Dancing in the Rain: 7. A turn for the better...

I lie awake in my hospital bed, around about 2:35 in the morning, because I couldn't sleep. I thought about the horrible things I did, not just to myself, but to even my old friends. I broke Tim's arm, Lexie got a good beating in her foot, and I broke my femur. Surprisingly, Kota didn't get hurt. But I knew it was my fault that I messed up. 'God, why couldn't you have warned me earlier?' I thought. 'I guess Maine wasn't worth its fifteen hours of driving.' I picked up the Taylor Swift, 'Fearless' CD that Drew gave me and my CD player with my pink ear buds. I decided to listen to the CD for a bit to help me fall asleep. The first four songs were interesting. But then, I stopped at 'White Horse' to listen to the lyrics. I thought the chorus related to me quite a bit:



'I'm not a princess,
this ain't a fairytale,
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet,
lead her up the stairwell.
This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town,
I was a dreamer before you went,
and let me down...'



As these words started to make a heart on my stain, I felt tears building up in my eyes. It was only true. I fell for a horrible lie, I went along with the populars, and I broke three bones. Nice one, Jackie. I repeated the song over and over until I finally wore out the batteries. I looked into my stepmom's purse that she left here, and found some AA batteries. I placed the in the battery pack in the CD player, and listened to song over and over...Again. All the sudden, I saw two women approaching my hospital room. I felt frightened a bit, but then, one of the women turned the lights on. It was Diane, my stepmom, and someone else who looked spitefully familiar to me. "Hey, dear," Diane said. "How ya 'doin?" "Fine, I guess," I replied, trying to hold more tears back. "This is someone I think you might know." I canvassed her for a while. Soon, the tears finally set free. "Mom?" I whispered. "Hello, Jacklyn." She implied. I hopped out of my bed and limped over to throw my arms around her. All this time, I thought God was trying to take something away from me. "I thought you died," I added. "That's what the doctor said." "Yes," she said. "But somehow, I survived overnight. I came here because mister grumpy was already married to Diane, so I took a flight here to live where you were born." "So why did the doctor say that you died?" "Well, I did for about an hour." "So...did you see heaven?" "Oh, yes, but sadly, it was replaced with a very painful recovery." "What was it like?" "I can't describe it in words, it's so beautiful." Then Diane added, "I thought you might want to see her because of what you've been through. And I thought I'd apologize. I'm sorry if I've been rough on the edges. I just didn't want you to go through my school year." "Wait till Whitney sees you!" I exclaimed. "How is Whitney doing these days?" Mom asked me. "Fine, just fine." I replied. "So, also, I heard you broke your femur." Mom added. "Yeah," I said. "...And Tim's arm, and Lexie's foot. It's my fault I'm here. I tried to save Lexie from falling twelve feet from the ground, but I ended up messing up everything. I know both of them are mad at me. They were before I broke their bones, just because I was so stubborn and I wanted to fit in. I will never get them to forgive me." "I'm not so sure about that," Mom said. "I talked to Lexie, and she wanted me to tell you that she apologizes for being rude, and forgives you for messing things up. Tim is still a bit stubborn in his opinion..." "...But I roughed him up a bit!" Diane added. We all laughed. "Yeah, but now, everyone at school's gonna hate me." I implied. "Y'know, my mom always had this saying: 'Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning how to dance in the rain.'" Mom said. I gave her a confused look. She sighed. "As in, you should celebrate and praise God, even when you're depressed. Have you prayed lately?" "No," I added. "It makes me uncomfortable when I do pray." "How about we pray, right now?" Diane replied. We all got in a circle, and one by one, we all prayed a different prayer. It made me cry to see how much Diane and my mom care about me. When Diane finally said 'Amen,' Mom advised, "Now wipe those tears out of your eyes and love life while you still have it." She kissed me on the forehead, and walked out of my hospital room with Diane. I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders, and went right back to sleep.

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After about a month and a week, the doctor let me out of the hospital without a cast. I felt a better spring in my step. Although once I got to school, everyone made fun of me. Life went back to 'braniac' and 'klutz' with me. I kinda wished I was back with the populars, but then I remembered how much they tricked me. I forgot to tell you, I dumped them after getting out of the hospital. All of the notes passed to me were threats and random mean words, and I wanted to run out of school, crying. Lunch wasn't any better. I sat down with a few girls, and they got up and walked away. I spotted Tim, Drew, and his crew coming my way, so I decided to slip under the table and eat there, like I used to. Tim never knew that I ate under his table. No one does, actually, but that changed. One of his friends, Hunter, hit his foot against my face. "You're foot's pretty firm Drew." He said. "That's not my foot." "Then who's foot is it?" Hunter asked. Tim looked under the table. Here comes trouble. "You hit Jackie!" Tim exclaimed. All of them looked under the table. I tried to cower away, but Drew grabbed my sweater, dragged me out from under the table, and yanked me to a corner. "What on earth are you doing under our table!" He exclaimed. "Can't you just sit with Lexie and Kota, like usual?" "No," I replied. "After breaking Lexie's foot and being such a brat for the past month and a half probably means that they hate me now." Yeah. although mom said that she forgave me, Lexie tried to avoid me all day. Same with Kota. "What would make you think-" Drew stopped for a moment. "So, does anyone know that you eat lunch under a boys' table?" "He asked me. "Well, it's too embarrassing to show my face in lunch," I answered,. "Because I've already been made fun of one too many times here. I hate Maine!" "You think I feel any better!" Drew replied. "I think you should just apologize to Tim quick-" "Oh yeah, right after he calls me a selfish brat. That'll make me feel happier!" I shouted. "Even you admitted that he's just plain rude!" I walked away, ready to cry, and I didn't want anything to do with apologizing to Tim. All the sudden, someone grabbed my arm. I tried to keep walking, but whoever got me had a tight grip. I kept yanking and yanking, but it wouldn't buge. I turned around, and it was Tim. "You really thought that I would hate you for the rest of my life?" he said. "Ya think?" I replied. "If I remember well,you called me a selfish, conceited, self-centered brat, and said that I'm lucky that anyone came to the hospital to encourage me because of how annoying I am." "Uh...I get my anger from dad," he explained. "Like father, like son?" I raised an eyebrow. "Look, I can't leave you in your misery here, a'ight? So, forgive and forget?" Tim held out his hand to shake mine. "Sure," I responded, shaking his hand. "Forgive and forget. So, what about Lexie and Kota?" "I already invited them over here. Lex can't wait to see you again." There was a moment of silence. "So how about that cheese and chicken flatbread sandwich, eh?" "Don't change the subject so quickly, Tim." "Right. So how about David Beckam!" "Tim!" "I know, I know, I know." Hey, I don't really care. At least every thing's back to normal." *

Woo! Done already! The next book's comin' soon!! God bless!

YSIC,
Rachel.T