What Emma Left Behind

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  Claudia smiled as she watched Mrs. Summit's car stop in front of the house. Marie was the last of the kids to leave that morning, and Claudia was anxious to see her off. She stooped to pick up Marie's rucksack and walked Marie to the car because Marie's own hands were so full of her dirty clothes and a stack of papers.

  Claudia almost laughed out loud as she recalled the morning's activity. She had awakened at about seven o' clock and had immediately proceeded downstairs to the kitchen to prepare breakfast when she bumped into Ana at the top of the landing. Much to the dismay of her not-yet-fully-awake-let-me-sleep-till-sometime-next-week brain, the first thing she was to learn was that she had missed an exciting night of pillow fighting, kitchen raiding, storytelling, late night movie watching, and other exciting events. Christopher Summit, Jason, and David Stuart had even rigged up a flying ghost with some old sheets and had succeeded in scaring the pants off Emily Miles.

  Most of the revelers, Claudia had ascertained as she and Ana descended the stairs and entered a living room of zombies, were feeling the effects of getting so little sleep. It had been amusing to see how everyone looked so early in the morning. True to his reputation, Jason Robinson was found sleeping on the kitchen floor with his arms around the refrigerator.

  In half an hour, Claudia and Ana had devised a system whereby Ana roused the groggies, leaving the snores for later, and sent them into the kitchen to eat the buttermilk pancakes Claudia had just finished cooking on the griddle. Everything had been running smoothly until Emily Miles entered the room, saw the butter and maple syrup spread on the table, and insisted that she have her pancakes with raspberries and cream. However, after a few minutes of her complaining, Erica Miles heard of it and threatened to tell their mother of Emily's impossible behavior, and Emily reluctantly agreed to the maple syrup.

  Luckily for everyone else present, Emily had been the first to leave. Soon after, more and more parents came for their children, but there were so many that Claudia had barely noticed the time go by until she had seen Marie off. Now, ten minutes of reflection and relaxation later, Claudia noticed for the first time that Caera had been asleep all morning.

  If Claudia knew her sister, Caera had probably spent the entire evening partying with everyone else, and if so, Claudia knew she would need her sleep, but nevertheless, her impatience soon got the best of her, and she was climbing the stairs to Caera's room in leaps and bounds.

  What she found was not the heavy lids and mussed hair of her normally cheery sister but a curled up lump shivering under the covers. Claudia had started calling to Caera from the doorway, but as she rounded the corner of her sister's bed, it became obvious to her that Caera couldn't answer back.