Chapter 9

When Kevin returned to his flat, he discovered Amelia and Jeremy sitting at the desk in the main room, noses buried in Amelia’s laptop.

Amelia jumped up, ran to Kevin, and hugged him tightly.

“Oh, Kevin, I love you so much!” she exclaimed. Then she pulled back slightly and blushed. “Ahh, I mean ... You came so fast when I needed you ... OH! You’re like family, the brother I never had and you look out for me so well and...”

“Amelia ... Amelia, sweetie, I love you too, you’re like the sister I always wanted. So tell me, how do you feel? You still okay? Any aftereffects or pain? You’ll tell us if you have trouble sleeping or get bad dreams, okay?”

“Um, no, it doesn’t hurt any worse than before, but it feels stretched, kinda, down there,” she whispered. “I’ll be glad to have it looked at. I’ll tell you if I get any bad psych effects, but I think I can cope. The therapist I saw after I was cut worked with me so I think I’d know if I get bad feelings over what happened. Now you see what happened? I told you there’d be trouble over that Program starting,” she pouted.

“You’re a better prophet than me, sweetie. I didn’t think that a goon squad would interfere with the school’s first Program day. I don’t think the Program people ever did something like that before. Jeremy? Have you ever heard of something like that happening?”

“Well, at my last school the teachers stripped those two girls—that’s all I know about, but they did it in private so no one saw how much force they used,” Jeremy replied. “I spoke to the second girl who was stripped and she said she didn’t struggle; she told me she was kinda in shock. When I saw them handling Hana like that, it took me by total surprise. I never expected such violence. It’s too bad I was at the back of the auditorium because if I was closer, I might have gotten to the stage in time to help Hana, but it happened so bloody fast. I had to push through a bunch of kids just to get out of my row of seats. I did get to Amelia just in time, though,” he smiled at her.

“When I saw the flyers that Amelia brought to school—yeah, she told me that you and Denise did them—I just knew that your strategy would work with the kids. In the other schools with the Program, just like my last school, the teachers always seemed to manage to cow the kids into submitting to do what they were told and the threat of not graduating was enough to make the parents go along. Also, no one has ever organized any concerted parental opposition before. Your flyer, and what Amelia told me about the meeting you went to, got both the parents and their kids organized. That was a super move, you know.”

“Thanks, Jeremy,” Kevin grinned. “It’s not like we were without experience in anti-Program organizing. I suppose that if we were like the typical parent, we might have been cowed too...”

“Somehow I’m not convinced that’s true,” Jeremy retorted, laughing.

“Anyway, since you’re attending Amelia’s school—what an amazing coincidence that is, by the way—how come we didn’t see your folks at that meeting?” Kevin asked.

“Yeah, I was going to tell you about that. Dad’s been stuck at a NATO meeting in Bonn for the past ten days and Mum’s been with her mum in the States. Grandma broke her hip two weeks ago and Mum went to help her. I brought that letter about the parents’ meeting home but I didn’t want to open it since it said ‘Parents Only.’ The next day I heard about the meeting from the other kids, so I called Dad, read him the letter, and he said he would send the school a message opposing the Program. Mrs Sheppard is watching my brother and sister, so I can stay but I need to leave at 7:30. My ‘bodyguard’ will pick me up,” he grinned.

“I see you and Amelia kind of connected, too,” Kevin smiled at them.

“Kevin, I told you that Jeremy’s my hero just like you were to Denise,” Amelia said shyly. “I told him about what you did for her and he said your story is much more dramatic than what he did for me. I told him, no way, I saw him in action and he was awesome.”

“I was glad I could help you, Amelia,” Jeremy smiled at her.

“So what are you guys...” Kevin broke off as the door opened and Denise came rushing in.

“Amelia, sweetheart!” Denise called as she ran to hug her. “How are you feeling...? Jeremy...? Um, why’s Jeremy here...?”

Kevin laughed. “Sit down, darling. It’s a long story. Turns out Jeremy goes to Amelia’s school too.”

“No! Oh my goodness!” Denise exclaimed.

“It gets much better, Denise,” Amelia grinned. “Jeremy was the one who saved me from that awful man who was stripping me. He slammed him down and then threw two other men across the stage.”

“Oh my ... shit ... it’s just like Kevin and me...” Denise said, in shock. “Wow...”

“YES! That’s just what I was saying to Kevin!” Amelia crowed.

“Okay, everyone,” Denise commanded. “I want to hear it all. The full uncensored version. Right now! Speak!”

Kevin chuckled. “Amelia, take the floor, please. Jeremy can assist.”

