Survival l.h.

Talk

As we were walking to the nurse we passed the group of jocks sitting by the office door, looks of hatred painted on their faces.

We entered the nurses office and were greeted by a younger lady with a warm smile sitting behind her desk typing on her computer.

"Hey,Luke. Wha-what happened?" She asked in a slightly suprised tone ones she took in his appearance.

"Uh,I fell over the um,back of a chair and yeah,I hit the floor pretty hard." Luke says,examining the cut on his arm as if to show her proof.

I knew Luke was lying. I didn't want to say anything yet,in case Luke knew this her somehow and just didn't want to embarrass himself.

"Luke,you have used that excuse before." She said,walking over from behind her desk and leaning against the front of it to look into Luke's eyes with a concerned look on her face.

He hung his head low and took a deep breath.

The nurse looked up at me,

"Do you mind waiting outside for a little while,please." Mrs.Matthews,as it said on her name tag,smiled at me and I nodded.

"Sure." I said quietly and turned on my heal and closed the door softly behind me. I sat on the cushioned bench outside of the office.

◾◾◾

When Luke emerged about 10 minutes later I stood up slowly and expectantly.

"Hey." He breathed out

"Hey,are you gonna be ok?" I asked

"Yeah,just some bad bruising." He said and I nodded my head.

"Would you like me to explain?" Luke asked with his eyebrows raised

"Please." I said and let out a quiet chuckle as we started our way out the front of the school,just skipping our last two periods because Luke got permission to go home anyway.

We made it to front doors and Luke began.

"Well,to start off,that's one of my mom's close friends. She's been my babysitter ever since I can remember. My mom used to have to work two jobs,so while I was at daycare during the day she was working at one them.Then, she would pick me up and take me home. Where Mrs.Matthews would be waiting. And while my mom was working a night shift,she would make us dinner and we would play games and just have fun. Well, we got really close over time.I mean,she watched me grow up. She had always wanted to be a school nurse. When she finally finished nursing school I was in 3rd grade and she bacame the school nurse,the year I started to get picked on. I would always go to her office during recess to get away from it all. Then, in middle school it got worse,and she found out when I came home with a black eye once. So,she moved to the middle school." He paused

"Then here." He gesturing to the large building that was still in veiw.

"Wow." I said,soaking up what he said "Why do people pick on you?" I asked

He shrugged his shoulders and looked into the road then back at me.

"I dont really know. It could be that im just really nerdy. Or, I'm just an easy target."

"Easy target?" I said, "Well not anymore." I said,linking our elbows together and walking the rest of the way home.