Chapter 20: Monday. Skirmishes Over, the Battle is Planned

I woke up Monday morning, thankful that my night had been peaceful, and then wondered where I was. Oh! That’s right, I realized I had slept in the day-bed in the den and that Denise was in my room. When I went off to the bathroom, I heard her moving around in my room, so I knocked and she told me she’d be right out. She’d already had her shower and was almost ready. She wanted to call the hospital to see how her mom was doing.

I did my morning routine and then got dressed for the Program unveiling to come in about an hour or so. When I got to the kitchen, Aunt Helene and Denise were chatting and breakfast was ready. I asked Denise if she had remembered to dress for her unveiling; she made a face at me and said, “How could I forget?”

She opened her blouse to show me and then she and Aunt Helene giggled.

“Kevin, I spoke to Mom. She’s ok, no TIA, but her blood sugar was low so her doc will need to check her for what could have caused that. She’s getting picked up by a friend to go home and she can go to work later today.”

“That’s good news.”

“Yeah. And she can bring me to my therapy session after school too.”

After breakfast we got our stuff together and left for school. Denise looked thoughtful. Then she turned to me.

“Oh, I guess I really haven’t thought about it, but what’ll happen to me in gym? I’m scared, I’ll need to be in the boys’ locker room without you. And using the boys’ restrooms too?”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that too. The restrooms are easy; just go during classes, not between, and take a Guardian to watch the door. For gym, here’s what you will do. I’ll bet that when you do this, there’ll be a huge outcry of ‘foul,’ but we’re going to do precisely what the Program booklet says is required. Here’s how we’ll do it...”

I told her; she grinned, saying, “I like it,” and kissed my cheek.

We arrived at school and went to our home room. After the day’s announcements were read, the names of eight students were read.

“Will the following students please report to the office. Seniors: Sarah Parr and Andrew Raden. Juniors: Kevin Coris and Denise Roberts. Sophomores: Barbara Mendes and Nelson Ryder. Freshmen: James Standish and Jane Wollens. Thank you.”

Denise looked at me and grimaced. “Well, here it goes...” she muttered.

The teacher looked at us and wiggled her hand toward the door. “Off you go, now. We’ll be seeing a lot more of you later, I think.”

The class tittered. Yeah, it’s another comedian wanna-be.

We walked to the office slowly and were joined by the others who were arriving from different hallways. When we got there, we saw Abover standing inside, near the door, holding a paper, apparently checking each kid off. Then we went into Fletcher’s office; he was just putting the last box on the stack near his desk. He looked up as we walked in, and then went to his chair and sat.

“You’re all here now, good. I’m certain that you all know what this is about today, right? No questions at all about the Program, correct? Everyone knows what we’re doing? Good.”

Abover came in and shut the door and stood in front of it.

“Now, are there any last-minute questions?”

Jimmy raised his hand. “Yes, Mr Standish?”

“I have a doctor’s appointment during school hours on Thursday that was made last month. I won’t get a penalty for missing the last period then, will I?”

Abover began to speak but Fletcher cut him off. “No, no penalty. Being on the Program doesn’t mean your regular life needs to end.”

We all looked at each other like, oh really? The Program is like “regular” life?

Dr Fletcher looked around the room. “Anyone else? Ok, this is going much better than last week so far. Let’s keep that up, please. It’s that time now.”

This was the moment. I mentally crossed my fingers. The others began to slowly undress and I noticed that Abover was watching us intently with a hungry look. Sarah noticed his expression too, and whispered to me, “That man is evil. Look at the way he’s watching.” I nodded in agreement.

I whispered to Denise, “Still ok? Not feeling faint?”

“No, just kinda nervous.”

I tried not to watch the others, just keeping a eye on Denise. She had slipped off her top and was now unbuttoning her shorts. She stepped out of them and stood up, dropped the top and shorts into her box, and stood still, looking at the floor. Her only remaining clothing was a modest two-piece swim suit. The moment of truth had arrived.

“Denise? You’re not finished; please continue?” Fletcher said, his voice rising as she turned toward him and looked at him with a determined expression. “I see from your expression that that’s as far as you plan to go, am I correct?”

I figured that he had also been thinking about our “compromise” agreement. The others had paused undressing to watch the tableau.

“Yes, sir. This is my safety equipment,” she said, indicating her attire.

Abover bellowed, “WHAT? You need to strip, girl. There’s no such thing as an ordinary bathing suit being ‘safety equipment’! You were told to strip.”

