teens. The girls also radiated a kind of charisma and excitement that swept over the room.

“Let me get them over here to introduce you,” Frantz said and waved.

The Marshall family came over to the Ritters’ table.

“Hi, Stuart, Gerry, gals,” Frantz said. “Thanks so much for helping my daughter and her friends at Glen Burnie.”

“Oh, of course we had to help! What you’re doing is bloody brilliant!” one of the teens gushed.

“Thanks, Sam. Let me introduce you all. My family knows you guys; the two newcomers here are Drew Harper and Connor Martin, Eva’s and my wards. Apparently they are the original source of the anti-Program idea that was the impetus for getting this meeting organized. Drew and Connor, these are the Marshalls, Stuart and Gerry, and their irrepressible daughters, Sam and Abi. When do Andrew and Emma arrive?”

“Any time now,” Gerry said. “Nice meeting you, Drew and Connor. Andrew’s my son and Emma’s his girlfriend.”

“Mum, you know that they’re virtually engaged!” Abi objected and her mother just smiled at her and laughed.

Sam smiled at Jennifer and caught her attention. “Hi, Jen, ace seeing you in the skin again and not just by talking by phone, email, and text. You said you told your, erm, are they a brother and sister? Or what?”

Jennifer giggled. “Connor’s my second cousin. And honorary brother. And Drew’s my honorary sister. They’re tight, too.”

“Oi, we know all about honorary sisters. Emma’s ours,” Abi put in.

“Getting back to what I was saying,” Sam went on. “Jen, you told me when we spoke back in May, I guess, that you had told Drew and Connor all about that big meeting of the teens we had here last August. And how Drew had figured out a possible way to try to make Andrew’s idea a reality at your high school. Ace job, Drew.”

“Thanks, Sam. Andrew had a really good thought, bringing your social nudity to the schools and have it replace the Program. I just tried to figure out a way to make it happen—but it takes a lot of persuasion and organization to get it started. The real success is ‘cause Wilma and Sherrill took the idea and just ran with it. Of course we need to tell the kids that they totally have the right to completely resist if they want no part of the nudity.”

“And they didn’t speak up at that teens’ meeting, either. Jen and those twin boys told all those horrid stories about what happened back in your school. But then you avoided the Program by getting an injunction—blimey, that’s like Emma did at her school. And now you moved here and need to face the Program again here.”

Drew chuckled, “You don’t know the third part. I got picked to be in the Program at my FIRST high school back in Massachusetts.”

“You what? No cap? How...”

“Long, sad story. Listen, I hate to have to keep repeating it, so wait till the meeting and you’ll hear it...”

Drew was interrupted when a small dynamo flew into the room and rushed up to hug, first Stuart and then the three women. Then a young man sauntered up to the table.

“Hi, Mum and Dad, Sam and Abi. Ritters. So who’s all this lot now?” he asked. “I’m Andrew.”

That’s when Drew and Connor got to meet Emma and Andrew. Emma was a charismatic dynamo, as Jennifer had told them last year. Naked, she just glowed with energy and vitality and even though she appeared to be a tiny girl, her presence filled the room. After the introductions were made, the Ritters left but Jennifer stayed behind with Drew and Connor. They nibbled on some breakfast danish and coffees, tea for Drew, to chat, while the Marshalls ate. Drew recapitulated for Emma and Andrew what she had told Sam earlier.

“Andrew, you know that your idea from last summer about why the Program can’t be run like a nudist place is becoming legendary,” Drew joked. “Jen mentioned it to me when she told me how you, Emma, had stopped the ... ha, ha, Alaska Program cold...”

They all laughed.

“Cold indeed. I do get a lot of mileage out of that pun, don’t I.” Emma grinned. “So your organizing experience from back at your old school is helping this new initiative, then?”

“It’s actually ... ah, speak of them and they shall appear. Here come the real agents of the Program’s doom at Glen Burnie, now. Hey, Sherrill and Wilma!”

Sam lit up at Drew’s words. “Blimey, I love it! Agents of doom; what ace imagery. I gotta remember that one. Brilliant!”

“Hey, from what I heard, Sam, you’re the agent of doom at your own school.”

That caused Stuart to blow coffee out of his nose. Stuart and Gerry, who had been chatting with Andrew, had overheard Drew’s comment. Gerry laughed at Stuart’s discomfort while he wiped his face.

