Small Problem -19- by Melanie Brown

“Will you two pay attention?” shouted Coach Renwick. “The pep rally is about to start. Flirt later.” Several other girls on the squad giggled.

As Cathy and I hurried to rejoin the group, I sighed, “I wasn’t flirting.”

Sarah folded her arms. “Yeah, Amanda. Leave some boys for the rest of us.”

I shook my head. “You guys are crazy.”

The principal walked out on the floor of the fieldhouse. He stepped up to the microphone and tapped it a few times. “Is this thing on?” His voice rumbled loudly in a low pitch. He jumped at the unexpected volume.

I stood next to Marcia and watched the students flow into the fieldhouse. It was funny to watch. The girls and extroverted boys lined up at and behind the front railing. The stoner types migrated to the top row.

Marcia turned to look at me. “You okay?”

I let out a deep breath. “I’m a bit nervous. Actually, a lot nervous.”

Smiling knowingly, she said, “Don’t worry. We’ve all been there. You’ll not only get used to it, but you’ll enjoy it.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Marcia laughed. “Hey, I’m always right.”

The band started to play the school fight song.

The principal stepped up to the mic again after the band finished and said, “Attention, everyone. Settle down. Welcome to a new school year.” He then droned on for a few minutes with announcements and noted a few new rules.

He turned around and said, “Okay. Marcia. Please do us the honor of introducing to the school this year’s team of Mighty Tigers!”

Marcia bounced up to the mic and grinned, “Isn’t it great to be back in school?” There was a round of the expected boos. Giggling, she said, “Let me introduce the team taking us to victory! Let’s hear it for the Mighty Tigers!” There was a less-than-exciting cheer from the students up in the stands. “Let’s try that again! Show some spirit!” This time, there was a bigger yell.

The football team began running out onto the floor as Marcia introduced each one. They took a seat in the row of chairs set up on the floor in front of the stage. The squad would all cheer as each one ran out. And yes, I yelled the loudest for Chad.

The rest of the hour was your typical pep rally. We did some cheers. The dance team performed part of their half-time show, and the majorettes performed a twirling demonstration. The band played a brass-heavy tune called Grandioso and the Hawaii Five-Oh theme. The rally ended with the band playing the fight song and then the alma mater.

I managed to catch Chad’s eye a couple times, and he waved at me. And Marcia was indeed right. I soon lost all my nervousness and just had a good time. As all the students were leaving, the band broke ranks and started dancing on the fieldhouse floor to a drum cadence. Apparently, that’s what the band does, as no one told them to quit.

I was surprised when Darryl approached me. “Hey, Amanda! Well, what did you think?” He waved his arms to encompass the band.

Grinning, I said, “You guys sound great. I guess you’ve been practicing?”

Darryl shook his head. “You’re funny.”

Cathy started to skulk behind me. I grabbed her arm and swung her around in front of me. “Oh hey. I’d like you to meet my older sister, Cathy. Say hello, Cat.” Her face turned several shades of red. She whispered, “I’m going to kill you.”

Darryl laughed. “Nice to meet you, Cat. Wow. You two look exactly alike! Are you twins?”

Composing herself, Cathy said, “We’re actually cousins. Amanda’s adopted.”

Darryl chuckled. “That’s cool. So, can I call you?” He laughed. “Or at least one of you?”

Cathy giggled. “You can call me.”

I walked away as they exchanged numbers. The football team was still hanging around so I went looking for Chad and found him talking to several of his friends. I walked up to him and cooed, “Hey, Chad. How you doing?”

He put an arm around me and pulled me to him. I felt so small next to him. “Hey, babe. Great to see you.” I wanted him to kiss me, but the school has a strict rule against public displays of affection. And his coach is a real hard-ass.

The friends he was talking to all looked down at me and smiled. “Hey, Amanda.”

The football coach walked up to our little group. He looked at Chad as he pointed at me. “Is this little girl yours?”

Chad looked down at me and grinned. “Yes, sir!”

“Good choice.” He looked around at the boys gathered. “We don’t want to disappoint the girls, so hit the practice field right after lunch. We load the buses at four thirty.”

Chad said, “We’re going to kick some serious ass, coach!” I let out a cheer, and Chad hugged me.

Chad grinned and said, “Catch you after the game!” He and his friends hurried off. Instead of going back to class, the team gets extra practice. For some reason, our team has a low rating.

I saw the other girls gathered around our coach. I hurried over to them.

When I arrived in the group, the coach said, “There you are. You and Cathy need to report to the office immediately. Your mother is here, and she’s taking you out of school. Hopefully, you’ll be back for the game.”

I gave the coach a sideways glance. “Did she say why?”

“Only that you need to go now.”

I looked over at Cathy and she just shrugged.

As we hurried, but not running down the hall, Cathy grinned at me. “I have a date with Darryl on Saturday.”

I grinned back at her. “You’re welcome.”

Cathy chuckled. “I guess I won’t kill you after all.”

Mom stood up when we arrived at the office. “What’s up, Mom?”

Mom frowned. “I’ll tell you when we get into the car. I was just told it was an emergency.”