The two teens related the morning’s events and Kevin filled in the few details he could, and then told them all about his meeting with the head teacher afterwards. Denise listened in amazement.

When they were finished, she shook her head in wonder. “That’s quite some story. Jeremy? What I don’t get is how you wound up at Norwich. I know your folks wanted you in an independent school, but you need to be in an arts program here.”

“Oh, I play trumpet, Denise. In the orchestra I’m the co-soloist and I play in the concert band too.”

Kevin grinned. “Another well-rounded student, Denise. Guess what? Amelia found out that Jeremy’s also that ‘Realist’ blogger.”

“No way! OH! That explains where your mom was—the evening we met the president...”

Jeremy grinned broadly. “Oh, right. The head teacher was raising bloody hell at me in school that day and Mum had her hands full with his calls all evening. Hanford had a major fit when I told him he couldn’t stop me from doing the blog; I had told him that muzzling my free expression was a violation of the Human Rights Act of 1998. So he called Mum. Several times. She finally told him to back off of me, but from what you just told us, Kevin, looks like he’s not going to make me any more trouble, right? He’s accepted that I won’t stop doing it?”

“Yeah, grudgingly anyway. He said your blog was a sore point for some political figures—didn’t say who. He’s also willing to have you and me come in to discuss some strategy for getting the school out of the Program, apparently, said he’d let me know. Say, Denise, just when you came in, I was about to ask our two geniuses here what they were up to all day. Hanford let them go home for the whole day and they spent it here.”

“Yeah, Kevin, we were comparing our human rights blogs!” Amelia said proudly. “I was showing Jeremy what my friends and I were working on and he showed me how he works on finding material for his blog. Then he posts teaser links to his Facepage and gets wider coverage.”

Jeremy took Amelia’s hand. “You know, just before you got home, Amelia told me this ace idea she had gotten; it was brilliant. From her work on the U.N. and E.U. human rights treaty stuff and other articles she’s found, she pointed out that the Program, in a way, is just like the genital cutting problem. They both affect children. They’re both a form of severe abuse—no, torture, even. And they both affect sexual desire in extreme, unhealthy ways. So when you came in, we had just started to plan a way of incorporating her ideas in the ‘Realist’ blog to kick off an anti-Program campaign.”

“Goddamn,” Kevin muttered in amazement. “I told Hanford that Jeremy would be useful for the school in challenging the Program. I’ve got to add Amelia to that recommendation. You two have confirmed that idea for me. What a compelling image, Amelia: drawing attention to the similarities of the Program to genital mutilation. Wow.”

“You guys are amazing,” Denise concurred. “But I’m starving ... how about dinner? I was planning on making a pasta dish...”

Kevin interrupted, “I know, let’s have a sushi takeaway—see? I’m learning my British. There’s that place on the corner we’ve been meaning to try. Is that okay?”

Everyone agreed, so they pulled up the menu on line and ordered. They spent the rest of the evening chatting while Kevin and Denise watched as Jeremy and Amelia interacted. Their mutual attraction was very apparent.

The next morning, Amelia received good news from Dr Singh. She was injured in the assault, but it was limited to some pulled stitches and a little bleeding. A new wound dressing was needed but she would be allowed to continue with normal, non-strenuous activities. Singh was appalled when he learned how Amelia had been injured; he wrote a brief letter for Kevin documenting her injury and explaining how serious it could have been, asking that he get the letter to the detective.

When she arrived at school, Amelia went to her second period class; she recalled that she shared her third period class with Jeremy. She hurried there to meet him before class started.

“Hi!” Jeremy said brightly when he saw her. “You okay today? The doc visit?”

“All good,” she said, shyly, looking at him.

He took her hands in his. “I missed you,” he said softly.

“Me too ... Um, what happened yesterday and this morning? You know, any news about the Program?” she shuddered. “Anything about Hana?”

“Some stuff happened, not important though ... Listen—when’s your lunch? Mine’s next period.”

“Me too! You can catch me up then!”

The first bell rang.

Jeremy slowly released her hands. “We need to sit.”

“Yeah.” Reluctantly they separated.

They took their seats.

After class they walked together to the lunchroom.

“I need to talk to my blogging girlfriends, Jeremy, then we can sit and talk. I need to thank them and tell them how I am.”

“Okay, sure.”

Amelia got her tray and went to the girls’ table; they were excited to see her and began throwing questions at her.

