April 21

Tuesday 2215

Cecilia silently cursed the hospital policy of no foreign technology activities within the walls as she turned yet another page in one of the many books her mother had brought her.

She was well aware that humanity was practically locked to the moving screens nowadays, but Jennifer really had no idea what books Cecilia liked to read, so now she was stuck flicking through the pages of one of the most cringe-worthy “romance” novels Cecilia has ever had the misfortune to get her hands on.

She had nothing against romance, so long as it was a realistic romance, and falling in love with a vampire that did little more than constantly stare at you was definitely not romance.

She’d much rather be reading a book of concept art for a fantasy movie right now, at least that would give her inspiration for future painting and actually keep her interest for as long as she needed it.

She’d been so locked in her own thoughts that she’d almost missed the sound of the door opening.

“Yo, Brandet.”

The sound of that familiar voice almost made Cecilia drop her book.

Now that she thought back at it, she probably should have allowed that book to drop. Instead, she removed her eyes from the pages and turned her attention to the fifteen-year-old standing in the doorway.

Actually, he’d be turning sixteen in three days, wouldn’t he?

“Ben Tanaka?” she asked uncertainly, not even bothering to mark her page in the book before almost snapping it shut in front of her, placing it on the table next to the roses that had somehow managed to keep blooming through these days as she allowed herself to be distracted from that incredibly horrible read.

The athlete was smiling brightly at her as he stalked into the room.

Cecilia couldn’t help but notice that there was something tucked under his arm…

“Your Mom called the shop... said you woke up,” he explained softly, settling down on the visitor’s chair in front of Cecilia as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Of course, this statement confused Cecilia.

Sure, Ben had almost gone out of his way to being nice to her for the past few weeks, but Jennifer didn’t know about that, so why would her mother call Ben’s father’s shop to tell them she’s woken up?

“She… did?” Cecilia found herself asking tentatively, anxiously rubbing her hands together over the sheets.

“Yup.” the athlete answered with a bright smile, as though that would answer everything. He leaned back in the chair, making himself comfortable as he looked Cecilia over, letting his eyes quickly run over her body. “So, how are we feeling?

Cecilia tried to quell the unease she felt at the question.

It had been strange enough when Ben had started going almost out of his way to being nice to her, but as it really necessary for him to visit her in the hospital as well? It only made her rub her hands even harder, the pain helping her confirm that she really was awake and that this wasn’t some kind of morphine-induced dream.

Not that she was on any morphine.

Hospitals had exchanged that for another substance that eased the pain on a much more thorough level without having to muddle-up the brain as it did so. And even so, Cecilia wasn’t in much need of that, seeing as her wound only hurt whenever she moved around either too much or too quickly.

Something that she managed to do right now.

Sitting up in the bed, Cecilia had completely forgotten herself in her confusion, the pain shooting through her stomach reminded her by forcing her to double over, her hand clutching at the stitching as a gasp escaped her lips.

“Hey!” Ben exclaimed, almost shooting out of the chair to grab her by the shoulders, carefully laying her back down against the pillows. “Careful.”

Staring up at the ceiling, Cecilia thought back at the question the athlete had asked her, slowly waiting for the pain to ebb away before she finally decided to open her mouth.

“Honestly...” she muttered, almost shocking Ben as she did, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. “I’m feeling better than I have in years.”

For a moment, Ben looked at her in confusion, before the look morphed into an expression of disbelief.

“Really?”

Cecilia rolled her eyes, taking a deep breath as she slowly pulled her legs up to her chest, allowing her head to rest on top of her knees in one of the first successful attempts to fold herself in threes since she got shot.

She let her eyes rest on the athlete.

“Wound aside,” Cecilia mumbled, taking a deep breath as she tilted her head slightly to the side. “I’m feeling better than I have in years.”

Now, Ben just looked confused.

He somehow looked very different than he did when surrounded by their fellow classmates.

She decided to finally put the poor boy out of his misery.

“My body feels more like mine now.”

As she expected, Ben looked even more confused than he did before.

“And it didn’t before?” he slowly asked after a moment of silence.

Taking a deep breath, Cecilia slowly shook her head, messy strands of hair falling in front of her eyes as she allowed her legs to slide just a bit away from her chest.

She locked eyes with the athlete, her face stone-cold serious.

“No.”

Not for a moment, the two of them just sat in silence, not looking at one another as they thought over the situation in their heads.

Who would have thought that either of them would be there?

