Rin and her brother were finally done with 5th period and rushed out of class to beat the crowd to the lunch room. When they arrived, it already had a few people in it who had come from closer classrooms. Len beat Rin and she stuck her tongue out at him.
Rin looked at the menu beside the door on the wall. She searched for today's date and frowned when she read what was for lunch. She wasn't really fond of grilled cheese. Len noticed her staring at the menu and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.
"They sell soft pretzels for an extra 20 cents if you don't want what's for lunch," he told her. Rin smiled and nodded.
They moved up in the lunch line and Rin requested a pretzel, Len took a grilled cheese. He didn't have the extra 20 cents to get a pretzel, so he was stuck with a sandwhich of spoiled, solid, milk. Rin grabbed a couple of cookies and an ice cream and put them on her tray. She also asked if she could have the tomatoe soup that came with the grilled cheese. The lunch lady reluctantly gave it to her, not sure if she should charge extra for it or not.
Len went wide eyed at the sight of her tray "You have enough?" he teased. Rin rolled her eyes at him.
"I'm hungry, okay?" Len shrugged her off and took a bite of his sandwhich. Rin tore her pretzel into bite sized pieces, then picked each piece up one by one, stuffing them in her mouth as fast as she could. Len watched her eat in amazement.
"Stop eating so fast, or you'll choke!" he exclaimed, making her stop and look at him. She scowled.
"I;m not gonna choke," she told him sternly, and picked up a cookie and shoved it down her throat in two bites. Len shook his head at her and dipped his spoon into his soup.
Rin finished with her lunch with twenty minutes to spare. Len was only halfway finished with his by the time she downed her milk. Rin glanced down at her tray and frowned. "I'm gonna go use the rest room." She hurried out of the lunch room.
Len gawked at her. He tried to think about why she had to leave in such a hurry. He figured that if he ate that much his stomach would hurt too. Must be a stomach ache, he reasoned. He finished his lunch alone. Rin didn't come back until the bell rang, and she only came back to get her bnider.
The same thing happened the next day. This time however, Len realized he had brought the wrong binder and needed to go to his locker to get the right one. He left before Rin was finished eating. On his way back to the lunch room, he got an idea. He knew that Rin had a ton of food that day as well. She'd be back in the bathroom. He thought of hiding in the bathroom and scaring her when she walked in. She'd probably scream, hit him, and call him a jerk and not talk to him for the rest of the day, but it'd be worth it.
Len waltzed into the girl's restroom as if he had every right to be there. Once inside, he hid behind the door and waited. Sure enough, he heard footsteps coming from down the hall. He snickered to himself.
The door hit him as it swung in, quite hard. He winced and put his hand over his nose. For a second he thought she knew he was there, but quickly realized that wasn't the case when he heard a stall door open and close. But it didn't lock, he noticed. There was no sound of the lock sliding into place, and he heard the door softly bounce off the wall. He made sure he was stable before going over to the open, yet occupied stall. It was Rin alright. He saw her shoe before he sasw the rest of her. Strangely enough, it was facing the wrong direction, as if she was facing the toilet. He jumped behind her, prepared to shout boo, or some other phrase that would likely startle her, no matter how cheesy or lame, but froze when he saw what was going on.
Rin was leaning over the toilet, heaving and gagging. Len stood there for a moment until he shook himself out of his shock and knelt down beside her. He moved her hair out of her face and rubbed her back. He waite patiently for her to finish before he talked.
"Are you okay?" he asked. He hadn't known Rin to over eat, especially not enough to make her sick like that. Maybe it was a bug. Rin flushed as Len felt her forehead.
"I'm not sick," she mumbled, looking away from him. Len wrinkled his nose in concern.
"Do you feel okay? Does your stomach hurt? You aren't warm..." Rin turned away from him and nodded.
"I'm fine," she insisted. Len frowned at her and turned her head towards him.
"Hey", he said softly. "I don't want you getting worse. If you're sick, then I need to take you to the nurse."
