The next couple of days were the weekend, so I spent most of the time helping my parents around the house, especially mom, but I was not myself because I was still thinking of all that Lance dumped on me plus the blonde. Mom noticed me staring off into space a number of times but I did not let on a bit about what was wrong with me. I did manage to do my weight exercises and study for my spelling test but my heart was not in either of those.
When Monday came I was happy to enter the bus and see the blonde with yet another book she was reading. This time she wore a green tight fitting top under a brownish colored shell, with the silver necklace, but now had white shorts. She was sitting by herself as I walked by so it was easy for me to see her perfect legs. This girl always amazed me. I hoped Lenny figured out who she was.
When the bus arrived at the school I noticed the white mustang, Lance and his crowd were there but I mostly focused on the blonde and watched her get up and leave the bus. I found myself followed her to the door partly mesmerized by the movement of her legs and then broke away from that and went to home room looking for Lenny. I knew I needed to know something soon or I would just go crazy.
In the process of heading towards home room I noticed two guys on ladders changing spotlights in the upper section of the ceiling of the school foyer. I had to walk under them which made me nervous. I had never seen anything like that before. If it wasn't that I was so interested in talking to Lenny I might have lingered longer to see what they were doing. It looked like they were having problems reaching some of the lamps.
Lenny was inside the room sitting at his seat. When he saw me he smiled and got up and walked towards me. He gestured that we should leave the room for a minute so he could talk to me. I was hoping he had news.
"Cole, I found out who the blonde is," he said. "You were right. She is a freshman, and she does live near you. Here is her address. I put it on this piece of paper for you". Lenny handed me a piece of paper.
"Yay, that's great!", I said. "How did you find out? Who is she? What is she like?" I could not wait any longer.
"Her name is Amanda Westbrook. I found out because she has a younger brother in middle school that my younger sister seems to know. It was not as hard as I thought to get the information. Her friends call her Manda. A few call her Mandy, but she prefers Manda."
"So what do you know of her?", I asked.
"Well, she keeps a small circle of close friends and is shy like you. She is smart, likes to read and plays some video games sometimes. She is a really nice kid, and a good girl for sure. She moved here from New Jersey only a couple of years ago, and because she is a freshman she is new to the school, just like you"
"Cole," he continued, "Amanda is a pretty nice, cute girl. That is obvious. If you want her as your girlfriend your gonna have to make some effort to make it happen. She is single right now, as they say, but some other guy might get her if you don't do anything. Your gonna have to muster up some courage and do something to at least let her know your interested in her."
"Yeah, your right, but I just don't know what to do. I have no clue what to talk to her about or what to do. I want her to be with me but maybe she won't like me. I don't know how to talk. I will just be this bumbling talker, and I look like a big fat kid. What girl wants to be with a fat kid?"
"Cole, your not a fat kid. Your disguised as a fat kid. Why do you have to wear those baggy clothes anyway?"
"My parents keep telling me I can't call attention to myself and need to stay in the background as a fat kid. I don't know why. I hate it. They actually gave the school a note so I didn't have to take gym class so nobody would see how I really looked. The note says I have a heart condition. I don't have a heart condition. I hate that too."
I paused a little and then continued, "Lenny, don't tell anyone what I told you. I have not told anyone else. I guess I trust you. That is why your the only one that knows. Somehow I think if people knew stuff about me there would be trouble, but I don't know why. There is a lot about myself that I don't even know. I think everything is weird. I think I am weird. Maybe Amanda wouldn't want a weird fat boyfriend".
"That's for Amanda to decide, not you. Don't shoot yourself down, Cole.", said Lenny. "We better get back to homeroom."
Just as we started trudging back to homeroom to get there before attendance was taken we heard a scream from the foyer and a dull thud. Some folks ran in that direction and we were caught up in the flow as well. We found a bunch of people standing around a man lying on the floor that was not moving and there was some blood coming from his mouth. He was surrounded by sections of the ladder he probably had been standing on. I immediately ran to him and knelt beside him and checked for a pulse and breathing. That seemed ok. I checked his eyes and did not like what I saw.
I needed to take action quickly. I did not know why I felt that way. I just did.
"Somebody hand me a phone so I can call 911 and get an ambulance over here immediately.", I yelled. "There is a possibility of a severe concussion."
I was handed a phone by some kid and I dialed 911 and got the 911 operator.
"We have a severe concussion accident at the high school", I reported. "Please send an ambulance here immediately and make sure they bring an emergency ICP inter cranial pump. Whoever handles this patient must do everything to prevent pressure build up in the skull. I will also check his reflexes to see if his spine is ok. If its ok we will need to elevate his head slightly."
The 911 operator told me the ambulance is on the way and does not have to travel far.
"I need to turn on the cell phone light. Somebody help me with that", I said. "With this I need to check his pupil dilation", I continued. I figured how to turn on the cell phone light with some assistance from the kid that owned the phone, turned the light on and waved it in front of the injured person's eyes. I did not like the lack of pupil response, and his eyes seemed to be rolling back. "He may be in a coma. People please move back and give him some space. We will wait here for the ambulance".
About five minutes later a local ambulance arrived with a stretcher. The school nurse was there as well but she did not interfere with my first aid care. The paramedics thanked me for preparing the patient for severe brain injury. It appears I did the right things. We stood there as they took him away.
"Hey Cole, we missed home room for sure", said Lenny, finally. "Lets get on to our first period classes. They will take attendance there again, anyway."
Lenny hesitated a bit before leaving and looked at me.
"Cole, how did you know how to do first aid treatment for that guy? It seemed like you knew about severe concussions? Everybody just stood there and watched you move and handle the poor guy like you were an expert or something. That was strange. Even the nurse just stood by and watched. It was like they were in a trance and you were moving quickly.", asked Lenny.
