"Penelope?" 

She swore she heard someone say her name. Maybe she was hallucinating, meaning that this illness had to be something serious. She checked her symptoms against her memorized disease factfiles - which consisted of two; a cough and chickenpox, something she'd caught back in third grade. Neither, however, seemed to have quite as severe side effects as the ones she was currently experiencing. And you couldn't catch chickenpox twice, so that eliminated that one.

It was then that she noticed the kid from the field trip - Jesse - wondering up to her. To be honest, he didn't look too great either. Without asking, he took the seat besides her and commenced on a conversation in a sinfully cheery tone (nobody could be that happy, whilst she was feeling as bad as she were).

"Penelope - skipping class?" 

Pen swallowed back the insult dancing on the tip of the tongue.

"Again, I would ask you to not call me that," she said through a forced smile and gritted teeth, but when she sensed a hint of genuine concern in his voice, she felt the smile fade into a natural one "And I could ask you the same question. I'd thought you would have a limo, or something, to get you to school on time."