CA/Catherine The Great (by dah) (Ch 21 04/24/25)

[jeremiahN]

Catherine the Great, Chapter 21 - Three Days

Tuesday morning Jackie was very busy. Before their first period, she had been closeted with the head of publicity, preparing a special version of the flyer that they had given to Mr. Moravoss to distribute. "Here, where you have 'through this work Thornton Wilder shows us the unvarnished truth about ourselves' change it to 'the naked truth about ourselves'. And here, change 'reduced to its minimum' to 'stripped bare'."

From 11:00 to noon on Tuesdays, Jackie and Jenny had a free period.

About half past eleven, Gustav Blaufeldt, drama critic for the Gazette was sitting at his desk, trying to find the right word for his column, when a young UPS delivery man brought a large envelope into his office. He signed for it, and was cutting it open even as the brown uniform was still walking through the outer office.

Cronenberg School for Girls Presents
Our Town
by Thornton Wilder

He recognized the name at the top of the page as that of a girl's school in a nearby town, a school that had an unusual reputation although he could not remember just what was so odd. This must be one of those plays that were being put on this week at Moravoss's theater. He had suffered through enough festivals of one-act plays to know just how terrible these occasions could be. He had been going to let a subordinate cover these plays, but this group at least had the smarts to deliver the information directly to him, and they had included a complimentary ticket. If this intelligence was any indication of acting ability, the play might well be bearable, or even mildly enjoyable.

Since the play was on Friday night, perhaps he would go to see it, particularly since the announcement of the winners would be made that night. Let his subordinate see the others, he owed it to his readers to at least check out one of the plays.

Just at noon, a car parked on the Cronenberg campus, and Jackie and a UPS man got out. They hurried to the washroom by the drama department, where the UPS guy handed his jacket and trousers to Jackie, who quickly carried them to the wardrobe department where she hung the uniform back on the rack it had been taken from earlier.

When she got back to the washroom, Jenny was washing the remains of the makeup off her face. "Frankie's a real genius. Blaufeldt never had any doubt I was the real thing."

"According to my publicist friend, Blowhard not only reads press releases, he uses some of the phrases in his own columns. I think I may have written part of his review today."

"But I don't quite understand what you are about now."

"Wait, Jenny. You'll find out soon enough. I have a lot of items on the go right now, but I want you to do something for me tomorrow."

Catherine had not found Wednesday quite as hard as she had expected. Tuesday had gone like clockwork and today was just the same. True, she was still naked, but Suzy must have been right, she was becoming inured to it, at least in the safe surroundings of the school. Just two more periods and the rehearsal, and another day would have passed Moreover, she had met Jenny today and apologized to her. She had not wanted to say anything in front of the cast of the play, so she had not done so at Tuesday night's rehearsal. On the way to her last class of the morning she had bumped into Jenny, and had told her how sorry she was that her temper had caused her to hurt the other girl.

Jenny had accepted the apology very graciously; in fact she had said, "After that blow, I have to take back all I said about Englishmen. No coward could have come at me like that."

Catherine was ecstatic that there seemed to be no bad blood left between the two of them. She was actually humming as she stepped into Miss Adler's class. The chorus of grunts and whistles brought her back to earth in a second. How could she have forgotten that this was a shared class with Terence Gilliam Boy's School to allow both groups the chance to practice with appropriate partners? She was going to have to dance with them naked. She shivered as she thought of those hands on her naked skin. And there was something else about today, something she couldn't quite remember.

"All right, class," Mrs. Adler called out. "You will remember that I promised you a special class today. For this class only we will not be practicing ballroom dancing." Suddenly Catherine remembered, and her stomach did flip-flops as she awaited the fatal sentence. "Today, we take a break and practice the Lambada, the forbidden dance."

Mrs. Adler always made sure that no permanent couples formed, so she had the students change partners after every dance. Most of Catherine's partners had no real idea of how to lambada, but they used the dance as an excuse to fondle a naked woman. She was held tight against the boys' bodies, and as they moved in the wavelike fashion required by the dance, their clothing rubbed her bare skin, most particularly her nipples, exciting her even more than the exposure. Several of the young men, while holding her against them, turned her away from the teacher and grabbed and massaged her naked buns using the hold to keep themselves pressed hard against her body. One even let his thumbs slide down the cleft until they were actually touching her most private sphincter. A quick step on his toes ended that particular touching, but more inevitably followed.

