Hospital Visit

I hate hospitals. The people there are either really happy, or really sad. Both are an unnecessary display of emotions.

Physics class was as boring as usual. Alex had been missing for almost three weeks now. I was actually pretty worried by now. Alex wasn’t the rebel type who would just run off and not tell anyone. If he was coming back home it was pretty obvious that something was preventing him from doing so. In the mean time, Mrs. Havelock decided to pair me up with Erica Simmons. I wouldn’t call Erica a friend of mine, having very few friends to begin with. She was more like a classmate. On most days she was bright and sunny and ready to help out. I guess this wasn’t most days. “Erica, could you please pass me the ammeter.” Erica listlessly slid the ammeter across the desk to me. Her eyes were really red and strayed constantly, a sign that her mind was somewhere else. A couple of days ago she went on the local news and made what was dubbed ‘a heartfelt’ appeal for anyone with information on Alex’s whereabouts to come forward. I didn’t see that as being incredibly necessary. Overuse of emotion usually results in unneeded stress, along with embarrassment. “Can you pass me the battery now?” Erica fumbled with the battery and dropped it. Sighing, I stooped down and picked it up. “Erica, umm, no offense and all, but why the sudden show of emotion for Alex after he’s disappeared? I mean, you used to pretty much ignore him before.”

She didn’t respond for awhile. She looked out of the window and said. “I was ashamed.”

“Huh?” I asked. “Ashamed of what?”

“I was ashamed to be seen with him. I was living it large, the big fish in the pool. I thought that if I associated with Alex, that I would lose all of that. That I wouldn’t be the popular girl anymore. So I kept my feelings for Alex a secret. ” She looked back at me. “And now, all I could think about is how stupid I was. I just wish I could just tell him how I really feel.” I rolled my eyes.

“Stop worrying yourself it. He’s going to come back, and then you could tell him the world of things you want to. But for right now, could you please help me with this lab?”

Erica wiped away the tears from her eyes. “Yeah, your right. I’m being stupid again aren’t I?” She straightened her uniform. “Let’s do this.” I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally I could get a lab done properly this time.

Half an hour later, while we were finishing up the lab, Mrs. Havelock knocked on the desk with her whiteboard eraser. “Class, I have an announcement to make.” We all stopped what we were doing and looked up. “The principal has just informed me that your friend Alex Peterson has been found.” A general sigh of relief escaped the class. Alex may have not been a crowd favorite, but everyone was glad the tension of having a missing classmate. Things had been uptight since Alex had been missing. One by-product of that was a curfew that our parents had unanimously imposed. I looked over at Erica. She looked as if she was going to float right out of her seat. “That girl just lets her emotions run her, doesn’t she?” I thought. Just then, the final bell rang signaling the end of the school day. “Please remember to pass in all of your assignments by Friday.” Mrs. Havelock shouted as the class shuffled out of the lab. “Ms. Dagger could, you please stay back for a minute. There is something that I have to give you.” I sighed and dropped my knapsack on the desk. “Seeing as how Alex is your lab partner, I guess you should be the one to take these to him.” Mrs. Havelock said, giving me a stack of papers.

“What are these?”

“All the labs that Alex missed. He can’t afford to miss any of them when it’s this close to his mid-term exam.” She said.

“Wow.” I said, trying to hide my sarcasm, “You really care for your students Mrs. Havelock.” She scowled.

“Well, you all are like my children you know.” I looked at her in shock. I don’t what I expected, but I certainly didn’t expect her to say that.

“Umm, that was a rather nice thing to say Mrs. Havelock.”

She looked at me strangely. “I didn’t know that you were so interested in Mr. Peterson’s grades, Ms. Dagger.”

“No, not that, the other thing you said. About us being your children.”

“I said no such thing Ms. Dagger! You should really stop saying such things if you expect to uphold a reputation.”

“But-“

“Now, please make sure that Mr. Peterson gets these papers. You should leave now if you expect to get there and get back before your curfew.” The curfew! I had almost forgotten that! I quickly packed up my stuff, grabbed the stack of papers and headed out of the lab. As I closed the door, I could swear I heard Mrs. Havelock say, “Did I just say that out loud?”

