Chapter 3: Soccer Team

Drew found her way to the gym and entered the girls’ locker room. She saw movement inside an office located near the exit door into the gym, so she went over and knocked.

“Yes? You can enter,” a woman answered.

“Hi, I’m Drew Harper and was hoping to talk to the soccer coach. But I also have P.E. now.”

“Ah, I heard that there was a girl who missed the tryouts. Okay, she’s in the weight room; you can go there. Go into the gym, turn left, and take the second door. Her name is Coach Velonis.”

“Thank you. I can join the P.E. class after I speak to her?”

“We’re just doing an orientation today, so no, since they’ll be doing individual activities. Come see me if you take less than fifteen minutes with the coach and I’ll cover what you’ll need to know for the class.”

“Thanks.”

Drew went out to look for the weight room and when she found it, the coach was there and so were Lydia and eight other girls.

Lydia saw Drew and said to the coach, “Ah, here she is. I had told her to come to practice but now is better. Coach, this is Drew, is that right?”

Drew nodded as Velonis looked her up and down.

“So you want to try out for the team. I did hear that you were sick during the tryouts.”

“Yes, Coach Velonis, I had a fever for two days. Wiped me out.”

“Just ‘Coach’ is fine. Lydia was telling me what you told her about your prior soccer experience.”

“Right, Coach. I was mostly a defensive back and my team had the lowest goals scored against us. Last season we played a 5-3-2 formation and I was a fullback, um, center back. In some plays more of a stopper ‘cause of my speed and attacking ability. My team won the league, too.”

“You certainly have the height and build for a fullback, Drew. Lydia said you had four goals and twelve assists on the season.”

“Yeah, on assists, I cross very well and with my speed, I can usually beat the other team’s D. That’s why they usually had me play as a stopper. I’ve been timed at up to 18 kph on some dashes. But my own D abilities are my best skills.”

“Well, you sound like a good girl to have play for us. You know, I never really scouted the community soccer league because all those gals wind up going to Parkside High. Maybe I need to look at those games more.”

“Coach, that’s true. No one on my community team is at Memorial—they all went to Parkside. I’m at Memorial ‘cause of the funny way the district boundaries come out ‘cause I actually live closer to Parkside.”

“Okay, Drew, can you stay for practice? I’d like to assess your skills,” Velonis asked.

“Sure, Coach.”

“Have you done any weight—resistance—training before?”

“Not in an organized way, Coach. I use the equipment at the community center near Asbury Park sometimes.”

“You want to work with Lydia here for the rest of the period? She can show you the training regimen we use.”

“Yes, ma’am, I do.”

At the practice session after school, Velonis put Drew through a skills assessment, including ball handling, passing, and progression. She timed Drew’s speed on sprints and longer runs. After an hour, she gave Drew her assessment.

“I’ve seen enough to want you on the team. If you continue to perform like you’ve shown me, you could be a starter next year. I understand that you’ll need to switch your P.E. class assignment to the athletes’ schedule, so I’ll let the office know to have you see a counselor to do that. Meanwhile, I’d like you to come to team practices this week. Is that possible?”

“Sure is, Coach, and thanks.”

“Okay, go get with the other gals and join in with what they’re doing. They’ll explain my training system.”

“Yes, Coach!”

Delighted with that news, Drew ran off to join the others.

After practice was over, gloom descended on Drew. She hated to go home.

Maybe I can sneak in and hide out in my room, she mused. I’ll scrounge some food later.

She was able to avoid both Candace and her father that evening. On Tuesday, when she arrived at school, there was a crowd at the front door.

Oh, right, it’s where they have to strip for the Program, she realized. What total crap this is.

After her home room period, on her way to Algebra, Drew continued to witness more abuse taking place, masked as Reasonable Requests. A common Request, which she had seen numerous times, was to require that the boys and girls display themselves in a variety of degrading sexual poses. Now, on her way to her Health and Psych classroom, she encountered yet another scene. Apparently a girl had asked Scott to do a Request. When Drew passed nearby, he was in a pose with his legs spread, bent over, and grasping his ankles with his hands. With his anus exposed to the girl and the other onlookers, to Drew’s shock, the girl attempted to push a pen or pencil into Scott’s rectum. Scott shouted for her to stop and scuttled out of her reach as the girl laughed.

