Intro by Carla Ann

The paramedic looked at the young girl in front of him as he strapped her onto the gurney. She was just barely conscious and obviously had trauma to her head. Blood was coming out from numerous lacerations… but those ultimately didn’t worry him as much. Moments later as the ambulance sped down the street he tuned out the girl’s mother who was sobbing hysterically. She was just holding the girls other hand and staying out of his way… that’s all he could really hope for.

”Pete!” He called up to the driver in front.

”What do you need Andy?”

”Make sure the hospital is prepped for possible head trauma.”

”I’ll call it in right now…”

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Viewing Note: This story should be viewed with the Edwardian Script ITC font installed on your Windows platform in the c:/Windows/Fonts directory. Microsoft Word installs this font automatically.

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The Legal Stuff: Dreaming of Cheers  © 2010 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright  © 2010 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface

NEW: I have recently posted a blog entry entitled ‘Concerning Coyotes’ that may explain some questions that you the readers may have. Included in the entry is a link to this map of Tiffany’s School. Thank you all for continuing to read, and I hope that these two resources help explain the novel a bit more.

Like the first two books I posted here, I will be posting a full copy here on BigCloset. I am uploading three chapters per week to the site. The full version should be completely posted by July. For those that cannot wait however, I have an e-book version of the full book available from Lulu.com as of today. You may find it at My Store. My assumption is that the majority of my readers would be more interested in this edition of the book rather than a hardback or paperback. If you enjoy this work perhaps you will consider supporting me by purchasing it ($5.95 for the eBook).

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy reading Dreaming of Cheers!

 

Chapter 29:

 
THE NEXT THING I remember was being on the gurney in the ambulance pulling away to go to the hospital. I heard a paramedic take a reading on my blood pressure as he dabbed at one of my many cuts with something that stung. My mom held my other hand tightly and was sobbing off to the side. “Mommy?” I called out softly.

“I’m here sweetie,” she told me as she squeezed on my hand. As she said that she sobbed even harder. I cried as well and lost track of time as we drove towards the hospital. I could hear the sirens blaring from above, and now that some of the cuts on my face were cleaned I could see a little better. My eyes felt swollen though, and I was sure they must be, so much so that I could just make out some stuff through my slitted eyes.

The paramedic that was working on me put a blanket on me. I was shivering uncontrollably now. I was alive! Why am I shivering? I can’t be alive… I didn’t know anything that was going on around me as we pulled into the emergency room entrance.

“Patient was attacked by several assailants. She has multiple lacerations and abrasions on her face, back, hands, and chest,” the paramedic told the doctor that must have been following me in.
“Okay, let’s get her into here and get her cleaned up,” I heard the doctor say. He began looking at me and poking in several spots. “Let’s get a cat-scan setup for her as well. I’m a little concerned by how hard she might have hit her head,” he said.

“Tiffany, can you understand me?” He asked me.

“Yes,” I gasped, I hurt so bad.

“I’m Doctor Hannah, we’re going to have to do some stitches here, but it looks like you’re going to be okay. You’re a brave young lady and we’re going to take good care of you,” he told me while he squeezed my hand. He seemed to have noticed my mother standing there who hadn’t let go of my hand the whole time. “Are you her mother?” he asked.

I heard a sob and felt my hand squeezed again.

“She’s going to be fine, but I want to get you out of here while I work on her, okay?”

“NOOO!” I screamed, “Don’t leave me!” I sobbed.

I heard a sob in reply next to me and I think the doctor decided that it wasn’t worth the fight. “If you’re going to stay I need you to put some scrubs on Mrs. Jacobson,” he told her.

“Tiffany she’ll be right back,” he assured me and I felt another hand take my place as a whole new round of sobbing began.

“Nurse can you get me…?” I heard him order off a dosage of two medicines and felt a needle go into my arm a moment later. I felt all fuzzy all of the sudden and the pain sort of went back behind a curtain. I didn’t really know what was going on, but could sort of sense people move around me. For a long time I just was. I wasn’t aware or interacting with anything, I just was. I was vaguely aware of tugging at my skin by some sort of needle, I felt my clothes get removed and heard a brief gasp from a nurse. Then I felt nothing for a long while.

