Naked in School-Kevin and Denise
I had been wondering about lunches in American schools, how they would be different from those of the other cultures where I had lived. I should have known better.
Yuk. This is food? If it is, maybe the food they serve to farm animals would be better; the pictures I saw of cattle and hogs on the Web showed them as being healthy and well nourished. So I won’t describe the fare; if you haven’t eaten yet it might ruin your appetite. I selected a salad, fruit, and milk. At least I could identify those.
Denise selected the same items. Good for her. We looked around and saw someone waving at us. It was Sarah, and she was standing at an empty table on the other side of the room. Then I saw Andrew; he was leading two of the others of our group toward Sarah. Ok, we have six now. Then another familiar face popped out of the cashier’s lane. Seven.
We gathered around Sarah, who indicated the table. On the wall was a little sign that said “Reserved.”
“This is the Program students’ table. We’re supposed to sit here so we can be located as the targets for the gropers. I guess we’re kind of like Program students this week—Program-in-waiting—so let’s sit here.” she said.
We sat. The three newcomers finally looked at me, noticed who I was, and with awestruck expressions, began jabbering at once:
“It’s you! Goddamn, you were freakin’ awesome...”
“Oh God, how did you do all that...”
“Man, you study with the Batman and Robin or something...”
I put up my hand; their voices fell but they kept staring like I was going to disappear right before their eyes for my next trick. This had to stop.
“I’m just a guy, a nerd, actually, who’s studied a few martial arts moves and got lucky. I didn’t do anything that any of you couldn’t learn, but it takes a few years of study. Lots of people do it. I just have the build that makes it look easy, but it’s just learned muscle reactions, like playing an instrument. Any of you play?” Two raised their hands. “Ok, how long did it take before your playing sounded ok?” Two years, they both allowed. “Right. That’s just about how long it took me to begin to get some proficiency. So no big deal, right? Nothing but eye-muscle automatic response, when you see a note on the page, you don’t think where to put your fingers, yes? They go to the right place without any thought. That’s how my skill is too. Nothing heroic.”
They still looked at me dubiously. I gotta change the subject. Before I could, Sarah broke in.
“But it wasn’tonly physical; we saw that in the room! After we left, you must have outsmarted them too! You got them to agree with you and even stopped the Program—well, for a week—but that’s still amazing! How did you do that, then?”
I sighed. How to tell them how focus and centering can make one feel like an irresistible force when striving for an objective?
“Well, that’s part of the Arts too. It makes you so focused on your opponent that you can spot tiny signs of openings you can take to further your arguments. It’s kind of like trying to pry a top off a bottle. You can’t just pull off the top; it’s on too tight. But you can work it off slowly, a tiny bit at a time, until it comes off by itself. That’s a bad metaphor but it’s all I can think of now. And they gave me this huge, huge opening where I could argue from a position of real strength—blackmail, almost, really. I think I picked this up from my dad and his lawyer; also my mom was a diplomat. I watched them all in action and saw how they were able to use words and actions to maneuver people into doing what they wanted. Maybe that rubbed off on me as well. Let’s not talk about me. I’m a normal teen, just have some different experiences than you guys, and got lucky. We need to talk about next week.”
The stony faces immediately returned. “Hey, don’t get too upset now. As Denise knows, I got a number of good concessions from Fletcher; you heard his announcement. We need to put things together from our side now.”
They looked at me with anticipation. “Before I tell you that part, let’s introduce ourselves. You guys may know each other but obviously I don’t and none of my special powers includes mind-reading. Or maybe I get that power when I turn 18.”
They all cracked up.
Andrew said, “Yeah, we’ve spoken in Calc today but the youngsters don’t know me.” The others shot him an annoyed look. “Hey, just kidding. You know it’s traditional for seniors to put down all underclassmen, don’t you? If I don’t josh you guys, then I’ll get kicked out of the senior class.”
Everyone chuckled. I learned later that he’s considered to be the class clown.
“Ok, I’m Andrew Raden, grudgingly promoted to senior-ship by the school, and on the wrestling team.”
Sarah continued, “Let’s go in class order, but I’m not as funny as Andrew. I’m Sarah Carr, a senior too, and I’m in the drama club and band.”
I looked at Denise. She spoke quietly. “You heard in Fletcher’s office about me. Denise Roberts, junior, and I’m in the art club.”
Then I spoke. “Told you all about me, I guess. Junior, obviously. Except for part of one year, all my past schools were in the Far East. School activities? Trouble-makers’ club, so far.”
Lots of laughs. Maybe I’ll steal Andrew’s clown label.
One of the other girls raised her hand. “Um, I’m Barbara Mendes and a soph. We just moved here end of last winter and I haven’t done any activities yet but I do gymnastics.”
“Nelson Ryder. Sophomore. Swim team.”
The last girl blushed. She was cute. “I’m... ah, I’m Jane Wollens and I’m scared of this Program thing. And today’s my first high school day. The other freshman is Jimmy Riviera; I know him a little from middle school.”
“Nice to meet all you guys. We’ll need to work together to try to protect each other as much as we can.”
I went on to describe my discussion with Fletcher; Denise added a bit too, about the revised groping rules. I talked about my ideas for a guardian corps; they began to get excited. Denise mentioned the whistles. I told them about my reward idea and my punishment warning, and then about the website and advisory body thoughts. The table was now buzzing with excited discussions.
Just then, some big chunky guys walked up.
“Hey, this is the Program table.” an unshaved guy in a stained jersey said.
“Right,” I said, “...and?”
“So you guys in the Program? How come you’re not naked! You need to strip now!”
“Didn’t you hear the principal’s announcement? No nudity till next week,” I said mildly.
“Don’t care! We have the right to make a Reasonable Request and I want to feel her tits now,” he said, reaching for Sarah’s chest.
I spun on my seat, grabbed his arm as I stood up and twisted his body away from me, pulling his arm up into a hammerlock. He grunted.
I whispered in his ear, “Don’t touch the lady if you want to keep using this arm, guy. Make like this is a joke or you’ll be wondering what happened to this arm, ok?”
“Ha ha, yeah, this is cool. Nice to see ya, that was a cool move, ok?” he finished quietly.
I released him and stepped back warily, watching his buddies carefully out of my peripheral vision. They were startled and confused. I subtly jerked my thumb at them while speaking to the guy, who was absently rubbing his arm.
“Get them away from here now. You don’t want any more embarrassments, right?”
He grunted and walked away, pulling the others along. They were yammering at him but he just shrugged.
I heard someone at the table breathe, “Oh boy...”
“Here we go again guys, I’m just playin’ the flute, ok?” Nervous laughter. “C’mon, I agree that I’ve got some moves. Some people play in bands. Some play in orchestras. Some solo. I’m not a soloist, but I’ve taken the lessons and practiced, ok. No big deal! Now where were we before that commercial break?”
They laughed, and we got back to the discussion. Some in our group knew others who would help, some who knew about web design, some who might want to be advisors. Andrew knew some guys on the football team and would talk to them. At the end of lunch period we had an organizational skeleton set up. We decided to meet with everyone interested after school on Tuesday; Sarah said she could arrange to get a club room. Hmmmm, if the school knew what kind of club was organizing, they might be upset.
“Guys—just keep what we’re doing a bit hush-hush, ok? Don’t want to alert the foe too much.”
Before we separated, the freshman girl came over. “I just wanted to let you know that I have class with Jimmy in the sixth period and can tell him what you said—he’s the last one of us. By the way, whatever you claim you are, to me you’re still a superhero! And not a man from Mars, you’re just too real.”
Groan. I don’t need this rep!
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