Storiesonline.net ------- Naked High by Don Lockwood Copyright© 2004 by Don Lockwood ------- Description: This is an outgrowth of the Naked In School premise that I, and other people, have written about; starting with Karen Wagner, who started it all. Naked High is specifically a spinoff of my Naked In School stories, as it stars younger siblings of some of my NiS characters. Codes: mf ff rom 1st teen cons les bi het safe oral ------- ------- Naked High--The Premise Naked High is a novel that will contain four books, each tracing one year of high school for my characters. This is an outgrowth of the Naked In School premise that I, and other people, have written about; starting with Karen Wagner, who started it all. Naked High is specifically a spinoff of my Naked In School stories, as it stars younger siblings of some of my NiS characters. The way I see Naked High is this-it takes place in an alternate universe. I'm starting the story in September of 2003-actually, I'm starting with the preface, which is in February of 2030-but the story proper I'm dating September of 2003. But this isn't our 2003, many things are different. All STDs, including AIDS, have been cured. Birth control is easily available and completely effective. Kids start having sex much younger. This is a sociopolitical development, as the events recorded in the Preface will make clear. My NiS stories took place in a fictional town called Westport, and that's where Naked High will take place. I needed a location for Westport for Naked High, so I've decided it's on the coast of North Carolina. It's completely fictional. Westport's a city of about 40,000 people and there are no cities like that on the NC coast. Wilmington comes closest, but it's about twice as large and I see Westport as being further north than Wilmington. Any geographic details given to Westport are completely fictional. But I needed an actual place to put Westport for 'wider world' reasons. Example: my NiS character Maggie Benson decided to attend a school within commuting distance so she could stay home with her younger brother, Joe, who is a point-of-view character in Naked High. So, Maggie's attending East Carolina University. I also needed Westport to be in an area that gets an occasional hurricane. You'll find out why . As I've said, the story has a Preface, which is actually the first part of Book One, Chapter One. The preface takes place more than 26 years after the start of the story. The preface is mainly to make a political point, not to Build A Mystery. There will be a few mysteries to come out of the preface, for sure, but they're mild. One mystery is completely eliminated, though-you will know right from the preface that Amber and Joe, my two POV characters, do NOT end up together. In fact, the preface concerns Amber's daughter Karen and Joe's son Keith; who are dating. The contents of Naked High are Amber and Joe's journals from their days there. Karen and Keith are reading them. Why, is detailed in the preface. As I said, there's sociopolitical commentary there. Naked High is the colloquialism given to Westport Regional Academy, a magnet high school that draws students from Westport and seven other surrounding school districts. As the nickname implies, WRA is a nudist school. Everybody-students, staff, visitors-is naked. This, of course, is an outgrowth of the Naked In School Program. There are differences. They'll be detailed in the beginning of the story itself. But one thing that's not different-the nakedness encourages sexual exploration, and is supposed to. However, it's different when everybody is always naked. It becomes more ho-hum. The nakedness, I mean-not the sex . As I start this story, Naked High is brand-new. The class I'll be following-Amber, Joe, and their friends-is the first class to ever attend. Since this is considered a four-year program, when they enter as freshmen, only freshmen will be there. They don't open up the school for upperclassmen 'transfering' in. By the time they get to be seniors, the school will be filled. How I'm going to write this story is the tricky part. I have two POV characters-Amber Woodard, little sister of Lily; and Joe Benson, little brother of Maggie. I'm going to be switching off between the two, alternating by chapters. The time period covered in each offsetting chapter will be the same. It's usually going to be about a month. So, if Chapter One is Amber's September of Freshman Year, Chapter Two will be Joe's September of Freshman Year. The disadvantages two this are: first, how do I write it when Joe and Amber interact with one another? Now, their regular interaction-they are required to meet on the last day of every month and trade and discuss their journals-we'll probably get mostly from Joe's point of view, mainly because Joe is the one who tells his story second. As for other situations involving them, I'm going to play it by ear. It might get a little confusing, but I'll try to keep it as un-confusing as I can. The other problem with doing the story like this is the lag-time. I get to the end of Chapter One, which is Amber's story. Amber's story won't pick up again until chapter Three. That might be a little difficult, but I'm going to give it a shot. This is really two books in one, but I'm going to try to keep it as smooth as I can. As for content-well, there's a little bit of everything. First of all, there's no 'taboo' between teachers getting involved with students at Naked High. As long as there's no coercion, and as long as there's no 'trading off' (for grades and the like), it's not forbidden. There will be some. I expect that to be a wee bit controversial, but there you have it . There will also be many combinations-threesomes, foursomes, bi-and that does include at least one MM scene. So, be forewarned. I don't think I'll get too extreme-I haven't planned on any beastiality --but there's a lot of sex, and in various combinations. Though romance creeps in here and there-and will get more prominent as my characters grow older-this isn't a 'boy meets soulmate at 14' story. Both of my POV characters go through a lot of partners-especially Amber. Will they eventually meet a soulmate? Maybe. We'll see . One other thing... the character of Moose is based in part on an old friend. It is NOT my intent at ALL to disparage anyone who share's Moose's ethnic background. His real life counterpart really did talk like this . And in real life it was hilarious. I hope I get that across on the printed page. I think that's it for now. I hope you enjoy it! --Frank Downey ------- Book I ------- Chapter 1: Amber February, 2030 "You really want me to do this, Mom?" I looked at Karen, my beautiful 17-year-old daughter, and sighed. She just didn't understand. I wondered, and not for the first time, how any daughter of mine could turn out so straight-laced. Then again, I knew the answer to that. It wasn't me, and it wasn't her. It was the world. A lot had happened since the day, over 26 years ago, when I stepped into Westport Regional Academy to start high school. Heck, a lot had happened since Karen was born. She came into the world that I knew. By the time she had entered elementary school, that world had changed. It was a backlash that probably should have been predicted. I grew up in a permissive society. Karen grew up after the moralizers had retaken control. We suffered 8 years under a bible-thumping president who probably wouldn't know how to satisfy a woman if you gave him a map and guide. He had enough people in Congress to support his agenda. It had seeped down to state governments, local governments, even school boards. The Supreme Court wasn't totally corrupted, but it took a while for some of the more egregious laws to be struck down--and only the worst ever were. The First Amendment was gutted enough as it was. It had been a brutal 8 years, and the 4 before that weren't great. The worm had finally turned a little over two years ago. We elected a president who ran on a platform of permissiveness, and we elected him in a landslide. We elected like-minded members of Congress. This too extended down to the local level. In fact, one of my closest friends was now the mayor of Westport, and another close friend was the head of the school board. It was my generation, the so-called Naked Generation, finding its political voice at last. We had children. We saw how they were growing up. We didn't like it. The problem was, had the damage been done? I really worried about kids a few years older than Karen, kids in college now. Kids like Gina Gutierrez, the daughter of friends of my sister Lily. Gina was 21. She spent her whole adolescence under this repression. Her parents tell me she's a mess. It might not be too late for Karen, but she was resisting. "I can't believe you want me to go to school naked!" she was saying. "For a whole week! And I can't believe Mr. Benson wants Keith to do it with me!" "Don't tell me you've never seen Keith naked," I teased her. She gasped. "Of course not!" Of course not? They'd been going out for two years! "And look at this!" She had the brochure for The Program. "I'm going to have to be touched! Down there! Keith and I don't do that!" Oh, God. I had failed my beautiful blonde-haired blue-eyed baby. She and Keith were in love--you could tell just by looking at them--and they'd never touched. Again, I had to ask--this was my daughter? I sighed. "I think we all need to talk. Keith and his Dad, too." I picked up the phone. ------- Joe Benson, my old pal, brought Keith right over. The four of us sat in the living room. "Keith's having trouble with this, too," Joe told me. "I don't get it, Dad. I don't get why I should be doing this," Keith said. "Do you know that spending a week in The Program was how your Aunt Maggie and Uncle Chuck found one another?" Keith gasped. I turned to Karen. "It's how your Aunt Lily and Uncle Mike met. Do you know that your Aunt Lily pitched her first game at Westport High in the nude?" "I don't believe it." "True story," I sighed. "There's so much we haven't told you. We were scared to. I saw people, good people, destroyed under the fundamentalists. It had everyone spooked." I sighed again. "I'll never forget the day I saw Bob Tilling arrested." "And Ellie Kirkland," Joe added, "she couldn't practice psychology anymore. Her books were banned." "And Ms. Toranetti lost her teaching license." "Thank goodness we fixed that," Joe said. As president of the school board, Joe was instrumental in getting Ms. T. appointed the Principal of Westport High last year. "True. And Ellie's practicing again." I turned to our children. "There was so much we were afraid to tell you. And, because of that, you're repressed and stifled." "Don't you ever get horny?" Joe bluntly asked his son. Keith just blushed, and looked down. "Do you know how old I was when I lost my virginity?" Joe asked. Keith just looked at him. "Fourteen." "WHAT?" "As was I," I added. "MOTHER!" Karen gasped. "Your Aunt Lily was 13," I added. "And your Aunt Maggie was twelve," Joe told Keith. He and Karen were just flabbergasted. I added fuel to the fire. "By the way, me losing my virginity? That's with a boy. I first had sex with another girl when I was eleven." Poor Karen. Keith, too. Joe and I had just dropped a nuclear bomb on their entire world view. I felt bad--but I also felt that shock treatment was the only way. Because I had seen it. I had seen my lovely daughter fight off the signals that she was getting from her own body. I'd seen her about to explode. Keith, too. Those two were so in love, they should be fucking like rabbits by now. I didn't even think either of them masturbated--the damn church we were forced to bring them to when they were kids even railed against that! After they had digested all this a bit, Karen asked the question we were waiting for: "Did you guys spend a week in school naked, too?" I smiled at Joe and told them. "Joe and I didn't go to Westport High. We went to a high school that no longer exists. Westport Regional Academy." "It's the industrial park on Jacobs Street now," Joe told them. "But, back then, it was a regional magnet school. Its nickname was Naked High." "We spent every day of all four years of high school in the nude," I concluded. Now they were really flabbergasted. "What was it like?" Karen finally asked, curiosity winning out over revulsion. "Great," I enthused. Joe nodded his agreement. "You guys want to know all about it?" Keith and Karen looked at each other, and, after a minute, slowly nodded. Joe took the four binders he had brought with him and put them on the coffee table in front of Keith. I reached next to my chair, grabbed four similar binders, and put them in front of Karen. "It's all in there," Joe said. "Some students were picked to keep journals. Two journal-keeping students were then partnered up. Joe was my partner." "And the journals were combined--we met every month, and made copies for one another, and discussed them," Joe added. "So what the two of you have in front of you is identical. It's my journal, and Joe's. One binder for each year of high school." "We give you permission to read them. In fact, we encourage it," Joe smiled. "And this is the perfect time. It's Saturday, and you have the whole next week off for vacation. Plenty of time to read." "Prepare, however, to be shocked. They are explicit." I smiled at Karen. "When you find out who took my virginity, you're going to flip your lid." "It wasn't Dad?" "No." "Who?" I grinned. "You have to read the whole story." "I don't know if I'm ready for this," Karen admitted. "Honey, I don't either. But I want you to give it a shot." Karen looked at Keith, and they nodded. "Keith," I said, "Why don't you come over here after supper, and start then? You should read them together. You're going to want to talk about this." "OK." Keith and Joe left, Keith promising to come back after supper. After they had left, I turned to Karen and said, "Come on." I started out of the house, Karen in tow. We headed to my car. "Where are we going?" "You'll see." We drove across town, pulling up to a medical building. I led Karen in to my gynecologist's office. The receptionist smiled and waved us in. "Hi, Rosa!" "Amber! Karen! How are you?" "Great," I told her. "Listen. Can you give Karen the birth control shot?" "WHAT?" Karen asked. "Sure," Rosa said. "I don't even have to do all that damn paperwork I used to have to do when the wingnuts were running the country." "Joe and I are going to let Keith and Karen read our journals," I told her. "Good for you!" "Wait a minute," Karen burst in. "You want me on birth control? Why? I'm not going to... I mean we're not going to..." "Karen," I interrupted, "trust me on this one. If you read those journals, you will get turned on. I guarantee it. You're a young lady, you have hormones, and you're my daughter. You get halfway through the journal for freshman year and you're going to be squirming." "I have managed to keep control of myself for two years," she said icily. "I know you have--but you've done it by very carefully avoiding any chance to lose control. You keep such a tight rein on yourself that I don't know how you breathe sometimes. You will find it much harder after reading those journals. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm telling you to protect yourself from possibilities. Karen? Get the shot. It's a fail-safe." Karen acquiesced and got the shot. Driving back home, I lowered the first boom on her. "You'll find out soon enough, so I'll give you a sneak preview. Remember how I said I had a female lover before I had any male ones?" She nodded. "It was Rosa," I grinned. "My DOCTOR?" "Yup.Well, she was technically my second. Though my first was mainly just fooling around, experimenting." "I don't know if I'm going to survive these journals!" We ate, then Keith came over. They looked at the journals with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation. I had to laugh to myself. Hopefully, if my plan worked, the trepidation would soon be gone. Keith and Karen looked at each other, grabbed the journals, and took them upstairs to read, well-fortified with snacks and sodas. ------- September 2003 Tuesday, September 2nd, the day after Labor Day, was my first day at Westport Regional Academy. I was excited. The minute the concept of the school had been announced, I wanted to sign up. You see, WRA was a nudist school--it had already been nicknamed Naked High--and I had discovered the joy of nudity way back in 6th grade. Naked High was a natural outgrowth of the Naked In School Program. That's where kids in a regular, everyday school were chosen to go naked for a week. Back when I was in 6th grade, my sister Lily was in eleventh--that was the year we moved to Westport. Lily got put in The Program. She even had to play baseball nude. Anyhow, the week she was in it, Westport high had their annual carnival. Lily and her boyfriend Mike, who was also in The Program that week, took me. Since it was a school event during their Program week, they had to go in the nude. I decided to join the party--and found I really liked it. In fact, a few weeks later, I even went to school nude, along with my two best friends Tanya Vyshenko and Rosa Gutierrez. So, Naked High was the place I wanted to be. Rosa and Tan were there, too. That was cool. They were as excited as I was. Of course, we were all most excited about the prospect of naked boys! Well, Tan and I were. Rosa, I wasn't so sure of anymore. The thing is, Rosa and I had been lovers for two years. Now, understand, I'm not gay. At best, I'm bi. More accurately, I'm basically straight but don't mind fooling around with a girl if there are no boys available. There hadn't, as yet, been any boys available--so Rosa and I took care of one another. To me, that's all it was. Don't misunderstand me, I love Rosa. But I wanted dick, and I wanted it something fierce. I'd thought Rosa felt the same way--but, lately, I'd been doubting that. She was far more into our relationship than I was. I was wondering if she really was gay. It worried me. Not that she might be gay, of course--whatever--but that I might be getting drawn into it. If she thought I was going to settle into a happy lesbian relationship with her, she was mistaken. And I'd made no secret of how badly I wanted a hard cock, but I'm not sure she was getting the message. Anyhow--Rosa, Tanya and I met up at the entrance to Naked High, all excited about the new experience. We arrived clothed. The nakedness would come later. The first day was orientation--no classes--and we'd be stripping down later, when we got our lockers. Our lockers were extra-large--we could wear clothes to school, especially when the weather got worse, and we'd have plenty of locker space to put them. We all gathered in the auditorium, the entire freshman class. We were the only class this year. They were building the school from scratch, and weren't letting anybody transfer in to make upper classes, so we freshmen would be the only ones there this year. The school--which was huge--was going to be kind of empty with only 250 kids there. However, they told us at orientation that they weren't using the whole school this year. There were two 'classroom wings' and we wouldn't be using one at all. In fact, that wing wasn't quite finished yet. Anyhow, we all filed into the auditorium. There certainly was a lot to go over. I looked around at my classmates. As I said, there were 250 of us. We came from Westport and six surrounding towns--Newburgh, Warren, East Warren, Lycoming, Davis, and Southport. So, I knew the Westport people, having gone through middle school with them--but I didn't know anyone else. That was cool--new boys! Mr. Tilling got up at the front of the auditorium. He'd left Westport High to become the principal of WRA, because he believed in the concept. He brought Ms. Toranetti with him. Ms. T, a biology teacher who had brought The Program to Westport, was to be the vice-principal at WRA. She'd also teach some units of Freshman Biology class. I had already gotten my schedule and knew she'd be teaching the class I was going to be in. That was good--my sister and her friends raved about Ms. T. Mr. Tilling talked to us about what Naked High was all about. One thing I guess I knew but hadn't really registered in my mind--everyone was going to be naked, staff and teachers included. "Take a good long look at your respected principal in his spiffy three-piece suit--it's the last time you'll see it," Mr. Tilling said, cracking us all up. He talked some about the curriculum. In a lot of ways, this was a normal high school, and a competitive one. Despite the nudity, we'd all have to carry our weight in class. He talked about the nudity--and some of the exceptions. Thank goodness they had learned the lessons of my sister Lily, who had torn up her leg sliding into home in the nude. Athletic teams would have uniforms. I saw a bunch of big guys who looked like they were probably football players breathe a sigh of relief at that! To be honest, Rosa and I did as well--we were both soccer players. Another exception was that girls on their period could wear panties or a bikini bottom. That was rather a relief! Then Ms. T. got up to talk about the unusual aspects of Naked High. "It's not just about nudity," she said. "This isn't meant to be a hands-off nudity-has-nothing-to-do-with-sex kind of place. Sexual learning, experimentation, and activity are supported and encouraged. This is a place to learn about your bodies, and others' bodies." Sounded good to me! There were guidelines, of course. "Coercion is right out," she told us. "No means no. Everyone goes at their own pace--and some people just aren't attracted to other people, and some people may form exclusive relationships. All of that must be respected. Nobody here will ever be forced or pressured to do anything. Although, I will say, anyone who expects or desires to graduate high school a virgin is probably at the wrong school." I'll say! I hoped not! It was bad enough that I graduated middle school a virgin. I didn't plan to let that particular problem go on much longer. I couldn't imagine, in this day and age, any kid wanting to be a virgin by the end of high school. It's a permissive society, birth control had been made easy and 100% effective, and STDs had been eliminated. Sex is everywhere. But, I knew there were a few. Some of the nutcase 'no fun' religious sects still existed, so I'm sure some dopey parents still put pressure on their kids to 'wait until marriage' or some shit. I didn't buy that for a second. Hell, when I go to buy a pair of shoes, I try on the shoes before I buy them. In fact, and more to the point, I try on several pairs. One guy, and you don't get to try him on until after you've married him? Not for this girl! Ms. T. was still talking. And she had a bombshell. "Sex between teachers and students is not prohibited. However, again, there are rules. No coercion still applies--and no horse trading. Students, if any teacher tries to get you to do anything sexual in exchange for a better grade, I want it reported. That is completely out of bounds. And students always have the right to say no for any reason. If you're being threatened, that also has to be reported. We screen the teachers very carefully so that shouldn't be a problem. But if it is, we'll take care of it." "Also, students can initiate this if they want, but the same rules apply. Some teachers might not be interested. Some are married, or in other exclusive relationships. Not all married teachers will always say no, by the way--I'm married, but my marriage is open. But if a teacher says no, that must be respected. And some teachers have different tastes." She pointed to a man sitting on the stage. "This is Mr. Riley, some of you will have him for history. He's cute, isn't he?" she grinned. She was right, he was cute. "Well, he's also gay. So, sorry, girls, he will turn you down." Everyone laughed at that, Mr. Riley most of all. The best part was when she told us about the schedule. Naked High had a longer class day that most schools, now we found out why: a half-hour break in the morning, and an hour and a half for lunch. And the school stayed open after classes ended for a few hours. In other words--and I almost fainted when I realized it--they were giving us time in school to have sex! I felt like I'd somehow stumbled into utopia. They even had a place--something called 'pods', which she said would make more sense when we took the tour of the school. Mr. Tilling took over, then, and had something else to tell us. "Since this is an experimental program, we want a record of it, from the students' point of view. So, some of you have been picked to write journals. This is based mostly on your writing skills in middle school--we picked the better writers for this. "Plus, you're going to be partnered. One guy with one girl. We want you to meet every month and discuss your journals with your partner. We're going to have you combine the journals, so we get the male and female perspectives. These journals will be seen by you, your partner, me, and Ms. T. And that's it, unless you give us specific permission otherwise. So do NOT censor yourself. What you write will help us to understand what our students go through here, for future years. Plus, every student who does this gets extra credit for it." When he said that, I had a funny feeling--my writing grades in middle school were very good. I was right--I got picked. My partner was Joe Benson, a guy from Westport who I knew slightly. I didn't know him well, he was kind of quiet. Ah, well. I could handle that. And I liked to write, so I didn't have any problem with that part of it. There were a few more things, then we were led to our lockers. They weren't kidding, the things were huge. Very handy. We were all commanded to strip. It became apparent to me that the enthusiasm for getting nekkid varied greatly. I was clothes free in seconds, as were Tan and Rosa. Others seemed to have more problems with it In fact, I was standing right next to a girl who was having enormous problems with it. And I could see why. She was chubby--really chubby. And she was staring at the lockers with this look of complete despair on her face, her fingers hovering over the buttons on her blouse. "Are you OK?" I asked her. "I don't know if I can do this," she said softly. "This is a tough school to go to if you can't get naked." "I'm not here by choice, my parents twisted my arm," she said. Jesus Christ, why do parents do this shit to their kids? "They thought I needed this, because I have no self-confidence. Of course I don't--if you had this body, would you have any?" I probably wouldn't, but I wasn't going to say that to her. "Ah, it will be OK, you just have to get used to it. I'm Amber, by the way--Amber Woodard." "Anastasia Averbuk, but everyone calls me Stacia," she told me. "Nice to meet you, Stacia," I said. She still hadn't removed a stitch of clothing. "You're going to have to do it sooner or later," I told her. "I know," she sighed, then started undressing-very slowly. She finally got it all off. I felt bad, the poor kid was just fat. Being short--a few inches shorter than my 5'6"--didn't help. She was just round. Of course, the T&A crowd would love her, because that she had. Then again, so did I, and I wasn't chubby. I myself had no body issues. Lucky for me, playing soccer tends to keep the flab away. Muscles I had, especially in my legs, but I also had curves. Nice ass, firm boobs halfway between a B and C cup. Nothing wrong with my face. Of course, that often caused me to ask myself why the hell I couldn't get laid--but I was pretty sure looks weren't the reason. But I was looking around--and I loved it. It was like someone deposited me in naked penis heaven. It was wonderful. Short ones, long ones, fat ones, skinny ones--I wanted to drop to my knees and give somebody a blowjob right then and there. Something else I've never done. Anyhow, we were all led to the cafeteria, so we could get lunch. Then we'd get a big tour of the school. I was walking along with Tan and Rosa, and that Stacia girl was walking in front of us. That's when I heard it. A bunch of boys were standing by us, and one of them let out a "Mooooo!" Obviously directed at Stacia. Damn, this girl was going to have a tough time. Mr. Tilling heard it. "We will have none of that! Everyone at this school will be treated with respect. If anyone can't do that, I'll find out who you are and you will be expelled." Everyone murmured assent, but, you know, I knew better. Kids would just be more discreet, that's all. Stacia was in for a hard time. Anyhow, we got to the cafeteria. I ate with Tan and Rosa. I was going to ask Stacia if she wanted to eat with us, but I lost her in the crowd. Oh, well. After lunch, we got that tour of the school. It was kind of confusing. It wasn't a small building, and there were lots of twists and turns. But we found out what the pods were. They were in a couple of different places, in various 'connecting' corridors. They were small cubicles, almost. There were two rows, one on top of the other, with ladders to get to the upper ones, all along the walls of the corridor. Each had a little porthole-type door, which closed. Inside, the floor was a mattress. You could probably fit four or five in there comfortably. They were little fuck-cubicles! How cool was that? Anyhow, we spent the rest of the day making brief visits to our classes, so we could meet our teachers. Then we got dressed and went home. I was really excited about this place! ------- The next day, I had my first full day of classes. That was cool, but I was actually very excited about what happened after school--soccer tryouts. I loved soccer, I was passionate about the game--and I was good. I put a lot of effort into it, and had long looked forward to playing at the high school level. However, it wasn't going to be the way I had imagined, I already knew that. At least we got to wear clothes, that was good. But there was another big problem. WRA had, of course, joined a conference, the North Coast conference. This conference, however, had a screwy rule. You couldn't have any teams below varsity if you didn't have a varsity team. So, even though Naked High had only freshmen in it and should only be fielding a freshman team, we were going to have to play varsity. We were gonna get killed. And I hated to lose. Furthermore, since we were a regional school, it wasn't like we had grown up playing together. In fact, some of us had played against some others. We'd had a good team at Westport Middle School last year--but only two of my old teammates had decided to attend Naked High. One of them was Rosa, who was a goalkeeper. She'd grown up with soccer--her brother Frankie played--but she didn't join a team until I talked her into it when we met. She got good pretty quickly. My other old teammate who was here was Gabrielle Ondris, a very good defender who usually worked the right side. I was glad to see Gabi here, she was an excellent player. However, I'd have to work with a whole new, different group of players at my position. You see, I was an attacking midfielder. That's the playmaker, the person who controls the ball at the offensive end, passing and setting up the offensive plays. I had to work with the outside midfielders, the center midfielder--who played behind me, and was the front of the defense as I was the back of the offense--and, of course, the forwards. And they were all new. These were called tryouts, but there were only 25 girls there, so there weren't going to be any tryouts. There weren't enough to cut. This was the team. I immediately saw some talent, and recognized a few of the players from middle school games. One was Brianna Crombie, who was from Southport. She was a tall redhead who played sweeper, the back defender. It was her responsibility to stand in front of the goaltender and clean up the mess that got through the rest of the defense. I'd played against her, and she was good. And I liked her attitude--she was like me. She knew she was good, and just did it. She walked right up to Rosa--the sweeper plays very closely with the goalie--and said, "Hi, I'm Brianna--I'm your sweeper. Don't worry about a thing." I liked that. She was like me--this wasn't a tryout. She was good. That was her position. She took it. If the coaches