This sparked a question inside Cecilia’s mind.

Awkwardly turning towards her long-term classmate, she cleared her throat, succeeding in catching his attention.

“Can I ask you something, Tanaka?” she asked timidly.

Seeing her so uncomfortable brought a reassuring smile to Ben’s mouth, hoping it would make it easier for her to talk to him.

He never seemed to have a problem talking to her.

“Shoot.” it wasn’t until just after he had said it that he realized just how insensitive that word probably was to her, his caramel colored face paling as the realization hit him.

The word brought a rather uncomfortable look at the young man’s face. Groaning in shame, he scratched the back of his neck, looking at her in shamed apologies.

Cecilia just shook her head, waved a hand in the air, swallowing hard as she gathered up the courage to actually ask the question that was burning away at her brain, worried about the possibility that she might insult him.

“Why are you here?”

It may have sounded slightly as if she was complaining, but they both knew that it was more or less a valid question. Whilst Ben may have started to pay more attention to her very existence for the past couple of weeks, he’d never really done anything more than smile and talk to her, anytime before that, he had barely looked her way.

Huh… that was a rather sad thought that they have shared the exact same class since middle-school, same school building since they were six. It was like someone was desperately trying to make them interact, and yet, nothing had come from their plans, and now Cecilia was confined to a hospital bed for the second time in her life.

Sighing heavily, Ben appeared to be reaching out for Cecilia’s hand, only he stopped himself before his fingertips had the chance to brush against her skin.

Fingers clenching, he retracted his limb.

“Brandet...” he sighed, one of his hands scratching at the back of his neck, his fingers weaving into the ruffled black locks at the nape of his neck. “I think it’s impossible for someone to have someone else’s blood on their hands without feeling the need to be close to the person.” he seemed to freeze for a moment, thinking over his words before he started speaking again at a much more hurried pace. “Unless of course, you were the one that shed the blood in the first place, then I really have no idea what you would feel.”

Realization dawned in Cecilia’s light brown eyes, a stark contrast to his pondering hazel ones.

“You mean...” she swallowed hard, trying to force her words out. “You mean that… you were the one who...” she couldn’t finish the sentence.

“I was the one who pressed down on your wound until the paramedics arrived, yes,” Ben admitted slowly, once again locking his eyes with hers. Then, a thoughtful look passed over his face. “Well… me and that Donovan guy.”

Cecilia frowned.

Donovan?

She knew that name… where did she know that name?

For a long moment, the two of them just stared at one another.

It was at that moment, Cecilia felt a strange connection to the athlete. It wasn’t a romantic connection in the least, but she still felt like her life was somehow connected to his in a weird, spiritual way.

She didn’t know whether or not that connection had been there all the time and she just didn’t know, or if it had come to being the moment he had put his hands on her bleeding stomach, but she knew, she just knew, at the back of her mind, that she was connected to this young man in a way that she had yet to figure out.

“Tanaka...” she muttered, forcing the both of them out of their thoughts. “You saved my life.”

This earned her a light laugh and yet another scratch at the back of the neck from Ben.

“I… I guess I did… huh.”

They remained there for a while, talking about whatever Ben could think about.

The main subject was about just how school was coping since she was shot, and, according to Ben, their whole class had gotten rightfully punished for everything they had done to her, most of them even loudly declaring that they would never bully another person so long as they lived again. But of course, both she and Ben knew that that declaration wouldn’t hold once their lives fell back to the way they were before they once again found that they had to take their frustration out on something.

What Cecilia found the most relieving news, was that Ben had been suspended for his recklessness with the prop he’d brought. Ben heard that he’d even pulled out of Fairgarden high, and he would enroll in another school once he felt like he was ready for it.

Surprisingly, Cecilia found herself not dreading the thought of returning to school.

Something told her that her school life would be a lot easier to live once she was finally released from the white-painted walls that were constantly trying to blind her with just how bright they were when the sun hit them from the open windows. Whilst the outside buildings were painted in soft colors so as to not blind people, the hospital obviously had no such qualms.

She was kind of looking forward to going back to school after so many days of locked up in this prison.

The two classmates had been talking for a few minutes when Cecilia’s eyes fell on the little something that had completely skipped her attention for several minutes.

It was a school bag, the one that had been tucked in under Ben’s arm when he had stepped into the room. It wasn’t Ben’s own bag, she knew that. Ben had a baseball patch sewn onto the front, with several autographs and gem contact information from his dedicated female fanbase who “happened” to get hold of his bag when he was practicing. The bag was now leaning against one of the legs of the chair, just waiting for someone to notice it again.

