"Claire!" Ryan yelled as her eyes slowly closed. "Claire, wake up!"
As he was leaning closer to her, a spasm ran through her body and she began shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.
Ryan quickly scooped her up, slung her backpack over his shoulder and began running down the hall, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.
He reached the nurses office and barged in, with Chad right behind him.
Ryan glanced at Chad questioningly as he slowed to a stop in front of the nurse.
Chad replied to the glance with, "I was behind you in the hall and I saw the whole thing."
Ryan turned to the nurse and motioned to the thin slit on the back of Claire's head while explaining what had happened. As he was finishing his story, Claire groaned and fluttered her eyes open.
Chad and Ryan both shot towards her side. She winced and touched the spot on her head covered in bandages.
"Chad, Ryan?" she asked as she wiped her eyes, "Where are we?"
"Nurses office," Chad said with a dazzling smile, "you took a pretty nasty fall there!"
Ryan nodded vigorously and Claire said, "Who was the guy?"
Chad and Ryan looked at each other and both shook their heads. "No idea." Ryan said turning back to her.
The nurse then said, "Well, Chad and Ryan, you two should get to your classes. I'll write you notes, Claire your going home. Call your parents on the phone over there."
Ryan saw her face falter for a moment but it was so fast he couldn't be sure he hadn't imagined it. He and Chad left as Claire dialed her home phone number.
When Kyleigh finally got home, she rushed upstairs to find Claire asleep in her room. She signed in relief, knowing that her best friend was okay.
She called down the steps to Ryan saying, "She's fine, do you wanna have something to eat and hang out?"
"Sure!" he said brightly as he bounded up the steps.
Claire yawned and said, "Sounds good to me too."
"Oh sorry, didn't mean to wake you." Kyleigh said concernedly.
"S'okay" Claire replied.
"How's your head?" Ryan asked as he entered the room a bit sheepishly.
"Better, we went to the hospital and they glued it back together!"
"That's good… I think." He replied with a laugh.
They went into the T.V. room with a plate of nachos and watched T.V. for a while. Ryan left at about six o'clock.
Kyleigh followed Claire into her room and sat down on her bed.
"Soooooooo," she said with a sly grin on her face, "Someone's got herself a boyfriend!"
"What are you talking about?" Claire replied incredulously.
"Oh, come on! He totally wants you!!!"
"Who Ryan?" Kyleigh nodded enthusiastically. "Uhhhh, I highly doubt that considering I passed out at his feet this morning!"
"Ah, but that makes you all the more intriguing." Kyleigh said knowingly, "And anyway, its pretty obvious that he likes you…"
Claire cut her off, "Just drop it, alright!"
"Fine" Kyleigh replied indignantly.
"So, what did I miss at school?"
"Well," Kyleigh replied, regaining her usual spunkiness, "nothing really, just that Ryan and Sharpay had a fight at lunch…"
"They WHAT? Did they make up? Please tell me the made up! What if…"
This time it Kyleigh's turn to cut Claire off. "Chill! Sorry, I forgot that that was a sensitive area… yeah, they made up."
"Oh… ok"
After a few moments of silence Claire said, "I'm really sorry about this, I need to get over it but it's just so hard!"
"Don't worry, healing takes time. You'll be back to normal soon enough… and I bet Ryan will help you!" She said with a silly grin.
"Oh shut up Kyleigh!" Claire said as she threw a pillow at her.
Kyleigh ran from the room, but turned at the last moment and said, "By the way, his locker is right next to yours!"
Claire laughed as Kyleigh ran down the stairs and sat down on her bed and thought, "Maybe he does like me… no stop, don't be stupid! He doesn't like you that was so just get over it."
Suddenly Kyleigh called up the steps, "Dinner, get your love sick butt down here!"
"I am gonna kill her!" Claire thought as she made her way towards the steps.