"they told me to."

2

Joss

"P-Paraplegia?" Joss stuttered, her mind filled with dread.
"Yes." Dr Lanwood replied. He always hated situations like this. He could physically see the disbelief mixed with anguish inside his patients' eyes.
"How...I don't understand, what...what does it mean for me?" Joss questioned,  on the verge of crying now.
"You have twelve thoracic vertebrae in your chest area," Dr Lanwood began, briefly gesturing to his chest as he did so, "and when you fell out of the window, you injured these vertebrae when you landed. We performed an emergency operation on your spine as soon as we could, but obviously it took a while for the ambulances to arrive. One of your neighbours called the fire service, and they called the ambulance as soon as they found you. It took about fifteen minutes overall for both services to arrive, and then a further six minutes for the ambulance to arrive here, and you were unconscious for most of the time. We operated on your spine as soon as you arrived, but if our calculations are correct , then you will not be able to move your legs or have any feeling in them."

"No feeling whatsoever?" she asked, even though deep inside she knew the answer.

In answer, Dr Lanwood shook his head. Joss closed her eyes, just wanting to be alone.

"Joss?" Dr Lanwood questioned, his voice cutting into the silence. "Joss, are you okay?"

"No..." Joss mumbled, as she got more and more lost in her thoughts that were growing darker and darker by the second. "You just told me that I'll never be able to walk again, of course I'm not okay!"

"Joss..."

"Just go away, I need to be alone!"  
The doctor nodded understandingly, but he felt hurt on the inside. He picked up his clipboard and walked out, leaving Joss alone with the three other children in the ward, and her incessant thoughts.
One of the children had a brace wrapped around his neck, and a purple-ish bruise outlined his left eye. His breathing mask was strapped to his unusually pale face, and supplied him with the oxygen his battered up body failed to provide. 

Situated in the bed next to the unconscious boy was a girl with long blonde hair. Joss took note of the fact her phone was almost permanently to hand, constant huffs escaping her mouth. Quickly, Joss averted her gaze as the girl looked straight at her, intimidated by her fiery glare. She couldn't be sure, but Joss felt like she knew the girl from somewhere she couldn't quite place.

In the bed next to Joss's, a petite-looking girl sat hunched over a book that Joss instantly recognised. The swirly writing and unique cover art was distinguishable from where Joss lay with her head propped up; she had read it not even a week beforehand.

"Is that 'The Art Of Being Normal'?" Joss winced as her croaky voice broke the awkward silence filling the room, and the girl immediately lifted her head to look at Joss.

"Uh.. Yeah, it is." She replied, briefly smiling at Joss before she averted her eyes back to the page. A few moments of silence hung in the air, before the short haired girl spoke again. "Have...have you read it?"

"Yeah, a few days ago, actually."

"Did you like it?"

"I guess."
Silence invaded the air once again, laced with awkwardness.

"I'm Joss." She said, trying to restart the conversation. The girl nodded at her words, and hesitated on her answer.
"My name's Hayden." She informed Joss.
"Cool."
"Yeah, cool."
Once again, the room filled to the brim with awkwardness.
"Man, could you two be any more awkward?" The girl with blonde hair suddenly chipped in, prompting Joss to look away from Hayden for a moment. Surprisingly, the girl that Joss was yet to find the name of no longer had her phone in her hand. Instead, she looked at the two girls trying to converse with amusement clear in her eyes.
"I'm a naturally awkward person, Jade. And anyway, you can't call me socially awkward, remember what you were like when you first got here?" Hayden laughed, and Jade rolled her eyes. Joss smiled as well, trying to be a part of the conversation.

"Anyway...Joss, is it? How did you get in here?"