Chapter Twelve

We were all quite surprised when we heard on the radio that school had been closed due to "an outbreak of influenza", as the radio announcer called it. Stacey was the only one had a job booked. She and Mal were the only ones busy (Mal's cold turned into the full blown flu) so I asked my dad if Dawn and I could have our friends over for the afternoon, and possibly, if we were lucky, a pizza party. Surprisingly, he said yes. So I called Jessi, Kristy, Claudia and Logan. They were all able to come, but Logan had to leave at three o'clock. So, around noon, our doorbell rang.

I ran to answer it and let Kristy it. She waved at Watson, who had brought her over.

"Hi." I said.

"Hi. I can't tell you how happy I am to get out of my house. All my brothers have the flu, and believe me, when Charlie and Sam get sick, it is not fun."

"Too bad." I said, opening the door for Logan, whom I had spotted walking up the driveway.

"Hey Mary Anne. Hi Kristy."

"Hi."

I took both Kristy and Logan's coat and piled them on a chair in the den. We continued into the den and just as I sat down, the doorbell rang again.

"That's probably Claudia." I said, getting up. I ran to the front door and let in Claudia and Jessi.

"Everyone else is here already." I said, taking their coats.

Soon, we were all digging into these great whole-grain nachos that Dawn had made, laughing and gabbing. After food was taken care of, we sat around and just talked. We talked about Kristy's Krushers (a softball team she coaches for little kids), which would be starting up again in the next couple of weeks. We talked about the afternoon of boredom we had experienced the day before. That prompted Jessi to ask, to no one in particular,

"I wonder if there's going to be school tomorrow?"

"I would count on it." Logan said. "This flu bug is nasty, but it's also relatively short-lived. People should be getting better by now."

"But what if they're just catching it?" Claudia asked. Logan shrugged.

"So many people have had it already. I'd say that those who are going to get will have gotten it already." Kristy spoke up.

"I don't know." Jessi said. "Becca came down with it just this morning."

We fell into silence but soon Dawn suggested a game of Twister.

"Twister?" Claudia asked. "Isn't that a game for little kids?"

"Well, what have you got to do that's better? We're running out of things to talk about." Dawn replied.

"Come on, Claud. It'll be fun." Kristy said.

"Well…" Claudia debated. "Okay. But don't laugh at me when I look completely silly."

"Jessi? Logan? You in?" Dawn asked. They both nodded.

"Great. I'll be right back." Dawn ran up to her Kid-Kit, where she grabbed the game. Pretty soon, we were all tangled into one big, human knot. Logan had volunteered to be our first spinner.

"Claudia, left foot blue."

Poor Claudia was stretched out over the entire board, sandwiched between Dawn and Kristy. She tried to reach her left foot from a red circle to a blue one but slipped and fell. As a result, the rest of us collapsed on top of her.

"I told you I'd look silly." Claudia complained from the bottom of the heap. The rest of us just laughed and soon Claudia joined in.

"I'm spinning this time." She said, once we had straightened ourselves out. And so another game began. And another one after that. In the middle of our fourth game, Logan asked what time it was. I tried to look at my watch but ended up causing everyone to fall when I lost my balance. We laughed, and then I told Logan it was ten to three.

"I'd better go." Logan said, finding his coat in the pile.

"See you, everyone." He called as he made his way to the door. I followed him as the rest of the girls called out good-bye.

"Thanks, Mary Anne. That was fun."

"No problem. I'll see you tomorrow?" I asked, opening the door. Logan nodded and leaned over and kissed my cheek and then entered the cold, white world. I closed the door and returned to my friends. We played a few more games of Twister, but with the loss of a player, the game became easier. Soon, we were Twister-ed out. We packed up the box and then laid on the floor in a circle, with our heads in the middle.

"That was fun." Jessi said. We all "mhmm-ed" in agreement. We laid there in silence for a few moments until Claudia spoke up.

"How was Alan yesterday?" Claudia asked.

"He's getting better."

"That's good." Dawn said.

"Yeah, it is. In fact, I know he's almost better because he started to tease me again."

We laughed. After the laughter died down, I spoke up.

"You know, he really appreciated your visits."

"How do you know?" Kristy asked.

"When I was walking away from the house, right before you went in, I saw Alan watching for you from his window." I said. Of course, the other girls squealed with excitement.

"Really?" Kristy asked.

"Yeah."

"Aww." Kristy sounded touched.

"Kristy! You just 'awed' over a boy!" Claudia exclaimed.

"So?"

"So…that means you like him." Claudia sounded excited.

"It does not."

"It does."

"Does not."

"Does."

Kristy waited a moment.

"Fine, so maybe I like him, just a little bit. But only because he was sick." Kristy added on.

"Sure, sure." Jessi said.

"Why is that?" Kristy asked.

"Why is what?" Dawn asked.

"Why do guys, when they're sick, sound so much more appealing. I mean, he even looked cuter, laying there in bed."

"I guess it's because that's when they're vulnerable. It's when they're willing to admit they need help." I said.

"And," Dawn added. "As sexist as it is, it's girls they allow to take care of them. Not other guys."

"True." Kristy said. "Enough laying around."

Kristy sat up, prompting us to do the same and closing the subject. She turned to me.

"What else can have you got we can play?"

I grinned. It was so like Kristy to put an end to the mushy stuff like that.

In the end, we ended up playing Monopoly for the rest of the evening. And Kristy must've been really set on not letting the subject come up again because she won three games straight.