Chapter 1: Arrival

 

 

 

Outside the window of Kasha’s cabin was nothing but the blue and purple vortex of hyperspace. As long as it stayed that way, she was okay. It was the inevitable point when she would see stars again that she was dreading.

 

Kasha sat down on the bed that she had slept in for the last three nights. At least her dad’s company had been kind enough to provide them with a family suite on the transport, so she, her parents and her brother each got private cabins. It was a small comfort, and after all, she was used to being surrounded by sterile metal and plastic walls. It was how she had lived all her life.

 

But in a few hours, everything would be different.

 

It almost felt like she had been in a state of near constant shock since she learned weeks ago that her dad’s job had transferred him, and that they would be leaving the space station and moving to the province of Calic on Lupina. In all her sixteen years, Kasha had never left space; her whole life had been back on Sigma 14. Now she was going to live on an actual planet; no matter how many textbooks she read in school or how much other people told her, how was she supposed to have the slightest idea what to expect?

 

She knew the details, of course. Lupina was a planet with an average temperature of 26 degrees and very little seasonal climate change. A year there was 412 days. It had a lot of waterlogged areas, and many towns there were built on water.

 

But aside from the textbook details, it was what she’d heard about the people that really had her on edge. Allegedly, Lupina was infamous for its people walking around wearing next to nothing—or actually nothing. Nudity or partial nudity was supposed to be the norm there. The only person Kasha had ever seen naked in her life was the girl in the mirror. Now she was about to be surrounded by them—and more than likely expected to follow suit.

 

Or birthday suit, I should say.

 

The lady’s voice over the intercom gave the dreaded announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, we will be dropping out of hyperspace within the next hour. We will be docking at the Lupina Cruise Port.”

 

Kasha sucked in a breath and gulped. The four-day purgatory that had been the trip on this shuttle was about to end. Here goes everything.

 

Would she really be able to parade around nude in front of strangers, and live that way indefinitely? …Maybe she needed to practice a little. She stood up and walked to the oval-shaped mirror on the wall, and looked back into the green eyes of the girl she saw there. Straight red hair with cutoff bangs curtained her face. She looked down at herself, at the long-sleeved blue and gray fabric top and gray pants she wore. The kind of outfit that was totally ordinary on the space station, but where she was going would make her stick out like a very sore and overdressed thumb.

 

Grimacing, Kasha slowly unzipped her top and peeled it away, uncovering her black strapless bra. She shucked her shoes and slid her pants down her legs, uncovering her black boyshorts. She stopped there, pausing to look at herself in her underwear. This by itself was already more than she was comfortable showing off, but she was still going to have to continue if she was going to be ready for this. If it was even possible for her to be ready for this.

 

Off went her underwear. Now she stood naked in front of the mirror, scrutinizing her body like she never had before. She saw smallish but still pert breasts capped with pink nipples. She saw a red bush at the junction of her legs that she had never bothered to trim, because she had never considered the possibility of someone seeing it. She saw a pair of hips that she wished were just a little narrower… and as long as she was wishing, some bigger boobs would be nice too.

 

Well, she decided her package wasn’t too bad, all things considered. If she had to show it off in front of people, maybe that wouldn’t be so terrible.

 

Her door chimed and her mother’s voice sounded at the door. “Kasha, can I come in honey?”

 

“Wait, hold on!” Kasha yelped, scrambling in a panic to pull her clothes back on, and opening the door once she was dressed again. “Hi Mom,” she said through a fake grin.

 

“Is everything alright?” her mom said.

 

“Of course, why wouldn’t it be?”

 

“Because you have ‘basket case’ written all over you.”

 

Kasha dropped her phony smile and turned back into her cabin. Her mom followed her inside—and stopped, looking at a spot on the floor. Kasha followed her eyes and began blushing like a tomato when she saw what her mom was looking at: her discarded underwear on the floor that she had neglected to put back on in her rush to get dressed. “Trying to get a jump on things?”

 

Kasha sighed. Her newfound resolve had officially been crushed. How could she handle nudity in front of strangers if she couldn’t even handle it in front of her own mother?

 

Her mom had lost none of her inexplicable ability to read Kasha’s mind. “If it means anything to you, I’m as freaked about this as you are.” Like Kasha, her mom was also a born spacer, and although she’d been to some actual planets before, she’d never been to any world like Lupina.

 

“Why couldn’t Dad’s job have sent him to some planet like Gethro or Morvis, where people actually stay covered up?”

 

“Look, honey, you know you don’t have to actually get naked in front of people once we get there. There are other options.”

 

“Not a lot of them.”

 

“I know it’ll take some getting used to, but I’m sure we will.”

 

Kasha grimaced. “I wish I was so sure.”

 

After a pause, her mom added, “Actually, so am I. I was trying to reassure myself as much as you.”

 

Her grimace turned to a smile, and she leaned over to hug her mother. “Thanks, Mom.”

 

Her mom hugged her back and then turned to leave. “We’re going to be landing soon, so make sure you’re ready.”

 

“Mm-hmm,” Kasha said as her mom walked out the door. As if I’m ever going to be ready for this.

 

Kasha removed her clothes again just long enough to put her underwear back on, and decided to spend the time she had left before they landed by doing the one thing she knew could always relax her at least a little: playing her ogara. The ogara was a musical instrument that produced a high lyrical sound. It consisted of a base with a grip for her left hand and a butt that she held in the crook of her arm, and above that was a large ring that projected a big ball of glowing energy inside of it when it was active. By holding her hand in front of the energy, she produced a tone. She made notes by moving her fingers and changed the pitch by moving her hand closer or further from it. It was an instrument that took a lot of practice and some old-fashioned raw talent to master, and Kasha had had both since she was six.

