I'm sad
That's bad
It makes me mad

-A poem by Nicole Bristow

Quinn lay in bed with her eyes closed. Her nose was red and her forehead hot. She groaned and rolled over on to her stomach. She hugged her pillow and then let out an enormous sneeze which made her sit up in bed in shock. It felt as if an earthquake had hit her room. She shook her head and slowly got out of bed, wobbling a bit as she stood. She felt sick. She grabbed a thermometer and stuck it in her mouth. Then she took it out and gasped. She was sick.

I shouldn't have stayed up so late running around outside looking for my diary, she thought as she picked her toothbrush up from her desk and headed out of her dorm room. Now I'm sick. What am I going to do? I can't possibly find my diary in this state! Just as she opened the door she let out another earthquake sneeze and sighed. And what if I see Michael and I sneeze in his face? I'll pass him my disgusting, filthy germs and contaminate him! I'd better avoid him today.

After washing up in the bathroom, Quinn returned to her room and rummaged around in her desk drawers. She pulled out a tiny jar filled with pink pills. She opened the jar and let two pills drop into her palm. She popped them into her mouth and they immediately started to melt on her tongue. The pink pills were one of Quinn's inventions. They were supposed to cure common colds in the next 24 hours.

She started to sneeze, but quickly stopped herself. After polishing her glasses and changing, Quinn changed into a pair of pink jeans and a purple and orange sweater. She pulled on a pair of rainbow toe socks and grabbed her books. She looked at her watch which was shaped like Saturn and yelped.

"I'm going to be late!"

She opened the door and started to run out when she slammed into someone. She let out a strangled scream and threw her books into the air in shock. The book seemed to be falling in slow motion and then… THUMP. It hit Michael in the head and knocked him out. He collapsed to the ground. Quinn gasped and then sneezed.

"So Alicia… I've got a bit of a problem."

"What's up?"

Zoey sighed as she passed the basketball to Alicia who dribbled it up to the net and took a shot. It bounced off the rim and she grabbed it and, dribbling it through her legs, made her way towards the troubled Zoey.

"I've got two guys who like me and I only like one of them."

"Yeah…"

"How can I turn the other one down without hurting his feelings?"

Alicia laughed as she passed the basketball to Zoey. "Girl, you shouldn't be worrying about how to turn guys down when I'm worrying about how to get guys to stop turning me down!"

Logan took a deep breath. He held the packet of cigarettes above the open garbage can, his fingers shaking. He had spent the whole day, throwing his cigarette packets into the garbage can and then taking the full bags to the dumpster. He felt drained and out of energy. Now he was on the last packet.

"Here we go…"

Logan closed his eyes and was just about to drop the cigarettes in the garbage can when he suddenly felt an urge to pick up his lighter and… No! He quickly discarded the cigarettes and ran away.

Good. If I want to please Dana and get healthier I have to stop smoking.

He kept walking, but then suddenly he felt his feet stop and then turn around. He found himself walking back toward the garbage can, opening the lid, and pulling out the five packets of cigarettes he had thrown away. He found himself putting the cigarettes into his pocket and then running away once again.

"I think he's finally quit for good!"

"Really?"

Nicole hadn't told anyone about her mother yet. She couldn't. She didn't want anyone worrying about her or giving her depressing looks as soon as she entered the room. No, she didn't want that to happen. She lay on her bed, her face in a magazine, as she listened to Dana talk.

"Yes! I think he's really getting better."

Dana was sitting on the floor, spreading some black nail polish on to her nails. She blew on them to make them dry faster and grinned up at Nicole. "You know, Logan changed a lot since last year. He's matured a lot more and I think he's up to the challenge of quitting smoking."

Nicole suddenly sat up in her bed, the magazine falling to the floor. "Wait, you're not thinking about going out with him again, are you?" When Dana didn't answer she said, "Dana, no! He broke your heart so bad last time! You don't want to go through that again, do you?"

"Oh please, Nicole," Dana said, rolling her eyes. "People change."

Nicole lay back down and stared at the ceiling. Dana's cell phone rang and she carefully placed the bottle of nail polish on the floor and answered her phone. "Hello?" Pause. "Oh, hi mom. What? Yeah, I'm doing fine. Look, you don't have to check up on me all the time! Whatever, mom, I've got life under control. YES, I do. Okay? Yes, I do wash my hair… what? Yes, I have clean underwear. Mom, PLEASE!"

Nicole lay on her bed, listening to Dana's conversation. Will I ever get to talk to my mom like that? So at ease and comfortable? Silent tears ran down her face.