The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday was a blur of doctors, tests, nurses, and visitors. Thursday morning, the doctor brought Troy's best friends for the next 8 months or so, the crutches. He showed Troy how to use them, then Troy tried them. The crutches hurt his side because of the surgery so Dr. Robb got a wheelchair for Troy to use in his house.

"Well Troy, congratulations. You get to go home. Don't forget to pick up your prescriptions. Don't forget you have an appointment at noon next Friday for a chest x-ray to check the pneumonia and double check for infections from your appendix," said Dr. Robb.

"All right, thank you," said Mrs. Bolton.

"You might want to get some throat lozenges for him as well. Also, ice cream once he can keep something in his stomach. Aside from that, you are free to go, Troy."

"Thanks for everything," said a very, very hoarse Troy.

"Of course, just stay in bed and try to sleep. Those are the best treatments for illnesses and injuries."

Mr. Bolton then went and got the car while Mrs. Bolton helped Troy into the wheelchair and put all his stuff into a bag. She then rolled Troy down to the main entrance where Mr. Bolton was waiting with the car. Troy got in the backseat and sat sideways with his knee in front of him. Then, they drove back to the house. Little did they know though that Gabriella and their other friends had decided to decorate the house for Troy's homecoming. Had he been felling better, they would have thrown him a party. When Troy got home, they hid all their cars on other streets and turned all of the lights in the house off. When Mrs. Bolton turned on the lights, all of Troy's friends were standing in front of him. All, except Gabriella, Troy noticed. He suddenly saw and felt hands wrap around him and saw Gabriella behind him.

"Hey babe, welcome home," said Gabriella.

"Thanks, Gabs. Shouldn't you guys be in school?" asked Troy.

"My mom called school and told the secretary that I was sick. She knew I wanted to see you when you got home. She also knew what we were planning. Thinking of that, let's show you. By the way, what's with the wheelchair?"

"Well I tried using the crutches and they hurt my side from the surgery, so Dr. Robb told me to use this around the house for a couple days. But I am using those crutches to go up to my room. Well I am glad your mom said that you could stay home from school today. Let's see these decorations."

"Before we do that, I think there are some other people who want to talk with you."

"Can't we go upstairs and get me into bed first? Well second, after you show me the decorations."

"If it's okay with everyone else, it's okay with me."

"Okay with us," said all of his other friends.

While Gabriella rolled Troy around the downstairs, everyone else went to put last minute touches on Troy's room. They then went over to the steps where Troy used his crutches and Gabriella to get up the steps. Once they got to Troy's room, he saw all the pictures of all of his friends and him. There was a basketball in a box attached to his wall that had been signed by all his friends.

"Geez, guys, you didn't have to do all this for me."

"We wanted to," said Kelsi. "Now get your butt in bed, sick boy."

"Yeah listen to the playmaker. Old playmaker, get into that bed," said Jason.

Troy then got into bed and quickly fell asleep. He slept all through that day and woke up the next morning at 4:30.

"Troy, sweetheart, are you up yet?" asked Mrs. Bolton.

"Yeah, Mom, what's up?" asked Troy hoarsely.

"You need to take your medicine. Your father and I let you sleep all day yesterday but we need to get some medicine in you."

"All right, sounds good to me. By any chance, do you have any of those extra strength pain killers that they had me on at the hospital?"

"No, they refused to give us the morphine but we do have Vicodin for you. Is your knee really bugging you?"

"Yeah, it is. I know the doctor said that given time, I might get basketball back, but the way it feels right now, I don't think I will ever play again."

"Give it time, sweetheart. Ligament tears take a while to heal, even with just one tear. But, Troy, your ACL was torn thirty times. By the way, your father has to go to school today and he is going to get your make-up work. He is also getting all your absences excused. How are you feeling today?"

"Better, I guess. No sharp pains in my side, now it's just a dull ache from the surgery. My throat hurts pretty badly. My stomach still hurts a little but it's feeling better."

"Would you like to try to keep some food down?"

"Sure, I'll try. Can I get some jello?"

"Yeah, I already have some made so you could have some when you are ready."

"Thanks, Mom."

Mrs. Bolton went downstairs to get Troy's medications. She also got him a small bowl of jello. She also brought a wastebasket up with her in case he couldn't keep the jello down, which she suspected would happen. She went back upstairs. When she went into Troy's room, she was not amazed that he had fallen back asleep. He was so exhausted from all the medicines and being so sick. She felt bad about having to wake him up again.

"Troy, sweetheart, you need to get up. I know you want to sleep but the faster you do this, the faster you can go back to sleep."

"Yeah Mom," said Troy almost inaudibly. "I'm up. What do you need? Oh yeah."

"If you keep this down, I will ask your father to pick up sherbet on the way home."

"Okay," said Troy inaudibly. He took his medication from his mom. He took the medicine and then tried eating the jello. He ate a spoonful or two and then grabbed the wastebasket his mom had brought up for him. He sat there for five minutes throwing up anything in his system. By the time he was done, Troy was ready to go back to sleep. But, first, Mrs. Bolton had to check Troy's temperature.

"Sweetheart, sorry, but I have to take your temperature."

"Okay," said Troy through gesturing with his thumb.

"102º, it's lower than it was. At the hospital, it was creeping close to 104 º range."

"Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Yes, sweetheart, sorry for keeping you up."

"It's alright, Mom. Good night."

"Night, sweetheart, I'll wake you up later to take more medicine."

"Okay."

Troy then fell asleep. He kept waking up through. The first time he woke up, two hours later, he had to puke. He didn't see the bucket in his room so not thinking, he got up and ran to the bathroom. He did not make it very far because of the huge brace around his knee. He somehow managed to make it to the steps before falling and since he was right b the steps, he fell down. Mrs. Bolton heard the commotion and ran to make sure Troy was okay. She was shocked to see Troy at the bottom of the steps.