Stripped for Florida - How Rachel Met Jayden

Stripped for Florida - How Rachel Met Jayden 1 to 11

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This work is intended for ADULTS ONLY. It may contain depictions of sexual activity involving minors. If you are not of a legal age in your locality to view such material or if such material does not appeal to you, do not read further, and do not save this story.
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How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 1

It was an unusually warm day for having just had such a sudden cold snap. Sunny, 66º, light breeze - a far cry from the frigid temperatures just three weeks ago. The black surface of the Target parking lot actually felt warm on Rachel’s bare feet as she stepped out of the blue Honda SUV.

“You’re not going to wear your Uggs?” asked her mom as she walked around to the passenger side and saw Rachel standing there barefooted.

“Actually, no, Mom, this feels good. It’s like walking on warm toast!” Rachel had removed her shoes, but she left everything else on: an anklet, two new bracelets she got for Christmas, a thin chain necklace and a floppy sunhat, which she always wore on sunny days.

Target’s policy that shoes must be worn at all times was superseded by Florida’s rules for anyone who had been “Quick Stripped,” that is, whose clothing had been taken away under the state’s Stripped for Florida program. Although they were allowed to wear sandals or shoes, even short boots, they were free to go anywhere in Florida without shoes, so long as there were no health or safety hazards in doing so. The only restriction on footwear was that it was not recommended to wear tall boots or knee socks, which could sometimes trigger the clothing sensors installed throughout the state. These sensors would set off alarms that alerted local law enforcement, ensuring that they complied with the law and remained completely naked--at least from the neckline to the ankles--at all times.

“Ahhh…this is more like it!” Rachel said to her mom as she stepped across the sun-warmed parking lot.

A family getting out of a green Mazda was taken aback. They knew there were stripped kids in Madison County, and they tried not to be too obvious with their stares, but the sudden sighting of a high school girl walking across a public parking lot without any clothes on was still a bit of a shocker.

The automatic doors glided open as the clothed-and-unclothed mother and daughter strode past the in-store Starbucks. Unlike in south Florida, where the sight of nudity was becoming commonplace, the northern rural counties had not yet seen the proliferation of nudity in public, and heads were turning. Most shoppers had only heard about the county’s few stripped students. Some cast delighted glances, others disapproving scowls (although in many cases, those scowls concealed a clandestine inner delight).

Rachel's mom grabbed a cart and the pair started shopping as if it were perfectly normal for a girl to be strolling through Target wearing nothing but a sunhat and jewelry. Rachel had been the first stripped student in Madison County, and after living naked 24/7 for the better part of a year, she had finally acclimated to it. She did everything that way. Nude was the only “normal” she knew anymore. And it would be until she was 21.

The floor of Target felt cool on Rachel's feet as they strolled through the store. They walked past kitchenware, home decor and girls’ underwear (one department that was no longer relevant to Rachel). Then they came to jewelry.

“Oh mom, look,” she said, picking up a jangly bracelet. “I love these. Look how cute!”

“Oh my God, it is,” her mom replied, taking it from Rachel’s hand and looking it over.

“I think Clair has one just like it.”

Rachel had become somewhat of a connoisseur of bracelets. She had quite a collection. She’d been a fashion aficionado before her parents Quick-Stripped her last May, bringing her clothes-wearing days to an abrupt halt. Now she collected necklaces, anklets and shoes. And along with her best friend Clair—both aspirant fashion designers--still indulged in her hobby of drawing outfits in a sketchbook. As Clair says about the outfits Rachel sketches, “You can draw ‘em…you just can’t wear ‘em!”

Rachel’s mom examined the bracelet, which was of very high quality. “Impressive.”

“Yeah, well, it’s kinda pricy,” Rachel lamented.

Rather than hanging the bracelet back on the rack, Rachel’s mom placed it in the shopping cart.

“Uh, gee…thanks, Mom. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Hey, after what you’ve been through in the past three weeks, you deserve it!”

“Rachel, hey!” came a voice from an adjacent aisle. It was Marc, a boy in her 3rd period science class. “What’s going on?”

“Oh hey, Marc,” she replied. “Just doing a little shopping.”

“Hi Mrs. Miller,” Marc greeted Rachel’s mom. “Hey Rach, come look at these new games, they’re cool.”

Rachel and Marc stepped over to a display of new video games across the wide main aisle that ran the width of the store. Marc, a died-in-the-wool gamer, proceeded to extoll the virtues and foibles of several new arrivals.

Marc seemed oblivious to all the female nakedness right in front of him as he enthusiastically talked about the games. He was well-acquainted, visually, with Rachel’s body. He had not met her until the beginning of this school year, so he had never seen her with clothes on. This is not to say he didn’t enjoy looking at her--he did--but her lack of clothing was no longer a novelty, and Rachel was no longer an anomaly, to him or to her other classmates. She was simply his friend. Marc related to her as he would any other student.

Not so with the boy across the aisle, browsing a display of DVDs. His name was Nathan. He was an eighth grader at Arnold Middle School, and he was not at all acclimated to female nakedness. Or any nakedness. There were only eight stripped high school students in the county (counting a brother and sister who were stripped just yesterday). He had glimpsed naked students only once, from a distance. Nathan had just moved to north Florida from Missouri, so he had grown up in an environment where nudity was absolutely taboo. Since the DECENT laws went into effect around the world (of which Florida had opted out), there was hardly any nudity on the Internet, and movies and advertisements no longer portrayed even scantily clad people.

Seeing Rachel standing there casually chatting with Marc, wearing nothing, was a rare treat for him. The smooth bright store lighting was precisely balanced to illuminate Target's merchandise in the best possible way, and it showcased Rachel with that same degree of luminescent perfection. Nathan was mesmerized. He could see every detail, and he savored every nuance. He tried not to be too conspicuous with his glances (which were melding into long gazes), or to knock over the entire DVD display he was hovering around as a decoy. Little did Nathan know, this would be his lucky week. Just a couple of days later, in Steak & Shake, he would run into a stripped college girl with fully developed breasts, and a carefully-shaped strip of brown pubic hair. Then a couple of months later, his family would visit his cousin’s family in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, where he’d find himself surrounded by more nakedness than his eyes could drink in.

“So, Rachel, are you gonna sign up for color guard again next year?” asked Marc as Rachel trotted on silent bare feet back over to the jewelry counter, where her mother was standing.

“Mmmm…dunno. Ms. Farady thinks I should take baton. I want to see what Clair’s gonna do.”

Mom resumed pushing the cart as daughter strolled along beside her. Rachel was known all around her school for her particularly perky rear end, and as she walked away, the movement of the two smooth orbs of flesh were a marvelous sight to Nathan (who had no idea the DVD he’d mindlessly grabbed was The Julio Iglesias Story). Several other shoppers, browsing various products, were also discreetly checking her out as she sauntered away.

The mother-daughter duo then took a left toward, of all unlikely places, the Junior Girls department. For the first time in over a year, Rachel was about to try on clothes. Legally.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 2

Three weeks before Rachel’s naked stroll across the sun-warmed Target parking lot, it was quite a different picture, not only in Madison County but across much of northeast Florida:

“Hamilton County residents will awake to a chill tomorrow morning,” announced the TV weatherman. “The low will be 31 degrees just before sunrise, a good twelve degrees lower than the average for late February.”