Biting her lip, Cecilia made up her mind.

“What’s that?” she found herself asking before she could stop herself.

It had gotten a lot easier to talk to him over the past couple of weeks, considering she hadn’t done much talking to anyone in school for a long, long time, and now, here she was, conversing with one of the school’s most popular boys as if it was the most natural thing in the words to her.

Well… more natural than anything else at least.

Glancing down, Ben’s eyes widened.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” he exclaimed, leaning down to fish up the bag from the ground with expert swiftness.

He allowed the bag to fall into his lap, letting Cecilia see it clearly.

It was her school bag, the silver strap sporting a crystal bead with golden wires wrapped artistically around it tied to the zipper next to the crystal lotus being the strongest indicator of that fact.

“Kondou packed up your things for you that day.” he looked at her somewhat apologetically, obviously apologizing for someone going through her things without asking her first, but she didn’t hold it against him. Someone had to take care of her things when she was out after all. Finally, he cleared his throat. “I figured might want to have them until you can get out of this place.” he fingered the handle of the bag, awkwardly clearing his throat. “Of course, I had to turn off your gem and tablet because...” he waved a hand in the air. “Hospital.”

Handing Cecilia the bag, he leaned back as he watched her almost frantically zipping it open, strap flying as she looked through her belongings.

Her eyes brightened suddenly, as she fished out a thick, black, leather-bound book sporting what looked like a golden crest carved and painted into the leather with golden paint. For a moment, she just sat there, letting her hand run over the detail of the cover, almost entranced at the sight of the object in her hands.

To be honest, Cecilia was quite surprised that she got to see that thing again.

Ben watched the look in her eyes. It was such a pure, open expression, one that he had never seen on her before, one that he doubted anyone aside from her own parents had seen before.

“That important to you?” he asked, snatching Cecilia’s attention away from the book.

Still smiling lightly, she nodded, turning back to the book.

She had always been worried about keeping her things in school, in case one of her bullies decided to go through her desk and think it would be a “funny prank” to destroy all of her belongings. So having them in front of her, looking like they hadn’t been away from her line of sight at all, was a great relief to her.

Looking back at Ben, Cecilia gave him the biggest, most genuine smile that she could remember ever giving anyone for several years.

Even her mother.

“Thank you.” she breathed, voice barely louder than a whisper.

Slightly taken aback by the sudden smile, Ben had to shake his head before smiling right back at her.

“Don’t mention it.”

Suddenly, a loud beeping sound rang through the air, almost making Cecilia jump out of her skin.

Ben’s hand flew to his wrist where he had a special 21st century styled wristwatch strapped, his thumb jamming down on the screen that was blaring a bright blue light.

The noise immediately died down.

For a moment, Ben just stared down at the annoying noise-maker, finally, he sighed in frustration, tapping on the screen to make sure that the alarm wouldn’t start off again.

Grabbing his bad as he got up from the chair, Ben looked down at Cecilia who was looking up at him with a questioning look in her light brown eyes.

“I got to go.” the athlete stated, jerking his head in the direction of the door with a somewhat regretful tone to his voice. “Baseball practice starts in about half an hour so-”

“I get it.” Cecilia cut him off, her hand raised with her palm facing him.

She was well aware of how much baseball meant to the boy, and she didn’t want to be the thing that stood between him and doing the thing he obviously loved.

He smiled gratefully at her.

He just shook his head, surprising her by reaching out his arm, his hand landing on top of her birds-nest hair and giving it a good ruffle and turned around to exit.

Only for him to pause in the doorway.

“By the way, Brandet.”

Looking up from the sketchbook, Cecilia was met with the signature smile that for better or for worse had basically became associated with the athlete.

“You’re really good at that.” with that said, the athlete nodded town towards the sketch-book. His energetic smile turning more gentle before he gave her a small wave, and disappeared out the door, leaving the girl alone to stroke her hand over her book.

In the span of three days, high-school had actually managed to change her life around in the one way probably no one could have ever imagined. First, there was the mere factor that one of the schools most popular boys had started talking to her, and now she was lying in a hospital bed with a hole in her stomach with the doctors currently checking out several tests to try and figure out why she was feeling differently in her own body.

She was scheduled for an x-ray in just half an hour.

