“Only female students are required to be naked at all times! Staff,
depending on their position are either to be dressed or in their
underwear.”
My hands immediately jumped to shield my nakedness. The Headmistress’s
words hung momentarily in the air between us while I thought how to
tell her the dilemma I faced.
“Although,” the Headmistress continued, “they too maybe naked as part
of a punishment.”
I not only felt foolish for arriving nude on my first day, I now had
the feeling I was going to get into trouble. In fact, I was sure I was
going to get into trouble and be punished.
“Headmistress…” I had to swallow hard three times before the lump in
my throat would swallow.
“Yes?”
Headmistress raised an eyebrow and looked curiously at me.
“I don’t know how to say this…”
“Say what, girl?”
I blinked and flinched at the impatient tone of Headmistress’s
question. “Um…”
“Stop mumbling, girl! Speak up!”
“Um, I didn’t bring any clothes to wear!” I whispered, unable to
muster any confidence whatsoever.
“You what?”
I steeled my nerves and repeated my confession, louder but still a
waver in my voice. “I…um, I didn’t bring any … clothes … to …”
The Headmistress was laughing hard before the fading words even left
my lips. My face was blushing so deeply I felt like it would
spontaneously combust into flames.
“You’re kidding!” the Headmistress said, enunciating each word clearly
and individually.
I could feel the heat in my face threatening to unleash a torrent of
water from my eyes. One blink and I knew the valve would be released
so I turned my attention to window of her office and stared unblinking
off into the brilliant orange and purple haze of the sunset beyond the
heavily forested grounds of the college.
“Surely you didn’t travel here like that?” the Headmistress asked,
waving her hands dismissively at my nakedness as she continued
chuckling.
“No,” I replied, suddenly remembering my clothes I’d left at the
security booth at the front gate. “No, I…”
“I was impressed with your resume.”
“You were?”
My spirits were instantly lifted by the Headmistress’s unexpected
compliment.
“Yes. I might even get you to teach the human sexuality classes.”
“Really?” I asked, feeling suddenly nervous again at the prospect of
being given such an onerous task.
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
I meekly shook my head.
“So, you didn’t bring any clothes?” the Headmistress asked, returning
to address my nakedness.
“Well, yes, I…”
“Either you did or you didn’t! Which is it, you silly girl? I hope
you’re not going to be this muddle-headed in your work. The library
and bookshop are in a very disorganized state right now I need to know
I haven’t made a mistake in giving the job of running them to you.”
“No,” I said. I felt confused by the multiple questions and decided to
ignore the problem of my clothes until I was sure the Headmistress had
her confidence in me restored.
“Good. You’re sure now?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I’m really looking forward to it!” I added in an
effort to emphasize my firm committment.
“Good. So, what’s the story with your clothes? Are they in that
suitcase of yours downstairs?”
“No!”
I didn’t want to sound startled but it was too late.
“No?”
“No. Um, I undressed at the main gate and left my clothes in the
little security booth.”
“You what?” the Headmistress asked, breaking into a small laugh again.
“I undressed at the…”
“Yes, I heard you the first time. Haven’t you got other clothes in
your suitcase?”
Even before I answered I knew what the Headmistress’s next question
was going to be. “No…”
“So…?”
“Um, so…?”
“So, what’s in the case?” the Headmistress suddenly wasn’t laughing
anymore.
“Oh, just a few personal things. Books mainly,” I lied.
“Books?”
The Headmisstress sounded incredulous.
“Yes, just a few books. Oh, I wouldn’t be reading them at work!”
In fact the few books I had in my suitcase were not the kind of
reading material I’d read anywhere except in the privacy of my own
room late at night when nobody was around.
“Books, eh? I can see why you call yourself bookgirl.”
“Yes…”
I smiled a brave smile and left the conversation at that.
“Okay, you can fetch your clothes later. It’s nearly dinner time and
there’s a lot to show you so you can settle in,” the Headmistress
said. She immediately started heading for the door. “Come on then!”
I trotted briskly after the Headmistress, releasing my arms from
around my body when I realized I needed the movement of them to keep
up with her. Even with the aid of their swinging momentum the
Headmistress’s long strides left me almost running to keep up. We
passed the open door to an office along the passageway that connected
the main building with the neighboring one and I had just enough time
to catch sight of a woman inside sitting at her desk looking up at me
as I rushed past. I can only imagine what she must have thought of the
sight of me – my breasts bounding in erratic circles on my chest; my
bottom jiggling hard with every heavy footfall.
The Headmistress led me on a quick tour of the library and bookshop,
pointing out a staricase along the way that went down to the cafeteria
area where all the students and staff would be dining.
“I’ll see you back there after you get yourself dressed. Okay?”
I nodded and watched as the Headmistress disappeared down the stairs
to the cafeteria. I then made a mental note of the location of the
cafeteria but wasn’t entirely sure I’d remember it. But this wasn’t my
most urgent problem. By the time I’d found my way back to the front
door of the administration building it was almost pitch dark outside.
There was only some scattered patches of light from the windows of
rooms upstairs shining down across the lawn outside. Across into the
forest of pines was completely dark.
I eventually found my way to the path back through the trees and ran
as quickly as I felt I could run without tripping over anything. By
the time I got back to the wooden guard booth, I was completely out of
breath. In fact I was so out of breath I couldn’t even say anything
when I looked in the booth and discovered my clothes weren’t there! I
felt a wave of panic wash over me. Even though I knew my clothes
weren’t there, I turned over the pile of brochures on the small metal
desk inside the booth before turning my attention to the floor around
the desk. I crawled around in the darkness, groping blindly in every
dark empty corner before giving up. Where were they?