(At the hospital)
There were doctors running every which way to rooms with their patients. People in waiting rooms and cafeterias praying for loved ones. Erika was still unconscious when she arrived.
“Dr. Rodriguez can see her.”
“Take her to room 461.”
“The usual.”
Directions were being thrown to who ever were listening and available. Erika’s eyes began to flutter open while being pushed into the elevator.
“W...w...what’s going on? Where am I?” She tried to sit up to see her surroundings but experienced pain and fell back.
“You’re hurt sweetie.” Spoke a nurse’s soft voice.
“What’s new?” Erika said sarcastically.
(On the bus)
The bus jerked to a stop after speeding down the highway behind the ambulance.
“Are we there?” Justin asked very anxious.
“Yea, we’re here, we’re gonna have to wait in the lobby for the doctor.”
“I take it you’ve been through this before, girls?” They all nodded in unison.
They all stepped off the bus, quickly stretched their tired and stressed muscles, and ran into the large busy hospital.
Erika was taken to her room and was injected with medicine. Before the needle even touched her, Erika began to get a woozy feeling through out her body. She couldn’t stand the sight of needles. The medicine was injected into her arm and the nurses let her rest for a while. The medicine made her get drowsy and she fell asleep.
It was five o’clock in the morning when the team arrived at the gymnasium. The level ten gymnastics team consisted of only three girls. Christina was the oldest of the three followed by Erika and Naima. Their coach was a young short woman by the name of Chiquita. The groups of girls were spread out across the floor and began stretching. Erika and the two girls had on a black and red velvet leotard with silver rhinestones on the front. Her dark tan skin complemented her midnight dark eyes. Her medium length dark hair was pulled up into a tight bun on top of her head with a matching red velvet scruntchie. A soft blue carpet covered the bouncy floor, and the smell of the chalk dust from the uneven bars filled the air.
Erika rubbed ointment on her swollen ankle making sure her coach was not watching. She then carefully wrapped the delicate ankle in a bandage.
“What happened to your ankle?” Asked Christina as she was stretching out her shoulders.
“Oh, nothing. It is just a little sore.” Answered Erika in a shaky barely audible voice.
“Just be careful out there today.” Christina said as she pulled her team mate closer into a hug.
The two friends separated from the hug and went back to stretching. Erika sat on the floor with an ankle in hand rolling it around in small circles. She thought back to a few weeks ago when she remembered hurting her ankle. The level ten team was on beam practicing their routines one after another for an hour and a half. Erika had gotten through the entire routine with hardly any mistakes. All she had left was the dismount. She went into a handstand, twisted and landed next to the beam, but something went wrong. She felt a snap in her ankle when she landed. Not only did she feel it, she heard it too.
“Erika? Erika snap out of it,” Chiquita said startling her out of the daydream.
“We’re about to compete on beam sweetie.”
She competed on beam without any problems and then sat on a matt off to the side to watch the rest of her teammates compete. Once everyone had finished, they rotated onto their next event, the bars. The bars were her worst event but she managed to get through it with only a slight bit of pain on the landing.
“Chiquita, what event do we have next?” Erika asked hoping she would be able to withstand the pain she knew would be ahead.
“We go onto the vault. Remember, run hard and stick your landing.”
“I’ll try to remember that.”
They all walked over to the vault and Erika was up first. She saluted the judges signaling that she was ready. She ran as fast as she could with her arms pumping by her sides. Punching the springboard with all her strength she flew over the vault landing on the other side with a couple of extra steps. As she landed on the mat, she felt a sharp pain in her ankle. Her biggest fear was breaking her ankle in mid-competition.
“Suck it up; keep going,” she thought to herself. She shook off the pain as most gymnasts did and walked back to the begging of the runway for her second and final vault. Her second vault went much like the first, but this one put her in excruciating pain. She had two choices. She could either tell her coach she was hurt and drop out of the competition, or she could keep quiet until later.
“Just keep your mouth shut,” Erika mumbled under her breath as she walked back to where the team was waiting.
Everyone had competed on floor and Erika could practically feel her ankle swelling twice as big as it had been earlier. Despite the pain she was in, she still managed to gain a pleasing score.
