There's a whole page of A/N's first. I'm sorry for that. But there was something I wanted to say to all of my readers, and then there was the answers for the reviews and then the cast list of the characters for the sleepover and at last I had more than one whole page of A/N's. But there is a chapter under all of it.
Gleekforever12345: I'm glad you liked it. I had loads of fun writing that chapter. It was really cute.
Leoni123: Thank you for your review.
Precious- passenger: YAY. You're finally caught up again. And yes, the Jackie part was just heartbreaking. But if I can say it myself it's nicely written and I looooved the ending. "Hugs" And yep. Barole are the cutest! I had a bit of trouble with that ending too but I liked it too yeah. I'm more for Jake and Marley than Ryder and Marley, but since I know one of the readers here loves Ryley I decided to do one and I had that idea. I loved how you said that Finn was "hungry I didn't just throw up my guts" it made me laugh. I'm glad I decided to do it too, even though I'm looking forward to write the original plan I had for M. "Hugs again" Carole and Finn are so adorable together.
Hello : ) This is Linnéa asking for your attention for the little while, maybe the few minutes it would take for you to read through this message. And she… wait why am I talking about myself in third person? Well, let's start over again.
Hello : ) I just wanted to take the opportunity to, tell you how much each and every one of you mean to me. This is kind of random so if you think it's nothing else than nagging for attention you're probably right! Well… onto what I was actually going to say to you.
Well, if we have been chatting much the last few months then you might know that right now I am facing some major changes. And I'm not going to lie, I have been feeling… like everything I have done earlier is just going to waste and that this will never go well… but that feeling have started to fade more and more, and right now I can usually shrug and have a feeling that "it will be alright"
Last week I got a couple of really good news and well… I know that other people- not least my friends on here have helped me to get so to the point I'm going to be able to do this so to the point that I just feel that things are going to be alright in the end- no matter how! So I just wanted to say thank you.
I wanted to thank you for being my friend, or for believing in me- because even if it maybe from time to time was only a "great chapter" a bit here and there or a couple of messages every once in a while or whatever it was- it was too much for me to explain in a simple message with written words.
So if you were there for me, and believed in me then thank you. There is no way I could have been where I am today without you. So thank you yet again, you've meant so much more than I could ever say.
And if there is something I have gotten wrong and in fact you weren't my friend or didn't believe in me. Then I think that the news I have gotten the past few days will give me the right to say…
…in your face!
-Linnéa
And for the characters in the chapter, as you might know if I let you submit a character I sent to a number of people a detail or two or three that I needed for the ones that came to the sleepover and let them fill up it as a syoc. So here are the characters for the sleepover, who they belong to and who their celebrity look alike is.
Anything you recognize- Glee's writers
Louisa Roman- My OC- Rowan Blanchard
Louisa "Izzie" Deck- Gleekforever12345- Sabrina Carpenter
Paige Robbins- Gleejunkie007- Mady Gosselin
Issabella "Bella" Rose- LocalXmusicXjellybeanX- Skai Jackson
Evie Nicholls- TamJaspie- Kia Pegg
Adam Roman- My OC- Cameron Boyce
Carly Grace- Finchel4Ever1- Carly Rose Sonenclar
Onto the chapter
N is for Night
"So is that everything then?" I asked and placed the groceries on the table coming home from the store. Kurt placed the bags he was carrying on the table by mine and helped me starting to put everything into the fridge and the cupboards after he nodded yes to me. Even though I couldn't help to notice the frown on his forehead. "What is it? I can see you're bothered by something."
"Well…" Kurt hesitated but I glanced at him and with only that told him that I listened. "Remember the girl I told you about? Louisa Roman?" She's the one I started talking to and then some of her friends came along and then we had this planned I'm not really sure how. She's kind of…" I waited for Kurt to finish the sentence.
"What?"
"Special. She… she doesn't say much in a group and as a matter of fact I don't think those others really are her… friends!" I smiled and walked over and patted his shoulder. "Carole could you help me and.. keep an eye on them all so no one's mean to each other and so?" I let go of him again and continued unpacking the groceries.
"Of course I will. And don't worry honey. I'm sure everything will be great!" Kurt nodded and then reached down in the bag again. "Oh is that one of the girls coming?" A scrawny, dark- haired girl was just walking up our driveway. "I thought they weren't arriving until in two hours."
"They weren't." Kurt let go of the groceries he was holding onto and walked out in the hallway just as there was a knock on the door and I continued to unpack the groceries. "Carole!" I didn't see Kurt and the girl come into the kitchen and jumped when Kurt spoke. "This is the girl I told you about, Louisa."
I closed the refrigerator door and walked over to the girl reaching out my hand. "Hello, my name is Carole. I'm Kurt's stepmum." The girl looked up at me with her brown eyes and gave me a feeling that she was seeing right through me. "I've been looking forward to meet you" I lowered my hand again, the girl still hadn't said anything.
"My name's Louisa." She said at last, in a monotone, but not cold or rude tone. "It's not personal. I don't shake hands." She pulled her galaxy printed- backpack off and reached for something in the outer pocket that she held to me. "And my mum says that whenever I go to someone I need to give an adult these."
