By Her Side

Chapter 22: Oh... The Stress

~ Claire's POV ~

We arrived at the hospital and we walked in. We went to the front desk to ask for Dr. Grace. She was paged down to us a few minutes later.

"Hey, Amelia." She said. "I thought your appointment isn't until two more weeks?"

"It's still in two weeks, I just came in and was wondering if you could check my stitches and cast." Amelia answered.

"Of course, I'll lead you to an exam room." She said as we made our way to the room. "Have a seat." She said and I helped Amelia up on the table. "So, what seems to be the problem that you wanted me to check out?"

"Well, a couple of students decided to mess with the cripple and kicked her leg." I said.

"Ouch, okay, let's take this brace off and these bandages to make sure these stitches didn't pop or anything." Dr. Grace said as he unwrapped the bandages.

After about a thirty-minute exam and discussion, turns out everything is alright, nothing was too severe. There were a few areas that needed to be cleaned, but she was lucky enough that the entire wound didn't open up. Dr. Grace re-stitched a couple of areas and then bandaged it again. I smiled and helped Amelia off the table as we walked out the hospital and into my car again. I turned on the engine and looked at her, she smiled at me and I began to drive her back to her place.

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The next day, I sat at my desk grading a mini-quiz the classes took. I looked at the clock, it was already 7:40am. Is Amelia not here? I started to get concerned, but didn't let it show and went back to grading. The final bell rang at 7:45am and I looked up to the class sat in front of me.

"Good morning 1st period. Take out the rubric for your project. The instructions are on the paper I handed to you yesterday at the beginning of the class. This project isn't due till next Friday, but I am giving you today and tomorrow to work on it in class. Please stay productive. If I catch anyone doing more phone time and chit chat, then the whole class will lose these two days." I said.

I went back to my desk, taking role. I noticed Amelia wasn't here, nor was she in her seat... Normally she would text me if something comes up... I continued to take role, noticing along with Britney and her two friends who aren't here or in their seats as well.

I continued to grade and heard the door open and saw Amelia walk in... and of course, as expected, Britney and her two friends. What a coincidence...

"Girls!" I called to them and motioned them to come to my desk and they began walking towards me. "Now, why are you all late?"

"Amelia held us up. She kept talking to us about needing some help with her chemistry homework. We told her we couldn't help her right now and she was going to make us late. I'm very sorry, Ms. Bryant." Britney said, smiling very innocently at me.

"That is not true! You were the one that-" Amelia was cut off by Britney.

"Oh, come on, Amelia! You're eighteen years old, stop with the lies and be mature." Britney scolded her as if she was a child.

"Oh yeah, says the most popular and lazy senior teenage drama queen in this school!" Amelia said through her teeth.

The class started to laugh. "That is enough," I raised my voice in anger and the whole class went silent. "Okay, ladies, I want you all to go and take your seats and start on that project that I had assigned yesterday while I talk with Ms. Davis." I looked towards the class, "I expect everyone to be working before you all lose your time in class."

"What? Are you not going to give her detention or something?" Britney exclaimed.

"Take your seat, Britney." I spoke firmly.