Chapter 5

In most small towns, high school sports are the major social events of the week. Yes, parents with children who played the lesser sports would show up and root their offspring on whether those sports were tennis, fencing volleyball, or swimming and diving. What really put the area to a standstill were the major sports; those being Basketball, soccer, and football. Girls’ soccer was added to the program as a title nine balance field sport for boys’ football.

Each of those sports had an event that was a ‘close-the-town-down-we-are-going-to-the-game’ show-stopping showcase. For football, this was Homecoming Weekend. It started Friday with the parade and alumni reception which was a dinner dance event held at the ballroom of the local Holiday Inn. During the parade, the Homecoming king and queen and the princess court were presented. Usually, the king and queen were athletes, scholars, or a combination of both from the senior class. These were Kids who were popular due to their achievements rather than simply a pretty face or well-muscled body.

The princess and prince court were junior-class student-athletes who would be the core group vying for the title of king and queen the following year. Most had worked hard in freshman and sophomore years to win a spot on the princess court as juniors.

Despite this, it surprised only Wendy Ann Ingrid Farrell that she was spotlighted as ‘first princess’ on this year’s float. Two months ago she was a virtual stranger to everyone in the school, yet the junior class had voted her on to the court with an overwhelming affirmation. The second princess won her spot with forty fewer votes than Waif. “But, you deserve this more than me. I’m the new kid and you, well, you have been around since kindergarten and everyone knows and likes you,” Waif had protested to Karin Romanoff when the announcements for the court were made.

“No, you walk into a room and suddenly, if there was discord, there is calm. You can always lighten a moment with a joke or a funny take on the situation. You set the example of how to be nude in public and still be a modest and virtuous girl. We all thought, once stripped naked we would turn into wanton sluts. You set the example of how not to let that happen. Well, okay, if you look at Margie or Nan your example didn’t work for everyone. But, nearly all of us who are now nude are only comfortable with ourselves and our nudity because you blazed the path for us.

“Add to that the fact that almost every male jock and a couple of the female ones as well, owes their academic eligibility to one small woman who willingly began tutoring them, for free, and you have the prime reason everyone voted for you. Just sit there wave and enjoy it.” Karin paused, and then continued, “If I had been bold enough to do half the things you have done since you have been my classmate, I might feel worthy to sit here next to you.”

The Bayside High School Screaming Gull marching band led the parade with the color guard and twirlers up front.

Then came the Homecoming King and Queen and the court of princesses on their float.

Each of the regional elementary schools sent a contingent of junior princesses to the parade. Shoreside Park was represented by Ronnie Peters, Brad Williams, Amy, and Tammy Farrell. Ronnie and Brad represented the middle school-age children, and Amy and Tammy the lower grades. There were sixteen students on this float six of them nude, and four of those came from Shoreside Park.

The next float traditionally held alumni football players and cheerleaders, some of whom were parents of current players and cheerleaders. Dave Wilcox and his wife were on that float as were Ivan and Lori Romanoff.

The last float held the current football team and cheerleaders. Four of the cheerleaders were nude, two having drawn vowels in the last round and two who started the year as confirmed nudists. The football players were all in uniform. Their turns at the letter draw would come following the final game of the season on Thanksgiving afternoon.

The floats paraded down River Road along a route lined with fans and families waving and cheering and then into the football stadium where they circled the field on the cinder track used for track and field running events stopping on the home team side of the field. The band marched on the field and played the alma mater of the school and several rally songs.

The cheerleaders did their routine asking the crowd, “Who’s gonna win,” and getting the answer “BAYSIDE!” Followed by several “WE CAN’T HEAR YOU!” calls from the cheerleaders and even louder yells each time of “BAYSIDE!” Then the cheer team changed to “WHO YELLS LOUDEST?” For which the crowd knew the response to be, “GULLS FANS!”. A few exchanges of ‘We can’t hear you’ and louder roars from the stands and when the crowd had screeched that last response the cheerleaders stepped aside. It was then that Dorothy Suarez stepped up to the microphone and named the homecoming king and queen and the junior princess court for the crowd.

Louder cheering and the announcement that the football boosters and alumni association expected to see all alumni and spouses at the dinner dance later that evening and the entire Homecoming court would be at the event along with the cheer squad. The marching band performed another tune while the stands emptied and the parade portion was complete.

Ruth Anderson walked up to her three grandchildren and hugged them telling them how proud she was of them all. “Where’s Mom?” Waif asked expecting her mother to be there.

“She was detained at the county courthouse, your other grandmother had a preliminary hearing to set bail on her charges, she said to tell you she was sorry to miss the parade but would be at the dinner tonight as my plus one and she would catch you there.” Ruth Anderson responded.

“Look at the twins, they are exhausted from the excitement,” Ruth continued, “It is a good thing they are staying with Brett Peters tonight, or that dinner and dancing would be no fun at all.”

Waif laughed at the twins when she glanced at them as their heads were nodding even as they tried to fight to stay awake, “Come on, Bugs, it is time to get you home to Ronnie’s house. Brad and Tad and Ronnie are going to be watching you tonight, so you best behave, or no more sleepovers.”

“I’m a Bug!” yelled Amy. “I’m a bug, too,” responded Tammy, “I’m a Stink Bug what kind are you?”

“I’m a Bed Bug I bite and I chew!” Amy giggled and Waif regretted the day she began teasing the twins with those nicknames.

The alumni event that evening began following the parade. Around five-thirty Katherine Farrell walked into the ballroom and spotted her mother and Waif walking in the buffet line. After getting her name tag and identifying herself as Ruth Anderson’s daughter and Waif’s mom, she caught up to the rest of the family searching the selections for what they wished to eat. “Hi, Mom,” Waif looked up and spotted her parent, “Try the flounder, it is very flakey and totally boneless.”

“I just might, right after I try the cabernet or the merlot, Waif, it has been one of those days,” Katherine responded.

“A white would go better with fish, but you name your poison and the open bar is over to the left,” Ruth told her daughter with a smile.

“I am too tired to care, Mom, honestly. Fiona’s lawyers tried every trick in the book to get her out on bail. They cited health conditions I never knew the woman to have, offered to surrender her passport and put up her townhouse as collateral, and offered to have her wear an ankle bracelet monitor, and at that point the judge almost relented.

“I had to laugh, though; our prosecutor nailed the old girl and her team when she told the judge that all the terms were agreeable to her, if and only if, Fiona Farrell surrendered her entire wardrobe as well. She could be released on bail using her townhouse as collateral after surrendering her passport and wearing the ankle bracelet but nothing else.

“Fiona sputtered something into her lawyer’s ear and he told the judge that his client would rather stay in custody than have to be naked in public. So she’s still in the county jail awaiting trial.

“We go back to court after the grand jury hears the case. If they vote to indict her, a trial date will be set within a month of the grand jury hearing. Unfortunately for all of us, including Fiona, the grand jury empaneled now ends its term on the thirty-first. With the holiday season coming up a new panel will not be seated until after the New Year. Meanwhile, her tricksters with law degrees will be looking for loopholes in the law to get her out and get her off.

“Rumor from the prosecutor has it that her lawyers want me, Waif, and the twins to sit through sessions with a court-appointed psychologist to determine if we are sane people as we wish to live our lives nude. It sounds as if this entire family will be put on trial before she goes on trial. They are hoping to wear us down. The prosecutor told me that it is not unlikely her lawyers will have a team of private investigators tailing us, just waiting to catch one of us at a bad moment that can be used against us to mitigate Fiona’s actions.” Katherine sighed and gazed longingly at the bar set up across the room.