14 to Thrive

Grace Chapter 1: Day 0

 It was the car crash that changed everything. I was driving down the road with my mom, on the way to school, and this driver wasn't paying attention to where he was going, you know, one of those texting and driving things that you hear about but never think it can happen to you. Well, it happened to me. I had just turned onto the road the school is on, and i got hit head on by this dude who goes to my school. I know, what a shocker that a teenager was on their phone while driving, right? Well, my mom got it way worse then I did, but not by much. She was killed right on the scene. That was so traumatizing for me, because I was screaming for her, but she was already dead. Luckily for me, it's a busy road, so lots of cars and trucks heading for the shipyard were around. Someone called 911 and they came and looked at me, and brought me to the hospital really quickly before they got rid of my mom's body. Probably because they didn't want me to see her being put in a body bag to be taken Lord knows where. I don't remember anything about the hospital except for the fact that I couldn't feel any of my arms or legs and the paramedics kept saying, "just hang in there, only 10 more minutes until the hospital."

I don't even know how Jonah found out about me getting in the car crash, but he did. He was in my hospital room with me when I woke up. I had fallen asleep? I don't remember anything.

"Where am I?" I try to say but no words come out. 
 Jonah sees me struggling so he helps me out.

"You're in the hospital. You got into a car crash. Your dad and brothers are on their way, but they only just found out. It's been three hours. Your dad was at work and he couldn't get service until 20 minutes ago. I've been trying. Your brothers are both at school, but I'm pretty sure they're going to walk over here if they have to. You've been asleep for a while."

I talk to Jonah for a little while more and he tells me about the crash and how the man who crashed into me felt so bad he offered to pay all of the medical bills for the rest of my life. I of course said yes, because I figures that something like this would be expensive, and now with only one paycheck being made in the house, we needed all the financial help we could get. It also wasn't my fault I had gotten in the crash either.

By the time I had gotten done asking Jonah details about the crash, my dad and brothers walked in. They swarmed around me and started asking me questions all at once. I did my best to answer them. After I did the best I could, the doctor came in.

"Good evening, guys. I'm Dr. Williamson and I'm going to be Grace's doctor while she's in here. Now, unfortunately for Grace, she has had such bad spinal cord damage from the car crash, that she only has about 14 days to live. That's all. I'm very sorry to have to tell you like this. I'd be willing to discharge you so you can achieve all you want to, because the firefighters found this in your car, Miss Pierce."

He hands me my notebook, which has my bucket list with all of the things I have always wanted to do. "I want you to be able to do all of these things and be able to do them with your friend here. What do you say?"

"Wow, thank you so much, Dr. Williamson! This is so exciting, but I would hate to make my dad have to afford all of this stuff."

"Well, Grace, fortunately for you, in North Carolina it is illegal to text and drive. Therefore, the person who ran into you committed a crime. He feels so bad about what he did that his family is giving you guys $1 million to cover only having 1 paycheck and they are also paying for all the things that you and your friend here are going to be doing."

Geez, these people must be super rich to be able to give $1 million and send me on all these cool things with Jonah. Luckily I always keep my bucket list on me so that in case I get a new item I can just add it on right then and there. Now I just have to plan out what I'm going to do. Exciting!