CHAPTER 83
Chris had really worked hard at his planning, I realised, as our ‘two tribes’ crossed paths at the halfway point. Annie had been sent off with Darius, so I had Eric with me for the first part of the evening. I decided as we started our walk that I wouldn’t pump him for info, but me and good intentions have never been the firmest of friends.

“When did you decide this trip, Eric?”

It was early August and Conner (Connie) and Bob (Bonnie) had been camping on the Pacific Crest Trail for four days and randomly stopped into the Grizzly Café in Wrightwood for a post hike meal. It was at The Grizzly where Bonnie and Connie first met cross-dresser waitress Stacy as outlined in the last few pages of ‘High School Reunion: Bromance on Pacific Crest Trail – Chapter 3’. Reading those last few pages will add to your enjoyment of this follow-up story about Pretty Stacy.

Derek wasn't sure why he was going to the speed dating place. He'd never successfully found a girlfriend in his life. He'd been on a few dates during his college years, but nothing ever lasted. It wasn't just the girls, either; Derek had never really "felt it" with any of the girls he'd dated, hence why it never lasted longer than one or two dates. By this point, he'd basically given up on dating anyone. He didn't think the human race would be missing much if he failed to reproduce.

Stuck in a Rut.
By Rosalie Redd

Casey Church is a normal 13 year old girl, full of hopes and dreams and fears and anxieties. But in a world where there hasn’t been a girl born in over a century, what is normal?

Chapter 18.

“I didn’t know you two were lovers.” I boldly said towards my big sister and Alyssa.

They stopped kissing and looked at me with a mischievous smile.

“Well, we kind of are. But not really. Let’s say we are friends who are very close and comfortable with each other.” Mary said still grinning.

Alyssa also still had a big smile on her face.

“Actually, you and Alyssa kissing on the day all three of us went to the mall inspired me. Alyssa has such beautiful and luscious lips and I thought…” Mary just stopped abruptly her smile freezing.

She walks softly,
on the green grass,
thinking of the what if’s.

A time for joy,
A time for sorrow,
She recalls.

Vulnerability she has shown to others,
Yet healing is slow for her.

She recalls something that she has read,
some advice given by a woman.

All are part of the one source,
all are sacred.

She muses slowly over what she felt,
Sorrow and empathy She has felt.

She then realised that no one is at fault,
It’s all along a learning experience.

Stuck in a Rut.
By Rosalie Redd

Casey Church is a normal 13 year old girl, full of hopes and dreams and fears and anxieties. But in a world where there hasn’t been a girl born in over a century, what is normal?

Chapter 17.

“I don’t mean to be a dick, by any means,” Broderick said as he stood behind his desk in the basement of Howell’s. “But we need to step up our game.”

He was leaning on his desk, arms spread and palms open against the surface. He had what I could only describe as the most pissed off look that I had ever seen on his face and I had no idea what was going on. The rest of us, minus Craven, were gathered around the desk waiting for whatever news he was about to drop on us.

Webster’s dictionary defines Speed as the fallowing: the rate of change of position along a straight line with respect to time over a set distance. In other words, the quicker you can get from one place to another. The question is what do you, do when your family has spent the last two generations in search of ways to accomplish this goal faster and faster. Would do you do when the family business is the search for more Speed. For Robert ‘Robby’ McGuire the answer is easy. You grab your sister and strap on a pair of Formula One racecars then go for broke.

Doctor William Heath turns the lights on inside his private medical lab. He glances over towards the glass prison cell he kept his son in. The estrogen rich blood transfusion he gave his son last week was doing its job to his body. He was starting to look more and more like his daughter.

He loved his daughter very much and was devastated when she died in a car accident. His son, on the other hand, was a major disappointment. The boy got into trouble all the time and had been caught stealing.

Stuck in a Rut.
By Rosalie Redd

Casey Church is a normal 13 year old girl, full of hopes and dreams and fears and anxieties. But in a world where there hasn’t been a girl born in over a century, what is normal?

Chapter 16.

CHAPTER 81
Rhod may have been glad to see me, but he had an odd way of showing it, which consisted of dumping the cat into my lap after I had slumped into the settee, followed by recounting what seemed like a century of playground gossip, largely involving children I had never heard of. Blake was at work, so Dad and Mam had driven boy and beast back to our place, together with a big pot of cawl. My larger boy was home at six, and after we had worked our way through a chip supper (I was willing neither to cook nor let Mam do so), the three of us were alone. Three, plus Fritz, who was snoring. Blake set a video going, something about climbing in North Wales he had picked up on our trip, and left boy and cat to their own devices.

“Welcome to your new home,” Rhea stepped into the house, backward, her arms dramatically outstretched. “It’s not as big as Angela’s house, but it’s home.”

“We…live here alone? Just us?” I looked around, noting that the place WAS much smaller. It was a single story house with aging wood floors, faded walls, and furniture that looked like it came from a thrift store.

“I live here too,” Mellie said, walking into the house and passing by me and tossing her purse on the couch.

CHAPTER IX

David knew he was skating on thin ice with Comm Tech. He let his lab go while he went down to Karen's lab every night and back to the hospital to be with Karen through the day. This way he hoped no one would get suspicious about the duplicates coming out of Karen's lab. The only reason the board didn't fire him was they thought he was able to do what all the computer engineers couldn't. That was make models almost as good if not as good as Karen made.

“Everyone here has something to lose,” Broderick paced back and forth. We were sitting the basement office, just below Howell’s pub, as I’d come to learn. There were seven of us here. Broderick, Mellie, my sister, and a few other people I hadn’t met yet. I was sitting on the desk, Meghan beside me, her hand in mine. “Everyone here, in this room, save for the vampire, is a member of house Greystem-“

“Wait, what?” I interrupted. “Greystem?”

Stuck in a Rut.
By Rosalie Redd

Casey Church is a normal 13 year old girl, full of hopes and dreams and fears and anxieties. But in a world where there hasn’t been a girl born in over a century, what is normal?

Chapter 15.