The whole affair, from Tomlinson’s queer awakening to Misha Podgolskiv’s equally perturbing revelation about the ‘woman in chains’ had been pr...foundly unsettling to Balinski. That she had been Leonard Berensen’s confidante and off-and-on lover for twenty years had only served to confuse her more. Who was this woman? What did she want? More importantly, just what the hell was she? What had happened to her? Nothing made sense, least of all Leonard’s role in all this. She looked at Misha doing his. I’m the classic nerd. I focused on science and math, and was on the chess team.”“No sports? You look like you’re in pretty good shape.”“Karate, but it’s more for self-discipline than anything. The exercise is a side benefit. What about you?”“Field hockey. Do they have a girls field hockey team?”“Yes. And a boys ice hockey team.”“I almost hate to ask, but how long is the bus ride?”“About thirty minutes. They’ll pick you up at your driveway. Can’t you ride with your dad?”“Maybe. We haven’t worked. ’ Salad. Vegetables. Fish. Lean meat ???So, no burgers???Absolutely no burgers. No cake or sweet stuff, either. Porridge for breakfast. Only rye bread. Fruit — well, berries, but no sugary fruit like grapes — and we mostly drink black tea and water and hardly ever any wine and she always wants us to be in bed for half past nine in the evening.??Did she ???Buy this sort of stuff before? No. We bought ‘normal’ things. I mean, I suppose this is very good for me — for us — but it is very different. We all sit at three separate couches as we began to dig into our food. Victoria starts off the conversation by saying, "Did you know that Preston stole Amy's v-card?" "About time! Those two have been together for ages!" Sophie says. We all burst into a fit of laughter. Victoria's green eyes light up when she smiles her beautiful smile, and Sophie's short red hair bounces as she cracks up with laughter. When we all catch our breath. Victoria puts on her serious face and says, "Wait. It is spring.