A.N. In case you hadn't guessed, the other illness is Norman's lovesickness for Rima.
Later that night, Norman gazed out his bedroom window and sighed.
"What is so interesting?" Grandma smiled, knowing very well what her grandson was thinking about.
"Rima." Norman sighed, lovestruck.
"It's love, so go make a move." Grandma suggested. "When the violins play the sweet song of love...mambo!" She started to dance.
"Nah, I'm not good enough for her." Norman frowned.
"And why not? Your ability to see ghosts again? What's wrong with having a rare power?" Grandma frowned. "I used to wish that I had the ability to fly, and look at me now: I can. Still need practice but it's more fun than running."
Norman just sighed again.
"You should try to at least hang out with her, she does like you. I can tell." Grandma said gently.
Norman considered it...
Meanwhile, Rima was looking at Aggie and her parents through the hospital window, because Aggie was coughing for some reason. See Aggie had first gotten sick while Rima was babysitting her so she had called Aggie's parents. They soon arrived, took Aggie to the hospital, and left Rima behind to make sure that things like the stove were off and to lock up. After doing so Rima then headed for the hospital.
Aggie suddenly saw Rima through the window.
"Rima!" She laughed before running outside.
"Hey Aggie!" Rima hugged Aggie, glad to see her looking better. "How're you feeling?"
Aggie responded by coughing hard. Mr. Prenderghast suddenly came outside.
"Aggie!" He gasped. "Aggie come on you're going to catch your death out here."
"Okay dad." Aggie said weakly.
"Come on the doctor's waiting." Mr. Prenderghast led Aggie back inside. "Sorry Rima but we don't want you to get sick too."
"I understand." Rima said, worried for Aggie.
She looked through the window again, but Aggie wasn't there. She tried two other windows before she finally found Aggie...who was still coughing hard. Rima watched Aggie worriedly.
Norman was walking through town at the time. He had remembered that Rima was babysitting Aggie, and so had hoped to catch her leaving as Aggie's parents came home without them noticing him. But then he saw Rima looking through a hospital window. He quickly looked at his reflection in a window and tried to flatten his hair down...no luck. After another try he gave up and approached Rima.
"Rima..." He said quietly, a bit nervous; he cleared his throat. "Uh, Rima."
"Norman." Rima said distractedly, turning around before looking back through the window. "Hi."
"Hi." Norman smiled. "Uh, listen I know it's late but I was wondering if you'd like to...I dunno...go for a bike ride around town or something?"
Rima didn't answer. Norman then saw how worried she looked so he joined her at the window.
"Rima?" He said.
"Aggie's in there." Rima explained.
Norman turned and sure enough saw Aggie there. He now was very worried.
"In the hospital why?" He asked, concerned.
"She feels warm and has a terrible cough." Rima explained. "Norman what's wrong with her?"
"I'm not sure...but I know how to find out." Norman led Rima to the door that opened into the boiler room of the hospital. "Not exactly fond of breaking-and-entering, but this is an emergency."
He took out his house keys and removed the bolts to the hinges of the door. He then pushed the door open.
"After you." He smiled.
Rima stared into his eyes. She had never noticed their shape before.
"Norman..." Rima blushed a little.
"Heh, uh, faceted eyes run in my family." Norman blushed back and went inside. "At least, uh, one side of my family."
He then headed for a small opening near the boiler. He got down on his stomach and crawled through. Rima followed him inside.
"Stick close." Norman said.
"No problem there." Rima saw some black spiders; even though she loved animals she was wary around black spiders in case they were black widows. "It's so gloomy down here...not that I'm scare or anything-" She suddenly gasped as she almost bumped into a black spider and his/her web.
"Gloomy?" Norman chuckled, moving the spider (which proved that it wasn't a black widow) and flicking his/her web away. "You kidding? It's the most beautiful spot in the world. One of my ghost friends told me about this place. Ghosts travel for years just to come here."
"Here?" Rima said skeptically as the came upon an open area with light shining down in various places. "I can't imagine why."
"That's because you're looking at the cup half empty." Norman smiled.
He went over to some broken bottles and pushed them near a patch of light.
"See this? It's the polar ice caps." He smiled.
"Norman, those are broken bottles." Rima corrected.
"The sun." Norman smiled at the patch of light.
"Norman..." Rima sighed, not knowing where he was going with this.
"And...to the north." Norman moved and the light hit the bottles.
Suddenly the light reflected off the bottles, bathing a wall with a rainbow of moving light.
"The Northern Lights!" Rima gasped admiringly, getting it.
She moved closer to the wall and Norman joined her.
"Norman you're right, it is beautiful." Rima gazed at the lights.
"Yeah." Norman sighed, gazing at Rima. "Beautiful."
