She woke up with a start. Her alarm was buzzing in her ear. She shimmied over in her bed and stretched a hand out to turn it off.
She felt terrible. Her body felt sick and heavy. She slowly sat up, and as her mind continued to re-enter consciousness, she realized she was still in her clothes from the day before...and she hadn't done any of her homework.
"Crap!" she shot to her feet and pulled out her math book. She furiously started scribbling equations from the exercise page that was assigned yesterday. Soon she heard her mom calling for her.
"In a sec, Mom!" she shouted. Then her mother's voice came even louder through the door. It told her breakfast was ready.
The thought of food made her pencil drop from her hand. She quickly donned a new outfit, not caring that her pants felt a little too tight for whatever reason, and scrambled downstairs.
She devoured her sausage and eggs, then made herself a bowl of her father's shredded wheat. Her stomach wanted grains and milk. Beef, too, but she knew she couldn't ask for that at breakfast. After her large meal, she returned to her room to finish her math. Most of it was probably wrong, but at least she had something to turn in. Then she raced outside to meet the bus, which was just pulling up to the stop. Running came a bit harder to her today, and she wondered what the point of a twelve-hour sleep was if it was making her feel worse and not better.
At school, she waited impatiently until the lunch hour. When it finally came, she went back through the lunch line twice. The cashier scolded her for using her student PIN twice in the same day, but relented after Amy insisted on paying cash for seconds. Lina joined her at her table as she was halfway into her second burger.
"Seriously, Amy, what's going on?" she said concerned.
"I don't know," Amy said after swallowing a giant mouthful. "I just really, REALLY want burgers and milk."
"Keep eating like that and you'll need a new wardrobe," Lina scoffed.
"Hey, do I make fun of your weird habits?"
"No, because I don't have any."
Amy admitted to herself that she had a good point, then returned her focus to her lunch.
"Is that your science homework?" Lina asked, pulling a sheet of paper Amy had on the table toward her. "You didn't do this last night?"
"I felt really tired after dinner," Amy admitted. "I can't believe I slept that long. I never got a chance to do my homework."
"This isn't like you," Lina mused. "Ever since we left that store yesterday you've been...off."
Amy knew Lina was onto something, but her hunger was the prevailing thought on her mind. Two whole lunches weren't enough to fill herself, but there was nothing else she could do.
"Did something...happen?" Lina asked.
"At the store?" Amy said. "Yeah. I got poked by a stupid chair. It gave me a stupid tattoo, and now I just feel stupid for ever going in there."
Lina eyed her suspiciously. "A tattoo?"
"Please, can we drop the subject?" Amy said, annoyed. "I've got to finish this homework."
Lina caved in, allowing Amy to do her work. She even helped whenever Amy got stuck on a problem.
During the rest of school, Amy was distracted by her hunger. Her stomach started growling during sixth period, and by the end of the day it was downright vicious. At the height of discomfort, she clutched a protruding belly which conversely felt like it was caving in on itself. Once the bell rang, she was off...not to the bus, but to a few blocks away where she knew there was a good place that sold burgers made of real beef. They had nice salads, too...