Candid (True Images Series) (27 page)

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure I’ll find someone.”

“Great, let me know if you don’t.”

I hung up feeling sick. I knew I didn’t have anyone else to call. I was going to have to take my chances on my own.

*****

Sometimes I get these weird feelings that something bad is going to happen – like when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I see a weird shaped shadow in the mirror. I’ve figured out, though, that my over-active imagination just enjoys scaring me to death. But as I walked through the gate onto the football field just before kickoff, I wasn’t so sure it
was
all in my head. And that was scary.

But one way to let a bully win is to let them know you’re scared.

Or to give them an opportunity to beat you up.
Whatever.

Basically there were several reasons this game wasn’t going to be fun. Lee wasn’t here, it was freezing cold, and yearbook was already glutted with football pictures. And then there was Caleb.

On the other hand, I’d just gotten a call from the paper, asking if I could cover the game for them too. They didn’t give any details why their photographer couldn’t come, but that didn’t matter to me. Both the local paper and the school paper would need photos to cover the game, since it was a playoff game, and that’s all I needed to know. Not to mention that an inconvenient and probably stupid part of me refused to be scared off from something I loved.

“I haven’t seen you here for a while,” a voice said from behind me.

I turned and saw Brian Lockwood, the running back, standing nearby. He was wearing jeans and a jersey over a long sleeved t-shirt.
“Oh, hey there.
Why aren’t you playing tonight?”

“Aw, I pulled a hamstring in practice yesterday. Coach wants me to rest up for next week.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, it sucks. Where’s your boyfriend? Doesn’t he usually come with you?”

“If you mean Lee, he’s gone to a basketball game.”

“Already?
I thought their season didn’t start for a couple of weeks.”

“I guess it’s kind of a practice game.” I went back to setting up my camera, and a brilliant idea clicked in my brain.
“Hey, Brian.
Since you’re going to be on the sidelines anyway, would you mind spotting for me?”

“Uh, no.
I guess not. What do I do?”

“Just make sure that I get out of the way if I’m about to get run over.”

“Hey, no problem.”

“Great.” I felt so much better. My number one issue had just been taken care of. I relaxed and focused on the game.

It was a really close one. The score went back and forth, the lead never settling on one team for long. Standing on the sidelines as I was, I heard everything the coaches had to say about the referees’ calls and their players’ mistakes. After a while I tried to zone them out because it was stressful. I couldn’t imagine what the players were feeling.

Brian followed me around pretty closely and even talked to me when he wasn’t watching the game, but that wasn’t often. He had a lot riding on them winning this game. If they didn’t win, his high school football career was over. As Haskins failed to widen the score, Brian paid more attention to the game and less to me.

I was following the plays through my lens and since the ball had been downed on the other side of the field, I could relax for a minute. I doubt anyone else at the game relaxed though. I watched as Caleb missed a crucial tackle that led to a score for the other team. When the defensive players came off the field, Coach Hatfield exploded on Caleb, tearing his playing ability to shreds.

I watched warily as Caleb pushed his way through the mob of players, tore his helmet off, threw his water bottle down on the ground, and stalked around like an angry beast. Once he got close to me and I tried to disappear into my own skin. I wished Brian had been closer so that I could hide behind him, but no such luck.

Caleb saw me. I felt the color drain from my face as I watched his get redder. The fury in his eyes nearly made me panic and run away.

“What’s wrong, Sienna?” Brian asked, coming over to me, concerned and confused. “You look like you’re going to pass out or something.”

“Um, I’m just worried about the game.”

“Yeah.
Me too.
Don’t worry. We’ll score here for sure. Tyson’s great under pressure like this.”

I nodded absently, and tried to ignore the pricking sensation in the back of my neck where I could feel Caleb’s eyes on me. I told myself over and over again that he couldn’t do anything to me here in front of so many witnesses. When the game was over, I could sneak away before Caleb had even gotten off the field.

A few plays later, Tyson threw a long pass, hitting a receiver in stride, and we scored the touchdown we needed to get the lead back. Luis made a field goal for the extra point, and the defense was back out on the field.

