The Nude Pioneer Ch 04

"What are we going to do with you? I mean, seriously, what are we going to do with you?!" said my mom.

I sat on the living room couch, facing my dad, who was sitting in a chair with his head in his hands. Mom was pacing back and forth between us.

Dad lifted his head up. "There's nothing we CAN do. She's an adult, she can make her own choices. She made the wrong one, but she has to be free to find her own way."

"Then we can be free not to keep her under our roof!" Mom shouted.

Dad sighed. "Donna, you don't mean that." He turned to me. "We don't think you're a bad person, Julie, but we're trying to understand why you'd do something so brash, so dangerous, so... offensive."

They wanted me to apologize. I knew that's what they wanted. Yet for some reason I just couldn't, because I didn't feel like I had wronged anyone. I was trying to build up the courage to say what I really felt. Instead, I just kept silent.

"How could you just disrobe in front of all those students?" Mom asked. "And parents? And the principal? What were you thinking? And you just went OUT like that?!"

"Just to the car," I said. It was the first thing I had said since my parents sat me on the couch. "Then we drove over to Sarah's and I got dressed there."

"What were you thinking?!" Mom repeated. "ANYthing could have happened to you out there! The car could have broken down. You could have been arrested. You could have been RAPED!"

"Why am I more likely to be raped just because I'm nude?" I responded.

"Julie, honey, you're still very young, and there are some things you don't quite understand about the world, and about men," Dad told me.

I shot daggers at him with my eyes. "DON'T patronize me, Dad. And furthermore, you CAN'T get arrested, because nudity is LEGAL." That wasn't one hundred percent accurate. Nudity was legal, of course, but the police could still arrest and humiliate you, forcing you to defend your rights in front of a judge.

"She does have a point there, Donna," Dad conceded.

"Darren!" Mom shouted back. "This is not NORMAL behavior. Why does our daughter feel the need to offend people?" She turned to me. "And now I hear from Shannon Smith's mother that you organized some kind of... orgy at the lock-in last weekend??"

"It wasn't an orgy," I said quietly. "We just went skinny dipping." I left out the part about Tony getting a blowjob from my fellow co-valedictorian, and then getting seduced and screwed by Sarah's friend Tiffany, right in front of the other girls.

"Ok," Mom said, "I can maybe understand that. I understand the need to go a little wild and crazy, but... Well, there's that, and there's your exposing yourself in front of your classmates, and I happen to know for a fact that you hang out stark naked around the house when you think we're asleep."

"She DOES?" Dad reacted, surprised.

"Oh yes, including when her friends are here. I've snuck downstairs and seen her. THEY all keep their clothes on, but Julie lounges around naked like some... pervert."

"I'm NOT a pervert!" I shouted. "And WHY are you SPYING on me?!"

"I had my suspicions. A mother can sense what's going on with her daughter," she said, matter-of-factly.

"Donna, honey, 'pervert' is a very strong word," Dad said. "She's young. She's trying new things. Expressing herself. It's a phase; she'll grow out of it."

"It's not a PHASE!" I shouted. "I'm eighteen years old, not some f... some little girl still growing up!"

"Phase or not, I still want to understand why you need to do these offensive things," Mom said.

That finally pushed me over the edge. "My body is NOT offensive!" I shouted, standing up. Without even thinking about it, I crossed my arms in front of me, and in one swift motion, lifted my t-shirt and sports bra over my head. I tossed them aside, then pushed my shorts and underwear down, stepped out of them, and tossed them on top of my other clothes. I stood before my parents stark naked, probably for the first time in ten years. "There!" I said. "Is THIS offensive?"

"Oh my God," Mom said quietly, shielding her eyes and turning her head away.

Dad also averted his eyes. "Julie, was that really necessary?"

"Yes. Yes it is. I need to show you that there's nothing offensive or disgusting about my body."

"Actually, it really is quite stunning," Dad mumbled.

"Darren!" Mom shouted.

"Well, a father can be proud, can't he?" Dad asked.

"You're NOT helping," Mom said. "Both of you... you just... ARRRRGH!" She stormed off up the stairs.

I stood there, standing straight and tall and proud, unrepentant in my nakedness.

"That's my daughter: outrageous and lacking in the smallest amount of tact," Dad said, now a little less timid about looking at me. "Reminds me of another woman I know, when she was about your age."

