Chapter 1: Amber

February, 2030

"You really want me to do this, Mom?"

I looked at Karen, my beautiful 17-year-old daughter, and sighed. She just didn't understand. I wondered, and not for the first time, how any daughter of mine could turn out so straight-laced. Then again, I knew the answer to that. It wasn't me, and it wasn't her. It was the world.

A lot had happened since the day, over 26 years ago, when I stepped into Westport Regional Academy to start high school. Heck, a lot had happened since Karen was born. She came into the world that I knew. By the time she had entered elementary school, that world had changed.

It was a backlash that probably should have been predicted. I grew up in a permissive society. Karen grew up after the moralizers had retaken control.

We suffered 8 years under a bible-thumping president who probably wouldn't know how to satisfy a woman if you gave him a map and guide. He had enough people in Congress to support his agenda. It had seeped down to state governments, local governments, even school boards. The Supreme Court wasn't totally corrupted, but it took a while for some of the more egregious laws to be struck down--and only the worst ever were. The First Amendment was gutted enough as it was.

It had been a brutal 8 years, and the 4 before that weren't great. The worm had finally turned a little over two years ago. We elected a president who ran on a platform of permissiveness, and we elected him in a landslide. We elected like-minded members of Congress. This too extended down to the local level. In fact, one of my closest friends was now the mayor of Westport, and another close friend was the head of the school board.

It was my generation, the so-called Naked Generation, finding its political voice at last. We had children. We saw how they were growing up. We didn't like it.

The problem was, had the damage been done? I really worried about kids a few years older than Karen, kids in college now. Kids like Gina Gutierrez, the daughter of friends of my sister Lily. Gina was 21. She spent her whole adolescence under this repression. Her parents tell me she's a mess.

It might not be too late for Karen, but she was resisting.

"I can't believe you want me to go to school naked!" she was saying. "For a whole week! And I can't believe Mr. Benson wants Keith to do it with me!"

"Don't tell me you've never seen Keith naked," I teased her.

She gasped. "Of course not!" Of course not? They'd been going out for two years! "And look at this!" She had the brochure for The Program. "I'm going to have to be touched! Down there! Keith and I don't do that!"

Oh, God. I had failed my beautiful blonde-haired blue-eyed baby. She and Keith were in love--you could tell just by looking at them--and they'd never touched. Again, I had to ask--this was my daughter?

I sighed. "I think we all need to talk. Keith and his Dad, too." I picked up the phone.

Joe Benson, my old pal, brought Keith right over. The four of us sat in the living room.

"Keith's having trouble with this, too," Joe told me.

"I don't get it, Dad. I don't get why I should be doing this," Keith said.

"Do you know that spending a week in The Program was how your Aunt Maggie and Uncle Chuck found one another?"

Keith gasped. I turned to Karen. "It's how your Aunt Lily and Uncle Mike met. Do you know that your Aunt Lily pitched her first game at Westport High in the nude?"

"I don't believe it."

"True story," I sighed. "There's so much we haven't told you. We were scared to. I saw people, good people, destroyed under the fundamentalists. It had everyone spooked." I sighed again. "I'll never forget the day I saw Bob Tilling arrested."

"And Ellie Kirkland," Joe added, "she couldn't practice psychology anymore. Her books were banned."

"And Ms. Toranetti lost her teaching license."

"Thank goodness we fixed that," Joe said. As president of the school board, Joe was instrumental in getting Ms. T. appointed the Principal of Westport High last year.

"True. And Ellie's practicing again." I turned to our children. "There was so much we were afraid to tell you. And, because of that, you're repressed and stifled."

"Don't you ever get horny?" Joe bluntly asked his son. Keith just blushed, and looked down. "Do you know how old I was when I lost my virginity?" Joe asked. Keith just looked at him. "Fourteen."

"WHAT?"

"As was I," I added.

"MOTHER!" Karen gasped.

"Your Aunt Lily was 13," I added.

"And your Aunt Maggie was twelve," Joe told Keith. He and Karen were just flabbergasted.

I added fuel to the fire. "By the way, me losing my virginity? That's with a boy. I first had sex with another girl when I was eleven."

Poor Karen. Keith, too. Joe and I had just dropped a nuclear bomb on their entire world view. I felt bad--but I also felt that shock treatment was the only way.

