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Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

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Chapter 14 - The Pains of Womanhood

Nikki woke me up around 7:30. I knew she was trying to help me learn that it takes longer for women to get ready, so I didn’t say anything.

"No complaints?" she asked incredulously.

"Not that I’m going to voice," I replied. "I know why I’m awake so early."

"Get showered and dressed then. They left some clothes outside the door for you to wear. I'll be back to help you with your makeup when I’m ready."

"Okay," I said as she walked back to her room to get ready.

I got up and walked to my door. Opening it revealed a bag which I brought back inside to my bedroom. Inside was another pair of the flesh panties, another bra and panty set, a pair of tennis shoes, some socks, a white belt, a pair of jeans, a white camisole and a light pink tank top. There was also a white purse.

Leaving the clothes there for the time being, I headed into the bathroom and started the shower. One of these days I was going to try the bath. It looked really inviting.

After getting out of the shower and drying off, I headed back into my bedroom. I slipped on the flesh panties and picked up the bra and panty set. I slipped on the panties. It still amazed me how much better they fit since yesterday. I then put on the bra and slipped in the breast forms.

I looked in the mirror and admired myself for a moment. I had taken the wig off to sleep in, so I now looked like a girl with a boy’s haircut, but I at least looked like a girl! I couldn’t wait for my reflection to show me the real girl I was becoming.

I pulled myself away from the mirror and picked up the jeans. They looked really small. Everything else that I had been given was the correct size, so I had to assume they would fit.

I started to pull the jeans on, and found that it was easier said than done. It took a little more effort than I was used to, but they certainly fit well when they were on. They were a lot tighter than what I was used to, but not uncomfortably so. And they looked spectacular when I looked in the mirror. I certainly had a nice figure to show off now.

I put on the belt before picking up the camisole next. It looked like it was designed for layering. It was a little tight over my bust, but it hugged my curves like a second skin. The tank top was just as tight, but was a little smaller, letting the edges of the camisole peek out. I thought it looked really good.

I put the wig on and then the socks and shoes. When I looked in the mirror I was very pleased. I didn’t think anyone would mistake me for a boy now, because the skeletal changes were too great.

"Oh good," Nikki said, making me jump a mile. "You’re ready."

"You scared me to death!" I said. I hadn’t even heard her approach.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Are you ready for makeup?"

"Yeah. Do we have enough time that you could start to teach me?" I asked.

"Yes, actually, that was my plan."

Nikki was a very good teacher. She never touched my face, but demonstrated how to do it while doing her own makeup. We both had to start over a couple of times, but by 8:50 I had done a reasonably good job. Nikki felt it was at least good enough to make me presentable in public. She grabbed the purse from my bedroom and dumped a bunch of the cosmetics inside before handing it to me.

"You know," I said before we went out into the hallway. "I feel like they are dressing us up like twins.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I can’t wait until we can do our own shopping"

Once again Nikki and I were dressed in identical outfits, except her tank top was purple. The doctors said that we could pick out some of our own clothes from the stores here in the complex once we had finished changing.

As we stepped out into the hall, it was apparent that the guys had been waiting for us again. Neither of them said anything, but they clearly were irritated.

"Oh come on," I said. "It's not even 9:00 yet. You can’t get mad at us if we're early."

Justin not only looked upset, but a little queasy as well. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said. "The doctor said it was normal. My stomach feels like it's turning inside out, but apparently that’s what it's supposed to do."

"Come on," Jay interjected. "Let's get something to eat, and then we can go see what’s playing."

On the way down to the cafeteria, it was obvious that Nikki was starting to feel it too, but she didn’t look nearly as bad.

"You okay?" I asked her a little concerned.

"Yeah," she replied. “I think it's the same thing Justin is feeling. I just want to know how you got so lucky."

"What do you mean?" I had to ask.

"Well, you were the first to begin the Procedure, you should have been feeling this way before Justin. I guess not feeling it makes you lucky."

"I don’t feel much of anything right now," I said. "I feel fine."

"Like I said, lucky."

In the cafeteria I got a couple of pancakes, some bacon, and some milk for breakfast. Breakfast was my favorite meal, and the Procedure wasn’t going to deny it for me.

"You know you are going to need to start watching what you eat," Nikki said in a sort of motherly voice. "You don’t want to lose that wonderful figure."