I got into the back seat as usual. “Okay, Mom. What’s the emergency?”

“I got a call from BioSynthIndustrialMedical a few minutes ago. They wanted me to bring you to them as quickly as possible. When I asked what I should do with Cathy, they said it affects her as well, so bring her along.”

Cathy said, “We better not miss the game!”

I nodded. “True. We can’t miss that.”

Mom shrugged. “I guess we all find out together.”

*          *          *

We arrived at the sprawling campus of BioSynthIndust… oh the hell with it. With the exception of the receptionist, the lobby was empty. The walls were decorated with large photos of some of our more outstanding medical advances and personnel.

Cathy ran up to one picture in particular. “Amanda! Look at this!”

It was a picture of me in a lab coat, holding a test tube with what looked like green Kool-Aid in it. Above the picture was a sign that read “In Memorium - Dr. Stanley Moore: Bio-technology Engineer – Nanite pioneer”

Grinning, Cathy asked, “Why don’t they say how you died?”

I chuckled. “It’d hurt sales if they said a rogue army of nanites ate me.”

“Girls!” shouted Mom. “Care to join me?” She was standing next to the receptionist’s desk.

When we arrived, the receptionist stood. “Ladies, please follow me. You’re expected in conference room 1.”

The receptionist opened the door for us. She smiled as she said, “Have a seat anywhere you like. The director will be here shortly.” She turned, leaving us standing alone as she returned to her desk.

I said, “Follow me. We’ll sit at my favorite seat.” I climbed up into one of the seats. It seemed bigger than I remembered them. Mom sat on one side of me and Cathy sat on the other side. Cathy pulled out her phone and started reading something. Mom and I just looked slowly around the room.

Mom asked in a quiet voice, “Any idea why we’re here?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, Mom. I’m just a kid.”  She frowned at me.

There must have been somewhere around thirty people present. Several would look at me and then go back to speaking quietly among themselves. About half in attendance were familiar faces. The rest I had no idea who they were. I waved at Dr. Nakagawa who helped finalize the die masks for the micro-machines. He looked uncomfortable.

Everyone stood up when I saw Director Wilson enter the room. Mom, Cat and I remained seated.

Dr. Wilson set his laptop computer down on the table at the spot where he usually sat.  He looked around the room and said, “Be seated, everyone.” Seated next to him was a female assistant. Most meetings I remembered, Wilson didn’t bring an assistant.  This meeting must be important. She handed him several stacks of paper.

He looked around and took a deep breath. He re-arranged the papers before him and said, “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? I called this emergency meeting of all the participants in the micro machine division. There’s been a stunning and exciting development in this area.” He picked up one of the stacks of paper and handed it to his assistant. “Please hand these documents to the little girl over there. The one in the middle.” He grinned at me. “You didn’t think I’d remember which one was you, did you Stan?”

I frowned and said, “Actually, my name is Amanda now. But more importantly, is why am I here? I’m hardly a participant any longer in the micro machine division.”

Wilson waved his finger at me. “I’ll give you a chance to look over those documents before I say much.”

I started looking through the documents as soon as they were handed to me. Mom asked if she could look at them, too. I told her she could but might not understand them. They were a bit complicated. I read through the first page. “What am I looking at, Dr. Wilson? I mean, this is obvious a technical document along with what I have to call spaghetti code.”

Dr. Wilson smiled. “You’re looking at a miracle of your own creation. Have you experienced any surprises in the past few weeks?”

At first, I wasn’t going to say anything, but what the hell? “I was surprised to experience my first period this week.”

Wilson’s eyes lit up. “You’re menstruating? That’s incredible! It shouldn’t even be possible. I mean, think of it! A woman is born with all the eggs she’ll ever have. And now you artificially have eggs! Dr. Patel, you need to get a sample to make sure they’re viable. But Stan… er Amanda, inside that document is something even more surprising.”

Little discussions started breaking out around us. Mom thumbed through the documents. “Honey, I can’t make heads or tails out of this.”

I dropped the papers on the table, and several sheets scattered. “Again, Dr. Wilson. What am I looking at?”

Grinning, Wilson said, “You’re looking at the method, written by the nanites themselves that will restore you.”

“Did you say restore me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Wilson grinned broadly. “It turns out, the nanites made a back up copy of you before they made you a girl. That copy was stored on a hard drive as a normal back up, so we never noticed it. We want to restore you as soon as possible and get you back on the job here. The FDA won’t certify code written by nanites, so we need you to refactor their code so we can submit the whole process to the FDA for approval. Are you ready to get back to work?”

I looked at Wilson, stunned. “How soon can the restoration be done?”

Cathy looked as if she was about to cry. “I won’t have a sister anymore?”

Mom had a faraway look in her eyes. “Only one daughter?”

Wilson shrugged. “We could start tonight if you certify the code.”

I looked through the documents. “I’d be worried that the code is incomplete.”

Wilson said, “It's up to you. Our tests have certified its reliability. The sooner you restore it, the sooner you can get out of that ridiculous outfit.”

I looked at Mom. She just shrugged. “Honey, that’s your choice.”

I could be me again. No more little girl!

End of Part 19 Small Problem.