Chapter Three

Kim was used to having to take care of her younger sister. For as long as she could remember, it had been Kim who got Kylie ready for school, and Kim who walked Kylie there, and Kim who picked her up at the end of the day, and Kim who watched her all afternoon, and Kim who—well, suffice it to say, it was Kim, more often than not, who appeared to be Kylie's primary caregiver. Not that their mother didn't try. It was just difficult for her to juggle two jobs and raising her children, and Kim so conveniently never seemed to have anything better to do with her time, truth be told.

But that didn't mean that, when all was said and done, Kim didn't resent her mother just the slightest bit when situations such as this one arose.

"Home?" Kim repeated uncertainly, frowning slightly at the nurse.

It was lucky she'd finished her test so early, it turned out. Kylie had gotten sick during class and the school hadn't been able to reach their mother, so they'd sent for Kim, next door in the high school. And, unfortunately, the prognosis was bad enough that they apparently wanted to send Kylie home for the day. And that meant that Kim would have to miss the rest of the school day as well, in order to care for her sister in place of their mother.

"Home," The nurse confirmed with a nod. "This one has a temperature. There's been a flu going around, it's no surprise she caught it. She's at least the third child sent home this week."

Kim's frown deepened. But then her gaze drifted over to her sister, lying on the narrow cot looking completely horrible and completely helpless, and Kim let out a defeated sigh.

"They'll let me sign her out?" Kim questioned. "Since they couldn't get a hold of our mom?"

The nurse nodded readily. "We couldn't get a hold of the other emergency contacts either."

"But they'll let me out of school, too?" Kim asked now, still doubtful.

"You just explain things to the secretary, dear," The nurse said, already moving to help Kylie sit up.

And that was how Kim found herself back at home less than two hours after she had left it that Wednesday morning.

"I told you it was going to be a bad day," Kylie murmured sleepily as Kim tucked the little girl into her bed in their shared bedroom.

"Yes, well you could have given me a heads up that this was how it was going to turn out," Kim replied softly, brushing the hair out of Kylie's eyes.

"I told you my tummy hurt at breakfast," Kylie said softly, her eyes drifting shut. "You were probably too busy thinking about your boyfriend…"

Kim shook her head with a small smile, then stood up from the bed and exited the room to let Kylie sleep. The things that girl came up with…

Of course, Kim couldn't help but reason to herself, Kylie was probably right. She probably had been thinking about Jared that morning at breakfast when Kylie complained about not feeling good—not that Jared was her boyfriend, of course. No, that was definitely not true.

And speaking of Jared, he was finally back at school! It figured that Kim would have to leave literally right after he returned, though. But for the brief time that they were both there, what had been up with him? They had never interacted before, and suddenly he was staring at her like she was the eighth wonder of the world just because she'd lent him some notes from class on their teacher's orders? Because, honestly, there was no other description for the expression on his face as he stared at her.

It was just plain weird, is what it was.

But Kim knew that this wouldn't stop her from obsessing over Jared. Indeed, this would probably lead to even more daydreaming, if Jared kept looking at her like that. Well, if he kept looking at her like that if she ever went back to school. Kim was already anticipating a fight with her mother if Kylie needed to stay home from school again tomorrow.

For the rest of the day, Kim barely had a spare moment to dwell on this, though. What the school nurse had failed to mention was that Kylie had apparently caught the stomach flu, and so Kim was kept extra busy caring for her younger sister.

And, as it turned out, the next day would be more of the same, just as Kim had expected. Her mother had called both Kim and Kylie out of school sick; Kylie because she still wasn't feeling well and Kim because someone needed to stay home with the second-grader. Needless to say, Kim was not at all happy about these arrangements.

"This is completely ridiculous!" Kim protested for the umpteenth time, following her mother to the front door. "I can't just miss school like this! I have finals soon!"

"I know, and I'm sorry," her mother replied, already halfway out the door. "But I've already explained to you that I couldn't get off of work, and you know there's no one else nearby. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"You've been saying that for years," Kim said softly, a frown upon her face. But her mother was long gone. She was speaking to a closed door.

Shaking her head, Kim made her way back to the kitchen and began cleaning up her breakfast dishes. That done, she pulled a cup out of the cabinet and filled it halfway with orange juice. Of course, this only caused Kim's frown to deepen as she saw that they were almost out of juice. There was no way her mother would remember to pick any up on her way home and Kim couldn't leave Kylie at home to run to the store. Kylie would just have to make do with water later.

With a sigh, Kim picked up the cup of juice and headed to the back of the house. Pushing open the door to the bedroom she shared with her sister, she saw Kylie finally appeared to be asleep after staying up half the night. Kim began to back out of the room once more when her name was called.

"Kimmie?" Kylie's scratchy voice asked softly. "Is it you?"

"Hey, I thought you were asleep," Kim said in equally soft tones, entering the room and going to sit on the edge of her sister's bed.

"Did Mommy leave?" Kylie asked, her head poking out from under her blanket.

"Yes," Kim replied, reaching out a hand to brush the strands of sweaty hair out of Kylie's face. "She had to go to work. It looks like it's just you and me today."

"I'm sorry I'm sick," Kylie's voice sounded small now. "I know you really like school."

"I like spending time with my favorite sister more," Kim told her.

"You're my favorite, too," Kylie said with a tired smile.

Kim set the cup of juice on the small table that separated her bed from Kylie's.

"You should really try to get some sleep, sweetie," Kim said now. "It will help you to get better."

"Will you stay with me?" Kylie asked through a yawn.

"I guess I could use a nap, too," Kim agreed easily. She bent over and pressed a soft kiss to Kylie's warm forehead as the younger girl's eyes fluttered shut. Then she stood and took the few short steps to her own bed and lay down. Her last thought before she finally drifted off to sleep as well was that, if she was going to have to stay home to take care of her sister, at least Kylie was a good kid.

Several hours later, Kim awoke to find Kylie still sleeping, a peaceful expression on her face. Content that apparently the worst of Kylie's illness had passed, Kim stood with a stretch of her arms. And then she simply stood in the middle of the bedroom for a moment. What on Earth was she going to do with herself for the rest of the day?

She hadn't had any homework in the only class she'd made it to the day before, and obviously she didn't have anything for today either. She had always made sure that she and her sister kept the house in a reasonably neat condition to make things easier on their mother, so it wasn't as if she could occupy herself with cleaning anything. And it wasn't as if she could just laze around in front of the television because there was never anything good on at this time of day anyway.

At that precise moment Kim's stomach made a very loud noise, alerting her to the fact that she'd barely eaten anything in the past twenty-four hours. Well that was definitely something for her to do. But perhaps a shower was in order first…

Another half hour of boredom alleviated, Kim was just stepping out of the shower when she heard the distant sound of someone knocking on the front door. She paused, one hand outstretched towards a towel to dry her hair with. For all that they lived on a street with several other houses, it wasn't very often that anyone ever stopped by to see anyone at Kim's house. In fact, Kim couldn't even remember the last time someone had. The distinct lack of use was probably why they'd never bothered getting the doorbell fixed…

The knocking continued, more insistent now.

With a slight frown, Kim reached instead for her bathrobe, hanging on the back of the door, and pulled it on quickly. She pushed her dripping hair over her shoulder and hurried for the front door, reaching it just as whoever was on the other side knocked yet again.

Yanking the door open, Kim couldn't contain the look that was equal parts shock and confusion that spread across her face when she saw who was standing on the other side.

"Jared?"