Who would have thought that Cecilia would have had to get shot in the stomach before she got the chance to actually start living?

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

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The first time Cecilia had been shoved into a brain scanner, she’d been told horror stories about the old magnetic scanners that required the head being caged to a board with earmuffs to block out the loud pounding noise the machine would give off with every picture snapped.

Thankfully, she would not have to be put through that, and by now, she was so used to pictures being taken of her brain that it was just standard procedure for her, almost falling asleep on the slab as doctors stared at 3D x-ray pictures of the squishy part of her that she’d known had problems for several years now.

They had decided to shove her into this device after she’d informed them that she was feeling better and having fewer problems than what she’d felt before. It had intrigued them, and they wanted to see if something had changed inside her skull.

To be honest, she was legitimately curious.

Finally, the doctors pressed the button to pull the slab out of the machine.

As the slab was pulled out, she could hear the door open and the familiar sound of doctor shoes stepping in. She turned her head towards the approaching white-coat, immediately spotting the bright vibrant smile on his face.

“What’s wrong doctor?” Cecilia asked, sitting up and slipping off of the slab with grace that she hadn’t been able to access previously. Thankfully, the pain in her stomach had faded away rather quickly, allowing her to move around much more smoothly than before, than ever in fact.

The doctor just kept smiling.

“Nothing’s wro,g.” he answered, stepping up to her as he activated the screen in his hands. “We just discovered what might be the cause of your newfound comfortability with your body.” his smile turned a bit mischievous as he swiped his fingers over the screen.

This got Cecilia’s attention.

“What is it?” she asked, almost cautiously.

Dr. Kondou tapped at the screen a handful of more times before a hologram was projected from the top of the screen, allowing Cecilia to see just what they had been looking at.

Of course, she knew very little about such things.

Two versions of her brain were next to one another, slowly spinning in the air between the two of them. They were just about the same size, but Cecilia could tell that there was something different about them aside from that. She couldn’t quite put her finger how how they were different, but she could tell that they were.

Thankfully, Dr. Kondou decided to enlighten her.

“Your brain has started to partially develop what you’ve previously been lacking.”

For a moment, Cecilia could just stare at the images, her mind trying to register just what it was she was being told.

The one thing that had thrown stick in the wheel of her life with 100% accuracy for as long as she could remember, and it was starting to repair itself now?

Before Cecilia knew it, the tears were streaming down her cheeks, her heart pounding in her chest as almost overwhelming happiness flooded through her system. It wasn’t until she realized that her breaths were coming out in labored hiccups, a hand landing on her back trying to calm her down, that she understood just how close she was to hyperventilating.

Sitting back on the slab, Cecilia furiously rubbed away the tears from her cheeks, Dr. Kondou sitting down next to her, hand still in between her shoulder-blades.

“Obviously,” he began, turning off the hologram on his screen. “The adrenaline you experienced cause something to happen in your brain.” he set the screen down on the slab to pull a handkerchief of of his pocket, handing it to the teenager so that she may wipe the tears with something other than her hands.

It took a few moments before she managed to get her voice working again.

“What are you going to do?” Cecilia hiccuped, still wiping at her eyes.

“We’re not going to open your head and try and operate, don’t worry.” Dr. Kondou answered with a light chuckle, taking his hand away from her back to get a better look at her. “What we’re going to do, is create special pills to make your body go through the same levels of adrenaline you went through during your injury, without actually feeling it.”

Pills…

They were going to give her pills…

The thought of being on a pill didn’t sit well with Cecilia, but if it could help her to get over a decade old problem...

“How long will that take?” she found herself asking.

“Not too long, don’t worry.” came the doctors immediate answer, getting off of the slab with the screen in hand, already tapping away at it in obvious preparation to what he was telling her. “You’ll be just like any other teenager before you know it.” he helped her to her feet, her fingers still clenched around the handkerchief as he guided her out of the room.

“Stars that’s a strange thought.” she muttered under her breath.

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April 24

Friday 2215

It was drawing closet to the afternoon as Cecilia sat cross-legged on top of the bed, her leather-bound sketch-book folded up in front of her as she expertly moved her pen over the paper, only removing it every once in a while to lodge the butt of the pen between her teeth, studying the picture that was slowly forming.

It was almost finished, just a few more touched to the shadows…

Biting down on the pen sideways as a make-shift storage of sort, Cecilia extended her pinky, smudging some of the lines on the sketch, creating a much smoother transition from bright white to black.

