Chapter 5: Juliet Capulet Gets Swimming Lessons

As the swim team and the support group made their way back to their respective classrooms, they ran a gauntlet of friends and fellow students who cheered them on — more than a few adding a "better you than me" to their encouragement.

In her classroom, she found more than just her own classmates there — it seemed half the school had zeroed in on this one classroom. The teacher finally physically booted out the ones who didn't belong to restore order and get something, anything taught that day. Linda returned to her seat from where she'd been trying to chat up Paul on the other side of the classroom. Rebecca grabbed her math book, and discovered a sealed note carefully taped to the front cover. "I'll see you at Sunny Acres on Saturday!" it announced. It was unsigned and seemed hastily written. The handwriting was unfamiliar.

She looked around the room — but then, people had been here from both grades and pretty well all classes. There was no way she could figure out who gave this to her.

"What's that? A love letter?" asked Linda, looking over Rebecca's shoulder.

"Maybe, but I don't know." She showed it to her friend. "It's not someone in the Swim Team or the Support Group, they all know we're leaving Friday. Must be another Marcia."

"Someone else whose parents can't admit to their families that they're nudists?" Linda asked. "Must be a lot of them."

Afternoon classes started with Phys Ed. The class was split between boys and girls; it was the turn of the girls to have their first swimming class of the semester. "Wonderful timing, that, eh?" Linda asked Rebecca ironically.

Several of their giggling classmates asked if the two girls would be nude, and then asked if the rest of the class was expected to be nude. Just then, Eileen strode in — buck naked.

"Swim team and supporters, wear nature's swimsuits. The rest of you, it's up to you whether you wear anything or go bare. Two minutes!!!"

Everyone stopped dead. Rebecca and Linda looked at each other. "Well?" Linda challenged.

"Well, well, well. Oh, well," Rebecca shrugged. Both of them quickly stripped off and headed for the shower. "Last one in the pool is a dirty rotten egg!" Having been nude before all the other girls in the shower after previous Phys Ed classes, they were comfortable with the concept. The other girls gawked at the two and at the impatient Eileen standing there glowering at them with arms crossed, and quickly stripped down themselves. As a result, to Ginger's astonishment, her entire 1:10 class was standing before her as nude as she and Eileen were.

"Eileen, what did you do to them?" she whispered. "We hadn't asked for nudity to be mandatory."

"Never underestimate the influence of the group dynamic. Once a few girls make it look acceptable, suddenly it's easier for everyone else. Don't ever think, though, that it would have been this easy if it were a co-ed class."

The two instructors overheard one of the students mutter to her friend, "Miss Green can be scary, not like Mrs. Ford."

Eileen thought to herself that Miss Green was scary because Miss Green was still upset about having to break it to her boyfriend what her dress code for this weekend was going to be, when she had no idea what kind of reaction to expect.

The class went well until one unlikely lady turned out to be a non-swimmer. She had to be helped by pole to the side of the pool by Linda, while her friends looked on in terror.

"You really can't swim, can you," observed Eileen, comforting the girl.

"Sure I can — like a rock!"

The other girls giggled, and Eileen bit her lip. Laughter on her part might be misconstrued. "What's your name, honey?"

"Barbara Collins. My friends call me Babs."

"OK, Babs, you got your breath back? You feeling OK?"

"Yes, I think so, thanks."

"I think you'll need additional help. Let's see, can you come by for supplementary classes after school, starting Monday?"

"Can I come in the morning instead, starting tomorrow?"

Oh, that was SUCH a bad idea. "The morning is when the boys' swim club meets. Tomorrow morning you'll be here with sixteen naked boys and two naked MALE instructors." And so will I, she mused, her knees suddenly weak. "I think it would be better if you could come after class, when the girls' swim club meets. Starting next week, we'll have the pool to ourselves at that time. Can you do that?"

"I don't know, after class is when the Drama Club meets — we're preparing for a play at the winter festival, and I've got a role in it. I wouldn't mind being in the morning sessions, Miss Green, honest. I know I need to learn to swim."

"Well, let me talk to Mr. Richardson and Mr. Weldon about that. You can't not learn to swim." Robert Richardson was the head of the English department and as such the teacher responsible for the Drama Club.

Joe and Bob were sympathetic about Eileen's plight, but could see few avenues of escape for her. "I can't have her miss rehearsals, even for one week," Bob explained. "She was being modest when she said she had a role in the play. We're doing Romeo and Juliet. Well, Barbara is Juliet. She has a lot of lines to learn. We're in rehearsal from 3:30 right up to 5:00, often later. She's proving to be a wonderful little actress. It would be for the best if you could give her morning classes."

"We will have space in the pool in the morning," Joe offered. "You can make use of the swim lane farthest from the stands. That way, she'll be exposed to nude boys as little as possible."

"I think that will be for the best, mostly because that will be least disruptive for your training. If you're like the girls, you're only using four of the ten lanes anyway. Still, part of the problem is me. I've never been nude in front of a guy before, except maybe back when I was in diapers, if my Dad ever changed them."