 

She spent the next hour playing her favorite set of songs; songs she was sure her family had gotten sick of hearing over the last four days. But finally, the inevitable came. She saw the flash out the window that preceded the reappearance of star-speckled blackness. Gulping, Kasha stood up and walked to the window… and looking down, she saw the blue and green planet below her.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in orbit above Lupina. Please strap yourselves in as we prepare to dock with the Cruise Port.”

 

Kasha’s window didn’t allow her a clear view of the orbiting station that they were docking with, but she did as instructed, strapping into her chair and waiting out the long minutes before she felt the craft slow its motion, and then shudder violently when the docking clamps locked in place.

 

Showtime.

 

Sighing, Kasha stood up, packed up her stuff and walked for the door of her cabin. The rest of her family was already out of the suite; she found them already waiting for her out in the hall where the other passengers were moving to get off the shuttle. “Kasha, come on,” her dad said.

 

Gritting her teeth, Kasha stepped out of the suite to join her family. Her dad seemed oblivious to her distress at the situation, but her mom gave her a knowing look. Her 10-year-old brother Trevor just looked lost. As a group, they headed for the airlock, coming ever closer to their new life. As they walked among the other passengers, Kasha couldn’t keep from thinking about how most of them were only here for a visit. Not like her.

 

They followed the crowd of passengers through the transport to the exit hatch, and from there followed the signs and the yellow line snaking along the sleek, metallic floor to Customs and Security, where Dad presented their travel passes and IDs and answered the necessary questions. Then it was onto the shuttle down to the surface, where they checked in their luggage and were guided to seats, where this time they had to sit all in a row together, the luxury of their private cabins behind them. In fact, Kasha realized, a lack of privacy was something she would soon have to get used to.

 

“Please strap yourselves in as we prepare to disembark,” the announcer lady’s voice said. “There will be some turbulence as we enter the atmosphere.”

 

It’s the turbulence after we enter it that I’m worried about, Kasha thought as she secured herself in the chair. She looked over and saw Dad squeezing Mom’s hand, and privately wished she had someone’s hand to hold too. Her brother didn’t count.

 

They were pressed back into their chairs as the shuttle launched from the Cruise Port, and then the planet below them started rapidly getting bigger in the window. The way the shuttle trembled and shook as it made its entry seemed a perfect analogy for how she felt now. She closed her eyes, clenched her teeth and gripped her fingers tight on the armrests.

 

Eventually the rumbling lessened, signaling that they were through the atmosphere. Kasha opened her eyes to see her cabin illuminated by brilliant light pouring through the window. Daylight. It was something one could never see living in space. And it was beautiful. From where she sat, Kasha could see clouds going by, and in the distance she could make out the tops of buildings.

 

She felt the shuttle coasting in, and its speed began to slow as it changed direction from moving forward and down to just moving forward. The view out the window darkened as they entered the spaceport dock, and a few long minutes later, the shuttle finally stopped. They had arrived.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have now docked at the Calic spaceport on Lupina. Please make sure you have gathered all your belongings and proceed off the shuttle in an orderly fashion. Welcome to Lupina and thank you for traveling with us.”

 

“Remember,” her mom said to both her and Trevor as they unfastened and got up from their seats, “don’t stare at anyone.”

 

Kasha had seen the brochure videos, so she knew what to expect. The only article of clothing people wore in Calic was a thin sheet of brightly colored and patterned cloth that wrapped around them. For men it was a short piece that was just worn below the waist, but for women there were two varieties. Some women wore a long wrap that started above the bust and ended midway down the thighs, but others wore a short wrap just like the men, worn below the waist, leaving their breasts exposed.

 

But knowing what she would see didn’t make it any less jarring once she actually saw it. The first thing she did when they exited the ramp after retrieving their luggage was shield her eyes as she stepped into brighter light than any she’d ever seen on the space station. The spaceport was full of huge windows that let plenty of sunlight pour into the building. But as she blinked and her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw the native attendants welcoming the passengers off the shuttle, a man and woman wearing the same red and white wraps below their waists. Here was this woman with a warm smile, casually offering friendly welcomes to everyone, including Kasha, with her breasts hanging out for everyone to see.

 

Don’t stare, Kasha reminded herself. Several times. But it was hard to keep to that. It was the first time she had seen anyone’s breasts besides her own.

 

But it certainly wouldn’t be the last. As they moved out into the wide open lobby, and ultimately to the street outside, Kasha was immediately bombarded with more human flesh than she ever thought she’d see in her life. Even the more modest women who were dressed in the long wraps, keeping their breasts concealed, with their bare shoulders and exposed legs were still showing off what would be considered daring by space station standards.

 

And yes, there were plenty of people walking the streets completely in the nude. A distance away, a young couple stood naked leaning on the railing over a river, with the guy stroking his girlfriend’s hair. Three teenage girls, probably just about Kasha’s age, walked by wearing nothing but their open-toed shoes, their jewelry and the macrolink devices on their right ears. They just chatted amiably among themselves, sipping their hot drinks—and staring at Kasha and her family as they passed. Yes, in these clothes she imagined they must have really stood out to these naked natives.

 

She also noticed that she didn’t see any children under the age of about eight or nine wearing a stitch of clothing. Apparently the wrap was something children didn’t wear until they reached a certain age—and Trevor was just old enough to qualify.

