Chapter 9: Christmas

Mrs. Phillips' Grade 3 class started off the new term with the announcement of her pregnancy. She and her husband were pretty sure they knew the date of conception: the day that her students Theresa and Josh had their monumental mud-wrestling match. That evening Mr. Phillips had shown his wife all the support a loving husband could, and two and a half months later, their love for each other was beginning to show.

The parents of the Grade 3 class were making bets as to whether Mrs. Phillips would be wearing clothes to hide her pregnancy. Those who were betting "never" would find themselves cleaning up. After all this time of constant nudity, especially with how the wearing of constricting clothing would make her feel as her belly continued to swell, the mere thought of wearing even stretch-waist pants was more than Mrs. Phillips could stomach.

The other students were also advised, mostly through the jungle drums that make up student gossip. Finally, it was felt that a school-wide announcement was advisable, and the Principal sent a letter home with all students. It was happy and cheery, completely ignoring the Principal's newest problem: "I need a 'long-term occasional' to cover Mrs. Phillips' maternity leave."

Occasional teachers come in two flavours: retired teachers, eligible to work a maximum of 90 days a year in this school system, and brand-new teachers, trying to break into the school system.

The Principal placed an ad on the school system's intranet web site, and sent a notification e-mail city-wide to all schools' staff. Finding a naturist teacher for a long-term situation like this wouldn't be easy; any who were trying to break in would find themselves ostracized by the all-too-many prude schools around the country. Having a naturist school like Bell El on your resume was a sure-fire ticket to having it sent immediately to the round file. The length of pregnancy leave virtually foreclosed having any retired teacher take the position, be the school naturist or textile. She would have to start looking now, in the hopes of finding someone brave enough to take it on.

Halloween had been fun, with the kids vying for the most creative use of body paint to create their costumes. Emma Watson had won in the Grade 6 girls with a paint job that looked like a nursing sister's uniform, complete with gold "buttons", and the little sister of her best friend Melissa Mitchener, Margaret, won in her class for a make-up job that made her look like an orange Bengal tiger kitten, complete with whiskers and a painted-on tail.

Now that the term was over, though, Christmas was fast approaching. The children of Bare Back Bell, like their compatriots across the city, were excitedly preparing for Christmas pageants, presents and visits with loved ones. The school's biggest concern among the younger kids: would Santa show up sky-clad?

The parents had a similar concern. Who would they get to play Santa this year? And how would they disguise Santa?

Old Mr. William Beardsley was an inspired choice to play Santa. A naturist of many years' standing, he was also known for being a tad corpulent, and for having the requisite white beard. He also knew a petting zoo owner who happened to have some reindeer, and made arrangements for delivery of one for the evening of the school Christmas pageant. Wearing a Santa hat, jolly, bespectacled, full of belly and accompanied by a docile domesticated reindeer, he was the perfect image of Santa — a nude Santa, maybe, but still ... Santa.

The reindeer's handler, 16-year-old Cindy Dawkins, was having a most interesting experience. William's friend's daughter had never been nude in public before, her parents not being naturists. That didn't stop her father Henry from volunteering her services. She was told she didn't have to be nude — a relief, that — but that she'd be surrounded by several hundred naked kids, their naked teachers, and their (mostly) naked parents.

That gave her pause.

The weekend before she went in to the lions' den, at Mr. Beardsley's suggestion, she accompanied a few of the Buchanan High kids to Sunny Acres, so she could get used to nudity without actually being close to the centre of attention. As she was just visiting, she didn't have to doff her duds, but it wasn't long before she felt like she stood out more being dressed than she would being undressed, and after half-an-hour her new friend Leona Sharpe, Captain of Buchanan's swim team, was stashing Cindy's clothes with her own.

"Yes, I know what it's like," Leona assured her. "Fall of last year, I was in even a worse situation than you: our swim team were supposed to face Gymnos, and after St. Dunstan's had their success playing them, we didn't dare back down. How would that make us look, less brave than our younger sisters?"