Chapter Thirteen

I woke up on Wednesday morning and rolled over in bed. Upon remembering that school had been closed the day before, I reached over and turned on my radio. I listened for about ten minutes without hearing anything about school being closed again so I decided I'd better get up. I got ready and soon Dawn and I were walking out the door. On the way, we joined up with Claudia and Logan. We noticed that more kids were walking to school today than there had been on Monday or Friday.

"Maybe this is a good sign." Dawn said.

"Let's hope so." Logan replied. "I don't think I could take another day like Monday."

"Me either." I said.

We chatted until we reached school. When we walked through the front doors, we parted ways. As I made my way to my locker, I noticed that the halls were twice as full as the day before. I also noticed several homeroom doors were open, meaning a teacher was already in there, preparing for this morning's classes.

I was putting my books in my locker when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw Alan standing there. I smiled at him and he sort of smiled back.

"Hey. Glad you're feeling better." I said.

"Thanks. Do you know where Kristy is?" Alan got straight to the point.

"Why do you want to know?" I asked, doubt creeping into my voice. Alan shifted uncomfortably.

"I just want to, um, thank her again for bringing my homework the past couple days."

I smiled.

"I don't know where she is but I'm sure she's around here somewhere. Or it could be that her bus was a little late."

Alan shook his head.

"I've already checked. Her bus has already arrived."

"Well, maybe Charlie drove her today. I don't know."

Alan was about to open his mouth but was cut off by the shrill ring of the bell. He waited for the bell to stop ringing and then said,

"Thanks anyways, Mary Anne."

"No problem."

I slammed my locker closed and began making my way through the hallways towards English. Although it wasn't normal, SMS was defiantly coming back to life as it took me a few minutes to make my way to my class.

I was happy to see that, in English, most of our class was back. I sat down with a smile, relieved that I wouldn't have to do questions again. The bell rang and in walked…a substitute. I groaned and put my head on my desk. It was going to be a very long day.

*****

Actually, the day wasn't that long. As it turns out, first period was the only period where my teacher was sick. By the time I made my way to the BSC at lunch, I was almost wishing I was doing questions again. It may have been boring but at least it was easy.

"Hi everyone." I said as I sat down with my tray (I almost never buy hot lunch but we'd been out of almost everything this morning).

"Hi Mary Anne." Everyone said, their voices overlapping each other. I took a few bites of the disgusting food and then looked around.

"It looks like SMS is making a comeback." I said.

"I know." Claudia said with a small pout. "I've had to do work in almost every class!"

We all laughed while Claudia gave another small pout and then took a bite of a Mars Bar.

"It's nice to be back to normal." Stacey said.

"I agree." Dawn said. "It's less depressing."

"You're telling me." Logan said. "There is absolutely nothing more depressing than being stuck in bed."

We all nodded in agreement and then finished up our lunches. As we stood up and gathered our garbage, I noticed that Kristy hadn't joined us.

"Hey, where's Kristy?" I asked.

"I don't know." Dawn said.

"She wasn't in third period." Logan said.

"I haven't seen her all morning." Claudia said.

"Maybe she skipped lunch and is in the library or the gym or something." Stacey suggested.

"Maybe." I said, doubtfully. Kristy never skips meals like that. We got rid of our trash and as we were filling out of the cafeteria, I grabbed Dawn's arm.

"Want to look for Kristy with me?"

Dawn smiled and nodded. We walked around the entire school about three times in fifteen minutes and we still couldn't find her. Dawn and I were passing a hallway and I stopped to looked down it. I didn't spot Kristy but I did see Alan.

"Come on." I said, taking Dawn's hand. I pulled her down the hallway to Alan, who was at his locker (alone, fortunately).

"Hey Mary Anne." He said, looking at me.

"Hey. Did you find Kristy this morning?" I asked.

Alan shook his head.

"No, I didn't find her. Why?"

"Well, we can't find her now. Just wondering if you had seen her."

"Nope."

"Thanks anyways."

I turned with Dawn and we walked back the way we had come.

"Do you think Kristy's sick?" Dawn asked. I thought about it. Kristy had only been absent six days that I could remember. I thought about it more…okay, so Kristy had been absent four of those six days but four days throughout all of elementary and middle school was not a lot. But then again…she wasn't here and our entire town has been hit with this virus.

"I guess it's possible." I said at last.

"I hope she's not." Dawn said.

"Me too."

Since we still had a few minutes left in lunch, we went to the gym and watched the end of a basketball game Logan was playing. As the bell rung, he joined Dawn and I walking out.

"Did you find Kristy?" he asked, panting.

"No, we didn't." Dawn said.

"Do you think she's sick?"

"It's possible. But I'm not jumping to conclusions." I said, my voice confident. It was so unlike Kristy to get sick that I had convinced myself that she wasn't sick. She just wasn't at school. I parted from Logan and Dawn and made my way to my locker, vowing to call her once I got home.