I opened my mouth, ready to burst out Zoe’s name. My heartbeat was so fast and suffocating that it threatened to explode. The person on the stretcher was Zoe.
She looked even worse; her skin was dry and cracked, like the dirt ground in a drought. I swear I almost fainted. Dr. Hooter shushed me gently and called Zoe’s mother in, whispering something in her ear that made her wince in horror and despair. Zach’s eyes widened as they pulled back the curtain around Zoe’s bed. The man turned his face to us: “I think your friend Zoe needs to be moved to another room for extra nursing for her lungs,” he said. “We found out she’s suffering from severe asthma. She can’t breathe on her own.”
I dipped my head at the doctor in gratitude. Zach, at my side, was staring at the movement behind the curtains.
As the sun began to set, Zoe’s bed became empty, with traces of blood on it. People were too busy with the other patients, and a bed didn’t even count. A nurse came into the room silently and placed a pack of dinner as I nodded my thanks to her.
“Dinner?” I asked Zach as I opened the two meals. One of them was a roast dinner, and the other was… smelling of Thai flavor. I frowned suspiciously at the Thai-flavored dish that looked like pork rice. Zach noticed my expression and smiled. He took the meals to a table I had never noticed and pushed the roast dinner to my side. “Thanks,” I huffed.
He took a bite of his food and chewed slowly. Before I could start gulping down a mouthful of potatoes, Zach dropped his utensils.
He turned to me, scratching his face—then turned back. His hair was a soft brown, and his eyes had turned to a clear, emerald green, glistening in the sunset light. His eyes widened. “I—I swear I saw my hair being brown!” he stammered, breathing as heavily as a rabbit chased by a dog. “Yeah!” I stared at him. “And your eyes changed too!”
I tried to call somebody to see Zach, but they were all still too busy, they said. So we hopped happily around the room, quietly celebrating his recovery. We gulped down the leftovers quickly before Zach came up with the idea to secretly take a look at Zoe through the window. It was a nice idea. Even if we got caught, Zach was allowed to leave the room temporarily, and they wouldn’t care about where I was.
We snuck out of the room silently and raced to the staircase since the elevator was under some sort of construction—Zach complained a little. As we arrived at the sixth floor, Zach fiddled with the doors before I pulled him back to a weird-looking machine to hide from a passing doctor. “Still, better not to be caught,” I retorted in his ear. He nodded in agreement.
The quest didn’t go well. We soon got lost and were escorted back to the room by a terrifying group of security. I was just with Zach because he was… too valuable to lose. He was taken to another room during his transformation, leaving me pacing in the room all alone. The stars shimmered through the clouds uneasily, and the shadows shifted ominously in the dark. A chill breeze flowed through my hair and left some unpleasant goosebumps. I shivered slightly; the aesthetics in this room were a little weird to me, but compared to those snakes lurking in the forest, it was like a kitten compared to a tiger.
I glanced at the door and stalked through it. There was nearly no one in the corridor. My mind flew to Aunt Vanessa, who I thought was probably stuffing her pockets with free chocolate chips in the Leafbrook Supermarket before going on another Katina hunt. As the moon climbed slowly from the treetops, silver light poured down from the night sky, framing the sky into a glittery mirror. The whole of Leafbrook was so peaceful that I nearly forgot there were more things that lay under the trees.
The night seemed to be quieter than ever—if not for the moans from Zach.
“Ouch! My back’s on fire!”
“Ooo…”
“What the— that hurts!”
“For the sake of quietness, can you stop for a minute?” I hissed. “But you don’t know how it feels!” “When I asked you for help from the nurses, you acted like a HERO and said no!”
“Zach?”
A sweet, soft voice rang out from the door. Chloe. She must have sneaked into the room without any of us noticing. Her sleek, short, midnight-black hair was messy and untidy. She was panting quite a bit, and the dark gray shirt she wore was turning black with sweat.
“What happened?” I asked quickly, examining Chloe in front of me. “My mom turned and escaped to the other side of town!” Chloe gasped urgently. She pulled a map from her pack, shoved the food away without even looking at Zach’s recovered face, and finally laid a map of Leafbrook across the table. She pointed at a spot labeled “ROAD TO THE CITY.”
“Isn’t there a landslide?” Zach wrinkled his eyebrows. “She pushed past the workers and basically climbed over the giant pile of stuff!”
“Great,” I sighed. “Just what we need.” “C’mon, guys… Maybe we can find a way to turn everyone back like me!” Zach advised cheerfully, looking at Chloe, who just tilted her head and shot a sweet look at Zach, which turned into a deep pink.
“Please STOP that,” I moaned. “Okay—so how did you turn back, Zachery?” asked Chloe. “So basically, I ate that Thai food and then turned back.” “That means it must be the ingredient… If only Zoe were here! Zoe lived in Thailand since she was four and only came back for better school. She might know the answer!” I exclaimed, thumping my palm. I was so excited before I realized Zoe was lying unconscious in the ICU.
So the next few days passed in an infinite amount of researching, website scrolling, Wikipedia reading, and yes, more researching. First day: we were pretty much okay. Second day: we all turned into giant pandas. Third day: we each ate three servings of breakfast. Day four: we nearly died.
So on day five, we decided to take a rest. Zach looked like he was going to turn back. Chloe was about to explode, and I was so tired that I wished I could sleep for the rest of my life, which wasn’t the most likely thing that might happen in the world. The summer break was already halfway through, and there was an awful lot going on.
Though it was a break, I was still trying to do a little more research and was rewarded with a trace of a clue. “Guys! Guys!” I shouted excitedly, exceptionally eager to show my discovery. I made a weird sound that was a mixture of yelling, laughter, and screaming. “What? You sound like a kraken slumping onto the coast,” Zach teased dully, stretching weakly as Chloe poked her head from the door. “You. Have. To. See. THIS!” I shoved them both toward the computer Chloe had brought from her house. “Could this be the answer for the cure?” Chloe leaned toward the screen, reaching with her hand as if she were going to touch it.
“Behold, the possible solution for the black snake bite—Holy Basil!” I announced gleefully, holding up the computer, expecting the duo to applaud, whoop, or scream in surprise. But instead, they just stared at me as if it had nothing to do with them. “Umm,” Zach hesitated, “well, just think about it, and I mean no offense. But we, a gang of young, idiotic middle schoolers, found the cure faster than a team of experts and scholars who know every possible solution from white chemical dust to weird pills? I mean, come on, bro, you are desperate and nerdy. We all are,” he added carefully.
Chloe looked thoughtful. “Should we show the Hooter guy our results? Because it actually might work. Though I doubt it will cure her lifelong asthma. She probably ate it a million times before coming to LB.”
I tilted my head. This might be it.
