When they got home late Sunday evening, Stuart told them that his reassignment to Lejeune had been finalized and his report date was set for between June 25 and July 8.
“You three will be in college in the fall so we won’t need that large of a house,” Sarah said. “Dad’s reporting around July 1 and I’ll be closing our house here in July and moving our effects that last week. Do you know when you can move in at your school?”
“Yeah, that’s something we planned to discuss, Mom, Dad. I told you Tom’s going there too. We’d like to share an apartment, some kind of rental; it could save us a really huge amount on housing costs—maybe as much as a third, Mitchell thought—and Tom’s folks already said it was okay,” Roger said.
“Well, that might work; I like the economics. But consider this. Your living in a rental might affect your getting into a fraternity or sorority, you know; sometimes you need to live in their house for a year,” their dad commented.
“Yeah, maybe, but I’m not that much interested in sororities,” Cynthia said. “They’re fine for lots of people but I’m not social in that kind of way, I think.”
“Me neither,” Roger agreed.
In school the following day, Roger and Tom had their usual early-morning swim practice and workout and left the locker room for home room. The morning announcements welcomed the students and staff back to school, and then Davis turned to the Program.
“Beginning this week we’ll announce the names of the students in the Program instead of furnishing the lists to your teachers. We’re doing this because we have so few participants. This week there are six.”
He then read their names.
“I’m sure you six know the drill about disrobing, but unless we change the procedure again, what we want you to do is to go to the main entry; the clothing boxes are there, and disrobe there. Don’t go to the conference room. As usual, your clothing boxes will be outside the main doors after school. We made this change because you are all voluntary participants and this procedure seemed to be the most efficient. Thank you for participating, and everyone, have a pleasant day, full of learning new things.”
Cynthia and Roger looked at each other and mouthed, “Wow.”
In their economics class, a messenger arrived after class started bearing a note for Cynthia and Roger to see their guidance counselor. The twins left class and went to her office; she asked them to be seated.
“Normally I talk to students individually. In your case, what I need to cover is identical and since you’re twins, I assume that you’ll discuss this together anyway. So, do either of you object to meeting like this?”
“No,” they both agreed.
“This is the time when we make the final determinations for graduation. Both of you have excellent scholastic records and have helped the school win titles in state high-school sports competitions. You’ve even won international titles. In terms of graduating, you have both earned the required credits that the state mandates for a high-school degree, plus completion of college advanced placement courses. I know you both have college plans and have received scholarship offers. So there’s nothing academically to discuss, really.
“But Mr Davis has asked me to formally let you know, and has given me letters to your parents to this effect, that your not participating in the Naked in School Program precludes your attending the school’s graduation ceremony. He states that your titles and accomplishments in sports will not be recognized before the graduating senior class, and he also has instructed the school’s registrar to freeze your transcripts. He’s making one final offer; that is, if you agree to participate in the Program next week, he will withdraw those limitations. Understand?”
“Yes ma’am,” Cynthia said while Roger nodded. She went on, “Roger and I have already figured that those exact things would happen. We didn’t expect that we’d get a second-chance offer, though, but our answer is still the same. We’re not doing the Program under any conditions.”
“Your college will require a final transcript, you know,” the counselor cautioned.
“Yes, and we’re dealing with that situation too,” Roger said. “We’ve been in touch with the admissions office and told them about the situation over the Program. So they know that there might be a problem getting the transcript. But they told us not to be overly concerned.”
“Well, then, that’s all I have; here are the letters I mentioned,” she said, handing them two envelopes.
On the way back to their class, the two discussed what they had heard.
“So looks like they’re contacting all the seniors about graduating now and probably everyone will get the same second-chance offer,” Cynthia reflected. “I wonder if anyone will give in this time.”
Roger began thinking aloud. “Hard to say... I’ve heard some kids talking about not going to graduation and saying that they didn’t really care. And there’s that alternate graduation, too. Say, here’s a thought. If there are about 500 seniors and, um, 16 full weeks in the term when they could run the Program, and... let’s see, 18 kids—except the first week. That’s maybe a little over half, right? Around 280? Yeah. I don’t think many seniors participated—maybe three? four? Tom, Dennis, um, Tony, and Elliott. Oh, Melanie. That’s it, right?
“So that would mean that virtually everyone at graduation would be those who never got picked for it! Isn’t that totally weird? Every other senior we spoke to wasn’t doing it or dropped out, like those girls who were over 18. So if they allowed every senior to attend graduation, only those four others would have done the Program along with Tom—he’d and they’d be kinda unique.”
