A/N: hey everyone! i'm back from my church retreat - i got home about 2 hours ago and i've had some pretty good ideas in my head for this story while i was at the retreat, so i hope you enjoy.
A/N 2: i wanna thank The Elfmanic for letting me use her in this chapter.
A/N 3: the bolded lines are sign language (but i bet you could've figured that out)
CHAPTER NINE
(chapter title - Another Day and the Surprise Visit)
--CyberLad184 has logged on--
--IHeartSiriusBlack3 has logged on--
--TooCoolForSchool09 has logged on--
CyberLad184: hey guys
IHeartSiriusBlack3: hey Jacob
TooCoolForSchool09: did you hear about what happened 2 Eileen?
CyberLad184: yeah. I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?
TooCoolForSchool09: not that I can think of…Jules?
IHeartSiriusBlack3: no. I'm gonna go visit Eileen. I'm meeting her boyfriend, Adam, at the hospital along with dad.
TooCoolForSchool09: okay.
--IHeartSiriusBlack3 has logged off--
Jules sighed and scooted herself off of her bed and put her laptop away. Walking to the closet that she and Melanie shared, she grabbed a yellow sweatshirt and put it on. She walked out the door of the dorm room and towards a friend of her's dorm room. She knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. A girl with short blond hair and hazel eyes answered the door.
"Hi Meghan!" Jules greeted the girl. She smiled slightly and opened the door. Meghan was completely deaf and communicated with American Sign Language and lip-reading.
Hi Jules Meghan signed.
Hi Meghan. How are you? Jules signed back.
I'm okay. Sorry to learn that Eileen is in the hospital.
I know. I was just going to visit her now. Wanna come?
I dunno… Katie and I were going to go to the library and work on our project for Professor Majoy's class.
Okay. I'll tell Eileen you said 'hi'
Thanks Jules
You're welcome. Peace.
Jules hugged her friend and exited the dorm. As she headed out of the building, she saw a girl walking towards her with a scowl on her face. The girl was 5'6, had blue eyes and curly brown hair that reached a little past her shoulders. She was wearing tight blue jeans and a cream-colored T-shirt.
"You better tell your friend Eileen to watch herself." The girl muttered as she walked by.
"Hi to you too, Erin." Jules muttered back. The girl rolled her eyes and stuck her nose in the air. She was just about to walk in the other direction, when she suddenly turned around and walked in the direction that Jules was going.
"What do you want?" Jules asked, trying to ignore her as she headed out of the dorms.
"If you see Adam, tell him I'm looking for him."
"Why?"
"Just give him the damn message, okay?"
"Fine."
Jules watched the girl go back into the building before walking to the bus stop and boarding a bus to the hospital.
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As soon as the bus reached the hospital, Jules hopped off and ran inside to see John, Adam and Roger sitting in the waiting room. John smiled and waved her over. She ran over to them and pulled Adam aside.
"What is it, Jules?" he inquired. She told him about her encounter with Erin. To her surprise, he just smiled and shook his head.
"What?"
"Erin has always been jealous of me hanging out with other girls. It's okay." Adam smiled wider and guided Jules back to where John and Roger were sitting. Two girls who looked to be about fifteen and twelve, were asking Roger for his autograph. He shook his head and told them later. The girls frowned and went away.
"Where are your parents, John?" Jules asked, sitting down next to him.
"They're in with Eileen." he answered hoarsely. She could tell that he had been crying.
"Where are Caitlyn and Jason?" Jules asked, looking around the waiting room.
"Caitlyn's with Destiny and Mark. Jason's with me." Roger spoke up, showing her the tiny infant in his arms. He was fast asleep, thumb in his mouth. Jules smiled at the tiny baby as Destiny, Mark and Caitlyn came walking towards them.
"How is she?" Jules asked as they sat in the chairs across from them.
"She's doing better than she was the last time we saw her." Destiny said as she sat down. Caitlyn sat down in between Mark and Destiny. Mark smiled slightly as he stroked Caitlyn's soft brown hair.
