The Wonder of You

Slowly Paula began to regain consciousness, she tried to roll over on her side but found herself consumed by intense rush of pain. Paula swore loudly and opened her eyes trying to see where the pain was coming from.

The Lombardi’s awoke from their sleep when they heard Paula swearing at the top of their lungs. They smiled when they saw their daughter cursing and looking at her cast. Paula looked over at her parents and smiled, she had never been so happy to see their faces in all her life.

The happiness was quickly replaced with sadness, when she remembered the events that had occurred the night before. Tears sprang from her eyes and made their way down her cheeks.

She reached out and grabbed her mother’s hand, while she said, “James?”

Paula watched as her mother shook her head. He really had died; he died in order to save her life. She buried her head into her pillow and sobbed uncontrollably, that boy had no business at the rumble.

If she had just been a little more pushy he would still be alive. Paula shook her head fiercely, screaming out in anguish of all the lives that she had taken, of all the families that she had destroyed.

Her mother went to her side and stroked her daughters face, as she hummed her favorite tune trying to make her feel better.

Paula looked at her mom and said, “Who else is dead?”

Mrs. Lombardi began crying softly and whispered, “Tony, Pony Boy, and Richie.”

Paula’s breathing increased, the heart monitor began beeping at an alarming rate and her parent’s were kicked out of the room. The doctor walked in with a sedative and injected it into her bloodstream, to calm her down.

Hours after this incident Paula woke to the sound of Frank’s voice,” “Just poke her in the gut. That’ll wake her up.”

“Fuck that, you do it,” replied Tony.

“I ain’t gonna do it. I’m the brain you’re the muscle.”

“Well what if I break one of her bones,” countered Tony.

Frank scoffed and said, “What are you stupid. You don’t have bones there.”

“I don’t want to wake her up, you know how she gets,” stated Tony in an exasperated tone.

Paula finally had enough of the conversation and said, “I’m gonna beat both of you guys up for being so damn annoying!”

Matching grins spread across the young men’s faces when they saw their beloved best friend talking to them. They sat down beside her and said, “You gave us quite a scare Pauly.”

“You know me, I refuse to die,” said Paula jokingly.

“Amen to that.”

“How are things working out? What happened? How’d it end?”

“Fourteen scorpions died; their hospitals full.”

“We gave it to them good didn’t we,” asked Paula needing to be reassured that the war had indeed been worth it.

“Best part is this war’s over. We won.”

Paula looked at them with tears in her eyes; she smiled and furrowed her brows trying to take in the fact that there would be no more wars. No more pain, no more fighting, no more killing.

She cried tears of joy and said, “I just wish none of us had died.”

“I know.”

“What I would do to have them back, to have James back,” she muttered to herself.

“Don’t go hurting your pretty little head with those thoughts. It sucks, but we won. We won and that means that their deaths were avenged. WE have to move on, and try to make it so nothing like this ever happens again. We can’t dwell, it’ll drive us mad.”

No one talked, the mood was dead. Frankie, Tony and Mickey told Paula that they would be having hip surgery in three weeks. They also told her about how James’ funeral was going to be held at the end of the week.

Paula wanted to go, she screamed and threw fit after fit but her doctor didn’t let her leave. That boy gave his life to save hers, and she couldn’t even be there to pay her last respects.

Frankie, Tony, and Mickey’s surgery finally came around. They were getting a hip replacement, because their own hips had been shattered and destroyed by the ridiculous amount of baseball to hip collisions that they had sustained.

Paula was getting better each and every day; she could finally sit up on her own and could even push herself in a wheelchair. Her friend’s surgery went smoothly and three beds were put in the same large room as hers.

A week passed and the four were turned out from the hospital. They were all in wheel chairs since they wouldn’t be allowed to walk for two weeks.

Paula was nervous to return to school, she hadn’t spoken to anyone outside of the greaser circle in three weeks and knew that the preps were surely going to swarm her.

Paula’s mother helped her put on her clothes, Paula quickly did her makeup and hair and then rolled her way to her father’s truck outside.

She pulled up to the passenger’s seat, and thanking god that she had been an animate weight lifter pulled herself into the seat.

“Are you sure you want to go to school dear? You can always stay home,” said her father his voice laced with concern.

Paula sighed and responded, “I have to go dad, I’ve been out for a month. I’m just a little worried.”

“Whys that?”

“What are people gonna think you know?”

“Is that why you’re worried? None of them are gonna think ill of you. All the preps kept coming to our house to ask how you were, they missed you.”

“Not those people.”

Her father nodded, understanding that she meant Emmett. He politely dropped the subject knowing that it caused his daughter too much pain to think about him.

Once they arrived in the school parking lot he drove over to the Greaser section. He moved quickly, opening up his daughter’s wheelchair, he then opened the door and put her in his arms placing her carefully on the cheer.

Paula kissed her dad goodbye on the cheek and laughed when she saw Frankie, Tony, and Mickey in their wheelchairs.

“Why are you laughing so hard?”

“Cuz I just realized something funny.”

“What is it?”

“We could totally play murderball like in that movie. Me and Frankie will fuck you and Mickey up.”

“Oh, put your money where your mouth is.”

“Fifty bucks, says we fuck you up.”

“When are we gonna play this?”

“I don’t know. After school?”

“Sounds good.”

Paula couldn’t help but smile as she sat there hanging out with her Greasers, they were her life. It was like being in a wolf pack, sure you can roam alone but it’s nothing compared to being with your brothers.

Paula saw some of the guys take out a joint and a tequila bottle, she smirked. They were still listening to her rule of not drinking Jack Daniels whiskey around her, she smiled sadly when she remembered all the times Emmett had drank her blood and told her it was like drinking jack Daniels on a hot Tennessee night.

“Pass me that joint and tequila.”

“One day out of the fucking hospital and you’re already smoking and drinking.”

Paula laughed and took a hit of the joint while she said, “What can I say, I like to party.”

“You party so hard you can’t walk the next day.”

“Slap yourself that was retarded.”

“Yeah, that was a bad one.”

Slowly the parking lot started filling up the preps rushed over to Paula and hugged her gently, thanking her and the rest of the greaser’s for having gotten them out of the gym safely that night.

They all asked Paula why they were so helpful in protecting them when they weren’t even friends and to that Paula simply responded, “You’re our preps, can’t let your pretty little heads get hurt now can I?”

Paula stared as the Cullen’s drove into the parking lot. She still hadn’t forgiven them for what they had done to her, but she knew that she had to thank Alice for having given them a heads up. If Alice hadn’t told her, then there would’ve been a lot more deaths the night of the dance.

“Come on guys we should start heading over to class. Since we are disabled it might take longer.”

“True, fuck it. Let’s make people push us. My hands are getting tired.”

“Nah, you can push yourself around.”

Paula slowly wheeled herself over to where the Cullen’s parked; she stopped in front of Alice and with a soft look on her face said, “Thank you.”

Alice stood there shocked. It had been months since Paula directed any words towards her and now, now Paula had just wheeled over to her and thanked her. Alice was ready to go and hug Paula, but Edward stopped her.

“Why are you stopping me?!”

“Because Paula just thought so that I could tell you that this doesn’t change anything, that she was just being polite.”

“I wonder if she’s ever going to forgive us.”

Jasper spoke up, he never liked talking on this subject, especially since Paula had been the very best friend that he had ever had but he couldn’t help but get angry when his siblings tried to play the victim card he knew that they had used her ill, they knew about Rosalie and they should’ve stopped her, but they choose to ignore the problem.

“I hope she does, though I do not believe we deserve it.”