New Family Rules Ch. 06

This story is the sixth in a series. I recommend reading the prior "New Family Rules" stories in order because this story is a continuation of those. I hope that you find my characters as interesting as I do. Any similarities to any real person or entity are entirely coincidental. Whether you like the story or loathe it, comments are welcome. All characters are at least 18 years of age.

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Amanda and I did end up attending the same prestigious university in the Chicago area. Amanda was clearly admitted on merit. I strongly suspect that my admission had less to do with my qualifications than with the fact that Amanda's dad was an alum and a significant donor. Whatever the cause, I wasn't going to argue with the result. While I expected that Amanda would find some much more desirable guy while she was in college, being at the same school gave me a long-shot chance of holding on to her. I had no doubt that Amanda was THE ONE.

Freshmen were required to live on campus. I was assigned to an older, adequate, dorm. The catch was my roommate. Don was an engineering student and a religious fundamentalist. All of that was fine, but Don had little patience for those who were studying "useless" subjects or who did not share his moral code. As a history major and a nudist, I was exactly what Don saw as evil. We were polite to each other, but not at all friends.

Amanda was lucky. She was in a new dorm a couple of blocks from mine. Her roommate was an outgoing theater major named Jen Taylor. Amanda and Jen became good friends, and, through Jen, Amanda made friends with several other "performing arts types." All dorms were coed (something Don strongly disapproved of). Jen had no problem with me staying with Amanda in their suite. Likewise, while Jen always remained clothed, she accepted that Amanda and I preferred to be nude.

After about two weeks, Jen quit leaving the suite when Amanda and I fucked. We didn't mind and Jen found us entertaining. Jen became a friend of mine and I spent many more nights during my freshman year in Amanda's and Jen's room than in the dorm room my parents were paying for.

Freshman year of college is a time of major changes in anyone's life. Living away from home for an extended period was a new experience. In the classroom, I began to wish that I'd spent more time on academics in high school. Amanda handled the experience with her usual quiet self-confidence. I suspect that being the most beautiful girl on campus didn't hurt her self-confidence any. Having her there was vital for me. I'm not sure whether I would have stayed in school without her support and affection. Better still, while Amanda made friends of both genders very easily, she showed no serious interest in other guys. Several guys worked hard to gain her interest. Amanda smiled at them and took me back to her room.

Amanda majored in economics. Top grades were imperative for her as she'd already decided to go for an advanced business or finance degree. She stayed on me, pleasantly, about my grades because she had decided that I would go to law school. I was leaning towards anyway (what do you do with a history degree?). Amanda thought that, with those backgrounds, we'd be able to marry, start our own business, and be more successful than her father. I really liked the getting married to her part.

However, Amanda was adamant that there was a lot more to college than just the classroom and the library. She also had an inviolable rule: whatever one of us did, we did together. Just after the start of second semester, another theater major told Jen about a new play being staged that spring. While the author and director were professors, it was not a University production. Jen mentioned the play to Amanda because there were two supporting characters who were to spend most of their time onstage in the nude. That immediately got Amanda's interest.

Jen got us a copy of the script. After we'd read the script, Amanda decided that we should try for the nude parts: a brother and sister. She thought that we were perfect because we had gone nude with our families in real life; we'd be bring genuine affection and sexual interest in each other to the scenes that suggested a sexual relationship between the siblings; and we'd be more natural and comfortable naked onstage than actors not used to going naked. Amanda thought all that outweighed the fact that neither of us had any acting experience.

Amanda talked to her friends, Jen's friends, and to friends of friends. That got us a meeting with the play's author and director. We met early one evening at the director's home in a leafy, upscale neighborhood about a mile and a half from the University. A middle-aged woman, I assume the director's wife, answered and showed us into a book-lined room with a desk at one end and several chairs. A middle-aged man with long hair starting to go grey sat behind the desk. An older man sat in a chair just to the left (as we looked at it) of the desk. Underneath our winter coats, Amanda wore a somewhat conservative dress and I wore button-down shirt and slacks.

