I heard the steady beeping of the hospital monitors as a roused myself from a fitful sleep. I'd been in a private room at the local hospital for two days after the paramedics had whisked me away from camp. I couldnt really remember much of what happened; the whole day of the accident was a blur. I remember seeing Megan, but nothing about our conversation remained. Concussions did that to people. I couldnt even remember why or how the accident had happened. The doctors told me that I'd fallen from the roof of a two storey building and that I was lucky to be alive.
My injuries were amazingly limited, the doctors had said. No broken bones, no fractures; just a hell of a concussion and partial amnesia. My wrist and ankle were pretty badly sprained, but somehow they had remained unbroken.
My nurse Alicia knocked lightly on the door and came into my room, followed by Megan and someone...after a moment I remembered her to be Rachel. This wasnt the first time I'd almost not recognised someone. My parents had been unable to visit me, so my great aunt had travelled to the hospital. It took me a while to remember her name.
"Billie, I have some people here to visit y-"
"Billie!" Megan said gleefully, running over to my bedside. "How are you feeling?"
I shuffled myself to a sitting position. Alicia smiled at me and left the room. "Besides the aching cranium, pretty stellar. How're things back at camp?"
Rachel sat on the chair beside Megan. "Things have been pretty frantic since the accident. Nobody knows who to blame." I frowned. Rachel noticed this. "What is it?"
"It's just...you said blame. Did someone do this to me? The paramedics said that I fell."
Megan raised her eyebrow. "You mean you dont remember?" I shrugged. "Anything? Wow."
"I remember us being trapped in the house because of rain, and everything after that is a blur. I've been trying to remember since I got out of my x-rays, but..nothing."
"That must be awful." Rachel said sympathetically. "Do you want us to tell you what happened?"
I shook my head. "I dont need to know what happened. Just tell me who's to blame."
They looked at each other. Megan crossed her legs and frowned at me. "That's the thing. We dont exactly know who to blame. Maisie is the one who threw the pie, but Will handcuffed you..."
"You do realise how crazy that sounds, dont you?" Megan shrugged. "Well, I should be getting out of here this evening. The doctors called the camp about my special requirements and I have travel arrangements sorted."
"You're coming back?!" Megan said, her gleeful expression returning. I nodded. "Brilliant! We've been guilt tripping Will since you got carted away. It will kill him to see you."
I frowned. I didnt want to hurt anyone, especially not Will. Last I could remember, I still liked him. What could have happened in those few hours that had made me hate him?
- - -
I held a bag of pill bottles in my uninjured arm as Megan, Rachel, and Dr Harrow wheeled me towards the hospital exit. Megan carried my pair of crutches, and Rachel had the spare clothes I'd been brought by my aunt.
While I was excited to be getting back to camp, I was also really nervous about seeing everyone. From what Megan had said, most of them didnt know how injured I was.
Dr Harrow helped me into the taxi, and Megan and Rachel sat either side of me. Once the doors were shut and the taxi had pulled away from the hospital, I turned to Megan.
"Just a quick question....does everyone know about my injuries? Do they know I'm coming back today?"
Megan grinned. "The head of camp knows. But it's a surprise for everyone else."
"Oh." There was a long pause, narrated by a fuzzy radio presenter's voice. After a while, I sighed. "I hope everyone still doesnt hate me."
"What do you mean??" Rachel asked.
"Well, last thing I remember, I was siding with Will. Dont you all hate him?"
"Well yeah," Megan joked. "But an accident like this makes people forget things." I smiled and returned my gaze to the front window. Hopefully they were right. Hopefully I'd be welcome back in cabin 14.
- - -
Megan handed me my crutches as I climbed from the taxi. Everything about the camp looked the same as when I'd left, it was I who'd changed.
"Come on, let's go back to our cabin!" Megan squealed and darted off in the direction of cabin 14. I tried to catch up with her, but Rachel grabbed my good shoulder.
"Let her go off and prepare them. We'll take our time-"
"Billie?!?" Someone interrupted from behind us. I turned to see Tim, the other boy at camp that I'd gone to school with. He ran over to us. "How are you...I thought..." He stammered.
"What?" I asked.
"Well, it's just..." He looked down. "Simon said you were dead."
My jaw dropped. Dead? Dead??
"Well clearly you're not! Sorry, I have to go tell Simon! He's been shut up in his room grieving for the past two days. He hasnt even been eating!" As Tim darted away towards cabin 12, I looked expectantly at a flushing Rachel.
"Rachel, did you two tell everyone that I was dead?"
She shrugged.
"Why??"
"We wanted to get revenge on Will. Pretending you were dead was the only way."
I sighed. "Well, we cant do anything about that now. Let's get to cabin 14 and clear this all up."
- - -
I stood outside the door to cabin 14, unable to bring myself to open it. Once I opened that door, I'd either be showered with cries of relief that I was alive, or bombarded with the frustration of angry peers who'd thought me dead.
"It's okay." Rachel said. I nodded and pushed open the door, heaving myself in on my crutches. I peered into the common room and found it empty. There were solemn voices coming from the bedrooms. Was this the same house I'd left? The same house that usually had four different Frozen songs blaring at once? The insanity was gone.
I sighed and heaved myself into the common room, sitting on the sofa with its back to the door. Rachel sat on the chair and smiled fondly at me. We sat in silence for a minute, until I heard someone coming down the stairs. I moved my crutches out of the way of the sofa and onto the floor as Will walked into the room and sat on the sofa next to me. I looked at him, but he didnt notice me.
Rachel cleared her throat. "Hi, Will." He looked up at her, his face blank. "Notice anything different about the sofa, today? Specifically the side that you arent sitting on?"
He turned to look at the sofa, and found himself looking at me. For a moment, he looked like he saw right through my body, as if I were a ghost. He turned back to the fire, and after a moment stood up and left the room. Rachel sighed.
"He's been doing this a lot. Sometimes he talks as if you're here, sometimes he just sits there and looks at the fire. Your accident really affected him."
I looked at my hands. "And yet you still let him believe that I was dead."
"Wait, I know that hair..." Amelié said from behind me. I turned around as far as my concussion would let me and looked at her. She looked at me with disbelief. "Billie? Billie?!" I nodded. "BILLIE!" She ran around the sofa and sat next to me, hugging me tightly. "We thought you were dead! Megan said..." She turned and ran out of the door. "MEGAN!" I heard her footsteps fade up the stairs.
Her shout had clearly roused everyone's attention as people seemed to be emerging from their rooms and coming into the common room to see what the fuss was about. I was met with the joyful cries of my fellow campers, many of whom embraced me. The only face I didnt see was Will.
Suddenly, I heard the door pulled open fiercely. After a moment, Simon appeared at the door. He looked disbelievingly at me for a moment. I smiled weakly and pulled myself up, keeping my weight on my good ankle. Using the sofa for balance, I limped over to him, until we stood face to face.
"You're alive." He said quietly.
"I'm alive." I responded. His face cracked into a watery smile and he gathered me in his arms, squeezing the life from my body.
"I'm so glad to see you." He murmured in my ear, his voice cracking slightly. I hugged him back, feeling the gaze of the rest of my cabin on me - all except one.
I opened my eyes and looked over Simon's shoulder, seeing Will's door open slowly, watching him emerge. He looked at me briefly, almost trying to convince himself that I wasnt really there, but after a moment, his gaze returned to me. He had a look that I couldnt quite recognise, but he'd noticed me. He'd finally noticed me.