14

Jake

"Okay, you have two weeks until Scarlet leaves," Principal Nickolas said. It's been about a month and a half since the accident and there was still no sign that Nikki would wake up anytime soon.

"Emilia said that if she doesn't wake up this week, they're going to consider taking her off the ventilator," Auriana said. Her voice cracked as she said this.

"It's my fault, I should have looked before I crossed," I said. Sadness was clear in my voice. I looked down, the guilt growing stronger every day. I would never be able to forgive myself if Nikki died because of my stupid mistake.

"Jake!" Auriana gave me a knowing look. I could never have known this beforehand. That she and Auriana would push me aside.

"I know for sure that Nikki is a fighter and won't give up easily. There's nothing we can do for her right now, she has to do this herself," said Principal Nickolas, "the only thing we can do for her right now is not to get behind schedule…" She had a good point. There was nothing we could do right now.

"We're going to get started right away," Auriana said. We got up and walked to the gym with all the stuff we had bought the day of the accident. The girls walked to the locker room and came back into the gym a few moments later with their hair in a ponytail and wearing shirts, shorts, and Chuck Taylors. Jeremy, Jimmy, and I put the stuff in the other locker room so it wouldn't get in anyone's way.

"Okay, Brooke go stand in that corner, Emma you over there, Skylar you over there, and Renee outside the door." Auriana pointed to where she wanted everyone to stand for the choreography. The girls obediently walked to their places and got ready.

"Hit it." The girls started dancing.

"Woohoo!" We applauded as soon as the girls were done.

"That went well," Auriana said.

"Can you help me with the banner now?" Jeremy begged. Auriana grabbed a marker and started drawing while Jeremy and Brooke helped her.

"Wow, that really looks like Scarlet," Brooke said. Auriana had been working on a portrait of Scarlet that would be in the center of the banner.

"Thanks," Auriana said. Renee took Brooke and Auriana by the arm and pulled them along.

"Okay, the boys are going to paint the rest of the banner and we're going to go over the choreography again."

"Five, six, seven, eight!" Auriana counted. The girls had been practicing for two hours and sweat was on their foreheads. Jeremy, Jimmy and I had just taken down the banner and were watching from the side where we were sitting on the floor. The music was echoing through the gym.

"Don't let it fool you," The girls walked to the spot where the stage was to be, clapping along to the music.

"We're no ordinary teens," They continued to clap and bent down to one knee.

When the song was over, the girls walked to their bags that they had placed on the side of the gym and got their bottles of water out. Brooke and Auriana walked to the banner.

"Wow, well done boys," Brooke said. The other girls also came to take a look at our hard work.

"Uhum," it suddenly sounded. We turned around in shock.

"Mrs. Scheeps?!!" Jeremy, Jimmy and I said in surprise. Our music teacher stood in the doorway of the gym and didn't look too happy.

"What are you doing here?" Renee asked rudely. We were still standing at the table in the middle of the gym.

"You haven't shown up to my class for a few weeks, the principal says you have a good reason for that." Auriana felt her friends pushing her forward.

"Auriana will explain," we said in unison. She looked at us with a look that said: thank you, right?

"Principal Nickolas allowed us to arrange a surprise for Scarlet, because she's leaving school and that surprise includes a school dance with a performance, but we have to do everything ourselves and that takes time. We were allowed to work on that during the lessons we're good at." Mrs. Scheeps' face was serious.

"If you don't show up for the next lesson, you'll get an F for your assignment." We looked at her to make see if she was joking, but she was serious.

"WHAT?!" we said at the same time.

"You can't do that!" Renee said. She looked at her and crossed her arms angrily.

"Watch me," Mrs. Scheeps said threateningly. With those words she walked out of the gym.

"I'm going to the principal, she can't do this." Auriana walked to the doorway and looked around at the others.

"I'm coming with you," I said. I walked over to her and gave her a reassuring smile.

"We're staying here," Emma said. We nodded and ran to Principal Nickolas' office.

"Wow, wow, wow," the principal said as soon as she saw Auriana and me storm into her office. She put her pen down and looked at us.

"Jake, explain."

"Mrs. Scheeps is threatening to give us an F if we're not in her class tomorrow, but we only have two weeks until Scarlet leaves." Auriana nodded in confirmation and her worried expression slowly faded.

"She's not allowed to do that at all, you're not allowed to threaten students," said principal Nickolas. Auriana and I looked at each other.

"You continue with the preparations, I'm going to talk to Mrs. Scheeps." We thanked her and walked back to the gym.

"All for one." The girls jumped and landed, they jumped up so that their feet were apart.

"You know?" They put their hands to their mouths.

"We're better together." They stomped their feet.

"We stand united." They spun around.

"The dance is really cool," Brooke said. She took a sip of water from her purple bottle.

"She really outdid herself," Jimmy said. We walked back into the gym.

"And?" six curious voices asked at once.

"Principal Nickolas said she's not allowed to threaten students," Auriana began.

"And she's going to talk to her now," I added. A look of pure horror appeared on Emma's face.

"Wait, doesn't she have our class now?" Emma asked.

"Oh shit," Renee said. That could be a problem, let's hope she doesn't talk to her in front of the class. We couldn't stop the principal now.

Scarlet

I wonder where the others are all the time, I thought. This is not how I imagined my last two months here. I sat alone at the table in the back of the room and stared out the window.

"Scarlet? Are you paying attention?" Mrs. Scheeps asked grumpily. There was a knock on the door and Principal Nickolas came in.

"Angela, can I speak to you in my office for a moment?" Mrs. Scheeps looked at the principal in surprise and walked with her out of the room. I looked down. I absolutely did not want to move, but I certainly could not stay here alone.

Nikki

I have to force my eyelids to open, I thought. I can't stand hearing everyone talking and crying. I heard the doctors say they were going to give me up after this week. I don't want to die yet! I have to force myself to wake up. My mother took my hand.

"Come on Nikki, please wake up," she begged. I mustered all my strength and tried to move my hand. I squeezed my mother's hand very weakly. My mother's eyes widened. She pressed the button to call the nurse. Emilia came running in.

"What's wrong?" She looked at me but there was no change.

"She's waking up, she squeezed my hand." Emilia looked doubtful, it could just be a spasm. To appease my mother she grabbed my other hand and waited. Again I gathered all my strength and squeezed gently again. Come on open your eyes, I encouraged myself. Slowly but surely my eyes opened tremblingly. A tear rolled down my mother´s cheek. I knew I had been on a ventilator all this time and tried not to panic because of the tube. Fortunately my nose was not blocked and I tried to breathe because of it.

"I'm going to get a doctor," Emilia said, after she had removed the breathing tube. I looked around me in a daze. The room was orange. To my left I saw balloons and stuffed animals. My friends must have brought them. I looked at my mother exhausted. My stomach was growling.

"I'll see if I can get you some soup," she said. I did it! I thought as I sighed in relief.

Renee

The next day I had the clothes for the performance ready on a clothing rack in the gym.

"Wow Renee, these outfits are amazing!" Auriana pulled the outfit out of the bag I had put over the clothes to protect them.

"Thanks, Auriana." Brooke was on the phone and started screaming.

"What's wrong?!" Skylar asked. We were startled by Brooke's spontaneous scream. We looked at her expectantly.

"Nikki's awake," Brooke said. Before the boys could say anything, we ran into the locker room to change as quickly as possible.