Jayden’s parents both glanced over his way from across the living room. He was reclining on the sofa, wearing a pair of high top Converse sneakers, watching TV with his family.

“You better bundle up in the morning,” kidded his sister Amee, who was sitting on the floor building a dinosaur with Legos.

“Har de har, lil smartass Sis” said Jayden.

“It’ll warm up to a high of around 56 or 57,” continued the weatherman, wrapping up his segment. “We might even see 60.”

“Pfft. I can do 60 easy,” said Jayden to himself.

“But it’ll be a nippy morning commute for Hamilton County residents. Marsha?” the weatherman continued, transitioning back to the anchor.

“Yes, Chuck, especially for the county’s five stripped students…brrrr!” added Marsha as she segued to the next news item.

As Jayden relaxed in the living room, he was noticeably engorged. His daily dose of sildenafil citrate usually didn’t wear off fully until after dinner, and sometimes until almost bedtime. It was a special low-dose formula commissioned by the state of Florida specifically for stripped boys, provided by Stripped for Florida to parents who had Quick Stripped their sons, to keep them from being self-conscious about getting erections in public by keeping them at lease partially erect most of the time. It was not unusual for him to sit down at the dinner table at night completely hard.

At traditional nudist camps (now illegal almost everywhere in the world under the DECENT laws), erections had always been a sensitive issue. If an erection occurred, you were ostracized, and could even be kicked out. For that reason, many teen nudist boys would drop out of the nudist lifestyle, because erections at that age occurred spontaneously and frequently. The state of Florida, in setting up the SFF program, decided to take the opposite approach, to lay the stigma of erections to rest. Newly-stripped boys were almost always put on low dose sildenafil citrate, which ensured they’d be at least somewhat hard almost all day. They’d usually be kept on it until they overcame any embarrassment from having an erection in public, but lately the trend was for more and more stripped boys to continue taking it on a daily basis.

It was traumatic to Jayden when he first got stripped and had to start going around like that at home in front of his family, not to mention at school, walking naked into a classroom full of clothed students—especially since he had been the first stripped kid in Hamilton County. But one can dwell in a state of perpetual self-consciousness for only so long until it eventually becomes the status quo.

“I’ll have the car warmed up for you in the morning,” said Jayden’s mom. “You can just scoot out the front door and onto a nice warm seat. It won’t be so bad.”

“Don’t let me forget to take my science project with me, Mom,” Jayden said.

“We should go ahead and put it in the car tonight,” she suggested. “Will the cold hurt it overnight?”

“No, it’ll be OK.” Jayden stood up to go pack up his project.

“Are you giving your presentation tomorrow?” asked his mom.

”No, that’s not ’til next week, but Mr. Warner wants to see it tomorrow.”

“Is it done?”

“No, but he’s gonna help me with it. Say, Mom, do we have a big box?” he said as he walked out of the room.

“Look downstairs under the steps. I just put one down there yesterday.”

“I guess those seat warmers were a good investment after all,” said his dad, who had originally voted for foregoing that option when they bought their new Mazda, seeing as how they lived in Florida. But his mom prevailed with the argument that if they were going to Quick Strip Jayden, which they had decided to do shortly before they went car shopping, they should spring for it, even if they used it only a few days a year. And they were planning on stripping Amee in a couple of years (although she had no idea yet), so even more reason to have toasty car seats in Winter.

So far in the brief history of the fledgling Stripped for Florida program, winter weather had been moderate. Students found various ways to cope with the occasional cold snaps. Jayden had his routine down pat. On a chilly morning, after a breakfast of hot oatmeal, he bundled up in his warmest winter outfit, a knitted sock cap and a pair of shoes with thick socks (scrunched down so as not to trip the sensors). Then he downed his morning pill, grabbed his book bag and made a dash from the house to the car (hello heated seats!). Next, a brisk jaunt from the car into the front door of the school and he was home free for the day.

Principal Landrum kept the school nice and cozy on cold mornings to accommodate the nude students at Jasper High (there were three of them). Still, it took a while for the unclothed students to warm up after dashing through the cold morning air. Jayden was usually still a bit chilly at the beginning of Mr. Hall’s first period history class. His scrotum would be drawn up tight and firm into a perfectly round shape (a look that many of his classmates, as well as Mr. Hall, secretly enjoyed). But by the end of first period, he was usually pleasantly warm. And hard.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 3

The trip to school was a bit chillier for Rachel. She rides the bus. The hard seat of a yellow school bus can bring a quick chill to a bare bottom. But her best friend Clair would always slide over and offer her a warmer place to sit.

Sometimes her friends Steven or Geoff or one of several other compassionate classmates would slide over and offer their seats to help her avoid the chilling experience of naked-flesh-on-vinyl-bus-seat. For the most part, her bus mates were sympathetic and helpful. Many, though, if truth be told, looked forward to a cold snap, as they got to enjoy Rachel's small pink nipples standing out erect, and oogle the goosebumps all over her cute bottom as she scurried up the steps and into the school. Many students, boys especially, but some girls too, were fans of her particularly cute little butt, and would try, without being obvious, to follow her down the hall a bit to treat themselves to a look between classes, even if they had to double back and scurry to make their next class. The addition of goosebumps on her bare fanny was something her secret fans enjoyed very much.

The ride home after school was usually no problem, for Rachel in Madison County or Jayden over in Hamilton County, or for any of north Florida’s stripped kids. By the end of the school day it would usually have warmed up to at least the upper 50s, often the low 60s. Even by mid-morning, if naked students needed to walk outside for some reason, say to switch classes, the early morning chill would have diminished. So, all in all, cold snaps, although annoying, were manageable, even without any clothes. Until now.

When the unexpected cold snap came rolling in three weeks ago, stripped kids and their parents were ill-prepared for such a plunge of the thermometer. Some parents simply kept their kids home for a couple of days and understanding teachers sent classwork home for them to do. But when it extended into a third day, this truancy became problematic. Sarah, a sixth-grader in Columbia County, showed up at school one nippy morning fully clothed. This would have been fine with the more conservative school administrators who opposed the Stripped for Florida program, but allowing her to remain clothed would have been a violation of state law, so they had no choice but to have her remove all clothing and go through the school day with nothing on, as the law required.

If a stripped kid wearing clothing tried to approach a school (or anywhere in Florida where sensors were installed, which was in almost every public place), alarms were set off by the Quick Strip chips implanted just beneath the skin behind their left ear. If a stripped kid were caught wearing clothing, or concealing their bodies with any sort of textile, their parents could be subjected to a fine. And the fines were stiff. School administrators were obligated to make sure their nude students complied with the rules, and local police were obligated to enforce state law. During cold weather, they sometimes looked the other way as much as they could get away with, to try to cut the kids some slack, but this put them in a precarious position. If they allowed stripped students to go around clothed, they were breaking the law.

Wanda, a high school freshman in Union County, came up with an inventive plan for nippy days. Her mom had bought her a giant scarf, which she draped around her body. But just before she entered a zone where she knew alarms were located, she’d bunch it up around her neck so that the sensors wouldn’t detect thick fabric cascading around her. She also discovered that the bus ride on frosty mornings was made a bit more comfortable by sliding snugly between two burly, heavily-clothed students clad in puffy insulated jackets. She was friends with a couple of fairly massive guys on the football team, who were more than glad to help her get cozy (Well, as cozy as you can get riding naked in a school bus in the dead of winter).

