Chapter 4

Kirsten was resting on Tammy's bed, Tammy was sitting on the chair in front of her vanity combing her still wet hair from the shower taken after the girls had done laps in the pool and spent half an hour in the Tanner hot tub.

The pair was closer than ever following the near win at Grand National Cheer competition the previous November. It was now May of the following year and the girls were deep into the planning of the West Hamlin Harlequin cheer camp for this July and August. They had been credited for their coaching practicum for the semester long journey through the competitive cheer cycle and the Central University campus in West Hamlin had since allowed the campus training facilities to be used by the girls and their squads to train and practice every weekend and during school breaks for the public schools from which the Harlequins were recruited. One hundred-forty girls and boys had been accepted for this year's summer program. They ranged in age from a girl just turning eleven in June to a boy who would turn nineteen just after the program ended. All parents or guardians had signed and certified that their children were from absolutist or nudist families and that the parents were willing to have the child participate in training and in competition in airbrushed designs and nothing else. Each child paid twelve hundred dollars for room, board, training and travel to competition.

The pair was, as always, nude, with one exception. Tammy was bald on her pubic region, having been forced by a new regulation for Absolutes requiring that nothing hide their bodies including pubic hair. Kimberly Tanner, Tammy's mother, had similarly been depilated after several years of being a hirsute absolute. Marla Tanner, Tammy's sister, was waiting for her hair to grow back before lasering it off as she had always kept her pubes clean with a depilatory cream. The hardest sell, no pun intended, had been Jeff Tanner, Kimberly's husband, who considered the way his manhood was handled during the procedure humiliating at best.

"Really, it isn't that bad, Tam," Kirsten was trying to be upbeat about the situation, "in fact it looks really attractive that way. I love the way your clitoris peeks out of its hood. It may have always done that but I could never see it before. Really, I think that is the reason this ordinance was passed, Tam, to take the flaunters and force them to put up or shut up."

"So, I'm a flaunter?" Tammy asked her best friend. "You've know me, and Marla, for how long now, Kirsten? You were there when my sister and I made the decision to become absolutes and signed away any right to clothing for like, EVER, and you think I'm a flaunter?" Tammy was actually angry. "Tell you what, why don't I go get the scissors, shave cream and a razor and see how you feel when you're bare there."

"Not what I meant, Tam, and sorry if I offended you, really, we've been best buds for over seven years and I love you like the sister I never had and I would never, ever, intentionally hurt your feelings. If it makes you feel better, bring it on, I'll go bare with you; but I'm only a CN and you are an A. Yours will never grow back." Kirsten suddenly realized that was exactly what was bothering Tammy. The new registration laws passed by the state Senate under the Comprehensive Nude In Public laws proposed by the US Congress and signed into law by the president required that at government expense with a voucher issued at the renewal of ones Absolute license, all body hair was to be removed by laser from the neck down. Some male absolutes had opted for the option for facial and scalp hair to be lasered as well and were now absolutely bald, head to toe. Tammy knew of no woman who had done so, but a woman on campus who had survived ovarian cancer and had lost all of her body hair, from chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and only has short stubble on her head was now keeping herself cleanly shaved. A cute look and a novel one, but not one that Tammy wished to adopt personally.

Tammy fingered the only accessory she was wearing, an oval charm, about one and one half inches at it's longest and three quarters of an inch at it's widest. The letter "A" was stamped onto the front and cloisonné enamel filled it with green coloring. Engraved on the reverse were her name and her government identification number along with a bar code. This charm now allowed the absolute to travel, shop and drive without need of passport, driver license or credit card and was the only free hanging jewelry allowed under the laws now passed other than a wedding band for married absolutes.

Piercings and the jewelry in them were now considered body art and therefore part of the body. Tattoos were similarly considered body art and not coverings. Tammy, her sister, and her mother and father could now travel internationally to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean islands and within the European Union with nothing more than the charm about their neck. Some lawmakers were now envisioning the day when a microchip, similar to those used for dogs, cats and horses, would be embedded in an absolute's forearm eliminating the need even for the dog tag-like charm now in use.

Kirsten was also wearing a chain on her neck with a charm similar to the one Tammy wore. Kirsten's tag was round. It bore the letters "CN" on it and her name and identification number on the reverse. Legally, a CN was a Certified Nudist, who, unlike an Absolute, had the right to revert to a textile state. Kirsten dearly wanted an A tag; however, her parents still controlled her finances for school and would until she finished graduate school. They were strict textiles that gave their daughter the freedom to 'express herself on campus' but insisted than in their company and in their home she be clothed.

