Chapter 3: In English

"oh… you didn't let me finish. I was going to say I'm her cousin." Alex said trying to make up an excuse. She knew that if she wasn't connected to Paige by blood she wouldn't be able to ride in the ambulance or even see her for the next few hours.

"okay, well then I guess since there are no closer family members around you come in the ambulance with us.

Alex and the paramedic followed Paige and the other Paramedic out to the ambulance. When she stepped outside she saw that several of her neighbors had come outside to see what was going on. She didn't really think about it but I'm sure an ambulance with flashing lights and a very loud siren would wake her up to. The paramedics loaded Paige into the ambulance and signaled for Alex to get in. One of the paramedics got in with her and the other went around the side to drive the car. Alex couldn't tear her eyes away from the unconscious Paige. She sort of had a neutral face she couldn't tell if it had hurt or anything. For once, Alex couldn't read Paige's emotion.

Soon enough the ambulance made it's way to the closest hospital. As soon as the doors opened Alex jumped out of the car to get out of their way. She followed closely behind them as they entered the building but could only go so far.

"you're going to have to wait here" one of the paramedics said as they were going through the waiting room. Alex didn't even say anything she just stood there, watching them take Paige down the hall because she knew at this point she couldn't do anything to help her.

Twenty minutes later Paige's parents and Dylan showed up. And ran into the waiting room straight to the front desk.

"We're looking for our daughter Paige Michalchuk" Mrs. Michalchuk said to the receptionist.

"Mrs. Michalchuk…?" Alex asked knowing it was her but didn't actually want to talk to her.

"Alex? What are you doing here? What happened to Paige?" Mrs. Michalchuk asked in a hurry so that she could get answers fast enough.

"Umm…" Alex said trying to cover up their story knowing that Paige didn't tell her parents about their relationship.

"well… Paige came over because she said she wasn't feeling well and wanted to be around someone so she came over and uhh… tripped over something and hit her head on a table." Alex felt guilty for making up the excuse but half of it was actually true. Paige did trip over something and hit her head. She was just pushed by me who was pushed by my mom's abusive boyfriend who just found out I was gay. Now she really felt guilty.

"oh my god! How long ago did this happen?" Mr. Michalchuk asked. Alex looked down at her watch to see the time, it was 2:38 in the morning.

"umm it happened like an hour ago?" Alex said guessing. Alex and the Michalchuks spent the next few hours waiting in the waiting room. At around 4:30am a doctor walked in.

"Michalchuk?" he said. Everyone including Alex got up to go see him.

"I'm Linda Michalchuk" Mrs. Michalchuk said. "is my daughter going to be alright?"

"well she took a nasty spill and hurt her head. We noticed she has a mild decline in memory and the rate of information processing…" the doctor said before being interrupted by Alex.

"In English, please!" Alex shouted.

"She has a concussion and is suffering from temporary memory loss." The doctor said plainly. Mr. and Mrs. Michalchuk weren't quite sure of what to say.

"temporary? Exactly how long will that be?" asked a concerned Dylan.

"we don't know, an injury like this can last up to a couple of days or a couple of weeks. Right now we're not sure of how bad the memory loss is so I'm going to have to ask you to come in right now and ask her a few questions to see how far back she remembers okay?"

"okay" Mrs. Michalchuk replied softly. They all followed the doctor down the hall into Paige's room. When they walked in they saw Paige lying in a hospital bed with a bandage around her head, like something you would see in a soap opera.

"Paige, honey? How are you doing" asked Mr. Michalchuk.

"hey mom, hey dad. I'm doing okay I guess. Everything is still a little fuzzy." Paige replied. The four of them walked in slowly, Mr. and Mrs. Michalchuk were followed by Dylan who was followed by Alex. As soon as she saw Alex she gave a weird face.

"what is she doing here?" Paige asked slightly angry. Alex felt hurt because she knew she was talking about her.

"Paige? You don't remember Alex?" asked Dylan.

"of course I remember her. She hates me" Paige said with disgust. Alex felt like someone ripped her heart out of her body. The girl she loved couldn't stand her and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

"No. what? Paige, Alex is like one of your closest friends" Dylan said grabbing Paige's hand trying to convince her. Dylan knew about Paige and Alex's relationship and was completely for it considering, he, himself was gay. He also knew that his parents didn't know about them and was trying his best to keep their secret.

