Roger and Cynthia had been threatened with being forced to disrobe in Monday’s class and half expected to see one of the guards waiting in the room, but even the teacher was not present. Students were gradually filtering into the room and soon everyone was seated. Then Miss Mason appeared with Mr Cirota trailing behind her.
“I see that you’ve disobeyed my instructions about your proper appearance in this class,” she said to the twins.
“Ma’am, there’s nothing improper about the garments we’re wearing,” Cynthia retorted, somewhat angrily. “We told you yesterday that our being naked was not going to happen.”
Mr Cirota broke in. “You have flouted the school’s Program rules and the federal Program law and I have the authority to insist that you comply with the Program rules.”
“Mr Cirota, you’re flogging a dead horse, as my dad likes to say. There’s absolutely no way you will get us to participate. You saw what happened when you tried using physical force. The enforcement people you called in were sent packing this morning. Mr Davis threatened suspension but then realized he couldn’t do that. Can’t you see that we will not participate, and neither will any students from Marine families, from what I’m hearing,” Roger said, glaring at Cirota. “It’s your move, sir.”
“Young man, your future is at stake. You won’t graduate or go to college...”
“Please stop. Don’t spout empty threats at us,” Cynthia exclaimed. “We already addressed that threat with Mr Davis. You can’t block our college admission or get our scholarships withdrawn and you must know that. Scare tactics won’t work on us. Just admit that you’re powerless to enforce the Program—hey students, see the empty threats the Program official resorts to if you don’t participate? When you get selected, just ignore it; don’t cooperate. They can’t use force anymore and the graduation threat is just that—an empty threat.”
The classroom broke out in applause and Cirota stormed out of the room.
Then Miss Mason looked at Cynthia and Roger, shaking her head.
“Okay, well, the first unit for this term is supposed to be the ‘Psychological Basis of Eroticism,’ a boy and girl participant was scheduled to be part of this class, and the planned demonstrations involved the methods and techniques of producing sexual arousal in boys and girls. Without naked subjects we can’t cover that topic, which included a research component to be done with the class’s weekly Program participants as we went through the term. The unit’s purpose was to link the prior personal sexual experience of each boy and girl with the appearance of their sexual organs, how the boy and girl responded to arousal, and how quickly they achieved orgasm with various kinds of stimulation.
“I suppose we can do a part of this using Mr and Miss Denison since nudity isn’t involved with the series of questions that are involved. Please come up to the front of the class and sit in these chairs now, and I’ll begin the questions.”
Roger looked at Cynthia and back at Miss Mason; then he shook his head. “Ma’am, if we do that, we’ll be implicitly acknowledging that we’re Program participants who just happen to not be naked,” he said. “We are not, repeat not, part of the Program and respectfully decline being singled out as a demonstration subject. What’s the nature of your questions and why is a Program person required to answer them?”
“I said that they were to see if the physical development of the boy and girl could be correlated to their prior sexual activity...”
“But you don’t have a naked subject for correlation so what’s the point of the exercise? What kind of questions are they, anyway?”
She turned on the projector and flipped to a slide. It read:
Masturbation, Solo
Age when began
Number of times performed (daily/weekly)
Techniques used for arousalMasturbation with Participant
Age when began
Age and sex of first contactOral Sex
Age of first contact
Age and sex of first contact
Frequency performed in last 90 daysSexual Intercourse
Age of virginity loss
Age and sex of first contact
Frequency performed in last 90 days
Number of partners to dateAnal Sex
Age of virginity loss
Age and sex of first contact
Homosexual experience
Frequency performed in last 90 days
There were gasps from the class as they read the list and many students were red-faced in embarrassment.
“Ma’am, do you seriously expect that anyone will answer the questions in that list?” Roger exclaimed.
“Well, answering questions like these is a requirement of the Program curriculum I have to follow.”
“Everything there is intensely private. Even if someone were to answer them, how do you know the answer is true?” Cynthia asked in amazement.
“I have to assume your complete honesty. This is a research topic, after all,” she said.
Cynthia responded, “I’m blown away. Tell me, would you answer those questions about your own sexual experience for the class right now as you expect us to do?”
“Absolutely not! And this topic isn’t about the teacher. That’s an impertinent question, young lady.”
Cynthia nodded, “My point exactly. You won’t answer them. Neither would I, and neither would anyone in the class, too. Why don’t you try a possibly more valid experiment? Have everyone in the class take a blank sheet of paper and ask them to answer the questions anonymously, only marking down their sex. To make it go fast, everyone should refer to those questions on the screen as 1-a,b,c; 2-a,b. Like that. People should just write down their answers using a number or a few words. Then see the responses you get.”