I had thought about that before, but it was Jay who put me at ease.

"Actually," he stated, "The Procedure changes the body’s metabolism. For the most part, we can eat what we want without worry. Our bodies use up just about everything, or they get rid of what can’t be used."

"That’s good to hear," I said with a smile on my face. Nikki was beaming like it was the best news she had ever heard.

After we finished eating we followed Jay down the courtyard toward the movie theater. There weren’t too many people out today; it was mostly women and small children. Perhaps most people were either working or in school. It still amazed me that they had a small city here, nestled in the mountains.

When we arrived at the movie theater, we checked to see what was playing. They had two screens, and it looked like we had a choice between an older romantic comedy, or a superhero movie.

"I guess you two want to see ‘Love is Real’, don’t you?" Justin asked.

"I wouldn’t mind seeing it," Nikki said, and then everyone turned to me.

"I don’t really care which we see," I said. "I’m beginning to feel sick anyway."

"The nausea?" Nikki asked.

"No, this is something else. It feels like my organs are being moved around."

"Well, they probably are," Nikki stated. "They need to make room for," she looked at the boys, "um, stuff."

I think the boys knew what she was going to say, because they both looked uncomfortable.

"Sorry," Nikki said sincerely.

"It's okay," I said, "They're just boys, they will get over it." I got a giggle from her when I stuck my tongue out at them, but the boys just rolled their eyes.

"Come on," Jay said, "let's go see what ‘Major Victory’ is up to."

"Aww," Nikki exclaimed. "I wanted to see ‘Love is Real’."

"It's okay," I comforted her, "we can go see it ourselves later."

The movie was actually pretty good. I had never heard of ‘Major Victory’ before, but the writers had done the show in a comedic way that made it quite entertaining.

It was about half way through that the pain really started. It was centered in my crotch, and it got worse as the movie went on. I thought I was going to need to walk out when I felt a pop and screamed.

*  *  *

I woke up in someone's arms. At least the pain was gone. I struggled for a second trying to figure out where I was and what had happened. It looked like we were still in the theater, and there were quite a few people looking at me. Looking behind me, I noticed that it was Justin who was holding me, which was weird.

"What happened?" I asked as I struggled to stand up.

"I don’t know," Justin said. He seemed to be really shaken up for some reason. "You screamed and then collapsed. You scared me, er, us to death."

I stood up and looked around. The movie was still going, and it looked like some of the people were mad at me for interrupting the movie. I didn’t mean to do it.

"Are you okay?" Nikki asked with concern on her face.

"Yeah," I said. "I just had the most horrible pain in my um, well, and then I don’t remember what happened. It seems to be gone now."

"Shhhh." I was not sure who it was, but they didn’t sound happy at all.

"Let’s just finish the movie," I said as I sat down in my seat.

"Are you sure you’re okay?" Nikki asked as she sat down too.

"Yeah, the pain seems to be gone. The movie is almost over and we have checkups afterward anyway. I'll be fine."

Eventually we all managed to get back to watching the movie. We hadn’t missed much of it, so it was easy to get back into it.

Nikki saw me holding my stomach a little while later and asked me if I was really okay.

"Yeah," I whispered back to her. "This is something different. My stomach is cramping now."

"Oh," she whispered back, "It isn’t, you know, is it?"

"I don’t know, I have no idea what that’s like, but I don’t see how it could be this soon."

The movie ended a few minutes later. As we were getting up to leave, a lady approached us. She appeared to be in her late forties, and she didn’t look very happy.

"Young lady," she said while addressing me. "That was very rude. We were trying to watch the movie." She indicated a young man in his mid-twenties who was standing behind her. "I don’t get to see my son much, and he really wanted to see this movie."

I looked over her shoulder. Her son seemed to be really embarrassed. I don’t think he felt the same way his mother did.

"I’m sorry," I said. "I didn’t mean to interrupt your movie. I’m still not sure what happened."

Justin stepped forward. I feared he was going to say something rude or stupid, so I grabbed his arm. That seemed to be enough to stop him, and he stepped back.

"You should be more considerate of others," she said to me in a patronizing tone.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Jay spoke up. "It was not her intention to disrupt the movie. We apologize for the interruption."

"And who are you?" she said while glaring at him. "Can’t she take responsibility for her own actions?"

