New Family Rules

This story is the seventh in a series. One of my failings as a writer is that I tend to fall in love with my characters and am reluctant to let them go. I hope that you find my characters as interesting as I do. I recommend reading the prior "New Family Rules" stories in order because this story is a continuation of those. Any similarities to any real person or entity are entirely coincidental. Whether you like the story or loathe it, comments are welcome. All characters are at least 18 years of age.

*****

The interview which Amanda and I gave to the student daily ran on the Monday after the first weekend of "A Prisoner of Herself." I was neither surprised nor offended that the piece focused primarily on Amanda. She's a lot more interesting than I am. Along with the story, they ran a picture of Amanda's face that came far enough down to show bare shoulders. The implication was, I thought, that Amanda was nude for the picture. She wasn't. The picture caption was "You can see a lot more of freshman Amanda Turner at the Wallace Theater this Thursday through Sunday." Amanda's comment was, "well, it's true."

Amanda did get a few very rude e-mails after the interview was published. We were prepared for that and were surprised that there weren't more. Since they all came through the University's e-mail system, we reported them all.

One e-mail, however, piqued our interest. It came from Melissa Stein at a student e-mail address. The e-mail said, "You were very positive spokespeople for naturism in your interview. Kevin Bach and I host a group of student naturists at our apartment at 7:00 p.m. every Thursday. We know you're busy this Thursday but would love to have you join us when you can." It gave an off-campus address. The e-mail was interesting because we assumed that we weren't the only students who enjoy going nude and wanted to meet like-minded people. Of course, we couldn't be sure that the e-mail was legitimate.

Our first filter was to have me respond to the e-mail. If it was legitimate, a response from a guy wouldn't be a problem for the sender. If it was some scheme, we thought a response from me would probably be the end of it. Melissa responded to me almost immediately, giving a fuller description of their get-togethers. One item she mentioned made us both feel better: "no alcohol." Not that Amanda or I don't drink, but it increased our willingness to go to a strange apartment and get naked with strangers.

Monday, I got an e-mail from Kevin Bach: "Mel and I saw your show Friday. Can't say either of us liked the play. However, it was obvious that you and Amanda were enjoying yourselves. We hope that you can join us Thursday night."

Recognizing that there was some risk, Amanda and I decided to go to the Thursday meeting. It was staying light later, so it was not dark when we went into an older converted house on a residential street a few blocks west of campus. We went upstairs and, a few minutes after 7:00 p.m., knocked on the door bearing the number we'd been told.

The door was answered by a very small woman with wavy, shoulder-length black hair. "Hi," she said. "You must be Amanda and Harry. I'm Mel. Please, come in." We felt better because Mel was nude. She led us into a small room with a sofa, an old armchair, a table made from a plank across two small crates, and some folding metal chairs. About a dozen people, seemingly evenly split between male and female, were crowded into the room. They were all nude.

A very slender man stepped into the room from another room. "Hi," he said, "I'm Kevin Bach. Glad you could make it. There's popcorn and soft drinks in the kitchen," he added, gesturing in the direction he'd come from.

Melissa said, "If you like, you can undress now, and I'll put your clothes in the bedroom. Or, you can stay clothed and undress whenever you're comfortable." Everyone seemed so friendly that Amanda and I decided to strip right away.

While Melissa was putting our clothes in another room, there was another knock on the door. Kevin answered the door and said, "Hey Dani, Clark; glad you could make it." A tall woman with short, light brown hair walked into the room followed by a tall, slender man.

I assumed that "Dani" was the woman. She looked around the room and her eyes settled on us. "You're Amanda Turner and Harry Stone," she said. We nodded. "We saw the play a week ago Saturday," the woman said. "That must have been so much fun for the two of you. I envy you. I'm Danielle Shorr, Dani for short. This," she said pointing at the man with her, "is Clark Tewes. I'd love to talk to you guys about that play. Let us get our clothes off though."

