Broken Heart/Broken Mind

-Chapter Six-

Second Grade:

Sophie panted as she ran around the track. PE was probably her least favorite subject. By far. She was always so slow and behind the other kids. Especially since her class and the normal class were combined for PE.

At least she wasn't as far behind as Keefe. He was dead last. She stopped to catch her breath and give him time to catch up.

He finally got to her. His hands were rested on his knees. He struggled to get a breath in. His shaky and sweaty form looked ready to collapse.

"Do you just want to start walking?" she asked him.

"Yeah. We won't get in trouble, will we?" he murmured.

"I honestly don't think I care," she reached for his hand.

Keefe wiped the sweat off his brow. "Me neither. Let's go." He sucked in a few more breaths.

As the teacher blew the whistle to head inside, Sophie's vision tilted. She gripped Keefe's hand.

He turned to her. "Hey. Are you ok, Sophie?"

She shook her head and lowered herself down to the ground. Keefe followed in suit with a little, "Oh."

He let her rest her head in his lap as the tingles and darkness overwhelmed her. She heard him shout across the track to the teacher before blacking out.

Many voices rung in her ears as she awoke. Everything was too loud, too bright, and too overwhelming.

She covered her ears with her hands and curled up as tight as she could on her side. She could vaguely hear a voice shooing the others away. There was shuffling and murmuring.

Sophie squinted up to see Keefe waving the other kids away. He wrapped one of his arms around her, using the other to keep their classmates away from her. He was saying something with furrowed brows, but her brain was still too hazy to understand.

Someone squatted beside her. It took her a moment to recognize her teacher. She reached out and brushed Sophie's hair from her face. "Come on, sweetie. You need to get up."

Sophie tried to sit up, but it left her with a blood rush to the head. She groaned. Clearly, her body didn't think it was time to get up. She leaned against Keefe for support as she stood up, but her knees still wobbled.

The teacher led them all inside. Sophie was still shaking as she sat down in the nurses office. There wasn't much that could be done other than to wait for the clammyness to go away.

The school nurse took a cold cloth and placed it on the back of her neck. It was really the only thing the nurse could think of, even if it was just to cool off from the scorching sun.

She leaned back into Keefe. When she was in the clingy stage after waking up at school, she always wanted to be near him. The teachers had learned not to try to separate them.

The nurse went to go call her parents to explain what happened. She could faintly hear the conversation.

Sophie sighed. "How many people were there?"

Keefe cringed. "Do you really wanna know?"

She could feel the tears in her eyes well up. She smeared them away.

"There wasn't as many as you're thinking," Keefe tried to reassure her

She looked up into his eyes. "We both know it was the entire class, ok. You don't need to lie."

She pulled away and curled up on the small cott, facing the wall. She had just humiliated herself in front of the entire PE. Not just her class, they were used to her passing out. But everyone else.

Keefe scooted up on the bed and leaned his head against the wall. He laid his hand on top of hers, which was clutching the sheets.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

"It's ok." She lifted her head to look at him. "Thank you for trying to get them to leave me be."

"Of course. I hate seeing them do that to you. I know it's overwhelming enough for you."

She scooted to where she could be closer to him and nodded. She closed her eyes to hopefully calm her headache.