Two Weeks Later. Two Weeks Until Final Exams.

Hope was laying in her bed. Her closed curtains withheld the early morning sunlight except around the edges where it had broken through, outlining the silhouettes in her room. Cole continued to snore faintly. He stayed the night, studying and talking until he passed out in his chair. He slept with his head hung over the back of the recliner. His neck would be stiff when he woke up.

She was unable to sleep last night because today, Saturday, was her cast removal day. And she worried because her leg was still sore. She used her viewer to illuminate it and glanced at the black SORRY HOPE, which made her laugh even today. She wanted to keep it for a memento. She had scheduled today's appointment the day she broke her leg. She slowly crossed off each of the forty-two days, anxious to be rid of it and this whole situation. The cast was clunky, and she could not win with it, so it must be removed.

Her dry skin itched on her injured leg, she grabbed her metal ruler and scratched it. The momentary relief satisfied her. This thing was gross, disgusting. It started off bright white then it changed to a dirty gray and now it had a thin layer of mud added too. There were a few sporadic occasions when she had been ready to rip it off, seizing her scissors and cutting deep into them. She would have finished the job if Cole had not been there to calm her down. Also, it had a lingering scent from the farm too. She used plastic bags to seal it when she was out there, but something had penetrated it maybe osmosis like a skunk spraying something. She reconsidered keeping it after but decided to display it in a glass case to hold back the odors.

The familiar hologram of Maria appeared, and said in her pleasant and calm voice, "My name is Maria Gonzalez and Hope Anderson is my number one fan. It's time to wake up."

Hope snickered, mocked her smile, and formed the number one sign with her index finger. She got out of bed and stared at her beautiful dark brown eyes. The hologram technology had improved a lot, and she appeared nearly identical to the real thing. If you positioned yourself correctly, you could pretend the person was in the room with you.

Her Maria alarm awakened Cole. He yawned, sat up in his chair and shouted "Ow!". He clutched his neck.

She blushed when she said the magic words, "Cole is the best."

Maria's hologram vanished. Hope hobbled over to Cole, and said, "You have to get rid of the number one fan alarm."

He laughed at her, "I love that message, and I don't have to get rid of anything," he said pompously, "Maybe next year for your birthday."

Hope put a bag on her leg and hopped over to the bathroom to take a shower.

Before she closed the door, Cole appeared in the doorway and stopped it with his foot. He peaked his head through and said, "Or if you call her and apologize for being a psychopath, then I'll remove it." He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I still have no idea why you blamed Maria. Your whole situation with her is off because you two are the kindest people in the world."

"I'll think about it." She closed the door in his face. Cole did not have the full story which is why he was suggesting it. She started the hot water and got in. The warm drops awakened her and felt refreshing against her skin. She had traded messages with Maria, recommended by Cole, but she still had not called her. She enjoyed being friends with her, and her advice made sense when she said it. Yet whenever she acted on it, it had horrible consequences to her life and others. She glanced at her injured leg, still fuming. Hope understood that she was to blame for listening to her, due to wishful thinking. Maria made her believe she could have her cake and eat it too. Before she met Maria, she knew she could not and prepared to wait. She had to trust her instincts more. Her problem was that she still dreamt about them being together and was eager to have it come true prematurely.

Now, she felt guilty for yelling at her and did not fathom that Maria would want to speak with her anyway, but it was worth a try.

Hope finished her shower and dried off. Then she combed through her hair and buttoned the legs of her navy-colored training navy pants over her cast. She also had a matching shirt she used to exercise in after. She grabbed a pair of athletic shorts she could use later if needed. She had researched the rehab facility, but they did not specify what she would do, so she was uncertain what to bring. She did view several images and videos of people moving in a pool.

When Hope finished getting dressed, she exited her bathroom, and said to Cole, "OK. Fine. I will call Maria after they remove this," she stated and gestured at her leg, "OK?"

"Yes. Good," Cole said.

Hope glowered at him expectantly and tried to hand him her viewer.

