One Last Chance

Mom

I was sitting in the waiting room, holding Hannah, and Steven and Jesse and Sophia were watching TV. Emma and Claire stayed at home, but I don't trust them in watching the kids. My dad was with my mom. I sat there, feeding Hannah a bottle and watching Sophia, she seemed upset. I put Hannah in her car seat and I motioned for Hannah to come over to me.
"Sophia, what's wrong? I can tell that your sad." I said to her, patting her shoulder.
"I want mommy to be okay. Why is she sleeping?"
"I don't know, Soph. We will find out soon, I promise."
Just then, my dad came out into the hallway.
"What's wrong with mom?"
"She just got dehydrated, she'll be fine. Why don't you bring the kids home, here's my key. I'm just going to stay here with your mom tonight."
I picked up Hannah in her car seat and we walked out to the car. I got everybody buckled and jumped into the front seat. When I turned on the car, my phone rung. My phone is connected to my moms car, so I clicked the button and said "this is Julia."
"Julia? Have you seen what's on the school website?" Grace said, super excited.
"No, what's happening?"
"They announced the six girls that are in the running for prom queen!"
"Read them off to me!!!"
" Veronica Harris."
"...Veronica is really pretty, yet she's not very nice."
"Jenna."
"Ew. Who else?"
"Me! I got nominated!"
"Congrats Grace, I'm sure you'll win!"
"Not if I'm running against you!"
"What do you mean? You mean, I got nominated?"
"Yeah, let me see... Yep, Lawson nominated you and three other guys who wanted to stay unknown."
"Wow, I didn't see this coming. Who are the other two girls?"
" Victoria and.... Quinn."
"Well they are both super sweet and beautiful, this is going to be tough!"
"Yeah, would you mind if I come over and we go over our speeches?"
"No, I'll be home in fifteen! Bye!"
I smiled and laughed and giggled, I was so happy. Steven looked at me like I was crazy.
"Your nominated for prom queen?" Jesse said, about as happy as I was.
"Apparently I am! When we get home, you and Steven need to clean your rooms, work together, okay? And please afterwards, both of you help Sophia pick up her toys and then play with her while I talk to Grace. If you do, you get a dollar raise on your allowance, I heard dad say."
"Okay." Jesse and Steven both said at the same time.
When I got home I put Hannah in her bouncer and sat on the couch. Just seconds later, Grace bursts threw my front door.
"Alright, I've been looking up speeches for the past 15 minutes and I think I've got a good idea!" Grace said, handing me this stapled 5 paged pamphlet that had different speeches on each page.
"What's this for again?"
"If your in the top three, you have 30 seconds to a minutes to say a small speech. If you win, they give you unlimited time. Okay, so I like this one for me."
"I'm so very shocked that I got so many votes! Is just like to say thank you to all of my best friends, my parents, and my boyfriend. Just remember, it doesn't take much to be a princess, if you work for it your whole life."
"What do you think?"
"Well, Grace, I think that's perfect for you!"
"Which one do you want to use?"
"Let me see. I think I'm better off winging it."
Just then, my cell phone went off.
"JJ! Please, you've got to help me! Riley's shaking on the floor and she can't breathe! I already called 911, but please come help me while I wait!"
Bryan then hung up, I grabbed Graces wrist and we ran over to his house. When we walked in, there was Riley, curled up into a ball, not breathing, but shaking. Just before I could help, the ambulance pulled into the driveway and put her on a stretcher.
"We've got what looks like a five or six year old girl having a minor seizure." One of the men said into his Bluetooth. We followed them as they loaded Riley into the car, driving away. At this point, I asked Grace to stay at home and watch my little siblings as I went with Bryan to the hospital.
When we got there we went into Riley's room, she was awake and breathing now. She had on oxygen and an IV in her arm, but she put on the biggest smile when she saw us. We went up to her and held onto her hand, then a nurse came in.
"Miss Riley here was a premature baby, correct?"
"We recently adopted her, but she was born at 33 weeks. They didn't think she was going to survive, so her parents put her up for adoption, I think."
"Well, she's always going to have these minor seizures, and we are so glad you did the right thing and called us. She should only have one every few months, until she's older. We are going to give you a pager, so you don't have to call next time. This will alert us that it's a seizure and we will bring our stuff to your house, so you won't have to come here."
"Thank you, nurse."
The nurse went out the door, and to our surprise, Bryan's dad came into the room.
"Hey Bryan , I missed you buddy."
Bryan hugged his dad so tightly. I joined in on the hug took even though I was going to see him tomorrow. Bryan's dad went over to Riley's side and kissed her on the forehead. Riley had already met him, so she smiled even bigger to see him. Bryan's dad sat down in the room and Bryan and I went into the hallway.
"I was so scared JJ. What if something worse would've happened to her?" Bryan broke down in tears and hugged me so tightly, we both fell to the ground. There we were in the middle of the hallway on our knees,just hugging each other and crying on each other's shoulder.