Hey everyone! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I haven't gotten to write very much this summer. And, not a lot of people have reviewed this summer, even though school's out. But if you read this story, please review. I don't mind constructive criticism, if that's all you've got to offer. It was a little hard to write, so I'm sorry if some stuff didn't come out right. But, I'm sure you want to read this, so I'll stop talking here and let you get started.

Disclaimer:If you think I own School Of Rock, you're really wrong and really dense. I just own the original characters, the DVD, the soundtrack, and the plot. I don't even have my own room-I share one with my sister. But I might get my own room in the basement!

Dewey's Niece

Chapter Seven

Waiting

Kristi, Dewey, and Freddy ran into the emergency room. Mr. and Mrs. Mooneyham weren't there. Dewey said to the two kids, "Go sit down. I'll see if Zack's here yet." They sat down in two chairs and waited, something neither Kristi nor Freddy were good at.

Dewey approached the front desk. At it was a receptionist, who was about thirty years old. She had blond hair and green eyes. She asked him, "Can I help you?"

Dewey smiled. "I need to know if a Zack Mooneyham came in here yet."

The lady looked at some papers on her desk. She looked up and said, "I'm sorry. Nobody named Zack has been in here." She returned to what she was doing.

Dewey wouldn't take that for an answer. He slammed his fist against the desk, causing a flower pot on it to fall on the floor and shatter, and yelled. "Hasn't there been any kid in here in the last half an hour? Zack-he has dark hair and dark eyes, and is about twelve years old, I think-I don't know how old he is-but he has to be here!"

The receptionist looked startled by Dewey's outburst. She pulled a piece of paper out of a pile, scanned it over, and said, "There was a boy who just came in here, about five minutes ago. He looked like he was in a car accident. His eyes were shut, but he had dark brown hair. The doctors took him in for emergency X-rays. You can sit out here and wait, if you want. I'm sorry I can't do any more than that."

Dewey muttered thanks and sat down by Kristi and Freddy. He told them, "He's having X-rays right now. His parents haven't showed up yet. I guess we have to wait for them."

It was silent for several minutes, except for the voices of the other people in the waiting room. Kristi was staring at an abstract painting. She was bored, and there was nothing to look at. Freddy was holding his head in his hands and was looking stressed.

I can't believe what happened, he thought. My best friend was hit. He could be dead, for all I know. I'm so worried. But I can't show it. What would Kristi think if she saw me panicking? Heaven knows what she would think, and what's happening to Zack. I wish I could be next to him, or out there helping. But I can't. I guess I just have to sit here, hoping that he isn't hurt to bad.

All of a sudden, a door slammed. In walked two people, a man and a woman, both looking terrified. They were Mr. and Mrs. Mooneyham. Mr. Mooneyham was in a suit. His chocolate brown eyes looked frightened. Mrs. Mooneyham was squeezing his hand. Her dark brown hair was messily combed, and she had tears in her eyes. They looked around the bleak emergency room for some sing of comfort. Then they say Dewey and Freddy-familiar faces.

Dewey and Freddy ran up to them. They shook hands and greeted each other. Freddy turned and noticed Kristi sitting there, all alone. She looked really upset. He walked over to her and said, "They are Zack's parents. Dewey's telling them who you are, so go say hi." He walked her over to them. Kristi shook Mr. Mooneyham's hand, but when she offered hers to Mrs. Mooneyham, Kristi received a hug.

Mrs. Mooneyham wiped tears from her eyes and said, "I'm so terrified. What if he's hurt?"

"He's obviously hurt, Lily. I think they have paperwork for us to fill out," Mr. Mooneyham said as he led her to a chair. He felt that the less they talked about it, the better. Then he went over to the front desk. Everyone else sat down in the plastic chairs in the corner. Lily was crying, and Dewey was trying to comfort her until her husband got back. Kristi was sitting in silence. Freddy put his arm around her shoulder. She looked away. He sensed that something was wrong so he said, "Are you okay? You know, if you think that this is your fault, it's not."