 

They made their way onto a speed-pod—a public transportation vehicle that used an inertial dampening field to keep everyone on their feet as it sped through tubes at over thirty kilometers a minute. There were plenty of them stationed around the spaceport, as there should have been, with detailed maps explaining which regions each one went to. It was a little refreshing that most of the other passengers on the pod with them had clothes on, and not the Calic wrap. These were people just arriving like them, some of them even wearing space station clothing like them, while others were dressed in the indigenous styles of here and there. The doors closed as they took their seats, and the hum of the inertial dampeners started up before the pod took off shooting through the tube, and the world started whipping by them at breakneck speed.

 

At the front of the pod, a holographic image screen appeared, beginning to run advertisements and news reports, most of them presented by attractive nude women. An ad for one of the latest model autovans showed a video of smiling people driving it in the background, while in the foreground to the side was the image of a young woman with shining dark brown hair that hung over her left shoulder, standing there in all her glory. She was all made up and airbrushed and glamorous with perky breasts that only stoked Kasha’s envy, and a clean-shaven crotch that was partially hidden by having her legs close together and the way her body was turned slightly to the side with her hand held up to present the autovan she was extolling.

 

Finally the speed-pod reached the region they were headed for, and came to a sudden stop that the passengers barely felt. They got off, and picked up the autovan that had been reserved for them, a shiny red model-G Howzer. They spent the next twenty minutes driving over city streets, and onto more private roads surrounded by serpentine trees with a wide canopy of green, before coming at last to the house that would now be theirs. “Home sweet home,” her dad said.

 

Well, it was a nice place, Kasha would give it that. It was a wide two-story house with a hint of both pueblo and mission-style to it. There were lots of archways over the front porch before coming to the door, and the upstairs bedrooms had wide balconies. It was situated on a grassy, tree-covered hill, and while the nearest houses were visible from here they were still a good thirty or forty meters away.

 

They came inside and proceeded to familiarize themselves with the house, but right now Kasha was only interested in finding out where one room was: hers. As soon as she did, she marched in and flopped down on the bed that she would be sleeping in from now on.

 

Well, they were here. She had to admit, the terrifying present her family had been given came in very pretty wrapping. The sterile walls and empty blackness of space couldn’t compare to the simple beauty of this place.

 

She was beginning to realize something else: her heavy space station clothes were becoming a bit uncomfortable here. She was getting a little hot and sweaty under them… on impulse she unzipped her top. The cool air that suddenly rushed in over her bare skin underneath it felt incredible. I think I understand these people a little more.

 

On a low, stylistic table a short distance from her, Kasha saw stacks of folded pieces of patterned cloth. These were the wraps that had been provided for her to wear. And to her dismay, she found as she went to inspect them that she’d been provided with both varieties. Well, she was only going to need to worry about one type. No way am I letting my tits just hang out.

 

She picked up a light blue-green sheet of the longer cloth. To think this would be the most she could wear without sticking out… ah, well, she decided she might as well get used to it. Off went her clothes, on went the wrap. It took a while for her to figure out how to get it to stay in place, but figure it out she did. It also helped some when she found the thin silver chain-link belt on the table, which helped to secure it around her waist—as well as, she realized, making it hug her frame a little more.

 

Now it was to the mirror. She looked herself up and down, examining the way she would be presenting herself to this world. Even with how much of her this thing covered, she felt like she was practically naked anyway. She might as well have just been wrapped in a towel; even that would have been more substantial than this.

 

“Kasha, are you going to—”

 

Her mother’s question died on her tongue as she stepped into the room and found the way Kasha was dressed. Instinctively, Kasha wrapped her arms around herself, before her mother’s smile compelled her to slowly, bashfully put her arms down. “Honey, you look great.”

 

Kasha blushed and rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Mom.”

 

“I just wondered if you wanted to help us finish setting up the house.”

 

“I think… I think I just want to be alone for a little longer,” Kasha said.

 

Her mom nodded in understanding. “I’ll come get you when it’s time for dinner.”

 

Kasha nodded in agreement as her mom stepped out and shut the door. Left to herself, Kasha returned to her bed, and picked up her ogara. Today was just the warm-up. Tomorrow the real test to see if she could handle this new life would begin.

 

Tomorrow she’d be going to school.

 

 

Chapter 2: First Day of School

 

 

 

Kasha got back into her space station clothes before going down to dinner that evening, a bit to her mother’s disappointment. Their first meal in their new home was mercifully normal, but the same could not be said for her attempts at sleep that night. When she finally did manage to get to sleep after hours of lying awake, her dreams were of being back on the space station, forcibly paraded around naked in front of everyone she knew.

 

As it had to, morning came, and with it the time to face the world. Kasha got showered, applied her makeup and returned to her room wrapped in a towel. She picked up the wrap she was about to dress in… and looked down at the towel she was still wearing. Changing from the towel to this felt like she was dressing down.

 

Well… she decided she could still put her underwear on under this thing. Her bra had no straps, so they wouldn’t show, and the only way anyone would see her boyshorts would be if they looked between her legs when she sat down—and in that scenario, having them on would be highly preferable to the alternative. At least that way she felt a little less exposed.

 

After that came her shoes, which were open-toed, as apparently all shoes were in Calic. At least the macrolink was familiar. The small multimedia device that fitted to the right ear, used for long-distance communication, sending messages, or downloading information, was commonplace all across the colonized galaxy, and that certainly included space.

 

Just coming down to breakfast in that wrap required her to steel herself a little, but she relaxed a little when she got downstairs and saw her parents. There was her dad sitting at the table in his red and yellow wrap, unclad above the waist. “Good morning, sweetheart,” he said when he saw her, trying unsuccessfully to hide how self-conscious he felt.