I turned to Abover. He looked enraged; his face was beet red.

“Mr Abover,” I said sweetly, “you do recall the document that you, together with a number of other people, signed about our Program participation? The one that Mr Merotta agreed to as well?”

“That said nothing about clothes being safety equipment. It said that you kids agreed to follow the rules and you had to do that anyway, so that paper is meaningless.”

“I beg to differ, sir. It said we agreed to follow the Program rules as written in the booklet.”

“Same thing!” he growled.

“Not quite. Miss Roberts’ attire is ‘safety equipment’ within the meaning of the Program rules.”

“You must be crazy if you think that.”

“Well, I’ll show you. Here on page 2 it says, quote, ‘Appropriate safety equipment may be worn if required under certain circumstances, for example... ‘ Now the Program booklet doesn’t define any of the terms in that rule, so to know what they mean we need a dictionary. Dr Fletcher, can you look up ‘appropriate’ for us, please?”

He tried to hide a little grin as he reached for the book. “Appropriate: suitable or proper in the circumstances.”

“‘Safety,’ please?”

“Safety: the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury.”

“Finally ‘equipment’?”

“Equipment: the necessary items for a particular purpose.”

Abover was turning even redder; I didn’t think it was possible. Maybe he’ll have a stroke.

“Now,” I continued, “according to the ADA, the law that the school must observe, if a student has a disability, the school MUST provide an accommodation to allow the disabled student to attend and not make any impediments to that attendance. Miss Roberts has a medically documented disability provided by a recognized authority and the school is compelled to recognize that as an ADA disability.

“In that context, we can see how this safety equipment rule applies. The garment is ‘appropriate’ because it serves its intended purpose for accommodating the disability. ‘Safety’ applies because the lack of its use will risk her health and cause her injury. The garment is ‘equipment’ because it’s an item for a particular purpose, which is to provide her with safety.”

“Ok, then, now I’ve got you. There’s a list of safety equipment right under the rule that you’re trying to change. I don’t see bathing suits anywhere in that list.”

“You’re right, it’s not. Dr Fletcher, how is ‘example’ defined?”

“Example: a thing characteristic of its kind or illustrating a general rule.”

“So, Mr Abover, ‘bathing suit’ isn’t there because it doesn’t need to be. That list of items is not exclusive and other things that provide safety are included by the word’s definition as a class of items. I don’t see ‘goggles’ on the list but that’s clearly a safety item. Neither do I see listed there an orthopedic torso brace that kids with scoliosis need to wear.”

The other kids were trying to keep from laughing and Dr Fletcher was looking bemused. Then he turned to look at me and was about to say something when suddenly Abover wheeled around, opened the door, and stalked out, slamming the door shut. His last words as he left were, “We’ll see who gets the last word here...”

Fletcher drummed his fingers on his desk. Then he looked up. “Hey guys, you need to finish undressing!”

The others kind of shook themselves out of their daze and continued removing their clothes. I glanced at them. Wow, Sarah, under her baggy clothes, had quite a wonderful figure. She had light blond hair and sported a pair of lovely, firm C-cup tits and a shaved pubis, long legs, slim waist, and a cute ass.

The other girls were also very pretty, especially Jane, who was a pixie-like cutie. She was about 5’3” and had black hair, a perky set of B-cup breasts, a light dusting of black hair on her crotch that drew your eyes right to it—a triangle that seemed to point down to her hidden treasures saying, “look here!” and an ass to die for. She kind of made me think that if she had little wings, she would be like a cute fairy.

The sophomore, Barbara, was almost as pretty. She was taller, about 5’8” and had auburn hair, a nice firm chest rack—maybe D-cup—not my taste, and her crotch hair was shaved into a long, thin strip above her slit. Barbara’s ass was also terrific. Not quite as nice as Jane’s, but still ... When she bent over to put an item in her box, I could see her pussy lips peeking out between her thighs. Was the stripping session turning her on?

But Denise, now. Even in her modest swimsuit, she was absolutely stunning. Her chest, now that I could see it without a blouse, seemed to be around a C-cup on the smaller side and she had a figure that many models would die for. Wow, I wish I could get to see her naked. Oh, well, that’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

The guys? Don’t ask; I don’t care about how guys look. Maybe later, when the others relate their own stories, they’ll tell you about the guys. I did notice that all three were sporting chubbies, and two of them seemed to be quite respectably endowed, not that I have ever had a chance to make any comparisons. I was stripping off too, all the way down to my spandex cycling tights. Yep, these would be great because of the large amount of crotch padding they provided. This would be way better than wearing a cup all day and would give almost as much protection while immobilizing the goods inside.

