School of Dreams

School of Dreams Chapter 3

My feet connected with the floor.

Instantly, I felt it. The room got very cold, very fast. I could hear people shouting, and calling to each other.

Someone's face appeared in my vision.

"Ms. Grohbner?" I tried to reply, but no words came.

I heard a strange sound, like a soft whimpering. It built into a wail, and eventually a sob. What was that?

Then I realized...that was me.

What happened? I had been fine, flying through the air, feeling exuberant. Then....just pain.

"Ms. Grohbner?" All I could see was the ceiling, all fuzzy with a large fuzzy spot in the middle, blocking out the light. I tried to focus my eyes through all the crying.

The large fuzzy spot turned out to be Mr. Chart man's head.

"We've called 911, they're on their way. Just hang tight, you'll be ok."

911? Why? I was so confused....why couldn't I control my body? Why couldn't I stop crying?

By this time I was in major freak-out mode. I would never get into the school now. I'd probably loose my leg from how bad it hurts. Which means I can never dance again.

I felt the room closing in around me. I screamed.

Then the lights went out on the stage....no more Mr. Chart man.....where did he go? I felt myself standing on the edge of a cliff, and someone was trying to push me over it. I couldn't take it anymore. I let myself fall.

I was swimming. Through what, I wasn't exactly sure. It was thick and syrup-y, and smelled like ammonia. It was a million colors-every color you could imagine. Then it all went black again.

It felt like there was a bright light shining on me. Was I dead?? No way.

Then I saw the light bulbs behind the plastic in the lamp. Ok. Not dead then. Whew.

"Amythyst? Honey?"

I turned to the voice.

A woman was sitting in a chair next to me, with the most worried look I've ever seen. She had dark brown hair, and was dressed in jeans and a tee shirt and sweater.

"Mom?"

"Oh! Amythyst, are you ok? We've been so worried! You've been asleep for 2 hours now."

"Huh?" What was she talking about? Where were we?

"Oh, right, the doctor!" She got up to leave.

"No, wait!" She turned immediately.

"What is it sweetheart?"

"...What's going on? Where are we? And why can't I feel my right leg?" Wait...my right leg....

It all came back. The leap. Oh crap.

"Mom..." I couldn't even say it. I just started crying again. She came over and carefully sat on the edge of my bed and pulled me closer to her.

I don't know how long I cried. I guess I fell asleep afterwards, because when I woke up Dad was there, along with a doctor and a nurse.

The nurse was pumping something into a tube. I followed the tube with my eyes, and found it lead into my arm. Ew! I hate needles!

"Mom? Dad?" Finally! I felt like I could actually speak now.

"Oh, she's awake!" the doctor said. "How do you feel, Amythyst?" he walked over to me and shone a little light into my eyes.

"Horrible. Why can't I feel my right leg?"

Before he could have time to answer a thought occurred to me-one I'd had back at the school.

"Oh my god! Do I even still have aright leg?!"

They all laughed. How could they laugh at me like that?

"It's there, hun. Don't worry." My dad walked over and lifter the sheets to reveal my right leg, in about a hundred layers of bandages.

My jaw dropped. "What happened to me?" I noticed that I'd been asking enough "what" and "why questions to last a week.

"Well," the doctor started. "When you landed from you jump, your ankle snapped. One of the bones actually broke in two places, and the floating in your ankle. I had to go in and set it again and put some metal pins in."

"How long?" I asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"How long? Till I can walk and dance again?"

The doctor sighed and looked at my parents. They all looked sad.

Uh-oh. That's never a good sign-when the adults all glance at each other.

"At least eight months for the dancing part." He said. "But, you should be able to walk again in about three months. You'll have to have some physical therapy, though."

I had glazed over. He said I could walk in three months. Dance in eight. No. No, no, no, no, no!

I opened my eyes to speak, but nothing came out. My eyes felt like they should be brimming up with tears, but I guess I'd cried myself out already.

"Why did I loose control of my body and black out like that?" I asked.

"It was a combination of your body going into shock from the severenss of the break, along with an emotion breakdown. Your body decided that it just couldn't take anymore, so it shut itself down."

All of a sudden, I felt sleepy. Like, really, really sleepy. I started to close my eyes.

The last thing I heard was, "You better go tell Peter she's ok."

Peter?