Given that the people in the room had watched Amanda and me strip, I didn't think I was violating any norms watching Dani Shorr undress. She attracted your attention, but I can't say that she was beautiful. First, Dani was a large woman, and I don't mean fat. She was slightly taller than I am and had broad shoulders. Her face was angular, with a prominent, square chin and very sharp cheekbones. While she looked very friendly when she smiled, I suspected that her face might look hard in repose. As she undressed, it was obvious that she lifted. While she wasn't exactly the female bodybuilder look, her muscles were larger and much more defined than even very fit women I knew, like Amanda. Clark was also very defined. However, in contrast to Dani, he had the look of a distance runner, which I learned that he was as we got to know them.

Kevin took Dani's and Clark's clothes and went in the back. Dani and Clark weaved through the group and stood next to Amanda and me. There wasn't room for everyone to sit down. Melissa had come back into the room and announced, "now that everyone's here, we can get started." The next hour sounded much like some club meetings I'd attended in high school, complete with discussion of whether the group could or should do any fundraising. What I mainly took away from the meeting was that there was a national park on the lakeshore in Indiana where the group sunbathed and skinny dipped without any hassle, but it didn't look like the weather would be good enough to do that until during exam weeks. The group planned an outing for just after the start of school the coming August. Except for the fact that everyone was naked, it could have been a meeting of a birdwatching club.

People started dressing as soon as the business part of the meeting ended. I quickly figured out that was because the apartment was so small that only two or three people could get dressed at a time. We walked out with Dani and Clark. Dani said, "We didn't get to, but I'd still like to talk to you about the play. Being up there completely exposed must have been so much fun!"

Clark said, with a laugh, "you have to excuse Danielle. She likes to have people see her naked."

"You like it when people look at me," Dani said to Clark, "and you like having people see you."

"Guilty on both counts," Clark laughed.

"What did you think about the group?" Dani asked.

Amanda looked at me. "It seemed," I said, "a little dry."

"You mean that you thought that a room full of naked people might be less boring than an accounting class?" Clark said.

"Basically," I replied.

Dani said, "Mel and Kev are very much into the AANR 'nudity doesn't involve sexuality' approach. I understand why: they're trying to get social nudity more widely accepted, which is a good thing."

"What is your attitude?" Amanda asked.

Dani smiled. "Well, I agree that nudity isn't automatically sexual. But I'm standing there with my tits and my pubes out there for everyone to see. If I glance left or right, there's a bare dick within arm's reach. It isn't automatically sexual, but it can sure get sexual and, depending on who's involved, I'm all for that."

Clark asked rhetorically, "You understand why I like her so much?"

Dani laughed. "Don't be fooled by Clark," she said. "He doesn't like me. He's desperately in love with me." Both Dani and Clark laughed. We were outside an older apartment building about a block off-campus. Dani said, "This is our stop. I still want to talk. Can you guys do lunch tomorrow? Say 12:30 at the sandwich shop?"

I looked at Amanda who nodded affirmatively. "Sure," I said.

"Great!" Clark responded. "See you then."

"I'm looking forward to it, "Dani added.

Dani and Clark went inside the building. Amanda and I kept walking towards her dorm. "What did you think about tonight?" I asked.

"I agree that the meeting at Melissa and Kevin's was boring, but I'd like to stay in touch with those people. Maybe there are others who are like Dani and Clark," Amanda said.

"That was my next question," I said. "What did you think of Dani and Clark?"

Amanda smiled. "I think they may be a lot like us. I'd like to get to know them better and find out."

We met Dani and Clarke for lunch the next day. We did the standard "get to know you" conversation. In this context, the conversation included how we were introduced to nudism. Amanda and I recounted how we'd each been introduced to going nude within our families by our parents during the summer before our senior year of high school.

Dani's story was interesting. "I basically backed into nudism from being an exhibitionist," she said. "Dad was something of a disciplinarian. If he thought you were really bad, your punishment was a bare-ass spanking. Several times as I was growing up, I had to bare my ass and bend over his knee. It hurt and the only people there to see me were my mother and my younger sister Amelia. Still, I got off on the idea of them seeing my bare ass and my cunt once I bent over. I started reading about people going without clothes. Nude beaches and skinny-dipping sounded cool to me. There was a lake in a county park close to where we lived. In the summers, I'd hike up there to the wooded side of the lake, strip off, and swim naked. I loved it so much! I'll never understand why people insist on wearing swimsuits. Ugh. There was a public beach on the other side of the lake, and I know people saw me sometimes. That just made it more fun! Junior year, I started dating a guy whom I talked into going naked with me. Being naked with someone else is much better than being alone."

