Saved by the stars

Chapter thirteen - ups and downs x

Tw- more mentions of ptsd and alternative education. Reference to sh at the end as well as self-doubt x

Leah's PoV
(Underlined is Halle, italics is Leah and normal is Sammy for the first part x)
I text Beth to bring Sammy and I soon heard a little knock on the door.
'Hey Sammy!'
'Hello'
'Come sit with me manny'
'I'll start us off, you know how we play the bubble breathing game Sammy? Well do you think that helps you?'
'Yeah!'
'Ok so when we don't do the bubble breathing game what do you feel?'
'Like I'm small and no one is listening, I feel like I'm back at the house but not like a fladhback. It's like I'm a little kid again'
'Ok so do you get that at school'
'Yeah a lot and everything is like I'm little, I see the work like I'm little and don't get it'
'Ok so Sammy, that's age regression, it's a normal part of your condition ptsd, like the flashbacks it can get better with talking. I think because of the way it affects school it might be better to try another type of school that you can do with us at England as well as arsenal?'
'Yeah if they help me'
'I'll let Leah explain it but I just wanted to let you know that Leah has asked me to write a letter, is there anything I need to mention.'
'I can't do normal uniform!'
'Hey it's ok they have a colour code instead so you can wear comfy clothes'
'Ok'
'I'll let you go to the zoo then!'
'Thanks Halle'
'Thanks'
As we walked to the bus, Sammy spoke me through every part of her poster and even showed me the translated parts which she rang laia Codina to help her with. I love how our teams have all treated manny like family. As we entered the bus Sammy didn't even grab her headphones. I think she's really excited. She had a map of the zoo she found in the hotel and was highlighting all the animals she needed to see which so far was all of them.
'We are here Sammy!'
'YAYYYY!!!'
As we got off the bus, the person checking tickets looked at sammys poster and gave her a wristband and lanyard. The wristband was a skip queues as he has seen her sunflower lanyard on her bag and the lanyard had an activity booklet attatched with lots of questions about the animals. Unfortunately that lasted not even two minutes as she knew most the answers already.
As she walked around she was telling everyone her animal facts and even got to hold a few. Her favourite was the parrot she got to hold, whose name was also consequently Sam. At the end of the trip, we went into the shop and bought her a parrot teddy to commemorate him. When we got back on the bus manny fell asleep on my shoulder straight away, she had clearly spent all her energy for today. I wasn't going to judge as I had as well so when we got back to the hotel we got fruit from the canteen and ate it in our room before putting on friends and going to bed. But I couldn't sleep as I heard Sammy sniffle, obviously trying to hide her cry. As I got up and sat next to her Beth walked in and did the same.
'Puffin, what up?'
'Am I gonna be like this forever?'
'Like what?'
'I can't sleep without seeing him, I can't go anywhere normal people can without either freaking out or being exhausted. I can't eat the food most people like, I act like a child and I can't cope with normal clothes or routine changes.'
'Baby half of that is because our parents are absolute idiots, you might struggle with extra stuff but just think about all the facts you could tell us at the zoo today or the poster you made. All of those made the team and zookeepers day I promise. And the ptsd can be helped I promise you can soon live a day where you don't think about him'
'Promise le?'
'Hey remember what viv said, it's not your fault. You can't change what happened but you can change how you view it and deal with it'
'Yeah, I'm going to the toilet'
'Manny let me check your pockets.'
'NO!'
'Manny I'm not letting you go until I check them'
'FINE!'
And with that she threw a Razor on the bed and stormed to the bathroom.
'Leah, I'm going to help her but you need to rest, go to bed. I've helped someone through this before and I know how to help,
At this point I was too exhausted to argue.
'Thanks Beth'