"I'm not sick," Rin repeated. She stood up and walked over to the mirror. "What are you doing here anyway?" She inpected herself carefully, touching her sides and tilting her head.
Len ignored her question and stood up too. "Rin, if you're throwing up, then you need to go to the nurse." Rin stared at her reflection and frowned, crossing her arms across her chest. She looked away from the mirror and refused to look back. Len widened his eyes at her actions. He understood why she kept coming into the bathroom every day after lunch now. He understood how she could eat so much and still stay so skinny. He frowned and hugged her tightly. Rin didn't move.
"Rin," he began slowly. "I don't know why, or...or what made you think that this was okay, but...I..." Len sighed and looked her in the eye. Rin forced herself not to look away.
"Rin, you don't need to do this. You look fine the way you are. You're a beautiful girl. You don't need to..." Len stopped talking as Rin walked out of the bathroom.
Len talked to the nurse right after that. He told her what Rin had been doing and asked her to do something for her. Rin had her meals monitored from then on by the nurse and their parents. Rin was mad at Len and wouldn't talk to him for almost a week. Eventually she forgave him and ate lunch with him again. Len looked at her tray. There was too much food on there that she would be comfortable with eating and not purging afterwards. Len gave her a look. She shrugged. He got a little annoyed at that point.
He grabbed the eleven cookies and french fries off her tray.
"Hey! That's mine!" Rin shouted.
"And I will pay you for them." Len handed Rin the last couple dollars he had in his pocket for snacks. Rin put her hands on her hips.
"Len, this isn't funny," she said. She tried to take back her food, but to no avail. Len realized that he would have to do more than just take them away if he wanted her to stay safe.
"I know," he responed, splitting the cookies into five piles of two. "Which is why I'm not taking chances." Len shoved one of the piles of cookies into his mouth, chewed, and then attempted to swallow. He did the same for the other two piles of cookies. Once that was done, he started munching on the fries as fast as he could. His stomach started to hurt, but he figured it was worth it to help his sister.
Rin sat there helplessly as she watched her brother devour her treats. She frowned at him. "I hope your stomach hurts from eating all that," she said rudely. Len belched and forced a smile.
"It does, but at least you're not gonna hurt yourself." Rin sighed and handed him a napkin. Len gladly accepted it and gave her the last cookie in return. "How about this, huh? One cookie at lunch, and not every day. That's totally fine. No one's gonna mind if you do that. But next time I see your tray jam packed full of food, I'm telling the lunch ladies not to sell you any extras. Mom will support me, too, which means definitely no cookies at school ever again."
Rin widened her eyes in horror. No cookies? That's like telling him he couldn't have bananas! Rin nodded furiously. "Alright, alright! No more stacks of cookies." Len smiled and looked down at his tray. He wasn't hungry anymore to be honest. He sipped his diet Pepsi and watched his sister eat. Rin noticed him staring after a while and put down her fork.
"So you're gonna pay extra for a pretzel and not eat it? Really?"
Len sighed and looked down. He could probably afford to get it down, he'd just need to do an extra half an hour at his workout when he got home. Those cookies were a bad idea. Slowly, he began nibbling at his pretzel. Rin smiled at her brother and started eating again. Time flew by and they both realized that they only had a few minutes left to finish their food. Rin shoveled in mashed potatoes and Len chugged his Pepsi. Bad. Idea.
The bell rang just as the two of them finished and they ran to throw away their trays and get to class. Rin had a study hall thankfully, but Len was stuck in History. His teacher was a good guy, always nice and not one to misuse slang and make something cool sound lame. But he wasn't really known for taking pity on kids. A kid had a headache? Deal with it. A girl's dog died and she didn't do her homework because she was upset? F. A kid missed a day because his grandma was diagnosed with cancer? Have fun reading at home, I'm not teaching you what you missed. Len was a little concerned when he started to feel sick to his stomach.
Mr. Shion pointed to the country on the map of which he was talking about. "Who can tell me where the army came in from and why?"
