“Now let me have your attention again, boys,” I said to the group. “Normally at this point you would continue to put on the rest of your P.E. uniform. That would include your T-shirt, your gym shorts and your shoes and socks. Remember that your shorts go on right over your jockstrap, without any other underwear. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen boys try to wear their briefs under their gym shorts, but that’s just not allowed. Now, once you’re dressed for class, you will head out into the gym and line up in your designated squads for attendance.”

I paused to see if the boys were paying attention.

“Obviously you boys don’t have your P.E. uniform today, so you can’t finish dressing. But I’m not going to let that get in the way of finishing your orientation.”

I looked at John and saw that he was now smiling since he knew exactly what I was about to say. I then looked at Sarah and saw that she also had a wide, knowing grin on her face.

“Everyone into the gym, now,” I ordered!

There were audible gasps from the boys. They were all clearly shocked that I was ordering them into the gym in their present state of undress, and none of them were moving.

“But, Miss Evans,” Michael said. “We can’t really go out there like this, I mean, someone might see us, and it’s not right.”

“I understand your concern, Michael,” I replied, “but let me make myself clear. This is my physical education class, and I’ll run it as I see fit. I decide what’s right and what’s wrong, and I don’t need you or any of you other boys questioning my orders. After all, this is a boy’s physical education class, not a girl’s class or a co-ed class. You all have exactly the same equipment between your legs, which makes the T-shirt and shorts optional. As far as I’m concerned, I could make you boys do each and every class dressed just like this. But as it is, this is just for today, unless you boys would rather do the entire week of class in just your jockstraps. Is that what you want? Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Miss Evans,” the boys mumbled.

“Good, now get your bare asses out in the gym, now!”

One by one the boys walked toward the entrance to the gym.

“Hurry up boys, we haven’t got all day,” I said.

John and I followed the last of the boys into the gym, with Nurse Draper following just behind us. As John entered the gym, he dropped off his paddle in our office since he shouldn’t be needing it anymore today. As I entered the gym, I saw the entire class was gathered just outside the locker room door. It was as if they were all afraid to venture any further into the actual gym. I walked past them and moved toward the center of the gym. Once there I blew my trusty whistle to get their attention.

“Alright, boys,” I shouted, “I want four lines, with the first line starting right here.” I pointed down at the floor where I was standing. “Four boys in each line, in alphabetical order – the same order you were just in. The last line will have five boys. Get moving – we haven’t got all day.”

I took a central position in front of the boys, watching as they attempted to arrange themselves in alphabetical order. John and Sarah both moved to my right and stood just beyond the first line of boys.

“Leave plenty of space between yourselves, boys,” I said to them.

Once they were in position, it was time for another quick roll call to see if they were all in the right position. I quickly called out their names one by one. Only two boys had their order reversed – which is about average for a small group like this.

“Alright boys, face this way, stand up straight,” I ordered.

I watched as the lines of boys straightened up. Many of them were standing with their hands in front of themselves, once again attempting to cover up. I don’t know why, since their jockstraps were covering up the parts that the nurse had just examined and that we had all just seen. But it wasn’t unusual for the boys to feel uncomfortable the first time they were outside of the locker room wearing only their jockstrap. I had seen that same sort of behavior in previous years. But this wouldn’t be the only time they would be in the gym dressed like this during the semester, and they would get used to it soon enough.

“Feet apart and hands behind your back,” I ordered. “This is no time to be bashful.”

The boys all shuffled their feet apart and moved their hands away from their crotches, placing them behind their backs and uncovering themselves in the process.

“Each and every day when you come to class, you will line up exactly like this,” I began. “Of course you’ll normally be wearing your full P.E. uniform. But the first thing we’ll always do is to take attendance, as I just did. I expect you boys to remember your correct position. Mr. Moore and I shouldn’t have to remind you where to stand.”

I briefly looked at John and Sarah who were reviewing the rows of boys before them. John had a business-like expression on his face, knowing that he had to always show the boys that we were in charge. Sarah, on the other hand, still had a smile on her face. She was clearly enjoying her role as spectator.

