Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2017 06:27:45 +0000
From: Douglas DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: Aiden  Chapter 44

Welcome back. Aiden decided he wants to have his end of the school year
party to take place a certain way, and is determined to make it happen.

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of stories.

Email is always appreciated. Douglas
thehakaanen@hotmail.com


CHAPTER 44
AIDEN'S QUEST

 Monday morning came quickly after the long weekend. The first thought to
come to Aiden's mind when his alarm went off was that there were only
two-and-a-half days of school left. Aiden hoped they would fly by
quickly. He shut the alarm off, showered, pulled on his Seahawks boxers, a
Lakeview Elementary t-shirt, and, of course, a pair of socks.

Larry was finishing his cereal as Aiden came down the stairs. "Good
morning, daddy." Aiden stepped up behind Larry and wrapped his arms around
his neck.

"Good morning, son." Larry and Phil were both pleased about how responsible
Aiden now was in the morning. It was up to him to set his alarm, be out of
bed on time in the morning, and get his morning business taken care
of. Aiden knew when Larry was eating cold cereal, it was up to him to get
his own breakfast.

"Only two more days of school," Aiden gushed.

"Three," Larry corrected. "Your math is better than that."

"The last day doesn't count." Aiden grabbed a box of bite-sized Shredded
Wheat and poured it into the bowl that Larry had set out. "We're supposed
to get our social studies projects back today. I hope we passed."

"Don't set your goals so low. I'm willing to bet you got an A on it."

"What's the bet?"

"If you got an A, you have to do twenty-five pushups."

"And if I don't get an A?"

"Then you still do twenty-five pushups."

Aiden spooned a mouthful of cereal. "That's not fair," he said after he
finished swallowing.

"It's very fair. If you get an A, you have to do twenty-five pushups for
not believing in yourself. And if you don't get an A, you do them for not
doing your best."

"Hey, Autumn is part of this, so she should have to do pushups, too."

"I am willing to bet she believes that you're getting an A."

"Yeah," Aiden admitted," that's what she's been saying since the minute we
turned it in." He did some thinking as he ate some more cereal. "Forget
that bet. If I don't get an A, I'll do the pushups. And if I do get an A,
you have to treat me to a hamburger at the Centerville Café."

"Not at Bob's Burger Barn?"

"Nope."

"I'll do that if Autumn goes with us."

"Daddy, no way I go and have lunch with Autumn. What would my friends
think?"

"They'd probably think you were celebrating getting an A on your project."

"No, they'd think Autumn wants to go out with me. But, they think that
already, so this would just make it worse."

Larry shook his head. Things hadn't changed much from his days as a
preteen. The girls started looking at the boys in a different way, and it
made almost all of the boys uncomfortable.

"Well, the only way you get that lunch is if Autumn goes," Larry said. "She
was half of your team, after all."

Aiden saw this as an excellent opportunity to do a sudden subject
change. "When do I get to have my party?"

Larry knew what Aiden was doing. He usually went along with his son's
subject changes, having learned they would get back to the matter at hand
when it became necessary.

"Well, your team party is this Saturday. How about we have it Thursday of
next week. The long range forecast is good, and of course I don't have to
teach."

"But dad has to get up early in the morning," Aiden pointed out.

"He's going to take a couple of personal days and have a long weekend. His
team doesn't play on Thursday, and I know that Gordy and Rusty's team
doesn't play. Nobody has practice scheduled, so it seems like a perfect
day."

"Yippee." The decision of his dads earned Larry a big hug.

"Okay, kiddo, I'm off to school. Don't forget to put everything away,"

"Daddy, when's the last time I forgot?"

"A couple of weeks ago."

"That was only because you were making French toast and I had to wait for
breakfast. I would have missed my bus if I cleaned up everything."

"Excuses are..."

"...for losers, but that time I couldn't help it."

"Last word. Autumn goes to lunch with us if you want lunch in Centralia to
celebrate." Larry grabbed his jacket and headed for the stairs going down
to the garage and the basement. "Make it a great day at school."

