What's Normal?

Chapter 9

An officer jumped into the lake, unwrapped the seagrass off Sam's body and ascend her to the surface of the water – many more police officers pulled her up onto the dock meanwhile the paramedics were rushing over to check her blood pressure, oxygen levels and pump the water out of her system. After checking those necessities, they put her on a bed and wheeled her into the back of the ambulance. Claire begged and pleaded for them to let her go with them, but they repeatedly declined as Sam's already going to be in a confined space in the ambulance - the less people in the back, the easier it'll be for Sam to breathe without feeling tight or compressed.

Claire entered her car and tailed the ambulance to the hospital. Finally arriving, Sam was put in urgent care for three-days. When the doctors finished doing their jobs in aiding Sam back to normal regulations in the body, Claire rushed into Sam's room and said, "What are you trying to do to me, you silly girl!" Sam looked at her mom in despair. Claire apologised and held her baby close to her.

"I'm sorry mom, I wasn't thinking – it was like my body took over me. I blacked out and the next minute I was in the water drowning and I saw... I saw... I-" Sam stammered, struggling to say what she saw.

"It's okay baby, I know what you saw. I saw him too." Claire finished Sam's sentence. Looking into Sam's withered eyes, Claire felt a huge amount of guilt and discomfort in the room.

It was silent.

"I'm sorry mom, I really am. Can I start seeing Mr. Phelps again please?" Sam asked,

"Mr. Phelps, the school councillor?" Claire questioned, uncertain of who he was. Sam nodded. "Well of course you can, nothing is stopping you." Claire said as her voice was breaking – she realised things were getting bad again with Sam.

"Do you want me to stay or should I go?" Claire asked,

"Can you stay please?" Sam said, petrified that she'll see her father again and it's not all in her head.

Claire sits down at the chair beside Sam and holds her hand and constantly reassuring her that her father will never do anything like that to her again and that things will get better. She says, "you will heal. I put that on everything I love that you will heal. You will break over and over again until you learn how to fit the pieces back together. You will wake up every morning feeling like it'll never get better, but it does. Our bodies were made to repair themselves and one day, at the end of this all, you'll wake up and feel free and you'll eventually forget what it feels like to hurt. You'll be able to take that deep breath again and feel happiness. I give you my word. I'll start up your medication again." Sam smiled at her mom, feeling more hopeful than previously and rested her eyes.

A couple of days passed with vile hospital food and multiple check-ups throughout the day, Sam was released and allowed to go home. She organised her school bag and put together an outfit for class tomorrow – she was only going in for Biology, English and to see Mr. Phelps. Anxiety was filling her up again, she wasn't diagnosed with it, but she definitely suffered from feeling it often.

The school day came, and she was feeling really nervous – she was told that news got around that she tried to 'commit' even though it wasn't her intention too. Driving to school took a lot of energy out of Sam – she felt exhausted when she arrived at school. Drowning was a lot more settling than walking through the school doors, all the whispers, the side looks, nosey people giving a half-hearted 'how're you?' questions, and other enquiries they asked without even thinking about how it'd make Sam feel.

Pushing past people to get to class, she caught Harry and another tall figure holding hands – now Sam was all for non-toxic masculinity, but Harry and Aimee are together – Harry shouldn't be doing that regardless whether it's with a boy or girl or any other gender. Walking at a moderately fast pace to catch up with Harry and question him, Greg (tall figure) kissed Harry on the cheek and whispered in his ear, "I'll see you later bub." Changing direction Harry bumped into Sam, both shocked and Harry feeling like he has just been caught in the act he said to her: