Dragged to my knees

Chapter 12

The rest of my classes go smoothly and Adira and I meet up during a shared study period to work on the written aspect of our project. We decide to prepare the meal at her place and bring it to school on Thursday when our next food and nutrition class is scheduled to hold.

"There!" Adira says, clicking the save icon just as the bell goes to signal the end of our free period. Our five page project is finally done. It wasn't especially difficult or anything but any kind of school work is exhausting.

"How's your aunt doing?" she asks cautiously as we exit the library.

"She's okay." I reply but I'm really not the mood to talk about it. Thankfully, we're at my next stop, the French lab so I don't have to keep the conversation going.

"See you later." I say and without waiting for a reply, I push down on the door handle and walk right into the bowels of hell.

French class goes by in a blur and I wander the halls of Oak view High like a lost zombie as I attend my last two classes of the day.

"Here you can see that Shakespeare uses wo-

But Mr. Gregory doesn't get to finish that sentence because right as he is getting really into it, the ever faithful school bell comes to our rescue. 

I can feel my shoulders sag in relief as he dismisses us.

Packing my stuff as quickly as possible, I make my way to my locker and then out the school's doors to my mom's waiting car. We had agreed beforehand that we'd go visit my aunt after school let out.

When we arrive, we see that she's been moved out of the ICU.

"Does this mean she's getting better? I mean, she's in a normal ward, that has to be good news right?" mum asks hopefully but I can tell nothing's really changed that much.

"At this point we can't tell whether or not she's getting better." The doctor replies. "We've moved her here because her condition is currently stable but we can only hope for the best."

If she's disappointed, mum doesn't show it but just smiles and thanks the doctor as he excuses himself. We get ourselves seated on either side of her and talk like nothing is wrong. 

Mum talks about her day at home and all the TV shows she finally got to catch up on. I tell her everything about my day at school; about the rabbit and how I'd bribed Drew and Alex.

Soon, we're both laughing like its old times again and I don't feel half as sad as I did before. As mum launches into another story, the strangest thing happens. At first, I think I'm only imagining it since I see it through my side vision but then it happens again.

"Mum!" I call out excitedly. "Mum, look!"

She turns to see what's getting me all worked up and almost immediately leaps up from her chair. "Oh my gosh!" She exclaims. "She's yawning!"

Excitedly, we both rush out to get the doctor but as he examines her, he doesn't seem as enthusiastic as we are. He says stuff like this happens all the time with comatose patients but to be optimistic. 

He says it could maybe lead to progress but not to get our hopes too high. He also says they have to run some tests on her to check that it isn't something else.

I think he's just being a spoil sport and that yawning means waking up so I go and sit down by her side again, taking her hand this time.

Mum and I try to continue our conversation and we involve her as much as we can but Aunt Veronica doesn't wake up like we thought she would.