If you don’t uand how friendship works or the importanaintaining them, this chapter may seem b and meanio you.

  From the beginning of this novel, I made it clear that the MC is a good persoral good, possibly b on chaotic good (for those who py DnD). Obviously, he's not Mother Teresa of Calcutta, but whenever possible, I will do my best to make him a likable character and someone respected by others. He will do good things without expeg anything iurn (no, not the "sigma" personality that pgues fanfics tely).

  The MC’s group of friends may not share many things with him, but to me, those are the best friendships. Sure, finding someone who shares your likes and dislikes is great too, but being friends with someone who is different from you in many ways, yet still being great friends, is a wonderful experience.

  If you don’t uand that, I feel sorry for you.

  By the way, I don’t know how "free periods" work in Ameri schools, so I hope we all just ighat part of this chapter as something pletely possible and not at all far from reality

  Enjoy.

  ---

  Having dropped Kat off at her house, I drove straight to the Kingman house, which, fortunately, wasn't too far from my friend's pce. Having the notes I’d taken in each css served as the perfect excuse to visit my friend.

  “PJ!” Mrs. Kingman excimed, pleasantly surprised as she pulled me into a tight hug after I knocked on the door.

  “Mrs. Kingman,” I said, slightly embarrassed by her rea, awkwardly patting her back. “I came t Brock today’s homework and my otes.” Once she let me go, I showed her the papers and tinued, “Do you think I could go see him?” I asked hopefully.

  “Oh, this is very kind of you,” she said, taking the papers from my hands and smiling sweetly. “I’m sorry, PJ, but I don’t think Joey wants to see anyht now. I hope you uand,” she added, tilting her head sadly.

  “Don’t worry, I uand,” I replied, quickly reassuring her with a disappointed smile. “Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll e baorrow with more notes.”

  “Please do,” she said gratefully, pressing her lips together, seemingly trying to stop tears from f in her eyes. “I’ll let Joey know you came by to visit.”

  “Thank you,” I said, nodding, as I said goodbye and walked bay car.

  The day tinued and ended normally, and as a feassed, I kept going to detention every day. After that, I would take Kat home, a trip we used to talk—not like before, but we were slowly getting there.

  There wasn’t much ge with Brock. Each day after dropping off Kat, I would bring him my otes and homework, hoping my friend would feel better and talk. Unfortunately, all I got from him were the assigs already pleted, along with an apology from his mother.

  The only thing that really ged in my routine was the addition of my 'unity service' at school. During most lunch breaks or free periods, I had to go to the infirmary to help the h whatever she needed.

  “Gdis, these medies are expired,” I excimed in disbelief during one of the free periods as I was anizing the infirmary drawers, part of my duties. I was increasingly worried as I saw several medications that had expired over a year ago.

  “Oh yeah, I fot to repce them; they’re in that locker,” said Nurse Gdis, an older woman with a strong smell of cigarettes and, oddly, raisins, as she absentmindedly filled out a small Sudoku book.

  “You fot?” I said incredulously, l my voice, knowing I’d have to speak much louder for her to hear me.

  It only took stepping into the infirmary on the first day to realize I’d be w hard to fix whatever the nurse hadn’t done. After a few minutes of meeting the elderly woman, I uood that list was much lohan I’d imagined. In no time, I had taken over almost all of her work.

  “I’m going to take a five-minute break,” she said, opening one of her desk drawers and pulling out what I was sure ack of cigarettes, before leaving the infirmary as fast as her weak knees would allow.

  “So, you’re just going to leave a teenager with the keys to the medie et pletely unsupervised?” I muttered to myself, amused, as I reahe ‘new’ boxes of medie. Judging by the amount of dust ihe locker, I was sure Gdis had fotten about them long before the old medications expired.

  While I was focused on effitly anizing the medies and thinking about beling them so Gdis wouldn’t fuse them iure, I heard the door open.

  “That was a quick cigarette,” I said again in a normal voice, knowing the woman wouldn’t hear me, turning around expeg to see Gdis.

