Chapter 4

On Monday, school started up for the three of them. Denise went with Amelia on her quick bus ride to school since her own Monday class started later. Denise wanted to be sure that Amelia felt secure in her trip there, the teen had such an air of shyness and vulnerability, it seemed.

“Amelia, sweetie,” Denise said as they were seating themselves in the bus. “It seems to me that you’re quite shy. Yet you still went out for performing in dramas and stuff. How does a shy person do that?”

Amelia shook her head slowly. “I don’t know, really. I think it’s ‘cuz I can become someone else and not have to be me. Then my pain and all doesn’t bother me as much and I can forget for a while.”

Alarm bells suddenly went off in Denise’s head; she realized that she herself had some of those feelings after her molestation... “What did her shrink call it... ?” she thought, “oh yeah, ‘dissociative disorder, ‘ that was it ... but at least Amelia’s handling her reality avoidance in a constructive way. Oh my, I need to keep this in mind and maybe see if she might need some kind of therapy if she seems to start to really lose touch with reality ... that almost happened to me...”

She shook her head to clear it.

“Well, sweetie, you’ll get plenty of chances for acting here, it seems. I’ll bet you get the leading gal roles, too. Wonder what kind of guy your leading man will be, huh?” she joked.

“Oh yes, but I hope he’d be more grown up than some of the boys in my last school. All they wanted was to touch the girls ‘cuz they thought it was romantic. And the acting coach had to keep reminding them to look at who they were talking to and not at the audience,” she grinned. “Oh, look, our stop is next.”

They got out and walked the block to the school; Denise hugged her and told her to have a good day and reminded her that she and Kevin would be home about an hour after she got back from school. Then she hung back and watched Amelia make her way with the other kids into the building. It felt so strange.

“Is this what it’s like to send your kid off to school for the first time?” she wondered. “Wow, it feels like Amelia is not just my honorary little sister; I almost feel like I’m her mom—we’ve made such a bond. What a super person she is, I really hope her treatments work...”

Denise turned and left, departing for her first class in London.

That evening the three shared their day’s events. Kevin was very keen to hear how Amelia’s day went; Denise had returned home a half hour earlier but Amelia would only tell her that the day was “good,” wanting to have Kevin hear everything too.

“Okay, your ‘brother’s’ here now, so spill it,” Denise ordered, as Kevin put down the bags of carry-out food he had brought in with him.

Kevin looked up and smiled. “Oh, you saved a morsel of news for me? I thought that Denise would have squeezed it all out of you and I’d only get the dregs.”

“Oh, Kevin, you’re so funny...” Amelia hugged him. “No, I wanted you to hear and didn’t want to do it twice.”

“So give,” Denise growled.

“I like it there! The teachers are nice and I made a couple of friends too. I’m not the only one new there. There were two new girls—just got here from India—twins—and one from Nigeria; they like acting too. And my subjects are interesting and the maths teacher is so cool! He does funny overacting things when he’s explaining something. He said he has to, it’s in his contract since the school is a performing arts specialty school. So he can’t just teach maths, he has to perform it.”

“So did they have a panties check?” Kevin grinned.

“Oh, Kevin, you’re too much,” Amelia smirked.

“Yeah, Kevin thinks he’s a comedian. He was like that in high school too, and we had to keep putting him in his place,” Denise mock-scowled at him.

“I think the humor was to lighten all that serious stuff that kept happening,” Kevin said soberly. “Gallows humor, waiting for the other shoe to drop,” he sighed.

“So true,” Denise confirmed. “Anything else? What about PE? How will you be doing your PE project?”

“That should work out good, I think. I have the notes in my bag. Since I can do some physical things, I’ll be doing some exercise and writing reports. And you said I can use the health club you took me to if I want. Let’s see what I remember; I just need to do twelve hours this term and do it in five different activities. I can do some at the school and some at the club. Like swimming and using some of the weight machines. And on Saturday we saw that tai chi class—I can get some videos of that on line and learn some postures. Walking on the school track or treadmill—oh yes, there was the elliptical leg thing at the club, too. I can go after school, right? Good.

