Family is Forever

Chapter 33-

Ali was discharged after one night in hospital with a prescription for iron tablets. She was rethinking her decision about Day treatment. She was torn. The anorexia we deep routed inside her brain. She often couldn't tell weather her thoughts were her own or from her illness.

"Kochaine, are You ready?" Zosia was shouting up the stairs. Ali was going to leave her hair down but realised how fat that made her face look. She knew all the girls in the group at the clinic would be super skinny, they'd look at her and laugh because she was so big. So she tied her hair into a high ponytail.

Zosia made her have a banana for breakfast then Ollie drove them all to Rosehill. When they got to the waiting room Mrs Yates was already there "Aggie" Zosia smiled and hugged Ali's teacher. "Czesć Zosh miło cię widzieć. I cześć Natalia. Jak się czujesz?"Hi Zosh so nice to see you and hi Natalia how are you feeling?
"Seriously?" Ollie laughed "as if I don't get enough Polish that I don't understand at home!"
"Ok thank you miss." Ali smiled. Although truthfully she was terrified.
"How do you know each other?" Ollie asked Zosia and Miss Yates. "Polish community when we were kids. There's only one Polish mass in Holby! Me and Aggie used to sit together and go out for lunch together after, our mama's were great friends!" Zosia laughed. Ali wasn't listening to all of that instead she was listening to her thoughts. Look at how big you are. There's nothing wrong with you. Fat slut. They'll all laugh at you. Look at the size of you you're not even good at being ill. Zosia was talking to Aggie so Ollie lent over and squeezed her hand. She smiled over at him.
"Natalia." Ben had come into the waiting room. "Can I chat with you, Zosia, Oliver and your teacher." They all followed Ben into a consultation room and sat down. The exchanged pleasantries. "So obviously Natalia you won't be in school for a while, have You had any thoughts about that and what support is the school able to arrange?" Ben looked at Miss Yates.  "Well I was thinking. Obviously a lot of this depends on Natalia. I thought doing all her A-levels would be a bit much but I thought she could do general studies... there's no work involved you just go along to the exams and give it your best shot. I also thought maybe you could give A- level Polish a go. We don't usually offer it at our school but Natalia won't have to put as much work in as it's her native language, just read a few books. I thought you could try carrying on with 2 A- levels and review in a few weeks. How does that sound Natalia. I'm happy to help you with the Polish, and French if you want to carry on with that of course and I'm happy to talk to your other teachers. Do anything I can to help."
"Thank you Miss, I think that sounds good. Can I carry on with French and biology?"
"Sure" they talked for about 10 more minutes about Ali's school work. "Natalia, how are you feeling?" Ben asked
"A little scared truthfully" Ali whispered. Zosia shot her a reassuring smile. "Give me one second." Ben said leaving the room. There was an awkward silence... Ollie did the awkward silence turtle which made which made Zosia Miss Yates and Ali laugh. Ben came in followed by a thin short teenager. She had long blonde curly hair, big blue eyes and a big welcoming "Hi, You must be Natalia. I'm Elsie- I know it sounds like a Grandma's name. I was named after my Gran." She smiled at Ali. Ali didn't reply. Elsie looked around "oh bonjour Madame Yates!"
"Hello Elsie. Did Megsie give you your assessment I marked? 83% well done!"
"Yeah she did thanks!" Elsie smiled.
"This is Elsie" Ben looked at Ali "i thought she could take you under her wing so to speak for your first few days, she's been here about a month."
"Honestly, it's not as scary as you think. Well we're not, the clinicians might be." Elsie laughed. "I'm only kidding" she looked at Ben. "El, can You take Natalia into the Day treatment room. Is everyone there?"  Ben asked.
"Sure. And yeah we were just chatting about strictly!"
"Good luck Kochanie." Zosia grabbed Ali's hand and squeezed it. Ali followed Elsie out of the room. She stopped outside the Day treatment room. "Today will be the worst. I know that you're scared. I was on my first day. It gets better." She smiled and opened the door.