Drew walked away, shaking her head in disgust.

Jeez, the girls do abusive stuff too.

Turning a corner into the hallway of her next classroom, Drew heard crying. She looked into the stairwell alcove at the hallway’s side and saw an unfamiliar naked girl—she realized that this must be Rosemary—sitting on the floor with legs spread apart, and some kids were ordering her to use her fingers to spread her lower lips apart and rub herself to an orgasm.

Drew got really angry at seeing that and waded right into the scrum surrounding Rosemary, picked her up by her armpits, and dragged her away from the complaining kids. Rosemary gratefully thanked her and then scurried away, trying to look invisible. Drew shook her head.

Connor walked up to her just then. “I heard shouting and there was a crowd—and you popped out of it dragging a naked gal. Still doing the vigilante gig?” he asked and then chuckled at her blush.

“Um, I guess. Seeing that crap just wigs me out. Did I tell you that I yelled at Walters for not making the school safe for the naked kids?”

“Uh uh, you didn’t.”

“Yeah. I was with Wendy and that was after our ambush. Walters was trying to blame us for getting ambushed, it seemed, and that pissed me hugely. Now, after seeing what happened in Biology yesterday, I’m worried about the crap that this health class will have.”

They had no idea.

After the teacher welcomed them, he remarked, “I see that we have no Program kids here this week but my lesson plan requires four naked students. Do I have any volunteers?”

There were none.

“All right; I’ll explain today’s objectives and then I’ll draft four of you into the Program for the class.”

The kids in the room made sounds of outrage.

“Quiet down! Teachers are empowered to do that, you know. This lesson goes into human sexual response and is based on psychology. Sexual arousal is a very powerful ... urge ... one can call it, and the ultimate goal of that arousal, in the male, is ejaculation. Females reach a sexual climax more slowly; there is possibly more mental stimulation than physical stimulation involved, and it’s more difficult for females to orgasm solely through vaginal intercourse. Later this week, we’ll study in detail the differences between male and female arousal, but for today, we’ll demonstrate how powerful sexual stimulation can be, how it can overcome intentional thought. I need two boys and two girls. In the first exercise, the girls will attempt to bring the boys to orgasm but I want the boys to resist; you must hold back and don’t let yourself ejaculate. This is called ‘edging’ because it keeps the subject at the edge of their climax. Then we’ll switch and have the boys stimulate the girls...”

While he was talking, the kids in the class were looking horror-stricken.

“ ... and you’ll see, I believe, the differences in how boys and girls respond. First, the girls will have ten minutes to try to coax an orgasm from their partner using whatever method they choose, manual or oral. Now to pick partners, let’s see ... okay. The ones at each end of the first row of desks and the last row. That gives us two of each sex. Come up here and get naked now.”

The selected kids looked around and at each other; one girl began to cry. Then the boy in the front row grabbed his backpack and dashed out the door, which led the other boy to flee too.

“Girls, come up here now. I’ll give you a zero for participation if you don’t. Those two have received zeros already.”

Both girls just sat there shaking their heads “no,” and one said, “I’ll take the zero. Not doing it.”

Connor stood up then and announced, “This is a stupid and flawed psych demo. I’d refuse too. Will any of you guys in class here do that exercise willingly?”

He sat down as there was a loud “no” from everyone in the class. The teacher looked at Connor.

“Oh, we have a troublemaker in here? Okay, you’re in the Program for disobedience. Get your clothes off and you’ll take part in the demo, even if you must do it solo.”

There were gasps and Connor replied, “Nope. I won’t do that. You can fail me or send me out to the office, but I won’t agree.”

“All right, then, here’s a note for the office...” He scribbled something on a sheet of paper and handed it to him. “You get a week’s detention and fail the week. And I’m sure that the principal will put you in the Program.”

Connor got up and Drew got up too. “I’m joining him,” she said. “Fail me too.”

As they went out the door, most of the rest of the class followed. They all headed for the office and the entry of an entire class brought Walters out of his office to see what was going on.

Connor gave him the note and explained what had happened.

“Aren’t these demos supposed to be done with Program draftees, not just anyone in the class?” he asked. “Are teachers allowed to run their own Program in their rooms and use any kid they want for whatever?”

