Chapter 29B

As he got to the gym he was met by a smiling threesome made up of Janet, Crystal, and Janine. They formed an escort for him as he limped into the girls' locker room. Once he was there the activity of most of the girls slowed down as they looked him over. Some of them had seen him earlier in the day and so weren't surprised by the injury done to his face. Others were examining him, though. They paused either partially undressed or naked. What had occurred on Monday wasn't happening this time. On his first entrance into the locker room many of the girls had turned away. Only a few had openly stared at his naked body - then. Now, most of the girls were at least pausing to look at him. Some might even have been showing off — displaying their own naked bodies for Don's benefit. He saw this and knew it for what it was.

Dammit. I do not want all of this kind of attention being directed my way. I'm startin' to have girls I don't even know tryin' to get my attention.

His evident injuries were the badges denoting his bravery and fierce defense of his sisters and friends. He was not going to be able to avoid the attention this drew to him.

He spoke to Janet. "Let's move our stuff over to be by Crystal and Janine."

Janet smiled and nodded. "OK. Janine's sister is a friend of mine."

He just nodded. He already knew about that. A brief glimpse of a nakedly displayed bottom were his memories of Janine's sister Nikki. That had occurred at a pool party hosted by Jan.

They shifted their places in the locker room to be near Crystal and Janine's locker. He felt better having the two younger girls next to him. Neither of them would be tempted to try something with him. He was again feeling that acute unease of having so much attention being directed at him.

For his gym class he simply changed his socks and boots for a different pair of socks and trainers. He limped out of the girls' locker room and found Coach Hill. Me mentioned his injuries to the coach and expressed an opinion that some light curls and reps in the weight room would be about all he could do with his leg being banged up. Dave Hill agreed with the Nichols boy. The older man wasn't sure that he'd want to do anything other than sit back and recover rather than even try some light workout.

There were four other guys in the training area. He waved to them and got himself a set of light weights to use. He sat on an unused bench and performed a short sequence of curls with one arm before switching off to the other. He kept this up for several minutes until he could feel the bit of a burn building up in his muscles. He paused for a short while and talked with the other guys while they too took breaks in their training. Two of them were the guys he knew slightly from football team. The period passed easily as he basically spared his leg from much movement. His arms and upper body got enough exercise to cause a slight sheen of sweat to form. He slowed down a bit to keep from having to take a shower. He didn't want to have to deal with a wet bandage resulting from showering with the girls.

As the period came to an end he headed out towards the girls' locker room. His fellow participants in weight training teased him about what he'd be doing once he got into that locker room that they were only imagining about. Dan just shook Don's head and spoke. "Guys, just wait until it's your turn and you're the only naked guy in the middle of a horde of naked girls. It ain't quite what you might expect." He quirked up Don's right eyebrow in an expression suggesting that they really didn't know what reality might be.

One of the two guys on the team stopped and seemed to realize what Don might be inferring. "Oh shit! That could be really good and bad!"

Dan again nodded Don's head. "Yeah. It can be bad. Things can get out of hand real quick and surprisin' things can suddenly happen. I know, already..."

Suddenly, four guys were stopped there in the hallway. They were looking a bit apprehensive and uneasy. "Really?"

"Yeah, really. You know, I really don't like being thrown into this whole situation of being forced to be naked and subject to other peoples' whims. Now, I can handle too much aggressive attention directed my way. But, some kids can't. I'm seriously worried about some others bein' thrown to the wolves or into the lions' den — so to speak. Worse can be the friends who get excited and do really unexpected things. There might be that nice girl you know and trust who suddenly does something you weren't ever expectin'. That kind of thing'll give you a damned near heart attack." He was frowning. He cleared that off of Don's face as he realized what he was doing. He shrugged.

The four guys were now looking at one another and then back at Don. One of them spoke up. "What kind of thing, Don?"

Dan decided that it would be best if they knew just a bit. "OK, how about a girl in the shower tryin' to stick her finger up where the sun has never shined on your body?"

Three guys really flinched. One just had his eyes grow big and round. "No..."

"Yeah."

"Oh shit! I guess if that was in private it'd be OK. But, in the shower surrounded by other girls!? Gawd!"

