01 Seattle, Washington, October 26, 2052 Hrs, (0452Z)

Seattle, Washington, October 26, 2052 Hrs, (0452Z)

"Samantha, Michelle, dinners done" Rebecca Oldham said aloud. Her voice wasn't any louder than normal, but she knew that they would get the message as her watch was turning it into text. "Send." A few seconds later she heard the pair of them coming down to the kitchen. Michelle came from the front of the house, where her office was. She was out in the field more than she was in the actual office, using her home office as a home base of sorts.

"It smells good, what are we having?" Samantha said, walking in behind Michelle. Her blond hair was pulled up in a ponytail and her soft features framed by the pink frames of her glasses. Rebecca noted that the teenager was using her cane. The cane was only used when she was having a flare up.

"Spaghetti," Rebecca grabbed bowls out of the cabinet they were in and sat them on the counter. "How much salt have you had today and do you want your normal amount?"

"Uh, I'm right around 2000 and yes, please." Samantha sat at the table, collapsing the cane and placing it behind her in the chair.

"What do you want to drink?" Rebecca sat the bowl down in front of Samantha, who picked up a cheese grater and started loading her food with Parmesan.

"Gatorade, please." She stopped grinding and shook the grater. Michelle sat down and added the second little block of cheese that was sitting there to the grater. This wasn't uncommon any more. Ever since her diagnosis a month earlier, Gatorade had become a staple in the house. "Fruit punch, please."

Rebecca pulled the Gatorade out of the fridge and carried it over to the table, placing the bottle in front of Samantha, who opened it. "How much water have you had today?"

"Not enough..." Samantha replied taking a bite of her spaghetti. "Maybe a liter and a half..." Her doctor wanted her to drink at least three liters of water a day, supplemented with drinks to replenish electrolytes. Rebecca walked over and sat down at the table sitting her bowl down and starting to eat. "I still have homework I need to work on, I spent some time in the nurses office today." Samantha had a medical exemption due to the fact that she had an issue with an orthostatic intolerance that resulted in her sometimes fainting when she stood up. "I almost went down today in math class..."

Michelle and Rebecca shared a look. "Why are we just now finding this out" Michelle asked, more concern in her voice than anything. There had been a fight with the school as they had proclaimed nothing except for water in clear water bottles could be in classrooms. That was to to say nothing of the fact that the teenager had both her watch and her phone on her at all times. After notes from the Doctor stating that the watch and the phone were to be considered medical devices and explanation of the liability of the school district should something happen and Samantha were to be injured.

"Because nothing happened," Samantha shrugged. Sometimes she was hyper-vigilant about taking care of herself, other times she was blaise about it. "I just missed a study hall." She normally would do school work in study hall, but if she had to miss something, study hall was the best thing to miss. "I didn't go down, I just got very light headed and wanted to check my blood pressure. It was eighty five over seventy. She wanted me to just relax for a period and check my pressure again and it was high enough that she let me go to class." That had been one of the things in the notes from the doctor: if Samantha needed to go to the nurses office, nothing stood in her way.

"So, out of curiosity, since Friday is an in-service day for the school district, Do you two want to go camping this weekend?" Something that the family owned was a custom built Sprinter that had been converted into a camper, complete with a toilet and running water. They often used it for weekend trips, but it was also set up to be able to run communications out of. Everyone in the family held amateur radio licenses, and were all part of the radio team at the State EMA where Michelle worked. Michelle was ineligible for running the radio room as she was an employee of the state and would have other tasks that she would need to be doing during an activation.

"Sounds good to me," Rebecca said. It had been a month or two since they had gone out camping. "Where were you planning on going?"

"Depends on if you want to go to a camp site or go out into the land owned by the Bureau of Land Management..." Michelle said. The advantage of going out into the lands owned by the Bureau of Land Management was that there would be no cost to camp, but they would have no amenities; if they went to one of the camp sites run by the state, they could have some amenities like AC hookups and, because Michelle worked for the state, she got a discount to camp in the state parks.

"Either one works for me." Rebecca said. "Any preference, Samantha?"

"I'd be okay with either..." Samantha said. "I have an essay that I've been doing research for in English. First draft is due at the end of next week, so I'll be bringing my laptop and working on that..." That was not uncommon for the student in the family. She was a Junior at Lincoln High School and she seemed to always be working on research papers or math problems.

"Okay, I'll figure something out for where we're going tomorrow. Samantha, On Friday why don't you start prepping the van and get the tanks filled up, check the fluids, etc."

"I can do that..." Samantha said. "May I please be excused?"

"You may." Michelle said. One of the foster homes that the girl had been in had really drilled manners into the girl. Michelle and Rebecca had adopted the girl two years before after fostering her. That was a decision that had made their lives complete and neither one of them had regretted it. "Tomorrow, one of us can take Samantha and have her drive to the grocery store to get food for the trip this weekend..."

"It'll probably be me..." Rebecca replied, getting up and putting her bowl in the dishwasher. "I'm working seven to three tomorrow. I'll take her as I get home and then we can get everything ready.

"Sounds good," Michelle said, placing her bowl and the pans into the dishwasher and starting it.