Chapter 1: Drew Harper

“You get back here, you stupid bitch, and talk to me! Why didn’t you make sure there was enough pasta for dinner tonight? You know I always make pasta for your father’s Monday dinner! You’re a worthless fuckin’ slut!” Candace ranted as Drew shrugged on her backpack and headed for the door.

Drew Harper lived with her father and Candace Ames, her father’s girlfriend, and the two women were constantly at each other’s throats—mostly it was Candace who was the instigator of their arguments. Drew wasn’t even listening to Candace’s rants this morning; grocery shopping was certainly not one of her own chores—and the woman typically blamed anyone else to excuse her own procrastination. Drew had to get to school; this was her first school day. She was an entering freshman at Memorial High School. Ignoring Candace, Drew dashed out the door.

She had a lot on her mind that morning; chiefly the question of how she could get another chance to try out for the Memorial High girls’ soccer team. She had missed the tryouts the previous week, having had a bad cold and fever. When she called the school office to see if she could get another chance, they told her that she’d have to see the coach and then a counselor, if a P.E. class schedule change was needed.

Too bad none of my community league soccer team members go to Memorial. I don’t know anyone who goes there, either. My whole freakin’ neighborhood is filled with oldies, mostly retired people, and no kids either, she mused. Except for my soccer, I hate this town. Even my middle school years were bad; I could never fit in with the girls there.

Arriving at school, Drew looked around at the halls leading away from the entry lobby; she had been here just once before and thought that she recalled how the room numbers went. Deciding on one hall, she walked past several rooms, checking their numbers, and was happy to see that she had picked the right hallway. Soon she was at her home room classroom. She found a desk toward the back of the room. That was in her comfort zone. Don’t stand out.

She checked out the other kids in the room and then watched those still arriving; none looked familiar—but then she saw several girls from her middle school come in. She did a little hand-wave at them and was happy to see that the girls looked at her, smiled, and waved back.

Okay, maybe I can make friends here? I don’t see any apparent groups, other than those girls—can’t think of their names though.

A teacher arrived and a minute later, the last bell sounded.

“‘Morning, class, and welcome to Memorial High and your new high school experience. I’m Ms James and I’ll be your home room teacher. I might see some of you later as I also teach freshman English. Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves. Give your name—a nickname is just fine—your middle school, and anything special you want to say, like a sport you play, music group you follow, or a hobby you enjoy. Start here,” she pointed to a kid at her left.

They went around the room and at Drew’s turn, she said, “I’m Drew Harper, went to Lister Middle School, and play soccer.”

A few kids turned around to look at her at that and a few gave her a thumbs up. That made her happy.

Then James thanked them, told them how she ran the home room period, and then told them, “You will get your locker assignments here tomorrow so you’ll need to keep your stuff with you today. Now, at the bell, instead of your first-period class, there’s an hour assembly. After assembly, then go to your first period. The classes will be ten minutes shorter today to make up that time. Now, since you’re new to the school, let me go over its layout because some areas can be confusing, especially near the shops and art department.”

James went over those topics and soon the bell rang. On the way out, Drew tried to get closer to the girls she had recognized but they had seated themselves much closer to the door and had gotten out faster. So she followed the crowd of kids headed for the auditorium, which she had noticed was near the main entrance. She overheard some kids’ chatter.

“You think that this is it?”

“I bet they’re starting today.”

“Damn, I’m scared. I hate this.”

Drew wondered, What could they be talking about?

Drew looked around when she went into the auditorium. There didn’t appear to be any assigned seating areas, so she took her typical seating choice and found an empty seat at the back. You get noticed less when you stay in the back. She tried to ask the kids seated at either side of her what was going on but just got angry head shakes in response, and from the girl on her left, “Wait; you’ll see.”

So weird, she mused. What the hell is going on?

When the bell rang, the volume of the hubbub in the room dropped rapidly and then the room became silent as a man climbed the steps at the side of the stage and crossed to a microphone stand.

“Welcome to Memorial High, everyone. For our incoming students, I’m Principal Walters, and we’re happy to introduce a number of new teachers to you. Teachers, please wave your hand when I call your name.”

After he introduced the teachers, Walters went on.

“You all are probably aware that this is a special assembly since we’ve never before interrupted a school day like we’ve done today. This is because we are taking this opportunity to introduce the beginning of our planned Naked in School Program.”

