Chapter 8

Very early Thursday morning, Roger left for swimming practice. He found that he actually enjoyed the hard work because it gave him a chance to forget about the problems that the Program week was causing and he could use his frustrations to push himself physically. The coach had them doing eight sets of 25-yard wind sprints followed by 200 yards of freestyle, and then repeating the wind sprints with backstroke, and finally breaststroke. It was a pretty grueling practice session.

It was a very tired Roger who trudged into home room that morning.

“Crap! I’m starved!” he muttered to Cynthia.

“Hey, bro,” she said. “I was thinking about you—you never take care of yourself. Guess what I brought for you,” and she pulled a bag out of her backpack.

Roger looked inside the bag. “Oh, god, thanks; you’re just wonderful—I love ya,” he said as he kissed her and checked out the granola bars, a couple of energy bars, and a bottle of real fruit juice which she had packed. “Just the perfect energy replenishment—protein and complex carbs. I really love you!”

“Just remember this for next time, stud. I won’t always be so nice to you,” she joked.

Roger didn’t answer; his mouth was too full.

When he was finished stuffing himself, he asked Cynthia, “Any new word on the Program crap today?”

“No, it actually looks like the naked kids have mostly blended into the background now. They’re still traveling around with packs of kids surrounding them, but now it’s more like a group of friends just walking together. Looks like a lot of new friendships are being formed and I heard that some romances may have started up—and not only with the nude kids, either. The kids who got involved in protecting the Program people were all kind of thrown together with other kindred spirits and it seems that some are more than just friends now. It’s way cool that something like that’s happening.”

During the class change after home room, Roger saw what Cynthia had mentioned. It seemed that no one took much notice when a Program girl passed them walking with her group and talking to those around her. Still, Ayame acted nervous when she looked at the scene and then averted her eyes in embarrassment. The trio arrived in their anatomy classroom and once again there was no question about the twins’ lack of participation. It seemed to the Denisons that the teacher had become resigned to conducting a normal lesson without involving the Program. And they were perfectly happy with that fact.

At lunch they found their way to the table where the Program group had begun to gather. Sandra, Wilma, and Melanie were there and then Dennis came over, followed by Tony and David.

Cynthia looked at Melanie. “Well, I see you decided to brave it out, at least for another day.”

“Yeah, I did. What the hell. This still ain’t no freakin’ fun, and I don’t know why I’m bothering to stay with it—but nothing bad’s happened, thank God, so we’ll see. And no one is staring at me now. Shit, that gave me the creeps on Monday and Tuesday. Monday, before the other people started that cool escort business, that was damned terrifying!”

Sandra spoke then. “My mom took me to the doc yesterday after school. The doc put me on Valium for anxiety. Mom spoke to the principal and told him what was happening to me and you know what he told her? That kids with anxiety issues going through the Program in other schools improve as the week goes on and they’re better at the end of the week! What a crock! My doc says that she’s heard of greatly increased cases of anxiety and panic, even depression and suicide among teens in the past two years, and it’s during the past two years that the Program was rolled out to the schools.”

“Anyone have any other issues with teachers, guys? Dennis, did you get in trouble over the demo that didn’t work yesterday?”

“Not really. Say, I didn’t tell you that the teacher tried to get it on video but someone had slipped the lens cap over the lens. The cap was hanging on a string attached to the camera and they just stuck it on the lens. The teacher was pissed when he found that. Maybe he got the message because he didn’t try anything today.”

“Hey, that’s good,” Sandra said. “I’m hoping nothing comes up in the rest of my classes today or tomorrow. Even with this pill, I’m still nervous. And it’s making me a little drowsy but that may be because I haven’t been sleeping well. And the doc said to be careful with these pills, they’re habit-forming.”

After lunch, Ayame spoke to the twins as they went to class. “It’s awful that kids have to take medicines just to calm them down, isn’t it?”