All the teams sat anxiously on the carpeted floor waiting for the announcement of the winning team. Erika crawled over to where Chiquita was sitting.
“Chiquita, I think I hurt my ankle again.”
“Let me see it.” Erika slowly unwrapped the beige colored bandage exposing the purple ankle. Chiquita barely placed a finger on it when Erika let out a high pitched squeal of pain. Her coach did not have to think twice about her answer, “It’s broken.”
Erika woke up in sweat from her dream. She didn’t even want to look at her knee right then. She just slid her hand under the blanket and barely placed her hand on her knee. A loud scream escaped her lips and a nurse came running into the room.
“Are you ok sweetie?”
“More...painkillers.... NOW!” Erika cried in between clenched teeth.
The guys and the girls all finally arrived in the main lobby.
“Where...is...Erika?” Said JC all out of breath.
“What is her last name?”
“Cortez.”
“Hold on one moment please.” The attendant at the front desk checked the computer to see what room Erika was staying in. “She is in room 461. Fourth floor.”
“Thank you.”
They all ran to the elevator and squeezed in. On the way down the hallway, they bumped into a nurse.
“Hi, my name is Lance, and our friend is in room 461, can we go in and see her?”
“Not now, I’m sorry. But you can wait in the waiting room in this floor if you’d like. Our cafeteria is on the first floor.”
Lance let out a sigh as the nurse walked past him. They all sat anxiously in the uncomfortable hospital chairs waiting for news on Erika. About forty minutes later, a tall dark skinned man walked in.
“Are you Erika’s family?”
“Yes.” They all said in at the same time standing up to face the doctor.
“Hola, yo soy doctor Rodriguez. Yo voy a ver que pasa con Erika. Primero vamos a tomar unas rayos-x, despues...” (Hi, I’m Doctor Rodriguez. I’m going to see what’s wrong with Erika. First we’re going to take some x-rays, then...)
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. We’re not really her family; we’re just the closest thing she’s got.”
“Oh ok, I’m sorry. I just assumed that since you said you were her family and she was Spanish, that you would know Spanish too.”
“No, we just kind of learn it in school.”
The doctor laughed lightly.
“You know what they say about assuming things. You end up making an ass out of you and me.” Joey laughed at his own joke. Not even Chris laughed. Everyone just stared at him. “Get It. ass, you and me...assume...haha.”
“Retard” JC mumbled under his breath but laud enough for a few others to hear. “So, can we go in and see her yet?”
“Yes, you can all go in, but only for ten minutes. She’s still kinda drugged on painkillers.”
“All right, thank you doctor.”
“No problem, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.”
“Thanks again.”
The doctor turned around and went to check up on one of the other many patients he has in the hospital.
Rachel took a deep breath and opened the door to the room and slowly stepped inside.
“Erika? Are you awake?”
“Hmm.?”
“Oh my God Erika.” Rachel went to Erika’s side and pulled her into a hug.
“You guys, I’m really, like, doped up right now. So if i say stupid random stuff, ignore me, ok?”
“OK.”
“Damn you Erika, you had me so scared.” Justin took her hand in his two larger ones and lightly kissed them.
“You were scared? But you’re a big boy.”
The drugs
“I am a big boy, but I care about you.”
“That’s nice.” Erika turned towards JC, “you’re cute.”
JC turned a light shade of pink. “Uh, thanks.”
Just then, Dr. Rodriguez walked in. “Ok guys, time’s up. I’m gonna run a few tests and then were gonna take some x-rays.”
“I’m gonna start glowing soon, I’ve been exposed to so much radiation.”
The guys and the girls all left the room and went back to the waiting room they had been in earlier.
“Erika, have you had any knee injuries on the past?”
“Yea, several actually. Um, I sprained it. It’s popped out. Oh, I also have osgoodschlaters disease.”
“I’m not an orthopedist, so I’m not fully sure what that is.”
“Oh ok, you see, it’s um, it’s where the kneecap scratches away at the top part of the tibia. So its all hole-y and delicate.”
