Chapter 8

Early the following day, Kevin went to the pool with Roger. When they arrived and walked out onto the deck, there was a bunch of kids milling around and talking to a teacher. Roger walked up.

“All right, everyone—what gives? You need to get suited up, we’ve gotta start.” he called.

The teacher walked up. “That’s the point, Roger. Mr Winters—the new assistant principal—is making some changes in the high-school sports rules. He wants gym classes and the teams to be working naked, said it’s part of how he’s going to run the Program here.”

“Well, Ralph, not this team, okay? Competition swimming doesn’t work naked. I know; I tried it. It kills the times and it also ruins the swimmers’ rhythms and strokes. And it would destroy any chance for anyone here to improve their skills.” He turned to the students. “Okay, everyone, get your suits on and hustle. I want everyone on the deck in five minutes. Move!”

One of the kids called, “Mr Howard said we’d have to be naked—but we can wear our racing suits, right, Coach?”

“Right!”

“Super!” many of the kids cheered.

Roger nodded at Kevin, who went to get ready too.

“Who’s that who came in with you?” Mr Howard asked.

“A new guy; just started here. He’s done some racing, Japan or Korea maybe. Has the right physique and I asked him to show me what he could do. Say, Ralph, what’s this shit about nudity all about, anyway? You gotta have your soccer team naked too?”

“That’s what Winters wants. He’s browbeaten some of the coaches, but Bendenton, you know, football, told him to shove it up his ass. He said no moron plays football naked.”

“Well, same with swimming, same with soccer—is this guy for real? Just don’t listen to him, he’s an idiot.”

The team was coming out of the locker rooms. They lined up at the starting blocks.

“Okay, now, in lanes one through eight, I want...” he called out eight names, “100 meters freestyle. We’ll be timing you. Give it everything. Mark ... GO!”

Roger and Ralph Howard were timing the swimmers and one of the student trainers was assisting. In the second heat, he asked Kevin to swim. After the freestyle heats he had the team do the backstroke and checked their times.

“Okay, guys, rest a bit. Let me look at your times...” He pulled Kevin over. “Hey, this isn’t too bad, Kevin. You’ve tied in fourth in freestyle and were fifth in backstroke. All these kids’ve competed at least one year before this, so you’ve got a real good chance of boosting your times. You need some work on your flip turn; that looked a bit shaky.”

“Okay, but my breast and fly are pretty bad, you know,” Kevin said. “I always had trouble with the breast stroke because you’re supposed to breathe at every stroke and the bobbing slows me down.”

“Yeah, it slows everyone down; that’s a dumb rule ... Okay guys, butterfly now. Same order, group one. Mark ... GO!”

Roger ran them through the butterfly and breast strokes and while they were swimming the breast laps, Winters came in, seemingly looking for Howard, who wasn’t on the deck just then. He looked around for a minute, then went over to Roger, red-faced, and tried to get his attention. Roger shook his head and put his hand up, eyes intent on his timing device, then Winters grabbed his arm and tried to pull Roger around to face him. With his free hand, Roger took Winters’ wrist, pulled it away, and squeezed it hard. Very hard. Winters yelled and backed away. The swimmers began hitting the pads and Roger checked the times and looked up at Winters.

“Never, repeat, never try that again. I don’t know who you are and don’t really care, but never, ever interrupt a practice like that, you understand? And never lay your hand on me either. Now who the hell are you and what do you want?” Roger growled at the man who was standing there, clutching his wrist.

“I’ll see that you’re fired. Today,” Winters huffed.

Roger grinned. “Dock my pay, too, okay? You can’t fire me; I’m a volunteer. You must be the assistant principal who’s causing all the uproar, right? I’m Roger Denison and the student coach. Pleased to meet you. And what is it that you so urgently wanted that you tried to interfere with my practice session?”

“I want you gone. Right now,” he answered.

“Um. Sorry—that’s not happening. My appointment was made by the district school board. Do they report to you also?”

“Well,” Winters responded, “we’ll see how long...”

“Excuse me,” Roger interrupted and began to turn away. “I’m running a practice and we’ve got limited time...”

Winters made to grab his shoulder. Roger turned back. “Guy, I warned you—touch me again and you’ll be sucking water in that pool quicker than you’d believe, got that? ... Guys enough rest, first group, wind sprints for five minutes, freestyle. As many laps as you can. Go!”

He turned back to Winters as Howard returned and walked up to them. “I really don’t want to be rude, but it seems you need lessons in polite behavior, Mr Winters. So far I haven’t been impressed with your competence and I expect to be treated like a professional, not a child. Okay? Now, you came in here for a reason. May I know what it is?”

“I came to see the coach...” he began.

Mr Howard spoke up. “Mr Denison is the coach. I’m just the staff observer. He’s in charge here.”

“He must be a college student, then. A college student can’t be in charge...” Winters began.

“He is. No one else is qualified to coach swimming.”

“I’m still waiting, Mr Winters. Or, better, you could leave. I need to get back to the team,” Roger said mildly.

“I’ll be back when your practice ends,” Winters huffed.

“Be my guest, sir.”

Roger beckoned Kevin over; Kevin wore a giant smirk on his face.

“Now you’ve met the asshole. What did you think?” Kevin asked.

