"Mom we're home!" John called as he closed the door behind himself and his adopted brother.
They had adopted Rodney two years earlier, shortly after he had turned fourteen. Now they were both teenagers, and were officially hitting the fun years, Rodney was a Freshman in High school, and John had finally caught up with him, skipping the Seventh grade due to his grades on the placement tests.
They were now neck and neck for top students in their class, although it was fun to duke it out during school, anyone who knew them well, knew that at home they were always sitting on the living room floor reading over homework, double checking one another's work and making sure every grade they earned was deserved and generally equal.
"John, I'm not deaf, please don't yell," Lauren called as she entered the foyer and smiled at her two boys. They had both shot up in a year, John was now nearing 5'11, and Rodney was now 5'8, they were both handsome, although John was working harder on sports and women, while Rodney tended to go after dumb blondes, who generally didn't last very long.
"Sorry mom," John said grinning sheepishly.
"It's all right, Rodney are you okay?" Lauren questioned, pressing her hand to her son's forehead.
He was a little warm, and he looked exhausted, "fine, I just need a nap," he replied.
"All right, well if you need anything, just call honey," the teenager nodded and headed upstairs.
"He's been like that all day," commented John.
Lauren smiled softly, John was immensely over protective of his younger brother, and Rodney adored him. The two had become so close in the four years they had lived together. At first they had argued, but now their arguments were more like play fighting, or small disagreements.
"He didn't eat breakfast, you two were in such a hurry today," Lauren said looking at him.
"I didn't see him at lunch either. He was shaking the entire way home," John explained.
"Oh dear, this doesn't sound good."
"It's nothing to terrible, I'm going to call Dr. Jackson, see if I can arrange an appointment."
"Okay, I'm going upstairs to work on homework," John spoke as he headed upstairs as well.
Dr. Jackson pulled the stethoscope away, and reached his hands under Rodney's throat, he sighed and smiled a little sadly. He had told Lauren to bring the boy in, his last patient having just left for the day, Dr. Jackson had an opening. He eyed the wayward teenager.
"Well Lauren, your son has two problems, one more severe than the other…Rodney did you eat anything at all today?"
"Maybe a granola bar," Rodney replied looking up at him, his face pale and drawn, he felt so weak and tired.
"Well, it's important that you eat at least three meals every day Rodney, you suffer from a condition called Hypoglycemia, it's when the blood sugar in your body becomes too low to energize you. Now before you question me, that's only half the reason you're so exhausted. Hypoglycemia is easily treated with a normal amounts of food everyday. You can't skip meals son, you shouldn't in the first place, but it could kill you."
"I thought you said it's not serious…"
"No I said you have one condition that's a little more severe. This one is the bad one, if you're not careful your blood sugar can drop low enough to send you into a reaction that can cause you to lose consciousness, could cause a seizure or even a coma. It's the severe, but it's not uncommon. When it's more mild you ten to be irritable, jittery or nervous, anxious, you may feel like your almost drunk. As I said this doesn't seem too bad right now, we can give you medication, but I don't want to put you on anything for something that I know you can control son. Just take your time and eat. We'll start with this, its sugary apple juice, it probably won't taste very good, but you still have to drink it. Your mom knows how to treat that, so don't worry. Now the second reason you are feeling so tired is you have a viral infection called mononucleosis. Commonly known among teenagers as the Kissing Disease, it isn't fatal, it's just going to make you very sick and very tired. It similar to the flu that lasts longer than a week. This can last anywhere from two to three weeks. Then you take another week off to make sure you won't give it to anyone else."
"You mean I caught this by kissing someone!"
"You tell me Rodney, there are only two common ways for kids to get this, one is by kissing someone, another is your immune system is already low when the viral infection creeps up on you."
"I got it from kissing someone," he murmured.
"That's what I thought, it wouldn't happen to be April Bingum...would it?" Dr. Jackson said grinning.
"I plead the fifth," he muttered.
"I kinda thought so. Either way, you're going to be tired, you'll have a fever and a sore throat, other than that, you'll be fine with a lot of rest, and when I say a lot I mean a lot. You aren't even gonna feel like getting out of bed a lot of the time."
"I already feel like curling up and sleeping away the day," stated Rodney.
Lauren smiled softly and pushed the hair back from her son's forehead, "all right then, are we free to go David?"
"Yep, lot's of rest Rodney," with that Lauren ushered her son out of the office.
He sat down in the truck and curled up on the passenger's side of the car, "was it worth it?" Lauren asked grinning.
"What?" Rodney asked.
"The kiss, was it good?"
"Mom!" Rodney cried horrified she could ask such a question.
"I'm just asking, I would hate for you to be bitter about a kiss that gave you a month off of school."
"Yes," he replied after a few moments.
"Rodney, sweetheart, I have no problem with you dating, seeing or kissing girls…preferably if you're dating them. But kissing tends to lead to other things…"
"Mom, you are seriously not talking about sex with me after I got mono from a kiss!"
"Sweetheart, I'm just mentioning it."
"It's mentioned…don't worry, no girl would sleep with me anyway," he murmured.
"Why do you say that?"
"You don't believe in privacy do you?" it wasn't an angry retort just a retort. Lauren smiled over at him.
"Honey, I've watched you grow for four years, from a meek sarcastically little boy to quite an amazing young man, albeit your still somewhat sarcastic, but I love you, and I think I can say I know you the best."
"Mom, that's why no one wants to date me! They think I have an ego."
"Baby, that's because you do, I'm not trying to be mean, but you're putting up that ego to protect yourself, you did it with us at first. Ego's are okay to have, but not when their blow out of proportion."
"What's wrong with me…other than that?"
"What do you mean?" she asked looking over at the teenager.
"Jennifer, this girl I really liked, she was my friend, for a long time, I mean close friend, I was about to ask her out, and the next day she's seeing John."
"Honey, that's part of life, you can't wait forever with girls, and some girls just want to be friends."
"I'm not angry at John, it's not his fault, but still, that's not fair."
"No it's not, but John form what I heard John dumped her when he found out you liked her. That says something."
"I know."
"Good," she pulled up in front of their house and smiled, "okay sweetie, upstairs to bed."
"Oooh, are you going to wait on me hand and foot?"
"Not if you sit in here, now up," Rodney grinned as he tiredly made his way upstairs.
John came in ten minutes later, and looked at his brother, grinning, "did you get mono?"
"Shut up," stated Rodney rolling over.
"Awww, come on, you're no fun. I'm just screwin' with ya," grinned John as he came to join his brother on the bed.
"I will hit you," Rodney growled.
"Will not, you don't have enough energy, and besides I'd kick your ass," joked John.
"You'd better watch your language, mom catches you saying that she'll kick your ass," replied Rodney grinning.
"So you up to much of anything?" John asked causally as he leaned against the back of the bed.
"Sleeping, that's about the extent of it."
"Oh, sorry to hear that, well…wanna play chess with me after a little nap?"
"Not particularly."
"You're such a pleasant person," John joked as he headed out of the room. Rodney smiled slightly and turned over, closing his eyes and allowing his dreams to take over his mind.
A month flew by all too slow for Rodney, although he slept ninety percent of the time, he played several games of chess with John, when John wasn't catching him up on homework.
That drove John nuts out of the entire ordeal, Rodney missed an entire month of school and he barely had to work to catch up, he had done all his work, even the class stuff, and by the time he returned to school he was only behind by two days. Rodney returned to school and vowed never to kiss another girl ever again if it meant lying in bed feeling like he was going to die…the vow lasted nine days and two hours, before he got his first girlfriend.