Emeros X

Chapter 2

Violet asked an endless amount of questions on the ride home, all while ignoring the fact that Erin wasn’t paying much attention to what her sister was even saying? – How many pages did you have to fill out?—Many.—When I went, there were exactly seven pages, my lucky number!—Oh.

By the time she had dropped Erin off at home, Erin had answered twenty-four of Violet’s questions in twenty-six words. Luckily, her parents wouldn’t be home until six; she had four hours before more questions were hurled toward her.

Erin walked into the kitchen and checked for voicemail messages before shutting herself in her room for the rest of the day. Her phone was still sitting on her bed where she left it; they weren’t allowed to bring their phones for the meetings. Of course, she had fourteen messages, all from Katie or Rebekkah, Katie’s twin sister. They were scheduled for the meeting in two months, and neither of them has stopped stressing out about it since their last meeting, which was nearly a year ago. Katie had a tendency to ask Erin a question, only to take it back before Erin could get a word out. Today was no exception.

Erin skimmed through the messages, answered as concisely as possible to answer both of their questions, and yet still remain noncommittal, before pulling on her headphones and falling into bed.

Erin woke up to the sound of her little brother, Alex, running into her room before slamming the door.

“Mom, tell him to stop!” Erin groaned while pulling her pillow over her head.

“What? I can’t hear you dear!” Erin heard from the other room.

“Alex! Tell him to stop!”

“I still can’t hear you!” her mom answered.

Erin huffed, closing her eyes and counting to three. She pulled herself out of bed and walked into the dining room, where her mom was sitting.

“Oh, glad you’re up.”

Her mom looked up from a stack of paperwork and smiled.

“Yes, mom. I’m up.”

“Good! How was the meeting?”

“Fine.”

“Just fine?”

“Yea.”

Her mom simply stared at her until Erin felt uncomfortable enough to sit down and tell her all that had happened. The only answers she got from her mom were nods, a few ‘mhm’s’ and an occasional reminiscence of how it was when she was taking her test. Halfway through Erin’s account, her dad walked in, kissed her mom on the cheek, and sat down beside her, squeezing her knee.

“What are you talking about, pumpkin? How was everything today?”

“That’s what she’s talking about, Adam. Did you know they take the children’s blood there now? We used to have to go to the doctor and get blood-work done, wait two weeks and then go in with all the paperwork.”

“Well, they sure have progressed with the system then haven’t they?”

Erin looked at both of them blankly, before continuing. Her mom had them move to the kitchen so she could get the dinner started, but could still listen to the story. The conversation continued through dinner, where Alex asked more questions about the shot than the actual test. Erin had answered possibly every question that could be asked about forty-five minutes of her life before she could finally get back to her room. Before she could so much as sit down, Katie called.

“And so the interrogation continues,” Erin answered.

“I figured your parents would get all the details before me and all because I have to stay at school for Rebekkah’s ballet practice in a room with no cell phone service.”

“Violet beat both of you too.”

“Of course she did. So, how was it?”

“Oh you know, you get a shot, fill out some questions until you think you may be dyslexic and go home.”

Erin could hear Katie roll her eyes through the phone.

“What kind of questions were there?”

“Every kind. I think I even had to write my opinion on bioengineering.”

“You did? Really?”

Erin paused.

“Wait,that was a joke, right?”

“Yes Katie, that was in fact, a joke.”