"Yeah, whatever." Sometimes my dads make me really mad, Aiden thought. How
can I have a great day anywhere if I have to deal with Autumn. And I hate
it when they get the last word-I'm supposed to get the last word, not them.

When Aiden got to school, he was met by Muddy, Gordy, and Miles. They
walked down the hall and were met by Autumn, confirming Aiden's fear that
this was not going to even be a good day, let alone a great day.

"We get our projects back today," Autumn announced as if it was something
Aiden didn't know.

"I didn't know that," Aiden grumped.

"Quit being a dumb boy."

"I have to, since you're being a dumb girl and telling me stuff I already
know." Autumn harrumphed and stomped into the classroom.

"Looks like you made her mad," Miles observed.

"Good." Aiden was almost hoping they wouldn't get an A so he wouldn't have
to deal with Autumn any more.

After greeting the class and taking attendance, Mr. Knox told his students
he would hand them a piece of paper with the grade of their project on
it. The projects themselves were in the meeting room off of the
library. "If anybody wants to keep their project, they have to be taken
home by the end of the day, tomorrow. Anything left behind will be thrown
away." Since some of the projects used purchased items or items from home,
they would be taken out of the school before throw away time.

Mr. Knox then passed out folded pieces of paper that had the name of the
student and the grade on them. When the teacher handed Aiden his grade, he
almost prayed for a B+. When he unfolded the paper and saw the big black A
on it, he didn't know whether to be happy or to just sit back and feel like
he was doomed.

But, the worst was yet to come. Knowing there would be chaos if he didn't
let the partners converse, Mr. Knox gave the class a brief break to get the
chatter out of their systems. Aiden cringed when Autumn came over.

"Oh, Aiden, I'm so happy. We got an A. We were the best team around."

"Yeah, I'm happy, too," Aiden said with as much enthusiasm as he could
muster.

"My mom said if we got an A that she would invite you to my house for
dinner. Isn't that exciting?"

"Oh, yeah. Really exciting." He was now officially ready to forget having
his celebration lunch. At least he could get out of that-he knew that there
was no way he was going to get out of the dinner. One meal with Autumn was
going to be one too many.

Aiden knew everybody's grade by lunchtime. Mason had an A, Miles had a B+,
Muddy had a B-, and of course Gordy, whom Aiden thought was the Brainiac of
the class had an A. Gordy could have worked with somebody's pet dog and
still earned an A.

The big talk at lunch was the upcoming parties. Nobody had a problem with
the day for Aiden's party except for Mason. When it came to doing things
with his friends Mason never got any kind of decision from his mother until
the last minute. Not everybody on the Knights would be at the team party on
Saturday, however.

"Russell won't be there," Collin confided.

"He's been kind of a jerk the last couple of weeks," Miles said.

"Yeah, he quit sitting with us," Mason said.

"That's because fifth graders don't sit with fourth graders," Gordy
observed.

"Collin is sitting with us."

"That's because you guys are cool," Collin grinned.

"Look who Russell is sitting with today." Muddy pointed to a nearby table.

"He's sitting with Luke. Big deal, Luke is cool."

"Look who is on the other side of Luke."

"Roger," Aiden said. "And Roger is best friends with Barry."

"Max Foster says he's seen Russell riding bikes with Barry," Collin
said. "That's another reason I sit with you guys, I can't stand
Barry. Russell quit sitting at this table since Max saw Barry. Luke is best
buds with Russell, but I don't think he likes Barry. But, he does like
Roger, and I don't like Roger either." While Collin's speech might have
left more than one adult in a state of total confusion, the boys at the
table knew exactly what he was saying.

The social life of Lakeview elementary had become complicated as the last
three days of school started. But one thing was not complicated as far as
Aiden was concerned-nobody, not Barry, or Roger, or anybody else was going
to bully him or his friends.

"So, Russell isn't coming to the team party because him and Roger and Barry
are friends and Roger and Barry don't like Aiden and his friends," Collin
said. "But, even though Luke likes Russell, he likes everybody on the team
better, so he's coming to the party. At least, that's how I see it." That
was good enough for the fourth graders at the table, who had problems
following the maze of friendships and dislikes.

