We quickly reached the door to the gym, pushed it open and entered. We were now at one of the far ends of the gym, adjacent to several small offices that appeared to be used by coaches or trainers. Walking past the offices, we saw that there was a table immediately in front of us, blocking our entrance to the gym. This was obviously where we were supposed to check-in and begin the physical. The table was staffed with two people. Two attractive female people to be precise. For some reason, I wasn't expecting to see two young ladies sitting in front of me, especially considering the small amount of clothing that I was barely wearing. I guess I figured that there might be a female nurse or doctor doing part of the exam, but I wasn't prepared right now for these two girls, both dressed in their clean white shorts and sharp looking blue polo shirts, to see me like this. These girls both appeared to be several years older than me.

Mike was the first to reach the table to check-in. He handed the girls his paperwork, which they immediately opened and reviewed. I stood a few feet behind him and waited until he finished. Now that I was at the table, I could see into the entire gym and get a better idea of exactly how this physical was going to proceed. It was a standard size gym with a hardwood floor. It looked like there were multiple exam stations setup throughout the gym. There were dark grey mats placed on the floor around and between each station. Most of the stations had an exam table and looked like they were staffed by one or two people, some male and some female. And of course, everywhere I looked were college guys just like me. Some were waiting in line at a station while others were sitting on an exam table or standing in front of a doctor or nurse. And still others were walking between the stations. But they had one thing in common, they were all dressed in a jockstrap and nothing else, just like me.

"Alright Mike," I heard one of the girls at the table say, "just head over there to station one to get started and we'll get you out of here in no time at all." As I watched, the girl handed Mike his paperwork. He then left the table, walking to his left and toward the first station. As he walked away, both of the girls turned to look at him, apparently admiring his jock-strapped ass. They didn't even try to conceal their interest in him, and didn't seem to care if I caught them looking.

"Next," said one of the girls as she looked at me.

I took a few steps toward the table and handed them my paperwork. As the second girl opened my folder of paperwork and reviewed it, the first one just looked at me and smiled. I could see that her eyes seemed to scan up and down over my near-naked body. I thought about putting my hands in front of me in an attempt to cover up but decided against it. I figured, what the hell, she's going to see my bare ass as I walk away, so why not just let her enjoy the complete package. I just casually stood there in front of her with my arms at my sides. As I watched, the second girl used a handheld scanner to scan the barcode on my folder.

"Let me have your wrist please," she said, "I need to scan you in." I held out my hand to her and she scanned the barcode on my wrist band.

"I have to ask," I said to the girls, "do they always make the guys dress like this?"

"Oh yes, always," said the first girl, "This is my second year helping out and it's always the same."

"This is my third year assisting," chimed in the second girl, "and as far as I know, they've done it this way for years and years."

"So, what's the real reason for it?" I asked. "I mean, we could just as easily wear our underwear instead of this stupid jock."

"Well," said the second girl, "as you might expect, we get that question a lot. The official answer is that those are simply the rules and you must abide by them if you want your exam. But if you're looking for a real reason, I have heard the people that run this every year say that things go much quicker when all of the guys are dressed the same way."

"Yeah, I suppose," I replied, "but I'm still not convinced that's the entire reason."

"Well," said the second girl again, "it's also sort of a team building and initiation thing too. You know, all of you guys going through the same thing as if you're all on one big team together."

"Personally," added the first girl, "I think it's just a way for them to maintain more control over you guys, to make sure you don't step out of line. After all, you're not really going to cause any trouble dressed like that, are you?" As she spoke, she momentarily looked directly at my jockstrap instead of up at my face.

"No, I suppose not," I responded.

The first girl now chimed in again. "I know a lot of you guys complain about it, but I really don't see why it's that big of a deal. I mean, you guys have to get completely undressed for your exams anyway, you know, for the coughing part, so I would think that wearing a jockstrap is better than nothing at all. I mean, they could just do this with all of you completely naked if they really wanted to. After all, they do make the rules and that would be really efficient!"