He threw his hands in the air, "Not now. You need to call her first."

Hope's mom appeared around the corner and said in her cheery high-pitched tone, "Breakfast is ready." She motioned them to join her then left.

Cole said, "Great! We'll be there in two minutes. He brushed his teeth quickly and combed his hair."

Then they went to the kitchen to eat breakfast. The aroma of eggs and bacon made her salivate before she arrived.

Cole's mom sat at their dining table in the kitchen drinking coffee. She wore blue jeans and a white Space Rocks! t-shirt. So, she assumed she was going too. "Good morning, Cole," she said.

Cole embraced his mom.

"Thanks for letting me know you'd be sleeping over," she said rhetorically and kissed him on his cheek. "Don't worry, Angie told me."

Hope and Cole sat next to each other at the table. Hope placed her cast on the empty chair next to her.

"Are you going too?" he asked her.

"Of course, we always do everything together, just like one big happy...." She trailed off. She used to make a joke with his dad about them always being together.

Hope's dad broke the momentary silence by saying, "Good morning, Hope." He embraced her.

"Good morning, dad.".

"How does your leg feel today?" he asked.

"Great!" she said, faking her excitement. She needed them to believe this, so she gave her best performance.

"Are you sure? Because yesterday, it looked like you were still in pain."

She nodded.

Her father massaged the muscles and tendons near her ankle. He said, "That feels fine. I'll do some of the tests that your doctor will do today."
She cringed and grabbed Cole's hand behind her. Sometimes it is good that your father is a doctor. Other times things like this happen.

He twisted her foot in the opposite way it should have gone. She did her best to maintain a straight face and not shriek at the top of her lungs. She released her pain by squeezing Cole's hand. Her dad twisted it further, and she gripped him harder. She heard Cole's knuckles crack and his fingers turned red, then changed to purple, pulsating.

She leaned back and whispered into his ear, "Sorry."

He whispered back, "I'm earning even more best friend points here."

That 'best friend points' was a new meme that Cole saw when, he watched Skye's reality show. He started re-watching it because he saw an advertisement, promoting the new season with him on the premiere. They viewed it and saw the now famous scene, where her mom dragged Skye from her house. Cole and Hope were on the show a lot. He has been watching it since.

She thought her father was finished but was wrong. He bent her leg at her knee in the opposite direction and she almost screamed again. She crushed harder than the last time. It caught him by surprise too, causing him to shriek instead. "Oww!" He changed his yelp into a cheerful tone, "Oh My God! I am so happy you are getting your cast off."

Hope's dad completed the tests and placed her leg back on the chair.

"Hmm. I guess you are ready."

Hope released Cole's hand and took a deep breath.

So did Cole.

"Holy Crap!" he showed her his fingers that changed from purple to red.

Her mom placed plates of French Toast, eggs, and bacon in front of them. The taste of the warm maple syrup and butter on the crunchy French Toast made it a wonderful breakfast. The crispy bacon was salty and juicy, and she was not sure which one she liked more. She drank orange juice, and the food disappeared rapidly.

"Alright kids, if we want to make it, we need to leave now." Cole's mom stated and rose to her feet. She seized her coffee and marched to her car parked next door. The four of them joined, and they drove to the doctor's office.

Hope studied about the semi-transparent membrane for Kain's class by researching deeper into the attempted dome failures. They had already passed Ansh and Sai. Yet, if they wanted to have enough time to set up and test another one, they needed to begin now. She watched Cole. He was not reading or studying. He was coding.

"What are you doing?" she asked. His mom sat next to her, so she did not want to say too much. Her dad drove, and her mom was in the passenger seat.

"Oh. Nothing," he said, lying.

"Are you trying to?" Hope kicked his foot.

"I already did," he winked at her.

"Is that the school's, "she paused. She marveled and speculated how he could break into the school's secured records. It did not appear that this was his first time.

He flipped through a list of grades and papers until he located the one that had Ansh and Sai's names.