  “Cigarette?” Kat asked, amused, instead, standing there in sportswear with two irls, one of whom had obviously injured her legs, specifically her knees.

  “Nothing,” I quickly respoo Kat. “e, lie down,” I added, ign my friend's smile as I approached to help guide the injured girl to the infirmary bed. “What were you doing?” I asked, studying the girl’s injury and hoping Gdis wouldn’t take too long to return, as teically, I wasn’t supposed to treat any of my cssmates.

  “We were training,” Kat answered, somewhat embarrassed, before the other two girls could respond.

  “Training?” I asked, fused. I didn’t remember any other sport at school besides football and cheerleading, and Kat had never mentioned being involved in anything.

  “We’re part of the school’s girls' soccer team,” the irl apanying Kat responded eically, smiling widely at me and fluttering her eyeshes exaggeratedly.

  “OK…” I said slowly, ign the growing chills the eic girl was giving me. “I didn’t know the school had a girls' soccer team,” I admitted, embarrassed, to Kat, who snorted in disbelief.

  “her does anyone else. I don’t think even Mr. Lundy knows there’s a team, ahe teacher in charge,” my friend said sarcastically.

  “Mr. Lundy? The theater teacher?” I asked incredulously, both amused and surprised, receiving a disappointed nod from Kat.

  “Mr. Lundy knows about the team. He stantly asks me how training is going,” the eic girl, Lindsey, said, frowning and slightly a Kat.

  “Oh, please, Lindsey, we don’t even have a full team; we’re ten pyers,” Kat said, rolling her eyes in exasperation, which started a small argumeweewo about Kat’s pessimistic attitude and how it affected the team.

  I couldn’t help but ugh, which visibly made the two girls in front of me blush and stop their argument. “Why haven’t I ever been io watch a game?” I quickly asked, trying to avoid Kat getting upset over my ughter.

  “Games? What games?” Kat asked sarcastically, making Lindsey anxiously hit her arm.

  “Of course, you’re io watch all the games,” Lindsey said eagerly, once again smiling exaggeratedly and fluttering her eyeshes.

  “Thanks, Lindsey,” I said, feeling a bit awkward about her rapid eyesh fluttering. “Oh, sorry, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m PJ Dun,” I quickly added, realizing I hadn’t done anything but ask questions during the eera.

  “I know,” Lindsey said dreamily, taking my hand in a surprisingly strong grip.

  “Right,” I said, gently pulling my hand from her grasp, turning to the injured girl on the bed, who was much calmer, now that she wasn’t putting pressure on her hurt knee.

  “Madelihe girl on the bed said, strangely embarrassed, also accepting my hand in a thankfully more normal handshake.

  “Well, Madeli looks like Nurse Gdis is a bit busy. Do you mind if I take care of this? I’m just going to it up and apply some medie. For that, I’ll have to touch y,” I said seriously, cheg my watch.

  It might be an awkward situation having to touch her leg to... “Absolutely!” Madeline responded immediately, excitedly. “I mean, sure, go for it, thanks,” she tinued, calming down, embarrassed, as she made a small grimace of pain when moving her leg.

  “Good,” I said, a bit surprised by her immediate respoaking a few seds to readjust my thoughts as I prepared everything I’d o the wound.

  “How did you hurt yourself? How did you fall?” I asked calmly, washing my hands at the small infirmary sink.

  “I tripped while running,” Madeline responded, clearly embarrassed.

  “On your own?” I asked seriously as I took a seat o the bed.

  “Yes,” Madeline answered, sending an annoyed look at the other two girls who were teasing her.

  “Do you trip on your own often?” I asked seriously, cheg her eyes for any signs of injury.

  “No,” the girl responded nervously, avoiding eye tact.

  “Good,” I nodded, stepping back. Maybe w with House had made me a bit paranoid. An actal fall was sometimes just that—an act. “This will sting a little,” I said, using the only kidray Gdis had as I started rubbing some soap and water on the edge of the wound.

