I awoke to find Rin Hadashi, the school nurse and my biology teacher bending over me with Damian hovering over his shoulder. Seeing me wake, Hadashi-sensei (as he liked to be called), whipped a penlight out of his coat pocket and shon it in my eyes.
“Reactions appear normal,” he muttered “Are you seeing double or stars?”
I shook my head “Just feeling pain all over.”
“Another good sign,” he nodded, probing my limbs to see if anything was broken “Probably means you haven’t damaged your spine.” I started to rise but he stopped me with a firm hand on my shoulder “I said probably so lay still until I tell you otherwise.” He continued to check me out and I recalled that he’d actually trained as a doctor before he’d qualified as a teacher so I knew he knew what he was talking about. “So,” he commented “What happened?”
“I fell,” I said.
“I surmised,” he said with a wry grin, feeling my head. I could have sworn he gave a small sniff.
“Biff and Steve were making fun of Damian,” I sighed, “I stood up to them and they tried to beat me up.”
“And they pushed you down the stairs?”
“Chased me up.”
“Hmm.” He seemed to only half hear, poking the bumps on my head. Before I could ask him what he was doing the bell rang. “You better get to class Damian. I think Jon is going to be alright but I’d like to take him to the infirmary to be sure.”
“B-but...” protested Damian.
“No buts, get to class. Here come the hall monitors with a stretcher now.” He shooed Damian away and turned back to me. As the hall monitors laid out the stretcher he bent close and whispered “We’re going to have a very interesting discussion when I get you to the infirmary Jon.”
