1
The Beginning





I woke up to the sound of the monitor beeping. “Hi babe, how you holdin’ up?” A lady with red hair said peering over the edge of my bed. She was in a white coat, gloves and a hair net.
“Wha-” My mouth was to try to even speak, I looked around the room worried and confused, I had no idea how I ended up in the hospital all I remembered was walking out of the Imax and heading to the car. But the rest just goes blank.
“Sweetie your in the hospital. Your mom will be right back she just went to get some coffee,” the lady said pressing a button and making my bed and myself lean forward slowly in a sitting position, “I’m Nora your nurse for the next two weeks you’ll be here.”
She turned and said she’d be right back, as she walked out of the room I sat up looked around for something to tell me what happened to me and how I ended up in the hospital after the movie. But before I could find anything a doctor and my mom walked in. My mom had dark rings under her eyes like she hadn’t gotten sleep in the past week.
“Here you go sweetie,” mom said handing me a glass of water the doctor was to busy looking at papers and results I guess because he turned to mom and just said “Everything looks just fine, she should be up and moving any day now.” He shook her hand and walked out of the room. I took a sip of the water slowly and sat on the table beside me.
Mom shook her head, “He should be more observant shouldn’t he.” She sat down beside me on my bed and took my hand.
“Momma,” I said slowly not sure if I could get the words out of my mouth, “What happened?” I started breathing hard; it took a lot just to say three words.
“Slow down save your breath.” she said reaching for her phone. “Do you want me to call your dad and tell him your awake or do want to wait til’ he’s off work?” she ignored my question.
“Why isn’t he already here?” I asked wondering why my dad thought it was more important to be at work instead of here at the freaking hospital with me.
“Well Paige you know how important your dad’s work is.” If she was trying to convince me that work was more important than a daughter in the hospital, it was working. “And were going to Paris in two weeks so he needs to arrange things. The doctor said you should be up and moving by then, so we wont have to change our plans.”
“Ok. But mom you aren’t answering my question.” I said, breathing harder. “What happened!?”
“You collapsed in the parking lot after the movie. The doctor said your blood pressure was low and you were tired. You hit your head hard on the pavement and got a concussion, you were in a coma for four days. Scared you hell out of me.” She had gotten up and was looking out the window, a tear rolled down her cheek as she continued, “Why would your blood pressure be low is, you’ve never had problems with it before, and you always eat enough.”
I tried to remember what might have happened before the movie, but I couldn’t think of a thing at the moment. I was to busy worried about what would’ve happened if I didn’t wake up from that comma. And it didn’t feel like I had a concussion but I hadn’t really worried what happened to me since I’d been here.
“Do you know when I’ll get to leave?”
“Paige were you not listening to me? I just told you, you’d be leaving tomorrow if you can stay out of another comma.” She said looking at me with concern, I hadn’t noticed before but her hair was in a messy bun and she was in her yoga pants, and one of her cruddy T-shirts.
“Oh sorry I was just thinking. Mom how long has it been since you’ve gone home to do the laundry or cook yourself some real food instead of disgusting hospital food?” I asked looking up and down her to give her the hint I wanted her to go home and do exactly that.
“I haven’t been home since the movie.” She said walking back over to the edge of my bed.
“Well then I want you to go home and get the house all clean for me, call dad have him come down here later with some clean clothes for me to change into tomorrow and you take a nice long bubble bath and you can use my stuff for it since you like it best. Ok.” I said shooing her away, “You better have my favorite spaghetti cooked tomorrow to.” I gave her a big smile as she opened the door and nodded smiling back at me.


