Hailies Song

Chapter Three

Rated R

"Do you like these?" Hailie asked, taking the pants off the rack in front of her, and holding them up to her waist. They were kahki colored, flared bottom pants, with pockets on the side of the leg, and a tie in the front. Diane looked around the rack of clothes she was looking at, and shrugged.

"I like them, but I like the black ones better." She admitted, rummaging through the rack of shirts in front of her. Hailie nodded and returned the pants to their rack, picking up the black ones, and inspecting them. She respected Dianes style, and if Diane liked black, Hailie liked black. Shopping with Diane was fun, she always found the best stuff, and she didnt mind waiting for you to try on clothes.

When Dad came shopping with Hailie, he always bugged her about taking to long, and picked out stupid things that he thought were 'cute' and yelled at her for looking at 'revealing' things, argueing that 17 year olds do not need to dress worse than the town hookers. Hailie would respond back with a line like, "You should know how they dress," or "Maybe when you were 17, but 100 years later, this is style, dad." Marshall would most of the time end up losing the arguement to his daughter, which didnt put him in a shopping mood, and often that was the end of their mall trip.

"Did you find your size, Hai?" Diane asked, peeking around the rack again.

"Yeah, I dont feel like trying them on." She said, lazily, handing them to Diane, who emerged from behind the rack with an armful of Hailies clothes, a few shirts, and about 4 pairs of pants.

"I dont blame you, we've been shopping for like, 3 hours." Diane glanced at her watch. "How are you feeling?"

"Im okay." Hailie nodded. It was the truth. Last week she had stayed home from school everyday, and Friday when the doctors office called with her blood test results, they said that it was just a virus, but if it didnt go away within a week, or worsened, that she should come back in for a check immediatly. Today she had gone to school, feeling better, hoping that it was the end of her virus, and when she got home, Diane asked if she wanted to go out anywhere, shopping or anything. And Hailie was ALWAYS up for shopping.

"Good. Well listen, whats say, we pay for this, and head out home? Maybe get a burger on the way back, Im starved." Diane smiled and Hailie nodded.

"Sure," She shrugged. She loved hanging out with Diane. Today had been really fun. She had fun with her mom, but not like this. This was like, Diane and Hailie, hanging out, chilling at the mall, buying clothes, switching advice on what colorsto buy, trying things on for each others opinions, and talking, about everything. It felt good to get out of the house, after being cooped up in bed for over a week, and having fun for once. Even better, when Diane mentioned burgers, Hailie didnt feel the need to keel over and puke on the floor! Major improvement!

"Great," Diane grinned and walked towards the cash register, laying everything out on the counter for the salesclerk, who rang them up quickly. Diane put it on Marshalls credit card, and they bagged their items and set off towards burgers, and home.

"Can I get, two doublecheeseburgers, one of them with NO pickles," Diane ordered through the drive up intercom, stressing the NO PICKLES much to the delight of Hailie, who sighed with relief. Hailie hated pickles. "A large coke, and a large orange soda... And two medium fries."

They heard their total over the scratchy intercom and drove up to the first window, to drop off their money, and then to the second window, where the woman handed them a bag and their drinks and wished them a nice afternoon. Diane and Hailie had decided to eat in the parkinglot, before going home, as they were a good 20 minutes away from home, and they didnt want their food to get cold. Marshall would be at the studio until later tonight, a few hours more at least, and Diane had frozen dinners in the freezer for his late studio nights, so really only her and Hailie needed to eat dinner.

Diane handed Hailie her burger, and a frie, and Hailie smiled, thanking her and opening up the wrapped burger. Thinking she had better check the food before she bit into it, she picked up the top bun and looked down. They got the order right, chopped onions, ketchup, mustard and a beef patty covered in melted cheese. Perfect.

"They didnt give us any straws..." Diane sighed. "You wanna go get them? My legs are killing me, and your young!" She grinned at her stepdaughter, who nodded, smiling back at her and set the burger down with her fries on the dashboard.

"Two?" Diane nodded and Hailie opened her car door. "Alright, Ill be right back. Need any thing else while Im in?"

"Uh,..." Diane hesitated. "Salt?"

"Sure." Hailie nodded and stepped onto the pavement of the parkinglot, slamming the car door shut and crossing the parkinglot to the door. Pulling open the large glass door with the stores hours printed on it in white lettering, she stepped into the air conditioned Burger King, and walked over to the condiment table, grabbing a few salt packets and two straws.

She turned around and wasnt looking where she was going, when she bumped into a guy, about a foot taller than her, wearing baggy blue jeans and Football jersey.

"Sorry," She mumbled, looking up at the guy. He was young, her age, she suspected, and he was hot. She smiled, and he smiled back at her. Feeling herself blush she quickly left the store, walking quickly across the parkinglot, excited. She got closer to the car, and saw Diane, hands near her food. She opened the car door and raised both eyebrows at her step mother, who quickly drew back her hands, and smiled.