Finally, she removed the pen from her mouth, hooking it in between her ring and middle finger as she held out the book in front of her, studying it with her self-critical eyes before nodding in satisfaction.

Carefully, she pulled the sketch from the book jacket, gently folding it over before putting it on top of the bedside table. There it would sit until it’s future owner arrived for his almost daily visit.

It was at that very moment, that Dr. Kondou decided to enter through the door, almost startling Cecilia enough to drop her sketch-book.

The man had only left her room a few hours ago after her daily check-up. She was scheduled for a skin grafting in just a few hours, officially released on Monday morning and thus was only required to meet with the doctors once a day, so there was no reason for Dr. Kondou to walk into her assigned room.

Setting down the sketch-book on her bed, Cecilia turned fully towards the doctor.

“Is there anything wrong?” she asked, a sense of uncertainty forming in her stomach.

The doctor just smiled, shaking his head before he stuffed his hand into his pocket, the smile turning mischievous once again.

“No.” he answered. “Just got something for you.”

And with that, he pulled out two bottles of colorful pulls, holding them out towards the confused girl, before her expression cleared in understanding.

“What are they for?” she asked slowly, taking the bottles from the doctors hands and looking at them in confusion, finding no labels on them.

“The green one.” he gently pocked the bottle with the small pastel-green hockey-puck shaped pills. “Will increase the levels of adrenaline in your body, whilst the pink ones.” he pocked at the bottle containing tiny pearl-like pills that looked more like pink fish eggs.

Taking a deep breath, Cecilia nodded in understanding.

She didn’t understand why, but… the sight of those pills made her feel slightly uneasy, and not just the general shape of the things.

“How many times a day?” she asked slowly, glancing up at the doctor through her bangs.

“Once a day will be enough.” Dr. Kondou answered with a smile before a knock on the door interrupted them.

A woman was standing in the doorway, holding up a plastic, soft-looking package.

“Oh yes” Dr. Kondou expressed, stepping forward to take the package from the woman. “Thank you.” and just like that, the woman left, not really paying any attention to Cecilia.

Dr. Kondou turned back to the teenage girl, holding out the package towards her.

“We thought you might want to have these back.”

Putting the bottles on the bed, Cecilia slowly slid off of the bed, stepping up to take the package from the doctor’s hands.

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Dr. Kondou said, bidding goodbye before she turned right around and left the room, leaving Cecilia standing there in the center of it with a package in her arms.

Cecilia shrugged before carefully opening the package, folding the plastic open to reveal, her uniform. The uniform she’d been wearing when she’d been shot, only they had been perfectly washed, mended, and folded.

Of course, her mother hadn’t allowed Cecilia to remain in the hospital robes for very long, seeing as they barely covered any of her skin, and so, her mother had been a perfect saint and had come to the hospital with a couple of changes, so right this moment, Cecilia was in an orange T-shirt with jeans shorts and a white cardigan.

However, there was one thing missing to her outfit.

One thing that she positively couldn’t live without.

Furiously, Cecilia dug through the package until her hands finally folded around the thin golden chain, a sigh of relief escaping her as she pulled out a pendant of sorts. The pendant itself was a smaller replica of the sigil on the cover of her sketch-book, a matching pair that she’d gotten from her father last Christmas.

She never went anywhere without this pendant if she had anything to say about it.

She let the rest of the package drop to the floor, allowing herself the moment to simply relish in the feel of the small pendant in the palm of her hand, the touch of it under her fingertips before she hung it around her neck, smiling as the cold metal landed between her collarbones.

Truthfully, she’d almost felt naked without it.

Then… she recalled the pills.

Slowly, she turned around, staring at the two bottles lying among the sheets.

Truly, they were mocking her with their existence, not to mention the almost haunting feeling she got just by looking at them. But, she wanted to be rid of her handicap, she wanted to get better, so she walked up, plucked up the two bottles from the bed, desperately pushing down the uneasy feeling as she dropped one pill from each bottle into her hand and proceeded to shove them into her mouth, washing them down with the cup of water that had just been waiting for her at the bedside table since a few hours back.

The feeling only got worse as the pills washed down her throat.

The clearing of someone else’s throat knocked her out of her thoughts.

Spinning around, Cecilia couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the star athlete standing in the doorway.

“Hey.” he greeted, though he had this frown on his face.

“Hi.” she greeted back, putting the bottled down on the table.

Ben’s eyes followed the bottles, staring at them for a moment before he turned his attention back to Cecilia.

