The Monday early morning swimming practice session was shorter than the previous week’s practices; the coach was fairly pleased with the team’s performance on Friday so he had the team doing straight laps, skipping the drills.
“I want you to work on endurance today,” he told the team, “so stick with one stroke and do ten laps; then go to your next stroke. We’ll do an hour of laps today. Later in the week we’ll need to work on our early start problem,” he told them.
After practice, Roger dressed and soon found Ayame near her locker talking to Michelle. He greeted her with a kiss.
“Where’s Cindy?” he asked.
“She’s with some friends; they’re planning surprise birthday party for someone.”
“Well, sweetie, your second week here begins. I wonder what surprises it’ll bring.” Roger said.
Just then, they saw Cirota walk past the adjacent corridor.
“Well, that’s the first surprise—I wonder how he got out,” Roger mused. “Well, time to get to home room.”
Cynthia came rushing up to them.
“Guess what I heard. Cirota’s back.”
“Yeah, we saw him going down the hall over there a few minutes ago,” Roger replied. “Wonder how he got out.”
“That’s what I heard about, him getting out. They couldn’t keep him long because he didn’t give instructions directly to the rent-a-cops—he told their agency what he wanted in general terms—that means he couldn’t be charged with telling those guards to do anything illegal. So they had to let him go.”
“Too bad...”
The bell rang to start the day as the teacher came into the room. She was holding a memo and reading it. Then the PA speakers came on.
“Good morning, students and staff. This is Mr Davis. Today’s announcements are about the upcoming week’s activities. Our spring sports schedule includes...”
His announcements continued for several more minutes, then, “The final item is about the Program.”
All the fidgeting and murmuring in the classroom instantly ceased; the room became absolutely quiet.
“Since we have a large student population and want to have as many of our seniors have the benefit of participating in the Program as possible, we’ve decided that we need to increase the number of students who will be selected each week. Starting with today’s group, we have chosen four students each from the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes, and eighteen seniors. Each week we will select students using this same distribution.”
There were gasps from the listening students; the home room class consisted of all seniors.
“The teachers have the lists of students selected to participate this week. When your name is called, please leave your classroom, store your backpacks in your lockers, and come to the conference room. Teachers, you may announce the student names now. Have a good day, everyone.”
The teacher began calling names.
“Ayame Asano...”
She screamed and Roger, who was sitting next to her, put his arm around her shoulder and held her.
“No! I’m not!”
“Shhhh. There’s a mistake. You stay right here.”
Meanwhile the teacher had read five other names.
Roger stood up. “Marine kids, remember! Also, anyone over 18?” Three were. “You guys, you’re adults so they can’t force you to participate. And the Marine family kids don’t have to either. Just stay.”
The teacher broke in. “You all have to go. Please follow Mr Davis’ directions.”
Several of the kids had stood up to go, then looked around and sat down again.
The teacher repeated her request and one of the students replied, “I’m not a Marine kid, but I’m not going to get naked for this crap either! I’m staying!”
“Cyn, stay with Ayame. I’m going to the office to see why she was picked.”
Roger left the classroom and hurried to the office. As he passed the conference room, he saw only five kids walking into it and two more in the hall approaching the room. He stopped the two students before they entered the room.
“You guys okay with doing the Program?”
“No,” one said, “but my parents signed me up and said I had to do it.”
“Me too,” the other said, looking in the room, “but if we’re the only ones doing it this week—I see, um, five in there—just seven of us? then I’m not gonna strip. They can punish me all they want.”
“Well, good luck, you guys,” Roger said and went on into the main office.
“Can I help you?” the secretary said to Roger.
“I hope so. My cousin, Ayame Asano, was selected to be in the Program. She’s an exchange student and not registered to be a graduating student from here; she’s also a Japanese citizen. She shouldn’t be in the Program. I’d like to make sure that she’s not bothered about that again.”
“Okay, yes, I have her folder right here in the selected Program student group. Let’s see—okay, I see that she’s a non-matric. I don’t know why she got onto the Program list. I’ll let Mr Davis and the counselor know about this.”
“Thanks. I’ll tell her not to worry. She’s very nervous, being in a new country and feeling very vulnerable; hearing her name called was a real shock.”
