The Broken Orphan [Being Rewritten]

Twenty Five- Purple Bracelet

Luke

My mouth doesn't stop hurting. In fact, it only gets worse. Not by a lot, but because I know it's there, I can't stop thinking about it which is making it feel worse.

My morning is spent giving physicals to students in all the grades. Most of the students are nice, others just don't care. Some of them talk and ask how my day is going which always makes me smile. Not all of them are happy and relaxed as others. I have had a few students who are antsy and fidgety. Those are the ones who don't talk much.

Their bracelets confirm my suspicions about them. The different colors mean different levels of comfort with our jobs. White being fine, blue meaning it bothers or scared them a little and purple meaning they are in no way comfortable with us and most likely have a phobia of us. The students with the white bracelets are the ones who are happy and chatty. The ones with a blue bracelets are fidgety and quiet. So far, I've only had one purple bracelet and it was this morning. She's my last patient before it's their second period, when I would go to meet Evangeline in the library.

The poor girl was terrified. She was a sophomore who seemed like a very nice girl, whose name was Penelope. When I called her name to tell her to come in, she came with hesitation and fear in her eyes. She wouldn't look me in the eyes and her steps were very forced. I gave her a big smile to try to brighten the mood.
"Good morning, I'm Mr. Clark, but you can call me Luke." I say. She doesn't respond and keeps her head down. "Could you hop onto the table for me?" I ask
She gets on the table and clutches her bag tightly to her chest. She glances around the room worriedly and jumps when the door shuts. I grab my computer, sit down on the rolling stool, and roll over to her. I scroll through her medical history to see that she's missed one of her vaccines. Of course I don't tell her this just yet so I don't scare her more. I try to make small talk to get her to warm up to me.

"So Penelope, what grade are you in?" I ask even though her file tells me already.
"Tenth." She squeaks out
"Oh, that's what my daughter is in. Maybe you know her, Evangeline?" I ask
"Probably not, Sir. I'm new here, but there is a girl in my class named Evangeline." She tells me shyly
"Brown hair, glasses, doesn't talk much?" I probe
"Yes Sir." She clarifies
"Then that would be her." I say and set down my laptop on the counter top. I pull on a pair of gloves and go back to her. I lift my stethoscope off my shoulder and tears start rolling down her face. I set down my stethoscope and grab a tissue for her. I gently remove her hands from her face and dab away her tears.
"Shh, it's alright." I tell her and hand her the tissue. She wipes at her rosy cheeks to dry them.
"All I want to do is listen to your heart. It won't hurt, I promise." I assure her she takes a deep breath to calm herself and sets her bag aside. She nods and finishes drying her face.
"Sorry, I guess I'm acting a bit childish." She apologizes
"It's alright, everyone has their own fears." I say and pick up my stethoscope again.
"Would you mind telling me why you are so afraid?" I ask
She looks disappointed in herself "I've always been afraid." She explains
"Oh, I see." I say sadly "Penelope, I can assure you, I have no intention of hurting you or anyone else." I tell her. She nods to show she understands. I ready my stethoscope and hold it up to ask for permission to use it. She nods and I place it over her heart.
"Deep breath." I instruct and she follows my orders.
"And again." I say and move it to another location.

I listen to her heart and it sounds fine. I grab the blood pressure cuff and wrap it around her arm.
"It's going to give your arm a hug, okay?" I say
"Okay." She whispers

I pump up the cuff and check her blood pressure. It's elevated slightly, but I think it's just from her being nervous because her heart rate was high too.
She begs me with her eyes to take it off because of the pressure. I release the air and unwrap the cuff from her arm. She breaths a sigh of relief and rubs her arm.
"Now, height and weight." I tell her. I hold out my hand and she takes it. She hops down from the examination table and I lead her to the scale. She steps onto the scale and I take her weight. Her weight is where it should be and I take her height.
"Perfect." I tell her as I write down her measurements. She gives me a small smile and I motion for her to go back to the table. She climbs back onto the table and waits patiently.
I walk back to her and set down her file.
"Has anything been bothering you lately?" I ask
"No Sir." She says
She allows me to check her ears, nose, temperature, and throat without a problem. She was hesitant to let me check her stomach, but eventually let me do it. I test her reflexes which where how they should be, just like the rest of her body. She is in good health that I can tell.
Now is the part I was dreading. I always hate giving shots to people, but it has to be done. I'm good at it though. Sometimes, the patient doesn't even feel it. Just as I'm about to tell Penelope that I have to go get something, there is a knock on the door and Grayson enters.
"Hey, are you ready to go...oops, sorry. I didn't realize you had a patient." He says sheepishly and starts to back out.
"Wait," I call out to him. He stops in the doorway with a confused expression. "I was just about to see if you could keep Ms. Penelope company, while I go get something." I tell him and motion to the girl.
"Sure." He says smiling.

