Sisterhood Of The Smoker Babes, Part 6

Writers Note---Those that enjoy a good science fiction story know that they
need to suspend their beliefs of the real world and allow for the possibility
of things that are out of the ordinary. You will need to do that when you
read this story. With that being said, while the science fiction stuff is
mostly a product of my imagination, many of the smoking scenes are in fact
based on real encounters and sightings that I've experienced throughout
my life. Some have been modified to fit the context of the story but others
remain mostly intact as they actually occurred. Lastly, when reading this I
suggest that you pay attention to the timeline as it is critical to how
you'll draw your conclusions over the story's ending. My email address is
hotelcalifornia14@hotmail.com if you wish to discuss or comment on the story.
I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it.


          SISTERHOOD OF THE SMOKER BABES-THE SMOKING WAR CHRONICLES

CHAPTER 6 - April 14, 2007 - Katie's New World

    Bud Algren swiped his debit card at the Stop and Shop checkout counter
and glanced at his watch. He was late. He'd decided to swing by the market to
pick up a few groceries but the fifty four year-old school custodian began
regretting that choice when he saw how crowded the parking lot was. Tonight
was Wednesday and he was now going to be late for his mixed bowling league.
He'd tried to call ahead to let his teammates know but the cell phone
reception on this side of town wasn't the greatest. He figured he'd try again
when he got on the road. The cashier handed him his receipt and Algren
wheeled his shopping cart towards the parking lot. As he pushed his carriage
from the sidewalk into the main parking lot, a dark blue Chevy Cobalt stopped
to let him pass. As he was pushing the carriage past the car a voice called
out to him.

    "Hey, Mr. Algren," a voice called to him from the passenger seat. Algren
turned and saw Katie Beckett, the school's star basketball player waving to
him from the car. He couldn't quite make out who the driver was because the
sun's glare was obscuring whoever it was. 

    "How ya doin, Katie?" Algren replied as he started towards his car and
then stopped. The Cobalt started to pull away, slowly but Algren noticed
something in Katie's hand as she was waving to him. Was that a cigarette she
was holding? Algren asked himself. He didn't have to debate this with himself
for long. As the car continued past him he saw the girl pull the cigarette to
her lips. A cloud of smoke escaped out the window as the car moved away.
Algren stood in the parking lot, staring at the Cobalt as it drove away. He
was more than a bit surprised at what he had just seen...


    Seventeen year old Ricky Berman was tired. He'd been up late the previous
night studying for a chemistry test and after a long day at school, he was
now in the middle of his six hour shift as a cashier at Dairy Mart. He was
hoping for an easy night but the good weather seemed to be bringing everyone
into his store. Up until a few minutes ago traffic within the store had been
non-stop but finally the store was empty and he had a chance to snack on a
strawberry toaster strudel and relax. It didn't last long. The bell over the
door sounded, signaling that someone was walking into his store. He didn't
look up right away, instead taking another bite out of the strudel while
trying to answer one more word on a crossword puzzle. 

    "Hey Ricky, can I get a pack of Marlboro Reds?" 

    Ricky looked up. He recognized the girl asking him for a cigarettes but
thought he misheard her. Or perhaps she was joking. 

    "Hey dude, you are gonna sell to me right? I mean I DID let you copy me
on that history test last year." 

    Ricky was truly puzzled. Some of his classmates did come in and buy
cigarettes from him from time to time. He usually sold to them if he knew
them and there were no other adults in the store. But this was no ordinary
classmate. This was Katie Beckett. The same Katie Beckett who was all over
the papers. Katie Beckett didn't smoke! Katie was a jock and a good one at
that. Ricky briefly considered that Katie was a narc working with the police
in a sting operation to try and catch stores selling cigarettes to minors.
But then Ricky smelled something that dispelled that theory. Katie stunk of
cigarette smoke. Ricky recognized the fresh cigarette smell coming from
Katie. It was the same way his older sister smelled when she came back in the
house after going out for a cigarette. Katie had probably just finished a
cigarette before stepping into the store, he thought. 

    "Helloooo, earth to Ricky, can I get a pack of Reds or what?" she asked,
but not in a mean or mocking tone. Actually, it was quite the opposite.  She
was smiling and she'd let her long blonde hair fall to one side.  She leaned
over the counter just enough to expose her cleavage underneath her lime green
sleeveless top. She was wearing denim shorts and Ricky noticed for the first
time that a pack of Reds was sticking out of her jeans by her belt buckle.
For a split second he just stared at Katie.

    "Uh, yeah sure, that'll be five forty," Ricky said, slightly dazed by the
fact that Katie Beckett of all people was smoking.

    "Cool, thanks!" she slapped six bucks on the table and gave Ricky a quick
smile and pranced out of the store. 

    Thirteen year old Abby Beckett sat in front of her computer, intent on
finding some rare songs by the band Paramore that someone in a chat room told
her about the previous night. She was blonde like her sister and tall for her
age, only two inches shorter than Katie, a point which she constantly drove
home to her older sister.  She loved Paramore, the band who was fronted by
Hayley Williams who Abby felt was the best singer alive.  It would be so cool
to tell her friends that she had found the songs that weren't on any of their
first two albums. She would find them if it was the last thing she did. After
a few minutes she hit pay dirt. "Rare Paramore songs download" read the link
on her computer screen. She clicked on the link and in about five minutes the
box on her screen said "Download complete" 

    "Sweet!" she exhaulted, and gave herself the thumbs up sign. Her elation
soon dampened however The files were on her computer but she couldn't open
them. "Damn" she said. She kept clicking on the icon but nothing happened.
She then went into her "all programs" menu and tried to open the mp3 files
from there but still had no luck. 

    She'd heard Katie come in a few minutes ago. Katie was good with
computers. She could figure this out. Her excitement building again she got
up and headed towards Katie's room. The door was 1/3 of the way open so Abby
pushed it open the rest of the way and was immediately stopped dead in her
tracks. 

    Abby stood at Katie's doorway, gap. For a moment she was unable to
process what she was seeing. For most of Abby Beckett's thirteen years she
had never been at a loss for words. Abby was a talker, Abby was outgoing,
Abby was even funny sometimes. But right now Abby was totally speechless
because she couldn't believe what her sister was doing.  She was on her cell
phone AND she was smoking! A cigarette! Katie! 

    For a second, Katie didn't see her sister coming in. She took a deep drag
and blew a plume of smoke in the general direction of the ceiling.  When she
saw her sister, she put her hand over the mouthpiece and said, "oh, hey," to
Abby and motioned her in and then went back to her phone call and took
another drag from her cigarette. 

    Sixteen year old Katie Beckett was on top of the world. The last four
weeks had been pretty amazing. College recruiters had been calling her and
she'd been invited to play on an exclusive team this summer that would travel
to California for two weeks. She'd gotten two invites to the senior prom,
which was almost unheard of for a sophomore. But there was more. She was
always a confident girl with a lot of interests and for the most part a happy
person.  But now, something was changing, or maybe even growing inside of
her. She couldn't put her finger on it, it was just there. A certain feeling
of power.  Maybe it was the new clothes she was buying which featured more
sleeveless tops which left her stomach exposed. Maybe it was the way she
smiled with her eyes that gave off a different vibe. Or maybe it was the way
guys were looking at her all of a sudden. 

    There was something else she realized over the past two weeks. She
absolutely loved smoking. She loved the way it made her feel, she loved how
she looked when she was holding a cigarette in her hands but most of all she
loved the attention she seemed to garner when people noticed her and her new
habit. She'd seen some of the looks when she walked through town, people's
expressions ranged from mild surprise to outright shock that a girl like her,
with her athletic resume, would even think about touching a cigarette. 

    Katie would laugh to herself at these reactions. For some reason she
didn't care what people thought, it was none of their business really.
Smoking had unleashed something inside her and since she started she'd felt
more free to be herself than at any other time in her life. 

    Up until now she'd concealed her new habit from her family, her dad
Kevin, her mom Eileen and her little sister Abby. Aside from the first
cigarette she tried in her room, she'd been sneaking out the back door and
smoking behind the garage. This was ok at first but when she started getting
cravings in the middle of the night, going out to the garage at 2 am was
becoming a pain in the ass. She decided it was time to reveal herself to the
family unit. 

