Chapter 29: What the Principal Said

“OK, guys. What is it this time?” George Flynn had put his newspaper down and was looking at Jack and Susan in turn waiting for a reply.

“What is it, Susan dear?” asked Susan’s mother. “You two have barely said a word since we got home from work. We’ve been watching TV for an hour now and neither of you have paid the least little bit of attention to anything that has been going on.”

“What is it Jack? You both look like you have seen some sort of a ghost or something” continued Jack’s father.

Jack started to say something then seemed to change thoughts mid stream and just said, “We just had a bit of a fright walking home from school but we are fine. I reported it to the police and they are dealing with it and we are fine, just fine. Honest.”

“Just fine!?” exclaimed Beverly Flynn. “Why were you walking home from school? How did you miss the bus? And what’s this about some sort of fright that turns you both into mute zombies again?”

Susan looked at Jack then at her mother then said, “Well, it is sort of hard knowing where to start and we feel just a bit embarrassed about how our first day of Nudism at school ended.”

“Just start at the beginning” intoned George Flynn. “Just start at the beginning.”

Susan sighed then carried on with... “Well, you see, we missed the bus because Principal Jordan needed to see us about something. And because you guys were working late we had to walk home or call a cab but neither of us has any money and cabs are expensive and...”

“You still could have called me at work” butted in Susan’s step-father. “I could have organized and paid for the cab from there.”

“Yer, well, we didn’t think of that” interjected Jack who was starting to feel a bit annoyed about the whole thing. “Anyway” he continued “we came down the alleyway at the back of the shops and got followed by some low lifes that we think go to our school. The police aren’t sure they can make any arrests because we can’t ID them one hundred percent. So much for their help!” Jack spat out those last few words in a show of contempt and disappointment for the local police force.

“Well, they can only do so much” said Jack’s step-mother slightly apologetically. “But tell us about the Principal. What on earth did he need to see you both for? Have you been up to no good yourselves?”

Susan answered this by saying, “Well, not as far as we are concerned but he seems to think we have been going against Lifestyle Nudism etiquette by encouraging other students to go naked at school ... students who have not registered as Lifestyle Nudists. He has it in his head that we have coerced one particular student who is only fourteen years old and she has started ‘co-ercing’ other students to do the same. Apparently he was watching us from his window as we got off the bus and came into the school. He reckons he saw us talk this girl into taking off her clothes - which we never did - I tried to talk her out of it for crying out loud. We spent ages trying to explain to him that we had nothing to with any of this. This young girl who rides the bus to school with us just decided she was going go naked at school without registering. She told us it was her way of protesting against Lifestyle Nudism Registration Laws. People shouldn’t have to wear ‘dog tags’ ... her words ... just because they don’t feel like wearing any clothes that day. She believes you should be able to decide to go naked just like you decide which sweater you are going to put on. Anyway, apparently she has talked a few others in her class into joining her cause and go naked at school without registering as Lifestyle Nudists. The Principal is convinced we started it all ... either inadvertently or deliberately ... he doesn’t care which. He told us that he had spoken to the Lifestyle Nudism Council and it was those guys who said they would revoke our legal right to be Nudists after Wednesday night. They didn’t want any bad press which could possibly lead to their own legal rights as Nudists being revoked ... so they just revoked ours instead ... cowardly bastards! But I guess we also made it a whole heap worse when we told the Principal about the girl’s younger sister playing with Jack’s penis at the bus stop. We should have kept our mouths shut on that one and that most certainly did not help our counter argument either - in any shape or form.”