She turned her head, wiped a tear from her eye, and said, "It seems like it. If we weren't going out, and if I hadn't joined the band, none of this would have ever happened."

"Don't say that. Aren't you happy, that we are going out, and stuff?"

"Yeah, it's like a dream come true. I love it, and I love you. Even though we haven't done much together, we've been so busy, you just make me feel like I'm where I belong whenever I'm with you."

Kristi blushed from what she had just said and turned away. Freddy smiled, but that smile faded away when a nurse came out and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Mooneyham, we have the results of Zack's X-rays, if you could come back here with me, please."

"Let's go, Derrick," Lily said.

Freddy stopped them to ask. "Can we come too? I mean, we're his friends, and we want to make sure he's going to be okay."

Lily nodded, and Kristi, Freddy, and Dewey followed Lily, Derrick, and the nurse into a small room. In it, there was an illuminated panel, and on it were pictures on an arm and a backbone. The nurse gestured to some chairs, and everyone sat down.

Then a doctor, who had a name plate bearing the words 'Dr. Wentworth', came in. He asked, "So, are you the family of Zack Mooneyham?"

Lily, who was sitting on the edge of her chair, said, "Yes, is he alright?"

"'Fraid not." He pointed to the X-rays, and continued, saying, "He has snapped a tendon in his arm. It will require some minor surgery, nothing big, really."

"That's not good," Kristi said, wringing her hands. "But that's all, right?"

Dr. Wentworth shook his head. "Sorry. He, well, he also broke his back. A surgeon will need to install rods in his back. And, sadly…" There was a long pause.

"What? Say it!" demanded Freddy. The tension in the room was rising, and everyone wanted to know what Dr. Wentworth was going to say.

"He won't be able to walk again, sorry."

Everyone was silent and in total shock, especially Lily. "What do you mean?" she cried. "My baby…can never walk again? That can't be true!"

"How could this happen?" Freddy mumbled. He was in shock, that his best friend couldn't walk again. Kristi looked really upset, too.

She stood up and said, "Excuse me for just a second."

Kristi ran out of the room and into the bathroom, where she started to cry.

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Katie yawned and ran up the stairs to her bedroom. She put on her pajamas and sat on her bed and let out a long, low sigh. It had been a trying day for her. Freddy and Zack had gotten into a fight. It had scared the living daylights out of her. Seeing Freddy cut and Zack struggling for air; it was just too much. And when he left the band; Katie didn't know what to say. Kristi was one of her best friends, but was she why Zack left? Then, to top it all off, Zack got hit by a car.

Katie liked him, and she was ready to tell everyone in the world, except for Zack. She had kept it from everybody that she knew, besides Marta and Summer. Katie was afraid that if he knew, that he wouldn't like her, and never speak to her. They didn't really speak to each other, except for at band practice. Katie got up, and decided to brush her hair. She combed it out and started to braid her hair. When Katie was little, her mom would always braid her hair when she was upset. She divided her hair into two sections and started to braid one of the sections. While she did that, she thought about the accident.

I wonder what caused the accident, Katie thought. In the middle of the day. Not many accidents happen in the middle of the day, I think. I hope Zack's alright. I don't think that the accident was too bad, I mean, that he wasn't hurt too bad. Maybe a couple of bumps and bruises, that's all.

Katie was working on braiding the second section. While she was in the middle of it, her mother shouted, "Katie, get down here quick!" in a timid voice. Katie was confused. It was ten o'clock, and she hadn't done anything wrong. She started to ignore her, when her mother called up again, "Kaitlyn Marie, it's an emergency; you don't want to miss this!"

Katie ran downstairs to the family room, leaving her braided pigtails unfinished. Her mom and dad were watching the ten o' clock news. There was a picture of an ambulance loading a boy into it. Katie sat on the floor, hoping that that wasn't who she thought that is was.

