Sarah reached over and turned off the arm clock. She wanted five more minutes, but the smell of fresh brewed coffee was just too enticing. Sarah rolled out of bed, stretched, and let out a big yawn. After making her bed she left her room, wiping the morning crud out of her eyes.

  “Good morning.” She said to Rachel. Rachel was already up and dressed in a business suit, sitting at the dinner table with a steaming cup of coffee and reading the news on her ptop.

  “Morning.” Rachel replied. “How was your first night in the guest room?”

  “It was actually really comfortable. Is that mattress memory foam?”

  “Latex actually.” Rachel then looked away from her ptop to look at Sarah. “I see that you sleep in your underwear.”

  “Hey, that’s just how I roll.” Sarah then opened up a cabinet and grabbed herself a mug. “Why, does this turn you on?”

  “Hmph.” Rachel replied before taking a sip of coffee. “Believe it or not, but not turned on by every girl on the pnet. Especially girls that I know are straight.”

  “Your loss. I’m quite the catch.” Sarah said jokingly. She then poured herself a cup of coffee and added some sweetener. Sarah then looked in the refrigerator for creamer. “Hey, do you have any creamer?”

  “Besides the sweetener I take my coffee bck. But if you want some you can just add it to the shopping list. It’s on the refrigerator.”

  Sarah located the shopping list pinned under a magnet. She found a pen in a nearby drawer and wrote down coffee creamer. “Hey, why don’t I go shopping with you today? It will give an opportunity to see more of the capital and I can help you with the groceries.”

  Rachel finished her coffee. “That’s a good idea. I could always use another set of helping hands around here.” Rachel got up and put her mug away in the dishwasher. “So aside from shopping what else do you have pnned for today? You still have a week until your job starts.”

  Sarah leaned back against the counter and sipped her coffee. Even with the sweetener, it was still bitter. “I saw a gym across the street yesterday as you were helping me move in. I figured I would give it a try.”

  “Oh that gym is great. I go there all the time.” Rachel then rolled up her sleeve and flexed her bicep. “Fortunately for you the first month is free for new members. You can borrow my gym bag and my spare room key to get back in the apartment.”

  “Wow thanks!” Sarah took another sip of coffee. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

  Rachel just smiled. “Because you remind me of myself when I first came to the WildLands. I have to go to work. There are tofu turkey sausages in the refrigerator that you can have for breakfast. I’ll be back this afternoon around 4 to go grocery shopping.”

  Rachel then grabbed her phone and ptop and hurried out the door. Sarah cooked up the sausages and ate them for breakfast. She then got ready to go to the gym. Sarah changed out of her underwear and put on a sports bra and panties. She then put on a red tank top and a bck pair of leggings. After tying her hair up into a ponytail she grabbed Rachel’s gym bag, put the spare key in it, and then headed off for the gym.

  Sarah entered the gym and was awestruck by the rge amount of equipment the pce had. Sarah went to the front desk and filled out a membership form. She then grabbed a complementary towel and went over to the treadmills to do some cardio. Sarah’s phone was still dead, so she figured she would just watch some T.V. The morning news was on, and unlike the human world the news in the WildLands was mostly positive.

  Sarah was starting to work up a good sweat when suddenly she noticed him. The blue eyed, white wolf from the day before with the tight ass. He was doing squat thrusts, with his ass becoming tighter with every squat. Sarah shook her head. “No! I have to focus!” Sarah thought to herself. She tried to keep her eyes on the T.V., but eventually she was drawn to the white wolf’s ass like a magnet.

  The white wolf finished his squats and wiped away his sweat with a towel. As he did so, everything for Sarah entered a state of slow motion. She could not get over how handsome he was. Unfortunately, she was not paying attention to her running on the treadmill. Not only did Sarah trip and fall face first, but the speed of the treadmill unched her backwards.

  Everyone in the gym stopped and stared at Sarah. A few even ughed. Sarah immediately got to her feet and shouted “I’m okay! I’m okay!” Once again Sarah was gd that her face was covered with fur so that no one could see her blush. Sarah covered her head with a towel and continued on with her workout.

  Sarah worked on every part of her body, including her arms, legs, glutes, chest, abs, back, shoulders, and neck. After finishing her workout Sarah went to get a drink at the gym’s juice bar. After ordering a peach mango smoothie Sarah heard a familiar voice come from behind her.

  “Hey Sarah! It is so good to see you again!” Sarah turned around to see Becky Cottonwood standing behind her wearing a pink sports bra and pink running shorts.

  “Becky! It’s great to see you again so soon!” Sarah got up and gave Becky a hug. Becky then took a seat next at the juice bar next to Sarah. “I didn’t know that you came to this gym.”

  “Oh yeah, I totally come here on my days off to work on my cardio. So, how is your first visit going?”

  “Oh! Uh, it’s going well.” Sarah then took a sip of her smoothie and avoided eye contact.

  Becky raised an eyebrow. “Really? Because that’s not what I’m hearing.” Becky then took out her phone and pyed a video of Sarah falling on the treadmill on a loop.