I was relieved to know that Caleb was back out on the field, away from me. Taking pictures again relaxed me a little, and eventually my heart rate slowed down and I began to breathe normally again.

The other team was pushing the ball down field, one hard earned down at a time. It was the fourth quarter and the time was ticking off the clock. Haskins either had to get possession of the ball back or hold them until time ran out. At times like this, I took more pictures of the defense. After all, the fate of the game and of the season was in their hands.

The ball snapped and my camera clicked as we stopped the ball just shy of a first down. As the referee blew his whistle, signaling the end of the play, I reached for the play back button on my camera, to see what I’d captured.

I heard Brian shout my name, and turned towards him to see what was wrong. He wasn’t looking at me though. He was looking out at the field.

Then the world crashed down on me and everything went black.

Chapter 18

The black only lasted a second or so however, though I emerged from it into another darkness. I couldn’t see through it, but I could hear. I expected voices, the clatter of shoulder pads, and cheering from the stands. Instead, I heard beeps, rolling wheels, and quiet feet going past. That was odd. And the smells were different too- not like sweat, concession foods, or cold breezes. It was more like bleached linens, coffee, and medicine.

My brain felt slow and fuzzy, but I realized all that added up to a hospital. That wasn’t right though. I wished the darkness would go away. And I wished it didn’t hurt every time I took a breath.

Then I heard my mom’s voice over me somewhere.

“Sienna?
Are you awake?”

My lips felt heavy and my mouth was dry so I didn’t try to speak. Instead, I nodded a little and hoped she saw.

“Can you open your eyes, sweetie?”

My eyes were closed? No wonder I couldn’t see anything. With effort, I tried to open them. At first, all I managed to do was raise my eyebrows, but then my eyelids followed, one after the other. I saw my mom’s face, her forehead creased with worry. Some of it seemed to ease away after a moment however.

Beyond her face, I saw walls of pinkish tan fabric hung like curtains around me, forming a very small room. The longer I was awake, the more I realized how uncomfortable I was. “Water,” I managed to croak out.

“Oh, sure.
Here let me ask the nurse.”

She disappeared behind the curtain and I heard her voice a short distance away talking to someone. The curtain was rolled open, and a big woman with dull red hair and dishwater blond roots came in. She was wearing scrubs and a stern expression.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t have anything to eat or drink right now. I don’t know yet if they’re going to do any tests on you. You will be going for x-rays in just a minute.”

 I instantly disliked her, which I knew wasn’t fair, but I couldn’t help it. If her mouth were as dry as mine, she would be nicer.

Wait? What did I need x-rays for? I bit my tongue hard to produce some saliva in my mouth. Soon I was able to croak out a question. “What happened?”

My mom was sitting by my bed again, near my pillow. “You got hit by a couple of players at the football game. You were brought here in the ambulance because you were unconscious and may have some broken ribs. But
don’t worry
, everyone’s told me that as long as you regained consciousness soon, we shouldn’t have much to worry about.”

I tried to puzzle this all out. My thoughts kept sticking at the point where she said I’d been run over by a couple of football players.
“But how?
The whistle blew. The play was over.”

Mom shook her head. “I don’t know, honey. I wasn’t there to see. I’m sure someone will tell us later. Don’t worry about it right now.”

The nurse looked up from whatever she was doing. “It’s a good sign that she’s remembering stuff. Now, I’m going to clean up your face a little more before they come to take you to x-ray.”

“What’s wrong with my face?”

 
“Oh, nothing much.
You have a few cut’s here and there.
Nothing too bad, though they did have to put a couple of stitches in the cut on your eyebrow.
It isn’t a large cut, but they wanted to be careful to reduce scaring.”

As she talked, oblivious to my growing alarm, she’d been wiping my face with damp gauze that came away reddish brown. It was dried blood. She’d cleaned around my nose, along my chin, and down my neck.

