Chapter 3- The Visit

I ran outside I saw my aunt and cousin Emily in their van waiting for me. As I jumped in and closed the door behind me all I could do was look out the window. 'I hope they're okay,' I thought to myself as my aunt drove to the hospital. As soon as we arrived I jumped out of the car and sprinted towards the room that my parents were kept in. When I reached their room and looked in they were gone. I was breathing so heavy that I felt like I was going to pass out. My aunt and Emily came up behind me as I rested my hands on my knees.

"That's what we wanted to tell you." Emily said as I stood back up and turned and faced her.

"What do you mean by 'Wanted to tell me'?" I asked. 'They better have a damn good explanation for this because I'm going to be upset if they don't' I thought to my self as my breathing started to become regular again. I looked at my aunt who was smiling at me. So was Emily. "Why are you guys smiling? This isn't good!!" I said as they just smiled.

"Come on sweetie." My aunt said as she wrapped her arm around my shoulder and Emily walked beside me. We went down the hall to a different room. As soon as I entered I saw my parents. And they were awake.

"MOM! DAD!" I yelled as I ran over and gave them each a hug. They couldn't really hug me back as well as I had hoped they could but I was just happy to see them looking back at me.

"Hey honey. How are you?" My mom asked as she smiled at me.

"Great now that you guys are awake. Does this mean that you guys can go home soon?" I asked my mom and dad looked at each other as their smiles faded. My mom looked back at me.

"I know you want us to come home and I know that you want to go home really badly but the truth is we wont be coming home for a while." My mom said as I stared at her.

"What do you mean? You guys are awake. That has to mean that you can come home." I said as I looked at my dad who looked as though he was about to die. 'I don't understand what's going on. Why can't they go home?' I thought to myself.

"Sweetheart," my dad said as I looked at him, "We can't come home because of our test work. It's just the fact that when we had our accident we damaged a lot of things. Your mother broke both of her legs plus her collarbone. And I broke my leg, my collarbone, some ribs and my shoulder blade. Until all of our injuries heal we can't come home. We're sorry." My dad just stared at me, as did my mom. I couldn't help but tear up a bit. These are my parents for crying out loud.

"You do understand. Don't you?" My mom asked me as she touched my hand. I nodded and gave them both a reassuring smile. I gave them both hugs before I left because I knew that they wanted to be home with me as much as I did with them. I didn't let my aunt or Emily see me cry in the car because I hide it. That is until I got to the McDonalds/Venturi's house. As soon as I entered and put my stuff down I took one step on something and fell. I let out a scream as Derek came in laughing. When I looked down to see what I had fallen in it was oatmeal. 'I'm not in the mood for this right now' I thought to myself as I stood up. I looked straight at Derek with my puffy eyes.

"You know you heard me get a phone call and you saw me run out of school. You didn't think that it was something of importance or something horrible!" I yelled at Derek's dad, Nora, and Casey entered to see what was going on. "For all you know that call could have been about my parents having died in the hospital! Derek Venturi you never once think about a persons feelings! I hope you're happy that my pain brings you happiness!" I yelled as I ran upstairs. Derek turned around and watched me, as did everyone else. Everyone looked back at Derek and he looked at them.

"What?" Derek said

"Nice work Derek." Casey said as she went after me. Derek looked at his dad and Nora and saw their disappointment in their eyes

"Derek you never think about consequences do you?" George said as he looked at Derek.

"Oh come on. She's obviously making this up. Pretending that she's upset just to get everyone to feel bad." Derek said trying to save his tail.

"You know Derek. I just got off the phone with Emily's mom and she told me that the reason Leaola had to leave early today was so that she could take her to the hospital to see her parents because they finally woke up. But they told Leaola that they couldn't come home for a long while. She's very attached to her parents Derek and she wants them to get better so that they can be at home as a family again. That's why she's upset. And I hope you think about what you just said and what you did." Nora said as her and George walked into the kitchen. Derek looked to the ground then up at the stairs and made his way up to Casey's room.

"I can't believe Der- wait. No I can believe that Derek would do something like this." Casey said as she sat down next to me. I looked at her and smiled. She smiled back at me.

"Thanks Casey. You're a really good friend." I said as I hugged her. Casey hugged me back.

"Anytime." Casey looked at me then sighed. "You know your parents are going to get better and in no time they will be coming home."

"I know. I just really wish that they didn't get hurt so badly in that accident." I said but stopped when we heard a knock at the door. Casey got up and opened it.

"What do you want Derek?" Casey asked. Man was she mad. She had every right to be mad too.

"I came to apologize to Leaola." Derek said as he just stood in the hall in front of Casey.

"Well I'm not sure if she wants to talk to you right now." Casey said. I smiled when she said that. 'She really is a good friend.' I thought to myself. I got up and gave Casey a light touch on the shoulder.

"It's okay Cas. I can handle him." I said as I smiled at her. Casey smiled back at me.

"Call if you need help okay?" Casey said. 'So much loyalty in a friend is so hard to find these days' I thought to myself as I nodded at her. Casey walked down the hall and downstairs. I walked over to my cot and sat down on it and looked at Derek after he closed the door and turned to me.

"I'm sorry, Leaola. I didn't know the whole story. I just thought that you were putting on an act to get everyone to feel bad for you. I didn't know that your parents were the reason for your sudden leave from school today." Derek said as he sat on Casey bed and looked at me. I studied him for a second then looked back at his eyes and I could tell that he was being sincere about what he was saying. 'I guess I'll forgive him this one time' I thought to myself as I let out a sigh and stood up in front of him. Derek stood up as well. 'But I hate the fact that I have to look up at him when I'm talking to him. Damn him for being tall.' I thought to myself as I looked at him straight in the eyes.

"It's okay. At least you became a man and apologized. Didn't think it was in your job description." I said as Derek laughed, "But there will be consequences for your prank."

"What? I thought that you surrendered to me today at school." Derek said. I just smirked. 'Silly little minded boy. That was before you did the whole oatmeal thing. Now it's war big bird boxers' I thought to myself.

"That was before you pulled your little stunt today when I got home. You broke my surrender. Now it's on." I smiled as I walked to the door, opened it and went downstairs with Derek following me as I headed towards the kitchen where everyone was.

"What? That's not fair. You surrendered fair and square. We never discussed an agreement breaker." Derek said. I walked over to Casey and stood next to Nora and looked straight at Derek.

"Sorry buddy boy. But you have to pay the price if you break the agreement first. If I were you I would sleep with the lights on." I said as I smiled. 'Now it's show time. He'll never know what hit him.' I thought to myself as I drank some milk.