My Medical Romance

The people who made it hard for me to want to socialize in the first place, mostly the preps and jocks, were laughing and jeering. The gang of boys I sat amongst did nothing. That was why they needed such revenge, I guess.

They just went on with their lunch and when it was over, they cleared out. I sat with Frank at gym again. We were doing the swimming unit. Chlorine set off my asthma and he sprained his ankle in the period in between lunch and gym again.

“Why do you keep breaking yourself?” I asked.

“You mean my ankle? Not really sprained. I keep an ace bandage in my locker for times like these.”

“So what about all the other stuff?”

“Guitar, usually. Ray says I just get too into it.”

“I’m guessing you don’t watch where you’re going, then?”

“Never.”

“I heard that Iero! I want doctor’s notes from now on!” The gym teacher barked. “Get changed right now and get your ass in that pool!”

Frank sighed dramatically before shuffling back off to the locker room, but not before reminding me that I should walk home with Mikey because I was a lot tougher looking than him.

In spite of the fact that the gym teacher was now raging on about honesty and health, I smiled. I was making friends. I was making friends with people who were like me. It was wonderful.

When I went to leave to go to my locker (gym was my last class) someone decided it would be fun to push the weird girl into the pool. Frank tackled the cheerleader who did it into the pool also, so he got another hour to his detention.

He said it was worth it.

“Ma, can I go to Mikey’s house Friday?” I asked when we stepped into the house. She had to leave early because once they fished me out I had to go to the nurse for my inhaler and a change of clothing, which warranted a call home.

The story I supplied was I slipped and fell in. No one would believe me if I said I was pushed anyway.

Mikey’s phone number was scribbled onto my arm hastily because Gerard passed by the nurse’s office on the way to detention and told me to give him a call when I got home.

“I’m working late the rest of this week, so I guess I’d rather you be at the Way’s than home alone. You’re just hanging out, right? No sex or drugs?”

“God, we’re just planning complete revenge on everyone who’s ever wronged us in that damned school,” I replied. She just laughed.

“Right. Try not to stay out too late, and if it’s past eleven and I’m still not home, just stay there. Donna already said you could if you ever needed to, after I told her about what happened between me and your father,” she trailed off.

It wasn’t a messy divorce so much as she’d been pretty floored when it finally hit her that she was raising me alone. Since she stayed late so often at the opera theater she worked at we had a list of people who’d be willing to let me eat dinner with them or even stay the night.

“Oh, do you remember that time you had to stay with the Liam twins?” Like so many others, they had also moved but during my brief stay with them they’d managed to convince me that they were just one person in two separate places. I laughed, despite the fact that they’d terrified me.

I skipped up the steps to my room, and anxiously dialed the Way’s number. Their mother picked up.

“This is Donna Way, may I ask who’s speaking?”

“It’s Iris, from the allergist’s office? Is Mikey home?”

“Oh, hi sweetie! Did your mother ever try that one pasta dish? I never got to ask because Gerard had to take Mikey last time- oh, Gerard didn’t scare you, did he? He’s such a nice boy, really, but he won’t cut his hair and he doesn’t smile often. You think he’s alright, don’t you? Sometimes I feel so out of touch with my own children,” She prattled on.

“I think I’m going to put my mother on, Mrs. Way,” I sighed. Talking to Mikey would have to wait.