Page 66 of Pages of Amber
Amber didn’t see the ankle she tripped on. But she felt it. The hard clash of bone on bone, the painful twinge that coursed through her leg, the heavy thud of her body against the ground. She crashed against her ground hard, the breath knocked out of her as she rolled on the dusty tarmac. Her head spun and although she blinked, the action felt slow and sluggish.
“Amber!”
The scream was distant to her ears. The clouds swam in the ocean sky above her. What just happened? Amber could barely think past the pain shooting through her body. Shouts above her head became more distinguishable as she tried to sit up.
“I saw you trip her! You were running beside her and you stuck out your leg. What’s wrong with you?” Evelyn yelled.
The whole class had come to a standstill, staring as Evelyn faced Lexi. Shocked whispers and scathing comments. Another spectacle to fuel the gossip mill.
“Hey! I didn’t do anything,” Lexi argued.
“I saw you. Stop lying. She’s supposed to be your friend. How could you do that to her?”
Amber’s head spun again, confusion setting heavily. Lexi tripped her? On purpose? She’d felt the hard shove between her legs, the misstep she had taken to try to avoid it. But it had been too late.
Coach Pratani pushed through the frozen students to meet them. The shrill scream of her whistle made the students beside her cringe away, their hands reaching to protect their ears.
“That’s enough. No yelling, Miss Davenport. Step back, Miss McCarthy.”
“Amber! Are you okay? Can you stand?” Noah bent over her, his eyes drawn in concern, his face pale. “Say something. Where are you hurt?” he tried to ask.
Where was she hurt?
How could she even begin to answer that?
Her friend had looked her in the eye as she tripped her and was now lying about it!
Coach Pratani turned to Amber, Evelyn and Lexi held back on both sides of her. “Did you see who pushed you?” The woman asked.
“No one pushed her. She was weaving a little. She must have tripped on her own feet,” Lexi answered before she could.
Amber stared at her ‘friend’. Lexi stared right back, arms folded and gaze cold. Her hands clenched at the victory she could almost see in Lexi. What was she being punished for? This wasn’t about Beverly or Lexi would have plainly said so. No, this was something way more personal. Amber had no idea what.
“You’re lying.” Amber scowled. “She’s lying, Coach Pratani.” She had enough people pushing her around. Her mother and Beverly were two high up on that list. She wasn’t eager to add Lexi.
“I’ll get to the bottom of this later.” Their teacher ran a hand down her face. “Amber, can you stand?”
She moved to get up as Noah braced her arms. Amber was too fixated on Lexi to remember she was trying to stay away from him. Amber crashed down hard when she took a step with her right foot, a shout of pain leaving her lips.
“Amber!”
“Oh my god, are you okay?”
“What’s wrong?”
The voices filled her head to the point of bursting. She bit her lips to hold in the sting of tears. Not her ankle, she silently prayed. Not now. Coach Pratani crouched beside Amber, her hands going for her foot. When she touched it, Amber let out a hiss and tightened her hold on Noah’s hand in hers.
Their teacher eyed her leg, concern edging into the corner of her eyes. “We need to get you to the clinic. Looks like a sprain.”
A sprain? Amber almost conked out again.
“I’ll take her,” Noah volunteered immediately.
“She needs to get her head checked too, in case she hit it when she went down. I can send another student with you,” Coach began but Noah shook his head. He bent, his arms surrounding Amber and in the next second, she was hauled against his chest. Amber caught more than a few wide eyes among the students still crowding them. Oh God, no one would focus on their classes for the rest of the school day. Too much had happened in the span of yesterday and today that they couldn’t not talk about.
“I’ll take her to the nurse and make sure she’s okay.” Noah started walking, leaving Amber with no choice but to wrap her hands around his neck. He moved quickly, crossing the field back into the school.
Behind them, Couch Pratani’s whistle screeched then her voice rang out, “Nothing to see here. Back to your laps or you’ll run three more.”