On the way back to the classroom, Roger peeked into the conference room. There were eight kids now and Cirota was speaking to them. Davis was also there with two other teachers. None of the kids had disrobed and they were waving their arms and making negative gestures. Roger shrugged to himself and continued back to his room.
When he arrived, Ayame grabbed him.
“Roger, I’m so scared,” she whispered, holding onto his arm tightly.
“I told the office that putting your name on the list was a mistake and to take you off it.”
Cynthia leaned close. “A school security guard came into the room after you left and announced that the students who had been called had to obey and go to the conference room. Everyone refused to go so the guard left.”
Roger replied, “I saw just eight students in the conference room out of the thirty who were supposed to be called. I don’t know if all of them will resist, but they seemed to be arguing with Cirota. We’ll see. If they do get naked, I hope that they’ll get the help that the first group got,” he concluded.
“We’ll need to watch out for Ayame now, too. I wonder how she got on the list, unless she was deliberately added,” Cynthia mused.
Roger looked at her thoughtfully. “Yeah, that’s possible, I guess. You mean, like to retaliate against us somehow? Maybe.” Then to Ayame, “Sweetie, please keep your phone with you when we’re not around. Not in your pack, but with you. And don’t go anywhere alone, okay?”
“Yes, Roger,” she whispered.
“I’m gonna text Dad and tell him that they seem to be targeting Ayame. Maybe he can do something,” Cynthia said suddenly. “Maybe with her status here, the base can warn the school not to mess with her.”
Then the PA system came to life again.
“Your attention, please. A number of students who were called to begin their week of Program participation did not report to the starting meeting. This lack of obedience will not be tolerated and we will locate each student involved. Each will have to serve an additional day in the Program as a punishment, unless you come to the office before the end of home room period to begin your participation. You have ten minutes to comply. That’s all, thank you.”
“Wow,” Roger said, “I guess they’re not using force this time. Maybe it’ll be just threats of additional time.”
Suddenly they heard a crashing sound from outside the classroom and a lot of yelling. Roger leaped out of his seat and rushed to the door. He was out of the room even before the teacher could react to call out, “Stay in your seats!”
Roger saw kids pouring out of the classroom on the opposite side of the corridor.
“It’s a riot in there!” a girl yelled as she ran out.
“What happened?” Roger called. “What’s going on?”
“Three teachers came in to get some kids who were called for the Program but didn’t go. One teacher took a boy’s arm, it looked like to turn him around to face him, but he pulled away, took his desk, and shoved it at the teacher. Then a bunch of other boys tackled the three of them and there’s a fight in there now,” another student exclaimed.
Roger called to some of the students who were milling around the doorway, “Everyone! Guys! Let’s get in there and break up the fight before someone gets hurt! No one needs to get hurt over this! Let’s go!” and he rushed in, followed by a few other students.
He saw three piles of people, each one atop a struggling man, and arms and legs were flailing wildly.
“Okay, EVERYONE STAND DOWN,” Roger commanded. “Let them go! NOW!” He pulled a kid off the nearest teacher. “You made your point! Now let them up!”
The other students who had come into the room were also helping to pull kids away and most of them willingly allowed themselves to be pulled up. After a minute, relative calm was restored in the room. The teachers who had been attacked rose slowly to their feet.
“Thanks, kid,” one muttered to Roger as he limped out of the room.
“Everyone, listen to me,” Roger called. “My sister and I were responsible for the first Program resistance, but we tried not to hurt anyone. If you hurt someone, you can get into real bad trouble. If you have to defend yourselves, do it, but try to use the least possible force. The best way is to just walk away from someone who’s trying to hold onto you. If enough kids resist by simply refusing, there aren’t enough of them to force anybody, okay?” Just then the bell rang. “Hey, remember, if they come for you again, just walk away,” he called as the group began to scatter.
Then he noticed the classroom teacher; she was still huddled in a far corner of the room. Roger went over to her.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” he asked.
“Now I am. You’re Roger Denison, right? Thank you for stopping that... fight... riot, really. They were so angry! I was afraid that if another teacher came in, especially another man, they would have attacked him too. I can’t believe how angry everyone has become about this. Nothing like this has happened in other schools that I know about. Anyway, thanks again. I don’t know what we teachers are supposed to do now...” she trailed off.
