A nurse comes in and the lights in the corridor have changed to day mode meaning its probably morning time. I actually slept through the night which was strange I didn’t think I would.

“Morning Anna, time to get up it’s 7:30 am and time for morning meds, get dressed and head over to the nurses station.”

“Okay good morning.” I rub my eyes and try and wake up and check my phone. Looks like Izzy and Becca are already up as they have been texting me. Apparently, Mandy woke Becca up at 5am as she was so excited for her dad coming home and the sister’s weekend. Izzy’s sister woke her up at 6am so looks like neither of them sleep much last night. I text them that I am up and they groan that they wish they could have slept til 7:30am. I let them know I am just getting ready and going for morning meds and I will facetime them when I get back. I get out of bed and make my bed for the day and open the curtains and open my window the two inches I am allowed. I grab my clothes for the day and go to the bathroom to get changed. I throw on my jeans from yesterday since they aren’t dirty, a Disney tee and my usual teal converse, decided not to wear a hoodie as its quite warm so grab  my cardigan instead. I spray some deodorant, wipe my face and flatten any stray hairs but my hair is still okay from the plait from the night before. I rinse some mouthwash as I always have bad morning breath. I fold my pjs and put them on my nicely made bed next to my teddy for tonight.  I head over to the nurse’s station locking my door and grabbing my key. The nurse hands me a cup with two pills and water and I don’t questions just throw them down, swallow water and open my mouth so they check I have taken them. I head back to my room and facetime Becca and Izzy as we always facetime first thing in the morning. Becca tells us how Mandy was too excited for  her dad coming home and snook into Becca’s bed around 1am, and 5am she jumped on top of Becca until she woke up. We both giggle a little at her when she says this as it is cute. Izzy tells us she didn’t have such a cheery morning she woke up at 6am to her sister Ivy throwing up, apparently she ate too much sugar last night.  We chat about some stuff for a few minutes and then my stomach groans and that’s my cue to go get breakfast, Izzy agrees she has to go make breakfast for her sisters and Becca was getting pulled to the kitchen by Mandy as Jamie shouted upstairs “waffles are ready!”

We end the call and all head to go get breakfasts. I throw my phone in my jean pocket and grab my key and lock my door behind me, and head to the canteen. I grab a tray and look at the breakfast options, I decide on something healthy as I had pancakes for breakfast yesterday and cake after dinner. I grab wholemeal toast and some butter and jam sachets, then grab a blueberry muffin and I pour a glass of apple juice and say good morning to Gloria as I swipe my bracelet. I grab my tray and find somewhere to sit and I notice Matty is already munching some pancakes and I go over and sit with him.

“morning Matty.”

“oh morning Anna didn’t see you there” He takes his earphones out. “how was your first night?”

“okay yeah, fell asleep about 10, after facetiming Izzy and Becca and only woke when the nurse came in at 7:30.”

“oh that’s good, its probably the meds,”

“yeah probably, at least I slept better then Izzy and Becca.” I explain how Becca woke up to Mandy jumping on her at 5am and how Izzy woke up to her sister throwing up from too much sugar at 6am.

“oh dear!”

I grab my phone and take a picture of my breakfast to send to Izzy and Becca. We always send pictures of food we eat everyday. Matty laughs at me for this and I tell him it’s a girl thing and that shuts him up.

“You should really try the pancakes one day Gloria makes some awesome pancakes.”

“thanks I will, I just thought I should be healthy this morning as yesterday morning we had chocolate chip pancakes as I left home, and then last night had a piece of cake after dinner so thought I should try and have a healthy few meals now.”

“you have more willpower than me!” He says as he takes a giant bite of pancakes.

We chat for a little while and he finishes his food, and then he tells me his mum and little brother are at the door and he has to go.

I get back to my toast and check my phone. Izzy sends me a picture of her cooking scrambled eggs for her and her sisters and mum.  Becca sends a selfie of her and Mandy with a waffle bigger than Mandy’s face and they both are pulling goofy faces. This makes us all laugh. I finish my breakfast and place my tray in the tray area but grab the muffin as I didn’t want that now so would have it when back in my room.

I walk back to my room and have to go down isolation unit again, not matter how many times I walk down here it always gives me the creeps.

“hey you” I hear a voice from a door and since I am the only one in the hallway I figure whoever it is must be speaking to me.

“hello?” I answer back softly.

“come over here.” Whoever it is opens the small hatch in the door. I walk over and look through to see how I am talking to. A girl about my age, she has long black hair that covers a lot of her face. She is wearing a long sleeved tshirt and grey trackie bottoms. Under she right sleeve I see a bandage but as she notices me looking at it she pulls her sleeve down.

“you must be new, I am Beth I am 15, who are you?”

“I am Anna, I am 14 just got here yesterday well technically Wednesday but my best friends helped me break out but came back here yesterday.”

