AWAKEN ; benny weir [2]

twenty-three

It was towards the end of November, and people were so ready for what was about to come. Everyone was so excited for the beginning of December, all the cold weather, and not to mention the two week Christmas break.

But everyone also knows the couple downsides to this time of year... flu season.

The last person in the group to ever have the flu was Ethan in Grade 6, and he missed school for an entire week. Benny and Ellie would be scared to even go near him after that virus, since it was just so gross.

"Sarah, did you see Ellie in chem last period?" Benny asked her as the three of them were standing at their lockers. "I didn't see her in the hall earlier."

"I actually didn't, but I texted her and she said that she was just running late," she explained. "Something came up, I guess."

"She didn't tell you why?" Ethan questioned.

"No, I just figured that— oh... wow." Ethan and Benny looked at her strangely as Sarah stared at something down the hall. They followed her gaze and found Ellie, definitely not looking like herself.

Her hair was thrown up, which she never did anyway, along with her sweatshirt and leggings. But the main thing that threw them off were her puffy, red eyes and her flushed face. Ellie looked like she threw up right before she walked into the hallway.

"Oh my god, are you alright?" Sarah said to Ellie, grabbing her shoulder and leading her to the lockers. "You look like shit, but I'm sure you're aware."

"Yeah, I'm good..." she convinced, trying to sound like her voice wasn't raspy. "I just— uh... slept in."

"Looks like you slept in hell," Ethan commented. "Thanks, Eth."

"Okay, El, seriously," Benny stopped. "Do you want me to take you home or something, because I can—"

"—No, no, no, I'm fine," she tried to tell him. "I'm not leaving because of a tiny cold; I don't miss."

Ellie opened her mouth to say something else, but in place of her words, she covered her mouth as she sneezed out a long line of purple flames. The ash flew into the air as Ellie's eyes followed it, along with the other's.

"Oh, god," Benny groaned, looking down at her and seeing her face erased of its usual bright colour. "You can't hide that."

"B, I said that I'm good," Ellie reminded him, wiping her nose with her sleeve. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

She began to walk down the hall to her next class with Ethan, Benny, and Sarah watching her cough around the corner. "So, that's gonna get worse."

Ethan and Sarah turned to Benny, confused by what he said. "I can't believe she has it."

"Has what?" Sarah questioned. Ethan added, "If she has ebola or something, she has to finish our history project."

"I think she— oh my god, I think she has a mage flu," Benny said, realising halfway through the sentence. "I've never had one of those before."

"Is it bad or something?" Ethan asked.

"Hell yeah, it is," he answered, exhaling uneasily. "They're nasty, and we have class with her."

"We're her lab partners, so if she throws up on me, it's your fault."

——————

Ethan and Benny walked into their bio class and found Ellie sitting with her head laid down on the desk. As soon as they sat down beside her, her head jolted up and she put on a semi-normal mood. "Hey," she greeted.

"Can I just say that you look like someone ripped your intestines out of your body through your mouth?" Ethan told her. "No offense."

"A lot taken, because I'm not sick," Ellie stated to the two of them. Her eyes widened a bit when she felt a cough coming on. She quickly covered her face with her shirt, but it didn't shield the purple sparks that flew out of her lungs. "Don't overthink it. I just wanted to go to school."

"No one has ever said that in the history of WCHS, by the way," Benny said. "And we both know you're extremely sick, so spill."

"Uh, please don't spill, because spilling means that you'll throw up," Ethan corrected. "Don't spill."

Ellie sat at her desk looking really guilty, and Ethan and Benny exchanged glances. "You threw up, didn't you?"

"...Yeah."

——————

"Why didn't you want us to think you were sick?" Sarah questioned when they were all in Ethan's living room. "The only way we knew you had this weird cold is from the way you looked, and Benny constantly worrying about you."

"Hey, hey, I was just... concerned," he told Sarah.

"Mainly because I know that it's bad, and I don't want to—" Ellie stopped mid-sentence, looking like she was holding her breath. She threw her hand over her mouth and quickly ran into the foyer washroom, throwing up in the toilet. The three ran after her and Benny went to sit beside of her, holding her hair back and wincing. "This is so gross."

"I hate this... so much," Ellie wheezed out, continuing to vomit into the toilet.

"Can one of you get the spellbook, por favor?" Benny asked Ethan and Sarah, watching Ethan make his way back to the kitchen. Sarah leaned in closer to Ellie and Benny, getting onto her knees next to them. "You alright, El?"

She couldn't answer as she kept throwing up into the toilet, with Benny looking away from her as much as possible while holding her hair back. "I'd take that as a big fat 'no'."

——————

"I can't get her to stay home, so she's going to school tomorrow," Benny explained to Ethan on their video-chat. "She thinks that if she doesn't go for one day, she'll fail."

"I've never seen El miss," Ethan added. "She'd throw up just from the anxiety of missing."

"I know," Benny agreed. "And, that also means that I have to stay home tomorrow to make a stupid medication for the weird mage flu thingy she has now."

Ethan looked at him weird from what he was calling it, and Benny decided to explain further. "On paper, it's called veneficas gravedo, but I'm just making it easier because who wants to read all that shit?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Ethan thought out loud. "Sarah and I have to deal with a witch who can sneeze fire, and you're not gonna be there?"

"Pretty much, yeah."