Amity's Day Off

"Mittens, you're going to be late for school!"

It was already Emira's third time knocking on her sister's bedroom door in the last forty minutes—one before getting ready in the bathroom, one after, and now she and Ed had finished breakfast and Amity still wasn't up.

She only had about five minutes left to get ready if she wanted to get to school in time.

This was very unlike her.

Amity had probably been up late studying again. She pretty much always was, but that usually didn't keep her from waking up when her obnoxiously loud alarm went off.

"Almost done," Amity mumbled, and she sounded like she was seconds away from dozing off again.

"No offense, but I don't believe you, so I'm coming in."

Emira had been more hesitant to enter her little sister's room without permission after the library incident, breach of privacy and all that, but this counted as an emergency, right?

Probably.

Amity's room was a bit of a mess. There were open text books scattered all over her desk, her bag was open and had apparently toppled over—half the things that were supposed to be inside it were on the floor instead.

Amity herself looked no less of a mess than her room did. She was leaning heavily against her bed. She was still in her pajamas, her hair was a disaster and her face was ashen.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.

"I'll be right-" Amity started quickly when she noticed her sister—which took way too long for Emira's liking. The sentence was cut in half by a lengthy coughing fit. "-there," she added weakly when the coughing stopped.

The hand she used to steady herself against the bed was trembling.

"Mittens, you look horrible..."

"Thanks," Amity shot back, but her voice was too weak for it to actually sound sassy. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. "I overslept. I'm going to be late..."

Amity looked so unbearably guilty.

"You're not seriously considering going to school today!" Emira protested. It wasn't as surprising as she wished it had been. This was just what Mittens was like, courtesy of the massive amount of pressure their parents put on all of them. Emira felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest as she watched her little sister struggle to stand, still insisting on going to school because she didn't want to disappoint their parents. "Mittens, please go back to bed."

"'M fine," Amity insisted, slowly removing her hand from the bed and taking a couple unsteady steps forward as if to prove her point.

Then, just like that, she collapsed in the middle of the bedroom.

"Amity!" Emira's heart skipped a beat, and she barely managed to catch her little sister before she hit the floor. Weak arms wrapped around Emira's back as Amity melted into the embrace, her entire body shaking. Emira held her sister for a moment, stroking her head gently. "I've got you. I've got you. It's going to be okay."

"Everything hurts, Em," Amity whispered weakly, and then she started sobbing quietly into her sister's chest.

The stubborn, protesting girl from a moment ago was gone now. It was maybe the most vulnerable she'd let herself be in front of Emira in years.

"No school for you today, and that's final. Let's get you back to bed, yeah?"

Amity nodded slightly, and the lack of protest scared Emira almost as much as Amity's legs giving out had. You usually had to force Amity to take even an hour off of school, let alone an entire day.