One Moment Can Change It All
"Ok, two more minutes and I'll be done." Blair said as she fingered a piece of cloth. She walked towards yet another isle of clothing.
"How can it be this hard? You come in here once a week. The whole store is not new!" Jo replied. She sighed knowing that there was no point to argue. She still had to buy her father a present. She had no clue what to get. Her backpack was full of gifts for everyone. She also needed to stop by a bike shop to get a new speedometer for her bike.
Blair sighed and finally went to the cash register. "After this, lets get lunch, I'm hungry."
Jo sighed again. She hadn't been hungry for two days although she made herself eat so she wouldn't starve. Whenever she saw food her stomach rolled over telling her that it would reject the food that she ate. She wasn't very excited about going to a restaurant.
Blair paid for her millions of things and went out. Jo followed slowly her head was now spinning, making her very uneasy. She was sick, but if she stayed home Mrs. Garrett would get concerned and she didn't want to ruin anyone's Christmas. Maybe sitting down would help.
"Where do you want to go?" Blair asked looking down the street for a restaurant.
"I don't care." Jo said rubbing her temples.
"Ok, then I'll choose. Let's go to the Yang Dynasty, I hear it has great Chinese food." She pointed to a blue building and Jo only nodded. They went over and a man came out. He was in full Chinese traditional garb and bowed to the two. Blair smiled and bowed back.
"Two?" he asked in a strange accent. Jo figured he must have actually lived in China. Jo looked around as they walked in. Everywhere you look there were dragons and swords. All the waiters wore the same thing as the host. The smell of fried rice lingered in the air.
They sat in the back at a small brown booth. The table had was made out of neatly polished wood. The menus were something else. They were made out of bamboo wood. The strings that tied the paper together were pieces of dried out straw. Although Jo wasn't hungry, she looked through the menu. They had both Chinese and English writing which was cool.
"Ok, I'm going to have sushi, what about you?" Blair said putting the menu down.
"Oh, I don't know Blairh. I'm not very hungry. I'll probable just get some fried rice." Jo said looking at the giant menu. The text blurred in and out of focus, so she put the menu down.
"I know your sick." Blair said bluntly. Jo just looked up annoyed and then shook her head. "Don't deny it. You haven't eatin in like, what, two days."
"I had breakfast." Jo said as her head throbbed.
"Yeah what, a bite? Jo what's wrong? Come on, Mrs. Garrett's worried about you. We don't want you sick, especially during the holidays." Blair leaned on her elbows staring at her.
"I'm fine Blairh. Give me a break." Jo growled. "Just a small bug. I'll be over it in a few days."
"All right." Blair said shrugging as the waiter came towards them.
"What would you like... to... eat?" the man said in very poor English. It must be hard to live in a country that doesn't understand your language.
"Some sushi and a diet coke." Blair said smiling.
"And you...mame?" He said slowly writing the order down.
"Uh some fried rice and some water." Jo spoke as she handed the man her menu. Her hand shook slightly. Irritated, she stuffed the menu in his hand and smiled "Thank you."
* * * * * *
Natalie flipped through an old book, she loved the way they aged. Slowly they would turn yellow and the covers collected dust. The edges of the cover would become raggedy.
"Ok, times up, time to go for something more entertaining." Tootie said making Natalie jump.
"Patients." Natalie hissed feeling her heart slowing from it's marathon. "And don't scare me like that."
"Mrs. G?" Tootie raised an eyebrow.
"What?" Mrs. Garrett asked from another isle.
"Can we go?" Tootie asked.
"Hold on." Mrs. Garrett responded slowly as if she were doing something else. Natalie just snickered while closing the book she had in her hands. She was going to buy two books. Heading down towards the check out, she looked into the next isle not surprised to see Mrs. Garrett's head in a book.
She put the book on the counter and waited for the man to look up from a book. He had a skinny long face and small spectacles on the tip of his long pointed nose. He looked to be around 5'8", very short indeed. After clearing her throat, the man looked up and gave her a fake smile.
:"How are you doing today? Is this all?" He asked with a high pitched whine. Natalie just nodded and he scanned the books. "Ten dollars mame."
She took out her nice velvet wallet that her mother gave her last year for Hanukah. Taking out a ten dollar bill, she handed it to rat boy. She couldn't help calling him a rat because of his voice and the shape of his head.
"Thank you, have a good day." he mumbled going back to his book. It read 'How to Get a Women'. Natalie giggled softly and went to the door.
"Finally." Tootie said with great exaggeration. "Let's go!"
Mrs. Garrett followed the two outside. "Time to eat?"
