xp_logs | Jan and Callie

In addition to making sure people have food to eat by actually preparing the food, Jan brings a tray to an ill student. As could be expected, conversation turns to the unknown whereabouts of the missing student body.

Jan knocked on the door of the suite to announce her arrival, then pushed open the door and called in, "Callie, it's Jan! I've brought you stuff to eat!" With all of the craziness going on in and out of the mansion right now, someone had to make sure the poor sick girl was eating. Normally, the other older kids seemed to be good about making sure both students and other mansion residents ate, but they weren't exactly here right now.

With all that was going on it made sense for Callie to move back into her room. Her scabs were beginning to crust over, a sign that the worst of the disease was in the past. In a few days she would be back to normal, at least she hoped. For now, however, all she could do was rest, and as she was a non-emergency, she would no longer be taking up valuable bed space. While she should have been resting, Callie was finding it difficult to do so. She had gotten very little sleep last night, and was now propped up in bed watching a movie, trying to calm herself down when she heard Jan enter. She paused the movie, and pulled herself out of bed to go meet the RA in the common area. "Hi Jan."

"Were you in bed? If you're supposed to be in bed you should do that. I have a tray, see?" Jan held it out for Callie to see, a bowl of soup, crackers, half a sandwich, fruit, a cookie, and silverware on a napkin on the flat part, a few books and magazines visible from the side compartments. "I didn't know what you'd want or like, so I just brought a bunch of stuff," Jan explained.

"No it's fine," Callie assured her as she rubbed her tired eyes. "I should be moving more? I haven't done that in awhile." She offered up a smile and looked at the food. "Um... thanks? I'm not really hungry right now? Maybe I'll eat it later?"

"Are you really planning on eating it or are you just saying that to make me happy?" Jan asked. "I know things are kind of crazy right now, but you still have to take care of yourself, ok? When's the last time you ate?"

"Uh...." Callie thought. Being sick had messed up her eating schedules as it was, and the stress from the past twenty-four hours had only added to that. She couldn't remember the last time she ate, to be honest, either sometime yesterday or the day before. She knew that she should eat though, but still couldn't bring herself to do it. "I don't know? Yesterday? Maybe?"

Jan stared at Callie. "You can't even remember? Can you please at least try to eat something, then? I'd feel really horrible if you didn't eat and then felt even worse and passed out or something. I hope you're at least staying hydrated!"

"I haven't really paid attention? And my stomach hasn't been up to eating. Nerves. Lots of tea though" Callie leaned against the door frame as she explained. "You should put it down though. Isn't it heavy?"

"Well, it's not super-light, but it's not extra heavy or anything," Jan said, but she set the tray down on a table nearby. "I work out, you know, and since I'm just as strong when I'm tiny as I am when I'm this tall, the more I can lift like this the more I can lift when I'm tiny."

"Have they found them yet?" Callie asked after Jan had set down the tray. "Everyone on the field trip?"

Jan shook her head. "No. I'm sorry, Callie, I really wish I had something better to tell you. We can't reach any of the students, but we're sending people to go look for them."

A million thoughts were racing through Callie's head as she stood there staring off into nothing, wringing her hands. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, questions she knew Jan probably didn't have the answers too, or if she did Callie wouldn't want to hear them. What would happen if they couldn't find them? What if something bad happened to them? Or even, what if they had been killed? When would they know? "I should be there too," she said at last, still lost in her thoughts. The guilt had overridden the curiosity.

Oops. Jan wondered if she had just really screwed up and said the wrong thing. While she was generally cheery and happy and smiled a lot, tact had never been one of her strong suits. "What? No! I mean, ok, yeah, if you hadn't been sick you would have been with them, but you're here, and... look, no, we don't know what happened to them, but they could be just fine. They're a smart group of girls, and I'm sure they're going to do their best to stay safe. Hopefully they just stayed put and are at the hotel and they'll be found easy and then brought home, ok?"

"But we don't know." Callie's voice was low and heavy with sadness. It was hard to remain optimistic at a time such as this. And it didn't help that she felt utterly useless. "We won't know until..." She swallowed hard, the words were caught in her throat, and shook her head.

Jan nodded and sighed. "Yeah. You're right. We don't know, and I don't know when we will know, but we'll know when we know. And no matter when we find out whatever it is we'll find out, you still need to eat. I'll be heading out tomorrow morning, but I'm in the kitchen pretty much all day so there's plenty of food for you and everyone to eat. We're all worried enough about your classmates, so please don't have me worrying about you too, ok?"

"I know. I know. I'm sorry. I promise to eat if I get hungry?" Callie smiled hopefully.

"Even if you're not hungry," Jan said firmly. "Not being hungry for two days doesn't mean you're not supposed to eat."