I could see the wheels turning in Amber’s mind, as she looked back and forth between the four of us, all in various stages of undress. Then she grabbed her shirt and lifted it over her head.
"You don’t have to, you know," I told her.
"I want to," she said determinedly. "Do you mind?" she asked.
"Of course not," I told her. She got all her clothes off and dumped them in the box. Then she blushed.
"I feel funny," she said.
"You can put them back on, Amber," Mike told her.
"It’s not a bad funny, it’s a good funny," she declared. Then she led us to the entrance.
We walked in, and of course people were staring. The only clothes any of us had on were shoes and socks. Well, unless you count the couple of bandages on my leg. Well, unless you count the purses both Amanda and I were carrying-got to keep the money somewhere. But we were being stared at. Mike and I were used to that by now, and Jared and Amanda had been for some time. Amber wasn’t, but-except for the constant blush-she seemed to be adjusting well.
Suddenly Ed appeared out of nowhere. "Hello, nice to meet you, I’m Overdressed," he said, shaking all our hands and cracking us up. "So, who’s the pint-sized nudist?"
"That’s my sister, Amber," I told him. "Amber, this is Ed, Mike’s best friend and the third baseman on the baseball team."
"Nice to meet you," Ed shook her hand while she blushed. "Have they extended The Program to middle school?"
"No," she giggled, "I just saw all of them, you know, and I, you know…"
"I think that’s very cool. You’re a very brave girl," Ed told her. Amber beamed. "Now, since you went and got yourself all naked, the least a gentleman like me can do is win you a teddy bear, right?" Amber giggled, and we all headed to the game area. "Pick out one you like," Ed told her. She did, it was at one of those throw-the-darts games, and Ed won it for her on the second try. She was thrilled.
"I think you have a rival for my sister’s affections," I whispered to Mike.
"I think you’re right," he grinned back.
"HEY, JARED! COME GET ME, I DARE YOU!" We looked in the direction of the shout-and it was coming from the dunk tank. There was a tall, slim blonde sitting on the platform, wearing a bikini, grinning and waving in our direction. Jared started cracking up.
"That’s my sister, Tina," he told us that didn’t know. "Let’s go dunk her."
We went, laughing, over to the dunk tank. "C’mon, Jared, give it your best shot," she taunted. "You’ll never get me wet." Jared paid his money for a few balls, and threw them. All misses. "Come on, you rag arm," Tina taunted. "My little brother gets me in a potentially embarrassing position, and can’t even seal the deal." Jared threw a few more and kept missing. Tina kept shouting at him.
"May I?" I asked him with an evil grin.
"You? Oh, yeah!" he giggled. "Hey, Tina, this is my friend Lily. I’m going to pay for her to take a few shots at you."
"Can’t do it yourself, got to get a girl to do it, huh?" Tina taunted.
"Lily’s no ordinary girl. You might have heard of her. She just made the baseball team."
"Baseball team?" Tina said.
"As a pitcher," Jared said with an evil grin. Tina’s grin disappeared, she went "whoops", and I wound up and threw. First try. SPLISH! One very wet Tina!
"A ringer! You brought a damn ringer!" she yelled as she climbed out of the tank.
"I got to see you get dunked, that’s all that counts," he laughed. "See you later, Sis."
"Later, little brother," she grinned. We all took off to walk around a bit more.
It was a good carnival. We walked around, played some games, got Amber cotton candy. Well, Ed got Amber cotton candy. Which she found out was very messy to eat when you’re nude!
"Ed’s charming the pants off your sister-well, if she were wearing any pants, that is." Mike whispered to me with a chuckle.
"Poor Ed. He thinks he’s being nice to a young girl. Little does he know that she’s probably trying, right now, to figure out a way into his pants."
Mike laughed out loud. "We’d better go warn him before she asks him if he does cunnilingus!"
"Oh shit!" I roared.
We sent Amber off to buy a coke, and told Ed what had happened that morning. He laughed. Mike told him, "Yeah, but the problem is, now she’s got ideas. And she’s clearly developing a thing for you, my friend."
Ed laughed harder. "Let her. You know damn well I’d never take advantage of a kid that young. So, let her daydream. It’s safe. I don’t mind, in fact I’m flattered. She’s a damn good kid. She wants to fantasize, she can go right ahead."
Have I mentioned how much I like Ed?
The six of us did the whole carnival. Amber had forgotten to put sunscreen on some of her not-usually-exposed areas, so we bought her some. I took her on a few rides-as did Ed-and it’s a good thing they provide towels to us nudists! We ran into Frankie, Ty, and Ty’s girlfriend Emma. Ed introduced Amber to them as "my miniature nude date," which pretty much made Amber’s day.
However, while walking, we saw a woman glaring at us with undisguised contempt. I clearly heard her say, "I hate that program thing." Then Amber looked at the girl that was with this woman and said, "Tiffany!"
"Amber!" the girl returned. "You’ve got no clothes on!"
"Yeah, and it’s so much fun!" Amber told her.
"Uh-oh, this is trouble," I whispered to Mike.
"Amber! What are you doing like that! Go put some clothes on!" the woman was saying.
"Uhm, hello," I said. "I’m Lily, Amber’s sister. This is my boyfriend Mike. We’re in The Program this week, so we have to be here like this, and Amber decided she didn’t want to be left out."
"It’s disgusting! It’s obscene! The Program is bad enough, but this? A little girl like her running around with no clothes on!" This woman was rapidly beginning to piss me off. "What would her mother say?"
" Our mother would say something like, make sure she has enough sunscreen on," I said, and not too nicely. "She doesn’t know Amber did this yet, but she won’t have a problem with it."
The woman just snorted, then looked over at Amber and Tiffany. They had their arms around each other and were giggling about something. Probably Jared, they were looking in his direction. (Mike wasn’t kidding about him. Oh My God. Good thing I’m already in love!) Anyhow, the mother saw them and said, "Tiffany! Get your hands off her! I don’t want you touching her when she’s like that!"
Uh-oh. I saw Mike boiling already.
"Why not?" Tiffany asked reasonably. "I’ve touched Amber before when she was naked."
"Yeah, me too," Amber giggled. "It’s fun."
"WHAT!?!? Are you telling me that you two…that’s disgusting! Where do you get these perverted ideas?"
That’s when the kettle boiled over. I saw it coming. The kettle’s name was Mike.
"Newsflash number one," he started, in the most furious tone I’ve ever heard him use, "girls experimenting with each other is normal, not perverted. Newsflash number two: my mother, a nationally recognized child psychologist, would vehemently agree with me. Newsflash number three: most people with half a brain recognize this in this day and age and you might want to wake up and smell the coffee. Newsflash number four: My mother, the nationally recognized child psychologist? Well, she touches a naked woman every night. I live with two women, both of whom I love more than I can say, that share a bed. So take your bigotry and stick it up your ass. Fuck you." The woman was looking at him in complete shock by now. "Oh, and if I could do it legally, I’d arrange for my Mom to adopt Tiffany before you completely fuck her up. As it is-in a couple years, she’ll most likely be making an appointment with her, trying to undo the damage." He looked at the rest of us. "Come on, guys. It smells too bad right around here."