Waking up

White bright lights met her eyes, as she almost unknowingly started to open them. The sudden shift from darkness and unconsciousness, made her confused, and she squinted as she tried to get her eyes used to the change. She drew a breath, and immediately pain shot through her chest. She tried to cough, but found it hard. That's when she realise that she had a mask fastened to her face. Her lungs drew themselves together, and forced her to cough more. She started to flail her arms around, grasping for help, as panic hit her. She felt a growing feeling in her stomach, and just managed to rip the mask to the side as she vomited onto the floor beside the bed. Almost as if she were drunk, she looked around with slowly blinking eyes. The mask must have had some effect because the loss of it made breathing even worse.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a person stood beside her. They gripped her shoulders and tried to softly force back onto her back. She complied and sunk down on the pillow. Her confused eyes darted around the room. A hospital. She was in a hospital bed, the person was a nurse, and she did not remember how she ended up here. The nurse took her arm, and spook with a soft voice.

"It's good that you're awake Katkin. Puking is a common effect of breathing in too much smoke, don't be too worried."

Katkin looked at her. Smoke? Yes that sounded familiar.

"I'm going to give something calming, so that you can breathe easier and relax. Alright?"

Katkin didn't know if she actually asked permission, but nodded all the same. She felt a needle pierce her skin, and then the nurse took a step back to put away the needle.

"There is an alarm button on the right side of the bed, just press it if anything else happens or feels wrong. We're right outside. And someone will be here soon to clean up the puke."

The nurse smiled softly at Katkin, and left the room. Katkin closed her eyes. She saw smoke and flames flash before her. The last thing she remembered seeing was a dim light hitting her face through the smoke, as from a flashlight. She felt her breathing ease, and concentrated on taking steady breaths. If someone showed up to clean her puke, she didn't notice. She fell asleep again without noticing.

Thea and Amber was laying on a bed each. They both had oxygen masks on, but were awake and feeling okay. It was just a precaution to make sure they didn't suffer long term damage. Their friends were sat on the chairs at the foot of each of their beds. They had all been checked up on, and cleared by the staff. The other two seemed to have breathed in more smoke than them, and hence the situation. Dabria held a tight grip on Thea's lower leg, and with the other hand she gripped just as tight on Sel's hand. Bree was walking between the beds, looking down to her feet. She was chewing her lip, and kept pulling loose strands of hair behind her ears, as it kept falling down. Sel let Dabria squeeze his hand, and just looked dead into the air.

On the other side of the room, Garthan, Carl, and Bethany were having a silent conversation. They sat with their backs against the others, and made sure so that Amber would hear them, even if she shouldn't talk to much.

"What were they thinking? What did they think would happen?" Bethany kept asking, clearly not getting a satisfying answer, as the others just shook their heads.

"Why would they even do a prank right now? I thought we were waiting them out?" Garthan mumbled with low and confused voice.

"I might have had something to do with that…" Carl eventually spoke up. "I went through with the paper notes."

They all looked at him, even Amber rose slightly from her pillow to properly stare him down.

"I thought it was cute, and harmless. I mean they were nice notes to be honest. I didn't think they would retaliate. I figured it would be nice for them to get their mind of things."

"Well clearly they got their mind off of whatever it was and launched them into outer space or something. I have never been in a stable and even I understand that it doesn't mix with fire." Bethany crossed her arms.

"I don't think being mad at them is going to help" Garthan said and massaged one of her shoulders with one of his giant hands. "They are beating themselves up enough, just look at them." He added and nodded towards the other group.

They all turned their heads over their shoulders for a moment and took in the tense scene. As they were looking, Dabria lifted her gaze, and happened to lock eyes with Garthan. He saw the pain behind her eyes, and without hesitation, stood up. He walked over to her, and offered his hand to help her up. She looked down on her two hands, holding tight to her friends, and then half-unwillingly let go. She took Garthan's hand and let him pull her up to her feet.

"You want something to eat?" He asked her.

"I don't know. Not really?" She answered and looked back at Thea.

Thea just did a thumbs up, signaling that she would be okay. Garthan put a hand on Dabrias back and led her out of the room.

They walked down a corridor and shortly found a waiting area. They sat down on a sofa, between a palmy inside bush, and an aquarium. On the opposite wall stood a vending machine. Garthan walked up to it, and pointed to different things, waiting for Dabria to say stop on one of them. She looked as he pointed on different bars, and chocolate, and shook her head when he pointed at a bag of chips. He reached the line of sodas, and she finally nodded when he pointed at a bottle of sprite. Ever silent, he took some coin out of his pocket, and put them into the machine.

He walked back to her, and handed her the soda. She took it, and without saying anything, opened it and took a swig. The sugar and bubbles in her mouth made her wake up for a second.

"Thank you, Garthan." She said with a raspy voice, and tried to hold down a hiccup.

"You know, we're pretty alike you and me." He said, and tilted his head as he looked on her.

"Oh, really?"

"We're both looking out for all these short people." He began, and Dabria chuckled a little. "We're both pretty strong." He continued and grabbed lightly on her bicep, giving it a little squeeze. "And I think we're both destined for greater things."

"Greater things? That sounds big?" She asked, smiling a bit more than she expected.

"You're the football captain, I'm head of the wrestling team. If we don't get into really good schools then what's the point." He said in a way that suggested that he had thought of this before.

"Hmm. Yeah you might be right there." She nodded and took another small swig. "And thank you." she held the bottle up as if to say cheers.

Bethany dragged her feet behind her, the short stretch between the beds, as she walked over. She stopped in front of Sel, who still stared into nothingness. She shook her hand in front of his eyes, and he blinked, almost as if surprised by her presence. Bree came passing by, ready to take another turn to start another circlet around the room. Bethany put out her hand and grabbed her, and then pulled her in and sat her down on Dabria's now empty chair. They both looked up at her, as she rubbed her face and sighed before talking.

"Okay so no one thinks that this is anyone's fault, alright?" She started abruptly. "I know that I seem irritated, but I'm also stressed out, okay. But more important than that is that no one will feel any better if any of you thinks that it is your fault."

"But-" Sel started.

"No. Yes, it was very badly thought through. But everyone made it and we're all gonna move on."

"We don't know that yet." Bree said, a single tear falling from her eyes, still red from the smoke and stress.

Bethany looked at her, unsure what to answer. Carl showed up behind her.

"No we don't. But if there is anything I now about Katkin, then it's that she will pull through even if you think she won't." He tried to smile to seem brave.

"That's true." Bethany strengthened his claim. "Remember that time with the guy who tried to mug her?"

"Yeah, he probably wished that he had chosen anyone but her that night. She was only bruised on her knuckles after their dabble." Carl let out the smallest laugh, as it almost seemed inappropriate.

Sel eventually joined in on their storytelling. They cheered each other up with memoires, first mostly about Katkin, but then also about the rest of them. As the conversation lightened, they also made sure to include Thea and Amber. Bree sat silenlty, an nodded and smiled politely when they looked at her. She didn't feel like she had too many memories of Katkin to share, and the whole thing felt as if they talked about her as if she wasn't with them anymore. She caught herself thinking that she wished she had more memories of Katkin, and that she wanted to share them with her. She put her hands in her pockets and stood up. She walked over to the doorway, just to hear and see something else. As she stood there with her back against the doorframe, watching people pass by in the hallway outside, she felt something against her fingers. She picked it out of the pocket and looked down. There in her palm laid a small note that said 'You're cute'. She smiled at it. That was one memory they had had together, that the rest didn't know about. She wanted it to stay that way.