“Damn straight Tom’s unique!” Cynthia snorted. “Yeah—kinda makes denying graduation unfair, right? If half of the students were never even picked? Like a reverse lottery, you win if your ticket doesn’t come up. Crazy.”
“Hey, kids,” Sarah said to the teens when they arrived home after school. “I heard on the news today more about that kidnaping investigation. Just a headline, but at 6 o’clock there’ll be coverage.”
During dinner the twins told their parents about their meeting with the counselor and Stuart read the letters they had brought home.
“I’m gonna show these to Col Masterson. If they’re going through the kids in alpha order, then ‘D’ comes before ‘M’ and he might not know yet,” Stuart commented. “Any other seniors talk about being told this?”
“Yeah, Dad, there was a real buzz about it at lunch. One of the kids mentioned the possibility of that alternate graduation ceremony, too, so the word’s getting out about that,” Roger answered.
After dinner the family gathered to watch. The station’s reporters had dug up a lot of details. They had learned that the contractor company involved, the one that had employed the kidnapers, was legitimate. It appeared that only the Riverside County operation was a rogue one. Two federal officials had been implicated as being involved in directing the raided Riverside office. Extensive equipment and facilities for video recording, editing, and duplication had been found in one of the rooms in the office building, and many DVDs had been seized that showed teens engaged in all kinds of sexual activities.
The report went on, showing video clips of the office building, inside room layouts, and various background sets and props that had been found. It went on to explain how children had been taken from schools by men using federal identifications, brought to that office facility, were kept sedated for a few days while being psychologically manipulated, and then coerced or forced to perform for the videos. Basically, people in that office were running a behavior-modification and child-porn production operation. Twenty-two children had been involved, in total, from eight local area high schools; seven of them were over 18 years old and their detainments were being treated as kidnapings. All of the children were now receiving appropriate medical care and counseling. However, at no point did the report mention or even suggest that any of the officials were connected with the Program.
“What an f-ing mess!” Stuart burst out. “What kind of crap is that? That whole thing was because of the Program and they don’t mention it?”
“Yeah, Dad, they must have learned that the Program was involved when they investigated. Maybe the government gagged them on that detail, stopped them from talking about that point. They couldn’t have gotten as much info as they did without having some government cooperation, I guess,” Cynthia said.
That report was virtually the only topic of discussion at school on the following day among the students. At lunch, the twins heard a discussion at a neighboring table.
“So how was what they did different from how they wanted to video our school’s classroom sex demos when the Program started? If that raid found child porn, how come the school’s videos wouldn’t be the same, anyway?”
“You’re fuckin’ right on, Jan. Shit, am I glad we stopped that crap,” another voice said.
A third chimed in, “Yeah, the only diff was that they did that shit to make money. Here it was supposed to goddamn educate us? My ass it was. I’ll bet the damn school district planned to sell what they taped to the top bidder.”
Cynthia whispered to Roger, “Wow, just listen to them. Talk about yet another real gut-punch for the Program...”
The following day, the scuttlebutt circulating around the school was that a few of the seniors had relented and accepted Davis’ second offer for them to do the Program, but after hearing the latest news report about the kidnaper incident, the rumor went, everyone who had changed their minds changed them back again. The connection between the raided office and the Program, even though it was never mentioned in the media, was foremost in everyone’s minds.
A few days later, Cynthia got an email from Roberta when she arrived home. Roberta had another contact for Cynthia from Central High School, a sophomore named Diane Walker. In her email, she said that Diane preferred to talk by video chat and gave her texting address for Cynthia to contact her. Cynthia contacted her and arranged a video call at about 9 p.m. her time, so at around 6 p.m. the trio sat down for the chat.
Cynthia began, “Hi, this is Cindy Denison, is that Diane? Roberta’s contact?”
“Yep, hi there. No one calls me Diane, it’s Dee, Dee Walker. Roberta said you wanted to hear about the Program at my school?”
“Yeah, and this is my brother Roger and cousin Ayame.”
“Hi, guys. Yeah, I’ve been in the Program here, even had kind of a version of it in middle school—in sex ed.”
“Really? Wow. Middle school too? Well, it just started up here...”
Cynthia went on to give a synopsis of what had happened in her school.
“...so now, there’s a Program but it’s just limping along and hardly anyone’s doing it,” she concluded.
