Family Is Forever ~ A One Chicago Story

Chapter 54 - At the academy

I spent the whole most of the drive trying to mentally prepare myself for today.

I don't know why I felt I needed to do it I guess it just helped with my nerves a little.

When I pulled up to the Academy there were quite a lot of people around my age heading in as well.

I followed the crowd and the signs to the registration desk and gave the person behind it my name and date of birth in return for this they handed me some training uniform (Grey tracksuit like) as well as a locker key and gave me directions to the locker room.

The locker room was easy enough to find and I headed into the female one in search of my locker.

When I got into the locker room there were only two other girls there who both looked a bit confused and had no idea what they were doing.

"Hey" I said in an attempt to be friendly "I'm Jess"

One of the girls looked over and smiled at me. She had long ish red hair and was about average height.

"Hi I'm Bella, nice to meet you"

"Nice to meet you too" I reply beginning to shove my things in my locker.

The other girl tall with blonde hair just looks at both of us before walking off

I was a bit confused by this surely she'd want to make friends or at the very least tell us her name.

"Don't mind her she hasn't told me her name either so it's not you" Bella tells me as we both get changed into our outfits.

"Its ok" I reply "we don't need her of she's going to be like that"

I wasn't going to let any more toxic people like Poppy into my life if I could help it.

"Hell yeah we didn't need her" Bella agrees. "Do you know where we're ment to go I mean the guy at the desk said the lecture hall but I have no idea where that is"

"I think I know" I tell her

In truth I knew exactly where we were going as mum, dad and severide had brought me to many presentations and about the cfd over the years but I wasn't going to tell anyone about my past just yet.

We left the locker room together and I lead us to the lecture hall where we found seats In the middle. Niether of us wanted to sit at the front and at the back it would look like we were hiding behind all the men so the middle seemed the perfect spot. We chatted a bit while we waited for the final few people to arrive.

We weren't waiting to long and Chief hatcher soon came up to the frontnto start his speech.

"Good morning everyone, its great to see you all here the future of paramedics in the CFD certainly looks hopeful. Look around you, get to know your friends and your competitors. Not all of you will make it to the end of the programme, it requires hard work and dedication Many of you will crack under the pressure,some will switch career paths, others will be asked to leave. How you play is up to you.

Over the next six weeks you will learn the practical and theoretical skills required by our medics but to get out onto the streets you must complete a final exam in both areas if and only if you pass you will get assigned to a Firehouse. Some.of you should be aware that you are unlikely to be stationed with family as it has been known to have bad effects on people....."

My heart dropped. Of course I knew I wouldn't be at 51 there wasn't an available spot but it would have been nice to work along side the people who had raised me.

By now Chief hatcher had finished his speech and training schedules were being distributed.

Bella and I compared schedules and found out we had most sessions together. Which ment we could stick together and have each others backs.

It's always good to have an Ally.

From what I could work out we were split into groups of about 15 students each and the majority of sessions would  be in theese groups. Ranking would take place in these groups as well as with everyone as a whole so you could be ranked last in your group but 15th overall.

Our first session was practical based covering the basics of CPR. I had known how to do CPR for as long as I can remember but was interested to know if the teaching method had changed since my parents had done it.

We headed into the gym where we would be working and stood around several dummys while our instructor went through the basics.

Out if the corner of my eye I could see two other candidates whispering to each other not even attempting to pay attention . I rolled my eyes why would you come here if you weren't going to pay attention.

I was brought back down to earth when pur instructor clapped his hands together loudly

"Right then in twos or threes find a body and take it In terns to to practice. After about 10 minutes we will start measuring your accuracy with this app that's is connected to each one."

Everyone hurried to a  body and soon the room if filled with the clicks made by the dummies during compressions.

Bella and I began to work on out techniques 30 compressions followed by 2 ventilations

I could see the groups either side of us keep losing count of compressions and getting more and more frustrated. Bella was also getting a bit confused with how to attach the defibrillator pads so I nelt down to help her.

"Look" I said in my most encouraging tone" one goes here and the other here then you get back on the compressions ASAP"

"How can you remember all this new Information and still keep could of compressions" she says wiping her sweaty brow.

"I errr" I begin but I didn't have to give an answer as the instructor starts giving instructions on how he's going to measure our accaucy rates.

We would go in groups one person at each dummy at a time and how we did was fed back to the app on his tablet.

Bella said she was happy to go before me and I was happy to let her. I was kinda worried what my score would be I didn't want to stand out as the know it all on the first day but then agin it would be go to do well and prove my self.

When it was my turn I knelt down next to the dummy and made sure everything I needed was there.

The instructor began to count down

"3...2...1..go"

And I began pushing deep with a steady rhythm

1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2

Ventilate

Over and over again shocking the patient when he was in a shockable rhythm (we weren't using real defibs just ones that connected to the app)

Eventually the instructor tells us to stop our patients are back in synus rhythm

We all pause to catch our breath while he checks our results. He then begins to walk down the line.

Then he stops.

Stops infront of me.

"Whats your name candidate?" He says bluntly.

Oh god what have I done.

"Jessica Casey sir" I reply trying not to let the fear in my voice show.

"Well then everyone listen up you've got to keep an eye on this one she got a 97% accuracy rate highest one I've seen in a long time"