He Was A Ten

The Early Bird Gets The Diagnosis

I woke up, my head still sore. Ugh, what happened? I remembered coming home, but it got a little blurry after that. Something about taking a nap?

I groaned as I sat up. I was still tired. Maybe I could just go back to sleep for a couple more minutes. What time was it anyway?

"Paige, you're awake!" a voice called thankfully. Was that Joshua? Yeah, it sounded like him. Although I don't remember his voice sounding quite like that.

"What time is it?" I mumbled sleepily. "Do you still need help with your homework?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Your homework," I repeated, trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes, so I could finally open them. "Didn't you tell me you needed help?"

"Paige, I already finished my homework and I never asked you for help, what are you talking about?" Joshua asked. "Are you okay? Do you need me to get one of the doctors?"

"Joshua, don't call 911 just to prove your point," I sighed, knowing that he might actually try to do it. I mean, he was already trying to convince me he did his homework by himself.

"Paige, my name isn't Joshua," the voice who I guess wasn't Joshua after all said, sounding strained. "It's Marcus. Remember?"

That's about when I finally opened my eyes. And screamed. Not any words or anything, just incoherent noises of extreme surprise. And confusion. A lot of confusion.

Hattie ran into the room, Joshua right behind her. "Paige, what's going on? Are you okay?"

"What the hell is going on?" I demanded. "Where am I?"

"They took you to the hospital," Joshua said. "The people in the ambulance. After we called 911, they brought you here."

Joshua then ran over and hugged me, burying his head in my shoulder. After a second, I hugged him back. I still wasn't quite sure what had happened, but I felt bad that I had everyone so worried. Well, as far as I could tell. Marcus hadn't said a word since Hattie came in the room.

Probably, like, 10 minutes later...

"Wait. So, we're in a hospital?" I asked, once everyone had calmed down and realized I wasn't dying any time soon. "What happened?"

"Well, after we came home and you passed out on us, I had Joshua call the police," Hattie explained. "I called Alice and I guess she must've told Marcus, because two minutes after I had hung up with Alice, Marcus came over and asked how you were doing."

"Yeah, your boyfriend was really upset," Joshua added. "Also, you never told me you had a boyfriend."

I couldn't see my face, but if I could, I was sure my face would be bright red. "I-i don't have a boyfriend Joshua."

Out of the corner of my eye, I swore I could see Marcus slightly smirk. "You wound me Precious."

"So it is alive," I retorted. "Good to know."

"Well, you seem like you're fine," Hattie sighed tiredly, but there was a small smile on her face. "Although, there's still one thing I'd like to know."

"What?" I asked, shakily trying to stand up.

"How the hell did you manage to get a mild concussion and a dislocated wrist in the time between period 6 and dismissal?" Hattie exclaimed.

And I fell over.

"Shit, you okay?" Hattie asked, jumping out of the chair she was sitting in to help me up.