These makeshift tactics for coping with occasional chilly spells worked very well until this latest cold snap. For about three days, naked students in the northern counties were spending too much time exposed to the record-breaking cold. You couldn’t have handed better ammo to the hard-line old-school conservatives, the “Anti-Nudites,” who seized the opportunity and began strategizing how to pull the struts out from under Stripped for Florida.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 4

In Miami, kids were frolicking on the beach, flying kites, throwing frisbees and sitting in beach chairs relaxing and socializing, most in swimsuits but many without a stitch on. In some areas, the naked kids outnumbered the clothed kids, a balance that would continue to shift toward nakedness in the coming years as the SFF program grew in popularity.

In Tampa, a clothed boy was celebrating his birthday with several friends. Three of his friends were stripped, two boys and one girl. They were all happily playing mini-golf together in the sunshine as the parents chatted in the shade. One of the boys had a constant erection (pill-induced), and the other was growing intermittently aroused from watching two high school girls playing golf in the nude (and feeling not the least self-conscious about it, as erections in public, for stripped boys, were not only legal but encouraged).

In Lakeland, a group of kids were walking gingerly through a busy mall, chattering about this and that as they headed toward the food court. Four of them were fully clothed, two wore nothing but shoes and caps, and one was completely naked save for nipple piercings and a necklace. Almost everywhere you went in southern or middle Florida you’d see scenes like these, especially in the more metropolitan areas like Tampa and Miami, or tourist meccas like Orlando. Even in the smallest of towns, you’d see an occasional naked kid in a store or restaurant or riding a bike down the sidewalk.

At the Orlando airport, a family from Michigan had just Quick Stripped their two kids, a boy and a girl, for a fabulous clothes-free Florida vacation. They had completed all the paperwork, paid the fees and stuck the bandaid-like Quick Strip chips behind each of the kids’ left ears, ensuring they could not put on any clothing for the duration of their vacation without setting off alarms.

Deb was standing naked in front of the Stripped for Florida kiosk as her mother gathered up her freshly-shed clothes. She felt weird and a bit embarrassed standing there in the airport with nothing on…until she spotted an ice cream booth across the terminal and provided herself a diversion by making plans to talk her parents into a couple of scoops.

Her brother Jed was not faring so well. He was feeling devastatingly self-conscious about the growing erection he could tell was coming on as a result of the pill his parents had given him about 30 minutes before (plus the experience of standing in the middle of a busy airport without a stitch on).

Sildenafil citrate only enables an erection, not causes one. But with boys who get frequent spontaneous erections anyway, this special formula pretty much ensured they’d stay hard much of the time.

“You two kids enjoy your Florida vacation!” said Janet, a pleasantly attractive lady of about 40, dressed in a gray skirt and burgundy blazer, standing beside the kiosk holding an iPad.

“How can I?” lamented Jed to himself, convinced that his much-anticipated vacation was now ruined. “Not like this!”

“You will,” she said confidently.

The Stripped for Florida kiosk was one of the first things arriving passengers saw when they deplaned. It was hard to miss, what with the giant backlit sign looming overhead featuring the now-famous Stripped for Florida twins looking down over the terminal. They were a young nude boy and girl, blonde and tanned. It was a full-body shot, revealing everything. The boy was erect. (The SFF commission had made the decision early-on that there should be absolutely no stigma in the state of Florida to the natural phenomenon of an erection.)

Janet did not work at the kiosk, she was a Stripped for Florida field coordinator. Her job was to make sure the program was running smoothly across southeast Florida, and report back to the Palm Beach regional office.

“Which way to Ground Transportation?” asked the father.

“Just follow the terminal, that way,” Janet indicated.

“C’mon, kids, let’s go catch that shuttle!” said their mom as she gathered the two siblings’ clothing into a plastic bag.

“No, Mom, I can’t!” protested the awkwardly-naked boy, unable to imagine exiting the airport, standing outside waiting for a shuttle, checking into a hotel, then walking down Main Street at Disneyworld in broad daylight, all without any clothes on. And hard as a rock. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“We thought about it…but you know you would have worried yourself crazy,” explained his mother. “But when you just spend some time among other naked kids, you’ll start liking it.”

“No I won’t!”

Janet smiled at him reassuringly, and gave a nod to confirm what his mother had said. “You’ll soon be roaming the Magic Kingdom free as a bird, surrounded by other unclad kids from all over the the world, and having the time of your life!”

Jed’s parents were looking at each other as if they were a bit concerned over his reaction.

“You may want to keep him on the sildenafil citrate during his vacation,” Janet said to them. “It will prevent him from being embarrassed if he gets excited over all the nudity he’s going to see. Stripped boys who take their morning pills can enjoy getting aroused in any situation and it’s not obvious. No one can tell if it’s from a pill, or a naturally-occurring spontaneous erection, or from being genuinely excited. So he’ll be free to look all he wants, with no worries. Trust me, he’s going to love it.”

“I hope so,” said both parents, in unison.

“Oh, I’m confident this will be the best vacation he’s ever had,” said Janet. “Don’t worry, by this time tomorrow, he should be acclimated to being hard in public. If not, just make sure he continues taking his pill every morning. It won’t take long ’til he gets used to it. And starts liking it.”

Finally, having no other choice, Jed forced himself to walk alongside his parents and naked sister toward ground transportation. He saw other stripped kids walking through the airport, some with tans only on their arms and faces and reeking of new-arrival embarrassment, others tanned all over and completely relaxed. They passed a boy with a shock of blond hair, a fresh all-over tan and a full erection, headed in the direction of departing flights. He was complaining loudly to his parents about having to go back home (he’d be required to be fully dressed by the time his plane was out of Florida airspace).

“I bet he felt just as stressed out as you do now when they first got here and he had to take off all his clothes,” said the father. “And now he’s dreading having to get back in ‘em.”

But this did little to quell Jed’s angst as he lobbed one step at a time to the exit doors, headed toward the outside world, clad in nothing but sneakers and socks, his penis now almost fully rigid and pointing straight up for everyone to see.

Next up to the kiosk were two families that had just arrived from the Ukraine for a Florida vacation together. Florida was becoming known the world over as the ultimate sanctuary from the increasingly repressed rest-of-the-world. The Ukraine had been one of the top countries in eastern Europe’s lively and robust nudist subculture, but now, under the dark ages of the worldwide DECENT laws, all social nudism was strictly forbidden. The parents held fond memories of relaxing in the nude in a Ukrainian clothing optional community they had frequented, and their annual holidays to Cap d’Adge (now a clothed city), and they wanted their kids to experience the freedom they once had, and get a taste of life without clothes. Unlike the previous family from Missouri, the Ukrainian kids, uninfected with American-style inhibitions, were eager to shed their clothing.