“Then I need to turn in reports that explain what I did, amount of time spent on each, the physical benefits they have, the sports that those different exercises help in, and how popular they are among people in general, so I can do some of that research in school. And they said I don’t need a PE kit even if I do the walking and tai chi at school, just to wear pants and tee shirt or other comfortable clothes.”

“Well, that sounds really good then,” Kevin said. “Keeping up your muscle tone is very important and was one of the keys to my treatment too. But please wait until we have your first appointment before you do any stretching involving your groin muscles, okay? There might be moves you shouldn’t do at first.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that.” Amelia said. “Do you think that I should do any of those things then?”

Kevin thought for a bit. “Well, swimming and walking are fine. If you use weight machines, maybe we should speak to one of the trainers at the club to see which ones would be best, to stay away from stretching the groin muscles. I know a little about tai chi; if you do the basic moves slowly, that shouldn’t be any problem either. But wait on that elliptical trainer machine ‘cause that can stress the groin and buttocks, okay? Same thing with the stair-stepper they have and the leg presses too. And if your pain level increases, let up on the intensity and you should be good.”

“So then I can do this for my class? Oh good, ‘cuz I need to do a contract thing with you and the teacher so you can sign for the things I do outside of school. I have a form to put this onto and I sign it and then you do.”

They went on talking about the subject classes Amelia was taking and then Denise looked at Kevin.

“So, report on your day, sir,” she ordered.

Amelia snickered. “Yeah, let’s grill him now.”

“So, after I took over the school and replaced all the profs with my cronies...” he began before their hooting drowned him out. “No, huh?” He looked crestfallen.

“Dumb comedian,” Denise muttered. “You jerk.” She winked at Amelia.

Kevin grinned at them. “Not much to say. But wow, those classes will sure be intense! They’ve got really sharp people teaching and the students are way more focused than at Avery, that’s for sure. This isn’t going to be a cakewalk, but we knew that. I’ve already got two research papers assigned and this was only day one. I’m sure you don’t care for the details and I’m not sure I could explain them myself, yet,” he chuckled. “Now it’s Denise’s turn. How’s the commuter school working?”

“Won’t know about commuting till tomorrow,” Denise said. “Monday’s at UIL only. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have classes at both. So yeah, it’s like you said. Intense. We found out what we’ll be covering and I think I’m gonna be pretty busy too. But the classes sound fabulous and I’ll enjoy them a lot, I think. I’ve got two new classes tomorrow at the ed school.”

The following day continued to be quite chilly, the unusual London heat spell had broken over a week earlier and suddenly temperatures were now unseasonably low. It was overcast, rain threatened, and overnight temperatures had dropped to 53 degrees. Kevin had to translate the weather report’s 12 degrees to Fahrenheit for Denise; both he and Amelia were familiar with Celsius units. Everyone left for school early; Denise and Kevin traveled together and split up when Kevin had to change trains while Denise continued on to her new classes at the education school.

Her first class was statistics, and she felt fairly certain that the subject wouldn’t be any problem at all; this was more of a research class, applied statistics, than a theoretical one. Then, as she was on her way to her psych class in a nearby building, clenching her jacket against the chilling wind, she noticed a crying girl standing on a bench and surrounded by a few boys—absolutely naked except for her shoes and socks. Shivering. With the boys pawing at her crotch.

Startled, she ran over, pushed the boys apart, and threw her jacket over the girl, whose skin was tinted bluish and taut with goose bumps.

“Hey, you can’t do that,” one boy called. “I didn’t have my turn!”

Ignoring him, Denise pulled the girl off the bench, grabbed her pack, and hustled her into the nearby building.

“What the hell is going on,” she demanded of the girl.

“Naked in school—we have to do it...” she chattered.

“What? That’s only in high schools! It’s not here too, is it?”

“Yes. They just started it for teacher trainees...” the girl began, eyes filled with tears.

“Listen! I have to get to class—you get home and dress immediately or you’ll catch pneumonia or the flu. I’m not kidding! When are you free—can you meet me at ... um... 3:50 later today? I have ideas about killing this nudity crap in its tracks. I have a class later at UIL but can get back here later. Meet me at the Union café, 3:50?”

She agreed.

“I’m Denise Roberts. You are?”

“Sharon Jones.”

“Okay—see you 3:50 then!” she called as she ran off, “return my jacket later!”

