The Look in Her Eyes
Don Julian Winslow
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"In the end, we are all voyeurs."
-- Hollis Compton in "Does it Really Matter?"
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Ten curious faces turned as one to watch the new girl enter room 303. They were all at their places, their easels forming a loose circle around an empty chair atop a small platform. They had been talking casually; just waiting for class to begin. Their conversations stopped when the door opened to admit the newcomer; an intruder into their little group; for Madeline it was an awkward moment. She was instantly relieved to find none of the students were in any of her classes. She had worried about that on the nervous ride over. Now, from somewhere in the back of the room, Professor Kenner bounded up to take her hand and welcome her to Drawing 201. He introduced her to the class as "Maddie Kosco" who had kindly consented to be one of our new models for this term.
The thin girl with the straight dark hair, gave a tentative smile and friendly nod. Several of the students, both girls and boys, smiled back. Professor Kenner, white haired and gracious, was in a hurry. He asked if she were ready to begin, and ushered her to the alcove in the far corner of the room. Like a changing booth in a dress store, it was tiny with just a low stool; on the wall a mirror, and a single hook holding a long white robe. Behind the curtain, Madeline quickly stripped, undoing her khaki shorts and shoving them down her long straight legs. Her t-shirt followed, ignoring the mirror which followed the progress of the slender small-breasted girl in her underwear.
She reached up in back to undo the bra and brushed it from her shoulders with a brisk business-like gesture. Then hooking her thumbs in her panties, she bent forward to ride them down to her ankles before stepping free of the fallen underpants.
On the stool, she quickly tugged off sneakers and socks, all the while aware of that tinging rise of the nervousness that she felt as she sat on the bus heading for her new job in the Fine Arts College. And it was a job, she reminded herself, good pay or only a few hours a week, and all she had to do was take her clothes off and sit there while these budding young artists practiced drawing. It was just plain silly to be nervous, she told herself.
She stood up and paused to take one final look in the mirror, critically examining the nude woman staring back at her. A pretty girl (she had been told that many times in growing up), with straight hair that she wore shoulder-length. Lanky shoulders and straight narrow limbs. "All arms and legs" her mother used to say with a smile, as the coltish girl was sent off to school. Later, she decided her legs were her best feature, tall and smooth and tapering with slight feminine contours.
The breasts she saw were small but firm: nicely shaped teardrops that sat high on her chest. "Two neat handfuls" Eric would sigh when reaching for her. She cupped them a bit to raise them as in offering to the mirror. Her thumbs brushed the nipples which seemed to set them tingling today for some reason. Looking into her eyes, breasts hefted in her hands, she might have been in danger in slipping into a sort of dreamy reverie, had not a sudden thought reminded her that a roomful of people were waiting for her! A quick check of her butt as she turned in place, caused her to smile: a nice, small tautly curved bottom.
Moving quickly now, she slipped on the big fluffy robe and taking a breath drew back the curtain to walk barefoot across the tile to the Professor Kenner and the waiting stage.
***
The warmly smiling professor was solicitous, chatting to relax his new model, while his hand rested reassuringly on her robed shoulder; asking if she was ok. After a few minutes of that, he offered to take her robe. Suddenly embarrassed, she kept her eyes on the floor, she slipped out of it and he took it away. Then he took her hand and helped the tentative nude girl up the step to the wooden chair, while Maddie worked to avoid all those eyes that she knew were on her as she mounted the stage. Someone had thoughtfully placed a cushion on the hard wooden seat, for which she was grateful.
Once seated in place, she raised her head and brushed back a strand of hair, to let her eyes sweep the room and with a determined effort to be bold, set out to directly confront the faces of her audience. A new wave of nervousness swept over her, all the old doubts about what she doing came back to her. What would her father say? He knew only that she had found a part-time job on campus. She just wasn't sure this was right. These thoughts went through her head as she sat in the pose he had put her in, relaxed, with legs slightly parted, one hand on her thigh, the other loose at her side. She could feel their eyes on her - appraising her looks, her naked body on open display.
The professor had receded, leaving the nude girl alone on the stage. He would make the rounds of the room examining the work of each student, offering advice here and there. While, to her surprise, Maddie found her initial embarrassment along with her nervousness were melting away. And a weird feeling of freedom rose up in her. It was feeling of being perfectly natural in her nudity, unlike all the others in the room who were bound by their clothes. She relaxed, at ease with herself, with her body. It was just a job. As time went on, she began to study those who were studying her.