Briefing

The next morning Jim and Cathy were lying comfortably snuggled together when they were woken by soft chimes from the flat screen.

Unaware of each other's thoughts, they both wondered how they could feel so relaxed and connected with a person they had known for less than half a day. Also unaware, they were both extremely pleased with the last day's events and especially with their roommate.

Cathy stretched, yawned and rose slowly from the bed after giving Jim a passionate kiss.

After both used the bathroom, Cathy crawled on top of Jim while he was lying on the bed, looked at him and asked, "Do you want first dibs on the shower, or should I go first?"

He grinned, "That is a hard question. No matter how we do it, it would not be fair. I think we will need to go together!"

Warming to the idea, Cathy kissed him and hummed. Softly stroking his forehead she said, "Oh, you think?"

Before Jim had the chance to answer she slid of the bed, grabbed his arms and pulled him up and towards the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, she turned on the hot water and shoved Jim gently into the bath. Then she turned around and rummaged through the cupboards to find some soap.

Soon they were both in the hot and soapy water, enjoying getting soaped by the other (and also soaping the other).

Of course the bath did get a bit out of hand, and before they left the tub, they had thoroughly christened the bathtub in their very own way.

Suddenly Jim remembered they had a schedule and rushed into the kitchen to find a clock. He was convinced that the automatic wakening must have been at the very last moment to make sure people would not be late.

He was really pleased when he found it was only 6 o'clock, so they had two and a half hours to eat breakfast and get ready for the day.

After deciding that there was plenty of time, they decided to spend an hour at the computers to explore their possibilities.

They found a video presentation called "The health of the Society", which was really a video related to their newfound way of life. It told them that the girls were automatically on a form of birth control pill and that in addition to regular blood tests, they were screened for known problems every time they used a toilet at one of the Societies facilities.

It further told them, that the rings keep track of their health status. If two member rings were put together they would each flash a colored light. If the light was green, there was no trouble having sex, if it was yellow, the partner was up for evaluation for special circumstances (usually sexual experiences with strangers outside the Society) and if it was red, they were possibly contaminated and extreme caution should be taken. Just for kicks the two teens put together their rings, and, unsurprisingly, both rings flashed a short green signal.

They also played around with the ordering menu for the robotic dumbwaiter and were fairly surprised to see the width of the assortment it could provide. Instead of the simplistic convenience store assortment, it provided a very wide variety of both snack food and real food articles. It also was able to deliver almost any kind of office supply known to man, and almost every grooming product in existence.

It also stocked a very acceptable selection of sexual toys and utilities (like massage oils, candles and scented sticks). One thing they could not find were the prices of the goods, so they refrained from purchasing anything until they knew their limit.

The dumbwaiter system also was part of other tasks they usually needed. If they needed printouts of something, they would order it and it would arrive via the dumbwaiter. Likewise, laundry was managed with the dumbwaiter system. Since personal clothes was not allowed on campus, all clothes came from a common pool. Dirty clothes were put into the dumbwaiter to be added to the washing queue, and they received the new clothes from the pool of fresh clothes.

Finally, they also found their schedule and discovered that the morning was spent in a "group briefing", the early afternoon in "solo physical exercise", the late afternoon in "group defence training" and the evening in "Partnered norm training". They really did not understand much of it, but they figured it would become clear later.

Finally, they decided to go for breakfast. Really expecting a barely acceptable experience, they were flabbergasted as they were met with fresh eggs, bacon, sausages, warm rolls, every fresh fruit imaginable, coffee, tea, and a wide selection of fresh juice — really a breakfast more suitable for kings than mere high school students.

After breakfast they decided they had time to christen the kitchen table too, and it was obvious to anyone who cared to look that they had already developed a lot of feelings for each other.

A few minutes before the briefing started, they sat down in plush seat in a massive auditorium and prepared themselves for a few hours of passive listening.

The woman from yesterday's "TV transmission" entered the room briskly at the announced starting time and moved to the podium.

"Welcome students," and the hall replied.

She pointed at two groups of students, one purely female and one purely male, and said, "that will not work. Sit next to your roommate, and with a member of the opposite sex on your other side too".

A few moments passed as the students rearranged. Looking pleased the woman continued, "Now, this is how you will always sit. Between two members of the opposite sex, with your partner being one of them."

She took a small sip from a bottle of water, and continued:

"From your time in your earlier societies you have learned a lot of concepts, rules, and norms that do not apply within the Society. You will still need to adhere to them while being public, which is our term for being observable from non-members. When being private, or only with other members, you should use our guidelines instead. But you will learn a lot about this during this presentation.

Let us start out with the obvious, most of you found yesterday to present quite a few surprises — and I can assure you that more surprises will come.

One important thing that differs between the surrounding societies and the Society, is that we don't like having unplanned events. That means that a day as important for you as yesterday is entirely scripted as so far you interacted with non-students. It was, I am proud to say, almost a ghost train of events.