She interrupted them. “Listen, the boy who saved me, he’s actually the son of a family friend and I only just met him when he rescued me from that attack yesterday. I’m okay now and want to thank you, especially Tisa and Estelle, for trying to help me and Hana. Do you know how Hana is? No? Maybe I can find out. Anyway, Jeremy, the boy who saved me, and I have ideas for our blog but we have some personal things to talk about.”

Estelle smiled. “I saw it was Jeremy who clobbered those duffers. He’s in one of my classes. He’s a looker, too. Is he your boyfriend now?”

“Um,” Amelia blushed. “I hope...”

“Don’t hope! Ask him!” Darra exclaimed. “He’s smart, I heard. And a hunk. And not a jerk. So go, but tell us about him later,” she waved Amelia away.

Amelia hugged each of them and then rejoined Jeremy. When they found seats, Jeremy began to tell her about what he had heard earlier.

“Everything’s suspended for the Program for now. There’s an emergency governors’ meeting this evening. A teacher, she’s one of the staff governors, said that the head got assurance from the LEA that the school won’t be interfered with by outside people like yesterday. It took the rest of the morning to get the school sorted and then all of the teachers were in meetings in the afternoon. The kids were left to have study time and the head boy and girl and the prefects were left in charge. We didn’t miss a thing.”

“Did you hear about Hana?”

“No,” he said. “Say, kids said you were really brave, fighting off and kicking that bloke in the bolloks. They think you’re hot looking too,” he smiled, “so do I.”

“OH! They saw me ... Oh shit, I forgot I was almost naked ... Oh, I’m so embarrassed...”

“Don’t be, Amelia, it was like you were wearing a swimming costume, really.”

“Umm ... Do you really think ... I looked ... hot?” Amelia asked, blushing.

“Oh yeah! For sure. You’re beautiful. But even better, you’re smart, and witty, and fun to be with and ... um, well, I’d like you to be my girlfriend, if that’s okay?”

“Oh, Jeremy! Yes, I’d love that...”

“Oh, thank you so much!” Jeremy exclaimed, taking her hand. “Err ... Would you be mad at me if I asked you to wear this?” he asked, pulling out a box.

Amelia opened it; it was a gold necklace with a little heart pendant.

“Oh my!” she exclaimed, “how pretty! Oh how sweet ... thank you ... I don’t have anything to...”

Jeremy put his finger on her lips. “Shhh. I don’t need a present. I wanted you to have something from me to wear close to you, that’s all.”

“OH! If we weren’t in school, I’d hug you, Jeremy. Thank you. You’re my gallant knight and rescued me from a fate of nudity, and now I have your favor, too,” she giggled, but a tear leaked from her eye. “Thank you again for rescuing me.”

“Gladly, my ladyship,” he sketched a bow.

She giggled. “Silly. Gee, when did you get the necklace, anyway? You just met me.”

“Um, on the way home yesterday. I hoped...”

“You’re really so sweet, you know? Say, I was thinking, we’ve been in school for what, over two months and I never saw you coming on the bus; you live further away than me and this is the only bus that comes by here.”

“Oh, I get a chauffeur ride—embassy security, don’t you know. You come by bus? Hey, I could pick you up each day; your flat actually is only a few blocks away from the street we use to get here.”

“Really? That wouldn’t be a problem?”

“No, I’m not driving, anyway, so sure.”

“That’s so cool, thanks. It’ll be fun seeing you every day,” Amelia said softly.

“Yeah...”

Amelia was lost in her thoughts for a few long seconds. “Did you think about your next blog posting?” she asked.

“Ummm ... sorry. What?” Jeremy had been lost in his own thoughts. “Oh, right. Yes. Let’s do what Kevin suggested and use that flyer as a guide to design a public anti-Program campaign. You mentioned that he wrote an article that his friend snuck into their school newspaper?”

“Yeah. And it went viral, too,” she giggled. “That was an amazing story. The school tried to expel them for opposing the Program when all they did was to talk to other kids about it. The school official suspected that Kevin put the article into the paper but had no way to prove it since only he and the teacher in charge of the paper could approve the copy that got printed. When it got out, the article was copied all over the whole country! And it made the ‘Just Say No’ movement a national one.”

“Well, let’s try to do that right here, then,” Jeremy smirked. “Let’s work that flyer into a snappy article and maybe the regular press will reprint it as news instead of burying it on the opinion pages. We can try to word it so it has some sexual innuendos and maybe even get featured in tabloids like The Sun, Daily Mirror, and Daily Star.”

“Wow, you think?”

“Maybe. I sort of modeled some of my blog writing style after that kind of writing. Like edgy and suggestive. How much time do we have?”

“Ah, a half hour now,” Amelia said.

