Rarity by D. A. Roach Page A

number.  How would I check if he was alright? I couldn’t deal with Jay being a car crash?   I made my way to second period.  Each moment I grew more and more nauseous.  I asked the teacher for a restroom pass.  I needed be alone in case tears started to fall.  I must have looked like hell because she didn’t question me.
     
    I sat in the stall doing my breathing/meditation exercise that I practiced every night.  I felt calmer but I couldn’t shake the feeling of sorrow deep within me.  I needed my mom.  Tears filled my eyes and I leaned my head against the cold graffiti filled metal bathroom wall. The bell rang.  I had spent most of 2nd period in a bathroom stall.  I quickly headed toward the classroom to gather my things.  My teacher said, “Sweetie, you don’t look any better - you better see the nurse.  You look like you are about to come undone.”  I nodded and headed toward the nurse’s office.
     
    I never had to visit the nurse in my whole high school career.  I opened the door and smelled the antiseptic that lingered in the air.  The nurse was busy typing at her computer.  “I’ll be with you in a moment.”  she said.  I breathed in and out inflating and deflating my lungs completely.  I counted all the cheap ugly knick knacks the nurse had on her shelf.  Thirty seven ugly porcelain figurines, it reminded me of a garage sale.  “Sorry about your wait.”  She looked up from the computer and her face dropped when she saw me.   “Oh my.  What happened?  she motioned for me to sit on a cot. 
     
    “I don’t know. I don’t feel well.”
     
    The nurse checked my vitals and commented on how I looked panicked. “Sweetheart, we need to slow your breathing down.”  She guided me through some breathing exercises but after a few minutes I wasn’t getting any better.  “I think it’s time to call Mom.” 
     
    I heard her talking quietly to my mom on the phone.  I curled my legs in toward my chest and retreated into my head - drowning in sadness over some unknown reason.  Tears had begun falling by the time my mom arrived.  “Brogen, what happened?”  I just shook my head, I had no answer.  My mom stood and walked over to the nurse,  “I’m gonna’ take her home.”
     
    “Ok. I just need you to sign her out.”  The nurse handed my mom a paper.  My arm began tingling.  I squeezed my fist tightly and released it, but the tingles remained.  I breathed slower and slower and the tingles were less intense.  So weird.
     
    We headed to the car  - I didn’t even stop at my locker to get my stuff.  “Brogen, I want to help you but I don’t know what’s happening.  I need you to talk to me, please.”  Mom sounded worried. 
     
    “I don’t know what’s wrong.” My voice quivered. “I said goodbye to Jay and I had this overwhelming feeling of sadness take over my body.  What the hell is wrong with me?”
     
    “I don’t know for sure,”  Mom said.
     
    “What do you mean?!”
     
    “Well, sometimes people that are empathic can sense when something bad is going to happen.  I’ve had it happen a few times in my life.  But I can’t call it up - the feeling will come on its own and I sit, helpless, and later find out some bad news.  But maybe you just picked up on someone’s energy.  Let’s call Mrs. Taylor to check on Meg just in case.”  Mom dialed her number before we left the school parking lot.  I listened as Mom talked and drove.  Trying to quiet the sobs wanting to escape me and the nausea tickling the back of my throat.  “Are you sure?” - pause -  “Ok, Thanks - that’s great news.”
     
    Mom turned toward me and said, “She’s great, they have her walking around and think she’ll go home in 2 days.”  It wasn’t Meg.  When I thought of Meg, I felt peace and joy.  I thought of Becca and felt her ugliness tainting the air but even Becca’s energy didn’t feel the same as what I felt inside.  I thought of Jay and I