Author's Note

Om my Gosh! I wanted to thank every single one of you for reading this; we're up to over 1,000 views!

Disclaimer: I don't own the "Divergent" books; Veronica Roth does.

Jumping Through the Stars

Chapter Eight

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep

I wondered what that noise was; I tried to open my eyes. I kept trying. Well, I guess that isn't happening right now; they refuse to open.

Beep Beep Beep

The sound continued and I was beginning to find it annoying. I decided to go back to sleep; I was still tired.

A time later, I came to. I could still hear the Beep noises. I tried to open my eyes. They didn't open, so I tried again, and that time they did open. As soon as they opened, all I could think was 'bright'.

I looked around the room. On one side of me, I saw Caleb sitting in a chair, sleeping. On my other side, I saw a door and multiple machines that I was hooked up to. I frowned, realizing that I was in a hospital. I saw no one else in the room, so I turned to face my brother.

"Caleb." He didn't respond. "Caleb." He shifted, but didn't wake. "Caleb," I tried again. "Caleb!" His eyes snapped open and he jumped to his feet, panicked for a few seconds. I giggled. "What're you doing?" I questioned. He looked down at me, and then took a seat.

"How are you feeling?" He asked me.

"I can't really move. It either hurts, or I literally can't move." I saw him visibly wince at my words.

"What? What is it?" I asked.

"Well, after you fell off-"

"How did I fall?" I interrupted.

"A bird swooped down right in front of Armor, mid-jump, and he landed oddly, panicked. You fell off." I sucked in a breath when I heard the words 'he landed oddly'.

"Is he okay?" I questioned, eager for the response. Caleb fidgeted in his seat. "IS HE OKAY?!" I yelled.

"He broke the bottom of one front leg, and the ankle of the other." I gasped.

"Oh my Gosh," I mumbled. "Can he still walk?"

"Um, hopefully." At that I sucked in a breath, trying to keep the tears from falling. Armor meant the world to me.

"As for your injuries," Caleb said. "You broke your left leg, shattered your right ankle, and you, uh," Caleb said.

"I what?"

"You have a paralyzed right arm and from the knee down on your right leg, you're paralyzed."

I sucked in another breath and the tears fell. I might not be able to ever ride again. I might not even be able to walk again.

"How… how did Armor land oddly?" I asked.

"When the bird came down in front of him, that's when you began to fall. He moved in a weird way, as if he were trying to catch you from falling. He did catch you, from falling on the jump, but you did end up falling off." I gasped. Armor tried to catch me. Armor may never walk again. I may never walk again.

I closed my eyes.

"Uh, what are you doing, Tris?"

"Sleeping."

"Why? Weren't you just asleep?"

"Yes." I kept my eyes closed.

"Then why are you going back to sleep? You've been asleep for two days." I was shocked at how long I'd been asleep, but I continued to keep my eyes closed.

"Because in my sleep, I can't picture Armor never being able to walk ever again."

"Actually, you could have a dream about it. And aren't you worried about yourself at all?"

"Yeah, just not as much as I am for Armor." With that, I fell asleep.

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I later awoke to the sound of a door closing. I looked up and saw my aunt looking down at me.

"Hello, Beatrice; I'm glad you're awake."

"Hi," I said. My aunt sat down in the chair near all my machines.

"Beatrice, I'm disappointed."

"What? Why?"

"I'm disappointed with your riding at that show. You could've taken control of Armor; you could've stopped yourself from falling." As she said this, I laid there with my mouth hanging open in shock. She has to be joking! I fell off and may never be able to ride a horse again; in fact, I might not even walk again, and here I am being told that my aunt is disappointed in my riding skills at my last show.

Last show. Last show. Last show.

The words swam around in my head; I shook my head to clear my thoughts and closed my mouth, but opened it just seconds later.

"You're joking, right? You're disappointed in me because I fell off. Wow. Just wow! I can't believe this! I fell off and may never be able to stand up on my feet again, and you're disappointed that I couldn't take control of Armor. Armor didn't even do anything! A bird swooped down right in front of him and spooked him!"

"Now, Beatrice, that is no way to speak to me."

"Ugh!" I exclaimed, angry. My aunt scowled down at me and stood from her seat.

"Until you clear your head and learn how to speak to me correctly, I'll be in the café next door."

As she walked to the doorway, I called out, "How do you even expect me to be able to come get you? It's not like I can walk over there!" I was so mad.

A few minutes later, Caleb walked into my hospital room. I was still red from being so angry with my aunt's words. I looked up at Caleb as he handed me a muffin and I noticed his face was red as well.

"What's up?" I asked. He shook his head.

"I heard everything you and Aunt Jeanine said; I was right outside the door. When she came out, I told her how unreasonable she was being, and she just got mad at me, too. She took off down the hall; I don't know where she was going."

"Oh," I said. "She's going next door to the café." He nodded.

"Anyway, just eat your muffin." I shrugged and began unwrapping the muffin Caleb had gotten for me. I turned and noticed his back was facing me, and an idea popped into my mind. I smiled and quickly finished pulling the wrapper off of the muffin, hoping my brother would keep his back to me just long enough for me to throw my muffin at him. Once I had the wrapper off, I used my non-paralyzed arm to throw the muffin. As soon as the muffin left my hand, Caleb turned and the muffin ended up whacking him right in the face. I burst out laughing and Caleb just sat there in his chair, watching me, not showing any emotion, with blueberry muffin falling down his cheek.

"Haha, so funny," Caleb said, sarcastically, as he used a tissue to wipe the muffin off his face. I was still laughing, and I laughed even more when Caleb looked at the muffin, shrugged, and stuck a small chunk of the muffin into his mouth.

"You know what, Caleb?"

"What?"

"I think blueberry muffin is a good look on you. We should consider it more often."

"'We'?"

"Yes; I think I want to help make this fashion statement," I said and we both laughed.

Author's Note

Please let me know what you thought!

~MoMaster