This story will have wonky updates. Should be pretty regular though. Please review with any thoughts.
Also, I don't own The Lunar Chronicles. Obviously.
She hated gym class so much. Especially the dumb team sports. The new coach, Allen, was really annoying.
Today they had to play capture the flag with a weird twist with partners. He didn't even let them pick their own partners.
"Crescent Moon, you're on the blue team, with Carswell." He barely glanced at her, keeping his focus on his bright orange clipboard.
"It's Cress." She muttered, but he had moved on to the next student.
She stalked toward the right side of the gym, temporarily dubbed the blue side. She didn't remember who she had been partnered with, she would figure it out later. She didn't have any friends in this class anyway.
"Crescent Moon! You're over here with me." Thorne yelled.
No,no, NO! Earlier, she had thought that it didn't matter who she was partnered with. But Thorne was the worst person she could have been partnered with.
She consoled herself by reminding herself it was only an hour, and she had computer class next with Julian.
When she reached Thorne, she didn't say anything. Even to correct her name. Instead she chose not to say anything, and didn't engage.
"You all know the rules. Capture the flag, but you must stay in contact with your partner. If you need, I have some old jerseys you can use."
"Do you think we need one?"
"Yes." She didn't explain why, but he went to get one anyway.
She twisted her hand around one side and he did the same with the other. The rest of their team didn't call any strategic meeting of any sort.
"Let's go offense." Thorne was so dang cocky.
"No! I cannot run. Let's just guard the flag."
He didn't have time to argue. The whistle blew, and the other team charged. It was filled with all the competitive people. Well, except for Thorne.
And all of them were so tall. Cress was easily the shortest person in the gym class, and it was impossible to not feel intimidated.
"Let's get 'em tiger." Thorne's voice was low enough, only she could hear him.
"Don't call me…" her words were broken off, interrupted by a startled cry as Anthony, easily the biggest kid in school, ran right at her.
She stretched her arm out, half for protection for herself, and in part, a misguided attempt to tag him.
Anthony didn't stop. His bulky body slammed into her tiny hand. She had locked her elbow, on instinct and she hadn't been present enough within herself to realize that it would end badly. Her arm didn't give, and Anthony kept going.
A blinding pain ran through her arm. It didn't go away though. Cress let go of the jersey and stumbled backward. She fell on the ground. When her arm slammed into the ground the pain flared.
Anthony and his partner Chien barely avoided stepping on her. As it was, Chien's foot nudged her arm and the pain flared again.
"Everybody stop!" Thorne's voice rang out and everyone did stop.
Cress no longer had the energy to pay attention. The pain was worsening and she was scared to look at her arm, worried about whatever she might see, and if she would faint.
She started to cry. She tried to curl up into a ball but the pain in her arm stopped her. Someone kneeled down beside her.
"Hey stop that. You're fine, okay?"
She looked up through the tears and saw Thorne.
"I mean it. Crying is dehydrating, and when you're dehydrated everything sucks. You get headaches, your throat hurts, and it makes it harder to do a lot of stuff."
She blinked blurrily and started to cry harder. "It hurts. It hurts." She kept repeating herself, and she couldn't stop.
"Just shut up. Toughen up will you?" Anthony scoffed and turned to walk away.
"Seriously, Anthony? Kate Fallow said, "Could you be any more of a jerk?"
"Yeah, Anthony, how about you follow your own advice and shut up for a bit." Thorne's voice was cold, though as far as Cress knew, he and Anthony had never really quarreled.
"Everybody be quiet. Katherine, can you go get the nurse?" Coach's voice was loud and harsh. Kate ducked away from the group of people and rang out of the gym to get the nurse.
"Crescent, you are going to have to sit tight for a bit. On a scale of one to ten, ten being you need to go to the ER, how bad is the pain?"
"I don't kn-n-now." She was barely able to choke the words out.
"Eight or nine? Does that sound right?" She nodded and he kept talking, "Carswell, what happened?"
"I don't know what she was doing, but she held her hand out. I think she locked her elbow or something, so when Anthony ran into her something happened. She fell down on the ground and Chien bumped her arm with his foot and she cried out. She started crying and saying that it hurt. It started to swell up almost immediately."
Cress forgot herself, and looked at her arm. She retched and quickly looked away again, sobbing harder. Her forearm was red and purple and had swollen to twice its size.
The gym door banged open and Kate ran in followed by the nurse. Following behind the nurse was Julian.
When the nurse reached them, Kate backed away and stood awkwardly. The nurse kneeled beside her arm and listened to Thorne while he told her what happened. Julian kneeled down on her other side next to Thorne and gave her a careful hug, which she leaned into. She didn't dare look at her arm.