thing.
When all the medicine was gone, I flipped the machine off and went back to the room to wake Cori. As I walked to the kitchen to pour myself a bowl of cereal, my phone began ringing. Right on time.
I swiped the screen, and my mom's face appeared.
“Good morning, agave nectar.”
“Almost done?” I asked.
She nodded. “We’re packing up the room right now. I forgot to ask. Did you get your inhaler refill?”
“Yeah,” I lied. I would get it today, so it was technically a pre-truth, right?
“Good. And you didn’t have any asthma attacks?”
“No,” I said shortly. I hated that my sisters had just had a major audition and we were still talking about me. The worst part about being the sick kid is knowing that your parents worry about you just a little more, that they think you need more, and that means they have less for the others. But taking it away from them had never been something I wanted.
In an attempt to turn the conversation back to them, I asked, “How late did you guys end up staying out?”
“We didn't make it back to the room until one.” She rubbed at her puffy eyes. “It was crazy, but we're hoping to get another callback.”
“I think they will.” I smiled.
She nodded. “Hopefully Rosie will be feeling better when it's time for us to leave again.”
My throat tightened. After everything, she still didn’t trust us. I swallowed and said, “Hopefully.”
“Okay,” she said. “I'll see you when you get home from school. Dad’s heading to the store when we get there to make sure everything's going well.”
A thought crossed my mind... “Would it be okay if I went to the store to help out?”
She seems surprised, but smiled nonetheless. “I’m sure he could use an extra set of hands.”
“That would be great.”
“I guess I’ll see you after that,” she said with a pleased smile. “We checked your grades. No tardies, no absents...what color will you decorate your dorm room?”
My heart soared. “Green. Definitely.”
She grinned at the phone. “Perfect. Just make sure you’re at school on time this morning and all your assignments are in today, and we’ll get that process started.”
Moisture pricked at my eyes. “Thank you, Mom.”
“We love you, maple syrup. I’ll see you tonight.”
“See you then,” I said and set my phone down on the counter.
I wanted to scream and jump and cry and fall into a puddle on the floor all at the same time. But I hadn’t reached the home stretch yet. I tried to eat, but my cereal tasted like cardboard, more so than usual. The nervous shake of my hands didn’t help either. I only finished about half of my bowl before giving up to go get ready for school.
Even though I decided to go with a messy bun, I still had to re-do it three times. It would have been faster to just straighten it and move on. Checking my phone screen confirmed I was already running behind, and I still didn’t have my uniform on.
But that was still better than Cori. When I went to my room to put on my outfit, she was still asleep.
“Cori!” I cried, shoving her shoulder. “Get up! We can’t be late. No tardies, remember?”
Her eyes flew open, and she sprang out of bed like she’d been ejected, letting loose a curse word.
I went to her closet and threw clothes out to her, ordering, “Change!”
After she locked herself in the bathroom, I went to the kitchen and poured her cereal in a glass. An actual glass. Because my parents didn’t trust plastic.
“I’m going outside,” I yelled at her. “Two minutes and I’m leaving!”
This was so not what I needed this morning. Frigid air hit me like a brick wall, and I tucked my chin into the collar of my coat as I ran to the car.
Within a minute, Cori sprinted outside, shrugging on the other half of her coat. She slid into the car and shut the door beside her.
I peeled out of our driveway and held out her cereal. “Please don’t break that in the car.”
She rolled her eyes, clipping on her seatbelt. “You forgot. I'm the coordinated one.”
“Ouch. But also, true.”
She laughed.
I smiled, feeling like I had this. Like I was seconds from officially gaining my freedom. We arrived just in time, even with my slow crawl through the parking lot.
A guy made a lewd comment to me, to which I told him to go to hell. That was something I could handle, but when I