Chapter 3: Health Class

The classrooms in the Bunker were small. Each held 30 students, or 15 pairs of Partners. Jason had spent every weekday in class, with Skye right by his side. It seemed, for a moment, that nothing had changed.

Then a new teacher entered the classroom. She was quite young, and her brown hair was tied up in a stern bun. Slanted glasses enhanced the sharp look in her eyes and she pinched her lips together as she looked around the classroom.

“Good morning, students. I am Teacher Elyse. I will be your main instructor for your Adult Education curriculum, and will be overseeing your Health, Intimacy Preparation, and Sexual Education classes,” Teacher Elyse introduced herself.

Her introduction raised a lot of confusion among the students, Jason included. Several of them raised their hands.

“Yes, Skye,” Teacher Elyse said. Like any good teacher, she already knew all of her students’ names.

“Can you clarify, what is ‘Sexual Education’?” Skye asked, her brow furrowing. Jason leaned in a little and perked up his ears. It was a word that none of them had ever heard before.

“Oh, I know!” Moira cut the teacher off before she could answer, turning around in her seat. “It’s about the Sextennial, right? Gotta be.”

“Ooooh!” A few students nodded along with her, along with Jason.

“Ahem.” Teacher Elyse cleared her throat, and shot Moira a stern glare. “Moira, rules of classroom decorum do not permit unsolicited outbursts of that nature.”

“…Sorry,” Moira apologized, sinking into her seat a little.

“And for that matter, your answer is incorrect. Sexual Education has nothing to do with the Sextennial. You’ll be learning about sex.”

That… didn’t make anything clearer. More students’ hands raised.

“Yes, Jason?”

“Sex means ‘six’, right? So is it a math class?”

Moira groaned in disappointment. Teacher Elyse shot her a stern look.

“No, Jason, Sexual Education will not involve any math,” she assured them. “Yes, Andrew?”

Andrew was Moira’s Partner, and his raised arm towered over the other students’. The blonde giant wasn’t the brightest student in class, but he was very soft-spoken and curious, and asked the question on everyone’s minds: “what is sex?”

Teacher Elyse’s face tightened and a tired smile stretched itself across her lips. “Sex is… the topic of study we will be focusing on in Sexual Education Class of course.”

With that, the discussion ended. It was clear that the teacher had nothing else to say on the topic. But Jason was burning with curiosity; he couldn’t help himself! But he was a good student. And good students listened to their teachers, they didn’t pester them for answers.

Jason accessed the telepad installed in his desk and began taking notes with the rest of the class as Teacher Elyse informed them how their schedules would be different compared to Secondary Education.

…

“Health” was the first of their new classes for Adult Education, and the only one the class would be taking today. The room was filled with anticipation. Oh, certainly, Jason remembered the health classes from his childhood, but those had been simple things, like learning about what to do if you got hurt or sick (find the nearest telescreen and report to Ai) how to know what foods were good for you or not (Ai would tell you) and how to stay in shape (follow Ai’s exercise regiment).

Health Class for Adult Education however… Jason was eager to see what that would cover. Secondary Education Health Class had taught him about shaving and body hair, what else would he need to learn about?

The telescreen at the front of the classroom flickered on, and Ai appeared in the center of it dressed in the same skirt and blouse Teacher Elyse was wearing. She even had her hair up in a bun and wore glasses too!

“Good morning students! You can call me Teacher Ai, and I’ll be helping your Health Teacher with your first lesson today!” Ai said with her same cheery smile. “Today we’ll be learning about your bodies, and how they’ve changed!”

Jason glanced down at himself. His body had changed? What did she mean by that?

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, you’ve gotten a lot taller and bigger than when you were a kid,” Ai explained. “I can tell you I certainly noticed!”

“Some of us are a lot bigger than others!” Moira called, slapping her Partner on the back and cackling.

Ai scowled. “No interruptions please. Now, as I was saying, your bodies have gone through a lot of changes since you were children. And as part of Adult Education, we’ll be spending our time learning a little bit more about those changes! And to do that, I’m going to need the help of two friends of mine, Tyler and Sarah!”

The screen shifted and Ai disappeared, replace by a recording of a boy and girl who were about their age, smiling at the camera.

Ai’s voice began to speak over the footage. “Tyler and Sarah are Partners who both turned 18! And they’ve noticed over the last few years that their bodies have gone through some changes since the last Sextennial, and now they look a lot different from each other. That’s because Tyler is a boy, and Sarah is a girl! Now, take the next five minutes to write down any differences that you see!”

Jason opened his telepad along with the other students, and squinted at the pair of Partners. As an artist, he prided himself on having a discerning eye. Tyler had a very broad chest and thick arms, while Sarah’s body was more round and curvy. Their hair was very different as well, with Sarah having long black hair and Tyler’s being short and blonde. By the time Ai finished counting he’d filled an entire page and then some.

“Excellent work everybody! Did you find a lot of differences?” Ai asked.

“Yes, Teacher Ai!” They answered.

“Great! But did you know that the biggest difference between a boy and a girl is something you can’t see in this picture?” Ai asked. The classroom as abuzz with curious murmurs. “That’s right! The biggest difference between boys and girls is that boys have a penis, and girls have a vagina!”