Because I had seen it. I had seen my lovely daughter fight off the signals that she was getting from her own body. I'd seen her about to explode. Keith, too. Those two were so in love, they should be fucking like rabbits by now. I didn't even think either of them masturbated--the damn church we were forced to bring them to when they were kids even railed against that!

After they had digested all this a bit, Karen asked the question we were waiting for: "Did you guys spend a week in school naked, too?"

I smiled at Joe and told them. "Joe and I didn't go to Westport High. We went to a high school that no longer exists. Westport Regional Academy."

"It's the industrial park on Jacobs Street now," Joe told them. "But, back then, it was a regional magnet school. Its nickname was Naked High."

"We spent every day of all four years of high school in the nude," I concluded.

Now they were really flabbergasted. "What was it like?" Karen finally asked, curiosity winning out over revulsion.

"Great," I enthused. Joe nodded his agreement. "You guys want to know all about it?" Keith and Karen looked at each other, and, after a minute, slowly nodded.

Joe took the four binders he had brought with him and put them on the coffee table in front of Keith. I reached next to my chair, grabbed four similar binders, and put them in front of Karen. "It's all in there," Joe said.

"Some students were picked to keep journals. Two journal-keeping students were then partnered up. Joe was my partner."

"And the journals were combined--we met every month, and made copies for one another, and discussed them," Joe added.

"So what the two of you have in front of you is identical. It's my journal, and Joe's. One binder for each year of high school."

"We give you permission to read them. In fact, we encourage it," Joe smiled. "And this is the perfect time. It's Saturday, and you have the whole next week off for vacation. Plenty of time to read."

"Prepare, however, to be shocked. They are explicit." I smiled at Karen. "When you find out who took my virginity, you're going to flip your lid."

"It wasn't Dad?"

"No."

"Who?"

I grinned. "You have to read the whole story."

"I don't know if I'm ready for this," Karen admitted.

"Honey, I don't either. But I want you to give it a shot." Karen looked at Keith, and they nodded.

"Keith," I said, "Why don't you come over here after supper, and start then? You should read them together. You're going to want to talk about this."

"OK." Keith and Joe left, Keith promising to come back after supper. After they had left, I turned to Karen and said, "Come on." I started out of the house, Karen in tow. We headed to my car.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see." We drove across town, pulling up to a medical building. I led Karen in to my gynecologist's office. The receptionist smiled and waved us in.

"Hi, Rosa!"

"Amber! Karen! How are you?"

"Great," I told her. "Listen. Can you give Karen the birth control shot?"

"WHAT?" Karen asked.

"Sure," Rosa said. "I don't even have to do all that damn paperwork I used to have to do when the wingnuts were running the country."

"Joe and I are going to let Keith and Karen read our journals," I told her.

"Good for you!"

"Wait a minute," Karen burst in. "You want me on birth control? Why? I'm not going to... I mean we're not going to..."

"Karen," I interrupted, "trust me on this one. If you read those journals, you will get turned on. I guarantee it. You're a young lady, you have hormones, and you're my daughter. You get halfway through the journal for freshman year and you're going to be squirming."

"I have managed to keep control of myself for two years," she said icily.

"I know you have--but you've done it by very carefully avoiding any chance to lose control. You keep such a tight rein on yourself that I don't know how you breathe sometimes. You will find it much harder after reading those journals. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm telling you to protect yourself from possibilities. Karen? Get the shot. It's a fail-safe."

Karen acquiesced and got the shot. Driving back home, I lowered the first boom on her.

"You'll find out soon enough, so I'll give you a sneak preview. Remember how I said I had a female lover before I had any male ones?" She nodded. "It was Rosa," I grinned.

"My DOCTOR?"

"Yup.Well, she was technically my second. Though my first was mainly just fooling around, experimenting."

"I don't know if I'm going to survive these journals!"

We ate, then Keith came over. They looked at the journals with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation. I had to laugh to myself. Hopefully, if my plan worked, the trepidation would soon be gone.

Keith and Karen looked at each other, grabbed the journals, and took them upstairs to read, well-fortified with snacks and sodas.

September 2003

Tuesday, September 2^nd, the day after Labor Day, was my first day at Westport Regional Academy.

I was excited. The minute the concept of the school had been announced, I wanted to sign up. You see, WRA was a nudist school--it had already been nicknamed Naked High--and I had discovered the joy of nudity way back in 6^th grade.

