Welcome to the long overdue sequel to Forever Family. I'm calling it Forever Family 2 until I can think of a better name... Enjoy!
"Gracie," I hear mom calling my name from downstairs, "Gracie, get up!" She sounds a little irritated. I roll over and look at my phone. 7.45AM. I'm late again. And I have about a million texts from Taylor, I guess I fell asleep while we were on the phone last night. I rub my eyes and send her a good morning text and manage to drag myself out of bed to head downstairs.
"Hey," My voice is still croaky, and my throat hurts worse than yesterday, "Sorry," I join the other kids at the breakfast table, they're all dressed and ready for school and I'm still in my pyjamas.
"Oh Honey," Mama comes to my side and puts the back of her hand on my forehead, "Are you still sick?"
I've had a really sore throat for the past couple of weeks but only this week did it get really bad. I missed school on Friday, spent the weekend in bed, managed to get myself in yesterday, but it was hard, I think moms will make me stay home again today. I nod and take a sip of the water mom placed at my seat.
"Maybe we need to take you to the doctor?" Mom says, she also comes over to feel my forehead, "You're really hot sweetie,"
"No, I'm fine," I gently push their arms away, "I don't want to miss any more school, and you guys don't need to skip out on work,"
"Gracie you've been sick for weeks, just go," Mariana says, earning daggers from me. I didn't tell moms when my sore throat started because I knew they'd make me stay home.
"Weeks?" Here comes moms' overreactions, "That's it I'm calling Doctor Rufus," She walks off dialling her phone.
"Gracie, if you've been feeling sick for weeks you should have told us, what if something is seriously wrong, you know how much we value honesty in this family, why didn't you tell us?" Mama sits down next to me.
"Because I knew you'd overreact, I'm fine it's just a sore throat,"
"And dizzy spells," Jude adds, there's no point lying now, "She nearly passed out in class yesterday,"
"Okay, we better get to school," Mariana announces, and they all put they're dirty dishes in the sink and make their way out.
"Please mama, let me go," I practically beg her, I get up to try and go upstairs to get dressed but a dizzy spell hits me, and mama has to take my arms to keep me steady.
"Come on, G, let's get you to the couch," She leads me into the living room and makes me lie down, "Now," She sits on the edge of the coffee table and crosses her legs, "Is it just the throat and the dizziness? Or is there anything else?" I don't respond right away. I might as well be honest now that I have to go see the doctor.
"Headaches and a little bit of nausea," I close my eyes, "And I'm always sleepy," She drapes a blanket over me.
"He has an opening for later today," Mom comes and joins us in the living room, "11 AM, go back to sleep until then and we'll wake you when it's time to go," She's flustered, I can tell she's annoyed I didn't come to them sooner, I feel guilty, but I'm sure it's nothing. Regardless of her annoyance she kisses my heads and pulls my blanket up to my chin.
"Shout for us if you need anything," Mama kisses me too and I hear them walk away as I close my eyes. But I can't fall asleep, I feel too sick. I have to sit up and put my head between my knees. I stumble to my feet and over to the trash can and puke. Moms rush back in, Mama rubs my back while Mom puts my hair in a ponytail and hands me some water.
"Is this the first time you've vomited Gracie?" Mama helps me back up to the couch and sits next to me.
"Yeah," I lie, but she sees straight through it, "No, it started a couple of nights ago, but I thought it was just something I ate," Mom comes back in from the kitchen with a bucket for me.
"Are you blaming my cooking?" Mom jokes, "There's that smile," She kisses my head, "I called Doctor Rufus again, he's going to make a house call instead," I hate it when they fuss over me because I don't want to distract them from more important things, but I have to admit it's nice to be taken care of like this, I just wish I didn't have to see the doctor. He might want me to go to the hospital and I hate hospitals, not that anybody likes them or anything. It's just that all of my experiences there have been nothing short of traumatising.
"I'm sorry for lying about this, I was being dumb," I laugh a little and begin to throw up more.
"It's okay sweets, we're gonna get this all figured out and you can get back to school,"
Mama sits with me as I try to drift off to sleep again. I don't manage to, but I pretend for mama's sake. A couple of hours later, I overhear her and mom talking about me.
"Do you think it could be stress? It's been almost a year since everything happened, maybe it's creeping back up again," Mom whispers.
"Could be, or maybe there's just more she's not telling us," They sound really worried, this is why I kept it to myself, or at least tried to.
"You don't trust her?"
"No of course I do, but you know what she's like,"
"Yeah, she's like Callie when she first got here, not telling us things trying to keep us from worrying,"
"Whatever it is, Doctor Rufus will figure it out and we'll get her better," The door knocks, "That'll be him, I'll get it," Mama goes to the front door and I roll over and sit up, Mom comes to my side. She sees the look on my face and promptly pulls the bucket up to my face as I heave my guts out.
"Guess there's no need to ask who the patient is," Doctor Rufus pulls up a chair next to me, "Why don't you tell me what's going on?"
I start to speak but I can't get a word out before I need the bucket again, "She's had a sore throat for a few weeks, and dizzy spells, headaches and nausea, but she said the vomiting started a few days ago," Mom answers for me.
"I'm sorry," I whimper.
"Hey, sweets it's okay," Mom strokes my cheek.
I sort of blackout as I let Doctor Rufus do my checkup, he takes my temperature, my blood pressure, and checks my breathing. Then he starts to feel my glands.
"How long have you had this swollen lymph-node Gracie?" He asks as he's feeling my neck.
"Uh, I hadn't noticed it," I groggily answer, bringing my hand up to the small bump that has formed on the right side of my neck.
"Can I check your chest?" I nod, "There's a few here too, probably nothing to worry about but I'll do a blood-test just for good measure," I clutch my moms and look away as he does it, I hate needles, but I don't want to cause any more stress for moms.
"Any idea what's wrong with her?" I keep my face buried in mama's arm, the bright light has suddenly started to make my headache worse.
"Well, she has a little bit of a temperature and her breathing sounds a little off, but her blood pressure's normal, I just wanted to take her blood to be on the safe side, but it's very possible this could just be the flu," I feel mama sigh with a small sense of relief. But I still feel like crap.
"So, what we do in the meantime?" Mom asks, I can tell I've stressed her out by being so unwell, which makes me feel worse, like a burden.
"There's not much we can do, so I'm going to get a rush on the blood test, so we can be certain it is just the flu, you'll just have to wait it out, what you can do is make sure you're drinking lots of water, eating healthy and getting at least eight hours of sleep every night," He says.
"You hear that, G? No more late-night Netflix sessions," Mama jokes, "Thanks, Doctor Rufus,"
"Anytime, I hope you feel better soon, Gracie," Mama sees him out and comes back to my side. And I burst into tears.
"Oh sweetie, it's gonna be fine, you heard the doc, it's probably just the flu," Mom hugs me.
"I know but I just feel so bad, you guys could be at work and instead, you're here with me," I sob, "I always do this, I'm just such a huge burden on this whole family,"
"Gracie, listen to me," Mom takes my hands, "You are not a burden, you're our daughter, and we love you,"
"And no matter how sick you are, no matter what is going on, we'll always be here for you, it's not your job to worry about us!" Mama takes my hand too.
"I think someone needs a mama sandwich," They each wrap their arms around me and squeeze until I can't help but laugh.
"I love you guys too," They rock me.