My anger abated a little, and I smiled. Dad referred to me as a "woman," which I appreciated, and I knew Mom had a stubborn streak to match my own.

Dad sighed. "We can't ground you, since you're an adult. And you haven't technically done anything illegal... or anything that I'd even say is morally wrong. BUT..."

"But?" I asked.

"But, there is something you need to handle. Being an adult means taking care of problems on your own and not expecting your parents to fix them."

I groaned. "What?"

"Because of your little 'show' after graduation, Principal Harris is withholding your diploma. Your admission to UW is contingent on you having graduated high school. You need to fix it. You made the choice to do what you did, so it's up to you handle the consequences. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Dad," I said quietly. I suddenly felt very exposed, naked in the living room, with the realization of my situation sinking in.

The phone conversation with the principal did not go well. He demanded eight hours of detention to be served every single day for the next two months. Not only would that kill both of my summer jobs, but also my trip to Lake Winnetonga I had planned with Sarah. He claimed he was "letting me off easy." I got pissed off with him, told him to do something anatomically impossible, and slammed the phone.

"Fuck," I said.

I needed that diploma. There had to be some sort of legal recourse. I wanted to become a lawyer, after all. Was I entitled to a diploma after completing school? I wasn't sure. There was no way I could afford to hire a lawyer, anyway. I curled up on my bed in despair.

After a few minutes I decided to pull myself together, thinking a walk over to Lana's might clear my head. Oddly enough, I was still totally nude at this point. I went downstairs to get my clothes and saw that my wallet had flown off several feet from my shorts. I picked it up, and noticed the business card from Edmund Bryant, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin. Maybe there was another way to fix this.

Heading back upstairs, I could hear both my parents in their bedroom, arguing. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but I knew it was about me. I closed myself in my room and called the number on the card.

"This is Ed, how can I help you?"

"Um, hi, Mr. Chancellor, sir, this is Julie Johnson. I don't know if you remember, but we met one night back in May..."

"Young Godiva!" he exclaimed. "It would be difficult to forget you, what with your very fashionable attire that evening."

I blushed. Gaining my composure, I told him about how I had worn nothing under my gown at graduation, how I ended up naked in front of the principal when I had to turn it in, and how I was being denied my diploma.

"Do you think what you did was foolish?" he asked in his posh English accent.

"Well, I... um..." I didn't really know how to answer.

"Think hard, and tell me honestly: do you think what you did was foolish?"

I took a deep breath. "No," I said, immediately regretting it. I assumed he wanted me to see the error of my ways, but when I was honest with myself, I realized I'd do it all over again. "I don't think it was foolish."

The chancellor chuckled lightly. "Ms. Johnson, I just finished my annual vision statement for the university. Oh, it's mostly bullshit to be sure, but it does keep the Board of Regents happy. However, there is one part of my vision that I'm dead serious about: I envision this university as a place that teaches young people to become agents of change in the world. I can see that you are already doing your bit."

I didn't know what to say. I simply kept silent.

"With a stroke of a pen and my signature, I can waive any admissions contingency for any student. Consider this matter attended to, Ms. Johnson, and on behalf of the University, welcome!"

"I... I... thank you, Mr. Chancellor!"

"Ed. Please," the Chancellor responded. "I wish you well, Young Godiva. And please, keep my card handy. From what I know of you already, you're going to require friends in high places from time to time."

We ended our phone conversation, leaving me practically giddy. I ran down the hallway to tell my parents, completely forgetting I was still naked. My milky white breasts bounced in front of me and my long auburn hair trailed after me as I ran. I knocked on their door, and Mom answered.

"Julie!" she exclaimed, shielding her eyes. "PLEASE, can you..."

"Donna," Dad interrupted from within the room. "Remember, we just agreed."

It turned out that my parents decided that I could be nude in the house, but had to get dressed whenever they had guests over. I also couldn't be nude in front of my little brother and sister. I thought that was incredibly stupid, but I agreed to respect their wishes.

I told them about my conversation with the chancellor (at least, the part where he said he'd let me in without technically graduating high school), and they were overjoyed. Dad told me he was very proud of me for how I had handled things.

After work a few days later, I was hanging out in our living room with Sarah, Lana, and Crystal. Since my brother Jim was at baseball practice, and my sister Janette was doing soccer, I was free to be nude.

"Middle of the afternoon, and you're naked?" Lana asked. "Isn't that tempting fate? What about your parents?"

