Oh my god, guys, I'm so, so, SO sorry that I haven't updated! I hope that you haven't forgotten about this because I sure haven't! :)
Simon, disclaimer?
Simon: *whispering* I-I don't wanna.
Me: Please, hon? It won't take long?
Simon: Well… She doesn't own anything… so… yeah.
Jack: Wow. That was terrifying.
Simon: It was. Shut up.
Me: Okay…. On with the update!
Ralph hummed quietly to himself while he turned the page of his summer reading book. The day had been going quite well for him; he had pancakes for breakfast which- face it- everybody loves, had talked on the phone with Sam for awhile about how they haven't seen each other in a few days, and now he was relaxing and reading. Ralph concluded that this day had been very successful so far.
The sun shone through Ralph's window and onto the floor. It was making little patterns on the hardwood floor that reminded the blonde of cats for some reason. He had just moved his gaze to the next page of his book when the doorbell rang.
And rang.
And rang.
The ringer of the bell obviously had a very urgent matter at hand, because by the time the Ralph had run downstairs the bell was at a constant ring. It was beginning to give Ralph a headache.
Ralph threw open the door to see none other than Roger standing on his front step, still ringing the doorbell. When he registered that the door had opened, the brunette stopped and, panting, put his hands on Ralph's shoulders.
"It's… Jack." Roger pulled Ralph out of his house before he could even tell his mum that he was leaving.
"What happened!" Ralph's blue eyes widened as Roger half ran half dragged Ralph down the sidewalk.
"It wasn't his fault!" Roger exclaimed, still pulling Ralph down the street. "Could you move any faster?"
Now Ralph was worried. Jack had the tendency to get himself in… dangerous situations. For example, when they were twelve, Jack had taken his skateboard into the street and grabbed onto the backs of cars for a ride instead of going on the sidewalk like Ralph and the twins had done. The resulting injuries-a broken arm, nose, and multiple scrapes and bruises- had been because of a spontaneous right turn and a particularly nasty pothole.
So, as Roger and Ralph ran around the corner and Ralph started hearing angry swears and screaming, the blonde became to fear the worst.
Roger directed Ralph in the direction in which the screams were coming. It was an old unused parking lot. Oh, great. Had Jack attempted parkour again?
As the two came closer, Ralph realized that it couldn't have been parkour, because Jack was lying down next to a large tree, a plastic jump-rope in hand.
"Jack, what the hell!" Ralph exclaimed. He ran over to his friend's side and noticed that his nose was broken. There were cuts all over the ginger's face and he was holding his right elbow.
"It's nothing, really Ralph, I don't understand why you are so worried," Jack tried to reassure.
"It's nothing?" Ralph asked. "Okay. Bend your elbow." Jack bent his left elbow, smirking.
"Your right one, idiot." Ralph rolled his eyes. Jack's smirk disappeared. "Yeah. Thought so," Ralph muttered.
Suddenly, Ralph was both excited and confused to see Simon run from the opposite end of the parking lot. He forgot about Jack for a second and wondered why they had invited Simon and not him. The blonde then realized that his friends probably wouldn't want them to be all couple-y in front of them, which he understood.
Simon was carrying wipes and what looked like gauze. Simon's mom was a little over-protective since her oldest son had a lot of medical problems. That and the fact that Simon had two younger siblings were always active and running around meant that Simon's family always had a lot of band-aids and the like.
When Simon reached Jack, he gently picked up his right arm and asked him to bend it. Jack's green eyes widened. He looked at Ralph, who raised his eyebrows. The choir boy swallowed and slowly began to bend his elbow.
"Shit!" Jack screamed, squeezing his eyes shut. He opened them again and looked up at Simon.
"Do I need to do this? He asked. Simon raised his eyebrows.