A few hours later dad came in; he was in his suit still. And I’m assuming he made a quick trip and just dropped by the house to get my clothes then come straight here.
“Ok, bud so what’s the plan?” he asked smiling and he already knew what I was up to.
“We have to stop by the store and buy her favorite German Chocolate Cake, and some cupcakes too.” I smiled at him and he kissed my fore head like he always did. “Make that with pink frosting.”
“Ok, I’m guessing your planning to get out pretty early. Huh? Well then lets get through this night awake. What do you say to that!?”
“What I’m saying is I’m not a little kid anymore and you don’t need to make your excited voice so excited.” I took the bag of clothes from him and saw that he had bought me brand new clothes. “What’s up with the new clothes?”
“Well I didn’t really feel like driving all the way to the house and then back to the hospital when its only a few miles from my work plus there’s a clothes store in between.” He said grabbing the bag. “They are the right size, right?”
“Yeah they are but I was just curious why you got me clothes from the most expensive store in the history of stores.” I said pulling out an American eagle miniskirt and a tank top to go with it, not to mention the cardigan to go over it. “A miniskirt really dad, you aren’t supposed to get your little girl this kind of stuff.”
“Yeah but I thought it was your type of style.” He said grabbing it to see how short it really was. “And it wasn’t very expensive.”
“Yeah not when you’re a lawyer on the weekends and dentist on week days.” I said sitting up all the way to stretch out my back. “And you carry around two hundred dollars in your pocket everyday plus five million credit cards.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. There were two credit cards in there and only a hundred dollars.
“I spent the other hundred on your outfit and the shoes I have in the car that I also bought for you at Mary’s boutique she just opened.” He smiled and I wanted to scream. Mary was the best artist in the world she drew mainly shoes obviously and she finally got a company to make them for her, so she opened a boutique.
“Aunt Mary finally opened!” I said so excited I almost fell out of my bed.
“Yep, she was gonna wait for you but she knew you would’ve wanted her to go ahead and open it because all your friends couldn’t wait.” I smiled and nodded my head.
“Dad I’m kinda tired, I’ve had a long day.” I said leaning back in my bed, he nodded and I closed my eyes.

When I woke up my room was full of flowers. My favorite too, purple lilies. I sat up and saw the bag of clothes; I got up and went to the bathroom with the bag of clothes I looked at myself in the mirror, I was a mess my hair hadn’t been washed in the past five days. I turned on the shower and started taking off my shirt when I realized I had a huge gash on my arm with about six stitches in it.
Someone knocked on my door, “Paige?” it was the nurse, “Are you in there?”
“Uh, yeah just a sec.” I said and threw my shirt back on and opened the door.
“Oh hi, um I meant to warn you about the stitches.” She said, she took my arm and pulled a small piece of plastic and some tape out of her pocket. “Here lets put this over them so you don’t have to worry about it getting wet.”
“Sounds good to me.” I said holding my arm still, “How did I get the gash?”
“Well when you fell, there was glass on the ground.” She said as she finished taping the plastic on my arm. “You’re all done. Oh and your dad went to get breakfast ordered for you.”
“Heh, we must be eating at George’s place.” I said looking down at my arm.
“Oh, I’ve heard his food is delicious.” She said walking toward the door. “You must be one lucky girl, I heard your also going to Paris in a few weeks.”
All I said was, “Yep.” Because I’m not the kind of kid who brags about getting to go places that most don’t.
I closed the bathroom door and took my shirt off once again, I got in the shower letting the hot water run on me, I grabbed one of the razors I found in my bag of stuff my dad bought (thank god he’s smart enough to buy me things like that) he also bought me some shampoo and conditioner. I love my dad.
When I got out an hour later I heard my dad and the doctor talking. “You have to be careful in Paris, if she passes out again she might not come back out of a coma for a longer period of time.” Dr. Randolph said.
“And if she does?” My dad said I heard the recliner creak.
“Get her to a hospital ASAP or it could be fatal, this is something we’ve never seen this type of thing happen to such a young girl.” I didn’t want to here anymore so I picked up one of my shoes and dropped it. “Ouch!” I said to let them know that I was out of the shower.
“Paige, you ok?” My dad said knocking on the door.
“Yeah I’m fine I just dropped my shoe on my toe.” One of the stupidest excuses I ever made, but it worked.
“Ok, well be careful I don’t want you to slip or anything.” He said with laughter in his voice.
I quickly brushed my teeth and combed my hair back into a ponytail since I didn’t have anything to dry it with. I heard whispering and the door slam shut. “Hey daddy.” I said walking out of the bathroom carrying my shoes out with me.
“Huh? Oh hi baby. How are you?” he said getting up from the chair.
“I’m great and love the outfit especially the gladiators.” I said holding up the black gladiators he had got me even though I already had a million pairs.
“I’m glad you like them.” He said hugging me tightly.
“Daddy. I cant breath.” I said pulling away from him.
“Oh I’m sorry, its been a while since I got to hug my little bug.” He said smiling from ear to ear, “Oh we better hurry, I ordered your favorite at Georges Diner.”