Sisterhood Of The Smoker Babes, Part 1

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

PROLOGUE

    In 1620 the Mayflower landed in America and the English settlers began
their long struggle to establish the beginnings of the world that we know
today. During their first few months after their arrival, they made friends
with some of the Native American tribes and the Indians helped the pilgrims
find food, shelter, and in general adjust to their new surroundings. The
Indians also introduced the pilgrims to one of their most cherished
traditions that they had partaken in for centuries. Smoking! After sharing
meals together during that first long cold winter, the Indians and Pilgrims
would sit around the fire passing peace pipes back and forth to each other
and sharing stories around the fires that would keep them warm. The settlers
took well to this tradition, passing down this new found pleasure to many
generations over the next three centuries. The Americans would improve the
smoking experience as their technology advanced. Primitive fig leafs and
peace pipes turned into cigars and cigarettes and smoking became synonymous
with the social experience as the country moved into the modern world. By the
middle of the twentieth century, smoking was commonplace at social gatherings
such as family cookouts, musicals, restaurants and sporting events. Smoking
was ever present in the workplace, allowing the workers an outlet for stress
relief, but also a way for them to tap into something pleasurable during
their long hard work days. And finally, some smokers discovered the sexual
side of smoking, both as it related to the laws of attraction as well as the
laws of the bedroom.

    But not everyone was happy with smoking's global proliferation as the
1960's arrived. Indeed, by this time a large antismoking faction had formed a
coalition that included high profile members of the government, medical field
and some high powered lobbyists. They began using the media to change the
public's awareness and attitudes about smoking. Their message was simple.
Smoking was unhealthy and disgusting. Now they didn't come out and say this
directly. That strategy wouldn't work. The plan they devised was more subtle
and spread over a long time period to erode the public's positive emotions
about smoking. Their goal was to kill the tobacco companies and rid the world
of smoking once and for all.

    In 1964 the surgeon general came out with findings saying that smoking
caused cancer and required the tobacco companies to place warning labels on
all their products. In the 1971 cigarette ads in magazines that targeted
children were banned and soon after television ads were banned as well.  Over
the next two decades the coalition's campaign continued with antismoking ad
campaigns that highlighted the health risks associated with tobacco use,
along with some ads which portrayed smoking as a dirty, disgusting and
socially unacceptable habit.

    With enough of the public's opinion swayed in the first decade of the
twenty first century, the coalition stepped up their efforts, passing laws
that made it illegal to smoke in public places like restaurants and the work
place. Between 2003 and 2005 they scored a major victory when most states
passed laws that made it illegal to smoke in bars and at indoor places that
held rock concerts.  This final act was seen as the ultimate victory within
the coalition. They had hit the tobacco industry in two places most
associated with smoking. The total elimination of smoking was now only a
matter of time.


    The tobacco industry was in trouble and they knew it. Almost from the
start they saw that if they didn't do something that the coalition would
succeed. They had their own lobbyists and their own senators that had
constituents whose very livelihood depended on the tobacco industry's
survival. They began doing research, hiring the best and the brightest
scientists so that they could save the tobacco industry. The research took
years but finally was completed and a plan was put into place. They created a
company called RJT .

    RJT was backed by some highly placed members of both congress and the
senate. The company was tasked with changing public opinion about smoking
back to what it used to be for hundreds of years. They put together a team of
amazing girls who would become known as "The Sisterhood of the Smoker Babes".
Despite the fact that these girls came from different backgrounds and
different lifestyles, they would form a close bond that would allow them to
do some of the most incredible things I've ever seen.  I'm proud to say that
I'm one of those girls and I'm equally proud to be a part of what we did. And
I know that whatever the rest of my life brings, good and bad, it won't come
close to touching what we shared during our time together. These girls are
like family to me. Like our name says, we all really are like sisters. We
will all be friends for life. This is our story.


CHAPTER 1 - MARCH 16, 2007 - STATE CHAMPS

    Sixteen year old Katie Beckett stood at the free-throw line calmly
bouncing the ball with her eyes on the rim. Her knees bent, she released her
shot in one fluid motion. The ball swished through the net and the crowd, who
had been holding their collective breath, erupted. Showing no emotion as the
referee tossed the ball back to her, Katie began bouncing the ball again. The
clock on the scoreboard read 00:00; Katie's last free throw had pulled her
underdog Scituate High School team into a tie with Woonsocket in the Rhode
Island State Championship game.