Dani took a few bites of her salad. She looked at Amanda and me like there was more she wanted to say but wasn't sure if she should. Finally, she smiled and continued. "Acting like a mainstream nudist, or naturist, never cured me of my exhibitionism. To me, the two seem complimentary. About three and a half years ago, my desire to be exposed got the better of me. My parents had company in, several couples they knew. I was dressed up in a very short dress like I was going out, although I really wasn't. I came downstairs and Dad said something about being home by 11:00. I turned on him and called him every name in the book. I was counting on getting him angry enough that he' d spank me then and there. He did. With their guests watching, he had me pull up the hem of my dress and wrap it around my waist. Then, he made me take off my panties and bend over his knees. I spread my legs apart as far as I could. Dad's spanks hurt, and I got grounded for a couple of weeks, but it was worth it. When he finished, I ran back upstairs to my room, put some cream on my ass, got a toy out, and got myself off twice just thinking about how the people downstairs had seen my bare ass and cunt."

Dani sipped her Coke. When she finished, she said, "That's not the end of the story. My sister Amelia had been there for my spanking. She came up to my room. She told me that she'd followed me a few times when Cliff, my boyfriend, and I had gone skinny-dipping. She said that she'd wanted to join us but thought that I'd send her home. She said that watching me get spanked bare ass in front of our parents' friends was the sexiest thing she'd ever seen and that she wished it had been her instead of me. I'm not sure she felt that way the whole time I was grounded, but, that night, I pulled out a toy for her. It was hot as hell getting myself off for a third time while I watched Amelia get herself off while she watched me."

Clark repeated what he'd said the night before: "You understand why I like Dani so much?" Clark said that he'd never gone nude in public before he got to the University and met Dani. "There's something about her that's very magnetic," Clark said. "She was very upfront that going nude and showing off are important parts of her life and, if I wanted a chance with her, I'd have to do it too. I figured it was a small price to pay to get close to Dani. I've come to enjoy it also."

Amanda and I didn't have to say anything to each other. We both knew that Dani and Clark were our kind of people. As much as we could with exams weeks coming up, we got together with them and the four of us got naked.

We were having lunch with Dani and Clark on the Saturday between the first and second weeks of exams. Dani asked what Amanda and I were doing over the Summer. "We're both going hoe to work for my Dad," Amanda said. "I'll work in the office helping with the books and Harry will be out in the field."

"Any chance you can get June 23-25 off and come to Wisconsin?" Dani asked. "That's a Tuesday through Thursday."

"Why?" I asked.

Dani got a slightly naughty smile. "There's rich guy who owns a software company with about 200 employees in a suburb just outside Milwaukee. My parents know him. Every year in June, he takes over a country club and has a party for his employees and their spouses/dates. Adults only. He does something for the kids around the Holidays. Anyway, like I said, he takes over the country club. Their staff gets a paid day off and he provides his own people. The club has a huge pool and he told Mom that he's looking for lifeguards."

Getting ahead of things, I said, "I'm not sure we want to go all the way to Milwaukee for a day of lifeguarding. Besides, I'm not certified."

"Harry, please let me finish," Dani said. "I know this guy's wife a little. I'm not sure why, but she used to come to most of our high school lacrosse games. Maybe she played in college. Anyway, I called her. What they want is six people to lifeguard in the nude, three girls and three guys. It gets better. The other people there will be clothed. His employees and their guests will be in swimsuits all day. The people he's bringing in to serve food and drinks must be clothed because of the health department rules. So, the six lifeguards will be nude but everyone else around the pool will be clothed."

"You're doing it?" I asked.

"Yeah," Dani said, "Clark and me and my little sister and her boyfriend. You up for it?"

I looked at Amanda, who was smiling. "I'm sure Dad will give us the time off if he knows why we want it," she said.

"The event starts at 10:00 a.m. on the 24th," Dani said. "I figured you take the 23rd to get to Milwaukee. You can stay over with us that night and the next and go home on the 25th."

I looked at Amanda, who said, "Sure. Why not? It sounds like fun."