A few students raised their hands and were called on, getting the answer wrong. Len felt a little pale and sweaty. He raised his hand slowly.
"Len," Mr. Shion called on him.
"Mr. Shion, can I talk to you for a second?" He felt himself changing color. Mr. Shion was well acquainted with Len, since they did workouts together sometimes, and knew that when he asked to talk to him, something was wrong. But he wouldn't just let him go out for nothing.
"Answer the question first," he said. Len squinted at the map. He felt himself getting hotter.
"Um...They came in around the mountains, because the mountains were too hard to scale, and it was much safer to take the long route." Mr. Shion smiled at him.
"Nice," he congratulated him.
"Um, Mr-"
"Now, why do you think-"
"Mr. Shion, please!" Len interrupted him. Mr. Shion stopped talking and looked at him.
"Don't interrupt me," he warned. Len felt his stomach boil.
"Mr. Shion, I think I'm gonna puke," he said. He put his hand over his mouth and looked at the floor. Mr. Shion hurriedly grabbed the trashcan and led him downstairs. He rushed him down the stairs and to the nurse.
Once they arrived, Len was shaken up badly, and finding it very hard to keep his lunch in his stomach. The nurse had Len lie down and felt his forehead.
"Did you eat something bad, honey?" the nurse asked him. He shook his head and put his hand over his mouth. He was going to puke.
He frantically searched for the trashcan from Mr. Shion's room and shoved his head in it. The nurse rubbed his back and waited for him to finish.
"What did you eat for lunch today?" she asked. Len sniffed and sipped a bit of water from a bottle that she provided for him.
"Y-you know how my sister used to eat a bunch of food, then go in the bathroom and throw up?" The nurse nodded, afraid what his answer would be, seeing his condition. "W-well, s-she tried to do it again today...She had a ton of food on her tray today. I didn't want her to do it, so I took away all the extra stuff and only let her eat one cookie with her lunch. But she kept trying to take the stuff back, so I ended up eating it. Ugh, it was such a bad idea..."
The nurse rubbed his back as she listened, glad that he wasn't bulimic as well. "What all did you eat?"
Len groaned. "A basket of french fries and eleven cookies..." The nurse widened her eyes. She had no idea that Rin was getting so much junk at lunch. She felt bad for her brother.
"I think I'm gonna send you home," she said. "Try and get some rest, okay?" Len nodded and closed his eyes while lying down on the bed. His arm rested over his stomach.
The nurse called his parents to come pick him up. They came as quick as they could, wondering what was the matter with him. The nurse only vaguely described what had happened, and his mom and dad were very worried about him.
"He's over there on the bed," the nurse informed them. His parents made their way over to Len. His mom called out his name, but he didn't act like he heard her. She nudged him slightly. He groaned softly and turned over.
"I think he's asleep," his dad said. He picked him up and held him close. His mom filed out a paper a show he was leaving and then they made their way back to the car. Len stirred when they put him in a seat and tried to buckle him up. He woke up and looked at his dad's hands, which were fumbling with the seat belt buckle. Len felt the pressure of the seat belt on his tummy and grabbed his dad's wrist to keep him from buckling him.
"I wanna lay down," Len mumbled. His dad nodded and let go of the seat belt. He hoped that if they were pulled over, the officer would understand why Len wasn't wearing a seat belt. It wasn't as if he was sitting up. He was lying down. If they crashed, he would be slightly safer than if he were sitting up. A seat belt would help though.
The drive home was horrible for Len. He started feeling his stomach getting agitated around the halfway point. He didn't want to tell his parents and make them worry about something that probably wouldn't even happen, but he regretted his decision after a few more minutes.
He slowly sat up and clutched his stomach. He looked at his parents from behind, wondering if he should tell them now. He decided not to again. The last few minutes he actually felt like throwing up. He tapped on his mom's shoulder to get her attention. She looked back at Len and smiled.
"Hey baby," she said softly. "Feeling any better?"
"I feel like I'm gonna be sick," he mumbled. His mom looked around for something he could use just in case he did get sick. She couldn't find anything. She looked to her husband.