thought that there was somebody better, good luck to them. I was the same way. It was a kind of soccer tradition that the starting attacking midfielder wore number 10. When I got to the field, I walked right over to the coach, who I didn't know, and said, "Hi. I'm Amber Woodard, and I'm your number10." Luckily, the coach--whose name was Alice Nicolosi--did know me. "I'll bet you are," she said to me. And there was one other one I liked immediately. A short girl, strawberry-blonde hair, came up to me. "Hi, I'm Jordan McKinney," she said. "You don't know me. I'm from Lycoming, and I was injured when you played us last year. But I know you, and I plan to be on the receiving end of those passes from you this year." "Forward?" I asked. "Goal-scoring machine," she grinned. "Good, I hope so," I grinned back. ------- The first couple of weeks of school were an adjustment. A big one. As much as I loved nudity, going to school every day in the nude did take some getting used to. Hell, it was a distraction. All those goregous naked male bodies. There was this specimen that sat next to me in English. Jesus. Who can concentrate on English? Somehow, I managed--mostly. But, I have to say, I was getting more horny by the second. And I couldn't get anyone to fuck me. Why didn't I just ask some guy to do me? Well, I did. The way the pods seemed to have organized themselves is that there was a waiting area. If you were looking for a partner, you hung out there. I found two guys there the first week and asked them, "You wanna fuck?" I got turned down twice. Seems they already had someone they were waiting for and it wasn't me. Crushes. I hate when people get crushes. Especially when they're not on me. I did get settled into classes. I had five all-week classes: English, Spanish, Geometry, History, and Biology. Then there were two that were part week: Gym and Computers were MWF, Art and Cooking were TTh. I wanted to learn how to cook--I sucked at it. Luckily, both Rosa and Tan were in that class. Why they needed cooking is beyond me--they could both cook. But it was fun to have them in class, however. They were also both in my Biology class. Rosa was also with me in English and History. I was still trying to sort things out. There were a lot of new people, and a lot of new classes, and all that nudity. I was trying to meet people--especially guys--and it wasn't going particularly well. I guess I put some people off--I'm not a shrinking violet by any means. And it seemed like a lot of the guys were scared. Well, some weren't, but there was a quandry. The ones that weren't scared were the ones I didn't want any part of. Alex Randall, for instance. He was from Westport, so I knew him. And he was God's gift to just about anything--just ask him, he'll tell you. I wasn't impressed. I'm sure he'd have gone for a roll in the hay if I had suggested such--but I wasn't that desperate, and I had a little more taste than that. Besides which, I noticed he hooked up with some statuesque buxom bronzed goddess almost right away. Figures. There were plently of cute guys that seemed nice, though--but they all seemed intimidated by me. Jesus, I wasn't that bad, was I? At middle school, I'd had the reputation of being a bit of a bitch, but I never thought I was that bad. I don't know if the reputation followed me, or what--but I didn't think I was that bad. Of course, if I didn't get laid soon, I might turn into a bitch. Damn, I was horny. The soccer team was starting to sort itself out--well, as much as it could. Let's just say we had some holes. Some big holes. I think the coach did the best she could, but it wasn't easy. Hey, I was good, as were Rosa and Gabi, I knew that. The sweeper, Brianna, turned out to be as good as advertised. And Jordan was an excellent forward, and we quickly developed a rapport. Some of the other players at least had potential: Torie Dallas, who was the center midfielder, was decent. She was a tall black girl with power and enough speed. Center midfield is basically, the defensive counterpart to my position--she was my backup. She was talented, and I liked her as a person. We got another outstanding defender to play opposite Gabi--her name was Mia Venzi. Of course, she got teased about that first name--you know, because of the most famous female American soccer player ever, Mia Hamm--but she took it good-naturedly. She was quiet and intense, but took it seriously and had talent. Outside of that, though, we had holes. Our stopper--the front center defender--was still learning the game. Our wing midfielders were inconsistant. And then there was Jenna. Jenna became the other forward, next to Jordan--Jenna Zambrano was her name. That easy rapport I developed with Jordan did not happen with Jenna. I hated her almost instantly. Don't get me wrong, she had talent, especially speed. But she didn't work. She wanted the glamour and none of the dirty work. She was pretty, popular, spoiled, drew guys like bees to honey, and got anything she wanted by flashing her baby-browns. In other words, she was a Princess. I fucking hated Princesses. I didn't like them much in general, but I especially did not want them on my soccer field. Look, the coaches made her a starter because they were enamored with her speed--and, to be honest, because there wasn't many other options. Jordan was the only forward on the team that was worth a damn. So Jenna was a starter almost by default. Hey, I figured it was my job to help her get better. Besides being the person who was going to be passing the ball to her, I had been elected co-captain (Brianna was the other, a decision I fully agreed with). So, I tried to work with her. Work just wasn't in her vocabulary. I quickly started wishing there was someone else. I even tried to get there to be someone else. There was another person on the team, Taylor Buckman, who was inexperienced but showed talent and a willingness to work. Unfortunately, she didn't see herself as a forward--she wanted to be the attacking midflielder. Yeah, my position. Not that she wanted to take it or anything, she wanted to be my backup. I didn't have the heart to tell her my backup doesn't play unless I get hurt. Well, she might have figured that out on her own, because she was also taking plays at the two wing midfield spots, positioning herself to be the all-around midfield backup. That was cool, but I thought she might be able to play forward. She didn't have Jenna's speed, but she had good speed, worked, and could receive a pass. Playing forward scared her, though. The funny thing is, we almost managed to win our first game, against the school I almost went to, Westport High. We lost 2-1, but had a 1-0 lead into the first half. We got an early goal. I made what I must say was an abolutely goregous pass to Jordan, and she pounded it home. Unfortunately, Westport quickly realized what a threat Jordan was and started marking her very tightly. And they quickly realized what a threat Jenna wasn't. They left her open all day long--didn't make a bit of difference. And they just pounded away at our good-but-young defense until they tied the game, then won it. Westport was starting a freshman--only one, we were starting eleven! But it was a friend, Tiffany Veras. I went over and said hi before the game. Tiffany was my first friend when I moved to Westport. We were a lot alike and had both liked soccer. She was also the first person I ever had sex with--though it was more just playing around. Heck, we were eleven at the time. The problem was, Tiffany's mother found out--and she was a bitch and a prude. After that, I was never allowed to hang with Tiff. We saw each other in school and at soccer, but that was it. It sucked--I missed her. And I wished she was here. She told me she'd have loved to have gone to Naked High--but there was no way her mother was going to go for that. After playing that game, I really wished she were here. She, you see, was a forward, and a good one--she and I had had a great rapport. Damn, the damage we could do with Tiffany alongside Jordan instead of Jenna! Ah, well. It was going to be a long season. I hated losing. ------- One thing I had started wondering about was the teachers. I was wondering how they were dealing with it--but didn't know how to approach any of them to ask. You could guess with some of them. For instance, I had Vinnie Benson for English. Vinnie was Maggie and Joe's older brother--and he was a stud, let me tell you. The thing is, he didn't look all that comfortable with the nudity. Ms. T. didn't seem to have any problems with it. I had a young geometry teacher, Miss Peterson, and she seemed very uncomfortable with it. God knows why, she was gorgeous. The teachers all knew what they were signing up for--but I guess the reality was a bit more nervewracking than the thought. Hell, I could see that--it was harder for me than I thought it was going to be. It was funny that it was the older teachers who seemed to have the least problem with it. Mr. Tilling just walked the halls in the altogether, not a care in the world. I have to say, that man wasn't bad looking at all for a guy in his late forties. And then there was Mrs. Winchell, the art teacher. She was in her fifties. She--to be honest about it--was saggy and flabby, out of shape. And she just didn't care. I loved it. I guess it comes from being an art teacher, or something. However, the person I ended up discussing it with--three weeks into school, on Monday September 22--was Mr. Riley, my History teacher. I had him last period, and asked to stay after to ask him a question about that day's lecture. He answered it, we had a nice talk about it. I was sitting at a chair beside his desk, and he reclined in his chair. "So, Amber, tell me--how are you getting along? Getting used to the nudity?" "Yeah," I told him. "I have no problem with being naked--except for the fact that I'm horny and can't get any boys to do anything about it!" He laughed. "Well, Amber, I've seen you in class. You're a ball of fire. You probably scare them away." "Yeah," I said. "Look, teenaged boys aren't known for brimming with self-confidence, you know what I mean? They're easily intimidated." He laughed. "Then again, it could be worse--try being gay." "I'm bi," I told him, "and I actually have a girlfriend. Getting gay sex is not my problem." He cracked up at that. "But I'm still a virgin with guys, and I'm sick of it." "Believe me, I know the whole horniness thing." He lowered his voice a little. "Here's a secret. I'm attracted to high school boys--your age, I mean. Now, believe me, I do not teach because I like teenaged boys. I teach because I love to teach and I love history. You're already one of my favorite students and I have no sexual interest in you whatsoever." I giggled at that. "And I have never ever laid a single hand on one of my students." He sighed. "Now, here I am, and I'm told I can, that it's allowed. And my students are in front of me naked every day. The problem is, I'm gay. And that still carries a stigma. And it especially carries a stigma with 14-year-old boys. If I approached the wrong kid, I could really freak him out. It would be easier if I were straight." "It would be a lot easier if you were straight, because half the girls in the school would fuck you in a minute," I grinned at him. "With me right at the top of the list." He laughed. "Thank you, I think. Anyhow, you see what I mean. So, believe me, I know from horniness." "Well, Mr. Riley, if I ever approach a boy and he tells me he's gay, I'll let you know." "Knowing the ones that are open to it does help, yes," he grinned. "All I can do is let it be known that I'm available, and do it subtly." He laughed again. "Let's face it, I'm a pervert. And this place is Perverts' Paradise." "It is at that, isn't it?" I agreed. "Yup. A lot of teachers are having trouble adjusting. Eileen Peterson's having a devil of a time. She's very horny, very bi-and quite shy. She wants to pounce on half her class and can't bring herself to do anything. This is not something they teach in education classes in college, let me tell you." "I can imagine!" We chatted for a while, and then I left. It was cool. Mr. Riley was good people, a great teacher, and easy to talk to. It was good to know that this wasn't easy for the teachers, either. There was so much sex around--but it was mostly sexual tension. Sometimes it felt like a dam was going to burst. ------- The following Monday, the dam burst--unfortunately, not for me. I got to lunch, and met Tan and Rosa--and Tan was plainly excited. "Guess what?" she said softly but excitedly. "I lost my virginity this morning!" "You did?" I said. "With who?" "Connor Enfield." "The quarterback?" Rosa asked. "Wow, he's a dreamboat." "That he is," Tan giggled. "I liked him right away. He's so cute and so sweet, and I've been watching him since school started. He must have noticed--because, at morning break, I was hanging around the pods--and here he came. He walked right up to me and asked me if I wanted to go in." "And you did," Rosa said. "Yup. We got into one of the pods, and we started kissing, and he was running his hands all over me, and I was excited but nervous. He must have noticed, because he said, 'Tan, is anything wrong? If you don't want to do anything, we don't have to.' I told him that I did want to but it was my first time. He told me it was only his third. "So, he was real gentle, and worked me up, and kissed me all over--then he got me off with his hand. Then we did it." "Did it hurt?" Rosa asked. "Just a little, just at first," Tan said. "I didn't have a hymen, I lost that years ago horseback riding, so I didn't have to worry about that. And he got me nice and wet. So it really wasn't bad." "Did you cum?" Rosa asked. "Not quite, he was a little quick," Tan laughed. "He would've gone again--he was still hard--but the bell was about to ring and we had to clean up and get to class. He was all apologetic that I didn't cum. It was OK, I came with his hand before." She grinned. "We're meeting after I finish eating to try again. Plus he asked me out." "That's awesome!" Rosa said. I echoed that. And I really was happy for Tan, genuinely. But I was also as jealous as you can believe. Connor Enfield was a first-class grade-A hunk. And he'd picked Tan. Damn, damn, damn. I went down to the pods myself after I finished eating. Instead of trying the direct approach, I decided to just wait there, looking available. Nothing. If I didn't get laid soon, I was going to explode. The month, my first in high school, came to an end--and I was still a virgin. I met with Joe Benson to exchange journals. If I'd thought there might be a possiblity there, I was sadly mistaken. Joe was scared of his own shadow, not to mention a girl like me. Shit, weren't there any guys with any balls at this damn school? ------- Chapter 2: Joe SEPTEMBER, 2003 I stood there in front of my new school, Westport Regional Academy, and could only think one thing: I must be out of my mind. WRA was, you see, a new school, a magnet school with a new concept--full-time nudity. That and, supposedly, an atmosphere of sexual experimentation. And I was going to go here? I was 14. I was tall and extremely skinny. I was shy, especially around girls. I couldn't talk to them much less do anything else with them. And now I had to prance in front of them naked! And they were all going to be naked! As I said, I must be out of my mind. How did I get into this mess? I gave in. The pressure was subtle, but it was there--and it came from multiple directions. The first two were my siblings. My sister Maggie was 19; my brother Vinnie 22. They thought Naked High was the greatest thing ever. Of course, they would. I knew that Maggie had been sexually active since she was 12--and, until she met her boyfriend Chuck when she was 17, was very active. Mags had never had any problems relating to the opposite sex, and didn't quite understand how I did. She thought Naked High would "loosen me up". Vinnie, if anything, was worse. Hey, it's easier for girls to get sex. The fact that Maggie got laid whenever she wanted had a lot to do with the simple fact that she was willing. But Vinnie had just as much luck. He'd escaped the Benson Skinny Curse--he had muscles. (Maggie was as skinny as I, but that's more acceptable for a girl.) And Vinnie was outgoing and charming. And he was so into the Naked High concept that he'd been hired to be a teacher there. My Dad, too, weighed in. He though the nudity concept was cool, but he especially liked the rigorous academic program. Hey, that part of it I liked. But the nudity? I didn't ask my mother. It would have been difficult, since I haven't seen her since I was 5. Plus, there was one other person--Patrick Drouin, my best friend for years. Patrick was all for Naked High and wanted me there, too. But, again, Patrick wasn't shy. He was fairly good-looking--short and dark, but muscular. Plus he had a fun, outgoing, charming personality that girls really liked. He'd do fine at Naked High. So, with all this subtle 'encouragement', I gave in. I decided to attend Naked High. God help me. At least I didn't have to prance in there naked the first day. They led us all to the auditorium for orientation. We wouldn't have to strip until later. They threw a lot of information at us. I was amazed. It was true, it wasn't just about nudity. I mean, times during the day, and a special place, to have sex? In school? Amazing. I kept wanting to ask about a special class that would teach me to talk to a girl. I figured I'd need that before I would have use for the pods and the morning fuck-break. Then there was that thing about teachers having sex with students. That blew my mind! Of course, that included my brother, the teacher. Jesus--that's all I needed--competition from Vinnie! As if the competiton from the likes of Patrick wasn't bad enough! Then, I found out I was going to have to keep a journal. That wasn't so bad--I liked writing. But they partnered me up with Amber Woodard to do it. I was going to have to meet with Amber once a month. Amber was scary. I'd known her since sixth grade and she would intimidate Atilla the Hun. Jesus, this was just getting more and more nervewracking. Anyhow, we went through all that, then they led us to our lockers. Time to strip. Patrick was right by me. "Is this great, or what?" he said. "Naked babes!" "Yeah. Great," I agreed with absolutely no enthusiasm. "Come on, this is excellent," Patrick said, quickly stripping off his clothes. Easy for him to say. The girls will be checking out his muscles--with me, they'll be counting my ribs. I managed to get my clothes off. Somehow. "Damn, I need to gain weight," I said. "Maybe you can get some from her," Patrick sniggered, pointing to a rather chubby girl down the row of lockers a bit. "She's got enough to spare." "Be nice," I said. "Ah, you're right, I should." "Besides which, she has pretty eyes." "Whatever you say, pal," Patrick teased. But she did--she might have been chubby, but she had very pretty eyes. I looked around. Damn, all these naked girls. I almost wanted to go crawl into one of the lockers. Of course, the worst part was I had a damn hard-on that would not go down. Jesus. This was mortifying. Of course, most every guy there had one--but it didn't seem to bother Patrick. How the hell was I going to walk around school with my dick hard all day? And then... I saw her. Oh JESUS. She was a Goddess. I couldn't believe how gorgeous she was. She was almost as tall as I was--and I'm close to six feet, so that's saying something. She had coffee-colored skin, bronze hair, and deep brown eyes. She had a regal bearing to her that flummoxed me. She was fairly thin, but not too much so--she had curves. Her dark breasts stood out proudly, and the twin globes of her ass were high and firm. "Oh my head," I hissed. "See something you like?" Patrick teased. His gaze followed mine. "Ah. Very nice, but you're welcome to her. I prefer to stay away from girls that are half a foot taller than I am." "Good," I said emphatically. Patrick just laughed. Of course, if I had had a woody before spying this goddess--it was like a metal rod at the moment. Shit. After stripping nude, we went down to lunch before we got a tour of the whole school. Patrick and I grabbed our food and were looking for a table when I heard behind me, "Drouin!" We turned, and Patrick said, "Justin! You're going here? That's awesome!" Patrick was greeting a tall kid, decently built, with jet-black hair and Asian features (I'd find out later that he was half Korean.) "Hey, Justin, I want you to meet my best friend, Joe Benson. Joe, this is Justin Seigler. We met at camp last year." We shook hands, and Justin pointed to a big blonde kid that was standing next to him. "And I want you guys to meet my best friend, Aaron Bielinski. More commonly known as Moose." I shook the kid's hand. He was a Moose--he was as tall as I, probably weighed double, but wasn't muscular or fat. He was just big. I quickly found out, however, that he was pretty quiet, until he got to know you. We got the tour, and I ended up walking behind the goddess I had noticed earlier. I was, of course, staring at her. "I think Joe found someone he wants to take in those pods," Patrick joked. Justin followed Patrick's gaze and said, "The tall one? Don't waste your time." "You know her?" I asked. "Yes. Moose and I are from Newburgh, as is she. Her name's Darcy Iniglia. Like I said, don't waste your time. There might be a more stuck-up person in the universe, but I haven't seen it." "Damn, really?" I said. "Yep. Unless you're the most goregous guy in school, a sports star, or filthy rich--and, preferably, all three--she won't give you the time of day." "Damn," I said--but I had the funny feeling that information wasn't going to make me stop dreaming. This girl was just too fantastic. Anyhow, we got the tour. The pods were something else--a perfect place to go have sex in the middle of the school day. Justin and Patrick were all excited. I was resigned--I wasn't going to be doing anything in these any time soon. Moose must've agreed. "I wonder if we can use those things to jerk off, because I think that's going to be the extent of my sex life." We all laughed at that. "You'll find someone," Justin assured him. "Nah. I can't get girls. I'm too Polish." Justin laughed--Patrick and I just looked at him. "You'll get used to him," Justin said. "One long Polish joke." "I can't help being Polish," Moose said. "It's a cross to bear." Well, that was a good thing about the first day--meeting Justin and Moose. They were cool. ------- The first week progressed. Classes were OK--challenging, good teachers. I liked that. Having the teachers in the nude took a little getting used to. Geometry was the worst. The teacher, Miss Peterson, was a babe. Plus, the girl who had invaded my dreams, Darcy Iniglia, sat right next to me. And math wasn't my best subject to begin with. I'd walked past the pods a couple times during my break periods, and it seemed that people were already pairing off. There was kind of a waiting area, to wait if you were looking for a partner, but I never had the guts to wait there--or to approach anyone waiting. I saw my journal partner, Amber Woodard, there a few times. I was kind of stunned--she was having a problem getting hooked up? That surprised me. Maybe I wasn't the only guy she intimidated. Of course, certain other people had no problems getting hooked up. My pal Patrick, for instance. I saw him entering the pods one day with this stunning brunette. He winked at me and escorted her into one of the pods. "Jenna Zambrano," he told me at lunch that day. "She's a babe--plays on the girl's soccer team. And, boy, can she fuck." "Fine, make me jealous," I said. "Don't worry, buddy, you'll get yours. You just got to come out of your shell." He grinned. "I saw Amber Woodard down there waiting to get picked up, you should try some of that. Of course, if you don't satisfy her, she'll probably bite it off." "Bitch?" Justin asked. "Big time. That girl needs taming, as in Of The Shrew," Patrick said. "I don't have the intestinal fortitude for that. And Jenna tells me she's even worse on the soccer field--a complete martinet, thinks she's God's gift to soccer or something." "She's in a couple of my classes," Moose said. "She seems OK to me." "Wait until you get to know her," Patrick warned. "And wear protective gear." That's how the first couple of weeks went--me feeling awkward and jealous and left out. And exposed, very exposed. Luckily, it seemed like Moose was a bit of a kindred spirit. Even if I wasn't Polish! And the damn hard-ons still kept making themselves known, at the most inopportune moments. There were times it hurt. And, despite Moose's crack, I wasn't going to go into a pod by myself and jerk off. I had to wait until I got home. ------- The only person I really had to talk to about this really did try to understand. And she did try to help. It's just that we had completely different mindsets. I'm talking about my sister, Maggie. I was glad that Maggie was there, though--at the very least, she was a hell of a listener and let me vent. And I appreciated what she had done--she decided to stay home for me, because of our mother leaving. She figured she needed to be around for my high school years. It was really quite generous, and it did cost her. Maggie attended East Carolina University, which was in decent commuting distance. But she lost out on some of the college experience by commuting. What was more, she lost out on time with Chuck, her boyfriend. Chuck attended North Carolina State, for its architecture program. But he lived there--that was too far to commute. Maggie only saw him on the weekends, and not every weekend at that. And it wasn't just Chuck, either-most of her friends lived at school. Chuck was joined at NC State by a lot of them--Frankie, Cassie, David, Missy, Michelle Ingemi, Eric Andrews. Ed Bauer and Natalie Weinberg were at UNC-Chapel Hill. Maggie's best friend Amanda and her boyfriend Jared were all the way at Princeton. And two other friends, Amber's sister Lily and her boyfriend Mike, were way out in California, at USC. (They played baseball--led USC to the College World Series championship last year.) That was Maggie's whole crowd in high school--and none of them were around. And Maggie was here because of me. There were days I felt guilty about that. So, one day during the second week of school, I came home. She was sitting on the couch, the phone to her ear. She grinned at me and pointed to the chair. "Yeah, Braden, I love you too, you big mushball. See you Friday." She hung up the phone and grinned at me. "That's the problem with a long-distance relationship. I've got to listen to Chuckles get all gooey and romantic over the phone." "And you love every minute of it," I teased her. "True, true. Just don't tell him that. Anyhow, how's it going? How's Naked High?" "OK, I guess." "Well that was remarkable in its lack of enthusiasm, little brother," she grinned. "I'm thinking that it was a mistake." "Naked High, you mean? Why?" "I don't fit in there," I said. "Why on earth not?" "I'm skinny. I'm shy. I'm surrounded by beautiful naked girls and I can't even talk to them. Patrick already hooked up with someone. I see people hooking up all the time. And my dream girl sits next to me in Geometry and I can't even say hello." "Dream girl?" Maggie hissed. "Now there's a problem. Joe, you're 14. Play the field, bro. Don't get all hung up on one girl. You want to have fun now." "You have Chuck." "I started going out with Chuck when I was 17. When I was your age, I had a different person in bed every weekend! And, believe me, I'm glad I did--because if I hadn't then, I'd be tempted now, what with Chuck and I separated most of the week. Now's the time to sow wild oats, Joe. 125 girls in that school and you picked out one?" "You should see her," I said. "Well, fine, Joe, keep her in mind--but don't pass up any other opportunities, that's all I'm saying." " What opportunities?" I hissed, exasperated. "The ones you're missing because you're too shy. Take your clothes off." "WHAT?" "You heard me, take your clothes off. You do it in school, don't you? And I'm your big sister, I changed your freakin' diapers, for fuck sake. Strip!" I stripped. I didn't know quite what Maggie was getting at, but I stripped. She made me stand in the middle of the room, and she circled me. "OK, so you're skinny--but not painfully so. You're not as skinny as I am. You might want to think about working out with weights a little, to get some definition, but it's not bad." She circled around. "You have a nice ass," she giggled. Damn, I blushed at that! Then she came back around to the front. "And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that," she said, smirking, as she pointed to my (hard) dick. "You have a fine face, Joe, you're handsome. And you're tall--girls like tall guys. You can put your clothes back on now." I did, in record time. "Sit," she said, pointing next to her on the couch, after I was dressed. "Now, listen to me. Joe, you're a good-looking guy. Trust me, OK? You have nothing to be ashamed about. There are girls that are looking at you, OK? I guarantee it." "Whatever you say, Mags." "I say. And some of them are as shy as you are. Don't forget that." "Nobody's as shy as I am," I said. "Well, maybe my new friend Moose is, but that's it." "Trust me," Maggie said. "I'll try." ------- I did try, but I still couldn't bring myself to talk to any girls, much less my dream girl, Darcy. Then something incredible happened. It was the third week of school, on a Wednesday. And it started out as an awful day. I must have had some funky dreams, or something, because my hard-on would not go down. All through the morning, I was sitting there in class with a woody that just wouldn't quit. I mean, I got hard-ons, normally, but I'd had some luck controlling them, the more used to the nudity I got. Not completely--Darcy walking by still made me sprout--but this constant thing was very annoying. My last class before morning break was Biology. I was so horny and frustrated that I actually considered going to the pods and doing myself, as embarrassing as that would be. I stumbled out of class, when suddenly a short, cute strawberry blonde moved herself into my path. "Hi," she said. She pointed to my crotch and said, "That looks painful." "Uh..." was all I could get out of my mouth. She giggled, and wrapped her arm around mine. "Come on," she said, leading me through the halls. My arm was rubbing up against her breast. Jeez, as if I weren't hard enough! "I'm Jordan McKinney," she said. "Uh, Joe Benson." "Nice to meet you, Joe. I've noticed you in class. You're very shy, aren't you?" "Uh, well..." "That's what I thought," she giggled. "Come on, you shouldn't have to walk around like that all day." She led me through the corridors--and down to the pods. She found an empty one, and led me in. I sat on the mattress, wondering what the hell was going on. She rummaged through the storage drawers in the pod, and came out with a bottle of lubricant. She put a dab on her hand-and then grabbed my dick! I let out a startled groan. "Better?" she giggled. "Well, it will be in a minute. I saw you in bio like this and thought that I had to help you out." She looked at me. "You've never had this done to you, have you?" I shook my head. "Well, then, just enjoy it. I like doing this--especially to sweet, shy guys." I blushed at that--of course, I was blushing to begin with! The lubricant on her hand let her slide her hand up and down my dick easily. She had a firm but gentle grip on it, and it felt fantastic. I think that's when I realized my big sister had a point. I'd been staring at Darcy for three weeks-and this girl I'd never even really noticed was giving me a handjob, and it was her idea. And she was cute, and nice, and all that good stuff. Mags was right, about a lot of things. Then I couldn't think anymore, because I was too busy having the greatest cum of my life, all over Jordan's hand! As I tried to catch my breath, I realized something--they really did plan out these pod things. There were even kleenex--which Jordan was using on her hand--and a little wastebasket built into the wall. When she was done, she looked at me and giggled. "Feel better?" "Much," I managed. "Good. Would you do me? I got all turned on doing that!" Oh SHIT. Jesus, I wanted to say yes, but, you want to talk about terrifying? I wouldn't have any clue as to what to do! Bless Jordan, she caught it. "You've never done that before, have you?" "No," I admitted, blushing scarlet. She just giggled. I was really getting to like that giggle. "That's OK, Joe, effort's worth everything. We can work up to it. Kiss me." I did. It wasn't quite my first kiss, but it was close. It certainly was my first naked kiss! And it was the first kiss that I felt the girl's tongue snake into my mouth. While she was devouring me, she grabbed my hand, and pulled it to her boob. I fondled it, gently, and felt her nipple harden under my hand. She hummed into my mouth--now that was nice and satisfying! After a bit, she broke the kiss. "Ok, now put your mouth where your hand is, and put your hand... you know where," she giggled. I moved down to her breast--kissing her neck on the way down on an impluse, which she liked--and put my mouth around her nipple. Man, was this fun! Jordan's breasts weren't huge, but they were firm and attractive. As I sucked on her nipple, she let out a low groan. I moved my hand between her legs, which she spread to give me better access. "OK, start by running your finger up and down the length of it, gently," she said. So I did. She was really wet, I felt it on my finger. She kind of shuddered as I did it. "OK, now slip your finger in." I did. Damn, I actually had my finger in a girl's pussy! "Slide it in and out," she said. I did. At one point, she yelped. "Oh, yeah! Did you feel that patch that's a little rougher? That feels really good." I found what she was talking about, and rubbed my finger on it. She started panting. "OK," she said after a bit, shakily, "pull your finger out. Then run it on the outside again. At the top, you'll find a little nub. That's my clit. That's where it all happens. But gently, it's sensitive." I moved my finger up her pussy, and found the nub she was talking about. I gently flicked it. She gasped. "Oooh! Yeah! Right there!" I kept at it, gently. She was gasping and moaning. Then she said, "More!" So I rubbed at it harder. Suddenly, she grabbed my hand, stiffened, and her hips came off the mattress, as she let out a series of yelps. After she settled down, she pulled my hand away. I pulled my mouth off her nipple and looked at her. She looked very happy. Wow--did I do that? After a minute, she opened her eyes and grinned at me. "Wow, that was a good one!" "You mean, you had a, you know..." "Orgasm? Did I ever! And you said it was your first time." "It was." "You're a natural," she grinned. That's when I threw the shyness off for once in my life. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I'm no natural--you're a good teacher. Thank you." "Thank you," she said, giggling. "Joe, you're cute, you know? Lots of girls around here. Don't be so shy." "You sound like my sister," I laughed. "Your sister must be smart. Joe, take my--and her--advice. Enjoy yourself. Let me tell you a secret--a lot of the guys around here are scary, OK? And a lot of the girls here aren't any more experienced than you are. I am, but a lot aren't. Trust me, girls talk. And, like I said, a lot of the guys here scare them. There are nice guys here, for sure--I know you're friends with Patrick Drouin, and he's a nice guy. But, I have to tell you--take somebody like Alex Randall. You think most girls here would pick him over you?" "Of course they would!" I said. "He's a hunk, and a big basketball star..." "And an asshole," she finished. "Yeah, some girls would pick him, but not most. For most girls, a cute, sweet, shy guy like you is far more appealing, especially if the girl is inexperienced. Remember that, OK?" "I'll try. Thanks." "You're welcome. And, who knows, maybe you and I can come in here again some day," she giggled. "But now we have to get to class." "Yep. Jordan? Thanks again. You're a great person." "So are you." I talked to Maggie that night about it. I don't talk out of school, but Maggie's a different story. "See?" she said. "I told you." "I'm still in shock," I admitted. "Why on earth, Joe? I keep telling you. You're attractive. In an atmosphere like Naked High, you will get girls--unless you want something exculsive with this Jordan girl." "No, I don't think so--and I get the distinct impression that she wouldn't be interested in that. I think she's more into playing the field right now. Besides which, I barely know her." "See, now you're wising up. But if she offers you more lessons, take her up on them," she grinned. "Mags, I'm not stupid, you know," I grinned back. "She was really patient and understanding. It was great. I wouldn't turn it down again, believe me." "Good. She sounds like fun. Hell, she sounds like me--well, me pre-Chuck." "I had thought of that, yes. Do you miss it?" "Being the school slut? Well, that's a tough question. Not really--but I have a twinge, only because I don't see Chuck enough. If Chuck and I didn't go to different schools, and could see each other more often, I wouldn't care at all. It was fun, I'm glad I did it, but I really do love Chuck." "Ah. Would you ever cheat on him?" She grinned at me. "Well, it wouldn't be cheating, because he's given me permission. He knows this is tough for me because my sex drive is so ridiculous. And I still haven't done it. Because, even though he's given me permission, it would still screw things up." "Really? Even though he's given you permission?" "I'd feel so damn guilty, Joe. When I first started going out with Chuck, I was afraid it wouldn't last--and I was afraid that I would be the one who'd screw it up. Basically, I was afraid I'd be like Mom. So, if I screwed someone else, I wouldn't feel good about myself at all." She laughed. "I just have to make sure I keep the batteries stocked for my vibrator." "Too much information, Sis," I laughed. "You should transfer to NC State next year." "Nah," she said. "I'm fine. And you do need me, so there!" ------- The rest of the month would have been OK. Jordan didn't pull me into the pods again, but she gave me a wink and a grin the next day, and always said "Hi," when she saw me. I was more comfortable with the nudity. I still didn't have much self-confidence, but it was getting better. Then I got a blow. I saw my dream goddess, Darcy, going into the pods--with Alex Randall!!!! Damn. Then I saw them together all the time. Double damn. Alex Randall? What an asshole. And he was making time with my dream girl! I actually had a chat with Jordan about it. We were walking from biology. "Well, you were wrong," I told her. "Some people would choose Alex Randall over me--and it's the one I have a crush on." "Darcy Iniglia?" she asked. I nodded. "Joe, you got to have better taste than that. Darcy's a complete snob." "Yeah, everyone keeps telling me that." "And it doesn't make a difference to you at all, does it? Ah, well, who can understand infatuation? Money bet says it doesn't last, anyhow. So here's your chance to, er, increase your experience with other girls." "That would be nice," I laughed. ------- The month ended with the journal swap with Amber Woodard. And, damn, she really is a bitch. Took my copy, gave me hers--and dismissed me, is the only word I can come up with to describe it. I doubt she even read mine, though we're supposed to. I did read hers. Who would've ever suspected Amber was having trouble getting laid? Then again, she didn't have the most pleasant personality in the world. Damn, four years I had to go through this? Damn. ------- Chapter 3: Amber OCTOBER 2003 As October started, I was more than frustrated. At least I had one outlet--Rosa. And that almost sounds like I was using her. Well, maybe I was, to some degree. But it wasn't like I didn't have feelings for her--I did. There wasn't another girl I'd want as a lover. There were, however, any number of guys I'd love to have as a lover. It's not that I was actively looking for a relationship with a guy, though I wasn't opposed to it, either. But, actually, Rosa was really all I needed right now emotionally. That would probably change some day, when I met the right guy. Right now, all I wanted from a guy was to get laid. That wasn't happening. So, I was with Rosa. And it's not like there was anything wrong with sex with Rosa. On the contrary--it was great. We were compatible in bed, probably because I was more aggressive than she was. Rosa was soft. She wasn't fat, not at all, but she was curvy. Except for my T and A, which I had, I was all angles and muscles--Rosa was soft all over. Even her kisses were soft. We were together this day, early in October. We were in my bed, all curled up together, kissing. We were naked--we'd taken the bus home that way as we usually did if it was nice out. We had been nude all day--what was the point of dressing? Anyhow, we were kissing. And, like I said, Rosa's kisses were soft. Even when she was sucking on my lower lip--something she loved to do--it was soft and gentle. Our lips quietly rubbed against one another. She parted her lips, and my tongue slipped inside. She sucked on my tongue lightly, running her own all over mine. We were in a clench. One of her hands was running through my hair, the other lightly roaming up and down my back. I had my hands cupped around her ass, squeezing her cheeks. Our boobs were rubbing against each other. I parted her legs with my kness and brough my thigh up between her legs. I bent it up and rubbed it against her pussy. She moaned into my mouth. We were side-by-side, but I pushed her over so that she was on her back. I climbed on top of her. We rubbed our boobs and pussies together, as our tongues and lips dueled. Her hands held my head, fondling my hair. I broke the kiss, and moved my lips downward, kissing her neck on the way down. I got down to her boobs and kissed all around her flesh. I circled around, kissing her boobs all over, then finally got to her erect nipple. I took it between my lips and sucked on it, rubbing the tip with my tongue as I did. Rosa moaned as I massaged her nipple with my lips and tongue. I rolled it between my lips, flicking at it with my tongue. As I did that, my hand roamed down and moved between her legs. I cupped her pussy with my hand, feeling how wet she was, pressing into it gently. Then I moved a finger up and down her slick labia, caressing and fondling her pussy with my finger as I did the same to her nipple with my tongue. After a few minutes of that, I took my finger and slipped it into her. "Oh, God, Amber," she gasped. She was wet and ready, and I moved my finger in and out of her easily. As I added a second one, I kissed down her stomach and headed towards her pussy with my mouth. All right. I guess I am pretty bi, because I love eating pussy. I especially enjoyed eating Rosa's pussy. When she gets aroused, she has a nice prominent clittie--nice and easy to wrap my lips around. That's just what I did, sucking on it and gently flicking my tongue at it--she loved that. It didn't take long, not witih my lips sucking her clit and my fingers hammering away at her pussy. Her hips rose off the bed. She yelped, "Amber!" and I felt her pussy clamp down on my fingers. I moved my mouth away but kept my fingers buried in her, as she came down. When her breathing settled, I began taking her up again. Slowly moving my fingers, I gently licked my way up her labia. Her arousal returned in a hurry and I zeroed back onto her clit. Her second orgasm was quicker and, if anything, even more explosive. I crawled up beside her after the second one and just watched her. Rosa was awesome to look at after she came. Her eyes were clenched, her fists were clenched, her cheeks all puffed out as she tried to regain her breath. I loved it. She opened her eyes to see me leaning over her, grinning. And then she surprised me--before I knew it, I was on my back with her hovering over me. Rosa wasn't usually aggressive. She leaned over and her lips met mine--and she practically stuck her tongue down my throat! Before I knew it, her mouth was on my breast. Then she moved down and lapped at my pussy. She lovingly sucked on my clit, as I felt myself start to build up. Then, suddenly, she wasn't there anymore. I opened my eyes, and saw her in front of me, kneeling between my spread legs. And she was wearing a strap-on! We'd played with toys before, but never a strap-on. "Where'd you get that?" I asked. "A little surprise," she said with a grin. "Amber, I want to fuck you." "God, yes," I groaned. She moved in--and stuck me with one good, long stroke. I yelped--and it was in pleasure. Like I said, we'd used toys--hell, I'd used them on myself. But that was different. That was a hand, hers or mine, moving it in and out. It wasn't the same as Rosa's hips driving it into me. My Jesus, did she fuck me! I found out later, when she took it off, that it had a couple of attatchments--one that went into her pussy, and one that massaged her clit. So, she was getting something out of this as well. She certainly pounded it in and out of me like one very turned-on girl. I wrapped my legs around her ass. She leaned over, holding herself up by her elbows. Her tits mashed into mine, which just added to the sensations. Then she covered my mouth with hers. I held on to her waist as she plowed that magnificent fake cock in and out of my sopping pussy. When I came, it was with one hell of a howl. And she kept going! I'd barely come down from my first orgasm, and her ceaseless pounding had me headed for number two. She just kept fucking into me--but I could see all those attatchments were affecting her, too. She was panting into my mouth through her kisses. Her erect nipples rubbed against mine. I felt my pussy clamp down on the latex cock again, as my hips pulled up off the bed and thrust up at hers. And she still kept going! After that, I lost all coherence. I know I got to a third before Rosa climaxed herself and collapsed on top of me, completely spent, the dildo still deep inside me. She pulled it out after a while and plopped down next to me. I looked over at it. It was slick with my juices. No big surprise--the puddle under my ass was practically a damn lake. "Oh, my God," I hissed after I had finally caught my breath. "You like?" Rosa said with a grin. "Jesus. I have never cum that hard! And you--when did you get so aggressive?" "I dunno. It was like I strapped that thing on, and got this incredible surge of power!" "What made you think of this?" She blushed, and blinked. "Look, Amber--I know you want a guy. I know it's going to happen sooner or later." Her voice dropped. "I wanted to do it first. I wanted your first fuck to be from me." "Oh, Rosa," I sighed, leaning over and taking her in my arms. We cuddled for a bit. "After that--honestly, who needs guys?" I giggled. "You do. I know this. Hey, so do I," she admitted. "I had wondered." "I don't seem to crave it as badly as you do, but I do want guys. I just don't want us to lose what we have." "We won't," I promised. "Any guy I meet will have to understand that I'm bi and have a girlfriend. Of course, at Naked High, that probably won't be a problem. I saw a foursome headed into one of the pods the other day." Rosa giggled at that. "Which, I admit, sounds like fun. Anyway--at the moment, I have no legs left--but, next time, I want to do you with this thing." I gripped the dildo. "If you were my first, I want to be yours." "I'd like that," she grinned. ------- It's not that I wanted a guy any less, but maybe it made it a bit less urgent. I vowed not to kill myself trying so hard. Rosa's magical strap-on was a wonderful substitute. And, two days after that first time with it, I found out I really liked doing her with it. She loved it, too. But I still looked at the guys, drooling. And I still got pangs of jealousy. Tanya and Connor Enfield were as thick as thieves. And then I had to listen to the exploits of my soccer buddy, Jordan. Including hand-job lessons with my journal partner, Joe Benson! She told me about it one day after practice. "Joe Benson?" I exclaimed. "I was under the impression that he was totally hopeless." "Nah," Jordan told me. "He's just shy, has no confidence, and is inexperienced. Which just means that I get to train him." She grinned at me. "He's very trainable!" "You have a thing for him?" "Nah, not that way," she said. "Don't get me wrong, I like him a lot. But, at this point in my life, I am a play-the-field kind of gal." "What if he gets stuck on you?" "That's why I've waited a couple weeks and haven't taken him in for another lesson," she giggled. "Next one is oral. Every guy should learn that one." "Uh-huh," I grinned. "That's why I have Rosa." She made a face. "Suit yourself, but not for me. I'm sure I wouldn't mind receiving oral sex from a girl--a girl certainly would know her way around down there." She made a worse face and shuddered. "But then I'd have to reciprocate. No thanks. I'll stick to blowjobs." I had to laugh at that. She continued. "Anyhow, as I was saying, I don't worry about Joe getting stuck on me. Besides which, he's got a thing for Darcy Iniglia." "Ugh. Somebody buy that boy some taste," I said. "Yup. Anyhow, we're just friends. I'm just going to teach him." "I need some guy to teach. Or vice-versa!" ------- Well, it wasn't going to happen then. The next day, I got my period. Ah, well. That was one bad thing about Naked High. Don't get me wrong, I was glad I got to wear panties that week--but that meant everybody knew when Aunt Flo came for a visit. And we had a game. Playing soccer when on your period is never much fun. Anyway, I got a nice surprise. We got drubbed, by Newburgh. We still hadn't won a damn game. It was getting maddening. Anyhow, I looked over at the bench shortly after halftime, and I saw a girl sitting there. She was on crutches, a cast on her leg. I looked closer--and realized it was my old friend Tiffany! After the game, I couldn't wait to talk to her. "What are you doing here? And what happened to your leg?" She smiled at me, but it was forced. "I'm going to be going here, starting tomorrow." "You're kidding," I gasped. "How on earth did your Mother allow you to come here?" Tiff dropped the smile. "She didn't. I'm not living with her anymore. I'm living with my Dad in Southport." She took a deep breath. "I had a guy. In my bedroom. We were just fooling around, we had barely gotten started. Now, I was going to let him fuck me, but we hadn't gotten to that point. We had gotten naked. "Mom came home unexpectedly. And she caught us. She chased Tommy out of the house. Then she pulled me out of bed by my hair--and threw me down the stairs. That's how I broke my leg. Got a concussion, too. I'm lucky it wasn't worse. I mean I was pushed and went head-over-heels down a full flight of stairs." "My God, Tiff!" I hissed. "Not the first time she's hit me, though it was never that bad before. Anyhow, after I landed, she finally came to her senses and called an ambulance. The police came with them, and I told them--my mother threw me down the stairs. I think she expected me to cover for her, or something. Anyhow, they took her in, and called my Dad. He got me at the hospital. We had a hearing yesterday and he got custody--my Mother might go to jail, anyway. She's being charged with felony child abuse and aggravated battery--and they're considering attempted murder. She's out on bail, but I got a restraining order. "I'd have to change schools anyway, and I wanted to go here in the first place, though Mom wouldn't hear of it. Dad thinks it's a good idea, though. They usually don't accept transfers--but they let me in, because of the circumstances, and because I only missed a month." "Wow," I said. "Well, I'm glad you're here, though I'm sorry you had to go through all that." "Yeah." "I'll tell you what, this team could really use you!" "Not until next year, unfortunately. The leg won't heal in time. But next year, we'll be rockin' 'em!" ------- I was still antsy. I still wanted a guy. But I was beginning to think Jordan had the right idea. Grab a shy guy, and, while he was busy being flabbergasted, drag him off to the pods. I was thinking of doing just that as my period was about to end. But, a couple of days after it ended and I was again able to go full-nude, I still hadn't done anything about it. Because I wasn't sure. It was easier for Jordan--she had some experience. I didn't. I thought my first time should be with an experienced guy, not a Joe Benson. I'd have to think about it some more, but I didn't want to get into a blind-leading-the-blind situation. But, while I was deciding, I lost the chance--and it didn't look like it was going to come around again any time soon. Because, you see, I became the school pariah. It had to do with soccer, of course. We were playing Davis-Lycoming. They were historically the conference doormats. And, lo and behold, we found ourselves playing them straight up. A game we actually had a chance to win. In fact, it was 0-0 at halftime, and we were starting to carry a lot of the play. There was one problem. Jordan grew up in Lycoming, played youth soccer there. In other words, she'd played with some of the girls at Davis-Lycoming High--and they knew how good she was. And they quickly figured out that she was who I wanted to pass to. So, after a short time, any time we moved forward, Jordan found herself triple-teamed. And they were sticking to her like glue. I still tried to force it into her a couple of times. I even tried to take it in myself once or twice. No go--the ones that weren't guarding Jordan would swarm to me and close right in before I could get a decent shot off. Which left Jenna. And I tried. The first pass I gave her, early in the second half, was good but not great. I could cut her some slack for missing that one. It was slightly behind her when it landed at her feet. Yeah, Jordan would've handled it, and gotten something off--especially if she were wide open, as Jenna was. But it wasn't perfect. The next two were--perfect, I mean. Absolutely. And they were within a few minutes of one another. Both times, I pulled the defense off to one side, towards Jordan and I--including the goalie. Both times, that left Jenna unguarded and with an open net. Both times, I gave her absolutely picture-perfect passes. I mean, they were things of beauty. Right at her feet, an empty net--all she had to do was kick it in. Both times, she fucked up. The first one, she feebly waved at it with her foot and whiffed. The second one, she didn't even try--just watched it roll harmlessly past her feet. I was absolutely livid. I could've strangled the bitch. Those were the last passes she got from me, I can guarantee you that. I tried to force it to Jordan or force it in myself a couple more times. At one point, I even waved Kendra Corrigan forward. Kendra was one of our wingers, an outside midfielder. I brought her forward and we attempted a little give-and-go. It didn't work. At least Kendra tried! Of course, seeing all these wasted scoring opportunities demoralized our defense. Late in the second half, Davis-Lycoming scored. Another fucking loss. I tried to control myself--I really did. I clomped off to the locker room in a snit, but I tried to hold back. I had pulled my uniform shirt off--hey, I spent half the day nude, did I care about walking off the field in a sports bra?--and I had it balled up in my hand. I was squeezing it to try to relieve the tension. I walked into the locker room, determined to keep control. And I think I would've been successful, if I hadn't walked into the locker room and seen Jenna. She was sitting on the bench in front of the lockers, huddled up with one of her little buddies--giggling! That fuck had just cost us the game, and she dared sit in the locker room laughing? That's when I lost it. My shirt was what was in my hand, so that's what I threw. Hard. I missed her head by less than a foot, the shirt went thwap against the lockers. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I screamed. That wiped the smile off her fucking face. And I wasn't done. "What the hell was that out there? You cost us the game! You're absolutely fucking hopeless! And then you have the audacity to sit here and laugh afterwards? "You're worse than useless. You fucked this whole team over today. If you can't work, if you can't try, then get the fuck off of my soccer team. You're a disgrace to the uniform." With that, I tore off the rest of my clothes and stomped into the showers, steam still coming out of my ears. Rosa came into the showers after a bit, followed closely by Jordan. And then Rosa shocked me. "Don't you think you were a little hard on her?" she asked. "WHAT?!?" I blurted, incredulous. " Hard on her? Did you see her out there?" "Well, not really. Don't forget, I'm down the other end." "Well, then, you don't know," I said. "Yeah, but, whatever she did--I think you overreacted. I mean, come on, Amber--she's out there at her locker crying!" Before I had a chance to say anything to that, Jordan did it for me. "Rosa, don't you know crocodile tears when you see them? Come on," she snorted. "Yep, she's crying, all right. She's starting right in on her own little pity party." Rosa looked at Jordan. "You agree with what Amber did?" "Hell, yes. I would've slugged her!" Just then Bree poked her head into the shower area. "Amber? Coach came out of her office at the end of the screaming. Jenna gave her a sob story, so now Coach wants to see you." I took a deep breath. "Please tell Coach it might be best if we talked tomorrow, after I've calmed down." Bree nodded, and left. She came back a few minutes later, telling me Coach had agreed to that. I finished my shower and got the hell out of there. I thought about it when I got home. Could I have been a little less brutal? Perhaps. But I was so damn pissed at her. I mean, laughing! After you blew the game! I thought I was in the right--but I also strongly suspected I was going to be the one that had to pay for it, and in more ways than one. ------- I was right. It was the next day that I became a pariah. Rosa still thought I had gone too far. And she wasn't the half of it. Tanya railed at me. Now, I know where a lot of that was coming from--Connor, her boyfriend. Connor was, I'd thought, a good guy--but being a football star made him one of the Beautiful People. And, though he wasn't one of Jenna's fuck buddies--he was loyal to Tan--a lot of his friends were. Tan hung around those people, through Connor. I'm sure she'd already heard Jenna's Tale of Woe. I didn't even try to defend myself. You know what? Fuck 'em. Tan and Rosa even walked right by me as I sat at our usual table at lunch, snubbing me. Fuck 'em all. Jordan, Bree, Gabi and Tiffany joined me for lunch. At least I had some support on the team. The rest of the day was a descent into hell. Murmurs, stares, even the odd shouted insult. It was official. Because I had dared to cross The Princess, I was now officially The School Bitch. So be it. I really didn't care. Of course, any chance I had to get laid any time soon just went right out the window. It didn't even look like Rosa was an option anymore. After school, I got set to traipse in to the office and see Alice, my coach. "Sit," she said. "OK, exactly what happened?" "I tore Jenna's miserable little head off, that's what happened. Verbally, I mean-not physically. Though I was damn tempted." "Amber, what were you thinking?" "What was I thinking? Come on, Alice. You saw the game. You saw what she did. And I came back into that locker room and saw her giggling with one of her buddies. She doesn't care, she doesn't work, and she cost us the game." "There are better ways to handle it." "Yeah. Yank her out of the fucking starting lineup," I said pointedly. "But you won't do that." She sighed. "You know how difficult this is, Amber. We barely have a team. I've got all freshmen--half the team barely knows the game. Who would I start in her place?" "Move Kendra up. She doesn't have Jenna's speed, but she's got ball skills. And, more importantly, she'll work." "And who goes in Kendra's place?" "That's easy. Taylor." She sighed. "I don't know. That might make us weaker at two positions--Kendra's doing well at right midfield. I'll have to think about it. Anyhow, it can't be next game--I need Taylor to play your position. Amber, I have to suspend you for a game. I just can't have these kinds of outbursts." I'd expected that. "Fine." "And you need to make an apology, in that locker room, to Jenna." There, I dug in my heels. "Sorry, coach, that just isn't going to happen." "It has to." "Over my dead body." "Look, Amber, if you don't, I'll have to strip you of your captaincy." "Fine," I spat. She was flabbergasted. "You'd give up being a captain instead of giving a little apology?" "You know what? As much as I love soccer, as much as it means to me--I'd quit the team before I apologized to that little snot." "You wouldn't!" I took a breath. "Alice, let me spell it out for you. I hate that sickening little fuck with every fiber of my being. I cannot possibly overstate my complete loathing of Jenna Zambrano. She makes me ill. Apologize to that? I will not lower myself. No matter what it costs me. My self-respect is more important." Poor Alice's jaw was hitting the floor. "You know what my little pet name for her is? Knick-knack. You know, that's just what she is--a knick-knack. Pretty and all--but basically useless and just takes up space. And, what's worse, the way she's not a knick-knack is being whiny and manipulative. I have no use for Princesses who bat their eyelashess and turn on the water works when the world doesn't bow to their whims. Fuck Jenna. I'll never apologize." Alice took a minute to absorb that diatribe. Finally, she said, "OK. But you need to find another way to deal with her." "I'll work on it." "Consider your captaincy under warning." "Fine." ------- Practice that day, and shortly thereafter, wasn't pleasant. Lines had clearly been drawn on the team. And it didn't affect just me and Jenna. Bree was incensed that Rosa had shunned me, so they were barely speaking to one another. When your sweeper wasn't communicating with your goalkeeper, you had yourself a problem--those two positions are very intertwined. I sat out the next game. Poor Taylor was completely overmatched. She did her best, but she was dealing with a team at war with itself and a forward she couldn't count on at all. We got hammered. The next game, I was back in. And, in some ways, you could say that I threw the game. It was against Sweetwater. They were the biggest school in the conference, and a perennial power. In all sports, but their girls' soccer team was particularly strong. In other words, we had little chance of winning in any case. So, I used the game to prove a point. I passed the ball to Jenna. All day long. Hey, it was the smart play--Jordan was costantly triple-teamed again. Jenna was the open forward, repeatedly. So, she got the ball, repeatedly. And she fucked up, repeatedly. After the game, in the locker room, I didn't plan to say a word. I'd done what I'd planned. I'd exposed her, for all to see--that was my full intention. This time, she started it. She saw me sitting there, stormed over to me, and thundered, "You humiliated me!" "How?" I said with fake sweetness. "All I did was pass you the ball. Isn't that my job?" "But you kept passing it to me, even when I wasn't in position!" "You're never in position," I spat. "And you never usually pass to me--you did it deliberately!" "You were open," I shrugged. "Not my fault you can't handle the pass." "Well, Amber, we all can't be as good as you." Nice of her to admit it, in front of the whole team. Of course that went without saying. And I told her the truth. "I wasn't born good. I worked my ass off to get this good. Of course, working is a complete foreign concept to you." "Some of us have other priorities," she sneered. "Like guys. Oh, I forgot--you don't know anything about making time for guys, do you?" Oh, fuck, did I want to hit her right then. I wanted to pound my fist into her face and shatter those oh-so-perfect cheekbones. But I didn't. "You know, Jenna, if you're having trouble keeping up with your social obligations, there's an easy solution. I mean, practices and games take up so much time. If you quit the team, you'd have so much more time for guys." "Oh, I have plenty of time for guys," she