I grabbed the small bag that I could see held two epipens- shots with medicines towards life- threatening allergic reactions. "That's fine honey." I put the shots in a cupboard where I would easily reach them. "Can you tell me what you're allergic to as well and I'll try to make sure you don't get any of it."
"There's a paper in that box as well. It's got the numbers to my parents if something would happen." I nodded. "And I'm all… NO" When Kurt laid a hand on her shoulder her voice suddenly went from low and monotone to really high- pitched and loud. "Don't touch me!" She jumped away from Kurt- jumping almost right on me.
"I'm sorry."
Louisa didn't answer Kurt's apology, actually she didn't have the time before Finn and Burt came into the room, just having watched a football game. "They won mum." Finn was almost jumping with happiness. "They won, they WHOA" In his excitement Finn had accidentally pushed Louisa, who spun around and pushed him away. "Mum! She pushed me!"
"She doesn't like to be touched Finn. And some people that doesn't like to be touched push people away when they come too close." I helped Finn to come up after falling. "Did you hurt yourself?" Finn shook his head. "That's good honey." I turned back to find Louisa because I wanted to ask her again what it was she was allergic to. But she and Kurt had already left the room.
Kurt had to start fixing for the sleepover, he, Louisa and four other girls and one other boy were having. Louisa pulled up a book from her backpack and then placed herself on the living room floor with her back against the couch long lost in the book about the universe.
"I can see you're interested in the outer space." A while later I stood in the living room and cleaned the table. Her shirt had a galaxy print, so had her backpack and sneakers and sitting with the book she seemed far gone in her own world. She barely looked at me when I spoke but I could see she bobbed her head up and down as an answer.
If it had as much as crossed my mind what this might be, why it was that the girl obviously hated being touched, and had an obsession and the monotone tone in her voice. If I had just thought for a little while about why all that might be then there wouldn't have been a doubt about what it was. But I didn't, I just waved it off, thought it was just a part of her like any other piece of personality and didn't think more about that.
At half past five there was a knock on the door the next time and I went to get it, there outside stood a girl with long golden- blonde hair wearing a band T- shirt with a green day logo. "Hey" She nodded at me slightly when I reached down to help her with the sleeping bag. "I'm Izzie, I guess this is Kurt's house then?" Just as she had asked Kurt came into the hallway. "Hi Kurt. What's up?"
Kurt took the sleeping bag from my hands and then walked up the stairs. Coming back with a slightly concerned expression. "Carole. We've got a tiny little problem." I finished folding the dry laundry I was working with and turned to him. "Well… remember how I said that I thought that all seven of them would fit into the guest room?"
I nodded and started having an idea about what this was about. "Well it turned out that with the pull out couch, those blow- up mattresses dad lent from his friends and if we want to be able to open the door there. There can be five of them in there." Kurt sighed. "And Finn's got Rachel here so I don't think we should put anyone in there and… well… so we've got two who won't have place in the guest room during the night… what do we do now?"
"Let them sit up and wait until two of us have fallen asleep in the living room?" Izzie asked. "No but seriously. Adam only has to be here because Aspen is…" Izzie nodded towards Louisa. "So I'm sure he'd rather take the couch then spend the night in a room full of girls." Louisa, who had been sitting with her nose almost touching the book's pages the last half hour now sat up and glared towards Izzie. But she didn't say anything.
"Mrs. Carole?" A little while later I was helping Kurt with setting the mattresses in the guest room when Louisa stood in the door, she was biting her sleeve and seemed a bit nervous. I looked to Kurt and sighed to him to wait for me before I bent down to reach Louisa's height- even though she looked away when I looked her in the eyes.
"Yes honey, what did you want?" I asked. "Don't worry, you can tell me honey. I won't be angry." Louisa bit her lip and then answered.
"I know you decided that Adam will be in the living room for the night. And that you needed one more to be in the living room. And… I could sleep in the living room too, I don't really like sleeping in a room with loads of people and…. And…. But… I don't feel good when I'm around people a whole day and can't get away, so I was wondering if there is somewhere where I could… go and read or something for a bit if things get… too much?"
I wondered for a bit. "Well…" I bit my lip. "Is there anything certain that needs to be in this room? Louisa frowned, and then shook her head. "Okay… ehrm… come with me." I started moving my hand to lie it on her back but changed my mind in the last second and moved it to hold my hands behind my own back instead.
I lead her down the hallway and into the walk- in- closet holding the whole family's clothes. "You can be in here if you want and as long as you don't touch anything. See? It's even got a soft chair in here." I pointed to an arm chair Kurt had put in here for whatever. "Is that okay honey?" Louisa nodded. "That's good."
There was another knock on the door and I walked downstairs when I saw Kurt was busy and I walked down the stairs and opened the door to the two girls that had just arrived but looked pretty confused when they saw me.
"Hi" The Asian- looking and the black girl outside greeted at the same time. "Is this where Kurt lives?" I answered them yes and stepped away so they could get inside just as Kurt came in from the living room and greeted them just as there was another knock on the door again, this time to a brown- haired girl wearing pink from head to toe.