    Only a sophomore, Katie had been immense during the playoffs, averaging
21 points and 11 rebounds during the four games leading up to the
championship game. She'd begun the year, her first on the varsity, as the
second or third girl off the bench, but when the team struggled to a 3-5
start, she was inserted into the starting lineup in January. With her
tenacious defense underneath and her unstoppable shot, her team ripped off
wins in ten of their last eleven games, earning a number three seed in the
state tournament.  During the playoffs, Scituate had an easy time of it in
the first three games but needed a dramatic last second three pointer in
overtime from it's newest star to get by Central. Now she was aiming to be a
hero again, but this time it was against undefeated and heavily favored
Woonsocket.

   She stood alone at the line, all five feet-eight inches of her zeroed in
on the rim. She brushed a piece of her blonde hair from her eyes, took her
traditional three bounces and took aim. SWISH!  She let out a loud "yeahh"
and was instantly mobbed by her teammates.  Flashbulbs went off and the crowd
was going crazy. Katie's heart was pounding. She came out of the pile and
hugged her best friend Alyssa Morgan, who was a backup point guard. Also a
sophomore, Alyssa wasn't as talented as Katie, but her toughness on defense
had earned her more playing time late in the season and she'd come up with
two key steals in the last minute that setup Katie's heroics.

    "Oh my god, I can't believe we did it," Alyssa, a blue eyed brunette,
said.

    "Lyss, you were so awesome!" Katie shouted.  "This is so incredible.
We're gonna do this again, junior and senior year!" The two best friends
hugged and were mobbed again by their teammates.


    After showering, the team went out for pizza. It had become a tradition
after they'd started winning in January. This time, though, something came
with them. Sitting in the center of the table where the twelve girls sat was
a gold state championship trophy.  The girls danced to Gwen Stefani's
Hollaback Girl on the jukebox. The pizza shop owner, Tony Redman, didn't
care. Scituate High was his alma mater  It wasn't often that things like this
happened in Scituate. At the end of the night, the girls all hugged each
other again. Even though there was still three months of school left, there
was some sadness as this was the last time this team would be together as
five seniors would be graduating. Despite this, Katie, Alyssa and the rest of
the girls were on top of the world.

    That night an exhausted Katie fell to sleep and had a strange dream.
When she woke, she couldn't quite remember the whole dream, just pieces of
it. She remembered being in a room that was spinning. Was it the pizza shop?
She also had a faint recollection of a long haired blonde girl around her age
that was dressed in strange clothing who pricked her arm with a needle and
then things started spinning again and went blank.

    Katie woke the next morning, the thrill of last night's game washed over
her again and she smiled. She briefly replayed the game in her mind as she
laid in bed. She had woken up without the alarm and had a few minutes before
she had to start getting ready for school.  And then she felt it.  First, a
pinch in her arm. "What the hell," she said to herself out loud. She looked
at her forearm and saw a little red dot where the stinging sensation was
coming from. "Must have happened during the game," she said to herself. At
that exact moment she started to get out of bed, she was engulfed with a
strange sensation that pulsated through her whole body, something she never
felt before.

    "What the hell," she said but this time her voice was louder. For a
moment she thought she was going to pass out. It seemed all the blood had
rushed to her head but then it got really strange. Her whole body seemed to
stand up on edge. She could feel it in her skin, especially on her shoulders.
It was like she was nervous; her heart was racing and even though she'd just
gotten out of bed she felt extremely hyper.  She thought for a moment that
she was starving but then remembered eating pizza after the game.  "Must be
leftover adrenaline from the game," she thought as she headed to the shower.

    She went downstairs and her dad, Kevin Beckett, was in the middle of
reading about his oldest daughter's heroics from the previous night.

    "Hey Pumpkin, guess who made the front page."

    "Oh, cool," Katie said, practically snatching the paper from Beckett.
Adorning the front page was a large photo of Katie and Alyssa in their
embrace under the bold headline "SENTNALS UPSET VILANOVANS FOR STATE TITLE."
Katie poured over the Providence Journal's account of the game. And it
happened again. The prickly feeling in her shoulders, the same anxiousness
that she felt before she went in the shower.  She brushed it aside and read
the article while drumming her fingers on the table. She felt ravenously
hungry and devoured two corn muffins in less than a minute.

    "Wow, somebody's hungry," Kevin said.

    "I'm a growing girl, dad, still got six inches to go so I can play in
college, right?" Katie asked, alluding to a running joke between the two that
started when she was eight and decided she wanted to be as tall as Katie
Douglas who was the star player for the Connecticut Sun women's professional
team.

    The corn muffins seemed to do the trick. "Maybe I just used up too many
carbs during the game", Katie thought to herself as she left to pick up
Alyssa, who lived next door, for school. She'd forgotten about the morning
episode by the time she arrived at Alyssa's doorstep.

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