The meeting didn't continue very long after that. Most of the former cheer-leading team sat trying to contain themselves in front of Matt, who was now looking very shocked and keeping to himself, almost the point of not making eye contact. Brianna quietly put her things back into a briefcase, having decided that enough was enough for now and the team would have to take time to come to terms with things.
"I have to think about this," Matt said in a low tone as he rose and nearly bolted to the door.
Lisa rolled her eyes at Jen in an I-told-you-so fashion while Brianna simply retorted, "Give him time. You have to remember that he'll want to talk it over with his parents, too."
"I, for one, think we should just adjourn for a while," Sarah replied, her head hanging low. "I think we should regroup after Thanksgiving."
"Same here," Brianna said. "You all need to take some time to yourselves now. For example, Beth hasn't left her room hardly at all since the changes got obvious - only to go to the bathroom, I think."
The other girls looked at one another with incredulous expressions before slowly departing, one after the other to their respective homes. Jennifer went to the bathroom and then followed Lisa up to bed.
"Are you worried about Matt?" Lisa asked.
"A bit, but I think he'll come around," she replied, sleepily. "You?"
"There's too many other things for me to worry about than that."
The lights went out and Jennifer was snoring before too long. Lisa, however, couldn't sleep, and her slumber was often disturbed. Just as she'd fall asleep, something would wake her up. In her mind she was going through all the changes, and she tried to picture herself as she was before all of this had happened. In her mind she was back on the team, in shape, and while she never had Jennifer's looks, she wasn't bad looking by any means. Even more important than sports, though, were her grades. She remembered her mother boasting about her with other parents, and her teachers always calling her a model student. Did anyone but her remember those days now? If they did, could they continue to see a bright, young model student amidst the hair, horns, and fangs? When her humanity had all but disappeared, would she still be the same Lisa she always was, or would she be a figure for shame and failure who could only get a guy if she emitted the proper hormones.
After a restless night of tossing and turning, the sun finally creeped over the horizon. Jennifer was still sleeping soundly, snoring as loud as ever. "I don't know how she does it," Lisa said quietly to herself.
She stood up and walked to the bathroom, noticing the tile under her feet felt a bit odd. Paying it no mind, she stared into the mirror before her.
"Crap!" she exclaimed, fear slowly overtaking her composure. The night had brought with it significant change to her face. Her eyebrows appeared yet bushier, and whilst the hair on her face had spread a bit more, it was mostly present on the ridge of her nose and especially on her beard and mustache area. In that area, she'd managed to surpass even a five o'clock shadow and had numerous follicles taking off. The insides of her ears were also beginning to swirl with dark black hair.
"Oh my God, Lisa!" Jennifer exclaimed as she entered the bathroom. She hastily wiped her eyes clear and joined her friend at the sink. "You should've taken a sleeping pill or something last night. That's what I did, because I didn't want to think too hard about it."
"My mom's going to have a heart attack when she sees this," Lisa lamented, running her fingers through the new growth.
"That makes two of us," Jen said, reminding her friend of her own facial woes.
"Yeah, but you've had time to come up with a way to approach her about it! I'm going to stand there stammering and stuttering until it comes time to call 9/11 and tell them that I killed my own mother with my looks."
"You're being way too over dramatic," Jen retorted.
The two of them began their morning ritual of undressing and grooming one another. Lisa was quick to spy that Jen's arm pit hair had really taken off now and dangled freely as she moved about. Between the two of them, Lisa thought that she now trumped Jen in the facial hair department, but Jen obviously trumped her on the back of her neck, shoulders, and back. And whilst Lisa reckoned that the hair on her hands and feet were thicker, it was still longer on Jen's.
"You're not standing still," Jen complained as she tried to brush Lisa's back.
"My feet feel weird." Lisa leaned over and pulled her foot up to where she could see the bottoms and gasped.
