Hello everyone! Update time!
For this one, I decided to make it into a sort of sequel. You guys remember the 13th chapter, called 'Climbing Trees'? This chapter takes place a day after that. The topic just seemed to fit, and so, here it is!
Today's topic was suggested by QUEENSPELLER67!
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size!
Crutches
Grade Two
May (7), Ash (7), Misty (7), Drew (7), Gary (7), Paul (7)
When Ash entered his grade two class, he instantly became the centre of attention. The previous day, the poor boy had badly sprained his ankle during a certain tree incident. And now, he had just come in, his foot bandaged up in a small white cast, and most interesting of all was the fact that he was using crutches.
"Ash!" May and her friends immediately went up to him. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. "How's your foot?"
"Oh, it still kinda hurts," said Ash. "But the doctor said it should get better in a week or two. Until then, it's a bit hard to walk, so they gave me these crutches." Ash proudly used his crutches to take a few steps. "It's not as easy as it looks. I had to try all of yesterday to learn how to use them!"
"Wow," May marveled. "When you use them, it's kinda like you have three feet!"
"Huh? Um, okay," Ash said, unsure of how to respond.
"I'm glad you're okay," said Misty."But you better not do something dumb like climb a tree like that again!"
"Actually, Mist," said Ash thoughtfully. "Maybe I should. I always thought it would be easy to climb trees, but now I'm thinking that maybe I need more practice."
"No! You, mister, will not be climbing any more trees!" Misty proclaimed hotly.
The two's bickering caught the attention of the rest of the class, and it wasn't long before they all were surrounding their black-haired classmate, asking him if he were alright and admiring his cast.
"Hey, we should let him sit down," Drew suggested, realizing that everyone was making it hard for Ash to keep his balance. Everyone immediately got out of his way, and helped him get to his desk.
"Thanks, guys!" said Ash brightly.
"Hey, can I draw something on your cast?" May asked. "Once, Daddy hurt his foot, and he let me write and draw stuff on his cast, like smiley faces and 'Get well soon!'"
"Sure!"
"Can I, too?"
"And me?"
"What about me?"
Turned out the rest of his classmates were eager to draw on it too, and Ash happily let them, appearing a bit more exuberant than usual at getting so much attention. He never got to be in the spotlight!
But someone wasn't as thrilled about that as he was. Gary was standing off to the side, arms crossed as he watched his friend, his face swimming with jealousy.
"It's not that big of a deal," he grumbled to Paul, who was sitting in his desk as he was one of the few who didn't really feel like drawing on Ash's cast. "He just got hurt, and now he gets so much attention!"
"If it's not such a big deal, why are you so upset?" Paul pointed out.
"I'm not!" Gary insisted indignantly. "I just think Ash is being a bit full of himself."
"Kind of like how you always are?"
"Yeah! I mean, no! I'm not full of myself!" He glared at his friend. "I just like it when people pay attention to me, that's all! Besides, I deserve to be in the spotlight. My grandpa is famous, and I'm awesome, so of course people should notice me more."
"I don't think people notice you that much, actually. It's only when you're being loud."
"People do notice me! You just don't realize it. But Ash? The only reason he's getting so much attention is because he has a cast and is using cool crutches. If he didn't, I would be getting all the attention. He's not special! "
"Uh-huh."
"I have to make people realize that! What do you think I should do?"
"..."
"Great idea! I'll get a cast too. Then, everyone will want to draw on my cast!"
"But won't you have to get hurt first?"
Gary frowned at Paul's point. He'd have to be hurt to get the doctor to put a cast on him. But he didn't really want to get hurt. What if... he pretended? He was very good at pretending! He quickly took out a washable red marker and a roll of tape from his pencil box.
"Wait here," he told Paul, who hadn't been planning to move from his spot.
Gary hurried to the washroom where he used the red marker to colour all over his left hand. He then wrapped tissue paper all around it and used tape to keep it in place. He now had a cast as well!
Grinning proudly, he strutted back to class and to where he had been standing beside Paul's desk. He waved his 'injured' hand in front of his face.
"I have a cast now too!" he declared.
"That's tissue paper," Paul observed.
"Well, I can't have a real cast, Paul. You know that! And you can't tell anyone that I'm not really hurt, okay?"
Paul shrugged and Gary took that as a yes.
"Okay, then!" The spiky-haired boy walked up to the crowd and waved his hand in the air. "Hey! I have a cast too!" he yelled out.
All heads turned towards him.
"Gary? When did you get a cast?" Drew said. "You were just fine a moment ago."
"Yeah, but I fell and hit my hand," Gary answered, mildly annoyed at the lack of instant sympathy. "It really hurts too."
"Oh no!" May immediately ran up to him and took his hand carefully. She frowned. "But this is tissue and tape."
"I had to use that because the doctor isn't here right now," Gary told her. "I'll go to the doctor and get a real cast tomorrow."
Misty shook her head. "Gary, always getting into dumb messes."
"Hey!' Gary yelled angrily. "I fell and got hurt!"
"You were probably running in the hallways. We aren't supposed to run in the hallways."
"But we aren't supposed to climb trees either! And Ash got hurt doing something dumb!"
"Gary, is it really hurt?" May asked anxiously.
"Yeah!" Gary's anger ebbed away and was replaced by enthusiasm. "Wanna see?" He lifted a part of the tissue to reveal a bit of his red hand underneath.
"It's all red!" May gasped in horror.
"Yeah. But I didn't cry like Ash did!"
"You have to go to the nurse!"
"Wha'?" Gary hadn't been expecting that. "No, I don't."
