✅ My Sister's Problem

35. Sympathy

IMPORTANT Author's  Note: In case anybody supports me on Patreon but didn't see my post there, I've got a new poll up. Basically, there are less chapters than I'd like available there but not yet posted here. And I've got a poll about how low the number of "early access" chapters can get before I skip charging people for next month. If you've supported me, please let me know if you're okay with being charged when there's only 5⅙ extra chapters for you. (For obvious reasons, I'll need answers before the May billing cycle starts)

"I got a coupon for free delivery, I'm going to do shopping online this week."

I just nodded, glad that Mum could have a little more free time this week. I'd only started noticing recently just how much she did to try making our lives run smoothly. Even if I complained about the chores she asked me to do, it was only a tiny fraction; and I was sure that she did a lot more at work than I ever had at school. That was the downside of being an adult. She didn't even get weeks of break in the summer, but she spent as much time with us as she could.

"Can we get pizzas?" Lindy asked, grinning hugely. There was one brand of part-baked pizza that she really loved, but the packaging wasn't the best and it was almost impossible to carry them out to the car without them getting folded against one side of the box somehow. We'd all tried it, with our own theories about how best to transport them from the supermarket; and never been able to preserve them intact. We had no idea how the home delivery people managed to get them here in one piece, but it meant that Lindy would ask for one every single time Mum was ordering.

"Of course. Red onion and blue cheese?"

"Ewww, no! carny diablo."

"That okay with you, Sally?"

"Are we sharing one? If we get the mini ones I'll have the five cheese feast."

"Whatever you want, dear. We can have a treat at least once this week. So, blue cheese for me, five cheese for Sally, and carne e diavolo for Lindy."

"I don't know how you eat those things," I said, imagining the bright red sauce that would make Lindy's choice like biting into lava. Of course, I would have been happy enough sharing one if Mum didn't want the hassle of fitting three small pizzas into the oven; but it still seemed weird to have a pizza where most of the flavour was drowned out by spiciness.

"Aww, you can't take a couple of chilies?" Lindy laughed. "Little baby scared of a pizza?" I blushed then, and lowered my head. But I didn't feel like I had to argue. There was something about the way she said it that didn't bother me, and it was almost fun being put down like that. I didn't know why, but the lack of any response from Mum probably meant that she could guess how I was feeling.

"Maybe," I mumbled, looking down at my hands. It was hard not to laugh, and I was kind of enjoying the way she talked to me, even though that made no sense.

"Well, you are a little baby," she smirked, and when I realised what was coming I wished I'd thought to stop her sooner. "Clues are all there. Can't eat grown-up food, all the stuffies in your bed, I bet you even wet the bed last night, didn't you?"

It had almost slipped my mind, but she was right. I'd woken up wet in the morning, for the second time this summer. I knew it had to be Lindy now. Both times it had happened had been after she brought me a drink the night before, although last night I'd thought I was smarter by accepting a bottle of lemonade but not using the glass she gave me. And both times she had mentioned it in front of Mum, as if she already knew. How could she have managed that? I knew there must be something I should watch out for, but after Harper had assured me herbs weren't involved I didn't know what else I could be looking out for. And the sealed bottle surely couldn't have been contaminated. What could it have been?