Between the two families, there were six kids. The time it took the kiosk personnel to get them processed for disrobing was longer than usual, because one of the kids was a niece, and there was a problem with the guardianship authorization papers. It turned out she could not get stripped. She had already taken off her clothes, but she had to put them back on quickly. The two kiosk employees, a man and a woman, turned a blind eye to the fact that, technically, she had been illegally nude in public and her aunt and uncle could have theoretically, by letter of the law, been in trouble. As the two families finally sauntered down the terminal toward baggage claim, five naked kids in tow, Janet, who had keenly observed the procedure, started composing a memo on her iPad for the Palm Beach office.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 5

Meanwhile, in Ft. Myers, a family of five was mulling over the 53 flavor selections at I-Scream in the Edison Mall. It was a typical scene in a mall food court in Anytown USA. The employees all wore cute plum-colored uniforms with pistachio-colored hats. Except one. Her name was Carla. She wore only the hat. (She also had on a pair of white sneakers with pistachio-colored socks, but she was standing at the counter waiting to take the family’s order, so the shoes were not seen, as she was visible only from the waist up.)

"Welcome to I-Scream,” she said. “What can I get for y’all today?”

It was still rare to see nude employees at a business. Employers across the state had fought for the right to refuse employment to nude job applicants, but about two months ago a Florida appellate court had ruled that discrimination against stripped kids, just as with discrimination against any other minority, would not be tolerated. Also, stripped employees could not be required to wear company uniforms that would obscure or conceal any parts of their bodies below the neckline and above the knees. But the hat, sneakers and pistachio socks were fine.

“Fifty three flavors…” said the dad. “I can't decide!”

“Ha! that's a common problem, sir,” laughed Carla. “Please take your time.”

Carla’s parents had stripped her last year, at 16. Unlike most stripped kids, she was stripped for life (which was very costly). She would never wear clothes again. In any situation. At least not while in the state of Florida.

Carla had been doing college-level work for about a year. She had just graduated a year early from high school, and next month she was headed to the University of Florida, where she had her sights set on a degree in sociology.

“So, kids, what do you guys want?” asked the mom.

There were two girls, eight and ten, and a boy twelve. All clothed, except for the eight year old. She was the other two kids’ cousin, and had been stripped by her parents about two weeks before.

The kids, of course, had no idea what they wanted. But they did put in their drink orders.

Carla turned away to make the drinks. The 12 year old, Jack, couldn’t help but notice. His gaze was fixed on her bare bottom as she walked over toward the drink dispenser. He loved the way her full cheeks moved slightly back and forth as she walked.

When Carla turned around with a drink in each hand, he was surprised to see that she was unshaven. This was a bit unusual. Almost all the stripped girls he had seen were shaved smooth, or they left only a tiny strip of hair just above the opening. Or either they were young enough that it was a moot point.

He was liking what he was seeing.

Carla had decided to leave her pubic hair in pretty much its natural state, save for some minor shaping up. The fashion trend in Florida among people who went naked in public was definitely toward a more clean shaven look, but in this case, leaving it this way was a fine decision. The way Carla’s hair grew naturally was delightful. It was light, both in color and in texture, with a little curlicue curling upward just above the slit. It looked so cute in its natural state that it would have been a shame to scrape it all away with a razor. She had received compliments from several of her friends and coworkers, and sometimes even customers. When she was out in public, she’d notice people glancing at it, and occasionally even a stranger would get up the nerve to comment on how nice it looked.

Living in central Florida, Jack regularly saw stripped girls, but most were younger than Carla. It was a treat for him to see a high school graduate—a woman—with developed breasts, protruding nipples and prominent, bumpy areolas. And beautiful, natural hair.

Finally Carla got the family all happily ice-creamed and they continued their excursion through the mall.

“Have a nice day,” she said as they walked away.

Next in line was a man about 35 dressed in tan cotton Dockers and a striped shirt. But he wasn’t there for ice cream. He was there on a fairly urgent matter of business.

“Welcome to I-Scream,” said Carla as he pulled out his ID.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 6

“Is Florida leaving its unclad youth in the cold?” read the headline of the local paper sitting on the kitchen table at Jayden’s house.

“Did you see the paper?” said Jayden’s dad.

“Yes, I can’t believe they showed a tinge of nudity,” said his mom.

A Florida court had ruled that publications could publish nude pictures, so long as the subjects had been legally stripped. The court was adamant that stripped kids should not be discriminated against in any way. But most small town newspapers still would not publish nude photos (despite the fact that, everywhere you went in today’s Florida, you were likely to see nudity in the flesh). But this issue, surprisingly, showed an entire bare fanny. On the front page.

“I know, it surprised me too. Did you read the article?”

“I did,” said his mom, “And I can’t say I disagree.”

This was two days after the cold snap came through.

“Yeah, they really should have come up with provisions for cold weather when they drafted the program,” said his dad. “I guess those Stripped for Florida people live in the Florida of sunshine and fun. They forget about our Florida.”

“We already spent a bundle to get Jayden stripped, and we’re about to spend more on Amee, it looks like they’d think of these things.”

“You’re getting Amee stripped?” said Jayden, walking into the kitchen. “Oh, hey, Jayden,” said his mom. “Ummm…yeah, we’re planning on it, when she gets a little older”

“Cool!

“But please don’t mention anything to her, OK?”

“I won’t. So when are y’all gonna do it?”

“We were thinking at a birthday party maybe.”

“We want it to be a surprise,” added his dad.

“So she’ll have to take off all her clothes, right then and there?” said Jayden. “In front of all her friends?”

“That’s how Quick Strip works, you know,” said his mom.

“Once that chip is embedded,” said his dad, “you have only a few minutes to get naked.”

“Yeah,” said Jayden, “or you’re breaking the law.”

“Yep.”

“And so are your parents,” added his mom, thinking of their friends the Stephensons, who had had to pay a stiff fine when their son was caught in town last summer wearing a pair of shorts.

“I wonder how she’s gonna react?” said Jayden.

“Well, Anna will be there, so it’s not like Amee be the only one.”

“Yeah…well *I* was,” mumbled Jayden, under his breath, recalling the first day he had to go to school naked.

“IF we strip her at all,” said his dad, picking up the paper. “They really do need to get their act together.”

Conversations like these had been going on throughout northern Florida in the past couple of days, since parents had been faced with sending their kids to school in cold weather stark naked, or breaking the law. And this disgruntlement among the populace was picking up steam. The Times- Union out of Jacksonville ran a piece about Stripped for Florida’s omission of cold weather contingencies. But it was not as slanted and sensationalistic as the articles that were appearing in local papers. Those stories had been planted. Southern and middle Florida may have become a carefree wonderland of nakedness, but north Florida was a galaxy far far away. The riff between the “lower two thirds” and the much more conservative rural north had threatened to defeat the entire program before it ever got off the ground.

The first kids to be stripped by their parents in these rural communities, like Jayden, had a tougher time than kids in the south. They were ostracized by some of their peers (at least initially) and discriminated against by conservative school officials. There was even an incident in Suwannee County of a George-Wallace-esque principal literally barring front doors of schools, refusing to let the first stripped kids enter until they dressed, or at least covered themselves with a blanket or towel provided by the school. This despite the fact that these students were prohibited by law from wearing clothes, or concealing their bodies with textile in any way. (This stunt was about as successful as the original George Wallace’s, by the way, after state officials intervened.)

