Fever Pitch

Everyone gets fever at one point or another. It's a sign that your body's immune system is trying to fend off from anything harmful to the host body.

Mine's different. I realizd this back in highschool. My body temperature alerts me whenever an incident is about to escalate into a full-blown problem that gets everyone involved, they type that never gets easily fixed. Whenever an exam would go completely wrong - like missing papers or leakages, my temerature would be at 38 degrees Celsius. nothing serious, or so I thought. The day I found out just how high my innate system could go was during our school fair.
Cheerdancing was the main event. I was supposed to be taking a video of our class' s performance, but at the last hour I started vomiting and turning really red, red as an apple. Temperature was 40 degrees. I was rushed to the school clinic - our adviser promising to take my place for that event. 3 hours later and my fever gradually came down to 38 degrees. At  this I woke up to find my friends surrounding my bedside. Their anxious looks made my head swim. "What's up? What's going on?" "Fely, there was an accident. Ampy was doing the stunt we practiced for weeks, the one wherein she'd be thrown and caught by our classmates. Everything went well until that stunt. She fell off at an angle, her head and neck landing on Rommel and Noel's arms. Fely, she broke her neck from the impact. They rushed her to the hospital right after that phase."  Ampy died a week later from complications and major organ failure.

I never experienced regular fever like when you're sick from colds or flu. Always wehenever there's an impending peril.

So I'm staying at home trying to help granma make cake and cookies. One of my cousins came out and asked if I'd like to come with her to buy some additional ingredients. As I was heading out, grandma stopped me midstride. "Felicity, you're all bright red as a cherry! You running a fever?" Sure enough she complained that I was scalding hot. Concern came and I asked my cousin  - begged her to not drive out to town. She laughed and said she'd be careful. That was this morning  9am. It's now late, past 8:30pm. Everyone was worried. I couldn't get up from the mattress, what with my grandma hovering over me.

Someone knocked, and in peeped my sister Aileen. Her eyes were red with crying. " 'leen, what's wrong?" She rushed to grandma, and hugged her tightly.  Through sobs  she relayed how our cousin's car careened and turned at an intersection as she was trying to beat the light. Her corolla lost control as she ws trying to turn the corner. She died on impact. If I had joined her, I would have died on the spot with her as well. The car was totalled.

At her funeral, I felt myself getting warm. Taking the hint, I took my sister and grandma with me and we went home. It was due to the innate "warning system" that I was able to save them all from what became of the accident after the funeral. The van and pickup that our friends and family were in were caught in a freeway accident on their way to a relative's house. Many were severely injured.

As the fever came down, so did the realization. Pun intended or not, I must take heed to avoud getting *​​​​​​​burned.*