While Larry could have picked Aiden up after school, Aiden liked spending
time with his best friend, Gordy, and got the okay to walk to Gordy's house
where he would spend an hour or so until Phil picked him up.

"Autumn was telling everybody she thinks you're really smart and really
fine," Gordy told Aiden as they walked into his house.

"Hello, boys," Flo Lansing called out. She was folding laundry while
watching television. "There's chocolate chip cookies and milk for you in
the kitchen." The boys gave her a quick wave and headed for the important
stuff-the afterschool snack.

"I hate Autumn," was all Aiden had to say on the subject. He went into a
quick subject change. "Before I really work on my dads, are you okay with
going skinny dipping at my party."

"Sure."

"I thought you didn't like that stuff."

"Skinny dipping is fun. I don't like the BJs and stuff like that."

"You've done a little bit of jerking off with me," Aiden pointed out.

"Yeah, but you're my best friend. So go ahead and talk to your dads. I know
my mom and dad won't mind-my dad's told me he went skinny dipping with his
buds when he was a boy."

"I think my dads did, too, but they've never said."

With that out of the way, the boys went up to Gordy's room to talk and
play. It was gray and drizzling, so they didn't have much desire to go
outside.

That night, Aiden decided he had to bring up the subject of skinny dipping
with his dads. He could sense Larry and Phil waffling on the subject and he
wanted to dive in for the kill.

He once again received high praise for the A on the social studies project.

"But, I'm not having lunch with Autumn," Aiden said.

"I think it would be a good idea," Larry told his son sternly. "I brought
up taking Autumn because you two were a team. I'm not asking you to like
her, or to be her boyfriend...,"

"Ewww," Aiden mumbled, earning him glares from Larry and Phil. He hung his
head, avoiding eye contact.

"...but what I do want is for you to be polite and friendly to your
teammate. The two of you worked really well together to create a good
project. You should be able to eat lunch together one time."

 Aiden was about to protest when the phone rang. Phil was closest to it so
he did the honors of answering. Aiden quickly figured out what was going on
and his heart sank down to his toes.

"So, it looks like Mrs. Kellogg has an open invitation for Aiden to have
dinner at their house to celebrate the A on the project," Phil said. "And,
she was very happy to learn about Autumn having lunch with Aiden and us at
the Centerville Café. This should be fun."

"It's more like it all really sucks," Aiden growled.

"Lighten up, kiddo. It's not like the wedding bells are ringing."

"They might as well be. Autumn says she thinks I'm fine."

"And that is a bad thing?" Larry asked.

"Yes." Aiden went into an instant subject change. "Two meals with her is
ten times worse than one, so we should be able to skinny dip at my party."

"Even though your math is bad, we'll concede this much," Larry said. He
looked over at Phil, who gave him a look that said, I have no fucking clue
where you're going with this, but I'll back you up. "If you get your
friends and their parents to agree to skinny dipping, your dad and I will
agree."

"You mean, I gotta do it?" Aiden asked, incredulously. Getting his idea off
the ground was something that he figured would happen in the world of
adults, not in his world. The adults would all say yes, and the kids would
all have fun. Now he had to work up the courage to do it himself. As far as
Aiden was concerned, Larry's solution was his way of saying no to skinny
dipping.

Aiden went up to his room and sulked for a while. Then he thought of what
Marty had told him in one of their talks. "You can or you can't, either way
you're right." He'd heard his daddy say that, too, and wondered if Marty
had learned it from him.

He decided he had to come up with a plan. His dads loved telling him about
the Go to State Club and how it was started by players in middle
school. They had been a little bit older than him, but Aiden figured that
since he was almost ten he could figure out how to plan it so they could
skinny dip at his party.

While he'd skinny dipped with other boys at the pool before, this would be
the first time it wasn't going to be a secret. He understood that too many
friends, and especially too many adults, were involved to keep it a secret.

Aiden got up from his bed and took care of his evening peeing, washing,
brushing, and flossing. He called down from the landing, telling his dads
he was ready. Phil came up and did the reading and tucking honors.

"You seem to be accepting things better than earlier this evening," Phil
said as he pulled the covers up to Aiden's chin.

