Hello all! This chapter really isn't intense; it's more of a filler. But next chapter will be more action-y and revealing stuff. So you don't have to worry (at least I think you don't) about crying during this one. To everyone who was wondering: yes, I did go through all of this. And I'm just 14 so it was a lot to deal with. This is based loosely off what happened to me but all the abuse (i.e. body parts that were hurt, ways she was abused, thoughts of suicide, ect.) did happen to me. I very much wanted to kill myself. But I'm better now. If you know anyone involved with dating abuse I urge you to call the free hotline: 1- 866 – 331 - 9474. It's the Love is Respect Organization. It also has advice and facts about it if you are interested on their website: loveisrespect . o r g (It will delete the website if I don't leave random spaces :/ Stupid fanfiction!)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own House of Anubis
Mara woke up feeling a sharp pain in her chest. She sat up straight and gingerly touched her rib. Blinding pain shot through her. She moved her hand away quickly, but she continued seeing spots.
She slowly got up off of her bed, being careful to not put a lot of weight onto her ankle. She limped around her room, getting dressed into her school uniform. She pulled on her boots, so she could use the ice pack again.
She covered up the bruise on her cheek, which had turned a sickly shade of green. She spent more time covering it today so she wouldn't have anyone else notice it. It was bad enough that Jerome knew it was there.
Mara entered the bathroom and took a few aspirins, cracked a new ice pack, and brushed her teeth.
Mara skipped breakfast that morning and chose to head to school early. She wanted to visit the infirmary before everyone else (especially Mick and Jerome) arrived at school.
The infirmary was a sterile white room. Silver instruments shone under the fluorescent lights, making the room even brighter.
Mara blinked a little as her eyes adjusted to the brightness. The nurse was sitting at her desk, filling out a medical report. Mara timidly stepped forward and cleared her throat.
"Can I help you?" The nurse looked up from her file and smiled at Mara. She looked very young, only about 25 or so. Her light brown hair was tied back in a bun and she wore pastel blue scrubs. Her brown eyes examined Mara up and down, looking for her ailment.
"Um, yes Ms…?" Mara trailed off, not knowing the nurses last name. She had never been to the infirmary before.
"Kerry. Mrs. Kerry." She replied.
"Well, I was playing football with my friends yesterday and I fell on my ankle, and my rib took a lot of the force too. I think they might be broken." Mara said, lying smoothly. She had rehearsed her story in her head over and over last night.
"Okay, I'll have a look at them. Name?"
"Mara Jaffray." Mara said quietly, taking a seat on the examining table.
Mrs. Kerry went to the filing cabinet, searched under "J" and brought out Mara's file.
"Mara Isabel Jaffray, born January 14, 1995. Transferred to this school during the summer of 2007. Straight A student. Sound like you?" Mrs. Kerry asked, scanning the page.
"Yeah, that's me." Mara replied, shifting on the table. The paper crinkled underneath her as she moved.
"Okay, let's have a look at your rib first." Mrs. Kerry dropped the file on her desk and came over to Mara. "Lift up your sweater a little. I need to examine the rib."
Mara pulled her sweater and white button down shirt up enough to expose her rib. She winced as the nurse put pressure on each rib individually. She stopped at the third right one and paused.
"This one is broken. It's obvious there's a fracture. However, it doesn't seem to be completely broken in half. That's good, because if it was it could puncture your lungs." Mrs. Kerry said, and then continued. "The others seem fine."
Mara gulped. She figured that the rib was definitely broken.
"Can I see your ankle?" Mrs. Kerry asked.
Mara nodded and lifted up her foot onto the table. She pulled off her boot and unwrapped the ice pack. Her right ankle had swollen considerably, almost twice the size of her undamaged left one.
The nurse tenderly felt at her ankle, checking for cracks.
"Well, I don't think your ankle is broken. It is most likely just sprained. If there is a fracture, it's very small." Mrs. Kerry concluded.
"So, what can I do about them?" Mara asked, biting her lip.
"Unfortunately for your rib, there aren't really any treatments. We could wrap it, but that isn't proven to help heal it. All you can really do is get pain medication for it. I'll fax your doctor and ask them to write out a prescription for you. For your ankle, we could wrap it or if it's hurting really badly you could use crutches."
"I don't think its bad enough for crutches." Mara replied, not wanting her injuries to be obvious to everyone else.
Mrs. Kerry nodded and went back to her desk. She wrote down a few things on Mara's file and then looked back up at her. "You said you got these from playing football?"
"Yes." Mara lied, avoiding her eyes. She could feel Mrs. Kerry's eyes boring into her.
"I'll fax your doctor now. In the mean time, would you like some aspirin?"
"I already took some this morning." Mara tapped her fingers on the table as the nurse put a sheet through the fax machine.
"Okay, they should receive that soon. Let's wrap that ankle for you." Mrs. Kerry said, taking out an ace bandage.
"Do you think we could put the ice pack back on it?" Mara asked, while the nurse wrapped her ankle.
Mrs. Kerry nodded and placed the ice pack on the bandages and then wrapped more around it to hold it in place.
"Okay, you should be good. Now, go before you're late to class."
Mara put her boot back on, grabbed her bag and walked carefully out of the infirmary.
She was actually a few minutes early to class, but all her housemates were already there. Nina and Fabian were sitting at a table, holding hands. Amber was sitting on top of their table while painting her nails a violent shade of pink. Patricia was listening to her mp3 player and sitting next to Amber on the desk. Mick was standing next to Fabian, talking to him animatedly. Alfie was gazing longingly at Amber from the back table. Jerome was sitting next to him, his eyes searching the classroom for Mara.
"Hey guys." Mara said and walked up to Nina and Fabian's table.
"Hi, Mara! Do you think this nail polish is too bright?" Amber asked, holding her hand up to Mara.
Mara squinted her eyes so she could look at the neon color.
"No it's perfect for you, Amber." Mara smiled at her.
"Hey, Mara. Where were you this morning?" Nina asked, smiling up at her.
"I went to Ms. Andrews to ask her something about today's French exam." Mara lied. It seemed she was getting a lot better at that lately.
"Oh, that explains it." Nina replied, and then turned to Fabian to ask him about something.
"Hi, babe." Mick walked over to Mara and gave her a quick peck on the lips. Mara tried her hardest not to flinch. Mick took her hand and led her over to a table.
Mr. Winkler entered the classroom and quieted the kids. Amber scampered off to a table behind Mara and Mick. Patricia sat down next to Amber and turned off her music player.
"Good morning, class. Today's History lesson is about the Counter Reformation, also known as the Catholic Reformation. It started because the Catholic Church began to lose followers after a man named Martin Luther posted The 95 Theses. The 95 Theses were a list of complaints…"
Mara lost her concentration and stopped listening to Mr. Winkler. There was too much on her mind today. She was worried about Jerome telling someone about the bruise. Even though his suspicions had never been truly confirmed by Mara, it was somewhat obvious that he was correct.
Mara sighed and studied her fingernails. Two days ago they had been long and manicured. By now they were bitten down past the skin and her light peach polish was chipped in numerous places.
Mara was almost a completely different person than she was two days ago. She was less happy now; always afraid something was going to come at her. She never used to lie before and now she found herself lying every few minutes.
The bell rang as Mara thought 'How much is this going to change me?'