Green Girl (PRS)

Sticks and Stones

Allison's POV

We were all practicing outside in pairs, except for Jayden of course. I was paired with Emily, like usual. She has been getting so much better with the sword. Unfortunately, she caught me off guard and I fell flat on my back. I slowly got up with enough pain that it was annoying, but not enough to become a problem. "I'm so sorry!" Emily exclaimed.

"I'm okay, Em. Plus you put up a good fight." I replied. I winced in pain and my hand went to my lower back. It felt like someone was poking daggers into my back. 

"Did you hurt yourself? Let me see." Emily tried to look at my lower back for me but I brushed her off.

"I'm good, Em. Seriously." But once again I winced in pain, making my lie more obvious.

"I think you should let me help."

"I'm fine, Em. Thank you." Just the Jayden walked over to me.

"You alright, Ally? You don't look good." He said with worry.

"I'm so sorry, Allison. I didn't mean to hurt you so bad." Emily cried.

"Stop being sorry, Emily. You're fine." I replied with a cold voice. Jayden gently put his hand to my lower back and I jumped with pain which made my back hurt worse.

"You just need to rest and get something on that." Jayden told me. "Come on. I'll help you inside." He carefully ushered me inside with the others close behind. This is exactly what I didn't want to happen. Like Jay, I don't like being hurt and that usually becomes a problem for me.

I sat down on a soft stool in the common room. I slightly bent over while Mentor fetched something to wrap my back with. Once Mentor returned, Jayden wrapped my back for me. Emily came in with a bag of what looked like frozen peas. Wonderful. "Here you go." She said.

"Frozen peas?" I questioned with disgust.

"It's like an ice pack. I was accident-prone as a kid," never would've guessed, "and it always healed me right up. Let me." She tried to place it on, but I took it from her and did it myself.

"I'm fine, Em. You don't need to try to do everything for me."

"I know I just feel bad."

"I told you a thousand times, don't worry about it." As she walked away she slipped on another bag of peas that she had on the ground. I chuckled a little at her clumsiness, but Mia went and helped her up. When she tried to clean it up, she fell again. I shook my head, not in disappointment, but because I knew she was just trying to help.

•••

I walked into the kitchen to find Emily gurgling water. I went up behind her and started to talk.

"You okay?" As soon as I said that she turned around and sprayed me with water.

"Oh no!" She turned around and grabbed a towel, then handed it to me. I started to dab my face dry. "I'm always making a mess. I'll sweep it was all my fault."

"You don't have to apologize for every little thing. Not everything is your fault, Emily. We all cleaned up. You were just trying to help."

"I just make everything worse. I wish I was more like you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You're graceful. You're beautiful. You're super smart and you're an incredible samurai. Probably better than Kevin. You even have Jayden."

"Jayden's not my boyfriend."

"Okay I may be accident-prone, but I'm not blind. I see the way he looks at you."