“wait fire alarm and the escape was you?, you know the whole ward was talking it about, none has ever actually escaped before, many have tried of course.”

“have you tried?”

“yeah about twice, last time put me in here, as I hurt myself.”

“that sucks.” Not really sure what to say back.

“yeah Anyway nice meeting you Anna, see you around.”

“yeah nice meeting you too Beth.” She closes the hatch and I walk on back to my room.

I get back to my room, unlocking the door and sit on bed, place my muffin on my bedside table and  grab my phone to text  Izzy and Becca as I am still a little freaked out by meeting Beth and I want to tell them about it. We text back and fourth for a while. Then I realize it’s 8:30 and I tell them I am going to try and get on with some homework before family therapy. Izzy lets me know she will come once that’s over. Becca tells me Mandy has already chosen the first movie and is in her Elsa dress and sends me a picture of her in the dress. It’s very cute. I put my phone down and grab my school books and grab my laptop. I put my studying playlist on in the background quietly. And place my phone on the bedside table and grab my muffin. I start my history assignment. It’s an 2 page essay on Nazi Germany which I think should be pretty easy as History is easy for me and I find Nazi Germany a very interesting subject. I get researching, using the notes Izzy and Becca helped me with yesterday and start writing my assignment, I am so into it I don’t even notice the nurse coming in every 15 minutes for checks. I finish up, saving it so my mum can check it for spelling and grammar before submitting it. I read it through and I am pretty proud I think this is another A in History. I check the time and it’s 9:45, I decide to work on my French extra credit stuff so I keep my grades up. Luckily its just some worksheets which are pretty easy. I check the time again and it’s 10:30 so I decide to relax for an hour before my family gets here. I put my school books in piles on my desk but now all homework is on the done pile as I am fully update with school work for now. I grab my laptop and put some youtube on, and turn my studying playlist off and dig into the muffin I haven’t had yet.

I sit and eat my muffin, watch youtube and text Izzy and Becca back and fourth. I tell them I completed my history assignment and extra credit stuff for French so I am all update with school work. Izzy tells me her mum is trying to make them go to a science museum today and she really doesn’t want to as she hates science. Becca tells me Mandy has changed outfits into a Rapunzel dress and they are watching Tangled. She sends me a cute picture of Mandy in the dress. I think that’s going to Becca’s day watching Disney movie after Disney movie with Mandy changing outfits between movies as she has a Disney princess for every Disney princess. We text for a while and before I know it my mum texts to say she is parking up and will be with me any minute.

A few minutes later Aaron and Alice burst into my room. Alice was wearing similar to me even teal converse I guess she wanted to match me today,I don’t mind. Aaron is in his football uniform and has mud stains all across the front. My mum came running behind telling them not to run about.

Alice and Aaron jumped me as I paused youtube and pushed my laptop to the side.

“careful you too I cant breathe!” I joke about as they hug me so tightly. I release the hug and get up and give my mum a hug.

“Hey sweetheart, how are you doing today? You sleep well?” we release the hug and she sits on my desk chair and I go sit on my bed with Alice and Aaron.

“not bad thanks, and yeah slept well, got to sleep about 10 and only woke up when nurse came in at morning call at 7:30. I definitely slept better then Izzy and Becca that’s for sure.” I tell her about Becca getting jumped on to wake up at 5am by Mandy and Izzy waking up to Ivy throwing up at 6am.

“oh dear well at least you slept well! Oh by the way your dad won’t be here til time for therapy as he is meeting a friend about a possible job.” 

“that’s cool, oh by the way can you check this history assignment over please?”

“sure thing” I hand her the laptop and she reads through it only making one or two spelling corrections. She finishes up and hands my laptop back. “that was very well researched and written, well done sweetheart its good to see you are keeping up with school work.”

“thanks mum and yeah of course still want to keep my grades up I am not going to let them slip.” I say as I turn my laptop off and put it on my desk.

We chat for a little while and I ask Aaron about his football match and he tells me he scored 3 goals and his team won 5-2. I remind him how proud of him I am and joke that no wonder he got so muddy if he scored 3 goals. We chat for a while longer and then we decide we should head to the canteen and get some lunch before therapy. Mum takes Aaron in my bathroom and cleans him up and helps him change before we go for lunch while I chat with Alice about her first sleepover she has coming up in a week. Mum and Aaron come out of the bathroom and Aaron got changed and is less muddy so we head to the canteen. I grab my phone and keys and head out the door locking it behind me and throwing my key in my jean pocket.

