𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟏: 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐑𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥

                                    

                                          

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
The plans for Thursday came much sooner than anticipated, Alaina wasn't even allowed to walk to school in peace. In fact, there wasn't much walking to be done. Every corner Alaina turned, on both ends of her street, was some construction tape closing the area off. It was like the entire street was boxed in. The sidewalks had wet cement in the way, and the road in between was destroyed as if some meteor had hit the pathway. It didn't make sense, the roads and sidewalks were just fine the previous day, so what was this? People had places to be, she had someplace to be.
She managed to get the attention of one of the workers, "What's with the sudden construction?"
The worker approached her. "In accordance with the guidelines provided by Beaumont & Co., we were instructed to do some renovations here." He looked down at his clipboard that had notes written down regarding this.
Alaina rolled her eyes, of course, Damon had something to do with this, the things people with money did just to make others' lives harder. "But no one on this street can get anywhere, you've blocked it all off," she complained. All the properties were blocked off by fences and the roadways by some construction.
"Not my problem, ma'am, I'm just following orders. You'll just have to wait."
Alaina groaned, she didn't have time to wait. If it had to be this way, then so be it. She secured her backpack on her shoulders, ducking by a section with construction tape that wasn't being monitored. Navigating through the gravel of the torn-up road, she carefully stepped around the bits of rocks. She was doing a pretty good job too, until one of her steps landed in a hole that was deeper than it looked, leading to her ankle folding in an awkward manner. She cried quietly and recoiled, crouching down to her foot. She moved it, wincing at the pain.
"Yep, it's definitely sprained." She heaved a long sigh, willing herself to get back up. "Just think, it could be worse."
She inhaled sharply with each slow step she took on her left ankle, taking more caution to walk through the damaged street and onto her regular route. Alaina could just picture the grin on his face when he realized that she'd managed to hurt herself in the midst of his construction prank. Even so, she wasn't going to let him have the satisfaction of making her miss school over it. She pushed through the pain and went on.
Everyone noticed it, the limping Red Card girl, all whispering and asking questions to one another about what had happened. Not with concern though, no, they mocked her for having injured herself. Only Ellie expressed her worry, offering empathy for her situation. She even offered to take notes for their statistics class so Alaina could make an early visit to the nurse's office, but she declined, not wanting to mess with her attendance anymore. Plus, as much as she admired the idea, statistics wasn't Ellie's strong suit, and the notes wouldn't be very reliable.
Alaina ended up having to go to the school nurse just before lunch, excusing herself from the remaining part of English class; walking around with an injured foot while trying to walk normally made the pain unbearable. The nurse had her foot tightly bandaged and handed her a bag of ice, seating her on one of the beds in the infirmary until lunch came around. She looked down at her injured foot, leaning her head back against the wall and letting herself relax for a bit.