CHAPTER 14

"We're here."

Miguel looked up and he stared out of the car window to see the hospital for the first time. They had been driving for the whole morning and had finally made it to San Francisco. The hospital was the place where he would be spending at least the next month or two and it looked… not that bad. Carmen and Miguel had pulled up to the front entrance of the hospital, and as they stepped out of the car, they had to crane their necks to look up at the towering main building. The place was definitely more fancy and expensive than anywhere Miguel had lived in his life. Rolling into the hospital in his wheelchair, as Miguel took a first look around, he realised that this place looked more like a 5 star hotel than a hospital. The front lobby was illuminated with a soft and welcoming light, as if it were a sunshine in gentle pastel hue. All around the lobby, sofas and chairs were filled with smiling, laughing patients, all in different stages of recovery from a variety of different injuries.

Soon, Carmen had checked Miguel into the facility and it was time for her to go. Parents were technically allowed to see their kids while they were in the hospital, but given that it was a 6 hour drive across the state to get to San Francisco, she knew that their visits would probably be limited. Carmen was still slightly unsure about leaving her son in the hospital, alone. What if something bad happened to him? Although she would be able to have constant communication with him by phone, she wouldn't be able to get to the hospital for 6 hours. A LOT could happen in that time. The biggest worry Carmen had was the not knowing. For all she knew, Miguel could go through this whole program and it wouldn't work. He still wouldn't be able to walk, and then on top of that being away would make it so much worse as he wouldn't be around friends. However, she knew that Miguel's best chance of recovery would be if he was here, not at home. And eventually, she had to say goodbye. After a long and tearful farewell with her son, she took a deep breath and got in her car, leaving Miguel in the hospital and in the care of others for the first time in his life.

Immediately, Miguel was greeted by one of the counsellors of the hospital/school/residence. Along with a lot of doctors and counsellors, there were also a couple of teachers and house supervisors, as well as the admin officials who did all of the paperwork that undeniably came from all of this. This hospital was absolutely unique, and it was nothing like any other hospital in the world. That's why people came from all over the globe for their kids to be treated at this hospital.

"Hey Mr. Diaz! My name is Dr. Stacey Alexander. I'm one of the counsellors here at Lionsgate Hospital, and I'm going to be helping you for the duration of your stay here. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yeah, nice to meet you too." Miguel murmured, nervously, shaking her hand. He was going to be here for a while, so he didn't want to get on anyone's bad side. These people were the only chance he had of ever walking again.

"So, the way today's going to work is first, I'm going to give you a tour of the facility. We'll visit the medical facilities, the classrooms, the grounds, and we'll end at the residence, where you'll get to meet your new housemates. From there, you'll be able to spend the rest of the day with them. Tomorrow, we will meet to discuss your recovery plan, and your education plan, all those logistics."

"That sounds great, thank you so much." Miguel said. Dr. Stacey smiled at him and nodded.

"Not a problem, Miguel. Our goal is to make your rehabilitation experience as fun and as comfortable as possible, and help you form bonds with some of the people that will last a lifetime."

Miguel nodded silently, but inside he scoffed. He really didn't give a crap about forming bonds with any of the other patients. With everything he was going through, making new friends really wasn't a top priority. He just wanted to get in and out of this place as soon as possible, and would just do what he did whenever he moved cities as a kid: just keep himself to himself and not bother anyone.

"But first things first…" Stacey said, turning around and gesturing to the lady at the front desk, who promptly walked over, wheeling a motorised wheelchair with her. "Here. This is yours for as long as you need it. It definitely beats having to lug yourself around all day."