"Yes." Tootie replied with out haste. The three went down the block to a Pizzeria. It was small hole in the wall with dim lighting. The front was closed off with glass. On the glass it read Tony's Pizzeria. How original, Natalie thought.
"How many?" a man asked with a fake Italia accent. He wore an Italian suit as if this were the nicest place on Earth.
"Three." Mrs. Garrett said smiling. Was she about to laugh?
"How about right here?" he signaled a waiter and a man came quickly to their assistance. The three sat down and looked at the menus.
"What would you like to drink?" this guy was even more fake then the last one. His hair was nicely combed back with gel and he wore a chef's hat. He was tall and chubby with his stomach bulging out of his small shirt.
"Three waters." Mrs. Garrett answered. So she was still their dietician.
"Alright, bottled or regular?" he asked his smile fading because they would be losing money if they didn't order fountain drinks.
"Regular." Mrs. Garrett spoke slowly looking at the menu. This would be a long lunch. Especially since they were the only ones there.
* * * * * *
"Did you get enough." Natalie asked cocking up one eyebrow. Blair came stumbling with three full bags. Jo followed in with her backpack.
"As a matter of fact, I restrained myself from many things." Blair huffed.
"She did." Jo agreed nodding. "You should have seen her, she put away two things in the same store. I was amazed. Nevah seen Blairh do that before until now. I'm very proud of her."
Blair would have hit the Yankee if she didn't have her arms full. She just stared at the girl. Jo tilted her head and shrugged. Nothing fazed either of the girls when it came to arguing over how much they bought.
"So you get me anything, or do I have to wait till Christmas?" Tootie bounded in chewing on a cookie.
"Nope, not a thing." Blair trailed off as she followed Jo upstairs.
"I have Grades everyone." Mrs. Garrett pushed the kitchen door open with four letters. She had her apron on as if she had been cooking. Her red hair started falling out of her bun.
Natalie jumped up and jogged to get hers. Hey, might as well make this Christmas a good one. She started opening hers as Jo and Blair came down to Get theirs.
Calculus- Semester: C Mid-Term: F
US History- Semester: B Mid-Term: D
Chemistry- Semester: B Mid-Term C
English 12- Semester: B Mid-Term: B
She stared at it for a few minutes puzzled. This has to be wrong! How could this be right, she had studied.
"Jo, good job. I thought you said you were doing poorly in Philosophy. You have an A for your final." Mrs. Garrett said happily.
"Really? Must have been the finals that pulled it up. I did better then I thought I would. Maybe I'm not to bad at this college thing after all." Jo said with no feeling.
"You have all A's, your parents will be proud." Mrs. Garrett added. Jo didn't respond and everyone knew why. The Bronx girl had mixed feelings about school because she was the first generation to go to college. Also, none of her friends went to college.
Tootie grinned from ear to ear as she looked over her report card. She nodded and handed them back to Mrs. Garrett. "So how'd you do Blair?"
"Alright, although I think I could have done better in my finals, but hey, I didn't get lower then a C so I'm good to go." Blair said handing back the envelope to their mentor. "Nat's turn."
"Notin to tell." She answered quickly hoping nobody would ask again.
"Come on Nat, you always get good grades." Tootie said sighing. "Some how you and Jo beat us all out."
"I think I have a miss print. I'm going to call the school." Natalie left the room with her grades in her hand. Nobody followed.
* * * * * *
The brunette slowly took off her shoes and socks and fell into her bed. Her head felt as if a jack hammer was pounding into her skull shattering it into billions of pieces. Her muscles were sore and her neck ached. Everything told her she had a fever.
She slowly went through her relaxing technique. First her toes, then her thighs...
The door slammed shut making her tense again. Darn it! Her stomach rolled but she had nothing in it so she didn't worry.
"I can't believe... errrrrrrrrrrrr!" somebody stomped in.
"Can you at least be quiet about what you can't believe?" Jo mumbled.
"I just failed my Math mid-term!" she growled
"Yes, and I'm trying to sleep, so keep it down or go outside." Jo answered with irritation.
"It's my room to." Natalie said in a normal tone jumping into her own bed and putting her face up against her pillow. The room went silent and Jo started, yet again, to relax. She was tired, way, way to...
* * * * * *
"Mrs. Garrett." Blair yelled as she put on gloves. She couldn't believe she was going into NY to feed the homeless. No offense, but she'd rather be shopping. She had agreed to do this a long time ago, but now it didn't seem like such a great idea.
"I'm coming Blair. There's not one gene of patients in you, is there?" Mrs. Garret said fixing her jacket. She shut the door behind her and went to the car.