"Nothing I can do about Autumn. But there is gonna be skinny dipping at my
party."

"More power to you if you can pull it off."

"I'm gonna do it," he said. "I have a plan."

What Aiden didn't realize was that his plan was going to fail unless he got
some help, but that night he was confident that nothing could go wrong with
it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thursday was the last full day of school. It didn't get off to a good start
for Aiden when Autumn met him at his locker. She gushed girly sweetness all
over him, which made him feel like puking.

"I can't believe you invited me to lunch," Autumn said. "That means we'll
be going out to eat twice."

"We're not going out to eat. This is all our parents' idea."

"My mother is coming to take our project home."

"Good. You can keep it."

"For real?"

"Yes, for mega-real."

At lunch Aiden's mood wasn't helped by the math test he had before
lunch. He felt like the numbers all looked like they came from
Egypt-nothing made sense to him, but he did his best. His mood was upped a
bit by sitting with his best friends.

"I am nailed," Muddy said as Aiden and his friends started munching their
lunches.

"How can you have a boner after taking that math test?" Miles asked.

"Mudrak always has boners."

"Can I see it?" Mason asked to the surprise of no one.

Muddy wrapped the front of his shorts around the bulge in his groin. Mason
looked at it eagerly and Muddy let the little nine-year-old's hand replace
his.

 Aiden was having fun with the byplay surrounding Muddy's boner when his
mood was punctured by Autumn coming by on the heels of Shana Masters. The
two girls stopped at the table. Shana stared at Mason's hand grabbing
Muddy's crotch, and then turned and looked at Autumn.

"I will be so happy to go to middle school next year and not have to look
at the nasty boys at this table," Shana told Autumn.

"You know you like it, or you wouldn't come around and look all the time,"
Collin said. Collin and Shana had the same fifth grade teacher. They did
not like each other very much.

Autumn kept her eyes on Mason's hand, which he hadn't bothered to move,
then finally looked at her friend, Shana, "I like coming past here. I think
Aiden is cute." Her comment caused Aiden to blush bright red and set off a
roar of laughter from his friends.

"Aiden and Autumn, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G," Miles and Collin
chanted together. Aiden slid down in his chair, hating everybody,
especially Autumn.

"I ain't never kissing no girl," he mumbled, doing his best to totally
fracture what he'd been learning about the English language.

"It's not Aiden's fault Autumn's got a crush on him," Gordy said.

"Yeah, you're right," Miles admitted. "We're just having fun with you
Aiden, because you're one of our best friends."

Aiden perked up and brought up the topic of his party and the possibility
of skinny dipping. He told his friends his plan. They all thought it
sounded like a good idea, but were positive it wouldn't work. Aiden was
equally certain it would.

After school he talked to Flo Lansing, Gordy's mom, to see if she was okay
with everybody going skinny dipping at his party. He figured he'd asked the
parent he knew best first. She surprised him by saying she was okay with
it, but that there should be some rules, which she laid out. While Aiden
didn't understand all of her reasoning, he agreed to them since they
wouldn't get in the way of their fun. He now had one parent down.

That evening he talked to his dads about his talk with Gordy's mom. She
wanted to be sure that Larry and Phil would keep their swimming trunks on
and would properly supervise the kids without making them nervous by
staring at them.

"We'll talk to her about her rules," Larry said. "We agree with her
concerns. I've already talked to Jeffrey and Nick about being here for the
party to take care of supervision. They are certified lifesavers, and their
being boys will make everyone more at ease."

"Miles, Gordy, Muddy, and Mason don't mind being naked in front of you
guys," Aiden pointed out.

"I know, but that is more an individual thing than a group naturist thing."

"Naturist? What does naturist mean?"

"It is people enjoying the outdoors in the nude," Phil answered.

"Will Nicky and the Hurricane be naturists?" Aiden asked.

"No."

"Is Sammy coming with them?"

"I don't know. Do you want him to?"

"No."

Phil gave Larry a glance. They were both surprised by Aiden's curt answer.

"I thought you liked Sammy," Phil said.

