"The doctor told you to keep away from your computer screen and away from studying too much. You've strained yourself out way too much" my mom was reading the doctors note she was given after my immediate trip to the emergency room "I never heard that you can study too much, but the only reason why you passed out in the middle of your exam was from lack of sleep. You never listen to me, do you?" She turned to me sitting on my bed, staring at my sheets as I felt like my whole life had broke down "I told you to take it easy and get plenty of sleep"
"I know..." I responded, lowering my head "I know"
"You were so lucky that you finished most of your questions on your test. This was the final exam, but you managed to pass with the missing questions you left blank before you were escorted to the hospital" I clenched on my sheets, not wanting to hear this.
For years, long before and during the time I was a part of the Pokémon academy, I've been on my feet trying to be the best student I can be. I always scored the perfect grades and never got anything less. Because I was careless and forgot to take care of myself while studying for the final exam, I passed out in the middle of the test and only got a decent score on the exam... enough for me to pass.
"Stop making that face" Mom crossed her arms "You're lucky that nothing serious happened to you! I always told you to take care of yourself! Your malnourished and stressed! Look at the bags under your eyes! I took my time to leave work and I see my son destroying himself because he's a perfectionist" she sighed when I didn't respond back. I couldn't respond. I knew what I did was wrong, but I hated getting yelled for it.
"I'm sorry..." I finally said "I just really wanted to make dad..." I bit my lips, wishing those words didn't slip.
"Your dad should not be the reason why you're stressed out. Forget what he told you! I keep telling you to forget him! I will not let my son do more harm to his body because his father thinks too highly of himself! There's a reason why he's not in our life anymore! I don't know how to knock that information out of that head of yours! You might be the smartest student in that school, but doing this to yourself was the dumbest thing you've ever done" she continued. I held my forehead, trying to ignore the pain.
"I'm not home all the time so that I can support you in school. Your dad isn't doing any of that. He should not be the one giving judgment to my son who's worked this hard just to show that man that we're worth it" she took my hand "I keep telling you... You don't have to show off to him. We are fine on our own. You have to relax and find ways to be happy, not force yourself for his approval" I bit my lips, trying not to cry "You are a talented kid... You can show talent to those who will only see it as something you've accomplished for yourself, not for others" she kissed my forehead "Please get some rest. I'll make you some soup before I have to go back to work. I took the liberty to take away all your books and your computer. It's summer vacation now. You don't need to study any time soon" I nodded, watching her leave my room.
"I'm sorry, mom..." I said, making her stop "I'm trying to do my best, but it's been hard" she looked back at me and frowned "Dad always told me to be the best... so I did that, but it caused me a lot of stress and I lost a lot of quality time with my friends. I'm sorry" I looked down "I'll do better... I'll start seeing my friends more if it'll help me with my stress levels" she smiled and nodded.
"That's good to hear. Maybe a girlfriend sounds good?" She giggled "Having one will keep your mind off a lot of things!" I snorted, finding that to be too straightforward. Yeah, like a girl will bother wanting to hang out with a nerd like me.
Mom had left back to work after making some food for me. She took some time off work to take care of me in the hospital when I was taken to the emergency room and stayed there for about a week before I was able to come back home.
My stress levels were sky rocket and my lack of sleep was the majority of the reason. Because my laptop and books were taken away, I have nothing to study on and need to find something else to keep me occupied.
I was suggested relaxing activities so that my stress levels could decrease, but because of what happened, my anxiety was currently skyrocket since I didn't score a perfect grade on the final exam!
"Dammit..." I groaned to myself and got out of bed "I ruined my streak..." I looked at my empty room, seeing my bookshelves naked "What can I possibly do now?" I sighed and went downstairs to eat moms food and watch some tv I haven't watched in probably years. The amount of studying I do keeps me from doing anything that doesn't involve studying.
It was different to just sit in the quiet and watch Tv. In the beginning, I was really uncomfortable and shaking my leg frequently, but as time passed, I started liking the quiet. There were things on the tv that were much more entertaining than what was on the books. I completely forgot how good anime was.
"Dammit..." I held my head in pain "This headache won't go away" I have frequent headaches due to my stress levels. More than likely, from what the doctor told me, my headaches won't go away until I find a way to reduce this stress. I've been given medication for it, but I don't know how effective it'll be.
Someone knocked on my door. I got up from the couch, keeping my eyes glued on the tv, and went to open the door to see one of my good friends and neighbor, Shauna, greeting me with a smile.
"Hey Calem!" She waved. I took my eyes off the screen and immediately felt a sharp pain in my stomach that caused me to vomit right in front of her. She freaked out and jumped away "Calem! Are you okay?!" I groaned and held my stomach in pain.
"Yeah... This always happens" I coughed "My stress levels causes me to vomit all the time" she frowned and jumped over the vomit to enter my house.
"Do these stress levels also cause you to make bad decisions?" I nodded, hating to admit it "I thought so, since you've let yourself go so far that you fainted in class" she walked me to the couch and left to get me a glass of water.
