7

Nikki

Jake was startled out of his thoughts and looked ahead. A car was coming straight towards him. He stood there, frozen with fear, not knowing what to do. We all stood on the sidewalk, no one really knowing what to do. Auriana and I took matters into our own hands and ran towards Jake. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, I gave Auriana an extra push so that she and Jake were both out of the way of the car, I myself could not get out of the way in time. Jake felt someone push him to the side and fall to the ground with him. He heard the screeching of brakes and a scream. I felt the nose of the car hit my legs and waist, a jolt of unbearable pain went through my body. Skylar turned away from the scene, too scared to look. The other five stood frozen with fear on the other side of the road. The man got out of his car and took his cell phone out of his pocket. Jake scrambled to his feet. The first thing he noticed was red hair lying against the curb. He felt a slight pain in his shoulder and elbow. He touched it briefly with his good hand and ignored the pain.

"Auriana? Auriana?" Jake shook her shoulder gently but Auriana didn't respond. Brooke and Renee ran to me, while Jimmy and Jeremy ran to Jake. He glanced my way for a moment, but quickly turned his gaze back to Auriana.

"Are you okay?" Jimmy asked. Jake lifted Auriana up in his arms.

"No," he said and started running. Jimmy and Jeremy looked at each other. They didn't know what had just happened. Emma´s face got pale when she saw me bleeding. She turned away from the scene.

"The ambulance will be here in five minutes, I'm so sorry. I didn't see them," the man whimpered. He had tears in his eyes and his hands in his hair. Skylar tried to reassure the man, while Emma took her phone out of her bag and tried to call my parents. Voicemail. She called again. Voicemail again.

"Come on, pick up!" Emma said, annoyed. She knew my mother was at work but she didn't care, I was more important at the moment.

"Hello Emma, ​​what's so important that you're calling three times?" my mother asked. She had a slight irritation in her voice. She didn't appreciate my friends interrupting her like that.

"Nikki had an accident! You need to come to the hospital right away!" Emma said in panic. She had been pretty calm the whole time but now the adrenaline was draining from her body and it really hit her what had just happened. The irritation my mother had felt had now melted away like snow in the sun.

"I'm on my way!"

Jake

I arrived at the emergency room with Auriana in my arms. People were looking at me with disapproving looks. Okay, I know you're not supposed to move people after an accident, but technically she wasn't hit by the car. I glanced down at her face, but her eyes were closed.

"Help! Someone please help her!" A nurse walked over to me with a stretcher and took Auriana from me.

"What happened?" she asked. I'd never felt so stupid. If I had been more careful, none of this would have happened.

"Well…I was walking down the street and didn't see the car coming so she and another friend of ours pushed me out of the way, the other friend got hit by the car and she and I fell to the ground, I think she might've hit her head on the curb." The nurse rolled the stretcher with Auriana into a room.

"What is her name and other details?" I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself and remember her details.

"Auriana Williams, she is seventeen years old and was born on May thirteenth." The nurse wrote down everything I said.

"Do you know if she is allergic to any medications?" I shook my head.

"No, sorry I don't."

"Okay, you can sit in the waiting room for a moment and I will do a few tests on Auriana to see if anything else was damaged during the move." I nodded in shame and walked towards the waiting room. The siren of the ambulance that was on its way to the emergency room in the distance startled me from my thoughts. I didn't realize that I was lost in my thoughts. Six sets of quick footsteps made me stand up. The waiting room was right next to the emergency room. Before the others got to me I saw a number of doctors gathering at the entrance where the ambulances brought the emergencies.

"JAKE!" Brooke shouted as soon as she saw me. Nikki was wheeled into a room on a stretcher, and they immediately closed the door.

"Where's Auriana?" Emma asked.

"In an examining room…but the nurse is running some tests." A doctor walked up to us.

"Good afternoon, I'm looking for witnesses of the car accident. Do you know the victim?" Renee and Brooke stood up and asked what the doctor needed to know.

"Her name is Nikki Simon, she's sixteen years old and was born on March 21st. As far as we know, she's not allergic to anything," Brooke said.

"Thank you," the doctor said. Nikki's mother came in, panicking.

"Where's my daughter? Where's Nikki?" she shouted desperately. We walked up to her before the nurses could and tried to calm her down.

"She wass just brought in and is probably being examined now. We're not allowed in yet," Emma explained. We all sat down in the waiting room.

