A NEW CINDERELLA STORY

A Friendship

"Isabelle?" it seems like a question, more than a statement or realization. John's voice is tired; he collapses only a moment later. I catch him and carry him, only then realizing that I, too, was shot in the leg. I bite back the urge to scream, and run across the street once more as the sirens stop and the doctors come back from the basement.

"Isabelle! Are you alright, are you okay?" Stella, Aaron, and Brandon all ask basically the same question.

"I'm fine, Aaron, can you take John?" I slightly raise John to show him who I mean. He nods and takes him from my arms, and I take myself back to Dr. Meliona's office, trudging and dragging my leg the entire way. I pull out the plyers in my satchel, and started my regular routine after getting shot. I can feel the excruciating pain as I rip the bullet from my scarred leg. I breathe deeply, in, out, each breath calming me more, and I cover the wound with a rag I see on the counter.

"You don't like waiting for help, do you?" I hear a Spanish-Mexican accent ask. I turn to see Dr. Meliona.

"No, not really. It's absolutely not my favorite thing in the entire world," I laugh, I speak the total truth. She makes her way over to me, bends down, looking at my leg. Dr. Meliona feels my leg, I wince at the pain, the all too familiar pain. "Your Doctor Meliona, right?"

"Ce," she confirms, "However, you can just call me Mariella, that's my first name." She seems friendly, Mariella walks over to the counter and opens a drawer. She pulls out an Ace Bandage and tosses them to me. I catch them, and wrap my leg. She comes and looks at my wrapping job, and smiles.

"Air Force, right?" Mariella guesses. She laughs, probably at my confused face.

"Wa-, wha-, how-, Yeah, how did you know," I ask, my confusion obvious in my confused tone, if my face didn't make it clear before, she knows I am very confused. Mariella laughs again.

"The different military branches teach their soldiers how to do medical things in different ways. You wrapped your leg the way the Air Force would teach. It's all about noticing patterns," She smiles. I laugh and shake my head. She is completely right. She starts to hand me crutches.

"No, I don't need any crutches," I say.

"Your right. What you need is a wheel chair, but I not even going to try to give you that," she laughs, and tries to give them to me again. I shake my head again, amused, indicating that I am serious.

"I don't need crutches." I push them away once more, and she shrugs and leads me out into the hall. I know that I have a slight limp, but it doesn't really bother me.

"Isabelle?" I hear a man's, no, John's, voice ask from behind me. I turn to see him on crutches. "What are you doing here, I rang at your house, but you weren't there." I sheep up a little, I don't want to tell him anything. I open my mouth to explain when I hear Stella's voice coming from behind me.

"Isabelle!" She runs up to me and basically lunges into a hug, I put my back to the wall to balance myself out. "I looked for you in the basement, but I couldn't find you, then Dr. Hope told me that you stayed up here, I was so worried. Then I remembered your experience and just hoped you were okay, get it, hoped." I laugh catching her pun.

"Who's this?" I hear John ask, in the two statements that Stella gave, I had completely forgotten about him.

"Oh, um, John, this is," my voice breaks a little, "This is Stella, my sister." He looks dumbfounded. Then confused. After that that his eyes just grew big.

"But, I thought, didn't you, Really?" He ends up asking, obviously so many thoughts, but not enough words. I nod and he turns towards Stella. "It's a pleasure to re-meet your acquaintance. I'm John, you probably don't remember me." He laughs a little.

"Oh, I assure you, John, I most certainly remember you and your little races," Stella tries to keep a straight face, but ends up laughing in the end all the same.

"You want a reenactment?" John asks as Stella slowly retaliates. Oh how I missed these moments in the melancholy time. I guess he's not so bad after all. I mean, 9 years doesn't change a thing, let alone friendship.