Kimmie was never a kid who faked illness, and in fact had always been a paragon of health, so her mother had no reason to doubt her daughter’s complaints of headache and general achiness. It also helped that Kimmie’s mother was in a wonderfully distracted mood since returning Sunday night from her Saint Lucia vacation with her new boyfriend, David. Twelve days of couple’s massages, romantic walks on the beach, and candlelit dinners were almost enough to expunge the bitter taste of her divorce, or so Danielle thought until her ex-husband Kurt answered the door on Sunday night when she came to pick up the girls. Just seeing her ex-husband’s spray-tanned face smirking at her own freshly sunned face in the doorway was enough to make her clench her teeth. It was then that she heard from their father about her youngest daughter’s illness, how she had been complaining all week of not feeling well, finally being sent home early on Friday. “Did you take her to the doctor?” she asked, knowing his answer already.

“Nope. She had no fever, so I figured it was just a virus. I let her sleep all weekend,” he said.

Not wanting to ruin her relaxed island vibe, Danielle didn’t press him further and instead took the girls back to her apartment on Beekman Place. Kimmie went straight to bed after her temperature was checked, not even feeling up to hearing one story from her mother’s trip or seeing what goodies her mother had returned with. Lolly stayed up with her mom, oohing and ahhing over her pictures, all the while wondering if perhaps this would be the year she’d be invited to travel with Steven’s family to their house in Maui for the Christmas holidays. After Lolly opened her gifts—a new bikini, a new bikini wrap, and two-hundred-dollar Swarovski crystal mermaid-blue Havaianas (to wear after pedis instead of the gross freebies they give out)—her mother inquired about Jaylen’s sweet sixteen last weekend to find out if there was a connection to Kimmie’s illness.

Lolly was no fool, as she knew she would be held responsible for any of her sister’s questionable behavior, so she wisely hinted at boy troubles being the cause of the state of Kimmie’s health. “She’ll get over it, but it’s the absolute worst timing ever. Valentine’s Day is Thursday.”

It was Thursday now and bad timing or not, Danielle knew she couldn’t keep her daughter absent for one day longer without a doctor’s note. “Kimmie, get dressed,” Danielle said, not looking up from her iPhone. “Dr. Becker’s office squeezed you in, so we can’t be late.”

“Do I have to?” Kimmie whined in return. “Can’t I see him tomorrow?”