Emilia the nurse

I walked into Auriana's room and saw that she was still unconscious. The trauma doctor on duty had given me instructions to take some blood. As soon as I was standing next to the bed and had everything ready, I carefully grabbed Auriana's arm. But just as I was about to insert the needle into her arm, she started to squirm.

"Where am I…?" She looked around, dazed.

"Hello Auriana, my name is Emilia farmer. You're in the hospital. Can you remember what happened?" I picked up my tablet to take notes.

"I have a terrible headache. Sorry, I can't remember what happened… who is Auriana?" She carefully placed her hand on her head, trying to ease the pain.

"You are. Don't worry, we're just going to do a few tests to see if everything is okay, starting with a blood test. May I?" Auriana nodded carefully and watched as I took some blood. Then Auriana had to follow a light with her eyes to check her pupillary reaction.

"Okay, that wasn't too bad, right? Now I'd like to take you for a CT scan, just to see if everything in your head is okay. The young man who brought you in said that you probably hit your head on the curb." I gently helped Auriana into the wheelchair and wheeled her to the room where the CT scanner was, where I helped her on. After about ten minutes, something finally appeared on the screen.

"Everything seems normal, no cancer cells, swelling, damage or bleeding to be seen," said the neurologist. He had been called in for a consultation.

"Why doesn't she know who she is?" I asked myself out loud.

"It could be from shock, or from a concussion…but it could also be amnesia."

"Amnesia…but what caused it?" I went through every possibility I could think of in my head. However, the neurologist had already beaten me to it.

"This could have several reasons, it could be from the brain trauma she sustained in the fall, damage to the hippocampus, from a traumatic accident, from psychological and mental stress, post-traumatic stress syndrome, as an immune system, dementia…although she seems a bit young for that, alcohol use or certain medications," the neurologist replied. He looked briefly at Auriana's file.

"The boy who brought her in said they were involved in an accident, the other friend was hit by the car while she and the young man fell to the ground, he thought she might have hit her head on the curb," I told him.

"Take her back to the room, I'll be back in a minute to run some tests, but I'm pretty sure she has Amnesia due to brain trauma."

After more than an hour I walked into the waiting room, now I could actually tell the young man something about the situation.

"Are you here for Auriana Williams? You can go visit her, but she has to take it easy…" before I could finish my sentence, the boy who had brought her in walked ahead, through to the right room and opened the light wooden door to the room. The smell of disinfectant and hospital in general now penetrated their noses even more strongly than in the waiting room. The seven of them walked into the room and stood around the hospital bed.

"Auriana, thank God you're okay!" said one of the girls with brown hair. They all had clearly been worried. The boy had told me that he had not told them where he was going and had left them at the side of the road.

"Thank you, that's so sweet... but who are you?"

"You're joking, right?" Another girl with dark hair looked at her seriously and warningly, she didn't appreciate it if she were to play a joke on them at this moment.

"No, I'm not kidding. Who are you?" This was my cue to explain the situation since I hadn't had the chance to before.

"Auriana is currently suffering from Amnesia."

"What is Amnesia?" another boy asked.

"Memory loss," the brown-haired girl answered before I even had a chance to open my mouth. I nodded in agreement.

"It's all my fault!" the boy who had brought her in said from the doorway. Tears were visible in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. His friends looked at him with pity.

"No, that's not it," Auriana said, "you're the one who took me to the hospital…" He looked at her in surprise.

"Wait, you know who I am?" he asked. Auriana shook her head gently and felt a wave of nausea come over her. She quickly grabbed the spit cup that was on the table next to her bed and threw up.

"I don't know who you are exactly, but I remember being carried by someone," Auriana replied. He handed her a glass of water so she could wash away the nasty taste of her vomit.

"Yes, that's right. I took you to the hospital," he replied. Auriana looked at the rest of her friends one by one. It felt like she was looking at a bunch of complete strangers.

"Do you know who the others are?" I asked. Even though I already knew the answer, I wanted to hear it from Auriana.

"No, sorry."

"Can someone give me her parents' number? That way they can be notified." The boy who had brought her in took Auriana's phone out of her bag and handed it to another girl who unlocked it and handed it to me.

Nikki

An hour later, only my mother was finally allowed to see me. My mother walked into the room. When she saw me lying in the hospital bed, tears came to her eyes. My hair was still covered in blood and my arms and legs were covered in scratches and bruises. One of my legs was in a cast. I was on a ventilator and the heart monitor beeped regularly.

"My poor baby," she cried.