Jason had learned what a penis was in one of his previous classes. But “vagina” was a word he’d never heard before.

The footage shifted again, and a picture of a penis appeared above Tyler’s head, and a picture of what Jason had to assume was a vagina appeared above the head of Sarah. The class “ooh”’d in excitement at the new vocabulary.

“Let’s all say that together now, shall we?” Ai said, reappearing on the screen with a ruler in hand. She pointed it at the penis. “Penis,” and then the vagina, “and vagina.”

“Penis and vagina,” they all said together.

“Exactly! Now, take a moment and turn to look between your Partner’s legs,” she instructed. “If your Partner is a boy, that means he has a penis. And if your Partner is a girl, that means she has a vagina.”

Jason studied Skye’s slender legs. He’d never really considered what was between them before; after all, looking at another person’s naked body wasn’t permitted. He’d always just kind of assumed that everyone had a penis.

“Penises and vaginas are a major difference between boys and girls,” Ai continued. “But it’s not the only difference you might have noticed! Let’s follow Sarah for a little bit, it looks like she’s having a bit of a problem getting ready for school in the morning.”

The camera cut to Sarah, digging through her closet. She was wearing a shirt that rode up and exposed her stomach, and she had an exasperated look on her face.

“Hi there, Sarah!” Ai appeared on the telescreen in her room. “What seems to be the problem?”

“Oh, Ai!” Sarah groaned, talking in that exaggerated fake voice that every actor in an educational video used. “It’s no use! None of my shirts seem to fit me anymore!”

“Well there’s no need to get so upset about that, Sarah!” Ai assured her with a smile. “That’s because you’re a growing girl! The reason your shirt is so tight is because your breasts are so big!”

Sarah let out a loud gasp. “My breasts? What are those?”

“I’ll explain it to you!” Ai chirped. “When a girl gets to be a certain age, fat begins to build up on her chest! These lumps of flesh are called ‘breasts’. And everyone gets them! Some breasts are small, and some are very large. And some breasts are just medium-size!”

“Well, I wish that my breasts were small,” Sarah pouted. “I’ll never be able to fit into any of my old shirts!” She placed her hands on her chest and shook her breasts to emphasize them.

“There’s no need to worry, here in the Bunker, we take great care to make sure that everyone’s clothes are the perfect fit for them,” Ai assured her. “You just haven’t gotten your big-girl shirts yet! We tailor-make all our shirts to perfectly fit your breasts! Take a look!”

On cue, a drone flew into Sarah’s bedroom with a large box suspended beneath it. The drone dropped the box on the floor and Sarah opened it. It was full of shirts! She stepped into the changing room and emerged a few seconds later wearing her new shirt and a smile filled with awe.

“Wow! It’s a perfect fit!”

“And it always will be!” Ai said.

Sarah placed her hands on her hips. “Thanks, Ai. You’re the best!”

Ai gave a wink to the camera, then the footage returned to the previous frame.

“Now as you can see, Sarah was upset because her breasts were so big that she couldn’t fit into any of her clothes! But that might not be the case for everyone. Boys, take a look at your Partner’s chest. Are her breasts big, like Sarah’s? Or are they more on the small side?”

Jason turned to look at Skye, who sat up straight and thrust her chest out. He had always been curious about why Skye’s chest had looked so different from when they were kids, but had never asked because that would have been rude. But now that he was getting a closer look, he could see that they were just breasts, like the other girls had. They were smaller than Sarah’s, but not as small as some of the other girls’ chests.

“Hey, mine are pretty big, huh?” Moira said loudly, and Jason turned to look at her along with a few of the other students. Moira’s breasts weren’t the largest in the class, but they were bigger than Skye’s.

“You might be noticing that some of you have larger or smaller breasts than others,” Ai interjected. “But that’s okay! It doesn’t matter how big they are, every pair of breasts are special. Now, let’s take a look at how Tyler’s doing!”

The scene cut to Tyler in the hallway. He was walking kind of weird, and kept stopping to fiddle with his belt.

Ai appeared on the telescreen beside his head. “Hi there, Tyler! Are you feeling okay?”

“Oh, hey Ai,” Tyler said glumly. “Yeah, it’s nothing really. It’s just that my penis is so big it makes my pants feel too tight! I guess I’m having a little trouble walking because of it.”

“Oh, that’s okay, Tyler, some people just have larger penises than others! It’s nothing to be ashamed of. All it means is that you need to get your pants fixed up a little, that’s all!” Ai assured him.

“Really?” Tyler gasped. “It’s that easy?”

“Yep!” Ai nodded. “Because an especially large penis can making walking difficult, we’ve designed adjustable underwear that can expand to give your penis lots of room to breathe! That way, you don’t have to worry about chafing or tightness ever again. Just report to your nearest telescreen and tell me that you think your penis is big, and I’ll be more than happy to handle it for you!”

Tyler grinned. “Hey! Thanks Ai! That is better! With you handling my penis, I’m feeling great down there!”

“Happy to help!” Ai smiled back at him.

Jason couldn’t help but glance down at his own pants. He was relieved. He didn’t know if his penis was too large, but at least he knew that there would be a way to relieve it if it ever got too big to keep under control.

He appreciated how informative Health Class had been.