  “Aren’t you going to use alcohol to disi?” Madeline asked, surprised, wing in pain.

  “No, that’s a bad habit,” I said calmly, making sure to the wound thhly. “Although alcohol does have antimicrobial properties, it also damages healthy cells that are trying to repair the tissues,” I expined as I finished ing the wound and prepared to disi it.

  When I finished my expnation, I was so focused on properly treating Madeline's wound that I didn’t notice the room had fallen pletely silent.

  Sihe injuries were on her khey were more proo getting irritated and dirty again, so I decided to apply a dressing and bandage. “Sorry,” I said as I carefully lifted Madeline’s leg to pass the bandages correctly, doing the same with the other knee, and g my hands in satisfa when I was done.

  “You’ll o ge the dressing daily for a few days until it heals, then you leave it uncovered,” I told her while ing up the trash from the bandage ers and throwing them away.

  Receiving no response, I noticed the awkward silend looked at the girls, who were staring at me ily.

  “What?” I asked nervously.

  “No-nothing,” Kat quickly replied as her friends only nodded in agreement.

  “ you ge my bandages?” Madeline asked slowly. “Are you going to be here for more days?” she added quickly, now embarrassed.

  “I have to be here for at least two weeks, so yes, I’ll be here until week,” I expined while washing my hands. “But I’m sure Nurse Gdis will be around during those days,” I tinued, and just then, the nurse’s door opened again.

  “Oh, what do we have here?” Gdis, walking hunched over and reeking of cigarette smoke, asked slowly as she ehe room and put on her gsses with shaky hands.

  “Knee ceration. I ed it and applied dressings and bandages,” I said quickly, almost by habit, loud enough for her to hear. She nodded slowly.

  “You did? Good, good,” she said, smiling, clearly pleased as she hobbled to her desk, took a seat with her shaky knees, and opened her small Sudoku book, visibly relieved that she didn’t have to do her job.

  Amused by the elderly woman, pletely focused on her little book, Kat and her friends seemed to remember where they were and the time. “Is there anything else Madeline o know?” Kat asked after looking at the clo the wall.

  “No, yood to go,” I smiled at the girls.

  “Well, thanks,” Madeline said, blushing, as she was helped to her feet by Kat and Lindsey.

  “I’ll see you ter,” Kat said, pausing for a moment at the infirmary door.

  “Sure,” I replied, smiling at my friend as they walked down the hall.

  “There’s nothing sexier than a man who knows what he’s talking about, no matter the topic,” Gdis said pyfully, not taking her eyes off her Sudoku book.

  “Wha…” I mumbled, deeply unfortable, and quickly got back to work, pretending I hadn’t heard her words.

  The day tinued, like every other, ending with detention with Mr. Givens. I fihe day’s assigs with Kat, who now sat beside me.

  “So, soccer?” I teased her as we left school, walking towards my car.

  “Shut up,” Kat grumbled.

  “Oh, e on, why didn’t you ever tell me?” I pressed, still amused, as I opehe passenger door.

  “It’s just practice. You don’t go around telling everyohat you train to be some sort of Rambo,” Kat said sarcastically. “Well, everyone knows it by now,” she added pyfully, rummaging through the CDs in the glove partment as she usually did.

  “Yeah… well, I told my friends,” I said sarcastically, ign her teasing.

  “Oh, don’t py that card,” Kat said, offended, hitting my shoulder.

  “It’s my card, and I’ll py it whenever I want,” I said, ughing as I shielded myself from her pyful punches.

  “Ugh, you’re unbearable,” Kat excimed, banging her head against the seat. “I don’t know, it’s just soccer, and we’re in Texas,” she said, throwing her hands up. “It’s just a sport.”

  “I get that,” I replied, still amused, “but it’d be fun to cheer you on, you know, yell ‘Goal!’ and all that,” I teased.

  “Goal,” Kat said, rolling her eyes in exasperation, though she couldn’t help but smile. “Even if I wao invite you to these ‘matches’ you thi, I assure you, there are none,” she decred, sighing.