“Now that we’re in the gym,” I continued, “I want to remind all of you that whenever you hear Mr. Moore or I blow our whistle, you are to immediately stop what you’re doing and wait for further instructions. Is that understood?”

I watched as the boys nodded in agreement.

“Now, boys,” I said to them, “As we already discussed, you need to always wear your complete P.E. uniform. You will lose points if you are not dressed correctly. And the most common infraction is for not wearing your jockstrap! Over the years we’ve seen this over and over again -- boys lining up for class without one, thinking that they won’t get caught. Well, boys, if you’re not wearing your jockstrap, I guarantee you that we’ll know about it. I’ll let Mr. Moore tell you more about this.”

“Thank you Miss Evans,” John said. “Boys, because not wearing your strap is such a recurring problem, we will do a jock check right after attendance. For the first few weeks, we will be checking each and every day to make sure you boys are all wearing a strap. If we find that you are following the rules, we’ll back off a bit and check randomly.”

There were audible groans and sighs from the boys upon receiving this bit of news. That didn’t surprise me since most boys seemed to detest the idea of being checked for a jockstrap even more than actually wearing one.

“Quiet down, boys,” I said, “pay attention. Please continue Mr. Moore.”

“The next thing we’re going to do today is show you how this is done. Obviously there would be no need to check you the way you’re all dressed right now. But since you’re normally wearing gym shorts, there are a couple of different ways we’ll check you. Come up here for a minute Jake, you’re going to help me demonstrate this.”

Jake reluctantly walked a few feet toward John. He was obviously chosen out of pure convenience because he was the first boy in the first row. John put his hands on Jake’s shoulders and turned him around so that he was facing the other boys. As if by instinct, Jake moved his hands back in front of himself to cover up again. But John wouldn’t have any of that – he grabbed Jake’s arms and forcibly pulling them to his sides.

“Here you go Jake, put this on,” John said as he handed Jake the white gym shorts that he used for his earlier demonstration in the locker room.

As the entire class watched, Jake stepped into the shorts and quickly pulled them up to his waist. It was the first time the boys actually saw just how short and tight-fitting the P.E. uniform was that they would have to wear each day. John now handed Jake the dark green T-shirt that the boys were required to wear and watched as Jake slipped it over his slender torso. Now that he was dressed, Jake’s expression changed. He no longer looked frightened and embarrassed about being the center of attention. He looked relieved that he was once again wearing more substantial clothing, even if it was only a T-shirt and shorts. Little did Jake realize that his relief would be only temporary.

“Alright boys, pay attention,” John continued. “Now that Jake is wearing his P.E. uniform, we’ll demonstrate how we do a jock check. If I say to show me your strap, I want you to hook your thumb in one of your rear straps and pull it down below the bottom of your shorts like this.” As he spoke, John reached under the right side of Jake’s shorts and pulled down the rear strap of his jock.

“Here, you pull it down, Jake.”

Jake now hooked his thumb in the strap and pulled it down.

“You’ll hold it there until Miss Evans or I have verified that everyone is wearing their strap, then we’ll tell you to release it.”

“Sometimes we do this another way,” John continued. “If I say to snap your strap, it means to pull out one of the leg straps as we walk by and let it snap back against your skin. Go ahead and do that Jake.”

Jake released the strap he was holding and let it snap back against his bare skin.

“You’ll have to do better than that, Jake – it has to be loud for us to hear it.”

Jake pulled his leg strap out even further and released it again, this time hitting his skin with a loud and distinctive snap.

“Much better, that’s how you boys need to do it, nice and loud. I want everyone to snap their strap right now.”

As we watched, the boys all pulled one of their leg straps away from their body and let it snap loudly against their skin. Some of them seemed annoyed at this procedure, while others actually seemed to enjoy the chance to play with their strap.

“If I say to show me your waist,” John continued, “you need to lift up your shirt and pull down the front of your shorts, just enough so we can see the waistband of your strap. Go ahead and do that Jake.”

We watched as Jake lifted his green shirt with his left hand and pulled down the waistband of his shorts with his right.

“Another thing we sometimes do is to have you turn around and grab your ankles. Go ahead and do that now, Jake.”

