Part 1: Monday

Chapter 1: Missy

Fucking assholes. Every single one of them. My parents, the school administration-all of them.

When I ever got called up to that stage on Friday and told that I was going to have to go into The Program, I was pissed. And my parents, of course, went along with this. You know, their daughter had embarrassed them, and so had to be humiliated. Oh, they make me want to scream.

My father is on the City Council. My mother volunteers for various charities. They're filthy rich. They're also complete assholes, but money and power is what's important, and they know it. And having their darling daughter fuck up spoils the image, don't you know. Of course, the fact that they run roughshod over anyone that gets in their way, including each other-both of them are constantly having affairs-doesn't seem to register. Me pulling a prank that got out of hand-that's the end of the world.

And that's all it was-a fucking prank. Cassie's a wimp, and she can't take a joke. Fuck them all. And because Cassie's a wimp, and because my parents and Mr. Tilling are assholes, now I had to parade my big fat body all over school naked.

I wanted to kill someone.

When Frankie Gutierrez came over to our table to stick up for Cassie last week, he called me 15 to 20 pounds overweight. I'll give Frankie credit, he was being generous. 40 was more like it. And the administration, by publicly announcing that I was being put in The Program as a punishment, practically gave the entire school permission to humiliate me. I could see the beached whale jokes coming right down the pike.

Look, I wasn't kidding with what I told Cassie. I thought her being in The Program was a joke, and I did think that her parading around naked with all those scars was gross.

Me, with all my blubber? Grosser. Far grosser. And I didn't have a fucking choice.

Anyhow, I went to Mr. Tilling's office.

"Good morning, Melissa," he said pleasantly. "Are you all ready?"

"It doesn't make a difference whether I am or I'm not, now does it?"

"Melissa, look on the bright side. You may learn something from this." I just snorted. "We're just waiting for your partner."

"Where's Laura?" I asked.

"Laura is no longer attending school here," he said with a frown. "I got a call this morning, actually. She has moved in with her father and will be attending school in the town where her father lives."

Oh, doesn't that just figure. Good ol' Laura. Since her parents divorced, they bend over backwards to kiss her ass, to 'make up' for them getting divorced. And Laura can manipulate them like a champ. I'm sure a few well-placed crocodile tears made up their minds. Damn them. Damn her. What we did to Cassie was her idea in the first place. And, now, she's left it for me to be the only one holding the bag for it. Lovely.

The door opened, and in walked David Shiell. Oh, it just got better and better. That whole Buddy system was supposed to be for support, wasn't it? And I was going to get hammered this week-and the "support" they sent me was the wimp of the school. Dave Shiell can't support his own fucking head.

I was just about to point this out to the apparently clueless Mr. Tilling, when Dave said something. "Oh, no. No way. You are not putting me in with her."

"Look, David," Mr. Tilling said, "I know you're a good person, and you've had some troubles of your own. Melissa's going to need some sympathetic help."

"Well, then, maybe you should've chosen someone who hasn't been in band with Cassie Vyshenko for three years. I don't have many friends, but Cassie's one of them. I don't want to have any part of 'supporting' someone who did what she did to Cassie."

I was stunned. This was the school wimp? Of course, I did wish that, if he decided he didn't want to be a wimp anymore, he wouldn't have done it at my expense.

"Well, David, you're going to have to get past that," Mr. Tilling said. "You guys are teamed up."

"I've read the rules of The Program, inside and out," David said, stripping off his clothes. "You can force me to do this, and you can force me to parade around naked. And you can, by some stupid whim, pick a buddy for me. But there's nothing in the rules that says I have to talk to her, or acknowledge her, or be nice to her. I'm not exactly the most popular guy in school. I could use some support myself to get through this stupid thing. I'm not going to get it from her. In fact, I wouldn't even ask. She'd just find some way to humiliate me," he rambled. By now, he was completely naked. I don't know what he was worried about-he was average, but not unattractive. At least he wasn't fat. "I may have to do this by myself, but I have no intention of having anything to do with her," he said.

"She's going to have a rough week without help," Mr. Tilling said.

"GOOD!" Dave said, and stormed out of the office.

He didn't even wait until I got undressed. Damn. At least I wouldn't have been the only nude person walking out of the office. I just sighed, stripped, and headed out. What choice did I have?

And, yep, it looked like the whole school was there. I'll give Cassie credit. She took the high road. She and her new group of friends didn't say a word. They were just about the only ones that didn't.

You know, you'd think people could come up with some original ones, once in a while. I mean, Christ. Beached whale? Lard-ass? Thunder thighs? Is there anyone under the impression that I've never heard any of these, or something? Nothing new.

OK, I take it back. People grabbing at my boobs like they wanted to tear them off-that was new. I had hand-prints on 'em by the time I got to class.

