Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Glee. All of the rights to the show go to Ryan Murphy and Co., and Twentieth Century Fox.
"Geez, Maddie. You've been asleep all morning." Mason stormed through his twin's disgustingly pink bedroom to separate the curtains from each other to reveal the bright morning sunlight. However, the sheets covering her head made it difficult for her to see anything.
It took a moment for Mason to realize that Madison wasn't getting out of bed, so he walked towards her bed and took the covers off her head. "Come on, it's ten. Time for breakfast."
A pained groan came from between her lips. "Go away." She muttered.
Mason's eyebrows furrowed at the current state of her sister. This wasn't normal. She usually had the same amount of energy he had on a daily basis; but now, she's cooped up in bed with an uncomfortable facial expression.
Actually, it had been that way for about a day and a half already. Mason's theory of identifying thoughts and ideas coming from her twin's brain clearly failed, for he didn't have the slightest idea on what's going on. She didn't look contagious or anything, so she couldn't have been sick.
"Pancakes have been out for about an hour already." Mason told her, but the most she did at that point was shift a bit on her side and shut her eyes even tighter than before. Mason didn't know what to do; he just shrugged. "Well, do you want me to heat it up for you, or…?"
"Go away." This time, she sounded as if she was about to cry. Mason grew concerned.
"Okay, sis. This isn't funny." Mason replied with some worry in his tone as he sat on the edge of her bed and observed her tiny body. God, she looked fragile. And the way she curled herself under the sheets didn't look like a satisfactory way to sleep. The last time he checked on her, she had been in that same position, only her legs weren't so close to her chest.
Mason was this close to rubbing her shoulder when his mother knocked softly on Madison's bedroom door. "Honey," she addressed her son, "she needs to get her rest. She's not feeling well."
Still confused and worried, Mason turned his gaze away from his resting sister towards their mother. "What happened to her?"
The brunette shrugged. "Not sure. All I know is that she hasn't been eating the past couple of days, and she keeps having stomach pains." She softly stepped closer in the room, enough so she could reach a hand out and grab one of Mason's. "Give her some time; she'll be up whenever she feels ready."
Mason grabbed his mother's hand and followed her out of the room, occasionally glancing back at the younger brunette girl in her pink bed. How long will that take?
Unfortunately, for Madison, it got worse. It was only about three or four hours later, and just when Mason was about to do his last check-up of the day on his twin sister, he heard violent vomiting coming from inside of the room. That had to have been the first time he heard her upchuck much of her digested food, and it didn't sound pretty.
"Mom!" Mason called, running around the room for his mother. Where the hell did she escape off to.
There was a note attached to the refrigerator with a red flower magnet: Went to the grocery store for bananas, paper towels, and biscuits. Dad will be home in a few. Mason forgot that note was even there, for he had fallen asleep around the time she wrote it.
Madison had coughed up a bit of the waste that was coming out of her mouth, and she sounded like she was crying a bit. "Mom! Mason!" she cried before she felt something else come up.
Mason didn't know what to do. Their mother was still out of the house, and their father wouldn't be home for about ten more minutes. Mason had no other choice but to call the neighbors, Sandra and Clayton Price. They always knew what to do.
"Mrs. Price?" Mason practically panicked. "My sister's throwing up in her room, and she needs help!" Mason couldn't think of another time he felt this concerned for his sister. She was the only other sibling he had; without her, he wouldn't have anyone.
Luckily, Clayton had rushed over to the McCarthy house from next door to take Madison to the hospital. He grabbed her out of her bed, making sure that he didn't get his hands too dirty and have contact with the vomit in her bed sheets and on her pillow.
Mason followed Clayton and Madison to the Price family's car. Sandra was preparing some soup, lemonade, and a ham and cheese sandwich for when Madison came back. How generous of her.
Mason stayed in the back of the car so he could be certain that Madison would be okay for the rest of the ride. He even held out the plastic Jewels back just in case she needed to puke again.
Madison was probably the luckiest girl in Mason's life, and she definitely realized it hours after hospital procedures were done.
The brunette girl woke up about an hour and a half later, humming a bit and trying to protect her eyes from the sudden shine coming from the fluorescent lighting in the hospital room. She overheard some doctors outside of the room, along with both of her parents, discuss the sudden case of appendicitis that had gotten into her system.
Appendicitis. She didn't know what it was or how it got in her body in the first place. Whatever it was, it was making her feel uncomfortable, as if she's not safe with her own body.
"Sis?" Mason's voice echoed into her ear once she was fully alert. Her sleepy eyes directed towards a head of curly locks. Madison knew she felt some type of wool fabric – it had been the sweater their aunt had knitted Mason for Christmas last year.
"Did something happen to me?" Madison asked. She was too oblivious to her condition, and quite scared, despite the fact that she didn't even know what appendicitis was.
Mason just nodded. "Yeah." He rubbed Madison's hair back a bit so her strands wouldn't be in her hair, and he kissed her immediately on the forehead. "But I took care of it. You're okay now."
Author's Note: Truth be told, I don't know much about appendicitis, either. The only reason I know what it is has to do with the fact that I watched almost every episode of Tyler Perry's House of Payne. See, kids, you can learn a lot from television alone (though it may not always be the best for you).