"Oh, wow. Um… thank you so much." Miguel mumbled as he was helped into the motorised wheelchair, turned it on, and used the joystick by his right hand to move himself around. It was absolutely wonderful. It was like he could finally move around with minimal effort, almost like walking. ALMOST. He tested out the motorised chair for several moments, before Stacey led him out of the front lobby to begin the tour…

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Over the course of the next 45 minutes, Miguel was taken to all of the center's jaw-dropping facilities. It was seeing Lionsgate's classrooms, fields, music room, dining hall, indoor multiport gymnasium and swimming pool that made Miguel realise that this place was truly WAY more than merely a hospital. It was a home to nearly 100 kids and teenagers. But in addition to that, the hospital's medical facilities were second to none. They had all of the newest technology and some of the most well-respected doctors in the country. The facility was an absolute miracle, but it was only as amazing as it was due to the steep fees, as well as a lot of donations from the wealthy families who send their kids there after their kids recovered. Thankfully, Miguel didn't have to pay a cent. He knew that there was no way in hell his family could afford for him to go to a place like this if not for Kreese.

Eventually, the final location of the tour was the boarding house, where Miguel would be spending the whole duration of his stay living in. Students of all ages and strangely, both genders, were all randomly split into 10 houses. They would be spending a lot of time with their housemates when they weren't at physical therapy or school, so patients often built extremely strong friendships with the people in their house. Not that Miguel cared. They made it to the residence house and as Miguel was taken around, his jaw hit the ground in shock. He couldn't imagine living in a house like this. The place was AWESOME. Although it was only one floor to be wheelchair accessible, as well as all of the rooms, it also contained a common room with a bunch of sofas; a game room with a PS4 and a pool table, table tennis table and foosball table custom-made to suit the height of patients in wheelchairs. There was no kitchen because students in all houses would eat in a communal dining hall, but that was literally the only thing it was missing.

As the tour concluded, Miguel was taken back to the front of the house, where he was met by the house's two senior house advisors: a young married couple named Mr. and Mrs. Jackson. Dr. Stacey left at that point and left Miguel in their care. As Miguel looked at them nervously, his anxiety decreased greatly as the couple smiled warmly at him.

"Welcome. It's really awesome to meet you, and welcome you aboard to House 10. I'm Cynthia, this is my husband Clive."

"Miguel. Nice to meet you." Miguel said quietly, shaking their hands.

"Likewise. We can't wait to get to know you over the next month or however long you're here for. Look, now, we've gotta give you the spiel." Clive said. "Just know that me and Cynthia, we get it. We were both patients here back in the day."

"Back in the day? You make us sound so old!" Cynthia remarked, and Clive laughed. The two were trying to keep things as light as possible to try and ease Miguel into his new environment, but Miguel didn't laugh too. So much bad had happened to him recently that it was almost like he had forgotten how to.

"Well, 20 years ago isn't exactly yesterday, sweetie! Anyways, Miguel, I know you've been given a tour of the house already and you know that this is where you're going to be living for the next little while. Now we're going to take you to meet the others living here right now." Clive said.

Miguel nodded and as Clive and Cynthia turned around to walk down the corridor, Miguel followed them anxiously. The nerves on his face clearly showed, and Cynthia smiled sympathetically at him.

"Look, we know how overwhelming this can all be: new house, new faces, not being able to see family. Just take it at your own speed." She said.

"Yeah, exactly." Clive agreed as they reached the common room door. "Oh, one more thing. 7 people from our house were discharged together last week so the house is really empty right now. It won't be for long though. Hopefully soon we'll be back to full numbers again but for now, it's just 5 people."

With that, she pushed open the common room door and stepped inside. There were a couple of kids scattered all around the room, all of them doing different things. Miguel was first led over to a young teenage kid, probably about 13 or 14, who was playing a videogame on his computer, large headphones covering his ears.

"DIE, ZOMBIE, DIE!" He suddenly shouted at the screen, causing glares from the other children in the room.

"So that zombie killer over there is Eugene. He came to us from Japan a month and a half ago." Cynthia said as she tried to get his attention to say hi to the new boy but failed and eventually gave up.

Suddenly, the door swung open and a short African-american girl sprinted into the room, running over to Miguel and not hesitating to throw her arms around him. Miguel was extremely taken aback, and had to stop himself from reversing away from him.

