Chapter 6: Wednesday Afternoon

Robert - Wednesday after lunch

We finished our lunches a few minutes before the bell rang indicating that we would need to go to our first afternoon class. I remembered something I had thought about asking Patricia before all the excitement this morning.

"Would you want to go out to eat with me after the game Saturday afternoon?" I asked Patricia.

"Only if you will go with me to the football game." She replied.

Now all I needed to do was think of someplace we could walk to.

"Do you know of anywhere we could go to eat?" I asked Patricia when I came up blank after a couple of minutes.

"We could get something at the Mall," she replied "I have walked over there a few times from my house."

Patrick - Wednesday after lunch

Roberta and I had separated from Robert and Patricia when he asked her out. I decided to go through the motions of asking Roberta out. This was more for the sake of those within earshot of us than for either of our benefits since we had already agreed to go out (as Robert and Patricia). She accepted of course even if she pretended to think about that for a moment.

"You know," I continued, "we could check out what's playing at the movie theater at the Mall after we eat if its not to late."

"Great idea." Roberta replied.

Roberta - Shop

Patrick and I were stopped a few times due to reasonable requests after we agreed on going out for dinner and a movie after the game Saturday afternoon. However, there were not as many requests this time around, as there had been early this morning. The same situation was happening with Patricia and Robert, but as I found out later, we were the exception to that trend.

When we got to class, Mr. Tyler had us sit down in our usual spots. After the bell rang he asked Patrick and me if we needed relief and I told him no. I was still working out in my mind how I felt about what had happened after Gym.

Mr. Tyler then asked who had any ideas for their woodworking project. About half the class was like me and still had not decided on anything while the other half briefly told Mr. Tyler some of their ideas.

A few of the ideas were rejected right off hand. They either were to complex for the equipment on hand, or would take to much time to make. A couple of other projects were rejected for meeting some other requirement.

Patrick was one of the few people who mentioned an idea that was accepted. He was going to build a jewelry case. That sounded like a good idea so I told Mr. Tyler that I was going to make one as well.

We then had some more exercises in three-dimensional drawings that took the rest of the class period to finish.

As the bell rang, Mr. Tyler told those of us who had planned something to make a rough hand drawn sketch of our project for Monday. As to those who didn't already have a project, they could look at some loose-leaf notebooks in the back of the class with pictures of some the projects that had gotten As to get ideas.

Patricia - Home economics

Robert and me got to our Home Economics class just before the bell rang. We sat next to each other and waited for Ms. Dewitt to start class.

Ms. Dewitt asked us if we needed relief and we told her no. We didn't tell her that the reason we didn't want relief was due to what had happened to Roberta earlier.

We were told that today we would be baking cookies. Robert turned to me and asked, "Do you still want to use the apron I had on Monday?"

"Sure," I said, "After all, I was the one that had the well done brownies on Monday."

"Personally I like crispy brownies, especially with some milk." Robert said, reminding me that he had insisted on taking home my brownies. Thinking about it, there were two different plates of brownies as dessert last night. While nothing was mentioned about who had made each plate of brownies, I noticed that the ones that were on the plate that Robin took theirs from made a crunchy sound when they were bitten into. I took mine from the other plate and those were nice and chewy.

Ms. Dewitt gave us a choice of a couple of recipes and Robert and I each chose one to make. This time I was ready to put my cookies in the oven at the same time (and same oven) as Robert did. When the time was up, I took them out and realized that they came out good.

Robert - Biology

Patricia and I made our way down the hall to our biology class. We got stopped a few times along the way, but instead of reasonable requests, I was being asked about if what they heard about my sister was true.

"If the rumor you heard had Roberta almost being raped then its true" I told them.

I then told them that Patrick and me had stopped Greg before he did anything to Roberta.

Patricia and I made it into Biology with barely a minute to spare. As we made our way to our seats, a guy reached out and slapped Patricia's ass.

She faced him and asked, "Did I tell you that you could do that?"