“There,” she said, satisfied. “I know it doesn’t matter much to you right now, but it will make your mom feel better not to see all that blood on you.” Then to my mom, she said, “I told you it wasn’t bad. She just had a bloody nose and a fat lip besides that cut. It usually looks worse than it is, but the doctors don’t always care too much about what it looks like if they don’t have to stitch it up.”

“What else is wrong with me?” I asked, scared but determined to hear the worst.

“Now, don’t worry. If there was anything serious, you wouldn’t be laying here waiting for x-ray this long. You might have a couple of cracked ribs, but nothing you won’t recover from in
no
time.”

“Cracked ribs?”

She nodded seriously and asked my mom, “Have you finished filling out her forms? Ok, great. I’ll take those for you. Now just wait here a bit.”

When she was gone, my mom took my cold hands and warmed them between her own. “You have a lot of people in the waiting room anxious to hear how you are.”

“Who?”

“Well, Alex is here of course, since he drove me over here, and Marisol, and some kid named Brian.
And Lee.”

“Lee is here? He was… at a game.”

“He heard about what happened while they were on their way back. As soon as they got to the school, he and Marisol headed over here. I haven’t seen him, but Alex said he’s pretty frantic about you. He said that Brian kid is upset too. Who’s he?”

“Just a guy.
He was spotting for me.”

“Not too well, I guess.”

“It wasn’t his fault… the play was over. I don’t know how I got hit.”

Just then, the curtains were flung open and two men in scrubs came in. They looked at my chart, asked me my name and other stupid questions, and wheeled me out into a hall of pinkish tan curtains and fluorescent light fixtures. Anyway, that’s about all I could see from my bed besides the green exit signs above the doors as we went through.

The x-rays didn’t take long, but being moved around hurt so I was glad when it was over. When I’d been wheeled back into another curtained room, my mom was there waiting, and so was Mr. Greeley. I was feeling tired again, so I was glad when they let me rest and didn’t make me talk too much. Unfortunately, the nurses didn’t leave me alone. They kept coming in to take my temperature and blood pressure.

Eventually, a doctor came in and put my x-rays up on a light box. He studied them for a moment while making small talk, and then said, “Well, Sienna, it looks like you have cracked #5 on the left side. Everything else seems to be fine, including your lungs and other organs. I see no reason to keep you any longer.” Then he looked at my chart and said, “Anyway, as soon as your blood pressure comes up a little. We’re treating you for shock, but you’ve been improving over the last few hours.”

“How do you treat a broken rib?” my mom asked, concern tightening her voice.

“There’s nothing much to do. Her body will take care of everything as long as she rests and stays off her feet for a couple of weeks. Even then she’ll need to take it easy. Really the only thing we need to be concerned about is her breathing. It will be painful for her, but she needs to be sure to take big, full breaths to keep the fluid cleared out of her lungs. If she doesn’t, pneumonia could set in.”

“She just had bronchitis a few weeks ago.”

“Did she? Well, then Sienna, you need to be very sure to breathe deep. Don’t worry. I’ll prescribe you some pain pills to take along with Ibuprofen. It should help you be more comfortable. I’ll have the nurse come in and start your discharge papers so that you can leave as soon as her vitals are satisfactory.”

Sometime during the last few minutes, Mr. Greeley had come in. When the doctor had gone, he said, “I’m going to go tell the kids out there. They’re all anxious to hear.” He was back only a few minutes later however. He looked at my mom, hesitated, and finally asked, “Would it be all right for Lee to come and see her?”

My mom looked down at me, startled, and began shaking her head before she said, “No.”

“Why not, mom?”

“Well, for one thing, you aren’t dressed.”

“I’ve got this gown on and about five blankets. Please, let me see him.”

Mr. Greeley put an arm around my mom, turned her towards him and said, “Sophia, you should let him see her.
It’s
1:00 in the morning, he’s been worrying about her for hours now, and whether or not you like it, he really cares about her.”

“Mom, if it’s 1:00, it’s my birthday. I’m an adult now. I’m pretty sure it’s up to me who visits me,” I said gently, but firmly.