Chapter 3

Maria Deluca got out of her comfy bed very lazily. It was 6:30 in the morning and she had to go and pick up Liz before school started at 8:00. Maria quickly got ready for school after she spent about ten minutes lounging around her bedroom. By 7:20, she was out the door and on her way to Liz's house.

"God I hope she's already awake and ready." Maria told herself. "Wait what I am thinking about. This is Liz Parker we're talking about here of course she's ready." Maria said with a smile.

Maria loved her best friend to death, don't get her wrong, but Liz Parker always seemed so perfect, she had excellent grades, the "perfect" boyfriend, and two parents that would do anything for her. Maria of course loved her mother more than anything did, but she would love just to trade places with Liz, if not even for a day.

As Maria pulled up to the back of the Crashdown Café, she looked around for Liz to see if she was waiting outside for her. Not seeing her, Maria stopped the Jetta in front of the backdoor and slammed her right hand on the horn.

After about a minute of waiting and seeing absolutely no sign of Liz, Maria repeated the whole horn process again. She again waited for some sign of movement, but again nothing happened.

"Okay that's it!" Maria snapped as she got out of the car and hastily walked over to the backdoor and turned to knob to see if it was open, but of course, it wasn't. Maria was now getting even more frustrated.

"Could this day get any worse?" Maria thought to herself as she climbed up the escape latter that lead to Liz's bedroom. Now it would have been a very easy task for Maria on most days, but today she was dressed in a mini shirt and high heal boots, which made it more difficult.

About thirty seconds later Maria placed her book on the solid ground of Liz's deck.
Maria peeked into Liz's window and saw the room, which looked a little messy, but nothing out of the ordinary. Maria then lifted up the window, expecting it to be locked, but to her amazement, it wasn't. As soon as Maria got into the room she wished that she'd worn something different, because her shirt and shoes we're defiantly not made for climbing whether it be stares or through windows. Maria straightened her shirt and then looked around the room, then walked over to the door and opened it. She yelled Liz's name a couple of times, but got no response, so she decided to go check the bathroom to see if Liz was just in their getting ready, but something caught the corner of Maria's eye. It was Liz's hair sticking out from underneath the covers.

"Chicka, it's time to wakey-wakey. We've got to be at school in about 20 minutes." Maria said as she shook Liz's shoulder.

Liz didn't even budge, which wasn't like her at all, she had always been a fairly easy person to wake up, so this freaked Maria out a little.

"Liz I mean it. It's time to wake up." Maria said more seriously as she shook Liz more aggressively, but Liz was still fast asleep.

Maria then walked over to the other side of the bed and sat down on the bed.

"Liz…" Maria said as she gently pushed Liz's long brown hair out of her face. "are you okay sweetie?"

This time Maria actually heard something come out of Liz's mouth, but she couldn't understand what she'd said. Maria then noticed how pale and sweaty her best friends face and forehead was. As she gently placed the back of her palm on Liz's forehead, she was surprised by the temperature of the heat that was radiating off her. Maria then saw Liz's eyes slowly being to open.

"Chicka what's wrong?"

Chapter Four

Liz didn't actually stay anything; she just looked up at Maria with her totally exhausted eyes, and tried her best to smile at her friend, even though it wasn't much of a visible smile at all.

Maria was worried now. "Okay sweetie, I'll be right back don't move and try your best to stay awake." Maria said sweetly as she gently ran her fingers over her friends are in a caring manner.

"What in the world am I suppose to do?" Maria thought to herself as she walked out of Liz's bedroom "First of all Deluca you're not going to freak out! Your best friend really needs you."

Liz waited for what she thought was an eternity, and tried to open them when she heard footsteps getting closer to her bedroom, but she could not open those eyes of hers even if you paid her a million dollars. Her body was just too exhausted.

Maria walked into the room with a thermometer, washcloth, and a bowl half way full of water. She then very slowly put the bowl on the nightstand very careful not to spill any, and then she looked at Liz, who she then noticed was asleep again.

"I don't think so sweetie, you can fall back asleep right after I take your temperature okay?" She said as she gently shook Liz back into consciousness.

Liz opened her eyes slowly even though her whole body was screaming in protest and all she wanted to do was just pass out so she would not have to feel this tried and ill.

