Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf

The next morning, it was like a new beginning. I didn’t remember anything that had happened the day before. That was, until Aileen reminded me when she put my box of cereal down in front of me.

“Remember: If you see anything weird again today with that girl, confront her. Got it?”

“Got it,” I replied, nodding. Aileen looked accomplished, smiling a little as she went back into the kitchen to finish making her lunch.

I stared blankly at the wall as I ate, trying to push the thought from my mind that anything had was happening to Callie. I was reading all the signs wrong, and everything was fine, just fine.

At school, Puck came right over to my locker, resting his hand gently on my waist as I closed the door separating us.

“So, I was thinking that I should take you out this weekend. Make the whole ‘going out’ thing official and all.”

“It’s not official already?” I laughed, running a hand through my hair as we started walking down the hallway.

“Well, yeah, but we didn’t do the whole dating thing too well the first time around. We were kind of dysfunctional. So this time, we should do it the real way.”

“Sure,” I allowed, stopping before my classroom. “Sounds great. Text me with the details later?”

“Or we can talk about it at lunch…” he trailed off, chuckling a little at my stupidity.

“Right. That, too. I’ll see you then, okay?”

He nodded a second, watching me slip off into the classroom, before taking off down the hallway. Leaving me to face my suspicions without any backup.

No matter how much I tried to make myself believe that I was overstressing, there was that pit in my stomach that would not listen. It was frustrating, but it also, inexplicably, made me want to catch her making herself throw up again, if that was what she was doing. The earlier I jumped into action and helped, the easier it would be for her to get well again.

Right?

When Callie sat down next to me, it felt like I literally had to shove all of my worries back into my brain so that they wouldn’t manifest when I didn’t want them to.

“Hola, pardner!” Callie exclaimed with a huge grin on her face, plopping into her seat.

“You just mixed two different dialects,” I pointed out, a smile slowly starting to take over, burying any thoughts that I had three seconds earlier.

“Two different languages, Ellie. Languages.” The bell sounded through the classroom, and Callie leaned back, kicking her feet on top of the desk and crossing her arms behind her head.

“Right. I knew that.”

She rolled her eyes as our teacher entered the room.

“Callie,” the teacher sighed drowsily, as if she was sick of reciting the words, “get your feet off your desk, please.”

With a grumble, she did so, slapping her feet loudly against the ground to emphasize her protest.

Callie received another warning look as the teacher started to explain what we’d be doing for the next hour with just a tad too much dreariness. It was bad enough that all the kids were miserable, but if there was one thing that was certain, it was that the teachers had to pretend they were having the times of their lives.

Only…not too enthusiastic. That would just be annoying.

* * *

Puck, for some reason, was already sitting at the lunch table when I arrived, just waiting with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Hey,” I greeted, a little slowly, as I sat down next to him, “what are you doing here so early?”

“Cut the end of chemistry,” he shrugged. “It was getting so boring, and my teacher…” He went on for a good five minutes straight about how much he hated his teacher, how stupid she was, how annoying her voice was, how senile she was, and how incompetent she was. And that was only a quarter of the subjects.

“Whoa,” I chuckled slightly. Not the right reaction, judging by the hateful look on Puck’s face, but it was too late to take it back. “You still have the rest of the year to deal with her, so you better take a deep breath and calm down.”

“I could always switch out, I guess…” he mumbled.

“I think it’s too late to do that now. After the first week, it’s extremely difficult to get your schedule changed.”

“Damn.” He threw his head back and made a noise that I couldn’t identify. “I hate her so much…”

“You’ll live,” I assured him, hand on his shoulder.

“Hello,” Callie yelled in my ear from beside me, “to you, too.”

“Oh, hey. When did you get here?”

“About two minutes ago. And I was ignored, thank you.” She made a little snuffle noise as she started eating the food on her tray. Personally, I wasn’t sure how she could put that stuff down her throat, since it just about made me want to puke just looking at it.

Oh. Well. Maybe…never mind.

When Callie’s food was gone (yes, I was watching compulsively…I was worried! Sue me!), she stood up and brushed off her shirt. “Oh my God, I gotta pee. I think my kidneys are going to explode.”

“Good to know,” I laughed. “Well, go! If you explode here, there’s no way that I can cover it.”

“Hm…good point.” She smiled again before turning off and walking away.

After a minute or so, I stood up slowly. “Make sure that no meaty football player eats my food,” I directed Puck, pointing to my half-eaten sandwich and bag of chips.

“What? Where are you going?”

“Sh. I have a mission. Like James Bond.” Instead of doing the name spiel, I started toward the bathroom, trying to look as casual as possible. Apparently, I was doing a good job, since no one asked me what I was doing or anything. Not that anyone would ask me…

When I pushed open the door to the bathroom, surely enough, I heard the familiar gagging. With further investigation, I found Callie’s sparkly Converse, and I knew that I had caught her red handed. Two days puking right after lunch was not going to fly with me at all.

So I waited patiently by the sinks, leaning against them with my hands stuffed in my jean pockets, for Callie to emerge. When she finally did, she still had that shiny look in her eyes, the bright look on her face. It didn’t make any sense, how she could regain her happy disposition after losing her lunch while sitting on the floor of a germ-infested bathroom.

“Ellie?” Callie questioned, a smirk playing on her lips. “Stalking me, are you?”

“No.” Then, with a deep breath, I decided to voice my concerns. “I’m worried about you.”

“Worried about me.” The voice she repeated my words with as she leaned over to wash her hands scared me a little. Almost as if it was a foreign concept to her, caring. How sad.

“Yeah. C’mon, Cal. You’re making yourself puke after lunch. That’s not cool. Don’t you know that you’re hurting yourself?”

“Oh, so this is the intervention, huh? Well, Ellie, I’m not bulimic.” She laughed a little, running her wet hands through her hair. “I guess it was about time you found out.”

“Found out what…?” My eyebrows drew together in suspicion.

“I’m puking from morning sickness. I’m pregnant.”