“Yes it is. I wonder why there aren’t medical reports about the effects of the Program on kids,” Cynthia said.

“Might have to do with gathering enough data, Cyn. Remember the unit in Health on drug abuse last year? How many subjects were needed in a study to be able to get the statistics needed to write a report? And someone has to pay for the study, too. I’d bet the government wouldn’t pay for a study of the mental health problems caused by the Program.”

After English, the three went to Psych and were pleased that Mason had indeed prepared a lesson on social phobias.

“Class, the topic that I agreed to cover in today’s lesson, phobias, ties in nicely to some parts of the Naked in School Program. You know that the Program propaganda, its initial selling point, explained that its purpose was to help teens become more comfortable with issues like body image, modesty, self-assurance, sexuality, and morality. As children approach puberty their body changes and this happens to different people at different ages and different rates. Being different in appearance from one’s peers can cause shyness and modesty issues. So can a child’s cultural background—how their culture or religion views the body as well as issues of morality and propriety. The Program is basically a cultural educational curriculum whose objective is to externalize the whole range of psychological issues that a teen experiences as he or she matures. It tries to make their sexuality public and forces the participants to accept an identical set of moral values.

“Depending on a lot of variables, like genetics, learned behaviors, and events and personal experiences, a teen can develop modesty, even become a little socially withdrawn, and this is totally expected and it’s normal. But when the modesty is accompanied by reactions of excessive anxiety or even panic, then it’s abnormal and is known as a ‘phobia.’ The social phobias include many different kinds of situations that can include speaking in public, meeting new people, being criticized or teased, getting called on in class, attending social gatherings, using public bathrooms, and one really big one is being asked to perform on a stage or in front of a class.

“It’s completely normal to have low levels of anxiety when you’re in a new situation or if you feel you have to perform for someone in some fashion. Everyone knows what stage-fright feels like. When it becomes a problem is when one has symptoms like trembling, palpitations, difficulty breathing, excessive blushing, sweating, and even nausea. The typical age for the first appearance of this kind of anxiety disorder is 13 years old and these anxieties are actually quite common—about 7 percent of the population has some form of social phobia.

“You’ve probably heard of other kinds of phobias too, like fear of heights, of open spaces, of flying in airplanes, of spiders, and of snakes. Even the number 13 has a phobia. Yes, Janine? A question?”

“Yeah, Miss Mason. Also walking under a ladder? My mom warned me never to do that.”

“Ah, that brings up an excellent issue—phobia versus superstition. Thanks, Janine. Absolutely there are phobias about ladders and even staircases—there’s even a formal name, bathmophobia, but there are some differences between them too and the differences can be really blurred. Like fear of the number 13; that’s now viewed more as a superstition than a phobia. A person’s reaction to superstitions and phobias can be quite similar; the response always involves fear, anxiety, or both. Also, all superstitious beliefs and phobias are developed from our own individual experiences—all superstitions and phobias are learned, directly or indirectly.

“Now to the differences. Truthfully, it can be hard to tell them apart, but some authorities say that superstition’s leading characteristic is that it produces a mild anxiety whereas a phobia usually is associated with intense fear—phobias generally result in a disabling intensity of fear. Another difference is that superstitions involve the belief in some kind of entity that watches to be sure that the person keeps to the superstition’s rules and that any breaking the rules will result in bad consequences. In contrast, with phobias, the anxiety and fear is directly related to encountering the object or situation that causes that fearful response. So, class, you see how close these are?”

Everyone in the room had been listening raptly and nodded at Mason’s question.

“Good. Let’s return to the social and related phobias. There are also phobias about being naked or seeing others naked; those are not from simple modesty but actually stem from the body’s fear response. Someone who suffers from any of these phobias gets physical symptoms when they are exposed to the stimulus and helping those people deal with their phobia takes extended periods of therapy. And just like social phobia, these so-called ‘specific phobias’ can be caused by personal experiences, learned or modeled behaviors, or even genetic predisposition.