"No way," Maggie agreed. "I don’t know Jared all that well, but he’s cool. And cute." Dammit, it’s awfully hard to hide a blush when you have no clothes on! "If I thought he was a complete loser, I wouldn’t have been that enthusiastic," Maggie continued.
"Right," Ms. T went on. "But what we think is that if we start with people like Jared and Amanda, it’ll give a better reputation to the program itself. We also think the Buddy System will help. People like Marie didn’t have that kind of support."
"It’s only been a half a day, and I can tell you that that part of it has already helped," Amanda said. I smiled at her, and agreed. "She already gave me a nice pep talk at lunch," I told them. " And going through a class like this is a lot easier with her here." I got a radiant smile at that one.
"Well, we’ll see what you have to say about that when we start in on anatomy," Ms. T joked. "But, yeah, we really thought it was beneficial. I’ve talked to some of the other kids in The Program this week, and they are all enthusiastic about the Buddy System, even after just a few hours."
"My problem with The Program is some of the rhetoric," Amanda piped up. "That whole ‘boys are different than girls’ garbage. That gets my goat, I have to say."
"You don’t agree with that? You don’t think girls are different than boys?" Ms. T asked.
"Only in the plumbing," Amanda quipped. "Look, I’m here naked. How many of you guys are turned on?" Every male hand in the room raised. Plus Lisa Sherrick. "Hey, I’m lesbian, what can I say," Lisa quipped, making Amanda blush.
"OK," Amanda continued. "Now, Jared is also naked. How many girls outside of Lisa are turned on?" Every other female raised their hand. "OK. And Jared, are you turned on by being naked?"
"I was," I replied, "But Maggie Hoovered it out of me." The class broke up at that. I turned to stare at her. "Give me a minute, though."
"Oh, thanks," she said, grinning at me. "Anyhow, you get my point. And I am turned on by being naked. So what’s the difference? We’re all turned on. We might be turned on by different things, but that’s not even a given, witness Lisa." She grinned at me. "And when Jared and I have history last period with Mr. Riley, he won’t be looking at me."
Oh shit, I had forgotten about that. Mr. Riley was gay. Yeeks.
Amanda went on, "So, what’s the difference?"
"The difference is how men and women react to that. The difference is also how members of the opposite sex deal with it," Ms T replied. "For instance, the whole relief thing."
"I’m glad you brought that up, because that’s one of the inequities, to my mind," Amanda said.
"But it’s harder for boys to spend a whole day being aroused without something being done about it," Ms T said.
"I think that’s way overstated," I piped up. "Am I glad I got relief? Yeah, but that’s because Maggie was fun, like I said. I could’ve lived without it. It wasn’t bothering me all that much."
"Really?" Ms T asked.
"Really," I said. "And I don’t think for a second that Amanda’s all that comfortable." She shot me a grateful look. "It’s more obvious on boys, that’s all. No, walking around with that thing sticking out isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world, but I can’t see how it’s more pleasant sitting all day in a puddle." Amanda really shot me a grateful look just then. I was scoring points left and right. Without even trying to-I mean, I was sincere what I was saying. This couldn’t be all that pleasant for her. She had hinted at such during lunch.
"Look," I went on, "guys have been using that whole ‘I’ve got blue balls!’ stuff with girls for centuries, and it’s designed to get what the guy wants. But what about what the girl wants? Look, I’ve been poked and prodded all day, but so has Amanda. I got to have something done about it. She doesn’t. I don’t know if that’s fair."
"That’s a good point," Ms T said. "I’m going to have to think about that one. Jared, you need to speak up in class more, OK?"
I blushed. I blushed more when I realized that every single girl in the class was looking at me in undisguised awe. I didn’t speak up because of that, I spoke up because I thought an important point needed to be made. But the looks from the girls in the class were a nice fringe benefit.
CHAPTER SIX AMANDAI could’ve kissed him. I swear, I could’ve wrapped my arms around him and kissed him right there.
He got it. He completely got it.
Who woulda thunk it?
Anyhow, the rest of the day was uneventful, but that’s mainly because gym class was cancelled. I have it right after Bio, but they were using the gym for something so I got a study period instead. And poor Jared had to put up with Mr. Riley ogling him in history, but he was OK about it. Mr. Riley’s a nice guy, everybody knows he’s gay, but he’s cool. We walked in, Mr. Riley looked at Jared, and said, "Jared, are you straight?" When Jared replied in the affirmative, Mr. Riley just went "Too bad." Even Jared laughed.
Afterwards, we had to go to the entrance to get dressed-with an audience, of course. Except I didn’t get to get dressed. Cheerleading practice, you see-and since that’s a school activity, I had to be naked for it. Oh, joy. Anyhow, Jared got dressed, and I just gathered up my clothes to bring to the football field. They had separated the "dressing and undressing area" by sex in the past, but they didn’t this year-because of that whole Buddy thing. We were there to support each other. Since we were both being ogled and asked to pose by a gaggle of kids of both sexes, the support was welcome.
Jared walks to school, as do I, but in different directions. I walked him as far as the football field. As he went to go, I pulled him aside and said, "Thanks for what you said in Biology." And I kissed him. Just a little light one, but on the lips. Hey, I said I wanted to kiss him. It was really weird because, by that point, he was fully dressed and I was not. But I’m glad I did it.
And can that boy blush!
I could’ve done without cheerleading, I have to admit. All those rolls and bulges, unrestrained, while I had to jump around. All right, I admit it-I’m pretty well-endowed. This is not a good thing when you’re doing jumps and splits. I think I need to try to talk the administration into allowing sports bras, or I’m going to get a damn black eye. Yeesh.
Of course, I was the only naked cheerleader. Of course, I had an audience. And Mike Person, the same football player who slipped a finger in my…you know…did it again after practice. I let him. Dammit, I’ll admit it, I enjoyed it. And this time, without the time constraints of having to get me to class, I let him finish me off.
Yeah, I came. And I didn’t even feel all that self-conscious about it. Hey, I was really horny by that point. At least now I was even with Jared-and, yeah, it was a relief. But I couldn’t help think that I wish it were Jared doing it. Mike was fine, but he wasn’t particularly gentle, nor particularly clued-in to what makes a girl feel good. He just poked around down there…
You know, I don’t know if The Program is working if I can’t even SAY it!
He poked around…my pussy. There. I said it. He poked around my pussy, and I came. But I wanted more.
I wanted Jared. Where the hell did that come from? And why was I now realizing that I was jealous of Maggie?
Shit.
Anyhow, after that, I got dressed. It was strange. I was relieved-but at the same time, I felt kind of constrained. I didn’t expect that. But I walked home dressed, and went inside, to deal with my Mom.
She’s not happy about The Program. Mr. Tilling, when he came to convince my parents to let me take part, quickly realized who the reasonable parent in my family is, and went to work on my father. Daddy’s cool. But he’s not home when I get home-Mom just works mornings, Daddy’s a lawyer who works all day-so Mom it was.
"How was school, dear?" she asked.