A few minutes after the nurse left, Masha and Gabriel entered the room. While the teenage boy paid his respects to Mrs. Brown, the other teen went to her brother's side to kiss his forehead. "Hi, li'l devil. How's your fever?"
Upon hearing the nickname, a faint smile stretched Misha's lips, slightly curving his eyes. Although he knew he hated it as a child and shouldn't be happy, he couldn't help but giggle. In his past life, he'd have given up all the riches in the world to hear his sister call him by that silly nickname again, so how could he pretend to despise it now? At any rate, Misha could always blame the fever if Masha ever questioned his odd behavior.
Anyway, she still hadn't said anything about his sudden change of attitude concerning the lame nickname, so he tossed his concerns to the back of his mind. Why should he worry about something that hadn't happened? He already had enough on his mind! Like his fever that refused to go down!
"Still the same," Misha answered his sister's question with a pout. "And your exams? How did it go?"
Masha coughed, averting her eyes. Since her brother's hospitalization a few days ago, she had been too worried to concentrate on her studies. In addition, her mind blanked out whenever she faced her exam sheets, and she forgot everything she had learned throughout the semester. That being said, she could already visualize the big, red F that would be written in the corner of the papers after the teachers graded her tests.
"It went pretty well, don't worry," she nevertheless said.
'What a white lie!' Misha thought, inwardly sighing.
Masha also had difficulties at school, which was one of the main reasons she had been quick to drop out of school and work after their father lost his job and depleted their mother's inheritance. His sister couldn't sit still for long, and neither did she like the feeling of her brain being flooded with the teachers' empty words. Masha wasn't an intellectual. No, she was someone who loved to use her ten fingers. In Misha's eyes, she overworked her brain only to pull pranks. The rest wasn't worth the effort.
However, Misha decided not to expose her lie. Instead, he patted his bed, inviting her to sit on it. Masha wasn't shy and slumped on the mattress as if it was her own, peering at her brother from the corner of her eyes.
Because Misha wasn't supposed to have more than one visitor at once, there weren't enough chairs to accommodate the three persons. However, no one pointed it out in his room, and his roommates even welcomed the child's family with open arms, saying hi and asking how they were doing.
Why? Because every time Gabriel came, he became the sacrificial lamb and was sent to the old lady to keep her company, giving everyone a breather. With this in mind, no one would dare tattle to the nurse and risk becoming the next sacrifice! Moreover, Gabriel was always flawless, and the old lady seemed quite satisfied with her "new son".
Before entertaining the old lady, Gabriel approached the child, holding a small plastic bag in his hands. He shook it and asked with a wink, "Can you guess what I brought this time?"
Misha stared at the white bag, frowning as if earnestly pondering over the question. His small face seemed overly serious, making a few in the room smile without realizing it. But unlike what everyone thought, Misha wasn't pondering what was inside the bag. Instead, he was weighing the pros and cons of smashing it into Gabriel's face.
Every time Gabriel came to visit him, he'd bring something to eat. Most of the time, it was some expensive sweets from well-known shops. And every time, Misha would be faced with the dilemma of eating the sweets or throwing them in his face. It was a tough choice to make, ok?! Well, he always chose to do the same thing in the end, however. That was to say: accept the gift and push aside the violent thought.
He wasn't bribed! It was just that the hospital food was tasteless and had a funny texture to it—it was even borderline disgusting at times. Thus, those sweets were the saviors of his taste buds. So how could he refuse them? Even if the sweets came from his worst enemy, sweets were still sweets!
"Chocolate cake?" Misha finally said after a while.
"Congrats!" Gabriel chuckled as he handed over the box, watching the boy unwrap it. "It's a small chocolate cake. Hope you'll like it."
"I'm sure I'll!" Misha's greedy eyes and quick hands made Masha laugh, and Gabriel's smile grew wider.
After the packing was torn off, the box revealed a classy cake with a drizzle of raspberry coulis and red ornaments. Overall, it had an elegant appearance, but Misha barely glanced at it before wolfing it down. He closed his eyes to savor its sweet taste, not caring about his surroundings. He knew he had made a mess, dropping pieces of cake all over his gown, and that the contour of his lips had probably turned brown. But so what? He was a kid with no manners, anyway.
