Plié and Clout

Deleted Scenes: Stomach Bug (1/2)

hey guys it's me again

this is literally an 8,000 word chapter split in two and I'm posting them at the same time

THERE'S MORE NOTES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SECOND STICK AROUND. I HAVE SOME STUFF TO TALK ABOUT

-rabid

***

JILLY

"You can't call Steph, he won't pick up," I feel my stomach roll again and bend over my knees. "He won't pick up,"

"I'm sorry, it's protocol-"

"He's at practice, he won't pick up,"

"Do you have another contact?"

I hold my stomach as it churns again. "Nico, call Nico,"

"Who's Nico?"

"Here, here's the number," I pull my phone out and hunt through my contacts for Nico. When I hand her my phone, she types the number into the school phone.

STEPH

"I need you guys to, wait," Nico holds up her hands and we get to breathe for a second. "Hey, hi, yeah, that's me."

She looks at me. "Steph? Yeah what about him?"

The team hesitates. "Yeah, sure, and Jilly's there? Got it, alright. Here he is, let him take off his helmet."

I try to control my breathing and manage, to get my helmet and gloves off. "Hi, yeah hi?"

"Sorry for interruption, but Jilly is here in my office, she's caught the stomach flu, you're going to need to come get her,"

"Stomach flu?"

"Yes,"

"Now?"

"Yes."

"Uh, yeah, give me fifteen minutes," I hand the phone back to Nico. "Jilly's sick, I gotta go, I probably won't be back," and then I feel like a firefighter doing the dressing thing, except I'm stripping gear. I've got my jersey off before I'm off the ice, and then shoulders and elbows by the time I'm in the locker room. Then I realize my pants are in my locker halfway across the rink and it would probably be better to just take off my skates and go in half-gear. Jilly probably just wants to get home and I can change later.

So I do just that, and prance off in half of my gear and a skin-tight long sleeve undershirt. You know, like a hoe.

And then I realize driving with shin guards on is difficult, but I manage.

Then I walk into the front-desk area of Crawford, sweating from my ears, and ask where the nurse's office is.

"Hey, I'm looking for the nurse's office?" The guy at the desk stares at me for about fifteen seconds.

"Yeah, it's over there, down that flight of stairs," he blinks a couple times.

"Awesome thanks," I make that horrible shoop-shoop-shoop noise with the shell on my buttpads and make my way down the flight of stairs.

"Hey Jilly, got here as fast as possible," I stick my head in the nurse's office. She looked a little pale this-morning, but this is a new type of pale. "Wow you look- not, not great."

She just nods at me. Normally she'd have some little aggressive comeback to that.

I turn to the nurse. "Do I need to sign anything to get her home, or?" She's staring at me.