Jake reluctantly turned around and faced away from the class. He then bent over and reached for his ankles, spreading his legs far enough apart so he could easily reach them. Once he was in position, there were a few whispered comments and audible gasps of surprise from the other boys.

“You see, boys, with these thin white shorts, we can see pretty much everything.” The rear straps were clearly visible through Jake’s shorts, as was the dark line of his ass crack. The boys all now realized that their shorts wouldn’t provide much in the way of a modest covering, especially when they had to bend over.

“You can stand up now, Jake,” John ordered.

“Now, we’ll usually use one of those methods to check you boys,” John continued. “But if we find that there are a lot of you that continually disregard the rules, we’ve got one more way that we can do this. When I tell you to drop’em, you’ll pull your shorts down to your knees. Then you’ll lift up your shirt so we can see that you’re wearing your strap. Go ahead, Jake, drop’em.”

As the entire class watched, Jake slowly pulled his shorts down.

“A little further, Jake,” John ordered.

Jake had tried to get away with pulling the front of his shorts down just a few inches, but that wasn’t nearly far enough. The whole purpose of checking this way is to not only see who’s wearing their complete uniform but also to embarrass and punish the boys when they don’t comply with our rules. Once his shorts were down, he lifted up his shirt a few inches to ensure that it wasn’t obscuring the view of his jockstrap. As expected, there were a few laughs and other comments from the boys when they saw Jake standing in front of them with his shorts around his knees.

“That’s enough of that, boys,” I said to them. “You won’t think it’s so funny when we make all of you do the same thing. I suggest that you all make sure you wear your strap in class, otherwise that might happen.”

The boys immediately became quiet, realizing that it would be embarrassing for them to be in Jake’s situation. I looked at Jake and saw that John had given him the OK to pull his shorts back up.

“Any questions, boys?” John asked, pausing for a few seconds to see if there were any questions.

“As you can see boys,” I said to them, “we take wearing your uniform very seriously. As we already said, if you’re not wearing the complete P.E. uniform, you will lose points for the day, and if you lose enough of them, you will fail the class. But in addition to losing points, at our discretion, you may receive additional punishment. Mr. Moore can you please tell the boys what to expect?”

“That’s right, boys,” John said to them. “Additional punishment may be given if you habitually refuse to wear your strap, because we consider that a serious safety issue. When that occurs, the first thing that will happen is you will be ordered to strip down immediately. That means your T-shirt, shorts and whatever kind of underwear you might be wearing will be removed. And that’s done right here in the gym while everyone else watches.”

One again audible gasps of surprise could be heard from the boys.

”Once any prohibited clothing has been removed, you will be issued another strap from our school supply and be instructed to put it on in front of the class. You will then complete the entire class period dressed as you are right now, wearing just your strap. The only difference is that we do allow you to wear your shoes and socks.”

“And boys,” I added, “You will complete the class regardless of our plans for the day. If we happen to be going outside that day, then you’ll go outside in just your jockstrap. If we’re having a co-ed class with the girls, it doesn’t matter – you’ll still participate in just your jockstrap. Now, does anyone have any questions so far?”

As expected, nobody said anything. Most of the boys seemed visibly shocked when they heard this news.

“Alright, Jake, thank you for your help with the demonstration,” John said to him. During this time Jake had still been standing in front of the class.

“Now strip off and get back in line.”

Jake looked surprised that he was being asked to remove the T-shirt and shorts he had been given.

“But, I thought I could wear these for today,” Jake said.

“We don’t play favorites here, Jake,” John replied. “Strip back down like everyone else.”

Reluctantly Jake pulled off the T-shirt and shorts and handed them to John before stepping back into position at the head of his line.

“Now boys,” I said, “we obviously don’t have time for a full round of exercises today, but we do want to show you some of the things you’ll be doing in this class. So for the next few minutes, we’ll run through a few different exercises, which Mr. Moore will kindly demonstrate. Mr. Moore, can you please start the boys off with a basic routine?”

“Yes, of course, Miss Evans,” he replied. “Boys, I want everyone facing me. We’ll start off with a few basic stretches. Feet together and reach up as far as you can with both of your hands and hold that position.”

