My foot was still in the air, and the knife was still in my hand. Kevin and Michael were too shocked to move, and they were gaping like fish. Idiotic fish, that is.

I clenched my jaw, then spoke, "Why…in hell…did you ignore me?"

They were still too shocked to answer, and I wasn't sure if they heard me. So, I walked out of the room and searched for binoculars.

Once I found a pair, I slipped on my snow boots, climbed out the window, down the fire escape stairs and ladder, and ran as fast as I could back to Mirabelle.

When I finally got there, she said, "Where the hell were you? I was worried you got ran over by a car, the way you tore down the road like that! You didn't even look to see if there were any cars! And you're twenty minutes late!"

Once I caught my breath, I told her of how Kevin and Michael had caused trouble, and how I searched the house for them, to finally break down the locked door to their room and see them sitting there gaping like imbeciles.

She put a hand to her mouth. "You broke down a door?"

"I kicked it down."

"My God…you're going to get in so much trouble."

"No, I'm not. I'll tell them what happened, and if they decide to punish me anyway, well, I won't listen. I never do. Anyway, how's George doing?"

"He only left his office once, and that was to go to the john. Other than that, nothing's happened. I can't see his computer screen from where we are, and to do that we'd have to go inside the building."

I thought for a moment. "Can I see your camera?"

She stood up, and handed it over. Some people nearby glanced at us; we were hiding behind a post office drop box.

I switched places with Mirabelle, who helped me direct the camera to George. I zoomed in. George was sitting at his seat, typing on his computer. I zoomed in closer, blurring George, and focused on what was behind him.

A window.

Grinning, I looked up at Mirabelle.

"Good brain. But, if he turns around, he'll see you. You can't just point your camera at him in plain sight, either. Someone will notice and call the cops," she said.

"I wasn't planning on doing that. Look," I pointed at the building. "There's most likely a fire escape near the window. I moved my finger up the building and to the right. "You see that? I'm going to bet money that there's a fire escape there. Behind that is just trees from the park. There's a lower chance of being caught from there. I'll go hang from the ladder and try to take pictures of his screen, and maybe while I'm at it, the things on his desk too."

"Not bad," Mirabelle said.

"You'll use the binoculars while I use my phone," I said, pointing to the tiny bulge in one of the coat's pockets. "We'll meet back here in twenty. If anything happens, run to the park. I'll do the same if I see you running, or if you're not here when I come back."

She nodded, and ducking my head, I made my way to the other side of the building. I climbed up the ladder of the fire escape just until I was standing over the window. Leaning down, I look into his office through my camera.

I zoomed in, trying to get a better view through the window. Carefully, carefully, I inched closer to the window. One leg dangled off the ladder, while the other stood firmly planted onto it. There.

Fifteen minutes later, I met Mirabelle at the drop box. I showed her the pictures I had taken. "He was sending an email, so I took a picture of it. Someone walked up to him, and he quickly switched back to another screen," I said.

She nodded. "Nothing, again. Sorry."

I shrugged. "It's fine. Let's read the email."

We leaned against the drop box and I put my phone between us so she could see too. Zooming in, we read the email.

When we finished reading it, Mirabelle began to speak, "Kairi…I-"

"It's fine. Let's go visit my mom."

Walking ahead of her, I said, "It's a bit far, so let's get going."

She paused. "If we go, she'll know that we spied on George. She probably won't be happy about that. And when she comes home, she'll find the door."

I turned to look at her. "I know, but I kicked the door down barefoot, and I think I hurt it."

"And you ran here? Why didn't you say something?"

"It's not too bad. We don't have to go to the hospital."

"You said you wanted to."

"I did, but I also said we didn't have to. It'd be free if we go there since Mom works there. But we can go home, check on Kevin and Michael and my foot, and if I need to go to the hospital, I'll call my mom."

Mirabelle sighed. "Let's go."

We walked all the way back home and entered through the front door instead of the fire escaped. Kevin and Michael both avoided my eyes and continued to watch TV, and Mirabelle led me to the armchair. Carefully, I took off my shoes and socks and compared my feet.

"What's going on?" Kevin asked when Mirabelle got down on her knees and examined my feet. Without turning to look at him, Mirabelle responded, "When she kicked down that door, she might've hurt her foot. I'm checking to see if she needs to go to the hospital where Aunt Valerie works."

She lifted my foot up and I winced. "Sorry."

"It's fine…" I muttered. After a moment, Mirabelle said, "It's swollen, but it's not too bad. If you hadn't run on it, then it would probably have not swelled up."

"I doubt that," I said. "Should I call my mom?"

"I think so. Better safe than sorry."

Taking out my phone, I punched in my mother's number and waited. After three rings, she finally picked up.

"Kairi? Is it important? I have a patient soon."

"I hurt my foot."

"What? How bad is it? Do you need medical attention?"

I looked at Mirabelle who was listening intently. She nodded.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Okay. Can you wait twenty minutes? I'm going to come get you."

We hung up, and I turned to Mirabelle again. "She's coming to pick me up. Do you want to come?"

"Yep."

I shut my eyes. Might as well try to sleep.

All of a sudden, someone poked me in the shoulder. Opening my eyes, I saw Mirabelle standing next to me.

"She's waiting in the car outside."

I slipped on my shoes, not bothering to put my socks back on, and walked to the car.