"No" he sheepishly replied.

"Would slapping me on the ass be considered a reasonable request Mr. Hendrick?" She continued.

"That is in a gray area Patricia." Mr. Hendrick replied, "That is entirely up to you, Miss McDonald. If you wanted to let a guy do that, you could. Nothing would happen to you if you told the guy no."

"Ok," she said turning back to the guy that had slapped her "I don't consider it to be a reasonable request for you to slap my ass. More to the point, you didn't even ask."

"Sorry about that," Tim Corbin said, "I got a little carried away and I apologize."

"Kiss my ass." Patricia told him turning around so he could do it. "I am serious" she said, "If you want to apologize kiss my ass."

I could tell she was having trouble keeping from laughing at the poor guy. Tim actually did kiss her ass. Patricia then turned back at him and thanked him.

Patrick - Biology

I had a hard time controlling my laughter when I felt Tim's lips on Patricia's ass. I turned to face Roberta and leered at her mouthing "that gave me an idea."

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Mr. Hendrick answered it and told Robin and me to go back to Mr. Bethard's office.

I asked Robin if they had any idea what it was all about and they said that unless it was something to do with what had happened earlier.

When we got to Mr. Bethard's office, Robin commented that they had been in there way to often this week. I had to agree with them since before this week, I had not been to the principal's office at all in the last three years.

The secretary instructed us to sit down and wait for the others that would be arriving shortly.

Eventually, the other six couples in the program this week showed up. After a couple of minutes, Mr. Bethard showed up and led us to an empty classroom. He told us to sit down.

When everyone was seated Mr. Bethard started, "First of all, none of you are in trouble. Normally we ask that you turn in a journal the week after you are in the program telling about how you feel about this week. Some of the better ones we keep a copy of to be used to help students that are having problems adjusting with going nude."

Mr. Bethard handed us some paper and pencils as he continued, "That brings me to the reason for calling all of you here. I want for you to write down what you know, or what you have heard about what happened this morning in the janitor's closet?"

After a few minutes, he collected the papers. After glancing at them, he continued.

"First of all, what happened was not a joke or a prank by an upper classman on a Sophomore as a couple of you wrote down. It also was not a case where a couple was caught trying to have consensual sex by a jealous Program Partner. I can see that a few of you either heard more than one story or didn't pay attention to the one that you heard. Finally, six of you got the story correct."

"Then again," Mr. Bethard said, "four of those six were involved to some degree in what happened."

Mr. Bethard proceeded to describe the events of this morning, changing how Robert, Patricia and me found out that Roberta was in trouble.

"Since this is a mandatory program we can't cancel it permanently," Dr. Bethard continued," but we can temporarily suspend it if we feel a need to for the safety of the students involved. How many of you have clothes here at school?" Dr. Bethard asked.

Since most of us had undressed in front of the school all but one of the couples had clothes in their Program locker.

"I want for those of you that have clothes here to go ahead and get dressed." Dr. Bethard continued, "for now we are going to suspend The Program while we will review some safety measures. Later on we will decide if you will get credit for the days you have gone in the nude or if you will have to start over once we continue with The Program."

I raised my hand and when I got Dr. Bethard's permission to speak I started "That is unfair. You are in effect blaming the program for something an idiot did. I personally would want to continue in spite of what happened this morning."

"Dr. Bethard, with the exception of the actions of two or three people that shall remain nameless I have enjoyed being in The Program." Roberta said, "Just last night I was talking to me brother about the great program partner I have and he said that he felt the same way. I have met some cool people as well because of the program. If I don't finish up this week, I would feel like a quitter. My dad always says that quitters never win and I agree with him."

Most of the others agreed that they had enjoyed being in the program so far. The two exceptions -- one freshmen and one junior -- admitted that while they would not call it "fun" it was not quite as bad as they had feared it would be.

