Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Here I was again, called to the principal’s office for the second day in a row. The only difference is that this time I was already naked. I had to put on clothes for the trip home from school, but I stripped down again as soon as I got home. This actually wasn’t that unusual, my family tends to stay naked a lot, which I suspect is part of the reason mom thought I would be a good candidate for the program.

I entered the room, which already contained my mother, Dr. Martin, Ms. Lease, and Reverend Tucker, the school chaplain. Dr. Martin addressed me.

“Hunter, have you seen the morning news?”

“No sir.”

“Very well then.” Dr. Martin turned on a TV mounted from the ceiling. There was Reverend Vernon Neale, standing next to a boy I recognized from yesterday’s English class and a man who I didn’t recognize, but seemed vaguely familiar. Reverend Neale was ranting about his son being suspended for “refusing to allow a homosexual student to sodomize him.”

“That’s not what happened at all!” Ms. Lease objected.

“It gets better.” My mom replied.

The camera cut to a news anchor, who informed us that Reverend Neale was pulling his son out of St. Mary’s and establishing the Neale Christian Academy on the campus of his church. He was also calling on the man next to him, who turned out to be Representative Nathan Johnson, to hold Congressional hearings on “this disgusting program of sexual indoctrination.”

Dr. Martin turned off the TV. “I’ve already had three parents tell me they’re pulling their kids out of school, and no doubt there would be more if Reverend Neale hadn’t set his tuition at twice ours. We need a plan to deal with this.”

“Perhaps I can help,” offered Reverend Tucker, I was planning to address The Program in this week’s sermon. If we arranged to televise the chapel service, it would give us a chance to put our case forward.”

“There’s one slight problem with that,” I said, “I signed up to do a reading.”

“Which passage?” asked Reverend Tucker.

“Genesis 3: 1-13”

“You’re going to be reading the 10 Commandments Naked?” Dr. Martin interrupted “what good would that do”

“Actually,” Reverend Tucker responded, “that passage tells the story of Adam and Eve eating the Forbidden Fruit. Reverend Neale will likely use it to justify his opposition to public nudity, particularly verse 10: ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ It would be useful if we had an opportunity to present my reading of the text, and it would be especially useful if we could present the public with a student who is not afraid of his nakedness.”

Dr. Martin thought for a second. “That being said, not many reputable news networks want to air footage of a naked 14 year old, and even fewer want to air a 20 minute sermon unedited.”

I had another idea. “What if we invited a news station to do a special report on this program. If Reverend Neale’s skill at attracting attention to himself is anything like it was last year, this will be a national news story before long.”

Dr. Martin nodded. “I’ve already received calls from CNN, FOX, and ABC.”

I continued “This way, Reverend Tucker can make his case, Ms. Lease can tell them what really happened in the classroom, and I can talk about how The Program has affected me.”

“Very well then, I’ll see what I can arrange.”

We left, and Ms. Lease and I walked down the hall. She turned to me and said “You’re less excited than you were yesterday.”

“Yeah, I took care of myself in the shower. Yesterday was fun, but today I want to get to know the redhead in the second row a little better.”

“Jeff Dorsey”

I nodded. “When I asked for help yesterday, he looked like he was thinking about raising his hand, until Neale called me a faggot.”

Ms. Lease thought for a second, “We’re discussing your essays on ‘The Scarlet Letter’ today; that might give you an opportunity to talk to him.”

“Excellent,” I thought to myself. Making conversation, I asked Ms. Lease, “So, are you new in town.”

“Yes, I actually just moved in to Overford Village.”

“Really, that’s one of my dad’s developments.”

“He’s a real estate developer.”

“Yeah, he really likes it because it lets him work from home; he’s always loved being Mr. Mom.”

“Your mother’s lucky then; it’s so hard to find guys who aren’t wrapped up in old-fashioned gender norms.”

“A few more years of this oughta do the trick,” I said, gesturing to my naked body.

Ms. Lease chuckled. “I’ll be an old maid by then.”

“Come on,” I teased her, “I bet you aren’t a day over 25.”

“23,” she replied, “I just graduated from Vanderbilt.”

“See, if I was a straight man, I’d ask you out myself.”

“That’s about the last thing Dr. Martin needs.”

We entered the classroom and broke off into small groups to discuss our essays. I was in a group with Jeff and a girl named Sandy Adams. I noticed that Jeff was blushing and looking at the floor, I didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad one. I kicked off the discussion.

“So I wrote about how I was afraid to tell people I was gay because I thought that would be all they saw in me, sort of like how everyone in the book only sees Hester as an adulturess because of the letter.”

Jeff told his shoes. “That’s sort of like what I wrote, I-I didn’t realize we would be sharing these.” He took a deep breath and went on. “My parents are really religious, actually we go to Reverend Neale’s church. I do a lot of stuff with my youth group, and most of my friends go to the same church. I know that if I ever came out, my family and friends would reject me like the townspeople rejected Hester.”

