Frank Downey - Naked In School

Yes, folks, thats right-Ive decided to do my own take on the famous "Naked In School" series.

The inspiration, of course, goes to all those fine folks that have contributed to the Naked In School saga-especially Karen Wagner, who started it all, and Peregrinef, who wrote Beth and Carls stories, my favorites in the series.

Im picking up where they left off, but not really.

Ysee, the tales have built on themselves, and theres a number of them. I like some of whats been done, but not all of it, and wanted to have my own take on the thing. Plus, if I went right in line with the original stories, thered be a problem with timeline-does mine come after everything thats been posted, or does it happen after Beth and Carls stories but before the others, or what.

So, what I did, is I moved it. The original concept is intact, but I moved it to a different school. What I figured is, if something like The Program came into being in the type of world that Karen Wagner introduced, itd have to start up in other schools, right? My tale takes place at Westport High, a school in a city about 50 miles away from Central. The success of The Program has caused other neighboring school systems to implement it. My tale takes place about 10 years after Karen initiated The Program at Central. The program has been implemented for two years at Westport, and it has not gone particularly well. My story takes place at the beginning of the school year of the third year of the program-a last-ditch effort to see if Westport can make it work as well as Central had. Jared and Amanda, two Juniors, are picked to start the program that year.

As is my wont, this is, despite the random debauchery so common to the Naked In School stories, a rather sweet little tale.

Im trying something a little different in how I tell the story, though-its going to be told in first-person from both Jared and Amandas POV. Im dividing it up into "parts"-which is either going to be a day (Part One-Monday) or a part of a day (Part Six-Wednesday Evening). Inside the parts, Ill have chapters-and each chapter heading will tell you whos POV that chapter is being written from. I really want to do it this way, and Im going to do my damndest to make sure its not too confusing-but having both characters POV is the crux of the story, and I didnt want to do it as two separate stories (as Peregrinef did for his), and third-person seemed inadequate.

Hope you like it,

Frank

PS: Anyone wanting to read the rest of the Naked In School series, my buddy Gary has thoughtfully archived all the rest of the tales. You can find the rest of them here:

http://www.asstr.org/~gary/naked/Naked.htm

The rest of my writings can be found here:

http://www.asstr.org/~Frank_Downey/

CHAPTER ONEJARED

I knew it. I just knew it. The minute they called me down to the office that Monday morning, I knew what was up. I was getting sucked into The Program.

The Program? Oh, thats this thing we have here at Westport High. Its full name is the Naked In School Program. Yup, those of us "lucky" enough to be chosen to go into the program have to be naked, completely, in school, for a full week. We also get the chance to go through all kinds of shame and humiliation. This is designed, you see, to "teach respect" and to "foster the students confidence." Yeah. Right.

Maybe I shouldnt say that-because it apparently has worked that way at Central High. Thats where this whole thing started. Thats a school about 50 miles away from here, and theyve been doing it for about ten years. Apparently, over there, it has taught respect, and has fostered confidence. Maybe they just have a better class of student over there, or something-because it hasnt worked here.

This would be the third year we tried it. It was the beginning of the third week in school, and they dont do it the first two weeks, so Id be one of the first this year. Oh joy. Theyve tried it, the first two years, on just the Juniors and Seniors, so this would be the first year my class was eligible (Im a Junior this year). Theyre doing it in all four grades this time, hoping that would help. And I understand theyve made a few other changes as well.

Because, as I said, the first two years havent been good. One of the problems has been that parents can "opt out" of their kids taking part-and it seemed all the kids that werent opted out were the geeks, the loners, the outcasts. Kids that get humiliated to begin with. Having them be the ones going through The Program seemed to be just another road to their humiliation. There was a lot of harassment, a lot of teasing, and rumors of at least one attempted rape. I do know that two girls that went through it had to be hospitalized afterwards. Youd think the administration would get the hint. Nope-they just keep hearing all these glowing reports from Central, and keep buying into it. But nobody was learning "respect" and I dont think being harassed and assaulted is going to help your confidence any.

Which brings me to my problem-who else was buying into those glowing reports from Central. Namely, my parents. They were all worried about my confidence, so they volunteered me. Over my strenuous objections, I might add. They didnt listen. Unfortunately, one of the kids that went through it last year that was one of the few to have a good experience was my older sisters best friend. My parents knew that, too. "Itll help your confidence. Youre too shy." Blah blah blah.

Look, Im not a geek, not really-by that, I mean I dont get harassed. Im not in the popular clique, but I have my group of friends, and I get along with just about everyone. I dont get picked on, and most people like me well enough. I get good grades, but Im not known as a "brain". Im an ordinary guy with a fair-to-middling social life. No serious complaints, really.

But my parents are convinced Im scared of girls.

Theres some truth to that-Ill get back to that later-but what Im trying to figure out is how, exactly, parading nude in front of the entire student body is supposed to cure me of being scared of the female half of that student body. Nobodys explained that leap of logic to my satisfaction yet.

Anyhow-Im scared of girls to a point, but what I really am is scared of girl. Singular. As in one particular. Ive had a crush on the same girl since seventh grade. Im scared to talk to her. Because she is wildly popular-probably the best-liked kid in the class. Plus shes beautiful, smart, and very sweet. Ive had it bad for a long time. My parents dont know that, of course-they think my complete and utter failure to garner a date ever is due to some paralysis over the whole female species. Well, its not, not really. I have friends that are girls. I can talk to them. Its just romantic entanglements scare me-and thats all bound up with this one girl.

And, very shortly, if I dont miss my guess, that one girl is going to seemeNAKED.

Shit. Shit shit shit shit.

There are days when I hate my parents.

Anyhow, there was no getting out of it. I trudged to the principals office, resigned to my fate. I turned the knob, opened the door, and stepped in. And just about swallowed my tongue. Because Mr. Tilling, the principal, was behind his deskand sitting across from himshit shit SHITwas Amanda Frazier.

My crush.

This just got a WHOLE hell of a lot WORSE.

CHAPTER TWOAMANDA