sneered. "And I'm here for every practice." "You need more than that." "If I cared that much. Listen, Amber, soccer isn't life-and-death to me. Some people may have no other life, but I can't help that. You want to spend all your high school years on this soccer field, be my guest. Then again, what else do you have to live for?" I think that I just might have slugged her that time--but Alice, the coach, chose that moment to make her presence known. "That's enough," she spat. "Jenna, I have to say, I don't like what I just heard," she continued. "You've just stated your complete lack of commitment to this team. I've tried to work with you--but Amber's right. You've made it plain you don't want to work. So, I'm making a change. Kendra, I'm moving you up to forward. Taylor, you're starting on the right side of midfield. Jenna, you're on the bench. I have too many players that want to work. You don't." Afterwards, Alice came up to me and said, "Now that's the way to handle things." ------- Would that it made a difference in the rest of my life. It didn't. Not even a little bit. Becaue Jenna, of course, put the spin on. I humiliated her and that's why she's not starting, blah blah blah. None of it could possibly be her fault. And, I have to admit it--what she said got to me, dammit. Not that I put that much emphasis on soccer. I did, and didn't have a problem doing so. No, it was the taunting about guys. It really got to me. I mean, shit. Was that what I had to do? To become phony and fake and manipulative? Is that what I had to do to get a guy? Jesus. I wasn't a bad person. Really, I wasn't. And, Jesus, all I really wanted to go was get laid. I had a pussy, didn't I? I wasn't the most beautiful girl in school, but I was decent. I wasn't ugly. And I was shunned like some redheaded bastard stepchild. In the days after that last confrontation with Jenna, it all came down on my head. It just got all so depressing. The shunning, the whispering, the complete lack of positive attention from guys. I ended up going home a couple of times crying. I did not cry, dammit! And I had nobody to talk to. My parents were well-meaning, but oftentimes clueless. My two best supposed friends were giving me the cold shoulder. I'd started a nice frienship with Jordan--but the key word in that sentence was "started". I didn't know Jordan well enough to dump all my shit on her. There was Tiffany, but she had enough on her own plate. Not for the first time in the last year and a half, I missed Lily. My big sister. She was out in California, at USC. There was someone I could talk to. So, I called her on the phone. It wasn't quite the same, but at least I could talk to her. And she said what she always says--don't take any shit, stick to your guns, things will work out. It was a good pep talk. Of course, it was also easy for her to say--she had Mike, her boyfriend. Which meant, not only could she get laid anytime she wanted, she also had someone to lean on. Mike and Lily were true soulmates. Yes, I was jealous! But in a good way--I loved them both. I just wanted to find my own Mike. Or, at the least, get laid. ------- The last week in October, I hit rock-bottom. School was bad enough. I'd walk down the hall and get taunted. It was worse if any of them ever saw me near the pods. "What are you doing here, Amber? You certainly don't think you're going to get anyone to go in there with you, do you?" Jenna taunted me one day. And I was just walking by! The few friends I had tried to buck me up. Jordan and Tiffany most especially. One of Jenna's pals was teasing me once about 'not even being able to get kissed' when Tiffany walked up to me and laid a good one on me. Made everybody else gasp. I really appreciated it. "I'll gladly go in the pods with you, I'm still bi," she told me once that week. I turned her down only because of the confusion I felt about Rosa. Being with a guy was one thing--being with another girl was a completely different kettle of fish. Tiff understood. But I really did appreciate the offer. But, except for a few brief rays of sunshine like Tiff and Jordan, everything sucked. Even on the soccer field. We had a game, and it was the worst game of soccer I've ever played in my life. And by a lot. I was just horrendous. I couldn't have played a worse game if I tried. I was distracted. I was tired. I was sick of trying to be the captain of a team on which half the players hated me. I was tired of sticking to my guns and watching it all collapse in my face. For the first time since I'd started playing it, I wanted soccer to go away. It's not that I wasn't trying. It's that I didn't have the energy. Soccer had become a source of misery, instead of the solace it had always been. I wasn't happy, and it affected my play. Of course, when I got back into the locker room, I heard about it. Not from Jenna herself, of course--she'd already gotten herself in hot water. No, this came from Deb Davidson, our starting stopper on defense and one of Jenna's pals. "Nice game, Amber," she snorted as I walked into the locker room. I didn't say anything. She kept it up. "Well, look at this--the almighty Amber Woodard, God's gift to soccer, has a shitty game and can't handle it!" I just let her prattle on. I couldn't deal with it. Let her think what she wanted--she was no Pele on the field herself. Even at half-speed, I was better than Deb. I just didn't care what she thought. Well, normally I wouldn't care what she thought--but things were just starting to get to me. I couldn't do this anymore. "Aren't you going to say anything?" she demanded. I didn't. I just walked past her into Alice's office. "Oh, there you go, go tattle to the coach!" she shouted after me. "What a wuss." I ignored her. Well, I pretended to. I just couldn't deal. "Alice?" I said. "Come in, Amber. Something on your mind?" "I'm resigning my captaincy. Effective now." And I turned to leave. "WAIT!" she yelled. "Amber, get back here! Don't you think we should discuss this?" "What's to discuss?" "Amber, I think this is a mistake," she said. "I really wish you'd think about it." I took a deep breath. "I have thought about it. I've though about it a lot. Alice, I am perilously close to quitting soccer altogether. Resigning the captaincy of a team where half the players hate my guts is a no-brainer." Poor Alice--I shocked her into complete silence with that declaration. Before she got her wits about her, I walked out of her office. I sat down at my locker, and started pulling my uniform off, trying to ignore every other person in the room. Alice came out of her office, and looked at me. I didn't even look up at her. She sighed. "OK, girls, gather round. We need to have a little meeting." She took another breath, and tried to look at me again. No, Alice, I thought, I'm not going to change my mind. "Folks, we need to elect a new captain to join Bree. Amber's given up her captaincy." The gasps went around the room. I refused to look up. I didn't want to look at any of them--especially those that were, no doubt, pleased. I didn't have to--Deb opened her damn mouth again. "What's the matter, Amber, not up to being our fearless leader? Can't take the pressure, huh, Amber?" "That will be enough!" Alice blasted. That shut Deb up, but I didn't care. I just could not take any more. I wanted to cry, and I was not going to cry in front of the team. I couldn't. I got up off the bench and grabbed my stuff, trying not to look at anyone. I turned to Alice and said, "My vote goes to Jordan." Then I got the hell out of there. ------- Jordan called me that night. She wasn't elected captain--Torie Dallas was. That was fine. Torie was an 'above the fray' type who didn't get caught up in all the bullshit. She was probably a good choice, if only for temperament. She was still learning how to play, but she worked hard and was getting better, and got along with just about everybody. I knew Jordan wouldn't win--she wouldn't get votes from the anti-Amber faction, because of her friendship with me. Torie was a good compromise. Then, Jordan dropped another bombshell on me. "I hate to tell you this, but I figured you'd be better off hearing it from me." "OK, shoot," I said. "Rosa told me about a halloween party she's having. Actually, her friend Tanya's having it at her house, but she and Rosa are throwing it together. I was told I was invited. I was also told not to let you know anything about it." "Jesus. What did you say?" "I told Rosa not to expect me. I also told her it was a rotten thing she was doing, and if she expected me to not let you know you were being back-stabbed, she was crazy." "Thanks, Jordan. What did she say to that?" "Oh, she got all upset. Said she couldn't invite you, Tan said that if you came nobody else would." "That didn't use to matter to them. We could have fun with just the three of us." "Ah," Jordan said. "Well, you know, it's Tan, I think. It's that whole Connor Enfield thing. Listen, Connor's a good guy, but he hangs around with the Beautiful People--and I think it's gone straight to Tanya's head. And I know, because Rosa told me, that she and Tan have been best friends long before either of them met you." "Which is true," I confirmed. "But, still. Jesus. Jordan, there are times I just want to give up." "Give up?" "Quit the team, quit everything--honestly, I've considered transferring to Westport High." "Amber, you wouldn't!" "I don't know. Naked High's not working out for me, not like I expected, not at all." "Amber." Jordan took a deep breath. "I hope this doesn't offend you, but--well, you never struck me as someone who was a quitter." "I never thought of myself as one, either. But quitting seems awfully appealing right now." "Just think about it." "I will, believe me. But if things don't get better, I don't know what I'm going to do." ------- The next day was just torture. People were pointing and staring all through school. Jenna and Deb and some of their friends passed by me laughing. And practice? I think it's the first time I've ever been on a soccer field that I didn't say a word. Not a fucking word. I just played my position and kept my mouth shut. No communication, no direction, nothing. They don't like what I have to say? Fine, then I won't talk. I wasn't the captain anymore, anyway. Afterwards, Rosa came up to me. "Amber, can we talk?" "I don't see why," I snorted. "Jordan told you. She said she was going to." I nodded. "Listen, Tan and I talked about this. We couldn't invite you. If we invited you, the three of us would be the only ones at the party. I'm sorry, but nobody else would come if you were there." "You know, there was a time when that wouldn't have mattered to you!" I burst out. "The three of us was enough! But now Tan's gotten sucked up into the popular clique, and she pulls you right along with her." "Amber, try to see this from our point of view." "WHAT?" I lost it then. "Your point of view? How about mine? Do you have any fucking idea how much this hurts? Do you know how many times in the past month I've cried myself to sleep? All over a waste of space like Jenna Zambrano? My life has completely fucking fallen apart and you want me to see it from your point of view? I thought we were friends. Fuck that, I thought we were more than friends. The shit I get from the rest of the school is bad enough. But you--you have completely betrayed me. I hope you can sleep at night. Because I'm having trouble." With that, I walked away, leaving her staring at me, dumbfounded. ------- Classes were better, but only a little. I did have some support, much to my surprise. One guy who came up to me after class was this guy named Aaron Bielinsky. Everyone called him Moose. I knew he had become friends with my journal partner Joe Benson. However, otherwise he was quiet and shy and had never said two words to me. He was in a couple of my classes, including History, my last class of the day. Right after all of this shit happened, he came up behind me on the way out of history and said, "Hey, Amber. Don't let the jerks get you down." And then he kept walking. It was actually really nice of him to do. Another one was Stacia Averbuk, the chubby girl I'd met the first day. Now, I've watched, and seen that she had her own problems. But that didn't stop her from walking up to me on the way into Geometry class and saying, "Hey. I think what's being done to you is awful. But I know how it goes, so if you need to vent, I'm available." Surprised, I thanked her. She just waved it off. But two periods later, at lunch, I waved her over to sit with Tiffany, Jordan, and I. She was very grateful, and I was glad to have her. Hey, we outcasts had to stick together. Stacia was in my Biology class, which was right after lunch, my second-to-last class of the day. That was an interesting class. Not just for good reasons, because Jenna and her buddy Deb were in it--as were Rosa and Tanya, who I obviously wasn't too happy with. But Stacia was in that class, as was Tiffany. Ms. T had made some comment about being fondled. You know, in your private parts. This was part of the sex-ed component of Biology--in this school, a big component. And Jenna made some kind of comment about, "Well, don't ask Amber, she wouldn't know anything about being fondled." The little group of them all giggled at that--including Rosa, who knew better. Before Ms. T could reprimand them, Tiffany did it for her. "Oh, Amber certainly knows what it's like to be masturbated. Believe me. And she was only 11, which is probably more than any of you can say. And I'm probably better than any boy you've ever had!" The class giggled, and I decided to get my own dig in. "Yeah, and I don't know why the hell Rosa's laughing it up with the rest of you over there. She really should know better--since we've been lovers for two years." Rosa turned bright red, as Jenna and Deb looked at her in disbelief. Score one for me! "Amber, are you a lesbian?" Ms. T. asked. "I should know these things for when we get into future lessons." "No, Ms. T., I'm bi," I said. "I like girls, but I like boys too." I looked right at Zach Provost, one of the 'shy guys' in school. "In fact, I looooove boys." That cracked everyone up, except for my little knot of detractors, but who cared? It got the rest of the class laughing with me, which was nice. And Zach blushed bright red. It was very cute. But I smiled at him to let him know I was just playing with him, and he smiled back. He really was cute. If I decided to pull a Jordan and take a shy guy into the pods, Zach might be a fine choice. There were other amusing things that happened in Biology, too. Two of the kids in that class were Trina Christopher and Dylan Lashko. Now, my sister Lily went to school with their older siblings--Ty Christopher and Emma Lashko. Ty and Emma had been going out since Sophomore year in high school. Since they were sophomores in college now, that was four years--and they were plainly headed to the altar. Ty had played baseball with Lily--he was a power-hitting first baseman--and Lily knew them well. So, I had met them quite a few times. They were both good people, and very much in love. So, I'd also known Trina and Dylan, since they'd been in school with me since I moved here. And the amusing part--for anyone that knew Ty and Emma--was that Trina and Dylan hated one another. I mean, absolute complete loathing. It really was funny if you knew that someday they were going to be related. So, one day heading into Biology, they walked in just screaming at one another. I don't even know what it was about--those two don't really need a reason--they were just hurling insults at this point. Rosa--who, of course, also knew the backstory through her brother Frankie--walked up behind them while they were yelling. She grinned, and said, "You know, I can't wait until Ty and Emma get married. You two are going to have a brawl going down the aisle!" I had to laugh. Dylan and Trina looked chagrined, and stopped yelling. Another class that could be fun was cooking. Now, the way the classes at Naked High were scheduled for freshmen were pretty rigid. Electives, the bulk of them, would come in later years. There were only seven class periods. Five of them were reserved for required full-week classes: Biology, English, Geometry, Ancient History, and a language. (The school offered Spanish, French, Russian, German, and Japanese. I took Spanish.) The other two class periods each had a required MWF class: gym for one, and computers for the other. Now, for the TTh part of the week, there was some choice. In the gym period, you could take art or music. In the computers period, you could take audio/visual, or cooking. Now, most guys in that period took AV, and most girls took cooking. Gender roles still ruled--but not completely. Honestly, I took cooking because I was good at electronic stuff but not a good cook at all. When I was still friends with Rosa and Tan--who were in that class--some of my feeble attempts got me some good-natured razzing. Two months into the school year, though, and I was getting better. There was one guy in that class--the aforementioned Moose Bielinski. As I've said, Moose was quiet and shy--but wasn't at all self-conscious about being the only guy in a cooking class. Our teacher, Mrs. Paulson, asked him about it at the beginning of the year. And, he said, "Hey, guys cook. A lot of guys end up living on their own, right? My Dad told me that before he met my Mom, he lived on rice for two years, because he couldn't cook anything else. Either that or he went broke at the Burger Hut. I'd rather learn how to cook." Everyone thought that was a cool answer. Anyhow, Mrs. Paulson teamed us up a lot for various projects. At the end of October, she paired Moose and I up to bake a cake. Moose was actually a better cook than I was at this point, so I let him lead. Actually, I had to prod him into leading--he really was quite shy. But it was going well--until I learned something about Moose. He's clumsy. Really clumsy. It was a bowl of flour. He knocked it over, and it went all over the place. I mean, all over the place--the table, him, me. Our whole little area, including the two of us, was covered in flour. I wanted to laugh, but didn't want to insult him. That's when I found out something else about Moose--what came to be known around school as the Polish Joke. "I am so Polish," he blurted, looking at the flour everywhere. "What a completely Polish thing to do." Then he looked at me. "I'll have to get you a tee shirt made up. 'The clumsy Polish guy spilled flour all over me. Pity me.'" Then he started singing--wildly off-key--a bastardized version of an old country song: "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Polish." It was hilarious. I was laughing so hard I got flour up my nose. Now, my best friend back in Boston, where I lived up until sixth grade, was Polish--so I knew a little about Polish food. So, after I'd stopped laughing, I looked at Moose and said, "Jeez, Moose, what are we ever going to do if she has us make kapusta? That would be an overload of Polishness, wouldn't it? I can see it now. Cabbage in the air vents, all over my boobs, up your nose..." He blinked, and then roared. He didn't stop laughing for five minutes. After class, he walked up to me and said, "Kapusta. That was perfect. Thanks for the belly-laugh." So, there was hope. It wasn't perfect, but if I could make a nice guy like Moose crack up, there was hope. I just had to hope the Jenna shit died down sometime soon. ------- I spent Halloween at home. Luckily, Jordan and Tiffany joined me. We gave candy out to the little kids, giggled with one another, ate too much chocolate. At least I had some friends. The next day, November 1st, I had to meet with Joe to swap journals. November 1st was actually a Saturday, so I went over to his house. Though I was happy to see Maggie and get to say hi to her, otherwise I was not looking forward to this. Joe's best friend was Patrick Drouin--and Patrick was one of the ones who was regularly dipping his wick into Jenna Zambrano. I figured Patrick had already poisoned Joe towards me. This wasn't going to be fun at all, I figured. I was surprised. I was very pleasantly surprised. ------- Chapter 4: Joe OCTOBER 2003 As September turned to October, I tried to come to terms with my situation. It wasn't easy. I was still dealing with my shyness about being naked. I was still trying to deal with all the naked girls. And, I was not all coming to terms with seeing my dream girl, Darcy, with that asshole, Alex Randall. At least I wasn't the worst off. I wasn't the type to take pleasure from others' misfortune, but it made me feel less alone. Miss Peterson, the Geometry teacher, was still very uncomfortable with the nudity. The chubby girl, Stacia Averbuk, still got teased. And my new buddy Moose was as shy and uncomfortable as I was. I found myself gravitating towards Moose, especially as our circle began to expand. Patrick was hot and heavy with Jenna Zambrano, and she and some of her popular clique friends started eating lunch with us. Moose's buddy Justin didn't have any kind of steady girl, but he always seemed to have some gorgeous popular-clique babe on his arm. It made Moose and I feel even more self-conscious. Especially when they'd all wolf down their food so they could head to the pods to have sex. ------- I wasn't the only member of my family having problems. I came home the first Friday in October to find my big sister Maggie sulking. "I want to get the fuck out of this house," she said to me. "You up for supper at the Burger Hut? My treat and everything." "Well, if it's your treat, how can I say no?" I laughed. "Sounds good to me." We got there and Maggie was definitely agitated. "Something wrong, Mags?" I asked. "Ah, nothing to bother you with." "Come on, Mags. I drop my shit all over your head all the time." She grinned, then sighed. "Chuck's not coming home this weekend. Too much work. That's two weekends in a row I won't see him." "Ah," I said, understanding. "This is so fucking hard sometimes. I'm lonely, not to mention horny. I try to be understanding, but it ain't easy." "You don't think he's getting some on the side, do you?" I asked. "God, no," Maggie said. "If either of us were to ever stray, I can guarantee you it wouldn't be Chuck." "Well, didn't you say he gave you permission?" "Yeah, but I just couldn't. I wouldn't be able to live with myself." She sighed. "Which is part of the problem. Since Chuck gave me permission to have a fling--well, if I'm frustrated, it's my problem." "Ah." "But it's not just sex. I miss just cuddling with him and shit like that." She snorted. "Listen to me. I miss cuddling. Jesus. I'm going soft. Damn Braden made me go all soft, and now he's stuck in Raleigh and I'm here!" I laughed. "You always did have a soft spot." "Jesus, don't tell anyone that!" I chuckled at her--then saw something over her shoulder. "Fuck," I hissed. "Something wrong, little brother?" "They just walked in. Darcy, the girl I'm nuts about--and Alex, the asshole she's dating." "Oh," Maggie said, then turned around to look. "Well, Joe, she certainly is stunning." "Yeah. And way out of my league." "You're probably right, but not for the reasons you think," she said. "If she's dating an asshole... well, some girls are just attracted to that. And you most definitely are not an asshole." "That's not much of a help." She smiled. "I know. But some girls do grow out of that shit. Some of my friends did--Lily Woodard, Cassie Vyshenko." "Yeah, but that doesn't help me now." "Joe, you're 14. Play the field until she wakes up, I keep telling you that." "That's just not easy for me." "Are you sure you're my brother?" she laughed. I had to laugh too. ------- The next week, all hell broke loose. It had to do with Jenna. She came in to school one day, all upset. Apparently Amber had ripped her a new one after the previous day's soccer game. It was a big huge brouhaha. It was all anyone at lunch could talk about. Patrick was particularly incensed--of course, he'd gotten very close to Jenna and was never all that enamored with Amber anyway. Amber wasn't my favorite person, either. It was easy for me to believe she'd been a complete bitch to Jenna. She was a bitch to a whole hell of a lot of people. So, it didn't surprise me that she'd targeted Jenna in her sights. When I first heard the story, I was filled with righteous indignation towards the heinous bitch. But, the more I thought about it, the more I had reservations. First of all, I didn't really trust Jenna. It was just a gut feeling. I kept my mouth shut for Patrick's sake, but something about her rubbed me the wrong way. I got the distinct impression that she wasn't crazy about me, either. I wasn't one of The Clique, and was tolerated, again, for Patrick's sake. But Jenna struck me as manipulative. I mean, she was telling us all about how Amber had picked on her. And she had the whole bit working--the tears in the eyes, the quivering lower lip, the despairing impression. It seemed to me to be a big huge attempt to let us all know how Wronged she had been. To my eyes, it was blatant. Look--growing up the younger brother of Maggie Benson did not predispose me to have much patience with manipulative girls. Mags was the most up-front girl in the universe. Plus, there was my mother. I didn't really remember her, but I'd heard stories. Evidently, she pulled out every trick she had to wrap my dad around her finger. This while she was sleeping around on him at every turn. (That was so bad that my Dad demanded a paternity test after I was born. Yes, I'm his--but there was evidently a real chance I might not have been.) It was when her attempts at manipulation stopped working on Dad that Mom left. And, yes, that's why I think it's funny that Maggie sometimes worries about being like Mom. She knows the stories better than I do. She's gotten better at that lately. Anyhow, because of all this, Jenna rubbed me the wrong way. There was more. I told Maggie about what had happened, and she had a lot of interesting things to say. "Look, I don't know Amber very well--I know her, but in a friend's-kid-sister sort of way--but I do know her sister Lily, and I've heard that they're cut from the same cloth. And I know Lily doesn't take any shit. "I remember a baseball game I went to, Senior year. They had a sophomore playing right field that year. He was good, but stuck on himself and didn't think he had to work. Well, this game, Lily was pitching, and this guy loafed after a fly ball. I mean, it was blatant. "Well, in the dugout after the inning, Lily ripped him a new one. Just tore into him. The whole park heard it. But, you know what? Lily was right. He deserved what he got from her. Understand me--Lily is not a bitch. But she has standards--and if you don't even bother to try, she wants you gone, especially on the baseball field. "The difference is, Lily had established herself, both on and off the field. She had a group of friends who'd defend her to the death, and most everyone else respected her. Plus, the baseball coach knew she was right--in fact, he benched the other guy. "It seems to me that some people are aligning themselves against Amber because of the whining of this Jenna person--and Amber's up the creek without a paddle. Don't get sucked in, Joe." "You're saying I should take Amber's side?" "I'm saying you should find out what Amber's side is. There's two sides to every story. You've only heard one." That made sense. ------- The next hint I got was a couple of days later, from Moose. You have to understand--I'd learned in the month I'd know him that Moose was pretty easygoing. The only person I usually saw him get upset with was himself--and that was mostly joking. On this day, Moose grabbed me in the lunch line, and pulled me off to a small table, away from our usual crowd. "I hope you don't mind." "No," I said, but with a question in my voice. Moose sighed. "I just can't take them anymore. I didn't sign up for the Bash Amber Woodard week. I like Amber. I think she's got spunk." "So, you don't think Jenna's in the right?" He snorted. "I don't trust Jenna Zambrano as far as I can throw her. And I've seen Amber in some of my classes. She looks completely beat down." "Yeah, I've noticed that." "It's a rush to judgement," he said. "And everybody's piling on Amber. I don't think it's right." I looked at him, amazed. "You know, I know I've only known you for a month but this is the longest speech I've ever heard come out of your mouth." He grinned. "You, I can talk to." ------- It was Jordan that finally convinced me. But, first, she did something else. It was a week and a half after the whole Amber thing had blown up. She grabbed me after Biology again. "Come on," she said, and grabbed my arm like before. "So," she said as we walked, "have you pulled anyone else into the pods since we were here?" "Uh, no." "Bad boy. No cookie for you," she laughed. "You got to get with it, Joe. You still don't have any confidence, do you?" "Uh, well..." I stammered. "Well, we'll just have to fix that. Once I'm done with you, you'll know exactly what you're doing with a girl. That should help." "Why are you doing this?" I had to ask. "Because you're nice, and sweet, and cute. And I enjoy it. You know, it sort of is what the school is all about, isn't it?" We had reached the pods. "In," she said. I got in. "Besides which, I'm horny. Now, today's lesson is oral." "Oral?" "Oral," she reapeated--and leaned down and ran her tongue right up my dick! My God! I'd never felt anything like that in my life. And it just got better. She ran her tongue up and down my dick a few times. Then she popped the whole head in her mouth. She sucked on the head for a while--grinning up at me the whole time--then slid down my shaft. She started sliding up and down my dick, gently sucking while she did and working away at the sensitive area with her tongue. It was incredible. I'd never felt anything like that in my life. "Oh, God," I moaned. She looked up at me with a grin in her eyes as she slid up and down my dick. And then she plunged right down on it. I could feel the head slip into her throat. And she kept sucking. Then she pulled off a little. "Jordan!" I hissed, trying to warn her. She just plunged down again, driving me into her throat--and that was it. I came like I've never cum before in my life. And Jordan just kept sucking, and swallowing--and humming. It was unbelievable. I just about passed out! She sat up, looking very satisfied with herself, and said, "Your turn." "Let me catch my breath," I said. She giggled. "OK. Did I wear you out?" "I've never felt anything like that ever." "Good! You're enjoying yourself, then." "And how. You make it easy. And I don't even have to tell you that I've never done what I'm about to do, because you already know that," I laughed. "Right. But that's cool. I'll tell you what to do." "OK," I said, "but I know how I want to start." I leaned over and kissed her. She eagerly kissed back. As we did that, I let my hands roam all over her. She broke the kiss, smiling, and said, "Well, you seem to have remembered the start-my-engines part." Then she leaned back in and resumed kissing. My hands strayed to her breasts, and I rubbed my thumb on her nipple. Then I moved down to her boobs with my mouth, and put my hand between her legs, starting the way we had last time. But, this was oral. So, after nibbling on her nipple a bit, I kept going. I kissed my way down her stomach--she giggled at a few spots--until I found myself between her legs. She spread them wide for me. It was intoxicating, and altogether mesmerizing--but I was still aware of the fact that I had no clue as to what I was doing. Jordan helped me out. "You remember where my clit is? And you remember you have to work up to it? Well, outside of that--go with it." I nodded up at her, and then moved in closer. The scent was nothing like I'd ever encountered, and it was like a magnet to my nose. I used my fingers to spread her pussy apart, since this was my first close-up look and all. I could see her pussy lips, which were wet, surrounded by a bit of light-reddish hair. I moved in closer. I was still kind of apprehensive about this. But, shit, she'd swallowed my cum, hadn't she? I stuck my tongue out and ran it up the length of her inner lips. She shuddered and moaned at the contact. The taste was indescribable. Very different, but not bad at