  “Why not?” I asked, genuinely curious. “Are there no other schools with girls' soccer teams?” As I asked, I realized it was quite possible there weren’t.

  “Yeah, there’s a small league with nearby towns,” Kat responded, sounding disappointed, which surprised me—I hadn’t expected that answer.

  “Then?” I asked, incredulous. “Why don’t you guys participate?” I pressed further.

  “We’re not a full team,” Kat expined.

  “Oh yeah, ten pyers, and you need eleven,” I said, trying not to ugh. “Why not ask for new members? I never heard about the soccer team, so I’m sure plenty of others haveher.”

  “Oh, please, PJ, tell me the st time you found out about something without An or someone else having to tell you,” Kat decred sarcastically.

  “Hey, that’s hurtful… somehow,” I said, feigning offense.

  “There’s been a flyer oice board sihe beginning of the school year,” Kat said ironically.

  “Notice board?” I mumbled to myself, fused.

  “Exactly!” Kat excimed, clearly hearing me.

  “We should try finding one more member for your team. I bet there’s someone who wants to py,” I said seriously.

  “Oh, I’m sure if you ask, every girl will want to join,” Kat muttered irritably, rolling her eyes as she turned up the music.

  “Yeah, sure,” I said sarcastically, amused that Kat thought that way. I didn’t want to be arrogant, but it was quite possible she was just talking out of jealousy.

  Soon after, we arrived at Kat’s house, where I dropped her off. As had bee routine, I drove to the Kingman’s house once again, but unfortunately, Mrs. Kingman once again apologized at the door, saying Brock still didn’t want to see anyone.

  At the gym, surprisingly, more people had signed up over the past couple of days. “Three more people?” I asked Tim, who was in charge when I wasn’t around, by Case’s orders.

  “Yeah, we really o create a schedule or expand. If we keep growing, there won’t be enough spa the gym soon,” Tim said seriously beside me.

  Tim was right. At that moment, there were more people than there was equipment. Luckily, Case also noticed the problem and was supervising a line of people practig shadowboxing.

  “We o expand. We might have to close for a few days,” I nodded, remembering the extra spa the back where the ring was ‘stored.’

  With so many new sign-ups, the gym had made a det amount of money, possibly enough to hire a tractor to do the work.

  “What’s the pn for the space?” Case asked from behind us, clearly having finished giving instrus to the ts. “We ’t just turn people away. That would be a stupid idea for the business,” he tinued, crossing his arms and watg the people train.

  I wasn’t sure if Case would ever admit it, but there were times I could see a certain pride in his eyes when he looked at the gym and the people training inside.

  “I agree. I think it’s time to hire someoo knock down that wall,” I said, pointing to the back wall.

  “Yeah, that would open up a lot more space,” Case agreed. “Do we have enough?” he asked seriously, pointing at the registration book.

  “I think we manage,” I hough I wasirely sure since I didn’t know how much tractors typically charged.

  “Good,” Case said calmly, nodding. “Start warming up. Today, we’re doing physical training,” he said, g his hands to signal the others to ge their exercises.

  The day at sy day started normally... for the first two periods. After lun the cafeteria with Geie and David, I slowly made my way to the nurse’s office. Thankfully, the halls were much quieter, and after three days, I wasn’t getting as many stares as I had on Monday.

  “Gdis, Gdis, Gdis!” I shouted in upoering the nurse’s office. The elderly woman was slumped in her chair with her Sudoku book c her face, seemingly asleep. But by the third shout, wheill hadn’t moved, I quickly approached to check her pulse.

  “What?” Gdis suddenly woke up, moving faster than I’d ever seen her move, and threw her little book aside in surprise.

  “You were telling me about your husband,” I said with a smile, taking a seat in one of the empty chairs.

  “Oh yeah, Marcus was a milkman. Back then, people bought milk at their doorsteps, not in stores like today,” she begaory. I had discovered that she always ged the story no matter what I asked. Last time, he was a mailman.