“You can make the students feel lots better if you sympathize with them. Don’t push or force any Program stuff on them. We hate the coercion of the Program, especially its nonconsensual parts. That must be where the anger comes from. They’re angry at an idea so they take it out on the people who support the idea, I guess. Let the other teachers know and maybe tempers will cool down. I sure hope so.”
He hurried out of the room and ran into Ayame, who was waiting outside holding his backpack.
“Cindy saw what you did and talking to home room teacher. Telling teacher so you won’t get into trouble,” she told him.
Then Cynthia appeared. “Okay, she’s cool. I told her you broke up that fight; you didn’t go to join in.”
“Thanks, big sis. Once again you rescued me.”
“I’m not gonna make it a habit, now, stud. Just so you know,” she grinned. “I was gonna help you but when I got there, you had it under control.”
“Yeah, I felt responsible. We started it, you know. And I tried using Dad’s ‘command voice.’ His parade ground voice, you know? That was awesome—it worked when I did it! Everyone stopped. So cool.”
“Okay, sarge, at ease,” Cynthia joked. “Class time now.”
And they went off to their next class.
The halls were a maelstrom of bodies. Last week, the kids had organized themselves into groups escorting the Program students so the masses of students moving through the halls was more orderly.
“I don’t see any Program kids. Do you think they all are resisting?” Cynthia wondered.
After they arrived in Anatomy, got seated, and the bell rang, the teacher looked around.
“We’re supposed to have three Program students. Oh, there are two of you, Rachel and Ayame; you’re both dressed!”
Ayame jerked nervously.
He went on, “Where’s Elliott Anderson?”
He wasn’t in the room.
Rachel said, “I’m not participating in the Program. That’s why I’m dressed. Like the Denisons did last week. I don’t intend to take part in any classroom demos, too, sir. I’m not sure about Elliott since I didn’t see him in my home room either. Maybe he’s absent today.”
The teacher looked at Ayame. “And you...?”
She shook her head violently and looked down.
“Putting Ayame in the Program was a mistake,” Roger spoke up. “She’s in classes here but isn’t actually enrolled. The office should be correcting the error.”
“Well, she’s on the list...”
“Sir, list or not, Ayame isn’t participating, okay?” he retorted.
“Well, then. I wish that they’d get this squared away,” the teacher muttered. “All right then. We’re mostly finished with the skeletal system; today we’ll discuss articulation and then we’ll move to the muscles, tendons, and ligaments, those are the structures that tie all the bones together and allow them to move...”
When class ended, Ayame came to Roger and clung on his arm in fear.
“I’m scared to be by myself in Civics. What if someone comes for me?” Ayame asked.
Roger put his arm around her shoulders. “Let me go there with you and speak to your friend—Michelle, right? And keep your phone ready to call me if something happens. It’s not likely for anything to happen in Civics, but keep ready.”
Roger asked Michelle to take care of Ayame and to text him or call him if Ayame needed help. Then he dashed to Economics. After class was over, the twins ran to Ayame’s classroom to bring her to gym.
“Everything okay, honey?” Roger asked Ayame when they saw her.
“Yes, nothing happened.”
“That’s great. We still haven’t seen any Program participants. I wonder what’s happening with them? Oh yeah—the locker rooms now. Let’s see how that’s working this week.”
When they got to the locker rooms, they found confusion reigning. There were several teachers outside the rooms trying to direct the boys into the boys’ room and the girls into the girls’. And there were some students trying to get the kids to go into the opposite sexes’ rooms too. What actually happened was amusing; the students were intent on keeping the same arrangements as the prior week, so whatever room they entered, if it was a same-sex room, they slipped out into the gym and back into the opposite sex’s room. There were kids slipping past each other smiling and high-fiving each other as they thwarted the teachers’ efforts in the hall.
Roger changed and went to the pool to get some laps in and that’s when he learned that two of his team members were in the Program. It appeared that both had agreed to participate; Tom and Jessica were standing naked on the deck talking to the coach.
Both looked incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. The coach was looking very unhappy.
“I can’t have you naked for our meet. All of your body dynamics will be different if you’re not wearing competition swimsuits, you know. Do you have your suits with you? Okay, let’s try this. Give me your best racing dive and 50 meters of freestyle. Try for your Friday match times or better.”