"My name is Jay Johnson," Jay stated. "I am the team leader for A2, and this is my team. They are currently in the middle of going through the Procedure. There are things that can cause severe pain. I know it was not her intent to disturb anyone."

The woman's demeanor changed a bit. She obviously understood who we were and what we were going through, but she still looked upset.

"Don’t let it happen again," she said as she turned and walked away.

Justin was fuming. It looked like he really wanted to lay into her.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"No!" he replied angrily. "I hate people like that! Something could have been really wrong with you, and all she cared about was the movie!"

"It's okay, Justin," I tried to calm him. "Just forget about her."

"No, it's not okay! You were really hurt!" He looked like he was ready to cry. "You scared me to death."

"I," I didn’t know what to say. He was showing more emotion than I’d ever seen from him before. It was almost like...

NO! We were not going there! He knew all about me, for goodness sake! He wasn’t looking at me while I thought this through, but Nikki was. I could tell she had seen it when I realized what was going on. I knew she was going to make me talk to her about it later.

"Come on," Jay said to bring us back to our senses. "Let's get you guys to Medical."

We left the theater and headed toward Medical. When we arrived, we were taken to separate exam rooms. When I walked into the one I was directed to, I found Nina waiting for me.

"Hi, Jaz," she said as I walked in. "How are you feeling today?"

"I’m feeling okay right now," I said. "But I’ve had some stomach cramps all morning, and I blacked out because of pain while we were at a movie."

"What kind of pain?" she asked.

"It started out as a dull ache in my, um, crotch," I said a little embarrassed. "It kept getting worse. I was about to walk out of the movie when I felt the worst pain I’ve ever felt. After I woke up, the pain was gone."

"Has it come back at all?" she asked.

"No, but it wasn’t long after that the cramping started."

"Okay, let’s see if we can find out what’s happening. Please take off all your clothes and we can get started."

"Again?" I asked.

"I’m afraid so," she replied.

I stripped out of my clothes and hopped up onto the exam table. Nina started out with a normal physical first. It wasn’t until we got to the coughing part again that we found the first sign of changes.

"Well, I’m guessing that this was the cause of the blackout," she said.

"What?" I asked. I looked between my legs, and the change was pretty evident. "Oh, I guess that’s why the panties seemed to fit a little better."

My scrotum was completely empty! According to Nina, the pain that had knocked me out was probably when my testicles had ascended up into my body.

"Let's take a look on the inside," she suggested.

"Okay," I choked out. As I said it my voice caught in my throat. "Okay," I repeated. When I spoke the second time, it came out crystal clear, but it wasn’t my voice, it was a higher, more feminine voice. "Wow, I sound totally different!" I had to smile, my new voice was perfect!

"That does suit you well. I think that’s the first time someone's voice has changed while they were talking to me," she said while chuckling.

"Now," she continued while pulling a cart over to the exam bed. "We are going to do an ultrasound to see what’s happening inside."

She grabbed the ultrasound thing (I didn’t know what it was called), and squirted some jelly on it.

"This is going to be a little cold at first, but it will warm up," Nina said.

She wasn’t joking, either. I shrieked when she placed it on my stomach. It sounded so girly though!

A few minutes later she was showing me something that was going to change my life forever, and I couldn’t stop smiling!

"These are where your testicles ended up," she said, pointing to two round objects. "They appear to be ovaries now. These faint lines here are the edges of the fallopian tubes." I’ve never smiled so widely in my life! "And this," she continued as she followed the lines to another blob, "Is your new uterus. The cramping you were feeling was probably the compression of the surrounding tissue while these formed."

I was so happy! I’d wanted this for a long time. Being fertile was something I never imagined would be possible with today's technology.

Nina pronounced me okay after that and I changed back into my clothes. I gave Nina a hug as I headed out of the exam room. "Thanks, Nina," I said.

"You’re welcome, sweetie," she replied. "I'll see you this evening."

When I got back to the waiting room, I found that I was the last one to finish, again.

"Sorry, have you been waiting long?" I asked.

"Oh my gosh!" Nikki said. "That voice is so perfect for you! When did that happen?"

"It happened during my exam. I was talking to Nina, and I kind of choked. When I could speak again I sounded like this."

"Is everything okay?" Justin asked. He looked really concerned.