  "Oh look at that, it's that time of the day," Gdis suddenly said as she g her tiny watch while listening to the iing, possibly made-up, story about her husband's adventures. I seriously doubted the watch even worked.

  "Don't wdis, I'll be here watg over the medies, even the incredibly addictive ones, which still surprise me for being in a school," I said at normal volume, smiling at her. Squinting her eyes from the ck of gsses, she smiled calmly.

  "I'm going to take a quick break," she said, grabbing her pack of cigarettes while getting up and walking out of the nurse's office.

  "Sure, go rex," I said pyfully, loud enough for her to hear, as if I hadn't caught her napping when I arrived earlier.

  Spinning in the old nurse's office chair, I checked to see if there was anything missing from the wdis hadn't done. Ihan three days, what initially seemed like an endless list of tasks had bee a totally manageable school infirmary.

  "Hey," suddenly, a voice from the door startled me, interrupting my proud iion of my work in the room.

  "Hey, Madeline," I said, standing up with a smile. "How's your knee?" I asked.

  "It still hurts a little," she replied, smiling, "but I think the medie helped."

  "Good, good," I nodded. "Are you here to ge your bandages?" I asked.

  "Yeah," she responded excitedly, "I mean, yes," she quickly corrected herself, calming her excitement.

  "Okay, you came at a bad time. Gdis just stepped out for a break," I said, Madelihe infirmary bed to sit on as I settled ba the old chair.

  "Oh, really?" Madeline asked, with an oddly exaggerated tone of disappoi. "That's too bad," she added, slightly l her head. "I don't suppose you could do it again?" she asked eagerly, snapping her head up like a spring before I could say anything.

  "Well..." I slowly checked my watch. "I mean, sure," I nodded, tinuing, thinking about the awkward wait until Gdis would return.

  "Great!" Madeline said, noddiedly with a big smile. "Thanks," she added, quickly calming her nerves again, more seriously this time.

  "Alright, yeah," I stood up, grabbing everything I o do the same thing I had dohe day before. I watched as she nervously settled onto the bed. For some strange reason, this felt wrong. "Okay, let's see," I said slowly as I removed the poorly applied bandages from her knees. "Did you wash it?"

  "Oh yeah, I remembered how you did it while I was taking a bath," she replied, embarrassed.

  "Good," I said, focused on ing her wounds to ge her bandages. "The important thing is not to wash the wound directly, but around it, letting the soapy water flow over the wound. Got that?" I asked, showing her slowly how to do it.

  "Yeah," she nodded slowly, her eyes wide open, clearly lost in thought.

  "Great," I said quickly, finishing ing the wound again and applying fresh bandages, all the while avoiding eye tact with her. "That's it," I said, standing up swiftly after finishing "my job."

  "Thanks," Madeline said weakly, still sitting on the infirmary bed.

  "No problem at all," I replied calmly, nodding while putting away the things I had used.

  "Are you free this Saturday?" Madeline asked suddenly, sounding nervous while I ed the old infirmary equipment.

  "Wha—" I was about to reply, but she quickly cut me off again.

  "I know you have that hospital thing—I mean, everyone knows you work at the hospital with doctors," she said hurriedly.

  "Oh, uhm, I'm sorry, Madeline, I'm—" I tried to expin that I was grounded and that I definitely wouldn't have a 'free' weekend for a couple of weeks.

  "Oh, just fet I said anything, please," she interrupted me once more, clearly embarrassed, before rushing out of the infirmary, seemingly ign her knee injuries entirely.

  Other than Madeline, nobody really visited the infirmary on a regur day. After lunch, I returo css, leaving Gdis alone in the room once more. Seeiired face, I was sure she'd be asleep again in no time.

  The day passed, and once again, I found myself outside the Kingman house, waiting for someoo open the door. "Mister—Kingman," I started to say, having growo the ening the door, but I quickly stopped myself when I found Mr. Kingman at the door instead.

