well that little break was almost as long as the one young jusitice is taking. that is so erksom... my friend gets me hooked on it and right when ive caught up with all of the episodes and have had time to watch them a couple of times they say "ha ha just kidding!" *grumble grumble grumble* its just plain painful. well anyways, thats my shpeel. and yes my spelling still sucks, thank God for spell check. enjoy! and happy turkey day! i am thankful for the whole 4 people that have sent me reviews!

Chapter 4

After arriving at practice and reassuring my dad that I was fine, I walked over to Jade. She was the one who had asked me about the so- taes.

"Jamie, you're back!" Jade said, setting down her flag.

"Yup, I back. And I figured out the answer to your question you asked on Monday."

"Great! Whatcha got for me?"

"Everything," I said.

"Well that's vague..." she said eying me. "Just how hard did you hit your head?"

"No, really. You have to focus on everything. Focus on your head, on your shoulders, on your arms, on your hips, on your legs. Focus on what you do before and how you land after. Everything.

"So if I focus on everything-"

"While using proper technique," I cut in.

"-while using proper technique, it will look right in the air?"

"It should. Try it out."

"Alright," she said checking to see how much room she had around her. "Count me off?"

"Five, six, five, six, seven, eight." I said clapping each count.

On the next count, Jade pushed off and started jazz running. Four steps, plea, and up. Arms out flat, head up, hips under, legs apart. And that is how it should go.

"How was that?

"Told you it would work," I told her.

"Was it really good?" Jade asked.

"I wouldn't lie about so- taes."

She smiled and asked "So how's your head?"

"Probably not screwed on as tight as it was before."

"So basically about to fall off."

"Basically."

"That's a reassuring thought," Jade said as she picked up her flag.

"Hey, wanna see a cool toss Castelli showed me?" I asked picking up my own flag.

"Let's see it."

I stepped back and checked around me, the last thing I needed right now was to peg someone with a six foot pole on the day I get back. After I was sure it was clear I did the carve prepping for a double and tossed my flag up. "Here's the cool part," I said as I turned to catch it behind my back. I had my right hand at the small of my back to catch at the tab and my left hand out to catch the bottom stopper. I had done this toss a hundred times before and never seemed to have any problems with it, but now I miscalculated where my left hand should go. I caught the flag with my right hand but had my left hand too far behind me to catch the pole that was now swinging towards my face. In a split second I jumped up and twisted my body around so that I was now flipping the same as my flag. I got my feet back under me and landed without so much as a balance check. I looked over at Jade and said "That was way cooler than the toss I wanted to show you."

"You mean that wasn't plan-" she was cut off by one of the other guard girls yelling "DUCK!"

I was still too wrapped up in what I had just done to register what was happening before it was too late and I got a flag to the back of the head. And like a ton of bricks had hit me I was down and out again.

You would think that being able to throw a 45 toss would be pretty easy right? Well apparently not for Rue. It was Rue that had yelled "Duck." It is for reasons like this, that we threaten people with failed attempts at 45 tosses, because they hit you and you go down.

I have to say I'm really kinda tired of getting head injuries. Ugg, now my dad is never going to let me go to guard, pre-injured. Luckily I was only out for a few seconds, when I woke up I was being carried. Now, I'm not a huggie person to begin with. I don't like being touched and much less carried. I have bad memories of other kids grabbing my arms and legs, pinning me down and creating all kinds of awful scenarios that I got my scars from. So my first responds is to squirm and try to get out of whoever's arms I was currently in.

"Dude, would you chill out?" Jade said trying not to drop me.

"Down. Put me down right now!" I yelled, still trying to escape.

"Okay, fine," she said setting my back on my feet. "But you are going to the nurse right now weather I have to knock you out again and drag you down there or you come willingly. I'm not picky as to which one."

"You are cruel and unusual for a best friend… no wonder we get along so well."

"Oh just shut up and walk."

We continued walking down to the nurse's office when I realized something. "Question," I said.

"Answer," Jade snarked back.

Ignoring that I continued, "How did you pick me up like that? I mean, we weigh the same amount."

"Well, how does an old lady lift up a car to save a baby?"

"Because that old lady was actually Supermans mother."

