The Fencing match was on campus so the three didnt have far to go when they headed out of Alex's dorm room. They were running just a little behind and decided to run the whole way there, leaving hardly any time to practice before their turns in the match.
Things were happening so fast that Alex had no time to even begin to process what had happened over the phone just 10 minutes before. It was Boyce's turn to duel, of which Alex yellled out, "Dont get black carded today, Boyce!"
Jade couldnt help but laugh, "he always manages to blow it, doesnt he?" She looked around the big gym in hopes of seeing a famous Fencer. This is Cambridge after all and many famous Fencers come from this particular school, or even just come to visit. She jumped with excitement, patting Alex's leg to get her attention, "Oh my god, look!" And she pointed towards the other end of the gym, "I think that's Monique!" she squinted to get a better look, "oh my god, it is! Do you realize how cool this is!"
Alex chuckled, "I dont know who that is?"
"Monique is only one of the best Canadian Fencers of our time!" Jade replied in disbelief, "she grew up in Ontario—where I'm from! But she lives in Toronto now, how do you not know this?!"
"Because I dont care?" replied Alex nonchalantly. She looked out towards the fencing area and yelled again, "Dont black-card BOYCE!"
After being down two points, Boyce ended up black-carding, which is a term that means doing something serious enough to get expelled from the tournament. In Boyce's case, he knocked the other person's sword out of his hand and then proceeded to smack him in the head with his own sword. Boyce threw his mask off in contempt when he was thrown out of the match, "Bollocks! He shouted at the referee before stomping off to the sidelines.
"I hate this game!" he breathed as he sat down next to his friends.
It was Jade's turn to duel and she won her match. Then it was one of their other teammates' turn before it was Alex's. She was the last to go before the tournament finished for the night. Alex lost as well, losing 4 to 5, almost taking the entire five minutes to finish the round.
As they were packing their stuff to leave the arena, Alex's phone rings in her duffel bag. It's her mom. "Hey Mom!" she said happily, "guess what, we just had another tournament, but we lost!"
Her mom sounded intoxicated, which made Alex ask her if she was. When her mom replied that she had been drinking and that she slipped off the wagon today, Alex couldn't help but feel even more frustrated as she began fighting with her mom over the phone. She and her two friends had walked outside and were standing against the building, waiting for Alex to get off the phone. Jade was leaning against one of the windows when Alex hung up the phone. With a hint of frustration she said, "What are the odds of two people breaking your heart in the same day?" and she looked around for something that would help ease her frustrations.
She thought for a second, pacing back and forth, then said, "who wants to take me to the E.R.?" and she lunged forward and punched the building's steel exit door with her fist as hard as she could, realizing just as she was doing it how stupid of an idea it was. For the time being though, it did take the pain from her heart away, but only to be placed in her throbbing hand and wrist.
The sound of the hit surprised Jade as she jumped away from the window and watched Alex keel over in pain, holding her arm, "I'm not even going to ask!" she gasped.
"And here I thought I had anger issues!" Boyce said as he walked towards her, "I get kicked out of matches for throwing fits and being a poor sport, why in the world would you actually want to hurt yourself ya weirdo?!" and with that, he got behind her and pushed her to run towards his car which was parked on campus not too far away.
"Oh my goodness!" Jade said sounding alarmed, "I can already see your hand swelling up like a balloon!"
They arrived at the Emergency room and Alex was seen immediately. The doctor didnt have to take X-rays to see that her hand was broken, but he did so just to see the extent of the damages done.
"I'm not sure what you did" he said as he looked at the X-ray images, "but you're lucky that you didnt break more bones in your hand than you did. You jammed your index knuckle here" and he pointed to the X-ray image with his wand, "and you broke two carpel bones in your wrist and one of the phalanges."
"What?" asked Jade looking confused. She was in the exam room lending support to Alex, "what's that mean, Doc, in normal people language please?"
The doctor took off his glasses then replied, "It just means that she broke two bones in her wrist and one in her finger."
Alex was slouched in the chair with her hand resting in her lap. The doctor then looked at her and asked, "How's the pain?"
"as painful as a broken hand could be?" she said sarcastically.
"well, do you think you will want to take a muscle relaxer or a sedative?"
"for what?" she asked.
He drew in a deep breath, starting to lose his patience, "so I can manipulate the bones back into their original positions and give you a cast and send you on your way."
"Oh right. Whatever, just do it" replied Alex, rolling her eyes.
"now's not the time to be sarcastic my love!" whispered Jade in a semi-panic tone.
After the doctor re-set Alex's bones, she got to pick the color of her cast. "you get to pick as two colors" the nurse said cheerfully, "what colors would you like?"
Alex looked over the colors a moment then asked, "can I choose pink for the cotton underlay thing? And um..." she picked up the black with her good hand, "and this for the outer layer?"
The nurse went to work preparing the cast while Alex still held her swelled hand close to her, cradling it gently. The cast was laid around her index and middle fingers to keep her finger from bending at all, and then covered the majority of the hand, the wrist and forearm.
Finally the hospital ordeal was over and the three got to head back to the dorms. As they were walking out, Jade thoughtfully pointed out, "you know, the pink complements the black quite nicely. Good choices my friend." and she put her arm around Alex's shoulders as they walked towards the car. Alex was quiet and remained so for the rest of the night before she went to bed. She thanked her two friends for sticking by her, even though her stupid dumbass moments.
A few days later Alex decided that she needed to go home to be with the ones she loved. She had a month left in her program but she said she needed to work on things at home. She was no good to her program if her heart and head weren't in it. Her Fencing coach understood and helped her get back to Canada the following week.
"Keep in touch, eh?" Jade said as she hugged her Canadian friend, "maybe we'll see each other at the olympics." they both laughed, "or at least a Fencing tourney".
"you forget," Alex smiled, "I'm not studying Fencing like you are. But I'll definitely keep in touch and tell you how life turns out."
With that, Alex headed to the airport to catch a plane back to Toronto. She definitely made some great friends at Cambridge, and will miss them dearly, but her place was at home and she knew it.