Mason thought for a few seconds and then agreed; kids spent a few minutes writing. Then the sheets were collected. She sat down at her desk and began going through the papers. Then she looked up.
“This is useless. Almost all of these say ‘none’ or an equivalent negative, except for a few that are deliberate falsifications, like this boy’s answers that say he lost his virginity at age six and has 823 lifetime partners.”
There were chuckles from the class at hearing the teacher’s comment.
“See? Also, you don’t even know if a boy wrote those answers, do you? If you can’t get straight anonymous answers, what makes you think an embarrassed, humiliated person will give you true answers? In my case, if you were to ask me any of those questions, I wouldn’t even bother to lie. I’d say ‘none of your business,’” Roger said, frowning. “I’m curious about how questions like those—with such personal detail—are supposed to be related to psychology. I’m not challenging the idea that sexuality is important in psychology; sexuality is part of everything in our culture, it seems. It’s in TV, movies, concerts, sports, advertising, everywhere. You can’t escape being exposed to it. In this class I would expect that we would cover the effect of that exposure on kids’ development.
“I’m not sure yet what I want to study, but I think it’s in the education field. I’m good at sports and like teaching at my judo gym. So that’s why I decided to take this class. I saw that psych classes are needed in college for education degrees. But those questions of yours—I don’t see how answers to them could help understanding sexuality. Those are just about a few random events in a person’s personal life. And about correlating the answers to how a person’s sex organs look, I learned in biology that bodies develop at different rates based on genetics, and except for muscles, little else in the body’s development is affected by usage, visibly, anyway. Miss Mason, please help me understand what this is supposed to be about.”
“Mr Denison, that’s a valid question. My only response is that I’m following the federal curriculum guide for this class and that’s where this topic comes from. We’re required to use that curriculum as part of the Program exposure for you students as you explore your individual sexuality and part of that exploration is to cover your sexual history. The next step after those questions are answered is supposed to be an investigation of your personal attitudes and emotions in your sexual explorations. I’m well aware of the personal privacy issues that these questions challenge, but the Program is supposed to get you students past the idea that sexual behavior is a private matter. Participating in the Program is all about expanding your sexual horizons and sharing your experiences with the others in the class.”
Cynthia had been shaking her head. “No, I think that the only kids who would want to talk about their personal experience with stuff like that would be abnormal themselves—isn’t that part of what’s called ‘exhibitionism’? It seems to me that the effect of the Program would be to reinforce sick and abnormal behavior while making kids who are more modest feel the need to be even more secretive. That’s a very unhealthy result. Isn’t there any way to cover your class without using those awful Program materials? Like the way you taught it last year?”
“Yes, it seems I’m forced to do that, since it appears that we may not have many subjects while we are covering this unit. All right, next time we’ll need to go to the core curriculum but for today, let’s begin by discussing when a child begins to become a sexual being. In childhood development...”
The class settled down as the lesson began to develop; Cynthia grinned and winked at Roger at their little victory.
A wide-eyed Ayame, who was sitting next to Cynthia on her other side, whispered to her, “Oh my. In Japan we could never talk to a teacher like that...”
After the class was over, the teacher asked Cynthia and Roger to stay, and Ayame waited for them while they spoke to the teacher.
“Can I use your first names?” They nodded. “So, Cynthia, Roger. I know I’ve been hard-nosed and demanding about your participation and about the Program in general, but the truth is that we teachers are being compelled by the school—by the school district—to follow all the federal rules, whether we agree with them or not. I’m not allowed to say what I personally think about them, but I will tell you that I prefer to teach using academic materials rather than ones developed by bureaucratic committees. That’s all I can say about this, so please don’t spread that around, okay? Tomorrow I’ll have more traditional materials to teach from. See you then.”
As they left the school, they discussed Miss Mason’s admission.
Roger mused, “I wonder how many of our other teachers feel the same way as she does? I’ll bet that many are disturbed about how the Program is interfering with both the classroom behavior and with their teaching their subjects. And you must have noticed that Davis kind of gave up on the hallway Requests after this morning. Maybe this resistance movement will work, after all.”
“Yeah, but I guess the real test will be what happens next Monday when they pick the new group,” Cynthia responded.
As soon as they arrived home and walked in the door, their mom called to the twins.
“Dad just called and asked if you were home. He was going to text you but tried here first. He wants you to go to the JA office in HQ and meet him in fifteen minutes—you know where that is? ...and you can bring Ayame; he said that would be a good cultural lesson for her,” she laughed.
“Okay, Mom, then we need to leave now because parking’s tight there. See you later.”