As he was speaking, John stretched his arms straight up in the air, with all of the boys following along and doing the same thing. While John took charge of the boys, I walked past the first line of boys and stood next to Sarah. She knew from previous years, as did I, that this was a good vantage point from which we would be able to observe the boys. Standing in front of the group provided a limited view of the boys. In contrast, this side view allowed us to watch some of them from the side, from the front, or from behind, as they stretched and exerted themselves in front of us. While she never directly said so, I think Sarah especially enjoyed watching the boys from behind as they bent over in their jockstraps. And I have to admit that it was also one of my favorite things about senior orientation day!

“Good, now keep your feet together, bend over and reach for the floor, and hold that position,” John ordered. “You don’t want to bounce, you just want to hold it.”

As Sarah and I watched, row upon row of boys bent over, mooning us and any boys that were behind them in line. As they bent over, we heard a few laughs and comments from the boys, particularly those in the back of their line. Apparently a few of those boys thought that they were special in some way, just because they didn’t happen to have anyone in line behind them. Well, I certainly wouldn’t stand for that.

“You there, Sam Byron is it?” I said, checking my class roster. He was the last boy in the first line and was laughing at the view of the other boys bent over in front of him.

“What is so funny?”

“Nothing, Miss Evans,” Sam answered with a smile on his face.

“Well, you’re obviously laughing at something,” I continued. “You must think there’s something amusing about the other boys bending over in front of you. Is that right Sam?”

“Um, no Miss Evans.” “Well then, maybe you just enjoy looking at other boys, is that it Sam? Are you one of those boys that gets excited when another boy bends over in front of you? Are you getting hard right now watching all of your classmates bend over?”

I didn’t have any reason to believe that this boy was actually a homosexual. But I knew that labeling him as such in front of the other boys would be a powerful motivator for him to behave. And it was an equally good warning to the other boys of what might happen to them if they didn’t behave in class.

“No, Miss Evans.”

“Well then, maybe you’d like to step up to the front of the class and help Mr. Moore demonstrate these exercises. Would you like that? Then you could show the rest of the class what a fine ass you have when you bend over. We could arrange that, if you like, Sam.”

“No, Miss Evans, I’m sorry for laughing – I won’t do it again.”

“Well, that’s the last warning that I’m going to give to any of you. I realize this may be funny to some of you, but believe me when I say that I won’t stand for any shenanigans in my class. Continue, Mr. Moore.”

“Alright boys, stand up,” John said to them. “I want your feet apart, a little more than shoulder width. And then bend over again and reach for the floor. First reach down in the center between your feet.”

As he was speaking, John parted his legs and bent over, touching the floor midway between his feet. Sarah and I watched as the boys once again bent over in front of us, but this time with their feet widely apart.

“Good, now reach for your left ankle and hold it,” John ordered. The boys all followed his lead. “Alright, now your right ankle,” John continued after a few seconds. The boys all shifted sides and reached for their right ankle. I briefly looked away from the boys and turned toward Sarah. She looked up at me and simply smiled, signaling that she was enjoying the show that was taking place before her.

“Ok, you can all stand up now,” John ordered. “Everyone turn to your left and face Miss Evans and Nurse Draper.”

John waited until all of the boys had turned toward us.

“Everyone down on the floor and into the starting position for some sit ups. That means laying on the floor, hands behind your head and knees bent.”

The boys all dropped to the floor and got into position facing us. As they raised their knees, Sarah and I had a fine view of everything between their parted legs. Although the boys had been either nude or wearing just their jockstraps for over an hour, this was the first time we saw them from this angle. Positioned on their backs with their knees raised and apart, you could clearly see each boy’s package of manhood as it was tightly bound and suspended in the pouch of their jock. This position also gave us a glimpse of where the rear straps were sewn together at the bottom of their pouch, as well as a view of each boy’s pink, puckered hole. This view of the boys was always one of my favorites each year – and this year’s crop of boys didn’t disappoint.

“We’ll all do the sit ups together,” John continued. “Everyone ready? Alright then, everyone up, and down. Up, two. Up, three.”

