So I've been writing this off and on for awhile now, not intending to post it, but now I think I want to share this with everyone. I hope you like it :)
Shelby slipped into her daughter's room and over to the nightstand beside Rachel's bed, hitting the off button on the teenager's alarm clock before it could go off. As much as she wanted to reach out and feel Rachel's forehead to check her fever, Shelby resisted out of fear of waking up the finally sleeping girl. At some point in the middle of the night, Rachel developed a fever, cough, and sore throat. Shelby had given Rachel some medicine to help her sleep, but it didn't do much to help. Rachel spent most of the night tossing and turning while dealing with her pesky cough.
Without touching Rachel, she could tell the girl had a fever and little beads of sweat were formed on Rachel's forehead, but she was wrapped up in her blankets so tightly that Shelby would disturb Rachel's slumber. It wasn't until just an hour or so ago where Rachel started to get comfortable and was able to sleep. Instead of tugging at the blankets, Shelby reached up and pulled the cord to the ceiling fan. Setting it on a medium speed, Shelby turned around and attempted to leave the room.
"Mom?" A groggy and hoarse voice broke the silence.
"Yes, sweetie?" Shelby whispered. She was hoping Rachel would ask to stay home from school today, but she knew better.
"Can you start my shower?" Rachel asked, ending her question with a series of coughs.
"Honey, I think you should stay home from school today." Shelby softly said, walking over to the queen sized bed and sitting on the edge of it. She began to rub her hand up and down Rachel's back. "You still feel really hot and your cough is getting worse."
"But I can't miss any school. I won't have a perfect attendance record." Rachel whined. She tried to sit up but her actions were blocked by Shelby gently pushing her back into the nest of blankets she had created.
Shelby tucked a thinner blanket around Rachel, leaving the heavier ones off to the sides of Rachel. "Rachel, you are sick. You are not going to school today or even tomorrow. I am going downstairs to make you some breakfast so you can take some medicine and then you are going back to bed. And when the doctor's office opens, I am calling to make you an appointment."
"But mom." Rachel whined again.
Shelby held up a hand, silencing the girl. "Not another word." Shelby's firm tone warned Rachel to not argue with her. "I need to wake your sister up and then I will be back with your breakfast."
"Okay." Rachel sighed, which caused her to cough.
Shelby closed the door to the bedroom as she walked out of Rachel's room. To the right, at the end of the hall, Shelby's youngest child, Beth, was still asleep and needed to be woken up so she could go to school. The blonde haired girl was happily tucked into her twin sized bed, with her blankets laid perfectly over her tiny body. Unlike her sixteen year old sister, soon to be eleven year old Beth, was not easy to wake up and get off to school. Shelby knew Beth would try especially hard this morning to try and get out of school.
Sitting on the bed, Shelby pulled back the comforter and began to rub Beth's stomach to wake her up. "Good morning, Baby." Shelby said when Beth began to stir. "Come on, you gotta get up for school."
"Can I stay home?" Beth asked before she had even opened her eyes.
Shelby rolled her own. "No, you aren't sick, you have plenty of clean clothes, the bubble gum is out of your hair, the cut on the bottom of your foot is healed, and you didn't 'accidentally' forget to do a homework assignment. You are going."
Beth, whose eyes were finally open, dropped her jaw in shock that her mother had somehow known which excuses she was going to use. Just as quickly as her jaw had fallen open, she closed her mouth and glared at Shelby.
"What? How did?" Beth stammered but settled on whining. "Mooom!"
"Get up, Beth. You have ten minutes to be downstairs for breakfast." Shelby said, walking out of the room.
On her way to the stairs, Shelby stopped by Rachel's room, making sure the girl was still in bed and not trying to get ready for school. A small smirk crossed her lips when she saw that Rachel was in her bed and fast asleep. She closed the door once again and went down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Even though Rachel was asleep, Shelby was going to make her something anyway. It was getting close to the time where Rachel could have her next dose of medicine, which would hopefully put the girl to sleep. Shelby pulled out a bowl and a whisk, along with the ingredients needed to make french toast.
Since Shelby worked at McKinley, where Rachel was currently a sophomore, the small family, including her husband Hiram, were able to get into a routine that worked for the entire Berry family. Shelby's day started at five thirty, with her needing to make Hiram breakfast before he went off to work at six. Getting a whole forty-five minutes to herself before making sure Rachel heard her alarm, Shelby took this time to take her shower and get dressed for the day. To save Rachel and Beth from arguing over the bathroom in the morning, Shelby started making Beth take her bath or shower the night before and waking the ten year old up fifteen minutes after her sister, gave Rachel enough time to shower and do her hair and makeup before Beth charged in demanding the use of the bathroom. And by the time the girls were done getting ready, Shelby had breakfast made and the three enjoyed the few minutes they got before having to leave for school and work. Most mornings didn't go as smoothly as Shelby envisioned, but they came pretty close.