“Well, my experience’s been totally different. I’m loving it, but there are still a lot of kids here who really hate it but no one’s come out and head-on opposed it like you guys did. My older brother Carl was in the first group with Karen Wagner—Roberta said you know about her—and he and his girlfriend came to my middle school and taught sex ed to my class one year and that was fuckin’ hot, hot, hot. I love being naked, but I’ve got some friends who are really up tight about it, though.
“It’s mandatory in our school to do it when you’re called and we have all of that regular Reasonable Request stuff and teachers love to call on us and do these weird things involving our bodies. My favorite was when my brother Carl’s math teacher asked his class to calculate the volume of Carl’s cock while he had a hardon. He’s got a really nice one, by the way. Anyway, the class had to come up with the formulas for the volume of an irregular cylinder for his shaft and a parabolic solid for its head and calculate the answers. The teacher measured his cock for the class and the next day they had to give their solutions. Well, one kid, he hated Carl for some reason, was called to the board to write his solution out and made a decimal mistake and came up with his cockhead as being almost ten ounces in volume. That’s a little less than the size of a softball!” she chuckled. “Shit, that kid was embarrassed! Say, if you want to read stuff about Carl’s Program, he wrote up his experiences in a journal as a class project. Some guy named PeregrinF’s got it archived with the name ‘Carl Naked in School.’”
Roger asked her, “So did you have any negative experiences?”
“Well, yeah. In high school. First, I wasn’t selected. I was put in as a punishment. For defending a friend who was having a really bad time. And I had a horrible time with the perverted Program official at our school, the one who punished me. Seems that all Program officials are perverts, but this one’s gotta be the worst, he preyed on the kids and was a rapist too. So it wasn’t all a bed of roses. Still, I had a fun time, all things considered. Still am, in fact.”
“What’s your overall take, then, Dee? Is the Program good or bad?” Cynthia probed.
“Hmmm. I’m no expert in psych, of course. I think if it’s kept light-hearted, it can be okay for a lot of kids. There are plenty who simply can’t deal with it and you never know who they are. I guess I was really lucky because I just love nudity and that kinda makes me see the whole business through, um, rose-colored glasses, right? So it can be good or bad. And it can be good and bad! How’s that for a definite answer?” she giggled.
They continued to discuss other details, mainly answering Dee’s questions about happenings at Cynthia’s school and about their missing their graduation ceremony. Dee felt very bad about that for them; she was recalling the good time Carl had at his own graduation. Dee was particularly interested in how all the kids had banded together to protect the first group of Program kids during that initial week, and Roger explained how the core of that movement originated with the kids of Marine families, who just decided to act cooperatively—and, of course, it was a chance to rebel against authority for a good cause. Hell, even their parents supported their rebellion, so how cool was that?
Before they broke contact, Cynthia and the others agreed to try to keep in touch with Dee even after they graduated; they were taken with her wit, sense of humor, and positive outlook on life, and were interested in seeing how her high school future would develop.
The boys’ swim team won their regional competition, with Tom setting a competition record in backstroke and Roger in breast, and the girls tied for first place. It was now two weeks before graduation and it was clear that the school administration was not backing down; the graduation ceremony would be held without the participation of the seniors who had refused to do the Program. Some of the Marine parents had asked the JA legal office to intervene and get an injunction against the school, but most parents felt that the alternate graduation ceremony would be much less confrontational.
Some of the effects of the school’s denial had more unfair effects on a few students, such as the Denisons, of course, whose sports accomplishments would not get recognized. But Roger and Cynthia were surprised when they heard about one girl’s plight.
One morning in study hall, a senior that the twins knew fairly well stopped at their table.
“Hey, did you hear? Valerie was supposed to be the valedictorian; she’s got a four-point cum, number one in the class, but she refused to be in the Program, so they took that away from her.”
“Valerie Jennings? Wow. She got into Harvard. She’s president of student council and the captain of the softball squad... shit. Who’re they replacing her with?” Roger asked.
“Don’t know her name, but she’s fifth or sixth in the class. About a three-point-seven or eight, I heard, and no extracurricular stuff. She hadn’t even been selected to do the Program. Valerie’s parents are up in arms,” the boy answered.
“Her mom’s a Marine, right?” wondered Cynthia.
“Yeah, she’s an NCO in the intelligence unit and her dad’s an author. Writes novels.”
“Yeah, that sucks for her,” Roger commented. “It’s so unfair that neither one was in the Program and the kid with the lower cum gets to do the address. I wonder how the alternate ceremony will work—maybe Valerie can be in that.”
