Love, it was a tough thing to deal with. I learned that on the first day of my 7th-grade year at Tanger Park Middle School. I was sitting in class, lightly sketching basketballs in the margin of my notebook, when suddenly the teacher called my name. “Luna, Luna, LUNA!” I immediately got teleported of my daydreaming world that I had built for myself and looked up.

  “Yes, ma’am?” I replied, unsure of what the rush was.

  “I need you to go down to the office and ask for copies of the computer program permission slips. Hurry please!”

   I slunked out of my chair, swiftly flipping the page of my notebook so that my teacher, Ms. Lawyer, wouldn’t notice my messy sketches. I walked up to her desk and filled out a pass, “Here you are,” Ms. Lawyer said as I handed her the pass to sign.

  “Thank you,” I murmured and I stepped out into the hallway. Walking down to the other side of the school to the office wing was like trying to climb a mountain, in rollerblades.

  There were 5th-grade orientations, classes changing from Gym to Language Arts, everyone was in the hallways for one reason or another. When I finally got to the office it was 10 minutes later and my teacher must have been looking for me. I slipped into the office, the clerk,Ms.Tanalica, Ms. T for short said, “Ahhhhh. Here you are Luna I was looking for you, Ms. Lawyer was worried about you.” The boy she was consulting turned around to face me. Let's get this straight. He was adorable, Brown hair with green eyes. He was like a dream come true. Until I learned he was a year older than me. Why! Why does this have to happen to me!

   I came back to my senses and smiled at the boy. He smiled back, “Cameron,” he said holding out his hand, “I am new here, I came from Minnesota, and you are?”

   I realized he was talking to me and I swiftly answered, “Oh, yeah uhh, I’m Luna, it’s nice to meet you.” “You too.” He replied. I looked at him, confused. He was too tall to be in 7th grade, and too short to be in 9th. “You’re in eighth grade right?” I asked.

  “How did you know!” he answered, “Are you in 8th too?”

  Sadly I had to answer the pathetic truth, “No, I am only a seventh grader.” We both looked away.

  I grabbed the papers that I needed and bid him goodbye. I almost ran back to my class to tell Samantha, or Sam, My best friend. When I got there, I took the long way to the teacher’s desk, which conveniently passed behind Sam’s desk. I whispered “Padlipper,” which was our secret code for “I need to talk to you, NOW!”

When I got to Ms. Lawyer’s desk I was surprised. “Young lady I thought you would be back WITHIN the hour!” She scolded. “Sorry,” I mumbled. Not sure, of course, that I was that sorry after all.

Sam was positive that I was in love. Or at least she told me so at least one hundred times before I had basketball practice. When I got there, I went straight to the court, that’s where I do all of my best thinking. I dribbled and shot, I dribbled and shot, and I dribbled and shot. I continued my process until I began to think about Cameron.

   I was thinking until I got interrupted by a strict, “Tweet,” of my coach’s whistle. “Huddle up girls!” he yelled, “I have the final outcome of our team captain vote!” I had of course run for captain. Against Cass Crowley, the oldest girl on the team. We both had about half of the team on our side. The team sat down and waited. “And the new captain of the TMS Girls Basketball team is….. Drumroll please….. This is odd.”

  We all looked at the coach with considerable looks. “It seems like we have a tie!” The team was silent, whenever two people tied at something, coach insisted on a, shoot off. And I was against Cass. “Ready Girls?” Coach asked, I nodded. Normally I would have been scared of facing off against Cass, but today felt different. “Ready,” he held the ball above our heads, ready for the jump. “Play!” he yelled and blew his whistle. The orange sphere flew into the air, calling my name” I flew and the next thing I knew was darkness.
 
  “Luna, Luna please wake up!” My mother’s voice was startled. I woke up and panicked, as I was moving at record speed down a white hallway. The hallway of a hospital. I looked around and saw a needle in my arm and felt a throbbing pain in my ankle.

  “Mom!” I yelled, “Help me!” She wasn’t there. I was wheeled into a room with tons of sharp tools. I saw one doctor with a facemask on and a needle filled with a clear liquid. I screamed as he moved closer. To move my right foot killed but every other part of my body was fine. I thrashed, kicking everything around me, making a successful hit with my right arm to the doctor’s stomach.