"Hello" She smiled at me, and before she too had asked for Kurt I stepped away so she could get in and see them others for themselves. "Hey guys." She smiled revealing crooked teeth and a mischievous glimpse in her eyes. Oh boy!
"So… there will be seven of you when everyone's arrived. I believe we could just go upstairs with your things where you all will sleep. Except for Louisa and Adam because there isn't enough room for everybody. But we can go upstairs with it waiting for Adam and… wait… can you all just tell me your names again so I know who you are sorry?" Kurt said
"I'm Paige Robbins" The Asian looking girl said before she lifted her hand and pulled her hair forward over one shoulder. "And that" she pointed to the black girl. "Is Issabella Rose- Bella for short. That is Louisa Deck." she pointed to Izzie. "But we call her Izzie because there are two Louisa's in our gang and that is Evie Nichols." She pointed to the girl with the brown hair. "And that's Louisa Roman, who we call Aspen. And if she's here, then her brother Adam is either here already or on his way!"
"Oh… Aspen? Is that your middle name?" I turned to Louisa- for some reason it felt best to call her than. And she shook her head and was about to answer when Paige was faster than her and with a quite rude tone in her voice she answered.
"No, it's because she's got Asperger's" Louisa's usually brown eyes suddenly went all black as she glared at Paige from behind her. But she didn't say anything more at first, just silent and hugged the big book she held tightly to her chest.
"I should decide who knows that Paige. It's not your thing to just tell people like that!" Her voice was low, and now quite as callous as it had been before. But I couldn't help to hear that she was desperately trying to hide the hurt tone. And I frowned just as Burt came in too.
"Hello everyone." He greeted. "My name is Burt Hummel- everyone calls me Burt." He laid his arm around my shoulders. "I'm Kurt's dad and I don't bite too often." He smirked, his green eyes almost glittering in that very special way that still made me feel all weak to the knees. "So if you want to come with me with a question or anything then don't hesitate."
I heard footsteps on the porch steps and counted down from three, as soon as I reached zero there was a knock and Burt reached out his arm and opened the door to a boy, standing middle- length and scrawny in ripped jeans and a way too big fleece shirt with a skateboard under his arm and a messenger bag hanging over one shoulder.
"Hello." Kurt greeted and stepped by me and his father. "You must be Adam." The boy nodded but didn't take Kurt's hand. "Well… you can come and put your things here since… we hoped that you could take one of the living room sofas tonight since we figured there isn't enough room for everyone in the guest room." Adam sighed.
"I don't care if I so have to sleep in a garage just as long as I don't have to sleep in a room full of girls!" He rolled his eyes. "I don't even care about this stupid sleepover anyway." He looked around him with a glare that just shouted that he didn't want any more questions about that.
"I just got a text message from Carly." Izzie stated. "She'll be a bit late, but she's on her way." We all moved out in the living room and Kurt and Burt grabbed everyone's bags and walked upstairs with them. I looked around the room, Adam was just walking in as well and his little sister sat with her nose almost down in the book's pages again. Adam had hung the fleece shirt over his bag and wore a grey long- sleeved T- shirt instead but still held the skateboard tightly to his side.
"Lou! You know that mum says that you need to wear glasses when you read." Louisa glared up at her. "Come on, well at least I don't want to hear you complaining about a headache tomorrow because you haven't been wearing your glasses." Louisa sighed and pulled out a pair of glasses from her pocket and pulled them on- so that's why she had been sitting with her face in the book- she needed glasses!
"And she also says that you're not supposed to skate yet! Your foot haven't healed yet since you broke it!" Adam just continued glaring.
"Well I can take care of myself, you cannot. And I don't complain but you do and I don't want to hear that so shut up!"
"Hey." I interrupted Adam. "Look! I know what it's like having siblings and always fighting with them. But there's no reason to be rude. And I'm sure that whatever your mum tells you to or not to do she's telling you it because she only wants your best." Louisa was far gone in her book again, Adam glared worse than ever, now towards me.
"No you don't. You don't know what it's like, so don't come and tell me you do! You don't know her, you don't know me so just keep out of what is none of your business okay?" His eyes met mine for a second. And maybe I should have taken him aside and given him a lecture for it. Being a mother- and a sister myself maybe tell him that how he talked to his sister was not okay.
But just as he watched into my eyes, his dark brown meeting mine I couldn't…. as something just seemed to flash by. It was gone again in the matter of a split second but…. It had been there and seeing him so hurt already I backed away and chose to let it go for now. And that just as there was another knock on the door and the last one of the guests had arrived
"Hello." I opened the door. "You must be Car… whoa honey." The dark- haired girl outside stood with her hand under her nose trying to catch up blood that was running from her nose. I had a pack of tissues in my coat pocket and quickly yet gently pushed her outside. "Come on, we take it outside yeah?" She couldn't answer but nodded agreeing and sat down on the porch steps and leaned forward over the grass.