"Good girl." Maria said as she noticed Liz had opened her eyes again and as she got the thermometer ready. "Okay mouth open, and tongue up." Maria requested as she moved the thermometer closer and closer to Liz's mouth.

Liz obeyed and opened her mouth and closed it when the thermometer was underneath her tongue.

Liz had never felt so bad in all her seventeen years of life. She seriously thought that her head was about to explode at any given second, her throat was burning as if a fire was raging inside, and her stomach was rolling around. It felt like someone was grabbing her insides, twisting, and squeezing them around and around like a wet towel you were trying to dry. Her body also felt like it weighed a billion tons, and she had no clue what was causing her to feel this way, but she didn't like it one bit.

Maria just looked at her best friend as she waited for the thermometer to go off. She had never seen Liz look so sick in all the years she knew her, which really frightened the mess out of her.

The next thing either one of them knew they heard a beeping noise from the thermometer. Maria immediately pulled it out Liz's mouth and prayed it was not that bad. She then slowly looked down at the little black numbers that had appeared on the screen and read 101.2.

"What is it?" Maria heard Liz whisper.

"101.2. It's not that high, but I would like it for it to be lower."

Liz heard Maria say then she heard her ringing out the water out of a washcloth.

Liz then felt it being put on her forehead. She was surprised to feel the cloth be as warm as it was. She expected it was going to be freezing.

"How does that feel?" Maria questioned, then she saw Liz mouth better as her eyes began to droop, but she forced them open again.

"I'm going to go get the Tylenol from your parents' bathroom and see if that'll bring it down. Don't fight it get some sleep I'll wake you up when your medicine is ready." Maria said as she again ran her fingers threw Liz's hair before she got up off the bed and left the room.

Liz felt someone gently speak her name. She could have sworn she just closed her eyes not even a second ago though. Then she remembered that it was Maria who was trying to wake her up to give her meds that would help bring her fever down. Liz again slowly opened her eyes, but it was a few seconds before she could focus and see Maria looking straight at her. She could see how worried Maria was about her it was in her eyes, so to lighten up the mood Liz tried her best to smile, then saw Maria smile back, but she could see she was still worried. Liz then realized that she was going to have to sit up so that she could take the medicine, and moving was not something Liz really didn't want to do at the moment.

Maria then saw Liz trying to sit up by herself and immediately helped her. She knew how much of a pain moving was when you have a fever.

"Thanks." Liz said.

"No problem sweetie." Maria said smiling at Liz, as she gave her the two pills that were in the small paper cup. As Liz popped them into her mouth, Maria handed her the cup of water.

"Liz what's hurts? When did you start feeling sick?" Maria asked wanting to know these questions since she found Liz and realized she was sick.

Liz looked up at Maria and said, "My throat, my head, and stomach, and everything aches. I've had a headache since yesterday, but I didn't start feeling really bad until last night." She answered and made a mental note not to tell Maria about the whole passing out thing, she knew how much she would freak out.

"Why didn't you tell me at school?" Maria questioned.

"Because I didn't want to worry anyone, and I didn't know I would get this bad and this bad this fast." Liz answered as she felt Maria take the cloth off her forehead and redipped into the water, and placed it on her head once again.

Liz now felt really bad that she hadn't told anyone and Maria could see this.

"Don't worry about it sweetie. Getting you well is all that matters right now."

"Maria will you promise me something?" Liz asked as she tried to push away the nauseous feeling that was creeping up the back of her throat.

"Sure sweetie whatever you want?" Maria replied.

"Don't call or tell Max about me being sick please." Liz asked looking Maria straight in the eye to let her know how serious she was.

"Okay Chicka I won't call him. Why don't you try to get some sleep, you're getting even paler than you were before." Then it clicked in Maria's head. "Liz do you feel nauseous?"

All Liz had to do was nod her head yes and closed her eyes tight. Maria rushed over to get the trashcan out of her bathroom.

As Maria put the trashcan on the floor, she could see how much Liz was fighting now to be sick, but only second later Liz lost the fight. All Maria could do was gently rub Liz's back and hold her long brown hair out of her face.

"Better?" Maria asked calming as she helped Liz sit back up.

All Liz did was shake her head no and then huge tears started running down her already pale face.

"Oh sweetie, it's okay." Maria said as she gently pulled Liz into a hug, she'd never felt so bad for her best friend in her whole life.