I practiced drills, rapid trauma exams, vital signs and call progression every night that week. I had fallen into a routine. Class, homework, practice. Wash, dry, fold, repeat. Ruby began to get annoyed with how many times I asked her to lay on the floor so I could practice rapid trauma exams.

“I’m going to buy you one of those dummies so you can use that instead.”

After that week was over, I passed my first call.

It was a finger laceration from a student who had been up all night trying to finish a project. When we arrived, she explained the situation with the Exacto knife and gestured towards her finger, which was wrapped in tissue and tape. Before Carl, my crew chief, could do anything, I stepped in. Because she had already wrapped it, it was a bad idea for us to break the clot and rewrap it. I gave her the necessary materials, gauze and medical tape, to wrap it again later that night. I took down her information and recommended she call us again if she felt worse. When I handed over my clipboard, I was flying. When we left the scene, he told me I passed and I gave him a huge hug. It had been an easy call but a pass is a pass.

In my dorm, I walked the halls without direction, humming to myself. When I went around the corner, I saw Flint. I tried to turn away, but he was too fast.

“Andi.”

“You don’t think we should talk about you and that guy?”

I wished my reflexes had been faster and I had been able to avoid this conversation. “John’s a friend. In EMS with me.”

Flint rolled his eyes. “Is he the reason you’ve been ignoring everything to do EMS?”

I tried to turn myself into a houseplant, to no avail.

“I’m not going to help you fix everything unless you tell me what’s going on.”

Plan Z was telling the truth. I went with Plan G. “He’s one of the higher officers in EMS. He was just trying to tell me about the call we had the other day. He’s familiar with all the girls in EMS.”

Flint grunted. I couldn’t tell if he was convinced or not.

“Is that why you missed our tutoring session?” I said.

“I was busy,” he said, playing with a bandana he had wrapped around his wrist.

Liar, I thought. But I couldn’t say that because I was a liar too.

“Sorry,” he said after a moment. “Grades don’t make themselves.”

Back in my room, Ruby noticed my agitation. Although, not noticing my pacing would have been like not noticing an avalanche pouring down on her head. She slammed her pencil down.

“What!” she said, meaning “stop”.

“Nothing,” I said.

“No. If you’re going to use friction to burn a line in our carpet, at least tell me why.”

“It’s Sandy.”

“Crazy bitch,” Ruby muttered. If there was one thing Ruby and I agreed on, it was our hatred of Sandy and her vendetta against us and Lily for dating EMS guys.

“She took me to coffee and told me she was going to keep me from advancing,” I said.

Ruby smiled. “At least I don’t have to worry about that.”

I felt like I was going to explode, the heat in my feet from the friction traveled to my head and lit up my cheeks. “I guess you don’t.”

“She’s just jealous because you dated John. Carl says he was her puppy dog for forever. She just misses having him as a slave.”

“We’re not even together anymore. We broke it off so I could focus on school. Shouldn’t she lay off?”

Ruby laughed. “This is probably revenge. She’s bitter about the past and she wants to eliminate you.”

“And you,” I reminded her.

“Not so much anymore, it seems like.”

Of course she had separated herself from the only thing we agreed on. I rolled my eyes. Again, alone.