Two.
Two days infection free.
Before that it was 75 days. Sadly, HA holds the record for most days without an infection. Don't get me wrong, 75 days is pretty decent, but most schools in California bottom out at 42. That makes us a desirable school, so people then transfer, but do to the fact that their less educated I guess, people get infected and our streak ends.
We just had four new students transfer last week, so I guess we know what happened.
"You ok?" I hear from behind me.
"Yeah, it's just hard to think that this happened a few classrooms over." I say staring at the big "2" on the white board in the hall.
"Well, that's why they're all sound proof. We don't know if it happens until they change the number and I'm kind of ok with that." Cat says coming to stand next to me.
"I know, I am too. It's just sad to think about." I sigh.
"Sometimes I pray for them before I go to bed." She says quietly. I look over at her kind of surprised. "I pray that they're ok, I pray for their families, and I pray that they'll come back." She finishes.
"I.. didn't know you were so religious…" I trail off.
"I'm not. Praying is praying. I never did it till I lost my mom and to be honest, I think it's kept everyone I care about safe. So why not? It kept you safe." She says.
So I may or may not be blushing so hard right now.
"Well thanks… I like you too" I say.
"You… what?" She asks furring her brows.
"I meant I care about you too! I like that you care and I like you to like me and… how far do you think I have to backpedal to get out of this?" I ask.
"You should just get off the bike." I hear Jade say as she stands by Cat.
"Yeah…" I nod.
"Do you know who it was?" Jades asks.
"One of the new kids. Apparently he had been showing signs and his parents thought if they transferred him here, they would stop." I answer.
"Dumbasses," Jade mutters. "They put their uneducated kid in this school and expect them to just be fixed. They make us look bad because their kid half assed their hazard classes."
"It's not like endangering us Jade…" I try to defend.
"Bullshit." She spits glaring at the whiteboard. "Think about all those students who had to see the change. Some of them were freshmen, they weren't nearly prepared to see that. Every time we get a new transfer, we all know it's like a time bomb, it's a nightmare just waiting to happen. We always ending paying for someone else's mistakes." She says as she walks off.
Well said I guess.
"She said bad words" Cat squeaks.
"Within reason. She's actually seen someone at the moment of infection. She saw the nightmare and had to live through it." I say.
I'm not sure I would ever be able to handle it. No matter how much I learn about taking precautions or about what to expect, I'll never be ready to see it happen.
"I pray for her too." Cat says quietly.
"Good." I sigh. "I think out of everyone, Jade needs it the most."
…. …. ….. …. …. ….. …. ….. …
"What do you think their thinking about?"
"I don't know, maybe the same thing we are?"
"They're wondering what we're thinking?"
"It would make sense right? We're just as foreign to them as they are to us." I tell Andre.
We're currently in the Asphalt Café watching a few infected jocks kick a soccer ball around. Andre and I stopped to watch before heading to our table.
"I guess you're right. It's just weird to think about." Andre says as we turn to walk towards our table.
"It is." I agree.
As we get closer to our table I suddenly hear a bunch of shouting from the infected. I turn to see what they're shouting about before-
"UGH" is forced out of my body as their soccer ball beams me in the head. God knows where my history book went or my lunch, but the only thing for certain, asphalt is hard.
"Tori, are you ok?" I hear Andre shout.
I roll onto my back and stare at the sky as my vision clears. Honestly, how to people deliberately hit a soccer ball with their heads? That hurt so bad…
I see one of the infected jock's heads pop up above me and he looks down at me with a worried look. He tries to say something but it's all gibberish to me. An apology maybe? In the middle of his sentence however, Andre pulls him away from me to yell at him. They're literally yelling at each other in two different languages. There is nothing more pointless.
"Oh my god… are you ok?" I hear as Cat then comes into focus above me.
"Yeah… just a slight headache" I say cracking a smile.
"Maybe you should just stay here and I'll go get the nurse and-"
"Cat" I say cutting her off. "I'm fine, I promise, help me up?"
"Yeah, of course." She says taking my hand and helping me up.
A few other people ask if I'm ok while Andre is still yelling at the infected jock. Jade is at the table laughing, well at least I did something to cheer her up. I haven't seen her laugh, or even smile, in a while.
"Andre will you relax?" I say as he ignores me. Does he have any idea how stupid he looks?
I'm about to go grab Andre when another infected soccer player walks over to me. We kind of just look at each other for a moment. He picks up the soccer ball and stares at it with a pondering look on his face. After a moment he looks back up at me and holds out the soccer ball. By now quite a few people are watching closely. It's rare when an infected tries to legitimately communicate with us.
"What does he want?" Cat asks timidly from behind me.
"I don't know." I answer.
Going with my gut, I slowly reach out and take the soccer ball from his hands. I take note that Andre and the other jock have stopped yelling at each other and are watching curiously. The infected soccer player in front of me suddenly breaks out in a huge smile. I give a nervous smile back and I guess it makes him happier because he then shouts something to his friends and then takes one of my hands.
"Ohhh this is weird…" I say holding onto the soccer ball with the other arm.
