Soar // Hamliza

• chapter 15 •

• Alexander •

Today was finally the day.

Well, maybe not the day. I still had to stay in the hospital, still had to receive treatment and still had to talk to countless doctors.

But today, today is going to be a good day and here's why.

The doctors had spent a long time together discussing my gradual move into, well, moving. At this point, they knew that I could barely get up and walk two feet away from my bed into the bathroom without feeling light-headed or like I was going to fall over. In fact, they made me put myself into a wheelchair just to get to and from the bathroom, which was quite inconvenient and most of the time, not really worth it. But I complied, because I knew that they knew best. Even if I found it a little bit silly. Both my arms and legs were incredibly weak and not working the way they used to, simply because of being confined to a bed and having constant strenuous treatments going on.

They told me that they were considering in-hospital physical therapy for me. They outlined the whole thing: I would be taken down to a physical therapist in a wheelchair, from which I would do the first few weeks of therapy. So no walking just yet, but things like leg and arm movements to very slowly build the strength for me to get up. Both my trainer and I would need to be wearing masks during the sessions, to protect my immune system.

I was honestly very excited for this to start, knowing that the sooner I began this process, the sooner I could walk and dance. My life had felt so empty without being able to dance for so long. I missed my, ached for it. Or maybe that was just my body aching from the treatments. Either way, I missed it.

This morning, I woke up at my usual 6am to the nurse coming to check my vitals. I usually had the same nurse for a lot of things, and the one who took my vitals was my favorite. She told me the most about what was going on and what the plans for my days were, and she didn't sugarcoat things or make me think anything other than what was going on.

"What's the plan for today?" I mumbled, freshly woken up as she poked and prodded around me.

"Physical therapy." She said, trying to suppress her smile. Oh boy. I was awake now. My eyes popped open and I looked up at her.

"Really?" I asked, hoping this wasn't just a dream or some cruel joke.

"Really, Mr. Hamilton. They're taking you down there at 11am." She told me. I did a little happy dance in my bed and she laughed for a moment before telling me it was a little hard to check my vitals when I was squirming all around. I settled down a bit but moved the little party to my head. And, now I have something new to tell Eliza when she asks what I've been doing!

I mess around for the next few hours, waiting not-so-patiently for 11am to roll around. I work on homework for a while. My teachers have luckily been very lenient with my work the past few months. They give me all the assignments everyone else is doing, but modify them so that I can avoid a screen as much as possible. A lot of the time, the work is just printed out on paper for me to fill out. All my assignments are usually due every Friday, and Eliza goes before school to turn them in for me. After school, she collects my assignments for the next week and brings them to me when she visits with the group. It's a pretty good system.

Most people who are practically living in the hospital and trying to balance high school probably wouldn't enjoy a full week of work to complete from every one of their classes, but I honestly enjoy it. It gives me something to fill my time with and distracts me from everything I'm dealing with. It's a lot easier to try to figure out a calculus problem than it is to figure out what's going to happen if the cancer kills me.

Eliza just brought this work to me yesterday, so I'm trying not to finish it all at once. However, I find myself nearly done with my week's worth of physics homework when my favorite nurse comes back in the room with a wheelchair, mask, and a smile.

I set my papers and pencil on the little white table next to me, that often holds my phone and writing materials. The nurse helps me get into the wheelchair and has me put my mask on while she pushes me around the hospital.

We take the elevator from my home on the 7th floor all the way down to the 3rd floor. She wheels me through scarcely populated hallways into a huge room, where a physical therapist was waiting for me.

Let's get this thing started!

a/n: yes another short chapter but i'm having some writers block on this book, so hopefully the next few chapters should be longer and improve a bit! please comment and let me know what you guys wanna see, i would love to see your ideas!!