"I do. But when he gets naked he thinks it's like all about sex and
stuff. He gets really nasty. We want to skinny dip because it's fun, not
because it's nasty."

"I think you might be turning into a real naturist yourself," Larry
laughed.

"He can come, but if he gets nasty he has to go home. I don't want anybody
getting nasty in the pool." Larry and Phil wondered how Aiden would keep
that from happening.

But the way Aiden saw it, they might get naughty, like grabbing butts and
crotches, but not nasty like jerking each other's dicks or sucking. If
anybody wanted to get nasty, he figured those guys could sneak into the
basement and not do it at the pool. He wanted to be able to have more
"naturist" parties and didn't want anybody to mess this one up by being
nasty at the pool.

After Aiden was tucked in, Phil and Larry sat in the many-purpose
room. "Aiden is becoming quite the assertive little boy," Larry observed.

"That he is," Phil agreed. "It's nothing new, but he's learning how to
channel that part of his personality. We see it here at home, and we saw it
develop in sports all year, especially on the baseball field this spring."

"We have adopted a real live wire."

"I wouldn't want it any other way," Phil laughed.

The next day was a half-day of school. The day consisted of turning in
books, playing games, and getting their final math and English tests
back. Aiden aced them both, causing him to wonder why he thought he'd done
so terrible on them. I need to do more of what Marty says and not think
like I'm bad at everything, he thought. He remembered the song "I Am the
Greatest", realizing it applied to more than sports.

After school, Gordy, Aiden, Miles, and Mason ended up at Muddy's house. His
mother had agreed to take care of that crew. Miles and Mason's mothers had
to work and Gordy and Aiden's parents were involved with after school
teacher luncheons and parties. It was cool and drizzly outside, as the last
days of school always seemed to be, so the boys watched a movie on TV, ate
snacks and drank pop, played with Muddy's race car set among other toys,
and did the goofy things fourth grade boys liked to do, at least until
Gordy pointed out something.

"Hey, dudes, we're not in fourth grade any more. We're now in fifth grade."
That set off a big cheer, and the boys went back to doing the same things,
only it was now the goofy things fifth grade boys liked to do.

When Aiden finally had a chance to be alone with Muddy's mom, he told her
about the plan to skinny dip at his party and wondered if she was okay with
Muddy doing it. The process made him very nervous. He knew that Muddy's
mother could be very strict and waited for her to yell at him or chase him
out of her kitchen or even her house.

Instead, she laughed. "You not need to ask me. In the old country everybody
swim naked at the beach. We not think anything of it. My boys at home are
naked more than they are dressed sometimes. Mudrak and his cousins play
naked together since they were little. He will feel like he is home with
family. If you all want to be naked in my house, it is not a problem. But I
am told Americans not very, how do you say it...comfortable with naked
bodies."

Aiden thanked her and returned to his friends, wishing he'd known it would
have been okay for all of them to get naked. Next time he visited Muddy he
hoped they could shed their clothes from the start. He now had three okays,
including himself, and five more to go.

Muddy knew why Aiden was talking with his mother and asked Aiden what her
answer was, not that he had any doubt.

"She said it was okay. She even said we could get naked here almost anytime
we wanted."

Muddy smiled and almost instantly had his pants and underpants off. "You
mean we get naked like this?"

All of the boys' heads turned in surprise. They hadn't heard what Aiden and
Muddy were talking about. "Muddy, you took your pants off," Mason
said. Muddy then pulled off his shirt and was now totally naked.

"Like he doesn't know," Miles told him. "Why are you naked?" he asked
Muddy.

"To show what we do next time you come. Nobody cares if we are naked." They
heard somebody start to unzip and were not surprised that it was Mason.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"We were having much fun with our clothes on," he said.

The doorbell rang. It was time for parents to arrive and for those walking
home to think about leaving. Muddy picked up his clothes and went into the
kitchen while his mother answered the door for Larry.

"Ready to go home, Kiddo?" he asked Aiden.