“This issue hasn’t come up before...” Walters began.

“This is only the second day, sir,” Drew responded. “So it looks like maybe teachers—kids too—are making up rules as they go. And as Connor pointed out, that demo really doesn’t show anything about response ... it’s simply a test of personal willpower—don’t you see that?”

“I’ll have to talk to your teacher about this,” Walters replied. “Issues like these need discussion at our next staff meeting. All right, carry on. The period ends in a little over forty-five minutes, so just go to the cafeteria, don’t cause a commotion, and then continue following your schedule.”

They all left and exchanged a lot of high-fives with each other when they got into the hall.

“That worked fine,” Drew said as they entered the cafeteria. “I wish we could help Wendy and Jerry like that.”

“Yeah. Today’s Biology sounds like it’ll be rough for them. I didn’t see Wendy in Math today, though.”

When their lunch period began, the two waited for the Program kids to show up in the cafeteria. They did, but again, Rosemary wasn’t with them.

“She didn’t come to my last class,” Simpson reported. “Someone mentioned that she had a bad Request session earlier today.”

“Yeah, I helped her then,” Drew told them. “Then she just ghosted away.”

“That’s what she does,” Simpson nodded. “She was a scared mouse last year, but she’s much worse now.”

Then Jerry entered, supporting Wendy, who was looking shaky.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Lydia called; she had seen them first.

Jerry shook his head. “She freaked out after Biology yesterday and her mom had to take her to the doc. They put her on a strong anti-anxiety med and she’s kinda zoned out today. She had to go to the nurse during second period ‘cause she got dizzy. The nurse got her to lie down and she got a quick nap there.”

“Yeah, feelin’ no pain now,” Wendy slurred. “But I can’t concentrate. Hope this week ends quick.”

Drew shook her head in dismay. “Look at how that frikkin’ Program is destroying us,” she told them. “Wendy, Rosemary, that girl who hit her head, the senior boy ... that’s four, and there were nine of you who were forced to be naked in the Program... 45 percent of you guys are damaged by it somehow. It’s an indictment for how bad it is, right?”

They all agreed.

“Another thing’s bothering me about that Bio class,” Connor told the others. “All the shit that teacher covered—you’d think that we were in med school with all of the damn details she spouted. How essential is it for a freshman kid to know that the bulbo-whatever-fuckin’ muscle is at the root of a guy’s cock, anyway? And we gotta sit through more of it. Wendy and Jerry are getting shafted with big-time humiliation too.”

The other kids offered their sympathy but all Wendy and Jerry could do was to shrug in resignation.

Later, in Biology, Wendy was still in no better shape. Steward had the two kids come to the front again.

“Today we’ll start with the female and explore her sexual arousal and I’ll be able to show you the physical signs of that arousal. Wendy, please hop up on the bench like yesterday and spread your legs for us.”

Moving in slow motion, she grudgingly complied.

“Do you have a favorite way of masturbating?” Steward asked her.

“Ah ... no ... don’t do that ... feels funny ... touching there...”

“Can you try stroking around your clitoris? Many females don’t like the sensation of directly touching its glans unless they’re highly stimulated and close to orgasm. Ah, have you ever had an orgasm?”

“Um ... don’t know ... get tingles ... how do you know ... when ... it’s an orgasm?”

Some kids in the class tittered at that.

“Well, just try it. Stroke above it and on the sides.”

She did, and after several minutes of watching closely, Steward saw no signs of any engorgement of her labia.

“Um, when can I stop?” Wendy asked. “This is ... ah ... starting to ... hurt.”

“Do you feel any increased sexual tension in your groin?” Steward asked. “Are you lubricating?”

“Huh? What’s that?” Wendy asked.

“Oh dear,” Steward whispered to herself. “Has she no sexual response?” Aloud, “When you were younger, were you ever abused, sexually or otherwise?”

“Oh ... no ... never...”

“Experience an injury to the groin?”

“No...”

“Well, let me try something else. Jerry, I want you to kiss and lick Wendy’s vulva and use your tongue to tickle around her glans—under the prepuce. Are your hands clean? Here’s an alcohol wipe, use it. Now use your fingers to hold her labia apart while you lick her.”

Wendy was crying again now, and after two minutes, she complained, “That’s hurting me ... my legs hurt ... stop...”