 

MY NEXT MEMORY was of waking up and seeing my mom, Melanie, and Amy all standing around in my room looking concerned. Amy saw me stir and said, “Tiffany!” worriedly coming to my side and holding my hand.

“Tiffany, how are you feeling?” I heard Melanie ask me in her doctor’s voice as she came over to me.

“Hurt,” I managed to croak out a moment later after trying to figure out my answer. My throat was dry and on fire. My face was sore, my stomach hurt, my breasts felt sore and I couldn’t figure out if that was just their normal soreness, or because I had been hit there, I groaned.

“Well you have reason to hurt,” she told me. “But you’re alright now sweetie, and you’re safe.” She added.

“What happened?” Amy asked me.

Just then I swore I was being punched again I hurt so bad. I started to cry uncontrollably and felt three people hug me at once. I sat there crying for a long while before I managed to try and move my hands to wipe my eyes. My left hand wouldn’t move right though. I heard Melanie say, “Tiffany, just leave that hand alone for now.” Somehow I realized there must have been an IV in that wrist. The other hand seemed almost useless as I tried to wipe both eyes and found some strange textures right next to my eyes. It felt like a whole bunch of tiny hairs sticking out and a moment later I realized they must have been stitches, and a lot of them.

“You don’t have to tell us anything right now,” Melanie told me softly.

“I’m sorry Tiffany,” Amy sobbed next to me.

“Dr. Hancock?” I heard from behind them as my vision cleared a bit from my tears.

She turned around and looked at a police officer who had a camera in his hands. “I’m really sorry to bother you all but I need to take some pictures…” the officer looked genuinely embarrassed to have to do this.

“It’s okay, officer, I understand.” She told him.

“Tiffany this officer needs to take some pictures right now, don’t worry about how you look right now,” she added the last part in a low whisper and I was left to wonder just what had become of my face. The flash hurt my eyes as he took a whole roll of film of pictures of my face and throat. Melanie carefully pulled my gown up and he took more pictures of my stomach and bare chest area before covering me back up.

Lastly he took pictures of my hands for some reason and then said, “Thank you,” and left.

My dad came into the room right after that and ran over to give me a hug. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” he exclaimed and hugged me. “Who did this to you Tiffany?” he asked angrily.

“Honey they’ve already taken them in custody,” mom told him.

“They’d better keep them there,” I heard my dad cry next to me. He never cried, ‘I must look awful,’ I thought to myself and started crying again. It took a long while before I managed to stop the tears and become calmer again.

I mostly felt numb when another cop came in and said, “Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson I’m Detective Wallace, I need to talk to your daughter and ask her about what happened.”

“Detective you can try and talk to her, but if I think my patient’s health is at risk I will stop this interview,” I heard Melanie say.

“Of course doctor,” he told her. I felt hands holding onto both of mine as I saw the detective come to one side of my bed and pull up a chair. He had a small notebook in his hand.

“Tiffany, I know this is going to be really tough, but I need you to do the best you can to answer my questions, okay?”

“Can I have a drink first?” I croaked.

“Of course,” I heard Melanie say from next to me. I watched her bring up a cup with a straw for me that I sucked on greedily. I was so thirsty. “Not too much sweetie,” she told me and took it from me. It helped at least.

“Okay, I think I can answer some now,” I told him.

“What exactly happened when you left your science class?” he asked me gently.

I did my best not to start crying then. ‘I can’t cry right now, when I’m done I’ll cry more…’ I promised myself. “I was walking down the hallway to go to the office. As soon as I came out of the science hallway I saw Jarred, Lucas, Caitlyn,” I sobbed for a second, “Brittany, and Liza standing there.” I braced myself to continue and made the mistake of looking at my mom’s face which looked absolutely devastated. I forced myself to look up at the ceiling. It was white, and I could just barely push away her face if I concentrated on the fluorescent light just above my head.

“I tried to go by them, but one of them, Lucas, wouldn’t let me go by. I tried again,” I paused and took a breath, “but he wouldn’t get out of my way. I knew I was in a bad situation then so I screamed, or at least tried to…” I felt tears going down my face, “but Jarred put his hand down hard over my mouth so I couldn’t scream. I tried to bite his hand but I couldn’t get to it.”

