90 - All at Once

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"Parker! Hey! Sorry for scaring you," Sam says as she runs up to me, "I was wondering if you wanted to have a sleepover at my house tonight. Just like old times?"


A small smile forms on my face. I haven't spent the night at the LaRusso's house since the night before the party where everything went al garete... it'll be nice. Maybe we can finally talk about everything that's happened and just... work everything out. Then things can be normal again and all my focus can go to the All Valley... but more importantly, I just want my friend back... to feel like she doesn't look down on me and to know that no matter what, she's got my back...


"I'm down. Just like old times," I say, making her grin, "what time should I get there?"


"I think I'm gonna invite Moon over too and we can eat dinner at my house so... maybe like between four and five?" she says. I nod. Works for me. I'll stop my apartment and get some clothes, check up on Robby, then head that way. Surprisingly, I don't have work today, so this'll be great.


"Works for me. See you at lunch?" I ask. Sometimes she goes off campus, so I always try to ask if I see her before then.


"At the loser table, like always," she replies. I can't help but grin. I like how we just started calling our table the loser table. I don't like being called a loser... it's painful for many reasons... but I like the name for our table. It feels like we kind of... reclaimed the name. We've all been the loser kid at school at one point or another.


"Va bene," I say back. She grins and I smile back. With that, she and I go to our respective classes. Va bene... things are gonna be va bene.


——


Out of nowhere, my phone starts buzzing. A call... it's probably just spam from Colorado asking me about an extended warranty. I look at it nonetheless, as I can't just not. Hey... this is from the middle school... which means it has to be from Kenny... but it's not just his phone, it's the office phone... this can't be good. I stand up quickly, rushing over to the teacher's desk with my things.


"Can I leave a little early to go to the bathroom?" I ask, starting to shake. There are only like five minutes left of class and I'm finished with my work.


"Of course," she responds. I'm lucky that she likes me.


"Gracias," I respond out of instinct, then basically sprint out of the classroom, picking up the call the moment I step foot in the hallway.


"Hello?" I ask, trying not to sound panicked. Last time I got a call from the school was when I was ten and they pulled me out of class and my mom was on the phone and she told me that she had something important to talk to me about when I got home. The important thing was that she had been diagnosed with cancer. I don't like this.


"Hello, this is Mrs. Graham, I'm the nurse at West Valley Middle School. I have Kenny Payne here and he said you were a trusted contact. Is this Parker Reyes?" the voice on the other end of the phone says. My heart pounds even harder than before. The lights start getting too bright. I'm uncomfortably aware of the cool air I breathe in as it stings my nose and throat. He's in the nurse's office? What happened? Is he okay? Did he get into a fight? Por Dios, please tell me he didn't...

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