Naked High was a natural outgrowth of the Naked In School Program. That's where kids in a regular, everyday school were chosen to go naked for a week. Back when I was in 6^th grade, my sister Lily was in eleventh--that was the year we moved to Westport. Lily got put in The Program. She even had to play baseball nude. Anyhow, the week she was in it, Westport high had their annual carnival. Lily and her boyfriend Mike, who was also in The Program that week, took me. Since it was a school event during their Program week, they had to go in the nude. I decided to join the party--and found I really liked it. In fact, a few weeks later, I even went to school nude, along with my two best friends Tanya Vyshenko and Rosa Gutierrez. So, Naked High was the place I wanted to be.

Rosa and Tan were there, too. That was cool. They were as excited as I was. Of course, we were all most excited about the prospect of naked boys! Well, Tan and I were. Rosa, I wasn't so sure of anymore.

The thing is, Rosa and I had been lovers for two years. Now, understand, I'm not gay. At best, I'm bi. More accurately, I'm basically straight but don't mind fooling around with a girl if there are no boys available. There hadn't, as yet, been any boys available--so Rosa and I took care of one another. To me, that's all it was. Don't misunderstand me, I love Rosa. But I wanted dick, and I wanted it something fierce.

I'd thought Rosa felt the same way--but, lately, I'd been doubting that. She was far more into our relationship than I was. I was wondering if she really was gay. It worried me. Not that she might be gay, of course--whatever--but that I might be getting drawn into it. If she thought I was going to settle into a happy lesbian relationship with her, she was mistaken. And I'd made no secret of how badly I wanted a hard cock, but I'm not sure she was getting the message.

Anyhow--Rosa, Tanya and I met up at the entrance to Naked High, all excited about the new experience. We arrived clothed. The nakedness would come later. The first day was orientation--no classes--and we'd be stripping down later, when we got our lockers. Our lockers were extra-large--we could wear clothes to school, especially when the weather got worse, and we'd have plenty of locker space to put them.

We all gathered in the auditorium, the entire freshman class. We were the only class this year. They were building the school from scratch, and weren't letting anybody transfer in to make upper classes, so we freshmen would be the only ones there this year. The school--which was huge--was going to be kind of empty with only 250 kids there. However, they told us at orientation that they weren't using the whole school this year. There were two 'classroom wings' and we wouldn't be using one at all. In fact, that wing wasn't quite finished yet.

Anyhow, we all filed into the auditorium. There certainly was a lot to go over.

I looked around at my classmates. As I said, there were 250 of us. We came from Westport and six surrounding towns--Newburgh, Warren, East Warren, Lycoming, Davis, and Southport. So, I knew the Westport people, having gone through middle school with them--but I didn't know anyone else. That was cool--new boys!

Mr. Tilling got up at the front of the auditorium. He'd left Westport High to become the principal of WRA, because he believed in the concept. He brought Ms. Toranetti with him. Ms. T, a biology teacher who had brought The Program to Westport, was to be the vice-principal at WRA. She'd also teach some units of Freshman Biology class. I had already gotten my schedule and knew she'd be teaching the class I was going to be in. That was good--my sister and her friends raved about Ms. T.

Mr. Tilling talked to us about what Naked High was all about. One thing I guess I knew but hadn't really registered in my mind--everyone was going to be naked, staff and teachers included. "Take a good long look at your respected principal in his spiffy three-piece suit--it's the last time you'll see it," Mr. Tilling said, cracking us all up.

He talked some about the curriculum. In a lot of ways, this was a normal high school, and a competitive one. Despite the nudity, we'd all have to carry our weight in class.

He talked about the nudity--and some of the exceptions. Thank goodness they had learned the lessons of my sister Lily, who had torn up her leg sliding into home in the nude. Athletic teams would have uniforms. I saw a bunch of big guys who looked like they were probably football players breathe a sigh of relief at that! To be honest, Rosa and I did as well--we were both soccer players. Another exception was that girls on their period could wear panties or a bikini bottom. That was rather a relief!

Then Ms. T. got up to talk about the unusual aspects of Naked High. "It's not just about nudity," she said. "This isn't meant to be a hands-off nudity-has-nothing-to-do-with-sex kind of place. Sexual learning, experimentation, and activity are supported and encouraged. This is a place to learn about your bodies, and others' bodies." Sounded good to me!