"Is that why you came here? To judge me?" I rolled my eyes, annoyed. She snorted and held her hip.
"Listen you. I know you're a stick in the mud who doesn't know how to relax, and since you're now locked away from all this school stuff and the semester is finally done" she pointed at my nose "It's time to bounce back and use this time to find your inner peace and..." she took a deep breath and sighed "Relax" I sweat dropped "no more bad decisions, no more irritability, no more tapping on your pencil in the middle of class like your banging a freaking drum, and even you vomiting all the damn time! You already know your body is taking a negative effect on all this, but you've kept it up for this long and now facing the consequences. It's time to get back there and start feeling yourself again"
"You say it like it's easy" I looked at my shaking hand "I feel so jumpy. I feel like I need to grab a textbook and start studying"
"That's not happening! I'll let you get some bed rest, but next week, let's go out to the city with our friends and have a good time" she winked "maybe even get you a girlfriend?" I sweatdropped. She sounded like my mom "You should go to bed and sleep. Nothing wrong with reading a good book. Not text book! Or just watching tv, or a game! Here!" She dug in her bag and handed me her old 3DS "Have fun with this! Anything to keep your mind off studying! Go to sleep and I'll clean up your vomit" I frowned.
"What? I can't let you do that" she shook her head.
"Don't worry about it! I want my best friend to feel his best when it's time to head out! I wanted to tell you something later, but I'll tell you with our friends!" She got me up and took me to my room. Despite always ignoring her and our friends just so I could study, she still calls me her best friend...
"I'll make it up to you..." I looked down. She pushed me to the stairs.
"Make it up to me by getting some rest and hang out with us next week!" I nodded and headed to my room, taking her 3DS, and headed to bed after taking a shower after throwing up for the millionth time.
I went to bed exhausted and tired, which only made me feel worse. I didn't want to feel this way. I had the erg to pick up my laptop and start studying, even as something as little as researching what can help me sleep better instead of needing to take my medicine, I couldn't do it.
I took my medicine that should help me relax before I lay in bed. I stared at the ceiling, feeling jumpy for a long while until my body slowly started to relax and drifted me into sleep until the next day.
Regularly taking my medicine, I had gone a week without studying or anything. When I wasn't playing games or watching anime, I'd just find ways to fall asleep faster. Instead of overdosing on my sleeping medicine like I wanted, knowing it would be a bad idea, I had to get Shauna to research what can help with sleep better.
Since without studying, my body slowly started turning back to normal. I could eat more without throwing up, I wouldn't get dizzy all of a sudden, and my headaches weren't as bad, but there were always times when my thoughts just wandered and thought about what would my dad think if he found out I didn't get a perfect score on my final exam. The wandering thoughts brought up my anxiety and my body kept going up and down with my symptoms getting bad and recovering repeatedly.
After the first week, Shauna came back to my house after coming back once a day to check on me, and got me to get dressed to follow her to the next town over to meet up with our friends.
"It's been a long time since we've been out walking outside together" She smiled as we walked to our destination "I can hardly remember the last time since we did this. We frequently had walks with-" I was too lost in my thoughts to really listen to her "-and now that it's summer vacation, we don't have to worry about school anymore!" I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at her, agreeing to the last thing she said.
I've known Shauna since we were kids. We've known our other friends later on in life when the headmaster of the Pokémon academy, which holds all grade levels starting from pre-K to university students, gave us our first Pokémon. We were a group that was destined to do great things and were thought to be the best in the whole school. Today, we all still hold that title and I worked hard to be on top, but I would be lying if I said that everyone continued being the honor student in our group.
I didn't really want to think about the missing member of our group. It would be pretty odd to meet in the same town like a long time ago without everyone there.
"It's just like old times!" Shauna smiled. I smiled and nodded, seeing her chuckle and look down at my hand "Will you stop?!" She grabbed my hand and flinched when seeing it. I snatched my hand away and kept walking "Calem... Why are you chewing on your nails so much? The skin around them is practically gone!" She caught up with me "Did your mom talk to you about therapy?"
"I don't want therapy. I'm fine on my own. I just need to get my Pokémon back from Tierno and I can finally start being with them again" Shauna hurried to stand in front of me and held her hips, stopping me.
"Tierno has your Pokémon because you're unable to take care of them because of your treatment. You need to take care of yourself before they can see you. Battling all the time was just as bad for you! You'll be able to see them, but I need to tell Tierno that you haven't recovered as well as we hoped" I glared and towered her.
"They're my Pokémon! You can't keep them away from me!" I snapped. She flinched and held in her shaking and tears almost immediately.
"You've exhausted them too, you know?! You and your Pokémon need a break from each other! Look at you yelling at me! Look at your fingers! You're shaking!" I looked at my shaking hands "you're nowhere near better! You need to relax!" She sighed "seeing your Pokémon rested up might make you feel better, but I won't allow you to battle with them. They are trying to relax like you are" I shook my head and walked pass her "It's for your own good..." she followed me to Aquacorde Town, where I went straight to the restaurant that our friends always waited for us to meet up for an adventure during summer vacation.