I knew my place. I may have come a long way, but I was nowhere near Nicole's level. It sure did seem silly, though, that she was able to solve the mos... monumental problems of others, and yet seemed to be unable to solve her own."I want you to stay on the council." I added after another silence."I kinda figured that." she shot back. "I wanna stay too. It just ... It just would lead to icky stuff." But what if in a month you can tolerate being in the same room as him again?" I blurted out. "Would. I hadn't bothered to put on shoes and the asphalt singed my feet as I crossed the street to the park where they protest was being held. Nervous as I was, I barely noticed. I had never been naked in front of anyone outside my family before, and now I was going to strip off in broad daylight. Still, I told myself, it was for a good cause, and my parents had signed me up for The Program next year, so I'd have to get used to it anyway.Grant Hardcastle was waiting at the entrance to the park. He was. Slick Saturday night, drunk on his ass. He was trying to fuck some girl he met at the Gables strip joint, but she wasn’t having any, and he struck out. On the way back to his motel Gary as he called himself (who knows if that was his actual name) told him about his wife, a former WDD world champion whore wrestler who could bench 250. He didn’t know that Henry knew all the ladies who worked the Gables. No way, this girl would take on this rube when she saw Henry. In fact, Henry’s lady, Laurie,. " You know that and I know that, but there's a huge section of the population that doesn't know that, and they think that if we just stick to 'authorized' materials, we'll be perfectly safe." Uh-huh," I laughed. "Until somebody's mom decides that the toilet cleaner might work a bit better if she adds some bleach." Introduction to Basic Chemistry, Home Edition," he laughed.Nikki looked at the two of us quizzically. "What's that get you?" A cloud of green gas, baby," I said. "Maybe I'll show you.