Denise made it to her class just before the instructor arrived, and found a seat, her pulse pounding in her temples.

“Holy shit,” she thought, “I can’t get away from this crap!”

The instructor began going over the material that would be covered that term and then he looked at the people in the class.

“Now, I’d like each of you to tell us your name and if you’ve taken any other kind of psych course, what it was about, so we’ll all know everyone’s general background.”

Members of the class began speaking and when Denise finished her turn, the instructor paused.

“Hmmm, yes, Miss Roberts, I have a note for you to see Dean Phillips after class today; his note says your schedule appears free then. He’s in room 322 in the Admin Building.”

Denise nodded, wondering what this was about.

After class, she went to Phillips’ office and his secretary showed her in, then took a seat in the room herself, her face settling into a sour expression. Denise gave her a puzzled look.

The dean spoke, “Ah, it’s good to meet you finally, Miss Roberts. You were not at the required orientation of the entering teacher education class yesterday morning.”

“Orientation? No sir, I wasn’t informed of any such orientation. In fact, I met with one of your advisors about ten days ago, that’s when I did my final registration paperwork, and she didn’t mention any orientation meeting; she told me that my two classes were confirmed. Nothing was said about any other things I had to do when classes started.”

Phillips looked at the secretary, who commented, “There isn’t a copy of the orientation letter that the new admits were sent in Miss Roberts’ file; actually none of the entering student instructions were sent to her, apparently.”

“Sir, may I ask if there’s a problem—and why is Mrs...” she glanced at the woman.

“Jaimeson,” she offered.

“Mrs Jaimeson is at our meeting, why?” Denise asked. “Um, one second, please.”

She palmed her mobile phone and activated its voice recording function. Kevin had taught her well.

Phillips spoke, “She’s here as an observer. Our school’s legal staff requires an observer to attend meetings like this one.”

“And what is the purpose of such a meeting if the lawyers have to tell you how to conduct them?” Denise asked mildly.

Mrs Jaimeson shifted in her seat, looking most uncomfortable.

“Miss Roberts, you missed the introductory orientation of the teacher education course where we covered the responsibilities of the students in this university. One of the new student responsibilities is given in this booklet...”

He passed her a copy of the booklet she had last seen being displayed by Jeremy Porter, the one with the naked teens on the cover.

“I’ve seen this booklet before, at a friend’s house,” Denise said uncertainly. “It’s the high school Naked in School Program. OH! There was a naked girl outside.”

“Yes, Miss Rogers, and you were randomly selected as a participant to start yesterday, but you were absent, leaving us with less than the full quota of required participants. This is a Program violation and means that you will be required to participate beginning now, until Friday next week at 10 pm, because you missed the start. Now I must insist that you remove your clothes,” he said, and the older woman blushed deeply.

“Ah, I see why your lawyers wanted you to have a witness,” Denise said coldly.

Then she collected herself. Thoughts raced through her head, all coalescing in an instant, and she immediately resolved what to do first.

“Center yourself!” she thought. She allowed her body and mind to drop into that “space” she had worked so hard with Kevin to establish when she was learning her meditative “centering” skills for her taekwondo lessons. “Now don’t lose your temper,” she told herself. “And what did Kevin do with Fletcher?” Her mind raced back to when she first met Kevin. “Always negotiate from a position of strength,” was Kevin’s mantra. She would be strong! Kevin had taught her that by projecting a sense of overwhelming confidence, she could get control of this conversation. “Okay, now,” she decided, as only a second or two had passed and Phillips was opening his mouth to speak again, “time to take control here.”

Denise stood up, distracting Phillips, and pointed her finger at him.

“Okay, sir. Here’s my response. First, you should know that that girl I saw outside was freezing! Are you aware how cold it’s been outside the past two days? Forcing the kids into being naked when it’s so cold is irresponsibly abusive! And...” She looked at her watch. “Okay, I have less than an hour before I must leave here for my next class. It’s at UIL, by the way, several tube stops away. Regardless of that, there’s no way that I’ll undress under any circumstances. Now, can you please explain exactly why you expect me to participate in this obscene circus.”

The woman tried to stifle a smile while Phillips had begun to turn red.

