Chapter Five: Never show weakness

Remember, Katya, never let them see you're weakness. They will always find a way to use it against you. My father's words echoed in my head while this annoyingly persistent girl stuck to me like gum. What's her deal anyway? If someone needs help, then help them? What BS. That's a quick way to get stabbed in the back, or worse. That's what we call idiotic empathy.

The wound on my stomach was emitting a surge of pain. Damn it, the painkillers already wore off. I could also feel a warm, damp feeling on the bandages under my uniform. The girl tried to grab my shoulder to help brace me, but quickly shoved her hand away and glared at me. "Sorry, you just looked like you were about to fall."

I would have yelled at her, but I was in too much pain to do so. Nothing annoys me more than when people touch me. I quickly learned from my travels that you must fight back against anyone who thinks they are privileged enough to have the right to touch you. If you become a pushover, then they will take advantage of that. She's lucky that this is a civilized society, or else she would have known what lead tastes like.

"You know, there's nothing wrong about asking for help?" God, I wanted to tell her to take her own advice. It doesn't take a genius to understand that she's clearly being singled out in class. That and that dumb girl whispered to me that she was some kind of creep or something like that. Like, what the hell kind of school did I get put in anyway? It's almost like I'm in some cheesy sitcom. As my anger grew, so did my pain from my wounds.

Whatever, the faster I get to the nurse, the faster I get my meds. I carefully and quickly walked to the end of the hall while this annoying girl hovered over me. Once we reached the end of the hall, we saw the nurse waiting for us outside. "Let me guess, your painkillers ran out?" I glared at her. "No sh..." I bit my tongue so as not to get into trouble.

"Alright, go ahead and take a seat on one of the beds. And Yuka, you can head back to class. Oh, and good luck in today's track meet." Yuka bowed and said. "Take you, Akari, I mean Miss Suzuki." I went and sat down on a bed. The nurse grabbed a clipboard and rolled a seat over to me. "So you're that odd one ou... olv..." "Orlova." "Yeah, that one." She said as she sat down.

"Your medical history is odd. It's almost like it's..." "Fabricated." She looked at me. "Well, yes. Why is that?" "It's what happens when you have terrible doctors that don't like to do paperwork." "Suuure. Let's just go with that. Anyway, it says here that you had an extensive surgery to the abdomen for internal injuries, and it also says that you had an oophorectomy due to those injuries."

"And?" "Sorry, but as a licensed doctor, it's natural for me to ask questions about my patients. That and it would be hard to treat your injuries properly if I only have some questionable documentation." "So, are you going to give me the painkillers or not?" I demanded. "Of course, miss impatient."

She rolled over to one of the cabinets, grabbed a bottle, and took out some of the pills. She rolled back over to me and handed them to me. "Here, but you should know..." I ignored her and grabbed the pills and got up and went to the bathroom in the nurse's office. I gulped down the pills, then unbuttoned my uniform. The undershirt was damp with my blood. I pulled it up to see that the bandages were soaked.

I carefully removed the bandages while I bit into my shirt. The pain made me lightheaded, but I did manage to remove them. I took some towels, wet them, and cleaned my wound. The wound was still somewhat bleeding, but at least I could see that the stitches were still holding. The wound was an extensive, curvy line across my abdomen.

I guess I was somewhat lucky that day. The two bullets that hit me fragmented throughout my body, causing damage to my intestines and my ovaries. They spent a long time digging out metal fragments and stitching holes inside my body. Heck, there are some fragments in my body that they couldn't remove.

Luckily, they were able to save my intestines, but my ovaries were destroyed to the point that they had to remove them. I'm not too upset about it, since I probably was never going to have kids anyway. But...

Knock, knock. "Hey, you'll probably need these." I opened the door slightly, and the nurse handed me a roll of bandages. I took it and started bandaging myself. "You know, you could ask for help? After all, it's why I'm here." I ignored her. What's everyone's deal here? I get she wants to help because it's what she's paid to do, but... I let out a sigh. Whatever, trying to understand people is a foolish endeavor. You can only fully understand yourself; everyone else is a mystery that will never be solved, and that mystery is a liability.

The only truth in life is yourself; everything else is a lie. Friends, coworkers, and even partners are lies that you make up and manufacture into truths. And lies are something that can easily be bought, just like my passport and medical documents. Though, in hindsight, we should have paid for a better forger. Welp, I can't fix the past, so I will just have to live with the nosy nurse... doctor...? Wait, why is a doctor working in a school in the first place?