"Yeah," I replied. "I’ve been given a clean bill of health.

"Did you find out what caused..." he asked.

"Yes," I interrupted. I did not want to talk about this with him.

"What was it?" he continued to dig. He seemed awfully interested for some reason.

"It was...personal." I stated. He wasn’t going to get much more from me on this subject.

He seemed a little dejected that I wouldn’t tell him. "But you’re alright?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied coldly. "The doctors say I’m doing great."

He relaxed somewhat, but he really got on my nerves. Fortunately, it appeared that Jay was able to pick up on the tension. If he had, then I think he would make a great commander. If not, then he was lucky, because I didn’t know how much longer I could keep from screaming at Justin.

"Are you guys hungry?" Jay asked. His question was aptly timed to break up any hostilities. I couldn’t believe how mad I felt! Justin didn’t really do anything wrong, did he?

Suddenly, something was wrong with me. A second ago I was ready to kill Justin, now I was crying my eyes out! Nikki was trying to comfort me, but nothing she did seemed to help.

"Are you okay, Jaz?" she asked.

"No," I replied between sobs. "I don’t know what’s wrong."

Jay sent Justin to go find Nina. When they came back, Nina rushed over toward where I had slumped to the floor.

"Jaz, what’s wrong?" she asked.

"I don’t know," I replied. "I can’t stop crying!"

"Come on, let’s get you back to an exam room. Nikki, Help me lift her up."

Nikki and Nina managed to move me back to an exam room where they laid me on the bed.

Nina grabbed some tool out of a cabinet and came back over to me. "This will hurt a little bit," she said before placing the tip near my arm.

I felt a small prick that made me cry out a little bit. Nina pulled the device away from my arm and looked at a small screen attached to the device.

"I thought so," she said while examining the data.

"What?" Nikki asked while holding my hands.

"Her body is being flooded with female hormones," Nina explained. "The retrovirus is trying to bring her hormone levels up to female norms. She is experiencing very violent mood swings."

"That’s an understatement," Nikki mentioned. "Is there anything you can do for her?"

"No, not really. This is probably like PMS on steroids for her right now, but she should stabilize in a few minutes. Until then, the best thing we can do is try to comfort her."

It was another 15-20 minutes before I stopped crying. Once I did, however, I felt great.

"Wow," I said. "I actually feel a lot better."

"A good cry can do that for you," Nina said, "And this was similar, if not what the saying means. You should be over the worst of it, but you will probably be quite emotional for the rest of the day, maybe a little longer."

"Okay," I said. "I really need something to eat now."

"You should be good to go," Nina said. "I'll see you again this evening if nothing else comes up."

"Thanks, Nina, you make this seem so easy," I said.

"Don’t worry, sweetie, this will be over soon and you will have a wonderful life ahead of you. Now, go get some food."

I gave her a small smile as we left the exam room.

"Come on," Nikki said as she pulled me into the women's room down the hall. "You need to fix your makeup."

She walked me through reapplying it. I could tell that I was getting better, but I still had a long way to go.

All fixed up, we headed back to the waiting room. Jay and Justin were waiting for us, looking worried. They stood up as we approached.

"Are you okay?" Jay asked. Justin looked very agitated. It looked like he wanted to say something, but a glance from Jay made him stop.

"Yeah," I said. "I’m sorry. Nina said that my body was trying to bring my hormone levels to a normal level for a girl. Nina said my body is going through a super PMS kind of thing, and I’m going to be very emotional for a while. I didn’t mean to take it out on you guys."

"It's okay, Jaz," Jay reassured me. "Going through the Procedure is hard, and you are going through things we can’t imagine. Don’t worry about it. Just concentrate on getting through it."

He had a smile on his face that I duplicated. "Thank you," I said. "It's hard, but it's worth it."

"Come on," he said. "I’m starved."

*  *  *

It was about 1:30 when we finally made it to the cafeteria. There weren’t too many people eating, and we were able to get our food and a table relatively quickly. We talked through lunch, but Jay made sure we kept it neutral, and we never really discussed us or the Procedure.

When lunch was over, we were discussing what we should do.

"I wouldn’t mind going for a swim sometime today," Justin said.

"Ooh, that sound like fun," Nikki said. "What about you Jaz, want to go swimming?"