"How long are we doing this for?" the blond winced waiting for the answer.
"Till two, it's going to be great." Mrs. Garrett replied unlocking the car and getting in. Blair watched as Mrs. Garrett placed the keys into the ignition and turn it. The car growled and then the engine turned. Blair had learned about cars while Jo talked. The Bronx girl always talked about them, so it was hard not to know the basics of an engine.
They drove to the Bus station in silence and stood in the station in silence. The station had many people entering and leaving to do last minute Christmas shopping. Holiday music flowed through the building echoing of the dirty walls. Blair decided she would break the silence between them, hey it was what she did best.
"Then lets go and get hot chocolate and maybe lunch." She said.
"Alright, that sounds good to me." Mrs. Garrett slowly nodded her head. "It's good that you decided to come Blair even though you don't want to. There's a lot of disadvantaged families who don't get to celebrate Christmas or Hanukah. I wish Natalie, Tootie and Jo had come."
Blair nodded and stuck her hands into her pocket. She waited for the train to come and take them over near Jo's neighborhood. Why didn't Jo come?
* * * * * *
Jo lay in bed not moving. Her forehead dripped in sweat from her fever that seemed to get higher. Her muscles ached when she tried to move or even lay still. Nobody was home, she couldn't call for help. Going down stairs would be dreadful, so she waited.
"Good job Joanne." she grunted to herself. Had she ever felt so horrible in her entire life? Nah, not even when she had the chicken pox. "Ok, plan one. You get off your back and crawl downstairs. Plan two, you call the hospital... no you call 911. Plan three, hope the spasms in your back go away. Plan four, wait."
She slowly shifted her feet to the ground as the whole room spun. Putting both of her feet on the ground would be the first accomplishment, but she had no energy to walk. Slowly the brunette put one foot in front of the other, making gradual steps toward the door. She looked down the stairwell and the steps bleared in and out of focus. Carefully she took the first step down. That, in itself, was a mistake. She had to quickly grab the rail before she tumbled down the staircase.
"New plan." Jo panted. "Hold rail while going down stairs."
Finally after ten agonizing minutes, her foot hit the last step. Sighing in relief the girl looked at her next target, the phone. It was across the room. Suddenly the room seemed to get bigger making her target impossibly far. "Here we go."
"Ok, two more minutes and I'll be done." Blair said as she fingered a piece of cloth. She walked towards yet another isle of clothing.
"How can it be this hard? You come in here once a week. The whole store is not new!" Jo replied. She sighed knowing that there was no point to argue. She still had to buy her father a present. She had no clue what to get. Her backpack was full of gifts for everyone. She also needed to stop by a bike shop to get a new speedometer for her bike.
Blair sighed and finally went to the cash register. "After this, lets get lunch, I'm hungry."
Jo sighed again. She hadn't been hungry for two days although she made herself eat so she wouldn't starve. Whenever she saw food her stomach rolled over telling her that it would reject the food that she ate. She wasn't very excited about going to a restaurant.
Blair paid for her millions of things and went out. Jo followed slowly her head was now spinning, making her very uneasy. She was sick, but if she stayed home Mrs. Garrett would get concerned and she didn't want to ruin anyone's Christmas. Maybe sitting down would help.
"Where do you want to go?" Blair asked looking down the street for a restaurant.
"I don't care." Jo said rubbing her temples.
"Ok, then I'll choose. Let's go to the Yang Dynasty, I hear it has great Chinese food." She pointed to a blue building and Jo only nodded. They went over and a man came out. He was in full Chinese traditional garb and bowed to the two. Blair smiled and bowed back.
"Two?" he asked in a strange accent. Jo figured he must have actually lived in China. Jo looked around as they walked in. Everywhere you look there were dragons and swords. All the waiters wore the same thing as the host. The smell of fried rice lingered in the air.
They sat in the back at a small brown booth. The table had was made out of neatly polished wood. The menus were something else. They were made out of bamboo wood. The strings that tied the paper together were pieces of dried out straw. Although Jo wasn't hungry, she looked through the menu. They had both Chinese and English writing which was cool.
"Ok, I'm going to have sushi, what about you?" Blair said putting the menu down.
"Oh, I don't know Blairh. I'm not very hungry. I'll probable just get some fried rice." Jo said looking at the giant menu. The text blurred in and out of focus, so she put the menu down.
"I know your sick." Blair said bluntly. Jo just looked up annoyed and then shook her head. "Don't deny it. You haven't eatin in like, what, two days."
"I had breakfast." Jo said as her head throbbed.
