The Hospital
The sound of barefoot feet slapping against the hospital hallways was the only noise in the almost empty building as Collin ran to the receptionist's area.
A man in floral printed scrubs and librarian classes perched lowly on his nose didn't even notice the winded teenager as he typed away on a computer.
"Yo dude, I need to know where-"
The man said nothing, merely looked over his shoulder, sent Collin a Look from over the rims of his lenses, and returned to his game of minesweeper.
"Bro, this is an emergency-!"
The man sighed heavily, knowing that his possibly record breaking time was already shot to hell, and minimized his screen. "Yeeeeeeeeees?"
"I need to know where Serena Killingsworth is, the school called me to pick her up," Collin said heavily.
The man let out an annoyed huff of air, rolling his head around in a manner that implied looking up room numbers was the most grueling experience in the world, "Are you family?"
"Yeah bro, I'm her…bro!"
The man sighed, "And her guardian?"
Collin scratched the back of his head, "Well, pretty much."
"Pretty much?"
"Technically, our dad's our guardian but he's kind of away on business all the time and our mom's a deadbeat whore."
"Ahh," the man pointed his thumb over his shoulder, "Down this hallway, third room on the left."
"Bitchin' dude."
"Yes, quite bitching."
---
When Serena awoke, she was more than a little surprised to see that she was in a hospital room, her clothes gone and a hospital gown in their place. She blinked slowly, pushing herself up to get a view of her surroundings.
Oh great. Michael.
"Hey sleeping beauty," he said, his smile revealing that one of his teeth had been knocked out.
"Hi…you."
"Still sore about the van thing?"
"No, just potentially scarred forever."
Michael did a fist pump, "Better than usual! Go Michael!"
Serena quickly made sure her gown was covering her bum.
The unsettling conversation was interrupted as the twin doors to their room blew open mystically, an incredibly handsome man smoothly walking into the examination area, wind from an unknown source blew delicately through his shoulder length white hair, and when he stopped in his step, Serena swore he winked.
"Hello," when he spoke, his voice was like a seraphim choir, "I'm Dr. Malmaris."
"Hi!" Michael said with a wave, and just like that the magic was gone.
Dr. Malmaris sighed, pulling up a clipboard from somewhere, he oh so hated when his entrances were ruined, "How are you feeling?" He pointedly addressed only Serena.
"Okay I guess."
"Hm…troubling," the doctor wrote something down on his clipboard.
"What about me?" Interrupted Michael, "Bright light hurts me, and I'm pretty sure I felt some blood trickling out of my ears-"
Dr. Malmaris scowled at the boy, whipping out a Hello Kitty! bandaid and slamming it on his forehead, "Oh, man up!"
Michael clutched at the heavily bruised area that Dr. Malmaris had just agitated and let out a whimper.
"Doctor, that really hurts-"
Dr. Malmaris glared at the boy levelly, "I am going to punch you in your fool mouth," he said flatly, "If you don't shut your goddamn trap."
Michael went wide-eyed and looked at Serena in a 'is this guy for real?' sort of way. Serena merely shrugged, her palms going upwards with the movement in a 'what can you do?' sort of way.
Dr. Malmaris then turned to Serena, "Well my dear, I'm so happy that you've fully recovered from that baseball bat to the back of the skull-"
Serena frowned, "Actually, my vision is kind of blurry, and sometimes I go crosseyed-"
He rattled on as if he didn't hear her, "-but I regret to inform you that you'll have…plot specific amnesia."
Serena grasped the front of her hospital gown, "No!"
Dr. Malmaris's eyes bulged as he threw aside his clipboard and gripped her shoulders, "YES!"
Serena threw her head back, "Oh god!" Then, she seemed to collect herself, "Wait, what the hell is plot specific amnesia?"
"Plot specific amnesia is a rare occurrence that seems to be particularly fond of young teenage girls. You won't remember anything from, say, fifteen minutes before the blow to the back of your skull."
Serena frowned, "But…I'm pretty sure I do."
"No you don't."
"Yes, I mean, Michael tried to bonk me in his love van-"
Michael winked and fired off his pointer finger like a gun in her direction.
"-and then I realized Stanton was…" Serena's eyes widened, "Stanton was…"
"Plot specifically forgotten?" Dr. Malmaris prompted with a hopeful expression.
Serena scratched the back of her head, "…I guess."
Her doctor clapped his hands together in rapid succession, "Oh good, I'll sign your release papers then, not like I was going to keep you in the hospital until you forgot about Stanton or anything."
With that, the strange man left the room, leaving Serena to awkwardly shift away from Michael as he took a seat next to her.
"So…come here often?"
She groaned, "You know, all of a sudden I feel this huge compulsion to wander around aimlessly."
With that, she shoved off the hospital seat and started walking.
