Chapter 1: Caught

Melanie Lucas unlocked the door and let herself into her family's quarters. It had been a rough day at school, with lots of homework assignments to welcome her to the weekend. Plus, with this blasted election campaign, she'd be having to travel to some political meeting tomorrow evening – boring! It had only begun that week, and she was already heartily sick of it. Her father Tom was the Conservative Party candidate for President, and was expecting full support from his family: wife Barbara, 14-year-old daughter Melanie and 10-year-old son Fred.

She called out to her parents and was met with the voice of Robert Watkins, the Security Service agent assigned to watch the house when everyone was out. Good: no arguing with her father, no disapproving looks from her mother. Her father and she did not exactly share the same political views, which made for some occasionally tense dinner conversations. Every once in a great while, one would be able to convince the other on a point, but overall in her eyes, he was still the stick-in-the-mud and she was the young progressive.

A grim, square-jawed man in his late 30's, dressed in a severe black suit carefully cut to hide the holster of the needler that could stun at 50 paces, walked into the living room. "Welcome home, Miss Lucas. Your father called. Your parents' flight has been delayed. They'll be home within the hour. Your brother is staying with a schoolmate for the evening, and won't be home until noon tomorrow."

"Thanks, Mr. Watkins. I'm going to have a shower and start on my homework."

"Very well, Ma'am."

Upstairs, Melanie happily placed her bag on her bed, stripped off and daringly walked across the hall to the bathroom as bare as the day she was born – or at least as bare as she was at that resort her friends had dragged her off to last weekend. With this campaign, she figured that would be the last time she'd have a chance to go back there for awhile.

After luxuriating under the hot shower and towelling herself dry, she walked back to her room, as calm as she could make herself, still nude, a dry towel in hand. Placing the towel on her chair, she sat down, opened her computer, started up the word processing program and started working on the report that was due in her English teacher's in-box by the end of that weekend. She knew the rest of her weekend's schedule would be a zoo of tightly controlled photo-ops and campaign meetings, as she'd be expected to play Dutiful Daughter and be shown off behind her father. She didn't dare let up at school, as that would reflect poorly on the family as a whole.

Down below, her father and mother finally arrived. Robert Watkins greeted them politely but neutrally, and withdrew to notify the household cook. Melanie failed to hear them arrive, between concentrating on her homework, having her bedroom door closed and having her bedroom located at the back of the house. Tom marched smartly up the stairs to his unsuspecting daughter's room.

"Melanie!!" he bellowed, throwing open the door – and throwing caution to the four winds.

The naked teen pivoted in her chair, startled at the intrusion. "Daddy?" she squeaked. Then she remembered what she was wearing – or rather, what she wasn't wearing.

"Close the door, please, Daddy. I've just had a shower. I'm doing my homework while I dry off."

"No, we need to talk now." He glared at her as he strode into her room, his embarrassed wife following along.

"Where were you last weekend? You said you were with the Franklins."

"I was." The Franklin and Lucas families were old friends. She went to school with their daughter Lucy, also fourteen, and shared many classes. They were on the cheerleader squad together. Harry and Charlene Franklin had two other children: 10-year-old twins Laura and Leon, classmates of her little brother Fred.

"You couldn't have been. They're decent folks – they would never go to a nudist colony!"

"It's a naturist resort ... oh ... oh-oh..." As the realization set in, she turned the same bright pink shade as her mother. "Yes, I was with the Franklins, and yes, we were at a naturist resort ... um ... and ... yes ... we ... were..."

"In the nude..." Tom finished for her.

" ... in the nude..." She gulped. "It's a nice place, Dad."

"So you've assured me before," her father reminded her. "There's just one small point you neglected to mention." She winced. "The dress code," he prompted, glaring at his errant daughter.

"Sorry, Daddy..." Melanie put on her best ingratiating grin. "I didn't think you'd approve."

"Of course not!" Tom screamed. "And..." With an effort he got his voice under control. Best not to have the household staff hear them. Much more quietly he continued, "and your brother was supposed to go with you and the Franklins next weekend. Did he know that he'd be running around starkers?"

Melanie's blush became deeper. Barbara noted the lack of tan lines on her daughter's trim torso. "Yes, Daddy," she choked. In for a penny, she figured, in for a pound. No sense holding anything back.

"So, you're telling me that our good friends, who we've known for years, are closet nudists?" Melanie nodded, miserable. "And you too?" She nodded again.

"And how long have you known about the Franklins being nudists?"

"A couple of years now."

A coup-" Tom was astounded.

"After President Yamashita made that trip to Spica II, I got up the courage to ask to go to a naturist resort, and the Franklins agreed to take me with them to Sunny Glades." Tears filled her eyes.

Tom did some quick mental math. "So you've been going for the past six months?

Melanie nodded. "It's nice, and it's safe, and everyone there is friendly, and I always have a good time when we go there. I'm sure Fred would be OK there too, there are plenty of kids his own age to have fun with..."

Barbara looked sympathetically at both father and daughter. He was upset mostly because of how he found out, she was upset because her father was angry, and also because right now she was buck-naked in front of her very clothed parents, which was somewhat embarrassing.

"Daddy, I enjoy this. It feels really nice, it's comfortable. And I'm not doing anything wrong. If it was wrong, would Mr. and Mrs. Franklin take Laura and Leon with them?"

"They do? Both kids?"

Melanie nodded through her tears. "And Henry Whitmore, and..." she rattled off the names of a few other people that Tom knew well. Henry was an old party stalwart. Tom remembered his words of warning six months earlier, when the Conservatives were aiming to make political hay out of President Yamashita's all-nude visit to Spica II.