The trio entered the headquarters building and found their way to the JA office just as the twins’ dad arrived and they greeted each other.
“Kids, this meeting is about two things. You’re involved in both—relax, you aren’t in any trouble,” he said when the kids looked alarmed. “They heard about the enforcers’ visit this morning and then I relayed Cindy’s idea about the constitutional challenge. That was an awesome idea, kid,” he said, grinning proudly at his daughter. “They want to talk about those things.”
In the office conference room they were introduced to the officers there, Lt Col Wheeler, the head of the base Judge Advocate unit, and Capt Donelley, an assistant judge advocate.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Denisons, and my congratulations on your judo championships,” Wheeler said as he shook their hands. “And welcome to the United States, Miss Asano. I hope that this episode in your school doesn’t give you a poor picture of our country’s culture.”
“No, not at all,” she murmured politely and bowed her head.
“First, I’ve assigned Capt Donelley as your advocate, representing the Marine families who have their children in the high school. General Markus has been in touch with Corps and it appears that there’s kind of a ruckus now between the Pentagon and the civilian agencies over how this Program nonsense is affecting military discipline and morale. As the Program is being introduced in schools, it appears that many servicemen and women with high school kids are putting in for reassignment to overseas units and the disruption is causing administrative problems.
“So the Corps and the other services now are formulating rules about their families’ students’ participating, but the federal Program office is attempting to get Congress to legislate against any military rule changes. Right now, the ball is still in the hands of the local commands. That brings us to this morning’s events involving the two of you.
“Program ‘Enforcers,’ as they’re so colorfully called, went to your school to try to coerce you into participating. It appears that they try to use physical force to get students to submit and even make schools use restraints like handcuffs with kids who use their hands to cover themselves, idiotic things like that, but in your case they were unable to try to use force. First, you were able to defend yourselves and second, we had MPs standing by. However, when the group that came here returned to their office, they apparently called their federal headquarters to complain and General Markus received a call from the Program agency’s director.
“The agency’s position is that the federal law that established the Program applies to all students and none of the students are actually in the military, thus the military cannot order the students to refuse to participate. The general responded that the Program was an unacceptable threat to the military’s fundamental need for what we call ‘Good Order and Discipline’ in our units and the Program was beginning to interfere with the orderly operation of his command. He then told the agency director that his order banning any Program enforcement from the schools around our base would stand and be enforced by his military police unit.
“The general told me that the director threatened to contact the governor to have the state police intervene; then the general laughed and told me that he had already been in contact with the governor and that the state police, as well as the local police, were letting the Marine Corps take the lead in protecting its families’ students. He mentioned that to the agency director, who told him that the Program wouldn’t work if certain families, like those of the military, were excluded. The general told him that was a problem that didn’t concern him in the slightest. General Markus got off the phone then and came to see me and told me what I just related to you, and told me that my office should keep in close contact with the Staff Judge Advocate’s office at Corps for any new legal developments.
“And then I heard your idea about the constitutionality of the Program law, Miss Denison. You know, it’s been something like four years since that law was first proposed, then legislated, and then rolled out to the country, challenged in the Supreme Court over privacy rights denied to minors and upheld, and then participation made mandatory, and no one has thought of the ‘State’s Rights’ implication of the law. You were absolutely correct, only states can mandate education requirements, state control of education is guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment. There are other protections in the Constitution, too, against forced nudity, it seems to me, and they pertain to the states’ as well as federal laws. The Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit both states and Congress from passing laws that abridge fundamental personal liberties.
“One of Capt Donelley’s assignments will be to look into how a challenge can be mounted; this is a tough one because of legal standing issues—can a citizen make the challenge or must a state do it—and we don’t think that the Corps can or should be involved in a constitutional challenge. So we’ll need to work somehow through a private group and developing that relationship might take some time to do. You’ll be long graduated before anything develops, but it was an outstanding insight and a credit to yourself and your family. Very well done, young lady.”
She nodded her thanks.
“Sir, do you think that the Program people can cause any more problems at our school?” Roger asked.
“Well, they’ve been warned off. But short of putting up a barricade and checkpoints around the school, we can’t guarantee that they’ll stay away, so we’ll be getting the message out to parents to tell their students not to go wild—no violence. That would cause unneeded attention on the school. Our MPs will continue to watch the place, though.”
Soon the meeting drew to a close and they made their farewells. The twins’ dad reminded them that the formation at which they’d be recognized would be that coming Saturday at 10 a.m. and that invitations to the ceremony had been sent to their school.
“Roger, do you know when your swim meets begin yet?” Sgt Denison asked.
