BFB High (with a continuous plot wow)

Chapter 11: Calm Before The Storm

The three other girls agreed to that and so they all soon sat down at a table. Teddy welcomed her ASL teaching session as another well needed distraction. She had been afraid that the others would ask to just do their homework for today, thus forcing Teddy to do her homework as well. She wasn't sure she would be able to keep her mind from wandering if she were to just do her homework. However, time passed soon enough in the study hall and now it was the end of the day.

"I'm going to meet up with Leah at the front of the school, then we'll go to the hospital," Teddy informed her friends through the AAC app.

"Are you going to walk to the hospital?" Ellie asked incredulously.

Teddy shook her head. "Leah's mom is going to drive us since Leah doesn't have her driver's license yet. She's planning on taking the test soon, but for now, we have to rely on Leah's mom," she explained, using the AAC app. "So we're going to have to walk to Leah's home first before we can go to the hospital."

"Ah, well, I hope your friend Penelope will be okay," Sawyer said softly.

Teddy nodded, before finally waving goodbye to her friends as they split off into different directions. She spotted Leah at the front of the school, waiting for her.

"Hey Teddy!" Leah greeted. To anybody else, it would seem that Leah was back to her normal chipper self, but Teddy knew better. Since Leah always tried to smile, Teddy had to get used to being able to tell the difference between Leah's genuine smiles and Leah's "smiling through the pain" smiles. Unfortunately, it seemed her smile right now was the latter. Although, considering the circumstances, Teddy wasn't surprised.

Still, Teddy felt that after what happened this morning and how Leah had opened up to her during lunch, Leah deserved to have a few minutes where they could pretend everything was fine. And Teddy hated to admit it, but looking back at her behavior today, constantly trying to distract herself, wasn't she just coping the same way as Leah?

The two talked for a bit before Leah's mom pulled up and the two got in the car. Though there was nothing stopping anyone from getting into the shotgun seat, the two teenagers instead opted for sitting next to each other in the back seat, figuring that they would need the company.

"Is your sister not coming, Leah?" Mrs. Lemon, Leah's mom asked, looking at her in the rear view mirror.

Teddy saw Leah's smile temporarily drop from her face as a flash of irritation entered it, but it disappeared just as soon as it came, to be replaced with a smile. "No, she must want to have more time to do her homework or something."

Mrs. Lemon seemed to have also noticed the flash of irritation enter Leah's face, as she asked, "Did the two of you fight?"

"We're fine, mom! Please, can we not talk about this now?" Leah begged.

Sighing, Mrs. Lemon seemed to oblige for now, as she started driving to the hospital. Teddy looked out the window for a while, losing herself in thinking up new plot points for her pirate comic, before Leah started talking to her.

"Hey, Teddy, what are you doing?" Leah suddenly asked.

At first, Teddy had felt annoyed at being interrupted, but as she turned to look at Leah, she realized that this was one of the ways Leah was trying to cope with her sadness. "I'm thinking of my comic," Teddy signed.

"Oh, are you talking about the pirate comic you've been making?" Leah asked.

Teddy nodded, but then explained that she wasn't sure how much time she'd have to work on it due to school starting up again and there being homework. She also felt like she didn't quite know what direction to take a side character that she had barely fleshed out.

"You should meet new people then," Leah suggested. "I mean, you based the main character of yourself, why not base that side characters off of someone else? Like what about one of your new friends?"

"I kill that character with my radioactive powers later in the comic," Teddy signed, "so no."

"Oh."

After a few more minutes of chatting, Leah's mom pulled into one of the parking spots in the hospital parking garage. The three of them got out of the car and went from the parking garage into the building. Leah was about to ask the receptionist which room Penelope Sharpe was in, but then Mrs. Lemon revealed that Penelope's mom had told her what room she was in. It was apparently on the fourth floor.

During the elevator ride, Leah kept trying to talk to Teddy, trying to take her mind off of things. Teddy felt nervous. Even this close to seeing Penelope again, Leah seemed so determined to pretend that everything was fine. Teddy didn't know what state Penelope was in. How bad would the shock be for Leah if Penelope was in a really bad state?

As the elevator dinged open, the three women spotted Penelope's cousin, Nadia, along with her parents. Nadia looked over at Leah and Teddy somberly.

"Hey, Leah and Teddy," Nadia's dad said. The family resemblance between him and Penelope's dad was obvious. "So the good news is that Penelope is alive and conscious now."

Teddy frowned. This meant there was bad news.

"That's great!" Leah sighed in relief. "Her parents are in there with her now, right? Can I see her?"

"Yes but-"

It was too late. Leah had already entered the room, her mother quickly following after her. Sometimes, Teddy wondered who was really older between her and Leah, considering how she behaved sometimes. She was about to follow before she felt Nadia gently grab her sleeve.

Teddy paused, turning to see Nadia looking down at her with tears in her eyes. "Teddy," she whispered, "they had to amputate all of Penelope's limbs."

Author's Note: So, a couple of things.

I know last update, I said I'd get this chapter up after Fall Quarter finishes at my college, so you were probably expecting this to come out by December. However, my college's quarter system seems to follow the seasons as divided up by the solstice and equinox, not the seasons as divided by month, so I only had time to work on the image for this chapter recently.

Also, yes, we're doing the BFDIA Pin loses her limbs plot. This probably will not be medically accurate, so I apologize in advance. Why did I choose to do this plot? Well, to be completely honest, I realized that I forgot to give Pin prosthetic arms in the first chapter's image and I'm too lazy to go back and change it. Plus, it's still too early in the school year for many of the plots I already had in mind, so I needed another plot that had something to do with Teardrop, or at least something to do with someone who interacts with Teardrop a lot in this fanfiction. So, choosing this plot was killing two birds with one stone.

Lastly, you might notice that Teddy and Dora have different outfits in this image than they did in the previous images. It's because it's a new day from the previous images. I don't know if I'll be able to think of enough outfits for each character to give them a new one everyday (especially the more prominent characters in this fanfiction), or even enough outfits for a realistic laundry cycle. However, I'll try to get enough to give them a few outfits to cycle through, occasionally interrupted by special outfits or outfit changes demanded by the plot. I just want enough variety in outfits that it doesn't seem like they're wearing the same outfits everyday. I'll allow accessories to be repeated, though, as shown by Saw wearing the same hat as in the previous images.

So, which of the outfits shown in the images in this fanfiction are representative of my official humanization designs? So far, aside from Pin, the first outfit each character fits in matches my image of the outfit I imagine each humanization to be in. I changed Pin's up because I didn't know if it would be practical to wear in the Fall, but the original outfit I imagine her to be in might appear in the warmer seasons in this fanfiction. Although, I will admit, I spent more time thinking of certain characters' outfits than others, so I might change my humanizations' main outfits for some of them down the line.

Anyway, enough rambling! If you're reading this around the time of year that this chapter first got released, then happy holidays!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that Nadia is Needle. I think that's the only new name that was introduced in this chapter.