Chapter 12

Jean had awakened and lay that way for a long time unnoticed, trying to familiarize herself with her cell-like surroundings and place the voices of the two girls who sat beside each other on one of the small beds, talking in low, confidential tones. Vaguely, their faces, then their uniforms, registered. A nauseating tightness gripped at her intestines and with a start, she raised to her elbows.

"Wh-Where am I... !" the blonde girl gasped, the sheet falling away from her breasts, making her aware of her nakedness. Modestly, she quickly drew the covering back up over their firm, rounded fullness and stared at the rapidly approaching two who both dropped on their knees beside her bed.

"So, at last you're awake, Baby," the red-haired teenager Jean remembered as Sandy said and smiled. Tenderly, she took Jean's hand to hold between her own. "We were beginning to wonder if you were going to come out of it this month, weren't we, Carla?"

"You sure can sleep, Honey," Carla replied with a pretty smile of her own.

Jean could only stare at them in bewilderment, while her swimming brain struggled to make sense from their statements... until slowly, a series of vile and horrifying recollections began to flash through her mind, adding sudden anxiety to her quaimish stomach. Her lovely green-eyes widened in growing panic. She exclaimed:

"I-I'm in the Home, aren't I... ! Oh God... aren't I... ?"

"There, there, Baby, now don't get yourself all up tight," Sandy soothed gently, chafing the blonde girl's hand between her own.

"Tell me, for Lord's sake!" Jean choked, trying to raise up once more. "Why have they put me here... ?"

Carla caught her shoulders, lightly but firmly pressing her back down onto the bed. "All right, Honey, we'll tell you, but you better make up your mind that it isn't going to help getting all worked up! You've been hallucinating on acid for three days and nights, and unless you get a firm grip on yourself you're going to wind up in the booby ward... ! Okay? Is that clear... ?"

"Easy, Carla," Sandy said to the older girl. "You want to send her right back on a mind- bender... ?"

"I want to snap her to her senses, and the first thing is to make her understand her situation," Carla answered determinedly, as if from experience, Jean thought, staring into the brunette's dark, piercing eyes.

"It's... it's all right..." the blonde girl managed, focusing her eyes on Sandy's attractive face. "I-I think I understand... and I'll try to... to keep hold of myself..."

"That's the girl," Carla praised, her lovely Latin face warming in a white, toothsome smile.