Neither man stood up. We weren't immediately asked to sit down. The man behind the desk said, "I'm Grant Feder. I'm directing "A Prisoner of Herself." Pointing to the other man, Feder said, "this is Barton Williams. He wrote the play. You two want the nude parts, right?" Slightly intimidated by his abrupt manner, Amanda and I both just nodded. "Ok," Feder said, "take your clothes off."

Amanda and I had discussed this possibility. Amanda had been hoping that we'd be asked to undress. She thought that the director and writer would be impressed by our comfort and poise in the nude. There was also something exciting about stripping naked in front of two people whom we did not know in a house we'd never been in before.

We took of our coats and placed them over chairs facing the desk. We each sat down in a chair to untie and remove our winter boots and heavy socks. Standing back up, I went behind Amanda and pulled down the zipper on the back of her dress. Amanda dropped her dress to the floor. Wearing only a bra and panty hose, Amanda turned her back to the two men, bent over, picked up her dress, and out it on a chair. While she was doing that, I had removed my shirt, unbuckled my belt, and pushed off my trousers and boxers together. After putting them on a chair, I turned back to face the two men completely nude.

Amanda gave me a nod. I stepped behind her and unhooked her bra. She let it slide down her arms, making no effort to cover her breasts. I took the bra from her and put it on a chair. Amanda stood facing the two seated men with her arms at her side, wearing only black panty hose, until I came back to stand next to her. She then pushed the panty hose off her hips and down her thighs. Once below her knees, the hose fell to the floor. Amanda gracefully stepped out of her hose. We stood naked, holding hands, facing the two older men.

Feder and Williams looked at us for what seemed a long time. Feder finally said, "I understand that the two of you are a couple." We nodded. "Prove it," Feder said.

Amanda turned 45 degrees to face me and stepped close. She put her left arm around my back to pull me closer. At the same time, she wrapped her right hand around my dick. I put my right arm around Amanda's back and put my left hand between her thighs. We kissed and, as we did so, we fondled each other, being careful to remain angled so that Feder and Williams could see us stimulating each other. Despite the unusual situation, Amanda was getting me hard when Feder said, "Ok. Sit down." We turned our asses to the two men, walked to the chairs we'd put our clothes on, moved our clothes to the floor, and sat facing the older men. I noticed that Amanda kept her legs slightly spread as she sat.

What followed was almost two hours of answering questions about our conversion from normal, clothed high school kids to nudists in nude families. We were handed copies of the script and asked to read a scene in the second act when Jason, the brother, and Heather, the sister begin thinking and talking about an incestuous relationship. The siblings are nude, and the scene ends with them hugging each other. We read the scene once. Feder gave some direction on how we should play it. We read it again and ended by hugging each other.

When we finished the second reading of the scene, we stood naked in front of Feder and Williams. Williams, who hadn't said anything the entire time, said to Feder, "They are fairly close to my image of those characters." In the gruff delivery with which he said everything, Feder told us, "Get dressed. We'll let you know. If you're cast, rehearsals start in March. The show runs the middle two weekends in April, performances Thursday through Sunday each weekend."

Amanda and I dressed under the gaze of the two older men and let ourselves out into a very cold January night. We'd walked about a block back towards Amanda's dorm when she stopped, pulled me to her, and kissed me. "That was fun," she said after breaking the kiss. "You were very good. I know we'll get the parts."

"Well," I said, "You're irresistible naked or clothed. I suspect that you elevated both men's pulses."

Amanda laughed. "I hope so," she said, "but they seemed to be giving us both pretty careful inspection."

We didn't hear anything more about the play for over a month. Even Amanda decided that we hadn't been cast. Around March 10, I got an e-mail from the "New Theatre Group" saying that I was to report for rehearsals of "A Prisoner of Herself" at the Wallace Theater starting March 25. I barely had time to digest this when my cell phone started ringing. Of course, the call was from Amanda.

"Harry!" Amanda said as soon as I answered, "I got an e-mail! We got the parts!"

"I got one too," I replied. "This means that we'll be completely nude on stage for eight performances. We'll have no control over who sees us. Are you ready for this?"