As I stepped through the hospital door I took a glance at my watch. “Great.” I thought, “I have to be home in 15 minutes or I’m dead. Thanks Alex. On both counts.” Walking through the long corridor, I began getting the weirdest sensation that someone was staring at me. I turned around and saw no one. I shivered “Hospitals give me the creeps.”

“…that Allison’s progressing rather well.” What!? I spun around again. What was that?

“Allison.” The sound of my name being called startled me. I turned around to see Drake, the one person who probably was Alex’s only friend at Valley Private High School. “Hello sexy!”

“Hello sexy? What!? Is that how you greet someone?”

Drake held up his hands in defense. “Hey, all I was going to ask you if you were going to see Alex. I didn’t say anything else.”

“Don’t try to cover it up now.” I replied angrily. I stormed off to Alex’s room. They said that you are who your friends are. If so, did Alex have pervert tendencies? No Alex wasn’t that kind of guy, was he? And why was I thinking about all of this? All this thinking was bringing on a major migraine. I shook these thoughts out of my head and walked into Alex’s room.

He turned and looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. I laughed inwardly. He actually did look pretty funny.

“Twenty days of perfect lab work.” I said, shaking my head. “I knew that it was too good to last.”

He sighed. “Thank you Allison, for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and offer me your sympathy. It’s heart wrenching.”

“I didn’t come here to pity you,” I replied, rubbing my temples. This headache was a pretty big one.
“I left you twenty days ago with a headache, and you still have one?” He asked.

“I don’t see how that concerns you.” I growled. I didn’t mean to be so nasty, but this headache was making me touchy.

“Aren’t we a ray of sunshine today?” He replied.

“Please,” I said, “refrain from comparing me to sunshine. It’s really sappy.”

“Sorry,” he answered. “I was thinking aloud.” I shrugged

“Anyway, as your lab partner, Miss Havelock wanted me to come give you the stuff you missed.” I said, placing a stack of papers on the table next to him. I sat down on the chair and opened a bottle of aspirin.

“She’s probably an addict by now.” I heard Alex say.

“Very funny. Do I look like a junkie to you?”

“What?” He asked.

“You just called me an addict. Do I look like an addict?”

“I didn’t say anything.” That got me slightly more angry. Alex probably wasn’t like Drake in the disrespect section, but he was just as good a liar.

“Alex, don’t lie. It doesn’t suit you He gave me a confused look. “Maybe it’s not aspirin in that bottle.” He said.

“Is he on a mission to piss me off?” I thought angrily.

“Alex, keep this up and I’ll make you disappear for another 20 days.” Why was I even here? Hadn’t I already given him his papers?

“Anyhow,” I said getting up, “I’ve got to go. I actually have a curfew now. I have you to thank for that.” I turned and walked out the door.

“Good riddance.” He said behind me.

I stuck my head back into the room. “I was saying the same thing about you a few days ago.” I actually felt kind of bad saying that, but I was also pretty mad. I was probably one of the few people to come visit him at risk of breaking my curfew. I bet Erica, who was madly in love with him didn’t even visit. I looked at my watch. I was late. Great. Now I would have to endure a lecture from my ever encouraging father. I looked back at the hospital and sighed in disgust. I hate hospitals.

Breakfast

A writer once said, “All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.” I guess when you don’t have a good breakfast, your whole day goes downhill from there. Like mine did.

It was the Saturday after my episode at school. I woke up with an especially nasty headache. And if you’ve ever woken up like this, then you’d know that your attitude tends to be as nasty as your headache, especially, when you have a horribly annoying little brother. And as far as little brothers go, I probably had the worst. I sighed and got out of bed. Lounging out of my room, I walked down the hallway. “They’re here! There’s nothing to fear! Ultrabots! Ultrabots!” I gritted my teeth. My little brother was singing the stupid Ultrabots song again. “Matthew!!” I shouted. “Would you please stop singing that stupid song?!”

“What stupid song?” a voice shouted from downstairs.

“The Ultrabots song! And aren’t you too old to be watching that?”

“That’s not a stupid song!” came the angry reply. “And no, I’m not too old to be watching that show. Ultrabots! Ultrabots!” he continued signing. I sighed. I wondered how I was able to maintain my sanity with him around.