He quickly pulls me along with him over to the infected's food truck and speaks to the guy inside. He turns back towards me with his smile still set in place and almost bounces with excitement. All the infected actually look pretty amazed now that I look around.
The guy inside the food truck quickly hands the soccer player a burger and looks just as confused as I do about it. The soccer player then lets go of my hand and holds out the burger. Oh… they did cause me to catapult my lunch somewhere earlier…
"Thanks." I say as I take the burger from him, although I know he doesn't understand me. His eyes furrow at the word I said but quickly shrugs it off. I hold his soccer ball out for him to take back, but he pushes it back towards me. He then smiles brightly again before running back off to his friends. Literally, everyone, is staring at me.
I get it. This doesn't happen. Infected and non-infected rarely if ever interact with each other. It's not a rule or anything, we just naturally stick to our own. That's why our school has different classrooms for us. Half the rooms in the school are for the infected and the other half are for the non infected. We all have to learn somehow and it usually helps when you can understand the teachers. That's actually kind of how everything works. There's always two staffs for every establishment, infected and non, so that way everyone has the fair advantage.
I slowly make my way back to our table and try to ignore everyone's eyes.
"What was that?" Cat asks as I sit down.
"A… peace offering?" I say setting the soccer ball down next to me.
"Not that… I mean the whole thing. Did you… did you understand him?" She asks.
I turn to her and notice the terrified look on her face, actually, I notice everyone has this look on their face.
"Guys no, I'm not infected, I swear. I didn't understand him, but I kind of got the gist of what he was trying to do. He was apologizing for the ball to the head, then he bought me lunch to make up for it." I explain.
"Are you sure?" Jade asks skeptically.
"I'm sure. I was just reading the signs." I say.
Everyone visible relaxes at my words and Cat hugs me.
"Thank God… I thought we were losing you too." She says into my ear.
"It's gonna be a lot harder than that to get rid of me." I joke.
"It better be." Andre chips in.
"I don't know, all I would need is a shovel and-"
"Jade stop" I glare at her.
After that we kind of eat in peace.
People would not stop looking at me. I can already tell this is gonna stir up a lot of trouble. I'm gonna have half the school breathing down my neck for weeks thinking I'm infected. I'm not infected. I promise I'm not, it's just like trying to communicate with anyone that doesn't speak your language, you read the signs.
I am not infected.
….. … … ….. ….. … ….. ….. …
"Tori!" I hear scaring me. I almost dropped my books, speaking of, I never did find my history book…
"Yeah?" I say turning my head to see Trina panicked. "Whoa, what's wrong? Are you ok?"
"Am I ok? Are you? I heard about what happened at lunch." She says seriously concerned. I don't ever think I've seen here this worried before, not even when we found out about our parents.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just a misunderstanding." I say putting my things and closing my locker. I am so glad school is over today, people keep asking if I'm ok just like this.
"Are you sure?" She asks scanning my eyes.
"Yes Trina, I promise, I'm fine." I reason.
"Tori… if you're not fine, you can tell me. I promise I won't be mad, just tell me if you're feeling off at all." She says in… a loving tone?
Dear God she is so different. She looks so scared for me yet, scared she might lose me too.
"Trina, nothing is happening. I feel fine, it was just a misunderstanding. He just wanted to apologize." I say.
"And how do you know that?" She asks.
"Well when someone nails you in the head with a soccer ball then shoves a hamburger into your face, you kind of get the hint." I say with a smile.
"I… guess that does make sense. Ok, as long as you're sure you're feeling ok." She says resting a hand on my shoulder.
"I-"
"She's not infected." Jade cuts me off as she walks by. "Trust me." Trina and I look from Jade back to each other.
"She has a point, Jade would probably be able to tell before you even would." Trina states. "But that doesn't mean I want you to end up like her. I don't wanna lose you too Tori." She finishes.
"I know and you won't." I say with a small smile.
Hopefully that'll pacify her.
Trina's right though, I don't wanna end up like Jade. She's just been through too much so soon.
Remember when I said I knew someone who had been infected and come back twice?
That was Jade.
… … ….. ….. ….. ….. … …. … …
Hello my Lotus Blossoms
I did it! I updated within a week. I've been so gloriously busy but I made you all a promise that I would do better.
Sooooooo, what do you think of this one? Yay? Nay?
I also want to thank all of you who have been helping me out with the book and just life in general the last week. You guys keep me going.
Speaking of:
SGM: I've missed your face. It's great to be back and I'm glad you like where I'm going with this.
Ohsnapitsbex: Yes, it is I. You're dancing pleases me.
Lushcoltrane: Oh it's the start of a whole lot of feels. Prepare yourself.
: I don't even know what to say, well, besides thank you. Once I get the ball rolling a little more we'll see what happens.
Alright so I guess that's it for this chapter. Thanks to all of you who reviewed, favored, followed, etc. I love you all. I also didn't do a final read through, so I apologize for my errors.
Remember Reviews = Love, so spread it around. Thick.
A.Y.P.