Actually a lot of planning and preparation had been going into that alternate graduation. The school’s graduation day was scheduled for Wednesday, June 10. It was to be held in the school’s stadium because the auditorium was too small to accommodate the students and all their guests. The Marine parade field would be the perfect venue to hold their own graduation ceremony, the planners decided, and the planning went forward with a vengeance.
The Marines planning the event arranged for the speaker to be the president of one of the colleges in California; the base’s Marine band would provide the music, some prominent state political figures promised to come—they were offered a few short speaking slots—and the diploma holders, each containing a certificate commemorating the occasion, would be presented by Gen. Markus, the base’s commanding general, and the admiral commanding the Naval Air Forces in San Diego. It helped that the organizers could offer personalized air transport to the dignitaries using Naval aircraft; the trips could be logged as required training sorties.
The base photography service would provide photos of each graduate receiving the diploma, and a portrait photo of each graduate standing before the U.S. Flag, Marine Corps flag, and state flag would be taken. The proper numbers of caps and gowns were determined and ordered.
The graduates would file past an honor guard of Marines and sailors as they walked to the platform to receive their congratulations, the planners decided. To recognize the graduating students who had received academic honors and sports achievements, the organizers had plaques and certificates prepared to present. The valedictorian would be given the opportunity to give her address, too. There was a discussion about having a gun salute for the graduates, but most of the planners felt that doing that would be over the top. Finally, the decision was made to invite the entire senior class and their guests, not only the students of the Marine families.
There was some debate about extending the invitation to the teachers and exactly when the ceremony should be held: before, during, or following the scheduled school graduation. Eventually the decision was made not to upstage the school event; doing this might be construed as being vindictive and petty. So the Marine ceremony would follow the school’s, on Thursday, and that teachers would also be invited.
When school officials got wind of the alternate plans, consternation reigned. The school district tried to intervene with the Marine base to stop their plans and were unsuccessful and so was a request to the Pentagon and to the state’s senators. The district was told that the Marines had the right to honor their students’ families, it was a matter of esprit de corps and not an event that civilians could interfere with. If the school planned to exclude students from participating in the school’s ceremony, the Marines had the right to conduct their own.
The state swim championships were scheduled to occur two weekends before graduation and the teams’ standings statewide were in a virtual three-way tie for both the boys’ and girls’ teams. Both Tom and Roger had continued their practice of racing against other that they had begun at the nudist resort, with Tom challenging Roger to do better in backstroke and Roger forcing Tom to better his butterfly times. The biggest weakness of the boys’ team was their individual medley performance, and those two strokes can be the key to a successful meet.
The coach had the teams also concentrate on their building stamina and the best fly performances can be delivered if the swimmer can limit the need to lift his or her head to breathe. Roger could swim a complete pool length on a single breath and Tom was close to being able to do that too.
The training and practice paid off and Roger’s team won the state meet for the second year while the girls took second place. Several state records were set; Roger took the state fly record, Tom tied the backstroke record, and Roger’s team set the team medley relay record.
Graduation day—the school’s graduation day, that is—was a bright, warm day, and the fears of the school administration were well-founded; fewer than 100 students showed up and more than a score left when they saw how few were present. Even the music was affected by the thinned ranks of the combined band/orchestra since the seniors weren’t present. But the ceremony, normally attended by about 500 students and 1500 guests, barely had 10 percent of that number present.
The ceremony the following day, however, emphasized the previous day’s embarrassment; it was extremely well attended, even a number of students who had attended the previous day’s event at the school decided to attend. Everyone was recognized for their achievements; speeches were given, everyone was wowed by the honor guards and other special details of the ceremony. Marines do ceremonies very, very well. It was a very satisfied group of graduates who left the parade grounds that afternoon and the Marines even got a fair number of inquiries about signing up.
With their memorable graduation ceremony, the high school careers of Cynthia and Roger Denison came to a rousing, if unconventional, end. Now they could put their high-school years behind them and concentrate on college. At last they could forget about the Naked in School Program.
Or could they, really?
Not so fast... Are the twins fated to be bedeviled by the Program, even in college? The experience gives Cynthia a new resolve, fueled by Roger's Internet discovery. The twins find themselves drawn more and more into the Program, more than they ever had been while in high school and they find their experiences to be alarming. But then some new actors appear on the scene, two people who will give new life and purpose to the twins' anti-Program wishes.
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