 

“Kaaaashaaaa,” her mom hummed, appearing from the kitchen in a light green, yellow and white wrap and giving Kasha a little twirl.

 

“You look beautiful, Mom,” Kasha grinned.

 

“Thank you, honey.”

 

Kasha had just sat down with her breakfast when Trevor appeared coming downstairs in a red and white wrap, looking embarrassed as all hell. Kasha fought to suppress a chuckle. “You look adorable, Trevor,” she said.

 

“Aww, shut up!” he snapped.

 

Eventually it was time to leave. They’d be getting a second autovan for her mom to use, but for now they had to share the Howzer, so both her parents would drive her and Trevor to their respective schools. They dropped Trevor off first. As he got out, Kasha observed that most of the adolescent kids in Trevor’s age group were in fact wearing a wrap, with most of the girls in the long one, apparently a little self-conscious about their changing bodies at that age.

 

But at Kasha’s school it was not the same.

 

Her high school was made up of a bunch of separate buildings with mostly terra cotta outer walls, and metal gates with curving arches around the entrance made of bundled branches. Most of the doors on the school buildings had similar arches around them, too. There were also curved branches connecting the roofs of the buildings, forming a sort of arching canopy that let in bars of sunlight. Several other places were still totally exposed to the sky anyway. Basically, aside from the classrooms and the offices it was largely an outdoor campus, which was not what Kasha was expecting.

 

Her first destination was the Admissions & Records office, where she needed to check in as a new student. The receptionist there looked pretty good for a woman who was clearly in her fifties, but Kasha was a bit relieved that she was wearing a long wrap. The woman looked over Kasha’s file on her computer, asking a few questions about her background and everything.

 

With that out of the way, Kasha was given her class schedule and headed out to her first class of the day. As she walked the campus, she began observing the other kids. She noted that, with guys, there did in fact seem to be more of them wearing a wrap than not, although there were still plenty of them walking campus naked. After yesterday, when she’d gotten her first in-person glimpse of a guy’s parts, several times, she was still learning to adjust to seeing what had always been a taboo piece of anatomy on public display.

 

For girls, on the other hand, there were definitely more in the nude than dressed in a wrap. Naked girls were everywhere. And even of those who did wear a wrap, the ones like her in a long wrap who didn’t have their tits on display were in the definite minority. Kasha was just baffled. How could so many girls be so willing to expose themselves so openly?

 

Her first class of the day was English. Not wanting attention, she took a seat near the back of the class, as close to the door as she could get. But alas, attention was what she got. The teacher, Mr. Frazier, a man in his late forties with a dark red wrap, was quick to start off the class by noting that a new student was present. “Kasha, you’re from the space station Sigma 14, is that right?”

 

“Um, yeah.”

 

“How are you adjusting?”

 

Badly. “Uh, well… it’s been kind of weird.”

 

“Weird how?”

 

“Well, people in space don’t run around naked.” Some of the students giggled at that, especially the ones in the nude.

 

As the class began, Kasha did a quick headcount of the students in the class. She counted fourteen boys and seventeen girls, including herself. Of the boys, eight wore a wrap, and six were naked. As for the girls, only one other girl in the class besides herself wore a long wrap; five wore a short wrap, and ten were naked.

 

She also began to notice the ways in which they tended to decorate their bodies in the absence of clothes. Many of them sported tattoos, which had become much more common now that tattoos were not as permanent as they once were. With the right tool, a tattoo could be applied, removed, and reapplied later as easily and painlessly as a piece of jewelry. The girls wore lots of jewelry and makeup, and not just on their faces. Some girls put color on their nipples the same way they put color on their lips, and light shading on or around their breasts.

 

One girl in particular who stood out was one with long dark hair with white ringlets, heavily shaded eyes, a butterfly on her right breast, glossy blue-violet nipples and a silver band coiled around her upper arm. It was as if the girl was as fully dressed as she could be while still remaining technically naked. The girl happened to notice Kasha looking at her, and responded by smiling and giving an air kiss.

 

As Kasha looked away from that girl, she happened to notice someone else looking at her: a nude boy gazing with a pair of light blue eyes, a tilted head and a slightly cockeyed smile, that somehow she couldn’t resist smiling back at.

 

After the class ended, Kasha was in the middle of gathering her books into her bag when she realized someone was standing over her. She looked up into the face of the girl she was looking at before, extending her a friendly hand. “Hi, I’m Tatjana,” the girl said.

 

From this angle, Kasha could see more of the girl that she couldn’t before, such as how the girl’s pubic hair was completely shaved, her vaginal lips fully showing. But Kasha reminded herself not to stare and just be friendly. “Uh, Kasha,” she said, standing up and shaking the girl’s hand.

 

“So you’re the new girl from space?” Tatjana asked as they walked out the door.

 

“Yeah, I am.”

 

“And nobody goes naked there?”

 

“Not in public.”

 

“Wow, that sounds like no fun!”

 

Kasha actually laughed. “It’s not that bad.” This was another first for her, she realized: she was having a friendly conversation with a naked person.

 

“What class do you have next?” Tatjana asked.

 

Kasha checked her schedule. “Galactic History, with Mr. Smithwick.”

 

“Oh, that’s that way,” Tatjana said, pointing in one direction, and then pointing in another, saying, “I’m that way.”

 

“Okay, thanks,” Kasha said, starting to turn away.

 

Tatjana put a hand on Kasha’s bare shoulder to call her attention back. The touch of someone on her bare skin felt a little strange to her. “Hey, you want to meet up at lunch?”