Roger watched as they got on the blocks and the coach shouted, “Set! Go!”
The two arched into the water and immediately Roger saw something was wrong; both swimmers, instead of stretching into long, swift strokes, curled their bodies and took several crab-like strokes before they recovered and began a regular crawl. At the far end he noticed that they both completed an awkward turn and then swam back. When they reached the wall they stopped and looked up at the coach, who was shaking his head.
“Five-six seconds off your times,” he called. “What happened?”
Jessica called back, “It hurt on my dive! And my breasts were in the way of my arms. I couldn’t get my side-to-side rolling rhythm for breathing and my flip turn timing was off too. And I felt a real drag from my chest, slowing me down. I can’t swim this way, coach.”
“Me too,” Tom called. “That dive was bad—like getting kicked in the nuts—it knocked my wind out. Still hurts, too. And I felt a drag and my thighs were rubbing my balls when I kicked. That slowed me too.”
“Okay, then, that’s it. Get your suits on. You’re swimming with suits. I’m not going to lose a match—any matches—if my team is disadvantaged by not wearing competition suits.”
When the two came out in their suits, they tried the laps again and this time closely matched their Friday times, so the coach went on with the practice session. About twenty minutes into the practice, Cirota came into the pool.
“There are supposed to be two Program students here,” he said, looking around.
“There are. They’re wearing the proper competition suits, though.” Jerter responded.
“But that’s a violation! They have to be naked now and to compete too!”
“Not on this school’s team. I’m not throwing any match or the school’s title because of your damned Program. Not wearing proper suits is a tremendous handicap for a swimmer.”
“Your swimmers will not pass their Program week then. They will need to repeat it next...”
“Same thing happens next week, and every subsequent week too,” he interrupted. “They swim with competition suits. Period.”
Cirota angrily stormed out of the pool room.
Roger walked over to where the coach was standing, staring at the door through which Cirota had just used, and shaking his head.
“Coach, a suggestion. Use the Program rules to support your decision; they’ll have to agree if it’s in those rules. Just define a competition swimsuit as ‘protective equipment.’ It actually is protective, so they can’t argue or punish the students either.”
“Hey, thanks. That’s a great idea, Roger.”
In the gym Cynthia witnessed a similar scene. A girl had appeared naked but wearing a sports bra. When the teacher asked her to remove it, she refused.
“I’m being forced to do the Program, but I won’t be forced to let myself be injured. I’ll take the bra off only if I can do things that won’t make these bounce,” indicating her D-cup breasts. “I need the support and I won’t do anything that injures them. Since we’re doing volleyball, I’m wearing the bra.”
The teacher relented but only after a number of very angry girls began to surround her.
“Let her be. We’ll just wait here while you decide,” one girl challenged.
“Ok then, I guess we’ll allow it. Keep the bra. Just go join the activity,” she said, waving her hand at the court.
During the games, which the girls did with no enthusiasm whatsoever, Cynthia had the chance to ask the Program girl about the week’s participating group.
“Yeah, I’m Mary and you’re Cindy, right? Well, there were supposed to be thirty. I only know of maybe eight kids. None of them from Marine families, I’m quite sure. I had to participate because my parents agreed. I think that’s true with the others that I know but I don’t know if any were actually forced to participate since they weren’t in the conference room at the start. I hate it and I hate how this is putting me on display.”
“Are you being shielded like they were doing last week?” Cynthia asked her.
“Yeah, that’s a bright spot—the only one. And I’m thinking about refusing to cooperate with doing anything in classes that would be humiliating, too—and I don’t care what the teachers or my parents say, either!”
Cynthia had been noticing how quiet Ayame had been since home room.
“Ayame,” she said when they had a few minutes to catch their breath, “are you doing all right? You’ve been more quiet than usual.”
“Yes, but think I still feel a little in shock. Hear what the others say about being naked and can’t help but get upset all over again, though. Was going to try to take a shower in the locker room and now don’t think I can, I’m sorry.”
“Oh, honey, don’t be sorry. Just take it at your own speed. There’s no rush. Just get used to the idea that your body looks just fine, nothing to be embarrassed about.”
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