Mary Currie was frantically running around her bedroom.

I know I've forgotten something. I just know it! Ugh... As Mary threw a pair of prosthetic elf ear into the open suitcase that rested on her bed, she dropped to her knees to check underneath the box springs for anything she might have missed. Mary had been on edge all week and had only grown more high strung as it got closer to time to head out for the con. John and Susan will be here any minute. She thought to herself as she yanked so hard on a drawer that she nearly pulled it completely out of the dresser. I want this to be perfect and being late is not the definition of perfect.

Courtesy of her overprotective father Mary had been, for most of her life, a bit of shut in. Where other kids headed to the beach for vacation Mary pretended to be adventuring in middle earth. Her friends were mainly named Frodo, Jon Snow, and Katniss. Except for her next-door neighbors John and Susan Tempest Mary had not had much luck making friends. In grade school, she had been awkward and weird. Often she spoke with a vocabulary most of her peers found confusing. Also, she had been the heaviest girl grade for her early school career, and that had only piled on the bullying and the ridicule. That changed her freshmen year in High School. Her father had gotten her a gym membership and audible subscription for her 14th birthday. He had told her if she wanted to keep using the latter she would need to exercise the former. She loved books, so she was determined to give it a try. Much to her father's delight, she became a gym rat almost overnight. As long as she could keep her headphones on and listen to a good book instead of the five years out of date hip hop music the gym pumped in Mary could train for hours at a time. Besides the longer she trained, the quicker, she got through her current book and thus the sooner she could ask her father to purchase her a new one. She even started watching her diet. Eating extremely healthy combined with all the exercise meant by her sweet sixteen she was one of the fittest girls in her grade.

Suddenly, boys who had never known she was alive were at her elbow. Though they never hung around for long. They all liked to prattle on about themselves or sports or the latest dumb big budget blockbuster, and Mary would quickly grow bored with them. After Mary could take no more of their inane dribble, she would interject about high concept fantasy or radical science fiction theories and quicker than you could say boo the young braggarts would be off to find a slutty cheerleader to fawn over them.

Once the Tempest siblings, Susan who was Mary's age and her handsome older brother John, moved in next door they became her first real life friends. Susan and John went to home school. So every afternoon when Mary got off the bus, they were waiting for her to regale them with tales from public school. She tried to explain to them it was quite dull but to them, the tales were as juicy as major spoilers for a big time TV shows plot. Their parents Evelyn and Nathaniel were both Ph.D.'s. Nathaniel was the head chemist at the local factory and made excellent money or so Mary's father had often said. He must have been correct because Evelyn had become a stay at home mom that saw to all her kid's educational needs. Both Susan and John shared a lot of the same interests as Mary. Also, they always understood exactly what she said no matter how recondite her vocabulary got. Evelyn became like a second mother to Mary often helping her with her homework. Susan was the sister she never had, and they shared almost all of each others most intimate secrets with each other at the many sleepovers they shared. John, though. As Mary and John had grown older, John went from being a substitute big brother to the boy that got her motor running. She would never tell him. Mary was too afraid that he would become, like the other boys, weirded out and begin avoiding her. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if that happened.

The Tempests had invited Mary to go with them to Tomorrow Con every year since they moved to town. But every year her father said no. Even when Nathaniel came over to plead her case personally and vouch he would not leave her side the entire con the answer had still been no. Mary still asked every year hoping that it would change.

This year she had been especially hopeful. As Susan and John were both over 18, their parents had booked them their own separate room at the host hotel. When Susan had told Mary this Mary had become ecstatic. The thoughts of being at Tomorrow con unchaperoned made her giddy. Then the fear set it. She knew her dad would say no, but she resolved herself to ask him.

To her delight and dismay, her father had said yes. He told her she was now an adult and that it was now her decision to make. He even went so far as to give her a hundred dollars to pay for her con badge.

Now though with what she had wished for just moments from happening Mary was in a state of wide-eyed panic. She continued whirling around her room checking and recheck drawers to make certain she hadn't forgotten anything. A knock at her bedroom door broke through her delirium. She raced over to the door and opened it wide. There stood Susan all 5'5'' of her slender frame blond locks rolling down her shoulders to cover the bumps her B cups made in her shirt. Mary caught herself staring a bit too long at Susan's alluring appearance. Mary get it together! You're creeping on your best friend!

"I knew it! I told John your con virgin ass would still be packing." Susan said in that tone cocksure tone she got when she was proven right in her assumptions. "He didn't believe me. He said Oh no Mary is always so put together. She has probably been ready to go since the moment her dad enunciating his approval." Mary felt her face flush slightly at hearing that John had praised her. "It's ok though sister. I'll save you. I'm the Queen when it comes to packing for Tomorrow Con." With that, Susan ran down the list of all the essentials one would need for the con. After Mary had realized, she had all that and more she finally closed her suitcase and headed downstairs to stow her luggage in John's 1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda. That car with it's cherry red, body black hard top, and leather interior was a dream. Since John had gotten it as his sixteenth birthday present, Mary had come up with many excuses to go riding with him.

Upon opening her front door, Mary saw that her father was standing by John's car peppering him with questions. Both John and her father looked up at the sound of the two girls dragging luggage out of the house. John was beaming a smile as he raced over to Mary to take her suitcase from her. She stammered a thank you, but it was lost in the wind as she began to stare at John's back as it flexed upon lifting her suitcase and putting it in the trunk.

"Susan you'll have to put the other bag in the back seat. I'm afraid you girls have run my car out of the room. Good thing I sent my stuff on ahead with mom and dad." John said jovially. "Let's make haste ladies we've got a couple of hours drive ahead of us and then a few more standing in line for registration. If we don't hurry, we won't get to eat dinner till midnight."

"You be careful honey." Mary's dad said placing a peck on her cheek. "If you need me call me. Oh, and have fun!"

With that, the three friends shut the car doors and headed out. Next, stop Tomorrow con.