Emeros X

The next morning, Erin woke up for school, sliding her phone’s screen to turn her alarm off. Before she

set it back down, she noticed that she had a message from an unknown number:

This is Health Services in district 3987. We’ve received your questionnaire and will notify you within two to

three weeks regarding your next visit. Thank you.

Dropping the phone down on her bed, Erin quickly got ready for school and went downstairs. Her mom

was already in the kitchen, pouring a breakfast shake in her cup for work.

“Hey mom? When did Health Services get my phone number?” Erin started pulling out food from the

refrigerator to make her own breakfast.

“What? Oh, when we got your cell phone way back when, the number got sent to them. No big deal. I

have to go though, I love you.”

Erin’s mom screwed the lid on her cup and kissed Erin on the forehead before walking into the garage to

her car. Erin followed suit, grabbing her phone and sliding it in her bag before walking out to the bus stop

and waiting. She hadn’t had time to put her headphones in before Katie and Rebekkah walked up, asking

her more questions. Soon, everybody else waiting for the bus heard what they were asking, and began

throwing out their own questions as well.

“Look guys, it’s not a big deal. You go in, wait for a while, get a shot and fill out paperwork. That’s it. It’s

frightfully boring actually,” Erin says, shaking her head and hoping that will satisfy them. She didn’t

understand why everyone cared what the process was like. They’d have to find out within the next few

months anyway.

The questions didn’t stop all day during school either. Somehow everybody that Erin knew seemed to

know why she was gone yesterday. Erin couldn’t help but wonder if anyone ever actually got sick around

here, or if the only possible explanation for not being in class for a day was for meetings. Her teachers

even asked how her meeting went. Wasn’t that supposed to be personal? Erin was annoyingly close to

telling her language teacher that it was “none of her damn business” in Spanish, but she decided that

would quickly get her sent out.

Finally, when Erin thought she couldn’t take being asked about her meeting any longer, the final bell

rang. She quickly pulled her headphones on and walked outside toward the bus and pretended to not be

able to hear anybody. She couldn’t help but hope it wasn’t going to be like this for the rest of the week.