Chapter 3

Kirsten Lovett was, once again, spending the night at her friend Tammy Tanner's home.

The two college students had brought their summer cheer camp squad to regional finals competition on August 14th with the expectation that cheer camp would be over on the next day and Kirsten and Tammy would have seventeen days to relax before the fall semester of their senior year in college.

As luck would have it, both the junior high school and high school squads Kirsten and Tammy coached placed in the top three teams in their age groups at regionals and had advanced to the state wide competition to be held on August 21st. Worse, should either team finish highly enough to go to the national competition Kirsten and Tammy would be committed to their duties through Labor Day, the first Monday of September, and only two days before the start of classes.

Both girls were due to start Teaching Practicum in the Fall Semester. After two weeks of class room preparation they would be sent to the schools designated for their student teaching, and ten weeks later it was back to the class rooms in college to write the thesis based on their experiences. But if either of the age groups the girls were mentoring achieved success in national competition and were selected to go on to the international competitions in November all this might be put on hold.

"Read that to me again," Tammy asked her friend and fellow coach.

"All teams participating as Absolutes shall have the squads performing routines and any manager, coach, or spotter within the performance area must be properly body painted in the colors of the school or organization for whom they are competing. It is rule seventeen paragraph two, Tammy," Kirsten noted, then added, "There are illustrations in the appendix as to what is proper body painting. It looks like just dying carpet and curtains won't be enough to satisfy the rules."

"Who do we know who can air brush kids, and who would be willing to take the trip to State finals with us?" Tammy asked her friend, hoping Kirsten would know someone.

"No one that I know who would be back on campus already, Tam. What about the art group your mom belongs to? Maybe one of the people their can help or knows someone who can."

The pair left Tammy's room and headed downstairs to the family room.

"Ugh, MOM, get a room," Tammy jokingly yelped upon seeing her mother nestled on her father's lap, both snuggling and kissing passionately.

Her parents broke their kiss and her father responded, "In case you have forgotten this is OUR HOUSE, college girl." He then stuck his tongue out at his daughter and broke into a wide grin.

Kimberly wiggled a bit on Jeff's lap. Kirsten suspected Tammy's mother did so to hide her husband's erection, and nudged Tammy, "We can come back later and ask, Tam, we interrupted them."

"Trust me," Kimberly responded, "the moment has passed. What is it you girls needed to ask us?"

The girls ran down the problem they had with State finals and the need to airbrush the two squads of fifteen girls and boys each at both the middle school/junior high level and high school level... "No one we know or could ask to help is around until after the competition is over. We were hoping someone in your art league could help us or would know of someone who might help." Tammy looked at her mother pleadingly.

It was her father who cleared his throat and drew the women's attention. "My administrative assistant, Stella Maris, is engaged to a young man who does custom air brushing for everything from surf boards to hot rod automobiles. I don't know if he could do a bunch of kids, but he would probably know of someone who could. Let me call her and see if she can ask his help."

It took less than an hour back and forth between Jeff Tanner and Stella Maris to get the arrangements made. Stella's fiancé, Tony, would not only do the work, but would provide the equipment and use his van to transport everything to the competition site. All he asked in return was a program mention. To make the girls on the squad feel more comfortable both Stella and another air brush artist, a female, would also be on site to assist Tony. Jeff gladly gave Stella the time off with pay for her help and dipped into his non-existing pockets for the supplies Tony would need to buy.

It was now just past eleven o'clock in the evening and the Tanner household retired to bed.

The College had extended the use of the dormitory for the cheer squads to stay over and use the training facilities in preparation for State finals. Tammy and Kirsten gathered the thirty cheerleaders together for a meeting first thing in the morning. Kirsten read the rules of the competition to the group with Tammy stopping her periodically to explain phrases that might be too technical for the younger cheerleaders.

Kirsten read rule seventeen twice. It then sunk in to the older girls and boys, but Tammy still had to break it down for the youngsters. "What it means is, before any of us goes on stage to perform, spot, or coach we all have to be painted from head to toe, not just our hair above and below," she had pointed to her head and crotch, "but every bit of us has to be covered in paint, or we cannot compete."

"We are three days away from competition, people," Kirsten spoke up, "we need to have a dress rehearsal, perhaps even two, because the feel of your bodies will change with the paint on them and you flyers will want to be sure your catchers know how firmly to grasp you as you go through your routines. This rule could skew everything toward the textile teams who have practiced in clothing all through competition, people, so if we want to win we have to get it right in only a few days. Can we do it?"

"YES!" Thirty voices roared.

"Then let me introduce you to Tony, Stella and Misty," Tammy told the group and the three artists stepped forward. "They are your painters. Listen to them, follow their directions and once all of you are painted and dry we will run through our routines."

The team pictures said it all. Thirty kids and two coaches, painted maroon and gold, harlequin fashion, in a water based breathable latex paint, proudly displaying silver medals indicating they had placed second to a textile team from across the state.