 

“Sure,” Kasha shrugged.

 

“Great! Let’s hook up our macrolinks,” Tatjana said, pressing a button on the device in her ear. Kasha did likewise, causing a holographic display screen to appear in front of her right eye. She input the instructions for it to connect with the macrolink of the person in front of her, so they could now contact each other freely. “Alright, see you later!”

 

Galactic History proceeded in a similarly simple manner, as did Calculus after that—though she did notice that same boy glancing at her again in that class. Eventually she came to Biology. Tatjana was also in this class, talking to another friend. Kasha took a seat next to her, and was introduced to the girl sitting in front of Tatjana. Celia was a thin brunette with two braids tied in a pair of loops, wearing a pink short wrap and three long necklaces above her exposed breasts. The teacher, Miss Elson, a woman barely into her thirties, was the first teacher Kasha had during the day who taught the class nude.

 

As lunch began, Kasha followed Tatjana and Celia to the cafeteria, which had both an indoor and outdoor eating area. Food was served indoors, and as they got in line they were approached by a nude girl with long blonde hair tied in a loose, thick braid that was draped over her shoulder. “Hey girls,” she said. “Who’s your new friend?”

 

“This is Kasha,” Tatjana said. “She’s that new girl from space who just arrived today.”

 

“Hi,” the new girl said, shaking Kasha’s hand. “I’m Gillian.”

 

“Hi,” Kasha greeted her back.

 

They took their food to one of the outdoor tables once they got it. As soon as they sat down, the interviewing began. “So what’s it like on a space station?” Gillian asked her.

 

“It’s pretty cool,” Kasha said. “Sigma 14 is in orbit around the sixth planet of Varvas, which… you know, it’s not a lot to look at, except when the sun comes up on it at this certain point during the station’s orbit. It’s really pretty… but then, the sun doesn’t shine on the station the way it does here. This is pretty too, I guess. You know, it’s different… ‘cause, for example, they’d never let you walk around there like that,” she added, pointing at Gillian.

 

“Like what?” Gillian asked.

 

“She means naked,” Tatjana clarified. “Apparently they make you wear lots of clothes all the time up there.”

 

“Yeah, I’ve heard of that,” Celia added.

 

“Why would they do that?” Gillian said, wrinkling her forehead. “That just sounds uncomfortable.”

 

Uncomfortable. Kasha was in public wearing barely anything, talking to three girls who wore even less, and this girl thought that wearing more would be uncomfortable? The irony was just too much for Kasha not to laugh. “What did I say?” Gillian asked as Kasha was cracking up.

 

“I’m sorry, I just thought that was funny.”

 

That was when Kasha noticed a familiar pair of eyes out of the corner of hers. Sitting at another table was that boy again, and again he was looking at her, making no effort to hide it. He smoothly brought a bite of food to his mouth and slowly chewed, never taking his eyes off of her.

 

“Hey,” Kasha said, leaning in closer to the other girls, “who is that guy?”

 

“Which one?” Tatjana said.

 

“The one who keeps staring at me.”

 

Celia grinned. “That’s Gene Arkin. If he’s got his sights on you, all I can say is, ‘look out.’”

 

“He’s a heartbreaker?”

 

“Something like that,” Celia smirked mischievously.

 

Lunch proceeded pretty normally after that. The girls chatted and gossiped about this and that, occasionally having to stop and fill Kasha in on what they were talking about. Eventually Kasha managed to forget that two of the new friends she’d made were naked, and the third might as well have been. After all the worrying she’d done, this was proving to be not nearly as uncomfortable as she’d expected.

 

But then came Gym class.

 

The school she went to on the space station had a gym and they did have classes in them. For those, the students were given more form-fitting, less restrictive clothes to change into and locker rooms to change into them. This was nothing like that. Celia had this class with her, so she had someone to follow to the gym. As they walked into the building, Kasha’s first impulse was to look around for the locker room, before realizing there wouldn’t be one. Not on this planet. Everyone, guy and girl, just went straight into the gym. Everybody started taking off their shoes and stuffing them into their bags. The girls did the same with most of their jewelry.

 

And everyone who was wearing a wrap took that off too.

 

Oh shit.

 

The instructor, Mr. Hogan, was a man in his late forties with a very toned and fit body, who came out before the class fully nude with an electronic class roster in his hand, which he began checking off. His attention turned to Kasha, who was now the only one present who wasn’t naked. “We’ll get started as soon as the new girl is ready,” he said.

 

“Kasha, what are you waiting for?” Celia said. “Take your wrap off.”

 

She really had no choice. Slowly she started peeling her wrap away—uncovering the underwear that she was suddenly very glad she had decided to put on this morning.

 

For however brief a time it helped. “What are those?” Mr. Hogan said.

 

“Uh…” Kasha said meekly.

 

“Look, honey, I know you’re new to this planet, but you’re not in space anymore. Take those off.”

 

Well, that was it. She was really going to have to get naked. In front of all these people. Who were all staring at her.

 

And so, grimacing, she did.

 

Mortified, Kasha stood in all her glory in front of a room full of people—who ironically stopped staring at her as soon as she was naked. But of course, so was everyone else. She suddenly realized now that she felt less self-conscious now than she did a minute ago when she was dressed with everyone looking at her.

 

Mr. Hogan began their calisthenics, had them run their laps, and guided them through the day’s activities. Kasha went through all of that bare naked… and slowly started to realize it wasn’t so bad. There was something kind of freeing about it.

 

But once the class ended, and the students all hit the showers and washed up, she quickly threw her wrap back on. Somehow she still wasn’t quite ready to expose herself any more than she was forced to. Still, she decided not to bother with her underwear this time.