"Not really. We were having fun and it was starting to get funner."  He
grabbed his jacket and was about to yell good-bye to Muddy, but his friend
came out of the kitchen now wearing his shirt and pants. The two boys
bumped fists and Aiden left to go home with his daddy.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Before Aiden knew it, Saturday had arrived. It was the day of the team
party at Coach Hallion's house. While the weather was still gray and
drizzly, the forecast was for warming and clearing by the afternoon. The
party was slated to start at noon.

Everybody on the team except for Russell and Luke was there by
noon. Russell had already said he wasn't going to come to the party while
Luke was sick with strep throat. He'd missed the last two days of
school. They all agreed it was bad enough to get sick, but to get sick
right when summer vacation was starting was the worst way in the world to
get sick.

The Hallions had a pool, but it was an above ground pool and much smaller
than the pool at Aiden's house. It didn't matter to the boys, however, as
the sun started to peek out and the temperature moved into the upper
sixties. The party featured swimming, volleyball, badminton, whiffle ball,
and plenty of food. The Knights had fun running around and making a lot of
noise.

After finishing the main meal of hamburgers and potato salad, the team
presented their coach with a large ceramic planter that Collin's mother had
made. The planter was round and the side was decorated with twelve boys
wearing the uniforms of the Knights. Collin's mother was a talented
artisan, who sold her works professionally. Coach Hallion was obviously
very pleased with his gift, as was his ever-patient wife. When her husband
volunteered to help, neither he nor his wife had a clue he'd be spending
numerous hours as the head coach of the team. The team, who had all seen
the planter beforehand, as well as the parents who were present, applauded
her work.

Once again, Aiden had to ask a parent about his party, and this time it
would be his coach. "Boys wanting to skinny dip?" Coach Hallion asked
jovially. "Hard to believe." Coach Hallion had quick thoughts of his own
skinny dipping exploits growing up, and they certainly weren't as tame as a
supervised swim would be.

"We are going to be naturists," Aiden explained, not quite sure which way
his coach was leaning. "And there will be rules."

As far as Coach Hallion was concerned, skinny dipping with rules was almost
like wearing swim suits. "Let me talk to your dads about this, but I think
it should be okay. It's not like Trent hasn't seen somebody naked before."
Aiden thanked Coach Hallion and walked away, wondering just exactly what
his coach meant about Trent seeing naked people. Four down and four to go
before Thursday.

The party started breaking up around four-thirty. Just before Aiden left,
Collin's mother stopped him. "I'm okay with your plan for your party," she
said. "We are a naturist family, so it will just seem natural to Collin."

Aiden thanked her for telling him, complimented her on the gift she had
made, and trotted over to his dads who were standing with some other
parents. Aiden wondered how Collin's mother knew about the plan to skinny
dip. Then he decided that since they were naturists, Collin had probably
told her about it. What really intrigued him was why Collin had kept the
fact that he was a nudist a secret from everybody.

Now he had five down and three to go: Rusty, Mason, and Miles.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Aiden was eating his Sunday breakfast, wondering how he was going to deal
with the last three friends he had left. He wanted everybody coming to the
party to have fun being naturists. The way he saw it was that if somebody
couldn't do it, then none of them would do it. But, he also knew that would
be unfair-everybody might get mad at them because their parents wouldn't
let them skinny dip. He wished he'd never thought of the idea, or at least
just listened to his dads and let the matter drop.

The toughest sell would be to Mason's mom, since she really didn't like his
dads much. And he didn't even know if Mason was coming to his party. He
wanted to solve the whole problem on his own, but he was beginning to
realize he was going to need some help.

"Dads, how did those kids start up a whole baseball team with no adults to
help?"

"They had lots of adults help them," Larry answered.

"They did? I thought they did it all on their own."

"They got the ideas on their own, and got a few things off the ground on
their own, but they figured out really quickly they would need help. They
agreed on two things: they would pick the adults to help them, and they
would stay in charge."

"They were some very intelligent and very motivated boys. Kind of like
you," Phil said.

Aiden finished his fried eggs, thinking over what his dads had just told
him. He knew he needed help. He realized that this was one case in which
his dads couldn't help him. But, he knew who could.

"Dads, can I ride my bike over to Gordy's house?" he asked with just a
touch of begging in his voice.

