"Keep walking," she gasped, "they can still see us."We half-carried Julia another few tens of yards, and Julia said, "Let's sit here. I have to laugh....We sat, and I held Julia while she got a good laugh out of her system. Carol laughed along too, but in a much more controlled fashion. I was still too confused to be able to laugh.Soon Julia was able to say, "I REALLY enjoyed that! I LOVE working for you, Mark. I get to do the craziest things, and they're so much fun! Those poor girls. I was. ‘You ok, Ronnie?’ he said, sounding genuinely concerned. Then again, Nate had seemed genuine too. I plastered on a fake smile, ‘Yeah I’m fine.’ He looked at me with concern. ‘You know you can talk to any of us Ronnie? Especially Michael. You don’t seem like you’ve been having the best time here.’ ‘Yeah, you wouldn’t either if you’d just been through what I have,’ I replied mentally, my silent retort dripping with sarcasm. I laughed lightly, and returned my gaze to my food. Riley was sweet – yet. She opened her arms, pretending to hug the warmerair. "Thank God for central heat." Alex, right?" she asked targeting me again."Huh? Oh, yeah. How'd you know?"She laughed. "Everybody that was at the freshman dance knows who youare. You're kind of a celebrity. Oh, I'm Randi Carr." She extended ahand."Nice to meet you," I said, taking hers in mine."Take a seat girls," said Coach Wiggins noticing our arrival." Gotta go," said Randi, placing a foot on the bottom step of thebleacher. She started up. The most sparsely attended mass was the first, at eight a.m. Which was perfect for their purposes.The Shiny Ladies entered the sanctuary five minutes after the mass' start. Alice and Lupe entered the front of the sanctuary, behind the priest. Rita accompanied them for protection.Maria and Flora went into the balcony, with Theresa acting as guard. It turned out to be empty.Finally, Kay entered through the main entrance in the back of the cathedral; Monica accompanying.The rest of the goddesses,.