Saturday Night School Ch. 07

Michelle was silent for a moment. "Okay..." she said finally. "I'll do it. I'll play Gwen."

"You will?"

"And you can show it to whoever you want, when it's done. I'm still confused about what's happening in the movie, but I can tell that you have a vision. You're an artist. I want to help you with your art, in any way I can."

The earnest tone in her voice caught Charlie by surprise and he suddenly remembered that the movie wasn't supposed to be art, it wasn't supposed to be anything at all. It was a sham, just an excuse to get Michelle naked in Greenholt Gardens. He started to speak, intending to tell her just that, but now it seemed like a lowlife thing to admit. She was offering to help him achieve a vision; how could he admit to her that his only real vision had been to watch her walking naked through a pretty garden?

"Thanks," he mumbled. "But, you know, if you're not comfortable... if you want to wear something, like a dress...I can rewrite it..."

"No. If you want Gwen to be naked, I'll be naked," she said firmly. She paused. "I told you I would, remember? On Saturday. I said if you wanted me to do a nude scene in one of your movies, I would do it."

"Yeah. I remember."

"Who's going to play the other characters?" Michelle tried to sound nonchalant, but Charlie could tell she was anxious to hear the answer. She knew she would be nude in front of the other two actors.

"I don't know yet," Charlie said. "I haven't asked anyone. Let's not worry about that until we hear from Ronni's brother. If he says no, none of this is going to happen anyway."

***

But Ronni's brother said yes. Ronni brought the word on Wednesday. "Nick says it's okay to film there," she said. "I told him we would stop by tomorrow at 11:30 PM to look around. Can you make it?"

"I can be there. I'll ask Michelle if she can make it."

"It's late, I know, but that's when it's empty. Any earlier and we might run into the staff from the restaurant."

Charlie knew his mom wouldn't care if he was out that late, especially if he told her he was working on a film project. But he wasn't sure about Michelle. He called her after school and told her the news. "We'll just meet Ronni's brother Nick and check out the garden. No filming, just seeing what we have to work with, so I can put together a storyboard. Can you make it?"

"I think so," Michelle said. "It is late... but it should be okay."

"I was thinking," Charlie said, "after Ronni goes home, and her brother gets to his work... we'll have some time alone in the garden..." He trailed off, hoping she understood what he was suggesting.

"Okay," she said softly. "Ronni is leaving early?"

"She can't stay out too late. She says she's leaving at midnight."

"So after midnight, it'll just be you and me. No one else will be in the gardens?"

"Nick will be around, but he mostly guards the front entrance. He has to work."

"Okay. Wow. The whole garden to ourselves."

"What if I pick you up at your house, around 10:30?"

"Oh, I don't know if that's a good idea," Michelle said quickly. "I mean... I can't really tell my parents what I'm doing, right? If I tell them I'm in a movie, they'll want to see it when it's done. And a guy picking me up at 10:30 at night? A guy they don't know? They won't go for that either."

"Okay..."

"I'll drive to your place and leave my car there. Then you can drive us. Okay?"

"Okay. But what if my mom is home?"

"What do you mean?"

"She'll want to meet you."

"She will?" Michelle sounded surprised. "Um... I wasn't thinking of going inside your house... do you want me to meet your mom?"

"Sure. I mean, not in a super formal kind of way. Just like, here's Michelle, I'm spending a lot of time with her these days, so you might as well know what she looks like, like that."

"Uh huh. Okay."

"It's not a big deal," Charlie said. "You sound nervous. Don't worry, my mom is super cool."

"I'm fine."

"It's not like she made a big deal about you being over on Monday. She just said she wants to meet you the next time you come over."

"Okay." Michelle was quiet for a moment. "Does she know anything about me?"

"Well... no. Not really."

"I guess there's not much about me that's appropriate to tell her," Michelle said. "Not much about us. You can't even show her the script of the movie we're making together. She'll see that I'm naked through the whole thing."

It was a good point. Charlie promised himself that he would make a new version of the script, a cleaned-up version, with all references to Gwen's nudity removed. Just in case it fell into the hands of someone who wasn't involved in the production, like his mom. Or Michelle's parents, for that matter. "You just have to promise me one thing, when you meet her," he told Michelle.

"You want me to keep my clothes on?" she asked innocently.

"Oh, no, you can take your clothes off if you want to," Charlie said. "Just don't bring her one of those damn fruit bouquets."

