I woke up with a massive headache, again, in a bed that I had never seen before. Immediately, I was wide awake. Where was I?
"Sammy!"
A voice sang out from just outside my door. Lady Lana's head popped in a few seconds later.
"Oh great, you're already awake. Time to get up, hon," she smiled and before I could get words to form in my mouth, her face disappeared and the door closed.
In a trance I peeled back my bedsheets and walked to a foreign closet. I needed to get ready and get down to the therapist's office. Quickly. Maybe that leprechaun of a human Patrick O'Leary was still there and could explain what the hell was going on. Was this some sort of sadist psychological experiment? An elaborate ploy to get inside my head and make me start appreciating my mother?
Whatever this was, I decided to play along right then. No way were they getting the satisfaction of my mental breakdown or something.
I chose the least regrettable out of the ridiculous, flashy outfits in 'my' new closet and started down the stairs. I entered the kitchen, where Lady Lana was standing with her back to me, tending to something on the stove.
She turned around as I sat down tentatively at the table. In her hands was a plate of pancakes and scrambled eggs. I didn't pay too much attention to them, assuming she had made them for herself, until she set the steaming dish down in front of me.
I looked up at her incredulously. "This is for me?"
She smiled and wrinkled her brow slightly. "For you," she repeated, as if she was confused why I would ask.
"Just to make Monday morning a little easier," she continued, settling down in her seat with a Greek yogurt. She took out a sleek phone and began typing on it.
I nodded in acceptance, pushing around the food on my plate. My mouth was watering. Slowly, I took a bite of a pancake. It was delicious, better than anything my mother had ever whipped up in the kitchen.
"Thanks," I mumbled.
Lady Lana had said it was Monday morning, I mentally reviewed. "So I have school today?" I asked.
Lady Lana checked her watch. "Yes, you do, hon. Oh! It's already 7:40. I need to be at the office in half an hour. You better hurry up and finish."
"It'll only take me fifteen minutes to walk there myself," I quickly lied, hoping that my guess was somewhat accurate. I needed her to get out of this house so that I could find the therapist building.
Lady Lana glanced at me sideways. "You're funny, Sammy. We're driving there like usual."
She pushed a strand of my hair behind her ear. "You wouldn't want to start walking. It's a dangerous way. All those homeless people and shady store owners. You wouldn't want to get caught up in that business, would you?"
She continued to stare at me, so I shook my head and lowered my eyes to my breakfast. She regressed back to her phone.
I picked up my backpack next to the door, walked out, and got into Lady Lana's Toyota Prius that I had never seen before. From there, the ride took seven minutes to arrive at Santa Martina High, looking thankfully exactly how I had remembered it. Old gum still littered the sidewalk leading up to the school's front gate, and a steady stream of students were walking in from all angles of the campus. I got out of the car and Lady Lana drove off, leaving me alone.
It occurred to me that I would have no way to get to the therapist's office from here. I looked toward the school, and decided to get a better gage of my surroundings by surviving a day in a place already familiar to me. I had no idea even if my classes were still the same. I stopped at a bench right in front and opened my backpack, searching for a clue as to what my schedule was like. School started in five minutes.
I pulled out my planner, where my schedule was printed out in neat handwriting. Sammy Keyes, junior. I breathed a sigh of relief; it was the exact same order of classes that I had previously. I gathered my bag and began to walk toward to my first period class, Spanish. I remembered that I shared that class with one of my best friends Dot DeVries. She would help me make sense of this all.
I entered and quickly scanned the room, searching for my softball teammate.
She was sitting in the back corner of the room, wearing a black sweater with the hood pulled up. She had used foundation to try and cover the identifying beauty mark on her cheek that had earned her the nickname Dot, but I could still see it faintly. I sat down next to her.
"The WEIRDEST thing is happening to me," I heaved. Dot stared back at me with a bewildered expression.
The expression didn't say, "Omg what is it, tell me more" like I was used to her doing. Her face more so begged the question, "Why the hell are you talking to me." I awkwardly turned back away from her to face the board.
"Okay, clase," Senora Rey said, moving to the front of the room, "get out your tarea and find a partner to correct it."
Hayley, a girl I knew of but never really talked to, plopped down in front of me. She casually threw her homework onto my desk to trade.
"Sorry, I'm with Dot," I told her.
Her eyes flew up to me, taken aback. At first, I think she thought I was joking. She stared at me, then looked at Dot, and then trailed back to focus on me again. "Ha ha," she said humorlessly, grabbing my paper anyway and switching it with hers.
Dot didn't have anyone to trade with her. I took Hayley's paper that was now on my desk and exchanged it with Dot's, so we were a three-way group.
Dot kept to herself, silently marking up Hayley's homework. Even after we traded back papers, she didn't say a word the entire class.
Soon, the bell rang, and Dot packed her stuff and slipped out of the classroom almost instantaneously. I was left for a few seconds staring at her empty desk.
I was walking out the door when Hayley caught up with me. She hit my shoulder with the back of her hand to slow me down. "Why'd you pair with Dot today?"
Because I like her 400 times more than you...? I thought, but I kept my mouth shut.
"Why wouldn't I?" I finally settled on articulating.
Hayley's brow wrinkled. "Because she acts like she hates every person on the planet, maybe? Because she has no friends? You've literally never talked to her before."