"That does sound like fun," I said. "But I’m exhausted right now. I wouldn’t mind taking a short nap first."

"I think that would be a good idea," Jay stated. "It's been a long emotional morning. How about we head back to the rooms and rest until 3:00, and then we can meet in the hallway to head down to the pool. The changes should be done by then, so it would be easier on your bodies also."

"Sounds good to me," Nikki said while the rest of us nodded our heads.

"All right, let’s go."

We headed back to the rooms, and we split up to enter our own. I went into my bedroom and laid on the bed. It wasn’t long afterward that I was asleep.

*  *  *
Chapter 15 - Wet and Exhausted

I woke up at about 2:30. I was going to knock on the door between mine and Nikki's room to see if she knew where to get a swimsuit, but I found a bag on the bar that had a note attached. The note was from Nikki. She had taken the liberty of talking to Jill and getting the two of us swimsuits.

Looking in the bag I found a one-piece that was identical to the one I had worn the other day, only smaller. Much smaller, to be exact. There was also a pink cover-up to wear down to the pool.

Before I had a chance to do anything with it, there was a knock on the door between mine and Nikki's room. I found Nikki and Jill on the other side when I opened it.

"I thought I heard you moving around," Nikki said. "If we are going to go swimming, we need to attach these," she poked my breasts, "to your chest."

"Why?" I asked. I wasn’t quite sure what that would accomplish.

"Because," Jill said, "If you don’t they might swim right out of your suit."

"Oh…" That would be embarrassing.

"Also, the bathing suit we got you is going to show a little bit of cleavage. It's going to look really weird if your boobs aren’t attached to your chest."

I giggled at that, it was a funny picture. "So how do we attach them?" I asked.

"Come on, into the bathroom," Jill said while guiding me toward the door. "Take off everything but the flesh panties."

I did as I was told, and a couple of minutes later she was pressing one of the breast forms to my chest. She had spread some sort of adhesive on both my chest and the breast form. When she removed her hand, the form stayed in place on my chest. She repeated the process with the other one, and I was left with a weight on my chest that was unfamiliar, but strangely comforting.

"Wow, that’s...different," I said. I didn’t know what else to say.

"This is nothing," Nikki said. "Just wait until tomorrow when they are real."

"I can’t wait," I said with a big smile.

Looking down, I noticed something that wasn’t going to work. "What about..." I said while pointing to the edge of one of the forms.

"We need to blend it in using this," Jill said, holding up a second bottle.

The second bottle contained another adhesive, but this one was flesh colored. When they used it around the edge of the forms, it blended in perfectly. It was almost impossible to tell they weren’t real.

When I looked in the mirror, I shrieked with delight. I knew they weren’t real yet, but they certainly looked that way. Jill also used the adhesive to anchor the wig before her cell phone rang, and she headed out of the bathroom to answer it.

"Come on, Jaz," Nikki said while tugging me away from the mirror a few minutes later. "You are giving us a bad name by making us late all the time. You really are a girl, you know that?"

"Fine," I sighed. "Ruin the best moments of my life then."

She looked at me with a guilty look. "Jaz, I," I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I started laughing. "You jerk! I thought you were serious!" She started laughing too.

"Are you two okay?" Jill asked as she stuck her head back in the bathroom.

"Yeah," Nikki said. "Just pulling Jaz away from the mirror again."

"Well, I need to run to a meeting. You two have fun and I'll see you later."

"Okay, Jill," Nikki said. "Thanks for all the help."

When she had left, Nikki turned back to me. "Put your suit on. Because you don’t look complete down there," she pointed down, "We won’t be changing in the locker room."

Like before, the swimsuit covered the flesh panties, but it looked so much better this time. My new curves were accentuated in the suit, and the breast forms left no doubt that I was a woman. Even the cleavage looked perfect.

Nikki just rolled her eyes and pulled me away from the mirror again. She handed me the cover-up and I slipped it on over the swimsuit. I grabbed a towel as she pulled me out of the bathroom.

"We still have five minutes," I said after looking at the clock on the wall.

"For once, you are not going to make me late," she said.

I grabbed my purse and we headed out into the hall. Nikki had better be happy, I thought, because the boys weren’t there yet. We sat down on the floor to wait. At five after they still weren’t out and Nikki was getting antsy. She stood up and knocked on Justin's door. A second later he opened the door, and it was obvious the two of them had been watching TV.

