Chapter 5

"Oh, hey Neela, your lab results on Ray's sister just came back," Jerry said as Neela walked by the desk.

"Thanks, Jerry," Neela answered, taking the slip he was holding out to her. "Do you know where Ray is?"

"I think he's back with Emily."

"Okay, thanks," Neela said as she walked away, scanning the results.

She slowly pulled aside the curtain, and found Emily asleep. Ray was settled in the chair next to the bed, dozing with his head slumped between his shoulders. Neela put a hand softly on his arm and his head snapped up, banging into the wall.

"Wh-what—ow!" he yelled as his head made contact. Looking around, bewildered for a moment, he looked around and saw Neela standing over him.

"Ooh, are you okay?" Neela asked, trying to stifle a giggle. "That must've hurt!"

"Yeah, a bit," Ray grumbled, massaging the back of his scalp. He yawned. "What's up?"

"Well," Neela answered, "I have Emily's lab results, but first, you have a little bit of drool right there," she continued with a smile, mirroring the spot on her own face. Ray blushed slightly, and roughly wiped at his chin with his hand.

"Right," Neela continued, "Well, it seems you were right, it's mono. Looks like she's going to be taking some time off of school to rest up, but she should bounce back pretty quickly."

"What's going on?" asked a soft voice behind them. They both turned to see Emily looking up at them with bleary eyes.

"Well, sweetie, looks like you definitely have a case of mono," Ray said, sitting down next to her and smoothing her hair. "The thing is it's caused by a virus, so antibiotics won't work to cure it. The only thing you're going to have to do is stay home and rest for a while."

"What about school?" Emily asked fearfully. Ray was surprised by her tone. If he'd been in her position at her age, it certainly wouldn't be the one he'd be using. "I can't miss trig!"

"Hey, hey, don't worry about that right now," Ray soothed his sister. "We can figure all that out later."

"You also need to tell your boyfriend and any other people you may come into salivary contact with about this," added Neela. "They could get sick, too."

"Okay, well that'll be taken care of," Ray said. "For now, though, I just want to get her home."