Jen stopped to look and saw that the skin on the bottoms of Lisa's feet had turned a shade darker and looked a bit puffy. She reached out and touched it, noticing that it felt like a large blister covered the other girl's foot, although she didn't cry out in pain.
"I think," Lisa said quietly and slowly, "that they're pads. You know, like on a dog's foot to keep them from hurting." She trailed off and let her foot drop to the floor. "They're not very thick yet, but I can feel them just the same."
Jen gave her friend a quick squeeze. "Let's just get dressed, okay. I really think we need to see Beth today. Her cousin said she hardly leaves her room, and I haven't heard at all from her."
"I agree," Lisa replied. "But seeing as she doesn't live too far away, let's walk." Jennifer shot her a confused look, so Lisa explained, "That way I get out of seeing my mom for at least a little while."
Jennifer shook her head and sighed as she pulled her shirt on and tied her hair. She really wasn't looking forward to seeing Beth, but she was still a friend, and she felt it in her gut that she wasn't getting along too well.
Within minutes the pair managed to sneak out the door, seeing as how Carol was preoccupied with herself in the downstairs bathroom, and before long were on their way, hoods pulled up over their heads and hands stuffed into their pockets. For the most part, people didn't take much mind of this, seeing as how it was an overcast day anyway, but they still had to hang their heads as people approached to ensure that they wouldn't get stared at too badly. Perhaps people assumed that they were two young men on a walk and therefore didn't think to stare.
After about twenty minutes of brisk walking, they came upon Beth's modest home. It was smaller than both Lisa's and Jen's, but still two stories high. The wood siding was obviously old, but the peculiar thing was that blinds covered every window so that not a soul could see what was inside.
Feeling tentative, Jen rapped on the door and held her breath. A stout, middle-aged man, Beth's father Greg, answered the door, his mouth quickly shaping into a frown at the site of the visitors.
"You must be one of 'em," he mumbled.
"Pardon?" Lisa asked.
"One of the cheerleaders in this fiasco."
"Yes," Jen stammered. "It's Jen and Lisa."
"Didn't recognize ya," the man grumbled and opened the door wide enough for the pair to enter. "Her room is up the stairs, last door down the hall."
The two quickly started up the stairs, not removing their hoods and jacket until reaching the landing.
"I didn't want to come here," Lisa whispered.
Jennifer sighed. "I didn't, either, but now more than ever I feel like we need to see Beth."
Two walked swiftly down the hall and rapped at the door.
"Brianna?" called a meek voice from within.
"It's Jen and Lisa!" Jen called back as happily as she could muster.
"Go away, please," the voice responded.
The two look at each other, and, having half expected such a response, Jen pushed the door open and invited herself in.
The room itself was humble in nature, although cluttered with cardboard boxes with labels varying from "dolls" to "dresses" to "shoes". Their eyes falling on the figure in the bed, the pair suppressed the horror that overtook them. If not for the fact that they knew it was Beth, they would not have been able to recognize who, or what, was before them. Beth indeed had small nubs protruding from her forehead, the barely visible skin around them looking painfully swollen and red. A hat covered her balding head, but her face was scarcely visible at all under the growth that had overtaken it.
Aside from her head, the girl's neck seemed to be matted with something that kind of resembled sheep's wool, but not as matted and clumped, and her clothing didn't hang right on her body. The hands that protruding from her sleeves were covered in a dense coat, and her fingers now tightly clenched the blanket cover of her bed.
"I asked you not to come in," Beth responded, pulling the blanket over herself.
"Don't be that way," Jen playfully snapped. She grabbed a dumbfounded Lisa by the arm and dragged her over to the bed where she gingerly climbed up to sit across from the former cheerleader, yanking her blanket back down into her lap. "You haven't spoken to us at all lately, and no one has seen you."
"It should be obvious why," Beth retorted, her eyes staring down into her lap.
"You know, we're all in this together," Lisa finally managed to say. "You're not alone by a long shot." She slid next to Beth and rested her arm over her shoulder, the muscles so tight it made her feel like a statue.