After he recovered and cleaned up the spilled liquids, he complimented Drew for her comment.

“And that is precisely what my older daughter is doing at that school, Drew. You heard the story, I’m sure, and she’s put all of their knickers in a twist over her anti-Program blogging.”

Meanwhile the other two teens had joined them and had greeted the Marshalls.

Sherrill hugged Drew and told her, “It’s so great you came, even if you gotta wear something. By the way, that pareo looks gorgeous on you; where’d you get it?”

“Jen’s mom; she had a few she doesn’t wear and gave me a couple.”

“Oi, Drew,” Abi said, “so you aren’t going to be nude? Is that what Sherrill meant?”

“Yeah, Abi, it’s complicated and I’m still getting myself all straightened out from a few bad incidents in my past. I’ll talk about them at the meeting. Connor doesn’t go naked too; he says it’s to support me, but I suspect there’s another reason. Anyway, you’ll get the answer at the meeting. Speaking of which, now that we’re all here, let’s plan how we want it to run.”

They began planning how to conduct the upcoming meeting while Stuart left to check on the numbers of expected teens for the session. By the time of the meeting start, over 150 kids were waiting outside the clubhouse; most were nervously looking around at the nude resort-goers while trying not to appear that they were looking.

Wilma came out of the clubhouse then, trailed by a few dozen more teens and she shouted, “Yo! Everyone! Follow me this way!” and led the group to the Pavilion.

This was a large roofed structure with no walls; it had a low platform at one end and was used for potluck meals when filled with tables, or folding chairs for music group events for concerts or dances. Currently, it was filled with chairs. As the teens settled themselves on the seats, Sherrill and Wilma went to the platform and took two wireless mics from an older teen resort worker, who opened a little cabinet and flipped on the amplifier power.

“Hi, everyone and welcome to Pine View!” Sherrill began. “As you can see from what I’m not wearing, this is a place where nudity is not only accepted, it’s embraced and celebrated too. I’m Sherrill, as a fair number of you know, and with me is Wilma. At nudist resorts, it’s proper etiquette not to ask for people’s last names unless the names are volunteered. Anyway, both of us are gonna be seniors at GBHS and somehow we became the unofficial organizers of this gathering. We’ll call what we’re doing ‘the Project.’ You all know what the topic is or you wouldn’t be here, right?”

“The Program!” a lot of kids shouted.

“Sure. If that’s not what any of you expected to hear, you’re probably in the wrong place. But you can stay anyway, ‘cause if you’re a high school kid in Maryland, you need to hear what we say today. Here’s Wilma.”

“Hi there, guys, and welcome to this piece of heaven in Maryland. First, some housekeeping. You’re free to use the grounds today and all the facilities. If you came with your folks, they can too. Nudity anywhere is the norm but not required, except in the pools and the spas. You were told what to bring today, in particular, towels and sunscreen. Towels are to set your naked butt on whenever you sit somewhere—and to dry off, of course. You need to take a shower using soap every time you go in the pool or spa.

“Okay. You know that our high school is gonna start the Naked in School Program this fall and the principal has made it totally clear that every single one of you seniors will be naked for a week at some point during this coming school year. For you others, your naked time might not come this year, but it will definitely come. How many of you guys know a kid who goes to a school where the Program is running?”

Several dozen hands went up, about a quarter of the group.

Sherrill took over now. “Maryland schools began the Program this past fall, as you know. Unless you go around with your head in a sack, you’ve seen naked kids in our shopping malls and in shops and streets in other suburban areas. Those kids are doing the Program ‘Outreach’ that’s required—and you’ll have to do that too. I see heads shaking, but that’s part of the stupid rules. You see all those naked kids out there and they’re doing it. So face it; you’ll hafta too.

“True, there appear to be a lot of kids who seem to enjoy being naked in public; it’s called being an exhibitionist. Here’s a secret: Wilma and I are among them. We’d happily go to a mall nude, and in fact, we’re looking forward to doing that. Here’s another secret: The Program is not nudism, no way is it. It’s a perverted caricature of nudism and the way its rules have been written, it solely exists to humiliate and objectify the kids who have to be naked. What we plan to do at GBH is to turn the Program upside down, to take over its operation, and totally confound the school officials. But we need a lot of kids behind us to do that. Are you all willing to help?”

