Dodgeball amnesia

The dark shroud surrounding me, covering my ears, lifts, and I can hear two voices calling my name, as well as a soft gentle voice. "Kat, wake up" the dull voices seem to be filled with worry, even through the monotone. A soft light drifts in front of me from the long expanse of darkness. As it nears me, the voices grow louder. "Kaitlin, Kaitlin, come on, wake up." The gentle voice says. Im confused. I don't recognize or know these voices, come to think of it, I don't know who I am. Is my name Kat? Or Kaitlin? Kat must be a nickname. Kaitlin, a pretty and cute name, I like it. The light brings me back to reality. The voices are now clear and distinct, no longer sounding distant. I try the name out on my lips. "Kaitlin," I say. "Kat, Kaitlin, Kat," Yep, Kat is definitely a nickname, and these names feel natural when I say them. They must be mine. The voices gasp. Oh! I had forgotten about about them, I guess I should see who they belong to, but I really don't want to. I don't have a choice, because a finger lifts my left eyelid and shines a bright light into my eye. I quickly open my other eye, and shake my head away. Ow, bad idea. I scrunch my face up in pain. It recedes, and I open my eyes again. Three pairs of eyes, two heavily surrounded by eyeliner and the other makeupless, peer down at me. All three are filled with relief. I look at each one of their faces in confusion. Finally, I sit up and ask, "Who are you?" The gentle voice comes from an equally gentle face, and she looks like a nurse. Must be the school nurse, 'cause this does not smell or look like a hospital. The dull voices come from the people wearing dark makeup and heavy eyeliner. Everyone looks shocked. The school nurse smiles sadly and says, "You're name is Kaitlin Blanchard. Do you know where you are?" The other two object. "You decided never to call yourself by that name a long time ago, your name is Kat." My stomach tightens from being around unknown people. I clasp my fingers around the sheets, curl and uncurl my toes, hunch my shoulders, and look at my lap, nervously. "Well, I think my name is Kaitlin, from what you told me, and Kat is a nickname. And I'm in a . . . Nurse's office?" I say quietly. The nurse smiles reassuringly and sits down on the bed next to me. I lift my head. "That's right, do you know what school?" She asks. I shake me head slightly. "Okay," she starts explaining, "You're in Clarksdale middle school, and you're a student here. She points to the other two people in the room. "These are you're friends, Lu-" she was cut off, and the other two begin to speak. There was one boy and one girl. "I'm spike, and this is Momo." He says.

"Does your head hurt?" The nurse asks. I shake my head again. "Good, then lets get out of here." Spike pulls me to my feet and leads me out the door. I look around as I exit, and I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror; I look just like them. Why would I wear black makeup? its ugly! I'm pulled out the door. "Don't worry, your memories will come back soon." Spike says to me. "In the meantime, you should try to get back to your usual routine, I heard that's what you're supposed to do." says Momo. They stop in the middle of the hallway and point to locker 346. "That's your locker," they say. If I'm goth, then I don't want to know what it's decorated like, most likely all black. I hesitantly finger the lock. They're forgetting I don't know the combo. "34 6 43" says Momo, "that's your locker combo," I nod and turn the worn nob to the barely visible numbers. My fingers turn it faster then I can think about the numbers, and before I realize it, the lock is opened. I look at the faded grey lock, and realize the numbers would have done no good, because you can't even see them. Spike opens the locker for me. I'm too nervous to do so myself. The inside isn't decorated much, just a picture of me, spike, and Momo, standing next to each other during what looks like an entrance ceremony, but none of us are smiling. There's also a black book bag. I pick it up and lift the flap so I can look inside. There's a math book, science book and history book, as well as two different issues of GOTH IN STYLE magazine. I put it back in the locker. I take out another black bag, but this time inside it is makeup, dark makeup. I put that bag next to the book bag. I reach in the locker again. This should be all. Surprisingly, its not. There's another bag, a duffel bag. Strange, it's not black. In fact, its pink. What's inside this? I unzip it. The zipper sounds fresh, as if it was bought not five minutes ago. Inside it I find something very appealing, not black clothes! I turn around with the bag, ready to ask a question. Spike and Momo look horrified. It's not like I'm petting the most poisonous spider alive, why are they looking at me like that? A loud bell rings, and lots of other people crowd the halls, heading for their lockers. I push myself against my own in fright. I wait until it calms to a steady flow of people, and Momo tells me to grab my math book. I comply, but don't put the other bag away. They lead me with the flow of people, and soon I spot the nurse's office again. I head into it, against spike's and Momo's wishes. "Can I change in here?" I ask the nurse. "Sure," she says, and opens a privacy curtain. I enter and close the curtain before rummaging through the bag. I pull out lighter jeans, a lime green short sleeved shirt, and a white jacket. Quickly, I replace the dark clothes with these, and exited to find the closest mirror to take off the makeup. I do so, but something still seems wrong. My appearance is better, but I have a feeling