Dr. Bethard was surprised by our reaction but he agreed to think about it, and he said he would be talking with some of our teachers to learn how some of the other students were reacting to The Program this year. In the meanwhile, The Program would continue for the rest of today. If he still felt it unsafe to continue with the program, he would let us know before the end of classes today. However, if we did not hear otherwise The Program would be continuing until the end of the week at least.

With that, Dr. Bethard handed out hall passes. After looking at his watch, he told us to wait outside our classroom to pick up our books and such since the bell would be ringing in a few minutes anyway.

Roberta - Physics

Patrick started to try to talk a little bit about this morning and our meeting with Dr. Bethard but I changed the subject. I told Patrick that I had a problem talking about it right now.

My problem was not what Greg tried to do to me but instead wishing that Patrick was the one with me in that dark closet. Ok, I would not have minded it if it was Patricia and Robert in there instead of Patrick and me since I would have enjoyed it the same. Maybe I could suggest that Patricia sleep with Robert and Patrick try to sleep with me tonight.

Patrick woke me up from my daydream telling me that we would be counted as tardy even if we were right outside the classroom when the first bell rang.

I am glad that I know the telephone number of some of my classmates. I hope to get their notes since I zoned out for most of the class. I heard Mrs. Rodriguez ask Patrick and me if we needed relief and we told her no. She looked glad that we didn't request relief in her class.

What seemed only a few minutes later the bell rang, indicating the end of classes for the day.

Before we could leave, Mrs. Rodriguez asked Patrick and me to stay for a minute. "Thank you for remembering what I had requested for you to do last Monday." She said after the classroom was almost empty.

"Actually I did not even remember that you had asked us if we could wait until after your class to get relief." I admitted telling her a condensed version of the events this morning and the meeting we had this afternoon.

She also told me that for today I had an excuse for not paying attention, but that unless I could prove I knew the material I should at least try to give the impression I was paying attention on the board and not counting dots on the ceiling.

"I want you to know that I can understand what you are going through Roberta. When I was about your age I went to a nudist camp. There, a group of guys decided that my nude body meant that I was willing to have sex and gang raped me. Since then, I have been uncomfortable with even the idea of being nude in public." Mrs. Rodriguez finished

I told her I would try to pay more attention in class. I also told her that as far as I was concerned, she would not have to worry about me asking for relief in her class. Then Patrick and I walked through the nearly empty hallways to volleyball practice.

Patricia - Art

Robert and I talked a little about the meeting we had with Dr. Bethard, but I could tell he wanted to avoid that subject.

Ms. Stone had Robert and me pose a couple of times, the first time with him holding his book bag over his shoulder looking down over his shoulder at my reclining on a couch pose. We looked at some of the drawings when she gave us a five minute break to stretch. None of our classmates are as good an artist as Sue Dicks, but there were a couple that Robert and I asked if we could have a copy of later on.

The second pose had me sitting on Robert's lap while he was sitting on the couch. We were told to look as if he was comforting me. That pose could be the other way around and it would be closer to the truth. On the other hand, I really enjoyed being in Robert's arms and even though I was not specifically asked to I ended up resting my head on his strong shoulder.

We looked into each other's eyes and I whispered to Robert that I liked this pose a lot better than any of the other three we had done so far.

He told me that was the case for him as well.

We held the second pose until the bell rang. Ms. Stone had the two of us look though the stack of drawings for the second pose and there was one that I decided I wanted a copy of. The artist really focused on our eyes, giving our bodies just a minimal treatment. However, it was not signed and there was a drawing (or an attempt of one) from each of the other students in the class.

When Robert pointed this out to Ms. Stone, she admitted that was her drawing. She drew it as an example of the type of things she was looking for. I asked her if I could have a copy and she told me that the two of us would each get a copy. She also told us that she was going to make a painting from that sketch and a picture she took of us to show the class how some paintings can be made with only a short time for the models to pose.

Robert - Between Art and Volleyball practice

When we were held back from our last period classes I came to the conclusion that our teachers must have been told to try to help Patricia and especially Roberta to avoid reasonable requests after what happened this morning.