New Heights

Christine tucked the list of things that her mom wanted her to get in town, as well as the money she had given her, inside her worn out black book bag. She snatched her skateboard from behind her door, the recent paintjob that she had done making her smile. She had decided to make a tribute to the original board, the surf board. She painted in rolling waves on the bottom and blue and red hibiscus flowers on the top.

"I'll be back soon, mom, alright?" she called toward the kitchen as she stood at the front door.

"Alright, please be careful!"

Christine stepped out of the house and threw down her board, the thick rubber wheels making dull thuds on the ground when she did so. She placed her front foot down carefully on the board and pushed off with the other, steering along the curve in the walk and around Bill's car. She pushed herself a couple more paces once she was out in the street before she put both feet on the board and began to leisurely move from side to side, around parked cars and other kids out on the street. Some waved to her as she passes, smiling when she waved back.

She missed boarding as well, her mother had forbade her from doing it with the cast on so it was something that she had only just recently gotten into again. She was glad that she wasn't as rusty as she had feared she would be. Tipping her feet back carefully and using her body weight, she eased around a left turn into the town before straightening out again.

More people watched her as she glided past them, some of them continuing to wave to her. She almost missed the doctor's office when a group of guys called out to her and she was forced into a quick stop, her back foot coming down on the back curve of the board to snap it up into her hand. She quickly moved into the doctor's office, seeing that there were a couple of other people waiting there.

"Can I help you?" The woman behind the front desk asked, eyeing the skateboard wearily.

"I have an appointment at 4 with Mr. McIntosh," She said, holding out the slip of paper that her mother had given her. The woman took it and compared it with the schedule that she had in front of her, leaving Christine to look around herself in boredom.

"Alright, just take a seat and we'll call you up with he's ready for you," She said, handing the slip back to her. Christine nodded her thanks before moving over to take one of the unoccupied chairs in the waiting area. Most of the people there were elderly folk that were probably just there for check-ups, and most of which were eyeing her with unease. She was only waiting there for a couple of minutes before she heard her name called.

"Hello, Miss. Smalls, my name is Dr. McIntosh," The middle-aged man introduced as soon as she was in the small exam room that he had. He shook her good hand gently before continuing, "Let me just grab your file here while you take a seat on the exam table." Leaning her board up against the wall, she looked around the room uncomfortably. He had posters and models of hearts, lungs, reproductive systems, eye charts. Pretty much everything.

She sat down on the table, the familiar sound of the shifting leather and wrinkling paper making her wince. She couldn't wait for the day that she didn't need to listen to that sound anymore.

"Alright, a broken wrist," Dr. McIntosh said as he closed the door behind him and moved to sit on the stool beside the bed. She was taller than him when he saw down, making her feel even more abnormally tall than she already was. "Let's take a look, shall we?"

She held her mending wrist out to him, letting him remove the brace on his own. He placed the black material aside and began to message her wrist, pressing down on the bone gently before the pressure intensified. She flinched once and moved to draw her hand back when he pressed on a particularly tender spit.

"Sorry," he softly apologized, moving on to a different place. He rolled her wrist had had her flex her hand, pushing her hand forward to bend her wrist before repeating the movement backward. She told him when the pains were bad and when they were worse, allowing him to gauge her healing processes a bit better.

"Do I need to keep wearing the brace?" She finally asked, looking into his eyes.

"For a short while longer, I would definitely recommend you do. You are healing very well, there haven't been any complications, however, just to be on the safe side I would keep wearing it. In a couple more weeks, we'll arrange for another appointment and we can go from there. Alright?" She nodded her head reluctantly, getting a pat on the knee in sympathy.

"What about sports?" She asked a moment later, seeing him turn to face her from the corner of her eye.

"Well, you'll still have to wear the brace for a while longer if you want to get back into sports, especially baseball or soccer, when you'll need your hands." She nodded her head in understand and slipped down off the cot.

"Just give this to your mother to confirm that you came, alright?" he said, holding a note out to her. She nodded her head and slipped the piece of paper into her bag before she began to strap the brace back onto her wrist. He held her bag out to her while she picked up her skateboard, nodding her thanks before she quickly left the office.

The market wasn't too far so she just carried her skateboard with her good hand, pulling the list of things from her bag as she jogged across the street to the small market they had in town. She smiled to some of the workers as she made her way down the aisles, picking out snacks and ingredients that her mother had written down.

It only took her a half an hour to collect all of her things and pay for them, soon back on her skateboard with a bag full of food heading home. She ducked low to avoid setting sprayed by someone watering their lawn, skimming her good hand down along the pavement as she did so. The person called after her in annoyance, but she didn't look back.

She soon turned down her street, pushing with her left leg to gain more speed. She squinted her eyes against the sunlight so see that Scott was walking back with the boy from earlier that day and someone else. He seemed to be completely at ease with the two now, and she knew right then that he had successfully been able to catch and throw a ball. She highly doubted that it had been from Bill's teaching, however. She would bet all the money she had that it had been something to do with the boy that had come to get him that morning. He just seemed to type of guy that lived and breathed baseball to the point that he knew all the tricks to learning the trade.

She smiled to herself and kicked the ground again to gain speed, seeing the boy she didn't know move to the side to walk in a different direction. That was her opening. She easily flew past Scott on her board, her hand shooting out and stealing his hat clean from his head.

"Hey! Chris!" Scott yelled out in protest after her, beginning to run. She tried to put the hat on, but he had a much smaller head than she did.

"For someone with such a big brain you sure have a small head!" she called over her shoulder to him, seeing that he and the other boy were running after her. "Come on, shorty, faster!" She had just curved into the driveway when she felt Scott take hold of the strap of her bag and pulled her back, effectively stopping her forward momentum.