"Here, sweetie," his mother said, a white handkerchief in her hands.
"Thanks!" Misha smiled, taking the tissue before cleaning his hands, then his face. While he was doing so, the grumpy nurse came back.
The first thing the middle-aged woman did was complain about the number of visitors clustered around the child's bed. It was against the rules, and two of them had to leave.
Before anyone could respond, the old lady said icily, "Do you have something against my son? What did he do to offend you!"
Everyone raised an eyebrow while Gabriel smiled gently. He then took a small step toward the old lady and said, "I'm here to visit her."
Because he was standing between the two beds, it wasn't clear who he had come to see. Although the nurse knew he was lying, she couldn't pursue the matter further. She didn't want to incur the old lady's wrath and deal with her nasty temper. If she were to be harsh with the elderly, it would be harmful to her already infamous reputation—she didn't want to lose her job just yet.
"And I'm also leaving," Mrs. Brown said as she stood up, stroking her boy's head.
Even if Gulnas didn't work, she still needed to take care of the house, and now that her daughter was here, she was reassured and could leave with a light heart. Moreover, Gabriel always brought his cell phone with him, and if something were to happen, he could give her a call immediately.
"Fine," the nurse had no other choice but to yield. As the words reluctantly left her mouth, she got closer, standing between the bed and Gabriel. "Where's your pee sample?"
"Oh, there," Misha said, stretching his arm to take the plastic cup on the night table. As he was about to give it to her, his hand stopped mid-air and he said, "Wait! I'm a bit thirsty."
Then, Misha opened the cup and took a sip under the incredulous gaze of the nurse. He swallowed one mouthful, his Adam's apple going up and down.
"Y-You!" The nurse wanted to scold the child, but Misha spat out the liquid on her face, interrupting her. Because Gabriel was close to her, his t-shirt and arms also got slightly damp. Who told him to stand close to the nurse?
The nurse's face paled drastically, and then she lost it. She cussed out the brat, angered to death, before storming out. She'd never come back! Taking care of this devil was too much!
The moment she left, the noisy roommate burst out laughing, holding his bulging stomach, while the bookworm wore a faint grin on his cracked lips, glancing at the door with a bit of schadenfreude in his eyes. No one loved that nurse, and they were all happy to see her suffer. They had seen what the boy had done, and thus they knew he hadn't actually drunk pee. Only the old lady was clueless about what had happened, looking left and right with a foolish look on her face.
Smiling from ear to ear, Masha asked, "So, what was inside the cup?"
Although her brother wasn't the smartest, he still wouldn't drink pee for no reason.
"Apple juice!" Misha proudly answered, puffing out his small chest as if asking for praise.
A minute or two before Masha and Gabriel arrived, he had poured the apple juice into the cup before throwing the empty juice carton in the trash bin. The color of apple juice was similar to urine, and because the nurse did not pay attention to anything related to him, he had a hunch he could easily fool her. It had indeed been the case.
"Good job!" Masha complimented while patting her brother's head.
Misha couldn't help but laugh, blushing slightly. His sister's praise had always made him unreasonably happy, even more so after transmigrating back in time.
As for Gabriel, who had been forgotten, he didn't complain and only excused himself. "I'll go to the bedroom to clean myself a little," he said. The apple juice felt sticky on his skin, and he also didn't want his T-Shirt to be stained.
The family of three smiled in response, and Mrs. Brown prepared to leave, saying to her son, "Don't cause too much trouble for your sister, ok?"
"Yes, ma'am!" the boy promised with a clumsy military salute, making his mother laugh.
Gulnas stroked his hair, then reluctantly left. She didn't reprimand the child, not even showing a hint of disapproval. In the first place, if she didn't want him to prank the nurse, she wouldn't have let him prepare his prank without saying anything.
What could she do? Her children had inherited her bad habit and did what they saw at home whenever she felt like bothering her poor husband. At their age, she was also a lot worse than them. Therefore, she didn't feel like she had the right to say anything. Instead, she felt grateful they still haven't burned down the house.
As long as her son obediently peed in the next cup, she didn't mind that little mischief of his; that nurse did deserve some payback for her nasty behavior, and if Misha hadn't been the one to teach her a lesson, she would have done it.
__________________________
Chapter revised on 2022-04-30
Edited by Clozed! ♥
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