"Yes you do. It's really hurt! You need to get it checked up and take medicine."
"No I don't! You only do that if it hurts a lot, and it doesn't hurt that much."
"But you were saying that it really hurts," Drew reminded him, causing Gary to send a glare his way that made him fall silent.
"But what about your hand?" May said worriedly.
"Don't worry, I'm really brave!" Gary puffed up his chest proudly. His eyes fell on Ash's crutches. "I'm gonna need those," he announced. "You use crutches when you're hurt, and I'm hurt so I'll have to use them." He took his friend's crutches in his hands.
"Um, you only need those when your leg is hurt," Ash tried to explain.
"But my leg is hurt too," Gary told him. "When I fell, I hurt my hand and my leg."
"But you still can't use them," Paul piped up this time, and he was smirking amusedly. "If your hand is hurt, how are you gonna hold them?"
Gary glared at his friend. Wasn't Paul supposed to be on his side? "Well," said Gary, "I can do it because I can hold onto it without my hand hurting. I'm brave, so I don't cry."
"But it's really hard to use crutches," said Ash. "I had to practise a lot so that I could use them without falling, and my mom helped me too. You're gonna have to practise before you use them."
"No, I won't! I can use them without practising," Gary claimed, taking his crutches and tucking them under his arms the way he saw people do on TV. "See? I know how to use them."
"But it's hard to walk—"
"Only for you, Ashy-boy. I'm better than you, so I know how to do this better."
"But—"
"You just watch. I'll show you!"
Despite protests, Gary made an attempt to use the crutches to propel himself forward. He wobbled, looking like he was about to fall (because of which gasps emerged from the crowd), but he managed to successfully land on his feet. He paused for a moment, taking in the fact that he had accomplished such a difficult task, before grinning proudly.
"See?" he said. "Told you I could do it!"
The crowd held its breath as Gary made another attempt. This time, however, he wasn't as lucky. The crutches twisted, making him lose balance and unable to keep upright. It ended with him on the floor, the crutches on top of him.
"OW!" he hollered. "OW! I hurt my foot!"
Everyone huddled around. May gasped, kneeling beside him. "Are you okay?! Are you hurt?" she asked frantically.
"No, I'm not okay, and yes, I am hurt!" Gary snapped, gritting his teeth and holding back tears of pain. He couldn't cry! Not after all that bragging.
"You shouldn't have done that," Misty chided. "Always doing dumb things!"
"Your cast fell off," said Drew, picking up the bundle of tissue and tape. He frowned when he saw his friend's hand. "Wait, is that marker?"
"Yeah," Paul confirmed. "He was making all of that up."
"Paul!" Gary was finding it very difficult to hold back his tears of pain, now mixed with humiliation and anger. Paul was a traitor!
"Someone should get the nurse," said Ash worriedly.
"But what if he's only pretending to be hurt this time too," Misty pointed out.
"I don't think he is," Ash said. "When I was learning how to use my crutches, once I fell and my mom wasn't there, and it hurt!"
"Come on, Drew, we need to get Nurse Joy!" May caught Drew's arm in her grip and dragged him out with her. Gary had to bear the pain of his twisted ankle for a while longer before the nurse came to help him to the office.
"It really hurts," said Gary to the group of kids around him. "See? Nurse Joy put it in a cast. She said it's not as bad as Ash's, but I still need lots of rest before it gets better."
It was recess time now. Turned out Gary had twisted his ankle, but it wasn't nearly as bad as Ash's. Nevertheless, Nurse Joy had wrapped it up and told him that he should visit the doctor after school just in case. He couldn't go right now, because he had no one to take him there (everyone was at work), but since it wasn't too serious, he could wait. In the meantime, he was having a great time getting all the attention.
"I hope it gets better soon," said Ash, who was sitting on the bench beside him, his crutches leaning against the bench's side. "It's no fun having to just sit around all day! I wish my foot would get better."
But Gary evidently couldn't agree less. He proudly told everyone (whoever hadn't seen what had really happened) of a heroic story where he had let himself get hurt to save someone.
"Hey, Ash," said a voice. It was Iris, the girl who had challenged Ash to a tree-climbing contest that had resulted in him hurting his foot in the first place. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better!" said Ash cheerfully.
"Huh?" Iris turned to Gary. "What happened to you?"
"I hurt my foot," Gary explained, telling her the long heroic tale which she didn't believe.
"That's not true," Misty muttered. But she had given up trying to tell everyone that.
"Well, I hope the both of you get better," said Iris. The rest of Ash and Gary's friends agreed, and Ash nodded too.
But Gary, who was enjoying all the extra attention, secretly thought to himself, I don't.
Okie! I have completed this chapter and managed to get you guys a second update this week! Yay!
Now, as we all know, this is a very special chapter. You can all now commence celebrations.
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Um, why are you guys just blankly staring at the screen? WHAT?! You have no clue what I'm talking about?! Fine I'll tell you. This chapter is special because...
IT IS THE FIFTIETH CHAPTER FOR THIS FANFIC! That's right, folks, I have reached 50 chapters for this in about a year! This is a huge accomplishment for me, but the ones I want to thank most is you guys. It's thanks to all you guys that I've managed to come this far, with all your reviews, favs, follows, and views. So far, I have reached 287 reviews (which is nearly 300!), 53 favs, 55 follows, and over 21,800 views! You guys are all awesome, so thanks so much! I hope to continue on to at least 100 chapters, so let's see if I can do it! ^_^
Thanks for reading!
Have a magnificently phenomenal day, and be sure to smile all the way! :D