“Sounds fair.” Kerry nodded, flicking through the pages. “It’s not like I’ll be around to care what you do with any of it!”

“We’ll you’re definitely going to get your fifteen minutes of fame!” Josie grinned. “So in three places you’ll see a place to sign your name and put the date. Your mum’s already signed them.” Kerry saw a dotted line broken up with labels stating “Subject Signature” and “Date” above a similar line labelled “Parent/Guardian Signature”. “Just fill those in,” Josie instructed, “and pop your initials in the corner of every page, so to acknowledge you’ve seen them.” As she literally signed her life away, the rule about recently adopted or fostered girls not being allowed to volunteer suddenly made sense to Kerry. She had never really thought before about the fact that the parent or guardian of a volunteer would get paid for their meat if they were cooked and served by Sidney’s, although it was pretty logical that they would. The law, she realised, was there to stop people profiteering by taking in orphaned or unwanted girls only to sell them for their meat.

“There!” she smiled, less than two minutes later, pushing the stack of papers away from her symbolically to signal that she was finished, having added her initials to the last one. “All done!”

“Wonderful!” Josie smiled, gathering them up and taking a quick flick through to ensure that she had signed in all the relevant places then slipping them back into then envelope. “Well, thank you very much for your time, Mr Harcourt.” She smiled at the Principal. “I’ll be seeing you again bright and early Monday morning! Mrs Mulligan,” she turned to Kerry’s mum, “Kerry, let’s go meet our little piglet!”

It felt very strange walking out of the Principal’s office, through Reception and then outside in nothing but a satin kimono but at least it covered her well and the cord was well-tied. Barring a sudden, unexpected up-draft, Kerry was not going to find herself exposed just yet! Besides, everyone else was still in their afternoon classes and although some other students might happen to glance out of the window and see her, most would have their attention focussed on their lessons. If she had been making this walk at lunch time it might have been a very different story!

Reaching the field, they took the narrow foot-path down the side to the other school. A class from the junior school was playing rounders on the field for their PE lesson but they were all too caught up in the game to notice the rather strange trio crossing the path. Looking over at the girls from Year 5 or 6 in their black shorts and white T-shirts, Kerry imagined them playing nude as she had been told they would be in September and wondered if that new rule would only apply to indoor sports and lessons or whether the cold would be considered a good incentive to keep the girls running around outside in the winter!

Once inside the Reception area of the other school, the secretary, a lady in late middle-age apparently cut from the same cloth as school secretaries and doctor’s receptionists everywhere greeted them with a smile.

“No need to ask who you are!” She chuckled. “Mrs Archer is expecting you in her office.”

“Thank you.” Josie smiled, filling in her details in the visitors book then passing the pen to Mrs Mulligan to do the same. “Kerry here has kindly agreed to come along to help put your nominee at her ease.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem somehow!” the secretary chuckled again as Kerry filled in her own name then handed back the pen. “Go through these double doors,” she instructed, pointing with the pen to the way out of the reception, “then straight forward and it’s the second door on your left. If you find yourselves in the toilets then you’ve gone too far!” Kerry giggled and thanked her along with the others as Josie took the lead and pushed the door open, ushering her and her mum through.

“I wonder what she meant about not needing to put the girl from here at her ease?” Kerry speculated as they arrived at the closed door and Josie knocked. Her question was answered moments later when they were warmly invited inside the smaller but cosy office where the Head Mistress sat behind her desk, a tired-looking woman in her early thirties was sat in another chair and a girl of nine or ten stood almost completely naked, greeting them with the trademark Sidney salute!

“Well howdy y’all!” the girl grinned in a put-on Texas accent that was only slightly worse than Sidney’s own. “Come on in!” The girl had shoulder-length very dark brown hair that was wavy rather than curly and a body that, while toned, bordering on muscular, was appetisingly stocky rather than slim, much like Sidney herself had looked. Hair colour aside, the resemblance to Sidney was amplified by her cheap pink cowboy hat with a metallic plastic S on the front although, rather comically, instead of boots she was wearing her school shoes with her white socks pulled up as high as they would go! Her boyish chest had yet to start budding although her pink nipples were a decent size and her fillet looked thick and meaty like Kerry’s own. Although she could not see from this angle, Kerry thought it a very safe bet that the girl had a rump that was just crying out to be roasted!

