Palms damp with sweat, the pumping of blood drowning out all other noises Jeanie willed her feet to step one in front of the other.  She paused every few feet to look around and get her bearings.  She had to make sure that she was doing it right.  If she said the wrong thing or went to the wrong window everyone would know she was a freak.  Her mother would be so embarrassed.

     As she ran through the impending dialogue in her head she began to grow frustrated.  She paused again.  Five minutes may have easily passed since her mother had told her to go get the intake form.  She understood that it was a relatively simple task but to her it seemed an almost insurmountable obstacle between herself and her future.

     It wasn’t really fair she thought that she had to get the form and talk to the receptionist.  Or was the woman a nurse.  She was clearly doing receptionist duties.  Yet she was wearing scrubs.  Perhaps she was both.  Jeanie hadn’t even wanted to come here in the first place. 

     Her grandmother had been pushing the idea for the last year.  The cutting edge procedure in personality science was quickly becoming standard.  Her mother had left the decision up to her until she got the call from Mrs. Anderson.  Jeanie had failed all of her homework assignments for the last month.  It was a highly unusual result for the over achiever.

    When confronted the girl explained how she’d been absent for a piano recital the day the new homework notebooks were passed out.  She’d been too shy to ask for one when she came back and had been trying her best to complete the homework without it.  After that her mother became more persistent.

     Jeanie knew that if she refused it her matronly role models would never let the subject go.  She was told it was her decision but she didn’t really feel she had a choice.  And yet she knew there was some truth to her mother’s concerns.  Life would be easier for her if she was more outgoing.

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Author guidance for This story

For all the introverts out there.
(no offense to extroverts)

updated Feb 5 '11 by StrawBarry