  "Son!" he said with a wide smile, patting me on the shoulder.

  "I came to drop off my notes for Brock," I said, smiling back at the incredibly muscur man as I handed him the sheets of notes I had taken.

  "Oh yeah, my wife told me you’ve been doing this for Joey. I ’t tell you how much I appreciate it," he said, nodding seriously as he spped the notes against his hand before pg them on a small table ihe door.

  "It's nothing, really. He's my friend, after all," I said, feeling a bit embarrassed by the man's seriousness.

  "That's right," Mr. Kingman said softly, with a slight smile.

  "Yeah... is Broe? Think I could see him?" I asked, hopeful as usual after a feard seds of silen the Kingman porch.

  "He's actually not home," Mr. Kingman said, smiling with apparent relief. "He finally decided to leave his room, and he’s at a gym!" he added, clearly excited.

  "Gym?" I asked, ed. It was very possible that, given his current mood, my friend could hurt himself by suddenly deg to work out. I hoped he was being smart about it and not overdoing it.

  "Yeah, today he just suddenly got motivated to exercise. I bet he'll be back at school in no time," the man said, nodding with relief.

  "I really hope so," I replied, smiling back at him. "So, do you think he's ready to see me?" I asked.

  "I don’t know, son. I'm sorry," he said, his smile fading for a moment. "This is definitely a step forward, but I don't know how he feels about seeing anyht now," he said slowly. "I don't want to push him."

  Surprisingly, Mr. Kingmae his tough exterior, had a good uanding of his soions and knew where the limits were in terms of what to impose.

  "I uand," I said, nodding again, feeling a bit disappointed.

  "I'll talk to him," the man said seriously. "I 't promise anything, but I'll try to vince him," he added, patting my shoulder once more.

  "That sounds great, thanks," I said, nodding in appreciation.

  "Son, you came at the perfect time. If you had been a mier, no one would have beeo open the door," Mr. Kingman said, cheg his watch. "I have to go, but if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, alright?" he said, patting my shoulder again as he leaned down to grab what looked like a toolbox.

  "Sure, thanks, Mr. Kingman," I replied.

  "I mean it, son. You're practically part of the family now," he said seriously as we stepped off the front porch together, his hand still on my shoulder.

  "I'll keep that in mind," I said, smiling gratefully.

  "Great," Mr. Kingman said, patting my shoulder o time before walking over to a truck I had never seen parked at the house before. I guessed he was always w whenever I visited in the past.

  On the side of his truck, iters, like Bob's advertisement, there icture of him wearing a stru helmet, along with his taumber.

  "Rocky's tractors," I read in disbelief. "No way. What are the odds?" I murmured. "Mr. Kingman! Do you have a tact card?"

  With Mr. Kingman's card in hand, that night I let Tim arrange for him to visit the gym and provide aimate for how much it would cost to expand the back of the pce. I wouldn’t take advantage of him—it was, after all, his job.

  The day at lun the school infirmary, Gdis was telling me a fantastic story about how she had once appeared in a movie during her youth when it was time for her cigarette break.

  "I wonder how many cigarettes she smokes on her 'break'," I muttered as Gdis walked out of the room, leaving me alone as I spun in one of the chairs.

  "I twisted my ankle, you help me?" someone suddenly asked, out of breath at the infirmary door, startling me so much I almost fell out of the chair.

  Turning quickly, I found myself fag a girl I had never seen before. She was obviously flustered, slightly blushing as if she had just run to get there.

  "You twisted your ankle?" I asked, standing up and smiling at her, notig that she didn’t seem to have any trouble putti oher of her feet.

  "Oh yeah, it hurts really bad," the girl said quickly, notig her 'mistake' as she shifted her weight to one foot, pretending to be in pain when she moved the other.

  "Right," I muttered, puzzled. "Take a seat, the nurse won’t be long," I said, smiling as I poio the bed. A 'twisted ankle' could wait fdis.

