Apparently, sometime between the ambulance and now, Mom and Hutch got to be on a first-name basis.

He takes the porch steps two at a time. Thankfully, he’s changed out of his tracksuit and into jeans and a button-down. Bert offers him the bottle of water, and he accepts with a smile.

“Alice, I’ve had the chance to get to know your daughter pretty well over the last few months. She’s a determined girl, and I’ve seen what she can achieve when she pushes herself. She’s more motivated than half my students in gym.”

“But pushing herself too hard is what got her sick in the first place.” Mom’s looking back and forth between all of us like she can’t tell where to aim her argument.

“I understand that, Alice, but I think I can help if you let me continue working with her. I can show her a few more exercises, gentle ones, that can build up her strength.”

“Mom, he’s the best PT I’ve ever had.”

“Three more months,” Coralee pleads. “That’s all we want. Just let her finish out the semester before you decide.”

“Come on, darlin’, you know when you’re outnumbered,” Grandpa shouts through the window.

Mom walks to the edge of the porch. She stands there with her back to us.

After a minute when nobody moves, she says, “Lord help me.”

It’s all I need to hear.

“Wahoo!” Coralee yells, and spins.

Mema says, “That a girl!” and Grandpa slaps the table.

Hutch just walks down the steps, nods at all of us, and says, “I’ll see you Monday, Ellie.”

“Don’t look so disappointed,” I say to Bert, who’s standing there with his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah, what’s eating you?” Coralee says.

He closes the laptop slowly and picks it up. “I had twenty-eight more slides.”

12 Test Kitchen

The first few weeks after I came back to school, everybody was really nice to me. Like, really nice to me. All the teachers talked to me like they talk to the soccer players when they come back from concussions.

“Ellie, you just take it easy now. You get tired, you tell me.”

“Ellie, Nurse Patsy has been made aware of your special circumstances. You go lie down anytime you need to.”

“If you need extra time to get to class, Ellie, you just let me know.”

It was super annoying.

The only teacher that didn’t do it was Hutch. He even made me wear ankle weights to try leg lifts. He’s printed out all the exercises and made a binder I have to work through. I’ve never had homework in gym before.

The students were weird in the beginning too.

My first day back Sierra texted me at lunch: u want to eat w us?