Injured

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

     Almost as soon as Gwen had pushed me up to the table, her friends gasped.

     “What are you doing Gwen?” One of her friends asked. She was short and had straight, dark brown hair. Her skin was a light tan, and she had hazel eyes. “You do know that it’s illegal to kidnap people and take them places against their will right?”

     Gwen just rolled her eyes. “I didn’t kidnap him.”

     “Then why is the most popular guy in school sitting with us?” The girl asked.

     “He’s probably trying to figure out whether or not we’re worthy enough to sit in his presence.” A tall girl with strawberry blonde hair crossed her arms in front of her chest.

     I just realized that I had absentmindedly been trying to decide which social group I would have put them with. It wasn’t that I was too good to be sitting with them; it’s just one of those things that you do without thinking about it. They weren’t wallflowers. You would definitely notice them in a room. However, they weren’t in the popular crowd.

     “Why can’t you guys just accept the fact that maybe, just maybe, we aren’t as lame as we think we are?” Gwen laughed. She turned to me and began our introductions. She gestured to the girl with hazel eyes first. “This is Allison.” Then she pointed to the girl who questioned their worthiness. “Elise,” Then she began to name off her other friends. “And that’s Heather and Kat.” Heather had light brown, wavy hair, and Kat had black, curly hair.

     “Nice to meet you,” My translator spoke for me.

     Everyone just nodded. I noticed that Gwen’s face fell. This obviously wasn’t what she was going for. The girl with black hair noticed too and spoke up. They began to talk about the latest fashions and what they were planning for homecoming. I just kind of zoned out of the conversation.

     It scared me when I felt someone tap my leg, and I jumped. I turned to see Gwen looking at me intently.

     “Conversation getting boring?” she asked me.

     I checked to make sure the other girls weren’t looking at me then nodded.

     “Wanna go somewhere fun?”

     I shrugged. I already knew the place like the back of my hand. I was fairly certain there wasn’t anything fun around here.

     She saw the look I gave her and replied with, “I don’t mean here,” She gave me a wink and stood up to push my wheelchair, but I was already heading towards the door. She paused with a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at her.

     When we were out in the hall, she shouted up to me, “You don’t even know where we’re going.”

     I stopped and let her catch up to me, and she took the lead. She didn’t bother to look back at me or to offer if I needed help. I didn’t want any either. The past two weeks have been full of my parents paying too much attention to me and my friends paying no attention. It was nice to feel included but not overpowered.

     She paused and opened the door for me to go outside. She grinned as I moved out into open air. The door slammed shut behind me, and she ran ahead into the greenhouses. I wondered what she could possibly think was interesting in there. I remember going in the greenhouses my sophomore year everyday after school for a month to earn my beta club hours. I dreaded having to work there. I couldn’t think of anything that was memorable in that place, but I followed her.

     The opening was small. I hesitated at the entrance. Gwen saw my nervous look. “Don’t worry about your wheelchair,” she assured me. “It’ll fit. I bring my brother here all the time.”

     I rolled forward and was surprised that I easily fit. When I was able to take a good look around me, my mouth dropped open. The plants had grown so much more since last year. I was shocked at the vines that covered the walls and crawled up to the ceiling. It looked more like a garden than a plant room.

     I looked over at Gwen. She was watching me, enjoying my reaction. “This is a lot different than I remember it,” the machine said for me.

     “Yeah,” She got quiet. “I used to come here all the time.”

     “With your brother?” I asked.

     “Yup,” was all she said.

     We waited in silence. Neither of us wanted to talk. When it became evident that she wasn’t going to say anything, I tried to start some conversation.

     “How did you know my wheelchair would fit?”

     “My brother has one.”

     “What for?”

     “He’s paralyzed from the waist down…”

     “Oh…” I heard the translator say in a non-sympathetic way. It really changed my communication with people. Having the translator, that is. I was supposed to go to my first speech therapy session today.

     I racked my brain for something else to say. Normally I could spit something out that a girl would rush to provide a comment for, but Gwen didn’t seem like the same kind of girl that I would swoon. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about it for long. She rose from her position leaning against the wall, and walked out.

     I followed without hesitation.

     “Thanks for coming with me,” she said as I rolled up to keep the pace with her.

     I nodded. She started to chuckle. Then it became full out laughing.

     “What?” I typed, looking around for the thing that was so funny.

     She stopped laughing and cleared her throat. “Nothing,” she replied. “I just was thinking about how weird it was that you are actually being seen with me.”

     “Why’s that?” I asked.

     “Well, I’ve always thought that you like to stick with your posse,” she put air quotes around the last word.

     “Nah,” I said, but before I could type in another word, a group of people passed us and snickered.

     “Look at king high-and-mighty,” they laughed. “Stuck in a wheelchair and walking with one of his subjects.”

     If I wasn’t in a wheelchair, I swear they would have regretted saying that. But of course, I was, so I couldn’t do anything. I checked to see how Gwen was going to react. I was expecting retaliation or at least a “back off”, but she just moved behind my wheelchair and started to push me to my next class. I didn’t understand how she could stay so calm, but I didn’t question it.

     I wanted to talk to her more, but before I was able to hit enter so send my next sentence, her friends, I think it was Elise and Kat, were already pulling at her to join their group, and I was all by myself in the hall.