Author's Note: Unlike most of my stories, this series is not
intended to be a 'stroke story', but more of a realistic tale of
romance between a boy and girl.



Summary: When Kimmy gets the chickenpox, Max plays a house
doctor.

(bg, nosex, rom)



  Max had just gotten home from school. Today, he was wearing a
long-sleeved shirt that had thin, vertical, red and blue stripes,
with jeans and white illuminative sneakers. After completing his
homework, he left his apartment to go see Kimmy. When he knocked
on the door, Karen answered it; she was wearing a white blouse
with jeans and white socks.

  "Hey, welcome home, Max," Karen smiled. "We've missed you."

  Max had been away for the weekend, visiting his aunt and
cousins.

  "Thanks. Can I come in?" Max asked.

  "Kimmy has the chickenpox," Karen told him. "I wouldn't want
you to catch them, too."

  "I had chickenpox before, like, two years ago. My mommy says
that I can't get them again."

  Karen moved aside to let Max in. Next, she closed the door and
went into the kitchen.

  The kitchen floor was made of white marble tiles. A
refrigerator that had a separate freezer door sat across from a
white table. Four green, plastic lawn chairs surrounded the
table. Brown cabinets hung from the upper walls, above the silver
sink, the white stove, and the wooden counters that separated the
two. There was a dark blue pot with a little steam drifting
upwards, sitting on the stovetop. Karen stirred something with a
big, wooden spoon.

  Max walked down the hall and softly knocked on Kimmy's bedroom
door.

  "Come in," Kimmy said from the other side of the door.

  Max opened the door and saw Kimmy in bed with the covers up to
her stomach and Mickey Mouse laying beside her, on the right side
of her pillows. The pillows were stacked on top of each other
against the headboard so she could sit up. A yellow long-sleeved
shirt with Princess Jasmine, Cinderella, Snow White, and Belle on
it was visible. She was playing with her Quiz Wiz with
red-spotted hands. Despite her messy bed hair and her usually
smooth face being covered in small, red marks, Max thought she
looked beautiful.

  "Hi, Max," she greeted, folding her Quiz Wiz and setting it
aside. "Me and Mickey missed you."

  "I missed ya'll, too. Um, can I still kiss you?"

  "Yeah."

  Max walked over to and kissed her on the left cheek, trying to
avoid several spots. He sat on the side of the bed and rubbed her
right arm up and down, unwittingly prompting her to scratch it.

  "How are you feeling?"

  "Itchy." She scratched her right shoulder.

  "How long did you have it?"

  "I first got my chickenpox on Saturday."

  "I had chickenpox when I was little. I can't get them anymore
for the rest of my life."

  "How long will I have it?" She scratched her left arm.

  "You'll have it for a few days. If you scratch yourself, you'll
just make it worse."

  "I know, but it itches so much," she whined, scratching the
back of her left hand. Max lifted her itchy hand and gave it a
kiss. "Thanks," she giggled, "that's a lot better."

  They heard footsteps and Karen walked into the room with a
brown, wooden tray in her hands. The tray had a white, ceramic
bowl of chicken noodle soup in the middle, a silver fork and a
square napkin on the right, and a half-full, orange Kool-Aid cup
of orange juice with a dark blue bendy straw on the left. Kimmy
folded her hands behind her head and Karen set the tray over her
belly. She then brushed the bangs out of Kimmy's eyes and kissed
her forehead.

  "This will make you feel better," Karen said.

  "Thank you," said Kimmy.

  "Would you like anything, Max?"

  "No."

  Karen walked out of the room and closed the door.

  "Max, would you please feed me my soup?" grinned Kimmy.

  "Mm-hmm," snickered Max.

  The boy put the fork into the soup, picked up some noodles, and
held it to Kimmy's mouth. After blowing on it, she opened her
mouth and he put the fork inside. She closed her mouth and he
pulled it out and let her chew the food. They repeated the cycle
until all the chicken and noodles were gone.

  When Kimmy drank all of the juice, Max wiped her lips with the
napkin and put the crumpled paper on the tray. Next, he picked up
the tray, bowl, and cup and took it to the kitchen. As he was
about to put it in the sink, Karen appeared from the living room
and stopped him.

  "I'll wash those right now," she said, taking the tray and
setting it and its contents on the counter by the sink. "So, you
must really like my daughter." She ran the water and poured
detergent from a white Dove bottle into the bowl.

  "Yeah, I do," Max said, shyly.

  "I mean you must really, really like her." Max began to blush.
Karen smiled, "I thought so."

  "How did you know that?"

  "You two spend a lot of time together. It's perfectly normal
for a boy and girl to like each other when they spend a lot of
time together. I remember my first crush was a little after
Kimmy's age. I liked a boy that was in my class." She washed the
inside of the sudsy bowl with a green and yellow sponge.

  "What happened to him?"

  "I never told him that I liked him. I was too afraid that he
wouldn't like me back. All I did was look at him whenever I saw
him. You two are much braver than I was. At least you two like
each other instead of just one liking the other. I wish it was
like that with me and my crush. Have you two ever kissed?" At
this time, she was putting the bowl on the dish rack.