“Let’s do an outline, then. Maybe we can put it together after school? I won’t have any problem getting us dropped off at your flat.”

“Okay. I’ll text Denise and tell her that you’ll be home with me.”

They set to work on the outline.

Later that afternoon, Denise arrived home and found the kids hard at work on writing the blog posting. She peered over their shoulders and read for a minute, smiling broadly.

“Good job, guys!” she told them.

Jeremy turned around. “You think so?”

“Oh yes. Is this for another school handout?” Denise asked.

Amelia giggled. “Jeremy has bigger ideas.”

“Oh really?” Denise smiled.

Jeremy explained his thought about trying to get the mainstream press to pick up the article as news. Denise laughed and shook her head.

“Well, that’s just what happened with an article that Kevin wrote in high school,” she chuckled.

“Yeah, I told Jeremy that story. Oh, look, Denise,” she showed her necklace. “Jeremy asked to be my boyfriend,” she smiled.

“Well, congrats, you two. Not that it’s such a surprise. Very nice necklace, Jeremy.”

“Thanks, Denise. You think that Kevin’ll be okay with my being Amelia’s boyfriend too?”

“Oh, sure, he’ll be delighted. Well, go to it, guys. Get that article done. This should be interesting,” Denise grinned as she walked away.

By the time Kevin returned home, the article was in its final form. Amelia explained what they were doing and gave a copy to Kevin and Denise to read.

^{Independent School Declares Independence: No Naked Pupils in Our School}

^{British government authorities in charge of the notorious “Naked in School” program have again overstepped their authority. The law authorising the national school curriculum, which includes the nudity program, actually applies to state schools; those schools are required to follow all of the state-mandated curricula. But the authorities have recently decided to extort any non-state school which receives government funds, even in the form of bursaries which are intended as general scholarship support, into adopting the Program in these formerly exempt schools.}

^{One such independent school in London, confronted with the threat of their pupils’ financial support being withdrawn, was recently coerced to begin the Naked in School Program despite the strong opposition of greater than 90 percent of its pupils’ parents and guardians.}

^{As readers of The Realist have learned, the Program is based on educationally and psychologically invalid principles: the idea that to grow into a mature and well-adjusted adulthood, children must demonstrate their acceptance of their individual sexuality through public displays of sexual activity by being forced to consent to allow other children to fondle and grope their sexual organs with no limits, made to engage in masturbation in front of fellow pupils, and in the ultimate of humiliation for many people, required to use the rest-rooms of the opposite sex so that the elimination of their bodily wastes may be watched.}

^{Program children must also submit to have their naked bodies used as props and teaching aids for all classes, whether or not the class’s subject is the human body. Except for classes which teach specifically about the human body, The Realist cannot imagine any possible need at all for a pupil to be naked for any classroom demonstration. If children refuse or even object to Program excesses, they may be punished by being required to spend additional time being naked while outright refusal to participate is punished by the pupil’s not being permitted to graduate.}

^{Such was the situation which the pupils of our independent school recently faced. However, instead of submitting to the humiliations of this misguided government program, the pupils took up the chant, “Just Say No!” and not a single pupil agreed to participate. These brave children have declared their independence from the tyranny of an over-reaching government. They have asserted their cultural and religious rights to personal privacy, morality, and dignity, and in doing so, have shown the way for all pupils in the U.K. to resist being required to participate in an activity that is an immoral and unethical imposition on their basic human rights.}

^{The Realist will not discuss in detail the safety hazards of the Program, a topic we’ve covered before; we’ll only briefly mention the terrible idea of forcing girls to be naked in boys’ locker rooms, showers, and rest-rooms. That rule seems to be only about voyeurism and humiliation; what is the supposed educational value of humiliation in making the participant more “comfortable” with his or her sexuality, as the objectives of the Program state?}

^{Our courageous pupils who are resisting the Program—the entire school—face the threat of not graduating. However, The Realist has learned that virtually all universities in the U.K. and Europe will allow students whose schools refuse to issue a diploma for non-completion of the Program may still apply for admission. The admission procedures may be slightly different, but if your grades otherwise qualify you for admission, you will be admitted regardless of your participation in the Program.}

^{As the pupils of our independent school knew when they refused to allow the Program to begin at their school, it’s absolutely clear that participating results in no benefit of any kind for them, neither social, psychological, nor educational.}

^{The Realist will have more to say on this topic in coming weeks, so please check in with us for updates. And we love to read your comments, too, so please keep giving us your encouragement. And tell us if your school will join the “Just Say No” movement too.}