"It's okay honey." I moved to the side when she gagged from swallowing blood and stroke her back. "You just swallowed some blood." I changed the tissue I was holding onto. For a little while I was almost afraid that I'd run out of tissues before it had stopped bleeding and for a while I was just on my way to shout on Burt to get another pack of tissues or whatever else I could use. But then, quite fast it had stopped.
"I'm sorry." Carly wiped her nose to get away the last of the blood. "God you must think this is disgusting." I smiled and shook my head- if she could only believe all the times I had done this on Finn- and Christopher too for that matter. And that was what I told her just as the front door opened and Paige came out.
"Carly where'd you go?" She asked quite rudely. "We heard you coming and then you were gone again!" Carly nodded. "Oh man! Did you have a nosebleed again?" Carly nodded again and pushed herself up and turned to Paige and then to me. I signed at her that I'd take care of this and started gathering the tissues, walking into the living room again just as Carly started talking to Kurt.
"Hey thank you so much for letting me come to the sleepover. Hey maybe we could tell scary stories later on" She almost jumped of excitement, I shook my head and smiled. I wasn't a big fan of the scary stories- the last time I had heard anything about that I had to get Finn at a sleepover part at four in the morning because he was scared- he was thirteen! But I guess I would just let them have their fun.
"Hey!" When I, a few hours later came back into the living room for helping Kurt with the evening snack for them all seeing Carly sit there with a small tube with soap and water that could be used for blowing bubbles and knew that here I had to step in. "Don't blow those inside. We will have it over the whole floor and I might be a nurse but if someone falls and hits their head or something I'm not promising I'll know what to do."
"I'm not promising I will know what to do if anyone cracks their head open or something" Evie looked up from a sticker book about the body she had in her lap. "But if anyone gets ill, don't worry, we have a doctor in the house!" She pointed to herself. "So you're a nurse?" I nodded to her. "Hold on… are you that nurse Hudson in the ER?" I nodded again. "You work with my dad. Toby Nicholls!"
"Yes, that I do honey." Evie smiled back at me. "He's a very nice man." Evie nodded again and I really meant it. Dr. Nicholls really was nice- some doctors, even though it wasn't as common now and had gone a lot more unusual just since I had become a nurse about fifteen years ago- they really would treat the nurses like something the cat had pulled in.
Dr. Nicholls was one to treat everyone in the staff the same and also the patients. He'd rather sit a whole shift with one patient to get symptoms to put a diagnosis than doing like most others only getting from one patient to another as fast as possible maybe putting the wrong diagnosis and then getting stuck with something even worse.
"So…" Burt was coming down the stairs. "Are you sure you're a doctor because most doctors I know are a few sizes bigger than you." He looked down at her and I couldn't help but laugh. Burt might not be the tallest man- my son was a good bit taller than him- but even Burt looked like a giant next to the short and scrawny teenager in front of her.
"God only let things grow until they're perfect. Some of us didn't take as long as others… hold on" when Burt was speechless Evie climbed up a few sets on the outside of the stairs until she could look Burt in the eyes and reached his height. Then she let go with one hand and pointed to him. "in your face." She laughed and I couldn't help but do the same. Burt chuckled softly too while he grabbed Evie under the arms and lifted her down to ground floor again.
"So if you're a nurse." While walking into the kitchen Evie looked up at me. "Do you know what ECG stands for and what it does?" She looked up at me in a way that told me that she knew already and just wanted to know if I did. I nodded.
"Electrocardiogram. It's what you use to check the activity of the heart"
"EEG then?"
"Electroencephalogram. Checks the activity of the brain."
"NGT?"
"Nasal- Gastro tube, you put it through the nose when someone can't eat or have eaten something they shouldn't and either feed or empty the stomach depending on what it is." Evie breathed in again but before she had started talking I interrupted. "Honey, don't you think you should just sit down and eat now? We can do more of this later or tomorrow." Evie hesitated, and then nodded and reached for the bag with Marshmallows.
"Well don't just stand there." Paige said rudely to Louisa. "Come on Aspen move!" Louisa herself was standing glancing over the table seeming to have a hard time choosing what she would take onto her plate. "Come on." Paige pushed her, quite hard, the plate that thankfully was empty was sent across the floor and broke. Louisa herself fell over a chair and pulled with her some drawing that I had seen Paige sitting drawing on since she came here.
"NO" Paige shouted and put her plate down with a bang and pulled out the paper that Louisa had fallen on and that had been folded under her weight. "Oh, you fatty! Now it's all ruined and it's all your fault!" I looked to Burt, he looked to want to say something just as badly as I felt it. I didn't know why but I stayed silent.
"It's not my fault." Louisa mumbled. "You pushed me!"
"Well…" Paige said and grabbed Louisa's book from her hands. Louisa looked heartbroken only from Paige grabbing it. "If that wasn't your fault then this isn't my fault." She pulled out a page of the book. "I have been working on that drawing for weeks so this isn't my fault either." She pulled out five more pages while talking. "Or this, or thi…."
For every page she pulled out Louisa flinched almost as if Paige had slapped her. And suddenly I seemed to wake up, shook my head and immediately shot over the floor and to Paige and ripped the book out of her hands. "That's enough" Paige raised an eyebrow rudely and rolled her eyes at me before turning towards the table again.