And that is how Serena, who was still clad in her gown and feeling slightly more nosy than usual, decided that prowling around in a darkened hospital alone after receiving a horrendous concussion was the thing to do. Ah, what a safe way to get some exercise and avoid Michael that surely wouldn't lead her to uncovering some life altering secrets-
"I can't believe you Stanton!" Came a rather bitchy voice from around a conveniently placed corner.
Serena gasped, she knew a guy named Stanton who was at times unbelievable! Equipped with either a youthful curiosity or the inability to mind her own business, Serena pressed herself against the corner and peered around.
There, she saw Dr. Malmaris, that crazy whore Cassandra, and Stanton- the creature of myth. Her eyes narrowed, perhaps eavesdropping could give her the answers she was looking for, like why the hell did she get hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat. Curse that plot specific amnesia!
"Me? I can't believe you got Tymmie to hit Serena in the back of the head with a baseball bat for reasons that at this moment I shall now thoroughly explain!" Stanton said, hair becoming fashionably mussed in his fury, "Those reasons being that you're a paranoid, jealous harlot!"
Serena's eyes widened, wow. That worked out rather well. Now if she could only discover how Michael was involved in this…
"Me? I thought I was telling you how Michael was involved in this-!" Cassandra seethed.
Serena's eyebrows furrowed. Okay…this was weird. And although she was happy at finally getting some answers, she still had to wonder about her doctor's mysterious attitude when he went to check up on both her and Michael…
"If you'll allow me to interrupt your screeching," Dr. Malmaris said calmly, "Both of you are idiots. Your actions have forced me to hold a mysterious attitude when checking up on my patients in order to protect…our SECRET."
Serena clenched the fabric above her heart and gasped. A secret? HOW COULD THIS BE? She hoped it would be explained in thorough, plot ruining detail…
"Our SECRET which, of course, is that we're a family of-"
"SERENA I FOUND YOU!" Yelled Collin, interrupting Serena's nosy prying to squeeze her in a bear hug and twirl her around,
"GodDAMN it," Serena ground between clenched teeth, seeing that her brother's bear hug had alerted the family of her presence. Before she knew what was happening, she was set back down on the ground and face to face with Stanton.
"Oh, hi Stanton," she said with a smile.
Stanton, who was looking gorgeously pained, quickly said, "Hey, we can't be friends anymore, kthxbai," punctuating his sentence was a sharp heel turn and a quick sprint down the hospital hall.
Confused, Serena called after him, "We weren't really friends in the first place!!"
"You know some weird people," Collin said, scratching the top of his head.
---
The next day…
"Alright my children, make sure everyone has their tinfoil hats attached to their thinkers and their informative brochure about Area 51!" Kendra crooned, slamming what appeared to be leftover sandwich wrappers onto the tops of her students' heads. Stanton, in particular, looked rather displeased.
Serena thumbed open her brochure, scanning the articles while the class waited in line to board the buses that would take them to Roswell, New Mexico. She wondered, not for the first time, about the school's outrageous amounts of money that would let a biology class go several hundred miles for a field trip.
"Okay, now I hope everyone has found their study buddies, because Roswell is famous for abducting people-!" Kendra called out over the crowd, but she was interrupted as several, black jeeps with tinted windows rolled up alongside the buses, men in crisp black suits and sunglasses pouring out of them and heading towards the bizarre biology teacher.
Kendra's eyebrows shot straight up to her tinfoil hat, "Oh no you don't! The man will not silence me! THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESERVE TO KNOW THE TRUTH-!"
Two men walked up to Kendra, one of whom leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Kendra went still and pale as the other man knocked her tinfoil hat to the ground and stomped all over it.
Kendra was halted as the man who had whispered into her ear grabbed her brochure and ripped it cleanly in half, the scattered remnants falling to the ground with a deathly finality.
And then, as quickly as they had come, the government left.
Kendra shakily smiled at her students, "So, um, who's up for a trip to the greenhouse in the back of the school instead?"
Several groans were heard.
Serena sighed, her gaze once again going towards Stanton, the dreamy boy with a plot specifically forgotten secret. His periwinkle eyes met hers across the crowd and she leaned against the school wall.
There was so much tension. It was so romantic yet unbearable.
"Hiya! I'm Kelly!"
Serena squealed like a stuck pig when she felt a tiny, cold finger tap her on the shoulder. She spun around and looked down, surprised to see a blonde, beautiful girl smiling up at her.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to scare you!" Kelly said happily, grabbing Serena's hands with her own and bouncing up and down excitedly.
Serena looked away from Kelly, noticing the lanky, dark haired boy standing behind her. His face was screwed up intensely, as if he were in such terrible pain that no one could ever understand, as if two sides of him were always at war-
"Hey, Kelly, I'll be right back. I have to take a shit," the boy said, waving her off and heading towards the restrooms.
Kelly giggled, her voice sounding like chimes, "Oh, that's my boyfriend Karyl. He's a character-
Serena looked thoughtfully into the distance, "We're all characters-"
"-but I'm really happy to meet you! Cassandra's been bitching about you nonstop so I figured you were a halfway decent human being!" Kelly held out her hand for Serena to shake.