These types of initial reactions in the smaller northern communities did not surprise anybody. To the contrary, they’d been fully expected. But thankfully, although public nudity was still not accepted by the more conservative residents, these overt incidents of intimidation had subsided. Each attempt to discriminate against stripped kids had been shot down in court, and compliance with the Stripped for Florida laws was stringently enforced by state authorities.

Even in north Florida, public nudity among young people was slowly proliferating. Only a few rural counties still had no stripped kids at all. Most had at least one or two, some as many as a couple of dozen. They all attended school regularly, participated in sports and extracurricular activities, went out for pizza with their friends and did all the things a clothed kid does, only they did it with nothing on. They were allowed to go anywhere in the community naked, free to walk into any store or place of business wearing nothing more than a pair of sandals. If that.

All but the very staunchest opposers in rural north Florida had come to accept this reality. But the hardliner Anti-Nudites, although they had fallen pretty much silent as of late, were still there, waiting in the wings to pounce on a misstep, which they were sure was inevitable. Sure enough, Stripped for Florida had dropped the ball by not providing for the eventuality of unseasonably cold weather. This proved to be an Achilles heel that threatened to cause big trouble in what was coming to be known as The Naked State.

Behind the scenes, the Anti-Nudites (or the “Pro-Decency Coalition,” as they called themselves) had been planning a big legislative challenge to the program. They knew they didn’t have much of a chance in southern Florida, where the acceptance of nudity was widespread and the tourist money was gushing like an open faucet. Although the program offered abundant economic benefits to the entire state, the torrent of money was less apparent in the rural north, and the attitude of the populace was more rigidly conservative. They saw this Winter storm as their chance to carpe diem and get the program suspended. At least in the northern counties.

They started with media. They got their pals at local small-town newspapers to run headlines like the one in the paper lying on Jayden’s kitchen table. It was making Stripped for Florida look bad. They even encouraged the papers to show a little nudity, to ensure high readership. It was against their beliefs, but this was war. And they were out to win.

In addition to bad press, it opened the door for lawsuits stemming from cold-weather-related health problems, from flu to frostbite, plus it threatened negative publicity on the national front. Their next wave of attack would be in Tallahassee. They had an ally in Charlie “Preacherman” Abercrombie, one of the most conservative members of the Florida House of Representatives and an outspoken opponent of Stripped for Florida. When they brought to his attention that this ungodly program was now endangering the health of Florida’s youth, he agreed to call a hearing.

If he and his Anti-Nudite cronies had their way, Stripped for Florida—at least in their neck of the woods--was about to be stripped for life.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 7

Back at the Stripped for Florida kiosk at the Orlando airport, Janet noted in her iPad that it took longer than it should have for the staff to get the Ukrainian kids out of their clothes, even factoring in the delay over the guardianship documents. International customers sometimes took a bit longer, as there was more paperwork. And they couldn’t legally remove their kids’ clothing until the paperwork was complete, the fees paid and the Quick Strip adhered behind one ear.

When a family wanted to strip their kids, the goal was to get the kids naked quickly and conveniently, with little wait time. Florida was striving to be as tourist-friendly as possible, which is one reason for having a field coordinator like Janet observing and analyzing the operations. Just as Janet was about to confer with the Stripped for Florida employees about how they could streamline the procedure, she spotted a family walking toward the kiosk. It was a man and woman and their daughter Manny. Manny had dark brown hair and wore a white sundress. Her eyes were wide seeing the colossal graphic looming in the air over the kiosk.

The family was in the process of moving to Florida from Ohio, but this was Manny’s first time visiting the Naked State since the Stripped for Florida program began. She was not used to seeing images of kids with no clothes on. This would have been unthinkable back home. But there they were, the two blonde naked twins, explicitly displayed 30 feet high by the state of Florida before the general public.

Then she saw the real deal, in the flesh. A naked boy and girl went sauntering by with their parents. And she spotted a boy across the terminal wearing nothing but sneakers. Manny had no idea that she was about to be Quick Stripped. Since she and her family were legally Florida residents now, she would remain naked until she was 21. Little did she know, when she reached into her closet for her white sundress that morning, that it was the last article of clothing she would be allowed to put on for over half a decade. The closet in her new house in Florida would be empty, save for shoes.

Janet was always somewhat perplexed that some parents chose not to tell their kids in advance that they were going to be stripped. They spared them a drawn-out period of anticipation and argumentitiveness, and just let them realize all at once that they’d have to take off all their clothes, right then and there, in the middle of the airport, right in front of everybody, and would not be permitted to put anything back on for the rest of their vacations. (Or, in Manny’s case, until she was 21.) But no matter how shocking it seemed at first, Janet knew they’d soon they’d be running through the world “nekkid” as the day they were born (or at least through the state of Florida), and loving it.

But today Janet would not be witnessing Manny’s official disrobing, due to an unexpected phone call.

“Hi Janet, this is Russ. Listen, we need you to come to the office for a meeting in the morning at nine.”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“It’s that hearing in Tallahassee next Monday.”

“Oh, about the new regulations for cold weather?”

“Yes, that’s the one. But word is, Charlie Abercrombie is planning on turning it into an inquisition.”

“Sheesh. Not the old Separationists again,” said Janet, rolling her eyes.

“More like the Secessionists. We think they’re gonna push for a complete exclusion from the program.”

“Haven’t they beat that dead horse enough?”

“They’re recruiting a kid from each of five counties, supposedly to testify about how cold they were last week. They’ve chosen the first stripped kids in each county, and we have intel that their real plan is to get them to unleash sordid tales about how traumatic it was being forced to be the only nude kid among their peers.”

“Oh good Lord.”

“Well it could work. We’ve got to counter. Listen, gotta run, I’ll fill you in in the morning. Thanks, Janet.”

“OK, Russ, I’ll be on the next plane.”

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 8

“What flavor would you like?” Carla asked the man who had just pulled out his wallet.

“‘I Scream for Rocky’,” he replied with a laugh, calling Rocky Road by its IScream name. “And just water to drink, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all” said Carla, walking over to the drink fountain behind her to fill his beverage order.

When she handed him his water and ice cream, he showed her his ID and said, “My name is Bob Halson, I’m with Stripped for Florida, and I’d like to speak with you for just a moment about how you might could help us out with something. I believe you’re about to get off?”

“In…two minutes, actually,” she said, glancing at the clock on her computer screen.

“Could we talk for a second in the food court?” he asked.

“Sure!”

Bob waited beside a table in the food court enjoying his I Scream for Rocky. In just a couple of minutes Carla came out of a door beside the shop. She no longer wore the little I-Scream hat but she still had on the sneakers and the pistachio socks. She also had a small purse slung over her shoulder.

“Please forgive me for contacting you like this,” said Bob as they both sat down at the little table in the food court. “Normally we would send a letter. But it’s rather urgent.”

Carla blanched. Her first thought was of the time a couple of months ago when she and three clothed kids rode up to see a friend in Valdosta, in south Georgia, late one Friday night. They took off on a whim, and Carla didn’t bother to try to round up any clothing to wear before they crossed the state line. She got out of the car at their friend’s house (it was after dark) and stayed the night. The next morning she walked back out to the car in the nude, in broad daylight. As they were driving away, they thought a lady across the street watering her plants might have seen her. And a couple of redneck-looking boys in a pickup truck were behind them almost to the Florida line, until finally, to everyone’s relief, they turned off. There was no trouble--they didn’t get pulled over or anything--but she was afraid this was about her having been illegally nude in another state.