After I had kicked down the door to find Kevin and Michael gaping, I had started feeling a small, sharp pain in my foot, but I hadn't actually registered it until I told Mirabelle what had happened.

Once we were seated in the car, my mom started to talk. "What happened to your foot?"

I hesitated and looked out the window. "I kicked down Kevin and Michael's door…"

"You…what?"

"I kicked down their door because I couldn't find them and when I knocked on their door they wouldn't open it."

"So you kicked the door open?"

"I kicked it clean off."

"Good lord…"

I was aware that this was the first time in a long time that I had talked to her without arguing with her.

"Where was the swelling?"

Mirabelle answered this time. "Calf and foot. Right leg."

My mother sighed and shook her head. "What have you been doing with yourself? Frostbite and now this…"

I ignored her. Soon enough, we reached the hospital and we walked-I had begun to limp because it hurt too much to walk- inside only to be temporarily separated. I was sent to wait in a doctor's office while my mom went off to meet her patient (I assumed that's what she did), and Mirabelle waited in the waiting room on the same floor as me; the second.

Five minutes later, a doctor came in. She was Asian-Japanese- and she introduced herself as Dr. Mei Randolph. Upon seeing my confused face, she said that she had married an American, hence the surname Randolph.

She sat on a stool and asked me to take off my shoes. I complied, taking the left one off easily, but taking time with the right. She offered to help, but I refused. It was almost off. Impatiently, I just tugged the shoe off, which sent a jolt of pain up my leg. I cried out, and clutched my calf.

Carefully, Dr. Rudolph examined my feet. She said, "You're going to need an x-ray. Is that okay with you?"

I shrugged. "Fine. I don't mind."

"You're Kairi, right? You're mother works here as a nurse."

I nodded. "I'm going to have to ask her if it's okay to take an x-ray of your leg. I'll be right back."

She left the room and I waited ten minutes until she came back. "She said it was okay. Can you walk?"

I nodded, then carefully slid off the table and limped to the x-ray room. When we got there, I was told to sit on another table. Dr. Rudolph positioned my leg, gave me a lead apron, and then took the x-ray.

A few minutes later, she came back holding the x-ray images. Handing the images to me, she said, "You see this?" and pointed to my ankle bone. "You broke your ankle." She moved her finger to my forefoot. "And you have a stress fracture there."

I nodded. "What should I do about it?"

"When we get back to my office, a nurse will come in to give you a cast and crutches." Once again, I slid off the desk, and we went back to her office. I was sitting on the table again when she said, "I don't think you told me how you hurt your foot. I'm going to need this information."

"I kicked a locked door off its hinges, then went for a run."

She paused, staring at me. "I'm not sure I heard you correctly. Could you please repeat that?"

"I kicked a locked door off its hinges." I paused. "And then I went for a run."

She stared at me for a while longer, then decided to write it in her laptop.

"Why exactly did you do that?"

"I thought my step cousins were in danger, so I kicked open the door. They were pranking me."

She nodded. "Does your mother know?"

"Yes."

"Are you lying?"

"No."

Satisfied, she left the room and a few minutes later, a nurse came in. She held color swatches and told me to pick one. I chose a violet colored cast that was labeled "purple".

But it was violet. And I said so.

Confused, the nurse said, "What?"

"It's not purple. It's violet. There's a difference."

"Oh, okay."

She left shortly to get the materials for the cast, and when she came back, she slipped the first part of the cast onto my leg. Once she did that, she began wrapping plain white bandages around my foot and leg. This took about five minutes, especially since I could see she was being careful. Dipping the purple fiberglass into a bucket of warm water, she wrapped it around my foot and up my leg, stopping at my knee.

Once the cast hardened, the nurse handed me crutches, and helped me walk to the waiting room where Mirabelle was reading a Vogue magazine. She looked up when I stood in front of her, and said, "Now you know never to kick a door open barefoot."

"Or run on it…" I muttered.

Dr. Rudolph appeared next to the nurse. "Your mother told me to tell you that she'll be here in a few minutes to drive you back home." She handed me some papers. "Read this when you get home. It should help."

Nodding, I took the papers from her. A minute later, my mom came, thanked the doctor and nurse, and then took us back home.

"Purple, huh?" Mirabelle said when we entered my room.

"Why not?"

"Does it hurt?"

"Yeah."

She frowned. "Why don't you ever say something? You shouldn't just pretend it never happened. If you feel something's wrong, say something. It might make a difference someday."

I sat down on my bed and picked up a Bleach volume I'd left by my bedside the two nights before. Remembered what Dr. Rudolph said about the papers, I picked them up and began to read it.

Nothing I didn't know already. I put the papers down, and saw Mirabelle staring at me frowning.

"What?"

"When we were in the car, your mom didn't ask if you were in pain. She didn't ask how you were feeling when you got the cast either. In fact, I haven't even seen you hug each other."

"I already told you, Mirabelle. Things changed after my father died, and even more so when George married my mom."

All of a sudden, my phone rang. I answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kairi. It's Ace. Want to play poker at the park?"

I sighed. "Can't. Just got back from the hospital."

I then realized my mistake.

"WHAT? WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING? I'M COMING TO YOU."

He hung up.

"We're having a guest in less than five minutes."

Mirabelle nodded and opened the fire escape window.