"You know you still need more experience, especially when it comes to
riding over the dam and into town," Larry answered.

"But the road over the dam has a fence between it and the bike trail," he
patiently pointed out. There was a three-foot high chain link fence between
the bicycle and walking trail and the two lane highway across the length of
the dam.

"I'm more worried about you riding in town." It wasn't heavy traffic Larry
and Phil were worried about, since Mayfield was a small town without much
traffic except on Highway 12. They were more worried about getting used to
intersections and judging vehicle speed and being in the way of turning
cars.

"But..."

"No buts. We told you we'd be practicing with you during the summer. Before
the summer is over we'll have confidence in you knowing how to ride in
town."

"But I need to see Gordy."

"And the solution to that would be what?" Phil asked.

"Asking if one of you could give me a ride," Aiden replied sheepishly.

After a phone call to set things up, Larry took Aiden to Gordy's house
after Gordy and his family got home from church. But, it wasn't Gordy whom
Aiden really wanted to see, it was Gordy's mother.

After he finished talking to her, she agreed to accompany him to see
Mason's mother and help convince her that what they were doing was just
boys being boys; boys having fun and feeling free. Mason's mother finally
agreed, providing that Flo Lansing would be at the party to help
supervise. Flo had already planned to be there, so of course she agreed
instantly.

"Then Mason will be there if he feels like coming. I really don't think he
is going to like being naked with all of those boys. He simply isn't
naughty like that. No offense Aiden."

Aiden tried hard not to giggle. It was obvious to him that Mason's mother
didn't know her son very well.

 Miles's mother had no problem with the boys having some innocent
fun. "Miles would be naked all of the time, if he could. John has gotten
shy about his body since he hit puberty, but he used to be the same way."
She didn't know about John's habit of wearing long t-shirts while having
nothing on underneath.

She was worried about their being seen from the road or from the
lake. Aiden told her that the pool was fenced by tinted glass and nobody
could see in and that ended her only objection. She was pleased that
Gordy's mother would be there.

Aiden didn't know Rusty's mother, but Flo did. The Lansings and Rusty's
family attended the same church. Flo explained that what they were doing
was making the pool into a boys' nudist colony for a day.

"They could have kept this secret and surprised us all, including Aiden's
dads when they suddenly all shed their clothes," Flo said. "They decided to
be upfront about it, and if people disagreed with the idea then they
wouldn't do it. The boys placed Aiden in charge since the pool is at his
house."

"Well, I have to admit it is a way far out idea," Rusty's mom said. She
looked over at her son, who was listening in along with Aiden. "And you're
sure you're okay with this?"

"Sure," the redhead said. "It will be fun. Maybe we can make it a
tradition."

"We'll cross that bridge some other time. But this once, I will agree and
we'll see where it goes from there."

Flo drove Aiden home afterwards. He thanked her for her help.

"I needed a lady to help me. You're like my mom sometimes."

"Every boy needs a mom sometimes," Flo said, "and as I've told you before,
I am more than happy to fill the role."

"I can't believe we're going to go skinny dipping without have to be
sneaky. I never thought everybody would say yes."

"Truth be told, neither did I, Aiden, neither did I."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Marty dropped by Aiden's house on Monday morning. Aiden was sitting on his
favorite recliner reading a book. He was comfortably naked, with a blanket
covering his lap. With the high for the day expected to be around 72, Larry
knew the house would warm naturally, so he had the heat turned down. Aiden
was listening to Schubert's "Trout Quintet". He thought it was funny that a
piece of music was named for a fish.

Aiden jumped in surprise when he heard the doorbell play Beethoven. Larry
was on the couch going through the morning newspaper. "I'll get the door-I
don't think you're dressed well enough to answer it," he told Aiden. Marty
had told Larry he was coming over, but asked him not to tell Aiden.

"I'm wearing my best suit. I've owned it my whole life," Aiden giggled.

When he saw Marty walk into the morning sun room, he jumped up from the
recliner, the blanket dropping to the floor. He was now exposed in his full
glory, but he didn't care. As far as he was concerned Marty was the
exception to the "don't be naked in front of company" rule, especially
since his daddy hadn't told him to go upstairs and put something on.