I bent down and carefully helped Louisa pick up the loose pages. While Paige had been ripping the pages out Louisa had looked heartbroken but now she had closed into her own shell and wasn't even looking at me while she took the pages and mumbled something about having to be alone before she turned around and walked out and I heard her footsteps continue up the stairs.
"Well she's nice!" Paige looked meaning to Izzie. "Or well… it's not the first time she just ruined something fun and then just left. Just as good though. We're always better off without her! Aren't we Adam?" The older of the two Roman- siblings had his mouth full of marshmallow, but nodded and rolled his eyes pointing towards the door where Louisa had left.
"Excuse me!" I couldn't believe I hadn't said something before. "But what do you think gives you the right to talk about her like that?" The whole room fell silent and everyone were standing or sitting looking towards me. "And you." I looked towards Adam. "Come with me." I didn't want to say this in front of everyone so I more or less pulled him off the kitchen couch and out on the porch steps.
"What on earth are you doing?" I had to force myself to stay calm, the young boy just glared at me. "Look! I know that siblings can be a pain in the ass, I have two of them myself. But do you know what's so great about them? You will always have someone who stick up for you whatever you do or wherever you are. And what you do when you're ignoring what they do to your sister is not what a brother or sister is supposed to do."
"Look" Adam glared at me angrier than ever. "You can't talk about this. You don't know me, you don't know my sister so just stay out of it okay?" I started to say something but he interrupted. "Look! You don't know what this is like. My three years younger sister is in the same as grade as me, next year she's going to be over me in school don't you think I hear much of that? Do you think anyone goes on about her about that she's not doing anything about that?"
I didn't know what to answer, so I just let him speak- was this really… could it be. "And anyway I'm forced to follow her everywhere to keep an eye on her. Well guess what! I'm not going to keep an eye on her! Because having to go with those girls everywhere I go is bad enough. Can I go inside again?" I nodded and opened the door and walked inside after him.
Adam slumped down on the kitchen sofa. He started scrolling through his phone but I could see on his body language that he was angry with me. I didn't pay too much attention to what the others said and wondered if I might have wanted to say more- or less. Just something that might have made him realize that what he was doing was not okay.
"Don't worry about it Carole." I didn't listen to one of the others before Izzie spoke directly to me. "She haven't got any feelings anyway because she's got Autism." I stopped in the middle of the movement I was doing with pushing the kitchen door open. "Really!" Izzie continued. "Well at least my dad says Autistics doesn't have feelings, and he should know because his brother have got Autism too- Asperger's is Autism you know that right?"
"Yes I know." I answered callously but with anger boiling up inside. How dared she? Had she even seen… Just as I was on my way to talk some sense into them all Burt grabbed my shirt and pulled me with him out in the living room. "What…. What… Burt what are you doing? I need to get in there and tell those a very truthful word."
"I think you'd be better off if you calm down and let it go. Believe me, I don't like this anymore than you do. But you won't make anything better with exploding on us." He patted my shoulder. "Calm down for a bit and then go check on Louisa will you? I'll keep an eye on everything in here." Burt walked back into the kitchen
I sat down in the sofa. Then I noticed that Louisa's backpack laid by and it had been opened while something had been taken out of it. I didn't mind much for it- It was probably Louisa herself that had grabbed something before going upstairs. I looked away again, and then stood up again and walked upstairs.
Louisa sat on the floor, in front of the arm chair with a teddy bear. I had seen she had put away the book downstairs and she now sat with a notebook, and the teddy- galaxy- printed of course tightly to her chest and in the other hand a pencil and leaned over the notebook quickly writing numbers down on the paper.
I didn't look at it too carefully, but with a quick glance I could see that with all of the number's and letters it was math that I would never be able to handle. And seeing that Louisa seemed okay, far gone in her thoughts I backed out of the room and closed the door after me again.
"Adam… Adam… Guess what!" Just as I came downstairs Louisa came running down the stairs and showed him something in the notebook, Adam barely looked at her.
"Is it about outer space?" He asked rudely.
"No"
"Is it about math?"
"Yes, look here. I made…."
"I don't want to hear it!"
Louisa tried pointing it out to Adam but he had turned to his pineapple and marshmallows again and made it very clear to her that he wasn't interested. Louisa looked sad, then sat down and when I asked her if she wanted to show me instead she suddenly just shined up and started pointing out how she had made a really hard number in math.
I had gotten lost after about half a sentence, but I didn't interrupt and couldn't help but feel quite impressed by the way she talked and how she showed me how she had counted even though I didn't understand much of it. "You're so wrong Izzie" I thought to myself looking towards the blonde girl by the table. "And if you looked here now I think you'd know it."
About an hour later I walked into the living room after fixing some things of my own. I was on my way to bed, the girls, Kurt and Adam had changed into pyjamas and I eyed over them and couldn't help but laugh at some of the prints like Evie's that had a picture of a bear and read "these early mornings are unbearable."
