Chapter 7

Pat Rosario, Monday, August 11, 2008.

The school year was starting off with a special assembly to launch The Program. I met up with Grant outside the auditorium. He was talking about something with Nick Caldwell.

Nick looked at me. "Oh, hi Pat, sorry to hear about your dad." I had no idea what he was talking about, but he left before I could ask him.

"Do you know what he was talking about?" I asked Grant.

"No idea, how is your dad?"

"Fine, Ford cut back his hours because of the economy, but we're not, like, hurting for money or anything?"

"Your mom's a nurse, right."

"Yeah, over at St. Vincent."

"Steady line of work to be in."

"I guess, I don't really know about that sort of thing."

We walked inside and sat down. Jesse Herrera came up and sat down next to us.

"What's up man?" He high-fived me, painfully. We'd had a couple of classes together back in middle school, but we'd never hung out and he had a reputation as a stoner, so I was a little confused that he suddenly wanted to be friends.

"How's it going?"

At that moment, Vice-Principal Pope walked up to the podium and motioned for quiet. When the noise had subsided to an acceptable level, he began speaking.

"Good morning everybody, I hope you've all had a great summer and are ready for another fantastic year. As you probably know, Rochambeau High is instituting the Naked in School Program this year. Everyone whose parents haven't filled out the opt-out form is eligible for The Program. To ensure that the selection process is fair, we've set up a computer system to select students each week at random, so you'll need to have the form signed and delivered to the office by Friday at 4:30 if you don't want to be eligible.

Selected students will be called down to the office the Monday morning of their week in the program. Those of you selected will be given a more complete description of your role in The Program and asked to remove all clothing except for footwear and jewelry. You will be required to remain naked for the duration of each school day during the week and for all extracurricular activities. All extracurricular activities. The only exceptions are those sports, such as football, where safety gear is required..."

"Hey, let's ditch," Jesse whispered.

"No, I want to hear this. I'm signed up for The Program."

"You didn't turn in the form?"

Truth be told I wanted to be in The Program, but Jesse would probably think that made me a 'faggot.'

"My parents wouldn't sign it."