“Is this about…Georgia?” she asked.

“No, this is all Florida,” said Bob. “We’d like to solicit your help with a matter that could potentially endanger the entire Stripped for Florida program.”

“Oh my!” Before Bob started filling her in, Carla said “I have to take some money to my friend Emanuel at Bath and Body Works before he gets off, which is right about now. It’s just past the escalators, on Level Two. Could we talk up there?”

“Why of course,” said Bob, getting up.

Bob and Carla walked to the escalator and took it to the next floor. They made small talk as they walked. Emanuel was just coming out of Bath and Body Works as they were walking up. Carla handed him the money, they chatted for a second, then she was free to talk.

Bob and Carla sat on a bench across from Abercrombie and Fitch. Bob opened a satchel and took out some papers.

“It's been pretty cool this week," said Bob.

"Yes it has," Carla agreed.

"You know, up in north Florida they had a real cold snap last week. The coldest on record and something like 50 years."

"I heard about that."

Carla wondered why he was making small talk about the weather if this matter was so urgent.

"The stripped kids up there we're pretty cold."

"I can imagine! Were they allowed to wear clothes?”

“They should have been," said Bob. "But there's no provision for that in the Stripped for Florida regulations. Their having a meeting in Tallahassee Monday to talk about drafting provisions for unseasonable weather."

"Well, that's good," said Carla.

"It is," said Bob. “Definitely. But there's a problem. There are people who would oppose the Stripped for Florida program. We think they’re going to use this hearing to try to derail it."

“Oh no. Why? I thought it had pretty much saved the state from going bust.”

“You’re absolutely right. It’s done a lot more, too. It’s making Florida one of the most affluent states in the nation. It’s bringing tons of benefits to every resident.”

“So what do they want to hurt it?”

“Good question. You know, Carla, the northernmost counties, at least the ones between Jacksonville and Pensacola--Hamilton, Madison, Suwannee and those--they’re pretty much in a south Georgia mindset. And that’s a whole other world from the world you live in down here. That mindset doesn’t change the instant you cross the state line.”

“Ha! Tell me about it!”

“A lot of residents up there, particularly the older ones, they could never have imagined they’d one day live in a world where kids of all ages would go in and out of stores and restaurants and walk down the sidewalk in broad daylight…well…like you are now,” he said, gesturing toward Carla, sitting there on a bench in the middle of a busy mall without a stitch of clothes on save for her shoes and pistachio-colored socks. “Their brains would have exploded if they knew their grandkids would be going to school dressed the way you’re dressed right now.”

Carla laughed.

“And you can certainly see that.” Bob continued. “When those older folks were youngsters--heck, even when I was a kid--if you went skinny dipping or streaking or got caught in the back seat of a car with nothing on, all of a sudden here come the police with flashing blue lights and billy clubs. Not to mention the wrath of your parents, and a world of embarrassment. Little could these old-timers have fathomed this opposite reality we’re living in today.”

“Yeah, now the police come if you’re caught WEARING clothes!” laughed Carla.

“And woe be unto you when your parents show up to bail you out!” laughed Bob. “So it’s understandable--inevitable really--that these more conservative folks feel like their whole world has been flipped 180 degrees and would want to undo everything we’ve accomplished.”

“But what does this have to do with the cold weather?”

“Well, that’s just a jumping off point for them.” Bob slightly lowered his voice, as shoppers were occasionally walking by. “They're going to expand the agenda of this meeting to try to make the whole program look really bad. The harm that it's doing to our children, not only physically, but psychologically, etc. etc. We think they're planning on parading the first stripped kids from several of the northern counties in front of the committee to tell how terrible it was.”

"Well it's not terrible for me," said Carla. “I think it’s liberating. I love it. And so do my friends who live naked. Most of ‘em.”

“I know how you feel about being stripped. And that's why we’re contacting you. Would like to have a few kids come to Tallahassee and talk about their experiences. Smart, wellspoken kids, star students…who just happen to be living naked. ”

“Why me? I mean, how did you guys ever even hear of me?”

“One of the directors of Stripped for Florida read the article about you in Florida Today Magazine. She was very impressed with that essay you wrote for school. ‘Florida’s New Nudism.’ I read it too. You did a great job of portraying public nudity in a positive light."

“Why thank you!”

"And you know, Carla, that was the first time Florida Today ever published nude photos."

"Well, it's sort of silly not to. I mean, just look around!" said Carla, gesturing down the way toward a nude boy and girl walking out of Chipolte.

“Exactly.”

As the boy and girl turned and walked away, the boy moved his hand downward from his girlfriend’s waist and briskly glided it across her bare cheek, than ran his fingertips up the crack. Carla’s and Bob’s gaze fell on this scene, and they both sat there for a moment in silence, just looking.

“Uh…so what would you want me to say?" Carla finally said, breaking their reverie and getting the conversation back on track.

“All you’d have to do is answer a few questions, openly and honestly. IF you were even called on, that is--there's a chance you might sit there a couple of hours and never be asked to say a word. You never know about these things.”

“I’ll have to talk to my parents.”

“Oh, absolutely. I’ll be contacting them too. And either or both of them are welcome to come. If they can’t, you’ll be in the company of Stripped for Florida personnel the whole trip. And we fly you all to Tallahassee. All expenses paid, of course. Including meals”

"Hey, that sounds pretty good! I’ll have lobster!”

“Lobster it is,” laughed Bob. “Well just think about whether you might like to do this. And in the meantime, I'll get in touch with your parents, if it's okay with you.”

"Absolutely.”

“Carla, I want to thank you for your time, and I appreciate your willingness to help," said Bob as he gathered his notes into his satchel.

Carla stood up. As Bob looked up from his satchel, that cute little curlicue of hair was just inches away from his eyes for a brief moment. He, like everybody else, couldn’t help notice how nice it looked. He knew that Carla, being happily stripped for life and not at all self-conscious, probably wouldn’t have minded a compliment, but given the nature of the situation, he thought it would be inappropriate, so he just appreciated in silence.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 9

“On the other hand, true cirrus are almost always composed entirely of ice crystals, perpetually falling and falling, then rising again on an upward current.”

The bell rang, bringing Mr. Warner’s discussion of clouds to a halt.

“OK, enough cloud talk for today, chapter 17 tomorrow,” he said as students gathered up their things and began exiting the classroom.

Jayden closed his book bag and stood up.

“Hey Jayden, you going to Melissa’s party Friday?” asked a boy across the aisle.

“Yeah, I’m planning on it. You?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t miss it.”

“So I’ll see you there?”

“Sure thing.”

“Jayden, I’d like to see you for a moment,” said Mr. Warner just as Jayden was about to exit the room.

“Sure Mr. Warner.”

Mr. Warner got a chair from the corner of the room and moved it beside his desk for Jayden to sit in. Jayden was wearing his red Converses, white socks and a shark tooth necklace.

Although Jayden had been the first stripped student in Hamilton county, he was no longer the only—there were eight others now in his school, five boys and four girls. But in Mr. Warner’s science class, he was the only student who was nude.

“What’s up?” said Jayden as he sat down, placing his book bag on the floor beside him.