all. I nuzzled her lips with my tongue again. I drew my tongue up and down her lips, and she groaned as I did so. Then I slid my tongue down to her opening, and slipped it inside. She was shivering and moaning the whole time, and her hands almost involuntarily went for my head, rubbing through my hair. It was amazing. The taste was intoxicating. And her reactions were something else. I stuck my tongue into her as far as it would go, and pulled it out again, and stuck it in again. "Oh, God, Joe!" she hissed. I came back up the length of her pussy, and gently flicked her clit. "Ooooooh!" she gasped, her hands running through my hair faster now. I was kind of unsure at this point, so the verbal utterances were welcome. I knew the clit was delicate--but I also knew that's where it all happened. So I nudged it a few more times when I came up her pussy with my tongue. "Oh, yes," she whispered. "More." I wrapped my lips around her clit, and started gently sucking on it. "Yes!" she hissed. "God!" I kept that up, but I also used my tongue to rub her clit while I sucked on it. I was really just guessing at this point. I guessed right. She just exploded, moaning and gasping and thrusting her pussy up at my face. I kept it up, and after a minute, she hissed. "Fingers! Inside me!" I did as she asked, slipping two fingers up inside her pussy. I remembered that spot she'd showed me the last time, and curled my fingers up at it. She just went nuts. A couple of minutes of me sucking on her clit and moving my fingers around inside her, and she just exploded. Her hips came off the bed and her hands dug into my head. She yelped, and I felt her pussy clamp down on my fingers. After a few minutes of writhing and yelping and clamping, she gently pushed my head away. I sat up. She crawled over to me and collapsed in my arms. After she caught her breath, she said, "Do you get good grades?" "Well, yeah, usually," I said, confused. "I figured," she said, looking up and grinning at me, "because you are one hell of a student!" I had to laugh. "Well, this is more fun than, say, geometry." "Hmmm. Even with Miss Peterson's tits staring you in the face in geometry?" "OK, there is that," I conceded. "You should make a move on her," Jordan said, smiling. "Jesus. I can't make a move on a girl my own age, you expect me to make one on a teacher?" She laughed at that. "You will. Be able to make a move on a girl, I mean. I've got one more lesson for you. We'll have that one in a little while." Jesus--she had just pretty much said she was going to have me fuck her! "You should try to get another girl in here for some fooling around, though." "I have to see. I have to broaden my horizons," I told her. "Honestly, I have to get over my infatuation with Darcy Iniglia." "Yes, that would be a good thing." "I'm working on it. You're helping," I told her. "Anyhow, I was wondering. Are you doing anything tomorrow night?" This was a Thursday, so I was asking her about Friday. "I thought maybe we could go out. To the Burger Hut, and then maybe a movie." "Joe Benson, did you just ask me out on a date? You are getting better," she grinned. Then she bit her lower lip. "The only problem, is, well, I don't want you to, you know..." I figured out what she was trying to say. "Look, Jordan, I'm asking you on a date. Not to marry me or anything. Or even to be my girlfriend. I'm just asking you to go out with me. I've figured out you're not looking for a relationship right now, and that's fine with me. But I'd like to get to know you better as a person. And, you know, it's also kind of a thank-you." "OK," she said, beaming, "in that case, I'd love to go out with you. You really are getting better." "Well, with you," I laughed. "You make it easy." "Good!" ------- It was on that date, over greaseburgers at the Burger Hut, that she brought up the current 'topic of gossip'. "You're friends with Patrick Drouin, aren't you?" she asked me. "Yeah. Best friends since, like, third grade." "So, have you heard about the drama?" she asked. "You mean with Amber and Jenna and all that? Yeah, I've heard about it." "What do you think?" "I don't know. Patrick seems to think Amber is the Devil incarnate. I have to tell you, I've known Amber since 6th grade and I've never been all that fond of her." "Why not?" "Because she's scary," I admitted. Jordan cracked up laughing at that. "Well, she is. And she's never struck me as being all that nice." "You're her journal partner, aren't you?" "Yeah, and when we met at the end of last month, she basically took my journal and threw hers at me. She's just bitchy." "She's less bitchy than you think she is," Jordan told me. "And this whole Jenna thing? It's a mess." "I have to admit I don't trust Jenna." "Nor should you. Look, Joe, keep an open mind about this, OK? When you get Amber's journal, ask her for her side. Everyone's turning against Amber and it bugs me--because she's not in the wrong about this. Jenna is a manipulative bitch, OK?" "I'd suspected that." "Give Amber a chance." "I will," I promised her. "Especially since you asked, seeing as how I owe you." "Ah, fuck that," she waved me off. "I do. You've done a lot for me." "Good. And I'm not even done," she grinned. ------- The way Jordan treated me really was a confidence boost. She was fun and appreciative and encouraging. Moose was insanely jealous, but in a good way. Maggie was thrilled. "You gonna take her words to heart, about taking another girl into the pods?" "I'm thinking about it," I said. "Only for some fooling around, though. I want Jordan to take my virginity, I've decided." "Makes sense," Maggie agreed. "I've also thought about a few other things. I need more exposure, more things to do, something to keep my interest. I'm thinking I need an extra-curricular activity. I just need to decide which one." "That'd be cool." She laughed. "Of course, mine was fucking." "I do believe I knew that," I laughed. "But I need something else." "That's cool," she said. "So, she talked about Amber?" "Yeah. I think I'm just going to let things cool off. When we get together at the end of the month to swap journals, I'll ask her about it." "That's a good plan." ------- The next week, I did it. It was Wednesday. I had thought about what Jordan had said for a few days. So, after Bio, I just kind of headed to the pods. One of the girls there was Eliza Ying. I was surprised. I'd known Eliza, she was from Westport--I'd known her and her twin brother Kirk since middle school. And Maggie knew their older sister Reenie. So, I knew Eliza. I had a few classes with her this year. One of them was gym. Now, gym at Naked High was strange, as the showers were co-ed. (As was every bathroom in the school, by the way.) You'd get a good idea who was having problems or not. I'm sure everyone noticed me cowering in the corner of the shower for most of September! Anyhow, that was Eliza. She was shy. I had had a little talk with Kirk at one point a couple weeks ago, and he told me that Eliza wanted to go to Naked High because he did--and was having more trouble with it than she thought she would. She was still shy and self-conscious--as was I a lot of the time--and was still trying to get used to it. Which is why I was surprised to see her standing at the pods, hesitantly looking around. Now, I'd gotten the gumption to walk down in the general vicinity of the pods, but I was certain I wasn't going to have the guts to do anything when I got down there. I figured just finishing my lunch and heading down there--this was during the extended lunch time--was a step in the right direction. Actually approaching someone could wait until I'd pretended a few more times! So, it was almost more of an exploration. But then I saw Eliza standing there. Eliza was cute--very petite, but cute. She was also nice and sweet. And since she hadn't completely adapted to the Naked High Experience yet, I saw her as kind of a kindred spirit. So, I found myself walking up to her. "Hi, Eliza." "Oh! Hi Joe," she said with a smile. "Are you waiting for anyone in particular?" she asked. "Uh, no. I don't even know if I'm waiting," she said with a nervous little giggle. "I'm just--I don't know." "Curious," I guessed. "Yeah, that." "You want to go in?" I asked her. She blinked at me. "With you? I mean... yeah, OK. Let's." We stepped into one of the pods, and we sat down on the mattress. I grinned at her and said, "For a minute there I thought you were horrified at coming in here with me." "No, I was surprised. You've always seemed to be as shy as I am." "Yeah. Well, I've gotten some help since I've been here. Plus, honestly, I didn't think I was going to approach anyone, this was almost a test run. But I saw you there and I've always thought you were cool." "Thanks," she said shyly, and blushed. "Joe, I have to tell you--I don't know what I want to do. I've never done anything." "That's OK, I've only done a little. We don't have to go all the way or anything, we can just play." "Good," she said with real relief. "I'd rather not go from kissing to going all the way in one day." "I'm still a virgin, too, so I don't mind that at all. Kissing, eh?" I smiled. She smiled back--so I leaned over and kissed her. She eagerly kissed back. We were kind of slumping together--and, somehow, she ended up in my lap. As I said, Eliza was rather small, so she fit right in my lap. It was fun. We were kissing, with her in my lap. I put my hand on her breast and she sighed into my mouth. Then she broke the kiss and giggled. "I can feel it. You know, under my ass." I just laughed, and kissed her again. She actually wiggled her ass on my dick! I fondled her boob with my hand as we kissed. "So, what do you want to do?" I asked her. "I dunno," she said hesitantly. "Well, then, can I do something?" "OK," she said. I pushed her off my lap so that she was lying down on the mattress. I leaned over and kissed her again, then started kissing my way down her body. I nibbled on her neck--which made her giggle--then moved down to sucking on her nipple. That made her groan. One part of Eliza that wasn't particularly petite was her tits. She wasn't huge--but on her small body they looked that way. And her nipples were nice and erect. "Oh, God, that feels good," she gasped. You ain't seen nothing yet, I thought to myself--and started moving lower. I kissed my way down her stomach, then found myself between her legs--just where I was aiming for. I moved in, and licked up the length of her pussy. She yelped. "Oh, God, Joe, what was that? GOD!" I leaned in for another lick, and she shuddered. "Wow, this is so great!" she blurted. I kept it up, remembering what Jordan had told me. I concentrated on her labia for a while, then stuck my tongue into her opening. "Oh, God... I mean... GOD!" she gasped. "This is... wow!" I just kept at it, and she kept with the verbal outbursts. It was very encouraging. Then, on the next upstroke, I went for her clit--and there were no words, just moans and squeals. I sucked on her clit, and her legs went right around my head. One thing I figured out when I was with Jordan is it's not the easiest thing to figure out when a girl has an orgasm. (Something Maggie had also once told me). Luckily, Eliza made it easier. As I nibbled on her clit, she gasped, "Oh God... Oh, Joe... I'm gonna... I'm gonna..." and then she just squealed. She bounced on the bed, and her legs dug in around my head. After it looked like she was starting to come down, I backed off and crawled up next to her. She caught her breath and turned to me. "Oh, my! That was... I can't even describe it!" "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," I told her. "I guess I was wrong about you being shy. You must have had a lot of practice at that." "That was my second time doing that," I laughed. "Wow! Really?" "Yeah, but my first time was with an excellent teacher." "I'll say!" She smiled at me. "OK, I think it's my turn." She reached over and grabbed my dick. "Just remember I've never done anything like this." "I know, that's OK." She smiled up at me, and gently rubbed my dick. Then she looked down at it, almost examining it. "This place is so weird. Here I am, I'd never seen a dick until I got here. Now that's all I see. But this is the first time I've had one in my hand." "I know," I laughed. "It was quite a shock for me that first day--suddenly surrounded by naked boobs and pussies." "Boobs. That's all you guys think about." "Well, yeah. But they're so fun," I said, reaching over and grabbing one of hers. "OK, yes, they are fun," she giggled. "But I am supposed to be doing you." "Oh, then I won't distract you," I said, but I didn't take my hand off her boobs. "You're not," she laughed. "This is really weird. I'm more relaxed than I thought I'd be." She giggled. "Maybe that's because I just came." "Probably," I laughed. "But I'm very relaxed," she said. Then, she leaned over, and popped the head of my dick in her mouth. Honestly, I didn't expect that. I thought I was just going to get a handjob. Believe me, I wasn't complaining. Eliza, as she'd said, had never done anything like this. It didn't matter. She only got the head and another inch or two inside her mouth, but that was enough. She slid her mouth up and down on it, licking it with her tongue, her hand still wrapped around the base of my shaft. She increased the suction, and I felt the cum building up in my balls. Then she moaned around my dick. That was all it took. "Eliza, I'm gonna cum!" I warned her. She pulled off--just in time. I mean, it only took another tug on my dick and I was cumming. The first pulse splattered all over her cheek. The rest she pointed a bit lower, and it covered her neck and boobs. She looked down and laughed, then looked back up at me, a bit sheepishly. "Uh, I was gonna, you know, not move--but then I lost my nerve." "That's OK," I told her. "That was great! You've really never done this before?" "Never," she smiled. "It was OK?" "Way better than OK." I reached into one of the 'supply drawers' they had in the room and got out a towel, and wiped all my cum off of her. When I finished, she climbed back on my lap and kissed me. "Thank you, Joe. That was so much fun!" "For me, too." "I never would've had the guts to approach anyone. And I've been feeling left out, you know?" "Yes, I know, believe me," I told her. Just then, the bell rang, and we had to head for class. And, as I was walking to class, I realized why Jordan had taken me into the pods for some fooling around. It really was gratifying. That was Eliza's first experience, and she'd plainly enjoyed it. That was a great feeling. Especially around here--it's very easy, as she had said, to be feeling left out around here if you were inexperienced. And someone shy like Eliza needed the door opened. I was thrilled to be able to do it. Now I know how Jordan felt, when I asked her, "why me?" It must've been very much the same thing. ------- Jordan, in fact, pulled me aside after Biology the next day. "Hey, Joe," she asked, "I walked by the pods after lunch yesterday--did I actually see you going into one of them with Eliza Ying?" "Actually, yes, you did," I smiled. I explained the circumstances, that I was just kind of drifting by as a test run and saw Eliza, and went for it. "She was completely inexperienced, too. I think that was her first kiss, even," I laughed. "Good for you! What did you do?" "Well, we skipped the first lesson you and I had and went straight for oral," I laughed. "Mainly because I went first, and I really wanted to go down on her. I think you addicted me." "Great! Did she like it?" "A lot," I admitted, smiling. "She couldn't believe it was only my second time doing it. I told her I had a very good teacher. Then she returned the favor. She was kind of figuring it out as she went along, but it was still great. Which reminds me..." I stopped, grabbed her, and kissed her on the cheek, right there in the middle of the hall. "Thank you very much, Very Good Teacher. That's a debt I'll never be able to repay." "You already did," she told me. "I know Eliza Ying. She's in a couple of my classes. She's a sweetheart, but very shy. You did an excellent thing for her. That is how you pay me back." "Well, of course I got something out of it, too," I smiled. She grinned at me, her eyes twinkling. "Well, I do believe I came once or twice when I was teaching you, right?" "True," I laughed. "Anyhow, you did a nice thing for Eliza. That's all the payback I need. And you shall get a reward. Not today, obviously," she said, pointing down. She was wearing a bikini bottom--which meant she had her period. "But soon." Then she kissed me, and took off. Ah, things to look forward to! ------- That whole extracurricular thing was still in the back of my mind. I was still trying to figure out something I might want to try. Then I heard some people talking. You see, despite my fun activities with Jordan and Eliza, I was still fixated on Darcy. I couldn't help it. She was just a goddess. And I heard her talking with friends--about how much she loved drama. Acting, I mean. And she was telling her friends about tryouts for the school play. They were coming up, at the end of October. Hmm. The school play. That sounded like it might be fun. OK, so I'm shallow--I decided to go out for drama so I could follow Darcy around like a puppy. But, really, that wasn't all of it. It did sound like something interesting. Hey, it was a tryout, right? All I could do is try it and see what happened. The notice told the name of the play being done and recommended all people trying out to get a copy and read it. It was "Tartuffe" by Moliere. It was a great play. It's a 17th century French comedy, about a man called Tartuffe, who masquerades as a holy man but is really a hypocrite. He bamboozles a French nobleman, Orgon, and Orgon's mother, Mme Pernelle, into believing that he is a Man of God. Orgon is quite smitten with him, and even offers his daughter Mariane to Tartuffe to be married, even though Mariane had already been promised to her true love, Valere. Mariane, her brother Damis, Orgon's wife Elmire, and Mariane's maidservant Dorine all see through Tartuffe. So, a lot of the play is the lot of them trying to convince Orgon that Tartuffe isn't what he seems to be. Dorine is a huge part--and funny. The whole play's funny. After reading the play, I was even more enthusiastic about the possibility of getting a part in it. ------- There were a lot of people at tryouts. Considering that the school had just freshmen, and only 250, there were a lot of people. Far more girls than boys, though, and Tartuffe had a lot of male parts. That did increase the odds for me. The director, whose name was Mrs. Eggles, had us all gather round for a little meeting at the beginning. One thing she told us was that the plays at Naked High would not be performed in the nude. "Costuming and sets are a part of the whole thing," she told us, "especially in a period piece like Moliere. You'll be rehearsing in the nude, since that's the way you are anyway, but the performances will be in appropriate costumes." The first day, we were supposed to have prepared a monologue to read. I did one of Tartuffe's monologues, and thought I did pretty well. I sat and watched some of the other performances. Some were better than others. And one, quite honestly, astounded me. No, it wasn't Darcy. It was Stacia Averbuk. I'd seen Stacia in school, and she looked like the most uncomfortable person in the place. She was shy. She was overweight. A lot of the time when I saw her, it looked like she wanted to go climb under a rock. I was very surprised to see her show up for drama tryouts, as self-conscious as she seemed to be. She came on right after Darcy, so I was riding a wave of angel-worship. That stopped in a cold minute. Reading one of Dorine's monolgues, Stacia, quite simply, blew me away. She blew everybody away. It was a dazzling display of talent. I couldn't believe this mousy, overweight, shy girl just possessed that part the way she did. It was like she flipped a switch when she stepped onstage. I'm a newcomer to all this--and even I could see: that was acting. Even though this was just a tryout, there were a lot of other students--me included--that couldn't hold back the applause when she was done. She grinned and blushed at that. Walking out, I happened to be right behind her. "Stacia," I said. She turned around. "That was mindblowing. You are really good." "Thanks," she said, beaming. "I've been looking forward to these tryouts for some time. This is one thing I think I'd be good at." "You're not good, you're great," I told her. She beamed at me again, then took off. The next day, Mrs. Eggles had us read some scenes, in small groups. She had me do one, as Tartuffe, with a guy named Keegan Ardell, who was reading Orgon. I knew Keegan slightly. He was a big, boisterous funny guy. And he was able to bluster--the role of Orgon took a not inconsiderate amount of bluster. It was fun. But after seeing the same scene done by Keegan and a guy named Zach Provost as Tartuffe--I figured I wouldn't be playing Tartuffe. Zach was the school geek--but he was obviously a hell of an actor. He and Keegan did a great job on that scene. Mrs. Eggles seemed to be mixing and matching people in different parts. One that didn't seem to change, though, was Stacia as Dorine. At one point, she had Darcy read a scene as Dorine and the difference was plain to everyone. Dorine is the closest thing to a female lead in the whole play--and Stacia was magnificent at it. There were a few other things, then Mrs. Eggles had me do another scene. The three people in this scene were Dorine; Orgon's daughter Mariane; and Mariane's true love Valere. We did the scene were Mariane tells Valere that her father intends to marry her to Tartuffe. They both fly off the handle and Dorine has to keep them from walking away from one another in a huff. It's a very funny scene--especially Dorine--and turned out to be a lot of fun to do. Stacia played Dorine; I was Valere. This girl named Madison Sheldon played Mariane. She was a tall, very pretty blonde who I'd seen around but never really met. The scene just crackled. Even just running through it, it felt like magic. Stacia held the whole thing together--as Dorine holds the whole thing together in the scene--but Madison was wonderful, too--and I think I held my own. When we were done, the three of us grinned at one another, pleased. This went on for the rest of the week. She had all of us read different parts in different scenes, but she seemed to be figuring things out. I read for Valere more and more as the week went on. That would be fine. Valere wasn't a huge part, but it had a few nice scenes. I had one, from late in the play, with Keegan as Orgon; and this guy Phil Glinnick as Cleante, Orgon's brother-in-law. We did that one and it went well. After the week, all I could do was wait. We'd know at the beginning of November who was in the play. It was even more fun than I thought it was going to be--I really wanted a part! ------- Halloween wasn't much. I was invited to a party at Tanya Vyshenko's house but I didn't go. Too many Beautiful People there for my taste. Moose and I hung out, got some pizza, played video games. He was turning out to be a hell of a friend. I told him about drama. "Hmm," he said, "do you know when she's going to start looking for behind the scenes people?" "After she names the cast. Why?" "I've done some set design and construction, in middle school. I like that kind of stuff." "Cool!" I said. That would be excellent, if I got a part and Moose worked behind the scenes. "Hey, you're meeting with Amber tomorrow, correct?" "Yeah." "Ask her about cooking class." "Huh?" Moose laughed. "Amber and I are in cooking class together. We got paired up last week to bake a cake. Ask her about it. It was really funny. I'll let her tell you since she got off the really good one liner." "OK," I laughed. "You gonna ask for her side of the story?" "Yes, I am," I said. "My instincts tell me she's getting a raw deal." "Good. Listen, I like Amber. She's smart, funny as hell, a good kid. I do not like Jenna--she's fake. You know how shy I am. Jenna makes me feel worse. Amber actually makes me less self-conscious. She's very genuine. Keep that in mind." "I will." ------- The next day, November 1st, was actually a Saturday, but that's when Amber and I had arranged to meet to exchange journals. I'd invited her over to my house. She'd warily agreed. She came in and chatted a bit with Maggie, who she knew. Then we went in the kitchen. She eyed me with suspicion. She was plainly waiting for me to say something bad. "Is it in there?" I asked, pointing to her journal. "Excuse me?" "Your side of the story. Is it in there?" "Well, yeah," she said. I sat down at the kitchen table and grabbed her journal, and opened it. She looked at me blankly. "Well, we are supposed to read each other's journals, right?" "Well, yeah. OK," she said, and sat down across the table, grabbing my journal. "Want something to drink?" I asked. "Sure, that'd be great," she said. I got us some cokes, and then we started reading. At first, she was kind of looking at me out of the corner of her eye, then she got down to serious reading. She read for a while, then smiled. "Moose is a sweetheart," she said--obviously reading where he stuck up for her. "Did he tell you about cooking class?" "No," I said, "except he told me to ask you about it. He said it was funny." "You'll read it, towards the end of the month,"she smiled. "OK." I went back to reading. After a while, I said, "OK. You need to warn me about these things. I'm getting horny just reading this little scene with you and Rosa." She cracked up laughing. "Good!" We read a little longer, and then she said, "Oh my God, Joe. You're saying I should give out warnings? How about you? I knew about Jordan--she told me--but you managed to pull Eliza Ying out of her shell? You stud!" I blushed and grinned sheepishly at her. Then I went back to reading. "Drama, huh?" she said after a while. "We can't all be athletes," I teased her. "Ah, Drama's cool. I was a little worried when I first started reading--you really need to get over Darcy. I'm glad you like it, though, and it's not just a Darcy thing." "Yeah, well, it turned out to be a lot more fun than I realized it was going to be. However, we'll see how much I like it after I find out whether or not I got a part." "Good point," she grinned. I was getting to the end of her month. Jesus. Some of this stuff was just uncalled for. It was ironic that I began reading about a hot sex scene between Amber and Rosa--and, by the end, they were barely talking to one another. It just didn't seem right. Then I got to the cooking class part. I cracked up. She looked at me. "Cooking class. You were right--that's funny. And you went right with it. Moose must have loved that. That kapusta line was priceless." "I was pretty proud of that one myself," she laughed. I finished reading, and then waited for her. She closed my journal, and looked at me. "That Jenna Zambrano's a piece of work, isn't she?" I asked. "That she is," Amber said, rolling her eyes. "I just can't bring myself to trust her," I told Amber. "She just makes me suspicious. And, for what it's worth, I think you were in the right. I'm no athlete, but I think the laughing in the locker room after she fucked up the game would piss me off, too." "Thanks," Amber said gratefully. "It's very appreciated." "You're welcome. I really don't get Rosa." Amber sighed. "I think Rosa is getting a big thrill out of being one of the Cool Kids. That's never happened to her before, we were always kind of insular. But now she's hanging around with the popular clique, she likes it, and the price of admission is apparently bashing me." "Yeah, but that sucks." "I know." She looked at my journal. "Did you really find it that easy to think of me as a heinous bitch at first?" "Yeah," I admitted sheepishly. "I'm sorry, Amber, you're kind of scary." She laughed. "I'm not nearly as scary as you think I am." "I figured that out from reading this. You're more vulnerable than I ever would've guessed. You don't come off that way. Then again, I don't know you all that well." "I see a bit of your point. I can be aggressive, and I generally don't take shit. Like Maggie told you, that you wrote about in here, I get it from Lily. Lily doesn't take shit from anyone." She sighed. "But I'm not a bitch. Not unless I'm provoked." "I'm beginning to understand that. And I really do think you're getting a raw deal at school. I hope it works out." "Thanks, Joe. It means a lot." I reached out my hand. "Friends?" She smiled, and shook it. "You betcha! I certainly can use more of those." "Who can't?" ------- Chapter 5: Amber NOVEMBER 2003 That discussion with Joe did a world of good. It really meant a lot to me, more than Joe realized. And he followed up on it that Monday. He waved me over to the table at lunch where he was sitting with Moose. We sate and ate, and just chatted. It was blissfully normal. Joe and I had reached an understanding, and we got along. Moose was still very shy, but he was loosening up some. I think that kapusta joke went a long way! That afternoon, I had another conversation. It was after practice. It was another dismal practice. I just wasn't into it right then. Afterwards, I was headed out of the locker room, starting on my walk home. I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Rosa. "Can we talk?" she said. "Why?" I asked. "Because I want to apologize. I really am sorry. You were right--I didn't even stop to think how you might feel." "I have to ask, Rosa, why wouldn't you think of that?" "Because I figured you knew you were wrong in what you did." "Even if I agreed with that--which I don't--why would you take Jenna's side?" "You automatically expected me to take your side?" she asked. "No," I said. "Neutrality, that's what I expected. Look, in the locker room right after it happened, you said you thought I went too far. Fine. That didn't bother me. I disagreed with you, but I wasn't mad at you and I wasn't hurt or anything like that. "It was all the other shit. Snubbing me in the lunchroom. Dissing me with your party. Yucking it up with Jenna and Deb at my expense in Biology. "That is what hurt. You can disagree with me. I didn't have a problem with that. What you did after that, however, were things that a friend just doesn't do. You blatantly took her side everywhere, not just about the incident. That's what wasn't nice, or fair." She gazed at the ground. "I know. I really am sorry," she said softly. "Apology accepted." "Friends again?" she asked. "Rosa--that's going to take more time," I said sadly. She just looked at me. "I'm sorry, but, right now--I just don't trust you." "Yeah," she said in a near-whisper. "I'm sorry," I repeated, and walked away. I was glad she'd apologized. It did mean something that she did that. But I wasn't lying. I didn't trust her. I wasn't happy at all about that, but that's the way it was. ------- A couple of days later, Jenna overplayed her hand. It was a game against Southport, which is where Jenna was from. She had to start. Taylor was throwing up with the flu, so we had to move Kendra back to midfield. Jenna had a second chance. We played pretty well in the first half, but were losing 1-0. At the beginning of the second half, during a stoppage in play, I noticed Jenna whispering with two players from Southport. At first, I didn't think much of it. I mean, she knew all those girls from playing with them before high school. What was really going on only became apparent a few minutes later. We got a forward rush going. Jordan was, as usual, covered like a blanket. Jenna was wide open. What the fuck--I passed the ball to Jenna. Miracle of miracles, she handled the pass. She had a wide open shot. And she passed the ball back to me! Idiot. I couldn't believe it--but I thought it was just Jenna being her usual moronic self. What I didn't see, at first, were the two Southport players converging on me. And, lo and behold, it was the same two players Jenna had been whispering to. They got to me just as the ball did--and they nailed me. I went down in a heap, howling in pain. It was a blatantly very dirty play. They had to carry me off the field on a stretcher. Both of their players got red-carded. That didn't make a difference. With me on the way to the hospital--and