"Christine, be nice to your brother!" Bill yelled through the open window, making Christine laugh as she picked up her board, slamming her foot down on the back to bring it up so she didn't need to bend over. She put the hat back on her brother's head messily, making him grumble as he tried to fix it with one hand, the other still wearing her mitt.

"Smalls!" Scott looked over to where the boy was running over to their driveway, Christine turning as well out of curiosity. "Hey, bring a t-shirt and jeans tomorrow, alright, man?" He asked, keeping his voice low as he spoke with Scott.

"Oh, okay."

Christine smiled to herself, glad that Scott had finally made friends. All it took was for the right ones to come along and actually do something to help him out a bit. She outright laughed when the boy told Scott to throw his hat in the fireplace. The Sea Bass on the front probably wasn't doing much for his look, nor was the tucked in plaid shirt.

"Yea, well, it was the only one I had," Scott rambled, embarrassed under his sister's laugh and Benny's words.

"Not anymore," Benny said, pulled a blue hat out of his back pocket with a C on the front. "Wear my old hat." He turned to leave again, Scott frozen in place as he looked at the new hat that he had been given, pulling the old one off his head. Benny stopped before he got two feet, though, and turned to look at Christine. "Hey, Chris, right?"

She raised an eyebrow at him for a moment at the use of her nickname and not her full name. "Yea?"

"Got any doctor's appointments tomorrow?" Benny asked with a smirk, slamming one of his hands into the glove on his other to occupy himself. Chris laughed to herself quietly, feeling her cheeks warm in a blush at the open invite.

"Nope, not tomorrow."

"Then come over to the lot with us, you can see how well Smalls can play now," he offered for the second time. She looked over to Scott, seeing that he didn't seem to be offended by the idea of having his elder sister tag along when he went to play ball with the guys.

"Alright," she agreed, unable to stop smiling. "I'll come." Benny smiled in returned, nodding his head before he turned and jogged away, heading to his own house just a couple of doors down on the other side of the road.

The two Smalls kids shared a look before Scott took off running for the door, calling out to their mom to tell her the good news. Christine smiled and shook her head, unable to believe that he was actually twelve years old. She looked over to Benny's house, seeing that he was walking up the drive more slowly. She continued to shake her head before she turned to head inside, unable to pull off her smile. Tomorrow was going to be a very interesting day, of that she was sure.

"Christine, how'd you appointment go?" her mother asked once Scotty had finished going on about his day before he ran to go and shower before dinner. Christine had already put all of the things she had bought away and given her mother the note from the doctor.

"He said that I should keep the brace on for a while longer, just to be safe," she answered quietly. "He also said that I would need to wear it if I wanted to play sports in a couple of weeks."

"So you can start playing again soon, then?" There was so much hope in her mother's voice that Christine felt there was no way for her to turn her down. She simply pulled herself out of her seat and moved to the stairs, going up to her room. She picked up her board as she passed, not really wanting to talk with her mother about something that would never happen.

She passed Scott's room, glancing inside. He had her glove and Benny's hat sitting on his bed, placed their carefully before he went off the shower. She smiled to herself as she continued on to her room. Benny was definitely something else, and she looked forward to getting to know the new type of guy that she had been introduced to that day. She turned to head to her own room, leaving her mitt and the blue hat sitting on her brother's bed.

She tossed her empty bag down on her bed and moved over to her window, pulling her hair up into a ponytail as she did so. She looked out at the street from her window, seeing most kids running home to get there in time for dinner. Leaning out her open window to let the cooling air brush her skin, she looked over to where Benny lived, wondering what he was doing at the moment.

The placement of her window allowed her to slide out into the roof above the living room, giving her the chance to sit out in the open air with a direct link to her room. She slipped out onto the shingled roof, careful not to let her converse slip on the slanted surface. Looking back out over the houses around her own she found herself missing the space that they had back at their previous home, but also knew that it would be fun to experience everything anew again.

Pulling on the straps on her brace, she pulled it off her wrist and tossed it over her shoulder into her bedroom window, landing on the floor by her desk. She shifted around until she was lying on her back on the roof, looking up at her arm. There were marks left from the brace holding onto her arm so tightly, mingling around with the fresh scars from when her arm broke. The circular puncture wounds made her gut twist and she quickly lowered her arm from her view before she lost her lunch.

"Christine! Clean up for dinner!" her mother called through the door, knocking for further emphasis.

"I'll be down in a minute!" she called back, looking toward the window as she did so. Her mother must have walked away when she didn't hear her reply again, allowing her to have one more minute to herself. She sat up carefully, taking the weight easy on her injured right hand, and moved to stand and climb back through her window. She looked over across the street one more time, surprised to see Benny Rodriguez standing at the front entrance to his home. He was looking over in the direction of her house, causing her to pause. Should she acknowledge him?

Giving a short wave to him, she watched as he immediately lifted his hand to wave back. He was too far away for her to tell if he was smiling or not, but she assumed that he would have been. She carefully threw one leg over her window ledge and slipped back into her room, looking over the window one last time. He was still standing in the doorway to his house, looking over to their house.

"I might like this town after all."

Slipping down the hall to wash her hands before dinner quickly, she moved down the stairs to where she could already hear her mother, father and brother all sitting around the table already. Her mother smiled to her as soon as she stepped down from the stairs. Her mother pause when she saw that she wasn't wearing her brace.

"Christine, you need to wear your brace," she said with authority. Christine opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off with another order and look from her mother. She sighed loudly and turned to head back up the stairs to retrieve her brace from her bedroom floor.


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Thank all of you beautiful people for giving me some feedback on this story, it's very much appreciated. To show you my gratitude, I gave you this chapter!