Michelle laughed.

***

Charlie told his mom about his plans over dinner on Thursday. Meatloaf, like most Thursdays. He told her that he had a short film he wanted to make, and Ronni's brother Nick was going to let him film it at Greenholt Gardens. He explained that he wanted to meet Nick and Ronni that night after the gardens closed, so they could walk around and plan the film. As he expected, his mom wasn't overly concerned.

"It's a beautiful place," she said. "Are you going to do all your filming at night? Won't it be too dark?"

"The place gets busy in the day. At night, it's empty." He shrugged. "I don't know. I hope lighting won't be a problem."

"You can borrow that work light from the garage."

"Yeah. That might help." He took a sip from his water glass, then casually added, "Michelle's going to drop by later. I'm giving her a ride to the gardens."

Mrs. Tucker looked at him. "Michelle who was here Monday?"

"Yeah."

"Is she helping with the film?"

"I'm hoping she'll be one of the actresses," he said. "Anyhow, she's going to leave her car here, and we'll both go in my car."

"I wish you had warned me we'd have company. I would've bought a dessert."

"She's just going to be here for a second. Probably she won't even come inside. She's just leaving her car here so we can go in one car. It's not a big deal."

"Fine." She poked a piece of meatloaf with her fork and ate it. She chewed it slowly. "You like her?" she asked.

Charlie hesitated for just a moment. "Yeah," he admitted.

Mrs. Tucker nodded. "I won't embarrass you. Promise."

At 10:30, Charlie sat on the porch, scanning the street for Michelle's car. His mom was inside, supposedly watching television. The curb in front of the house was empty, and Michelle could easily have parked there. But he suspected she would park further away and it didn't surprise him at all when he saw her walking up the sidewalk. But her outfit did surprise him.

She looked like she had been to a job interview. She had on a black pencil skirt and a clingy long-sleeve white sweater, along with black stockings and heels. Pendant earrings dangled from her ears, and her make-up was impeccable, her lips a deep red. She carried a black leather purse on her shoulder.

"Wow," he said. "You look amazing."

"Thanks!"

"Did you just come from something where you had to dress up?"

She cocked her head and gave him a look of disdain. "No," she said coolly. "I wanted to look nice for our date."

He almost said, "What date?" but caught himself in time. It seemed like the wrong thing to say, although he was still puzzled by why she thought their plans constituted a date. They would go to Greenholt Gardens, meet Ronni and Nick, walk around looking for places to film the movie. That wasn't a date, that was working on a project. It was true that he hoped to have some time alone with Michelle in the gardens later on that night, but she didn't need to be well-dressed for that. In fact, he hoped she wouldn't be dressed at all.

Instead he said, "You look gorgeous. Seriously."

"Thanks," she said again. She looked up toward his house.

Maybe she was dressed up because she was going to meet his mom? If that was the case, she clearly didn't know his mom. Mrs. Tucker wouldn't have thought any less of Michelle if she'd shown up in a ripped t-shirt and a dirty pair of jeans. Clothes just weren't that important to his mother; she seemed to prize comfort in her own clothing choices more than anything. Anyhow, it seemed like a bit of overkill for Michelle to dress up so nicely for an encounter that would likely last less than five minutes.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go tell my mom we're going."

He opened the front door and stepped inside. Michelle stepped in after him. "Mom?" Charlie called. "Michelle's here. We're about to leave."

Mrs. Tucker appeared from the doorway to the kitchen. "Wait! Let me say hello first." She walked over, smiling. "My goodness, Michelle. You're even prettier in real life than in your yearbook photo."

"Hi, Mrs. Tucker," Michelle chirped. "Thank you so much! It's nice to meet you." She offered her hand and Mrs. Tucker clasped it, holding it for a moment.

"Do you want to come in the living room for a bit?" Mrs. Tucker asked. "I can make some coffee. Or hot cocoa?"

"We need to get going, mom," Charlie said.

"Right," Mrs. Tucker said. "The film. Are you interested in film, too, Michelle? Are you an aspiring actress?"

"No... I just told Charlie I would help him," Michelle said. "I've never acted in anything before."

"Are you and Charlie in the same classes?"

"Not this year." Michelle glanced at Charlie. "We've been in a few classes together, over the years. Right? Like eighth grade English..."

"Yeah," Charlie confirmed. "Michelle and I have gone to the same school since the seventh grade."