I turn away from Penelope and put my hands in front of my stomach. I wave one of my hands to get his attention and he looks to them. I tap on my wrist to tell him to look at her bracelet. He does and understands the situation. Gray and I have been working together for so long that we have come up with a few secret signals for each other. Sometimes, we ask each other to come comfort a patient for us while the other one of us does our work, if the patient is scared. I walk past him and pat his arm once on my way out. We figured this was a way to let him know how many shots the patient needed without saying it aloud so the patient wouldn't know what's going to happen. This keeps them calm longer and gives them a chance to warm up to Grayson before I get back.

I go prepare the vaccine and try to take a little more time than usual, for the sake of getting Penelope used to Grayson. I lay the vaccine on the tray and carry it back to the room. I give a small knock and walk in to see Penelope giggling at Grayson who is drawing a silly face on a glove balloon. She smiles at me and turns back to Grayson. He makes her laugh again and then turns to me. Penelope's smile drops instantly when she sees the vaccine on the tray after I set it down on the bed. Her eyes fill with fear and tears. She gasp and covers her upper arms with her hands. Before she can start crying, I go to comfort her. I gently pry her hands off her arms and hold them in mine.
"Penelope, it's okay." I say softly. A tear drops from her eye and onto her cheek. I wipe it away with the tissue and enclose her hand around it. "Honey, I dont want to hurt you." I tell her. She sniffles and tries to stop crying. "You only need one. I'll be as quick as I can, and really gentle. You'll barely be able to feel it." I try to tell her
She doesn't respond and I sigh. At least it's going better than Evangeline's dental check up. That was almost a complete disaster.
I motion for Grayson to help me comfort her, he rolls on the stool to right in front of her and takes her hands.  I roll up the sleeve on her left arm and wipe it with an alcohol pad. She doesn't move or speak while I'm doing this, but as soon as I uncap the needle, she looks to her shoulder where I'm going to put the needle. Tears start streaming down her face faster now and I look to Gray for help. He lets go of her hand and pulls her chin to face him so she can't see what I'm doing. It helps with not feeling the needle for some reason.
"Look at me." Grayson tells her and wipes off her cheeks.
I take her arm in my hand and find that's it's really tense. It's going to hurt her more if she doesn't relax it. "Relax your arm, honey." I tell her. She closes her eyes and reluctantly relaxes her muscles.
"1, 2, 3, deep breath." I instruct her and insert the needle. She lets out a small squeak as I administer the vaccine.
"Almost done." I inform her
It only takes me a few seconds to get it all out of the syringe and I take out the needle.  She sniffles and as I place a bandaid over the incision. I place the syringe back onto the tray and carry it to the counter. I dispose of the needle and go back to Penelope.
"All done." I tell her and fix her shirt. I rub her back to comfort her and as a sign to say sorry.
"No more?" She ask me with begging eyes.
"No more." I assure her. She gives me a small smile and her face fills with relief.
"Penelope, you were really brave, and I'm proud of you for that." I tell her with a smile. Her face lights up at my praise and Gray chimes in too.
"You did great." Grayson says which makes her smile more. She looks down to her lap and twiddles with her thumbs. Blush creeps across her face, probably embarrassed that she cried in front of us. Grayson pats her knee and stands. He walks to the counter and reaches into the lollipop jar and pulls out a red one. He holds it out to her and she takes it, smiling at the treat.
"You do know you're a dentist, right?" I ask which makes her giggle.
"Yes, but they're sugar free and she deserves it." He says with an attitude to me. I just roll my eyes and turn back to the girl.
"Well Penelope, it was nice to meet you. We'll see you again for your dental checkup, but for now, someone has to get back to class, and I have to get some lunch." I say and pat my hungry stomach. She stifles a laugh and hops from the table. I hand her her bag and she tells us bye. We watch as she leaves and Grayson helps me clean up afterwards. When we finish, we head to the library to meet with Evangeline.