As she plated Beth's food, the youngest Berry daughter came into the room right on time. Beth sat down at the kitchen table, asking her mother to put her hair into braids. Shelby set the plate of french toast, eggs, and sausage in front of Beth and returned to the kitchen counter, opening a drawer of random items, pulling a hair tie out. Between Rachel and Beth taking their hair ties and bobby pins out and throwing them on the most convenient place at the time, Shelby had a growing collection around the house, including the food pantry, courtesy of Rachel. Standing behind Beth, she picked up the brush the girl had brought down with her and began to brush through the long, blonde locks. It was a huge surprise to everyone when Beth's hair started to grow in blonde after her birth. Many people believed she had been adopted as her mother, father and sister each had dark hair, but she had her mother's eye shape, which both girls had inherited, though all three had a different color.
"There you go." Shelby said, securing the single braid down the center of the girl's back with a light pink hair tie.
"Thank you, Mommy." Beth grinned.
"You're welcome."
Shelby kissed the top of Beth's head, reminding the girl to take her brush back up to the bathroom so it wouldn't get lost, when she was done eating. Shelby made her own plate of food and sat down beside Beth to eat.
"You know, I really think I should stay home today." Shelby gave a sideways glace to the girl, silently warning her to stop while she was ahead. "No really."
"Why is that?"
"Because, there's a field trip today and I forgot to have you sign the permission slip and I didn't turn the money in on time." Beth said. "The kids who aren't going have to stay at school and do worksheets all day, I don't want to do worksheets all day, and they are boring."
"Well then it's a good thing I found the permission slip in the car during my lunch break last week and took it to the school with the money."
Beth sighed. She did not want to go on the field trip to the planetarium, it sounded so boring.
"Yay." Beth sarcastically rolled her eyes.
"I know you don't want to go, but there is going to be a project assigned based on the field trip and I will not let you stay home in order to avoid having to do it."
"This isn't fair." Beth huffed, dumping her cleared plate into the sink. She grabbed the brush off the table and started to go up the stairs.
"Well, when you're older you can go to therapy and discuss how bad of a mother I was because I made you go on a field trip." Shelby mumbled loud enough for Beth to hear.
Beth stomped up the stairs and into the bathroom where she dropped off her brush. She realized her sister had not yet come out of her room and her breakfast was going to be getting cold. Pushing open the bedroom door, Beth saw that Rachel wasn't even out of bed. Mom was going to kill her.
"Rachel, Rachel!" Beth hissed, climbing on top of her sister. "Get up, mom is gonna kill you if she finds out that you're still sleeping."
Beth shook Rachel a couple more times, finally getting her sister to open her eyes. "Beth? What are you doing?"
"You must have fallen back asleep, mom has breakfast ready." Beth said.
"Get off me you little booger." Rachel groaned, pushing her sister away.
"Hey!" Beth shrieked having almost fallen off the bed. She steadied herself and started poking Rachel in her face, something she's done since she was a year old. "Get up. Get up. Get up."
"Will you shut up?" Rachel gruffly yelled. She wrapped a hand gently around her throat, tears pricked her eyes at the painful soreness.
"What is going on in here?" Shelby asked, walking in with Rachel's plate of food, a glass of orange juice, and some medicine. "Beth, quit irritating your sister, she doesn't feel good."
"She's sick? Is she staying home?" Beth questioned.
"I feel fine." Rachel said, sitting up and pushing both Beth and the blankets off of her. "I can go to school."
"I don't feel fine." Beth began feigning sickness by holding the back of her hand to her forehead, topping it all off with a dramatic cough. "I'm so sick, Mommy, I think I need to stay home."
"You are going to school so go get your shoes on." Shelby firmly told Beth and then looked at Rachel. "And you, get your butt back in that bed, you are staying home."
"But mom!" Both girls cried out, unhappy with Shelby's ruling.
Shelby shook her head and set Rachel's breakfast on the desk by the door and left the room, making both girls believe they had each won over their mother. Beth hopped off of Rachel's bed, debating on which set of pajamas she wanted to wear for the day. Rachel did the same and was wondering what she was going to be wearing to school. However, Shelby returned to the room, grabbing Beth by her arm and pulling her into the room with her. Letting go of Beth, Shelby took the basket she was carrying under one arm and held it with both hands.
