Regret

8

A week later, my mom got really sick and ended up in the hospital. The day after she was sent to the ER, I went to school, to keep my mind off of her.

Katie, having had a seizure a few days prior, did not participate in class that whole week.

I dressed for gym, but has no energy to actually exercise, since I was at the emergency room until midnight and worrying about my mom the rest of the night. So I sat out with Katie that day.

Our horrible gym teacher, Mrs. Vermont, came up to me during warm ups and asked why I was not participating. "My mom went to the hospital last night so I didn't get any sleep," I replied quietly.

She must have not liked that answer because she asked, "what does that have to do with you not participating?"

Katie answered for me this time, "because her mom is in the hospital, probably suffering, and they don't know what's wrong with her. At least she changed into gym clothes and showed up to school today. I sure the hell would have stayed home or at the hospital!"

Mrs. Vermont looked at me with sad eyes and asked if I was okay.

You never ask me that!

My older sister, Jessabella, asked me that the night before after I told her mom was admitted to the ER and I held it all in and together until she said, "are you okay?" Then I completely lost it, cry shouting and not being able to calm down.

Well, that's exactly what I did then, in the middle of gym, in front of everybody, at nine in the morning. I cried.

Katie took me out of the room and into the girls locker room after giving the teacher the stink eye.

About five minutes later we came out and, after searching around the whole gym department, found our class in the weight room. They were playing dodgeball.

Half the class stopped playing when I walked in. 'Great!' I thought, 'they all saw me crying'.

I told the teacher I wanted to play, not watch, so she handed me a red foam ball and I joined the team closest to me.

Let me tell you, upset Brooke can kick some serious butt! My team won all three games, but maybe it was because the other team didn't even try when I was around them.

Chase, who was on the opposite team, watched me like a hawk the whole time, according to Katie, and he even 'accidentally' gave me the balls.

The rest of the week, and the following week, he casually asked me everyday in the attendance line how I was doing.

He was so sweet.