“Asshole? Assholes keep better company than that one. Okay, you’re not awful in fly, you actually were third; I’m surprised. But I couldn’t see your stroke technique to see if it’s legal. But breast, you were like twelfth or something. You never got up a good stroke cadence.”

“Yeah, I have to remember to bob and breathe. I’ve got good breath capacity and tend to hold it and I know you can’t do that in the breast stroke.”

“Okay, Kevin, why don’t you do the wind sprints with the second group now and we’ll talk afterwards, okay?”

After practice wound down, Roger gave the team some final instructions, told them to come again Wednesday morning, and sent them to shower. Kevin stayed behind and just then Winters appeared, so Roger sent him to the showers too.

“Don’t want him to recognize you, okay? Complicate matters.”

Kevin agreed and went off to the locker room.

“So, Mr Winters, how can I help you?” Roger asked.

“Apparently I’m stuck with you. The board has a contract with the university,” Winters said.

“Okay. And?”

“So I had given instructions that teams have to be naked,” Winters continued. “This one isn’t.”

“That’s what I heard—nude competitions. Not happening, however. My team’ll swim nude when the football team plays nude—and I mean completely, no pads, helmet, cleats. Same exact uniform. Okay? And the football coach has agreed to that, I assume?”

“No, he...”

“And neither will we. Anything else, sir?”

“But you don’t need the same protection in the water...”

“Sir, I’m not going to argue. What I said is how it’s gonna be. I know swimming; I know coaching swimming; naked swimmers are not competitive swimmers. Period. Are we clear on that? Now, was there anything else?”

“I’ll have you talk to Principal Leeds about this,” Winters said.

“Fine. Right now? I have maybe ten minutes. Otherwise I need to get back to the university and won’t be back till early tomorrow.”

“I don’t know if he can see you now,” Winters said.

“Okay, then let Mr Howard know. He can tell me tomorrow morning. If Leeds wants to see me, I have a few minutes after tomorrow’s practice. I gotta run, bye.”

Roger went to the locker room.

“Kevin, I don’t have much time and neither do you—your class starts in about five minutes. Let’s talk about the swimming when we get home later, okay? Great. See ya!”

During home room, Kevin got a summons to the office. He turned to Denise.

“This crap is looking familiar—office visits every day, just like last year. I don’t expect any federal agents this time, though,” he said.

“But be careful!” she urged.

Winters wanted to see him.

“Mr Coris, I tried to contact your parents. Are you aware there’s no contact information for them in your records?”

“Yes, sir, I am,” he sighed. “How much of my file materials did you read?”

“The registration form, emergency contact form—you listed Denise Roberts on that; you can’t do that—she’s another student. Also it appears that it’s your signature—what looks like your signature—on all the forms. You can’t do that either, I could suspend you for forgery,” Winters said.

“Oh, sir, if you did that, you’d be greatly embarrassed at what would happen, I think,” Kevin said with a feral grin. “You really don’t want to try that—you must have my file there ... yes, that’s mine. I recognize the envelope sticking out. So. Want to try to suspend me now, or read my file first?”

“What do you mean? You’re really an impertinent youngster, you know?”

“Sir, I treat with respect those who earn it by treating me with respect. So far you’ve treated me like a child, even a servant of yours would get more respect. Please read my file; then you’ll have the answers you want.”

Winters paged through the sheets, then opened the envelope and extracted a page. He looked it over.

“What’s this legal thing with all the stamps? Ah, a declaration of emancipation? What’s that?”

“It says I’m a legal adult. Even though I’m not 18 yet, that says that I can sign any legal document as a fully responsible adult. No adult has to sign for me. Which is why I signed my forms.”

“But why wouldn’t your parents sign? And why is there no contact information?”

“You didn’t finish reading the last few pages.”

Winters looked down and flipped through the last two sheets. Then he looked up.

“Sorry about your parents. You have no guardian?”

“Legal adult. Didn’t need a guardian. Is that all, sir? I need to get back to classes.”

“Ah, I needed to talk with ... er, about your non-cooperation ... how to get you to stop the opposition to the Program.”

“Yes, there is that. Same as I told you yesterday, sir. I won’t take direct action against you, but I will let the students know about the Program’s evils.”

“The school has various ways of punishing students who fail to follow their rules, you know,” Winters warned.

“Please let me know which rules are being broken, then...”

“Not following my orders...”

“Excuse me. The ones that are written. In the student handbook. Not those that are verbal and have no formal basis in the school’s written rules of behavior. It seems to me that those rules are the only ones that can be enforced by a school punishment.”

“Talking back to a staff member is in the rules.”

“Please. Please don’t imply that you are calling this conversation ‘talking back.’ May I go?”

“Go. But you’ll hear from me further.”

On the way back to his classroom, Kevin got a text from Habers. It asked him to call him that afternoon.

During the class changes, Kevin and Denise tried to see if they could see any naked participants but didn’t see any until lunch; there were four at one of the tables, and as they approached, several kids got up to block them from coming close.

“Hey, Alan, they’re good,” one of the naked kids called. “Come sit here? I’m Jon. These are Valery, Marcy, and Sam. Val and I are sophomores and the others are juniors. There are two others this week, both of them are frosh. Your idea of doing that screening maneuver for us when we’re in the halls, in here too, is really working great, so thanks. So far no one’s gotten one of those Reasonable Requests—so that’s fantastic for us.”