3:30 am
My stomach is on fire,
and I don’t know why.
I ignore it,
telling myself
over
and
over…
I can’t be sick.
I have a big competition this weekend.
Missing school isn’t an option,
with our last practice being tonight.
I painfully drift back to sleep.

6:30 am
My cheerful alarm goes off,
but I am feeling anything but cheerful.
I have a weird ache in my right side,
better than the burning
that I felt in the wee hours of the morning.
Nothing worth missing school for.
As I get dressed,
it gets worse.
The thought of “What if it’s something serious?”
pops into my head.
I push it out immediately,
and remind myself of the competition.

7:30 am
I trudge to the car,
avoiding my mom’s worried looks.
The pain is severe now.
I can feel the tears swelling in my eyes.
I can’t be sick.
I can’t be sick,
but I can’t bear to go to school.
I reluctantly agree to go to my grandma’s,
with plans to sleep it off and go to school at noon.

11:45 am
I wake up to a rapid heartbeat.
My mouth is watering.
I try to get up.
I try to make it to the trash can,
but I can’t stand up.
The pain in my right side is overwhelming.
I throw up all over my favorite blanket.
I throw up for an hour straight.
Non stop.

12:55 pm
There’s absolutely nothing left in my stomach.
In the situation I’m in,
this is a good thing.
My mom is home for lunch.
She helps me to the car,
we are going to the ER.
She mumbles something about my appendix,
but I don’t fully understand her.
My head is pounding,
and I’m trying not to throw up

1:15 pm
Scan
after
scan
after
scan

6:00 pm
Appendicitis.
They finally reach the conclusion.
After five hours,
they tell me I need to have emergency surgery.
The scarring will be minimum,
they promise.
For some odd reason,
in this moment,
the scarring is the biggest worry I have.

9:45 pm
My mom plants a kiss on my forehead.
The nurses wheel me down the hall.
All of this has happened so quickly,
I haven't even had time to be nervous.
I enter a bright, white room.
The air is cold.
An injection into my IV rushes through my veins.
3
2
1
Unconscious

1:00 am
Surgery is over.
Appendix is gone,
along with my chances of getting to compete this weekend.
Now, the scars are the least of my worries.