I told them about our agreement, getting shocked looks from all three women.

"Hey, what happened with your trip to Alabama?" I asked Lana. "I remember you said it was horrible."

"Yeah, that," Lana replied. She looked at Crystal, not entirely comfortable with her there. Sarah, Lana, and I had been a tight-knit trio since kindergarten, but Crystal was, until recently, only a friend of Sarah's.

"Well," she continued, "I went down to Mobile to see my mom and stepdad. My parents broke up like ten years ago, and my mom went off with this other guy, who became my stepdad a year later. Anyway..." Lana looked at me nervously.

"What is it?" I asked. I was lounging on the couch, my legs dangling over one of the arms and my head in the middle. I was very comfortable, and had completely forgotten my nudity.

"Please don't take this the wrong way," Lana said. "I don't mean this as anything against you. It's just... we're talking about my own mom here, and this other man I don't even know all that well." She paused, and her face flushed red. "It turns out... they're nudists."

My ears immediately perked up, and I swung my legs around and sat on the edge of the couch. "Really?" I asked.

"They told me that now that I was eighteen, and they didn't have to worry about custody issues, they could tell me," Lana said. "They were both in bathrobes, and they just dropped them to the floor in front of me! And I saw my mom, all saggy and old, and my stepdad, all hairy!"

"You poor thing," Crystal said.

I made an annoyed huff. "Why is that so bad? You don't mind ME being naked, do you?"

"That's different," Lana said, waiving a dismissing hand at me. "You're... well, you. And we already know you're not normal, and there's no big shock in seeing you. But we're talking about my MOM here. And it's more than just knowing they're nudists, and more than just seeing them naked... they wanted me to go with them to their 'naturist club.' As if I, of all people, wanted to go to some sex club. It's sick."

"Who said it was a sex club?" I asked.

"Well, why else would everyone get all naked in front of each other?" she replied.

I gestured to myself with both hands. "Hello?!"

"Yeah, but we already established you're not normal," said Sarah.

I stuck my tongue out at Sarah. "I take it you didn't go," I said to Lana.

"Well, duh," she said. "Anyway, enough of that. I'm glad I got that off my chest. What's up this weekend?"

Sarah, Crystal, and I looked at one another. "I don't know how to say this, Lana, but we're going to Lake Winnetonga," Sarah told her.

"Were you going to go without me?" Lana asked.

"No, we were going to invite you," Sarah said, "but from what you just told us, I'm guessing you're not going to want to go."

"Why not?"

"We're going to a very specific part of Lake Winnetonga State Park," I explained.

"What part is that?" asked Lana.

"The naked part," Crystal said.

"Clothing optional," I corrected.

"There's a... a clothing optional part of Lake Winnetonga?" Lana asked, looking more confused than shocked.

"Technically the whole country is clothing optional, but this was a stretch of beach that naturists started using, and it just became customary to be nude there," I said. I had taken the time to read some web sites about the place, learning its history.

Sarah explained about the skinny dipping at the lock-in, and how I had agreed to spend all day naked at the clothing optional beach if she went skinny dipping with me.

"Wait," said Crystal to Sarah, "You told me it was YOUR idea to go naked that night."

"Would you have gone if I had told you it was J.J.'s idea?" (J.J. is what my close friends called me.)

Crystal shook her head no. In the past week or so, I had gotten to know Sarah's friends a lot better, especially Crystal. I used to think she was snotty and bitchy, and she thought I was stuck-up, aloof, and weird. Well, I AM weird, but I hope I don't come off as suck-up and aloof.

"You can come with us if you want," I said to Lana. "I could use all the moral support I can get."

"I don't have to get naked, do I?" she asked.

"No, Julie here is going to be the only one naked, I can guarantee you that!" said Crystal. Crystal, to my great surprise, told us she wanted to come along when we told her of our plans.

Lana sighed. "I'll think about it. I want to be there for J.J., help her through a new experience, but I don't know. I'm still wigged out about my mom."

Later that evening, after my friends had left, I gave Kai a call. We had been chatting back and forth ever since skinny dipping together up in Madison. He was the first man I ever saw naked, which is sad, since I was already eighteen years old at the time.

"So, do you think you can make it?" I asked him.

"I think I might be able to, but lemme tell ya, the idea still scares me, just a bit." He had a beautiful baritone speaking voice.

"You don't have to get naked," I said.