"Yeah what, a bite? Jo what's wrong? Come on, Mrs. Garrett's worried about you. We don't want you sick, especially during the holidays." Blair leaned on her elbows staring at her.
"I'm fine Blairh. Give me a break." Jo growled. "Just a small bug. I'll be over it in a few days."
"All right." Blair said shrugging as the waiter came towards them.
"What would you like... to... eat?" the man said in very poor English. It must be hard to live in a country that doesn't understand your language.
"Some sushi and a diet coke." Blair said smiling.
"And you...mame?" He said slowly writing the order down.
"Uh some fried rice and some water." Jo spoke as she handed the man her menu. Her hand shook slightly. Irritated, she stuffed the menu in his hand and smiled "Thank you."
* * * * * *
Natalie flipped through an old book, she loved the way they aged. Slowly they would turn yellow and the covers collected dust. The edges of the cover would become raggedy.
"Ok, times up, time to go for something more entertaining." Tootie said making Natalie jump.
"Patients." Natalie hissed feeling her heart slowing from it's marathon. "And don't scare me like that."
"Mrs. G?" Tootie raised an eyebrow.
"What?" Mrs. Garrett asked from another isle.
"Can we go?" Tootie asked.
"Hold on." Mrs. Garrett responded slowly as if she were doing something else. Natalie just snickered while closing the book she had in her hands. She was going to buy two books. Heading down towards the check out, she looked into the next isle not surprised to see Mrs. Garrett's head in a book.
She put the book on the counter and waited for the man to look up from a book. He had a skinny long face and small spectacles on the tip of his long pointed nose. He looked to be around 5'8", very short indeed. After clearing her throat, the man looked up and gave her a fake smile.
:"How are you doing today? Is this all?" He asked with a high pitched whine. Natalie just nodded and he scanned the books. "Ten dollars mame."
She took out her nice velvet wallet that her mother gave her last year for Hanukah. Taking out a ten dollar bill, she handed it to rat boy. She couldn't help calling him a rat because of his voice and the shape of his head.
"Thank you, have a good day." he mumbled going back to his book. It read 'How to Get a Women'. Natalie giggled softly and went to the door.
"Finally." Tootie said with great exaggeration. "Let's go!"
Mrs. Garrett followed the two outside. "Time to eat?"
"Yes." Tootie replied with out haste. The three went down the block to a Pizzeria. It was small hole in the wall with dim lighting. The front was closed off with glass. On the glass it read Tony's Pizzeria. How original, Natalie thought.
"How many?" a man asked with a fake Italia accent. He wore an Italian suit as if this were the nicest place on Earth.
"Three." Mrs. Garrett said smiling. Was she about to laugh?
"How about right here?" he signaled a waiter and a man came quickly to their assistance. The three sat down and looked at the menus.
"What would you like to drink?" this guy was even more fake then the last one. His hair was nicely combed back with gel and he wore a chef's hat. He was tall and chubby with his stomach bulging out of his small shirt.
"Three waters." Mrs. Garrett answered. So she was still their dietician.
"Alright, bottled or regular?" he asked his smile fading because they would be losing money if they didn't order fountain drinks.
"Regular." Mrs. Garrett spoke slowly looking at the menu. This would be a long lunch. Especially since they were the only ones there.
* * * * * *
"Did you get enough." Natalie asked cocking up one eyebrow. Blair came stumbling with three full bags. Jo followed in with her backpack.
"As a matter of fact, I restrained myself from many things." Blair huffed.
"She did." Jo agreed nodding. "You should have seen her, she put away two things in the same store. I was amazed. Nevah seen Blairh do that before until now. I'm very proud of her."
Blair would have hit the Yankee if she didn't have her arms full. She just stared at the girl. Jo tilted her head and shrugged. Nothing fazed either of the girls when it came to arguing over how much they bought.
"So you get me anything, or do I have to wait till Christmas?" Tootie bounded in chewing on a cookie.
"Nope, not a thing." Blair trailed off as she followed Jo upstairs.
"I have Grades everyone." Mrs. Garrett pushed the kitchen door open with four letters. She had her apron on as if she had been cooking. Her red hair started falling out of her bun.
Natalie jumped up and jogged to get hers. Hey, might as well make this Christmas a good one. She started opening hers as Jo and Blair came down to Get theirs.
Calculus- Semester: C Mid-Term: F
US History- Semester: B Mid-Term: D
Chemistry- Semester: B Mid-Term C
English 12- Semester: B Mid-Term: B
She stared at it for a few minutes puzzled. This has to be wrong! How could this be right, she had studied.