“I’m gonna look at your knee for a second.” The doctor pushed back the sheets covering Erika's body to see her knee.
“What are you going to do? Will it hurt a lot?”
He didn’t answer her. He just placed both of his hands on her knee. It was only his fingertips.
“Ok, I’m going to lightly put some pressure on your knee. I want you tell me exactly where it hurts, and what type of pain.”
Erika only nodded.
Doctor Rodriguez lightly pressed around the kneecap. When he got to the inner knee, she screamed.
“THERE! IT HURTS RIGHT THERE!”
He grabbed a pen and the chart, “What type of pain, can you describe it?”
“Just like, a thousand knives jabbing at it from the inside. I don’t know, it just hurts.”
“I am going to send you to radiology take a few x-rays. When you come back, hopefully we’ll know whats wrong.”
“All right.”
The doctor left the room and a few minutes later a nurse came in with a wheelchair.
(In the Waiting Room)
“God, please let her be ok. She has to be ok.” Justin silently prayed from his seat with folded hands.
“She’s going to be fine.” Justin looked up and met the eyes of Rachel.
“You think so?”
“No.” Justin dropped his gaze. “I know so.”
“I’m just so worried about her.”
“Nooooo.” Rachel pretended to be surprised. “You were pacing back and forth a few minutes ago. You’re making everyone else even more worried.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not saying being worried is bad, just relax a little bit.”
“Rachel, you’re right.”
“Well, duh.”
Everyone was called back into the room with Erika to talk about what happened.
"Doctor, is she going to be ok?"
"Well, first of all Erika, you..."
"Wait. Doctor, can you tell me in Spanish first and then I can tell them myself. I just want to know before hand."
"Ok. Bueno, rompiste un ligemento en tu rodia. Tambien, los rayos-x enseñan que rompiste la rodia. Y los rayos-x de tu tobillo dice que tabien lo rompiste." (Well, you tore a ligament in your knee. The x-rays also show that you broke the kneecap itself, and the x-rays of your ankle show that you broke that too.)
"Puta madre." (Son of a bitch)
"Para tu rodia y para tu tobillo, vamos a ser serujia." (For your knee and your ankle we're gonna perform surgery.)
The room was silent while the patient and the doctor stared at each other. No one else in the room had any clue as to what was going.
“Entonces que pasa despues de la serujia?” (So, what happens after the surgery?)
“En la operacion vamos a poner algunos tornillos in tu tobillo para correjir el hueso. Vas a estar en un yeso por lo menos unos cinco meses.” (During the operation, we’re going to put screws in your ankle to fix and put together the bone. You’re going to be in a cast for at least five months.)
The guys knew the doctor said something bad when Erika began to speak in a shaky voice on the verge of tears.
“Y mi rodia?” (And my knee?)
“Vamos a poner algo en tu rodia que no te va a dejar moverlo.” (We’re gonna put something in your knee that won’t let you move it.)
“Tengo que dejar bailando?” (I have to quit dancing, don’t I?)
“Si, por un año.” (Yes, for a year.)
Erika began crying uncontrollably.
“Te voy a dejar por un rato para que puedes dicirle a tus amigos que esta pasando.” (I’m gonna leave you for a little bit so you can tell your friends what’s going on.)
The group just looked at their crying friend for a moment.
“Er? What’s going on?” Joey said as he took her hand.
She couldn’t speak.
“Erika Cecilia Cortez, I’m serious here.”
“They’re gonna do surgery.”
“On what, your ankle?”
“And my knee.”
“When can the surgery be done?” Asked Lance.
“As soon as possible,” said the doctor returning into the room. “Les dijiste?” (Did you tell them?)
“Look, you guys, I can’t...”
“Let’s get you on that table.”
“Justin, you interrupted me.”
“The sooner you get operated on, the sooner you can come back home.”
“But Justin...”
“C’mon guys, let’s get out of here and let the doctor do his thing.”
Justin didn’t want to hear the truth, even though he already knew it.
******hey everyone! its me. Ok, here's the deal. I am actually Spanish and I speak it, but I suck at writting it so if you find any mistikes in this chapter (there r many) forgive me.******
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chapter 10