There was a resounding cheer of “Yes!”

“Great. Thanks. There are maybe 150 here—we need to recruit at least twice that number more to make the Project really work, so more on that later. Okay, why have this meeting at a nudist resort? Simple, to get you used to being nude in a public setting, so you can see that there’s nothing scary about being nude. When we were thinking about how to organize to take over the Program, we came up with a slogan for going to school starting this fall: ‘Nudity is the New Normal Now.’ You like that?”

Applause and laughter.

Now Wilma took over again. “Sherrill came up with that one, guys, and it’s how we’ll fight back against the Program’s abuses—we’ll get to those details real soon. Now, there are a couple ways to fight the Program that we know of, so let’s go over them. First, and foremost, there’s total refusal to cooperate. Next, getting an exemption. And then, there’s what we plan, the Project to Oppose the Program. I suppose the Project is actually malicious compliance, in a way. You’ve heard of that? That’s when someone follows rules or orders exactly, even though they know it will have a negative or unintended result. We’ll go over those fighting points in order. First, can you simply and totally refuse to strip when you’re told that you must? Of course you can. Here’s someone who did just that. Sam’s family is from England and they’ve been nudists for as long as Sam can remember. She can tell you her Program story.”

“Hello, you blokes,” Sam called as she took the mic. “I was here at this very resort last year when my honorary sis, Emma, who’ll you’ll meet soon, told a bunch of us kids how she stopped the Program at her high school. Bad job that her methods won’t work here, though. Anyway, after hearing what she did and how the Program forces kids to get naked, I decided that any physical forcing wasn’t proper, so when I started as a fresher in my school, I went around telling blokes that they didn’t have to strip starkers if they didn’t want to do that and nobody was permitted to touch them to pull off their togs. That’s because it’s a felony for anyone to touch you without your permission and if they try stripping you, it’s sexual assault too.

“Of course, the prats who ran the Program at my school decided to punish me by picking me to do it when they started it off at an assembly on the first day. They had me go up to the auditorium stage with the other pupils that had been chosen to do the bollocks-naked stripping show, and I took that chance to tell the entire school that they all had the right to keep their kits on; the right to resist having to get starkers; that I myself was not doing it, and that if I were forced-stripped, I would lay felony charges with the police.

“Okay now, you blokes could certainly try outright refusal, but to do that’s a bloody difficult job because they’ll keep at you to obey them. To keep resisting takes a strong will. At my school, it’s down in Prince George’s County, out of every ten kids who first refused, six eventually gave in, and in the Program’s early weeks, they got punished for their initial refusing by getting extra required naked time—and that’s when they all refused for good. So totally refusing works but to be able to sustain your refusal to participate, you need an iron will to stand up against the officials who will try to break you down. That’s why I think that your malicious compliance idea is brilliant. You blokes just have to decide that you will band together and make a go of it.”

“Wow, that was super, Sam,” Wilma said as the kids all applauded Sam. “Now I mentioned getting an exemption. Currently, you can’t, with very limited exceptions. They weren’t giving any exemptions at first, unless you weren’t a U.S. citizen. Then, maybe eighteen months ago, a major court case created Program exemptions for religious reasons—and I’ve been seeing on the news that medical exemptions might eventually be allowed because of the hundreds of court cases that have been happening around the country. Here’s someone who knows all about that religious exemption. Drew’s family just moved to this area from Pennsylvania and she’ll be going to GBH as a senior. Back at her former school, she got a religious exemption; so here she is to tell you what happened.”

There was a flurry of exclamations and surprise at hearing that as Drew took the mic from Wilma.

“That was an eighteen-month battle too, getting the exemption,” she began. “And as Sam said, those who first claimed it needed iron wills to withstand the coercion that they faced. You can see that, unlike the others who just spoke to you, I’m wearing a cover-up. I have serious problems with public nudity since I was attacked and was almost raped when I was in middle school. [Gasps from the kids] And then when I started high school, the very first day, they were forcibly stripping kids on the auditorium stage. That was just my first Program school—I escaped from the Program there when I went to Pennsylvania, where I found myself facing the Program in my second school. [More gasps] And here, this will be my third school with the Program.”