"I wasnt stealing your fries. I was, checking them." Diane said, innocently.

"Well, um. Okay, but you have your own fries, in the bag, yanno." Hailie pointed out, climbing into the car. She shrugged the odd event off, and smiled at her step mother. "I just saw THE cutest guy in that store, and I almost ran into him and he smiled at me!"

"Ohh!" Diane cooed. "Did you talk to him?"

"No," Hailie looked down bashfully. "Im way to shy."

�Aw cmon, why? He probably was to shy to talk to you, too.� Diane pointed out, watching Hailie shrug and shed the straw wrapper, sticking it into her orange soda.

�Whatever, I dont wanna talk to him first.� She sighed, and bit into her sandwich, chewing and swallowing the bite. �It was still exciting though...� She shoved a few fries into her mouth and leaned back against the seat, watching the front of Burger King, almost hoping her guy would come out, so she could point him out to Diane.

"Hailie," Marshall knocked on her bedroom door loudly. It was almost 8 AM, her school started a half hour ago, and she had overslept. He continued knocking on the door. "Hailie! Hai, c'mon your late for school, you gotta get up, you cant stay home baby!" He called through the door.

Hailie mumbled something incomprehensible and turned onto her side, and closed her eyes. She felt like shit. She couldnt even move, even if she wanted to get up and go to school, she didnt think she would be able to. She especially couldnt drive like this. Weakly, she tried to say something, hoping her father would hear her and open the door. "C'mere dad!" She cried weakly, and sighed as she heard her own voice. She sounded sick, there was no way he would make her go to school when he saw her, she thought gladly, as he opened the door.

"Hailie, come ON, you are missing way to much school, you have so much makeup work. You better get it done, your NOT going to stay back, now get up and lets go." He stood in front of the bed and tugged at the blankets.

She moaned and pulled them back, finally giving up the fight and let go of the corner of it, sending them flying to the end of the bed where Marshall stood, looking down at her angrily.

"Hailie Jade, I am not going to tell you again." He warned, wondering what was wrong with her.

"Dad, I cant," She whispered. "Please, I feel like shit, I cant go anywhere."

"You went to the mall yesterday, bought out half the stores, and you were fine, whats wrong now?" He said, walking over to the side of the bed and putting his hand on her forehead, licking his lips as he felt immediate heat. She was burning up, badly, and her forehead was all sweaty. "Whats wrong?" He asked, sympathetically this time, realizing she wasnt just being lazy.

"My head, is spinning, and I have really bad cramps dad, and like, I cant even see anything, my eyes are so fucked up," She explained weakly, her words slurring themselves together. She sounded drunk, but Marshall knew better.

"Okay baby, here," He gave her the blankets back, tucking her in, and smoothing her hair back, kissing her forehead as he did so. "Im sorry, Hailie. I thought you were trying to get out of school, thought you were ganking me." He watched her shake her head and he sighed. "Okay, Im gonna go get a thermometer, and then Im going to come back, take your temp and call the doctor, because they are going to ask. You might have to go to the Dr's office today though... okay?"

"I dont care," She moaned. "I dont care."

"Okay, I'll be right back." He said, exiting the room and returning a few minutes later, with a thermometer, shaking it and looking at it as he did so. "Ready baby?"

"Yeah," She reached out for it and he handed it to her, watching her put it in her mouth.

"Okay, leave it in there for a few minutes," He sat on the side of her bed and watched her nod and let her head fall back into the pillows. "When did you start to get like this?"

"Last night," She answered, trying to keep the thermometer under her tongue as she did so.

"Sh, dont talk baby, itll fuck up the results." He said. "Why didnt you say something last night?"

She stared at him, wide eyed. He was asking her questions that she couldnt nod a yes or shake her head a no to. How was she supposed to answer them? She watched as he chuckled and patted her leg, shaking his head.

"Im sorry, baby," He grinned at her. "Okay, it should be about done," He reached over and took it out of her mouth, looking down at the mercury in the small glass object. "Holy shit, Hailie, 103.2! You hiding Jenna Jameson in there?!" He joked, looking at her in mock suspicion.

"Dad..." Hailie rolled her eyes. Jenna Jameson was old....but dad liked her anyways. So she did a few porns, does it really make her that hot?! "Shes old, shes not hot. At all."

He opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off promptly.

"No, dad," She said, looking at him apologetically. "Not even pretty. Shes all wrinkly, she looks like... a prune or something."

"A prune?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Alright, well, I better get down there and call the doctors, see if they can make you an appointment, otherwise I dont know what to do. You cant just stay with a 103 fever... Im gonna go ask Diane what to do okay?"

"Fine..." Hailie said, pulling the covers over her head and closing her eyes.