Changing the World – Introduction
by eboy – eboyandsuch.wordpress.com

Head over to the Arts Department building. Go back towards the theatre, into the back-stage area. Off stage-right, back in the far corner, there are a couple of shelves blocking off the corner area, all piled high with crazy junk. Inside these is where the theatre tech department stores all of the furniture and larger props, plus a whole lot of other useless stuff waiting around for the right play. It's also where my friends and I eat lunch. It's secluded – people rarely come to the theatre at this time anyway, and even if they did, they'd have to get passed the miscellanea to see us.

Lucy's up on her throne, as usual – a stack of cushions piled more than six feet tall next to one of the shelves. Woe be to he (or she, for that matter) that gets to Lucy's throne before she does. Jill is sitting a little primly, as usual, on the ground to Lucy's right, leaning against a large stuffed Tweety Bird. Max and Gordon have each claimed one of the two chairs, today, while the loveseat sofa is, as usual, reserved for Ben and I. He's curled up on his side, head in my lap; I'm stroking his hair absentmindedly as we talk. 

It's the day after our little adventure in Physics class, and we're all a little stunned.  When we got up here for lunch today, Max sheepishly pulled my bra out of his bag and handed it to me. Laughing, I tucked one end between the cushions of Lucy's throne so that it dangled down in front for all to see... And then, suddenly, everybody was afraid to speak first. After all, just the day before the two of us on the love-seat had fucked each other in front of the rest of the group, while Lucy had had (from what we could see) a mind-shattering orgasm. How the hell do you follow that up with small-talk?

Well, you don't follow it with small-talk, it turns out, but instead a rather serious discussion about privacy and nudity.

"What's so big about nipples, anyway?" asks Lucy. "After all, we all have them. This thing hanging on the front of my throne – half the human race, give or take a few, wears one! What's the big deal?" Most everyone was nodding with a strange combination of boredom and anticipation: After all, we all pretty much agreed on this subject, and our discussion had mostly involved everybody repeating some variation of that same statement. But everybody knew, in light of what happened yesterday, that there was a different subtext to the conversation: What was the big deal about keeping orgasms, in their many forms, private?

Jill, surprisingly, was the one to finally work up the courage to say what was actually on all of our minds. "And really, we all... um...  masturbate. So what's... yeah." She was blushing deep red in the way that only a young Irish girl can. There was a moment of silence after she spoke, and then a sudden burst of applause and laughter. Jill is usually so... Prim and proper, I guess, and it took us all by surprise that she masturbated, and was suddenly willing to talk about it. "You go, girl," pronounced Lucy, from up above.

"Well, she's right," Gordon chimed in. "Look, it took us fifteen minutes just to work up to using that word. And that's just the word!"

"And really, you can take it even a step farther..." Max begins, but trails off, looking a little sheepish. After a second, he continues. "Even a step farther: Everybody has sex. Whether or not to keep that private should really be an individual choice, not something mandated by society."

"Bingo." I had decided to speak up. "I really have no interest in sharing every single time Ben and I get it on, but if we feel like fucking where other's can see us... Well, what's the big deal?" I could feel Ben laughing into my stomach. It tickled, a little. Then he spoke up: "The big deal is that society is really darn uncomfortable with bodies, in general, and with the things we do with them. The-flesh-is-evil and our Puritan roots and things like that."

"Well, we shouldn't be so uncomfortable with it." Lucy had made a pronouncement. "It just makes it hard on all of us, forces us to feel guilty about natural things. It needs to be changed."

"I don't know... Free love didn't work out so well." Gordon speaking up; figures – he had hippie parents. "Not free love," corrected Jill, bashfully. "Just... being comfortable." She looked so scared I just had to support her: "Exactly. I've got no interest in orgies or swinging – not while I've got Ben here." That earned me another laugh in the tummy. "But if Ben and I feel like getting it on during a passing period, and aren't doing it where we're obstructing traffic, hell, why not?"

"What," said Max, "like some sort of more extreme version of naturism, where nudity and sex and masturbation are all lumped together?"

"No," said Gordon, "or at least, not necessarily. Just like every day life, but where those sorts of choices are respected."

"It'll never happen." Ben. "Society's pretty stuck in it's ways around this. You'd have to start some sort of grass-roots thing, and really get it to become big before any media coverage happened. The moment there was media coverage, the movement would get squashed. You'd have to find some way to spread very quickly, but still fly under the radar..."

Silence, while we all chewed on this. Then, Lucy. "Let's do it."

Wait, what?

We all mostly just stared at her for a bit, then all tried to ask her what she meant at once. She blushed. "Let's start that movement. Make it a student movement, spread it around the high schools – with high schoolers, it can all just become a game, a secret to hide from the teachers, and then... And then all the members will grow up and be the people in charge. See? Get'em while they're young."

Ben was tense in my lap; me, I was just excited. I started to see where she was going. "So we start a bit of an unofficial club, here. At first, it's just us, but as we go out we can find ways to spread it to the other schools. We make a rule – the junk storage area is a no-clothes zone. When we come in here every lunch, we strip, and don't get dressed until we leave. No one will catch us – no one ever comes back here, anyway."

Jill, stammering: "But... what about... Like, the other aspects of the club?" Lucy: "Like masturbation and sex? How about this:  every day I'll give up my throne for a little bit – I know, I know, what sacrifice – for one person to come up here and get off." I catch my breath, probably right along with everyone else. "We'll make a schedule."

There's silence for a bit. Gordon, ever the practical one, finally speaks: "That could... get a bit... well, messy?"

Suddenly, the tension breaks, and we're all laughing. No, giggling, really, falling over ourselves, still shocked that we're even considering this. "Use the bra!" I call out, prompting a resurgence of laughter. "Or just bring some paper-towels."

Somewhere off in the distance, a bell rings, and the laughter dies down. Lucy speaks up. "Ok, guys. Who's in?"

Ben and I look at each other, then raise our hands together. Jill looks nervously at the floor, then sneaks up a finger. Max and Gordon give "why the hell not?" shrugs. And Lucy makes the pronouncement: "Ok, then. Starting tomorrow, this space becomes clothes-free. And just out of the goodness of my heart, I, your fearless leader, will..." She realizes what she's saying, and takes a deep swallow. "I'll get us started."