I Wish

Yes, Pengwings

Sam's eyes widened, and memories came flooding back from the only other time she had ever been admitted to a hospital. Ever. When her dad had died. She shook her head ever so slightly, caught herself glowering, and quickly replaced it with a smile. The counselor, or Sydney, as Sam remembered, looked up from her papers and gave her a smile. "Hi!" Sydney said, "You must be Sam! I'm Sydney" Sam gave her a quick smile as she went back to shuffling her papers. "The others should be here soon," Sydney said, in a weak attempt to strike up a conversation, "Of course they all have to walk. Unlike you, you get to sit round, what a privilege!" she added a twittering laugh at the end of her sentence, as if this was something to laugh at. Oh yea, let's all make fun of Sammy and her wheelchair. Great, now I'm going to be the laughing stock of the whole group. Sam rolled her eyes, and slumped back into her chair. She tuned out the noise in the room, and listened to the music that was in her head. Just to clarify, Sam loved music so much, she memorized music that she liked, and replayed them in her head to her convenience. It came in handy during particularly long and dull history lessons. She inspected each person as they entered the room. Damn, there a lot of people coming here. There must be what, 7 or eight in the group? Usually there are only 5 or 6. Damn!! Her mind stopped, all at once. A girl had entered the room. Not just any girl, a cute one. Long, raven black hair, and piercing blue eyes. Sam averted her eyes quickly, and went back to looking at people, though her thoughts were wandering. Well, wandering along the path that led to the dark haired girl. When everyone had been seated, she straightened herself up, and braced herself for group. Sydney cleared her throat, and gave everyone a smile. The slight murmur that had been going through the room abruptly stopped. Sydney got a few glares and snickers from the collective group, and Sam assumed that little miss Sydney didn't get a lot of respect around here. Sydney cleared her throat again, and stood up, indicating that the meeting had begun. "So! I thought, for our new members, that we would say our name, and our favorite animal." At this, there were some very loud giggles. Sydney, undaunted, proceeded to point at Sam and say, "How about you Sam, why don't you go first?" Sam gave her an intense glare, and proceeded to say in the most sarcastic voice she could muster, "My name is Sam, and my favorite animal is a pengwing." Sam stiffened up as she realized her mistake, and turned beet red. Pengwing. Pengwing. You idiot!! Of all the animals you could choose, you chose a penguin. Nice going smart ass. As she thought that, a carpet of giggles rolled across the room, and several people began to whisper. Sydney stood up and glared, "Now, it's impolite to laugh at others, and I don't intend for it to happen again." She sat back down, and pointed at the next unlucky person.  "Courtney, you go next." Courtney looked up in surprise at being called at.   She seemed nervous now that the attention was on her.   She fumbled with her answer before forcing it out with a stutter, "I-I'm Courtney, and my favorite animal is... well I guess my favorite animals are dolphins." Sydney went around the rest of the room, putting each on the spotlight for their little slice of embarrassment.  She did, however, seem to hesitate before calling on the dark haired girl, but she soon composed herself, and said, "Nora, how about you?" Nora seemed to slump further into her chair, and mumbled out an answer.  Sydney paused, and said, "Nora? I'm not sure we could hear you.  Care to repeat what you said?" Nora rolled her eyes, and meticulously articulated, "My name is Nora.  I like unicorns because they stab annoying group leaders with their horns." Several people stifled giggles as Sydney turned cherry red.  Nora smirked, as she realized the effect that she had on Sydney.  Sam internally laughed at Sydney who was floundering while trying to think of something to say. She eventually collected herself, and said, "That's not an appropriate thing to say, and I hope that you don't repeat it ever again.  Okay?" Nora grumbled out a response, and Sydney didn't bother to ask for clarification in case dragons and moody teens had gotten in line behind the unicorn to get her.  Sydney gave us a wide smile and said, "Today, I thought we might be able to talk about why we're here." Sam rolled her eyes, slumped in her chair, and braced herself for another half-hour of torture.   Let the gut spilling confessions begin!