Monday.

Why did people hate Mondays so much? I feel bad for Monday. I mean, if you think about it, if the weekend was extended to include Monday, then people would hate Tuesday. Really, whatever the beginning day of the school/work week is, it will be hated. The poor days of the week.

I was depressed. I felt like my life was at an all time low. I hadn't felt this crummy since my mother passed away. And that was exactly what was bothering me currently.

Talking to Leah's mom brought to surface the emotions that I had managed to bury the previous spring. It had been 7 months, a little over half a year, since my mother's death. I missed her. She was the only I could talk to about anything. Yeah, I had Alisha. But having a mother was a different matter. Every girl needs her mother, no matter what kind of mother she is.

"Mila?" Alisha asked, snapping her fingers in front of my face. I blinked and looked at her.

"What?" I asked.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked. We were at lunch, inside again, because it was raining.

"Nothing," I replied, looking down at my untouched food.

"You know better than to lie to me," Alisha said. I looked up at her.

"I'm just having one of those days," I said.

"Well, whenever you're ready to talk, I'm here," she told me. I forced a smile and nodded. We heard loud laughter coming from Leah's table. We both glanced over. Leah had her hand on Derek's arm and her head was thrown back, a giddy expression on her face. Derek was the only person at the table not laughing. 

Leah had made it official that her and Derek were dating this morning. The whole school knew. I tried avoiding Derek in all of my classes. This was difficult, seeing as I had three classes with him and one of them I had to sit next to him.

Alisha was being very supportive, always shooting out snide comments about how big a jerk Derek was and how douche-y Leah was. I sat silently and listened to her, not agreeing or disagreeing.

"What are you doing after school?" Alisha asked.

"I need to study. I have a Sociology exam on Wednesday that I haven't started studying for yet," I answered. This was partially a lie. Sociology was an easy class. I didn't need to study for it. I just didn't want to be social at all.

"Oh. Yeah, I need to study, too. Biology exam on Friday. Cell respiration and crap. I hate that stuff. So confusing," Alisha said. I nodded. The bell for the end of lunch rang. We gathered our stuff and walked off to our separate classes. Alisha went off to the science department for Biology. I made my way to the social sciences department for Sociology.

"Mila!" I heard. I turned to see Kyle walking towards me.

"Hey Kyle," I said quietly, continuing to walk. He walked in step with me.

"Umm, how are you?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Tired," I answered.

"Yeah, Mondays..." he mumbled. "I was wondering if you were busy Friday night. I thought maybe we could catch a movie or something," he said casually. I stopped walking and he did, too.

"I'm really sorry, Kyle. I would love to, but I'm just...I'm dealing with family stuff right now. I'm not planning on being very social this week," I said. He looked disappointed and I felt a pang of guilt when I saw his expression sadden. "Maybe next week," I added, not knowing why. His expression lifted a bit.

"Great! Well, I guess I'll see you around, Mila," he said, giving me a pearly white smile. I nodded and walked off to class. I needed to stop being so nice. I sat down in my seat and put my head down. I promptly fell asleep. The sound of the bell ringing woke me up. I started and looked around as people were packing their bags to go home. I put my books away and started to get up, but Mr. Callahan, my teacher, stopped me.

"One moment, Ms. Venti," he said. I closed my eyes. Dammit, I was in trouble for sleeping in class. "Do you find my class very boring?" he asked as the last student walked out.

"No, sir. I was just...I'm really sorry, sir. I don't know what came over me. I've never slept in class before," I said. He scanned my face, which must have looked sickly because I didn't feel well at all.

"Maybe you should get more sleep at night. I'll let this pass this one time, but don't let it happen again," he said. I nodded.

"I promise it won't, sir. Thank-you," I said, beginning to walk out.

"Ms. Venti?" he asked. I turned.

"High school can be rough sometimes. Don't lose hope, though," he said. I smiled at him and nodded, walking out of the classroom. I smiled to myself, thinking about what he said, and made my way to my car.

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I felt like crap. I woke up in the morning and ran to the bathroom, throwing up dinner from last night. I felt my forehead, which was scorching to the touch. I checked my temperature and it was 103. I groaned and promptly ran to the bathroom again to throw-up. I heard my father walk in the room.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I-I-I don't think I can go to school today," I managed to choke out. I was leaning over my toilet, feeling sweat gather on my forehead.

"I'll call your school," he said in a gruff, annoyed voice. I heard him calling my school's attendance office and telling them I was too sick to go to school. He left home after that, not asking if I was all right or if I needed anything. I washed my face and rinsed my mouth and took some medicine. Then I clambered into bed and promptly fell back asleep.

When I woke up again, it was about 2:30. School would be letting out in almost 20 minutes. I looked at my phone to see 30 text messages and 12 missed calls from Alisha. I was sweating from having burned off the high fever. I groaned, got out of bed, and then fell on the floor. The room was spinning around. I moaned and held my head and closed my eyes. When I opened them, the room was steady. I stood back up, washed my face, and went downstairs to eat something. I didn't want to make anything, so I ate cereal. As I was chewing, I text Alisha back.

"I'm fine. Just sick. Don't come over. I might be contagious." I replied simply. After I ate my "breakfast", I went back upstairs and checked my temperature. It was down to 100. I sighed, relieved that the fever was going down. I jumped in the shower to wash away the cold sweat from the fever that I burned off while asleep. I changed into a pair of LOVE capri pants and a loose sweatshirt and sat in my bed with my Sociology notes. I needed to study in case I went to school the next day. After about an hour, I heard the doorbell ring. I looked at the time. It was only 4:30. My dad couldn't possibly already be home.

I carefully made my way down the stairs, so as not to trip and fall like I did before. I opened to door to fine Alisha standing there, a container of food and a bag of what looked like medicine in her hands.

"I told you not to come over," I said in a hoarse voice.

"Please. I'm the doctor of two doctors. I can handle myself," she replied, walking inside. She walked into the kitchen and I followed her. "I brought soup, medicine, and orange juice," she said, pulling each of the items out. "I called my mom from work and she came home and made the soup especially for you. Some Chinese recipe that's supposed to be good for your immune system," she explained, popping open the lid. It sure smelled nice, even though it looked exactly like my throw-up. It made me nauseous thinking about it, so I turned my attention to the juice.

"Juice?" I asked.

"You never have orange juice at your house. You never have any drink, besides coffee, water, and beer," she commented. I didn't say anything about the beer, because that was true.

"You didn't have to bring medicine. We have that," I said, picking up the NyQuil and Tylenol tablets.

"I had to be thorough," she answered, sitting on a stool. I smiled at her finally.

"Thanks, Leesh. You're the best," I said. She smiled back.

"No problem. So what brought on this sudden cold?" she asked. I shrugged and poured myself a glass of juice. The tangy liquid tasted good against my sore throat.

"Probably stress or something," I replied, sitting down. She scrunched up her nose.

"I'm not buying that. But this does suck. It's your senior year and you have a cold," she said.

"Ugh, tell me about it. I woke up with a 103 fever," I said. Her mouth formed an 'O'.

"Is it still that bad?" she asked. I shook my head.

"It went down to 100 the last time I checked. Probably 99 now," I answered. "But let's stop talking about me being sick. How was school. What'd I miss?" I asked. She shrugged.

"Nothing really. English we just talked about King Lear. We're starting Hamlet next week. And that's the only class we have with each other today," she said. I nodded. "Besides that, Kyle was wondering where you were. Derek looked around in class when you weren't there. I don't know if he was looking for you, or if he was just looking around," she told me.

"I honestly couldn't care less about him," I lied. She rolled her eyes.

"I feel like that's part of the reason you got sick. You were acting really funny yesterday. Very moody," she said.

"I know. I was upset about Sunday night. Yeah, the Derek thing bothered me. And it pissed me off how he lied about not wanting a relationship and then goes off with Leah of all people. But I was mostly upset because I ran into Leah's mom before I left. And she brought up my mother. And all those sad feelings I worked so hard to get rid of came back. I realize how much I miss her right now," I explained. Alisha listened silently. I took another sip of my juice and smiled sadly. "She would have stayed home from work to take care of me if I was sick. She would have babied me like you did just now," I said. I felt a lump rise in my throat and I took another drink of my juice. Alisha got up and hugged me.

"Well, you are always welcome to share my mom with me. I mean really, she gets annoying sometimes," Alisha said. I shook my head.

"Don't say that about her. Everything she does is because she loves you. You should appreciate your parents more, Leesh," I said. She loosened her grip on me.

"I know. I guess the saying's true: You never what you have until it's gone'. It's so sad that we have to wait until we lose something to realize how much it means to us. We take too much for granted," Alisha said. I nodded. We sat in silence for a bit, just lost in our own thoughts.

"Hey, you should probably get going. My dad will be home soon," I said, looking at the clock. It was almost 5:30.

"You sure you want to stay here?" she asked, getting up. I nodded.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I already feel a lot better. I'll just take this medicine. Hopefully I'll be at school tomorrow," I said.

"Ok. Well, take care of yourself. And call if you need anything," she said, hugging me. I walked her to the door.

"I will. See you tomorrow hopefully," I said. She waved and then left. I closed the door and held my head. I had a huge headache. I was tired of being stuffed up at home. I made my dad dinner, just as I heard him come inside from the garage entrance. He didn't say anything to me; just went upstairs to get changed. I set his plate on the table and brought up a bowl of soup to my room. I closed the door and sat on my bed, sipping the soup and studying. At about 9, I called it quits, took medicine, and fell asleep. I could hear my dad angrily cursing at the game on TV. That's what I fell asleep to.

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A/N: Hey guys! Sorry, this part was a little uneventful. I had to get some of Mila's feelings in here. I promise the next part will have some more action/drama stuff in there. The next part will be up tomorrow probably, and if I have time, tonight. But really, don't count on tonight. Anyway, comment and vote! Thanks to everyone who's been reading! It means a lot to me.

XOXO