"Yeah, but you'll be. It seems only fair."

"Don't worry about that. As I've told you, I've started getting used to being naked around people, at least a bit. I'm naked right now, in fact."

"Julie, you're one of a kind," Kai said. My heart skipped a bit at his affectionate comment.

"How would you get down from Madison?" I asked.

"My folks gave me their beat-up old Dodge Watt," Kai explained. "Two hundred fifty kilometers on a single charge."

"Weren't those things recalled?"

"The batteries kinda sorta explode on side impact, but as long as you don't crash, they're perfectly safe," Kai joked.

Saturday couldn't come soon enough. I literally jumped out of bed and ran to the shower. Then I got dressed, filled a duffel bag with a towel, sunblock, water, and snacks, and waited for Sarah to pick me up.

Dad got up to see me off, coming downstairs in his bathrobe. Mom usually slept in late on Saturday.

"Where are you going with your friends, again?" Dad asked.

"Lake Winnetonga," I told him.

"Lake Winnetonga," my dad echoed. "Ah." He paused for a moment. "I assume you're going to the nude part, then?"

My dad was an extremely handsome man, very youthful for fifty-six. His thick, full hair was an iron gray, fading into white at his temples, but his skin was smooth and youthful with just a few character lines. He hadn't developed the "middle-aged spread" that afflicted other men his age. Part of that was good genetics (Grandpa was in his eighties and still played racquetball), and part of that was Mom and Dad both went to the gym religiously. Mom was fifty years old but still turned the heads of young men. I think waiting until later in life to have children helped keep them young.

I nodded yes.

"Is it just you and Sarah?"

I told him that Crystal was coming along, and maybe Lana as well. I didn't mention that Kai might also be there. In fact, I can't remember if Dad even knew about Kai at this point.

"That's good. The more friends with you, the better. I want you to be safe, you know."

"I know," I said.

Sarah honked her horn outside, so I kissed him goodbye on the cheek and headed out the door. I saw that both Crystal and Lana were in the back seat, and had saved shotgun for me.

"Lana, you decided to come! Cool!" I said.

"I figure if I don't like it on the nude beach, I could go for a hike around some of the non-nude areas," she said.

The lake itself was really a widening in a river. It was about five kilometers across at its widest and some twenty kilometers long. The state park was along one side of the lake, a ten kilometer stretch of shoreline. Tall bluffs (well, tall by Midwestern standards) lined the shore, and the park offered a lot of trails that wound up and down the terrain.

We drove into the park and followed the signs to the beach. None of the official markers said anything about the area being clothing optional, but when we got to the beach entrance, we saw the following sheet posted to a bulletin board:

NUDE SUNBATHERS So that everyone may enjoy the park, please respect the following guidelines: 1. The established area for nude recreation is within one kilometer of this entrance. If you leave this area, please cover up out of respect for non-nude park users. 2. Please do not sit on any park benches or public equipment nude without a towel. 3. Please keep music volume to a reasonable level. 4. Please do not swim alone. There is NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY. 5. Please pick up all empty containers and trash before you leave. GLASS BOTTLES ARE PROHIBITED! 6. Please respect the privacy of other beach users. 7. SEXUAL ACTIVITY OF ANY KIND IS PROHIBITED! Park wardens as well as private citizens regularly patrol the area, and you will be arrested and removed from the park for lewd behavior.

There was an "N" logo at the bottom of the sheet. Beneath, it said "The Naturist Society, Oshkosh, WI." Interesting that they came down to Illinois just to post this, I thought.

"That's a lot of rules for a beach," Crystal said.

"They're just 'guidelines,'" Sarah pointed out.

"Well, here goes nothing," I said as we grabbed our bags and walked through the entrance along the short path that led down the hill towards the beach.

Once at the edge of the hill, we could see a large portion of the beach stretched out in front of us. There they were: several dozen people, almost all of them completely nude. Some sat on folding chairs reading, others were basking in the morning sun. A few men in their thirties or forties were tossing around a frisbee. There were other folks just sitting around on their towels in a group, chatting.

I noticed that only the last few feet of the "beach" was actually sand. The rest of it was a grassy park, with shade trees, benches, barbecue grills, and one or two fire pits. There was a permanent restroom and drinking fountains. The bluffs behind us and across the lake gave the park a very scenic feel, and overall it looked like a very pleasant place to spend a hot summer's day.