"Okay guys." I said. "I'm going to bed now. Burt's off since earlier, but you know where you've got us if you need anything and if you need to then don't hesitate to come and wake us up okay?" The others nodded but didn't seem to be listening to me too much. "Is that clear? Louisa?" Louisa looked up and nodded.
"Well, we're just going to paint each other's nails and play some singstar and then we'll go to bed soon too."
"I don't really like singing…." Louisa said and I smiled at her, was on my way to tell her that she didn't have to if she didn't want. I thought that Kurt was on his way to say the same thing but Paige got before us both- and wasn't she just one to always have her voice heard?
"It will be fun and that's what we want to play. If you don't to play, then you can watch." Louisa didn't answer, and I didn't have the time to do either when Bella pulled up a big set of nail polish of different colors of her bag and showed it around to the others. Adam moaned
"Boys can wear nail polish as well." Bella stated. "Can't they Kurt?" I was backing towards the stairs when Kurt nodded towards the younger girl. "And my brother wears nail polish all the time, he's on the football team and got a girlfriend and everything. But he wears nail polish to show people that he wears whatever he wants."
I smiled, the last one I heard before I walked up the stairs was Carly. "I don't think it would look very good if Adam wore nail polish. Adam, can you play Singstar against me instead at first?" Adam mumbled something, and then I closed the door to mine and Burt's bedroom and I couldn't hear them at all anymore.
"They're driving you crazy aren't they?" Burt asked where he laid with his book looking over the cover to me. "The way they treat that Louisa really isn't right! But I can see you don't really know if you should do anything!" I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and one of Burt's old T- shirts and got into the bathroom not to change- and so I wouldn't have to answer that!
"I know you tried honey." Burt said when I came to lie down and he put his book on the bedside table. "I wanted to try too. But I think we'd better leave them to it as long as none of them hurts one another physically. And believe me- getting angry will not help anybody." I shook my head agreeing with him and scooted over to lie my head on his arm. "You'll see it will go just well darling."
Burt fell asleep and snored softly, usually it was a noise that I found quite safe and I just found it comforting hearing people breathing. People usually laughed at me when I explained that it felt safe to hear them breathing. But right now it couldn't have bothered me more as it was already hard to relax and fall asleep by the thoughts of what I could have done or not have done differently earlier. As I heard the girls going to sleep one after one. At last I heard only Evie and Paige's voices sounding so loud I was kind of afraid they would wake everyone else up as well.
Somewhere in all of the thoughts I must have fallen asleep, before I had gotten that I was actually sleeping I woke up again. But I must have been asleep because all of a sudden it was seven in the morning and I could see the light of the sun rising through our bedroom window.
I just laid there for a long while, and tried to fall back asleep- But when I heard footsteps of someone I decided that it would be impossible to fall asleep again and walked downstairs to see Adam sleeping in one of the sofa- he had only been wearing sweatpants during the night and he had kicked off his sleeping bag so I grabbed a blanket and spread it over him and smiled to Louisa who sat awake in the other sofa.
"Did you have trouble sleeping honey?" I asked. "Or are you always up this early?"
"I always wake up at six." Louisa answered me. "But I didn't want to wake you up so I've been just sitting here and thinking. Solving math in my head and dreaming about outer space." She smiled shyly. "Don't worry, I like to just sit and dream so it's not too bad. Then Carly came down to go to the bathroom- she fancies my brother!" Louisa laughed just as I heard the bathroom door open and Carly came into the room.
"Good morning honey!" I said. "Did you all sleep well- well I guess as well as it possible at a sleepover with all you girls." Carly laughed and then glanced at Adam. "Sad because I put a blanket over him?" Carly went bright red and tried to turn away from him and I couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, it's okay, even if it's hard to imagine me young by now- I've been young and in love too."
Carly laughed slightly. "And- you know I have been in middle school and about your age believe it or not! And there were two guys in the school that every girl was looking after- if the one and only Christopher Hudson had been standing in front of me without a shirt I would have cursed anyone who had put a shirt or a blanket on him."
Carly laughed even harder and didn't seem embarrassed anymore. But she asked something and I didn't hear what. "Sorry Carly, I didn't really hear that." Carly sighed and lifted her hand making a move that for a second had me thinking she was wearing false teeth- which of course she didn't. She was wearing a splint.
"Christopher Hudson… you mentioned it was two guys- what if it had been the other one?" I laughed.
"If it had been Stephen, then I would have cursed at him! He was my brother. Still is by the way." Carly laughed again and then dreamily looked towards Adam who was still sleeping. "He doesn't notice you does he?" Carly shook her head sadly. "Try to ignore him- that's what I did. And every girl in the school was falling for Christopher. But it wasn't until then he showed who he was falling for" I pointed to myself jokily.
"I only hang out with Paige's gang because Louisa is and then Adam has to be there too. But he doesn't know I exist. I doubt that he will do it if I ignore him. But if it means I don't have to be a part of Paige's gang then I might as well give it a try." She shrugged. "I'm going to go to bed again now. Well… goodnight, morning whatever."