“What are the pills for?” he asked, stepping further into the room. “I thought you were just days from being released.” his voice carried a hint of worry in it.

“I am,” Cecilia answered casually, plopping herself down onto the bed, showing off just how much the wound wasn’t bothering her anymore. She threw a look at the pills, nodding them as an indicator. “Those are to fix a decade old problem.”

Ben frowned slightly, dropping his bag to the floor as he himself collapsed into the visitor’s chair, looking at her intently.

“What kind of problem?”

Cecilia had to think for a moment.

Could she tell Ben? Would it be a smart thing to do so? He probably would feel terribly guilty once the news was brought to light, but he just looked so expectant…

Finally, she sighed.

“There was this part of my brain that absolutely refused to develop when I was younger,” she said, motioning with her finger around her head as she watched Ben’s eyes widening just s fraction. “It made it so that whenever I tried to set my mind on something, I would either lose all form of balance or completely shatter my ability to think straight.” she said, trying to make her voice sound as nonchalant as possible.

Ben’s hand flew up, stopping her from trying to brush off these news as though they were nothing.

“Wait...” he asked, voice surprisingly low as he looked at the ground.

She did wait, staring at the athlete expectantly, somehow knowing exactly what he was going to say.

“So if you were to take a test...” he started off slowly, his words rolling out of his mouth almost hesitantly, fearing that Cecilia’s reaction would be, which was a quick one.

“Brain turns into scrambled eggs,” she answered easily, turning around to fetch the folded sketch off of the bedside table.

“And if you were to pay attention to how you were walking...” Ben continued, even slower than before, voice sounding a pitch darker than she’d ever heard it.

“Automatic face-plant,” Cecilia replied, acting as though it wasn’t that big a deal.

Slowly, Ben rose from his chair.

“So you mean to tell me that...” his voice was little more than a hateful growl as he stared down at Cecilia, eyes somehow portraying the interesting mix of shock and absolute anger at the same time. “The whole school has been bullying you...” his hands fell on either side of Cecilia’s tiny body on the bed, her staring up at him as his voice rose. “Because of a handicap!” had Cecilia been any other person, she probably would have flinched.

But Cecilia wasn’t any other person.

Not only was she accustomed to people screaming in her face, she was also more than used to angry people invading her personal bubble. She just tilted her head to the side, quickly thinking over the words the athlete had just spewed.

“Pretty much.” she nodded.

For a long moment, Ben just stares at her, confused at her indifferent expression.

Groaning, Ben plopped down on top of the bed, staring at his wrists as he buried his forehead into the palms of his hands.

“You have been bullied for something you couldn’t control...” he grumbled, forcing Cecilia to strain her ears in order to properly hear him. “And you just sit there as if it doesn’t matter?” he glanced at her from the corner of her eye, watching as she fiddles with a piece of folded paper.

“I’ve gotten used to it.” she shrugged, eyes pinned on the things in her hands.

Ben buried his face in his hands, letting out a series of incoherent grumbles muffled by the palms of his hands, the self-hatred practically radiating off of him.

Finally, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs before he allowed his forearms to fall to his knees.

“I’m so, so sorry Brandet.” he mumbled, refusing to look at her.

It was Cecilia’s turn to sigh, shaking her head as she scooted over to the athlete.

“Don’t be,” she said, putting her tiny hand on his shoulder. “You haven’t done anything.”

This didn’t cheer Ben up at all.

Shooting back up to his feet, the athlete threw his hands into the air, angrily spinning around towards the petite girl settled on top of the bed.

“But I should have!”

Rolling her eyes, Cecilia got off of the bed, her bare feet moving over the tiled floor towards the athlete as she held out the folded sketch out towards him.

“For you,” she stated, throwing the paper a brief glance before looking him right in the eye.

Obviously still angry with himself, Ben almost snatched the paper from her, keeping his eyes firmly locked onto hers as he folded it up, only tearing them away once he had it straightened out in front of him.

And what he saw froze him in place.

It was him.

Or, to be more accurate, it was a pencil portrait of him.

Expertly made, confident lines, shadows that fell in the most realistic manner he had ever seen in a drawing before, and seeing that their class did have a few students in the Artistic division he’d seen quite a few a few drawings over the few weeks they’ve been in high-school, and yet… this one pencil sketch had more life than any of them…

Speechless, Ben looked back up at Cecilia.