"Errgh, I don't know Lenny. I just seemed to know about that stuff. I don't remember ever being taught anything about it. It just popped into my head from somewhere. My parents told me that I had a severe concussion that erased my memory too. I don't get it. As far as I know the only experience I have with concussions is having a concussion. Doing these things for this guy, though, just seemed to make sense."
"Well, it did not make sense to me", said Lenny. "I don't know anything about what happens to a brain that gets slammed on the floor".
I just stood there staring at Lenny a bit. "See what I mean, Lenny. I am weird. I get these weird dreams too. It scares me sometimes."
I looked at the wall clock. "Yikes, we are really late. We gotta get out of here. Bye. Talk to you later, and thanks for telling me about Amanda. I don't know what I am going to do but I gotta do something. I know I do.", I said.
From here I ran off to English class.
English class was a disaster. I was late for the spelling quiz, which was only 5 minutes long anyway and ended up getting two or three words wrong so I got an F. This one was hopeless. I was so distracted in my thoughts over the weekend I really did not study for it very much either. Now I'd have to write out next weeks words a one hundred times each in order to qualify for the next spelling test or I 'd get another F! Uggh That whole English class was a drag that day.
Next stop was biology. This was always interesting to me. We talked about micro-organisms but all I could think of was that guy's brain that I helped save. Of course I also thought of my lab pod partner's breasts from last week. My eyes kept roaming over towards her shirt, but she was well covered this time. I found myself wishing she wore that other top again. I also kept thinking about girls generally and how they were now driving my whole life and made my life more complicated. I also could not think of any cool way to introduce myself to Amanda without looking like a total dork and being so nervous that I wouldn't even be able to speak a coherent sentence.
At study hall I started writing out all those spelling words for the next test 100 times each. Amanda was there and I kept looking up at her and wondering what she was like. She looked great, but so unattainable. I began to think that maybe I was not good enough for her and I should look elsewhere. Still, i just kept looking up at her.
The girl on my right wore skinny jeans today instead of a skirt, but her legs still looked great, just not as nice as Amanda's. Nobody was as good as Amanda.
When lunch came around following my fake study hall Amanda returned and sat down in her usual place to eat. This time I noticed she had a girl friend with her and wasn't reading a book. It might have been the one I saw her with at the beach. I could not remember that second girl clearly.
Suddenly, while I was looking at Amanda a guy I had not seen before walked over to her and started to talk to her. Amanda was smiling back at him. 'Who the heck is that?', I thought. He then was now smiling at Amanda as well. Amanda's friend also started laughing and the two were gushing at this guy. I started to feel depressed. After what seemed like a very long time the guy moved off and the two girls were excitedly talking to each other and smiling. I remembered what Lenny told me about having to make a move or I would lose Amanda to somebody else, but I did not know what to do. My life was heading in the wrong direction.
Following lunch I moved on to my afternoon classes. Math was going alright. History was confusing to me because of all the politics in history that made no sense, and Spanish was pretty boring. Lance was pretty quiet in Spanish this time, but did acknowledge me. Maybe I looked depressed.
At the end of class Ray came over to me to speak. He reminded me that Lance holds parties before some of the key football games and there was a key game this coming weekend and so there was a party on Friday. He wanted to know if I wanted to go to the party and the game, knowing that I was new to the school and unfamiliar with these parties.
I thought about it a little while. I did not really know anyone except Lenny, and being pretty shy I did not think I would have a good time. I had no memory of ever going to a party and was not sure what it would be like or what I am supposed to do there. I thanked Ray for the invite and told him I would let him know. Ray said he could get a ride for me as both of us were not old enough to drive and have cars.
"Ray, thanks! Let me think about it. I will get back to you over the next couple of days and let you know", I told him. I figured I might want to get Lenny's opinion on these parties. Maybe he had gone to one of them.
The day ended with me climbing back on the bus and taking a glance at Amanda as I walked by. She was adorable. I felt depressed. Maybe I already was losing her.
When I got home my mom was her usual self wanting to know how my day went. I didn't say much at first. Eventually I asked, "Can I get rid of these baggy clothes now? I don't want to wear them to school anymore. No girl is ever going to want to go with a shy fat kid like me."
"Oh, is that it, Cole? You have seemed a bit out of sorts lately. But, you understand that it is important to try to stay in the background?"
"Yeah, I get that, but why do I have to? Who cares? I am getting tired of it, and the darn thing is hot and sweaty, too."
"Well, we can ask your dad, but I think he will want to do it for a bit longer and then maybe we can make a change. We shall see.", she said.
I was quiet for a while and then I burst out. "Hey mom, I was invited to a party this Friday. Its just a pep rally for the football game. I think I want to go and see what is going on".
"Cole, I think that is probably okay as long as you stay in the background and just mostly observe. Remember, we talked about that approach. Maybe your memory will eventually come back"
"Yeah, and something really weird happened today. A guy fell from an extension ladder that was changing spotlights for the school foyer and he hit the floor and developed a severe concussion. For some strange reason I knew the emergency first aid steps and early treatment."
"You what?", she said with a strange expression on her face.
"Yeah, I called 911 and prepared the guy as a patient so he could be safely picked up by the emergency responders from the hospital. Everybody said it seemed like I knew what I was doing. I am not sure I did. I was just winging it. I never had any training."
My mom seemed more concerned about this than anything else I told her. When my dad came home about twenty minutes later mom asked me to tell him what I told her. I did just that. They were looking at each other a lot while I was talking, and seemed concerned, but did not say anything more about it to me. I thought that was strange.
I was feeling really down about Amanda. I needed to talk to Lenny about her and the party and what he thought about Lance. I never had a chance to do all that by the end of the day. Since tomorrow was Tuesday, there was just a few days left before the Friday party.