The next 5 days went by fast. Dana made sure that she was busy exercising and having dinner with Alice; anything to keep her mind and body occupied and away from the phone. She even turned her cell phone on vibrate so she wouldn’t jump out of her pants to answer it. In the last week, Dana had lost 4 pounds and her muscle mass was impressive. At the rate she was going, Dana’s body didn’t have time to grow body fat, let alone burn it off. The day before Thanksgiving, Dana just had breakfast and lunch. It was more of 2 snacks instead of real meals. Dana really wanted to pig out on Turkey Day.

Instead of shopping for new music or downloading from Rhapsody, Dana just asked her friends if she could borrow their albums so she could make a custom tape of their hits. Stuff like "Don’t Speak" by No Doubt, "These Dreams" by Heart, and all that. She even babysat Shay when he had to stay home over a disagreement with another kid. Somebody’s son called him "Gay Shay" because Shane was a lesbian dating Paige, the single mother. Shay bonded pretty well with Dana over a game of checkers.

Dana asked, ‘You wanna get some ice cream?’

Shay answered, ‘Yeah.’

Dana said, ‘Okay. Get your shoes on and we’ll stop by DQ.’

Shay said, ‘Okay.’

Dana got her van started and Shay was all buckled up. Dana left a message on Shane’s cell about Dairy Queen because she didn’t want Shane to worry. It was happy hour at Dairy Queen so all the blizzards were $1.99 for whatever size. Dana got Shay a chocolate Oreo blizzard and she passed on getting one for herself. She just took a b-12 capsule and talked some more with Shay. Dana kept away from the "Mom and Dad" stuff.

Dana asked, ‘So, what’s your social studies project about?’

Shay replied, ‘It’s about the Bill of Rights. We pretend to be part of Congress and decide which of the amendments goes into the Constitution.’

Dana said, ‘Sounds like fun. Are you having any trouble?’

Shay replied, ‘Not much. The last amendment we talked about was guns.’

Dana commented, ‘Now that sounds serious.’

Shay said, ‘It is. It made me think about all the school shootings there’ve been. I even asked "Well, what if somebody buys a gun and takes it to a building with people?". I wanted to find some way to keep the shootings from ever happening by using the experiences in the past.’