John wasn’t on the floor doing sit ups along with the boys. Instead he was walking up and down the lines to observe them as he counted out the repetitions. Meanwhile, Sarah and I watched from the sidelines as the boys lifted their torsos in unison. Some boys seemed to be straining just to complete a simple exercise like this. I wondered if they would even be able to survive this abbreviated orientation session. After all, I knew that John was just getting started and had several more exercises to go through before we had them run laps. I knew that if they were already having trouble keeping up today, they would have a difficult time passing my class.

“Up, nineteen,” John continued. “Up and twenty, everyone stop. Alright, while you’re on the ground, we’re going to do some leg raises,” John explained. “Knees down, hands at your sides – flat on your back.”

I really appreciated the way John quickly moved from one exercise to the next without much rest in between. From the look of some of these boys, no one has ever pushed them or made them work hard before. They were weak and lacked endurance. But I was confident that John and I were just the team to toughen them up.

“For leg raises we do a four count,” John continued. “You always keep your knees locked and your legs straight. Starting with your feet together, on the count of one, you raise your legs about 18 inches off the ground and hold that position. On two, you spread your feet about three feet apart and hold that. On three, your legs go back together and on four you lower your legs back to the starting position. Everyone ready? Then let’s begin. One, legs up.”

John paused while all of the boys raised their legs.

“Two, feet apart.”

The boys all spread their legs widely apart, giving Sarah and I another fine view of what these boys had to offer between their legs.

“Three, legs back together.”

The boys moved their legs back together while maintaining them 18 inches off the ground.

“Four, legs down.”

All of the boys dropped their legs back to the ground.

“Alright, now that you know how these are done, let’s do some more.”

We watched as John ordered the boys to endure a slow and methodical series of leg raises. As he did with the sit ups, John slowly walked between the boys to observe them during the exercise rather than joining them on the floor. Even though this was only the initial orientation, his count was deliberately slow to make sure the boys received a strenuous workout and really felt it in their abdominal muscles when they were done. As Sarah and I watched, we could see each boy’s abdomen tightening while they tried to maintain each position during his slow count. After a few repetitions, some of the boys were already struggling to keep up with the count.

The view before us was quite amazing and was another one of my favorite parts of orientation. Here were 17 young males, all flat on their back and spreading their raised legs widely apart. Each time they parted their legs it was as if they were demanding that we look between them. It was unavoidable, unless we turned out backs, which was something that we would never even consider. Spreading their legs like that was certainly an embarrassing position for the boys, one that males don’t usually have to endure. Most of them were coping with it well, but you could see the look of embarrassment on some of their faces.

Those that were embarrassed realized that we were watching them and knew exactly what they were showing us. Deep down they knew that this wasn’t right or proper and that they shouldn’t be doing it. Their mommies raised them as good little boys and they were taught that it wasn’t proper for boys to blatantly display their genitals to two ladies as they were now doing. But because they were forced to follow our orders, that made it OK and gave them permission to do it. Those boys were starting to learn the real lesson of physical education, which is to obey all orders no matter how they personally felt about them. This wouldn’t be the last time today that these boys would be forced to do something that felt so wrong to them.

“Alright, boys, roll over now for some push-ups,” John commanded after finishing the tough set of leg raises.

The boys rolled over onto their bellies, providing Sarah and I with a very nice view of their backsides.

“And we’re going to do real push-ups, boys, with your knees off the ground. And remember to keep your backs straight. Everyone up,” John ordered, waiting for all of the boys to get into the starting position. “Everyone down – and up, one. Down – and two. Let’s hear you count it out, boys.”

The boys now counted in unison each time they completed a push-up. And Sarah and I watched them clench their tight bare gluteus muscles as they strained to complete each rep. A few of the boys were once again having a hard time keeping up with the others. They properly executed the first few push-ups, but then their form degraded into a struggle just to keep their body off of the floor. As the exercise continued, many of these boys lacked the upper body strength to even continue.

“OK, that’s enough, everyone stand up and face me,” John said as he moved back to the front of the group. “We’re going to do a few squat thrusts now. Some people call these burpees, but they’re the same thing. Watch me as I show you how they’re done. You start out standing, then on the count of one, you squat down, placing your hands on the ground about shoulder-width apart.”