"Honey, are you able to pull over at any time on this road?" she asked. He nodded. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to look at Len. He was pale and sweaty. She brushed his bangs out of his face.
"Okay, as soon as you think it's gonna come out, shout out the word bubbles, okay?" Len looked at her, confused.
"Bubbles?" he asked. "Why *hiccup!* bubbles?" He was confused as to why he hiccuped, but ignored it.
"Because we'll know that you're absolutely sure you're going to throw up so we can pull over as soon as possible."
"Well yeah, but *hic!* why the word bubbles specifically?"
"Because it's highly unlikely that anyone other than you would say that for any other reason other than its code meaning. And its faster than saying, 'Pull over, I think I'm gonna be sick!' Isn't it?" Len nodded, hiccuping again. He laid back down and closed his eyes, hoping the nausea would settle.
Just minutes from their house, Len shouted bubbles, sitting up quickly and putting his hand over his mouth. His dad pulled over instantly and Len jerked the door open and stumbled out of the car. He dropped to his knees and dry heaved for a few moments, then sat back and breathed deeply. He shook his head.
"I can't..." he mumbled. He made sure that he wouldn't be sick and then trudged back to the car. His mom looked at him, concerned.
"You feel better sweetie?" He shook his head and lied back down.
They made it back to the house and Len fell asleep in his bed, glad to be stationary again.
After school let out, Rin began to wonder why Len was't riding the bus home with her. She walked into the house and threw her stuff on the table and made her way into the kitchen. She made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and sat down to watch some TV. After a while, she got bored and went to her room to study. She was surprised to see a large lump in Len's bed underneath the covers. She stared for a moment, then gathered up the courage to go over and invesigate.
Rin pulled the blanket back slowly, revealing Len. She tilted her head in confusion. She knew he hadn't gone home with her. What was he doing in bed?
Len groaned and pulled the blanket back over his head. Rin stepped back a little, not sure what to do.
"Len? she called out quietly. She heard a soft groan. Rin sat down on the edge of his bed and put her hand on the mass under the blanket.
"Are you okay?" she asked. Another groan. "You tired or something? Hey, I didn't see you get on the bus today. Why weren't you there?"
Rin heard the door open creakily and turned to see who it was. It was her mom. She gestured for Rin to come closer. Rin stood and went over to her mom. She pulled them out into the hallway and closed the door.
"What's going on, Mom?" Rin asked, concerned now.
"Your brother's got a bit of a stomach ache dear," she answered. "Don't bother him, okay? He's still settling from the car ride. Let him sleep until he's better." Rin took in the information.
"Why's he sick?" she asked. "Is he contagious or something?" Rin's mom chuckled silently and ruffled her daughter's hair.
"No, sweety, he's not contagions," she said. "He ate too much at lunch today."
Rin nodded and frowned. That was parly her fault. She bought all the extas. She didn't know the idiot would go and eat them all himself, though. Baka...
"Okay Mom," she mumbled. He mom smiled at her and walked back into the living room. Rin sat down on the couch in the family room and turned the TV back on. She fell asleep after the first two episodes of cartoons that came on. They were reruns anyway, so it's not like she was missing anything.
Rin woke up and yawned. She tried to stretch, but felt something blocking her right arm. She turned to her right. Len was lying beside her, eyes closed, arms wrapped around her like a big hug. Rin smiled and wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tight. Len stirred and opened his eyes a little. Rin smiled at him.
"Hey sleepy-head, how ya' feelin'?" she teased. Len smiled and closed his eyes.
"I'm okay," he mumbled. "I haven't felt sick in quite a while." Rin laid her head against his.
"That's good..." She yawned and snuggled up into her brother. He snickered at her and tried to make his arms cover her more, as if he were protecting her. They fell asleep on the couch next to each other.
Rin's mom walked into the family room and looked at her two babies. She smiled and turned off the TV. She draped a blanket over the two of them and kissed their foreheads, whispering goodnight.