Kitten In Converse

The Cat Is Mighty Dignified Until The Dog Comes By

"Thanks for staying here, Ty," the nurse said. He nodded his head as the nurse began putting a patch around Kat's eye. "And thank you Kat for staying so still." Kat barely nodded as the nurse left her side. She took the bowl that was beside Kat and excused herself for a moment. The bowl had to be properly taken care of since it had glass and Kat's blood inside of it. Honestly, the procedure that the nurse was doing for Kat, looked painful. She pulled each little shard of glass out of her eye and each time, strings of blood followed the piece of glass into the bowl. Once the nurse came back in, she sighed and began writing a pass for both of the teenagers. "I want you to keep the patch on for a couple of days. Just come in to this room every morning and I could switch it for you," she instructed. Kat nodded her head and quietly got off of the bed she was sitting on. Normally the nurse would put her in a chair, but she feared that once she started extracting the glass, that she would pass out.

Kat grabbed her pass and gingerly walked towards her next class. She didn't feel like going to her other classes, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to see anyway. It wasn't the excuse of the eye patch, it was because her glasses were now broken. She didn't have any money to buy a new pair and she knew that her foster parents would buy her a pair either. She didn't know them well enough to ask in the first place. So instead, she knocked on her next classroom door and waited for the door to be opened. She tried the handle but only noticed that it was locked. She waited a moment before the teacher answered the door. At first he seemed like he was going to yell at her, but when he saw her eye patch and then a slip, he let her in the room. Kat expected people to stare at her when she walked in, but everybody was so focused on their work that they didn't look up to see her damages. She was glad too.

She walked to the back of the classroom and sat in a desk by herself. Nobody was talking, but she didn't want to be bothered. She didn't care if it was for a pencil, eraser, or a sheet of paper. Besides, she didn't have those supplies for herself. The teacher didn't look like he was going to bother her either, so she put her headphones in her ears and drowned out the world.

***

As soon as the bell rang, Ali found herself holding her clipboard tightly to her chest. She made her way through the halls and passed the cafeteria—despite it being her lunch period. Her friends would wonder where she was, but she knew that she wasn't going to miss the entire lunch period. Besides, Roxanne should hint everyone in that she was down in the gym talking to Mrs. Darkings. Volleyball tryouts were starting in a week and she didn't have much time to find new perspective players. Most of the volleyball players that were on the team last year were seniors. Since all of them graduated, they weren't left with a lot of choices. They were almost out of volleyball players that there weren't any seniors this year. The highest members were her and Roxanne and they were only juniors. Roxanne was a fabulous front, but Ali didn't play much last year. She mostly sat on the bench unless one of the girls were hurt. Volleyball was a big sport in this school and it had a lot of good players on it. This was the first year that they actually had to scrounge for decent players on the girl's team.

Thankfully the boy volleyball team didn't have any trouble finding new players to replace the seniors that graduate the next year. Everyone wants to be part of the winning team after all. Although the girl's volleyball team was good, the boy's team was better. The girls only ever made it to districts and when they usually won the first round, they lost the second. They've never made it past the second round of districts. The boys teams has made it all the way to states and they've never won first place, but they have been third place—which is an alternate to go to the regional championships.

Ali stood off to the side as she watched the little seventh graders playing dodge ball. She almost got hit with one but luckily; her reflexes were good enough to have it narrowly miss her skull. She immediately got out of the target zone and made her way towards the gym teacher. She didn't even realize that Ali was in the room until she felt a tap on her shoulder. Ali smiled politely at her and Mrs. Darkings looked at the kids on the field one more time.