Spirited Bodies

Chapter 2

I woke to the smell of disinfectant and... apricots? I slowly opened my eyes and looked around at the white walls of the room. I instantly decided I was in the hospital. The weight of bandages around my head and the cast on my left arm told me so. I heard a crunching sound, and to my right I noticed Mia sitting in a chair with her legs crossed munching on nuts, a few apricots sitting in a bowl on the small table next to her.

"Charlie! You're awake!" She screeched. I blinked and replied with "I guess so. We're in the hospital right?" "Yeah, that nut job. I swear she needs to get her hormones checked or something." Suddenly the memory came rushing back. Brittany and her band of loyal twits. Me on the ground and Mia next to me, her face all bloodied and.... What? "Mia, why aren't you in bed next to me? Brittany smacked you up just as bad as me!" I exclaimed as I noticed she looked perfectly fine. "Just a nose bleed darling, once that stopped I was fine." She replied. Incredible, half way bludgeoned to death and still walks away unscratched. This is one of the reasons I love her- surprisingly tough despite her size. The next memory hit me before I could blink. Laying half unconscious and watching the guy in all black walking away shaking his head. "Mia, did you see the dude in the all black with the dirty blonde hair?" He felt familiar and I had to find out who he was. Mia usually knows what's going on at school, but I doubt she'd know whom the random stranger who was walking out the school gates was. "His name is David, just finished enrolling when horse-face attacked. Starts tomorrow apparently." All doubts about Mia shriveled up at that moment, along with any self-esteem I had left. This David guy had watched me get bashed up by Brittany. Damn. Potential boyfriend material and already thought I was a loser. I was shaken out of my thoughts by the entrance of a nurse. Blonde hair that was tied back in a tight bun, with a curvy but fit figure strutting towards me. Extremely familiar in some way, put I couldn't place her. "How are you feeling?" Her voice almost sang as she checked the various machines around me. "Um... Fine thank you, how are you?" I have no idea why I said the last bit, automatic I guess. She stopped and looked at me with a half smile, and cocked her head slightly to the side. "I'm good thank you." She said with a surprised tone in her lovely voice. "The doctor will be in shortly." She said simply and walked out.

A few hours later when I was released with doctor's orders to take it easy and see a psychologist once a week (the school was concerned about my mental health as much as my physical health), I sighed and walked up the front steps into my house. Mia had very nicely dropped me off home that night and after wrestling with the front door, I made it into the lounge room where I sunk into the double seat. The bandages had been removed from my head, with nothing more than a cut where I smacked my head on the ground. I was still wearing a cast though. Great. How was I going to type my book now? What was her problem anyway? We regularly fight so I don't understand why this time was any different, why would she snap so badly? An outside tree branch breaking snapped me out of my thoughts. I froze, not sure what I should do. I decided that it must have been a cat, running through the rose bushes under the window. I couldn't help it. I ran to the kitchen, grabbed a butcher's knife and charged down the hall out the front door, turning the light out the front on as I went. I scanned the front yard, nothing in sight. Wait, something under the window. I walked over to the shiny substance. A little bit of what looked like really fine red glitter was dabbed on one of the rose bush branches. It seemed to be dripping downwards and at a different angle it resembled blood, mixed with red glitter. I stood up and glanced around again, hoping whatever had caused this was long gone. I didn't want to find out what it was. Then as I looked back towards the rose bush, the sizzling sound it created made me jump. The red glitter blood stuff was burning through the branch like acid! I reached down in a panic, knowing that my mum would kill me if something happened to her rose bushes. I had to get this branch off before the acid stuff ate the whole tree. In my fluster I cut my free hand on a thorn, my own blood flowing steadily down my arm. Forget it, I can't pull the stupid branch off anyway. I ran inside, closing the door and locking it behind me, straight to the kitchen sink to wash my hand off. I turned on the tap on and rinsed it off, watching the reddish water run down the sink. I again got lost in my own thoughts about how the hell I was going to write with a broken left arm. I always typed everything, why would I hand write it when its so much easier to fix mistakes and edit? Not to mention the waste of paper. Another sound broke me out of my thoughts, with the non-stop knocking at the door. Mia. The door was locked so this was her way of letting me know that it was her and not some random person at my door at eight o'clock at night. Thank gosh, I did not want to be alone tonight after that. I turned the tap off, patting my one available hand on a near by hand towel. Running to the door shouting "I'm coming" as loud as I could in the hopes that she would stop. It didn't work. I opened the door to see Mia standing in front of me in her pajamas, a plastic bag that was full of what looked like munchies in her hand. In another, her school handbag looked packed. "In light of recent events, I think it only right we have a girls night." She sang excitedly as she walked past me. "Okay," I said hesitantly, "but it's a school night." I followed her into my kitchen. "Oh please, this is way more important." She said as she placed the plastic bag and her handbag on the kitchen counter. Mia then paused and looked at me expectantly. I sighed and rolled my eyes as I said, "Okay fine, but I need your help." Mia jumped up and down squealing 'yay' over and over. Then she suddenly stopped and threw a cautious look in my direction. "Help with what?" "I can't type, I need you to do it for me. Mr. Bowman wants the next chapter by tomorrow and I don't want to disappoint him." I replied. I watched her pull out potato chips, maltesers, two blocks of Cadbury top deck chocolate and a tub of ice-cream. "Why don't you just hand write it, you know... like people have been doing for thousands of years. Good old fashioned pen and paper?" Mia said as she put the chocolate in the fridge and ice-cream in the freezer. I groaned at the thought. "But it's so much effort!" I cried. "Its much more for me to type it, you know how slow I am. Besides, only your left arm is broken, so you're not completely handicapped you know." She said simply. Mia picked up the box of maltesers and headed into the lounge room, kicking her feet up onto the coffee table as she sat down and turned the TV on. I followed her, wanting to argue more, when I heard the weather warnings coming from the TV. "A severe storm warning for people living in the Deep Water Region, with heavy showers and thunderstorms expected from tomorrow till next Monday." The reporter said in a formal tone. I started to panic a little. Great, today was Tuesday. Five whole days of storms with all weekend plans gone out the window. Oh, and my deathly fear of thunder and lightning. I don't know why I hate storms and rain, I just do. They freak me out and I can never sleep. Mia sighed. "Well there goes Caitlin's party. Although, she might still be up for a more indoor plan." "Since when were we going to Caitlin's pool party anyway?" I said, confused. "Since I decided you needed it. It will be fun!" Mia said excitingly while shoving another handful of maltesers in her mouth. Seriously, where the hell does it go? I left Mia and her stupid never-gaining-weight-self in the lounge room and went upstairs to have a shower. As I jumped into the refreshing hot water, I ran over the events of today. From waking up in hospital to the red acid to the severe storm warning to the fact that I'm now attending Caitlin Dunn's party, despite severe storm warnings and my phobia. I also had concluded that the best think for me right now is to call my parents. They probably would want to know that I was in hospital overnight.