There were lots of moans and hisses from the listeners.

“Please be polite, everyone. Recall that last spring we told those returning students, our current seniors, juniors, and sophomores, that the school board had decided to start the Program in the fall. I told you the details about it back in the spring, when we decided that we’d introduce it this fall, and that’s right now, everyone. For you students in our freshmen class, the info about the Program was in your registration materials.”

What? Naked in School? What’s this all about? Oh, that’s why all those kids look angry or scared. Shit! People have to get naked? No way! Father didn’t tell me anything about this! Drew thought angrily. That’s just like him, not telling me important stuff!

Walters was going on, “I’ll do a quick review of the Program’s requirements now and summarize the rules, and when you’re selected, you’ll need to follow them and the rest of the rules that are listed in this booklet. [He displayed a copy to the audience.] You all will get a copy of it after this assembly. Essentially, the Program requires each one of you, when your own turn comes to be a participant, to be naked for one week of school. You will be required to undress at the main entrance doors when you arrive here each morning and you must remain naked until you leave at the end of the day. If you’re in a school activity during your week, you must be naked for that activity too. That includes during club and sports participation. Next, if another pupil makes a request for you to pose for them or to touch you or manipulate your genitalia, you must follow their requests and allow them to do what they Request. [He actually pronounced the word “Request” as if it was capitalized.] Also, in your classes, your teachers have been told that they should use you for sexual demonstrations.”

Drew was beginning to feel her panic building at hearing this summary of the Program rules.

“Program participants must use the restrooms, locker rooms and showers of the opposite sex, and participants are encouraged to use the first five minutes of every class period to relieve their sexual tensions by masturbating in front of the classroom, either by doing it solo or using another student’s assistance. This is intended to reduce your modesty and to serve as a teaching demonstration of human sexuality.”

Drew was having a difficult time keeping control of her rising panic. She could feel the stress flooding her body—it was something like the stress she felt just before the kickoff in her games, but this feeling was so much worse. It brought back some terrible memories which plagued her at random times, causing her to experience episodes of severe anxiety or even panic. And panic was what she was feeling now. The fact that a number of girls nearby were crying wasn’t helping at all.

“Now I will call the names of the first group of students to participate. I’ll call the groups by class, our seniors will come first, you’ll come up to the stage, you’ll get undressed, and you’ll put your clothes in one of these boxes here. The following seniors are this week’s Program participants.”

He called two names and two kids in the audience gasped and shook their heads “no.” Some teachers got them out of the seating rows and pushed them toward the stage. They moved reluctantly, heads down, as they were led—or pulled—to the stage. The girl was crying when she climbed up the stage steps and, when she didn’t immediately start undressing, two teachers started to pull off her clothes. She was quickly stripped naked while her wailing turned into screams, and Drew saw her fall to the floor as she struggled against being restrained.

Then Walters spoke again, “Now that the seniors are naked, it’s the juniors’ turn. I call these juniors to participate...”

That did it for Drew. Shaking with fear and panic, she stood up uncertainly, squirmed her way out to the aisle, and ran for the nearby exit door. When several dozen other kids who were sitting near her saw her heading out of the auditorium, it encouraged them to also leave, and that resulted in a few dozen kids running out of the auditorium too, all ignoring Walters’ commands to stay seated.

Blinded by her tears and panic, Drew rushed headlong out through the auditorium doorway and, three steps into the lobby, she collided with someone who was approaching the same auditorium doorway. Arms grabbed her to keep them both from tumbling.

“Whoa, hang on...” a boy’s voice penetrated Drew’s panic. “What’s wrong?”

“N ... n ... naked program...” Drew stammered. “Stripping kids in there ... can’t do that...”

“You’re all pale and shaking,” he said. “Stripping kids? That’s scared you like that? Yeah, I figured the assembly was to start off that crazy naked program; info about it starting this term was in the school registration stuff. Read that booklet that came with the paperwork too. Stupid shit. So the assembly was to get that naked garbage started, then?”

“Ye ... yes ... they were st ... stripping kids and they ... kids picked ... did ... didn’t want to do it,” Drew sobbed.

“Damn. I heard some stuff about shit like that happening in the high school back where I used to live and getting picked to strip in front of everyone like that would scare me too,” Connor mused.

“I did ... didn’t know any ... anything about this. My fa ... father never told me that st ... stuff about it was in the school reg ... registration papers.”