“There’s a scrimmage meet on Friday at 7:30 p.m., Dad. The results don’t count in the league but you can come if you want. Then the meets are Fridays for the rest of March and April, skipping break week, and the States are in the middle of May.”
“Okay, Mom and I will be there. I’ll get some friends to come too; we’ll be your personal cheering section. Do you have early practices again this term? I can drop Cyn and Ayame off at school so you can drive to practice.”
“Thanks, sir. That would be great.”
That evening, getting ready for bed, Ayame and Cynthia were talking in the bedroom they were sharing.
“Ayame, you’ve had a rough time at school, I can tell. Your English is usually pretty good, but then a lot of times you’ll sound like someone who’s just learning. Is that because you get nervous?”
“Ahh, is like that a little. At home ryoshin... my parents... would try to speak English and outside I only speak Japanese. So at home I try think all in English and not outside. When outside here, I try think English only. Then when I get upset, the Japanese happens and makes me speak that way.”
“Well, I’ve also noticed that your English is gradually getting better, too, and when you’re relaxed, you can’t tell that your first language isn’t English,” Cynthia remarked. “You can say all of the English consonants properly too, like the ‘L’ and ‘R.’”
“Thank you. But is making me all nervous; really bothered by seeing things. Cindy, now have been in your school just these two days and going crazy! Awful tension because I don’t know when another terrible thing will happen. And something else is happening to me, too. It’s hard to talk about. Ehrrr, about seeing those naked guys walking around—making me feel, well, kind of funny down there, you know? Never saw naked teen boy before and... and, well, can’t help watching them and it makes me feel strange.
“Remember how Roger, you too, spending all that time with me? How Roger treated me? Not like younger kid. No teasing like kids do. He hugged me lots and told me I’m pretty; made me feel special. When we used to wrestle as kids—you know, little older kids—I could feel Roger’s thing pushing on me when he would hold me down and I touched it sometimes too. It was hard! Feeling it pushing me made me feel funny then, too. Oh, Cindy, I like Roger so, so much! I want him to hold me and I want to hold him. Is that wrong? So confused!”
“Ayame, it’s okay to like him that way. You’re really not our actual cousin—your birth parents were Japanese, after all. And you don’t have to ask permission from me if you want to get closer to Roger. I think it’s cool. You know that I love you too; I want you to be happy, right?”
“Know that, and feelings for Roger much more than just being like family love. But afraid to get closer to him or do anything with him because think so ugly and he’ll hate me.”
“What? You’re not ugly, you’re very pretty. You’re one of the cutest girls I know. You have a lovely face and a great figure. Why do you think you’re ugly?”
“My scars! Burns I have on my belly and hips—no boy will ever like me if he sees them.”
“Ayame, I think I remember your scars from back when we’d change into swimsuits together, but you were only about twelve or thirteen then. The scars really didn’t seem like much then. Did something happen to make them worse?”
“Not think so. But in school girls would make fun of how I looked when we had to change for sports class. They would stare and point and laugh. Have these scar lines and much lighter skin on my belly and right hip and they would laugh at how it looked and call me freak.”
“Oh, you poor thing. They were being awful; the kids here can be like that too, you know. I’ll bet they were jealous of how pretty you are. Is that why you feel so shy about your body? Why you wore that modest swimsuit with us in Tokyo?”
“Yes, scars just look so bad. So ashamed about how I look.”
“Ayame, would you let me see how it looks? I promise that I won’t be critical. I’ll tell you if I think that your scars look worse than when you were little, okay? Please?”
“Do you promise not to laugh? Or not be disgusted? Do you?”
“No way would I insult you, sweetie. I want to make you feel better about yourself.”
“Ehh? Ahhh... well, maybe I can... oh, okay. Don’t laugh at me, please.”
She was wearing a long jersey top and shorts. Hesitantly Ayame pulled the jersey over her head and lowered her shorts.
“Is enough?” she asked timorously, standing erect before Cynthia in her bra and panties.
“Um, with those panties I can’t see your belly, you know.”
“Ehh!” Ayame exclaimed. “Well, okay, but please be nice to me,” and she dropped her panties to her ankles.
Just then the door flew open and Roger rushed in, exclaiming, “Girls, wait until...” and stopped, staring at Ayame openmouthed for a few breathless seconds. “Oh! OH! I’M SO SORRY!” he shouted and rushed out as Ayame screeched and tried to cover herself.
“Oh my god,” Cynthia exclaimed. “I’m sorry, Ayame. Are you okay?”
She was holding her face in her hands and crying. “Noo... I’m so embarrassed, ehh, he saw me and hates me, ohhhh...”
She moved to sit on her bed, only clothed in her bra; her panties were still pooled around her ankles.