"Yeah. That's kinda how I feel about it."

"That really happened?"

"Yeah. To say that I was surprised might be the understatement of the decade!"

"Oh! Yeah! I can believe that! DAMN!"

"Guys, there are things about this program that can surprise and even hurt you. Maybe for some folks it'll be really good. For others it'll be just OK. But, so far — for me it's been almost nothing but craziness! You just gotta be ready for whatever is thrown your way when you're placed into the program."

Four sets of eyes regarded Don Nichols. Dan Rhoderick's honest regard was what they saw displayed on Don's features.

"Damn! You're right about that. I guess we all should watch out for things like that."

"Yeah. Just think about next week when we're likely to be in the locker room with some frightened, naked girl. Guys — I'm gonna be there for her. Any other guy or group who tries something she doesn't like is gonna find me being my worst bad-assed self."

There were chuckles and nods in response to that. They knew about the results of guys trying to hurt girls in his presence.

"Yeah, Don! My little sister might be there in our shower. I want you there! Ain't no one who'd want to mess with her unless she asks 'im to help her! I can't believe her doin' that. But, if she does — then OK. I'll watch out for her and you can make sure that no other guy tries to horn in on her."

"Your sister has gym class this period?"

"Yeah."

"Damn, that's gonna be hard to deal with if she ends up in the program!"

"Yeah. I get to see my sister naked and take a shower with her! That's both weird and exciting. I guess I'll try to not get too close to her. But, I'd still like to see what she looks like." The guy looked confused, at best.

Dan couldn't quite believe that. But, it seemed to go along with the whole society and its set of expectations. He needed to shift into accepting this, but he was something like 35 years and another dimension out of synch with this expectation.

They separated and Dan limped on into the girls' locker room.

He got into the locker room before any of the girls started arriving from their various activities. He simply took off his trainers and socks. He pulled out his towel and wiped away the slight amount of sweat that had come to cover his upper body. He pulled out his deodorant and applied a little bit of it. He pulled on his regular socks and his Technica low-topped boots. Then he walked over to the mirror above one of the sinks and combed down his slightly damp hair. He took a moment to check his face in the mirror and wondered if the new medications were already taking away some of the discoloration of his black eye. He thought that he might be seeing some improvement in things.

He limped back over to his locker just as the locker room was filling with all of the girls coming back in from their exercises. He was packing up his stuff as Janet, Crystal, and Janine came over to stand alongside him. They grinned at him as there exercise clothing was stripped from their bodies. He just shook his head a bit and managed to not chuckle.

Janet noticed that he was putting his things away in his gym bag and that he was already wearing his regular footwear. "Don! Aren't you going to shower with us?"

"Don't need to, Janet. I hardly did anything this period. I'm really too badly hurt to have been able to do very much in the way of exercise. And I don't want to get this bandage damp. So, I'm skippin' the shower. I'm just gonna step outside and get a few minutes of fresh air before I join Crystal and Janine in our quest for the perfect research topic in our study session."

He winked at the two younger girls as he limped his way out of the locker room. He couldn't fail to notice the small army of eyes that tracked his departure. He passed the mirrors and had a good angle to observe Janet looking slightly miffed while Crystal and Janine seemed amused by his departure. He realized they were watching all of the other girls in the room who were tracking his naked butt as he walked away from them.

He was the only student in the gym hallway as he headed outside. Dan stepped out into fresh air and somehow wasn't surprised to see Chad Devereaux out in the open space between the gym and main school building. "Hi Chad."

"Hey Sneak. How are yuh feelin?" Chad had a relaxed smile on his face as he turned to check on the approaching naked form of Don Nichols.

"OK. I worked with some light weights rather than try anything else. The leg is gonna slow me down for a few days, I think. What happened with our two friends from Raleigh?"

"Oh, the woman is being charged with assault. The guy didn't really do anything, so he's just being questioned as a witness. Having that video system running turned out to be a good deal. Nick tells me it's clear you were simply resisting what she'd been warned not to do. And her attempted grab that spilled her over that chair was a clear case of assault."

Dan displayed a grin on Don's face at the memory of the lunatic woman. But, then he thought about something else. "What about Mr. Robbins?"