“So you got blind-sided. That’s shitty. You know? I think I’ve seen you around ... do you play soccer? Ah, sorry, where’s my manners. Name’s Connor, Connor Martin; I’m a freshman. Let me give you some help getting that panic under control. First, let’s get you some water.”

He led her to a drinking fountain, got her to drink a little, then found a towel in his backpack, wet part of it, and held it to her forehead. He refreshed the cold water on the towel several times until her breathing became normal.

“T ... th ... thanks, C ... Connor,” Drew said after he checked her face and nodded; then he dabbed away the tears on her cheeks. “I’m D ... Drew Harper, and yeah, that scared the shit out of me. A couple ... ah ... years ago, I was attacked in my own house, my father’s girlfriend’s son grabbed me...”

“Damn ... were you raped?”

Drew sighed. “Thank god no, but it terrified me and gave me awful dreams. Still have them. And I get severe anxiety at random times, when I see something disturbing.”

“Let’s go somewhere quiet and talk a bit, okay? My counselor told me that talking about scary things really helps dealing with them. Looks like that assembly will go on for a while ... and hey, all those kids came running out of there behind you. We almost got trampled by them! What happened?”

“I think my rushing out started that stampede,” Drew said wryly. “Thanks for the cold towel treatment. That was awesome and really helped settle me. Yeah, I think I can trust you, so let’s talk.”

“Cool.”

They went outside and around the building and found a few picnic tables in a kind of courtyard. They stopped there and sat. Drew described the scene in the auditorium and how she had panicked in a reaction to the kids’ stripping and the crying girls, which had triggered her memories of the assault.

“They forced that poor girl to strip,” Drew said as she wept, “They pulled off her clothes right on that stage and seeing that brought back all those bad memories.”

“Jeez, what happened back then? Two years ago?”

“Yeah, I was twelve when it happened. Let me explain my so-called family. Not. Not a family, I mean. My mother died when I was little, don’t remember her much. My father’s a truck driver. He used to be an over-the-road driver and would be away for two-three weeks and then was home a week. Grandma, my mother’s mother, watched me when he was away. Anyway, maybe three years ago, my father met this harpy in a local truck stop, Candy’s her name—figures, right?—and they hooked up. She liked to travel with him, which was fine by me. Kept her away from me. Such a nasty person—I don’t know how my father stands her. Maybe it’s just the sex. But the two of us fight all the time when she’s around, and my father doesn’t stop her—usually takes her side too. Actually, he’s never treated me like his daughter in any way.”

“Damn, that’s as bad as my own story. I’ll tell you about that in a bit, but go on,” Connor urged.

“Yeah, um, okay ... So this one time when they were away on the road, I was home from soccer practice and Grandma wasn’t in the house. I was taking a shower and Tony, Candy’s son—he was maybe seventeen or eighteen then, barged into the bathroom. He was naked down there—his pants were off—and had a disgusting erection. He started grabbing me and groping me but I was all soapy so I slipped away, kicked him in the balls, and then spotted the toilet bowl plunger. I grabbed that and whacked him right on the side of his head with it and that stunned him. I locked myself in my room till Grandma returned. I told her what happened, but when the cops got involved after she reported it, Tony had an alibi. His friends said he was skateboarding with them, fell and hit his head. Anyway, Tony was banned from the house after that but he kept hanging around and making threatening remarks.”

“Jeez. Is he still doing that?”

“No, thank god.”

“What happened to stop it?”

“Ha. He’s off the street. Got arrested for being involved with a stolen car ring.”

“Good. So you live with your grandmother now?”

“I wish. She had a stroke a year ago and lives in a nursing home now. After Tony’s attack, the social worker warned my father that he could get arrested if I didn’t have good adult supervision and she felt that Grandma was too infirm to watch over me. That meant that my father made Candy stay home to ‘supervise’ me, like she wanted that. And she blamed me for what happened to her son. Like I made him steal cars? She took out her anger on me. And my father had to give up his over-the-road job for local work, with a pay cut. And I took the blame for all that. But I still get bad dreams about the attack so this naked crap scared the shit out of me.”

“I can see that, sure,” Connor nodded. “Maybe talking about it more will help you. I said that I see a counselor for things in my past and the talking helps. If you agree, we can meet—maybe at lunchtime—when’s yours?”