“Howdy!” Kerry responded with a friendly laugh. “You must be my fellow roaster! Love the outfit!”

“Thanks!” the younger girl grinned. “Mummy brought the hat in for me from home. We got it on holiday last Summer when we had dinner at Sidney’s!”

“As soon as I got the call about this meeting I knew she’d want it!” the other woman in the room explained with an indulgent chuckle. Unprompted, the girl gave a twirl to show off her whole body, quickly confirming Kerry’s suspicions about her rump. From the enthusiasm this girl was displaying for the whole thing, she had to wonder whether she had been really been her teachers’ favourite pick for the opportunity like herself, not that she was an unsuitable choice by any means, or if they had simply known how much she would protest once she learned about it if they had picked someone else.

“Welcome Kerry,” the Head Mistress stood up and smiled, “this must be your mum?” She held out her hand to shake Mrs Mulligan’s. “And Josie, we’ve spoken on the phone.” Josie confirmed this with a nod. “This is our chosen representative, Katie.”

“I see you’re really reluctant and unsure about the whole thing?” Josie teased, making the younger girl giggle. “This is Kerry from the secondary school.” She introduced the pre-teen. “Kerry, why don’t you pop your robe off for us?” Realising there was really no point in being shy, Kerry did as she was asked, noting the odd psychological phenomenon, although she was technically wearing more than herself, Katie’s hat, shoes and socks made her appear somehow more naked! Kerry supposed this was the difference between being nude and just not having clothes on!

There were far fewer places to sit in this office than there had been in Mr Harcourt’s but when Josie produced the papers for Katie to sign, her mum stood up to let her use the chair. Not wanting to be in the way, both parents moved to the back of the room and leaned against the wall while the Head Mistress disappeared for a minute or so, returning shortly after with a pair of plastic chairs borrowed from one of the classrooms. Katie offered the good chair to Josie but she assured her that she was happy with one of the classroom ones and sat down, Kerry taking the other, to talk the pair through what they could expect on the day.

After this relatively brief meeting, Kerry’s mum returned her clothes and she put her underwear, shirt and skirt back on, not bothering with the tie or jumper since she would not be returning to classes, and asked Josie if she could keep the robe and slippers.

“Of course!” Josie beamed. “They’re our gift to you! I have a set here for Katie too.” She took them out of her bag and, rather unsurprisingly under the circumstances, the younger girl declined to get dressed, opting to leave with her mum in just the robe along with her hat and footwear.

Since it was still quite early in the afternoon, Kerry’s mum drove them home so that her daughter could change out of her uniform then drove to the cinema via a drive-through fast food outlet. On the journey, Kerry’s mum asked her if she was looking forward to Monday and what she thought of the whole Sidney’s academy idea but, the pre-teen couldn’t help but notice, avoided asking her directly how she felt about being eaten. In truth, the reality of the situation hadn’t really hit her yet. Of course she was under no illusion about the cooking not being real or about surviving the event but the raw fact that she would no longer exist after Monday afternoon was yet to quite sink in. The idea of being cooked and eaten existed in abstract in her mind and, mostly, she was feeling a mixture of pride over being chosen and nervousness about appearing naked in front of so many people, although meeting Katie had definitely helped with that. Although she had been taken along to help put the younger girl at her ease, it felt more as if the reassurance had been the other way around and there was no denying that Katie’s enthusiasm was infectious! Kerry couldn’t help wondering how her mum had felt when she got the call asking her to come in and whether she had required much persuading to give her permission but, following her lead, she did not ask, instead asking what she planned to wear to the event on Monday.

Although her mum said she did not have to if she didn’t feel like it, Kerry did opt to go to school on Friday and was rather pleased that she did as the announcement about the changes that would be coming to the school the following academic year was made in assembly and she was called up to the front to receive a round of applause. For a moment she wondered if Mr Harcourt was going to ask her to undress in front of the whole rest of the school but he did not, that could wait until Monday! She wondered whether Katie had gone to school too and was receiving similar recognition and, if she, whether she had agreed to wear her uniform or whether she would be attending classes proudly naked! She knew there was a certain school of thought among some volunteers that wearing clothes was foolish once their status as meat had been confirmed and she would not be at all surprised to learn that Katie subscribed to this belief!


(To be continued...)