Little Tiger

Sick day (week)

It was raining all week and, to make matters even worse, the sakura trees were done blooming now. My fever broke Friday morning which meant it was the first day I was allowed to get out of bed. But I was still too exhausted to do much of anything except watch t.v. on the couch. Even though I wasn't sick anymore, Akari didn't force me to go to school. I think he could tell something was wrong even though I made sure not to make it obvious. His parental intuition told him more than I ever did. But it was important for the Zodiacs to only attend school if we were in good health, as we would run into problems if we turned into our animals at school when our bodies are weakened. 

Nobody had dropped off my homework this week because nobody knew where I lived. I would have to collect it all on Monday instead. 

"I'm back." 

I turned my head to see Hatori walking through the front door. Yuki was sick again today which meant he stayed home from school as well and that Akari had to take care of him more than usual. 

"How is he?" I asked in a nasally voice. It had been a week and I still couldn't breathe through my nose. 

Akari handed me the box of tissues I had left on the kitchen table. The moment someone in the estate (primarily the main estate) caught a cold, Akari chased them around with a box of tissues and a humidifier---and, if you stayed around him long enough, he'd put a towel over your head and make you stick your face in a pot of boiling water to clear your sinuses. He made me do that once a day. 

Akari shrugged, taking off his white lab coat. "The same. What about you?" Before I could answer, he slapped his hand against my forehead to feel my temperature. I saw the thermometer sticking out of his pocket. I wondered why he had more faith in his hand telling him my temperature than the thermometer. 

"Better," I replied after he moved his hand away. 

"Good. You can go back to school on Monday then." He really meant to say, you should have gone to school today.  

I nodded and pretended to be really interested in the t.v. after the commercial break was over. It was a rerun of Sailor Moon. Every girl in my school had some form of Sailor Moon memorabilia on their backpacks or notebooks. I was never that interested in the show but I liked watching it when I was sick because it made me feel like I was a little kid again. I liked the format of each episode as well; it always starts out the same and ends the same. That was comforting. 

Akari came over and patted my head. "I'm going to take a shower. The kettle's on the stove, make some tea once it boils." 

He had been at the estate all night taking care of Yuki---this was the first time I was seeing him this morning. Akito must have been sick too, otherwise he wouldn't have been so busy. I laid on the couch again and closed my eyes. This stupid cold wiped out all of my energy; I couldn't go more than one hour without falling asleep. But at least I was sleeping again. 

Shigure, Hatori, and Ayame came to visit me when they found out I was sick. They all came individually and they were all surprised when I told them that the others visited me too. Ayame (the last one who visited) was the most shocked because he had it in his head that he was the most considerate out of our friends: "I'm the considerate one, you're the grumpy one, Shigure is the funny one, and Hatori is the mean one." I didn't agree with any of our assigned roles, especially that Hatori and I had such similar-sounding roles, but I didn't say that. Shigure came when Akari was out of the house, dealing with a matter at the main estate. It was almost as if Shigure planned it this way (Akari tried his best to stay in the house while I was sick and he only left when he absolutely had to). He read to me for a while. The book wasn't particularly entertaining but the way he read it was, and he would put his hand on my head every time he wanted to put emphasis on a certain line so that I would listen more intently. But I was in and out of sleep for most of his visit.