The ghost of a smile flickered on Michelle's face. "But it's only this year that we figured out we share some of the same interests."

"Yeah. Well, we should probably get going," Charlie said quickly, before his mom could ask any more questions.

"Nice to meet you, Michelle," Mrs. Tucker said. "Don't stay up too late, you two."

***

It didn't take as long as Charlie expected to drive to Greenholt Gardens, and they mostly hit green lights as they drove along the dark streets. Michelle was in a cheerful mood, and Charlie found he barely had to make any effort to keep her talking. Maybe she was feeling relieved after meeting his mother, or maybe she was feeling excited at the idea that she might streak through the garden later that night. Whatever the reason, she chattered energetically next to him while they drove.

They talked about movies, comparing the movies they'd seen and the ones they liked. Michelle was surprised to hear that Charlie seldom saw movies in the theaters.

"I get busy on the weekends," he said. "Sometimes the guys invite me, but I usually have a reason to say no, and lately they don't ask as much."

"But you want to be a director, don't you? It seems like you should love seeing movies."

"I do love movies," he said. "I just don't go to the movie theater."

When they arrived at the parking lot at Greenholt Gardens, the time was just past 11 PM. The parking lot was empty except for two cars, a blue Nissan sedan and a black pick-up. "We're pretty early," Charlie said as he pulled in next to the Nissan. "I told Ronni we'd meet her here at 11:30."

"Is one of these her car?" Michelle asked.

"I don't know. I hope so. No one else is supposed to be here." He peered out his window, looking for anyone standing near the closed-up entrance to the gardens. It occurred to him suddenly that maybe the reason Michelle had dressed up so nicely was because they were meeting Ronni. Could that be the reason, and nothing to do with meeting his mother? Ronni was still his date to the prom, and as far as Michelle knew, Ronni didn't know anything about their secret affair. Did Michelle feel threatened by Ronni?

"There she is," Michelle said, pointing out the window.

Charlie followed Michelle's finger and saw a dark figure in the shadows, propping open a door which Charlie hadn't noticed before. The figure started to walk in their direction, and when she stepped into the light, Charlie recognized Ronni. He opened his car door and stepped out. He heard Michelle doing the same on the other side of the car.

"Hey!" Ronni said. "You made it." She waited for them on the sidewalk.

"Yeah. We're a little early," Charlie said. He opened the back door and retrieved the screenplay from the back seat.

"It's fine," Ronni said. "We'll just have to stay away from the area near the restaurant for a while. Hi, Michelle."

"Hi," Michelle said.

"Thanks for setting this up with your brother," Charlie said to Ronni.

"No problem," she replied. "Like I said, I think this film could turn out pretty good. I think it'll be interesting to work on." She looked at Michelle. "Thanks for agreeing to be in it."

"Oh... sure."

"My brother's inside. You should go ahead and strip. Just leave your clothes in the car."

Michelle blinked. "What?"

"I told my brother he'd get to see a naked girl. It's a big part of how I got him to agree to this. I told him our film has nude scenes, and one of the cheerleaders from school has agreed to do them. I told him he's welcome to gawk at that pretty naked cheerleader as much as he likes." Ronni gazed at Michelle. "So you need to strip."

Michelle was stunned. "I said I would..." she started to say, "I mean, I'd said I'd be in the film... I told Charlie..." She looked anxiously around the empty parking lot. "Out here?"

"I want to introduce you to my brother, and I think it'll be fun if you walk in already naked. It'll give him a thrill." Ronni shrugged. "He has a boring job, he could use some excitement."

Michelle looked around the parking lot again. She nervously pushed her hair back with her fingers and looked back at Ronni.

"It's a great outfit, Michelle" Ronni said. "You look really nice. But now you need to take off those nice clothes and leave them in the car. You can't come in while you're wearing them." Her voice was quiet but firm.

Charlie looked between Ronni and Michelle. He was astonished that Ronni would give Michelle such an outrageous order. Yet he also noticed that Michelle hadn't said no. He wished Michelle would look at him, so he could gaze into her eyes and try to read what she was feeling. He tried to project his thoughts towards her: You don't have to do this, Michelle, if you don't want to. You don't have to do this.

