I noticably could not wake up in the morning. "Andy...Andy!"

The boy came finally and when he did, he did with a spray can. Of Whipped! whipped cream.

"Andy, what are you doing?!" I kicked my covers and flailed my arms, finally deciding to cover my face up with my covers.

"You wanted me, and you've got me...and whipped cream."

"What were you going to do?"

He snickered his post-prepubescent laugh. "Either spray it on your face or....your hand. I couldn't really guess what to do."

"I'm gonna guess to mom when she comes what she should do to beat your butt!"

He whips the can back to his side. "A-anyway, what'd'you want?"

"I wanted you 'ta....tell mom I can't go to school."

Andy perked up a brow and puckered 2/3rds of his lips. "Why?"

"Because...look at me. Look what she did to me!"

"Never stopped you before," he said smugly, monitoring the labelling on the can.

"Well does she want people asking questions?"

"It's not bad," he said almost immediately. "Just tell them you ran into a fe-"

"I'm not THAT stupid. Now tell her, or else..."

"...What?" he said real low. His face was drooping lower than my half-broken fan from its the wires.

It blew hard since was winter was already over and spring blew in like it was the boss of nature. It turned every normal thing upside down. Even the time.

I thought of the day, simultaneously. Crap, crap. I had no excuse. The other reason why I was tired was ultimately because it was....Daylight Saving's Time.

I slapped my hands to my face. "Andy, just tell her that I'm...sleepy."

"You're gonna need a better excuse than that. Y'know, I'm up -"

"Freaking Andy! Jesus Christ, you know that mom likes you better and you don't even want to help me out."

"No, I don't." He stuck the whipped cream bottle on my hard, maple floor. His voice dropped approxiamately two tones. "What if she doesn't like me anymore."

"Why would she not?"

He stabbed me with his eyes. I clinched my fists, and heard, "Being on your side, silly."

I could not breathe for a few seconds...I could not count them.

"Andy..."

The metal doorknob of mine went straight into the wall. "Guys..."

I looked at the back of my eyelids. I could not let her know I was awake, still in my bed.

"Andy," her voice was louder. "What are you doing in here?"

"Uh - uh - uh. I knew you were trying to wake her up, so I came in here."

"No, I woke you up. She can wake herself up she is a grown woman." My mom neared my bed and my heart played with my breathing.

She squatted near. "ANGEL."

I jerked. Not because she had said something, but I didn't know when she was going to say it. I did not know whether I should respond to give away my less-groggy voice and the time of my original awakening.

"Mm?" I sighed.

"Wake up, you lazy child. I don't know why you think you can sleep right now." She touched my face. "Why don't you wear your makeup? You know you shouldn't be going to school like that."

I literally did pass back into sleep until she flicked my forehead. "I was talking to you."

"Yes. Yes mom," I say, jolting to face her.

"Get your lazy self up."

"Uh..." I started to get up slowly. "I don't feel well, mom."

"I don't care." Then her eyes grew wide. "Angel." She slapped me. "You bettter not be pregnant."

"No..." I took a moment to breathe now that I was sitting up, my hand to my forhead, because my pulse had sped up now that I was using my body after so many hours of inaction. "No, I'm not." Tired, and sleepy, of course it would be ineffective.

She said nothing. I look at the corner of my palm on my.forehead, then at the wall before my feet. "YOU BETTER NOT BE LYING TO ME." I did not even look at her when she said that.

I held my head longer. This yelling was not wakeup-material. "Mom, can I just get dressed now?"

"No. No, we're going to the doctor, first thing. Get yourself dressed."

I turned to Andy. Then undraped the covers from me. I grinned and bit my lip. At least I didn't have to go to school. #whenyourparentsweresomadtheycontradictedthemselves...twice.

I began to take my shirt off, and Andy stepped out of the room, grimmacing.

When ready, I returned to my room and made sure that I had anything to entertain me while there at the doctor's. I looked at my floor. There was my paper: my physical paper.

I picked it up and tucked it gingerly in my drawstring Nike pack I once earned from the Chicago Run and dragged the pack across my shoulderblades.

I looked around. Had a manga I never really wanted to read, and I had a makeup kit for my face (and also for entertainment). I had my deck of Yugi-O cards just in case Andy got bored, and I knew how to beat him.

Guess I had everything.

But my pride.

I snickered.

The car doors slammed. I placed my hand around Andy's head, pushing him closer to me so I could speak closely his ear. "Y'know mom contradicted herself right."

"How?" He scoffed. The driveway we were pullying out of.

"Mom told me I can't get dressed, then she said we're going to the doctor first thing...get dressed," and then I started to laugh. "And then..." I snickered some more, and eventually had to put my hand over my mouth. I leaned back. He scowled.

"She wanted me to go to school, also," I continued, "but look where I'm at. Haa, got my way." I laughed, and came closer to him, poking him in the side, "even without you."

He scowled more. Pushed me away. "Stop."

I noticed he was serious...but seriously annoyed. What did he think would happen, and why was he so up tight all of a sudden?

Since she beat me up two days ago...

The red light changed to green. Several such proccesses led us to the clinic. It was the urgent care type that literally took forever.

I shuffled my Yugi-O deck. At least it didn't take an appointment. Or I'd not have been there, then. I'd have had to wait days instead of hours.

Andy scribbled away in his notebook.
"Whatcha writin'?"

"Angel."

"Guys," my mom said. She was bent over with her hands hugging each other, and tense as a rubber band. Knited eybrows and nervous chewing lips.

"Oh my goodness, for Christ's sake, Angel. It is a notebook." Then he paused from his graphite pencil. "Sketchbook!"

I chuckled. Then placed my hand above my knee.

Minutes later, "Evans."

"Let's go," I said, and I stood, then Andy, then my mom, to this much earlier call. My mom who now looked like a plate of jello. "Mom. Mommy..."

"I shouldn't have brought you here," she said, then shakes her head impulsively like removing a crook from her neck, and turns away. The nurse's questioning look, and Andy's high-fiving that scrubbed woman all went to the wind, upon my mom's exiting the waiting room.

"Uh-kay." I looked at the broken mother, some steps away from my brother, with now-uncertain, hazel eyes. "Um, Andy..."