Chapter 9

       "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked Justin as I helped him get out of Dalton's car before passing him his crutches. He was going to have to stay off his ankle for at least four weeks and even afterwards, it was going to take a while for him to be able to use it again.

       Almost everything he loved doing, he couldn't do it anymore for a while. He couldn't play ice hockey, he couldn't dance.

       He couldn't do anything.

       "Yeah, I'll be fine," Justin said. "I made a mistake and now I have to deal with the... What's that word?"

       "Consequences?" I asked.

       "Yeah, that," Justin said. "I knew what could happen if I skated on my ankle but I did it anyway."

       "I'm sorry," I said. "I should have done more to make sure you didn't skate. I knew something was up but I did nothing."

       "Hey..." Justin said softly. "Don't feel guilty. It's my fault only. Even if you did try more, I probably wouldn't have listened because I thought I could handle."

       "Still," I said. 

        "No still," Justin said. "It's only my fault. I really wouldn't have listened if you tried convincing me more. My ankle wasn't bothering me too much so I thought I could play perfectly fine."

       I was about to say something else but Dalton cut me off. "Can you two stop playing the Uno reverse card?"

       Justin furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

       "Dude, you've never played Uno?" Dalton asked.

       "I have," Justin said. "I don't get what you're saying though."

       "How can you not get it?" Dalton asked.

       "Because English is my third language and I'm still learning it," Justin said. "I don't get some sayings."

       "He's basically saying that we were going back and fourth in our conversation," I said before looking at Dalton. "We weren't, by the way."

       "You were," Dalton said. "'It's not your fault, it's may fault'. 'No, it was my fault'. 'No, my fault'."

       "I think your listening skills need work," I said. "That wasn't what our conversation sounded like at all."

       "Sure, Lark," Dalton said. "Whatever you say."

       I was going to correct him yet again but he started walking towards the school. 

       "I'm surprised he's not mad at me," Justin said. 

       "Why would he be mad at you?" I asked.

       "Because he's the captain of the hockey team," Justins said. "He's always telling us to take care of ourselves and not to push us way too hard but I did the complete opposite."

       "Well, yeah, but he was more worried about you," I said. "And he's sort of like you when it comes to anger. He doesn't get mad often."

       "Didn't he get mad at my sister when she stole one of his french fries a few days ago?" Justin asked. 

       "I said he doesn't get mad often. Not he doesn't ever get mad. And it's Lenora we're talking about. They annoy each other a whole lot."

       "Fair enough," Justin said.

       We made our way into the school with me carrying Justin's backpack since it was hard for him to do so while he was using crutches. 

       Throughout the day, I could tell Justin's injury was making his mood falter a whole lot. He wasn't really paying attention in any of his classes, he was a lot quieter than usual, and during dance class he was clearly upset that he couldn't participate.

       He even tried convincing our teacher that he could just mark the routine but she wouldn't allow him at all.

       Today after school, we did have rehearsal for the school's musical so while Justin and I were heading to the theatre, I asked, "Are you doing okay? You didn't seem to happy in class."

       Justin sighed. "It's just harder than I thought it would be. At least I won't have to sit out during rehearsal since I can still do everything I normally on crutches."

       When the two of us walked into the theatre, the director-slash-drama teacher, Mrs. Trench, looked at Justin with a concerned expression. "What happened?" she asked.

       "Skating injury," Justin said without getting into detail. "Will I still be able to take part in the rehearsal?"

       "I don't see why not," Mrs. Trench said. "We will be blocking some of the songs today so if moving around on stage with your crutches gets too tiring, you can sit down to sing your parts."

       "Okay," Justin said.

       At three o'clock was when rehearsals officially began so once that time came, Mrs. Trench told everyone that we were going to be blocking some of the songs today and the first one we were going to do was There, Right There since it was a cast favourite.

       And this was perfect for Justin since it took place in a courtroom so chances were, Justin would be sitting most of the time.

       He was, for some part. There were times in the song, he had to stand up but he decided to just continue sitting since even though he could stand, he was out of sync with everyone else so it was throwing off the song a bit.

       At least during the rehearsal, Justin did seem to be having fun and genuinely looked like he was enjoying it and was no longer upset about his ankle.

       There was one thing in his life he could still do with his injury, so we didn't have to sit out during everything.

       After Mrs. Trench felt that we knew the blocking for this song well enough, she said, "I would like to try Legally Blonde, if you're up to it, Justin. It might involve a bit of walking with you."

       "I'd like to give it a shot," Justin said.

       "Perfect," Mrs. Trench said. "Alright, I need everyone off of the stage except for Justin and Lark. But Justin, you'll have to be off stage, or at least close to it for now, at the beginning."

       As everyone got off the stage, Justin stood off to the side on the stage so he wasn't fully off and wouldn't have to walk a long distance when he was needed to be near I was.

       Justin and I had practiced this song quite a few times together on our own so we already knew it by heart. It was one of the songs Justin never struggled to learn.

       Mrs. Trench led us through the blocking a few times before she wanted to see it the full way through the song.

       Once Justin and I performed the whole song with the blocking, Mrs. Trench smiled widely. "Your voices just blend so well with each other," she said. "I'm so glad I have the perfect Elle and Emmett for this musical. Okay, we'll take five before working on a different song."

       "I definitely need a break after that one," Justin said to me as he sat down on the edge of the stage.

       I sat down beside him. "You're doing a lot better remembering the songs. Especially There, Right There. I know you struggled with that one."

       "Well, we all practiced that one for a while since it is a fun song to do," Justin said. "Do you think we'll be able to do Chip on My Shoulder over the weekend? That's another one I'm struggling with."

       "Yeah, sure," I said. "And that is just us two so we don't have to worry about finding other people to fill in the parts."

       "Okay, great," Justin said. "I need to find something to distract me so working on the musical will definitely help."

_____________

man i wish my high school did legally blonde. it's one of my favourite musicals and it seems so much fun to do.

but no, we had to do the wizard of oz where i messed up one of my lines and instead of saying "it's best to start from the beginning" i said "it's best to fart --start from the beginning." 😔😔