“Are you guys still coming swimming?" she asked.

"Yeah," Justin responded. "We just didn’t think you would be ready yet."

"We've been waiting for 10 minutes," she said, quite upset.

"Oh, let me grab my stuff and we can go." he said. He didn’t even notice her irritation.

It was another five minutes before they were ready. It was apparent that they hadn’t done anything to prepare before we knocked on the door.

We eventually made our way down to the gym. We split off in the lobby and headed into the women's locker room.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but inside was just a normal locker room. We had been in here before, so I knew the layout, but seeing women walking around was quite different. Strangely, I didn’t really feel aroused when I saw them in various stages of undress. It was just normal.

We found a pair of lockers together and took off our cover-ups and stowed them and our purses.

"Wow," I said when I saw Nikki in her suit. "You look great in that."

"Thanks," she said. "The skeletal changes really helped give me a nice figure."

Nikki was wearing a purple bikini that was trimmed with a small band of white. It looked really good on her. I hoped that I would look that good when I was done changing.

"We have to come back in a day or two and see what you look like in a bikini," she said, practically reading my mind.

"I think I would like that," I said.

We closed the lockers and headed toward the door to the gym. We walked into the gym but could not see the boys. That didn’t really surprise me since they were going to change here.

While we were waiting, I looked around the gym. It was a little different today because there were other people here. Most of the people were on the exercise machines. There were a couple of small kids running around the kiddy pool, and a couple of mothers, but for the most part the pools were empty. It was probably too early for the school kids and the workers to be swimming.

Nikki pulled her hair into a ponytail and secured it with a band.

"Want yours in a ponytail too?" she asked.

"Can I do that with the wig?" I asked.

"Oh," she said. "Probably not."

"Next time then," I said.

Eventually the boys came out, and I think their eyes almost bulged out of their heads.

Justin couldn’t stop staring at me, and Jay seemed to be staring at Nikki.

"You two look great," Justin said, but I don’t think he had looked at Nikki yet.

"Thanks," we both said together.

We had a great time swimming. We put all our worries and issues aside and just had fun.

We had the pool to ourselves for about 45 minutes before a group of teenagers about our age showed up. We were taking a break and sitting in the hot tub. I guess school had been let out, and some of them decided to go swimming.

They seemed surprised to see us. In such a small community they probably knew everybody their age in the complex, but they didn’t know us.

There were five of them, two girls and three guys. As they approached, they seemed to recognize Jay.

"Hey, Jay," one of the guys said. "Who are your friends?"

"Hey, Bill," Jay said. "These three are the new members of A2.”

"Oh," Bill said, "I heard the team was forming, but didn’t realize you guys were already here."

"Guys," Jay said turning to us. "This is Bill, Frank, Jermaine, Suzanne, and Billie," he pointed out each of them as he said their names.

He then pointed to us and said, "This is Justin, Nikki, and Jasmine."

"Pleased to meet you," I said, which was followed by a chorus of similar responses.

We continued swimming for another half an hour before we had to leave for our checkups. The other kids our age made it a lot more fun, and we were disappointed that we had to leave. The only downside to the afternoon was all the attention I was getting. I was used to Justin staring at me by now, but each of the other boys seemed to be checking me out as well. I knew it was something I needed to get used to, but it was still disconcerting.

"What are you guys doing tonight?" Bill asked as we were drying off before heading for the locker rooms.

"I don’t think we have anything planned," Jay answered for us.

"Do you guys want to go to the club or something?" Bill asked.

"I’m too exhausted," I said. "I may just go back to my room and fall asleep after the checkup." I really was too. I didn’t know if it was because of the Procedure or my new size, but I was ready to fall over.

"Come on, Jaz," Justin said," You promised you would go."

"And I will," I said irritably, "But right now my body is telling me to sleep. I don’t know if it’s the Procedure or not, but I can hardly stand."

"She does look wiped out," Nikki said, and I heard the other two girls agree. "Perhaps it's best if she doesn’t come tonight. The rest of us will come."

Nikki and I headed toward the locker room.

"Nikki," I said as we approached, "I’m not going to make it!"

The last thing I remember as I fell forward was Nikki screaming my name while she tried to catch me.

*  *  *