I shrugged.
Hayley sensed my distance. Just to assuage me, she said, "I guess it's cool that you're talking to her, though. Like, giving her a friend."
Her voice dropped, and she continued, "Honestly, I feel really bad. People are always making fun of her."
My stomach sank. Everyone had used to love Dot. "Really?"
Hayley rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Marissa and her little cronies are always snarking about her 'skin condition' or whatever."
My ears perked up. For the first time, Hayley had my full attention. "Marissa? Marissa who?"
Hayley regarded me strangely for the umpteenth time that day. "Marissa McKenze. The only Marissa on campus?"
Holy crap, I thought. My heart lurched as I thought about Marissa, my best friend (could I still call her that?) bullying my other friend. I needed to see her. Talk to her.
I was so busy thinking about where to find her that I didn't notice someone opening his bottom locker right in front of me. My left leg got too close and BANG, my knee scraped against the edge of the sharp grate.
"Shit," I jerked immediately, folding in at my waist to grab my joint. Half a second later, a freshman emerged from behind the locker door, muttering his sorry. Hayley stooped down next to me, inspecting my knee.
"Sammy, hold still, don't infect it! You're bleeding, here, let's go to the Health Room."
She put my arm around her shoulder and we limped toward the nurse's office.
"Jesus, are you okay?" Hayley asked as we walked. "You're all off in space today. How much sleep did you get last night?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I winced.
We made it to the Health Room, and Hayley sat me down in the chair. The bell rang, signaling the start of second period, but instead of going to class Hayley went up to the desk.
"My friend scraped her knee, could we have some Neosporin and a bandaid?"
The woman stood up slightly to examine me from over the desk. "Ouch, that looks painful. I'll let the nurse have a look in a second. Students aren't allowed to use our medicine themselves."
Hayley gave the woman a tight-lipped smile but didn't comment further. She walked back to me and plopped down in the seat next to me. The door opened next to us.
A boy, an upperclassman judging from his height and build, walked in with his back to us. My gut sensed a pang of recognition before my brain did. There was something about the kid's hair, his broad shoulders, his gait...
He approached the front desk. "Hi, I'm here to pick up meds."
The school had always made the students turn in any medication they used to the office. When the kids needed it, they had to come and take it under the supervision of the nurse, for health liability and whatnot.
"Sure. Name, please?" The receptionist clicked around on her computer.
"Acosta. Casey Acosta."
I inhaled sharply.
The receptionist retrieved a plastic bag from a locked cabinet. Unzipping the bag, she extracted a bottle of pills.
"Follow me," she said, and Casey followed her into one of the back rooms.
"What's Casey doing here?" I whispered to Hayley.
Hayley leaned closer, "Mary told me that he's, like, a manic depressive. He needs to take a hella number of pills every day for it, and then also for his anxiety I heard."
She shrugged. "He's co-captain of the football team, for Christ's sake, and so fucking privileged. How can he be sad when he has, like, everything he wants?"
I snapped, almost too quickly, "Just because he's co-captain of the football team doesn't mean he's not allowed to be sad."
"Well, obviously, but it still sucks, you know?"
Hayley looked at me strangely, but shrugged it off.
Even though my brain was warning me against it, my mouth continued talking, "You don't know anything about him. He could have a lot of shit he has to deal with at home, for all you know."
Her eyes widened as the words "Ooh, family issues. That could totally be it. Especially with his whore of a sister and all."
"Heather?" I repeated back, trying to egg her on. I knew Heather was bad, but whore sounded a little harsh.
"Yeah, I'm not even exaggerating. Krista hangs out with Heather all the time, and she told me that Heather slept with Leland Moss for like, weed or something."
What the hell? My eyebrows shot up and I gasped. This was radical, even for her. And I knew Casey's family situation was far from stable, but he was like a rock. Nothing could crack him. He never let himself be pushed over that ledge into darkness. Why now? What had changed here to make him like this?
The nurse finally came bustling out of the back room, a bandaid and antiseptic in her hand. Once Hayley noticed her, she hugged me goodbye and walked out toward her next class. The nurse located me across the reception room and walked over, inspecting my ripped skin.
Once she was done expertly patching me up, she stood up. "All right," she said, "you'll be good as new in a week. I'll get you your note to clear you back to class."
She scribbled something on a Post-It and then handed it to me. I tried to stall by tying my shoe just to wait for Casey, but even with my drawn-out attempts he wouldn't emerge from the back room.
I headed out the door, except I had no intention of walking to my next period. Disposing of my note in the nearest trash can, I raced down the hall to the front entrance of the school.
I pulled out Google Maps from the phone I kept in my back pocket (Lady Lana had apparently provided me with one). I typed in Smalls' Therapy Offices.
A/N: Hello everyone still faithfully checking this site! I have had the craziest summer and start of junior year - I can't believe it. I'm so exhausted all the time, oh my goodness, that I fall asleep before I can crank out these chapters on the weekend (so I apologize in advance for any typos or awkward syntax in this chapter)! It's weird; I had wayyyy more stamina for late nights in freshman and sophomore year than I do now. Where's that willpower that comes with age that I'm supposed to have? Gah.
Thanks for reading. You guys are the reason I have the motivation to get things done. How have you guys been, with school and other stuff lately? Let me knoww, I've missed writing for this community!
X,
DKMV