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Chapter Four
Sickness
Esmerelda was tucked up in her bed in Cackles sound asleep but she started to toss and turn in a distressed way. The girl shot awake and looked at the time, it was four in the morning but something was wrong with Ethel, she could sense it.
The girl sat up and put on her slippers and threw on a cardigan over her pyjamas before leaving her bedroom only hoping HB was not patrolling but luckily at this time she should be well asleep. The girl sneaked down her corridor and down the stairs heading to the corridor where Ethel's room was. She walked into the girl's room quickly, feeling uneasy about wandering around and that was when she noticed her bed was empty.
The girl moaned in annoyance as she realised her sister was wandering around somewhere and left the bedroom trying to clear her mind and started to head in the direction of the bathroom.
Esmerelda and Ethel had discovered around a year ago they were telepathic. They had always known really as they just seemed to know when the other was hurt or upset but until a year ago they had not thought to much into it, until the power seemed to get stronger as they got older and they realised it was not normal. It came in handy a lot of the time, like right now when Esmie needed to know where her sister was.
Esmerelda walked into the bathroom, squinting slightly as the bright light hit her. She was just about to call Ethel's name when she heard a retching sound and pushed open the cubicle door nearest to her and saw Ethel throwing up into the toilet.
"Ethie?" Esmerelda said rushing in and kneeling next to her "What happened?" Esmerelda asked her sister concerned. Ethel was not the type to get sick.
"I woke up and felt sick" Ethel complained looking pale as she threw up more.
"It is probably because you were dizzy before" Esmerelda said having a good mind to go to the nurse right that minute and tell her off, she had known something was wrong with Ethel and she was correct.
Ethel flushed the toilet and stood up, grabbing a piece of toilet tissue and dabbing her mouth with it before she spoke.
"I think I am okay now" Ethel replied not questioning how Esmie had known she was there. Their telepathic had obviously led her there.
Esmie smiled glad her sister was feeling better, even though she did look deadly pale which worried her. She stood up putting her arm around Ethel to lead her back to bed. They got outside the bathroom, Esmerelda closed the door, and the two girls took three steps away from the door when Ethel put her hand to her mouth and ran back into the bathroom clearly about to throw up again. Now Esmerelda was concerned and rushed back in after her.
"I am fine..." Ethel lied as she retched "I am sure it will pass" Ethel told Esmerelda wanting her to not ask to many questions.
"Yes and I am Agatha Cackle" Esmerelda replied sarcastically wondering if she should wake a teacher and tell them Ethel was ill.
"Don't even think about it, I am fine!" Ethel replied knowing what she was thinking of doing. Just then Ethel threw up more aggressively and Esmerelda kneeled down to rub her back and push her hair out of the way. Ethie was clearly ill which worried her sister greatly.
The next morning Esmerelda and Ethel went to breakfast exhausted. Esmie had refused to leave her sister when she was ill and Ethel's sickness had lasted for two hours until around six when they finally got back to bed. They both played with their porridge with bags under their eyes, Esmie was just glad that it seemed her sister was over the bug so they would be able to sleep tomorrow.
"What is up with you two?" Sybil asked as her, Clarice and Beatrice joined them. "You look like you didn't get a lot of sleep" Sybil commented.
"We didn't" they both said in unison.
"Yes you both look terrible" Clarice said in her blunt way as usual.
"Thanks" Esmerelda replied sarcastically.
The rest of the breakfast was not very eventful, Sybil spoke to her friends but not really her sisters as she could sense they were really tired. Ethel sighed when it was time to go to class to as she had a potions test that morning and it was the last thing she wanted to do that day,
"GooD luck Ethie" Esmerelda told her sister who forced a smile as she went to take the test.
"GIRLS!" HB said as all the girls scrambled to sit down and fell silent. "You have twenty minutes, begin" she said turning over an hourglass. Ethel opened her test paper and started to write her answers without having to think to much about it. She had studied for hours for this test but then she started to feel really ill again.
Normally Ethel would be writing away by now but she was trying to refrain from throwing up over her test paper. The girl gagged and raised her hand, HB raised her eyebrows and walked to her slowly, to slowly. Ethel felt like screaming at her to hurry the hell up, her sickness was not going to wait.
"Yes?" HB said in an annoyed tone wondering why the girl was interrupting a test.
"Miss….I…...I think I am going to be sick" Ethel told the woman and Hecate took in the girls pale face and was worried. Ethel was not one to skip lessons ever and she was not one to lie about being ill. All the other pupils had glanced up to watch clearly more interested in what was going on than their test.
"How bad is it Ethel?" Hecate asked her and Ethel was about to reply when she felt the sensation that she was going to be sick more. Hecate raised her hands quickly producing a bucket and the young girl threw up aggressively, much to her classmates disgust.
"Eww gross!" the girls next to Ethel said moving away from her. Ethel didn't reply but threw up more.
"Yuck, that is disgusting Ethel" another classmate said.
"Could you not have told me so I didn't sit near you?" another girl said and Hecate became angry at their lack of care and compassion towards their classmate. These girls were thirteen or fourteen now. They were teenagers, she could understand this reaction from first years but third years should know better.
"Be quiet all of you and get on with your test, the whole class will receive a detention tonight for their childish behaviour towards this, I am ashamed at all of you" Hecate told them and everyone moaned, some like Mildred and her friends complaining it wasn't fair as they didn't even say anything bad.
"Do you want a double detention Mildred Hubble?" When the girl shook her head Hecate went on "Then do your test, and you will come to detention tonight" Hecate told her. Once that was out the way Hecate walked around the desks to Ethel.
"You may leave Ethel, don't worry about the test you can resit it, would you like me to take you to the nurse?" Hecate asked the girl really concerned. This was not like Ethel at all. She was a stubborn child, she would not let anyone see her ill she would just get on with it, the girl shook her head and got up.
"Thank you miss" Ethel said and Hecate was happy with her decision, she wasn't a monster like many people thought and was not going to make the blonde sit a test when she was throwing up, she could not do much for the girl so she carried on teaching promising herself to check on her later.
Esmerelda was sat in spell science trying her best to stay awake as Mr Rowan-Webb droned on when she saw Ethel running past in the direction of the bathroom. For the second time in two days Esmerelda got up and left her classroom, but this time her teacher was awake so she ran ignoring the fact he was calling after her and ignoring the fact she would be punished later.
Esmerelda went into the toilets and heard Ethel being sick. She did what she had done the night before and sat by her sister rubbing her back and holding her hair our of the way.
"I thought you were better" Esmie said really concerned now this was still going on. Sickness normally lasted a few hours and then was gone.
"So did I" Ethel replied as she sat with her head leaning against the wall so she was close enough to the toilet if she needed to be sick again. She was deadly pale and clearly ill. She was so pale she looked like a ghost with her blonde hair.
"Should I go get the nurse, I know she is useless but maybe she can give you something?" Esmie suggested sitting by Ethel and hugging her, Ethel shook her head just leaning into her sister.
"No, I am fine please don't, I probably just have a bug or something" Ethel replied not wanting to go to the nurse as she would ask her questions and would discover the secret Ethel was trying to hide, well the second secret she was trying to hide.
"Alright but if this carries on I am taking you to the nurse" Esmerelda told her sister hugging her before the girl pulled out of her arms and then threw up again and Esmerelda was confused as well as concerned. She had only started to be sick after the funny turn with the transferring. Esmerelda had never heard of anything like it and she knew she would be researching a lot for the cause over the next few days. There was something wrong with Ethel and she would look through every book she could get her hands on until she found out what it was.