The news reporter said, "Today we have had one of the worst accidents that our city has ever seen. Downtown, a young child was riding his bike on the street. He was sandwiched by two cars, one that ex-sheriff Donald Lemmings was driving. The other driver was a drunken teenager, named Cody Michelson. The both of them will probably be serving jail time. As for the boy, our star reporter, Mackenzie Roberts, is at the hospital for more on him. Mackenzie." She gestured to a screen with a smiling lady on it.

Katie stared at the screen, afraid and worried. "Is that-" her dad asked, but she silenced him as the reporter started to speak.

"This young boy," Mackenzie started, "Has the name of Zack Mooneyham," Katie gasped, "A person, who wishes to remain anonymous said that he was leaving band practice when he got hit. And, out of coincidence, Donald Lemmings's daughter, Marta Lemmings, is in the band. I think its name is School Of Rock. Anyway, back to Zack Mooneyham. He is staying in this hospital. I went to talk to Zack's doctor. Here's what he had to say."

Katie watched as a doctor came out. The doctor spoke, saying, "Zack was seriously injured in this crash. To make a long story short, he snapped a tendon in his left arm, and he broke his back. People who break their backs like that don't usually ever walk again."

Katie put her hand up to her mouth. Tears started to silently flow down her face. "Freddy! Kristi!" she cried out as she saw her two friends on the TV screen, apparently trying to leave the hospital. Kristi was saying something like, 'Leave me alone. I don't want to talk about what happened.' She was in tears, just like Katie. It all seemed blurry to her. Katie couldn't take it anymore. She ran up to her room, just as Mackenzie was giving the phone number to call if you wanted to give a donation to help pay for the surgery. Overcome with grief, Katie flopped onto her bed and cried herself to sleep.

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It was midnight. Dewey pulled his van into Freddy's driveway. "I'll pick you up from your house tomorrow at four, Freddy. So I'll see you later," Dewey said as Kristi and Freddy got out of the van.

They walked up to Freddy's porch together. "I'm so tired," Freddy yawned. "We spent so much time waiting for Zack to wake up."

"I know, and he never did wake up. So, when's Zack's surgery?" Kristi asked Freddy.

"They are going to operate on his arm at five in the morning, and if everything went okay, they'll start working on his back in the next few days."

"And we'll be able to see him?"

"For a few minutes, yeah. That's why Dewey's picking me up."

"Good. Well, I better let you go."

Kristi turned to leave, but Freddy grabbed her shoulder. When she spun around Freddy kissed her. Not like a tiny peck on the cheek, but a French kiss. (Obviously on the lips.) It was a little sloppy, but Kristi let into it slowly and turned it around. It was like nothing the two of them had ever felt or done before. Kristi quickly pulled away.

"Dewey's watching us," she whispered.

Freddy turned pink and said, "Oh, well, tell him I said bye."

They hugged, and Kristi ran to the van. Inside it, Dewey was cracking up. "Oh, shut up," Kristi said as she turned pinker than Freddy. She knew that she wasn't going to get him to stop, so, for no real reason, she mumbled, "He started it." That made Dewey laughed even more. Kristi punched him in the shoulder. They rode home in silence, with an occasional smirk from Dewey.

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The phone rang on the next day. Freddy woke up from his nap. Since he was suspended, there wasn't much he could do. His mom had taken his TV and his X-box, and made him stay in his room. He could only come out to go to the bathroom and to eat. The phone rang again. Freddy picked it up and said, "Hello?"

"Freddy? It's Kristi." Kristi said, on the other line. "Having fun being suspended?"

"Yeah, loads of fun," Freddy sarcastically replied. "I have to stay in my room, with nothing to do. At least I get to sleep in."

"That's why I like being home-schooled; you can sleep in late."

"You're home-schooled?" Freddy asked.

"Yeah, my parents don't want me to go to a 'normal school with normal people.' It's so stupid."

"That's weird. So, when are you and Dewey going to pick me up-y'know, to go to the hospital, to see Zack?"

"Oh, that." Kristi sounded upset. "We can't go."

"WHAT!" Freddy yelled. "Why can't we go?"