Jen grabbed the girl's wrist, prompting her to glance up wards. The face that stared back was a pitiful one, and with her mouth slightly agape, Jen could glimpse the growing fangs in her mouth. If not for her icy blue eyes, Beth would have been all but unrecognizable. Even so, staring into her face was like looking into the future for Jen, as both she and Beth shared blonde hair and had similar facial features. Unable to continue looking, and unable to speak for the lump in her throat, Jen leaned in and pulled the small girl into a hug.
Indeed her muscles had come in so well that she felt like a brick, yet her middle seemed to have filled back in some, and was perhaps even a bit pudgy, although that's what you get when you do nothing but sit in your room for weeks on end. Then, both Lisa and Jen felt Beth's strong arms embraced them, seeming to crush them, prompting Lisa to take a mental note: When muscles come in like this, DO NOT give bear hugs!
Beth pulled back and leaned away from her friends, although now a small smile lay peacefully across her face. It was difficult to see, as her lips had lost their fullness and were now little more than a line on her face, but it was there, and her eyes seemed to brighten as well.
At that moment, Greg walked in with a bowl of soup and glass of water, set it on the bed-stand and hastily left.
"Are you and your dad getting on?" Lisa asked curiously.
"No," Beth responded. "He brings me my meals in here and hardly ever looks at me when he does."
"But your cousin visits you," Jen pointed out.
"Yeah, but she seems to see me as more of a research project - something to put on her resume and boost her standing in the scientific community."
"That's why you should have sent for us to visit you," said Lisa.
"I don't want to bother you with my problems," Beth responded.
"Uh, you're problems are ours, too," Jen interjected. "We're going the same direction you are, and we're going to help each other."
"Didn't Brianna fill you in?"
"Not on everything yet," Lisa responded. "Everyone was in such a bad mood last night, she cut off early."
"So, no one looks like me yet?"
"I think Lisa surpassed you in one area!" Jen chimed. "It looks like she's developing pads on her feet."
"Already got 'em," Beth responded, pulling one foot out from under the covers. The bottoms were blackened and the pads stuck out obviously. "I think I outgrew my shoes, and they make it difficult to walk. I have to scoot down the stairs to keep from falling," she explained. "I'm also beginning to get them on my hands, I think," she said flipping her palms up to show them. They were a bit puffy, but other than that, there was no difference.
"Not yet anyway," Jen reluctantly replied.
Suddenly the sound of a car pulled in the driveway.
"That's probably Brianna," Beth said. "You guys should probably go now. I'm going to visit my mom's this Thanksgiving, but maybe after that you guys can come back?"
Jen smiled. Beth had gone from not wanting visitors to not wanting them to go in such a short time.
"We'll come back," Lisa responded as she gathered herself.
The two stepped out and pulled their jackets back on, choosing to fasten their hoods before encountering Beth's father again. They hustled down the stairs, passing Brianna, who gently nodded in greeting, as she climbed up. Once again finding themselves back outside, Lisa turned to look towards Beth's window.
"You know, I didn't want to come here, and now I'm both glad that I did and upset about the whole thing," Lisa said.
Jen nodded in answer. "It would be nice if her mom would just take her in after Thanksgiving as well, seeing as how her dad isn't dealing with this well at all." She spied Lisa putting a hand to her new growth, scratching a bit at her nose as she did. "Still thinking of your mom?"
"Yeah, and still thinking that she's not going to be taking this well, either."
"She'll never wind up like Greg," Jen reassured her. "If anything, that's more how my mom responds to a crisis than yours. Yours will probably have a freak-out and then take it all out in court when Coach finally goes to trial."
"You know," Lisa continued, "Mom wasn't at the meeting last night. I think we should soften the truth."
"You mean lie," Jen corrected.
"Yeah, or she'll worry. We also won't explain everything about Beth, because that's the last thing she needs."
"Well, we can try, but I don't think you'll get too far. After all, the truth is as plain as your face."