"You have until the count of three to do what I said or you will find some things missing and you will still be doing what I said." Shelby started to count but it didn't take her until the count of two for her daughters to start scattering. Rachel dove under her covers, acting as if she hadn't been out of bed and Beth bolted from the room, saying she was going to get her shoes.
"Mom, I really don't need to stay home. I'll take the medicine and it will make me feel better so I can go to school."
"I'm sorry, Rachel, but you are staying home." Shelby helped Rachel sit up and propped some pillows behind Rachel to help support her. "Here's some food, you probably won't eat it all, but you need to eat a few bites so your stomach doesn't hurt from the medicine. I need to take Beth to school and I have to go to work for a little bit, but won't be gone long. Try and get some sleep, okay?"
"Okay." Rachel nodded.
"And take your medicine."
"I will."
"Good girl." Shelby bent over and kissed Rachel's forehead, feeling the heat from her fever. "I love you and I will see you in a couple of hours."
"Love you, too."
Rachel got a short lecture from Shelby about the rules to the house while Shelby and Hiram were gone. She tried not to roll her eyes or appear to be annoyed, it wouldn't end well for her as she knew Shelby wouldn't tolerate it and she didn't want to spend her day at home grounded. Minutes later, Rachel heard the garage door open and then close, telling her that her mother and sister were gone.
Taking her plate, cup, and medicine down to the kitchen, Rachel left them on the kitchen table. She had eaten half a piece of french toast and a bite of eggs, but she wasn't really that hungry. And she wasn't ready to take her medicine and go back to bed just yet. Right now, Rachel wanted to be in the room that comforted her most when she was sad or didn't feet well; her mother's office.
It was located down the hall from the kitchen, next to the front door. She walked into the room, moving around the desk and sat down in the chair. For the most part the top of the desk was organized with the exception of some sheet music. She reached out and picked up the half filled in pages, looking at the new song her mom was working on. Rachel realized the song wasn't new, it was a song Shelby use to sing to her when Rachel was little. It had been awhile since she had heard the song, but she could hear her mother's voice in her head, singing. Noticing a few of the words were wrong and out of place, Rachel picked up the pencil and fixed her mother's mistakes.
The wall behind Rachel was filled with pictures and trophies Shelby's glee club, New Directions, had won over the past five years since Shelby took over as their coach. The Spanish teacher, Will Shuester, had been the coach for three years, but when his wife got pregnant with their son, he decided to step down and spend more time with his family. Shelby was only teaching English at the time, but her love of music, Broadway, and performing, drew Shelby to coach the team. After Shelby signed on to be the coach, the team started winning and the school board finally agreed to give the club a budget that equaled that of other clubs like the Cheerios.
When Rachel had started high school, Shelby had hoped her daughter would join New Directions; those hopes were crushed when Rachel came home with a try-out permission slip for the cheerleading squad. But Shelby supported her child and signed the slip and fixed Rachel's favorite dinner when she came home two days later saying she had made the squad. And Rachel had thought that she'd be a part of the glee club when she had first started high school. She had stood in front of the school club signup sheets, ready to sign her name on the purple colored paper Shelby had printed the audition list on. She had the pen in her hand, but stopped and watched a few of the popular girls writing down their names on the Cheerio sheet. Rachel had been in dance and gymnastic classes since she could walk and with that, her mind was changed.
The walls to the right and left of the desk were lined with bookshelves, holding Shelby's massive collection of sheet music and vocal selection books. Rachel stood up, walking over to the left side of the room, running her hands over the bindings of a row of folders containing sheet music. She smiled, thinking about the many Saturday's she spent with her mother, going out for an early lunch and then a trip to the music store to see if they had anything new. Though, Shelby and Rachel still went on their sheet music hunting trips, they didn't happen as often, as Beth started getting older and wanted to tag along too. It made Rachel mad that Shelby would let Beth go with them and slowly, Rachel just stopped wanting to go when Shelby would offer they go. As she looked some more, Rachel decided that once she felt better, and when Shelby would let her out of the house, she was going to ask her mom if the two of them could go. Surely, she'd say yes.