"Never a straight answer…"

"You needed to go to the nurse, and I was just the first one to act."

"You do realize that all she is going to do is give me ice and make me lay down, right?" I pointed out as we rounded the corner to the nurse's office.

"You don't know that."

I gave her a look that said "Oh, please," and walked in.

Now, something has to be said about the nurse at our school. She has more than just a slight obsession with frogs. I'm not talking she has a figurine here and a stuffed frog there, I'm talking, pictures of cartoon frogs everywhere and frogs on lilypads border on the walls and frog figurines and stuffed animals EVERYWHERE! She had frogs dressed up as nurses and nurses dressed up as frogs.

"Hello, girls," Nurse Trina greeted us.

"Hi. Jamie got knocked on the head again," Jade said nodding her head at me.

"Oh! Well, let me get you some ice," she said as she went to her freezer. "Why don't you lay down on one of the beds over there and rest. Are you dizzy or anything?"

"No, ma'am," I told her sitting down on the nearest bed, and giving Jade a look that said "Told you so."

"Jamie, you crumpled to the ground and just laid there for a couple seconds," Jade pointed out. I glared at her from the bed I was occupying and she just shrugged. " You did, you know it, I know it, the whole guard knows, now the nurse know it and now," she hit a button on her phone that I hadn't realized she pulled out, "your dad knows it."

"Jade," I groaned, flopping back onto the bed. "Why? Why would you do that?"

"Because he needed to know and you wouldn't have told him."

"I would have told him, but it would have been after this whole concussion thing had blown over."

"You didn't mention that you had a concussion," Nurse Trina said with a concerned look on her face.

"It didn't seem relevant at the time," I mumbled still flopped back on the bed.

"Since you have a concussion your father really does need to know that you got hit again," the nurse said as she handed me an ice pack.

I lifted up my head and stuck the ice under it. While my head was up I figured I would take the time to shoot Jade a death glare.

"You can glare at me all you want Jamie, but it won't change anything," she said without even looking up from her phone. Yup, she knows me well enough to know when I am glaring at her. If that's not a friend, then I don't know what is.

"Jade, you can go back to practice if you would like. I'm going to keep Jamie in here for a while."

"But I'm fine! I can still at least watch practice. I've missed too much already I need to be there. If I miss much more I'm going to lose my spot."

"I'm sure your coach will understand that you're injured-"

"Sure she'll understand. She will understand and then replace me and make me sit on the sideline while everyone else if preforming."

"But for your health you need to rest."

"Excellent! I'll rest in the guard hall," I said getting up.

"Jamie, you are missing the point."

"No," jade said, "I think I see the point on her head…."

"Not helping, Jade!"

"Nurse Trina, I can make sure she doesn't do anything to hurt herself again. This isn't a battle you can win. We take guard very seriously," Jade said stepping towards me.

The nurse looked hesitant and doubtful but gave a slight nod to her head.

"Great! Jamie, grab your ice, we gotta get back before we miss too much more."

I stood up holding the ice on my head and walked out of the nurse's office. Jade was walking next to me with a smug look on her face.

"I can think of a few reasons for that smug look. I can also think of a couple more reasons to smack it off your face." I told her with another glare.

"Just be happy that you aren't still lying on the bed in there. You would have made the point on the head comment, your dad needed to know and I know when you glare at me. You have nothing to be upset about."

"I have the mocking of injury, the sneaking information to my dad, and how do you know when I glare at you without looking?! I have plenty to be upset about… my death glare makes most people crumble into a little ball and cry."

"You're fine, Jamie. And I'm use to your glare by now; I've adopted it and made it into my own. My glare makes people run as oppose to crumble."

"Ah, but with a crumbling glare you don't have to chase them to get your point across, you can just squat down and tell them what the problem is"

"Very true, but with a running glare they are too busy running to think about fighting back."

"My victims are too busy rocking back and forth, mumbling to themselves to think about fighting back."

"Fine, it's a draw," Jade said.

"Deal."

what amuses me is the fact that my friend and i had basicly this same argument. you know trying to figure out whos death stare was better. this will come into play when batman comes into the story :D just a heads up! if you have questions, coments, conserns or are just so bord that you feel the need to message me, have at it. i am bord enough to reply