Jim Goes to College
Part Nine: The Growth Study
Just then, Ashley arrived at the station and retrieved my folder from the assistant. She walked right past me, not acknowledging that she knew me in any way. Perhaps she didn’t recognize me. After all, I only just met her the night before and then I was fully clothed. I saw her open my folder to confirm that I was, indeed, selected for the study. Only after confirming that and reading my name on the folder did she turn to look at me.
“Jim Johnson,” Ashley said quietly, as if she was talking to herself. “Jim Johnson?” she repeated. “Jim, it's you," she said turning toward me.
“Yes, Ashley, it’s me,” I replied.
“Sorry, I didn’t recognize you, Jim,” she said.
“That’s understandable considering how I’m dressed – or not,” I replied.
I watched as her eyes quickly looked down toward my jockstrap, then just as quickly looked back up to make eye contact with me. Ashley was clearly embarrassed that I caught her looking at me, and appeared to be blushing.
“Well, follow me to the study area,” she said.
She turned and started walking toward the study area with me walking closely beside her. As I left the station, I turned to take one last look at Tom’s exam. The doctor was now holding his erect cock in her hand and palpating it. Tom saw that I was looking in his direction, and gave me one last smile.
It was actually a short walk to the study area, but the awkward situation that we were in made it feel like it took an eternity. She was silent during most of our walk, as was I. My thoughts were about the study that I was about to participate in. Would it be embarrassing or uncomfortable for me? Probably, since everything else today had been. And making it worse was the fact that someone I knew, namely Beth and Ashley, would be conducting the study. I was already embarrassed having Ashley see me unclothed like this, but soon Beth, my girlfriend's older sister, and someone that I've known all my life, would see me as well.
As we neared the entrance to the study room, she finally spoke.
“I need to prepare you for another surprise,” she said, “Beth is here too. We’re both here together conducting this study.”
“I know,” I replied, “I saw both of you walking around earlier.”
“Oh, well then I guess you don’t really mind it,” she said.
“I didn’t say that I was OK with it,” I replied, “just that I already knew about it.”
We arrived at the side office where they were conducting the study. The office had a door which Ashley opened. She moved to one side, motioning for me to walk in first.
"Go right in," she instructed.
As I entered the room, I saw Beth standing next to an exam table on the right side of the room. When she heard us enter, she immediately turned to look in our direction, probably eager to find out who her next subject would be.
"Jim," shouted Beth, "what are you doing here?" She seemed genuinely shocked to see me.
"He's actually our next volunteer for the study," replied Ashley as she followed me into the room. As she entered, she closed the door behind her.
"I don't think I'd call myself a volunteer," I said, "but yes, I'm in the study." As I answered I walked in further toward the center of the room.
"Ashley and I were just saying that we haven't seen you today," said Beth. "Since you said you'd be here, we figured that we might run into you sometime. But we never thought that you would volunteer for this study! How did that happen?"
"Well, I didn't consciously want to volunteer," I replied, "but I accidently signed some consent forms, and well, as you can see, the rest is history. When I found out about it, I tried to get out of it, but they wouldn't let me."
"Yes, that's right," said Ashley, "they made it very clear to us that once someone is chosen for the study, they can't back out for any reason. It's supposed to be a completely random study and they don't want people to back out; that would mess up the statistical accuracy and randomness of the study." As she was speaking, Ashley walked in front of me and stood next to Beth.
"I don't suppose you two would let me off the hook on this study, would you?" I pleaded.
"I'm sorry, Jim," answered Beth, "I wish we could, honestly I do, but we just can't. Ashley and I would get into a lot of trouble if anyone found out. They already have you on the list for the study and if we don't capture all of the required study data, they'll know about it."
"Beth, I have to ask, why didn't you tell me that the physicals were done like this? I mean, you could have warned me that I'd be walking around in just this jockstrap all morning." I raised my arms to my sides as if to say "look at what they made me wear."
"Honestly, Jim," Beth replied, "I'm sorry, but I had no idea. I absolutely would have told you if I knew. But like I said, this is the first year that Ashley and I have volunteered to help and I had no idea that this is how they examine you guys. I did hear some random talk from a couple of the older girls that helped last year, but I didn't really pay much attention to it." Beth tried to look me straight in the eyes as she spoke, but I saw that her eyes wandered and made their way down toward my crotch.
"I didn't know either, Jim," said Ashley, "In fact, Beth and I were both shocked when we saw the first few guys enter the gym. We certainly weren't prepared for what we saw! I think both of us felt really embarrassed to even be here, seeing you guys like that. So, I'm sorry too. But look on the bright side, you look like you survived the ordeal." As she spoke, her smile widened into a broad grin.
"Yes, at least you're done with the actual physical," added Beth. "And I know that you're not really much of a jock, but I have to admit that you actually look very, um -- fit in yours."
"I think so too," added Ashley. "And now that I've gotten over the initial shock, I actually think the way they do the exams is kind of hot, with all of you guys stripped down like that!"
"Stop it, you two," I replied, "it's bad enough walking around like this in front of total strangers, but it's even more embarrassing in front of someone that you know, like you two."
"I'm sorry," Beth replied, "I didn't mean anything by it. I realize this is terribly embarrassing for you; it's awkward for us too."
There was a brief pause in the conversation during which the three of us just stood there, awkwardly staring at each other; the two young ladies in their dark blue polo shirts and tight white shorts, and me in just my jockstrap.
"In any case," continued Beth, "we need to get started so you can get out of here and get dressed again. Let's take a look at your paperwork."
Ashley placed the manila folder containing all of my forms on the exam table, scanned the barcode and then opened it.
"We better make this official," she said as she lifted my arm and scanned the barcode on my wrist band.
As the two of them reviewed my paperwork, I took the opportunity to look around the room. The right side of the room had the exam table where the two of them were standing. It looked like a fresh sheet of crinkly paper had just been spread across the top of the table. On the left side of the room was a tripod-mounted camera aimed at a large background that had been setup against the wall. The background was neutral in color but had vertical and horizontal marks that measured feet and inches. And there were pole-mounted lights that were positioned on both sides of the camera. So it looked like I was about to be photographed and measured as part of this study. What I didn't know was why they needed an exam table since I thought my physical exam was complete. I didn't really want to think about that right now.
"So, Jim," said Ashley, "let me explain how this study works because it's actually pretty simple. There are just a couple of different things that we have to do, but most of this study involves measurements of one kind or another. We'll start by getting some general body measurements, and then move on to a few specialized things. As you can see, we've got a camera setup because we'll need to snap some photos of you to document the findings for the study. Make sense?"
"Sure, I suppose so," I replied. I was impressed with how businesslike Ashley was in her description of the study. She seemed like an experienced nurse that was taking command, and not just another student that was just slightly older than me.