 

Finally the school day ended. As Kasha was stepping off campus, she was suddenly approached by Celia. “Hey, it was great meeting you today,” she said.

 

“Um, yeah, you too.”

 

“I gotta run, I’ll see you tomorrow. And hey, you should think about wearing a short wrap instead. You’ve got a cute pair of tits,” she added with a wink as she left.

 

Okay, now’s where I start blushing.

 

As much as Kasha was looking forward to getting back home and unwinding with her ogara, she did feel a little easier now. She had made it through the first day, socialized with naked people and even gotten naked at one point, and she’d survived the experience. The worst had to be over. Lupina couldn’t possibly throw her any more curves after today.

 

Right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3: Culture Shock

 

 

 

Kasha did one thing different with her morning routine when she got up the next day. She’d gotten out of the shower and had just finished running her lazor—a small shaving tool that used high-frequency lasers to trim hair follicles while leaving skin cells intact—over her legs, and she stood up to set the little gadget down, when she stopped, looking at her naked form in the mirror.

 

This morning she knew something she hadn’t known yesterday morning: that like it or not, at one point during the day she would have to be naked in front of others. If she couldn’t avoid it, the least she could do was prepare a little. Like maybe she could do something to groom that red bush between her legs. No, she was not about to be like Tatjana and be completely clean-shaven down there, but she could still avoid looking like a cavewoman. She allowed herself a modest trim, so that her pubic hair was still present but not sticking out so much.

 

After that, she was prepared for a day that would proceed pretty much like the last one. And for the most part it did. She greeted Tatjana as she came into English class, and went through her other classes pretty easily—aside from continuing to trade periodic glances with that Gene guy. She started to notice that most of the people here tended to keep to a particular style of dress (or undress), but not all of them. There were a few students who’d been wearing wraps yesterday who weren’t today, and vice versa, but these were few. Of her new friends, Celia still wore a short wrap and Tatjana and Gillian were still naked.

 

One thing happened during the day that was a bit different. Actually it was a lot different. And not just from the day before. As she was on her way from Galactic History to Calculus, she caught something out of the corner of her eye that she could not keep herself from stopping to stare at. In a shallow alcove next to a water fountain, slightly out of direct view behind the tiny outcropping of the wall but not enough to be really hidden, were a pair of students; a guy in a red and purple wrap with scruffy black hair and a nude buxom blonde.

 

And they were seriously making out.

 

The girl had her arms flung about the guy’s neck, her breasts completely sandwiched against his chest, while his hands held the small of her naked back. In fact, one of his hands even moved down to cup her ass. And many times as their lips mashed together and they twisted their heads from side to side, Kasha could see their tongues warring with each other.

 

On the space station, this kind of thing would never be allowed. The school she went to there had strict rules about public displays of affection. Yet here they were, in plain view, making out like there was no tomorrow. And what baffled Kasha even more was how few people were stopping to look at this. Most of the students who saw what was happening would turn to look, smile and maybe giggle a little, and then keep walking. Only about three other students were sticking around to watch the show, and two of them appeared to also be boyfriend and girlfriend; the girl, a shorthaired brunette in a short wrap, was hanging onto her boyfriend’s neck from behind, tenderly stroking his chest and kissing the side of his face as they watched.

 

Somehow Kasha managed to pull herself away and continue on to her classes. When she got to Biology, she told Tatjana and Celia of the encounter—and was surprised when they seemed to react with a sort of “so what?” attitude.

 

“They really don’t allow that in space?” Celia said, after Kasha answered their question as to why this was such a big deal.

 

“Not in front of people at school,” Kasha answered. “At least, not on Sigma 14. I’ve heard rumors about places like Goldheart, but… I never really thought about them.”

 

Tatjana and Celia exchanged weirded-out looks. “No wonder you left,” Tatjana said.

 

When they got to lunch, Celia invited the girls to come hang out at her place after school. Gillian declined, stating she had things to do, but Tatjana eagerly agreed, and Kasha decided she might as well. The rest of the day went by okay; she wasn’t exactly looking forward to Gym class now that she knew what to expect, but she endured having to perform athletics naked a second time to no ill effect.

 

When school let out, Kasha proceeded to follow Celia and Tatjana back to Celia’s place. As soon as they got inside the house, which was currently empty of anyone else, the other two girls promptly removed their open-toed shoes, so Kasha did likewise. Celia also removed her wrap at that point. Kasha didn’t do that.

 

Kasha accepted a drink from her nude hostess, a native concoction called guada. It had a tropical and exotic flavor to it that Kasha decided she liked. The girls sat down and proceeded talking about this and that, with Kasha proceeding to learn more about what was going on in the world that was now her home.

 

Then suddenly Celia had another idea. “Hey, you girls want to invite a guy over?”

 

Instantly Tatjana perked up. “Do I!” she cheered enthusiastically.

 

Celia opened her macrolink, scrolling through names listed on the holographic screen in front of her eye. “How about Zane?”

 

“Mm, yummy,” Tatjana hummed, licking her teeth. Kasha was starting to get a little suspicious now.

 

Celia selected Zane’s name and waited a few seconds. “Hey Zane, it’s Celia. I’m at my place with Tatjana and the new girl. …Yeah, so, you want to come have some fun with us? …Uh-huh. …Oh, you know we will! We’ll be waiting for you!”

 

As Celia beeped off, Tatjana shivered and grinned. Kasha wasn’t sure what was going on, and was steadily growing uneasy about it, but something stopped her from asking. She remained mostly pretty quiet through the conversation from there.