There were guidelines, of course. "Coercion is right out," she told us. "No means no. Everyone goes at their own pace--and some people just aren't attracted to other people, and some people may form exclusive relationships. All of that must be respected. Nobody here will ever be forced or pressured to do anything. Although, I will say, anyone who expects or desires to graduate high school a virgin is probably at the wrong school." I'll say! I hoped not! It was bad enough that I graduated middle school a virgin. I didn't plan to let that particular problem go on much longer.

I couldn't imagine, in this day and age, any kid wanting to be a virgin by the end of high school. It's a permissive society, birth control had been made easy and 100% effective, and STDs had been eliminated. Sex is everywhere. But, I knew there were a few. Some of the nutcase 'no fun' religious sects still existed, so I'm sure some dopey parents still put pressure on their kids to 'wait until marriage' or some shit. I didn't buy that for a second. Hell, when I go to buy a pair of shoes, I try on the shoes before I buy them. In fact, and more to the point, I try on several pairs. One guy, and you don't get to try him on until after you've married him? Not for this girl!

Ms. T. was still talking. And she had a bombshell. "Sex between teachers and students is not prohibited. However, again, there are rules. No coercion still applies--and no horse trading. Students, if any teacher tries to get you to do anything sexual in exchange for a better grade, I want it reported. That is completely out of bounds. And students always have the right to say no for any reason. If you're being threatened, that also has to be reported. We screen the teachers very carefully so that shouldn't be a problem. But if it is, we'll take care of it."

"Also, students can initiate this if they want, but the same rules apply. Some teachers might not be interested. Some are married, or in other exclusive relationships. Not all married teachers will always say no, by the way--I'm married, but my marriage is open. But if a teacher says no, that must be respected. And some teachers have different tastes." She pointed to a man sitting on the stage. "This is Mr. Riley, some of you will have him for history. He's cute, isn't he?" she grinned. She was right, he was cute. "Well, he's also gay. So, sorry, girls, he will turn you down." Everyone laughed at that, Mr. Riley most of all.

The best part was when she told us about the schedule. Naked High had a longer class day that most schools, now we found out why: a half-hour break in the morning, and an hour and a half for lunch. And the school stayed open after classes ended for a few hours. In other words--and I almost fainted when I realized it--they were giving us time in school to have sex!

I felt like I'd somehow stumbled into utopia.

They even had a place--something called 'pods', which she said would make more sense when we took the tour of the school.

Mr. Tilling took over, then, and had something else to tell us. "Since this is an experimental program, we want a record of it, from the students' point of view. So, some of you have been picked to write journals. This is based mostly on your writing skills in middle school--we picked the better writers for this.

"Plus, you're going to be partnered. One guy with one girl. We want you to meet every month and discuss your journals with your partner. We're going to have you combine the journals, so we get the male and female perspectives. These journals will be seen by you, your partner, me, and Ms. T. And that's it, unless you give us specific permission otherwise. So do NOT censor yourself. What you write will help us to understand what our students go through here, for future years. Plus, every student who does this gets extra credit for it."

When he said that, I had a funny feeling--my writing grades in middle school were very good. I was right--I got picked. My partner was Joe Benson, a guy from Westport who I knew slightly. I didn't know him well, he was kind of quiet. Ah, well. I could handle that. And I liked to write, so I didn't have any problem with that part of it.

There were a few more things, then we were led to our lockers. They weren't kidding, the things were huge. Very handy. We were all commanded to strip.

It became apparent to me that the enthusiasm for getting nekkid varied greatly. I was clothes free in seconds, as were Tan and Rosa. Others seemed to have more problems with it

In fact, I was standing right next to a girl who was having enormous problems with it. And I could see why. She was chubby--really chubby. And she was staring at the lockers with this look of complete despair on her face, her fingers hovering over the buttons on her blouse.

"Are you OK?" I asked her.

"I don't know if I can do this," she said softly.

"This is a tough school to go to if you can't get naked."

"I'm not here by choice, my parents twisted my arm," she said. Jesus Christ, why do parents do this shit to their kids? "They thought I needed this, because I have no self-confidence. Of course I don't--if you had this body, would you have any?"

I probably wouldn't, but I wasn't going to say that to her. "Ah, it will be OK, you just have to get used to it. I'm Amber, by the way--Amber Woodard."