NORA
No one except for Nora was surprised when she woke up sore the next morning. Her whole body felt like she'd been hit with a truck and thrown fifty feet, and then landed right on her back.
At ten o'clock, when she was still lying in bed, Mouse opened her door to check on her. "Morning, sweetheart," He said.
"Morning," Nora said. Or, at least, she tried to. But when she formed the words with her lips, not a single sound came out. Her body went rigid with panic and she shot upright, wincing as she clutched her throat.
Mouse stepped fully into the room, "Lost your voice again?" He asked.
Nora nodded frantically.
"It's okay, sweetheart," Mouse was surprisingly calm, "The doctor said that might happen. I have an appointment scheduled for you at Sydney Children's Hospital in four days. They'll give us some answers, alright?"
Nora tried to tell him that he didn't have to do that. He was her foreign exchange host, for guacamole's sake, he didn't have to pay for hospital bills! But, she had a feeling that he would do so whether or not she wanted him to.
"It'll be alright, Nora, I promise," Mouse told her reassuringly, even though he had no idea whether he was speaking the truth or not.
Nora just nodded.
"Why don't you lie down? I bet you're super sore from all that swimming you did yesterday, and I'm sure you're still tired. I would be!"
"Thanks, Mouse," Nora mouthed at him.
Thankfully, he understood, "Of course, Kiddo."
Nora watched as he left and then closed the door behind him. She laid back on her pillows once he was gone, feeling relieved at the pressure release from her gut. She felt like her whole body was one big bruise.
Nora thought back to the swim meet the night before. Her 800 relay race had gone well, even though Olivia had been furious to have Nora on her relay team. Nora had done her best to ignore her and instead focused on the race.
After two 800's, she was well and thoroughly exhausted, but she pushed through and even won another of her races! She got second and third for the rest of them. Coach Hal was very impressed.
Nora and Lana had raced against each other a lot. Lana had won most of them, but Nora had gotten ahead of her a few times, which Nora felt very proud of. Lana was apparently one of the best swimmers in the area when it came to swim races, and she had a very promising career for college.
Xander and Lana were on interesting terms. According to Adam, who was a bit of a gossip, Xander and Lana had dated for a couple of months the year earlier until Lana's parents made them break up because Xander was 'distracting' her. Lana apparently still liked Xander, which definitely made the whole atmosphere more awkward.
But, thankfully, the awkwardness was a lot more manageable than it was when Olivia was practically hanging onto Adam's arm, begging him to support her because she was just so exhausted. Adam shoved her off and told her that Nora had done twice as many races and done twice as well as Olivia, so she shouldn't be the one complaining.
Of course, that had made her mad, and she'd spent the rest of the night going around and trying to dig up dirt on Nora.
Then there was even more drama, when Coach Hal found out what she was saying and sent Olivia to the bench. Nora hadn't heard the whole story, but once again according to Adam, Olivia had been kicked off of the swim team.
Speaking of sports with Olivia, she was supposed to come back onto the cheer team the next week, finally. Nora wasn't looking forward to that, since her poor, bruised shoulder had been injured enough the first time she'd been dropped. Nora had a bad feeling that it wouldn't be the last time she'd land on the ground instead of in someone's arms.
Nora tried to talk again and her voice, thank goodness, came out in a weak whisper, "Is is working?" She asked.
She felt relief flood through her body. She'd lost her voice for a shorter amount of time than the last time it had happened. But then again, the last time it had happened, Nora had been poked and prodded in the throat by a doctor, so that may have something to do with it.
Nora flopped her arm across her pillow and heaved a loud sigh. She closed her eyes, willing her exhausted body to sleep.
And sleep, it did.