twenty-five

                                    

                                          
"Ha! That is an exploding kitten, I win!" Johnnay pumped her fists into the air, doing a little happy dance to herself while sitting down, mumbling, "I woo-on, I woo-on."
                          
    I shook my head, leaning back in the hospital bed. Seriously, this girl can beat me at any card game. Even War. I tried. Seven times.
                          
    "Aw, man," I sighed. "That was fun. Thanks for teaching me how to play Exploding Kittens, Johnnay." I laughed. "I still can't get over the name."
                          
    "I know, right?" She chuckled, stacking the cards into a neat pile and setting them back into the small box from which they came. "The creators of exploding kittens made another game called Bears vs. Babies. You wanna play it? I have the cards for it."
                          
    "Uh, yeah," I said in my "duh" voice. "Of course I wanna play Bears vs. Babies. What can be better than that?"
                          
    "Okay, they're in my dorm. I'll go get them." She ran out of the room as fast as she could in her pink high tops.
                          
    I laid back, feeling the comfort on my head from the soft pillow. It has been two days since my screaming session. Mrs. Katie has forced me to stay here until my really high (hot like the sauce) fever is gone. And it hasn't left my body for two whole days. But I've been feeling better. Mr. Kabadi came by the last two mornings with chai for me and Johnnay and Tiffany and Emmie and August have been visiting me every chance they get by playing card games and just plain talking, helping me with class assignments. Being stuck here isn't as bad as I thought.
                          
    "I'm ba-ack!" Johnnay shouted in a sing-songy voice, holding up the package of cards like an Olympics trophy. "Are you ready to be beaten, Des, at Bears vs. Babies?" She said "Bears vs. Babies" in a deep and spooky voice like the game was a ghost story. As if.
                          
    "I am ready to lose," I nodded, then grinned like a maniac, "at losing!"
                          
***
                          
It turns out that my fever broke the next morning and Mrs. Katie set me free from my ever-so-delightful prison they called the clinic. I returned to my classes as normal and everything was fine. Wynn had very brief conversations with me (mostly about the books he was reading). August and I played a game of war a million times a day. I got to be close friends with Johnnay and Tiffany and Emmie. I played a lot of four squares with the other facility kids in my grade. My grades were okay, B- average. And, yeah. Everything was great.
                          
    And then, just like that, life throws you into another course.
                          
    I really couldn't be content for one second, could I?
                          
    About a week after I was released, this weird guy named Mr. Stanley Watson came knocking at the facility's door. He claimed that he was an ataxia and that was why he knew where the facility's location was. Of course, Mr. Kabadi wasn't buying it at all and ordered him to leave and never come back. Like, ever. But then Mr. Watson explained why he was here.
                          
    He believed he tracked his daughter's location to this facility.
                          
    And guess who his daughter was?
                          
    August.
                          
    My mind is blown over this. I mean, August's parents died in a house fire. That's what Andy told us. Only she survived. Didn't she?
                          
    Even August was totally mind-blown. As soon as she read his mind the first time she saw him, she burst into tears and started hugging his waist without him even saying anything. She confirmed that Mr. Watson really was her dad and that he was telling the truth. He really did spend the last five years trying to find his little girl. August really was his daughter. I couldn't believe it. Everyone was stunned.
                          
    But only I questioned it. This was my little sister. Who I shared a mint-chocolate chip ice cream cone with at Gertrude's Ice Cream Shoppe every Saturday. Who I played Minecraft with. Who I binge-watched movies and TV shows with. Who I comforted when she had nightmares. Who I played catch with outside. My little sister. With her dad actually being alive ... does that mean we aren't even sisters anymore?
                          
    The question clung to my conscious and subconscious mind for what seemed like forever. It was on loop like your favorite song being played by the radio over and over again. Never ending, relentless, torturing questions. Is August my little sister? Or are we just two kids who happened to be adopted by the same guy?
                          
***
                          
The day before August left to resign from the facility, she had a mini party with all of our dorm friends and me. It wasn't actually a party. We snuck a few cookies from the cafeteria downstairs for us to eat but that was it. No music. No balloons. No streamers. Just cookies and laughing and talking and playing board games all night long.
                          
    And I completely ignored it all like a jerk for my sister's going-away party.
                          
    I was there. But I didn't speak to anyone. I just sat on top of my bunk bed, peering over them all like a hawk over its prey, and nibbling on a sugar cookie.
                          
    "Hey," August said, climbing up my ladder to join me. "You all right?"
                          
    Of course she knew the answer. She was just asking me so that I could confess my feelings. Like that was gonna happen.
                          
"I'm fine, August. Just ... go back down to your party and have fun, okay? Before you leave forever."
                          
    "No," August said, pointing to me. "You are going down there and having fun before I go away. Kapeesh?" She paused for a moment so I could say something. I didn't. "Come on, Des. Take a break from all that's happened and just have fun. We're gonna play Spades soon and I don't have a partner ...," her voice trailed off as she pretended to ponder.
                          
    I rolled my eyes playfully, grinning. "You win. I'll play Spades with you."
                          
    But before I could even climb down my bunk bed, the entire facility shook with a loud and enormous boom!