Beth was sobbing quite exuberantly on Jen's shoulder, having just been told what was happening to the girls, and what would be happening to her. She couldn't hardly bring herself to look at her two friends, as their conditions were a prophecy to her own fate. It didn't help that Jen had rested her cheek on her forehead, unwittingly allowing Beth to feel its scratchyness. She was afraid that if she looked, she'd find her two friends with genuine 5 o'clock shadows.
Lisa was lost in thought over Kelly yet. She had out her calculator and was doing various equations. She didn't know how much of the hormone could be passed along through the milk - a doctor would have to run a test to find out - so she was just calculating as many possible combinations as possible in an attempt to figure out how much of the hormone Lindsey had consumed. There was no way she was producing it naturally, but how much was needed before it would begin to take effect? After all, the cheerleading squad had been taking the hormone for quite a while before they noticed its effects.
"I'm going to call her tomorrow," Lisa said out of the blue.
"Who?" Beth asked, the word barely understandable through her cracking voice.
"Kelly," Lisa replied. "I think it's best to double-check if she got rid of that milk."
"Just wait until school again," Jen replied. "It's the weekend, so Kelly's probably either at a party or getting herself too drunk to walk."
Jen knew that Lisa liked Lindsey. Lisa was never known to adore children the way that some of the other girls did, but she did once agree to babysit Lindsey one evening. She sounded aggravated when relating that episode to Jen, describing how you had to doublecheck every single thing Lindsey did, as she would say one thing and do another, but Jen could see that Lisa did envy the girl's carefree nature. Jen had only ever seen Lindsey briefly at games, but her impression was that she was a miniature Kelly. Come to think of it, aside from that one night of babysitting, Lisa had only seen her at games, too, since Lindsey had pleaded with her parents not to let her babysit again.
"She has eyes in the back of her head!" she had screamed. Jen chuckled inwardly.
Beth finally calmed enough to sit up and dry her eyes, asking hastily why she hadn't been affected yet.
"I bet they act in each person differently," Jen replied, not removing her hand from the younger girl's shoulder. "I mean, we're each experiences the changes in different ways. Maybe they just aren't going to affect you as profoundly, or maybe your system hasn't processed them yet."
"I wish I could be as open with my parents as you guys can be with Lisa's mom," Beth lamented.
"They'll open up eventually," said Jen. "Sometimes people have to internalize things before they can be open about them."
Beth thanked the girls, promising to keep in touch and reassured that her friends would never find her odd, and left.