Abby nodded and somehow found the strength to pull herself together and depart to a bathroom to clean herself up. She was late to her next class, but it wasn't too hard to blame illness. She'd looked like hell much of the day anyway. Now she just looked ready to fall asleep. Which she did, for once, getting startled awake by her math teacher who ordered her to go call home. She nodded as she rose and left to the office. Instead of calling her parents, she made a bold move in calling her sister. She might not be allowed by her parents to visit with her sister, since the family was trying to shun the older girl for her liberal behavior, however Madeline was the only person who might understand what was happening to her. Madeline was thrilled to come to the rescue.
Half an hour later, Abby sat buckled into her older sister's black Pontiac Sunfire reclining in her seat as Madeline drove away from the school building. Three blocks down the road, Madeline finally charged the topic, unable to wait any longer, "So this illness, does it have something to do with perhaps passing a new milestone in your life?"
Abby's eyes bulged as she sat up to hiss at her sister, "Who told you?!"
"Calm your feathers, little sis. It's written on your face. If anyone would know how to read that particular set of body dialogue, it's me. Which is why you called me instead of Mama, right?" Madeline said calmly, grinning at her sister's flaring temper. Only Madeline had ever seen the true colors of Abigail's inner spirit during their many sister spats behind closed doors over the years.
Abby huffed a disgruntled sigh, "Of course. How readable am I?"
"You should have called me afterward rather than trying to sit through your next class. I doubt anyone would figure it out that easily seeing as it's you, the most unlikely of people, so everyone thinks. You should try to keep it that way for a while. You should also refrain from doing it again during school hours. If you must, wait until after school and find a suitable place. Honestly, a bit of practice is probably what you need to build up some stamina. Girls are suppose to be able to outlast the guys anyway," Madeline replied, lecturing then switching her tone to casual response.
"Maddy!" Abby blurted in shock, her face turning red from fresh mortification.
"Oh stop it already. This is called 'growing up.' Unfortunately, it's one of the parts of life that our parents neglected to teach us anything useful about. Which is why you're lucky to have an older sister who's already been there, done that." Madeline sat letting her sister digest her words before putting on a sly grin, "Mine was the art teacher, Mr. White. He had a mutual appreciation for violin, so we started afterschool jam fests where he taught me a whole new way to appreciate string instruments."
"Maddy! Just.. stop it!" Abby barked, growing purple thinking of the music room again.
"Come on. You think you're the only one finding the charm of music in that room? There's a reason why people trade band camp stories, Ab. Wait, you haven't been allowed to see that movie, nevermind. Anyway, like I said, there are two things you need to think about right now. One, keep it out of the school building until you learn how to hide your afterglow. Two-"
"Afterglow? Do you really have a term for every single possible piece of it?" Abby looked like a blowfish in that moment.
Madeline howled in laughter, "Actually, yeah." She cleared her throat, "Second thing, I'm serious about the stamina. You need to get some. The only way you can do that is with practice. Number three, you should already have BC on your mind."
Abby puckered her lips as she answered, "Not a problem. On the pill because of that PMDD thing. Mom wasn't happy about that but the doctor overruled her."
"Okay, one gold star. Next thing, talk to doc privately about HPV shot. Your old enough to give consent without a parent's involvement. I can take you next week. This isn't about the person that started it. It's about protecting you. Got it?"
"Umm, yeah. Some of the other girls were talking about that the other day at lunch. Someone's sister had a problem and freaked the family."
"Okay. Last, I think you should call out on school tomorrow. Give them extra disinformation and yourself more time to aclimate."
"Madeline, that's just silly. Why-"
"Abby, just do it. You'll thank me for it later. The why is because you're so use to being wound up on good little prim and proper that you've blown a gasket. It happens. It will take you a while to adjust to the world without the rose-colored glasses our parents painted. Trust me, I broke those glasses first, and not in such a dainty manner. Just learn how to calm yourself down, take deep breaths, and you'll be fine."
"A shower and a bed sounds better."
"I'll second that one," Madeline said as she pulled up to park outside the condo. She shut off her car and helped her sister inside. After seeing Abby taken care of and put into bed, she locked the front door on the way back out to her car. She dialed her mother and thanked heaven that she got her mother's voicemail. She left a message about bringing Abby home from school due to illness and left it at that. With that problem solved, she headed back out into traffic. She had just enough time to get to the club and start getting set up for a walk-on gig with a favorite local band that was playing tonight.
Madeline fingers drummed her steering wheel as she chuckled about Abby's revelation of her latest score. She grinned when she pulled into the club parking lot then dialed Silver's home number to sing the chorus to Billy Joel's piano man into his answering machine. She then hung up and got out to head into the club whistling the tune to the song on her way inside. She knew her sister would recover from what was really simply an extreme case of shock. Meanwhile, she was thoroughly enjoying this little ride of theirs. Just wait until Abby found out she wasn't the only one getting the friends with benefits package. Madeline could just imagine the explosion she was going to get out of her sister on that one. Ah, but that dose of fun was for a later date. For tonight, it was Madeline's turn to play. Madeline so loved to play.