    The first part of her plan happened earlier in the evening. She decided
to light a cigarette in her room knowing Abby was home and invariably would
come in and discover her. If it didn't happen on the first cigarette, then it
would on the second or the third. Abby always came in. The two sisters were
close and sisters who are close share things with each other. Katie pretended
not to notice the astonished look on her sister's face when she walked in.
She wanted to burst out laughing but instead played it very cool and laid
back and continued her phone conversation with Alyssa while her sister stood
at the doorway with a look of utter shock. She'll understand someday, Katie
thought to herself. Probably a lot sooner than I did. 

    Katie took a cigarette out of her Marlboro Reds pack and brought it to
the flame that was dancing over her lighter. She took one drag and blew a
couple of smoke rings which she'd learned to do with Alyssa a couple of days
ago. She smiled confidently to herself. Abby was the easy part, but the
parentals; well that was going to be interesting. She took one more deep
drag, blew the smoke into the hallway as she left her room and headed calmly
down the stairs. 


    Kevin and Eileen Beckett sat in the living room. Kevin was watching ESPN
Sportscenter and Eileen was engrossed in a Mary Higgins Clark thriller. It
was a quite early spring night in the Beckett home. Abby was upstairs doing
her homework and Katie had mentioned she was going to call the nursing home
to see if she could pick up a few extra hours this weekend.

    Eileen was too engrossed in her novel, Kevin probably noticed first
because ESPN was on a commercial break. At first he thought he was drunk. But
how could that be. He'd only had two beers and that was over an hour and a
half time span. 

    "Mom, Dad - I'm a smoker now." Katie stood at the edge of the living
room.  She had a glow about her that Kevin never saw before. For a moment he
wasn't even sure it was his daughter standing there. She was calm and
deliberate and her tone of voice seemed to display cocky confidence that
Kevin had never seen in his oldest daughter. She took a drag from her
cigarette. Eileen dropped her paperback on the floor. "I started about a
month ago," she began as she walked into the living room, grabbed an empty
coffee cup that was on the coffee table to use as an ashtray and continued.
"As I was saying, I smoke now, and I love smoking. Not how I love basketball
and not how I love dogs, but it's just as intense. It makes me feel awesome
and well, to tell you the truth, smoking helps me chill out which I probably
need cuz I'm always waaay to intense anyway." 

    The senior Becketts were in shock. Kevin for a split second wondered if
aliens had kidnapped his daughter and left some extra terrestrial being in
her place. Katie did a double pump and continued. "I'm not saying this to
disrespect you but you can't stop me, and you can't talk me out of it, nobody
can. It's my decision, my body and if you tell me I can't I will anyway."
Katie paused for a second to take a drag. "I'm not like other kids, I'm not
gonna go off and do drugs and quit school. I'm the same. I still play
basketball, I still get good grades and I still want to go to college. Oh and
Dad if you're worried it'll affect my running for ball, it doesn't, I just do
extra cardio at the gym. OHMYGod, smoking after a workout it's like the best
fucking cigarette ever... umm sorry," She took another drag. Her adrenaline
was sky high, as high as it was during the state championships. "Oh yeah,
Abby already knows, I think it freaked her out a little - she didn't say
anything and well, Abby always says something." 

    Kevin clearly at a loss for words, spoke first after looking at his wife.
"Your mother and I will need to talk about this. I appreciate you being
direct and honest with us Katie and not trying to hide this from us.  Give us
five minutes and we'll come up and talk to you."

    Five minutes later Kevin and Eileen went up to Katie's room. They didn't
try to talk her out of smoking. They didn't lecture her, instead telling her
she was old enough to know the risks and make her own decisions. They did
tell her that she couldn't prance around the house flaunting her smoking
habit and blowing smoke all over the house but would be allowed to smoke in
her room. And then they said something about having to go talk to Abby. 

    For a split second, Katie felt a bit badly that she'd upset her parents.
She clearly didn't want to hurt them or make them feel uncomfortable. But she
also didn't want to hide who she was, and smoking was becoming a big part of
who she was. She was really beginning to like, no love, this new emerging
version of herself. She smiled to herself as she drew another cigarette and
flicked her lighter.  Her pack was almost empty. She was going to have to
take a walk to Dairy Mart before the night was over and pay Ricky another
visit. 

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