PKU (English)

11.

"Nita?"

She didn't recognize the voice. Sobbing, she opened one eye and saw a blurry purple-haired person. Penny?

"Nita sad, leave her alone." She sniffled without looking closely. In the meantime she didn't even care that her brain hadn't passed on all the words again and also let her speak of herself in the third person.

"No wait! Listen, I'm sorry, it's my fault you got in trouble, I should have woken you up!"

Now Nita opened her eyes again, blinked away her tears - and to her horror she saw the curly head that she had accidentally slept next to! Instantly the whole thing became ten times as embarrassing.

"You- you were AWAKE?!"

"Yes, I woke up just before you did and was completely taken aback, unable to do anything. Just as I was thinking about pocking you, the guy's downstairs started arguing because they wanted to start some stupid prank."

The lilac mop of hair had been awake and had seen her sleeping! In his bed! Nita would love to jump into the lake and never come up again. She would simply learn from the merpeople how to permanently breathe underwater. Then again, the stupid mermaids had been the reason for this whole mess. Nita closed her eyes again and turned away from the strange boy. No, it was all her fault, the poor water creatures couldn't help that she was so eager to find them.

"Nita... please stop crying."

"Go away. So embarrassing."

"No not at all! You meant no harm to anyone, you just mixed up the huts, no wonder as dark as it was yesterday, it could have happened to anyone!"

Now the girl opened her eyes again and looked at the boy. He sat down on the grass next to her, wearing a purple t-shirt and short purple pants to match his purple hair. Between his wildly tousled hair she spotted a barrette with a bright yellow star with a tired face painted on it. Nita thought it was odd that the boy was wearing jewellery but said nothing. Instead, she sat up and wiped her face. It was enough that the curly hair had seen her sleeping in his bed, he didn't have to see her crying in the grass as well.

"By the way, my name is Sandy. Well, actually Sanin, but hardly anyone calls me that."

"Nita," came the mumbled reply. Sandy already knew her name, but he smiled anyway. He was different from any other boy Nita knew and she knew a lot. This lot was constantly arguing and shoving and stepping and throwing things out of windows, but Sandy didn't look like he'd done anything like that before. With the barrette he looked almost a little bit like a girl, but not like a bitch either.

"Would you like to go for a short walk? I'm sure you'll want to get back to your hut before your comrades wake up."

The idea was good, it was enough that she had woken up in a stranger's bed, Meg and Co shouldn't also worry if they woke up and only found cans in their bed. So, the two got up and strolled along the bank to the other green hut: Nita's real hut.

"Why did Leon make such a fuss about your bread yesterday?" Sandy asked after a while.

Nita immediately stopped so abruptly that he almost ran into her.

"Sorry, of course you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's actually none of my business. ", he scratched his head embarrassed.

"No, it's okay. It's not a big secret anyway." Nita turned to Sandy, begging her brain to please forward all the words to her mouth and not to make any mistakes in the sentence order. Otherwise, it would get very complicated. Then she took a deep breath.

"I have PKU."