Street Lights || Sim Jake

8 ¦ Special

I hadn't really slept well. The bags under my eyes were celebrating New Year's Eve under my light brown eyes, and I strongly suspected that the rockets would misfire several times today.

Wearing sweatpants and a loose hoodie, I shuffled through the school hallway and headed for my locker. I winced as the loud roar of my boys rang out and briefly looked to the floor to catch myself.

Here's a little recap of what else had happened last night. Fortunately, my grandma was fine. By fine, I mean she was still alive. However, she was not awake.

Her heart kept falling out of rhythm and that is exactly why she was hooked up. A machine so that when her heart started to malfunction again, it would give her mild electric shocks to get the heartbeat rhythm back.

It turned out that we don't have to pay any money for the medical procedure. What we do have to pay for ourselves, however, is the device to be implanted in my grandma.

At the moment it was connected to a machine, but nowadays it could be operated so that this process would happen automatically if the heart started to malfunction again. This part cost several thousand dollars at the moment.

Since I was a minor, I also had to declare yesterday where I would be for the next few weeks, since I was not allowed to be alone for long.

As bold as I was, I lied that I would be sleeping at my best friend's house, but of course I slumbered in my own bed and made sure that my beloved grandma's flowers stayed alive.

I knew that when she would come home again and the flowers had wilted, she would give me hell. Abuela was special, but I loved it.

"Estela!" came loudly from Jay, who almost pulled me to the ground as he threw himself against me and wrapped his arms around me.

"Jay.", I gave out playfully euphoric and opened my locker. "Hey Stel." Heeseung smiled sweetly at me and looked up at me with glittering eyes. "Thanks again for yesterday." I waved it off.

No biggie... Just think. You didn't drive me home, and if there hadn't been a tramway on time, my grandmother might have died.

Melissa was the only one who understood why I wasn't being too loud and looked at me pityingly. I shook my head imperceptibly and plastered a smile on my lips.

"What hours do you have again? Two hours of music, right?" I nodded and pulled my small folder out of my locker. I pressed this one to my chest.

Talkative I wasn't really today. Mainly, my mind was buzzing with my new problem. Money... How the hell did I get the money to help my abuela?

5680 dollars...

How did I get that kind of money? My first thought was jobs. I also tended to ask for some donations.

Last night I had even looked up my mother's phone number and maybe she possessed something like sympathy and would help her own mother.

Melissa walked quietly beside me as the boys said their goodbyes and I watched Heeseung and Aleyshia exchange saliva for the first time. I was feeling dazzling.

"Look." The brown-haired girl's voice rang out and I could tell she didn't know if she should talk about it.

"I talked to my parents and they really know your grandma very well. They're willing to pay a portion, which means you don't have to cover the whole amount. We can get the money. Abuela will be able to go home again and she certainly won't have to spend the rest of her life on a machine."