Rima turned to Norman and saw him gazing at her. Norman blushed but Rima just smiled and inched her face closer to his. Norman's heart pounded as he inched his face closer to hers. Were they going to...did Rima want to...? Rima and Norman started to close their eyes...
But just then, the 'Northern Lights' disappeared. Startled, Norman and Rima turned around and saw that the 'sun' had been turned off. They moved closer to where the 'sun' was.
"Goodnight Aggie." The doctor said.
"I'm so cold." Aggie said weakly.
"We have another blanket for you, now just stay warm and try to get some rest."
The doctor then left. Norman and Rima followed him into another room.
"Doctor, how is she?" Mrs. Prenderghast asked.
"Exhausted from coughing, and her fever's getting worse." The doctor asked.
Both Norman and Rima were upset to hear that.
"It looks like diphtheria, she's the eighteenth case this week." The doctor continued, reaching for an empty shelf before absent-mindedly picking up a bottle of aspirin. "And I'm all out of antitoxin." He sat down sadly.
Rima started crawling back into the boiler room, sobbing.
"Rima" Rima I'm sorry I..." Norman followed until they both were in the boiler room. "I didn't mean to upset you. I shouldn't have taken you down there."
"No, I'm glad you did." Rima said. "It's just...Aggie's been like my little sister you know?"
"Yeah, I'm scared for her too." Norman admitted. "But I'm sure the doctor will find a way to cure her."
Rima smiled and hugged Norman. Norman hugged her back...and they both heard a crash. Startled, they saw Alvin trying to get a box off his foot. Apparently he had tried to make a cool entrance by jumping over a fence but ended up with his foot stuck in a box instead.
"Will you...get off..." Alvin grumbled before finally kicking the box off; he then entered the boiler room. "Well well what's wrong with this picture?" He said sarcastically before holding out a box of pizza. "Rima join me for a late dinner." Alvin put down the box and took out a couple slices, revealing gooey cheese dangling connecting the two. "You start with one slice, I'll start with the other. As for the cheese strand...well, I have an idea for that part." He flirted as he gave her a slice.
"Okay Alvin." Norman glared, having had enough.
"No, Norman." Rima quickly said before cozying up to Alvin.
Norman looked at her confusedly until he saw her glance towards the boiler. Then he smirked.
"Gee Alvin, I have to admit your offer is very tempting." Rima pretended to flirt.
"It is." Alvin grinned, backing towards the boiler without realizing it.
"But I prefer my pizza a little hotter than this." Rima added.
Alvin burnt his butt on the boiler, and it took him a few seconds to realize it. When he did he screamed with pain.
"Come on, let's go!" Norman ran outside with Rima following, dropping her slice of the pizza.
Alvin however had recovered quickly and had pounced on Norman, pulling his arm back painfully.
"Let him go!" Rima ordered.
"What's all the noise?" Someone asked as a flash of light shined nearby.
"I think it's over here." Someone else said.
Startled, Alvin let go of Norman's arm, allowing Norman to break free.
"Rima come on." Norman said quietly to Rima.
They started to leave. Alvin however started to panic as he looked at the slice that was still in his hand, hinting that he had stolen the pizza instead of buying it. He then saw the box that was near the door and grabbed it. He quickly slid it towards Norman, who slipped on it and fell down. At that moment the light landed on Alvin, who posed as if he had tossed something at Norman instead of slid something. The light then moved to Norman. That's when it was revealed that the two people there were Rima's father and the guy who owned the pizzeria. The two were friends and it looked as if Rima's father had been helping the pizza guy search for the missing pizza.
"It looks like that witch boy used his powers to steal some pizza." Rima's father remarked.
"It's a good thing Alvin was here, how about I treat you to a free pizza?" The pizza guy offered. "Can't do anything with that pizza now that it's been hexed."
"I can never say no to your pizza." Alvin said as he grinned triumphantly at Norman.
"Go on, get out of here you thief!" Rima's father threw a snowball at Norman.
Norman ran off.
"Norman!" Rima cried, running after him.
"Rima stay away from him." Rima's father grabbed her arm.
"But Norman didn't steal the pizza Alvin did!" She protested.
"Rima, I am wounded." Alvin faked being in pain.
"Rima, Alvin wouldn't stoop so low." Rima's father frowned. "I don't want to see you near that witch boy again, do you hear me? I will not have my daughter cursed."
"Norman would never do that." Rima sobbed. "Especially not to me."
"Come on, we're going home." Her father said as if it settled the matter.
Norman continued running for home, passing the door to the hospital...which a doctor put a sign on. The sign read: Quarantine.
Norman continued running until he was home. He then went into his room and sobbed on his bed. Perry, Sandra, and Courtney had heard him come in and went upstairs to ask him what was wrong. Norman explained through his tears, and Sandra comforted him as Perry and Courtney insulted Alvin.