" Shestormed off and slammed the bathroom door. Then, he moaned out loud. Huh,I still didn't know his name.He slides up against the wall and I see his...hard earned muscles rippling,slowly shrinking until all that remained was smooth skin. Then his hipscracked he threw his head back in a silent scream. I watched as theystretched his skin wider and wider, while his shoulders shrunk closertogether. As they did his arms and legs cracked as well, holding thetogether as they adjusted to their new. The colors were almost flashing athim, stinging his eyes. It made his head hurt a little as he tried tofocus on it. At about twenty pages long, the memo was as dull andboring as the speech he had sat through many weeks ago. It seemed thatDr. Dunney was consistent, at least.When he was done, it seemed like hours had passed while reading thewinded, excruciatingly bland letter. And when he noticed the time, hewas right - hours had passed. Five of them.---Mark was at lunch with his usual crowd,. "Dr. Zelvetti asked me if I knew what was going on. Lisa Myers--you remember her, last year's president?--she called, and I don't know how she found out seeing as how she's a freshman at college. Nobody knew anything, and you sure weren't showing up. So finally I said, Screw it, and came over here." She plopped herself down on the foot of the bed. "So what's going on? Did you come down with something? Did you catch the eep or something?"Madison tried to muster a smile at this, but didn't manage. Marie spoke up. "I saved your wedding ring for you, want it back? Of course,... listen though Steve has a fantasy about this, would you be willing to help him live it? It's a lot easier than what you've already been through tonight". I nodded agreement silently. I knew I had no choice and I was more comfortable here than I would have been if Gloria noticed me again. And they were so kind, I wanted to preserve that desperately.Steve reached for my hand and held it while Marie slipped the ring on.