"Who can tell me why condoms are important?" the teacher asked.

"Man, this is so lame," Oliver whispered to Matt. "I bet half the room has had sex already, and now they're trying to educate us. We're seventeen or eighteen, for goodness sake - it's even legal now!"

"Yes, avoiding pregnancy is a good reason Roger, that's right. However, it's not the most important reason," the teacher continued.

"What I don't get is why they separate the boys and girls," Matt whispered back. "I wonder how their lesson differs."

"Sexually transmitted infections. That is the over-riding reason for using condoms. Can anyone tell me any examples?" The teacher was in full flow now.

"Probably they get the period talk," Oliver suggested.

"Yes, that's good, yep, yep," the teacher called out as various members of the class chimed in. Neither Oliver nor Matt were paying any attention.

"So what's our equivalent?" Matt replied.

"Ok, so now I think we all understand why we should use condoms," the teacher summarised.

"Probably this - you should know guys: a few days a month, you really, really shouldn't try it on with your woman," Oliver suggested. Matt laughed loudly enough to catch a glare from the teacher.

"Now class," the teacher announced, "I want you all to get into your discussion groups and talk about the things we've covered today."

The class split up into various groups of friends. Oliver and Matt were joined by Tim, who they found slightly annoying but tolerable.

"So what are we meant to do, just sit and talk about sex?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, why not. How's it going with your missus Matt?" Oliver said.

"Pretty good, yeah."

"How many times have you done it now?" Tim asked.

"Enough to lose count," Matt said with a smile.

"I can't believe neither your parents or her parents mind if you stay over at each other's houses - in the same bed! Do you know how many other kids would kill for their parents to be that laid-back? Joanna's parents don't even think that we have sex."

"Yeah, although my parents are forever checking that I've got enough condoms handy. It's really weird!"

"So what positions have you tried?" Tim pressed.

"Only missionary," Matt said dourly. "And only with the lights off."

"I heard that her on-top is great, much better," Tim continued.

"Yeah, well, why don't you try it then Tim?" At that, the three of them fell silent. They all knew that Tim did not have a girlfriend, and was a virgin.

"I have similar troubles with Joanna," Oliver said. "What we need are girls like in porn, you know? Girls who'll do all kinds of stuff, not ones who are afraid to even get naked, 'because of what the guy might think of them'. I mean, if I didn't want to see a girl naked, why would I be trying to undress them? They should all just get over themselves."

"Yeah, we want deep-throating girls," Tim butted in.

"Anal sex you mean," Oliver replied, grinning.

"Threesomes," Tim added. "Reckon we could find any girls in school willing to double up?"

"More likely they'd want us to double up," Oliver pointed out.

"Nasty," Tim said, and they all nodded in agreement.

In a nearby room, Matt's girlfriend Lisa was sat with a group of her friends, including Oliver's girlfriend Joanna, involved in a similar discussion.

"So do you wear condoms with Matt?" Paula asked.

"Yeah, we both think it's a good idea," Lisa explained.

"Some men are so pig-headed about it," Emma lamented. "It's bad enough that they're always asking for sex, but they want you to go on the pill so they don't have to bother with condoms."

"My last boyfriend was so self-absorbed that he refused to give me head," Amanda complained. Some of the other girls nodded in agreement. Joanna thought about Oliver and how he often tried to duck out of it.

"I hope you stood up for yourself and refused to give him a blow-job until he did," Emma said strongly. All the girls in the group knew that Emma had staunch feminist tendencies, so they expected a comment like that from her.

"Don't you quite like giving head? I seem to find that I have more fun giving him head than when he gives me head," Leah interjected.

"He must be doing it wrong!" Everyone laughed at Lisa's outburst. Matt had been very eager to give Lisa head when they had first become intimate, and after that Lisa had been very eager for him to do it again and again.

"Is it good?" Ruby asked. Ruby was a slightly large, fairly quiet girl. Everyone knew that she had never been with a boy and most felt sorry for her in that regard.

"Amazing," Lisa promised.

"So yeah, men!" Joanna said, steering the conversation back. "Do you ever get asked to do some weird stuff that they've only ever heard about?"

"Like deep-throating?" Amanda suggested.

"Anal," Leah added.

"Or a threesome," Joanna said.

"That might not be so bad if it was two guys," Leah said casually.

"But you know they want two girls, and usually a specific friend of yours that they fancy!" Lisa said.

"So are you never tempted to try to do what they want? If a guy was that insistent with me, I might listen to him and do what he wants," Ruby said. No-one answered her. Emma considered it too fawning, and likewise Amanda would not give a guy the satisfaction. Joanna and Leah did not like the idea of doing some of the weird things that men had asked them for. Lisa was not sure what she would do if Matt asked her for something like that. Paula did not want to be seen to agree with Ruby if none of the other girls were agreeing.

"Really, they just want the women they see in porn," Paula stated, trying not to let Ruby's comment cause such an obvious silence.

"Have you actually seen any?" Lisa asked, curious.

"I've seen some," Leah said. "It's interesting in a way, to see what guys like."

"I've seen a lot," Ruby said and everyone turned to look at her. She flushed. "Some of it can be kinda... enjoyable." There was a pause, and Ruby continued on, to change the subject and not cause another silence: "So don't any of you have any odd things that you would like to do with your boyfriends?"

"Once," Joanna said and paused, contemplating whether to say it. "I had sex outdoors with Oliver when we were on a camping holiday with my parents and he was really horny. They wouldn't let us sleep in the same tent even, but one day when we were out walking, away from them, we just did right there in the woods. That was really good, you know. I drop hints sometimes that we should go camping again, but I'm not sure he's ever noticed."

"I quite like seeing men masturbate," Paula said. That was only half the story but there was no way she was admitting any more about her sex life to the other girls.

"Wasn't it just so fast it was a blur?" Lisa asked.

"A bit, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. It's just... kinda sexy, you know?"

"I like the idea - never done it though - of taking charge for once," Amanda said.

"So if you like something in particular, why don't you ask them to do it?" Ruby asked.

"You kidding me?" Joanna said. "It'd be all over the school in no time if you let on to any guy what you really liked."

"What about you Emma? You trust your boyfriend don't you?" Ruby pressed. Emma had been with her boyfriend longer than any of them.

"Yeah, but still. To actually ask a guy for it straight out, it's not something you do." All the other girls nodded in agreement, except Ruby, who did not understand.

"Ok class, I hope you have had a good discussion about safe sex," the teacher called out. "We're going to talk a bit about consent now. Both you and your partner must agree to having sex. If you are not comfortable with it or are being pressured into it, just say no. If you say no and he still tries anyway, that can be rape. That is a crime, and you should always report it. Here are some examples of situations where..."

The girls stopped talking to each other and listened to the lesson.