When off campus Kirsten tended to stay with the Tanner family, where nudity was the norm. Her parents had not attended one cheer competition that the Harlequins participated in and would not visit her on campus. The sole exception had been graduation because the school required all of its students and faculty to wear academic robes, stoles, and hoods on that occasion. Even Tammy and Marla had been capped and gowned for graduation. They gleefully shed the robes just as soon as they tossed the caps in the air upon receiving their diplomas.

The workshops and training conducted by the girls throughout the past season had resulted in a much larger pile of applications for the summer cheer camp program this year. Last year's Harlequins had two outstanding girls who had graduated from high school and one boy also now slated to begin college who were signed on as assistant coaches on staff. Joining them all would be Stella Maris, seconded from Jeff Tanner's accounting office to be the team bookkeeper, travel scheduler, and general office worker. Her boyfriend, now fiancé, Tony would be doing the airbrushing for the teams with the assistance of two graphic arts majors from the college who were serving as summer interns for the program.

"So, it is a sixty kid group for the middle school team and eighty high schoolers." Tammy got off the subject of herself and on to camp business. "We have forty girls and boys returning from last year's championship teams, but half of the middlers have aged out to high school level leaving only ten veteran Harlequins at the lower level. Thirty competition tested tumblers, fliers, and catchers give us a really good base for a Grand national run this year. CU says if we pull out the Grand national trophy, the gym, training rooms and other facilities will be ours year round, not just on weekends when nothing else is happening on campus."

"Big question is how are the returning kids going to take to Sonya and Jillian being assistant coaches this time around," Kirsten wondered out loud.

"They will be working mostly with the middlers and only will be on the mats with the high school team to act as spotters for the fly up routines. I don't think jealousy will play into their being on staff, Kirsten."

Kirsten had crept up behind Tammy and wrapped her arms around her best friend, kissing her softly on the neck beneath her left ear. Tammy immediately dampened around her vagina. 'Involuntary reflex, ' she thought, though her nipples also stiffened noticeably. "What are you doing?" Tammy asked her friend.

"Hoping I'm not making a gross mistake and ruining a friendship I cherish," Kirsten responded and kissed Tammy full on the lips, mouths closed, yet with a degree of passion.

Tammy melted, opened her lips slightly and allowed Kirsten to access her with her tongue; all the while thinking, 'I always wanted to be the one to make the first move, but now I'm so glad she did.' They staggered over to Tammy's bed and eased down upon it to spend an hour mutually exploring each other's bodies. Kirsten was barely touched by Tammy when she exploded in an orgasm long denied by the fear of messing up her friendship with the Tanner twin. Tammy's release soon followed.

"Wow," Kirsten sighed.

"Wow indeed," Tammy responded. "I've known for a while I loved you enough to surrender myself to you sexually, Kirsten, but I always thought you were looking for Mr. Right not Ms. Right Now."

"Sweetie, as far as I am concerned you are Ms. Forevermore. I cannot think of another person I want to share my life with.". Kirsten blubbered.

Tammy picked up the cell phone beside her bed and clicked the speed dial number for Marla. "Hello," a sleepy male voice gurgled, "Who is this?"

"Hi, Brad, it's Tammy, hey if you are there my sister must be close by, can I talk to her please?"

The next voice was Marla, "Sis, is everything okay?"

"I think so, and I hope that you do, also," Tammy started, "Kirsten and I kinda have jumped up a level from BFFs and I wanted to tell you, first," she gushed in a single breath.

"You two finally did the deed and realized you were a couple, not a couple of friends?" Marla shouted into the phone. "Tammy, everybody in the world can see that the two of you love each other. Brad and I wish you the best, both of you, now can we please go back to sleep?"

Jeff and Kimberly Tanner reacted no differently than had Tammy's sister. Hugs all around, welcome to the family, as if you were not already part of it, comments and the elephant in the room question posed, by Jeff, "Who is going to break the news to your folks, Kirsten?"

Kyle and Marnie Lovett were not the same type free thinkers that the Tanner family embodied. Their two boys, Keith and Toby, had participated in the NIP program at the high school, as it was required. Both boys were only naked in school and for school activities, reclothing themselves before entering the Lovett home. Keith, the oldest at nineteen, was attending college at CU's other campus in New Town. He did not keep his parents advised of the rule of campus life. Toby had applied to Blanke Schande University and was accepted for early admission when he completed this year in high school. No mention of the week spent in the program; neither parent nor son ever mentioned allowance for voluntary continuance.