"Do you want to go to the hospital?" The little brunette knew the answer already. Jack had a horrendous fear of hospitals. He hated the smell, the look, and most of all, the needles. He hated x-rays and gurneys, talking to doctors and getting his blood pressure taken. Hospitals were, in Jack's mind, Hell on earth. He would do anything to not go to a hospital. The last time that anyone could recall Jack going to the hospital was the skateboard-car incident, and that was only because bone was showing.
"Fine," Jack muttered, slowly bending his elbow. He gritted his teeth and dropped the F-bomb a few times before he finally got it to the appropriate angle. Simon let the pain subside a bit before wrapping Jack's arm in multiple layers of gauze and then an ace bandage. Simon, you see, was kind of like the doctor- both mental and physical- of the group, because he had gone to both kinds of doctors enough times to know roughly what he was doing.
"It's probably just a sprain," Roger said thoughtfully. "So it will heal pretty fast, I think."
The group heard footsteps behind them. It was Maurice with his father.
Ralph sighed with relief. Maurice's father was a pediatrician, so he knew all about broken bones. He also knew all about Jack, so finding the redhead on the ground with a broken nose and possibly a sprained elbow wasn't much of a surprise for the man.
"Took you long enough, Simon got back already!" Roger told Maurice, who rolled his eyes.
"You're lucky my dad took today off, otherwise who knows what kind of stuff Simon would have forgotten about." Maurice countered, smirking.
"Hi Doctor Petterson!" Simon piped up.
"Hello, Simon. How are you doing?" Dr. Petterson asked kindly.
Simon thought for a moment.
"Better than Jack," He said, nodding his head.
"Ah, yes. Mr. Merridew, what trouble have you gotten into yourself this time?" Dr. Petterson asked.
Roger snickered. Ralph hit him on the arm, even though he was laughing quietly, too.
"Let's hear it, Jack," Maurice said, even though he knew perfectly well what happened.
"I, uh, fell out of the tree." Jack muttered, blushing slightly.
"Why did you fall out of a tree, Mr. Merridew?" Dr. Petterson asked, being kind and patient as always.
"I was swinging on that jump-rope," Jack pointed at the pink plastic jump-rope, which was probably his sister's. "And the knot I had used to tie it to the tree came… undone and I… err…. Fell." Jack looked down in slight embarrassment.
"I wrapped up his arm!" Simon said, pointing to the ace wrap.
"Good job, Simon." Dr. Petterson said. "But next time wrap it a little tighter, okay? Like this," Maurice's dad unwound the Ace bandage but kept on the gauze. He covered Jack's arm tightly with the wrap a bit above and below his elbow, as well as the part that was sprained.
"Jack, are you sure that you don't want to go to the hospital?" Dr. Petterson asked. "It would be best to go get an x-ray."
At the mention of the word 'Hospital', Jack's eyes widened.
"No sir, you know how I am about hospitals." Jack shook his head.
"Well," Dr. Petterson said. "Nothing is broken, you must've sprained it. To bone is probably bruised, too, so make sure you ice it from time to time. Stay extra careful, Jack Merridew, and I mean extra careful on normal terms, not yours." Maurice's dad added. "You understand?"
"Yessir." Jack nodded.
"Now let's see about your nose." Dr. Petterson set Jack's nose back in place, something that, no matter how many times Ralph has seen it been done, never fails to disgust him.
"Ice that, too." Maurice's dad advised. Then everybody said goodbye to Dr. Petterson as he began to walk home. Maurice stayed.
As the five of them sat in the parking lot under the tree, a question popped up in Ralph's mind.
"Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"Why were you swinging on a jump-rope attached to a tree?"
Jack shrugged.
"It sounded like a good idea at the time."
"That's what you always say, Jack."
"I know."
Poor, stupid, reckless Jack.
Jack: Hey!
Me: You managed to fall out of a tree.
Jack: Aaaannnddd….
Me: (…) Ugh. Whatever. Nevermind.
(Side-note: This story has turned into a more 'misadventures' type thing. I like it. Do you?)
Maurice: *Real sweetly* Please R&R if you liked this chapter!
Simon: Pleaaaaseee?
Me: How can you say no to that?