  Sarah instantly did a spit take with her smoothie. “Aw come on! Social media exists here in the WildLands?”

  “Oh yeah, and you are trending girlfriend!” Becky said with a snap of her fingers.

  Sarah buried her face in the palms of her hands. “Oh, fuck my life! How could this get any worse?”

  Becky once again checked her phone. “Oh hey! You’re up to a million views!”

  Sarah had heard enough. She finished her smoothie in one big gulp, then hurried out of the gym and back to the apartment. It was no use though, because as soon as she stepped foot outside everybody recognized her as Treadmill Girl. Some residents pointed and ughed, while others asked for selfies. Sarah posed for the selfies because at least those residents were being nice. Once Sarah got back to the apartment, she took a cold shower to cool herself down and then put on a T-shirt and jeans and sat on the couch, spending most of the afternoon watching T.V.

  Rachel came home from work at 4:00 like she said she would. “Hey, ready to go grocery shopping?”

  Sarah looked at Rachel, then fell back on the couch. “I don’t feel like going outside, and I think you know why.”

  Rachel put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Listen, you have got to get over being Treadmill Girl. Social media fame doesn’t st forever and besides there were dozens of photos I saw of you with happy fans of yours, most of them kids. So just know that for one day you made the residents of not only the capital, but most of the WildLands happy.”

  Sarah sat up on the couch. “Wow, I never really thought of it like that before.”

  Rachel smiled and nodded her head. “Now come on, I need to get some ingredients for dinner tonight.”

  Rachel drove Sarah to the grocery store. On the way over Sarah and Rachel struck up a conversation. “So did anyone cross over into the WildLands today?” Sarah asked.

  “No, no one sniffed the flower today.” Rachel replied. “At least not the one by the capital.”

  Sarah’s eyes went wide. “Wait, there’s more than one flower?”

  “Oh yeah. There is at least one flower on the outskirts of each of the major cities in the WildLands.”

  “So how many flowers are there in total?”

  “16 that we know of. Again, this was all in the introduction video. You really need to learn to pay attention.”

  Sarah just looked out the car window. “Hey, it’s not my fault the damn thing was so boring.”

  After arriving at the grocery store Rachel grabbed a shopping cart and Sarah picked up a shopping basket. They decided to split up, with Sarah taking one half of the list and Rachel taking the other. Sarah had gone shopping before, but mostly for ready made meals. She hadn’t really done any cooking in a long time.

  The first thing she got was coffee creamer. Sweetener wasn’t enough. She needed her coffee to have fvor. Next on the list was onions. Sarah reluctantly picked a couple of those up and put them in the basket. Sarah hated onions. If Rachel wanted to cook with them fine, but she was not going to eat them.

  After getting a few more items Sarah went to meet up with Rachel. As she was walking down the aisle she passed by a coyote and a cheetah. Thanks to her new enhanced fox hearing, Sarah could hear what they were saying to each other as she walked by.

  “Dude, that’s the Treadmill Girl!” The coyote said.

  “Man, she’s hot!” The cheetah replied.

  Sarah smiled and swished her tail. Perhaps having social media fame wasn’t so bad after all. Sarah met up with Rachel and they bought their groceries. Sarah helped load them into Rachel’s car and they drove back to the apartment.

  “So what are you cooking for dinner?” Sarah asked after helping to put the groceries away.

  “I’m making fajitas.” Rachel said. “And I bought cheesecake for dessert.”

  Sarah’s mouth watered. She had not had cheesecake in a long time. “Oh that sounds so good.”

  Rachel began making dinner. Sarah helped by chopping up the peppers, but she left the onions for Rachel to chop. Rachel seasoned the imitation meat and cooked it up with the peppers and onions. Sarah heated up the tortils.

  Rachel served up the fajitas with guacamole. Sarah helped herself, but picked out the onions. “How come you don’t like onions?” Rachel asked.

  “Because onions taste nasty, they smell bad, and they have a disgusting crunch to them.” Sarah replied. “I have hated onions ever since I was a kid.”

  Rachel swallowed a bite of her fajita. “I feel the same way about squash. I think it’s absolutely disgusting.”

  “Me too! I can’t stand squash!” Both Sarah and Rachel then broke out ughing. “I guess we have more in common than we thought.”

  “I guess we do.” Rachel said with a smile. After dinner Sarah helped to clean the dishes. Rachel then served up the cheesecake with some red wine.

  “Oh, I haven’t had alcohol before.” Sarah said.

  “Don’t worry, one gss isn’t going to kill you.” Rachel said reassuringly.

  Sarah picked up the gss and took a sip. “Mmm, not bad.”

  Rachel sat down and raised her gss. “Well, here’s to social media fame. Short though it may be.”

  “To 15 minutes of fame.” Sarah then clinked her gss with Rachel’s. As she ate her cheesecake, Sarah could not stop thinking about the white wolf. She had already encountered him twice. Was it all a mere coincidence, or was there something more?