 

Finally the door beeped, and Celia got up to open it. Kasha recognized the guy with stubble-hair and a blue wrap who walked in the door and kicked off his shoes; she’d had a few classes with him, but hadn’t known his name. “You got here fast,” Celia grinned as he moved into the room.

 

“I wouldn’t have missed this,” he said. And then he removed his wrap. After the last two days, Kasha had started getting used to seeing guys’ organs, so she shouldn’t have been shocked by what she saw, but she was. Because Zane’s organ was partially erect.

 

And growing to full mast as Tatjana suddenly got down on her knees in front of him and took his dick in her hand. “Neither would I,” she said.

 

Kasha’s eyes practically bugged out of her head as Tatjana leaned her head forward and inhaled Zane into her mouth. Her cheeks sucked inward as her head began moving back and forth. She began to hum with the sucking action, and Zane dug his fingers into her multi-braided hair.

 

And then the show got even more unbelievable. Celia sidled up beside Tatjana, kissing the side of Tatjana’s face and beginning to play with the girl’s breasts. Then Tatjana removed Zane’s prick from her mouth and aimed it at Celia, who immediately took it into hers, taking over the sucking duties, while Tatjana still held it in her hand.

 

Kasha was totally shocked by what she was seeing, but completely unable to look away. On impulse, her legs shifted, and she suddenly realized how moist she was getting between them. She stayed transfixed like that until Celia turned to look at her and said, “Kasha, come over here and share this cock with us!”

 

It was like she had been in another world, watching a movie or something until that point. But now they wanted her to join them? To actually become a part of this? Her heart was hammering in her chest. This was just too much.

 

Kasha stood up from the couch. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I can’t… I… I have to go.”

 

With that she bolted for the door, amidst the girls’ calls of “Kasha? What’s wrong?”

 

After grabbing her shoes and throwing herself out the door, Kasha stopped to catch her breath before beginning to walk home. Just when she thought she’d adjusted to accept everything about this planet, now they hit her with this.

 

***

 

Arriving at school the next day was almost harder than the first. The prospect of facing her friends after yesterday was simply overwhelming. But face them she did. Almost as soon as she entered campus, Tatjana and Celia came rushing up to her. “Hey, what happened to you yesterday?” Celia asked.

 

“I just… needed to get away from that,” she said uncomfortably.

 

“Well you don’t know what you missed,” Tatjana grinned. “I haven’t had a good threesome like that in weeks! But it would’ve been even better if you’d stuck around to make it a foursome.”

 

Kasha stood agape at them. “You actually had sex with that guy?”

 

“Yeah,” they both said in an “of course” sort of tone.

 

“Both of you?”

 

“Kasha, what is the matter?” Celia said.

 

Kasha tried to think of something to say to that, and ultimately could only come up with “Let’s just get to class.”

 

Tatjana followed her as she headed for English class. “Is this some kind of space thing?”

 

“Yeah, something like that,” she said as they stepped into the classroom.

 

Mercifully, the subject remained unmentioned for the next several classes, and Kasha began growing hopeful that it would be forgotten. But then she got to Biology, and something came up to bring her back to it.

 

Miss Elson started leading the class in a discussion about sexuality. Actually it started as a discussion about animal sexuality, but somehow she managed to segue into talking about it in humans. “We have the same kind of sexual impulses as most animals, for the same kind of reasons. And you’re all at the age now when your sex urges are really beginning to spike. Of course, before we had the advances in medicine and contraceptives that we have now, there were all kinds of risks to acting on those urges; now all of you pretty much have the freedom to act on them all you want.”

 

She pointed to one particular girl in the class. “Sarah, about how many sex partners have you had?”

 

The girl thought for a second. “Um… I think fourteen.”

 

Miss Elson looked to a boy then. “Kyle, what about you?”

 

“About twenty,” he said.

 

“Ella, how many have you had?”

 

“Only eight.”

 

“Rosalie?”

 

“Uh, twelve guys, and three girls.”

 

“How about you, Zane?”

 

“I don’t know, maybe thirty-five?”

 

“Tatjana?”

 

Kasha turned to look at her friend, who was turning her eyes up in thought. “For guys, I lost count at around thirty. For girls, it’s something like ten.”

 

“Celia?”

 

“Um… sixteen guys, five girls.”

 

And then Miss Elson’s attention turned to Kasha. “What about you, Kasha? Let’s ask the new girl, how many sex partners have you had?”

 

Getting naked in front of her gym class on the first day had been nowhere near as embarrassing as this. Kasha looked around, seeing all the eyes that were on her, and could only answer with an unintelligible “Uhh…”

 

“You don’t need to be embarrassed,” Miss Elson said. “Everybody else has answered, just tell us. How many?”

 

Kasha grimaced, and finally said, “None.”

 

“What?”

 

“None. I’m a virgin.”

 

…And now she had the whole class staring at her. Even Miss Elson seemed a little dumbfounded. “Oh…” was all the teacher could say.

 

Humiliated, Kasha dropped her face into her arms. She’d known coming to this planet that she was coming to a world where people would be taking their clothes off all around her. She’d had no idea she was coming to a world where being a virgin at her age would make her a freak.

 

“I’m sorry,” Miss Elson said, “I didn’t realize things in space were so different… everybody, let’s move on,” she added, trying to recover. Most of the class gradually turned its attention back to the front, but a few kept staring at Kasha, a few of them whispering between themselves. Tatjana and Celia also kept looking at her, but with a slightly different look. They looked almost… apologetic.