"And that's Darla. 8 years old. Came to us from New York 3 weeks ago. Big hugger." Clive remarked.

"I noticed." Miguel mumbled quietly as he tried to detangle himself from Darla's limbs but failed as she locked onto him like an octopus.

"Ooh, I made you a welcome card!" Darla exclaimed, as she sprinted away to go and fetch the card from her room. She, unlike some of the others, could walk just fine as her injury had been in her arms, not her legs.

Cynthia and Clive then took Miguel to the corner of the room, where the last girl was sitting. She looked a lot older than everyone else, closer to Miguel's age and probably about 17 or 18. She had her hair tied back in a fierce ponytail and was wearing massive glasses as she sat hunched over her computer, looking like she was working rather than gaming like Eugene was. As Cynthia and Clive walked over to her and called her name, she didn't respond as she was too deep in thought. It took them tapping her on the shoulder several times and waving a hand an inch from her face to finally snap her out of her trance, and cause her to look up. When she saw Miguel there in front of her, her face brightened and she beamed at him, quickly shaking his hand.

"Hi! I'm Mary."

"Miguel." He replied.

"Mary's been with us the longest. She's our hometown girl - she's from San Francisco - and she's been here for nearly 8 months now." Clive said. Miguel internally winced. 8 months. That was SUCH a long time, and a worrying sign. She appeared to have a lower body injury just like Miguel, so the fact that she hadn't recovered in 8 months was scary. However, Clive and Cynthia did say that 7 kids got discharged last week so that was promising.

"Sorry I didn't notice you before. I'm 18 so I'm starting to apply for colleges now. Stupid essay due next week is taking up a lot of time, you know?" She said. Miguel nodded understandingly, and he left the common room shortly after. According to Cynthia and Clive, there was only one person he had yet to meet: his new roommate, a boy named George. Apparently, George was around his age, which is why the house advisors decided to put Miguel and George in roommates, even though there were definitely enough rooms for Miguel to get his own room.

They made it to the room several moments later, and after knocking on the door, they walked in. Miguel had to blink a couple of times to truly be able to take in the room. George's half of the room's wall was covered in hockey posters. Different teams, different players, different arenas adorned every inch of the walls. His side of the room also contained his desk with piles of books, a full wardrobe and drawer, and a bed with navy sheets. Miguel's side, however, contained an unused, empty desk, wardrobe and drawer and plain white single bed. When Miguel came into the room, George, who was sitting at his desk, spun around and grinned when he saw him. George had unruly chestnut-brown hair, ocean-blue eyes and a devilish grin. He was dressed in an Adidas Hockey hoodie and sweatpants.

"Wow, hockey fan?" Miguel remarked as he glanced at all of the wall posters and stickers that George had stuck on the wall, as well as George's hoodie. George smiled widely and nodded.

"Yup. Best sport in the world." George stated quickly, and Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Okay. We're going to give you boys some time to get to know each other." Clive and Cynthia said, before leaving the room and leaving the two boys to get acquainted.

"You know, a lot of people would disagree with you about that." Miguel said. "Soccer has way more fans than hockey."

"Hockey has more constant action." George argued.

"Soccer has more passion." Miguel responded straight back.

"Hockey has fights. We win right there." George said, confidently. Miguel chuckled and shrugged. "When we're out of the wheelchairs, I'll take you to an ice rink and teach you how to play. You'll agree with me soon enough. I'm George by the way."

"Miguel. Nice to meet you…"

Well I'm back. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. This chapter might have been kind of dull, but it's kind of a filler chapter as I get used to being back to this story, and it is setting up major characters in the story.

Also, anticipating some incoming questions that I have already gotten about previous chapters, I KNOW that this facility that Miguel is in is unrealistic in pretty much every way. I have gotten these messages before and I really don't feel like getting these kinds of comments again. This story is only going to get a bit more unrealistic so if you want something with 100% realisticness, read a dictionary.