A coughing fit hit Rachel and the girl decided she was ready to take her medicine. She hated being sick and really hated that she was missing a day of school, something she had never done before , butshe wanted to feel better as soon as possible. The only way to do this was rest, fluids, and medicine. Rachel went into the kitchen and took the medicine Shelby had left out and drank the entire glass of juice. While she was getting a bottle of water to take upstairs with her, another cough attack. Once she stopped coughing, Rachel went upstairs, not to her bedroom, but her mother's. She climbed from her father's side of the king sized bed to Shelby's side. Grabbing the pillow and throw blanket Shelby used every night, Rachel headed into her room. She rearranged the blankets on her bed to form her nest and climbed to be in the middle of the blankets, using Shelby's blanket to cover her up and the pillow to cuddle with; both had her mother's scent.
Digging in the wad of blankets, Rachel found the remotes to her TV and DVD player. The screen turned on and showed the menu of the movie she had last watched. Rachel groaned at seeing The Smurfs, Beth's current favorite movie. They had watched it the week before, when Beth had woken up with a nightmare in the middle of the night. Rachel had been the one to hear her sister cry and held her until she stopped crying. Rachel brought her into her room, got her a glass of water, and put in the movie.
She switched to regular TV and tossed the remotes to her side when she found something to watch. It wasn't long before the medicine started to do its thing and she began to get sleepy. She managed to sleep for nearly five hours, when she heard the garage door open. Since Shelby was the only one who parked in the garage, Rachel thought it was her mom coming home to get her for her doctor's appointment and she got out of bed.
On the way down the stairs, Rachel heard her father's voice and was surprised that he was home so early. She started to get excited, thinking Hiram was the one who was taking her to the doctor, as she knew she could talk him into going to Sonic afterwards to get something to eat. Shelby didn't like to feed her kids fast food too much but Hiram could easily be persuaded to go.
Before Rachel could step into the kitchen, she heard an unfamiliar voice. Her dad wasn't alone. They moved into the living room, with Hiram offering to get some drinks from the kitchen. Rachel hurried back up the stairs and hid around the corner, peering ever so slightly to watch her dad. Hiram poured two glasses of wine and returned to the living room, giving Rachel the opportunity to sneak back downstairs. She hid across the hall from Shelby's office, where she could see into the living room. The two adults in the room shared a small toast, clinked their glasses, and then to Rachel's horror, they kissed.
"I am so glad you were able to get away for lunch." Hiram smiled.
"Me too, it's just been so busy since my promotion."
"Well at least in two weeks I will have you all to myself for an entire weekend." Hiram placed his hand on top of his more-than-just-friends' knee.
"Are you sure your wife doesn't suspect anything?"
"Of course not, Shelby is too wrapped up in her job as a teacher, coaching the glee club, and taking care of the girls to even notice. She thinks I have an important meeting that I can't get out of." Hiram smirked, proud of himself that he had been able to sneak around Shelby for over six months.
Fire coursed through Rachel's eyes. The meeting her father claimed to have was the reason he couldn't be at her cheer competition in two weeks. Her dad would rather spend time with his secret lover, than with his family. Rachel was angry. Stepping into the room, Hiram nearly jumped through the ceiling, surprised to see his daughter.
"R-Rachel!? What are you doing here?" He asked, wiping his lips and setting his glass down on the glass coffee table. "Aren't you supposed to be in school or something?"
"I'm sick." Rachel folded her arms.
"Your mom didn't tell me that." Hiram walked over to his daughter, realizing he needed to introduce her to the person on the couch.
"Yeah, well there are obviously things you aren't telling mom about. Like your friend back there."
"Rachel, this is Leroy, he works at the agency with me." Hiram said.
"You're cheating on mom." Rachel stated. "With a man."
"No, no, it's not like that." Hiram tried to laugh it off, but he was failing miserably.
"Oh really?" Rachel raised a brow. Hiram thought she looked scarily like her mother. "Do you often bring co-workers over to your house when your family is out and have wine and make out?!"
"I-I"
"You've been caught." Rachel cut him off.
"Please don't tell your mom." Hiram begged. "I don't want to hurt her."
"I hate to break it to you, but mom isn't the only one you need to worry about hurting." Rachel said. "You've told me so many times that you couldn't get out of this 'business meeting' for weeks and that you were sorry that you going to miss my competition. You've been lying to me all because you'd rather be with your boyfriend."
"Honey, I'm sorry." Hiram reached out to touch Rachel's arm.
"Don't you dare touch me!" Rachel snapped. "I can't believe you."
Rachel shook her head and started to back away.
"Rachel!" Hiram called out, trying to stop her.
"No! You've ruined this family, You've ruined everything!" Rachel shouted before running up to her room and slamming the door.
Please let me know what you think! The next chapter should be posted next Monday, if I feel that enough people are interested in continuing reading. Thanks!