Aiden draped his arms around the big ballplayer and pushed his face against
his chest. "What are you doing here? You should have told me you were
coming."

"I told Coach I was coming, but he was supposed to keep it a secret."

"Why?"

"So you wouldn't know I was coming, silly." Marty ruffled Aiden's hair,
making it even more unruly than it had been. "I came to let you know I was
leaving tomorrow."

"Leaving? Leaving for where?"

"For the Mariners rookie camp in Arizona. I signed my contract over the
weekend, and now it's time to hit the road."

"Did you get a lot of money?" Aiden asked.

"Enough to buy me a new car when I get down there, with quite a bit left
over." He looked down at Aiden. "Nice suit, bro."

"I told my daddy it was my best suit, but I don't think he believed me. But
now he does."

Marty, Larry, and Aiden sat down and chatted for a while. Aiden put the
blanket back on his lap, not because he was embarrassed by his nudity, but
because of the slight chill in the room.

"Do you know where you will be playing?" Aiden asked. "I hope it's in
Tacoma, because it's close," he added before Marty could answer.

"Tacoma is the Mariners Triple-A team. That's for experienced players. But
I could be playing on their short-season A team in Everett. That's not so
far off."

"Oh, I hope so. Would we be able to go if he plays there daddy?"

"That would be a definite yes."

Aiden jumped out of the recliner, the blanket dropping off again, and gave
Larry a big hug, forgetting the "don't hug your daddies when you're naked
unless you're under your bedcovers" rule. "You're the best." Aiden sat next
to Marty and cuddled against the big athlete. He enjoyed the warmth of the
young man's strong, hard body.

Marty stayed for lunch, which consisted of some of Phil's premade
sandwiches. This time Aiden had to follow the rules. He went upstairs and
donned a long t-shirt, thinking of what Miles had said about his brother,
John and his long t-shirts. He came back down wearing nothing under the
shirt, but nobody noticed. Aiden grinned to himself, realizing he'd found a
way to bend a rule.

After lunch, Aiden got dressed and he and Marty played catch in the
backyard. Even though Marty was Aiden's big bro, the boy was very excited
about playing catch with a real professional baseball player.

He told Marty about his big party coming up. Marty was amazed that Aiden
had been able to pull off having a parent sanctioned skinny dipping
party. He wondered what would happen during the overnight. Since the boys
had still not reached puberty, he didn't expect it to go much beyond some
show and tell. Considering that they would all be swimming naked together,
it probably wouldn't even come to that, he thought.

Aiden was sad when Marty finally left. Marty told Aiden he could follow his
progress on the Mariners' website, which Aiden planned to do. That night,
after tuck-in, he felt lonely. For the first time in a few weeks, he put on
the briefs he had worn that day, grabbed Horace, and went downstairs after
lights out. After going through the usual routine at the door, he snuggled
in between his dads and fell into a restful sleep.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The next day, Larry took Aiden bike riding into Mayfield. He showed Aiden
the proper procedure for crossing the dam. The path was narrow, and bikes
going in opposite directions could only pass at a wide-out in the middle of
the dam. While a sign explained the procedure, Larry felt the best way for
Aiden to learn how to handle the dam was to show him how the process
worked.

Aiden learned the rules, the laws, and what to look for at the traffic
light where he would have to cross Highway 12. It was one of only two
traffic lights in Mayfield, and he was shown how to deal with each or
them. They rode to Gordy's house where Aiden's friend joined them for the
rest of their ride.

After lunch at the Mayfield Café, Aiden asked if he was ready to go into
town by himself. Larry said they would do at least one more ride together
where he wouldn't say much. Instead, he would observe how Aiden handled
situations and ask him questions about why he did what he did. Aiden felt
that before the summer was out, he would be riding around town with his
friends and be as free as they were.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two days later, it was Thursday- party day. The forecast was for sunshine
with temperatures in the upper seventies to lower eighties. Aiden was
excited-everything looked perfect for his first big party and big
overnight. It was made even better by the fact that he and his friends
would become naturists for a day.

Next: Birthday Suits