As he was speaking, John squatted down into the first position.

“Now on the count of two, kick your legs back all the way, keeping your feet together and straightening your legs.”

He kicked his legs back and got into the second position.

“On three, you return to the first squatting position, then on four you jump back up to a standing position.”

John slowly moved through the last two positions.

“So all together, it looks like this.” John demonstrated one more basic burpee, this time at the normal speed.

“Everyone understand? Good, then everyone turn that way and get ready to begin.” John pointed away from us, so that meant we would once again have a nice view of their backsides.

“Everyone ready. One – two – three – four.”

John started counting out the steps, slowly at first, then quickly ramping up the speed. Sarah and I watched as the boys squatted down in front of us, over and over again. Their lack of clothing, except for the small rear straps of their jock, made it easy to observe their gluteus muscles at work. I know that this was another one of the exercises that really embarrassed some of the boys. I remember several boys in past years even refused to do them. At first they couldn’t give me a good reason why they refused. But when pressed for a reason, I got them to admit that they were simply embarrassed squatting down like that in just their jockstrap. Of course, threatened with a paddling, they too eventually complied.

I looked at my watch and saw that we were still right on schedule. I caught John’s attention by holding up one finger, signaling to him that we had time for one more exercise before we had the boys run a few laps. He nodded in acknowledgement of my silent order. Meanwhile, the squat thrusts were taking their toll on the boys, with several of them having a difficult time keeping up with the fast pace that John was counting out.

“Alright, everyone stop and face me,” John commanded.

Every boy was now out of breath, from the most fit among them, to the weaklings that couldn’t keep up. Their chests were rapidly expanding and contracting as their bodies tried to get enough air to recover. All of them looked like they finally broke a sweat, with their chests, backs and buttocks glistening with moisture under the bright fluorescent lights of the gym. It was a good start, but I knew that we weren’t done yet. John was about to have them do some jumping jacks, which is always a good choice when you want the boys to work up a good sweat. I prided myself on always working the boys hard during all of my P.E. classes, and today’s orientation wasn’t any exception.

While all of my classes were strenuous, I admit that I was especially hard on this group of last-chance seniors each year. I guess it was my way of teaching them a lesson. They had all managed to avoid my classes for three and a half years, and it was now my turn to show them what their procrastination had earned them. A little bit of sweat might be enough for one of my regular classes, but it wasn’t nearly good enough for these boys. I wanted them to be exhausted and completely spent. They had to be dripping with sweat and completely soaked with their wet jockstraps clinging to their young bodies, or John and I just weren’t doing our jobs. That might not happen today due to the other orientation activities, but it certainly would tomorrow when we had a full class period just for exercise. If these boys thought today’s workout was rough, they will be shocked at how hard we’ll push them tomorrow.

“We’re going to do some jumping jacks now,” John said to the group. “Everyone should already know how to do these, but I’ll walk through it to make sure we’re all on the same page. You start with your feet together and hands at your sides. Then when you jump, you separate your legs and raise your arms above your heads like this.”

John demonstrated the basic jumping jack movement.

“Then you return to the starting position like this. The key thing is to keep your arms straight and make sure you swing your arms up in a full movement – don’t just bend your elbows. Everyone ready? Then let’s go.”

John proceeded to count repetitions as the boys did the jumping jacks. Knowing that this was the last exercise for today, Sarah and I moved back in front of the group and stood next to John. It was always interesting to watch as the boys assumed the spread-eagle position that is required for jumping jacks. Each time they jumped they had to spread their feet apart and throw their hands straight up over their heads. It wasn’t an especially embarrassing position when one was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. But given the boy’s present state of undress, it was likely very embarrassing for them. As the three of us watched the boys continue to jump, it was even more obvious that they had worked up a good sweat. For most of the boys, the front pouch of their Bike jockstrap was wet and almost translucent. It was clinging to their body as if it was molded to their male anatomy, bouncing up and down each time they jumped. It was quite a site to see.

“Alright, that’s enough, you can all stop,” John said after a few short minutes.

The boys immediately stopped exercising. All of them were once again out of breath, and stood there trying to recover as quickly as possible. It was now my turn to take control of these boys again.