We walk down the hallway mum ahead with Aaron holding her hand and me and Alice behind with my arm around Alice’s neck. We head into the canteen and grab some trays. I help Alice out with hers and mum helps Aaron with his. We each decide to get a bunch of paninis and share between us. We got a mix of ham and cheese, tomato, pesto and cheese and grilled chicken. We all grab a bowl of fruit as well, I grab strawberries for me, blackberries for Alice, mum grabs some grapes for her and Aaron, although Aaron almost grabbed kiwi but he is allergic so we all stopped that. Next up is drinks, mum gets a cappuccino from the machine, I get a herbal tea and Alice and Aaron both go for fruit punch. I grab a white chocolate muffin for me and Alice to share and mum grabs a blueberry for her and Aaron to share. We go and pay and I swipe my bracelet while greeting Gloria and asking how her day is, while mum is paying for the other food. We go over and grab a big table with sofas for us to eat. We all dig in although I don’t feel too hungry as I am too anxious about the first family therapy session but I still eat as I know I should and all the food looks so good. We split the paninis up, I have the tomato, pesto and cheese to myself since I’m vegetarian, mum splits the ham and cheese between Aaron and Alice and has the grilled chicken to herself. We then split the muffins, but I let Alice have more than half of the white chocolate muffin and mum does similar with Aaron and lets him have the most and we all eat out muffins and fruit.  We all chat for a while and I can tell something is up with Alice as she is quieter than normal and has barely touched the muffin and I picked white chocolate as it’s her favourite. Since, she is sat on the same sofa as me and mum is busy chatting to Aaron about his friend’s pirate birthday party tomorrow, I shuffle and turn towards her.

“Hey I can tell something is up, what’s going on?” I say softly.

“oh it’s nothing, I just got a big science test on Monday I am worried about.” I know this is a lie, she is never nervous about tests and she loves science. I can tell something more is going on but she doesn’t want to say it in front of Aaron.

“I know that’s not it, you love science, do you need to talk to just me?”  She nods. “mum will you excuse us a second, Alice needs to chat to me outside, we won’t go far.”

“Sure thing sweetheart. Go ahead and dad text me letting me know he isn’t fair off so if you spot him wandering the corridors let him know where we are please.”

“sure thing!” Me and Alice walk off and we find a spot just outside and I lower myself down to her level. “come on then tell me what’s going on.” I say softly, giving her the courage to tell me whats up with her.

“Well, last night after we came from her they argued a lot and some of it was dad didn’t think you should be in here and mum says you need it. They argued for hours.”

“I know, its not nice but remember what I told you to do when they argue? Go up to my den with Aaron, play a movie on loud speakers and okay I am not home currently but you can facetime me or message me with your ipad anytime you need okay?”

“yeah I just don’t like it when they argue.” she said, wiping a tear from her cheek.

“I know I don’t like it either squirt, but it wont be for long and once I am out of here things will calm down a little and we will figure it all out okay. And this is stuff you can talk about not only to me but in family therapy sessions like today, its safe space and mum and dad won’t be able to get mad as we will be with my doctor who I met yesterday and she is really lovely okay.”  That puts a smile on her face and I give her a big tight hug. “right come on let’s go back in there and finish that muffin unless Aaron finished it for us.” I spot dad coming down the hallway. Alice runs up to him and gives him a hug.

“Hey dad! I missed you, did this morning go okay, have you got the job?”

“hey squirt, and maybe I have to go through a proper interview first this was just a chat, but sounds like a high possibility.”

“that’s brilliant!”  She releases the hug and we head in the canteen to go sit back with mum and Aaron. Mum mouths “is everything okay with Alice” and I nod back.

“hey Steve, did you get something to eat or need to get something here?” My mum greets him whilst giving him an awkward hug that reads I don’t want to hug you but let’s hug as the kids are here.

“yeah I grabbed a sandwich on the way here.” He releases the awkward hug with mum to focus his attention on Aaron who we all know is his favourite as he is so little and innocent. “hey buddy how’d the football match go?” He grabs him and playfully swings him upside down. He never did that with me.

“Great we won 5-2 and I scored 3 goals!” Aaron says laughing as my dad puts him down and starts to tickle him.

“amazing kiddo! Will you be up for a match against your old dad in the garden later, see if you can beat your old man huh?”

“totally you’re on!” giving him the competitive look.

Mum checks her watch and says “Oh nearly time to head for therapy lets tidy up the trays”. I drink the remainder of my tea and we all do as she says and clear the trays up.

We walk down the corridors and I lead them up the stairs to Doctor Whittaker’s office. I let Aaron and Alice have a seat on the chairs outside while we wait and I check my phone and have some good luck texts from Izzy and Becca. I also have a reminder from Izzy for me to let her know when I am done with my family so she will head over and escape her family and come work on samples for our winter formal dresses while I sketch. Doctor Whitaker calls us in and I guess we are the first family session of the day as none was in before us.  I really don’t want to have to do this but here goes nothing.

—TO BE CONTINUED—