They got back to their room and dressed themselves. Noah was unable to stifle a small cough before he finished changing, and he and Brian shared a worried look and glanced over at Paul. The kid was still doing work at his desk, bopping his head slightly to his music.
“I hope he’ll be okay,” Brian said, grabbing his backpack and stepping out of the room.
Noah looked down guiltily. “Me too.”
They entered the stairwell and descended the stairs, emerging by the building entrance at the ground floor and at long last stepping out into the sunlight.
Finally feeling comfortable enough to take a deep breath, Noah sighed deeply and watched a few small dark wisps drift away from his face.
“It’s getting worse,” he commented.
“Let’s go find out what’s wrong with us,” Brian said, setting off. “C’mon, I want to beat the girls there.”
Noah forced himself to smile good-naturedly. “Oh, that’ll be easy. They’re probably still in the shower.”
Brian grinned. “They don’t stand a chance.”
“You know, maybe not, if they figured out that they can’t feel heat and the problem isn’t that their showers are cold. Showers aren’t so nice without hot water.”
Brian narrowed his eyes. “That’s right. Dammit! We’ve lost our main advantage.” He glanced around, his eyes alighting on the nearby bus stop, where a shuttle was just pulling in. “Aha! This will be our path to victory. They won’t think to use public transportation to skip a five minute walk.”
Noah pulled his friend back before he could get out of reach. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of sitting in an enclosed vehicle with several dozen other people just so you can beat the girls in an imaginary race.”
Brian rubbed his neck sheepishly. “Oh, you’re right. We’ll have to settle for beating them on foot.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “The bus would take longer than walking anyway. It won’t leave the bus stop for another few minutes at least, and then it will visit every spot of interest on campus and half the spots of no interest for no reason, and probably drive off campus too for good measure. We’d have been everywhere but the health center by the time Leah and May got there.”
“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“That is correct,” Noah grumbled. “I genuinely have no idea why anyone uses the shuttles.”
“It sounds like you just haven’t figured out the campus shuttle schedule.”
“No, I’m sure that’s not it.”
After a few minutes the squat building of the campus Health Center came into view, squashed between the much larger Public Facilities and Campus Safety buildings.
“I’ve actually never been here before,” Noah said, approaching the front entrance.
Stolen novel; please report.
Brian raised his eyebrows. “I’ve been once. In the first week of classes, actually. Remember when I said I thought I’d fractured my arm? Well, when I came here to see a doctor they said it was just a bone bruise and basically told me to get over it. I’ve been too nervous to come here since then. If we had anything less than whatever we picked up last night, I’d just try to sleep it off.”
They walked into a small lobby with couches and cushioned chairs arranged around a low central table with brochures and magazines related to campus life arranged neatly on it. The walls were painted lime green and yellow, the campus colors. May and Leah were already seated in the corner in a small cloud of black dust. Both of them were reading a random pamphlet they must have picked up from the display on the table.
“No way!” Brian exclaimed. “How’d you get here before us?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Leah said. “We took our time to clean up and get ready. You can thank yourself for taking your sweet time getting over here.”
Brian looked at Noah, dumbfounded. “They’re joking, right?”
Noah shrugged. “Guess we should’ve been faster.” He sat down on the couch next to them. “Have you talked to the receptionist yet?”
“No, we were waiting for you guys to arrive.”
“Oh, then no point sitting around any longer.” Noah stood right back up and walked over to the front desk. There was no line, so he and his friends were able to crowd up around the counter. A sliding glass partition separated them from the guy sitting inside.
“Good morning,” the receptionist said with a smile. He looked about the same age as Noah, and he wore a name tag that said Robert J. “What brings you here today?”
“We need to see a doctor,” Noah said. “Right away. We’re all sick.”
Robert’s expression smoothed over and he calmly pointed to a paper taped to the glass partition between them. “Scan that QR code to set up an appointment. I don’t know how busy the doctor is today, but most students are able to get a meeting with her within forty-eight hours.”
“We can’t afford to wait that long,” Leah said quickly. “Can you just check if they can't meet with us now?”
Robert glanced between them, fiddling with the top button of his shirt. He finally shrugged and gestured to the QR code again. “That link will bring you to a page that will tell you when the doctor’s earliest open time slot is.”
“Let’s just check,” May said quietly, holding up her phone to the paper. While she fiddled with the link, Noah turned back to the receptionist.
“Is there no one else qualified to talk to us? You can’t tell me there’s just one doctor taking care of a few thousand college students.”
Robert adjusted his glasses. “There are indeed several other doctors. We have three psychiatrists in the office at the moment, and we usually have a second physician, but he is currently out of town at a conference. He will be returning in four days.”
“Well, that’s just great,” Noah grumbled, turning to May. “How about that link? Does the doctor have any open appointments today?”
May squinted at the screen. “The next available appointment is… Wednesday.”
Leah threw up her hands. “That’s two days away! We can’t wait that long!”
Noah turned back to Robert. “I understand that the doctor is very busy right now, but I believe it would be in everyone’s best interest if we could get an appointment sometime today. We don’t know what we’re sick with, but we have reason to believe it’s serious, and we have no idea how contagious it is. We’re just trying to keep everyone safe.”
Robert sighed. “Look, I’m obviously no physician, but it sounds like you should just isolate yourselves for a few days until it blows over. I can’t give you a note or anything to excuse you from classes, but,” he smirked, “lack of a doctor’s note doesn’t stop most students from skipping class whenever they feel like it.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “We’re not just trying to get out of classes. This could be a matter of life and death!”
Robert just sat there calmly. “Is there anything else you need?”
Noah turned away, disgusted. He started to walk towards the exit, but then stopped and looked around the room. It was completely empty aside from the four of them. Feeling angry and reckless, Noah cleared his throat and started coughing.