 

By the time they let out for lunch, word was already starting to spread, and students all over the school were staring at Kasha as she passed and gossiping around. Why did this have to be such a big deal? Why was it so weird that she was raised in a society that didn’t encourage running around naked and jumping the bones of everyone you met?

 

When they met up with Gillian and sat down to eat, Gillian said “I’ve been hearing there’s some buzz going around about Kasha, but I haven’t heard what it is. What’s going on?”

 

“Well, little revelation,” Tatjana said. “Kasha’s a virgin.”

 

“A what?” Gillian said.

 

You’ve got to be kidding.

 

“She’s never had sex,” Celia clarified.

 

“Really?” Gillian gasped. She looked right at Kasha and asked, “Never? Not once?”

 

This was just perfect. Apparently being a virgin here was so unheard of that Gillian didn’t even know what the word meant. “Look,” she said, “things on the space station are different. People there are a little pickier about who they sleep with, and they tend to wait a little longer before they actually do it.”

 

“I can almost understand people covering themselves up so much in space…” Tatjana began.

 

“I can’t,” Gillian put in, getting a light smack on the arm from Celia.

 

“…but no sex?” Tatjana finished. “I go stir crazy if I don’t get laid at least six times a week!”

 

“Well you’re an extreme case, Tatjana,” Celia said. “But yeah, I couldn’t imagine still being a virgin either.”

 

“We’ve got to do something about this,” Gillian said. “Kasha, we’ve gotta get you laid!”

 

Kasha flinched. This was all going a little too fast for her.

 

“Now hold on, let’s take this one step at a time,” Tatjana said, coming to her rescue. “Can’t you see Kasha’s still in a bit of culture shock?” Tatjana looked Kasha in the eyes. “I think we need to help you get acclimated to living on Lupina. And I think the first part of that is helping you get more comfortable with your body.”

 

“My body?”

 

“Look at you,” Tatjana said. “You’re still covering yourself up in a long wrap every day.”

 

“She takes it off in Gym class,” Celia put in.

 

“But only because she has to, right?” Tatjana said. “Have you ever seen her naked outside of Gym? Yesterday at your place, she didn’t even take it off there. Kasha, you’ve been raised to keep yourself hidden; now you need to learn to let yourself out.”

 

“Well, I…” Kasha started. “…I don’t know how.”

 

Tatjana got a mischievous grin on her face. “Maybe I do.” She looked to the other girls. “Are you both free after school?”

 

“Yeah,” Celia said.

 

“I am,” Gillian said.

 

“How about this: after school, we take a trip to the mall and take Kasha shopping. And we all go naked!”

 

“I like it!” Celia grinned.

 

“Kasha, what do you say?” Tatjana asked.

 

Kasha hesitated. She wasn’t exactly leaping at the prospect of going out naked in public, but Tatjana did have a point: if she was going to live on this planet, she couldn’t just stay forever in her space-constructed shell. She needed to really start adapting. Besides, if everyone else would be naked too… “All right.”

 

“Yay!” Gillian cheered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 4: Shopping Naked

 

 

 

Something new started happening to Kasha after that Biology class that day: she started getting hit on a lot. Boys from all over the school kept walking up to her between her few remaining classes. Five seconds after she walked away from one boy, another would be there waiting. And none of them seemed particularly benign in their intentions; they all seemed to be offering to “help her fix her problem.” What, being a virgin meant something was wrong with her? That she was somehow broken?

 

After getting out of the showers after Gym class, Kasha paused to consider whether she should bother putting her wrap back on for her last class of the day. If she was going to be meeting up with the other girls later and they would all be going out in public naked, maybe she should just go through her last class that way? If she could make it through Gym like that, why not?

 

She ultimately chickened out and threw it on. Some part of her almost felt ashamed of that, but she just couldn’t get herself to go without it. Not yet at least.

 

Finally the day ended, and she was more than ready to remove herself from the campus, but then one more boy came along looking to talk to her. And not just any boy this time. It was that boy. Gene Arkin. “I’ve heard something interesting about you,” he said.

 

Kasha snarled. “Yes, I know, I’m a freak who’s never been laid. Go ahead, get it out, stare at me, talk about me behind my back, offer to fix my problem, whatever.”

 

“Oh no, I wasn’t going to say anything like that,” Gene said calmly. “I actually like it. It makes you so different from all the other girls here.”

 

“Thank you for reminding me,” Kasha spat.

 

“Different is good. Most girls here just jump into it at a moment’s notice, and they barely give you any time to know anything else about them. Somehow I get the feeling you’re not like that. I think that’s interesting.”

 

And with that he left. Kasha could only stare after him. What was that about?

 

Kasha walked out into the school parking lot, where her friends greeted her and began moving to Tatjana’s autovan. Celia went ahead and took her wrap off while they were walking, leaving Kasha the only one dressed. As much as she realized that made her stand out, she didn’t remove her wrap yet. She got into the back of Tatjana’s autovan next to Celia, and Tatjana sped them off.

 

When they finally parked at the shopping center, everyone turned to look at Kasha. “Okay, Kasha,” Tatjana said, “it’s showtime!” She whistled and pantomimed taking a wrap off.

 

Kasha gulped, and slowly peeled her wrap away. “Honey, you’re beautiful!” Gillian cheered.

 

And then they got out. Kasha had pretty much gotten used to being naked in front of a gym full of students. Now she was exposing herself out in public. Despite being in the company of three other girls who were just as naked as she was, every time someone passed her first instinct was to wrap her arms around herself; an instinct she started fighting. And as they walked through the crowds and nobody looked twice at her, fighting it steadily got easier.