my only true backup throwing up somewhere--we had no offence. Even two players down, they held on to the 1-0 lead. While I was riding in the ambulance to the hospital, I figured it out. This had been a set-up. Jenna had gotten two of her hometown pals to take me out. Luckily, the injuries turned out to be not that bad. A few bruised ribs and a slightly separated shoulder. It hurt like hell, but it wasn't serious damage. I was just glad that it wasn't a fucked-up knee or something like that. Anyhow, I'd be out for a few games but I'd be OK. They gave me some pain pills and sent me home. I probably could've stayed out of school the next day--but I didn't. I went to school with my arm in a sling and my ribs taped up. Of course, outside of that--and my shoes--I was completely naked, so the bandages and sling were in plain sight of everyone. You want to talk about sympathy? I didn't have to say a word. All I had to do was show up. Evidently, the rumor got around that it was Jenna who was responsible for me getting flattened. I didn't say a word. I didn't even hint at it. I didn't have to. I had people I barely knew coming up to me and asking how I was. And lunch was great. Joe basically fawned over me. Moose teased me about the possibility of a long-lost Polish ancestor. Tiff and Jordan sat with us, too, bucking me up. It all came to a head after school. Alice had us meet up before practice. She discussed my injuries, and let the team know I'd be out for a couple of weeks. I thought I saw a little smirk on Jenna's face. It got wiped off quickly. After Alice did her bit, Torie Dallas raised her hand to speak. "I have something to say," she started. "I saw what happened. I saw Jenna whispering with the two girls that hit Amber, minutes before it happened. Then Jenna passed the ball back to Amber, which was a foolish play. I am convinced that Jenna set Amber up to be injured." It was perfect. Torie didn't play games or take sides. This wasn't one of my buddies saying this. Torie tried to stay impartial and above the fray. That's why she'd been elected captain when I stepped down. So, her making this accusation was far different than if it had been me--or even someone like Jordan, for that matter. Jenna, of course, denied all. She sputtered and protested her innocence. Torie glared at her and said, "I know what I saw." "You know what you think you saw," Jenna retorted. "Fine. Riddle me this, then, Jenna. Why did you pass the ball back to Amber? You had a clear shot." Jenna hesitated. "Well, I've lost confidence in my shot." "Bullshit," Jordan interjected. "There's nothing wrong with your shot, and you know it. What you can't do worth a damn is receive a pass. Funny, you had no problem getting this particular one. You put more effort into getting that pass than you have any other all season. And with a clear shot, you sent it back to Amber. Why is that, Jenna?" "Because I thought Amber had a better shot," she maintained--but it was weak. Very weak. Nobody said anything for a minute. Then Alice asked, "Amber, what do you think?" "I think my ribs hurt," I said, to chuckles all around. Alice smiled, then said, "What I meant was, do you think Jenna set you up?" "Not for me to say," I said. "I don't know." Conveniently keeping myself out of the fray. Alice, thankfully, didn't push it. We went out for practice. I sat on the sidelines with Tiffany, joking about our injuries and commenting on the practice. After a bit, Alice sidled up to me. "I know you can talk in front of Tiffany. Between us three and the wind, do you think Jenna set you up?" "Not a doubt in my mind," I told her. "I saw her talking to her friends, too." "I can't prove anything, Amber," Alice said apologetically. "I know that," I smiled. "I'm not worried about it. Torie's level-headed, she's the one that made the accusation. I'm taking the high road." I pointed to the field. "Look. Even some of her erstwhile buddies, or people that were neutral, are shunning her." Alice looked, nodded, and then walked away. She knew the score. Even if she couldn't do anything about it, because she had no proof, that was OK. ------- The next day, I got a table at lunch with the people I had been eating with--Joe, Moose, Jordan, and Tiffany. We had just sat down and started chatting and eating, when we were invaded. Rosa, Tan, Justin, Patrick, Connor, and a few others from their crowd came over to our table. The five of us just looked at them, as they tried to make like everything was normal. Joe and Moose were still friends with Patrick and Justin. Because of that, I didn't want to make waves. So, I just got up and made to leave. "Where you going?" Joe asked. "I'm going to find someplace else to eat. It just got crowded over here." "Amber," Rosa said, "how long are you going to hold a grudge?" "This isn't about you, Rosie. You apologized." "Ah, Jesus, Amber, grow up," Tanya spat. "Tan? Fuck you." "Hey, there's no call for that," Patrick piped up. "Fuck you, too, Patrick," I repeated. "Why are you here, anyway? Where's your little girlfriend, Jenna? I'm sure she's looking for you." "She's not my girlfriend," Patrick asserted. Connor tried to make peacemaker. "Look, Amber. We came here to try to make amends." "Ah. And I needed to get smacked around for this to happen? Thank you, but no thank you." I finished getting up and found another table. Tiff and Jordan joined me. After lunch, Joe grabbed me. "Listen, Amber, Moose and I, well, uh..." "I know," I said with a smile. "You and Moose are still friends with Patrick and Justin. I understand that. You have been a true friend to me--and I don't make my friends choose sides." "Thanks," he smiled. "From Moose, too." ------- The bruised ribs and the gimpy shoulder were, without a doubt, a pain in the ass. They hurt if I laughed, or coughed. I couldn't play soccer. And sex was completely out of the question. Now, when I wasn't the school pariah any more and it looked like I might have a chance of getting some. Nope, not with my aching ribs. Shit, I tried masturbating and almost died. Having an orgasm is no fun if it hurts. Plus, a week or so after the injuries, I was Riding The Red River again. So sex was completely out of the question for a large chunk of November. Damn. I just concentrated on other things. Classes, for one. I liked them. The teachers were cool. And some of them were quite, well, nice to look at all naked and shit. Vinnie Benson, for one. Yum yum yum. And Miss Peterson, the geometry teacher--she was a babe. And Mr. Riley had told me she was bi. Hmmm... Damn, there I go, thinking about sex again! And don't get me started on the co-ed gym showers. Jeez, as if I wasn't horny enough without them! I know, we were all naked anyhow, but there's something about a cute guy in a shower. The only real drawback to that was the whole period thing. Changing a pad in a locker room full of naked guys was fairly embarrassing. But at least that was the worst embarrassment inherent in being a girl. The guys--I felt sorry for them sometimes. At least female arousal was easy to hide. In my particular case, that was a very good thing, considering how often I was wandering around school aroused! But male arousal is readily apparent. I remember working with Moose once on a cooking project. We were very close together at the workstation. I'd lean over get something and brush up against him, and vice-versa. Well, it didn't take much of that before he was at full mast, so to speak. Of course, I had to say, "Happy to see me, Moose?" He blushed purple! ------- Another thing that happened in November is the outside world started to notice us. Part of that was because of Tiffany's mother. She and her lawyer were obviously going to use "Tiffany's lack of morals" in her defense at her child abuse trial. Now, most people didn't think that a teenager having sex was worse than a mother throwing her daughter down a flight of stairs--but some did. Most of the moralists had been beaten back into the bushes in recent years, but not all. And some of them had picked up on Tiffany's mother as a cause celebre. Of course, the fact that Tiffany's dad had enrolled her in Naked High made things worse from their point of view. This was one of the things the moralizers liked to latch on to--because they didn't have much else left. I was only 14, of course, but my parents had explained a lot of recent history to me. The moralizers had seemed to be making some headway in the 80's--the Just Say No decade. It was a backlash against the 60's, the pill, the legalization of abortion. And the discovery of AIDS had seemed to galvanize them. They used AIDS as an excuse for all that abstinence bullshit. Plus, the rise of the Right To Life movement really happened then. As the 80s turned into the 90s, it seemed like the moralizers were going to win. Then, two things happened. AIDS was miraculously cured. And, in researching AIDS, the scientists were able to come up with cures for every other STD, too. I was born in 1989--by the time I entered kindergarten, STDs were pretty much a thing of the past. The reason for this was a difference in emphasis from liberal groups like Planned Parenthood and the like. They saw the Just Say No years, the rise of the religious right, and the Right to Life movement as a threat. They tried to fight it head-on for a while, and then got smart. They started funding scientific research. They let the wingnuts launch the rhetoric, and quietly spent their money on research. They weren't necessarily responsible for the elimination of AIDS and other STDs--lots of folks were working on that. They were largely responsible for the corollary--the vast improvement in birth control. The newer pills had far fewer side effects. There was a morning-after pill. And then there was the shot--zero side effects, effective immediately, worked as a morning-after, and it lasted three months. There was a fairly liberal administration in at the time, which means all this stuff got fast-tracked at the FDA. Then the lobby groups pushed education. With no STDs to worry about, preventing pregnancy was the sole focus. What happened was, in areas where Planned Parenthood was able to go into schools and get the word out, abortions went down to almost zero. The teen pregnancy rate went down to almost zero. The shot proved very popular, everywhere teenagers got wind of it. And that took the wind right out of the sails of the Right to Life movement. The moderates, those that had no problems with sex or birth control, bled off, satisfied. They were getting what they wanted--less abortions. With no risk of STDs and easy ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy, they got what they wanted. And they supported the Planned Parenthood groups in getting the new birth control widely available, including in schools. That exposed the wingnut heart of the Right to Life crowd to be what they were. They weren't anti-abortion, they were anti-sex. With no other ammunition, they started braying about the 'emotional' consequences of early sex, while beating the Bible for all it was worth. Of course, liberal groups had an answer to the first--more education. Detailed sex education. This is why stuff like The Program came into being. As for the religious aspect--well, a lot of the more mainline denominations just stopped talking about sex altogether, recognizing a lot of the growing new attitudes. The right-wing still did--but they were losing influence. They had beaten on abortion for so long, and it was recognized by a lot of people that it was the permissive liberals that had actually won that one. That reduced a lot of the oomph of the Religious Right. The right-wing was still there, of course. There were still right-wing religious groups braying about premarital sex. And there were fits and starts, of course, with a lot of the new ideas. Those fits and starts were always seized on by the righties. But mostly they were marginalized. The political arguments on most levels had turned to be almost completely about economics. So, the right wing made hay where it could, with something like Tiffany's mother. Of course, my sympathies and concerns were completely with Tiff. I was worried about her. Her mother threw her down a fucking flight of stairs! Nothing justifies that. However, one of the things that happened with Tiffany's mother is that the wingnuts noticed Naked High. We were only the third nudist high school in the country. And with Tiff going here, that only increased the focus. And what happened was that suddenly I became a focal point. Some of the wingnuts had started to picket the school. Apparently, one of them spotted me, with my sling and bandages. One or more of them started a rumor that some guy had done that to me in an attempted rape or something. This got back to me. I laughed it off, but it became a big thing with the wingnuts, about how I needed to be 'saved' from all this 'immorality'. The media was covering the protests. When this rumor got back to them, one of the stations requested an interview with me. I gladly agreed, wanting to set the record straight. In full view of the protesters, I appeared--stark naked except for the bandages--and did the interview. I told the reporter the truth: "I play soccer. That's where this happened. I got sandwiched. It was a dirty play for sure--both of the other players got red-carded--but that sometimes happens out there." "So, you weren't raped?" the reporter asked. "No, I was not raped. Can't rape the willing," I laughed. "There's only a few guys in this school I'd turn down, and I can kick all their asses, so how could I get raped here?" The reporter had trouble holding in the laughter. And that diffused the crisis. Most of my fellow students had gotten tired of the taunts from the protestors, so, with my example in front of them, they let it all hang out. Tan and Connor picked a nice day--we have a few of those around here even in November--sat right in front of the protestors, and did some fairly heavy-duty nekkid-kissin'-and-gropin'. Disgusted by antics like that, the protestors started to disperse. ------- November was getting on. Soon, it'd be December. And me still a virgin. Not quite what I signed up for. Well, at least I'd have a shoulder to cry on. Lily came home for Thanksgiving. She landed on Wednesday, November 26th. After dinner, Mike went home and Lil and I stayed up all night talking. I told her how the first three months at Naked High had gone. She hugged me and told me everything would be all right. I really do love my sister. The next day was Thanksgiving. Ever since Lily and Mike started dating, Mike comes over here for Thanksgiving--as do his mom Ellie, and her partner Marina. They have no other family around here, and neither do we. So, since everyone knew Mike and Lily were going to get married some day, they became family. It was cool--I loved Ellie and Marina. Ellie helped me through a lot of shit about my sexuality back in the summer between sixth and seventh grade. This year, they had an announcement. "Since the state of North Carolina has finally legalized gay marriage," Ellie started, "I'm thrilled to tell you all that Marina and I are getting married this summer. You are all invited, of course." That was great news! There was more. "I want a baby," Marina told us all. "And I'm 37, so time is getting on. So, after the wedding, I plan on getting pregnant." "Sperm donor?" my Dad asked. "Yes. But one in particular," Marina said. "I want this baby to be ours--Ellie's and mine. Of course, Ellie can't donate sperm." We all laughed at that. "And I felt bad that the baby wouldn't really have any connection with Ellie. It'd be me and an anonymous sperm donor." "Then, last night, someone came up with a wonderful idea," Ellie said. "That'd be me," Mike put in. "My DNA's half from mom, right? If you can't get all of Mom's genetics, we can get half. So I'm donating the sperm." Everybody looked at him for a minute. I was the first to speak. "That is so cool!" It really was. "It really is," Dad said, "but this doesn't bother anyone?" "Nah. If it were actual sex it might bother me, but it's going to be clinical," Ellie said. "I don't have sex with men, not even Mikey," Marina laughed. "And I get to help him produce the donation," Lily said impishly, getting laughter from everyone and a swat on the arm from Mom. "It's not going to be my kid," Mike said. "It's going to be Mom and Marina's kid. When it gets older we might tell it, but it's going to be raised as my sibling. When I want my own kids, Lily and I will make 'em the old fashioned way." "That works," Mom said. ------- All that just confirmed what I already knew--Mike was a generous guy. Actually, Mike and my sister, because Lily would've had to sign off on this. It was a wonderful thing they were going to do for Marina and Ellie. Of course, the dimensions of Lily and Mike's generosity went beyond even my conception. I found that out on the next day, Friday the 28th. I went out that morning to run some errands. When I got back, I found the house empty, except for Mike. "Hey, Mikey, where is everyone?" "You're Dad's in work. Your Mom and Lily got lost for the day, shopping." "Lily's gone and you're here? What, did Ellie get tired of you?" I teased. "No," he smiled. "Sit." He pointed next to him on the couch. I sat. "Your sister and I had a talk last night. Evidently, you're having some trouble. With sex, specifically." "Oh, that," I said. "Well, not trouble exactly. It's just that I really want to get laid and I don't know how to make it happen." "That's what Lily said. She said you're having trouble getting over that hurdle." "Right," I told him. "Look, I want my first time to be with someone experienced, I think. But not someone who's going to fuck me over. There are some guys at Naked High that are just scary. And the sweet ones that I've met don't have any more clue than I do what they're doing. Plus--did Lily tell you about my stint as the school pariah?" "Yeah," Mike laughed. "I loved it. You should play baseball." "No thanks," I snorted. "Anyhow, that cut down the available guys, too, and it hasn't completely gone away yet." "Right. So, a lot of this is just first-time nervousness. About who to do it with specifically." "Exactly. I get past the first time, I think it will be easier," I agreed. "I'm probably over-emphasizing the first time, and I know it. But, you know." "Yeah. That's what Lily thought. So, this is what we decided. Would you like me to take care of your first time for you?" Mike said. I was absolutely shocked. I think my jaw dropped right to my tits. I wasn't even sure I'd heard him correctly. "Come again?" I gasped. "Lily and I thought you might like for me to be your first. Though I can see by the look on your face that we were wrong." "Uh, no, I'm just stunned," I told him. Shit, I couldn't have been more stunned if David Beckham had shown up at my doorstep wanting to fuck! And, not like it? I'd had a crush on Mikey since I was eleven! One of my first sexual experiences was watching Mike and Lily fuck while masturbating the daylights out of myself. Ever since then, Mikey had starred in a very large number of my clittie-rubbing fantasies. If I had to pick anyone in the world for my first, he would've been it. But he was my sister's boyfriend. "You're not wrong," I told him. "But, are you serious? And Lily knows about this?" "I'm serious," he laughed. "And it was Lily's idea, actually. That's why she got lost for the afternoon--to give us time. She wants you to have a good first time, and she's afraid you're going to go crazy if it doesn't happen soon. Her exact words were, 'Will you please take my sister's virginity before the poor girl explodes?'" I cracked up at that. "God, I love my sister," I said in all truthfulness. Loaning her boyfriend--hell, they were practically engaged--out to me? How cool is that? "Yes, Mikey, I want to," I finally told him. We went upstairs to my room. He sat on the bed next to me. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right," he said. And then he kissed me. Mike is gentle for a guy, but it was still completely different than kissing Rosa. It made my head spin. As did his hand on my boob, which happened about halfway through the kiss. I just sat there, getting kissed and fondled, letting him take the lead. I think my brain was still in orbit, trying to come to terms with the fact that I was about to have sex with Mike Kirkland. So, I just enjoyed it. Then he slipped his hand up my shirt. I had just thrown on a tee shirt to go out on my errands earlier, so I wasn't wearing a bra, so his hand hit bare tittie. Damn, it felt good! Suddenly, Mike broke the kiss. "Before this gets any further--you are on birth control, yes?" "Of course," I said. "Good. Lily gave me permission and all, but getting you knocked up could cause some serious family complications." "Could it ever," I giggled. "Nope, I get the shot." "Good," he said, and then went back to kissing and groping. I guess, the one thing I wondered about when he proposed this was whether or not he was going to treat it as a chore, something he was doing as a favor to Lily. You know, get it over with. I should've known better. Mike's just not like that. Nope, he took his time. He kissed and fondled me for a while, then started kissing my neck, which was a whole lot of fun. Then he got my shirt off. He went back to kissing my neck, then worked his way down to my boob. His lips took my nipple in, and sucked on it, while he flicked it with his tongue. Damn, it felt good! Mike continued to suck on my nipple, as I felt his hands go to the snap on my jeans. He undid it, and I raised my ass so he could slip my jeans and panties off. Once he got them off, his mouth stayed on my nipple, but his hand went down between my legs. I felt his finger touch me there, then it kind of stopped. Just for a couple seconds, then he started exploring. "Something wrong?" I asked him. "Nope. Just not used to it," he said. Not used to what? I wondered. Then he told me. "Your sister shaves." "Does she?" I laughed. "Hmmm. That's intriguing." He pulled off my boob and looked up at me. "You go to a nudist high school. Anyone else there shave?" "Not that I've noticed. Of course, that's all the more reason to consider it," I laughed. "Yup, you're Lily's sister, all right," Mike said with a chuckle. Then he went back to my boob. His hand traced my pussy lips while he sucked on my boob. Then, he started kissing lower. He kissed down my stomach, which was all warm and tingly and a little ticklish. Then it dawned on my foggy brain just where he was headed. You have to understand--the first time I ever even realized that pussy-lapping existed was that time I watched Mike and Lily have sex. Because, before they fucked, that's what they did. Watching that--especially Lily's reaction--was what had first turned me on to it. So much so, that, when Rosa proposed it a couple months later, I was all for it. Even though I'd have to reciprocate, something that didn't thrill me at the time. (Until I did it--then I realized how fun it was!) So, Mike himself was responsible for my interest in oral. And now, here he was, about to go down on me. Ya and hoo! Then, there he was, his tongue in my pussy. It felt just fantastic. I couldn't help make a comparison, since the only person that'd ever been down there was Rosa. As I said, Mike's gentle for a guy--but he was still more, well... I guess demonstrative would be the word. Not really aggressive. Just--I don't know how to describe it. It was just different than Rosa--harder without actually being hard. I really fucking liked it! I thought a guy could never be as good as a girl at that. I was very, very wrong. Dear Mikey had obviously had quite a lot of practice. His tongue got to places I didn't even know I had. And, when he went for the clit? Yowza! He gently but firmly pushed his tongue onto it, over and over, building me up nicely. I exploded in a damn hurry. When I came back down out of orbit, I looked up to see Mikey grinning down at me. "Wow!" I said. "Glad you liked it. I figured you'd want that after you watched me do it to your sister back when." "You figured right," I beamed. He was above me now, between my legs, hovering over me. I could feel his dick on my thigh. I hadn't even noticed him taking his clothes off! "You ready for this?" he asked. "Oh, yeah," I breathed. "It might hurt some." "I doubt it," I told him. "I might technically be a virgin, but toys are a big part of my life." He laughed at that. "Well, then. I'm still going slow, however." "OK." I felt him spread me with his hands. Probably also checking for wetness--which was not a problem, believe me. Then I felt his head, slowly pushing into me. The head popped in, and I gasped. Mikey looked down at me, and I nodded at him to keep going. He kept going, slowly but surely. I felt myself spreading open for him, as he moved himself into me. I mean, wow. Rosa doing me with the strap-on was fun--but this was something else. Mike's dick felt like velvet as it rubbed against my pussy, and I could feel the heat coming from it, even as it pushed its way inside me. Then, he was all the way in. "No pain?" he asked. "Not hardly," I grinned. "Good," he smiled back--then started moving in and out, slowly but surely. Wow, wow, wow! Now I got it. Now I understood what I'd been waiting for. I'd wanted it so bad, I'd fantasized about it--but I didn't really have any idea. Even with Rosa and her strap-on--I didn't have any idea. It was unbelievable. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he gently fucked me. I threw my hips up to meet his. And I felt a big fat orgasm building up. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" I hissed very time he hit bottom. It didn't take long--and then I just lost it. I screamed. I shook. My pussy clenched all around him. And then, in the middle, Mikey grunted, and I felt his dick jerk inside me. That just made me cum harder. I think I passed out a little. When I came to, Mikey was cuddling me. "You OK?" he asked. "Hell, yes!" "Good," he laughed. "Mike, I don't think I can thank you enough." "You don't have to thank me. I enjoyed myself. You know, I never would've done this without Lily's permission--but I sure am glad she gave me permission." "Awww," I gushed happily. ------- Later that night, I was sitting alone in my room, when there was a knock at the door. "Come in," I said. It was Lily. She sat down on the bed, and I launched myself at her, wrapping her in a bear hug. "Thank you so much. You're the best big sister in the world!" "Yes, I am," she laughed. "You enjoyed yourself, then." "What do you think? You know how good he is." "Too true. You feel better?" "Unbelievably so." "Good. But, from now on, you're on your own," she said with a sly little smile. "I won't say it'll never happen again--but don't count on it!" "I wouldn't," I told her. "Mike's yours. I know that." I looked at her for a minute. "So. You shave down there?" She cracked up. "Yeah. Mike told you that?" "Well, he put his hand down there--on me, I mean--and kind of stopped. When I asked him if anything was wrong, he said he just wasn't used to encountering hair down there." "Yeah. I started shaving when we were seniors." "Nobody at Naked High shaves. But it's intriguing." "It's awesome," she told me. "It makes everything more intense." "Hmm," I mused. "That's good advertising for it. Plus, if I were the first at school, I'd cause a stir." "And you love doing that," she laughed. "You know it!" After Lily had left my room, I went to take a bath. While I was there, as usual, I shaved my legs. And I decided not to stop at my legs. It was a little delicate and tricky, but I managed, and without hurting myself. I couldn't wait to go back to school! ------- The next day was a Saturday, and it was still Thanksgiving weekend. Nonetheless, we had soccer practice. Well, technically, it was optional. Almost everyone showed up. (Not Jenna, of course.) It was actually my first practice back. I had finally healed, pretty much. The boys had a practice, too, on the adjacent field. After the practice proper had ended, I was still there, kicking the ball back and forth with Jordan. Suddenly, I sensed the presence of someone else, off to the side. I looked, and it was Darren Walker, my counterpart on the boys' team. He was the attacking midfielder, and the best player on the team. And he was still a co-captain, unlike me. He was also, unfortunately, one of Jenna's groupies. "Hey, Amber," he said. "Darren." "I was wondering if I could talk to you." "Hmm. I guess that's my cue to get lost," Jordan laughed. She kicked the ball back towards me. "Catch you later," she said, and took off. "Well, I guess there goes my excuse," I laughed. "But why do you want to talk to me?" I said to Darren, kicking the ball towards him. He received it cleanly. "I was wondering. Seriously, did Jenna really set you up to be hurt?" "I'll never know for sure, but I believe so." "I just don't get it," he said. "What don't you get?" "How Jenna would do anything like that. It seems so unlike her." "You obviously don't know her," I spat. We were still kicking the ball back and forth. "She's a conniving witch." "I don't see her that way at all." "That's because you're blinded by her boobies," I smirked. He laughed. "Not hardly. Geez, if that's all it was--hell, yours are better!" That made me blink. They were? But I ignored it. "So, what is it, then? Darren, she's got half the guys in this school hoodwinked, and I can't figure out why." "It's hard to explain. She's just very good to guys." "It can't be that she puts out, not around here. Half the school puts out," I smirked. "You'd be surprised. Lots of girls here are still scared of it." "Actually, yeah, you're right," I agreed. "It's just that she's good at it," he said. "Knowing her, I'll bet that what she's good at is massaging your male ego. She oohs and aahs and tells you how wonderful you are and how it's never been better and ooh you're such a stud. Of course, she's saying the exact same thing the next day to the next guy." "Shit. I guess you do have her figured out," he said sheepishly. "Hey, what can I say? I'm a guy. Worship my dick and I'll do anything." "Uh-huh," I agreed with a grin. "I need to tell you something, though. I might have bought into Jenna's tales of woe, and tried to, you know, comfort her and all." "Yeah, yeah," I laughed. "You know," he grinned. "Anyhow, I might have done that, but I didn't rag on you. I didn't think I had all the facts, so I never joined in on the Amber bashing." "Why should I believe that?" "You have no reason to," he shrugged, "but it's the truth." "OK." "Of course, Jenna lost interest in me when I wouldn't tell her how awful you were." "I'm sure you have other places to get it," I grinned. "Not like Jenna." I still don't know what came over me right then. I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of my mouth. But I said it: "Darren, let me tell you something. I many not ooh and aah and gush like Jenna--but I'll fuck your brains out." I almost cracked myself up. You'd think I'd had sex with guys a million times rather than, well, once. Shit. My bravado surprised me. I mean, what the hell was I thinking? Well, I guess I was thinking it'd get Darren's attention. Which it did. "You think so, huh?" he grinned. "You know it." Damn, if I kept this up, I might actually get Darren Walker in a compromising position! I admit it--Darren was a hunk. And I won't deny a basic interest in fellow soccer players. Especially hunky ones. "You won't know what hit you," I continued. "That sounds like a challenge." "Maybe," I said. Just then, I realized the hidden benefits of being able to wear a practice outfit out on the soccer field. Because it allowed me to dramatically peel my shirt off. And then the sports bra. Hey, usually, I like running around school naked--but there were benefits to a striptease, too. Like watching Darren practically swallow his tongue! "You are serious," he said. "What do you think?" I said--and pulled down my shorts and panties. Giving Darren a full view of my pussy. My shaved pussy. He goggled. "Amber. I've seen you naked in school for almost three months now. When did you start shaving?" "Yesterday," I giggled. "You like?" "My God, you're incredible." That was nice to hear! But I quickly realized that I was getting a wee bit cold. It was, after all, the end