Over lunch, Mindy was excited about the new developments and couldn't believe that Ellie had undressed at my home.

"And I missed it. I like her, a lot"

"Maybe you can come to the non-landed-club Saturday? We will be there", says Marge

"I'll ask my parents. Would you come, Edith?",

"I think I have to undress too, and I am not ready for that", says Edith

"At worse, wear shorts, as if you had your periods"

"Maybe. Or possibly, I'll just stay at home. I do need time on my own sometimes.", says Edith.

It was one thing that her psychologist told her. That she needed time alone to process her emotions.

"Ah well, your loss."

"Would you like to come to my house tonight? You could undress, well, not Edith, she isn't ready. She can come, but stay dressed, like me", says Marge.

"I would love to", says Mindy

"I'll be there", I said.

I had an understanding with my parents, I could go see friends after school, but I needed to call them before leaving. There were payphones in the high school, but I decided to go see Ellie.

"Hello Julie, how can I help you?"

"Well, Marge invited us over to your home tonight after school, and I need to warn my parents. I know, your invited me yesterday, but I forgot to tell them. Do you think I could call them?"

"Sure. You and Edith?"

"And Mindy"

"Right. Of course, the four queens"

"Huh?", I said, confused.

She laughs.

"It's in inside joke. I asked Marge, a long time ago, which card was her favorite, and she, without a doubt, said it was the queen of clubs"

I laughed.

"Why?"

"She loves clovers, that's like, her favorite plant. As a kid, she liked to go to a park with clovers, and instead of playing with the park equipment, she would be on all four digging in the field for 4 leaf clovers."

"Aren't these, like, super rare?"

"About one in 5 to 10 thousand. She has like 6 or 7 of them, pressed."

"Nice, so we are the four queens?"

"Edith is the queen of spade, all dark"

"I see"

"Mindy is the queen of hearth, because of how much she talks about her boyfriend"

I laugh. "I can see that. Wait, that makes me the queen of diamonds?"

"Yeah, but you are her newest friend, you got the remaining one"

"I should call my parents, the bell will ring soon"

"Sure"

I call, and it's my father who answers.

"I will be at Marge tonight with Edith and Mindy"

"Tell him I will feed all of you", says Ellie

"Ellie says we can eat there"

"Make sure you do your homework before playing"

"Dad, it's Marge we are talking about. Of course, we will do our homework first"

"When does Ellie want us to pick you up?"

"My dad asks when to pick us up?"

"Oh, I was hoping... ok, fine, 8?"

But I didn't catch Ellie's wish. Maybe she wanted to finish nude at our home, but I was stressed for the class, so I told my dad, thanked Ellie, and ran to my classroom, where I realized what Ellie's disappointment was probably about.

But at 12, I didn't dwell on it. I didn't realize that at her age, she has multiple times my lifetime of social programming to overcome. She also has doubts about imposing herself on the parents of her friends, like I have doubts today that I can be annoying with my lifestyle to people who occasionally agree to have a clothing optional party and then, forget about it for weeks. Now that the novelty had run its course, they would often ignore me, looking for a new adventure until it would be my turn again and my weird obsession.

At 22, I got it. Ellie just discovered naturism, couldn't find herself to accept it in her home, and set a big deadline for her first social nude event with strangers, but was possibly hoping for more acclimatization time before the end of the week.

But at 12? I didn't see any of that. Just that she was hoping to be nude with my parents, and couldn't get the opportunity. I just vowed to invite Marge over so that her mother could linger a little while she comes pick her up.

I didn't even usually question who picks up whom. Parents did that. If I went to a friend's house who didn't live within walking distance from my home, I just, well, would have a lift to get back home. Either my friend's parents or my parents. If one couldn't, the other would. I never considered how much trouble I could cause.

The afternoon was too slow for my taste, but someone helped me in math, but I will get back to her later. Olivia will be important, but at this point, she is just a girl in my classes. She isn't a friend yet.

At the end of the day, we ended up taking two benches on Marge's bus, which wasn't usually filled up, but now almost was due to other kids changing bus.

Here is the thing.

We are not supposed to take another bus than ours. We are not supposed to get off the bus at another stop than ours.

And yet...

School finishes early. I have to say 2h30 in the afternoon, out of my memory, but it might be 2h45. Most parents, work until 5, if not 6. There is no efficient mass transit in town, well, now there is the start of one, but not then. If your friends lived on the other side of town, you had two choices to see them after school. Take the school bus with them, or wait until one of the parents finishes working. It's that simple. One, or the other.

