A new chapter because I got some actual reviews!!

To answer someone's question: yeah, his mom probably would make him take medicine for that.

"So," said Sam the next day at school. "You've been acting weirdly." She pushed her locker closed. This wasn't like her at all—she was acting too normal and caring. Sam isn't exactly normal.

"Living with them has altered me," I replied, pretending not to notice her weirdness.

"How was the movie?" I asked, but only because it sounded normal.

"Bad—" she started. Then a lot of very confusing things happened very fast.

1st, Mrs. Briggs walked down the staircase loudly, yelling at kids (well, that was normal).

2nd, a bunch of kids began looking through windows and gasping our yelling to each other.

3rd, Freddie walked in. At first I just wondered why he was so late because he'd left at about the same time I had. He'd been acting strange and didn't eat any of that creepy bacon, so Mrs. Benson was like, "Freddie what's wrong?" "Carly did you do anything?" "You better hope it wasn't you, Ms. Shay!"

When he walked in he threw his backpack at the floor and glared at me. What had I done?

Now a bunch of kids were staring, and I do NOT like being in a scene! "Carly Shay, what are you looking at?" asked Freddie in a very annoyed tone.

"N-nothing," I said, and I don't usually stutter at all. I am not a nervous person and it is just utterly stupid to be afraid of Freddie.

"Do I have any broken pieces of blue vase on me, by any chance?" said Freddie mockingly. "Maybe with reddish-gold specks? One that stood in the first-aid-kit room last night, Carly?"

What was he talking about?

"She doesn't know what you're talking about," said Sam. "Just lay off; Freddie, I can tell she did nothing."

He walked away, spitting at the floor. He mumbled something so low no one could understand it, and as quickly as it had started it ended. I've never seen Freddie just back off like that—he must really, really, like Sam.

How would I know, anyway? Has Freddie ever been mad at me for even a day? A minute?

No. That's exactly it.

***

"So," said my Math teacher, "I hope you had a good Christmas break. Don't forget we're in the middle of a trimester, though." He swept his hand over to the board (he doubled as the Drama guy). "Let's look at our homework!"

I saw Sam scan her eyes over to where he had written the homework, her eyes quickly looking it over before deciding she didn't feel like doing any of it. But she wrote it all down anyway—like she actually meant to do it! Had anyone ever seen Sam do any homework before now? Being with Freddie had definitely made her different.

"So," he said. We have a quiz on Wednesday and a project due on Friday."

Then he sat down at his desk and pointed to the door. "Leave."

***

I sat next to Spencer. His heart was racing, but his hand was cold. "Don't worry," said the doctors. "I know what I'm doing, I went to medical school." The fact that they said that made me even surer that they hadn't....

There was only a nurse in the room right then. I could have gone home right then—but I didn't want to go see the Bensons. I didn't want to know about the broken blue vase with gold specks (I actually remembered it now, though).

"We have to take him into the OR soon," said the nurse. "Dr. Zee says you can go with him—but not for long. It's an employees only area." I nodded before answering, glad that the rooms nearby where empty, while upset because I needed some distraction from the irritating nurse.

"Oh," I said as I faintly heard my name being called down the hall. I didn't know anyone here, so there was no reason for anyone to be calling for me except for my brother, Daniel—but he wasn't coming for another three days.

I'd tried to contact him—but when you're in the Alaskan wilderness it's kind of hard to get to him. How totally unhelpful it was that my brother was into dogsled racing. 

"Wow," said the nurse. "Dr. Zee said he probably wouldn't brief you. Well, come on." She was suddenly excited, like she was expecting something from this Dr. Zee guy.

She walked me down the hallway from Spencer's room to the reception-ish desk where a man in scrubs was standing. She had a bounce in her step and a singsong-y voice as she introduced me to the odd Dr. Zee. "Carly Shay," said the man. "The only relative of Spencer Shay nearby."

"Yes," I gulped, trying to sound cheery. "That's me."

"Well," said Dr. Zee. "I have something to tell you.

"You're brother probably won't survive this operation."

I will not update again until I have 14 reviews!! If I get over 14 in three days I will update two chapters.