Fletcher looked at my garb appraisingly. “So I gather that’s your own ‘safety equipment.’ Am I correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Exactly what benefit does it provide, if I may ask?”

“Protection from the symptoms and effects of a penile nerve lesion, sir.” I actually had rehearsed that answer.

“Eeewwww,” from a couple of the girls.

The bell for the end of home room rang and Fletcher stood up. “Well, Denise and Kevin, I expect to be hearing soon from the district Program office so don’t be surprised if we need to call for you later. Ah. I almost forgot to mention, the girls must see the nurse today without fail so she can check your birth-control status. Ok, guys, out of here now and good luck for the week. Your Guardians will be waiting for you in the hall.”

I looked at the others’ faces. Stoic expressions on the guys’, frightened on the girls’. Ready or not, they had to face what awaited us in the school’s halls. In some ways I felt like I had let the other six down by not joining them in their nudity, but even if I wanted to do it, my body would have rebelled.

I followed the naked group to the door, holding Denise’s hand.

They emerged from the office ahead of us to a cacophony of cheers and wolf whistles. The Guardian people had formed a bubble of space between the crowd and the door, and as our group emerged, Guardians paired off with the Program people. Because of our disabilities, Denise and I had apparently been assigned two Guardians each.

“Thanks, guys,” I said to them, “I don’t really need a full-time Guardian—I can take care of myself.” The four laughed at that. “Denise does; she might be a target when touching is allowed and I plan to be at her side all the time. But if I can’t be with her for some reason, please take care of her, ok? Denise, do you think that we’d only need two Guardians between us?” She agreed. “Ok, why don’t two of you be backups for the other girls?”

They consulted and then two of them split off from us. Then we left for class, leaving behind a gang of confused students, who were calling to us to ask why we weren’t naked. As we walked, we told our Guardians what the deal was with our clothing and how it was a medical necessity. But my thoughts were with the others in our group; I was concerned about what was happening to them. Well, we’d learn about that pretty soon.

When we reached our first period classroom, our Guardians left us as we went into the room and sat down at our desks. Miss Wilson came into the room and her eyes fell on the two of us. The bell hadn’t rung yet so she walked closer to us.

“You’re on the Program; so why are you still dressed?”

I was actually prepared to answer that question, um, 25 times today. Twenty-five times because I had 25 printouts prepared that explained our non-nudity in three sentences.

“Miss Wilson, to save time and you have a written record, I made this copy,” and handed her a sheet.

She read it with an undecipherable expression. Then she looked at my covered crotch and then up at my face. “Hmmmm. I’m guessing you won’t need relief. You, Miss Roberts?” Denise shook her head. “Ok, then, but I want you for class participation anyway. Let’s see...”

She turned and walked to the front as the bell rang. Meanwhile, the classroom had filled up and the kids were looking at us curiously. I heard snatches of comments, “Should be naked...” “ ... wearing something?” “ ... swimsuit...”

Miss Wilson tapped for attention. “Class, I had planned in Civics today to cover the sexual revolution of the 1960s and involve our Program participants in an active way. Their non-nudity means I need to make some alterations. What I’ll do is ask Miss Roberts and Mr Coris to come up here and lead the class in a discussion of the social and cultural problems that non-conformity with rules presents for the community. You may begin by explaining the basis of your nudity exemption and how the Program rules allow you to be partly clothed.”

Denise and I went to the front. We had figured that something like this would come up in Civics class today in a discussion, not a presentation. But the two of us had gotten a really good background in what we were doing, both from Bob Charlesworth and from the ADA defense we had on Friday with the district Program rep.

I whispered to Denise, “Why don’t you start with a general explanation of your disability; then I’ll do mine; then we’ll tell them about the ADA and how it supercedes the Program rules.”

“Ok, that should work.”

She began and the two of us went through the whole dog-and-pony show again, telling the class how the ADA was developed to help bring people with disabilities into the community mainstream by providing them with access to education opportunities and employment which had been denied to significant numbers of people who became disabled during their life and had been forced out of schools or jobs because schools or employers found accommodating their disabilities to be too inconvenient or costly.

After we had covered that part, Miss Wilson asked the class for questions and we got the typical ones, like how far did an employer have to go to make an accommodation, what happened if someone had an accident and could no longer do the job he had, how employing disabled people helped the community as a whole—questions that we could answer.