“Wha-?” he couldn’t find the words to express what he was currently feeling.

“It’s your birthday isn’t it?” Cecilia just stated in a question, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Ben could only nod, mouth partially open and eyes wide. “It’s the best I could make when still locked up in here but...” her tiny hand moved up to brush some hair behind her ear in the familiar nervous habit Ben had become quite used to seeing the last couple of weeks.

Ben looked back at the drawing, and sure enough, at the bottom right-hand corner was something written in minute, flowing handwriting.

Happy Sweet 16

For a moment, Ben just stood there, staring at the writing. Then, a hand found it’s way over his mouth, a breath sucked in through his nose as the gesture thoroughly registered.

Cecilia Brandet… the schools most bullied girl, with a (to him) newly discovered function handicap that he had done little to nothing to try and help for as long as they had shared the same class, and yet here she was, giving him a hand-drawn portrait of himself for his birthday. A portrait that she’d obviously spent a lot of time on if the detail was anything to go by.

Not that Ben knew that much about art, to begin with.

Taking down her hand, Ben turned to Cecilia again.

“Why?” he asked, voice shaking slightly.

Cecilia just shrugged.

“You’re a good person,” she stated with the most steady voice he’s heard her speak with. “Why shouldn’t I?”

What happened next, Cecilia still couldn’t quite wrap her mind around.

She’d just been standing there one second, looking at Ben as though that alone would help him understand just how genuine she was, and the next, her face was pressed into said athlete’s muscled chest, strong arms wrapped around her small frame as Ben Tanaka hugged her close to him.

It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, it was just a hug and they shouldn’t hug, but Cecilia still found herself squirming a little in discomfort, her skin burning where the athlete’s skin made contact with hers.

He must have noticed her discomfort, for he put his hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her away from him so that he could look at her face with determination in his eyes.

“I promise you Brandet...” he spoke, voice steady and deep. “When you come back to school, it will be much better.”

Cecilia couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her mouth.

“Tanaka...” she didn’t get to finish the thought.

“CECI-!” Jennifer’s scream was cut short the second she’d burst into her daughter’s hospital room, only to freeze once she noticed that her daughter wasn’t alone in there. And what a sight it must have been, her almost sixteen-year-old daughter standing in front of an admittedly handsome young man who happened to have his hands on her shoulders, both of whom were looking at the woman in wide-eyed shock.

Jennifer blinked a few times before a small smirk formed on her lips.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Cecilia narrowed her eyes at the tone her mother was using.

It was WAY too suggestive for Cecilia’s comfort.

Ben removed his hands from Cecilia’s shoulders.

“Not at all,” he stated, turning his attention back to the younger Brandet female, optioning to put his hands on top of her head, ruffling her hair slightly. “I’ll see you when you get back to school then?” he asked, meeting her eyes.

“Yeah.” Cecilia nodded, knocking his hand away from her head.

Ben bowed his head swiftly to Jennifer, and then he disappeared out the door.

The women stared at the doorway for a moment, Cecilia mentally counting the seconds, before Jennifer almost frantically spun around towards her daughter.

“What was that?” the woman asked excitedly.

“What was what?” Cecilia asked, turning to sit back down on top of the bed.

“Ceci...” Jennifer almost giggled as she said her daughter’s nickname. “That handsome young man just had his hands on your shoulders.” she pointed a slender finger towards the door. “What was that about?”

Cecilia sighed heavily.

Figures her mother would get caught up on that...

She was well aware that her mother knew who Ben was, apparently, he’d come over after school ended the day she’d gotten shot and he’d given her the contact to his family’s sushi-shop to call when Cecilia woke up.

Still… she didn’t like the look her mother was giving her.

“He was feeling guilty about my previous school life.” She explained, picking up her sketch-book again, leaning back against the pillows as she set to run the tip of her pencil over the first blank page. “He was saying something about...” she waved her hand in the air, as though trying to decide on the right words. “Making sure I was having a better time in school when I returned or… something.”

Jennifer only seemed to giggle even more energetically.

Cecilia sighed again.

Sometimes… dealing with her mother was a real chore.

Looking up from the sketch slowly forming on the page in front of her, Cecilia gave her mother a hard look.

“What did you want?”

It took a moment before Jennifer realized what her daughter meant.

“Right.” She said, walking up and sitting down in front of her daughter. “I’ve been thinking...”

Cecilia would have raised an eyebrow if she was actually capable of doing so, instead, she furrowed them in suspicion.

