My newest story! :) I wrote it about a month ago but my editor failed to edit until today xP Slacker, just kidding. Thanks to Kelseythegrammarcop! Without you Dan wouldn't have existed in this chapter... xP I forgot about him for the whole second half... oops x) I am planning on seeing Next to Normal a 3rd time. Not sure when, but it will happen and I will meet the incredible Alice Ripley and this time I will remember to get a picture with Adam Chanler-Berat. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this! Please review 3 As Always -Greengirl16
They're the perfect loving family, so adoring.
It was true, the Goodman family was perfect. Natalie and Gabe attended Grandview High and they were worshipped. Gabe was on the football team and in the jazz band; he helped bring the music and sports department together. Most people in the school got along because of him. Natalie was incredibly talented in music; she was envied for her graceful piano playing. Gabe was a senior and Natalie was a junior. They were both top of their class and did well in every subject. Although they seemed to have no flaws, they didn't feel they were better than anyone. They were kind to everyone in the school and occasionally tutored younger students. Natalie gave free piano lessons on weekends.
Diana, their mother, was a football mom; she attended all the games and worked the stand. She was present at all of Natalie's concerts and helped out when any part of the music department needed volunteers. While keeping up with all of this, she still found time to work a full-time job with her husband, Dan. Dan and Diana owned their own architecture firm. They designed most of the housing developments in town. The houses were always beautiful and you were insane if you didn't want to live in a home built by the Goodmans.
It was an unusually cold September day. Natalie and Gabe were getting ready for school while Diana prepared lunches for them in the kitchen.
She put the sandwiches in brown paper bags and left them on the counter for her children and then went to get ready for work.
Natalie came downstairs sometime after Gabe had left. She got a ride everyday to school from her boyfriend of ten months, Mike. They were quite fond of each other, and Mike would do anything for Natalie.
There was a knock on the front door. Natalie knew it was Mike and went and grabbed her blue backpack. She answered the door.
"You ready to go?" Mike asked, kissing Natalie's cheek.
"Yup…oh wait, my lunch!" Natalie ran back into the kitchen and grabbed the brown paper bag with her name on it. "Bye Mom!" She called up the stairs.
"Bye sweetie! Have a good day!"
"Thanks!"
She shut the door behind her. Mike laced his arm around her waist and walked her to the car. He took her bag and flung it into the back seat after opening the passenger side door for her. He started up the car and they headed off to school.
"I have to practice piano this morning." Natalie said, heading to the practice room with the large stack of books she wouldn't let Mike carry for her.
"I'll come and watch."
"Okay, but you need to be quiet. I need to concentrate. I have recital coming up." She opened the practice room and froze in her tracks. A sweet jazz melody filled the room. Someone had taken her practice room today? That never happened! No one was ever in the practice room at seven thirty! The boy sat hunched over playing the piano and seemed to be pulling the music out of thin air. He looked up when Mike cleared his throat.
"Oh sorry!" He exclaimed, grabbing his bag.
"It's fine." Natalie responded.
"I am sure you want the practice room. I was…uh…done practicing anyways…so it's all yours." he mumbled awkwardly.
"Thanks."
The boy brushed past Mike and then left quickly, the click of the door behind him was the only sound in the silent room.
"What a dork." Mike said.
"He was sweet."
"And a dork."
Natalie rolled her eyes, pulled out her music, and started to play.
That afternoon, Natalie packed up her bags, hurrying to make the afternoon bus. Mike had work in the afternoon and couldn't drive her home. She didn't mind, but it really bothered him.
"Natalie!" She heard someone call out behind her. She turned and saw her brother approaching her.
"Hey."
"I have a game tonight, so I won't be back until late."
"I thought it was tomorrow...?"
"It got rescheduled. It's away now, tell mom for me, okay?"
"Yeah, sure."
"See you later." He turned with a wave, and walked away.
Natalie got out her iPod and scrolled through her music deciding on a song and hitting play. She sat down in one of the bus seats and stared out the window.
That night at dinner she remembered to inform her mother that Gabe had a game. She must have figured because she hadn't asked.
"What time will he be home?"
"He said late."
Diana sighed. "Teenagers."
Natalie rolled her eyes and her mother's exaggerated sigh.
Natalie finished her homework and called Mike, talking to him for almost three hours before hanging up. She heard someone downstairs and went to see who was still up.
Her mother was pacing the kitchen, periodically glancing at the clock.
"Mom? What are you still doing up?"
"Your brother hasn't gotten home yet."
"I'm sure he's fine. You should really get some sleep. Don't you have an interview tomorrow?"
"I think so." Diana mumbled, not acknowledging the question.
"Just think about getting some sleep okay?"
Diana nodded. Natalie went up to bed, exhausted, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. What seemed like only moments later, she woke up to the ringing of a phone.
There was silence. It was one in the morning. "Must have been a dream." She mumbled to herself, falling back asleep. A few minutes she was shaken awake by Diana.
She opened her eyes a crack and looked up at her mother.
"What?" She asked, cranky.
"Your brother is in the hospital. There's been an accident."
Natalie sprung out of bed and threw on the outfit she had worn previously that day. Diana sat in the car; Dan was silent sitting next to her. Natalie jumped in and they were already pulling away before Natalie closed her door. It was rainy and unusually dark night. They sped across town; Natalie watched the lights blur past. She hoped there weren't any police patrolling tonight, because at the speed her father was driving they'd definitely get a ticket.
They ran inside the hospital, looking around, in a daze.
Diana rushed up to the nurses' station. "My son, he was in an accident and he should be here."
"Name?" The nurse asked, unalarmed.
"Gabriel Goodman."
"He's in ICU. Third floor." The lady continued to type away at her computer, never once looking up.
The nurses on the third floor were a lot more helpful. They led the Goodman family to Gabe's room and let them sit, even though it was after hours and no more than 2 visitors were allowed in an ICU room at once. Gabe was hooked up to tubes. Cuts covered his once handsome face. It made Natalie sick looking at him. She adverted her gaze staring at exocentric pattern on the floor tiles instead.
"What happened?" She heard her father ask the nurse.
"I was told he was at a green light at an intersection and a driver was trying to rush their light and hit him. The car hit the driver's side, but no damage happened to the other man. He's at the police station having his blood tested for possible alcohol levels.
Natalie wanted to scream at the world. How could her father and the nurses be so calm? Her brother was hooked up to what seemed like hundreds of drips and machines monitoring his vital stats. One tube ran down his throat; Natalie knew it was a respirator. He couldn't even breathe on his own.
"I'll be back in a bit." The nurse said, she jotted something down on her clipboard and headed down the hall.
The Goodman family sat in silence. No one was sure what to say. They were all in a state of shock.
Natalie stared at the clock. It was now one thirty. Only been thirty minutes since she had received news her brother was in the hospital. It had felt like eternity.
Just then the machines started going ballistic. The beeps got louder and faster and nurses rushed in. "He going into cardiac arrest!" One of them shouted. Another one grabbed the dephibrilator. "Charging…clear." There was a loud beep as the machine shocked Gabe. Natalie felt like she was watching some medical show, but it was all too real.
"Charging…clear." The nurse said again.
Gabe's body jolted slightly off the hospital bed. The machines were still beeping wildly and then one stopped. One machine flat lined and a continuous mechanical sound filled the room. There was silence as all of the nurses and the doctor, who had arrived stared at each other. The doctor picked up his clip board. "Time of death, 1:38 a.m."
Diana sunk into her chair, burying her face in her hands. Dan wrapped his arms around his wife while she wept. Natalie curled up in the teal plastic covered armchair and sobbed.