"Sleep tight honey." I looked back to Louisa. "Do you want to eat breakfast?" She shrugged. "Come on, I'm sure we can find something." Louisa kicked her covers off, folded them and put them on the edge of the sofa before she followed me into the kitchen. "Hmm… seems like the only thing we forgot to buy yesterday was things for breakfast. Do you like muesli?"
"Yeah." I smiled and handed her a bowl and spoon. Putting on the kettle to get some tea, and put the milk and the muesli on the table in front of Louisa and then leaned backwards against the kitchen bench to wait for the kettle to get finished. Louisa poured up milk and muesli in the bowl and shyly glanced to me while she started eating.
I turned to the cupboard and reached up to get a cup that Finn as usual had put on the highest shelf. But almost dropped it again when I heard a weird sound- almost sounding like someone choking behind me from Louisa and I quickly span around and put the cup on the bench to have my hands free.
"Honey." I rushed over to her, not remembering until now that she had had an epipen with her earlier. "Honey what are you allergic to?" Louisa couldn't answer but Adam had woken up and appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "Adam what is Louisa allergic to?" Adam hesitated tiredly. "ADAM. Your sister can't breathe what is she allergic to I need to know if she have eaten something of that."
"Ehrm… nuts… peanuts, apples and pears." I went all cold- there were both peanuts, cashew nuts and apple pieces in the muesli and I let Louisa go and rushed to the cupboard and pulled the shots out. "And she hates muesli!" I shot a glare at Adam- did he really believe I would have given her something she said she didn't like!
"Adam, get Burt. Just shout at him until he wakes up, tell him he needs to help me to get Louisa to the hospital." I pulled the lock off and pushed the needle into Louisa's thigh while talking to Adam on automatic. Adam just sighed and rolled his eyes. "NOW" Adam sighed again but I heard his footsteps through the living room and up the stairs.
"It's okay honey." I knew she didn't like to be touched but Louisa was falling and barely awake so I held to keep her sitting up. "It's okay. We'll get you to the hospital and get some more medicines. They'll make you feel better. Come on Burt." The last thing I said right out in the air and not to anyone in certain.
Just as I had said it I heard Burt's heavy steps down the stairs and then through the living room before he hurried into the kitchen. Louisa but barely awake at this point but whimpered when Burt lifted her up. I hated having to do this to her and knew that she hated being touched- but we needed to get her to the hospital and there was no other way to do it.
"Do you want to come too?" I asked Adam who had sat back into the sofa and seemed to be half asleep again. He answered me no rudely, but I chose to let it go as we had more important things to deal with right now and then pulled my shoes on while hurrying after Burt with Louisa and got into the back seat with her to be able to keep an eye on her.
Louisa already sat pressed up against the corner of the door and the seat and through that sat up on her own, so I didn't want to make this experience even more traumatic for her with keeping on touching her and then just sat there. Tapping my fingers against my knees to just have something to do and keeping on nagging Burt to drive faster even though he was already driving long over the speed limit.
Being far gone in my own fear and my own thoughts I almost jumped high when Louisa made a sound, coughed and threw up. My instincts told me that I should have held her hair back and rubbed her back, but at the last second I remembered how she had reacted when Finn just slightly touched her and pulled away my hands just as she threw up once more.
A bit later Louisa laid in a hospital bed, I sat by and Burt- well, I thought he had gone to clean out the car at the tire shop which was why I was surprised to see him come through the door to the room. "Hey." He began when he saw the look on my face. "Could you at least be a tiny bit happy I'm here." I shook my head at him.
"Yes of course. I only… I thought you were going to clean the car out and then going home." Burt grabbed a chair by the other bed and pulled it over so he could sit down next to me. "You hate hospitals! You really don't have to stay."
"Well, I decided that I wanted to be here. If not else then to be there for you." He laid his arm around my shoulders. "How is she doing?" He nodded. "Are they giving her something or is she just still unconscious."
"No she's still unconscious." I answered. "They're giving her an IV with some muscle relaxants, then she won't be throwing up anymore. But everything, well except for the chock itself seems to be okay and what it should after something like this." I suppressed a yawn. "Can you stay in here for a bit I'm going to go and see if I can reach her parents?"
"I'm not going anywhere." I got up. As usual when you would have unwillingly gotten out of bed because you couldn't fall back asleep- because you just weren't tired. I Had gone tired at the worst possible time and was now so tired I didn't know where to turn. I sighed, I hadn't had the time to get everyone's numbers at home in case something happened, and now only had one idea about where to find the numbers- if that didn't work, I would have to wait until Louisa woke up or call Kurt and ask him to give the phone to Adam.
"Dr. Nicholls." Oh thank God- at least he was here. "You know, your daughter's got a friend named Louisa."
"Which one of them- Izzie or Aspen?"
"Aspen." Dr. Nicholls nodded. "Well, your daughter and her friends were at a sleepover of my stepson's this weekend and I accidentally gave Louisa something to eat that she was allergic to and now she's here. You don't happen to have the number to her parents do you?" Dr. Nicholls pulled his glasses off and scratched his cheek with the tip of the side looking thoughtful.