"That's the point, lover," Amanda replied. "This will be something new and fun. Up to now, we've pretty much only gotten naked with people we knew who were also naked. This means that we'll be the only naked people in an auditorium full of clothed people. Everyone will be looking at our bare bodies. Being exhibitionists will be great!"

I had some trepidation, and I wondered whether Amanda did too. However, outwardly, she was thrilled that we'd both be naked on stage. My desire to share as much of Amanda's life as I could for as long as I could dictated that I just had to keep my doubts to myself.

The Wallace Theater was only a few blocks from campus. I have no idea who owned it. It looked like its best days had been in years that started with 18. Still, it was clean. We didn't see any rats or bugs. Someone had gone to the trouble of building a thrust out from the original stage over the center of the first several rows of seats, meaning that, at times, the audience would be on three sides.

The cast was interesting. The parts of the mother, the central character; her husband; her sister; and her brother-in-law were being played by professional actors from the Chicago area. I assume someone got some sort of union waiver because no one was being paid for this show. Besides the parts played by Amanda and me, the only other character, onstage only briefly a couple of times, was the character of the husband's assistant at his office. That character was played by another student, a senior theater major named Valerie Shelton.

At the first rehearsal, the four professionals sat together. They gave the impression of not wanting any more to do with us amateurs than necessary. Amanda and I sat together. Valerie initially sat next to the four professionals. After they had ignored her for several minutes, she moved next to Amanda and me.

Valerie introduced herself and said, "You're doing the nude parts? You must really want to be actors."

"Not particularly," Amanda replied. "It just seemed like a great opportunity to get naked in front of people."

Valerie looked dumbfounded. Valerie said, "You aren't interested in being actors and you took parts that require you to be on stage completely nude repeatedly because you want to be nude in front of people? What are you, exhibitionists?"

"We're trying to be," Amanda replied cheerfully. Valerie didn't know what to make of us. Her discomfort was relieved by Feder walking on stage to begin the rehearsal.

Despite that bumpy introduction, Valerie became quite friendly and explained some basics, like "upstage" and "downstage," so we had some idea what Feder was telling us to do. After the first couple of rehearsals, another friendly face appeared in the theater. The play was independent of the University. However, Amanda's roommate Jen had made a deal with one of her professors to get a couple of hours of un-graded credit for handling costumes for the play. Jen and Valerie helped our acting a lot.

We started rehearsals on a Wednesday. The play opened two weeks from that Thursday. At the close of rehearsal that Friday, Feder announced, "We'll take this weekend off. Starting next Monday, we will rehearse every day until opening. We'll do dress rehearsals the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of opening week." I was momentarily relieved by that, thinking that we wouldn't get naked until the week after next. However, Feder blew that up immediately. "While I don't think that our professionals or Valerie need much time in costume, I do want Amanda and Harry to get comfortable undressing on stage and being up there with nothing on. So, starting Monday, you two will rehearse the nude scenes in the nude." Except for one short scene very early in the first act, all our scenes were nude scenes. When Feder said that, Amanda squeezed my hand and gave me a big smile.

I was in Amanda's and Jen's dorm room the following Sunday. Ostensibly, I was there to study for the chemistry course that Amanda and I were both in. After letting us study for about an hour, Jen brought up the play.

"Tomorrow night is your unveiling," Jen teased.

"I know," Amanda said levelly.

"Seriously," Jen said, "are you sure that you want to do this? Are you ready for this?"

Amanda closed the chemistry text and thought for a moment. Then she said, "To answer your questions in reverse order: No, I'm not ready for this. I've never done anything this exhibitionistic before. Yeah, I rode on a parade float naked the summer after senior year but my whole body was painted so I wasn't 'exposed' the way I will be in the play. I don't know how to get ready for this. But I'm sure that it is going to be a lot of fun and, well, sexy. So, yeah, I really want to do this."

"Harry," Jen said, "you're being quiet."

I thought for a moment about what to say. "Yeah," I said, "I'm pretty nervous about it. While I've been naked with other people a lot, they were usually naked too and it wasn't a 'hey, look at me' kind of thing. This pretty much is. Still, I think Amanda is right that it could be a lot of fun. What's more important to me is that Amanda wants us to do it." Amanda looked at me for a moment. Then she leaned forward and kissed me.