Serena smiled happily, relieved to find at least one normal person among the crazies of her high school-
And Stanton promptly appeared and slapped Kelly's hand away.
"You're totally talking to her! I thought you promised me you weren't going to talk to her. Ohmygawd, you never listen! You lying whore!"
Kelly and Serena both blinked, taking a few steps away from the hyperventilating Stanton.
"We pinky sweared, Kelly. Pinky. Sweared," Stanton glared at Serena, "How dare you!" He turned away and practically sprinted to the greenhouse.
Kelly giggled nervously into her hand, "Stanton's a bit melodramatic."
Serena rolled her eyes, "I've noticed."
"Well, those compost piles aren't going to look at themselves!" Kelly chirped, roping her arm- cold, it was so cold- through Serena's, and forcing her along towards the greenhouse.
When they got there, Stanton was over his fit, his hands folded over his heart as he stood, staring at the flowers with a nostalgic, far away expression. A sliver of sunlight filtered through the greenhouse canopy, lighting his beautiful hair and making it seem as if it were made of thousands of tiny diamonds.
"This flower reminds me of you," Stanton whispered, a pale, noble hand cradling a dandelion.
Kelly pointed at herself in confusion.
"No, not you, you traitorous whore. My love interest," Stanton muttered, his voice not breaking character at all.
Kelly pouted.
"Um, Stanton, that's a weed-" Serena said with some distaste.
Stanton flung his hands away, accidentally ripping the dandelion out in his fit of melodrama…again, "And like a weed you're always there! I try to smother you with pesticides but you always sink your roots into my heart. Oh, toil, is this miserable existence-"
Kelly pulled on Serena's elbow, "Um, let's go look at the trees-"
Serena backed away from the monologue, "Good idea."
"If only I were a tiny ladybug, crawling over your golden petals in search for harmful bugs, but alas! It is I who is the harmful bug, eating away at your beauty! And tell me, a bug may love a weed, but where shall they live? The world was against us from the very beginning my dearest, sweet dandelion-"
Kelly patted Serena's hand consolingly, "He's always like this."
Serena stared at her in amazement, "How do you live with him?"
Kelly sighed, "Drugs, mostly."
"--if only I, too, were a weed. But I am damned to be a beautiful orchid, greeting the morning's sun and overshadowing you--"
"He doesn't really stick to his metaphors, does he?"
"I think he doesn't realize he's making a metaphor."
"…Troubling."
"You have no idea."
---
He smiled, his hand finally stopping over the spot on his board that he had finished waxing. It was a beautiful night, the stars shining brightly enough to cover up the fact that the moon was gone. The waves crashed against the shoreline, almost like they, the waves, were in fact waving at him. He waved back, then smoothed his hand over his long, red hair, enjoying the total chillness of this moment.
"Surf's up," he muttered, standing up and holding his surfboard under his hand, his bare feet slapping against the soft, cool sands of the gang controlled beach.
The water was cold when he dove in, and he inhaled deeply after he surfaced, his red hair flipping out behind him like a certain Disney mermaid princess. Using his arms, he pushed himself up onto his board, straddling it as he awaited his totally bitchin' wave.
He was shocked, therefore, when something hooked onto his ankle, causing his board to flip over and cast him into the merciless sea. His head smacked onto the bottom of the board, and all he remembered before blacking out was how he was going to die a virgin…
He didn't notice a strangely hot and strong girl dive in after him, pull him to safety, and start CPR. That's because he was unconscious. Unconscious people don't notice that sort of thing.
She pressed her lips against his, pumping his heart into actions with her fists.
He coughed out sea water, his blurred eyes focusing on a totally hot bodalicious babe in a skimpy swimsuit.
"God?" He hoped.
She giggled, "Not exactly, are you alright? You took a rather nasty bump on the head."
He sat up, rubbing the back of his skull, "Yeah, no biggie." He brushed his blood covered hand against the sand, not wanting a little thing like a possible brain hemorrhage ruining his first time talking to a girl.
"I'm glad, me and my friends saw you paddling out," she said, gesturing to two men standing behind her. One was a large man with craggy facial features, the other a smiling, charming young man with really neat ankle bling.
"We're so glad we rescued you from the sea, aren't we?" The beautiful girl asked her two companions.
The bigger man crossed his arms over his chest, "I hate the sea. Fish fuck in it."
The girl who had given him both the breath of life and a great view of her tits giggled nervously.
The younger man laughed, "Well, how about I go grab the fluffy towels and finger foods, we'll have ourselves a beach bonanza!"
"That sounds wonderful!" The girl agreed.
"…As long as there are no fish," agreed the older man.
The boy took off, the man following behind him.
He was alone with the babe.
"So…wanna make out?" The hot babe asked.
He shrugged, "Sure."
They made out. It was bitchin'.
---
Next Up: The Beach