"Yeah, you have a point there," I responded. I thought about asking her if the girl’s physicals are done with all of them in just a tiny thong, but I bit my tongue and decided that arguing with her wouldn't really help my situation.

The second girl made a few notes in her log book, finished with my folder and then handed it back to me.

"You're all set, Jim," she said to me, "you can proceed to the first station and get started. Oh, and remember that you were randomly chosen for the development and growth study today, so someone will escort you to the study examination area when you complete the last station of the regular physical."

"Yeah, about that," I said to her, "that was really a mistake and I've decided that I really don't want to do that today. Can you just remove me from that list, please?"

"Oh, well, I'm sorry, but we can't do that," she responded, "I'm sure you already know that once you're randomly chosen, you can't back out. If you really didn't want to participate, you shouldn't have signed the waiver." As she was talking to me, she made eye contact with me and smiled.

"Well, there's not really much to the study, right?" I asked. Both of the girls now looked at each other and grinned before looking back at me.

"Well, Jim," said the first girl, "we're not really allowed to discuss the details of the study, I'm sure you can understand that." I detected a hint of mocking laughter in her voice as she addressed me. "But, I was assigned to help with the study last year, so I do actually know a thing or two about it and what kinds of things you boys will go through." She turned and looked at the second girl and they both laughed.

"I honestly didn't work in the study area last year," said the second girl, "but, of course, I have heard bits and pieces about what goes on in there from some of the other volunteers. However, we really aren't allowed to tell study participants about the details of the study in advance. That's a very strict rule and we could get into a lot of trouble for breaking it. I don't think they want to scare off potential participants with a lot of unnecessary details."

"What I am allowed to tell you", continued the first girl, "is that it's not anything painful, if that's what you're worried about." She paused to look up at me and gauge my response before continuing. "But there are some aspects of it that you might find, um, embarrassing. So you might want to be prepared for that." She now seemed to look directly at my crotch as she was talking.

"More embarrassing than standing here in a jockstrap?" I asked.

"Oh, don't worry so much Jim," said the first girl, "You certainly look healthy so I'm sure you'll pass your physical without any problems at all. And we haven't lost a study participant yet, so you'll survive that too."

"You better move along now," said the second girl, "just go right over there to the first station." Both girls were now looking up at me and smiling.

With my folder of paperwork in hand, I turned to my left and walked toward the first station. When I was a few feet away, I turned to see if they were looking at me as they were with Mike. As it turns out, they were. Both of the girls were turned toward me and looking directly at me as I walked away. One of them even waved goodbye as if to taunt me.

As I arrived at the first station, I saw that Mike had already finished and was on his way to station two.

"Hi, can I have your folder please?" said the young man at the first station. He looked like he was just a couple of years older than me and was dressed in the same uniform as everyone else.

"Sure," I replied, handing him my folder. This station certainly looked simple enough. There was a scale, the kind with the manual weights on top, just like you might find in a doctor's office. There wasn't an exam table or anything else. Just the scale. As I watched, the young man scanned the barcode on my folder and then reached out to scan the one attached to my wrist.

"Step on the scale please, facing forward," he ordered.

I mounted the scale and stood still with my arms at my sides. I briefly felt his hand on my lower back, prodding me to move slightly forward on the scale. Once I was in position, he adjusted the weights on the scale and recorded my weight in the folder.

"Turn around please, I need to get your height," he said.

As I turned around on the scale, he positioned the long pole behind me so that it was touching the top of my head.

"Stand up straight," he said, "arms at your sides." I didn't realize that I had unconsciously moved my hands in front of me when I turned around. I guess I was instinctively trying to cover myself up with my hands. I obeyed his order and moved my arms to my sides, thinking to myself that this was probably not the last time today that I would be asked to uncover myself. In just a few short seconds, he determined my height and recorded it in my folder.

"Alright, congratulations, you've completed the easiest station of the morning", he laughingly told me, "please follow the arrows to station two."