  "'t you do something?" she asked, biting her lip as if to avoid smiling. "Maybe a massage?" she added weakly, lifting her foot as she sat on the bed.

  What's going on?

  "It hurts a lot," the girl said as she took off her shoe and sock, pressing her foot, which showed no signs of trauma.

  "You know what, sure," I said, cheg my watd slowly walking over to the bed. "Tell me, what's your name?" I asked, pg my hand on her ankle and leaning in closer.

  "Susan," she replied weakly, staring directly into my eyes.

  "Susaiful name," I said, smiling as I gently pressed her ankle. "It’s a name associated with purity ay, if I remember correctly," I tinued, almost whispering. I recalled reading that somewhere.

  "Yeah," Susan murmured, pletely lost in my words.

  I couldn’t believe this was actually w.

  "Now, Susan, why did you lie?" I asked calmly, standing up and stepping back.

  "What?" Susan asked, as if snapping out of a trance.

  "Yes, I ressing your ankle a moment ago and moving it around. You have a healthy range of motion, so there’s no sprain—not even a grade one," I expined, washing my hands and smiling at her as she looked at me with wide eyes.

  "I don’t know what you’re talking about," she quickly said, clearly embarrassed and avoiding eye tact.

  "I think you do. Shortly after Gdis went out for her break, you came running into the nurse's office, g you had a sprained ankle," I said calmly, sitting ba the chair I had just left. "What I don’t uand is why. Did you want a massage?" I asked, amused.

  "We heard you were here," she admitted slowly, having been caught in her lie.

  "We?" I muttered, notig how Susan's eyes widened in surprise, as if she had let something slip. She quickly goward the door of the nurse's office before looking back at me. That was enough for me.

  Walking to the dn her worried expression, I stepped outside and found seven irls standing around, pretending to be busy as soon as they saw me.

  "Sprained ankles?" I asked incredulously, receiving a few nods in response.

  Ba the nurse's office, Susan had already put her shoes ba and was sitting on the edge of the bed, clearly embarrassed.

  Madeline? No, she's probably still too embarrassed about my 'reje.' Kat? Definitely not. "So, Liold you I was in here giving out free massages?" I asked, crossing my arms. Susan frowned, surprised. Got it.

  "It was totally worth it," Susan said arrogantly, fetting her embarrassment now that she had been caught.

  Teenage girls are terrifying.

  "I'm gd for you," I said, uo help but ugh.

  "Thanks. This won't happen again, right?" Susan asked, biting her lip as she stood up.

  "No," I replied, still amused. "And please, don’t hurt yourselves on purpose," I added, seeing the slight disappoi in her eyes.

  "You're cute, but not that cute," she said, smiling while still biting the er of her lip as she walked toward the door.

  "Wait," I said quickly before she could open the door.

  "Yeah?" she asked, stopping.

  "Are you part of the girls' soccer team?" I asked slowly, recalling my versation with Kat. It couldn’t be true, right?

  "No, why?" she shook her head slowly.

  "You should join. You have excellent legs for it," I said seriously, despite being pletely embarrassed by the words ing out of my mouth.

  "Sure, why not," she replied casually, smiling once more before leaving the room.

  "I ’t believe it," I muttered, putting my hand to my forehead. "Kat was right."

  Thankfully, Susan must have said something to the girls waiting outside, because after her, no one else came in with a ‘sprained ankle.’

  Sihe period after lunch was free, I stayed in the nurse's office.

  "So, my husband, who olice officer back then, got shot in the shoulder," Gdis was telling me one of her stories when the nurse’s office door suddenly burst open. A boy, panting and obviously worried, stood there. "We don’t know what's wrong with him," he said, stepping aside to let two other cssmates carry in a third, who was sweating profusely and seemed to be having some kind of seizure.

  ---

  Author Thoughts:

  As always, I'm not Ameri, not a doctor, and not a fighter.

  With that said,

  I think that's all. As always, if you find any errors, please let me know, and I'll correct them immediately.

  Thank you for reading! :D

  PS: PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW.