Blood Relatives

10. A Horrible Idea

 Carmine talked with her friends about the boy in her dreams on Friday. By Monday, they'd already formed a plan.

"Meet us by the lockers before lunch." Anna told Carmine in math that morning.

"Ok, why?" Carmine asked. Something about Anna's expression told Carmine this was not going to be a pleasant conversation. Anna looked like she was about to break some terrible news to someone. But why? Carmine had already told them about her problem. Why would Anna look more concerned now than she had last week? Unless...was there something even more wrong with Carmine than she'd suspected? Was that even possible?

"We want to talk to you – Mia and I." Anna said quietly.

"Yeah, I got that part." Carmine told her sharply. Anna looked a little hurt, but she didn't say anything.

"Sorry." Carmine mumbled. "I'm just tired. And stressed."

She didn't want to admit how much this whole thing was bothering her, but she couldn't afford to lose her friends because of it either.

"We might have an idea." Anna said slowly. Carmine could feel her face lighting up.

"Really? What?" Carmine had been trying to figure out what to do all weekend. She'd been trying to avoid sleep at all costs, and had spent the night browsing internet articles and online journals, hoping for some inspiration. So far, she hadn't come up with anything good.

"We'll tell you at lunch, ok? By the lockers." Anna told her. The bell rang, and Carmine didn't have a chance to press her further. She tried to catch Anna's eye throughout the entire period, but Anna refused to do anything but take notes.

Carmine had hoped to get more out of Anna, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. And even in English, Mia pretended like everything was normal. Of course, that didn't really surprise Carmine. Mia was probably the best liar out of their entire group. Last year, she not only kept the boys' secret from Carmine and Anna for months, but she'd also managed to keep hers and Anna's from the boys. Until Carmine accidentally blew it, of course.

When the bell finally rang, Carmine headed straight for her locker. She changed out her books slowly, waiting for her friends to ambush her. She didn't know what their plan was, but she did know Anna looked uncomfortable even thinking about it. And if they weren't telling the boys, it had to be pretty bad.

"Carmine?" Mia's voice came from somewhere behind her. Carmine closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Time to find out what they wanted to do. She shut her locker door and turned around.

"What's up?" Carmine asked as casually as she could. Anna and Mia were both standing together in the now empty hallway, looking like they'd rather be anywhere else.

"Do you remember a couple weeks ago, when you asked about being, you know...like us?" Mia asked slowly.

"Yeah. Anna thought I was out of my mind." Carmine responded somewhat coolly. Did they really have to bring that up? Was that why the two of them were acting so strange – they thought she'd ask about being like them again? With the reactions she got last time, there was no way that was going to happen. Besides, Carmine was kind of over that idea. Sure, it might be kind of nice for a while, but Anna had been right – it was probably more trouble than Carmine realized. And how would it really help her now anyway?

"Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to do that." she told them before they could start in on her again.

"Well...maybe it's not such a horrible idea after all." Anna said hesitantly.

"Really? Why?" Carmine wasn't sure what to make of this. "I mean, it seems like a pretty drastic change from what you said before."

"Well, the problem is when you sleep." Anna said slowly. She pressed her lips together, looking unhappy. "At least this way, you won't sleep so much."

"So what then? – I just won't ever go to sleep and everything'll be fine?" Carmine asked somewhat sarcastically.

"Well, you wouldn't sleep as much. And you'd be a little stronger."

There it was again. The implication that she was too weak to deal with this otherwise. Carmine narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything. It had been a secret sore spot for months now. No one ever said anything directly, but she could tell that they were always worried about putting a fragile little human like her in danger. It was bad enough when the boys thought Anna and Mia were human too. But now that she was the only one, all that concern had been focused solely on her. And her recent illness had only solidified that status in everyone's mind. And even though she was tired of everyone worrying about her so much, she still wasn't exactly ready to jump at the offer just yet.

"It's the only thing we can think of." Mia said when Carmine didn't respond. "It's still a terrible idea, but what else can we do?"

"If it's so terrible, why do it?" Carmine asked.

"Because I don't think this can go on much longer." Anna said quietly. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm ok." Carmine said defiantly.

She knew it wasn't completely true, but she still didn't like the idea that they thought she was weak. But in the back of her mind, she knew it was true. She hadn't been to track in days, and this weekend she'd been too tired to do much other than lay around the house. And she was still afraid to go to sleep. Anna had a look of sympathy on her face, and Carmine suddenly wondered if Luke had told her about Carmine's skipping practice.

"You really aren't." Mia told her. "And we need to do something – fast."

Carmine didn't say anything for a minute. It might have been something she'd casually thought about, but she'd never seriously considered the idea. Still, her friends were obviously expecting her to say something.

"...So when would we do this?" she asked, stalling for time.

"Tomorrow?" Anna asked. "After school?"

"...I guess I could ask my mom about studying at your place."

"And find out if you can spend the weekend at Anna's when you talk to her." Mia added.

"Why? If we're doing it tomorrow?" Carmine asked. What would this weekend have to do with anything? Carmine figured if she needed to spend the night out, it would be on the night they did this, not three or four days later. And that was only if she went through with it at all.

"Because. If it actually works, you're going to need recovery time this weekend."

"But not on Tuesday?" she asked. Mia shook her head.

"At least for me, I was fine at first. I didn't start to feel bad for a couple of days. And trust me, you don't want your parents to see you getting that sick."