  I had about a 30 second time period to run. I hastily grabbed the small needle IV out of my arm and I threw it. As hard as I could, I used all of my force to throw it. I started to run, Limping majorly on my right leg. I ran to find my mother. My father. Even my brother, someone who could help me.

  I started to feel lightheaded as I reached the waiting area. “Mom!” I yelled jumping into her arms.

   “Honey, what are you doing!” She said, I was too scared to lie.

  “There were scalpels Mom!, they were going to hurt me!”  I was scared to death.

   “Luna, your foot!” I hear my big brother, Beau’s, voice and turn around. Only to see tears in his eyes. “I came as fast as I could, I’m so happy that you're OK!” He ran and picked me up.

  “Help me!” I cried as the pain from my foot became worse. The doctors came around the corner.

  “Now Luna, we were just going to do a thorough examination of your foot, it’s ok.” He reached out to hold me.

  I huddled closer to Beau’s chest, “No, please don’t touch me.” I whimpered, terrified of the objects in that room.

  “Luna, now come with me or I will get security and force you to come with me.” The doctor said.

  Mom came out of nowhere. A fiery tornado lunging through the air. Slapping the doctor across his stupid little face. “Don’t you dare touch my daughter, ever again!”
 
  “Mom Luna’s not right,” I heard Beau’s voice weakening as the light drained out of my eyes. “Mom! Go get another doctor!” The last thing I heard was my mother’s footsteps as she raced out of the room. Then it all went dark.

  I was so tired when I woke up, this time in a pink room with flowers covering the walls. I looked around, I saw Beau and Dad in the corner, tears in Beau’s Eyes as dad kept telling him, “It’s not your fault son, she was hurt” I slowly rose to face them.

  “Beau? Dad?” I whispered, loud enough to get their attention.

  “Luna,” Beau started crying, rushing over to my bed to embrace me.

  “For a guy who is usually so unemotional and plays football on a daily basis, you are being very exceptional today.” I joked.

  “Luna, your foot, it, It’s shattered, the bones are in fragments, you can’t feel it?

  Shattered. Such an elegant word with such a horrible meaning.
????
  I heard a slight knocking on the door as my mom entered with a young woman, about 26 years old. She walked over and introduced herself. “I am Dr. Fadgen, you can call me Christina, I will be your new doctor.” She was so nice and much more polite than that old doctor that was going to cut my foot open the minute we met.

  “Hi,” I said not very enthusiastic.

  “Nice to meet you.” She said, “ I understand that you are a very willful young girl, I have never seen anyone stick up to Dr. Jokner’s cruelty.” Now this was a doctor. A polite person that can actually talk to you without cutting open your foot. “Now, let's get down to business.” She said, “Judging on the X-rays we took while you were asleep, you have a severe shatter in your ankle. You probably damaged it even more when you ran on it.” I was scared, I didn’t know what to do. So I asked the question everyone was thinking.

  “Will I be able to play basketball?”

  She smiled, “Yes, of course, obviously you are really passionate about the game if you jumped so high that when you landed you broke your ankle!”

  I was so relieved. “Thank you so much! Do whatever you have to do please! As long as I can still play.”

  “I am glad to see you so enthusiastic. But unfortunately you might have to be a victim of the scalpels so that we can fix the broken bone structure.” It looks like I would have to get used to that fact if I ever wanted to play basketball again. “But don’t worry, you will be asleep for the whole thing, you will only be a little sore after we are done. And of course, you will have to have a cast and crutches, but only for 6 weeks.” Christina was very nice to me. She walked me through what would be done and then she said, “OK Luna, why don’t you say goodbye to your family and then we will be able to give you the gas to put you to sleep and prep you for surgery.” I have to admit, I was kind of scared of having people dig around in my foot, but playing Basketball is my passion and I need to be brave.

  “I will be back in 15 minutes to escort you to the waiting room,” she said looking over to my family. “Don’t worry, she will be in good hands, and we won’t be long.” I looked to my parents as she left the room. One by one they came up to my bed. Mom first, then dad, and finally Beau.

  Tears came to his eyes again as he hugged me, “You will be Ok, don’t worry, I won’t leave the hospital for 2 minutes.”

“What about Laura?” I asked not sure he could make it more than 24 hours without his self-absorbed girlfriend.

