It had been two week since the attack in the bathroom; Amanda and her 'gang' continued to verbally abuse Ruthie who continued to have nightmares, waking up screaming and crying; Lucy was used to the nightmares by the fourth night and didn't bother asking what they were about as she would never get an answer, but she still silently wondered what was going on and prayed that Ruthie would open up. Lucy talked to Annie and Eric and they all agreed that Lucy should continue to drive Ruthie to and from school.

"Why are you still driving me to school?" Ruthie asked getting into the car.

"Mom and Dad are always so busy; I thought I'd lighten their load by taking you to school and picking you up." Lucy replied starting the engine and pulling out of the driveway.

"Okay."

'She is so up to something,' Ruthie thought to herself.

The rest of the car ride was silent, Ruthie was lost in thought and Lucy was thinking about how to get Ruthie to open up to her. They pulled up outside of the school.

"Goodbye," Lucy said as Ruthie climbed out of the car, "Have a nice day."

Ruthie merely nodded and waved as she walked into school.

The school day went by pretty smoothly for Ruthie and the next thing she knew she was walking out of her last period class and heading for her locker. 'Wow, that was the best day I've had in weeks,' she thought. As she turned toward her locker she saw Amanda standing by her locker. 'I spoke to soon.' She walked to her locker ignoring Amanda and putting her books away.

"Don't ignore me Camden," said Amanda

"What do you want?" Ruthie asked quietly, closing her locker.

"I want you to do my homework for me."

"What, no way."

"Oh, I think you'll do it, if you don't, well, let's just say that what happened in the bathroom will be nothing compared to what'll happen if you don't do my homework."

"I'm not doing your homework, Amanda; I don't care if you beat me up. I have morals and one of those morals is I don't cheat and doing someone's homework for them is considered cheating."

"You'll be sorry, Camden; When I'm done with you, you're going to wish you were never born," Amanda threatened, stalking off.

Ruthie walked out the front doors, everyone was already gone and she couldn't see Lucy. 'She must be running late,' she thought.

"Hey Camden," she heard from behind.

She turned around and saw Amanda and two tough looking girls coming toward her. She backed up a few steps and someone grabbed her from behind, looking behind her she saw another tough girl. 'Oh great,' she thought, 'Lucy, please, get here soon.'

"Okay, girls, do whatever you want, she's free game," Amanda said, sitting down on the steps.

Lucy pulled up in front of the school. 'I'm so late,' she thought, 'where's Ruthie?' She looked out the passenger side window and noticed a girl lying on the ground in front of the school steps, she jumped out of the car and rushed towards the girl. As she got closer she realized the girl was Ruthie, she ran faster.

"Oh my god, Ruthie," she said, kneeling down next to her, her face had a few cuts, she had a black eye and she was extremely pale.

Ruthie groaned in pain, clutching her stomach.

"Lucy," she said, "it hurts."

"What hurts? Your stomach?" Lucy asked, putting Ruthie's head in her lap.

Ruthie nodded, closing her eyes.

"Okay, I'm going to call 911, just keep your eyes open, okay?" Lucy said taking out her cell phone.

Ruthie nodded again, opening her eyes. Two minutes later Lucy closed her cell phone.

"An ambulance is coming, Ruthie."

The pain in her stomach was becoming unbearable and she could feel herself losing consciousness. Her eyes drifted shut for a moment before she snapped them open again. 'I can't pass out now,' she thought, 'I might not wake up again.' But as much as she wanted to stay awake her eyes closed once more as drifted into unconsciousness.

"Ruthie, wake up," Lucy yelled as she noticed Ruthie's eyes were closed and her arms were no longer clutching her stomach but resting lightly on top of it. She checked Ruthie's pulse, it was faint. 'God, please let the ambulance get here soon,' she prayed.

An hour later Lucy was sitting on a hard uncomfortable chair in the waiting room at the hospital, tapping her foot impatiently waiting for a doctor to tell her if her baby sister was okay or not. She looked hopefully at a doctor walking into the room but was disappointed when he went straight through the doors on the other side. She was startled as she heard a ringing coming from her purse, she took her cell phone out and looked at the caller ID, it said home. 'Oh, no I completely forgot to call mom and dad, they're probably really worried,' she thought as she opened the phone.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Lucy," came her father's voice filled with concern, "we were worried, where are you?"

She hesitated before answering, "At the hospital."

"What, why are you there?"

"Ruthie ... had an accident."

"What kind of accident?"

"I don't know what happened yet."

"Well, is she okay?"

"I don't know that yet either."

"What do you know?"

"I know that I don't think you and mom should come down here."

"What, why not?"

"I don't think she's going to want you to come down here and make her feel like a little kid and ask her bunch of questions about what happened. I don't think she needs that stress, I think that what she needs is more of a sisterly no pressure to answer any questions sort of thing."

"How do you know that's what she needs?"

Just call it a sister's intuition. Trust me dad I know what I'm doing."

"Okay, okay, I trust you."

Thanks. I'll call you in a couple of hours."

She put her phone back in her purse and looked up to see a doctor walk in looking down at his chart.

"I'm looking for the family of Ruthie Camden," said the doctor.

Lucy got up and walked over to him.

"You're the family of Ruthie Camden?"

"I'm her sister. Is she okay?"

"Well, she had a few minor cuts and bruises on her face which should heal up without scarring. Also, her spleen was ruptured, fortunately the bleeding stopped by its self so we didn't have to operate, however we are going to have to keep Ruthie here for another week or longer to make sure the bleeding doesn't start again."

"So, she's going to be alright?"

"Yes, if you want to see her she's just down the hall, third room on the right."

"Thank you doctor," Lucy said over her shoulder as she started in the direction of Ruthie's room.

Lucy was sitting next to the bed reading a magazine when Ruthie started to wake up.

"Well, hey there sleepy head."

"Lucy," Ruthie said, blinking her eyes to adjust to the lighting, "where am I?"

"You're in the hospital, Ruthie."

"Man, am I ever sore."

"Yeah the doctor said you might be, if it gets to be too much they'll give you something for it."

"I'm okay right now. Where are mom and dad?"

"I asked them not to come until I tell them to."

"Why?"

"I didn't think you needed the stress of them asking you what happened and if you want to talk about it."

"You're right I don't need that and I appreciate you asking them not to come yet."

"I figured that if you wanted to talk you'd talk and if you want to talk I'm right here, but only if you want to."

"Thanks, Lucy," she paused before blurting, "This isn't the first time."

There it is, the third chapter. I really hope you enjoyed it, it took me forever to write this chapter.

The whole ruptured spleen thing was from personal experience; my brother ruptured his spleen while snowboarding, he thought it would be a good idea to hit a building a full speed, luckily he was okay after a couple of weeks in the hospital, no removal of the spleen for him.

Any-who, remember, any review is a good review, criticism, advice, props, I'll take it all.

Don't worry I'll post the next chapter ASAP.