Leave The City (Book 8 of Adopted by the Josephs)

47. Samantha

"Okay, kiddo. Ready?" Aunt Sarah said, putting the car in park and facing me.

"No. I mean, yes. No. Yes. No, nope," I said.

Aunt Sarah laughed.

"We're not doing this again, are we?"

"No, but I am a little nervous about going back," I admitted.

Suddenly there was a knock on the window. I jumped and turned around, stunned.  I was expecting it to be Brandi at first. She'd been the one to welcome me to Mulholland High on the first day of school. Obviously, it wasn't her.

"Ambrose! Carli!" I exclaimed, opening my door and giving them both hugs.

"Hey, Sam!  Welcome back!" Carli said, hugging me back. "You ready?"

"I think so," I said, looking to the front doors of the school. And at the press across the parking lot.

"Big news, you coming back to school," Ambrose said, nodding his head in the direction of the press.  I sighed.

"It's not that interesting," I fumed. "Bye, Aunt Sarah. See you later!"

"I'll be here for 2:30," she said through the window she'd opened when I got out to greet my friends.

"And I'll be here," I smiled at her. She laughed, shook her head, waved to my friends and drove away, closing the window.

I turned to my friends.

"It is so great to have you back," Carli said. "We've really missed you. Even though you can't play the rest of the season."

I shrugged. My coach had been by and said my coach in Ohio had called her and suggested keeping me on as an assistant coach. And she'd agreed. So I was still part of the team and my doctors had said I could practice with them as long as I was feeling okay, but they stressed I definitely could not play in an actual game until they gave me the go ahead. And that was probably a good month away. What sucked is I knew college scouts were coming to the games. Coach had told me she would be talking to them and there's plenty of footage of me playing. Plus my coach in Ohio said she'd sent some tapes to schools that had inquired.

But first, I had to make it through my second first day of school. The plan was I was going to try three days a week at school, with an online tutor on the other two days, and my teachers would send the lessons as they were able. I could talk to them about any issues on the days I was in school. But, I was also told I could come to school as often as I felt able. The online tutor made that easy because I would just log on and email her if I was home or going to school for the day. She'd come by the house to go over some things and meet me. We'd worked on some things I'd missed in the weeks before I was returning to school. I'd stayed home until the end of January before I got the okay to go back to school. I'd spent that month working on my stamina, being able to stay awake for a full day, and being able to manoeuvre myself around with and without my crutches. I could do alright without my crutches but I still got tired pretty easily, and walking around the house wasn't the same as walking through the school hallways. Part of my PT had been going on walks with Uncle B and/or Aunt Sarah and the dogs. At first, Uncle B had to piggyback me home because I could barely make it to the end of the street. Now, I could make it the whole walk but was exhausted, physically, by the time we got back to the house. I hated it. I wasn't used to not being able go and do for as long as I wanted.

I also spent a lot of time in the pool. It was relaxing as well as great for therapy. My joints loosened up while I floated around. Not that they were particularly stiff, but two months in bed hadn't done me any favours. I also had PT exercises to do in the pool, and Uncle B helped a lot. Sometimes Aunt Sarah, too. And Penny and Bogart were always at the side of the pool, ready with an encouraging bark.