"Jo, good job. I thought you said you were doing poorly in Philosophy. You have an A for your final." Mrs. Garrett said happily.
"Really? Must have been the finals that pulled it up. I did better then I thought I would. Maybe I'm not to bad at this college thing after all." Jo said with no feeling.
"You have all A's, your parents will be proud." Mrs. Garrett added. Jo didn't respond and everyone knew why. The Bronx girl had mixed feelings about school because she was the first generation to go to college. Also, none of her friends went to college.
Tootie grinned from ear to ear as she looked over her report card. She nodded and handed them back to Mrs. Garrett. "So how'd you do Blair?"
"Alright, although I think I could have done better in my finals, but hey, I didn't get lower then a C so I'm good to go." Blair said handing back the envelope to their mentor. "Nat's turn."
"Notin to tell." She answered quickly hoping nobody would ask again.
"Come on Nat, you always get good grades." Tootie said sighing. "Some how you and Jo beat us all out."
"I think I have a miss print. I'm going to call the school." Natalie left the room with her grades in her hand. Nobody followed.
* * * * * *
The brunette slowly took off her shoes and socks and fell into her bed. Her head felt as if a jack hammer was pounding into her skull shattering it into billions of pieces. Her muscles were sore and her neck ached. Everything told her she had a fever.
She slowly went through her relaxing technique. First her toes, then her thighs...
The door slammed shut making her tense again. Darn it! Her stomach rolled but she had nothing in it so she didn't worry.
"I can't believe... errrrrrrrrrrrr!" somebody stomped in.
"Can you at least be quiet about what you can't believe?" Jo mumbled.
"I just failed my Math mid-term!" she growled
"Yes, and I'm trying to sleep, so keep it down or go outside." Jo answered with irritation.
"It's my room to." Natalie said in a normal tone jumping into her own bed and putting her face up against her pillow. The room went silent and Jo started, yet again, to relax. She was tired, way, way to...
* * * * * *
"Mrs. Garrett." Blair yelled as she put on gloves. She couldn't believe she was going into NY to feed the homeless. No offense, but she'd rather be shopping. She had agreed to do this a long time ago, but now it didn't seem like such a great idea.
"I'm coming Blair. There's not one gene of patients in you, is there?" Mrs. Garret said fixing her jacket. She shut the door behind her and went to the car.
"How long are we doing this for?" the blond winced waiting for the answer.
"Till two, it's going to be great." Mrs. Garrett replied unlocking the car and getting in. Blair watched as Mrs. Garrett placed the keys into the ignition and turn it. The car growled and then the engine turned. Blair had learned about cars while Jo talked. The Bronx girl always talked about them, so it was hard not to know the basics of an engine.
They drove to the Bus station in silence and stood in the station in silence. The station had many people entering and leaving to do last minute Christmas shopping. Holiday music flowed through the building echoing of the dirty walls. Blair decided she would break the silence between them, hey it was what she did best.
"Then lets go and get hot chocolate and maybe lunch." She said.
"Alright, that sounds good to me." Mrs. Garrett slowly nodded her head. "It's good that you decided to come Blair even though you don't want to. There's a lot of disadvantaged families who don't get to celebrate Christmas or Hanukah. I wish Natalie, Tootie and Jo had come."
Blair nodded and stuck her hands into her pocket. She waited for the train to come and take them over near Jo's neighborhood. Why didn't Jo come?
* * * * * *
Jo lay in bed not moving. Her forehead dripped in sweat from her fever that seemed to get higher. Her muscles ached when she tried to move or even lay still. Nobody was home, she couldn't call for help. Going down stairs would be dreadful, so she waited.
"Good job Joanne." she grunted to herself. Had she ever felt so horrible in her entire life? Nah, not even when she had the chicken pox. "Ok, plan one. You get off your back and crawl downstairs. Plan two, you call the hospital... no you call 911. Plan three, hope the spasms in your back go away. Plan four, wait."
She slowly shifted her feet to the ground as the whole room spun. Putting both of her feet on the ground would be the first accomplishment, but she had no energy to walk. Slowly the brunette put one foot in front of the other, making gradual steps toward the door. She looked down the stairwell and the steps bleared in and out of focus. Carefully she took the first step down. That, in itself, was a mistake. She had to quickly grab the rail before she tumbled down the staircase.
"New plan." Jo panted. "Hold rail while going down stairs."
Finally after ten agonizing minutes, her foot hit the last step. Sighing in relief the girl looked at her next target, the phone. It was across the room. Suddenly the room seemed to get bigger making her target impossibly far. "Here we go."