Andrea “Andy” Papadakis was just an inch shy of six feet. She was now in her senior year at New York University film school and had already had two summers of experience in Hollywood and Toronto.
More important to Andy right now was that her beloved little sister was suffering a horrible fate. Lisa found herself embraced by the older girl…who immediately stepped back as she felt on her cheek the incipient beard on her younger sister’s face.
“Lisa, Oh my God, honey!” She cupped Lisa’s face in her hands and stared.
“How bad is it?” asked both girls in unison.
Fortunately, nothing had changed much during school. Lisa and Andy had a wide open relationship over the years, even with their father moving back to his hometown of Zakinthos. Andy had finished her junior and senior years in Greece and picked up an accent she couldn’t lose.
How bad will it get, was Andrea’s next question.
“In a few weeks our entire bodies will probably be covered. Maybe some more muscles and milk too,” said Jennifer shakily.
Andy shook her head sadly. “I remember being so proud when my bush came in.” She rubbed Lisa’s back gently. “Lisa hated the idea of growing hair on her body, Jennifer…and now she gets this?”
“Yeah, I’m not too thrilled about it myself. And the only hair I got was a light dusting between my legs. Till this.”
Andy could see that both girls were anxious to stop talking about their bodies and get on to schoolwork, offering to drive them wherever they needed to go when they were ready. Two hours later, after working energetically, they were fully caught up. Both girls, of course were National Honor Society members, both taking honors and advanced placement courses. They dreaded the fact that they had a rigorous physical education course Monday through Wednesday
Lisa picked up the phone and dialed Kelly’s personal number.
“Hellooooo?”
“Kelly, it’s Lisa with Jenny. How are you hon?”
“Um…I’m like fine. Mom n’ Dad just took me out of school when they heard that they were giving us hormones. I’m not going back either, but that’s OK, we’re still friends and Harvard’ll still take me if I have did all the requirements.”
“Sweetie, how badly were you affected? What did your doctor say?”
“Well jeez, they just took me out of the school, we didn’t see any reason to go to the doctor since I’m out of the school now, and we all saw the school nurse.”
“You weren’t affected at all,” asked Lisa, astonished at this revelation.
“Duh! Yeah, you know, some more hairs downtown, y’know what I mean? But it’s cool, because I got some muscles there too. Oh, and my breasts are making milk.” She giggled carelessly. “I actually got a quart of it and put it in the fridge. My little sister Lindsey likes the taste I think.”The hell?? Lisa fought to remain calm as she motioned her sister and Lisa over.
“Um, Kelly. Am I to understand, then, that you have not been to a certified physician within the past four days, you have noticed new hair and muscle growth, your breasts are producing milk and you are giving this same milk to your prepubertal little sister?”
A small sparrow could have flown into Jen’s and Andy’s mouths without getting damp.
“Righty then,” she answered to Kelly’s reply in the affirmative. “Kelly dear, if you could please…I think we’re going to have a meeting tomorrow evening with a few other girls. If it’s at all possible for you to make it over to my house, I’d sure like it for you to be here.”
“Yeah, wonderful, we’ll see you. Oh, and you may want to not give that milk to your eleven year old sister either. In fact, I strenuously advise against doing that. Right...see you then.” Lisa hung up the phone, amazed.
“East Hampton’s next Rhodes Scholar, I presume,” asked Andy wryly.
As it turned out, eleven of the girls agreed to meet in Lisa’s and Jennifer’s basement tomorrow evening at seven, just to get an idea of what they were all going through.
The time had come to get ready for bed and the inevitable inspection. To their muted relief, it seemed like they haven’t gotten any new hair…but only because there wasn’t any more that would appear.
It would just get longer, and the individual hairs would get thicker, and more wiry. They had now stabilized and were growing at a sustained rate. Pubic, belly, and chest hairs were steadily growing at the rate of 2 millimeters per day, along with the hairs of their armpits. The hairs on their lower legs and forearms were only growing half a fast at 1 mm per day. Except for the face, the rest of their bodies would produce hair at a mere 0.75 mm per day.
Their follicles in their faces had temporarily ceased, awaiting another dose of testosterone that could come in periods of high stress or other aggravating factors. When that tipping point was reached, facial hair would come in vigorously and prolifically.
Jennifer and Lisa were of course unaware of this, and while the excess hair was certainly a concern, the conversation with Kelly reminded them that they could look forward to deeper, more systemic effects from the hormones.
With her sister in bed, Andy went downstairs to talk with Carol, her eyes moist. She hugged her mother tightly.
“Oh Mommy, those poor little girls. Is there anything that could be done?”
Carol shook her head sadly, and stroked the head of her older daughter. “I’d called some genetic researchers who’d I’d met when bombing out of med school. This hormone that their bodies are producing actually binds to the DNA. After a certain number of years, the DNA will no longer ‘see’ what is happening to them now as an alteration, but as what they actually are. They tried it in experiments on several farm animals…any attempt to reverse the changes actually reinforces them. In other words, before they can even think about a cure, they need to make damn sure that it works…and whatever the cure is, it has to be custom fitted to the individual receiving it.”
"So, nothing then?"
"They need all the love we can give 'em, Andy."