Torn

Chapter 2- New Dawn, New Day, New Life

My eyes slowly open to whiteness. 

Where am I?

 I have a terrible pain surging through my head, but I feel relatively fine everywhere else. Or to say, I think I feel alright.

This isn't my room. This is far from my room. This is somewhere else. I recognise that smell- It's the one you get in a medical place. Like the dentists, hospital or even in care homes.

I’m certain with myself that I’m not in the dentists, what have I done to go into the dentists?

I’m just as sure that I’m not in a care home either. It seems likely that I’m in a hospital, somewhere, though I’m not sure where.

I let out a groan, and try to get myself up.

No use.

"He's awake." I hear someone whisper. My incident must’ve been fairly bad to be in a hospital. I’ll question about it later.

A young man, possibly of some sort of Asian background walks towards my bed. He wears the typical surgeon's uniform, the white coat, the rubber gloves and mask, and has a tag hanging off of the coat.

Justin Tan, so I read.

"Hello, Sam. You've been quite unconscious for a significant amount of time." He states, with no introductions. He's Korean by telling from his accent.

I think nothing of this, it’s the typical thing everyone tells you when you’ve been in a coma or unconsciousness, they exaggerate when you’ve been knocked out for around 3 days or so.

"We thought you'd never wake up." He continues, "It's a good thing you woke up or else, we may have had to turn off your life support."

Another cliché thing.

The machine isn’t as big as I would’ve thought it would be. I also seem to be wearing something on my face- I only just noticed now? I’ve been getting pretty slow, in that case.

An oxygen mask, the main ingredient to keeping someone alive.

"Oh, don't do that, you have to rest!" Exclaims the surgeon, as I try to get myself up. It seems tougher than normal, for a start, I can’t even move my left arm or my leg, or even turn my head to the left.

 "Besides, you're left side is paralysed, it'll be tough for you to do so."

Figures.

"But yes, I came over to see you since you've woken up. My name is Justin, I'm one of the surgeons here. You suffered a stroke over 2 weeks ago..."

He checks his clipboard as he says the last part, unsure with himself.

"Yes, two weeks ago. I'll go and see if you can get that stuff off of you..."

I don't exactly pay attention after this, besides, why would I want to?

The removal of the mask is like a symbol of victory. It feels better, much better.

"The air tastes so different!" I comment, in some sort of relief.

I assume one of the nurses hears me as the next thing I know, another nurse I standing over me.

She says in some sort of staged shock, "I'm surprised you got your speech and memory back so fast."

I don’t think those two were affected, it seems to mainly be my mobility.

"I can't feel my arm and leg."

She widens her eyes and exits the room, leaving me alone again. What is it with people being shocked and leaving the room? Surely it isn’t that bad...

I wonder if Evelyn ever came to see me while I was dead to the world. Probably, or at least I hope so. It be a shame if she didn’t, and I think I’d be annoyed myself if she didn’t.

Another nurse comes in, but he simply switches on the radio.

It's some song called Spice, though I'm not focused enough to listen to it. Besides, why would anyone want to listen to a song about kinds of spices?

There, I'm mistaken. The title is misleading, as it has a completely different meaning. I mean, there have been some songs worse than this, but this completely throws me.

I can't even block out the sound, so I'm forced to listen to a hideous love song. Great.

It's soon over after about 4 minutes, thankfully, and changes to another song about some couple. I feel such a bad urge to get up and turn the radio off, but I know I can't move my leg properly. So basically, the whole procedure is annoying and painful. Why can’t people ask for permission first?

This was the same routine for at least 2 months. I don't know exactly how long, but I'm sure it's 2 months. I was released on October 4th, although there was a change.

I'd be switching high schools.

At first, I had objected to this. I had many friends at my old school and I didn't want to leave them. Especially Evelyn.

But then, I figured out that if none of them visited me in hospital- yes, even Evelyn didn't see me during my stay- they probably didn't care about me anymore.

Would they cry if I walked away?

Would they want to hang around with me forever?

Would Evelyn still like me?

The answer to those questions would probably be no. And I wouldn’t be surprised either.

And that was why I agreed to transfer to a new school. One for people like me, with disabilities ranging from mildly bad to the extremes. And they wouldn’t judge. They’d understand.

Perhaps I could find a new crush. One that was even better than Evelyn. I don't understand why I'm angry over her. Maybe it wasn't her fault that she couldn't visit me, but she could've tried.

I sigh at this, but I mentally tell myself that my new school would be better.

The school is called Monde Academy. It sounds quite foreign for a school, to say the least. Perhaps its one of those schools which isn’t very... Good, due to low funding. Or maybe its naturally misleading. I hope it’s the latter.