"what are you talking about? This girl makes my life a living hell at school." Paige said staring at Alex.

At that moment, Alex knew how far back Paige's memory was. She was still in her last year at Degrassi sometime before Alex and Paige started liking eachother.

"She still thinks she's in grade 12" Alex said.

"what do you mean 'she thinks she's in grade 12'?" Paige asked in confusion.

"how do you know that?" asked Mr. Michalchuk ignoring Paige's question.

"We weren't exactly the best of friends for some time in grade 12" Alex said.

"why are you talking like everything is in the past?" Paige asked slightly louder than before.

"do you know exactly when she is talking about?" Mrs. Michalchuk asked still ignoring Paige's question.

"hello? Am I invisible here?!" Paige asked almost yelling.

"I'm guessing some time in April?" Alex said not to quite sure of the date. She knew it was sometime before the movie premier of that Kevin Smith movie.

"Hey! Would someone clue me in please!" Paige said, now completely shouting and grabbing everyone's attention.

"listen Paige, honey, you bumped your head and you've got somewhat of a memory loss." Mrs. Michalchuk said.

"what? No. what are you taking about? I remember everything perfectly fine." Paige said trying to convince herself that she was right despite the fact that she was in a hospital.

"ok then, what school do you go to?" asked the doctor

"Degrassi" Paige replied.

"what grade are you in?"

"12"

"what's today's date?"

"april 21st" Paige said. The doctor gave a concerned look to her parents, he knew she got the date wrong considering it was June 18th.

"are any of these answers right?" the doctor asked the four of them.

"no" replied Alex.

"what are you talking about?" Paige asked.

"Paige, you graduated from Degrassi last year, you've actually just finished your first year at Banting. You and Alex are like best friends." Said Mr. Michalchuk.

"Yeah, you and Alex are very close." Dylan added hoping something might click with her. Alex looked at Dylan knowing he was trying to help but when she looked at Paige she realized she still didn't remember.

"Can I talk to you outside for a moment?" the doctor said to Paige's Parent's. Mr. and Mrs. Michalchuk followed the doctor out into the hall.

"okay well it appears that your daughter has lost her memory from the past 14 months or so." Said the doctor.

"so what should we do?" Mrs. Michalchuk asked.

"at this point all you can do is take her home and try to get her into her old routine, something might click in her mind and bring back her memories. Now all of her memories might not come back at the same time but they should come back in the order that they happened. Until then just spend some time with her and make sure she is social and spends a lot of time with her friends and try to keep her away from stress. Okay?"

"alright, thank you very much doctor" said Mr. Michalchuk

"you're welcome, just sign Paige out at the front desk and you can go home" the doctor said as he shook both of their hands and walked away. Within half an hour Paige was changed and signed out ready to go. By this time it was already about 6:00 am. Everyone was tired so Alex went home while the Michalchuks went their separate way.

Everyone pretty much slept the rest of the day, everyone but Alex went to sleep. Alex couldn't help but think that it was her fault she felt so guilty. She was so consumed with her Paige problems she didn't even notice that her mom spent her time in her own room for the day. Instead of sleeping Alex called up Marco to fill him in.

"so she doesn't remember you at all?" asked Marco.

"no she remembers me… but as the heinous bitch I used to be to her before she found out I liked her." Said Alex

"oh… that Alex…" Marco replied. "That can't be good"

"what do you mean?" asked Alex

"well back then she really hated you, but maybe its not as far back as you think. Maybe its when you guys were starting to become friend before the movie premiere. Who knows?" said Marco

"no… she already said that she hated me in the hospital. Hey since you're not doing anything right now… how about you and me make a little stop at Paige's and see if we can turn things around?" asked Alex

"but isn't she sleeping?"

"she was unconscious the whole night, she's probably not that tired, plus if I woke up in the hospital and didn't know what the hell happened to me I wouldn't sleep for a while." She said

"alright… I'll pick you up in 20?" he said

"alright, bye"

"bye"