  “She isn’t the one about to go into surgery…” he said, “And besides, I’ve been meaning to break up with her anyway.” That shocked me. I wasn’t sure if she could get over it, I mean Beau will bounce back within an hour but I didn’t know about Laura.

There was a knock on the door as Christina entered. Looking around she said. “It’s time.”

I never thought I would be more scared of two words in my life.
????

After I came out of surgery, the first things I saw when I woke up were my families faces. They were all smiling down at me.

  Mom whispered, “Luna, oh Luna,” over and over again until they all embraced me tightly. I was so happy, like SO happy. I looked towards my foot and saw a white cast.

  “They were waiting for you to wake up before they choose a color,” said Dad, “They wanted you to choose.” I kept smiling at the consideration and at how painless my foot seemed to be. It wasn’t until Christina came in with a nurse that stopped smiling.

The nurse held a small blue basket. I hated the look of that blue basket. The basket that held the vaccines. I immediately sat up and looked at the nurse. “Please.” I said, “Please no needles!” Christina chuckled and said, “It’s OK Luna it's just the clips to hold the color to your cast. Now, which color would you like?” She opened a cupboard that was filled with different colored tapes. Everywhere from slate black to hot pink to fluorescent green. I looked in awe at the collection, I kept rummaging through my mind, searching for the right color. I eventually settled on a pretty orange. It helped as well that it was the color of our basketball jerseys. After they wrapped my leg they had me walk on crutches for a while and then they let me leave.

  Even though I had to go back for weekly check-up’s, it was nice to get home again. The first couple of days back to school were a struggle. One day I had managed to carry my books in one arm and walk with only one crutch. Well, I thought I could. When I was walking by the library someone came flying out of the library and knocked into me, spilling my books all over the hallway. The boy ran away down the hallway, right past Cameron. Who came rushing to help me.

  After we picked up my books he helped me to the door of my classroom. “Thanks!” I said as he stopped.

  “No problem, you were the first one at this school that I met. What happened anyway?” he asked pointing at my leg. “It’s a long story, some other time, k?” I answered. He looked at me and then said, “Bye, see you around then.” I answered quietly, “Ok, you too.” I walked into the room. The whole class was looking at me, Ms. Lawyer seemed mad. She looked at me.

  “And where have you been young lady?”
????

  At practice that night, I was sitting on the bench, waiting for my other teammates to show up. All of the sudden Cass came through the door. Quickly running over to hug me. “I’m so happy you’re OK!” She said.
“Thanks Captain,” I said looking sadly at my cast. “What are you talking about?” Cass said, “No one scored so when you get better we have to have a rematch.”

  I was very excited as I Ieft the school, Almost skipping. I wasn’t paying attention when all of the sudden I ran into Cameron. Literally. I fell backward with him on top of me. We apologized quickly and then we were silent. Just sitting there. Looking into each other’s eyes. It seemed like time stopped. When he pulled back he helped me stand up and handed me my crutches. “Do you have time to tell me that ‘Long Story’ now?”

  We walked down the sidewalk, talking, telling each other stories of our lives. We walked all the way to my house. I looked at him, and then at the house. “Goodbye,” I said.

  “Bye.” he answered with a devilish smirk.

????

  The six weeks passed in the blink of an eye. When I finally got my cast off I saw Cameron again. He was walking down the hallway talking to another girl. She was smiling and giggling as I walked by. He made eye contact and nodded as the blonde walking beside him looked at me. “Hi,” I said.

  “And who do you think you are, talking to my boyfriend like that!?” She asked, sneering at me.

  “Relax babe it’s an old friend of mine, Luna.” He said acknowledging me, “This is my girlfriend, Thea, meet Luna, Luna, Thea.”

   “Nice to meet you.” I said, “And nice to see you too Cameron, well I have to get to class now.” I said.”

   “Ok then, see you around.”He said as I took off.

I was running. I ran and ran until I reached the girl's bathroom. Flinging myself into a stall I started sobbing. I thought he was the one, I liked him and I thought he liked me back. I was so mad at him I started crying harder. Hiding in the bathroom wasn’t such a smart Idea. I guess it was obvious as my teacher came in and started talking to me through the door. “Luna honey, is everything OK?” She asked. I told her what happened and when she finally coaxed me to come back to class my mascara had ran and I was a mess. “Do you want to go home?” She asked, right outside the classroom door.

  “Yeah.” I sniffled as she ushered me to the office.