"Well, Zack's mom called, like, five minutes before I called you. She said that they did the surgery on his arm. I guess it went OK. But he was in a lot of pain when the surgery was done. And the pain killer made him sleepy. Then, he had an asthma attack; his asthma is really bad, I guess. They're going to postpone the surgery on his back. His mom said that it would scare us-seeing him like that. They might have to put him in ICU if he doesn't do better. I'm so scared…"

"Aren't we all?" Just then, Freddy's mom came in. She apparently didn't want him on the phone.

She took the phone and said into it, "Freddy has to go."

She hung up the phone and said to Freddy, "You can't be on the phone. You're grounded, remember?"

"Yeah," Freddy said. After his mom left, he screamed in agony, and chucked one of his drumsticks across the room. It put a small hole in the wall. He couldn't see his friend? Zack needed him the most, right then, and he couldn't go up to him and say that he would be alright. But Freddy couldn't be there for Zack, his best friend. I feel really bad, Freddy thought. He and I were mad. I guess I'm still a little mad, but I'm sure he'd like to see me. I just wonder whether I will be able to see him soon.

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Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

That was the only sound in the entire room. No one spoke a word. It had been a week since Kristi called Freddy. Zack had the surgery on his back the day before. His mom and the nurse said that it would probably be alright if Dewey, Freddy, and Kristi came in for a quick visit. They had to wait until someone came and told them that they could go see him.

No one liked the wait. Freddy kept staring at the clock. Dewey kept cracking different body parts. Kristi was fidgeting uncontrollably. Freddy grabbed her wrist to try to get her to stop. He noticed the black skull and crossbones wristband. "What's up with that?" he asked Kristi.

"Oh. It's for Pirates of the Caribbean, you know, the movie. With the Jolly Rodger flag, for the pirates. It's got Orlando Bloom in it. He's so fine."

Freddy rolled his eyes, and continued to stare at the clock. It seemed like they had been there for hours, when it had really only been half of one. Freddy turned to Kristi, and asked, "Why are you here?"

"In what sense?" Kristi asked.

"I don't know, in the smaller sense, I think-I don't know."

"Well, I guess I'm here because I feel like it's my entire fault, and to see if he's ok. But why are you here? I mean, he got mad at you, and gave you those stitches. Not to mention such a hard time. Why are you here?"

Freddy replied, "I guess it's because he's my friend, and because when the going gets tough, friends stick together."

Then there was lots more silence. On the inside Freddy was about to burst. As the clock struck ten, Freddy jumped up and yelled, "I can't take it anymore! What room is Zack's Dewey, I'm gonna go to it."

"Its room three nineteen. Kristi can go too. As for me, I'm going to go get a cappuccino. See ya later."

Kristi got up and she and Freddy sprinted down the hall. Kristi followed Freddy, who didn't know where room three hundred nineteen was. They ran up and down stairs and through hallways, trying to fond the room. Freddy almost crashed into a lady in a wheelchair. Kristi stopped to laugh by a door. She looked at it and said to Freddy, "It's room three nineteen. I found it!"

Just then, a nurse stepped out of the room. Freddy asked her, "Can we go in and see Zack?"

The nurse smiled. "I don't see why not; just knock first."

Kristi muttered thanks and knocked on the door.

"Come in," called a raspy voice, which was probably Zack's.

She opened the door and they stepped in.

So, did you like it? If you did, please review. If you didn't, please review anyway. I would like to have at least fifty reviews for my story. And here are my responses:

Mellowyellow36-I couldn't kill him, I love him too much. I'm sorry.

Shadowfaxgal7-It did drive me crazy. And it made me laugh. And, I can't kill Freddy-he's too cute (just like Zack). Sorry to disappoint you.

Legolas-Aragorn-r-hot-I don't think he's ugly, but Tom cut his hair. I can't believe him. It makes him look, well, less hot.

Kaitlin Bird-Good point. But I couldn't kill him, he's too cute. (I've been saying this a lot, haven't I?)

Alissa-I almost cried too. I can't believe I hurt him.