of November. North Carolina doesn't get as cold as Massachusetts--where I was born--but it wasn't warm. So, I turned away from Darren--who was still staring--and started walking. "Where you going?" he said. "Inside," I said. "The building's open. I thought we could go check out the pods." The next thing I knew, he was grabbing my shoulder, spinning me around, and crushing his lips to mine. Yowza! His kiss was hard, insistent, but not un-gentle. I loved it. He broke it, and hissed, "You're driving me crazy. Right here, right now." "It's a little cold, don't you think?" "It's definitely nippy," he said, running a thumb across my very erect nipple. "But I'll warm you up." Shit, he might at that! He stepped away from me, and quickly shucked off his own practice clothes. Oh, yummy! Then he was back at me, one hand on my shoulder, the other wrapped around a boob, kissing me. And before I knew it, I was being pulled down onto the ground. His hands were all over me. He kissed me, then nibbled on an ear, then moved down with his mouth to my boob. He was positively frenzied. Wow, did I do that? Amazing. Mike Kirkland, I thought to myself, I will love you forever. I would have never been able to pull this off if Mikey hadn't gotten me over the hump. So to speak! Anyway, Darren was in a frenzy, and I loved it. He was sucking on my nipple, which was very nice, and then his hand slipped in between my legs. Oh, yeah! Just the little fondles he started out with--even those seemed to have a little extra oomph with no hair in the way. "Oh, yes," I grunted, as he dragged a finger up and down my pussy. "Amber, you are one hot babe," he said approvingly as he stroked me. "You know it," I panted. "And, I'm thinking you look good enough to eat." "Mmmmm!" I groaned. And then he made good on it. He got his face down between my legs in a hurry. Thank you, God! And Darren didn't disappoint. I was lucky--first Rosa, then Mike, now Darren--all three could eat pussy! As an added bonus, Lily hadn't been lying. It was definitely more intense shaved! Darren was licking away at my clit, building me up nice. Then he slipped a finger into my pussy. He quickly joined said finger with a second, and started wiggling them! Since we were outside, I wonder how many people heard the earth-shattering scream I let out when I came? Before I could even catch my breath from that awe-inducing orgasm, Darren was kneeling in between my legs, the head of his dick rubbing up against my thigh. Somehow I managed to spread my legs wider. He pushed his dick into me with very little effort--no big surprise, I was gushing like a garden hose at that point! He started right in on fucking me--slowly at first, but then he started to speed up. I wrapped my legs around his ass and my arms around his shoulders, and started bucking back up at him on every downstroke. And every time we 'bumped uglies', I let out a nice little groaning whinny. Damn, I was really liking this whole sex thing! I came, spectacularly, in very short order. Darren quickly followed, as I felt his dick pulse inside me. Afterwards, we collapsed next to each other. "My, God, you weren't kidding," he said. "That was spectacular." "Thanks," I grinned. "Of course, you were right, too. Somehow, I'm not cold at all." "You will be in a minute," he laughed. He looked around, and gathered up my clothes for me, and handed them to me. "Here." "Thanks, sweetie," I teased, and started pulling them on. He got his own, and started pulling them on. After we both got dressed, he stood up, and then helped me up. "I have to admit, I'm a little surprised," Darren said to me. "I didn't realize. I mean, I never see you near the pods, I never see you come out of the pods, I never see you with a guy, and I know a lot of the guys at school were down on you because of the Jenna thing. I didn't realize you had that much experience." I had to laugh. "Darren? I lost my virginity yesterday. You were my second." "Excuse me????" "True story." I turned and started walking across the field, then turned back to him. "So, you see, that's not experience. Just natural talent. See you around, stud." With that, I sauntered off the field. But not before I heard him yell from behind me, "Hot DAMN!!" What a great day! ------- I told Lily about it that night. She loved it. I told her to thank Mike for the lessons, and she laughed and said she would. The next day, I went to the airport with Mom and Dad to say goodbye to Mike and Lily. I always missed them when they left, but this time I was really going to miss them. What a wonderful gift they had given me, and it was already paying off. I hugged Mike goodbye at the airport. "Thanks, sweetie. I'll love you forever." "You're welcome. Have fun." "I plan to!" Then I hugged Lily. "Take care of that wonderful boyfriend of yours. And thank you." "I do, and you're welcome," she laughed. They got on the plane back to California. Luckily, they'd be home in less than a month for Christmas. After I got home, I went over to Joe's. It was the 30th, and we decided to do the journal swap today. I think he was going to enjoy reading my journal this month! ------- Chapter 6: Joe NOVEMBER, 2003 After swapping journals with Amber and seeing what she was going through, I decided to be friendly. There really was a good person inside there. So, that Monday in school, Moose and I waved her over to our table at lunch. She happily accepted. I've never described Amber. She's tall--not as tall as I am, but tall, especially for a 14-year-old girl. I'd say she was 5'7" or 5'8". She had an athletic body, which was fitting. She wasn't skinny, but she definitely wasn't fat, either. She was built solidly. There were definite curves there, especially in the hips. And, I'll admit it, she also boasted boobs that were just about perfect. They were big without being grossly out of proportion, with nice prominent nipples. Hey, I'm sorry--when you're a teenaged guy in a nudist high school, you notice the boobs. You can't help it. Amber had one of the nicest sets of tits in the whole school. I'd probably vote her second--to Darcy, of course. She was also pretty. She had straight medium brown hair with red highlights that she wore a bit past her shoulders. It was usually loose, but I know she put it in a ponytail for soccer. Her eyes were brown, big, very expressive. And she had a very nice smile. Anyhow, that's Amber. And I just realized that she's going to read this. Ah, well, I hope she likes it! So, Moose and I decided we'd hang out with her. We both liked her--Moose plainly thought she was great. Sometimes we were joined by Jordan and Amber's friend Tiffany. It worked out well. ------- The Friday of the first week in November, I got to school early, got undressed, then headed to the auditorium. The parts for the play would be posted then. I walked up--with my eyes closed--took a breath, and then slowly opened my eyes. I had made it! I'd be playing Valere! I almost did a little jig in the hall. I looked closer, and quickly realized the irony. I'd gotten a part in the play--and Darcy, the reason I'd tried out in the first place, had not. To my surprise, I found this didn't diminish my enthusiasm at all. I looked at a few other names. As I had expected, Stacia got the part of Dorine. The girl I had worked with, Madison Sheldon, got the part of Mariane, Valere's intended. Keegan Ardell would be playing Orgon, and Zach Provost got Tartuffe. I glanced at the rest. I'd meet them all at our first practice, which would be the following Monday. I couldn't wait! I was leaving biology, when Jordan came up to me. "You seem like you're in a very good mood today." "I am," I told her, then told her why. "That's so awesome! Congratulations!" she said. "Thanks. I'm thrilled." "You should be, it's excellent. So, how many scenes do you have with Miss Darcy?" she smirked. "None," I laughed. "She didn't make it." "Wow. And you're still happy about making it?" "Yeah. She may have made me think of trying out, but once I got in there and started the tryouts, I wanted to make it for me." "Great, Joe, I'm really happy to hear that. Well, a day like this just deserves to get better." She leaned in, grinning at me, and softly said, "How about we go to the pods and take care of your final lesson? You know, the virginity lesson?" You know, in the couple of months I'd been at Naked Higih, I'd gotten better at not popping a boner every three minutes. So, I hadn't had one before she said that. Afterwards? SPROING! "I guess you like the idea," she giggled. "Yes," I agreed. "Good. Come on," she said, and we headed to the pods. We climbed in, and she pushed me down onto the mattress. "First things first," she said, and immediately lowered her mouth onto my dick. "Jordan!" I hissed, as she devoured me. She took me deep in her mouth, and ran her tongue along the underside of my dick. I immediately felt a climax building. "I'm gonna cum, and soon," I gasped. She pulled off, said, "That's the idea!" and went back to it. This time, she went all the way down, slipping me into her throat, as she'd done the first time she gave me head. I don't know if I'll ever get used to how good that feels! I almost immediately started shooting down her throat. She pulled off, a little grin on her face. "I'd ask you to return the favor, but I don't think we have time," she said. "Well, I'm a little, well..." I stammered, pointing down at my limp dick. "I'll give you a minute to catch your breath, then I'll wake him back up," she giggled. "You see, this way you'll last longer." Wow. That was good thinking. "You know a lot," I told her. "Hey, I lost my virginity when I was all of twelve. I've picked up a few things. Now, let's see." She reached down and grabbed my dick and started lightly tugging on it. She was right, he started waking up immediately. "Kiss me," she said. I did, and also started rubbing her boobs while she kept pulling on my dick. Jordan broke the kiss after a bit and said, "You ready?" I nodded, and she settled back onto the mattress, looking up at me. She smiled, and spread her legs, and I moved in between them. Jordan reached down and grabbed my dick, and pulled it towards her opening. "Just start slow and easy," she said. She lined me up with her pussy, and I pushed. The head of my dick popped easily into her. Wow! I'd never felt anything like that in my life, and I was barely in. Jordan withdrew her hand from between her legs and settled back. "Keep going, nice and easy," she said. I slowly pushed myself into her. God, she was wet and hot--and it felt like a thousand little tongues massaging my dick. It was almost indescribable. I got all the way in, and bumped up against her, making her groan. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at me. "How you doing?" she asked. "Good. Real good," I said. "Great. Welcome to not being a virgin," she giggled, making me laugh back. "Now, I think you know what to do. Slow and easy at first." I nodded, and slowly pulled almost all the way out. Then I slid easily back in. Jordan groaned again. I tried not to get too carried away. She gave me that blowjob so I'd last longer, and I didn't want to let her down. So, I did as she asked--I started slow. It was still the most fantastic thing I'd ever felt. At one point, it flashed through my head: I'm actually fucking! Joe Benson is getting laid. Unbelievable. I wanted to soak it all in. I wanted this burned into my memory--not just what it felt like on my dick, but everything. Jordan was groaning on every downstroke, and her hands were pressed up against my flanks. Her legs were wrapped around my ass. Every time she groaned, she bit her lower lip. I wanted to remember it all. After a bit, Jordan hissed, "OK, faster." I sped up. Jordan's groans turned to little squeals as I pounded into her. Then, I couldn't concentrate on Jordan so much, as the sensations on my dick started to build. I closed my eyes, and just let it happen. Luckily, it happened for Jordan first. "Oh! Oh! OH!" she squealed. "Cumming!" I felt her pussy contract around my dick, and her hips came up and pressed into mine. Her hands on my flanks pressed into fists. It took me about three more strokes. It was out of this world. Afterwards, collapsed next to Jordan, both of us trying to catch our breath--I realized a few things. First, that I was very lucky. Second, that Jordan was just awesome. I knew I wasn't in love with her or anything like that, but I definitely liked her a lot. And, third, that sex was a much more emotional experience than I had realized. At least for me it was, despite my being a supposedly non-emotinal just-get-me-off male. I leaned over and kissed Jordan's cheek. "Thank you." "You're welcome. And thank you. That was awesome." "It sure was." ------- That night, I told Maggie. It was late--Maggie had been working as a waitress for a couple of years and didn't get home until late. I waited up for her. Anyway, she was thrilled for me. I also asked her about the emotional reaction. I didn't figure that had ever happened to her outside of Chuck. "Actually, it has, a few times. It's strongest with Chuck, of course. But, it has happened, with people I'm particularly close friends with. Jared, for example." "Ah. I was confused, because I didn't think I was in love with Jordan or anything." "Right. No, it happens," she said. "It varies--at least it does for me. With some poeple, it was purely physical. But it was more emotional with close friends, and most emotional with Chuck." "OK, good." "Glad I could help," she grinned. Then she looked down. "Damn, my feet hurt." "All that waitressing," I teased. "I don't know why you do it, anyway. Dad's never been stingy with money, as long as we were in school." "True, but I've been saving up for something, and I know Dad wasn't going to pay for this. And I finally have enough, actually." "Ah. What have you been saving for?" She grinned. "A boob job." I almost choked on my own spit. "EXCUSE ME?!?!?!?" "I'm getting breast implants. I already have it scheduled for the week after Christmas. No more Itty Bitty Tittie Committee for me!" "I'm surprised. I never thought it bothered you," I told her. "It doesn't bother me, as such. It's just that bigger boobs is something I've always wanted. It's available, and I've saved the money, so I'm going to go for it. They're going to take me from an A cup to a C cup." "Wow. On your body, Mags, a C cup willl look enormous." "That is the idea." "This wasn't Chuck's idea, was it?" "Nope. I've wanted to do this long before Chuck, and he loves me just the way I am. He told me it was completely my decision. Of course, he's not opposed to the idea one little bit." "I'll bet!" ------- That Monday, we had our first practice for the play. It was mostly just reading the lines, getting used to our parts and the people we'd be acting with. My big scene was with Madison Sheldon and Stacia Averbuk, so that's who I worked with the most. Tuesday, all hell broke loose for Amber. She came into school all bandaged up. Apparently, it happened at the soccer game the previous day. It was a cheap shot from two of the opposition. The rumor was that they were friends of Jenna's, and Jenna had set Amber up. The tough part, for me, was the next day. By then, it was common knowledge that Torie Dallas, who was level-headed, had flat-out accused Jenna, and Jenna's denials were very weak. That was enough to convince certain people who'd branded Jenna a princess and Amber a bitch that they might be wrong. This included people like Patrick and Justin and that crowd. They came over to sit with us at lunch. However, Amber wasn't in a very forgiving mood, and I can't say that I blamed her. She got up and moved to another table, Tiffany and Jordan joining her. The problem was that Moose and I were caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. We stayed with Patrick and Justin and them, but we weren't completely comfortable with it. Especially when a few of them, Patrick and Tanya especially, started in on how 'ungrateful' Amber was being. Moose shocked me. "Ungrateful?" he said to them. "You people treat her like shit for two months, and she's supposed to be grateful? For what, exactly?" Considering how seldomly Moose ever spoke up about anything, that shut everyone up. Thank goodness. Most importantly, Amber didn't hold it against us for staying at the table. ------- Drama was a lot of fun, right off the bat. It looked like there were a lot of talented people at Naked High. I enjoyed watching Keegan Ardell work out the role of Orgon. It was a part that took a decent amount of comic bluster, and Keegan slid right into it. In talking to him in between scenes, I found it wasn't a stretch--at least the comic part. Keegan was funny. I also admired what seemed to be a complete lack of self-consciousness. Keegan was a big guy, and chubby. He just didn't seem to care. Then there was Stacia. She was self-conscious, no doubt about it. But she had a switch, almost--when she stepped onto the stage and into the part of Dorine. All of her self-consciousness seemed to melt away. Her talent was apparent from the get-go. One day late that week, I ended up talking to her, sitting in a couple seats in the auditorium. She plopped into a seat next to me after running a scene with Keegan, and Zach Provost playing Tartuffe. "Wow. I have so many lines to memorize," she said. "That you do. That's a big part." "I acted in junior high, but never a part this big," she told me. "I've never acted. Then again, my part's a lot smaller." "You've never acted?" she said. "I'm surprised. You're very good." "Thank you," I said, surprised. "You, by the way, are fantastic." "Ah, I'm not that good," she protested. "Yes, you are. You take over the role. It's like someone flips a switch." "Thanks. I really want to do well at this." She sighed. "It'll get me out of my own pathetic life." "Is it that bad?" She looked at me. "I barely know you," she said. "True. So, don't feel obligated to talk. But you can, if you want to." She looked at me some more, and then sighed. "I don't want to be here," she said in a very small voice. "People laugh at me. They make fun of me. I'm too damn fat to walk around naked all day. It's horrible. Maybe, if I can be good at this, I'll have someplace in this damn school that I can get some respect instead of just teasing." Damn. I suspected this, but to hear it come out of her mouth was just sad. "Tell 'em all to go to hell." "Easier said than done. I can barely talk, outside of this auditorium. I keep thinking about what people think when they look at my awful body, and I just freeze up." "So, if I cornered you after a class, you wouldn't be talking to me like this?" She laughed, and said, "Probably not. I am definitely more comfortable in this atmosphere." "So, why are you here? At Naked High, I mean, if you hate it that much." She sighed again. "My parents. I love them dearly. They're kind of old-school. They were born in Russia--we're Jewish. They were refuseniks who got out of Russia in the early eighties, when they were still teenagers. They met in New York City in the expat community there. They married, had me, then Dad got a job offer and they moved here. "Some of this stuff, the nudity and sex and stuff, throws them--and they think they've sheltered me. It's not true, I've really done it to myself. But that's what they think, so they talked me into going here so I could learn and grow. Unfortunately, they don't quite get it. You've seen pictures from the Soviet Union back in those days? Everybody was overweight, because of the horrible diet. And, here, in the land of plenty--well, my parents don't ever turn their noses up at a good meal. They spent too long living on crap back in the USSR. And they haven't entirely assimilated to American culture, especially some of the bad aspects of it. An overweight person being shunned just escapes their comprehension. "So, they don't get what I'm going through. They think this is a grand learning experience. And I can't really tell them--they don't understand. And I really do love and respect them, so I'm trying to get through this for their sake. But it's hard." "Ah," I said. "I can relate to some of that." "You can?" she said, surprised. "To a point. Not any of the Russian stuff, or anything like that. But I kind of had my arm twisted to go here. And it hasn't all been easy." "Why hasn't it been easy?" "Well, I kind of have the opposite problem. I'm all skin and bones." She laughed. "I wouldn't mind that problem." "And I wouldn't mind some of your weight." "Hmm," she giggled, "do they have an operation for that? Fat transplant?" I cracked up. "I don't think so. Anyhow, that's part of my problem. Plus, I was very shy when I got here, though that's getting better. I had some good people pull me out of my shell." "God, I need that." "You're talking to me fine." "Like I said, we're still 'in drama'. I'm more relaxed. Plus, you're a fellow actor, that makes it easier. Who pressured you, your parents?" "Well, my Dad, a little. I don't have a mother. A lot of it was from my siblings. Mr. Benson, the English teacher, is my older brother." "Oh, I didn't know that!" "Yeah. And I have an older sister, Maggie. She's in college. She's very outgoing, has been very sexually active for a long time, and talked me into going here so I wouldn't end up repressed or something." "Ah, I see," she said with a grin. "And you're not like Maggie." "I certainly wasn't when I got here. Then again, I don't think I'll ever be entirely like her. Though, as I said, I have gotten out of my shell some." "That's good. I don't know if I can." "Sure you can. You just need more confidence. Look at Keegan." "Keegan's just got that naturally. And I think it's easier for a guy to be overweight." "You might be right about that," I agreed. "But a little confidence might help." "Yeah," she said. "I'm working on it." "This helps, doesn't it?" I said, pointing at the stage. "Yeah. A lot." I enjoyed talking to Stacia. She was a nice person. I did feel for her--this must be a pretty hair-raising experience. But, she was right, doing drama was going to help--because she was a hell of an actress. The other girl I had the big scene with, Madison Sheldon, was different. She was a bubbly blonde. I'll be honest, my first impression was that she was an airhead. I was wrong about that. For one thing, she worked hard, very hard, on her part. Mariane was an interesting character, being rather caught between a rock and a hard place. Madison did a lot of work, right from the beginning, trying to develop that. We also seemed to have some chemistry together--which was a good thing, considering we were playing two people that were supposed to be getting married! ------- I'll admit it. I was meeting new people, getting better, having an easier time. However, I was still hung up on Darcy. She was in two of my classes, the last two of the day--geometry and history. The problem with that was her asshole boyfriend was also in the geometry class. The other problem with that is that she was assigned a seat next to me, not him. Plus, she sat fairly close to me in the other class, history, and had figured out I was good at it (I really liked history). So, one day, leaving Geometry, she said something. "Hey, Joe, did you understand what Mr. Riley was talking about yesterday?" "Sure," I managed, without sounding like a lovesick idiot. I explained to her what was going on in class the previous day, and she seemed to get it. "Thanks," she said as we got to class, giving me a blinding smile for my trouble. "That was a big help." The problem, of course, was that my little helpful turn was noticed by Alex, the asshole boyfriend. He snarled at me for a week afterwards. I did not at all get what Darcy saw in that guy. I know a lot of people thought she was stuck-up, but she didn't come off that way to me. She was always nice to me. But she was dating a prick. I didn't get it. Anyhow, after I helped her with history, she gave me a nice "Hi, Joe!" in geometry every day. Which pissed Alex off. Not that I gave a rat's ass. ------- I had my own problems to worry about. Chief among them was Patrick. We'd been best friends for so many years. I valued that friendship highly. But, sometimes, listening to him got tiring. He'd gotten away from Jenna, but still managed to run Amber down at least once per conversation. Usually a subtle little dig, but I caught it. I didn't like it, but Patrick didn't listen to me. Moose didn't like it either, but Patrick intimidated him. However, one day at lunch, I got unexpected support--from Justin. The four of us were eating, and Patrick said something about Amber. Before I could say a word, Justin spoke up. "You know, I think you've got her all wrong. Amber's OK. She's not a bitch." "You don't know her," Patrick said. "She's never been anything but bitchy." "Maybe it's you," Justin said, shocking us all. "Maybe there's just a personality conflict there. I rather like her." "As do I," I spoke up. "And, considering we swap journals and I've read hers for the first two months, I'm sure I know her better. She's cool, she really is." Patrick disagreed, but at least he dropped the digs. It was later that day, after school, that I was reflecting on some of this stuff. That's when I realized a few things about myself. I saw things. Look, two and a half months into school, and the stereotypes had hardened. I heard and saw them. Amber was a bitch. Darcy was a snob. Stacia was a fat cow with no redeeming value. Madison Sheldon was an airhead. Moose was a fencepost, a non-speaking nonentity. Keegan Ardell was a buffoon, a clown that used humor to hide his weight problem behind. The problem was, I disagreed with all of it. Amber was prickly, but she was smart and funny and, once you got past her shell, generous at heart. Darcy was sweet, friendly, appreciative if you helped her out. Stacia was a brilliant actress, sweet and vulnerable, and pretty, even. Madison was a hard worker with a firm sense of responsibility. Moose was the funniest person I knew, and loyal and trustworthy besides. And Keegan was himself a hard worker, a good actor, and very comfortable with himself--he wasn't trying to hide anything. I had to ask myself--was I just seeing stuff that nobody else did? Not that it was foolproof, mind you--Alex Randall was still an asshole, and I didn't see much to like in Jenna, either. But, a lot of these people had gotten reputations that I just didn't see, at all. I wondered about that. I discussed it with my favorite sounding post--Maggie. "Hm," she said after I'd gotten done with my discourse. "You know who you remind me of?" "Who?" "Jared, Amanda's boyfriend. Jared sees the good in people. He just does. And he takes a genuine interest in just about everyone around him. He's been like that since I've known him. That's just the way he is. And, you know what, Joe? It's a good way to be." "Sometimes." "Why wouldn't it be?" "Because I feel like I should almost be spending half my time defending people," I sighed. "And I'm not very confrontational. Take today. I was walking down the hall, and Stacia Averbuk was about 10 feet in front of me. And a bunch of guys started making the mooing noises at her. I almost wanted to slug them." "You don't have to do that," Maggie told me. "You know what you should've done? Just gone up to Stacia and said hi. Talked to her like a friend. In front of the assholes. It's all about support, Joe. I know you've been eating lunch some with Amber. That's better than confronting her detractors. She'll figure it out, you know?" "I see your point," I told her. I'd have to work on that. ------- The play was coming along, and it was a lot of fun. As I said, my big scene was with Stacia and Madison. The gist of it is a fight between Valere (me) and Mariane (Madison) that Dorine finally steps in and settles. At one point, Stacia has to run between Madison and me, across the stage, to keep us both from leaving. We were running the scene one day and, while running from Madison to me, Stacia tripped. BOOM! Right in the middle of the stage. It was such a pratfall that I thought she was hurt. But she popped right up and came over to me, and tried to deliver the line, which was, "Same thing again! Deuce take you both, I say!" But she was laughing so hard she couldn't get it out! It was hilarious. She was so serious about acting that to see her crack up trying to deliver a line was delightful. Of course, this got me laughing, and then Madison. Stacia tried three times and couldn't get "Same thing again!" out of her mouth. Finally, she just stopped and laughed. "Are you OK?" I said. "Yes," she giggled, "I'm fine. What a spectacular pratfall that must have been!" "It was impressive," I said. "It's not every day a naked girl falls at my feet." That just made her laugh harder. We started the scene again, and flew through it--but when Stacia came over to me to deliver that line again, she had to stifle a giggle! ------- The problem with losing your virginity is this: sex is addictive. I thought I was horny before I had sex with Jordan. I had no idea. And going to a high school with naked girls around all day didn't help. I was just constantly horny. Maybe I should've approached Jordan, but I'd never done that. Everything that had happened between us was at her initiative. Plus, I knew for a fact that I was not the only guy she was messing around with. And I didn't want to put pressure on her or anything like that. Let's face it, we had a rather strange relationship! However, none of this did anything for my horniness problem. So, the week before Thanksgiving, I decided, after lunch, to head towards the pods, just to see who was there. I walked through one of the corridors and didn't see anyone. I turned into another, and Eliza Ying was standing there. "Hi, Joe!" "Hi, Eliza. Looking for company?" "Sure! From you especially." We went into one of the pods. "Have you been here since we were?" I asked her. "Once, actually. With Dylan Lashko. We just fooled around." "What do you want to do today?" I asked her. "I dunno. Kiss me and we'll take it from there," she said with a little giggle. So, that's just what I did--I kissed her, while my hands ran all up and down her body. She ended up in my lap again--that was a whole lot of fun! We ended up with me sitting on the mattress, and Eliza more or less kneeling on my lap, her back up against my chest. I had one hand on her boob and the other between her legs, rubbing at her pussy. She moaned, and grabbed at my dick--which, in this position, was right between her thighs. Before I knew it. she raised up on her knees a bit, and pointed my dick right at her pussy! "Are you sure?" I asked. "Yes." "Like this?" "Yes. I'm thinking it might be easier if I can control it, since it's my first time. Is that OK?" Oh, God, that's right--she was a virgin. Jesus. "Yeah, that's fine," I said. "Is this your first time, too?" she asked. "Second," I told her. "First in this position, though." "Okay," she giggled. She raies up and lined my dick up at her opening, then slid down, just a little bit. She lowered herself on to me very slowly. I could see why. My God, she was tight. I felt the head of my dick pop past her opening as she grunted. I was right at her maidenhead. One of the things we'd learned in biology class was that losing the maidenhead could hurt. Hey, one of the benefits to going to a school like this is you talk about sex in biology class! Anyhow, I worried about this hurting Eliza. There wasn't much I could do about it, though, considering she was in control. I felt my dick press against the barrier. Then Eliza took a deep breath and pushed. I felt it go. My dick was pushing against something--and then it wasn't. Eliza let out a little whimper. The problem was, she kept going. She'd pushed so hard to get her virginity out of the way that she just kept going. Before I knew it, I was all the way in. "Oooooo!" she hissed as she hit bottom. "Are you OK?" I asked. "Yeah. Mostly. It hurts a little." "Relax. Take your time." My hands had been down on her hips to stead yer, but I moved them up and started rubbing her shoulders and upper back, trying to relax her. It worked. Her groans turned to little sighs. "Oh, that feels nice," she breathed. After a couple of minutes, Eliza said, "OK, it feels a lot better." Then she pulled herself up, slowly, and settled back down. She sighed as she hit bottom