NICKI POV
I was back at work within a week. Each class had threw me a "party" which included Welcome Back! cards.
"¡Gracias chicos! I'm glad to be back." I cheesed at my Spanish 1 class. "And since my sources have told me about the recent decline you've all seen in your grades due to my absence.. I'm offering all of my classes un proyecto that will be double-weighted."
The class cheered.
"Its due Martes though." I added.
They weren't so excited about that part.
"Lo siento chicos, es lo mejor que puedo hacer." I defended, "Tengo 6 clases.. So this is giving me 3 days to grade EVERYONE's projects."
Natalia raised her hand, "Señora, will we have time in class?"
"Sí. Everyday in class you'll be working on it, its due Tuesday at the end of the day okay?" I reasoned, "Honestly I'm not cleared to be back yet, but I didn't think it was fair for all of you to suffer just because of what happened to me."
"Señora," Jason raised his hand, "What happened?"
"Yeah no one would tell us." Another added.
"We even asked Coach, and he said he couldn't say."
I sat on my desk, "Fine. If I tell you guys, I can assume you'll let everyone else know via whatever texting, social media, calling nonsense you wanna use to distribute the message right?"
There was a collective agreement amongst them.
"Actually, I'll let you guys record this conversation.. so all the facts are straight from me." I shrugged.
Most of them pulled out their phones.
"Bueno?" I pointed each of them out.
They gave me the okay to start.
"A few months ago, I suffered a severe brain aneurysm. The cause of it is still unknown, and there's no promising that it won't happen again. As a result of the aneurysm, I lost pretty much all of my memory. I had no idea who I was, where I was, or anything. My family was told that the memory loss was temporary, that as long as they could help remind me of my life, my memory would soon return." I explained with my hands clasped in my lap, "In my case, that wasn't true. I was on medications, I frequented neurologists, the whole works.. There was no progress. After several CAT scans, the only conclusion was to perform a procedure that technically didn't exist. The doctors had to stimulate the fibers in my brain in order for my brain to function in a way that it could not only retain new information, but recollect the past knowledge I once had."
"You guys know science is totally not my thing, so I did have to learn what all of that actually meant. So if any of you are like me and don't get how the memory section of the brain works.. here's a crash course." I tried to sound a little less dull, "Your brain fibers are like little branches that grow and connect to eachother for every new memory you create or piece of information your brain stores. The severity of my memory loss caused all of mine to disconnect, and stop growing. So.. yeah."
I shrugged, "That surgery could've killed me. But luckily I woke up in the hospital last week completely oblivious to the past months. I've been on a strict bed rest all week, and its supposed to last a month so that the doctors can be sure there aren't any detrimental side effects to the procedure. But, I came here anyways to try to help you guys out.. I'm only here until Tuesday though, then I will be following doctor's orders and staying home for a few more weeks."