I paused for a long moment and could feel the worried eyes looking at me.

“Officer, I…” Melanie began before I interrupted.

“They picked me up and held me tight before taking me into the boy’s bathroom.” I sniffled a bit and took a few ragged breaths at the memory. ‘I have to finish,’ I told myself. “ When they got me in there they threw me against the wall and I must have hit my head against it. As soon as I screamed someone punched me in the stomach and I threw up on Caitlyn…” I continued to relay as much as I could remember, it got kind of foggy after that. “I felt them rip my shirt off and one of the girls made a comment about finding out what was stuffed inside my bra. Jarred picked me up by the throat and I couldn’t breathe. I tried to kick him but nothing was working,” I was sobbing uncontrollably at this point.

Every breath I took seemed to hurt and it felt like I had water going down my throat. I felt someone squeeze at my hand and could hear several other people crying softly in the room. “I couldn’t think of anything else so I tried to poke Jarred’s eyes out with my fingers like someone showed me one time in Tae Kwon Do. I missed one of them, but I felt something gooey and heard him scream before he dropped me,” I found some new strength as I remembered it. At least I had hurt him? I hoped he was blind in that eye.

“I dropped to the ground and felt someone doing something else just before I heard someone ask what was going on in there. Was that Kyle?” I asked all of the sudden.

Through my tear-stained vision I just registered a nod from the detective.

“He must have done something because I heard some people run and then he carried me to the office,” I told him the last bit and felt every bit of strength immediately leave me again. I was crying uncontrollably like a baby and felt totally useless.

“Detective I think that’s enough for now,” I heard Melanie say with a voice that sounded like she was about to cry herself, I almost didn’t recognize her.

“I’ve gotten what I need,” he said as he stood up. He looked down on me and said, “Young lady you were incredibly brave, don’t think for one moment that this was your fault. I’m going to make sure these little shits pay for what they did to you,” he looked abashed for a second and said, “pardon my language,” he added. “Thank you for your time,” he told me and the room stood silent for a long time.

Eventually though I felt something calling at me.

“Umm… Melanie can I get up and go to the bathroom?” I asked nervously.

“You probably shouldn’t move around a lot quite yet Tiffany, we haven’t gotten the final results from your cat scan…” She seemed to contemplate telling me something else. ‘What else would I do?’ I asked myself, ‘I have to go!’

“Okay,” she said finally. “Let me help you get up though,” she added and I felt the bed I was laying in adjust to where I was sitting up more. She lowered a side of the bed that reminded me of the kind of railing they used to have on my bed as a little kid to keep me from falling out. Melanie and my mom slowly helped me stand up. “Be careful with your left hand sweetie,” Melanie told me.

She and mom helped me over to the restroom where I sat down on the toilet and discovered I didn’t have panties on to have to pull down. They helped me pull up my gown and I was able to overlook my embarrassment as I felt so much better from the urine leaving my bladder. Before I could feel too much better though I looked up in the mirror as I stood up and couldn’t believe what I saw. I let out an involuntary gasp before I could stop myself.

It didn’t look like me at all. Every inch of my face was black and blue, and there were at least six areas that had required numerous stitches to close up. My left eyebrow was completely gone, and my right eyebrow was halfway gone. There were bandages over both of my cheeks and I could remember how they had been scraped against the wall. ‘I survived,’ I told myself. ‘It’ll heal,’ I told myself unconvincingly.

Mom and Melanie both looked sort of panicked.

“I’m alright,” I lied to them unconvincingly. They didn’t let me look much longer and helped me back towards the bed. Once they had me back in the bed, Melanie helped me get back situated. As they laid me down I realized there was a bed pan in place for me to use.

“Sweetie you’re probably not going to be here long enough to have to use it,” she assured me when I had a shocked look on my face. Just as she settled me in another doctor came into the room holding a manila envelope. It looked like it must have been a bunch of x-rays. He started putting them up on a light board in the room and Melanie began looking over them with him.

“Dr. Hancock I don’t see anything worth being concerned about here,” he told her.

“You looked them over closely?” she asked.

“Absolutely, I even triple checked like you asked. I don’t see any reason to keep her overnight,” he told her.

