Jennifer sat awkwardly on a bench at the side of the hall, eyes still moist from crying. In truth, the fall hadn’t been that bad; her knee hurt quite a lot, but what had been a sharp pain was fading away to an ache by now, and though she had winded herself that wore off quickly.
More embarrassing was the state of her clothing. Apparently, the sudden strain of her falling had been too much for her overtaxed gym shorts, leaving them to split all the way down one side. She hadn’t even noticed until Ms Carroll, with the help of a couple of other girls, had helped her onto the bench and she’d glanced down. For half a second, she’d thought that she was naked besides her gym top; from her point of view, her crotch was hidden beneath her bulging belly, and she couldn’t see her shorts. It was only when sucked her stomach in and leaned forwards that she realised she was indeed still wearing her underwear, and spotted the tattered remains of her shorts around one ankle. Once she’d checked that Jennifer was okay, Ms Carroll had rushed off to find the school nurse, draping her jacket over the injured girl’s legs to preserve some of her modesty. The moment she had left the room, all the other girls had crowded around Jenny.
“Are you okay Jen?” Asked Katrina, concern written across her rounded face. “How’s your knee?”
“It’s alright now.” She said. “What was my score?”
“Uh, eleven.”
“Eleven!” The exclamation came from Kanya, one of the other girls. “C’mon, really?”
“I fell down.” Jennifer defended herself. She didn’t get on well with the Thai girl, often arguing over little things. Still, they were hardly enemies or anything.
“Yeah, but I managed to do forty in that time. We all had to stop when you tripped up like an idiot, remember?”
Jennifer glared at the other girl, but then looked away. She was too tired to be arguing about this right now…
Suddenly the hall doors burst open and Miss Villeneuve, the school nurse, hurried in. She glanced around, spotted Jennifer and came over to her, limping heavily. It was one of the funniest things in the world, at least according to the younger students, that the school nurse had a faulty leg. Occasionally, a student got up the courage to ask what had happened to it, but the answers they got back were always different. One week it had been broken in a car accident, the next she’d had Polio, whatever that was. It was one of the school’s greatest mysteries.
Miss Villeneuve came to a stop before Jennifer, and smiled crookedly.
“Jenny. Hurt yourself again?” It wasn’t the first time the nurse had been called out to see to the chubby girl. She had, in the French woman’s own words “A talent for falling on face”.
“Yes Miss Vill- Villen…”
“Villeneuve,” the nurse corrected her, unzipping her first aid bag. “Now… what appears to be the problem?” She asked, her tone making Jennifer shiver.
“Ah, well I fell down and bumped my knee,” she began, “and then…”
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