Chapter 6: Full Moon

It was the first lunch of the new school year, and as in past years Tanya was sitting with her girlfriends. They didn't want to talk with her about classes, or teachers, or students. No, the topic everyone wanted to discuss, to her horror, was: Would she or wouldn't she?

"Guys, I'm kind of committed." She sat back and looked darkly around her. "I'm doing the show, assuming I don't freak out at bein' nude and all that and kill my career."

The girls were doing enough freaking out for her. "Where are they shooting this?" Deb demanded. "Are you going to have to take time off school?"

"They've bought a warehouse near here they've been frantically converting to a sound stage, and they're going to do lots of location scenes at this naturist resort not far from here." She looked around. "I won't need to set foot in California at all next summer."

"And I suppose they're going to want extras from the area, too?" Deb continued, amazed. "For backgrounds? In the nude?"

"Yes," Tanya confirmed. "Sunshine Studios will be making a pitch later this week. They already gave all the forms to Miss Forbes including the parental permission slips, you just have to go see her in the Counsellors' Office. They even have the contract forms to sign you up with my agent."

"You're braver than I am," Beth confessed. The cute brunette added, "Mind you, if Bobby were to be there I could do it. But he'd have to be beside me before I'd dare to."

A sixteen year old boy at the table immediately behind Beth stopped eating, his sandwich hovering midway between tabletop and mouth and his eyebrows hovering midway between his ocular ridge and the orbit of the International Space Station. Because he was sitting immediately behind Beth, she couldn't see him, nor could he see her. But every girl on Tanya's side of the table could see him and his ears, which had just turned a delightful shade of pink. His friends at his table had likewise stopped eating their lunches and were instead eating their fists as they fought to keep their laughter from interrupting Beth.

"So you'd do it if he were there? Act in Tanya's show?" Beth nodded at Deb's query. "In the nude?" Beth nodded again. "Both of you, in the nude?" Beth considered for a fraction of a second, and nodded again.

"Well, it would be an acting job? I mean, they'd be paying us, wouldn't they?" Beth challenged.

"Well, yes, they would have to," Deb allowed, "just like the past two summers when we went to California. We're all still SAG."

"Beth," Tanya advised her friend sympathetically, "there's something I really have to say right now."

Beth nodded uncomprehendingly.

Tanya's grin threatened to split her face as she looked over Beth's shoulder. "Hi, Bobby!"

Beth's jaw dropped as she heard a weak voice behind her mutter, "Hi ... Tanya..." The voice, already barely a whisper, dropped to an even quieter level. "Hi, Beth..."

Beth's face turned scarlet and she dropped her head to the table, trying to hide her visage in her arms. Bobby turned around in his chair. "Should I be a gentleman and get your forms from Miss Forbes when I get mine?"

"Somebody call the undertaker," Beth wailed as a cafeteria full of teens burst into raucous laughter. "I just died of embarrassment."

Meanwhile, over in Middle School, Kimberley was having as embarrassing a lunch as her big sister Tanya.

She was dining, as usual, with her friends. Chief among them was Beth's little sister Ellen, and her life-long friend Phil. Others had joined them as they wanted the scoop on Tanya's new nude TV show. Kim didn't dare tell them yet of the surprise that the creative team had handed her with last weekend. Instead, she stuck to the family line.

"Yes, she's committed to doing the show. They'll put six in the can and let all the family review and vote on it before they air it, but I'm sure that we'll be OK with what we see. You know Sunshine only does family-friendly films, they don't do porn."

"Will you be in the show?" drilled Ellen, just as inquisitive as Deb.

Kim blushed but didn't reply.

"Aha!! You WILL be in the show!"

"Kim?" Phil sounded concerned.

Kim flicked her eyes at the cutest boy in her class.

"Kim? You OK? You really going to do that?"

Kim's face turned even hotter. "Probably," she muttered. It was more than she'd wanted to admit, but she couldn't lie to Phil.

"And nude?" Phil whispered, his lips inches from her ear.

Part of Kim wanted Phil to start nibbling on that earlobe, but instead she whispered back fiercely, "If I'm on the show, then I'll be in the nude." It wasn't a complete lie to say "if". There was still four-fifths of five-eighths of a slim chance that she wouldn't be on the show ... naked. Granted Slim had left town, but he could come back...

Not great odds unfortunately, but it meant she could still say "not for certain".

That evening Beth, Ellen and their parents Chuck and Cathy were on the back deck of their abode, awaiting mysterious guests for a barbecue dinner. Susan and John were each nursing a bottle of beer while they waited while their daughters were each enjoying a cola.

Suddenly they heard Bobby's cheerful voice yelling greetings. He proved to be accompanied by his parents Millie and Roger, older brother Richard and younger sister Rochelle.

Knowing her elder sister's attraction toward the boy, Ellen cheerfully and loudly advised Beth that "your boyfriend Bobby" had arrived. Younger sisters know well what will work to change their older sisters' skin a delightful shade of crimson, especially in front of parents.

No sooner had they arrived then the Shiells arrived.

As the burgers and brots contributed their aromas to the general feeling of goodwill, Chuck kept an eagle eye on his daughter. Yes, she seemed to be quite attracted to Bobby, and yes, the feeling seemed mutual.

As he artfully flipped the burgers, he asked Beth in a conversational yet loud voice, "So I hear you're willin' to co-star on Tanya's new show, that is if Bobby will come with ya."