“Damn,” I thought, “how could anyone reject their own child because of who they wanted to sleep with. Thank God I got the parents I did.”

Sandy spoke up. “Maybe it would help if you formed friendships with people who were more accepting, like maybe go out for some school activities. That’s sort of what I wrote about, how Hester deals with her alienation from society by forming relationships with Pearl and with nature.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I’m going out for the swim team this afternoon. I know a junior on the team who’s gay, so they’re probably pretty tolerant. Plus, I’d get to see you naked in the showers.” Jeff blushed more deeply, but laughed. “This could work out well” I thought.

Geometry proceeded normally, but Quint had a bright idea at lunch.

“I’m starting a photography club,” he announced.

I grinned. “Let me guess, you want me to be your first model.”

“Yep, I have a couple of ideas floating in my head that a Program participant would be ideal for. It’s just a shame we’re not going to get any female participants.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Laura announced, “I’m working on my parents to let me do it.”

“How come?” Tammy asked.

“Honestly, it’s August, we live in Florida, I just don’t see the point of clothes.”

Everyone laughed.

Quint turned back to me. “So what days are you free?”

“Let’s see, today I have swim tryouts, tomorrow I’m doing a reading in chapel, and Friday’s the first swim practice.”

“So I guess Thursday it is then.”

“Crap” Christine said, “I have Model UN on Thursday.”

“Don’t worry, I might see if they let me do this again next week.” I replied.

Walking into gym Zach and I were met by Coach Overholt.

“Hunter, I’m going to borrow you again for the period.”

“Ok.”

“In fact, I’m going to see if Coach Elliott will let me make the arrangement permanent. You have really great potential, and I think with some extra coaching I could make you a world class swimmer.”
“Wow, uh, I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything, just follow me out to the pool.”

So I spent the rest of third period doing laps, with Coach Overholt calling out suggestions on my technique. By the end of the bell I was pretty tired, so I didn’t pay much attention in history class. The tryouts went great. Even though I was still tired, I had the fastest times of any of the freshmen. Jeff didn’t do quite so well, but he still looked in good shape to make the final cut.

The real fun began in the locker room. Zach found me in the shower. “You wear shower shoes?” he asked me.

“Yeah, don’t want to get athlete’s foot.”

“Damn, I have a major foot fetish.”

Surprisingly, no one else seemed perturbed by this statement. I was beginning to think I had gotten really lucky with my choice of sports.

“I can take them off if you don’t think its risky.”

“I’ve been going barefoot in these showers since freshman year and I’ve never had a problem.”

“Very well then.” I kicked off my flip-flops, which caused Zach to get immediately hard.

“Need some help with that,” I asked him, as my own penis swelled in response.

“I might ask the same of you.”

We took hold of one another’s cocks and began to stroke. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Jeff was once more watching me, and this time, he had a noticeable hard-on of his own. I smiled at him, and he began masturbating himself. The feeling was incredible, even better than in English class. A couple of guys noticed what we were doing, and began whistling. Someone started chanting; “STROKE, STROKE, STROKE,” and pretty soon he was joined by a small group, who crowded around us. They didn’t get much of a show, because the chanting sent me over the edge, and I was soon followed by Zach, who shot cum all over an unfortunate bystander. As the crowd dispersed, Jeff walked up to me.

“Wow, that was the best orgasm I’ve ever had”

“Same here,” I replied

“It really is a different feeling with an audience,” Zach told us, “that’s part of the reason I love swimming so much. The guys are really open to my more unusual proclivities.”

“You mean you have more than one?” I asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough” Zach responded, and we filed out to the locker room, where we were met by Coach Overholt carrying a stack of forms.

“As you may have noticed, our naked swimmer had an unusually strong performance,” he said, pointing at me. “Part of this is due to raw talent, but it also helped that he didn’t have a swimsuit to increase friction with the water. I’ve spent some time poring over various rule books, and I’m pretty sure students are allowed to compete naked if they’re in the Program that week. So what I want you all to do is to give these forms to your parents and see if they’ll let you participate in the Program every week of the season. That way, you guys can swim naked.”

I raised my hand.

“Yes, Hunter.”

“There’s a slight problem with that sir; the Program’s in a bit of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“It’s a long story, but the gist of it is that I have aroused the wrath of Reverend Vernon Neale.”

“Good thing he wasn’t in the showers,” someone shouted, and everyone laughed, including Coach Overholt.

“Alright,” Coach said, “the worst thing they can do is say no, so I want you guys to talk to your parents anyway. I have to go give this speech to the girls, I assume you guys can stop touching each other long enough to show yourselves out.”

As I walked back to Dr. Martin’s office to get my clothes, I smiled to myself. This meant that I could spend the whole semester naked in school, assuming that Reverend Neale didn’t cause any more trouble.

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