"Miz Delwood," Mr. Kay said.
"Yes," Rose answered.
"Shut up."
"Okay, gosh!" She said only loud enough to where I could hear. I laughed.
She sat with me at lunch. We talked. And I told her about the alien incident I was trying to forget. She seemed so amazed at my stories. The bell rang. Now I was headed to the one class I didn't have with Rose…P.E.
I entered the locker room. I was pushed into the wall again. "Where's your girlfriend when you need her? Huh?" I couldn't tell who it was. I think it may have been Stan but I couldn't tell. My vision was blurry. I saw something raise and then everything went black.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Rose pulled me up. "Rose, what are you….what are you doing here?"
She put a finger to her lips. "Don't speak. You're in the nurse's office. I was asked to look after you. Stan said you had a nose bleed and passed out on the floor."
"So it was Stan!" I said sitting up slightly.
"Lay back down, you need your rest." She said still sitting by my side. "How do you feel?"
"Warm," I said laying back down. "Could you check my temperature?"
"Well, the nurse just went to get another thermometer, Stokely dropped the other one. But…" Rose kissed my forehead. "Yep, you're warm, you gotta fever. We might have to send you home."
I sat up quickly this time. She pushed me back down. "No, I can't go home. Mom'll kill me if she finds out I'm sick." My tone changed, "I can't be with my mother."
"Is it one of those Dave Pelzer issues?"
"Something like that," I told her.
"If you ask your mom maybe you could come to my house and I could take care of you for tonight but you can't tell her that because then she'll think that I'm…ew I don't wanna think about it…so maybe you could tell her that you are going to a parentally supervised party and then you could like fall asleep on the couch or something and I could call her and say that you're going to stay overnight…?" Rose suggested.
I thought a moment to recalculate what she said. "Or I could just tell her that I'm spending the night at a friend's house…Do you have a brother?"
"Yeah, his name's Joey, he's seventeen."
"Perfect." I had my plan all in order and now all I needed to do was tell my mom.
"And if anyone asks…you don't have a fever," she said slyly. She watched as a guy walked by the office. "Hey Joey!"
"I told you, don't call me Joey!" the guy replied. It was obviously her brother.
"I'm sorry, Joseph," She rolled her eyes. "Oh, by the way, we have a guest tonight. Joseph," she rolled her eyes while saying his name again. "This," she pointed to me, "is Casey. We," she emphasized. "are going to take care of him. He's sick, his mom has problems." Joey showed a look of understanding as he nodded and walked away.