“Alice! Are you all right?” She bent down next to me, her brown eyes wide. I must have really worried her.
I started to sit up and moaned. My head was pounding, as if Thor was inside my skull wielding Mjölnir. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the school. I waited for you to come back out to your bike but you never did. I wanted to make sure you got your slippers without getting in trouble, since you didn’t go through the main entrance as usual.” I believed her, Kate always worried about such things. Wasn’t like I really would get into trouble. I was good at talking my way out of any situation with a teacher. “I came inside looking for you and found you passed out in the middle of the hallway.”
I tried to remember what happened but only found a dark haze in my memory. Dark haze; why did that seem familiar? I couldn’t recall anything, only coming back into the school, and then everything else was gone. What happened, I wondered.
“How long was I out?” I asked. So much time seemed like it had passed, as if something had happened, yet it could have only been a minute or two.
“Just a few minutes. I’m glad I found you first, you would have been in big trouble if a teacher found you.”
I tried to remember why I came into the school after hours, then it occurred to me. “Oh no, dance class!” I rushed up, which made my head hurt even more. I fumbled and almost fell back down.
Down…
I grabbed my head as it began to pound even louder. I must have hit my head on something, or tripped as I was a bit of a klutz after all, but I didn’t feel any bumps on my head.
Kate helped me stay up. “Alice, you can’t go to dance, you should go see a nurse. I think you might have a concussion.”
I shook my head which made it hurt worse. Stupid thing to do. “No, I’m fine.”
“Well at least go home, you shouldn’t dance in this condition. I can see if my mom will take you home. We still have the bike rack on the back of our car from our weekend trip.”
I thought for a moment. She was right, I really shouldn’t dance in this state. I would be falling all over the place and end up with more problems, not to mention making other dancers mad for running into them. “Fine, I will text Becca.”
I pulled out my phone and texted my ballet teacher Becca, as both Kate and I snuck out of the school and headed towards her mom’s car.
Hey Becca can’t make it tonight have bad migraine C u tomorrow.
Kate’s mom was waiting for her in the parking lot. She drove a little Mini Cooper Countryman that was a bright blue. I liked to call it ‘Smurfie' because, let’s be honest, it looked like a big Smurf.
I grabbed my bike and hooked it up to the bike rack on Mrs. B’s car. Her full name was Jenny Benjamin, but I always called her Mrs. B. It’s always awkward trying to figure out what to call someone’s parents. Luckily she told me what to call her when we first met.
Climbing in the car, I smiled to her. “Thanks Mrs. B, I appreciate it.”
“No problem, Alice. How’s your head feeling?” she asked. Apparently Kate already had told her while I was busy hooking up my bike to her car.
“It’s all right. Just need some rest.”
“Have any idea what happened?” she asked.
“No, I just went into the school and the next thing I knew, Kate was next to me trying to wake me up. I probably tripped or something, should be fine after some Tylenol.”
She turned back and started the car. My iPhone buzzed and I looked down to find Becca had texted me back.
K. Feel better. C u tomorrow.
“So how has school been this year?” Kate’s mom asked as we headed down Lancaster Drive. East Salem High was located at the end of D Street just behind an older strip mall thing. It was small and nothing was ever open. I called it a waste of space, but that was just me. There was a cute dress shop though, and I loved admiring the dresses in the shop window.
“School’s good,” I knew it was the typical evasive teenage answer but my head was killing me.
“What’s your favorite class so far?” Mrs. B always liked to make small talk. I never did mind it but my head was killing me and I would rather just rest though I would never tell her that.
“Probably Japanese.”
“I can’t believe that you and Kate are taking Japanese. I know I would never be able to take it. It seems so hard,” Mrs. B went on yet again. This was the sixth time she said it was hard, can’t believe it, etc.
I wasn’t going to lie, it was totally because of anime and manga that I decided to take Japanese. I grew up watching Sailor Moon, Trigun, Fruits Basket, along with all the Miyazaki films of course. I couldn’t get enough of the art. I loved art, as I myself wanted to be an artist. I spent most of my nights in my room either drawing or painting whatever came to mind. I enjoyed all kinds and types of art as well, not just manga. I was most fond of oils and watercolors, complete opposites in reality, as one took a lot of time and could be fixed quite easily, while the other was quicker, more delicate, and was easier to make a mistake. They took different strengths and I liked practicing with
