The Broken Orphan [Being Rewritten]

Thirty Eight- Email

Luke

I drive to the school like normal, but now I feel like apart of me is missing. Without Evangeline dancing adorably in the seat next to me the car feels empty. I never realized how lonely I was without her until now. I contemplate calling her to make sure she is really okay with me not staying home with her to keep a watch on her, but I know I can't. She's probably asleep by now, and it's incredibly dangerous to talk on the phone while driving.

My thoughts end up drifting from where I'm going to Evangeline and wondering if I should turn around and go home. I convince myself that she will be fine without me for a few hours until I get home. It's not like someone is going to break in, and Nugget is there with her. He's a sweet dog until he thinks someone is trying to hurt me or Evangeline. I've had plenty of times where I was walking him in the park and him become protective of me when someone comes near. I get to the school, head to the West wing, and meet Grayson in the make shift waiting lounge.

He arrived a few minutes after I did with a coffee in hand and sleep in his eyes. Grayson has never been a morning person. He's more of the 'stay up all night and sleep till noon' kind of person. He always called me an early bird and himself a night owl. To be quite honest, I'm more of a permanently exhausted pigeon. I'm always up, but wishing I was asleep.

Cheryl isn't here yet, so I go straight to setting up for a student. After a few minutes, Grayson comes in and spreads out on the examination table.

"I thought you weren't coming in today." He mumbled
"Evangeline told me to come." I tell him as I wipe down the counter with a Clorox wipe.
"She feeling okay?" He ask
"Not really, I think it's just a bad cold, but she isn't takin it to well." I tell him
"Awe poor thing." He says sympathetically
"Yeah." I sigh as I toss away the wipe

I check my watch to see that we still have a little while until it's time for us to start. I continue to prepare, along with reading over the files of my first few patients as Gray lays there.

"Get up you lazy arse." I say and wack his head with a paper. He rolls over and sits up on the table
"I'm up, I'm up." He groans
"Don't you have things to do?" I ask
"Hey, just because I'm up doesn't mean I'm ready to be productive." He says sarcastically
"You are never ready to be productive." I chuckle
"Touché." He laughs
"I'm gonna text Evangeline to see if she's okay." I say absent mindedly.
"Okay." He says yawning

He hops from the table and mumbles something about needing more coffee before heading to his examination room. I send a quick text to Evangeline asking if she needs me to come home. She doesn't respond right away, which doesn't surprise me. She sends back a yeah and says she is going back to sleep. I say okay and to sleep well. I pocket my phone and will myself to think about work to distract myself.

We allow the kids to be in their first blocks for a while before calling them here. Most of them are too tired to care about what is going on which makes the job easier. They sit there while I give them physicals like zombies, almost asleep and hardly comprehending what I'm saying. Throughout the morning I fight myself with deciding whether or not to continually check up on Evangeline. Gray stops me a few times to tell me to just let her rest.

We walk to the library for lunch, chatting aimlessly along the way. We sit at our usual table and begin eating. Sophie joins us a little ways into our lunch period but looks confused when Evangeline isn't with us. She looks perfect and beautiful like always.

"Where is Evangeline?" Sophie ask
"She's sick, so I made her stay home today." I tell her and bite into my sandwich.
"Oh, I bet she wasn't happy about that." She giggles

'Good heaven almighty, even her laugh is perfect.' I think to myself

"Nope." I say shaking my head no
"What is wrong with her?" She ask
"Just a bad cold. She shouldn't be contagious by tomorrow. She should be back to normal in about a week or so." I say which makes Sophie smile a little

'I should probably call her.' I think to myself. I pull out my phone and press the button to face time Evangeline. She picks up after the first couple wrings to reveal her rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Hey, Kitten." I smile and set up the phone to see us all.
"Hi." She mumbles sleepily "Hi Ms. Harris." She says spotting Sophie
"Hi sweetheart." Sophie says smiling at her
"Feel any better?" I ask
"I'm sure she'd feel a lot better if you would let her rest instead of keeping her awake by checking in so much." Grayson says taking a bite of his food.
Sophie laughs at his smart remark and I fight the urge to flip him the bird. I hear the faint sound of Evangeline's laugh and then back to the phone.

"Thank you, Gray." She giggles with what little energy she has "A little better." She mumbles. She rolls back onto her side and curls her body around her stuffie
"Have you eaten anything?" I ask
"Umm kind of." She says
"How do you kind of eat something?" Grayson chuckles
"Well, I ate some toast just not a lot of it." She says
"Try to eat some more, okay?" I suggest
"Okay." She yawns
"When was the last time you took the medicine?" I ask
"When you gave it to me." She says snarkly
"Take some more. The same amount I gave you this morning." I tell her
"No thank you." She says kindly rejecting my offer. Sophie stifles a laugh and stabs at her salad.
"I love how she is so polite about it." Sophie says laughingly to Grayson who chuckles with her.
"Take the medicine." I say sternly
"Noo, it's gross." She groans into her pillow "I'm fine without it." She protest
"Don't make me come home to giving it to you." I warn her
"No! You were a meanie." She says hurriedly and shoots into a sitting position. She reaches for the medicine and measures it into the small medicine cup.
"This much?" She ask showing me the correct amount
"Yes." I tell her
She hesitates but pours the purple syrup into her mouth. Her face wrinkles in disgust as she forces down the medicine.
"Someone needs to tell whoever made this medicine that it doesn't taste like grape." She says cringing
We all laugh at her comment and keep eating.
"Can you get my work I missed, please?" She ask
"Yes, I'll get your work." I tell her
"Okay." She says
"Bye kitten. Go back to sleep. I love you." I tell her
"Bye." She yawns. Sophie and Grayson tell her bye and we hang up and continue eating.
"So, what did you do to be a meanie?" Sophie ask me, giggling at the silly name Evangeline called me.
I chuckle and run my hands through my hair "She wouldn't swallow the medicine, so I held her nose closed to make her swallow it." I say laughing
"Ooo." Sophie says
"She was not happy about that." I chuckle
I finish my sandwich and throw away my trash. Grayson and Sophie finish shortly after me. We still have a long time before the bell rings, so I check my emails. A new one pops up from the school saying they would like for us to give checkups to the teachers too.
"Did you get this email?" I ask showing Grayson. He pulls out his phone and checks.
"Yup." He nods. Sophie looks at us confusedly from across the table.
"It says we are supposed to give checkups to the teachers too." I explain
"Okay." She says
"Do you want to go ahead and get yours over with?" I suggest to her
"Sure." She says a little uneasy
We get up, walk to the west wing, and set up for her appointment while she waits in the lounge.