[i]"Are you okay? You look like hell." A slender brunette girl took her eyes off the dark road for a moment to glance at the other girl in the passenger seat. Her blonde hair frizzed out as though she was struck by lightning. The girls makeup was running down from her tears. Cailie sniffled and hiccuped in response. Alicia, the brunette, continued to drive the car down the road. Cailie reeked of alcohol, it was three in the morning and Alicia wasn't very happy. "You knew he was going to leave you sooner or later, why did you go with him?" 

Cailie sniffled. "Cause-hic-I wanted-hic-to make sure......" She slurred out weakly. Cailie took her hand and rubbed it against her eyes smearing her makeup more. "H-he acted like I d-din't even ex-hic-ist. The bashtard!" She pathetically slapped the dashboard. "You....were right..Alicia." More tears began to fall from her eyes. 

Alicia just rolled her eyes. "I'm always right." She glanced over to her drunken sister. Cailie was the big partier in the family, but she was also really smart so their parents over looked her more....extravagant social activities. "Look I won't tell mom and dad about this, but you owe me big time. I want a gallon of Rainbow Fudge Chocolate Chip Ice Cream." 

Cailie snorted. "You know that's the rarest ice cream." She slurred, her eyes beginning to close. 

"Yep." Alicia punched Cailies shoulder. The two smiled and began to laugh. Even though this wasn't a good situation, the two found much needed comfort in each other. After all, Alicia wasn't only Cailies sister, but also her best friend. It was them against the world, and they were determined to live their lives to the fullest in all of their endeavors. 

Suddenly the car jerked and Alicia pounded against the horn, turning the wheel sharply. Cailie was awoken from her drunken stupor as a very bright and harsh light assulted her eyes. "Alicia!" Cailie shouted. But it was too late. Tires squealed and metal screeched in protest, the last thing Cailie heard was herself screaming Alicia and then everything went dark. [/i]

"....now then we are onto the Civil War of Egypt!" Mr. Mellows exclaimed. Callie's green eyes flitting to the front of the classroom. The shook her head as her eyes darted around the classroom in a panic. Where was the door?! It took only a moment for her eyes to set upon the open door to the classroom, and she gave a slight sigh in relief. Mr. Mellows was the World History AP teacher and while she enjoyed him and the class she absolutely despised the classroom itself. It was a small room with a single door and no windows. Being a claustrophobic she was always the last to enter and the first to bolt out the open door to the bigger space of the hallway and then out through the glass doors to the freedom of outside. Shaking her head of the awful memory she began to focus on Mr. Mellows lecture. 

"This was a very dark and horrible time in Egypts history. Such that the nation had switched from being a polytheistic religion to a monotheistic one, and that pissed off a good percent of the empires population. Including the royal advisers to the Pharaoh. Poor, guy, trying to introduce some pretty drastic changes. Finally the stress had gotten to him and he fell sick and died. This left Egypt in the hands of his late wife Queen Nailah. While the queen had two sons, the eldest Diomedes could not be put on the throne because his father had origins in Greece. Royals are pretty protective of their bloodlines, often willing to go so far as to marry their siblings to keep everything nice and pretty and pure. Can't imagine the family reunion when your father is your uncle, grandfather, and third cousin. Can you?" 

Some of the girls squinched up their faces and the boys looked horrified. In the ancient world, it was common to marry family members and siblings to keep the dynasties as pure as possible. It was the same with the Chinese and other various nations. However in Sumeria the current king was replacing a wife every few weeks. Cailie glanced at the door again as she felt a headache coming on, but tried to really focus on the lecture. She had heard from other students that this was Mr. Mellows favorite period because little was known about it. Historians tried to piece together the era as much as they could, but the walls had the names carved out of them as though trying to hide that this particular dynasty existed at all. 

"But anyway, so Queen Nailah ruled over Egypt for a time until she could marry her son Amenoten. Could you imagine inheriting a country at your age? I couldn't. Especially not for a new Pharaoh. Everything was against him. The country was in a state of chaos, as the religion went back to a polytheistic worship. Plaque and famine ran wild and to make matters even worse large chunks of the nation were being taken by the Hittites and the Minitani. Greece and Rome were too busy arguing with each other to grab at the new territory that was cropping up, but about...oh...60-75 years later they make a comeback. Amenoten wasn't the youngest to ever succeed the throne that was King Tut, but while he did reign he united Egypt on the home front. Shortly after he died of 'ill health' and out of heirs to the throne his brother Diometes married his bride and ruled over Egypt. Despite being a foreigner himself, he led a great military campaign against the Minitani and the Hittites regaining the lost land, and even taking a little more....ah, yes Sara?" 

One of the redheaded girls in the front had raised her hand. "Yes, sorry Mr. Mellows, but I'm confused. You said Ameno-whatever died of illness, but you say that so skeptically. Why?" 

Mr. Mellows cracked a mischievous grin. "I'm skeptical, simply because I believe the real story is he was murdered." That tidbit provoked some of the classes reactions. One of the boys gave him a look. Mr. Mellows shrugged. "Truth be told no one really knows how Amenoten died. Like Tut they did an autopsy on the body but it's all skepticism. I'm sure though, that it was murder. Think about it. A younger brother getting the most powerful position of the nation when the eldest was already married? My money is that Diomedes offed him and then pressured his wife into marrying him so he could inherit the throne." Just as another kid was about to say something the bell to the class rang and Cailie was out the door and off to freedom through the glass doors to the outside world. 

~

Cailie was standing outside the library doors, tapping her foot lightly as she waited. The sun was warming her back as she stood, waiting. Cailie loved the library and was a total book worm, but there was no way she was taking a step inside that death trap of a building. Windows that didn't open, the doors were always closed, what if she couldn't make it out in time? What if the building collapsed with her inside?! Before panic began to fully seize control of her, Synthia, one of the girls who worked at the library, walked out with an armful of books. "Okay so, here are the history books you wanted, I also pulled a few of the folklore books as well." 

Cailie smiled. "Thank you! I'm sure Alicia would like to listen to the folklore stuff. She's always been into that mystic mumbo jumbo stuff." 

Synthia giggled. "Yea, she was. Hows she doing by the way?" 

Cailies smile turned sad. "Oh...you know..she's making it.." The blonde trailed off the sentence as she looked down at the books. "I'm sure she's going to wake-up soon. It's been almost a year. I visit her as much as possible but I can't stay in the hospital for very long periods..." 

Synthia nodded in understanding. "It's okay, I'm sure she'll pull through. You're booth stubborn as hell." 

The two girls giggled before Cailie waved goodbye to the other and began to walk to the hospital. She put the books into her backpack and pulled out her headphones. Putting in the earpiece she plugged the headphones into her phone and began to play music as she walked the few blocks to the hospital. Cailie refused to get in a car, or a bus, or any mode of transportation due to how tightly packed the inside would be. The thought of getting into one of those things sent shivers down her spine. and she winced at the slight pain. Occasionally if she moved a certain way pain would flair in her lower back from where her spinal injury was. Hydrotherapy was helping her regain mobility of her left side, but there were still places where she was stiff in her lower leg. Heavy physical activity was a big no no, but she was going to take the risk if it meant she didn't have to be confined. Cailie figured as long as she didn't sprint, do heavy lifting, or overexert herself, her injury wouldn't worsen and she could live a somewhat normal life. Cars passed her and Cailie took a deep breath as the hospital came into view. 

[i]Alright, Alicia, I'm here. Now hopefuly I can stay inside for more than a 15 minute interval.[/i]