Smiley and Sunshine

47.

PLEASE APPRECIATE THE AMAZINGNESS OF THE PICTURE. I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO USE IT. I KEEP IMAGINING THIS CHILD AS HAYES AND I KEEP LAUGHING SO HARD.

If you laugh, you think and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.
— Jim Valvano

"I have regrets."

Hayes shifted in the sheets, her arms curling against her stomach as a feeling of pain hit.  She kicked her legs restlessly, striking Glen in the back of his thigh. "Did you hear me?"

"I'm sleeping," He groaned, pulling the comforter over his head like a child. "Go tell Austin."

"You're mean," Hayes whined, "I'm kicking you out. You can't sleep in my bed anymore."

"Yeah, yeah," Glen grumbled, not taking her seriously in the slightest. He had no problem falling back asleep as Hayes continued to complain to herself about how she ate too many cookies yesterday and now her stomach hurt.

Famous last words... death by cookies.

Oh great, her brothers will have a field day with this.

Eventually Hayes reluctantly got up, figuring someone would be in to make sure she was awake any time now so she had time to get ready for school. But ha, she beat them to it.

Once in the bathroom, splashing water on her face helped a little bit to make her more alert in the wee hours of the Thursday morning, but didn't do much to help her mood, as the crampy feeling was still happening. But also, who wouldn't be miserable about having to go to school?

Double whammy.

She returned to her bedroom for a sweatshirt to protect herself from the air-conditioner blowing cold, all the while cursing Glen for not having the same misfortune of needing to further his education today.

But Hayes was totally grateful that he was feeling much better, still on the upward trend of recovery.

How did she know that?

Because stupid Glennard farted at like 3 in the morning and woke her up by laughing his ass off at how loud it was that it woke himself up.

Which pretty much summed up the maturity of a male teenager.

So yeah, Glen was basically cured.

Hallelujah.

Hayes kept her arms tucked inside the sweatshirt and pressed firmly against her stomach to aid in relieving the pain, so the long sleeves just swung empty by her sides. She got to the edge of the carpeted stairs and decided to sit, doing a butt scoot down every single step.

If anyone happened to see her, Hayes wanted them to make no mistake about how miserable she felt right now, though they may not necessarily assume the reason why. Either way, maybe then they'd take pity and let her stay home.

Deep down, Hayes knew they would if she truly pushed for it. She was self-aware that right now was purely the teenage angst talking.

And the cookies.

How dare those chocolate chips betray her like that?

Finally reaching solid ground again, Hayes moaned with the effort of using her core strength to stand up, stubbornly refusing to use her arms for assistance.

These darn cookies did her dirty.

Moving slow and steady at the speed of a turtle, Hayes shuffled her way into the kitchen. It was the only room in the house that had the lights turned on, like a beacon to ships in the ocean. Made sense, as the brothers who wake up this early ran on coffee.