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10. Hospitals & Cheer tryouts

I woke up in a hospital. My body felt sore from yesterday. The climbing, falling, running, jumping. At the moment I decided to sit up, a nurse walked in. A wave of nausea hit me. She grabbed a cup filled with water and gave it to me, seeing through my efforts of trying to seem okay. I nodded at her in gratitude. "So," she started, looking through her files, "It looks like the smoke did no permanent damage to your respiratory system. Your ankle in twisted, and it should be healed in less than two weeks. You got a second degree burn on your left shoulder which might leave a scar." She frowned saying this. They had most likely inspected my whole body already, and found the several scars I got from earlier missions. I pretended to just shrug it off. I felt a deep sting on my right cheek. Raising my hand to the aching spot, I felt a small superficial cut. The nurse eyed me seriously, "How are you feeling?" I thought of a response for a moment and drank some of the water she had given me. "I'm okay. Got a little bit of a headache and my muscles are sore, but other than that I'm fine."

She smiled at me a little, "Good. Now, we could not reach your family, but we do need a phone number in case of emergencies." I nodded in understanding. "I'm an exchange student here. Any family I have live in Canada." The nurse now looked at me sadly, like she took pity on me. "I'll call my host family. Tell them what happened." That reassured her and she left the room to let me dial the Stevenson's.

"Hello?" Miranda's voice sounded worried. "Yeah hi Miranda, it's me. Emma." I heard a small intake of air on the other side of the line, "Thank god you're okay! We have been so worried! You told Kylie you were coming home safely and when you didn't show up... we didn't know what to do!" She sounded helpless, but her tone switched to stern, "Where have you been? You couldn't bother calling us?" I weighed the options quickly in my mind. I could tell her my phone died, I was scared, lost my way and stayed over at someone's house, but she would find out the truth about the fire eventually. So I decided to tell her the truth, "I was on my way home when I saw a house on fire, there was someone still inside so I called 911. They kept me here all night." I didn't bother telling her the details, she would ask me about them later anyway. It was quiet. "Where are you now?" "The hospital." Silence. "I'm coming." She hung up. I should've just stayed in a hotel where nobody would worry about me, I thought. But I can't change things now.

I had another plan in mind for the time being. I wanted to visit the guy from yesterday. See whether he knew if it was an accident or not. "Can I go see him?" I asked. The nurse looked doubtful at first but then slowly nodded. I stood up from the bed and limped on behind her, following her to the right room. He was awake and looked me directly in the eye when I walked, or rather stumbled in. The nurse left us alone. "Hey." He said. I nodded, "Hi." An awkward silence passed over us, and neither would break eye contact. "My name is Duncan Richards. Thank you for saving me." He finally said while reaching out his hand for me to shake. He had a weird look in his eyes, one that I could not quite place. "I'm Emma. Can I ask you some questions?" He frowned a little at my odd question but nodded nonetheless. "Sure. Go ahead."

I quickly scanned over his body for any wounds. Other than his arm and some scrapes I thought he was fine. "What was the cause of the fire?" He shrugged. "They don't know yet. Probably something like power failure." "Was there anyone else at home?" He shook his head, "No my dad's away for business and my mom and sister went to see some ballet performance and are staying over at granny's." "What about neighbours? Surely they heard you." He shook his head again, "They weren't home either. Well, the others are old and don't hear much lately." He smiled a little, saying this. "What's with all the questions?" he then enquired. "Sorry, I just can't understand how this could happen so suddenly. Things could've turned out much worse you know?" he frowned at my answer and I quickly tried to find a distraction. I couldn't help but notice the varsity jacket that hung over the chair in the corner. "You play basketball at UCCS?" I asked, pointing at it. He nodded and smirked a little, "You should come cheer me on some time." I pondered for a while and looked through the window, "Yeah, maybe I should... Anyway," I started, looking at him again, "I should get going. Hope you'll feel better soon." He had the same strange look in his eyes once again, "Thanks. You too." I felt his eyes on my back until I was out of the room and went back to my 'chambers.'