Ill in Unfamiliar Places (female, no romance)

[Aranea]

This is a sort of character exploration for a novel I'm working on. Four teenage girls are on a road trip to drop the oldest off at her new college. On the way, they stop in the town where the youngest, Reese (14) birth mother lives, so Reese can meet her for the first time. Maggie, her birth mom, runs a magic shop in downtown Jacksonville, and the girls don't know it yet but they've brought some magic of their own with them.

This is a first attempt writing for this forum. This bit can stand alone, but if ya'll like it, there really is more to follow.

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Reese curled up further in the blankets Maggie had left for her. She was freezing. There was no way Maggie's house was this cold, she had probably picked up a bug when the other girls decided that performing a ritual at midnight in the middle of a rest stop was a necessary part of the road trip. That rest stop had been filthy.

She groaned, and rolled over so that her face was buried in the back of the couch. Today was going to be so hard. Jessa had some shops downtown she wanted to check out, and Caroline wanted to go to the art museums (both of them, no matter how many times the girls told her that there was no way they'd have time for both of them, with the short time they'd be in Jacksonville). Christine didn't have opinions on what they actually did, but she had pinned down a lunch place that she'd been chattering about for weeks.

But Reese felt awful. Cold, and shaky. She sniffed. There was no way she was going to be up to the day's plans. She wanted her mom.

"Hey," Christine said, plopping down on the couch, and only just avoiding sitting on the younger girl. "You up yet? Maggie says that we can walk from her place to most of the places we want to go, but we want to get an early start just the same. She made french toast, too, if you want some."

Reese moaned. "I'm not hungry, Chris." She pushed herself up, pulling the blanket around her shoulders as she did, and leaned on Chris, who automatically wrapped an arm around the younger girl. "You alright, babe?" she asked, pushing some of Reese's dark blonde hair away so she could feel her forehead, but Reese ducked away.

"Nooo," Reese whined. "I hurt everywhere."

Chris sighed. "Sorry, girl. I have Tylenol if you want it?"

Reese flopped down, so that her head was in Chris's lap. "I can't have Tylenol."

"Oh, that's right. I can see if Maggie has ibuprofen?"

Reese frowned. Maggie was already doing enough by letting the girls - all four of them, and they weren't quiet - crash at her place. She didn't want to put her out anymore.

"I came to see what's taking you two so long. Reese, do you want french toast," Maggie said, as she walked into the guest room. "Is everything alright here?"

"Reese doesn't feel well," Chris answered. Reese frowned at her, then reached up to rub a hand at her nose.

"It's fine. No big deal."

"I'm sure," Maggie said, pulling a hair band off her wrist and shoving the hair that so perfectly matched Reese's into a sloppy bun on top her head, her silver bracelets jangling each other as she did so.

"Christine, why don't you go eat your breakfast. I'll speak with Reese and see what we can do here."

Reluctantly, Reese sat up on her own, letting Chris pull herself up. "Call me if you need me ok?" Reese just frowned at her.

Maggie sat down on the bed across from the couch Reese had chosen to sleep on, and leaned down, propping her head on her hand. "What's the matter?"

Reese held out one finger, and sneezed into her armpit before answering. Maggie waited, tapping her leg along in time to a tune no one but her heard. She handed Reese a tissue when she was done, but Reese just clutched it and sat there, sniffling.

"Reese?" Maggie prompted. "You don't feel well?"

Reese shook her head. "I hurt everywhere," she cried. Every inch of my body aches, and there's all this pressure in my face, and my throat is scratchy, and, and" to Reese's embarrassment, she completely burst into tears. "I want my mom," she cried.

"Oh, Reese. I'm sorry. I know it's hard, your first time away from home for so long. We can call your mom, if you want, and you can talk to her for a bit."

"No! I feel awful. Aren't you supposed to be my mom, anyway?"

Maggie got up to sit next to the sobbing girl. "No, sweetie. I'm not - and I'll never be, or replace, the mom that raised you. She was there for all the things I couldn't be there for. I'm so glad that she got you, she did much better by you than I could have."

Reese laughed a little, then blew her nose on the tissue Maggie had given her. "What does that say about Adrian?" she asked.

"It says that his Daddy does a bang-up job, because if it were just me, he'd be a mess. Now, where's your phone? I'm gonna go tell the other girls what's up, and you can call your Momma ok? When you're done with that, you and I will hang out at my shop today while the other girls explore the city. Sound like a plan?"

Reese nodded. She could handle that.

[Leafeon78]

Nice I'm really liking this beutiful start

[OhDearBlessYou]

Awww, how endearing and refreshing to find something non-romantic! I like this, keep going!

[Aranea]

Nice I'm really liking this beutiful start

I'm glad! Now that I know for sure this post didn't get deleted (I thought it had, because me and forums don't understand each other) I'll def be writing more! And I won't write it into the text box like an idiot.

But I'm super glad you enjoyed it, thank you so much!

[Aranea]

Awww, how endearing and refreshing to find something non-romantic! I like this, keep going!

I'm so glad you like it, thank you so much! I'll def be writing much more soon! I don't foresee this being too long, but it's fun to play with!

And I'm sorry I lost this thread like an idiot for a while! I've figured things out now, haha.

[NoV]

You write very well - its always nice to read some quality writing here, and you should definitely continue (and keep up work on the novel )