He didn't speak the words aloud, because he remembered what Michelle said to him earlier in the week, when he was walking her to her car. How she fantasized about being put outside naked in a way that wasn't by her choice. He knew Michelle didn't have to do what Ronni was telling her to do, but he also wanted to let Michelle have the illusion that she didn't have a choice, if that's the way she wanted to see it in her mind.

He hoped this whole thing wasn't a huge mistake.

Michelle caught her left sleeve with her right hand. She pulled her left arm into her sweater. Her right arm followed, and she squirmed out of the tight garment, pulling it over her head. Underneath, she wore a lacy sky blue bra. She turned towards Charlie, but it was only to hold out the sweater to him. He took it and held it in his hand.

He looked at her bra. She wore that for me, he thought. She thought she would undress for me, out there in the gardens, and she wore that bra, and probably a matching pair of panties, so that she would look sexy while she performed a striptease for me.

Now it seemed that the bra and panties would remain outside the gardens with the rest of her clothes.

Michelle was fumbling with the zipper on the back of her skirt, so Charlie stepped forward and slid the zipper down for her. He slid the skirt down her legs and she stepped out of it. As expected, her silky blue panties matched her bra. Her black stockings stopped at mid-thigh, with tiny black bows at the top.

Ronni gazed at Michelle's legs. "You should leave on your stockings and heels," she said. "My brother will think they're sexy. But take off your bra and panties."

Michelle nodded. She reached behind her back and unclipped her bra. She pulled it off her body, freeing her breasts, and Charlie thought he saw Ronni's eyes widen slightly behind her glasses. Perhaps Ronni hadn't fully grasped until that moment that Michelle was really going to do it, she was going to leave her clothes behind and spend the rest of the evening naked. Michelle twisted at the waist and held out the bra to Charlie. He caught the thin garment as it dangled from her fingers.

Michelle leaned over, pushing her panties down her legs, and Charlie caught a glimpse of her pussy as she crouched. She straightened, leaving the flimsy panties at her ankles, then stepped out of them. Charlie stepped forward to pick them up, but Michelle was faster. She knelt down and plucked the panties off the ground, offering them to Charlie, also offering a view between her legs which she left carelessly apart. He added the panties to the ball of her clothing in his hands.

Michelle stood and turned to face Ronni, now dressed exactly as Ronni had requested; completely naked, except for black stockings and black heels. Ronni took a step back, looking at Michelle from head to toe. The corner of her mouth quirked up. "Wow," she murmured. "The camera is going to freaking love you."

"Can I meet your brother now?" Michelle asked. She swayed nervously, her fingers touching the tops of her stockings.

Ronni stared at her for a moment. Then she laughed softly to herself and turned away. "Yeah." She waved Michelle forward. "Come on in."

"I'll put these in the car." Charlie walked to the back of his car and opened the trunk. Gently, he set Michelle's clothes and purse inside. As he pushed the trunk closed, he allowed himself a moment to appreciate the strange scene in front of him. Ronni and Michelle, standing next to each other under the white glow of the exterior light poles. Ronni, the junior from the AV crew, wearing jeans, a loose t-shirt and her usual dark-rimmed glasses. Michelle, the senior cheerleader, wearing nothing but stockings and heels. It was a strange juxtaposition.

"Ready?" Ronni asked.

"Yeah." Charlie walked around the car and hopped onto the sidewalk. Ronni had already started towards the propped door, leaving Michelle to wait for Charlie. Charlie reached out and caught Michelle's hand as they followed Ronni. Her hand felt cold in his grasp, and she clenched his fingers tightly as they entered through the door.

They stood in a small storage room, with a second closed door in front of them. Ronni opened the second door a crack, letting in a dim yellow glow. "Do you mind closing the outside door, Charlie?" she asked.

Charlie used his foot to shift the rock that Ronni had used to prop the door and the door swung shut. Ronni pulled open the second door, and they walked into a dark area which appeared to be a kitchen. They could hear the sound of a television from somewhere. Charlie could see a large industrial sink, a grill, a tall refrigerator with a glass door which was stocked with soda bottles and beer. He could see a cash register in front of a window. The window opened to another, larger room, where the lights were on, and Charlie could see tables and chairs in that room. He realized they stood in the back of the snack bar.

"This way," Ronni said, and led them through another door to the seating area. A large flatscreen TV was attached to the wall at the other end of the room, tuned to a late night talk show. They could see the back of a young man with short dark hair, sitting in a chair watching the TV.

"Nick," Ronni said. "They're here."