Mia sat down at the kitchen table, but it felt empty with her brother in the hospital. Cancer ruined even the best meals, with lush red tomatoes stuffed with taboule egg salad that took mom two hours to make. Two hours. With Jake there, it would only take one, the two of them bustling around the kitchen, chopping the egg into small pieces, pulling the parsley into small pieces and stirring the salad together, mixing all the ingredients into a delicious salad. A delicious salad that would have taken half as long to make with two people. Now we have too much. Four stuffed tomatoes for three people. And by the time Jake got home, someone would have finished the last one. Probably Dad. I couldn’t even look at the tomatoes without thinking about the mediocre hospital food Jake was getting while sick. Dad had no problems, though. The tomato was food that needed to be finished. Not a reminder that his oldest child was stuck in a hospital with cancer slowly dragging him from his life and into a world of worry, statistics about his health, and fear that this time, leukemia would get the better of him. It was even worse with her arm broken. Sports, mainly basketball, was how Mia took her mind off of her worries. Spending energy running around with a ball instead of worrying about her brother left her feeling calmer, and after showering, left her feeling comfortable and ready to relax. However, most sports used her arms at some point, so all she could really do was jog around the neighborhood. And Mia didn’t like jogging alone. She tended to have negative thoughts without someone there to support her, or vice versa. Coaching someone else always pulled up her spirits while jogging. Often Mia coached her brother, always leaving him in the dust while he complained about the heat or water that was too cold to drink. Coaching Jake, Mia couldn’t even go a mile before he asked to turn back. They usually managed to get one mile in, because Mia always came back the long way. After their run, Mia preferred to take a shower and then eat, usually something with a lot of protein and vegetables. Jake, however, stuffed himself with the heaviest foods he could find. He said it was to replace the calories spent running, but Mia thought that Jake usually gained after each run instead of losing weight. That wasn’t a bad thing, though. Mia and Jake were both naturally slim, no matter what they ate. At dinner, Jake would stuff himself with food, and the next day wouldn’t have gained a pound.