again. Then she kept going, finding a slow but steady rhythm. This created a bit of a new problem--for me. I mean, it was my second time. She was so tight. She was also wet, and getting wetter by the minute. Then there were her breathy little sighs. As an added bonus, I made the mistake of looking over her shoulder and getting a clear view of my dick disappearing into her pussy as she slid down on it. Man, what a sight! All this meant that I was definitely walking the edge. I think the only thing saving me was Eliza's slow, deliberate pace. And that wasn't going to work for long. I tried. I really did. I just wasn't going to be able to hold off. After a remarkably short period of time, I hissed, "Shit! Cumming!" Then I grabbed her hips and pulled her down on me, grinding into her while I came. "Damn. And it was just starting to feel good," she said. "Ah, well, I know it's not your fault. At least I got it over with." She started to pull off of me, but I grabbed her hips again. "No, wait," I said. "Just sit there for a minute." I hadn't gone completely soft. Maybe I could keep going. I waited until I got a little less sensitive. Then I said to Eliza, "Wiggle a little." She did, and my dick went right back up, all the way. "Round two?" I said, pushing up into her a bit. "Oh, goody!" She started moving up and down on me again. She started slow again, but quickly built up a little speed. She was moaning and gasping. That's when I got an idea to help her along a little. My hands had been on her hips again. I moved one of them to her front and reached between her legs. That was a little weird, as I felt where my dick was entering her pussy. Then I slid my fingers up from there, along the length of her pussy. She moaned, and hissed, "God, Joe!" Then I went for the clit. She just went nuts. She started bouncing up and down on me furiously. I'll admit, it was hard to keep my finger in contact with her clit when she did that, but I managed. And, boy, was it fun to watch! Even from behind. As she plunged herself up and down on me she kept moaning and gasping, "Oh God, Joe! Oh God! Joe! Joe! Oh God!" I very gently pinched her clit with my finger and thumb. That did it. She just went off. She sank all the way down on me and stiffened, her legs getting wobbly and her back slamming into my chest. She squealed, and I felt her pussy contract around my dick. Afterwards, she slumped against me, plainly exhausted. She was still impaled on my dick. I put my arms around her waist to support her. "Oh, my head," she said after a bit. "Wow. That was something. You didn't cum again?" "No, but that's fine, I had one." "You deserve a second, after that," she giggled. She pulled herself off of me, then climbed around behind me and situated herself on the bed, lying back, her legs spread. "Come on. Now that I'm broken in, so to speak, we can try it this way and finish you off." I eagerly accepted the invitation, climbing between her legs and sliding easily back into her. All the resistance was gone, as soaked as she was between both of our cums. And, boy, was she a groaner--she let another one out as I hit bottom. I really enjoyed her being on top. It was a lot of fun, and I liked being able to put my hands just about anywhere. But, for the simple goal of me cumming, this was easier. Especially considering I'd already had one. I also liked watching her--I hadn't gotten to see the marvelous facial expressions when her back was to me. And, unbelievably, she was building up again. Every time I stroked into her, her groans got deeper and deeper and her eyes clenched tight. She even grabbed at my ass to pull me into her. And then she started moaning my name again. Well, one thing I'd figured out is that I had pretty good stamina the second time around, anyway! I thought I would've blown again by now. But I hadn't. And Eliza was definitely getting close, as evidenced by the stuff she was saying! "Oh God, Joe... I'm gonna... Joe... Oh God! Oh God!" I think she beat me--by milliseconds. I felt a little clench, and she yelped again. But then away I went. "Oh, God," she hissed--again--after I slumped on the mattress next to her. "That was... wow!" "Wow is a good word," I agreed. "Eliza, you are really something else." "You too," she grinned. Then she glanced up at the clock on the wall. "Damn. The bell is going to ring in two minutes." She sighed. "Just enough time to clean up. That's the problem with this whole sex in school thing, no time to cuddle." "True." "You agree with that?" "Sure, I like cuddling." I grinned at her. "We can cuddle after school if you'd like, to make up for it." "I think I'll take you up on that!" We cleaned up, and shared a hell of a kiss before the bell rang. And, after I got out of drama practice, she was still there--and we went into a pod and shared a cuddle. Just a cuddle, and we talked some. It was very nice. ------- Darcy came up to me after class one day. "So, how's drama?" "Good. I'm sorry you didn't get a part." "Ah, it's OK," she said with a little shrug. "I would've enjoyed it, but I'm not a fanatic about it or anything. Besides which, I'm an all-or-nothing kind of person--I wanted Dorine, and only Dorine. And the minute I saw Stacia Averbuk, I knew I wasn't getting Dorine." "Stacia--she's amazing." "That she is. I know she's had some problems around here because of her body. I'm glad she found something to give her some confidence. She absolutely blew me away in tryouts--I couldn't believe how talented she is." "Yeah. It's a trip working with her." "I'll bet. Good luck yourself with it. I'll talk to you later." With that, she was off. Why on earth did people think this girl was a snob? Damn, I didn't get it. ------- I guess I just didn't quite 'get' high school. And I didn't think this was a particular function of Naked High, either. It just seemed so cliquish and arbitrary. I guess I'm just strange. Maggie says it's that I'm "incredibly mature" but I don't know if I agree with that. I just didn't get it--the labelling, the catagorizing. "He's this, and she's that," etc. Maybe some of that did come from Maggie. When I got old enough to know what it meant--middle-school age or so--I knew that certain people considered Maggie the "school slut." Now, I knew how much more there was to her than that, what with her being my big sister and all. I also saw how she dealt with it--which was to basically laugh it off. Maybe that influenced my thinking. I do understand people who can't shrug it off. I understand why Stacia walks the halls all hunched over, one step away from tears. Though Maggie was never like that, I understood it. Maggie's got the intestinal fortitude of three normal people, I know that. But it did make me realize how arbitrary and senseless and potentially hurtful all the labels are. Shortly before Thanksgiving break, I did something about it, for one person. I did as Maggie suggested. I saw Stacia walking ahead of me in the halls, and heard the usual teasing and catcalls. So I sped up through the hall and met up with her. "Hey, Stacia, how's it going?" "Oh! Hi, Joe, how are you?" "Just peachy." I diverted her attention. I made her talk, and I talked to her. We chatted about the play, school, whatever. Since I was, as she said, a 'fellow actor' she didn't go into her shell. She walked a little straighter and even smiled a bit. By the time we got to her class--down the hall a bit from mine--she was fine. It felt good. It really did. Yes, we were seen together, talking. I didn't care. ------- Thanksgiving break was fine. Chuck came home, and he and Maggie obviously wanted time together, but they were cool enough to take me out to Burger Hut with them on Friday night. I was glad of that--I liked Chuck, a lot. I fully approved of my sister's choice of boyfriend. I figured he'd be my brother-in-law someday and I was just fine with that. We had a good time. Chuck was interested to hear all my stories about Naked High. Especially the sex ones! ------- On Sunday, the 30th, Amber and I met up to do the journal-swap thing. I gave her her copy of my journal, and she did the same. I started reading. I knew a lot of it, of course--the stuff with Jenna and all that. I also knew about her TV interview concerning the stupid protesters. (Jeez, don't those people have anything better to do?) But I didn't know all of it. Wow! "Jesus, Amber, your sister's boyfriend?" "Hey, it surprised the hell out of me, I'll tell you that!" she said with a big grin. "But, boy, was it fun!" "Yeah, I can tell." "You beat me, but I caught up in a hurry!" "You sure did." "And it looks like you made Eliza Ying very happy. Nice job, stud," she laughed, making me blush. I kept reading. "Oh my God, you shaved? Oooooh! When do I get to see?" "Tomorrow in school, just like everybody else." "Aw, your faithful journal partner doesn't get a sneak preview?" "Nope." "Evil wench," I teased, provoking more laughter from her. I kept reading. "It looks like Darren Walker got a sneak preview. And a whole lot more," "He did at that," she agreed. "Boy. If he starts talking, if it was that good, you're going to be surrounded." "Yes. Wouldn't that be lovely?" I had to laugh at her enthusiasm. Amber was really, really cool. The more time I spent with her, the more she reminded me, in certain ways, of Maggie. I finished before she did, and got up to refill our cokes. She was still reading--and her expression changed. She got very serious all of a sudden. Then she sighed, and closed the journal. "I have to get going," she said abruptly, and gathered her stuff together. "OK," I said, a little confused. Then she stood up, and walked over to where I was standing at the kitchen counter. To my complete surprise, she wrapped me in a hug. Then she whispered in my ear, "You are a very good and wonderful person. Don't you ever forget that," and kissed my cheek. Before I could say a word, she'd disappeared. I slept very well that night. ------- Chapter 7: Amber DECEMBER, 2003 New month, new journal, new Amber. That's the way I looked at it. After what had happened towards the end of November, I felt like a different person. It wasn't just losing my virginity. That made a big impact, sure--but it was also a gift, courtesy of Mike and Lily. It opened my eyes to the enormousness of sex, but that just confirmed a lot of what I had suspected. It made me feel very good, but I'd expected that, too. It gave me some insight into what kind of people my sister and future brother-in-law truly were--but that, too, I think I had known all along. It may have been the next day that really made me feel like a brand new person. Mike had presented me with a gift--but Darren hadn't. I had seduced him. It was all me. That gave me a jolt of confidence. With what had happened throughout the fall with Jenna and all them, I needed the confidence. And then there was Joe. What he wrote in his journal... well, I don't know if I could ever repay that. It was wonderful. It made me go all fuzzy inside. OK, thinking about that made me realize, I guess I was affected by losing my virginity to Mike. I was affected because it was just one small indicator of his generosity--and, let's not forget, Lily's. They truly loved me. Joe made me remember that, because he was a true friend. Sometimes I get caught up in my own misery. I have to remember sometimes that people, good people, love me. And that made me feel even better. So, when I went back to school on Monday, the first of December, it was with a whole new attitude. I felt good. I was determined to make the most of things. What I wasn't prepared for was the stir I caused. I wore clothes--not to mention a coat--to school, because it was cold. I went to my locker and stripped down as usual. There were a lot of other people there stripping, no surprise what with the cold. So, I nodded and smiled to people I knew and got my clothes off. Then, naked, I started piling my clothes into my locker. That's when the pointing and staring and gasps started. I had almost forgotten--the shave! "Oh my God, you shaved your cunny?" Jordan gasped. "That's radical!" "Yeah. I tried it out and found out I really liked it." "Where did you get the idea for that?" she asked. "I'll tell you later," I grinned. It really did cause quite a fuss. The guys thought it was great. The girls--some of them couldn't understand why, but the rest seemed intrigued. I got lots of comments, though, throughout the whole day. At lunch, I sat with Jordan, Tiffany, Joe, and Moose. As we sat down, we were joined by someone else--Justin. He sat down next to me and said, "Please don't leave." I had seen what he had said about me in Joe's journal, so I was more receptive. "OK." "I owe you an apology. I judged you based on what other people said and that was wrong." "Apology accepted," I said with a smile. He grinned, and held out his hand. I shook it. After soccer practice that day, Rosa came up to me. "So, what do I have to do?" "Excuse me?" "What do I have to do to prove to you that I'm really sorry and that I want to be friends again?" she said, looking horrible. "This is eating me up inside." I decided then that I was going to let her off the hook, but not before playing again. "What do you have to do?" I said with a grin. "Well, you could lick my pussy." She immediately dropped to her knees--but she was grinning too. "Right here in the middle of the soccer field?" she said. "Yeah, that might be a bad idea, huh?" I laughed. She stood up, and I wrapped her in a hug. "Apology accepted." "Thank you," she said. "Then again, I should've let you. I mean, I had sex on this soccer field a couple days ago." "What? With who?" "Darren Walker." "Wow," she said. "Darren Walker took your virgnity?" "No, actually, he was my second. I actually lost my virginity the day before. To Mike." "Mike who?" she asked. "Mike. You know, Mike? My sister's boyfriend?" Rosa's eyes bugged right out of her head! "Lily told him to, by the way. This wasn't behind her back." "Wow! How was it?" "Fantastic," I said. "And I was so pent up the next day that, after you guys left practice, I seduced Darren right on the soccer field." "You scamp," she laughed. "So, feeling better?" "Lots better," I admitted. ------- I felt even better the next day. It was our last soccer game of the season. And we finally won a game. It was against Davis-Lycoming, the team I thought we had a chance to beat back in October. The game that led to the big blowout between Jenna and I. Yeah, that team. This time the game was at their place. Jenna was firmly esconced right where she belonged, on the bench. We won 2-0. I even scored a goal, on a corner kick. Torie kicked it out of the corner, right to me, and I slammed it home. It was such a relief to finally win a game. Though I wasn't going to soon forget a soccer season where my team finished 1-17. I hoped I never had to go through that ever again! Next year, we'd be better. We'd have a season under our belts, we'd all be a year older, and we'd have Tiffany. ------- School was getting better. I wasn't the school pariah anymore. However, I still didn't seem to be attracting all that much in the way of male attention. I probably could've gotten Darren Walker to hit the pods with me. However, at that moment I was looking for a little variety. Having finally gotten laid twice in two days at the end of November, I wasn't going crazy or anything anymore. I figured if I really got hard up, I could hitch up with Darren again. But first I was looking for some variety. I didn't really find anything at school. Like I said, I wasn't attracting a lot of that kind of attention. On a Saturday in December, a couple of weeks before Christmas, I decided to head to the local mall. Dad dropped me off and we set a time for him to pick me up. I had to do some Christmas shopping, but I also had to do some shopping for myself. I needed shoes. I needed a new pair of sneakers, plus I needed a decent pair of dress shoes, for the soccer team banquet and some Christmas family stuff. Dad liked to dress up and go out for dinner on Christmas Eve. There was a good shoe store in the mall so, after doing some of my Christmas shopping, that's where I headed. This was, as I said, a good shoe store. It was one of the ones where you sit down and an employee brings the shoes out and helps you try them on. No self-service Walmart shoe department, in other words. I picked out a few I wanted to try on, and sat down. One of the employees quickly came over to me--and, boy, was he a hunk! Oooh, I figured this might be extra fun! "Can I help you?" he said. "You sure can. I'd like to try these," I said, and pointed out the ones I'd picked out. "Sure thing. You know your size?" I told him, and he went to get the shoes. He came back, and pulled out a set of dress shoes. "Let's see how these fit," he said, and bent over to put them on me. Now, I was clothed. Going nude at the mall wasn't strickly forbidden, but it wasn't done much. Plus, it was cold out. So, no, I wasn't nude, I had clothes on. Of course, my set of clothes included a skirt. And I wasn't wearing underwear. When he bent over to put the shoes on me, I made sure my legs were apart, just slightly. Just enough for him to get a little glimpse. Which he definitely did--I saw him glance up, and then he swallowed heavily. Bingo! He put the shoes on me--these were the dress shoes--glancing up between my legs the whole while. After he got them on, I got up to walk around and try them out. "These are perfect, I'll take them," I told him. "Great," he said. "You want to try the sneakers now?" "Yeah, let's start with that pair, Sean," I said, grinning as I read his name from his name tag. "OK," he said with a wry grin. "I'm Amber, by the way," I told him. "Nice to meet you, Amber." He kneeled in front of me again, and started putting on one of the two pairs of sneakers I had suggested. I could see his eyes glancing up between my legs again. "So, Amber," he finally said, "do you always go out without panties on?" "I usually go out without much on," I told him, "considering I go to WRA." "Ah, Naked High," he said with a grin. "So you're overdressed today." "Pretty much," I laughed. "Wait a minute," he said. "I thought they only had freshmen there this year," he said. I nodded. "How old are you?" "Fourteen." He almost swallowed his tongue at that! "Uh, wow, you look older." "Hey, it's legal, right? How old are you?" I asked him. "Nineteen," he said. "How do those sneakers feel?" I got up and walked around the shoe store in them a bit. "They feel fine, but let me try the other pair," I said. I sat back down and he took the first pair off, and put on the other one. Of course, he looked up again. "You shave?" he said. "Yeah. Just started. It's very fun," I purred. "Uh-huh," he grinned. By then he had the other pair of sneakers on and I walked around in them. I had the money, so I decided to take both, plus the dress shoes. As he was gathering the boxes up to ring me up, I glanced at my watch. "Six O'clock, I need to get supper." "Are you staying here for supper?" "Yes, my Dad's picking me up at 9:30. I still have Christmas shopping to do." "Really? I get off at eight," he told me. "Hmm, really?" I said with a little grin. He rang me up and I paid for the shoes. "Nice to meet you, Sean. Maybe we'll see more of each other," I hinted. "I would like that," he said. I went and ate, then did my shopping. At eight o'clock, I made my way back to the shoe store. What the hell, right? He was quite happy to see me. Hey, he knew what I wanted. And I knew what he wanted. After a bit of small talk, that was apparent. The question was, where? Even in the more sexualized atmosphere nowadays, fucking in the middle of the mall is a wee bit gauche. Luckily, Sean had a solution for that. He led me through this maze in the walls of the mall, behind his store. He opened a door and let me in. "Storage room," he said. "And neither of those guys working has the key." "Oooh, you're a smart man," I said. He grinned, and then started kissing me. I kissed him back enthusiastically. "Are you sure you're only fourteen?" he said. "We grow up fast now, where have you been?" I giggled, then kissed him again. He ran his hands up and down my body as he kissed me, then he maneuvered me over to a side of the cluttered room. There was a desk there. The desk even had a nice, clean blanket spread over the top of it. I was guessing that we weren't the first people to use this storage room for a little fun! Sean kissed me, with me up against the desk. Then he abruptly picked me up by the hips and hoisted me onto the desk. I giggled at that. Before the giggle even died, Sean was on his knees hiking my skirt up to my hips and diving right in. I squealed! You got to love a guy that doesn't waste any time before he goes for the pussy lashing! He backed off for a second and said, "I had to resist doing this while I was putting your shoes on your feet." Then he dove right back in. And, boy, he was good at it! I had gotten lucky so far with lovers that knew how to do oral. If I ever had a guy that I had to 'train' at oral, I think I'd be flummoxed! No such worries with Sean, he was wonderful. As an added bonus, his tongue was long. I mean, he got it right up inside me. That felt nice and good, getting a good couple inches of tongue up my pussy. He worked me up nicely with that for a while, then went for the clit. OK, he was definitely good at this! His tongue massaged my clit like Itzhak Perlman bowing his Stradivarius. Hell, I think I was making noises like Itzhak Perlman's Stradivarius. Well, less in tune! Oh, it was marvelous. It was like his tongue was all over my pussy. I came in a hurry. As soon as I had cum, he stood up in front of me. I saw him undoing his pants. "You are protected?" he asked. "Of course," I gasped, still coming down from the cum. He pushed my skirt back out of the way and slid into me. It was pretty easy considering how wet I was! He started slow. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as he stood in front of me, slowly slipping in and out of me. After a bit, he sped up. I was completely ready for it. I went again just as soon as he picked up the pace. Shortly thereafter, he exploded into me. He kind of slumped on the floor afterwards, catching his breath. I got myself together, and pulled some kleenex out of my purse to clean up my pussy some. Then I hopped of the desk, leaned over and kissed him. "Thanks. That was fantastic." "Thank you," he replied. I started heading out of the storeroom. "Amber!" he called. "How can I get in touch with you?" "Don't worry, I know where to find you," I said with a laugh. Then I was gone. I have never felt that naughtly in my life! ------- It was only afterwards, in the next few days and weeks, that I began to have second thoughts. Not that I regretted it, really--but I had some doubts. Part of that was watching the unfolding drama of Connor and Tan. Or, as Jordan called them, The Sickenly Sweet Goo-Goo Lovebirds. Tan and I had patched things up after Rosa and Justin and I did. Tan apologized, Connor was never really the problem, so that was that. I guess I was just in a forgiving mood. Anyhow, they started eating with us, so we saw the lovebird thing on full display. Now, we gave them shit. Good natured-shit, mind you, and that's the way they took it. It wasn't malicious. But they were really into one another and we teased them about it. But, inside, I was just a wee bit jealous. Here they were, eyes only for each other--and I'd been with three different guys in a couple of weeks. Jordan, of course, thought that I had it right; that Tan was getting into a Big Relationship at 14 when she should be having some fun. Part of me understood that. I did say I wanted variety. But part of me was jealous. The problem was Sean. Look, Mike was special. And Darren and I were friends--we still were, we'd chatted on the phone a couple of times since we had sex, and I had let him escort me to the soccer banquet. We didn't do anything--we couldn't, I was having The Monthly--but we were friends. So, you know, going to bed with a friend was OK. It was Sean. I slept with a guy I had just met. I wasn't sure if I liked myself doing stuff like that. Then again, I didn't regret it. If I went back in time faced with that situation again, I'd probably do the same thing. I guess you could say I was confused. I liked sex, I knew that. No question about it. But I found myself wanting more. I wanted a boyfriend. ------- Christmastime was approaching. I liked Christmas anyhow, though I missed Boston. It's supposed to snow at Christmas, dammit! But I liked Christmas in any case. This year, as last, there was an added bonus--Lily coming home for Christmas break. And not just Lily, Mike. And not just Lily and Mike, but all of their friends. Lily had always been the perfect Big Sister. She never made me feel unwelcome around her and her friends. She never treated me like an annoying pest, though I'm sure I was one quite a bit. She always welcomed my company. So, her friends were my friends. I liked all of them. Amanda and Jared were home from Princeton, and they spent a night at our house, chatting and talking, telling us all about Princeton and even asking me all about Naked High. A couple of days after that, I saw Frankie and Cassie over Frankie's house. Besides being Lily's friends, they were also Rosa and Tan's siblings, so I'd always seen them. The rest of them trickled in from their colleges in the week before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Mom and Dad opened the house to them all. All of Lily's friends were invited, as were Tan and Rosa. Tan brought Connor. Since Maggie was coming as well to hang out, I made sure Joe was invited as well. Jordan had something to do, but Tiffany came, as did Moose. I hung out with my friends, and with Lily's. After a while, though, I noticed someone missing, and it was someone very special to me. He slipped in a few hours into the party. He went and said hello to his friends for a bit. When he got to the couch, coke in hand, that's when I went over to him. "Ed Bauer, where the hell have you been?" "If it isn't my pint-sized naked girlfriend!" he yelped. He got off the couch and gave me a huge hug. You have to understand--if Mike was my first crush, Eddie was 1A. That time I got nude with Mike and Lily at the school carnival when I was eleven, we ran into Eddie as we got inside the carnival, and Eddie decided his mission for the rest of the day was to make sure I had a good time. He was wonderful. I'd been half in love with him since. Yeah, he was too old for me, I knew that, whatever--but he still had a place in my heart, and always will. He'd treated me like gold since the day I met him. We chatted for a while, he asked all about Naked High. I even told him about some of my sexual exploits. He seemed, however, to not be willing to tell me much about his life. I'd asked how things were going, and he's say, "fine," and change the subject. Ed was a comedian, that was his personality, and, on the surface, he was his usual jovial self. However, I saw something underneath. I didn't find out what was going on, though, until I asked what I thought was an innocuous question. "So, where the hell is Natalie?" Nat had been his girlfriend for almost as long as Mike and Lily had been together. I obviously asked the wrong question, because Ed got a very sour look on his face. "Vail," he said. "Colorado, you mean?" "Yes. She's on a ski trip." "Why aren't you?" "I wasn't invited," he said bitterly. "In fact, it was made clear that my presence was not welcome." "Isn't she your girlfriend?" I asked. "At the moment. We're going to have a little discussion on that when we get back to school. I think it's pretty much over." "Jeez, Ed, I always thought you two were perfect for one another!" "Someone should tell Natalie that." "What happened?" "Ah, you don't want to hear this." "Ed. You have always been there for me, even though I was Lily's bratty kid sister. You can tell me anything." He smiled, and then sighed. "You know how smart Natalie is." "Yeah." "Well, when we got to Chapel Hill last year, she started to find her niche. She was smart and an art major, so she quickly attracted a group of intellectual-types to hang out with. At first I thought this was great. "However, it's become apparent over the past year and a half that they all do not like me. Look, I know I'm not in Natalie's league when it comes to brains. But these people have her convinced I'm a complete dumb jock who only got into the hallowed halls of UNC because of my baseball scholarship. "This really started last spring, when baseball season started. Some of these people are really anti-sports. They thought that a smart artistic girl like Natalie going out with a baseball player is just horrible. I kind of weather it while we were home this past summer. But when we got back to school, they really started in on her. This cabin they're staying in at Vail, well, it's owned by the family of this guy, Phil. He's probably my biggest detractor. And I think he has designs on Nat. I mean, half of the guys in that crowd do, you know how beautiful she is. She swears nothing's going on. Actually, I believe her--but I wonder if that's going to change while she's in Colorado. "Anyhow, she told me a few weeks ago that Phil had invited a bunch of them to go to Vail for Christmas. I understand why she wouldn't necessarily want to come back here--her mother keeps falling off the wagon." "Yeah, I'd heard that," I told him. "So, when she told me she wanted to go to Vail for break, I said something like meeting her out there after I spent some time here with my folks. That's when she told me I wasn't invited, that Phil didn't want me there." "What did you do?" I asked him. "Well, I told her that I didn't think that was very fair. That we were going out and we should spend some of break together. She just doesn't care. And then some of them came to pick her up while I was still in her room, and I had to put up with them gloating at me, especially that weasel Phil." "Have you talked to her since she's been out there?" "She called last night. She's been gone a week, mind you. She finally called. She was all lovey-dovey. But when she said that she had to sneak calling me because Phil told her not to, I snapped a little bit. This wasn't a money thing--she called me from her cell phone so she was paying for it, it wasn't like she was using the phone at Phil's cabin. So, I told her that if she thought that Phil had the right to tell her to not call her boyfriend, then we had a problem." "What did she say to that?" "Excuses," Ed spat. "I just wanted to wait until I got away from them, blah blah blah. Keep in mind I've left four messages on her cell before she called. So, I told her to come home." "And she refused." "Yep. So I told her that her actions were not conducive to us maintaining our relationship." "What did she say to that?" "Got all weepy. She loves me, yadda yadda yadda. But, Amber, she really does treat me like shit. This Vail trip is just the tip of the iceberg. Her friends sit there and insult me and she just smiles. Then tells me I shouldn't let them 'get under my skin.'" "Shit. You deserve better than that," I told him. "You always cheer me up," he said with a laugh. "But I know it. When we get back to school, there's gonna be a confrontation." "You have my number if you need to vent." "I know, kiddo. It's appreciated." ------- OK, so maybe I didn't want a boyfriend quite so badly. That talk with Ed wasn't too encouraging. One of the most solid relationships I'd ever seen and it was breaking apart. I always thought those two would be discussing wedding plans, not breakups. It was rather depressing, and made me even more confused. Christmas was good. It was nice to have Lily home. And the one fear I had about Mike--that, after sleeping together, things between us would be somewhat awkward--didn't come true at all. He was the same ol' Mike. Tan threw a New Year's Eve party, and I was invited to this one. It was a great time. New Years' Day, I spent with Joe, swapping the journals. He had a rather interesting month himself, and was if anything more confused than I. We had a nice long talk about it. Then I got ready for the new year and the return to Naked High. ------- Incomplete and Inactive ------- Posted: 2004-04-17 Last Modified: 2004-06-06 / 12:00:00 am ------- http://storiesonline.net/ -------