“I looked over your project and, I must say, I’m very pleased with how it’s coming along.”

“Really?”

“Yes really. I think it’s a fine piece of work. It shows a lot of initiative and creativity on your part.”

Jayden’s morning pill seemed to be particularly effective that day. The results varied from day to day, and even hour by hour, but usually it had started to wane just a bit by last period. Or maybe it was just his natural physiology that day. Whatever the reason, as he sat chatting with Mr. Warner, he was fully rigid, the head flush with a rosy hue, and the slit pointing straight up toward the ceiling.

“I’d like to meet with you after school tomorrow,” said Mr. Warner. “For maybe 30 minutes, if you can, so we can work on it a bit.”

“OK, no problem, I’ll have my mom come get me instead of riding the bus.”

“Or I can give you a ride home tomorrow if you like.”

Mr. Warner lived just a few blocks past Jayden’s street, and he passed right by his house on his way home.

“No problem, I’ll tell my mom,” said Jayden. He picked up his book bag and stood up.

“Jayden…” said Mr. Warner. “There’s one other thing.”

Jayden sat back down in the chair with a quizzical look on his face.

“You know that cold snap we had a few days ago?” said Mr. Warner.

“Boy, do I!”

“I thought you might have some recollection of that,” laughed Mr. Warner. “Well, the state legislature is looking into having the Stripped for Florida board come up with some new rules to protect nude students here in the northern part of the state from future cold snaps like that.”

“Yeah, I think they should. My mom and dad were talking about that. It was in the paper.”

“Jayden, how would you like to attend a legislative hearing in Tallahassee next Thursday? They want to hear from some stripped students about how they fared with the cold weather last week.”

“Really? What would I have to do?”

“Just answer any questions they ask, that’s all. And you get excused from school for a day.”

“Sweet!”

“I thought you’d like that.”

“But why me?”

“Because you were the first naked student in the county. They’re asking the first stripped kids from several counties to attend. So by ‘sweet,’ I take that as a yes?”

“Yes!”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Uh, so what do I wear?”

Mr. Warner gave him a quizzical look.

“To a legislative hearing,” Jayden continued.

“Well, your Converses would probably be fine. You might want to ask your mom what she thinks.”

“So I don’t wear any clothes?”

“Why of course not, Jayden,” said Mr. Warner. “You’ll go naked.”

“OK, I was just wondering. I mean seeing how it’s the State Capitol and all.”

“No, the way you’re dressed now is just fine. Unless you decide to wear some dressier shoes.”

“Ok, just checking.”

“We won’t want to show up in front of all those lawmakers breaking the law, would we?” laughed Mr. Warner.

“No, I don’t think that would be a good idea!”

“OK, come with me to the office and let’s get some paperwork for you to take home. Your parents can come too, by the way.”

Jayden and Mr. Warner walked down the hall toward the office.

“Actually, I kinda like the red shoes,” said Mr. Warner as they walked.

“Thanks,” said Jayden.

Several people had commented on his new Converses lately. They seemed to be a hit. Seeing as how that’s all he had on, they must really stand out, he figured.

Jayden sat on a little wooden bench in a waiting area while Mr. Warner went in the adjoining room. While waiting, Jayden placed his fingers lightly around his erection and gave a little squeeze. He was surprised how hard it felt this late in the day.

That’s one thing he had come to like about going naked all the time—everything was right there, 24/7, easily accessible to the touch. Sometimes he would even stroke a little while sitting at his desk. Since he had at least some degree of erection most of the time anyway (as did most stripped boys, especially the ones who took the sifenidril nitrate), it was easy to get away with.

Although he was like this every day, sometimes it hit him afresh that as a stripped kid, he could legally walk all around school (or stroll down the street, or walk into a restaurant, or go anywhere he pleased) stark naked and fully erect.

Then his reverie drifted to a girl in Mrs. Duffey’s class who was recently stripped. Her name was Cathy. He didn’t have to use his imagination to picture her naked, he knew exactly what she looked like, head to toe.

“Hi Jayden,” said Ms. Sanchol, walking into the room with a manila envelope in her hand.

“Oh, hi Ms. Sanchol,” said Jayden, quickly removing his hand as he stood up.

Ms. Sanchol was an administrative assistant in the school office, mid 30s, short brown hair, a stylish flowery dress. “I’ve got you some papers here. This is a letter from Congressman Abercrombie’s office, and here are the permission forms your parents need to fill out. I’ll need these back in the morning.”

“Thanks, will do,” said Jayden. “What should I do with them?”

As he and Ms. Sanchol talked, Jayden was thinking that standing up right after thinking about Cathy might have been a mistake. He felt like it was obvious how aroused he was. But she couldn’t tell. Unlike Mr. Warner, who saw Jayden in class five days a week, Ms. Sanchol didn’t run into him very often, so she had no basis of reference.

“Drop them by my office on your way to first period,” she said. “If I’m not in, just leave them on my desk.”

“Sure thing, Ms. Sanchol,” said Jayden as he walked out of the room.

“Oh, and I like those shoes,” said Ms. Sanchol.

“Thanks,” he said.

Ms. Sanchol tried not to look too much at the boys who walked around the school naked, but she did think Jayden looked nice in nothing but those red Converses. And as he walked away, she couldn’t help but have a look at the pattern the wooden bench had left across his bare cheeks.

Jayden walked down the hall thinking about how cool it was to have been chosen by Representative Abercrombie to attend a meeting at the state capitol. Little did he know—or Mr. Warner either—that he was being set up as a pawn in a political ambush.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 10

The blue SUV slowly wound its way through the parking lot and found a space next to the street. A man got out of the driver’s side and walked over to the self-pay kiosk. He was dressed casually yet nicely--a blue pinstripe shirt, a navy blazer and tan Dockers.

A woman stepped out of the passenger side, wearing a blue and white dress with an off-white sweater. She had started to put on a green skirt with a teal blouse earlier that morning, and had also considered a burgundy dress, but she settled on the more conservative look, given nature of the hearing she was headed into. Her heels made a clacking sound against the pavement as she stepped down out of the car.

From the back seat, the bare foot of a young girl emerged, silent against the pavement, then a bare leg, then the whole bare girl. From her feet to her head, she wore nary a stitch.

Unlike her mother, she’d had no quandaries about choosing her wardrobe that morning. Except for what bracelet, anklet, necklace and ear rings to wear.

“Mom, I’m nervous about this. I don’t know what to say.”

“Rachel, there’s no need to be nervous.” Her mother placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Just answer whatever questions they ask you. That’s all there is to it.”

“That’s right, just answer whatever they ask you, honestly” added her dad as the “Wait” icon turned to “Walk” and the three started across the crosswalk of the busy Tallahassee boulevard.

“Mom, I feel like I’m in trouble. I feel like I’ve done something wrong.”

“Well, you aren’t. And you haven’t,” she assured her daughter.

“But Charlie Abercrombie might make you try to feel that way,” said her father. “Just answer whatever he asks, then try to tune him out.”

Rachel’s mother’s dress was rustling in the breeze like the flag over the Capitol. The wind felt cool against Rachel’s skin. If anyone had inspected her close-up, they would have seen minuscule blonde hairs standing up all over her, illuminated by the sunlight, and tiny goosebumps appearing all over her body (though nowhere near the degree as during the cold snap last week).