National rules allowed that each state might send a textile team and an Absolute team to national competition. Kirsten and Tammy's second place team automatically became first as Absolutes under national rules.

Thanksgiving would be spent in Austin, Texas where the current national champions were based and where the National Championship would be held. The two squads gathered every Friday evening and spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday practicing their routines. As the summer camp qualified as a club and not as a school, each of the children involved attended their regular school Monday to Friday. Kirsten and Tammy were given a leave of absence from their college work. As the college would give them credit for their training of the two squads, every aspect of their plans and other related squad business was monitored by their Teaching Education advisor.

"Oh crud!" Tammy was reading the National Competitive Cheerleading manual. "Could they be any more vague?"

"Professor Renaldo might be able to sort that out," Kirsten offered, "She is versed in translating the obscure."

Phone calls found the professor in her office and within ten minutes Kirsten and Tammy were knocking on the door to the oak paneled suite that a department chairperson rated at the college.

"All participants shall be properly clothed in accordance to the standards set by the governing organization," Professor Renaldo read aloud. She thought for a moment and then rose from behind her desk to pace. A woman in her fifties, with short gray hair on her head and sparse graying hair on her pubic region, Renaldo had come to the Absolute lifestyle after raising three children, the youngest now a high school senior. She had voluntarily surrendered her clothing as a show of support during the week her daughter participated in the Nude In Public program and while her daughter had reclothed herself after the week, Jane Renaldo never returned to the land of the textiled.

The two nude students sitting on the towels from the stack the professor kept by her office door were not an oddity for the professor. She regularly counseled students of both genders as to the Absolute lifestyle and its ramifications. She had also become well versed in the hidden language of contracts concerning Absolutes in the educational employment arena. Today's Absolute was treated in many ways like the gay and lesbian community was treated during the era of 'don't ask, don't tell'. She continued her pacing, then turned and stopped, smiling at the student coaches knowingly.

"It is the word THE. If the National Cheerleading Organization had been speaking of itself, they would have used THIS governing organization. By using THE, NCO leaves the uniform standard in the hands of each school or cheer club. You girls set our school and club standard at State when your squads competed in body paint. My interpretation is that is what shall be expected when you appear in Austin. To be sure I will run this past the college law division. However, I am rarely overruled in these matters so build your performances for your squads around the same body paint you used at State." Professor Renaldo smiled, shook the two student coaches hands and saw them out of the office, while her next appointment waited in her secretary's sitting area.

"Oh and girls, as this was a summer cheer camp project, the college has asked that our name not be used. Based on your body paint I am going to suggest you register your teams as the West Hamlin Harlequins Cheer Club, though you will still have full logistical and tactical support from college resources." Professor Renaldo then added, "This will separate our cheer squads from your club so that the NCAA and regional conference does not sanction either of us with rules violations."

The next phone call Tammy made was to her father's office. She cleared the dates of the competition with Stella who agreed to tell Misty and Tony they would be spending Turkey Day weekend in Texas.

Everything was in place for the squads to compete by the Monday before Thanksgiving. Wednesday was the travel day. Luckily, the airplane the school chartered during football and basketball seasons to carry the team to away games was dropping the football team off in Las Vegas for a Thanksgiving afternoon game. The cheer squads hitched a ride with the team and were dropped off in Austin, but not before the college cheer squad hugged and kissed every one of the middle school and high school cheerleaders. Unknown to the younger kids, the college cheer squad was flying in from Las Vegas early Friday morning to sit in the crowd and root the youngsters on.

According to the schedule of events, the four days of the National Cheer competition would begin Thursday afternoon with a participant parade from the hotel where the teams were housed to the arena where the competition would take place. The teams would be judged on poise, posture and the ability to parade in step while stopping periodically to do a short routine for the parade crowd.

The scores of all teams for the parade would remain sealed and not known to the floor judges unless two teams tie for first place in a category. Then the team with the best parade score would be declared the winner. Categories were club team age six to nine, club team age nine to thirteen and club team age fourteen to eighteen. Also, for school sponsored teams, grade school, middle school, and high school. For the finals the best club team and school team in similar age/grade levels would compete against each other to determine the Grand National champion in each level.

The rest of Thursday would be spent speaking to the credentialing committees and the press and doing photo ops with the public.

Friday was round robin double eliminations in the morning. After a lunch break the top three teams in each age/grade level would go head to head to declare a champion in the category.

Saturday morning the club versus school team competition would determine the Grand National Champion. Saturday afternoon the awards ceremony would be televised nationally and in the evening an exhibition of champions would be followed by a banquet.

Tony, Stella and Misty were to be busy from Thursday morning on, applying body paint and keeping the teams and coaches touched up and presentable. It had not helped the airbrushing team at all that a sudden cloudburst hit over the parade route just as Kirsten and Tammy were presenting their teams before the judges. The harlequin pattern on the coaches and cheerleaders soon became mottled streaks of orangey red and yellowish pink while the rains continued washing the thirty-two nude but for their body paint participants with heavy warm drops of water.