I walked into the bathroom and shed my night gown. Stepping into the shower, I let the warm water run over my skin. I stood there and thought about my episode, as I now called it. In my short lifetime, I had never experienced anything like that. I’ve nightmares about it ever since. What exactly was it that happened to me on that day? Just thinking about it made my body shiver, despite the warm water running over it. Since then, my headaches had become worse. My head had been spinning with weird thoughts and I was going through bottles of aspirin as if they were candy. I turned off the shower and reached for my bathrobe. I walked back to my room, mulling these thoughts over in my mind.

I got dressed and went downstairs to have breakfast. My parents and Matthew was already at the kitchen table. Matthew took a long stare at me and said. “Disheveled hair, red eyes and cranky attitude. Yup, it’s official.”

“What’s official?”

“You have a hangover.” Matthew said, with an evil grin spreading across his face. “You’ve been drinking haven’t you?”

“You’re old enough to know about hangovers, but young enough to watch Ultrabots.” I said. “You’re a weird kid. I bet you were adopted.” Matthew made a face.

“Now kids,” Mom intervened, “Let’s not fight.” Let’s try to have a meal like normal family for once.” I pulled up my chair and mom put some runny eggs on my plate.

“So,” Dad asked, pulling up a chair across from me, “How was everyone’s week?”

“I came first in my spelling test.” Matthew boasted. “Mrs. Eccles said that I was the best.”

“What about you?” Dad asked me. I stared at my plate, moving the eggs around with a spoon. “I had a Physics Lab which my idiot partner screwed up. And now that we have to do it over, he stops coming to school.”

My Das sighed. “Well, what can you expect from the black sheep in the family. Every cent we spend on Matthew though seems to be well spent.”

I dropped my spoon. “Well, that’s rather encouraging!” I said angrily to him. “It’s wonderful to know that I’m the black sheep in the family and that I live in the shadow of my brainiac brother.”

Dad looked at me with a mixture of shock and anger. “Allison, I said such thing! You know that we don’t value any of our children above the other.”

“No I don’t!”

“What on earth is she talking about?” my mom said.

I turned to face her. “And why are you siding with him? Didn’t you just hear what he said?” I could feel the blood rushing to my face. “Well, forgive me for being the dumb kid! I’m just trying to do the most I can with the genes a certain pair of people gave to me!”

“Allison Kimberly Dagger! Stop this foolishness this instant!” I stopped. Mom just used my middle name. And she never uses my middle name. I stared down at my plate, trying to fight back my emotions.

“I take it back.” Matthew said. “It’s not alcohol. It’s probably cocaine.”

“Matthew!!” Mom shouted. I took up my plate and walked up to my room. “Allison, get back down here this instant!” I didn’t care. I kept walking. I opened my room door and flung the plate with the eggs across room. The plate shattered and the eggs splattered on the wall. I threw myself onto the bed and cried. It’s not something that I did very often, but it’s the only thing that I felt like doing. I lay there for a while, contemplating the injustice of life. Then I began happening. It started slowly, like the far away sound of TV static. It grew louder and louder, until it drowned out everything. Imagines and thoughts that were not my mine flew through my mind. I tried to stop them but to no avail. My head was like a massive antenna, sucking in the radio waves of humanity. I don’t know how long I lay there. Thoughts crashed over me like a raging river.

The sudden ringing of my phone snapped me out of it. As suddenly as they came, they all disappeared. The silence they left in my mind seemed almost deafening. I reached out absent-mindedly and answered the phone. “Hello?” a panicked woman’s voice asked. “Is this Allison Dagger?”

“Yes.” I replied. “Who is this?”

“I’m Mrs. Peterson, Alex’s mother. Have you seen Alex or spoken to him recently?”

“No, I haven’t seen Alex since he left school on Wednesday. Why? Is something wrong?”

I could hear the woman whimper. “Alex’s is missing. He didn’t come home on Wednesday and no one has seen him since. He’s not answering his phone and no one has any idea where he is.”

“What?!” I felt by blood run cold.

“Could you please call us if you hear anything?” Mrs. Peterson asked.

“Sure.” I replied. I heard the line go dead as she hung up. Alex was missing? He wasn’t my most favorite person, but I would hate for something to happen to him. He was a nice guy after all. What happened to me a minute ago also bothered me greatly. What in one earth was that? Why was it happening? And more importantly, how do I stop it from happening again?