Camp Direction

Louis and Jenny

“Miss Genevieve Abbey?”

“Here, sir,” she was quick to answer, rising from her spot in the plastic chair. 

The other medical school students snickered, having already put a bet on that she would fail her next test. Jenny was a few years younger than them all, each being about twenty-three to twenty-four years old, while she was only nineteen. Ignoring them, she walked over to where the head doctor stood, handing her a stethoscope. 

“Check this patient’s pulse, please, and his heart rate,” the doctor said.

“Don’t confuse them,” another student, Austin, snickered.

Jenny glared at him from her spot, before bending over and placing the stethoscope in her ears, listening to the heart beat of the patient.

“She’s such an idiot,” another student, Megan, spoke.

“Doesn’t even know-”

Jenny plucked the stethoscope from her ears, stomping over to where Austin stood and shoving it at his chest.

“Just because I have this in my ears, doesn’t mean I can’t hear you, you divvy,” she scoffed.

“Divvy?” Austin laughed, “What are you, some British dictionary?”

With one last shove at his chest, Jenny left the room. She could hear the head doctor calling her back, scolding the other students in between, but paid no attention. Tears stinging her eyes, she ripped off the white coat from around her shoulders and hung it up in the locker room, where she yanked open her locker door and pulled out everything, stuffing them in her purse.

She pulled off her white sneakers and stuffed them in the empty locker, replacing them with her boots. Swapping the white lab coat she’d had on before with a grey, wool one, and pulling a grey beanie over her head. She slung he purse over one shoulder and stomped out of the medical school, heading to the elevator and down the levels of the hospital before running out of the place completely.

Sniffling, Jenny eyed the snow-covered streets of Chicago, and made a decision to go to the park. Her legs led her to the park that she’d visited multiple times as a child, now blanketed in white. Finding a bench that wasn’t covered in snow, she sat down, gazing around the snow-covered park. The Chicago skyline was visible in the distance, a few trees empty of any leaves.

“You alright?” came a male voice.

Thinking it was Austin, she said, “I don’t need any more criticism, Austin. Just fuck off.”

“Who said I was Austin?”

Lifting her head up, eyes wide, Jenny turned to the right, where she saw someone she’d missed a whole lot. He wore jeans, obviously not prepared for the weather. A beanie perched atop his head, his hands were stuffed in the pockets of his sweater to keep warm.