Heart of Gold

CHAPTER 5

I walked to class, feet dragging as I went. My backpack felt heavy on my shoulders.
"Hey, where's Zeke?" One of Zekes friends confronted me.
"Ugh, he's not here yet?" I sighed. He was yet another person I knew was missing. At least I had an explanation for this one.
He shook his head. I rolled my eyes. I stepped into the class as the bell rings.
The far back corner drew me to it. I plopped my stuff down and settled down for a long, boring day.
A few hours later, the lunch bell tolled. I scurried to the lunch line and snatched up some pizza. Holding my water bottle in one hand and my food in the other, I speed walked down to the field. I plopped my stuff down next to Jacob and Sarah.
"Have you guys seen Alexa?" I questioned. They both shook their heads. I shrugged it off. Deep down I still worried, but they didn't need to know that. Could Alexa have disappeared because I called her?
My backpack buzzed. I opened up the small pocket and checked my phone.
"Who texted?" Sarah asked.
"Zeke," I moaned, rolling my eyes. I looked at the message:

Plz tell the teacher I'm sick.

"Ugh," I mumbled. I texted back:

It's a little late for that, don't you think?

I turned off my phone and placed it next to me.
"Why'd he text you?" Jacob asked.
"Yeah... And why wasn't he in school today?" Sarah added.
"He ditched and he's asking me to cover." My phone buzzed again.

Really Alana.

I replied:

Yeah. What are you going to do about it?

I knew that he couldn't do anything to me. If mom and dad asked him about why, he would have no explanation.
He replied:

...

I turned off my phone and stored it safely in my pocket. We chatted until the bell rang.
When it rang, we grabbed our stuff and walked into the classroom. I really didn't feel like sitting through two more ours of boring classes. I approaches Mrs. McConnel.
"Yes?" She said, raising her eyebrows.
"My wrist started-gah!" I bent over, wrist in hand. I shakily showed her the black spot.
"It hurts a lot!" She instructed me to leave with Nicolas, a blond-haired kid in my class. We walked toward the medical center. It's name might sound spectacular, but the building only consisted of a small, shack-like room. Occasionally the doctor appeared, but usually you'd have to treat yourself. He was there that day. Nicolas left me as soon as his duty was fulfilled.
"Hello," the doctor said. "What seems to be the problem?"
I was about to tell him when, as if on cue, my wrist started hurting for real.
"Gah!" I said. The pain was terrible. I simply pointed to my wrist as tears filled my eyes. He furrowed his brow.
"Hmm..." He said. He sounded thoroughly confused. He took out a paper and pen and jotted down some notes. He looked down below his feet and dug through some shelves. A few minutes later he handed me a small unmarked bottle full of small, round pills.
"Take one every morning for the next week," he told me. "Visit the hospital and tell them about it if it doesn't cease." He looked slightly worried. Why?
"You may go home," he said. I was happy after this. I took a pill an the pain soon stopped. I was forced to drive home with one of the lunch ladies.
I hopped in the backseat of her car. Luckily, she was not the type of person that would try to make small talk. I pulled out my phone and began to text Alexa.

Where are you?!

I was just about to text her again when she called me. I answered, eager to find out where she was and why she wasn't at school.
"Hello?" I asked. I heard the soft mumble of people in the background.
"Alana?" She said. She sounded frantic.
"Where are you? What happened?" I demanded.
"Listen Alana, I-" she paused.
"-uh... I'm doing fine. I just have a-uh-cold." The end of her statement sounded more like a question.
"Uh... What?" I stuttered, confused. The line disconnected.
I slipped my phone back into my bag. Why did she hang up? I wondered. I knew that she doesn't have a cold. Even if she did, she wouldn't stay home for that. I glanced out the window. The brown scenery whipped past as we sped along.
A while later the lunch lady dropped me off at my house. I texted my parents that I was coming home when I was is the car. When they asked why the doctor had sent me home, I didn't have a good response.
Why did he send me home? I mean, I wasn't feeling any pain anymore.
I stepped through the front door.