Even the good dancers caused her problems, though not in the same way. She found that the better dancers would dip her and flip her. One dancer in particular was very good at this. After a time dancing against her the two of them undulating like snakes in heat, Fernando held her against the side of his hip, bending her backward until her head was almost touching the floor as her hips were still held against his, and he had her kick up both legs until they were over her body parallel to the floor, the feet over three feet apart. Of course this displayed her taut buttocks to everyone behind them, and her breasts falling towards her head and her pussy to those in front. This was not a move that should ever be done without a bra and more importantly panties. Catherine now knew why all the dancers she had seen had such solid panties even with skirts that were scarcely more than wide belts. It was all to protect their modesty.

Finally the class ended, and Catherine headed off for the last class of the day. The exposure and touchings of the dance class had certainly aroused her. Her mind was repeating one thing over and over as she walked along: "Three more naked dance classes. Three more dance classes nude." The ring of the bell for the final period brought her suddenly out of her daze. She discovered that she had continued along the corridor far past the room she should now be in. Turning swiftly she walked back as fast as she dared, but it was no good.

"Catherine Higgins, what are you doing in class late?" Carpenter shrilled as soon as the young lady stepped across the threshold. Catherine didn't even try to make an excuse. Almost no teacher would accept an excuse for tardiness, but Carpenter was the worst of the lot. "Since you obviously don't worry about normal punishment, we'll just add a day to your current punishment. Do you understand, Miss Higgins?"

"Yes, Miss Carpenter," Catherine replied, as she tried to work out what this change would mean. The unified gasp from the class that ended the sporadic giggles brought home to Catherine what she had just done. She could not believe just how absent-mined she was today, could not believe she'd called her MISS Carpenter instead of MS.

"And for addressing me as MISS instead of Ms., we'll add on another day, and next time it will be two days. Understood?"

"Yes, Ms. Carpenter," Catherine said as she took her seat. That was a Wednesday added. Another dance class. Four more naked dance classes! If she didn't smarten up, she would be naked till the end of the year.

Thursday, thank goodness, was as uneventful as Tuesday had been. Catherine didn't think she could take another day like yesterday. The last class ended a few minutes late, and she hurried off to the auditorium for the final dress rehearsal before the big performance.

She arrived just as the entire cast walked onto the stage, and she slipped into the front of the auditorium to see what was happening.

"Isn't it true that Catherine Higgins is to perform wearing her full uniform?" asked one of the major players.

"It certainly is," replied Miss Copoletta.

"Well then," replied the same actress, "we feel there should be at least one dress rehearsal with everyone, including Catherine, dressed exactly as they will be on stage."

"Yes." "Exactly." "We need that." A murmur of assent rose from the assembled cast. Jackie grinned to herself; Jenny had certainly sold that idea to the other cast members, just as she had requested.

"I also think I need one rehearsal like that, so I can see how the props fit with the costume," Catherine offered. "I mean, there's the watch. And how will the tables and chairs affect the costume when I carry them. I know what you said on Sunday, Miss Copoletta, but I would be willing to have a day, or even two, added to the end of my punishment in order to get this done."

"Well, girls," the teacher replied, "I think you should all take seats here in the auditorium while your director gives you a little history of the school."

Jackie smiled as she walked up to the stage and took her place sitting comfortably with her legs dangling off the front of the stage. She had in her hand a sheaf of notes she had put together from the information her mother's friend had given her, or from the sources she had pointed out.

"As you all know, our present form of punishment was not introduced until after the school had been in operation for a while," Jackie began. "Originally, punishments at the school were the same as everywhere else; detentions, lines, extra work, and occasionally corporal punishment. The headmistress at that time -- not our present one -- felt that humiliation would work better, and, not without considerable difficulty, persuaded the directors to accept her new plan of punishments. I have been told that she won a number of the directors over by suggesting that they should come to the school from time to time to see how the system was working, and they could not resist the idea of having to ogle naked nubile young things as part of their duties. But I can't be sure that is totally accurate.

"At any rate, there was one student here at the time, name of Portia Fraser. I don't know if her name influenced her, but she was what is commonly called a barracks lawyer or sea lawyer, someone who checks out all the regulations and insists they be followed to the letter when it is to their benefit. That was Portia to a tee. When the new regulations were published, the fourteen-year-old Portia was in her element..."