It seemed that the pokemon nurse named Maxwell was going to be my best nurse and my only repeating nurse. Maxwell came by to pick up my breakfast and lunch trays and snuck me snacks in each time.

  Today, I got out of my morning stretches because I had emails from my family to read. Maxwell seemed to think that it was a big deal. He gave me a pat on the head and drew a line through each exercise before putting his stamp on the bottom.

  Mom and each of my siblings had sent me an email or two. Mom had sent an email every day since her visit. It was just promised hugs, and ‘I love you’ over and over again. She wrote that she missed me and that she had been thinking of me. Why didn’t she ask me how I was doing? Oh wait. . . right. . . I’m a ten-year-old child. Sigh. Kids aren’t the best at responding. My kids usually sent ‘ok’ when I would text them. I was always excited when my youngest shared links of him on stage during a contest. . . wait, contest? Am I thinking of Chloe? Chloe is my youngest sister, but she can’t sing. . . at all. . . my son could sing. . . couldn’t he?

  My head hurts trying to read through Chloe’s emails. She kept referring to ‘the last time’ or ‘when we were kids’ ! She talked about each of the contests that she’d participated in while I’d been at the hospital. She’d officially given her sylveon a nickname. Why was that a big deal?

  Rain talked about home and how the eevee were doing. Apparently, this liter had the same parents as Blink, and they produced a big boy again. He seemed to think that I wanted to replace my partner.

  Reading the emails from Baine and Zoey had been such a nice change of pace. It seemed that I didn’t talk with them often. The first email that I read from each, simply read, ‘Hey, is this Flame?” Baine kept mentioning someone named Iroai. Maybe it was his partner. He said they are doing great and training hard. That’s good to hear. Zoey sent pictures of her and her espeon. To be honest, it looked like her espeon might have taken the photos since Zoey was concentrating on a book in all but the one picture. I wonder if pokemon know how to use email.

  I still hadn’t seen or heard from Carmine. Was she on vacation? Did she get in trouble? Why hadn't she sent me a single email? I emailed her this morning. She might not want to be friends with a ten-year-old, but she could at least tell me what happened to my umbreon.

  Maxwell pokes me in the stomach. “Huh?” The audino looks at me curiously. “Oh, sorry Maxwell. I was thinking about how to respond to the emails that I got.” I told him apologetically. I must have spaced out while we were doing my stretches.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  With a sudden look of excitement on his face, Maxwell takes my hand and walks me to the coach. I take a seat as he coos and points while checking off my lunch list. Had we finished everything?

  Maxwell hands me the clipboard for my initials with a wink and a finger over his lips. I guess we hadn’t finished all of them. I smiled as Maxwell applied his stamp then turned to me cooing in excitement.

  “Oh, the emails?” I asked and he nodded. “I have four older brothers and sisters and they each sent some emails.” He nodded and pointed at himself. “Oh, you have brothers and sisters too?” I asked and he nodded and pulled out a photo from his apron. It looked like his parents were a chansey and an audino. Two chansey are holding a small audino up in a celebration pose while the audino and chansey hold hands looking proud. I handed the photo back and tried to give him a smile. “Hey, Maxwell? My sister said that she gave her sylveon an official nickname.” Maxwell’s breath catches and he gestures for me to go on. “Oh, well she said that his nickname is Mr. Ruffles.” I told him. The audino immediately claps his hands and starts making this strange chime sound. Wait. . . was he laughing? Maxwell takes my hands and coaxes me to dance to his swaying chimes. This is kind of nice.

  Long after Maxwell took the lunch tray, I stared at my dex and tried to decide what to reply. Dinner came and went, and I still couldn’t think of how to respond. Finally, I sighed as I noticed the clock blink to ten pm. I tapped compose and sent a mass email to all of them that read, ‘Thank you for emailing me.’ Ugh. How lame. Oh, well. At least I said more than ‘okay’.

  In the morning there were more emails. No one replied to my mass email except for Zoey, who sent a smiley face reaction. Espeon was probably the only one that read my response. . . . Can pokemon read? Maxwell looked over those clipboards, didn’t he? Maybe he was just pretending to look over the routine. None of the nurses paid any attention to the clip board. My head was really hurting. Why was I bothering to read these emails? They didn’t make sense and were hollow. Mum just repeating that she missed me and that my allowance was ready. Rain only talked about the eevees. Baine talked about what he and Iroai did. I couldn’t follow what Chloe was going on about and Zoey wasn’t interested in talking to me at all.

  “Ms. Oline are you okay?” asked a nurse that was there to drop off my lunch. I glare back at the nurse from the corner of my couch. My migraine had been bad today, but no one cared. Nurse Carmine wasn’t coming back. Blink was gone now. The last three nights, my dreams had been nothing but happy smiling faces but why? This family is just as dysfunctional as my old world! The nurse started waving at me. What does she want?

  Why can’t I hear her?

  Why does she look so worried?

  I heard a loud thud from somewhere.

  Did I drop my dex?

  I feel heavy.

  I feel really heavy.

  Which sibling do you want to know more about?