And so, I was sitting with Mindy, and Edith was with Marge. Mindy was telling me all about Billy, which was boring me to death, and was preventing me from hearing Edith and Marge's conversation. I seemed personal, and Edith was crying at some point, but Mindy was going on and on about Billy's science project and I couldn't really follow.

It wasn't just the 4 of us getting off the bus stop, two boys and a girl also did.

This was typical. At my stop, we were 3 people. Well, 4 now that Edith lived with us.

We walked with Marge to her house, a few yards later, and one of the boys just followed us.

When Marge unlocked the door, we got in, and he got in too.

"Huh", I just said.

"I'm the brother, dumbass", he says, when he sees my confusion.

"Right, that's Charlie, my brother", says Marge.

He just drops his backpack in the kitchen, grabs a juice box, and gets into his room, via a door I hadn't paid attention to earlier.

"I didn't know you had a brother"

"I don't bother mentioning him, and he doesn't bother mentioning me. He is ashamed of me, of our mother working at the school, of our father, of whatever he is against."

"But yesterday?"

"He was with a friend. But tonight, I guess he is home"

"So, can we undress?", says Mindy

"I didn't get any rules regarding him and nudity"

"Awesome", says Mindy, who just begins to undress.

I look at Marge. She nods her head, but then raises her shoulders.

Unlike Mindy, however, I prefer to undress in a bedroom, so I get permission from Marge, and soon return as nude as Mindy to the kitchen table. Marge had prepared towels for us, but they were just placed on the table. I appreciated that touch. I could decide how I place my towel.

Mindy just sits on it folded, but I unfolded it and refolded it wider. I prefer when my towel covers the whole seat.

We each went on to do our homework. I checked the others, and felt like a kid. They were all tackling more advanced science concepts, and I was just doing basic grammar. It wasn't my fault, I was not just the youngest, I was a full-year younger in high school years.

"Why are two of your friends naked?", suddenly, said her brother.

"Charlie, my friends are naturists. Nudists. I have permission to let them be nude at home from mom"

"As if, I will tell her. Nice tits", he says, to Mindy, as he grabs his backpack.

"Apologize to her, you can't say that"

"What, it's a compliment. Did I say anything about your friend without a rack? No, I said that this one", he says, pointing to Mindy, "has nice tits. It's an appreciation for the female form"

"Can I?", says Mindy.

"Go for it", says Marge.

Mindy stands up, revealing her whole body to Charlie.

"Naturism is about... No, look at me in my eyes"

"What?"

"When in the presence of naturists, you don't check them out, you look at them in the eyes"

"Fine", he says.

"So, naturism is about self-respect, about accepting yourself, about being true. It's not about showing yourself, or exposing yourself. And it's not about getting compliments. In fact, you should never compliment girls you aren't dating"

"Wait, really?"

"You didn't know?"

"I thought chicks liked it when you complimented then"

"First, we are not chicks. Second, don't compliment us on things we have no control about. My breasts are like that because of my genetics and my current state of development. Your sister is different, your mother too, your neighbors and so on. But short of surgery, we don't control that. You can compliment the dress we picked, maybe the makeup we chose, but not how our face looks like. And certainly not our breasts"

"Do you agree with this, girls?"

We just about all nod.

"Woah, nobody told me this"

"And for the record, negging doesn't work"

"Well, that's debatable"

"No, it's not."

"I had friends make a girlfriend via negging"

"Because so many guys do it, that we become immune. Be nice and it will work so much better. My boyfriend never had to neg me, or compliment my breasts to date me"

"And he tolerates that you are naked here?"

"I am nude, and I live in a naturist resort. He is a naturist too"

"Ok, fair enough. Can I offer you my apology?"

"You can, and if you treat us with respect, I will forgive you"

"I never heard of naturism before"

"You never heard about nudism?", says Mindy

"Well, yeah, but in jokes. Like who is the most popular nudist?"

Mindy sighs. "Let me guess, the guy who can bring four cups of coffee and six donuts"

"I had two coffees, but yeah"

"It's stupid. Would you eat a donut that was on a penis?"

"Well, no"

"Plus, can your penis carry a donut?"