Mr. Turner had given us jobs for the summer. Amanda worked in the office helping with the bookkeeping, which can get tricky for a construction company. I was out in the field. Basically, I was Mr. Turner's snitch. My job was to go around to the jobsites and make sure that the actual work, job progress, crew sizes, hours, and the like, matched what our superintendents and the subcontractors were reporting. I was a little surprised at how often reality and the reports didn't match.

Grades came about three weeks after we got home for the summer. To no one's surprise, Amanda did quite well: 3.95 GPA on a four point oh scale. To everyone's surprise, including my own, I had a 3.8 GPA for freshman year. To my disappointment, neither my sister Gwen nor Meryl came home for the summer. Gwen had acquired what seemed like a serious boyfriend, a guy named Phil Conlan from New York. Phil wanted to be a doctor, his parents were both doctors, and one of them had gotten Phil a summer job in the City working in a hospital lab. Gwen had decided that she wanted to be a writer and was interning with a national magazine in New York, I suspected to stay close to Phil.

Meryl was more interesting. She was a little vague about it but told us that she had started doing some modeling at school in Providence. I gathered that some photographer she'd met had convinced her that she might have a future as a model. I could buy that. She was certainly beautiful enough and had a firm, athletic body. Modeling sounded more interesting to me than the mathematics which were her major. At any rate, the photographer had asked Meryl to come to Newport for the summer to work on "portfolio material." I was disappointed not to see her but hoped that she was having fun.

Amanda and I had both told our parents about Dani's invitation to Wisconsin to spend a day as nude lifeguards. Mr. and Mrs. Turner and Mom and Dad were all enthusiastic about the idea and, perhaps, even a bit envious. Mr. Turner insisted that Amanda and I fly to Milwaukee at his expense. Dani and Clark met us at Mitchell International Airport.

Clark was from Cleveland, but he was spending the summer in Milwaukee assisting some folks at UW studying the Great Lakes. The Lakes were one of Clark's passions and he had this "design your own" major, which the University allowed, focused on studying the Lakes, the people who lived near them, and how the two interacted. Of course, being in Milwaukee also let Clark spend the summer with Dani.

Dani and Clark gave us a quick tour of Milwaukee. I have to say that I was impressed. We spent the evening just sitting around nude in Clark's apartment. After we'd finished our pizza, Clark said, "Well, Amanda, Harry, tomorrow you'll get to meet Amelia."

Dani added, "Amelia's the beautiful one in the family. She's also become quite the exhibitionist. She was a cheerleader for football. This past year was her senior year. I made it up for one game. She had her tights worked into her ass like a thong under that short cheerleading skirt. She was a diver in the winter. I didn't get to any of her meets, but I've seen photos. She'd wear one of those high-cut suits and work the back of it into the crack of her ass with a blatant camel toe in front. I'm surprised that she didn't get into trouble with the school, but she's a very good student, and Dad has a lot of clout. For all of her showing off, tomorrow will be the first time she's gone completely nude in front of a group of strangers."

"What about her boyfriend?" I asked.

"Matt?" Dani said rhetorically. "Matt was a receiver on the high school football team. He's a nice guy. Amelia started going out with him last summer and started him skinny-dipping. My guess is that he's scared to death about tomorrow, but he'll do anything Amelia asks him." Dani gave a short laugh. "Matt doesn't know it, but that relationship is ending soon. He's going to play football at Oshkosh. Amelia has no intention of staying in touch with him once she comes to school in Chicago."

The country club was about a 45-minute drive out of Milwaukee. I can't be sure, but I think we went slightly southwest. We were on the road early with Clark driving and Dani giving directions. The event started at 10:00 a.m. but Dani said we were supposed to be there at 9:00. The pool, which was visible from the parking lot, was separate from the clubhouse, with its own changing room. A chain link fence enclosed a large, grassy area around the pool that was largely covered with plastic lounge chairs. There was a large refrigerated truck parked with its back towards a gate in the fence.

We parked and went through the open gate. A temporary bar had been set up under the awning that came extended off the changing room roof. Four buff-looking men and women were setting up the bar. The two guys were shirtless and in board shorts. The two women wore bikini tops and cutoffs. We were all dressed in tee shirts and shorts.