Missy's Book of Madness

Hangover

"Look, you can't be drunk." Sheldon explained

"I'm not?" Missy said in a hopeful voice.

"No, you are having a hangover."

Missy let out a sigh as her last hope was extinguished.

"Did you not even question what another bottle was doing there?" he interrogated.

"I didn't even realise two were there, I thought there was only one, and that was my apple juice." Missy sobbed, trying to make Sheldon understand how she had managed to mistake them.

Sheldon just shook his head and tutted at the stupidity of his sister. Missy glared at him through her teary, swollen eyes. When he didn't make any kind of apology, Missy opened the car door and swung herself out. She stood on the driveway, her legs shaking as she came to terms with what had just happened. If Sheldon was right, which chances are, he was, Missy had got drunk on some concoction, and now was suffering the consequences. And yet, when Missy really thought about it, nothing really bad had happened. Of course, she had been expecting to be a little older before she drank alcohol, but apart from that, not much damage had been done.

It felt like such a weight of her shoulders to know that she hadn't drank some dangerous toxic potion or anything along those lines. She knew that hand sanitiser wasn't exactly recommend but at least it wasn't anything fatal (or more importantly, anything she would have to mention to her parents).

"Why are you looking like that?" Sheldon called from inside the car.

Missy jumped, not realising that he was still there.

"Did you hear what I just said?" She quickly questioned.

"No, you didn't say anything."

"Oh" Missy chuckled.

For the rest of the day, Missy felt substantially happier. Now that her mind had been put at ease, she could get on with her day, which meant she wasn't constantly thinking about her headache and stomach-ache. With a bit of browsing and research, now that Missy knew what to look for, she was able to find some possible remedies to her discomfort, most of which concerned ludicrous procedures or questionable concoctions that were just as bad as what she had drank to get herself into all this trouble. However, she was bravely willing to try anything and set to work straight away. The first thing she had come across was how hangovers can cause red-looking eyes and that it is best to hide this by wearing sunglasses. Missy clambered up the stairs into the bathroom and leaned forward over the sink to get a better look at her eyes.

"What are you doing, Missy? You're steaming up the mirror with your breath." Mary said without even looking up from a magazine she was holding.

"Do my eyes look red?" Missy asked.

"No dear, you look just fine." Her Mom replied, yet again without tearing her eyes from the shiny paper.

Missy sighed and went back to what she was doing.

(Noon)

It was almost enjoyable trying out all the solutions to a hangover, so pleasant Missy nearly forgot what she was doing all of it for. By midday Missy had secured two icepacks to her head, one by each ear, with a collection of rubber bands, had gulped down cup after cup of lime and daisy tea (the daisies in which she had picked herself from the garden) and had requested a whole plate of fried eggs.

"How many?! I thought you didn't like my friend eggs?" George Sr exclaimed in shock at her daughters request.

"But I need them. It says that eggs of any kind are perfect to absorb alc-," she began but stopped and corrected herself when she realised what she had been about to say. "I mean, eggs are perfect to absorb all the...bad stuff in the..um..lungs?" She claimed in a not so convincing voice.