"Do you want to go see her, Jules?" Caitlyn asked.
"Yeah, I'll go see her in a bit." Jules told her, snuggling closer to her dad. Roger smiled at her as he carefully handed Jason to Mark. Jules suddenly got up and walked to Eileen's hospital room without a word to anyone.
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Tears streamed down Jules' cheeks as she entered the hospital room. She saw her friend lying perfectly still, her left arm in a cast that was in a hanging sling. As Jules moved closer to Eileen's bed, she saw that someone - probably Adam, had brought flowers and a teddy bear. Jules carefully sat down on the edge of Eileen's bed and stroked her friend's soft mousy brown hair.
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Eileen opened her eyes when she felt someone sit down on the edge of her bed.
"Whose there?" she croaked. She had gotten her voice back, but it was taking her a while to get used to talking again.
"Eileen?" Adam's soft voice answered. She felt tears in her eyes as her handsome boyfriend kissed her forehead.
"How are you doing, baby?" Adam asked, scooting closer to her.
"I'm okay - my voice is starting to come back." She answered weakly. She felt Adam get up from the side of the bed.
"What's going on?" Eileen asked, a little panicked.
"Eileen, it's okay. I was just moving so that I could introduce you to my parents." Adam soothed her, holding her uninjured hand. She smiled as he gently squeezed it.
"Mom, dad, this is Eileen Collins - the girl I was telling you about. Eileen, meet my mom, Carolyn, and my dad Gary Evans." Adam introduced Eileen to his parents.
"It's so nice to finally meet you." Carolyn Evans said, coming into view. She had long curly brunette hair and green eyes. Gary stood next to his wife. He had brown hair, like Adam, and blue eyes. Both were wearing navy blue three-piece suits. She remembered Adam mentioning that both of his parents were lawyers.
"Adam has told us so much about you." Gary Evans told her, shaking her uninjured hand. Eileen felt herself blush.
"We just wanted to meet this 'dream girl' Squirt kept talking about." Gary added in a teasing tone.
"Squirt?" Eileen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Dad - I'm sure Eileen doesn't want to hear about that." Adam muttered, blushing slightly.
"It's a nickname that we gave him because he had a small-" Carolyn started, but stopped when Adam shot her a dirty look. Eileen started laughing, but moaned in pain after a while.
"I'm sorry, Eileen. Adam told us about your surgery." Gary apologized. Eileen nodded as Adam handed her two pain tablets. She swallowed them and settled back on the pillows.
"It's okay, Gary." Eileen told him after a while.
"Please, you're one of the family - call me 'dad'." Gary told her, smiling.
"Okay…dad." Eileen smiled back at him as Adam kissed her forehead.
"We're going to go out to lunch. See you later, sweetie." Adam whispered in her ear. Eileen nodded and smiled slightly - longing to go with them.
"It was so nice to finally meet you, Eileen." Carolyn told her, gently squeezing her hand. Eileen smiled and was so grateful that her boyfriend's parents were so nice.
"It was nice to meet you, too, Carolyn." Eileen said, squeezing her hand back.
"Call me 'mom'." Carolyn insisted.
"Okay…mom." Eileen felt her eyelids grow heavy.
"I'll stop by later." Adam whispered as he kissed her forehead one last time. Eileen smiled as the three of them exited the room.
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Meanwhile, back on campus, John and Jules were sipping Cokes and working on their laptops when a girl with forearm length reddish-brown hair came walking over towards them. Jules looked up from her laptop as the girl came over to them and hugged first her then John.
"Do we know you?" John inquired. Jules playfully hit her boyfriend on the arm as she looked the girl up and down. The girl looked to be about eighteen years of age. She also had a Maureen-ish look about her - long flowing hair, wild brown eyes and her skinny frame. They only knew one other person like her and that person was…
"Hannah!" John and Jules exclaimed together - embracing their friend.