"Found it," he announced, pointed to their membrane paper, and forwarded it to her.

She sent him a text message without letting his mom find out.

Hope: This is against the rules! Do you want to get expelled?

Cole: They're not able to see it's me. I'm doing what your grandfather suggested. Scouting the competition. We can read it over the weekend and see what he did.

Hope: Fine. I'm surprised, he could get up to 59%.

Cole chuckled.

"We're here," her dad said and pulled into a nearly empty lot. He parked close the front of this six-story professional building. She left the crammed car and observed the partly cloudy sky. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. It was cool and windy. The hot sun heated her face, until the clouds covered it and she returned to hobbling to the front door. She heard birds chirping from the tree to her left.

They made their way into the doctor's office. It was an older building with ugly red and black carpet that had strands sticking out and the faded white paint on the walls.

A young man at the front desk said, "Good morning. Name?"

Her mom said, "Good morning. Her name is Hope Anderson."

He examined his list and then said, "Miss Anderson, we will take a pre-removal XRAY first. Please follow your nurse to room three."

An athletic black haired and brown eyed older woman, wearing a multicolored nurse's uniform, gestured down the hallway.

"Can I go with her?" her mom asked.

"This will only take a second, please have a seat in our waiting area."

The nurse brought her to the back.

"We want to verify that this healed correctly," stated the nurse.

They positioned her chair which resembled one at the barbershop. They moved the XRAY machine next to her cast.

Then the nurse rolled her chair into a different room, pressed a few buttons, returned, and said, "OK. We will develop this and then bring you back to analyze the results. It should take about fifteen minutes. You can go to the waiting area through those doors." She directed her toward the double doors with an Exit sign.

She used her crutches to move out there. She pushed a button to open the door. When it opened, she saw the four of them waiting for her. They were on two large couches against the wall. Their grins cheered her up. There was no one else waiting.

She sat next to Cole but was too nervous to study, so she stared out the window and watched the chirping robins bounce around in a tree.

A little while later...

"Hope Anderson?" The nurse called from the open doorway she had just exited.

"That's me." Hope responded.

"We're ready for you."

Hope got to her feet and so did the rest of them.

"Can they join me, now?"

"Yes," said the nurse.

She led them into a different room in the back and the nurse said, "I will get your doctor. Please take off your pants. You can put this on, to cover yourself. Then, have a seat up here." She handed her a disposable gown and gestured at the examination table.

Hope changed, and then she climbed up there.

Dr. Drake and the nurse returned. Dr. Drake was the doctor that put the cast on.

He displayed her XRAY above the computer and pointed at it.

"Your break looks healed which is great. But that only tells part of the story. I also want to test your pain level."

"No problem," Hope said, beaming.

Cole moved next to her at the same time, and she held his hand.

The doctor repeated the same twists and bends that her father did. They did the same too, except Cole did not scream this time.

Dr. Drake drew two straight lines down the middle of both sides. Then he picked up the small electric saw that was waiting for him on the table and turned it on. The high pitch grinding did not last long because he placed it on his lines and moved quickly. The cast split in two and it fell to the floor. Then he pushed against her leg a few times. He beamed at her and stated, "Excellent. You are ready to begin your physical training."

Hope said, "Terrific. I already have an appointment with Dr. Antonia. I scheduled it six weeks ago." She nodded next door.

"They have an amazing training facility, and tremendous physical therapists. You are in good hands." He paused and added, "I will also prescribe you pain medicine for the next four weeks. I will have the nurse send it to your pharmacist."

"Great. Thank you." She was ecstatic to have the cast removed and planned on using a heavy dose of those painkillers over the next two weeks. She got off the table, inspected, her pale hairy leg then put her pants on. She switched her support to her injured leg, felt its weakness without the cast, and a pain shot right through her spine. "Son of Bitch!" She shrieked.

Cole saved her from falling, stabilized her, and sarcastically stated, "Language!"

She said, "I got it," and then limped out of the examination room.

They strolled back outside and headed next door.