The soft beeping of medical equipment could be heard throughout the room as Sandra had awakened from her dream. Her mother's hand was cold, yet provided a warm comfort to her, as she recovered from the shock of waking up, and of the pain returning to her leg. She also had some slight pain in her forehead, which had a small bandage over it, just above her left eye. Her vision was blurred as she realized where she was, her memory slowly coming back to her. There was a stinging in her knee, but she tried to ignore it. All she cared about, at the moment, was being alright and having her mother close.

“Thanks, Mom.” she said, in a soft, weak voice. In reaction to this, her mother's other hand came up and brushed back her hair. “You know it's no trouble. You're my daughter, after all, and you're all I have left.” Sandra had always been close to her mother, ever since his freshman year of high school. Her father died in a car accident and she didn't have any brothers or sisters, at the time. She didn't feel safe enough to open all of that up to her friends, so she and her mother went into a phase of grieving, together. This helped strengthen the bond between the two of them, and it had made Sandra close to her mother, making her the oddball of her class. Very few high school-aged girls enjoyed being around their parents.

“What do you remember of the accident, Ms. Moore?” The doctor's voice came in loud and clear. Sandra turned her head to look at him, yawning. She remembered quite a bit about the accident, though her voice was a little groggy when she tried to answer him. “I remember...basketball practice last a long time. I rode my bicycle home, because the car was...in the shop, for something. I sped towards the curb near...Plum Street, I think, and then, I woke up here. Seeing you and Mom is the last thing I remember after that.” Her memory was a little fuzzy, not remembering the actual cause of her accident to the point of it happening.

The doctor nodded his head a couple times and picked up a clipboard attached to the metal table that turned around the bed she was on. Flipping through pages, he made a few more nodding gestures before he looked back to her. “Good. According to the report I got, you hit the curb, at an angle. When your mother here brought you in, aside from your knee injury, your head was bleeding and you were unconscious.” He then flipped the papers back and set the clip board down, reaching for a small, clear cup, filled with two small pills. Handing it to her, he continued. “Here, take these. It will ease the pain.”

Sandra took a minute to look at the pills before popping them in her mouth and swallowing. She could still feel a good deal of pain in her knee, and she didn't like that, at all. She was concerned about it, to say the least. Looking to him again, she spoke about her injury. “How bad is it? When can I get back to basketball?” Her question had a lot of reasoning behind it, and she only prayed that it wasn't as serious as it looked, and felt. “Basketball? Are you kidding?” said the doctor, taking his glasses off. “Ms. Moore, you have a bone that is fractured in three places. You won't be doing any kind of physical activity for weeks, at best.”

“WHAT?!” she screamed, not believing what the doctor was saying. Her head had pulled forward, bringing her up from the pillows on the bed. “What do you mean 'weeks'?! I can't be out-of-action for that long! I have things that I have to do! I have to perform an audition in less than a month for a big scholarship, one that I really need! I HAVE to be able to play basketball for that audition, or I might not be able to get into Stanmore University!” Sandra was freaking out at this point, but the doctor was still as calm as ever, looking to her with a very serious expression.

His concerns were obviously not as serious as hers. “Listen, Ms. Moore. I'm very sorry about your injury, but if you didn't hear me, you have a bone fractured in--” “I know! THREE PLACES!” barked Sandra, getting angrier every second. “I know it's bad, but I have to be able to make that audition! Do you know how long and hard Mom and I have been practicing together and planning and researching to do this?! I can't let some stupid injury stop me from getting in there! I have to get the scholarship! There's no other way!”

“Ms. Moore, please calm down. There is nothing I can do. We are giving your injury the best care we can, but there's simply no other option available right now.” The doctor was very clear in his response to her. She was clearly upset, and for good reason, but you just can't get around recovery to do something like that. “But, I...I need to...I need that scholarship...I...” Sandra was calming down, her mother placing her hand on her shoulder, the doctor walking out the door. Sandra looked to her mother, that mean expression she'd given the doctor soon disappearing as the door closed behind him.

“Mom, you know how hard I've been working for this. My grades, the constant practice we do at home, the audition is next week. I can't...this can't be happening!” Her mother knew that things were bad right now, and they seemed very bad, to her. She wrapped her arms around her daughter's head and pulled her into her shoulder, starting to brush her hair again. “I know, Sandra. I know. You've been working so hard to get into Stanmore, and you'll get in. I promise.” She didn't know, for sure, if she really could turn this around for Sandra, but she would do her best.

“Mom, you make this sound so...easy to do.” she said, trying to grasp some of her mother's optimism. As her head was let go of, her mother smiled and ruffled her hair a little. “Tell ya what, kiddo...I'm gonna go find the doctor and see if we can't find something better for you, okay? I'll see what I can do to get you a faster treatment.” She pushed her chair back from the bed and began to stand up, the sun shining in on her own skin, darker in color than Sandra's, her side of the family stronger in Native American heritage. “I'll be back before you know it!” Sandra let out a smile as she watched her mother walk out the door. “Thanks, Mom.” she whispered to herself, closing her eyes and thinking harder on what had led her to this situation...