"Yeah… yeah, I've got the school class's address list in my locker in the staff's room. Come on." I followed him into the staff's lounge, he opened his locker and riffled through the thousands of papers he had there and read through it. "Anderson, Gretchen, Love- oh that's a nice name. Roman. There you've got them."
I took the phone in the lounge and pressed the number he read out loud and waited. One signal after another went by, and at last I just left a message and hung up. Walking back through the ER I couldn't help to feel bad for not being able to reach them.
"I'm going to go down to the seven, eleven downstairs and get something for breakfast. Did you have time to eat before this happened?" I shook my head. "Do you want anything?" I shook my head again. "I'll get something for you then." I let hear a short laugh. "Tea or coffee?" I hesitated- normally I didn't like coffee but it was great when you needed something to keep you awake.
"Tea." I answered after a few seconds. Burt smiled and fixed the collar on his coat before he turned around and walked out in the hallway disappearing out of my sight. "And Burt." He appeared in the doorway again. "Nothing- and I mean nothing with any kinds of nuts in it." I nodded towards Louisa. Burt nodded and then disappeared out of my sight again..
"Here" Burt threw me a bag of whoppers when he came back and a pack with cheese sandwiches. "And here" He handed me a paper cup when I had one of my hands free again. "Did you fall asleep while I was gone?" I shook my head and sipped from the tea. "If you want to sleep you can you know? I'll wake you up if she wakes up." I shook my head. "No really, sleep honey, you can't even keep your eyes open for Christ's sake. And look what I got… Carole?"
"Carole…. Carole…. Honey wake up!" The next thing I knew Burt was talking to me and shaking my shoulder. "Carole…" I sat up from leaning against his shoulder and rubbed my eyes. "Carole, Louisa's awake." I was awake too! Looked around and saw Louisa, lying looking up from the hospital bed and looking around her.
"Oh, hey honey." I stood up. "How are you feeling?" She shrugged slightly. "You had some muesli and had a reaction. Do you remember that?" She nodded. "Well… I'm sorry…"
"It's not your fault." Louisa answered me weakly. "I always forget to tell people what I'm allergic to. Is my daddy here yet?" I looked to Burt- nope! None of us had tried to reach Louisa's parents anymore times. Burt took the bag from seven eleven and pulled out a magazine about something with outer space.
"Look." He tried to keep Louisa's thoughts of her parents and handed her the magazine. "I got this for you."
"Awesome…" Louisa smiled, but her smile died down. "My daddy's not here yet is he?" I shook my head- because no matter how much it hurt me I couldn't lie to her. "But I want him to be here!" I nodded and all of my instincts told me to go and hug her and dry the tears that had started rising in her eyes. "Why isn't he here?"
"I…" I looked to Burt- what was I supposed to answer to this? "I…" I had just started stuttering some lame excuse when The door to the room was opened and a man and a woman- I could guess it was Louisa's parents came rushing in. "Oh you must be…"
"DADDY" Louisa screeched and the man was the first one to rush over to her. He hugged her tightly and the young girl didn't do anything marking that she didn't want to be touched. The woman came over and shook hands with first Burt and then me.
"Mia." She presented herself. "I'm mum to Louisa and Adam. We got your message. I am so, so sorry for all of this. We always tell Louisa she needs to tell everyone what she is allergic to, but the thing is she never does and when she is given something to eat- even if she doesn't like it she doesn't want to question it. I am so sorry this happened to you"
"No…" I answered. "I should have made the time to ask and I… This could have happened anywhere and to anyone." Mia turned to the bed where Louisa was just showing her dad the magazine Burt had bought. "She really loves outer space does she? And her dad."
"Yes and yes. He is the only one she will let touch her at all. And yes. We hear things about outer space all the time. Sometimes a bit more than what we would like" I smiled and started gathering my things. Now when her parents were here there would be no reason for me and Burt to stay.
"Thank you for everything." Mia said. "And…"
"Mrs. Carole?" Louisa interrupted her mum. "There's one more thing you have to know." I showed her I was listening. "If you meet someone with Autism again- you can't look at the Autism with your eyes. Your eyes miss things, it will do better if you just listen to what your heart sees." I frowned… I was a bit confused over this, but it would probably make sense once I got to think about it. "And Autism isn't a bad thing."
"Thank you for telling me that honey. I'll try to do that next time. Well, I guess I'll see you later if you come to pick Adam up." Mia nodded. "Thank you for coming to ours Louisa. Bye." I and Burt walked out and just as we came home and I walked up into our bedroom to get some real clothes on Carly came down the stairs.
"It's working. What you said!" She whispered. "I'm ignoring Adam and now he finally notice me. Thank you Carole, this is the best sleepover ever."
Another shoutout goes to TamJaspie because she was the one who sent me those…. Oh now I've forgotten what they're called. Those… ehrm… ECG is checking the activity of heart, EEG of the brain etc. etc.
So. As you probably know that because I'm Scandinavian I have a longer alphabet than the rest of the world does. So my alphabet is usually split into four lines with seven letters in each. And because this is chapter fourteen it means that we're through the second line of the alphabet. YAY
I know that the "sick" part of the sickfics starts at first in the ending. But it is there so it will do. I hope you liked this chapter