“Ayame, please. Look at me. It’s okay. Ayame. I can see your belly. Ayame, your skin looks fine, just some lighter patches and lines like stretch marks. Please stand up, okay? Here’s my hand; take it. Now stand; that’s right.... Yes, oh, you’re so pretty. Your figure is like a doll’s and yes, your skin’s a little lighter and blotchy here and near your hip but it doesn’t look bad—not at all. Oh, you’re the prettiest thing,” Cynthia enthused. “Please, don’t think that you’re ugly—you’re not. You have the cutest body and have nothing to be ashamed of. Those nasty girls gave you a complex about your body and they were so wrong, too.”
“But Roger saw and now he’ll hate me...” she moaned as she struggled into her shorts.
“Roger’s in big trouble. He never should have barged in like that. I’m going to go tell him off,” Cynthia growled, walked out, and banged on Roger’s door.
His door opened and immediately Ayame could hear Cynthia’s angry voice berating Roger, so she adjusted her clothes and ran to Roger’s room.
“Cindy, please don’t yell at him!” she pulled Cynthia’s arm. “Please don’t fight over me—you’re embarrassing even more.”
Cynthia turned around and embraced Ayame.
“Are you okay, dear?” she asked.
Roger walked closer, took Ayame’s hand, and kissed it.
“Ayame, I’m so, so sorry! I’m embarrassed for how I walked in on you like that. Cyn told me that you were shy about your body—but, my god! I just saw you and you’re just gorgeous! Why you’re shy about how you look is beyond me. Please, can you forgive me?”
He pulled Ayame into an embrace, kissed her cheek, and she broke down crying again.
“Ayame, what’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?” he exclaimed and pulled back.
“No, Roger, don’t know what’s happening... Roger, I have... I feel... Roger, I really like you so much; can you please hold me? Do you really think I’m pretty? I’m ugly, my scars...”
“Hush, Ayame. I shouldn’t have seen you like that but I’m so happy I did. You’re so cute! You’re gorgeous, like a dream girl. You shouldn’t be embarrassed about your body, ever. Wow.”
He pulled her into another embrace and then looked deeply into her eyes. She looked back at him wide-eyed as his face slowly drew closer to hers and suddenly his lips fastened onto hers. She groaned and pulled Roger’s head close as she returned the kiss. Roger touched Ayame’s lips tentatively with his tongue and she moaned and opened her mouth; Roger’s tongue darted into it and the two began a passionate dueling match with their tongues. Meanwhile, Cynthia had crept out of the room and closed the door.
Roger and Ayame, still holding their embrace, sank onto his bed.
“Ayame, I didn’t know you felt like this about me,” he said. “I’ve loved you for years, but I thought it was because we were so close as kids. Now I know that I’ve loved you as a girl.”
“Roger, was scared to think about how I felt about you. Thought you’d reject me and thought you would hate how I looked. But sure that I love you too and being with you since coming from Japan made me think about how much I like being with you. Please, do you really like me too?”
“You’re the only girl I think of all the time. Two weeks ago when we were in Japan and I saw you again after four years, I realized how much love I felt for you. I don’t feel like a cousin; I want to do things, do dates and stuff, with you. Will you be my girlfriend? Even though we live in the same house, I’ll treat you with respect and honor. I don’t care if people think it’s strange; you’re technically my cousin but we’re not really related. Will you be my girl?”
She threw herself into his arms again and they kissed.
“Of course, koishii, darling, in my heart I always thought of me as your girl. Ehh, what will your parents think?”
“Somehow I think my folks won’t be surprised. Especially my mom. She’s pretty perceptive and I’ve seen her watching me when I look at you. She gets this funny expression. Now kiss me again.”
They kissed for a few minutes and then there was a knock on the door. It was Cynthia.
“See, little bro, unlike you, I can be polite and knock. Is everything okay now?”
Ayame answered, “Oh, yes, the best. We told each other how we like each other and now he’s my kareshi, my boyfriend. And he says I’m pretty.”
“More than pretty; Ayame’s a doll.” Roger murmured.
“Yes she is, and you got a forbidden look at the goods, too. I hope you apologized really nice.”
“Yeah, big sis, and I need to apologize again,” and he drew Ayame into another passionate kiss.
“Okay, lovebirds. Roger has an early morning practice. I came in to remind him or else he’d be up all night talking with you. I know how he gets. Now say goodnight, okay?”
Cynthia went out and the two teens kissed again. Then Ayame left too.
Roger just sat on his bed for a while, trying to digest what had just happened.
Copyright © 2015 Seems Ndenyal. All Rights Reserved.