My Ruby Redfort One-shots

Asthma Part 2

The next day is a confusing day for Ruby, since, she wakes up to Hitch knocking on her door, telling her it's time for breakfast, but she finds herself uncharacteristically not hungry, even though she can smell Mrs. Digby's waffles.

She finds it a bit hard to breathe, but decides that that's probably normal after what happened.

She thinks about just skipping school today, but remembers what the track coach said about taking them off the team if they did that, and decides that she better go, and knows for a fact that she won't leave the house until she eats breakfast thanks to her mother's newest diet that requires three solid meals a day.

It claims to help the dieters grow, though Sabina didn't like it when Ruby remarked that they didn't say if the person was growing taller or wider.

She rummages through her closet, before finding the exact shirt she wants, which reads Not Today Bozo and goes downstairs, like a normal human being and not flying down them at super speed like she usually does.

She goes downstairs, and debates about telling Hitch what happened. I can get medical help to get this to stop.

You're kidding right? Hitch would take you off field agent duty quicker than you can speak. He already threatened to if you didn't shape up, which is why you quit cross country, but this would be the straw that broke the camel's back. And, without him fighting for you, LB will fire you, then Hitch will have to leave.

Besides, it's just asthma. You can deal with it. I mean, you had your first attack and you're still alive, so it can't be that bad. And, you haven't had an attack before, so what are the chances that you will die? Extremely slim.

Yeah, you can control it, Hitch will never have to know, and everything will be fine. No one will be any wiser, and it wasn't that bad. I mean, yes, it was scary, but if I take a notebook with me, I can still communicate with Clancy, and the caffeine helped, so I can drink some coffee or soda pop to help.

See, you have a plan and it'll work just fine. No use in worrying Hitch or anyone else unnecessarily.

Ruby convinces herself, and Hitch doesn't even notice her staring off into space, unfortunately.

She carefully eats half of her food, still not that hungry but knowing she'll need some energy, and then takes off to school, taking care to make sure she has enough time so that she won't have to run.

She deals with the usual day; Bugwart being not a pain, but also not not a pain, everyone talking about how they did at the meet, and how they're going to do better, the usual business of the day, so that no one notices that Ruby doesn't talk unless called on in class, and Clancy answers any question asked to her.

After school, there's, thankfully no practice for Ruby since it's field events day, and, while the coach just wants her to run, she convinced him she would be fine with a day off with her performance last night, so she goes straight home.

Fast forward six days, with no major asthma attack, only a little more than usual discomfort when running, Ruby goes to her next track meet, where the same thing happens.

Well, she got fifth place in both races, but still an impressive run compared to last year, and her coach just wrote it off as tougher competition since she was competing against bigger schools in this meet.

But, the asthma attack came back, with a bit more force. She couldn't talk for an hour and thirty minutes this time, but she still wouldn't tell Hitch or her parents what was going on.

Geeze, this asthma is ruining my life. If I tell anyone, they'll make me quit all sports and I won't be able to be a field agent in Spectrum, where as if I don't, I'm miserable for the rest of my life, and I run the risk of being in big trouble if someone finds out that I knew about this and kept it from everyone.