It looked like the humiliation had just begun. Somebody is gonna pay for this!!

Chapter 2: David

Wasn't getting stuck in The Program bad enough? I didn't want to do it. I was too shy for this. My Mom had insisted on putting me in-claiming it would help me 'get over my shyness' or some other bullshit. Of course, the fact that such had worked for my best friend, Jared Wicklow, earlier in the year didn't help my arguments any. But Jared fell in love, and he has a massive dick, which made him very popular Program week. I do not have anything that impressive between the legs. And falling in love? I have trouble talking to Amanda, who's my best friend's girlfriend-or Cassie Vyshenko, who I've been in band with for three years. In other words, I can't even talk to girls that I considered friends. Fall in love? Yeah, right.

I always figured I'd work my way up to being able to say "hello" without stuttering sometime in my junior year in college.

So, anyhow, I wasn't thrilled about this whole Program thing right from the get-go. And then I found out who my partner was. Missy Jenkins, the school bitch.

Look, she and her erstwhile sidekick, Laura Elliot-who seemed to have disappeared-have always been the school bitches. But what they did to Cassie, who was supposed to be their best friend, during her Program week last week-well, that took the cake. Cassie, despite the fact that I don't talk to her easily, is a friend. She's never been anything but nice to me. Plus, she's a damn good flute player. I can appreciate musicianship.

And Mr. Tilling wants me to support this bitch that badly hurt a friend of mine? I don't think so. No way. Of course, that meant that I wasn't going to be getting any support.

Well, of course, not "partner" type support. If I thought I wasn't going to be getting any support whatsoever-well, I underestimated Jared, and his friends.

They were all there when I came out of the office. Jared greeted me with, "Welcome to the club, pal." His crazy friend Ed Bauer hooted and hollered. Amanda gave me a hug-boy did that make me blush. And I really blushed when Cassie said, "Looking good, Big Man."

No, Big Man wasn't a reference to my anatomy. I play two instruments in the school band. Trumpet, and saxophone. Jared, a big Bruce Springsteen fan, years ago started calling me "Big Man" after Clarence "Big Man" Clemons, Bruce's sax player. It stuck. Although Cassie calling me that when I was naked was a nice little touch on her part, even if it was untrue!

"So, where's your partner?" Jared asked.

"I couldn't care less," I spat out. They all looked at me. "Missy Jenkins."

"Oh, shit," Amanda said.

"Oh, shit is right," I agreed. "I'm going to be coming to you guys for support, because I sure won't be getting any from her."

"We're here, pal," Jared said.

Just then, Missy came out of the office. I heard all the hooting and hollering. Cassie, good person that she is, told us all, "Don't say a word. I know what it's like. I'm not playing the one-upsmanship game and I'd prefer if none of my friends do it, either."

We watched for a bit, and Jared said, "It looks like she's getting enough without us joining in, anyway."

I looked for a while, and said, "What's all this fat stuff? She's not that fat."

"She's not thin, either, though," Amanda said, "and it's an easy thing to zero in on. I've gotten it once or twice."

"You?" I said incredulously. "Fat?"

"Again, I'm not thin. You know, I'm not Maggie."

"Yeah, you have boobs. And an ass," Maggie interjected.

"She's right about one thing, though," Ed Bauer put in. "You're the one, Maggie, who has the bodytype that shows up on magazine covers and fashion runways."

"That's right," Maggie laughed. "Did you ever hear the old David Spade joke? He said that he wished we could get more heterosexual fashion designers, so we'd get some fashion models that don't look like boys!"

"Oooh, that's nasty," Ed laughed.

"Nasty with a hint of truth," Maggie giggled. "I know very few straight guys that would prefer my bodytype to Amanda's. I do look like a boy."

"Oh yeah?" Ed asked. "Then why has half the junior class eagerly gone to bed with you?"

"Because I don't fuck like a boy," Maggie laughed. "When I'm squeezing those cunny muscles like a vice grip around their dicks, they tend to forget that I have no hips and can barely fill an A-cup."

"That was more than I needed to know," I said with a blush.

"Well, Dave," Maggie grinned, "you're welcome to take the merchandise for a test drive. Get your Program week started off on the right track, and all that."

Oh, Jesus! "Um... er... well..." was all I managed to get out.

"You're shy. I like that in a guy," Maggie grinned.

Thank goodness the bell for first period rang just then!

"The offer's open," Maggie giggled, as she headed off to class. Oh, Lord.

I walked to my first class, History. The only person out of Jared's crowd in my class was Natalie Weinberg, Ed's girlfriend, who I didn't know well.

"Hey, Dave," she said as we walked. "The Program was very difficult for me at first, so I know what you're going through, OK? You need any help, don't hesitate to ask."