"Not without an erection"

"Well, erections don't occur in a naturist setting, and please, don't tell me if you have one, I don't want to know, but if you were nude too, you wouldn't have one"

"Right. Ok, well, it's weird to me, but I will leave you to your homework. And I apologize for my immaturity"

"Thank you for that. Is my friend and me safe with you?"

He looks at me, and then to Mindy.

"Why wouldn't you be?"

"I don't know you. Are you a predator?"

"No! Sorry, I was messing around. I will not do that again"

"Good because we both like Marge. And we would like to come here again."

"I will not cause problems."

"Thank you"

And on that, he returned to his room, and Mindy to her place.

"Wow", said Marge.

"It's not my first time dealing with immature textile boys who heard I like to run around buck naked", but in that last part, she was mocking them.

"I think you did good, Mindy", I told her.

"Thank you, Julie. Maybe Charlie isn't so bad"

But that conversation fades away, and we return to our homework.

After we were all done, ending with Marge helping Mindy with a complex problem while I just revised my work and Edith was completing hers, we went to the living room to play Mario Party 9.

Marge doesn't like competitive games, but that party game passed her check because we were all in the same car. I, personally, preferred Mario Party 8, but maybe it's because it's the one I was the most familiar with.

We had fun, a ton of it, and were all laughing when Ellie arrived.

"Oh shit, Charlie. I forgot he would be here", she says.

"Don't worry mom, Mindy spoke to him. It's all good. I think"

"Are you okay girls? He can be a little, abrasive. I should have prepared that"

"Mom, you are doing everything you can for him, and for me."

"And thank you for following the rules, Marge."

She smiles. "I always follow them"

"Yes, but I often take it for granted. We have a lasagna, does everyone eat that?"

"I love Lasagna", Edith said.

"I only ever ate the school's lasagna", I say.

It's true, my parents aren't strong at making lasagna and her mother never cooked it.

"Oh, well, mine is much better. Would you girls prefer to eat alone? I don't think I have enough space for my husband, my son and you all at the table"

We looked at each other.

"Maybe going in two rounds is a good idea, Ellie", I said.

"Would you eat first, like, in 30 minutes? I will check on Charlie, but often, he just eats in his room", she said, but with some disdain in her voice.

We all could have eaten even then, so it was settled, and Charlie ended up not vetoing the plan.

Richard arrived when we were all seated around the table, and the lasagna was being served.

"Oh and now there are two?", he just said, before going in his chair, in the living room.

"Actually, Marge has three friends over"

"Right. I mean three. Sorry. Is there lasagna for me later?"

"Sure. We'll eat with Charlie when the girls are done"

"Oh, good, I need to rest a little"

"Rough day?"

"You have no idea. I had to refuse a factory upgrade. You know how the town needs it, but the code is the code. I suggested they ask for a waiver, but they will just close it. Another one"

"Oh no. How many jobs?"

"18, I think."

"I'll give you your warm slippers, it looks like you need them."

"Oh, thank you so much"

And like that, he was gone in his mind, on his seat.

Still,, the lasagna was exquisite. Tasty, with multiple types of cheese, I couldn't even taste there was ricotta. Well, there was, but like, often, it comes loose or something? Not in this one.

Edith loved it, and even asked for a second serving, "if it's not too much trouble". It gave a lot of pleasure to Ellie.

For dessert, it was the last slices of the cake from the previous time. I didn't mind, it was still moist enough, but Edith loved it and Mindy didn't finish hers. I can't say I blame her, I've tasted Clara's cakes since then, and I probably would have had a similar reaction.

We helped unset the table, and then set it for Ellie, Richard and Charlie, but we then returned to another game of Mario Party 9, with Richard still in the living room, but now, facing us. Sort of.

I could see his face and his eyes, and he was mostly staring at the television, or a point near it. Unflinching, unchanging. Just resting, as if he was sleeping with his eyes open. One thing was sure, we weren't in his field of vision.

He joined his son and his wife at the table, but I barely paid attention as we were in a mini-game, and soon after, they were eating in almost complete silence.

My father came around 8, and I went into Marge's room to dress, while Mindy asked if she could get a lift.

"Of course"

Marge however, kept me company while I was dressing, and I could see she wanted to say something.

"You can speak to you, you know that, right?"

"I know. It's hard"

"Well, I am leaving, it's now or tomorrow"

"I apologize for my brother's comments, and thank you for being such a good friend"

I was fully dressed, so I asked if I could hug her, and she agreed.

It was nice. She was tense, but less than usual.

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