Matthew and Pete were just coming back from the library with Matthew discussing about how great the weekend was gonna be. Pete listened without interest and glanced at Naomi's class. For some reason, he wanted to see how she was doing. He felt like she wasn't alright.
"Matthew, go on ahead, I'll meet you in class." Pete handed his books over to Matthew and watched him leave.
Pete went to Naomi's class hoping to see but to his greatest surprise, they were deligently cleaning… all of them. He searched the class with his eyes but couldn't find her.
"Hurry up, everyone. The next teacher's on his way and we have to finish cleaning before Naomi gets back." Derek ordered as everyone handed in their assessment booklets.
"She won't be coming back anytime soon. She may sleep at the sick bay till school is over." Mark lazily said while sitting down doing nothing.
"So what?!" Everyone snapped at Mark who quickly went back to work.
'Something happened to her?' Pete thought and went to look for her at the sick bay. To his surprise, she was squatting down, helplessly groaning while Travis stood close to her. He walked over to them.
"Travis, help me get my phone. I want to call my driver." Naomi requested.
"I..."
"Naomi!" Pete called and got in front of them. He didn't wait for any explanation but simply lifted her from the floor gently. She was dumbstruck and was Travis. "You should have carried her. It was careless of you to let her walk in this condition." He scolded Travis.
Travis didn't know what to say. Who was this guy to just come over and scoop Naomi in his arms and Naomi didn't seem to mind or was it because she was in too much pain to retaliate?
"You..."
"Travis," Naomi held his hand, "...its okay, just get me my phone." He saw that she was okay with this. Had they been acquainted in the past?
"Alright." He nodded and turned to Pete. "Take her 'safely' to the sick bay!" He said before Pete turned to head to the sick bay
Naomi clutched onto her stomach, pain showing all over her face.
"Why does your stomach hurt so much? Was it something you ate?" He asked.
"Not at all." She shook her head. "It's… complicated!"
'Note to self, girls have complicated pain in their stomach.' Pete thought as he entered the sick bay. "Hey!" He called out to the not so busy doctor. "She needs attention."
"Oh? Its the only female student in the school!" The doctor examined her closely and nodded. "And I'm guessing all the guys don't know what's going on?" He asked but she did not respond. "Well, no need to worry. It's the usual monthly flow, not the end of the world. Lay her on the bed inside." He pointed at the beds at the extreme end of the sickbay.
Pete did as told. He laid her gently on the bed then touched her forehead.
'She's not burning up but keeps holding onto her stomach.' He glanced at the doctor. 'The doctor doesn't seem to be alarmed, is there really nothing to worry?'
Just then, Travis came in with Naomi's phone. He was breathing heavily due to the fact that he ran to the classroom and back to the sickbay without stopping.
"I got your phone!" He announced stretching the phone towards her. "How are you now?" He held her hand with his sweaty hands and she immediately withdrew her hands.
"Sweaty!" She looked disgusted which confused him.
"Don't get close to her if you're sweaty, dirty or messy. She'd just throw up." The doctor warned approaching with a little piece of paper. "Here's a list of ingredients needed to calm her nerves. Head to the school kitchen. Tell them it's an emergency. Cook them all up and make her drink it."
"Give it to me!" Travis snatched the paper from the doctor. "Naomi, I'll be back with the soup as soon as possible." With that he dashed out of the sickbay after shooting Pete a wicked glare.
"As for you, do whatever you can to take her mind off the pain. I'll just be in my chair if you need me." The doctor said.
Pete looked at Naomi's face. He somehow felt guilty. He wanted to hold her hand but first checked if his hand was clean and seeing that it was, he went ahead and held it.
"You know, you're among the few girls I've interacted with my entire life." Pete began and Naomi turned to look at him. "I don't know how girls are like but I know that they're a whole different version of boys. With you, I've been able to confirm that thought. Girls are indeed different from boys."
"When did you get into boarding school?" Naomi managed to ask.
"When I was 5." He answered which surprised her. "But before then, I had a younger sister. She was 3 years old and made me very curious. I wanted to know how exactly she was so different from me and all that but...I ended up hurting her… and myself."
"Then, what happened next?"
"My mother looked at me like I was some monster. She didn't hesitate to bring up the suggestion of sending me to a boarding school to my father. He agreed and funny enough, during my first year here, she ran away with my sister, leaving the both of us. It wasn't easy to forget her but we forgave her for what she did without a second thought."
Hearing Pete say this made Naomi think for a while. Why did the problem concerning family always seem to hurt to the bones? From the look on his face, it hurt him very much.
"That's a sad story, Pete. I had a somewhat similar story but I don't think I can tell you now. Maybe when I get back, I'm sure to have recovered and then I can tell it to you." She said and felt a bit discomfort.
"For how long will you be gone?" He inquired.