Chapter 10 - Naked in School
Eveline's stress-level went down only slightly when Strickland changed the subject:
"By the way, I talked to Mrs. Comstock. I'm pulling you out of study hall and you're going to be spending your first hour of the day in here with me as my student aide. Study hall's a total waste of time: for losers, retards, and drop-outs. You're not a retard and you're not dropping out of school if I have anything to say about it, so you're out of study hall. I need some assistance in here anyway. Now help me set up."
By regulations established by the school district, physical education instructors and coaches such as Jamie Strickland were required to teach at least two hours of an academic subject in order to spend the rest of their day teaching gym classes. In Strickland's case that meant two hours of Algebra II. Algebra II was a course intended for mediocre juniors and seniors who needed a extra math credit to graduate or apply for college, but who were not capable of handling Geometry or any of the school's other higher-level math courses. Students like Eveline, for example. Eveline had the same class herself, with a different teacher, later in the day.
The student knew that she was going to be naked in the classroom with 25 fellow students. Her nude-in-public debut at school would began as soon as the bell rang and students started filing into the classroom. Eveline had thought that she'd simply sit in the back of the room, slouching and trying to hide herself as best she could.
Wrong. Strickland ordered her student to place her books on a work table under the window, right next to the teacher's desk.
"But... where am I gonna sit?"
"Sit? You're not gonna sit. This is a full class and there's no extra seats. Anyhow, that's not why you're here."
Strickland handed the student a sheet of paper covered with algebra equations and unsolved problems and a marker for whiteboards.
"Start writing these problems on the board, in the same order I put them on the paper. And make sure you leave enough space below each of them to write in the solutions later on."
For a moment the teenager stood stupefied, holding the paper in one hand and the marker in the other.
"What are you waiting for? Get started."
The nude-at-school nightmare just kept getting worse and worse. With both of her hands occupied, she wouldn't even be able to use them to cover herself. Her only option would be to keep her back turned to the class as much as possible while she wrote. She remained facing the wall when the bell rang and students filed into the classroom. Their hallway chatter ceased immediately as soon as they saw their naked classmate. They fell dead silent as they took their seats and stared as Strickland took attendance and Eveline continued to write on the board. A couple of the male students attempted to take out their cell phones to get pictures of the incredible sight. A harsh look from their teacher let them know that was a really bad idea and those phones needed to disappear immediately.
Eveline spent the next hour standing at the chalkboard, trying to ignore the gaping expressions of the first-period algebra class. The teacher called on her students to come up with solutions to the example problems on the board, and Eveline had to write the answers so the class could discuss whether the guesses were correct or wrong and why. Eveline had studied for the exact same class later in the day, so hearing her classmates struggle with answers did re-enforce her own studying from the previous night.
Throughout a very long hour being on display to her peers, Eveline wondered if it was really possible she'd be going to her other classes without being allowed to get dressed. Surly the school principal would have something to say about the matter. Certainly he'd shoot down the idea that a student could attend his school in the nude. Eveline waited for the hour to end, hoping that someone would finally say something and her coach would be forced to provide her with an outfit.