Sticks and Stones

One: Tatum Hartley and the No Good, Pretty Bad Day

Five Months Later

Tatum Hartley was many things.

Smart.

Driven.

Stubborn.

Maybe a bit outspoken at times.

But late was not one of those things.

She prided herself for her punctuality. She despised being late. It made her skin crawl. She had been late one time in middle school due to her mother waking up past her alarm. But Tatum refused to miss a beat, starting to read her textbook in the car as they whipped into the parking lot on two wheels. After arriving to class a whole twelve minutes and thirty seconds late, she assured her teacher that she wouldn't fall behind. She even recited everything she believed she missed just to show her that she kept up despite the absence. Turned out, all she had missed was attendance.

Ever since, Tatum was keenly aware that being late for things was not her forte.

And so, she was never late again.

Except for today.

And this was not the day for her to try something new.

But her phone alarm decided she needed a change. It must have thought it was doing her a favor by letting her sleep in forty-three minutes after her alarm. It was that sinking feeling when you realize your alarm hadn't gone off yet and it seemed like you were sleeping for too long. It was the jolt you felt as you shot up from bed, checking your phone to see the time. Normally, she was met with the relief of finding she had time before her alarm was set to go off.

This was not one of those days.

No, today her phone showed it was 8:43am.

Almost an hour after she was supposed to be awake.

Then, naturally, every single bus just had to be full because of the rain. And, of course, her umbrella had a hole in it after being chewed by the mouse infestation that she had been ignoring in her dorm. What they wanted with her umbrella? She wasn't sure. But since she was pretending to not hear them scurry around at night, she couldn't question it.

Most days, she was rushing for no reason, really. But today, she had an actual reason. Today, she was starting the PT plan for the notorious Brady Parker. A couple of months ago, someone smashed his knee in the night before the last game of the season. No one knew who did it. Brady claimed he didn't see anything, but Tatum didn't know what to think. So far, he had ran off anyone who tried to help fix his knee. He didn't say why he didn't want them to help, he just drove them to the point of them storming out during his sessions. And when she was offered the opportunity to do his plan, she jumped at the opportunity.

She had a knack for wanting to do things that other people considered impossible. She was ambitious. Academics meant something to her.

She wanted to graduate top of her class. She wanted to get into the medical school of her dreams. She wanted to land a position at a hospital of her choosing. She wanted to help save people's lives. She wanted to do research and win awards.

She wanted to do it all.

And to do that, Tatum had to do it all.