“I say! You are rather cheeky, young lady. I don’t have to explain anything. If you don’t undress, then you shall be failed in your classes here,” he admonished her.

“All right, I’ll rephrase the question. Please give me the courtesy of telling me the authority you have to ask me to get undressed,” Denise pressed him as she resumed her seat.

“Well then, I suppose that’s a reasonable question. The uni part of the Naked in School Program—I’ll just call it the ‘Program’—is in a government-required curriculum module; it’s part of the education familiarization training related to the Human Sexuality Promotion Act. All enrollees in courses of study where graduates will be eligible to earn teaching licensure are now required to participate in the uni Program. For the past two years, the Program was run as a pilot in a few schools outside London with greatly mixed results. Research by the Department for Education showed that most of the failures of the Program in the pilot schools were a result of the total lack of training and understanding of the instructional staff. The staff had no idea of the pressures and challenges that the pupils faced in the Program.

“The major recommendation that arose from the government study, which was completed this past spring, was that all future teachers shall be required go through the Program whilst in their teacher training to allow them to understand its effects on the students that they’ll be teaching in their future careers. All of this country’s teachers need to learn how to prepare our pupils who will be participating in the Program. The Program was designed to be a major social growth initiative for pupils but it’s an experience which could potentially be traumatic for the children, and it’ll be each teacher who studies here who’ll be responsible for guiding them in dealing with their experience. Unless you have the experience of the challenges your pupils face, you won’t have the ability to provide this guidance. Do you follow so far?”

Denise looked at him steely-eyed. “I could shoot enough holes through that argument so that it wouldn’t hold a thimbleful of water, sir. You’re saying that some kind of government study commission came up with this recommendation, based on a pilot run in a couple of schools. Okay, is there more?”

“Yes there is,” he went on, “for your part in this requirement. Here are our Program participation rules in brief. You must remain naked at all times, but you are permitted to dress if you go off campus. Your records show that you’re not living in the uni’s residence halls so we’ve made arrangements for a room here for you to stay until next week. The booklet I gave you describes activities called Reasonable Requests, these are requests from others to examine and fondle your body generally speaking but may involve other actions which you must submit to as well. You must permit those Requests or you will not successfully pass your courses here. The sheet inside the booklet gives the times and places you must allow the Requests, but you’ll see that it’s generally anywhere on campus between 9 am and 11 pm every day. You must use male restroom facilities everywhere and male showers in the uni residences and gymnasium.

“You must remain on campus for the weekend and be available in public places outside your residence room for no less than eight hours each day to allow Requests to be made of you, and during the times you are in your residence quarters, your door must remain open until 11 pm each day to allow residents of your hall to have access to you. And your time in the Program will end the following Friday at 10 pm since you didn’t complete the required first day. The booklet provides all of the details of the Program rules. Now I expect you to comply with my request to disrobe.”

Denise gathered her thoughts. “Okay, now I have a few comments I need to make and I’d appreciate not being interrupted, just as I didn’t interrupt you, sir. First, and this isn’t really important to my response to your request, but I’ll just mention it for the background it provides. I’m an American citizen and have experienced the Program in my own high school, so I know that the benefits that are so highly touted are totally nonexistent. Much more important is the fact that I’m not part of your teacher’s training program; I’m not taking classes leading to teacher certification. I have classes in research statistics and childhood psychology, both of which happen to be in the ed school, but these aren’t part of your core teacher-training courses.

“Next is about the mechanics of running the Program here. You said this is idiocy is to prepare teachers for teenagers’ nudity in your secondary schools by requiring your teacher-ed students to spend a week naked on an urban college campus, for God’s sake. This campus is inside a major city and all the streets and walkways are public here. I saw a few older men passing through outside and gawking at that poor naked girl outside. And think of the safety issues your naked girls will face on city streets! All of this ... no, sir, please don’t interrupt ... ah, there’s no similarity between your ‘naked in college’ and the high school Program—the high school kids are naked in a protected environment, mostly—a closed building not accessible to the public, and have almost continuous supervision, and also dress to go home. They aren’t required to travel home naked, spend the weekend naked, and don’t have to allow people into their bedrooms to fondle them as your program allows. The crackbrained version that you want your teacher trainees to experience has almost no relationship to what the high school students will experience.”