𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛, 𝙷𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛, 𝙵𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙴𝚗𝚎𝚖𝚢 |𝙰𝚘𝚝 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

Chapter 11 - Admission

"Just a fever from the change in the weather that's all."

"But I never get them. My dad made me take supplements every day so I wouldn't get sick."

"Have you been taking them since you got here?" Nurse Winfred asked her.

"Well no but-"

"Then that's precisely the reason. Your body is so used to taking them, now that you've gone without it it's made you quite ill."

"But I'm better now."

"No excuses! You're to stay on bed rest for five days."

"But-"

"No, no," Nurse Winfred scolded, "you should have come to me as soon as you felt unwell. And not eating two meals? You could have really caused yourself harm."

"I don't usually get ill, so I didn't know"

"Nonsense," she said bustling around the room, "your friends tried to persuade you to come and you wouldn't listen."

Mara looked darkly at Jean, who was sitting on the bed beside her. Snitch, she mouthed at his grinning face.

Mara huffed sitting back in bed, defeated. Staying in the infirmary until Thursday meant that she couldn't take part in ODM practise ahead of the assessment on Friday. She knew that she would likely rank lower than usual because of it but there was nothing she could do to persuade the Nurse to let her go.

Still she wasn't without entertainment. Over the week she had many visitors. Eren, Armin and Mikasa came every other day with stories about what she had missed and Armin brought her books from the library to keep her occupied. Ymir and Historia visited her once, bringing Annie with them. Ymir had laughed at the fact she had to stay in so long while Historia scolded her asking whether Mara needed anything. Annie didn't say much but Mara was sure she was happy to see she was okay. Bertholdt came to see her a couple of times, he didn't stay long but he reassured her that she'd be fine on Friday. Even Thomas, Hannah, Mina and Franz came to check up on her.

Her most frequent visitors were Jean, Sasha, Connie and Marco. They regularly came to check up on her and bring her food. It was during one of these visits that Marco brought her some news. They all visited her on Wednesday evening after meal bringing her a bowl of stew. Sasha sat beside her squished on the bed while Connie sat crossed legged at the foot. Marco sat on a chair beside Jean who's legs were kicked up on the bed, resting over Mara's.

"I almost forgot to tell you," Marco said, "but we don't have to go home for the holidays."

"Really?" Jean asked.

"Oh yeah," Sasha said, "they told us at the end of the final exam."

"Why?"

"Something about there being a large number of refugee and orphaned cadets enrolled in the programme this year. They're keeping the compound open for anyone who wants to stay rather than go home."

"Well, that's great news," Jean said.

"You're not going home?" Connie asked.

"Why bother," Jean shrugged, "might as well just stay here."

"I'm going to stay too." Sasha announced.

"Yeah same," Mara added.

"Why?" Jean questioned, "don't you want to see your dad?"

"Well I don't want to leave you two alone. You'll drive each other insane."

Jean looked at her weirdly but kept quiet.