(Edited: 7/20/14)

Anyone who limits her vision to memories of yesterday is already dead.

Lillie Langtry

"Danny, you need to eat." Mom hadn't left me alone all day, but I guess I couldn't blame her. In the past two and a half weeks, I think I've only had anything to eat every other day or so and even then it's only been something substantial once or twice. I know I need to eat, even my ghost half is complaining about the lack of energy now.

"I'll eat later." I'll eat later when I'm kicked out of the room so the nurses can bathe Sam and make sure her condition hasn't worsened.

"This isn't healthy, Danny. Most people would have collapsed by now. What good would it do her if she woke up to find you'd fainted from a lack of food and sleep?"

I had to let her have that point. "Will you leave me alone if I promise to eat a real meal when they kick me out in an hour or so?" Even though I knew I needed to eat before mom really started freaking out about me, I still refused to leave her side any sooner than I had to.

"Fine, but you're eating my definition of a real meal, not yours." She went silent for a few minutes before I heard from her again. "You know, for someone so dedicated, you really are clueless, sweetie."

"I still don't get what people mean by that," I muttered.

Mom placed a hand on my shoulder as she responded. "Start with the here and now. Why are you so intent on staying with her?" I didn't get a chance to even try to answer as mom left the room to go get food for herself. I was left alone with Sam and the question mom had asked.

Why was I so intent on staying with her?

Was it fifth grade already? I can hardly believe it, but here I am, walking down the hall to my classroom. I've heard this teacher is really strict and the fact that she will mainly serve as our math teacher isn't helping. Math is boring, there is no way around that. Danny shares a teacher with me again, and I can hardly believe I've been lucky enough to have him here with me every year since I've met him.

We get our first project of the year three weeks into school during our Computer Lab class. Our Computer class isn't too bad, but it wasn't our choice. Every grade and class gets these things called Specials during the week. For fifth grade, it's P.E., Art, Music, Computer Lab, and Science Discovery. They used to make us sit through a Spanish class instead of Science Discovery, but they stopped that this year for some reason.

In the Computer room, we're doing a mini-unit on weather and using Photo Story to make a presentation about clouds. Danny's reaction to hearing mine and checking over my work is funny. The only thing I really got out of his evaluation sheet is on my third picture on cumulonimbus clouds where I accidentally stressed the word "fluffy" in my voice over. He gave me lots of check marks and smileys and even doodled in a little thumbs up in the box next to the slide. He can't seem to stop referencing that for the rest of the day.

One day, on the bus, I catch sight of him reading some book, but it's not one any sane person would read. I can't possibly imagine why, but he's reading a dictionary! I think he's lost his mind, but he denies it. I just laugh at him every time I see him reading it and I think he keeps doing it just to bug me. I don't think he's even really reading it anymore, I haven't heard any new words out of him!

We learned early on that there would be more than on field trip this year. We were fifth graders now, and they wanted our last year of elementary school to be the best yet. The first one is actually educational, but it wasn't any fun. It was raining all day for the first day we were there and the second day we were all miserable walking around in the mud. The rain was so bad the first day, me and Danny almost decided to just skip the second day.

A few weeks after the first fieldtrip of the year, my mom got me some lip gloss. I groaned when I first saw it, but I took it with me to school to keep her happy. Danny was hilarious when he saw it.

"I thought you were safe, Sam!" I couldn't help but laugh at his feigned horrified expression and the tone of his voice. He was funny and that alone almost made the stupid lip gloss worth having. It was fun to mess with him even though he never really got mad at me.

Yeah, it's short, but that's because I found a flaw in my planning and cut the chapter in half to give Danny the extra scene he needs to have...for reasons... :P

Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D

Invisible One