“I just hope you don’t say what horrendous ogres your parents are for stripping you!” her mother joked. Or at least she hoped she was joking.

“You know I’d never say that, Mom” said Rachel as they crossed in front of the cars stopped at the red light. “I mean, for the right price. Like, you know…those awesome shoes we saw at Rue 21!”

Walking down the street in Tallahassee in front of the capital was not like walking down the street in, say, Miami, with naked kids running round everywhere. Nor was it like the upper provinces where a sighting of a naked kid in public was somewhat akin to a sighting of bigfoot or Elvis. Of Leon county’s 60,000 residents under 21, about 3%, or about 1800, are permanently naked. So in stores and restaurants or just walking down the street in areas where there are lots of young people, you’d regularly see kids with nothing on. But walking down the street in front of the state capitol on a Tuesday morning, you were unlikely to see a lot of youthful nakedness (unless maybe a school group was taking a tour).

As the family walked up the steps of the capitol building, Rachel was looking around for reporters. That’s what she expected, that this would be a big media event. She was relieved to see only state capitol employees and other people there on business, nicely dressed, walking up and down the steps with various satchels and briefcases.

Rachel and her family stepped into the main atrium, not sure where to go.

“Excuse me,” a voice echoed, “you’re here for the hearing I presume? Hi, I’m Janet, I’m a field coordinator with Stripped for Florida.”

They all introduced themselves. The family was easy to pick out, given Rachel’s attire.

Janet led them down several halls, up an elevator and into a conference room. Other parents were there, and several Stripped for Florida staffers, plus several students, both clothed and naked. One of those boys was Jayden. He was standing across the room, wearing his red Converses.

Although they had never seen each other before—at least as far as Rachel knew—he glanced at her with a look of faint recognition. That’s because, actually, they HAD seen each other, on two separate occasions. They had never actually met, though. But they were about to.

How Rachel Met Jayden - Part 11

“As you know, the cold snap we had this year was worse than in any year since the program began. We dodged bullet in previous years, but we do need to address this.”

The man giving the address to the small crowd gathered in the conference room of the capitol was about 40, and nicely dressed, as were the several other men and women with Stripped for Florida. The students they had called in to appear before the committee were a different story. They wore nothing. Other than shoes, and the occasional cap or hat, or, in the case of a brown-haired girl from Taylor County High, a pair of almost knee-high boots (which was pushing the limits of tripping the sensors).

“Charlie Abercrombie’s goal is to dismantle the program entirely. Now we all know that’ll never happen. The state was careening toward bankruptcy before Stripped for Florida was created. Now it’s one of the most affluent states in the union. But…he’d happily settle for getting program cancelled above certain northernmost county lines, using the cold snap as his leverage. And THAT he might have a shot at. And failing that, at the very least he’s going to shoot for getting rules amended to require stripped kids in the northern counties to wear clothes as often as possible. If he gets his way, that would mean anything under 70 degrees!”

There was a smattering of laughter.

“Either way, we need to make the best possible impression out there.”

Rachel was seated next to her parents and could see Jayden seated with his parents about 10 feet away. She kept thinking he looked familiar but couldn’t put her finger on where she may have seen him.

“I want to thank you all for taking the time out of your day to come here and help us save Stripped for Florida,” the man continued. “I’m Robert Furlong with Stripped for Florida, and we’ve assembled some pretty impressive folks here today. Teachers and other education professionals. High school, middle school and elementary students, from around the state, including some of the northern counties, both nude and clothed.We even have a lifelong nudist couple from France, whose entire family has practiced nudism for much longer that the Stripped for Florida program has even existed.”

“Bob, may I cut in,” said a lady, raising her hand. “We should go ahead and talk about the pills while there’s still time.”

“Oh, yes, good idea, Sylvia. We’re not the most organized here, we’ve thrown this all together on short notice. Are there any boys here who take sifenidril nitrate who did not take it this morning?”

Several boys’ hands went up.

“We figured you might not be sure whether to take your daily morning dose today. But as you know, the Stripped for Florida program encourages boys to take the pills daily as a way to de-stigmatize public erections. As a Florida state court put it, there’s no shame in an erection in the state of Florida. And we’re not backing down from that position here at this hearing. If you’re asked to stand up and answer any questions before the committee, it’s completely legal, and perfectly OK, if you have an erection. So anyone who would like to take a dose now—with the permission of your parents, of course—please raise your hands.”

Jayden’s was one of the hands that went up. He was unsure whether he should take is morning dose on the day he might appear before a hearing at the State Capitol.

“This is a fast-acting sublingual formula,” said Sylvia as she handed out the does around the room. “Just let it dissolve under your tongue.”

“Representative Abercrombie,” continued Bob, “has called students of his own to speak about the horrors of being forced to go naked in public. To try to elicit the results he wants, he chose the first stripped students from six counties, both male and female. The assumption is that it’s traumatic to be the only kid in the county walking around naked. And he may well have a point.”

“This is something we’ve always been concerned about,” added Sylvia. “When nudity starts to catch on in any given community, it’s a different story. It often becomes really cool to go to school in the nude. But those first few pioneers do have a hard row to hoe. We’ve tried to address with the sensitivity programs in schools—at least the schools who chose to accept it—before the first nude student steps into a classroom.”

With this, Rachel’s parents, and Jayden’s too, realized they were in the wrong room. They were in the Stripped for Florida room prepping for the hearing. Apparently the Abercrombie forces were having a meeting of their own elsewhere.

Rachel’s mom and Jayden’s dad both started to raise their hands. Then Jayden’s dad faltered. And Rachel’s dad asked his mom to hold tight for a second.

“At this very moment,” continued Bob, “the Abercrombie camp is no doubt revving up their own students to recall every traumatic moment of having to go around nude, and to get out there and talk about the psychological and emotional damage that had been done to them. We’re going to counter that with a more balanced portrayal of the positive aspects of the program. And we trust by now you’ve discovered the benefits of living without clothing.”

Both sets of parents decided they were in the right room after all, so they just went with it. Rachel’s mom glanced over at Janet, the Stripped for Florida Field Coordinator who had ushered them to this room, and Janet gave her a sly glance back, a discreet knowing nod.

Yoink! Janet had cunningly scored two of Abercrombie’s kids!

During all this, Rachel and Jayden occasionally glanced toward each other, but seldom at the same time.

Bob proceeded to introduce some of the attendees. He had Carla stand up as he told about her accomplishments. She was the high school senior from Ft. Meyers who had graduated a year early, been accepted to the University of Florida and had caught Stripped for Florida’s eye with an essay she wrote about Florida’s new brand of nudism that had been published in Florida Today magazine. She had dressed up a bit for this occasion. She’d had her hair braided and wore a pair of high-heeled sandals with straps that criss-crossed up her calves. In between was an expanse of smooth pale flesh broken only by a shock of dark pubic hair, neatly trimmed, with that distinctive curlicue just above the slit.

After about 15 minutes, Rachel noticed Jayden was hard. A small but distinctive birthmark on the side of the shaft caught her eye. It jogged her memory. She had noticed it before.

Suddenly she knew exactly where she had seen him.

(End of File)