Angela watched as the car pulled closer and closer before parking a few short feet away, a sickening nervousness forming in her belly the entire while. She never moved from her station by the mailbox. Perversely, the sight of the driver made her feel all the worse. Paula represented exactly 50% of Angela's BFF tandem. Their absent friend was precisely the reason they were here and not someplace that promised to be much more fun, or at least much less awkward.

"Hey."

"Hey," Angela replied.

"You sure you want to do this?"

"I definitely don't want to do this, but we have to."

Paula grimly nodded her agreement, "Let's get this over with."

The two approached the front door, which happened to be where their absent friend lived. They knew she wasn't home at the moment. That was the point.

At the front step, Paula touched Angela's elbow, "If this doesn't work, I don't know what we're going to do."

As it often did, Paula's earnestness made Angela feel slightly guilty. Paula didn't know what she was going to do, but Angela had long since decided. If this didn't work, Jen was off the team and their friendship was over.

Still, a part of her didn't believe it would come to that. Angela had been recruited to play point guard for Morgan College, arriving at the school the same year as Paula and Jen. The coach generally preferred juniors and seniors as starters, so the fact that Angela had started as a freshman was unusual. That Paula and Jen had started as well was unheard of ... but they were that good. Paula was the shooting guard and was absolutely deadly from 17 feet out with the nerves of a professional assassin. It didn't make a difference if it was warm-ups or the game winning shot, if she got a clean look, Paula didn't miss. Jen was the small forward and completely fearless in how she drove to the basket, squeezing herself between much larger women to get her shot off. Jen played like she was six inches taller. And Angela was the one who got them the ball where they wanted it, when they wanted it. That she wore number 5, just like Jason Kidd, was not an accident.

By the end of their sophomore years, the team was unquestionably, if unofficially, theirs. Angela was the first among equals, Jen the Spock to Angela's Kirk, and Paula the consensus finder. They made an effective team, so much so that when it was time to elect captains for their junior years, there was no serious doubt. They were the first tri-captains in the team's history. They'd just missed the NCAA Tournament that year. Though their record said they belonged, Morgan wasn't a traditional basketball power and the selection committee had gone with a larger school having a down year. Angela had never been so disappointed in her entire life.

They were eight games into their senior season, and undefeated. They wouldn't miss the Tournament this year, if they could just keep it up. And once they got there, Angela was sure they could do some damage. She knew, she just KNEW, they could beat the UConns and the Tennessees out there.

And then Jen had gone squirrelly on them. Angela had worked too hard to let friendship block her from her goal.

The door was opened, a few seconds after they'd rung the bell, by a woman in a dressy t-shirt and sweatpants, her short red/orange hair bulled back by a black headband. They didn't know precisely how old their friend's mother was ... early 40's, no more.

"Girls! How funny, I was just thinking about you two. Jen isn't here right now."

"That's okay, Mrs. Gould," Angela said. "We're here to talk to you."

Mrs. Gould frowned slightly, "Sounds serious. Maybe you both should come in."

Paula and Angela were led to the living room and given the love seat. Mrs. Gould took the nearby recliner. The two girls looked at each other, motioning for the other to begin.

"It's about Jen," Angela finally said. "We're worried about her."

"How so?"

"She hasn't been herself lately," Angela said.

"She's been acting weird lately, it's hard to explain," Paula continued. "She's been blowing off classes and she hasn't been to practice in a week. And..."

"And..." Angela stalled.

"And what?"

An uncomfortable silence developed. It was Angela who broke it, "She's started hittting on our friends..."

" ... our female friends," Paula clarified.

" ... and she isn't even trying to hide it. Before she didn't even like taking her clothes off in the locker room, but now," Angela was at a loss for words, "people are starting to talk."

Mrs. Gould seemed to choose her words carefully, "It sounds to me like you're more worried about the girls than the classes or the team."

"It's gross!" Paula exclaimed. Mrs. Gould looked at her sharply.

"Look," Angela jumped in. "Ultimately what Jen does is up to Jen, I guess. The point is she's changed so much in such a short time. That's what we're worried about. And we just thought you should know."

Mrs. Gould smiled, "First let me say how proud I am of you two. I know this must have been hard for you to bring to me. It's good to know Jen had friends that care this much about her.

"Second, I know all about how Jen has been changing lately and I promise that it'll all make perfect sense.

"As you both know, my husband left me a few months ago," Angela and Paula nodded sympathetically. They'd suspected all along that Mr. Gould's leaving had something to do with it, "and lately I've been thinking I needed to do something to break out of the rut I'd been in since he left. So, I got a new haircut..."

"And it looks great! I meant to say something before," Angela said.

"Thank you," Mrs. Gould smiled as she ran her hand about her coiff, "and I also decided to get a tattoo, a little one, the sort of thing no one would expect me to do and only I would know was there. So I went to this tattoo parlor near my office and picked out the cutest little pattern and had it put on my hip."

Mrs. Gould stood and hooked a thumb under the waistband on her right hip and slowly pulled down. The tattoo came into view.

"But then the funniest thing happened. The tattoo was supposed to be a secret, but I found I wanted to show it to people. I didn't understand it at first, it took me a while to figure it out, but it's the tattoo. It wants me to show it to people, because when I do, people do what I tell them to do, like you two. I want you two to sit there and listen to everything I say.

"And the tatoo tells me what to do. So I showed it to Jen and then I told her to get one as well. And that's why you think she's acting so strangely."

"I don't get it," Angela said, unable to look away from Mrs. Gould's hip. "Why does it make her act funny?"

"Because this particular parlor, let's just say they were running a two for one special," Mrs. Gould pulled down the waistband over her left hip.