“Yes?”

“We’ve got plenty of room in our house...” Jennifer continued, looking straight into the air. “Why don’t we put up a room for rent?” she asked. “Extra money and more people are out overly large kitchen table.”

Cecilia thought about it for a moment, biting her lip as she did.

Finally, she let out a light groan.

“Alright, why not?”

----------------------------------------

Cecilia had been brought into a different room, one that she’d never been in before, but that didn’t say much as she hasn’t exactly spent that much time in the hospital. Okay, so she has spent a lot of time in a hospital, but not with open injuries.

“Please lie down on the table.” the doctor instructed her, motioning towards a dentist-like chair.

Cecilia really couldn’t do much else than do what was asked of her, awkwardly settling down into the chair and watched as the female doctor pulled out a test-tube filled with something that looked to be some kind of powder.

“This is a skin sample we took from you during the operation.” she described as she moved towards a large, square, shiny machine at the corner of the room. “We’ve had it dried for easier access,” she said, twisting the lid off of the tube.

Cecilia watched as the doctor opened a compartment in the machine.

“I’m going to put this in this machine,” she said, sliding the tube into one of the multiple holes the open compartment now revealed, closing it before turning towards Cecilia with a smile. “And it will create a roll of skin-grafting for you.” with that said, she hit a button on the machine and it immediately roared to life.

This made Cecilia frown.

“Why am I lying down then?” she asked.

The doctor chuckled at her question, stepping up to the chair in order to adjust a mirror hanging over Cecilia’s body, ensuring that it was placed at an angle that allowed Cecilia to see her stomach whilst still lying down.

“Easier for me to show you how to apply it.” the doctor answered, smiling down at her.

At that moment, the machine stopped the low humming. It had only been humming for about half a minute, a light fitted at the top of a larger compartment door lighting up a bright green color.

“There we go.”

The woman opened the compartment to take out a roll of bio-material about the general size of toilet paper.

Cecilia had always wanted to see bio-material, how it worked differently from bio-fabric what with it being made especially for your biological make up and could only be reached through hospitals and not your everyday convenience store.

The woman smiled as she turned back to Cecilia, the roll in hand.

“Please raise your shirt for me.”

Nodding, Cecilia set up a bit to easier roll the fabric up, allowing her to finally see what that bullet had done to her stomach.

It wasn’t a lot of damage, just a small scar that was a bit bigger than what the entrance hole had been before she’d gotten to the hospital because they had to get the blank out. Thankfully, there was no damage done to her internal organs, the only real threat had been how much she’d been bleeding at the time.

The stitches were still there, and that was why she was getting the grafting.

The woman pulled out a strip from the roll.

“You cut this off,” she said, picking up just a regular pair of scissors and cutting off a square piece of the roll. “Remove the tape.” she set the roll down on a table next to the chair so that she could handle the square with both of her hands, pulling off a white piece of paper, leaving her with a thin piece of what looked to be synthetic skin. “And gently apply it over the injury.” the touch of the woman’s gentle fingers was uncomfortable to Cecilia, but she watched with great interest as the woman spread the square out over the stitched up hole in her stomach. “Easy.”

As the woman stepped away from her, Cecilia could see as the material immediately blended in seamlessly with the rest of her skin, leaving little more than the illusion of flawless skin in its place.

Hesitantly, she prodded at the spot, not even able to feel the stitching under the soft, skin substitute.

“It always blends like that?” she asked.

“Yes.” the doctor said, coming back from having thrown the paper in the garbage, picking up the roll and stuffing it into a plastic bag. “It will peel off in its own in 24 hours.” she explained, putting the bag in Cecilia’s hands. “Apply a new one when this happens to keep the wound from straining.”

Cecilia nodded slowly.

“Thank you,” she said, reaching into the bag to feel the roll itself, and to her, it was incredibly strange. She kept fingering the material even as the two women stepped out of the room.

“Remember.” the woman started, catching Cecilia’s attention. “It’s just an extra layer of protection for that injury.” she motioned with her hand towards Cecilia’s abdomen. “It doesn’t make you invincible.” her eyes were narrowed in seriousness. “You still need to take it easy.”

“Understood.” Cecilia nodded, running her thumb over the material, genuinely surprised when her thumb didn’t completely melt into it like it had done to her stomach.

Bag in hand, Cecilia returned to the room assigned to her, the counter to when she can finally go home going down in her head.

Soon, she told herself.

Soon.