“King me!” Emily exclaimed exuberantly to her opponent.
“Okay, sheesh!” said Cate. “Don't get too excited, I might still win!”
Cate put a second red piece on top of Emily's new king, but on the next turn jumped one of Emily's other pieces. “Ha!”
“Are you sure you want to keep playing?” Emily asked as Cate sneezed for the 23rd time this game.
“Yeah, I'm fine, I just have a cold or something.”
“I came over to ask if you wanted some tea, Cate,” Sam said, before she spotted Cate's ice skating bag next to her. “Why did you go to skating today?! You should've stayed home and rested!”
“It's not a big deal. I have to go to practice unless I'm seriously sick. I'm getting ready for the Olympic trials, you know. And yes, I'd like some tea, thanks.”
“Just don't get pneumonia and miss two weeks of it because you 'needed' to go to practice!” Sam huffed as she went off to make some tea.
Emily and Cate didn't have a chance to complete their game, though, because Piper arrived holding a letter. “Ugh! I like, checked the mail to see if my new exclusive Louis Vuitton purse had come in, but all I found was this letter for you! NOT FAIR!”
“Thanks!” said Cate.
But Piper threw the letter on the floor and ran the minute she saw Cate holding a tissue. “SWINE FLU!!!!!!!! EW, I HATE PIGS!!!!!!!!!!! They're so disgusting!!!!!!”
Emily chuckled. “I'm glad we have those - what do you call them? - antivirals? Vaccines? Anyway. You don't really have swine flu, do you?”
Cate looked at her letter. There wasn't really anything to identify who it was from...
“No, Em, I don't have a fever. That's why I didn't miss practice. I must have just caught some bug. Look, it's a card!”
But Cate read the inside, which included a cautionary “PS”: “You may show this to other members of Yasdinil ONLY.” Cate sighed. “Sorry, Em, I can't tell you about it. It's for that club thing Lindsay started.”
“Oh, okay, that's fine. Let's keep playing!”
“Your water's boiling!” Sam announced. “Piper told me she gave you a letter.” “Threw me a letter is more like it,” Cate corrected. “She thinks I have swine flu. But I do have to ask you about it. It's from Yasdinil.” “Oh,” said Sam, curious to know if they had a “mission”.
“It says 'Look to the western sky!'” Cate whispered. “What does that mean? I know our window faces to the west; does she want us to look out the window? But WHY? This makes absolutely NO sense.”
“She doesn't want you to look out the window,” Sam decided. “That's a line from Wicked.” Cate looked at Sam. “So, what, are we going to see Wicked? I don't get it.” “I don't either,” Sam admitted. “That line is from when Elphie is asserting her independence... what do you think that means?”
