Content warning: vomit

It was a crisp November day with a cold wind. The last couple minutes of third period math class were ticking by, and soon it would be lunchtime.

Finding a question she didn't quite know how to do, Abby reached over and nudged Tyler's shoulder. "Do you know how to do Question 5?"

No answer. Abby looked over to the desk next to her. Tyler had his head down on the desk; he had hardly touched his paper. Abby shook him a bit. "Hey. You're being weird."

"Will you knock it off?" Tyler pushed her hand away. "My head hurts."

Abby cocked her head. She noticed that Tyler had one arm on the desk, cushioning his head, and the other pressed into his gut. She turned down towards her bookbag and opened it up. Then she realized exactly what she was doing and sat back up. "My dumb self was just about to loan you a pad."

Tyler looked up. "Why?"

"Well, when anyone else in the squad has stomach pain in class, that usually means they started their period, but you don't have a period. So like, what's up with you? Are you sick?"

The bell rang, leaving no time for an answer. The two of them packed up and hauled off to the lockers outside Mrs. Ganong's room. Priya was already waiting, and not much later, Mei came running from the other hallway. "Hey!"

"Took you long enough," said Abby. "Where's Mir?"

"Probably helping Mr. Ying put the tables and chairs back to where they're supposed to," said Mei. She dug the comic book pieces out of her bag. "So what are we working on today?"

"I'd say our goal is two full pages for today," said Priya. She elbowed Tyler, who was leaning with his face pressed against the cold metal of the lockers. "Hey; are you listening?"

"Yes," mumbled Tyler, tired but still very annoyed.

"He's been acting weird," said Abby. "He won't tell me why."

The girls all rushed him with pestering to get the answers out of him. "You good?" "What's wrong?" "Did you sleep okay?" "Have you eaten today?"

"Okay, back off." Tyler held his hands up in a "you're in my personal bubble" sort of way. "I told you already, I-" He then just…stopped, right in the middle of the sentence.

"You what?"

"I have a headache, okay, I don't-" Once again, cut off, this time by a gag.

Priya knew exactly what that meant. She grabbed his arm and led him to the girls bathroom. "Come on. Abby, guard the door."

Now understanding what was going on, Mei and Abby followed the two of them into the bathroom. Abby stood guard outside the back stall and held the door shut, while Mei sat perched on the sink counter.

"Alright, go on. Get it out of your system." Priya held Tyler over the toilet, with one hand around his back and the other holding his hair out of the way.

Mei cringed when she heard him throwing up. It sounded so gross, and…squelchy. Yeah, that was a good word for it. "Okay, there you go, you're doing great," came Priya's voice from the stall. Mei could hear a knocking sound; Priya patting Tyler's back, she guessed.

Finally, finally, Miriam arrived on the scene. "There you guys are, I thought we were going to meet by the lockers outside Mrs. Ganong's room."

"We were," said Mei. "We had an…altercation."

"He threw up," added Abby.

"What?" Miriam came into the room and to the back stall. Abby let her into the stall, and Miriam entered, dropped to her knees, and put a hand on Tyler's back.

After a few more minutes of dry heaving, Tyler lifted his head back up, breathing heavily. Priya took her hand off his forehead. "You done?" The only thing she got in response was a weak nod. She patted his back. "Alright, attaboy." She pulled him up, and they exited the stall. "Come on, to the office withcha."

"The office?" Mei cocked her head. "Why the office?"

"Duh, he's sick, that means he gets to leave school early." After Abby checked to see if the coast was clear, Miriam picked Tyler up and carried him on her back to the office so the secretary could call a parent to come get him.

"Man, it's Friday too," said Abby. "He's gonna be in bed all weekend."

"Honestly? He picked a very convenient time to toss his guts," said Priya. "Where's a worse place to puke, in the privacy of the girls bathroom, or in the middle of the gym in front of like thirty people?"

"Well, at least today, Mir won't complain about him being sweaty for all of fifth period." The three remaining girls then regrouped in a classroom.

"Okay, we'll only go for one page," said Priya," "since we've lost twelve minutes and a set of hands."

That afternoon, it had begun to rain, so the girls were all running to get home. Because the temple was empty, Mei blew right past it and right into the house.

"There you are," said Ming, looking up from the couch. "How was school today?"

"Meh," said Mei, taking her shoes off. "Actually, it kinda sucked. Tyler had to leave early cause he was sick."

That caught Ming's attention. "What happened?"

"Around lunchtime." Mei sat next to her mother. "He was really out of it and started making this weird face, so we took him to our bathroom and he yakked his guts."

"You brought a boy into the girls room?!"

"In my defense," interrupted Mei, holding her hands up, "it was an emergency."

"She's got a point," piped up Jin from the kitchen. "I lost track of how many times I brought Mei to the men's room before you started trusting her to find the bathroom in public by herself."

Ming sighed and put her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "You did the right thing, Mei-Mei. I'm not exactly keen on how you did it, but your heart was in the right place."

Mei shrugged. "Well, he's at least got the weekend to sleep it off." She collected her things and went off to her room to start her homework.