  Max hesitated, but nodded his head.

  "That's very sweet."

  "You mean, you're not mad at us?"

  "No, I don't mind. I think it's really cute for a young boy and
girl to be infatuated with one another. She began to wash the
cup.

  "What does infac- infact- in..." Max asked, confusedly.

  "In-fat-u-at-ed," she corrected him, "means that a boy and girl
like each other a lot. Just like you and Kimmy."

  "Oh."

  Karen rinsed the cup out and put it on the dish rack, next to
the other cups. She knelt down and pat Max on the head. "You can
go back to her room, now. You wouldn't want to keep your
girlfriend waiting."

  Max went back to Kimmy's room and shut the door.

  "What happened?" Kimmy asked, scratching her head.

  "Your mommy was talking to me," replied Max. "She said that she
knows that we're boyfriends and girlfriends."

  "Oh?" Kimmy said, surprised.

  "She told me that she's okay with it."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah."

  "Wow. So now we can hug and kiss in front of her?"

  "Yeah, looks like it."

  "Cool," she said happily.

  Max sat down on the side of the bed. "Do you want to play
doctor?" he asked.

  "How can we play that?" she asked.

  "I have a toy doctor's bag in my toy crate. I can be a doctor
and you'll be the patient."

  Kimmy smiled. "I don't see much of a choice, but okay."

  Max left the room and went home.

  Kimmy picked up her Mickey Mouse doll and sat it in her lap.
"You've got my chickenpox, don't you Mickey?" Mickey offered no
response. She scratched his soft left ear. There was a pattern of
knocks on the door. "Come in."

  Max opened the door and then pushed it closed, but leaving it
ajar. There was a light blue stethoscope around his neck. In his
left hand was a small, black bag with a red cross on it that
said: Pretend Doctor's Kit in small, white letters. He walked
over to Kimmy and stood next to her. Next, he opened the bag and
pulled out a real thermometer.

  "Say 'Aah'," Max said. Kimmy said 'Aah' and he put the clear
thermometer into her mouth. "Sit up so I could check your heart."

  Kimmy sat up and Max put his stethoscope into his ears and on
her chest, moving it to several spots. Next, he put it on her
back and moved it to different spots. He took it out of his ears
and pulled the thermometer out of her mouth. The thermometer was
at 100 degrees. "What is it, Dr. Max?"

  "You're sick." Kimmy smiled at him, amused by his stating the
obvious. "I'm gonna test your knees now."

  Kimmy removed the covers and sat on the edge of the bed,
letting her feet dangle off the bed. She was wearing yellow
pajama bottoms and white socks. Max took an orange, plastic
reflex hammer out of the bag and tapped her left knee with it.
Her leg quickly went up, making her laugh.

  "That felt funny," she said. "Do it again."

  Max tapped her right knee, causing her right leg to kick. Then,
he pulled a red otoscope out of the bag and she looked at the
wall in front of her. He put it into her left ear and looked
inside; he saw nothing but darkness. Next, he took it out and put
it into her other ear and couldn't see anything.

  "There's nothing else in the bag, so I guess I'm done," said
Max. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her. "Do you
feel any better... dear?"

  "A little," said Kimmy. You're a really good doctor. I feel a
little bit better already."

  "Thank you. You were a really good patient."

  "You're so good to me, Max." They hugged and Kimmy crawled back
to her pillows. Max tucked her in and kissed her lips one more
time. "Mickey Mouse wants a checkup, too." She sat the toy on the
edge of the bed.

  Max proceeded to give Mickey a repeat treatment in the same
order he did with Kimmy.

  Kimmy moved Mickey's legs when Max hit them with the reflex
hammer. Max cracked up when she lifted the doll's left leg to the
point where it hit itself in the face.

  "You have some big ears, but I can't see anything," Max joked
as he looked through the otoscope.

  When Max finished, he tucked Mickey into bed, beside Kimmy.

  "Could you please read us 'Trouble For Thomas'?

  "Yeah."

  The bottom drawer of Kimmy's dresser contained several books,
including stacks of flat, square-shaped 'Thomas the Tank Engine'
and 'The Berenstain Bears'. Max pulled out the story that Kimmy
requested. The cover featured a tired, rosy-cheeked Thomas
sitting on a dirty track, with green landscape in the background.

  Max sat on the edge of the bed. Kimmy's head was resting on the
raised pillow, so she could look at him. Max opened the book and
began to read aloud.

  Karen walked over to Kimmy's bedroom door. She peeked through
the gap between the wall and the door, and looked at the kids.
She smiled at how cute they looked together and walked away. By
the time Max was 3/4 finished, Kimmy was sleeping on her back,
snoring softly.

  "Goodnight, Kimmy," Max whispered. Gently, he kissed her
forehead and returned the book. He quietly walked to the door and
opened it, closing it as he left the room. He said 'goodnight' to
Karen, who was watching the living room television, and left the
apartment.

