Alex Reborn

Chapter 23: Changes

"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance."

Harrison Ford

The idea of being in the rain, in the woods, with your boyfriend wearing a t-shirt in December, in the Georgia woods sounds so romantic. I'll admit it was. Unfortunately, the rain was cold, and the temperature was in the upper 40's.

I woke up the morning following my first kiss, and failed attempt to frame Blake with the Flu. I was sweating, cold, coughing, and had a sore throat. Jen and Nic got dressed as quickly as they could, not wanting to get sick themselves.

"Mom! I think Allie is sick," Jen said as she and Nic went into the hallway.

Ma came in a few minutes later. "Allie are you ok?"

"I'm fine, I just don't feel too good."

Ma reached down to feel my head.

"You definitely have a fever. You're staying home."

I looked at Ma and threw up all over her, and her dress, getting barf on her chest and belly pretty good. It looked like the remains of last night's dinner, and my late-night snack.

Mom looked at me shocked for a second. I had no idea how she was going to react, so I went to babbling defense mode.

"Ma, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry. I really don't feel good..."

I threw up again finishing the job I started getting a lot of my bed, Ma's skirt and a little on her feet.

"Its alright. Part of being a Mom is your kids throw up on you in more ways than one. Allie this is far from the first time you did this. We both know if you weren't in the cold rain with Liam then you would have never gotten sick."

"I know Mom, but we are talking about Liam. He's so sweet and have you looked at him?" I can't believe I just said that aloud especially to my Mom.

"I understand, you forget I was a girl your age not too long ago. You and Liam kind remind me of me and your father when we were your age, but I'll retell you that story later. We both need showers. I don't want you eating anything, but crackers and toast. I want you to drink a lot of water. Now get." She pointed towards my bathroom.

Within 24 hours of me getting the flu both of my sisters had it. Mark called it Liam's Flu. Jerk!

Mom went into work the day I barfed on her but took the rest of the week off after Jen and Nic got sick to look after us. Aunt Abby who is a doctor arrived the day Jen and Nic got it to help Ma out.

Somehow the boys avoided getting it. I think they didn't get it because they didn't come near us.

Aunt Abby said that it didn't surprise her that Jen and Nic got it since we all share a bedroom. We are almost always with each other a good bit. My sisters were a bit annoyed with me since I inadvertently got them sick.

"It would be ok to be sick if we had gotten a kiss like you described" Jen said as she was coughing up a lung or two.

"Come here I'll kiss you" I teased her as I chased her around our room until we both had another coughing fit. Which Aunt Abby heard and scolded us when found out what we were doing.

At some point when Ma was taking care of me and my sisters, she also filed a complaint about Mrs. Clifton with both Dr. Shipp, and the school board about her excessive punishment of me, and the extra intense work load on our class. Dr. Shipp agreed about the punishment and said that when I came back that I would not have silent lunch, but that Mrs. Clifton was teaching the curriculum adequately, and unless she knew somebody else who was qualified to teach her class that Clifton would be there until Schumer got done with her maternity leave.