Chad smiled. "Oh, he told Agent Hanks about being threatened with losing his licensing. That's another charge against her. Mark is talking with the lawyers on the School Board about bringing a suit against her for threatening one of their employees on school grounds. She's gonna be spendin' lots of time in court, I'm thinkin'."

Dan's grin was transfigured into a chuckle. It was a short one, though. Don's face was back to aching. They spoke for another couple of minutes before the bell rang. And only a minute later two young girls came walking out of the gym over to where they were standing.

Crystal was smiling as she reached up to give her father a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hi Daddy. Are you here to protect Don?"

"Hey baby. No, I think Don might be here to protect me." Chad grinned back as he replied to his daughter.

Janine laughed brightly at the joking between lover and her lover's father. "You're really silly sometimes, Mr. Devereaux."

"Right! I've seen what ol' Sneak here can do. He's far more capable of makin' mayhem than me." He was grinning as he spoke to his little girl's lover. He knew and accepted what had occurred between the two girls. He loved his daughter and recognized that Janine was wholly in love with Crystal. He had become comfortable with having a teenaged daughter who was openly lesbian and in an apparently long-term relationship with another girl who she'd grown up with.

Crystal was grinning along with her father and Janine. "We have to get to class, Daddy. We'll protect Don for the next hour or so."

Chad laughed and nodded. "OK, baby. Y'all take good care of Don."

Dan shook his head slightly and turned with the two girls. "See you later, Chad."

"Yeah - see yuh, Sneak."

The two girls smiled and waved goodbye to Crystal's father as they walked alongside the naked boy who was fast becoming their friend.

The naked 'boy' limped along and once again pondered his fate in finding himself cast as a fifteen year old into a strange world where nakedness could be forced upon teenagers while attending a public school.

They entered their study hall and sat down to a quiet hour discussing research topics and how they could go about conducting the research needed for each candidate topic.

One topic proposed by Janine was something she wanted to call comparative sexual activities. She wanted to interview various individuals and try to understand their approach to their own sexuality. Having observed recent activities around him, Dan thought it might be a workable idea. All three of them were sexually active and attending a high school in which sexual activity occurred on what appeared to be a regular basis. It was one option for a research project. They'd at least have some diversity of viewpoints with two of the potential researchers being girls in a lesbian relationship and the one guy having what might be thought of as harem.

Right! That last part does help to make that sort of project researchable! I can put all sorts of questions to my or Don's five girlfriends! Gawd! What will I think of next!?

The period came to an end and the three of them exited the study hall to head on to their lockers. "Let's get y'all's things first. We can walk back by my locker once y'all take care of your stuff."

Crystal grinned and nodded. "Sure, Don. Let's do it that way."

Once they got to the girls' lockers Dan lounged against the wall opposite them. He relaxed his injured leg and wondered about how long he might be limping. He hadn't had a young, vigorous body the last several times he'd been busted up in his last life. Still, it seemed likely that the injury would be slowing him down for awhile. I won't be jogging for a few days, I don't think.

Students were moving by and a number of girls were obviously checking out the body of Don. They were mostly very obviously checking out his equipment as it hung below his pubic hair. Several also examined his injuries and just nodded a bit as they seemed to reach some sort of judgement about him. Some of them smiled. Some said "Hi!" and giggled. He noticed at least two guys who seemed to focus on checking out what he had hanging between his legs. Once again, Dan found himself feeling quite uncomfortable about that last part. When he'd been growing up that hadn't been viewed as acceptable behavior in the environment of his little rural Florida community and high school. And the military had possessed a less tolerant attitude in the years following. He'd mostly done his job and tried to ignore some implications of the problem. He'd also carefully said nothing about some troops he'd served with. He had been rather sure that several members of his several teams had been something other than purely straight. But, they'd been good troops. He'd ignored that then and he hoped to manage his new life along the same lines, now. He tried to put it out of his mind as the two younger girls finished getting their things from their lockers.

They walked back towards his locker and they saw a familiar collection of Don's friends and acquaintances already finishing up with their own lockers. A naked Cindy and clothed Susie, Donna, and Tasha were there. Three of the guys he knew well were also dealing with their locker contents.