The Social Outcast

Chapter Six

Calum's POV

As we walked into my office for Hallie's doctors appointment, I could see that she was freaking out, so I grabbed her hand. She jumped at this action, but soon relaxed.

"Okay Hallie, sit on the bed please," I said. She reluctantly did it.

"This is really simple, Hallie. We're going to check you temperature, height, weight, lungs, heart, and blood pressure. Then we'll worry about worry about Michael's portion when it's time," Luke said as he took her temperature.

Now, it was time for the height and weight.

Hallie was only 5'2, but the weight was shocking.

Hallie only weighed 84 pounds, which was severely underweight for a 14 year-old. I looked, seeing Michael, Luke, and Ashton with the same shocked look.

"Is it that bad?" Hallie softly mumbled, looking so small and helpless in that moment.

"No, baby, it's perfectly fine. It's a little lower than we want it to be, but we'll get it up," Luke said, trying to cover the fact that she was severely underweight. We didn't want to make her feel bad about herself, yet we had no idea why it was so low.

It wasn't an eating disorder, was it?

It could just be the fact that Hallie has a small appetite.

We checked her heart, lungs, and blood pressure, everything seemed normal. Now, it was time for Michael to feel her spine and check her reflexes. For some reason, Hallie was more nervous.

He started to check her spine, to which Hallie flinched yet again. She was shaking like a leaf. I had no idea why she was so nervous.

"Okay Hallie, have you started your period yet?" Ashton asked after Michael was finished. She had a confused look on her face, making me know that she probably didn't know what a period even was.

"Do you know what a period is?" He asked.

"No," She shook her head. Have her parents not told her about a period? We all looked to each other with the same confused look that Hallie had. Her situation was getting weird.

That's when I realized that Michael was right. Something was wrong, we just didn't know what.

Just as Ashton was about to explain what it was, Niall walked in. He was a pediatrician in training, and was one of my favorite interns.

Well, he was until he made eye contact with Hallie. They stared at each other for a couple of minutes before he snapped out of it.

Why was I feeling so protective of Hallie, it's not like she was my daughter or sister? She was just a girl that was going to school in the domestic exchange program. I knew that she was going to be leaving in a years time.

***********************************

Luke and I were in the car, driving to the grocery store before picking Hallie up.

"She was 84 pounds, Cal. Do you realize how bad that is?"

"Yeah. Did you see how she reacted when one of us would touch her, especially Michael? This situation is getting weird."

"I know, Michael was right for the first time in his life," We laughed.

"Something is seriously wrong, but I don't expect Hallie to just open up. We've only known her for almost two weeks now (sorry for all of the time skips)

"Okay, but if this is something that is truly harming Hallie, we need to find out soon."

After grocery shopping, we arrived to Hallie's school. She got in the car, her hair covering a portion of her face with a rubber band, making me laugh.

"That's a strange way to do your hair," Luke said.

She faked a laugh.

"Uh, yeah, I was going to put it up in a ponytail, but ran out of time, so it ended up like this," She rambled. Something I noticed about Hallie, is the fact that when she lies, she starts to ramble.

Why was her hair like that? Was she trying to cover something?

"Okay then, sweetheart. I think Michael is picking up pizza for dinner."

"What's pizza?" Luke slammed on the brake. Did I hear that right?

"I guess you'll see when we get home," I said.

When we got home, Michael was putting plates on the table. He gave us a smile when he saw us walk in.

"Hey Hallie, how was your day?" He asked.

"Um, yeah, it was fine. Perfectly fine," She started to ramble again, telling me that she was lying once again. I really wanted to know what was going on.

"That's an interesting hairstyle," Ashton commented.

Hallie said nothing and sat down at the table. She took a bite of pizza, immediately taking another bite after the first. Hallie had eaten three slices, and was now eating her fourth slice.

"Wow, for such a small girl, you sure have a big appetite," Michael said.

"Is that bad?" She asked.

"No sweetheart, eat as much as you want. It's perfectly fine," I told her.

She stopped eating and took her plate to the sink.

"Baby, you didn't have to stop eating. I'm sorry if I offended you with my comment," Michael said, but Hallie just shook her head.

"No, I'm just full," She looked at her feet. Another thing that I noticed was when she lied, she sometimes looked at her feet after walking upstairs.

"What just happened?"