my hair is wrong. The nurse notices and tugs on the black strands, I expect it to hurt, but it doesn't. She tugs it all off, and blonde hair tumbles out of a loosely done bun. She shows me the back wig. "Thank you," I say. I put the wig and clothes back into the bag, and the nurse offers to keep it here until the end of the day. I agree and head back into the hallway, where spike and Momo are waiting for me. At first they don't recognize me. In fact, nobody recognizes me. They must be used to seeing me wear black, but that's not happening again, no way. I walk timidly up to them. "Umm . . . Hi," I say. They stare at me, as of thinking, why would she be talking to us. "It's me, Kat." I say. Their expressions change into one of surprise. I notice spike's hand shake slightly, and Momo is leaning back. Are they afraid of me? I feel like maybe I should've kept the black clothing on, but I just couldn't! I don't know why I would logically choose to wear something like that anyway. "Why are you wearing those clothes?" Momo asks shakily. "They're cute," I say. I tilt my head in confusion, and my hair swings back and forth slightly. They look frantically in both directions. Apparently they see something, because they look to right, at the other side of the hall, and their eyes suddenly become defensive. I hear a snicker, and the abruptly turn around, forcing me behind their backs. They press their sides together and I can't see. Whatever, that's fine with me, but I can't help my curiosity when I catch a glimpse of who they're talking to. It's a boy, and he's far from ugly. I try to look around spike's shoulder. His arm reaches back and keeps me behind them. I decide to pay attention to the conversation. "What are you hiding?" The boy asks. "Is is Kat?" He sounds amused by their defensiveness. "So what if it is, don't touch her!" Says Momo. "Oh? Now why would you be hiding her? You can't still be mad about the dodge ball." The boy retorts. Dodgeball? What dodgeball? "Of course, we're still mad. This is all your fault!" Says spike. "What's my fault? she's not dead, is she?" The boy looks amused, but not like he's being purposely spiteful. I wonder if they notice this. "No," they say, "but she's not goth anymore, thanks to you," "not goth?" The boy looks curious and peers over their heads. They try to stop him. It's too bad they don't stand a chance, he's tall. Is he a basketball player? They have common sense, I notice, because instead of fighting him off, they turn around, spike grabs my math book, and they pull me down the halls. I look back, and the boy's frozen in surprise. I don't have time to ponder this, because I'm pulled inside a classroom. The floor is colored a plain beige, and the walls are painted white. I see a large desk up front and five rows of four student desks lined up in front of it. Many other kids, my age I presume, are chatting while the teacher sets up for class. They nudge me in the direction of three empty seats in the fourth row. I walk past the other classmates, and they stare. Is there something on my face? Do I look strange? Maybe it's the contrast from the black spike and Momo are wearing to my bright colors; that would make make sense. Spike places my math book onto the third desk in the row, and I sit down. I look at the top of the desk, and see slight impressions. "You would make those when you were annoyed or angry," spike explained, then I watched as he sat silently down in the desk to my left. "Also on May 23th," adds Momo. "What happened on that day?" I ask, tracing the faint marks. "You never told us," says spike. Momo sits to my right. "Could you tell me my birthday?" I ask spike and momo. "We can do more than that," says spike, "we'll tell you everything." They explain that my birthday is June 17th, I was goth since I was twelve years, and my full name is Kaitlin Maria Blanchard, and Kat is my nickname. Im thirteen years old, my favorite color is purple, even though I was goth, and my favorite food is Caesar salad. I'm scared of bugs, am bad at sports, and hate the basketball team's captain, Kyle. "Was Kyle the guy you met on the hall?" I ask them. They nod. "What was the dodgeball he was talking about?" They look at each other, as if thinking, should we tell her? "It happened last period in gym." Says Momo. "We were playing dodgeball, Kyle was on the other team." Says spike. "Kyle, the basketball captain?" I ask for confirmation. "Yes, he was on the other team, and he was targeting you." Confirms Momo. "Why would he target me?" I ask them. "Kyle hates you just as much as you hated him. Anyway, he hit you in the head, and you blacked out." They end the explanation quickly as the teacher clears his throat. "I'm going to explain the situation to the teacher," spike writes on a note, then passes the note to Momo. Momo nods and spike walks up to the teacher. Ha! They thought I couldn't see it, and I did, so ha! I hear hushed whispers around me as spike explains my amnesia. Speaking of which, did I forget things I've learned at school? I think about it, and everything's there. Factoring, multiplication tables, algebra, all there. "Kaitlin, can I see you out in the hall please?" The teacher asks. It takes me a second to realize that I'm being talked to, but I oblige as soon as I realize. I walk out of the room quickly, hoping to be in the spotlight as little as possible. The teacher closes the door and turns to face me. "I was wondering why you weren't wearing black clothes or that wig, amnesia makes perfect sense." He says. I nod and reply with a question, "Do you know why I was goth to begin with?" He shakes his head. "How did you get amnesia?"