Nancy leaned forward, grabbed her cell phone, and flipped it open. Seeing the call was from her friend Katie, she pressed the TALK button. "Hello!" sh... said."Hi Nancy!" Hey Katie! What's happening, girl?" You'll never believe what Dan bought after he got that promotion at Lotsatech." Some outrageously expensive guy-toy! Am I right?" Bingo! But it's so cool! It's a home matter replicator." Really? I heard everyone's into scanning THEMSELVES with those things and uploading themselves to the. Listen tome, I'm even talking like a guy. And then there's Cindy..." No need to get into details...," Jeff said, "So, Heather, what are youtrying to tell me..." Well...," she stammered, "I don't know, even to ASK is so selfish... buthey, I might as well just say it. Jeff, I want to remain a guy, if it's okaywith you. Hey, who knows if there is anyway to fix this anyway. If it's notokay I'll scour every little shop in this part of the country to find ananswer, but, really, I'd rather just. .." You want me to go fetch him?" Might not be a bad idea," the young deputy replied. "I'd like to have us equipped and moving out by midafternoon. Why don't you do that Frank? And... and use a bit of finesse with the big-man, eh? He isn't going to like the idea of his drinking cronies deleted from our group. Just... tell him Mark Blakely needs his help; that ought to inspire his ego."The lean, older man understandingly grinned. "I'll take care of it," he said, moving a step backward. "Don't. He wanted to say something, anything. All he could do was say "thanks," and walked back to his seat.The girl left slow and closed the door behind her. Oscar looked up once she'd left wishing he could have had a chance to look at her just a little longer.In school suspension was going to be two weeks long. Oscar was enjoying it because it meant no bumping into Lenny and no uncomfortable glances at Evan or George. He spent his whole day in a room with about four other students who were rich kids.