“OK, boys,” I said to them. “That concludes the main exercise portion of today’s class. Since we won’t have to spend time on your orientation again, we’ll have much more time tomorrow for a serious exercise period. But a word of warning to those of you that are already tired and out of breath. Tomorrow, you can expect the workout to be much more vigorous and obviously much longer. So I need all of you to come to class prepared to work hard. We don’t play in this class – we work hard at getting our bodies in shape. Is that understood?”

I scanned the flushed faces of the boys to see if I had their attention.

“The last thing that you will do today before heading back into the locker room is to run a few laps,” I continued.

There were a few audible moans of displeasure from the boys.

“We will end each and every class period with some laps, so you might as well get used to that today. If we happen to be outside, you’ll run laps around the track or around the school building. Since you’re inside today, and obviously not dressed to go out, you’ll run laps here in the gym.”

A few of the boys snickered at my comment.

“Laps are always run shirtless. That’s a moot point today, but during a normal class you’ll all remove your T-shirt before running laps. Going shirtless allows us to see how you boys are shaping up, and it’s also more comfortable for you on hot days.”

I waited to see if there was any reaction from the boys – there wasn’t any, which wasn’t really surprising. An hour ago, if I told this same group of boys that they’d have to run laps shirtless, some of them would have complained and had a fit. But compared to their current situation, going shirtless was no big deal to them. My orientation was already working to tear down their inhibitions. And we would certainly do more of that when it was time for their first group shower.

“Since you’re all barefoot today, we won’t have you run that many laps,” I continued. “And we’ll also let you run a bit slower than you normally would. I wouldn’t want anyone to slip and get hurt. You’ll run counter-clockwise around the perimeter of the gym. And as you can see, we have some equipment at that end of the gym under the basketball goal, just some balls and such. I want everyone to stay out of that area. Everyone ready?”

I looked at the boys and saw that many of them were still trying to catch their breath. Nevertheless, it was time for them to run laps.

“Alright then, Jake, you start by leading your row, and then each row will follow in turn.”

We watched as row upon row followed each other along the right side of the gym, creating a short train of boys. In some of my larger classes, the line would be almost continuous, wrapping all the way around the perimeter of the gym. But in this small class, the boys were all running together as one group that circled the gym.

John, Sarah and I all moved to the center of the gym and used our vantage point to watch the boys as they ran. They weren’t running very fast, with Jake, the first boy in line, setting what I thought was a reasonable pace considering that they were all barefoot. And it was certainly an interesting sight watching them run in just their jockstraps. Each time the train of boys turned and ran away from us, we were treated to a view of their bare asses. Then when they rounded the corner and ran toward us on the other side of the gym, we saw the front pouch of their jocks bounce up and down with each stride.

In no time at all they had completed several laps around the gym. And this final bit of exercise seemed to be taking its toll on the boys. Those that weren’t already sweating now were, and the others that were already glistening with sweat were now wet with visible drops. The front of every jock was now wet and tightly clinging to their young bodies as they ran.

After another lap, one of the boys decided to jump up and reach for the bottom of the basketball net at the far side of the gym. I thought it was Jim Johnson, and I looked at my class roster to verify that it was. This was the area where some of the equipment was stored and the very area that I specifically told them to avoid. As the boys circled the gym and approached that area again, all of us watched closely to see if he would do it again. Sure enough, the same boy jumped up and did it again. A second or two later, one of the boys behind him decided to kick a basketball that was laying on the floor just beyond the goal.

I immediately blew my whistle – this disobedience had to stop now. The boys immediately stopped running.

“You and you,” I shouted as I pointed to the two boys. “Get over here right now. The rest of you can continue running, now!”

The two boys approached us in the middle of the gym while the others resumed running laps.

“Name?” I said to the first boy.

“Jim Johnson,” he replied.

“And your name?” I said to the second boy.

“Tim Meyers.”

“No more games! Continue running at the back of the line,” I ordered as I made note of their names in my roster. The two immediately turned and joined the other boys running laps. I looked at my watch to see exactly how much time we had left in this class period. I had to make sure that any change in plans still left enough time for their first group shower, since that was an important part of their orientation.