“Thank you Dr. Knox,” she told him. He left with a smile towards my direction and then she started talking to my mom in low tones.

“Tiffany I’m so sorry,” I heard Amy say to me next to me.

“Why are you sorry Amy?” I asked.

“I should have gone with you to the office…”

“Amy, even if you’d gone with me there was nothing you could have done…” I forced myself to keep from crying again. My face hurt a lot now as I could feel the medication wearing off a bit. “There were too many of them…”

“Still…”

“No, don’t feel guilty, they would have just hurt you too,” I told her. She was crying I could see, and I knew that I looked terrible enough I was really upsetting her. “Is Kyle okay?” I asked as I gripped her hand.

She looked at me in surprise, “He got a couple bruises, but he did way more damage to Jarred and Lucas than they did to him. And Jarred collapsed just outside the school and had to be taken somewhere in an ambulance. I’m glad it wasn’t here, our dads would have killed him.”

“I’m glad Kyle is okay… I don’t know how I’ll ever thank him,” I said breaking down again.

 
SEVERAL HOURS LATER when Melanie and a couple other doctors were sure it was okay to release me they sent me home. “She’ll be more comfortable there,” she had told my mom when she asked if she was sure. “Besides I’ll come over in a bit and check on her,” she added.

“I don’t know how we’re going to pay all of these bills,” I heard my dad tell my mom to the side.

“We’ll help out if you need it,” I heard a new voice, Mr. Hancock, say. He came around and gave me a hug and helped me stand out of the wheelchair and get into the back seat of my parents car. Mom buckled me in and Amy ran around to the other side and sat next to me grabbing my hand gently. It was the one that had an IV in it till not long ago so she was gentle. The door shut, but I heard him say, “Besides, those kids’ parents are going to be paying for her care. They’re not getting out of this without doing that, I guarantee you that,” I could hear the anger in his voice.

Mom came and opened her door saying, “I’m going to go ahead and get her home…”

“Okay,” my dad said. He kept talking to Mr. Hancock and Melanie as we drove off.

I sat in silence as we drove towards home. My throat hurt too much for me to talk much… and I didn’t really have anything to say anyway. The hospital in our town wasn’t a long way from my house, so the drive wasn’t long.

At home Amy and Mom helped me out of the car and settled me down on the couch in our living room with some pillows to help me sit up. I saw from the clock that it was nearly five in the evening. Amy sat down in a chair nearby and just watched me, biting her lip nervously.

“Do you need anything sweetie?” Mom asked me after she had gone down the hall to the bathroom.

“Something to drink?” I asked. They had given me several large pills to take before I had been released, and they seemed to have knocked the pain out of the way for a bit. My mouth felt really dry now though, and I was incredibly thirsty.

She returned a few minutes later with a plastic cup with a lid on it and a straw coming out. “Do you feel up to eating anything?”

“I guess,” I told her. The truth of the matter was that my stomach was grumbling, but I just didn’t feel like I wanted to expend the effort to eat.

“What do you want?”

I shrugged.

“Grilled cheese and soup?” she suggested.

“I guess,” I told her. Her eyes showed just how upset she was about everything. She had been unable to protect me, and now I was a mess. There was no way makeup was going to hide my injuries. At least not until after the stitches came out… maybe ever. Melanie had said that she would remove them in five days. I guess there was something to be said about having your ‘other’ mom being a doctor.

Dad came home with Amy’s parents not long after. The rest of the evening passed with me eating half a sandwich and some of the soup before deciding chewing hurt too much to continue. I noticed Amy hadn’t faired any better with her dinner either.

Sometime during the attack my mouth had split open along the inside of my mouth and it hurt too much to chew. I was still hungry though so Mom went to Dairy Queen and got me a small strawberry shake to drink. All throughout the night I alternated between staring blankly at the TV and crying. I couldn’t help it when it happened; I just cried and cried and cried.

I felt bad because Kyle had called to talk to me and all I managed to do was mutter, “Thank you…,” before bawling like a baby again.

Amy stayed the night with us that night, sleeping next to me on the trundle bed. I woke up crying several times with my mom and Amy hugging me every time to reassure me that I was safe. It seemed like anytime I closed my eyes I was right back in that bathroom.