Soul Song

Chapter 3

"Alright, come on get up, your appointment is at 9:00." I get up and get ready. Today's the day of the PET scan. Great.

"Coming!" I said as loud as I could. My voice is already declining this morning. It's not going to last long today. I am way too nervous but I can't help it. They say there's a first time for everything but whoever came up with that saying must not have had a nervous system. Once we get there, they take my temperature, weight, all that stuff and then they take my blood pressure. This, of course, shows my nervousness.

Normally, like my mother, my bp is slightly below normal but today it said it was 126/87. A little high for me. Then they try to calm me down to keep my blood pressure down, which just makes me more nervous. If you can tell, I'm a little uptight this morning. Once it's over, my nerves are shot. I was freaking out the entire time. Don't judge, I freak out over stuff like this a lot, it's in my nature. I'm claustrophobic and the first MRI that I ever had when I was in seventh grade was... interesting. They told us that we would get the results of the PET scan later that week.

"Why is it always 'later this week'? Does it really take them that long just to look over and find dark spots on a scan?" mom realizes that I'm only this agitated because of my nerves so she responds with a simple and curt answer.

"Yes it does, and if you have a problem with it, you're just going to have to deal with it."

I didn't say another thing for the rest of the car ride home, which happened to be about an hour and a half. That's a record for me. I don't think I've ever gone that long without talking. When we finally get home, Ace has already texted me, asking how it went, wanting to know the results, and, on realizing that we didn't have them yet, agreeing with me that they should hurry up with the results. By the time we were done talking about it, the rest of the squad had either called or texted, asking about it. We stopped by the house to get my brother, whom we had left home alone. We figured we wouldn't leave him home much longer on his own to prevent giving him more time to blow up the house. We all went to lunch and then went by Keaton's house and dropped him off. John still hasn't gotten his driver's license yet; he failed the test the last three times so mom is insisting that dad teach him a little more before he tries again. When we get home, I drive over to Ace's, she said she wanted to talk to me in person about something. All the way there, I'm sitting here hoping that she will want to talk about anything but the scan, anything but what's going on with me. Luckily, now that I think of it, her mind seems to be otherwise occupied. She's nervous about the first date. I come in, and she is standing there and her eyes are huge, but more out of nervousness than excitedness I think.

"Hey Ace." just as soon as I say these words, she starts talking and I'd be surprised if she remembers to breathe.

"Ok, well, first of all, tonight's the night. I don't know where we plan on going but he says it's a surprise which, I guess, is a good thing. Second of all, I have no idea what to wear. I don't know whether to wear the outfit we bought or if it's too dressy, I don't know, I'm freaking out here!" 

Even I don't know where Keaton is taking her after the movie. As I was calming her down, I texted Keaton and asked him where he was taking her so that at least I would know how to help her out with knowing what to wear. He texted me back and still wouldn't tell me where but he did say for her to wear what we had bought, that he was sure it'd be fine. Of course, he has never seen what the outfit is, but I guess he's telling me she's not going to be too dressy.

"Ok, you'll be fine. I don't think you are going to be too dressy so we are going to stick with the outfit we bought, alright?" she nods fervently, her eyes still showing her panic. She goes over to her closet and lays it all out.

"Ok, I'm going to go in the bathroom and change and then have you do my hair, I know you can do something with it."

"Ok, I'm on it. How many bobby pins do you have?"