Amanda and I always studied naked, unless we were in the library, and we were both naked then. "Both of you stand up," Jen said. Amanda and I stood facing Jen. She stared at our naked bodies for several minutes. Jen's face broke into a smile. "You both look really good naked," she said, "this will be interesting to see."

Amanda and I thought that it would be best to simplify what we were calling the "stripping scene." To that end, we both went to the next rehearsal wearing sweatshirts and jeans but nothing underneath. True to his word, Feder started the rehearsal with the stripping scene. Amanda and I got on stage in front of Feder and the rest of the cast, who were sitting in the auditorium seats. We said our lines and, quickly, whipped off our clothes.

As soon as Amanda and I were both naked, Feder yelled "NO!" He quickly came on stage. "That was much too quick," he said. "You're both flirting with each other if not trying to seduce each other. The undressing needs to be slower and sexy. Also, you need underwear. You skipped over a couple of lines of dialogue because you're not wearing underwear."

Amanda started to explain that we thought that ignoring those couple of lines and dispensing with underwear would make the stripping simpler and reduce the chances of an accident such as me tripping over my shorts. Feder cut her off. "NO," he barked. "Remember, you are playing a brother and sister who have not seen each other naked before. You must build anticipation. Tomorrow night: underwear!" Amanda and I spent the rest of the three-hour rehearsal naked.

I suppose the story might make a bit more sense if I give a short synopsis of "A Prisoner of Herself." The central story of the play was about Helen, a traditional, strait-laced housewife and mother whose life, to her perception, was unravelling. She and her husband, Hal, have drifted apart and she suspects that Hal is having an affair with his assistant at work, Wendy (Valerie's part). Heather and Jason (Amanda's and my parts) are the adult children of Helen and Hal. Both have finished college but can find only menial, minimum wage jobs with odd hours. For money reasons, Heather and Jason have moved back into their parents' house. Because Heather and Jason have no money and, in their eyes, no social status, their social and romantic lives have evaporated. Early in the play, Heather and Jason decide that, to add some excitement to their lives, they are both going to be nude when they're at home. Because they are young and horny but have no sex lives, Heather and Jason consider an incestuous relationship. The script leaves it ambiguous whether the siblings do have sex with each other. All of this offends and infuriates Helen, who wants to throw Heather and Jason out of the house. Hal, who seems quite detached throughout the play, forbids that. Helen is financially dependent upon Hal and believes that she has no choice but to tolerate her children's and husband's misbehavior. The play is primarily about the internal conflicts this creates for Helen. Rather than resolving the conflicts, the play leaves unanswered the questions of whether Helen does, or should, come to terms with the new realities in her life.

On Tuesday, I went out and bought a package of "wife-beater" sleeveless undershirts to wear for the stripping scene. Unusually, Amanda made a point of getting dressed by herself before we went to rehearsal.

Feder again started rehearsal with the stripping scene. Amanda and I stripped to the skin four times before we did it to Feder's satisfaction the fifth time. In the scene, Heather and Jason are home alone. Heather has been complaining about her lack of money and the lack of anything adding any excitement to her life. Jason responds sarcastically by saying, "Well, we could walk around naked all the time at home. Would that excite you?"

"You know," Heather replies, "it just might. We've never seen each other naked. You could be pretty hot without those clothes."

Thinking Heather is just teasing, Jason says, "Yeah. I'll bet your tits, ass, and cunt look pretty nice too."

Heather springs out of her chair and says, "Let's find out!" She grabs the hem of her sweatshirt.

Thinking he's calling Heather's bluff, Jason says "ok" and whips off his sweatshirt. Heather does likewise and is standing in jeans and, (Amanda's addition not called for in the script) a very shear bra. Heather in her bra starts to increase Jason's interest. He wants to see how far she'll go so Jason unbuckles his belt, drops his jeans to the floor and steps out of them. Heather does the same.

Jason is standing on stage in his undershirt and shorts. Heather is standing in almost transparent bra and panties. The siblings are looking at each other. Heather says, "You look pretty good undressed."