★★★
"Hey, Bella, what did Xavier say? Has he asked you for the date?" Danny raised a question, seeing Bella scrolling her phone so intently, her facial expression seemed much more relaxed than a few seconds ago, as if a calmness had just showered down on her head.
"No, he is weird. Also, his words cannot be trusted. Furthermore, have you noticed that after our president changed, another member joined our college management, Mr. Xavier? When I met him last night at the bonfire, I thought he was a senior," Isabella murmured, placing the phone inside her bag. While she didn't mention the email, that didn't mean she didn't want to. She was planning to tell them later after visiting Paoli and George.
"What? You've already met him!" A loud gasp with astonishing words came out of Bethany's mouth.
"Yeah and I misunderstood him as a senior," replied Isabella and pivoted back sharply, jerking two innocent hearts as they almost leaped from their ribcage.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Danny commented, placing her palm on her chest. Huffing panic sighs, she turned back too.
"I feel that someone is following us," Isabella slowly replied, wandering her eyes to the whole campus. From the premises through the main gate, she had a strong feeling that someone's eyes were following them. They are not very close but near enough to give her insecurities.
"There is no one. But I have to say your moves were pretty diabolical. You swivel like a ghost," praised Bethany and patted Isabella.
"Yes, brilliant move, but give me prior notice. My heart is not as strong as Bethany's," Danny mumbled, then resumed again, "But Bella, when did you get this move?"
"What move? My head wanted to catch the culprit. That's why I turned back quickly, and you two were unaware, therefore you think it was ghostly spun. Now let's go," Isabella contemplated her surrounding as she stated, ignoring the thing she did without her concern, which was something a human could barely think of doing.
They drove the car towards the hospital. That's when we saw from the top floor a man was smiling and his eyes followed the car. His mouth rose in a smirk when a few words came out under his breath, "It is beginning, Bella. You don't know how much capable you are."
★★★
As they reach the hospital, the first thing they saw was Paoli's group, who disgustingly turned their head away as Bella and her group reached the entrance.
"Jerks," Bethany commented when they are close to them. She knew Paoli's group can't scream at them because they were in the hospital, so she took the opportunity to poke their arrogance.
"You two will never change," said Isabella entered the lift, and they are told by the receptionist that Paoli and George are on the second floor. While George is in a coma but Paoli regains consciousness.
"Yea, sometimes you can't stop yourself from commenting," Bethany replied, and they arrived at the cabin. It was 206 and outside the cabin, Isabella saw Paoli's mother discussing something with the doctor.
Seeing the three little girls, Paoli's mother's attention shifted from the doctor to them. As the doctor followed her eyes, he saw three girls, especially he was struck by Isabella's beauty.
'Wearing a plain dress without makeup, a woman can look so beautiful, with perfect makeup and dress how attractive she will look,' the doctor contemplated.
"Hello, Miss Morton, we are Paoli's friends," Isabella addressed Paoli's mother with their surname and gave her a cheerful smile.
"You three are from 'Westwood' but I guess you three are not from the chemistry department, am I right?" Miss Morton said and gave them a welcoming smile. Although she looked like Paoli but had a different personality from her daughter.
"Yes, ma'am, we're from the English department," answered Bethany, then turned her gaze to the doctor who stood there enchanted by Bella.
"Is she alright? Can we meet?" Danny said she got to the point without beating around the bush like them.
"Yes, you can. She is fine now, but there is something that happened. I think you already know and she refused to meet everyone. I don't know how to express my pain," Miss Morton said and her grief really reflected in her voice. She has one child and cherishes her a lot, but now she felt like lost. She didn't know how to support her daughter because it couldn't be fixed with money.
"We're sorry, and it'll be okay. She'll understand. Don't worry," said Isabella and hugged Miss Morton as she was on the verge of crying.
"Everything will be all right," consoled Isabella and Miss Morton asked her to go inside, wiping her tears.
Pushing the door Bethany entered first, then Danny after that Isabella. Three of them saw Paoli leaning on the headboard, looking at the ceiling blankly. As they entered, she turned her head towards the door. At first, she didn't react, though her eyes were melancholy; they had not expressed any fear.
However, when Bella took her entry, Paoli's eyes grow bigger and tears gathered in her eyes. To their surprise, Paoli pointed her finger at Bella, jerking her legs violently. Her voice was coming out faintly, although looking at her, anyone could tell that she was screaming. Her tears flowed down.
They thought that seeing Bella got her excited, so Bethany and Danny rushed to her to catch her and quell her anger, but Paoli's sudden action blew her head off. She grabbed a water bottle and threw it at Isabella and it hit Isabella's shoulder, causing her to moan in pain. Paoli's action was so fast that Bela did not think that she would do such a thing. Therefore, she did not react quickly, and the water bottle hit her.
"Bella," Bethany and Danny surged to Bella, hence Paoli's mother and the doctor hurried into the cabin. They saw madness in the patient who was throwing everything, including the pillow and her phone. Then the doctor turned to the girl who was sitting on the floor massaging her shoulder and her face turned red in pain. She tried to hold back her tears while her friends asked where she was hurt.
Miss Morton ran towards her daughter and grabbed her hand while the doctor ordered the nurses to give her propofol.
The nurse did as a doctor said while Miss Morton cried, holding her daughter's hand. Paoli's nerves became relaxed as she drifted to sleep. After that, everyone turned their attention to Bella.
The doctor took her to the next cabin, which was empty. Before she left the room, Miss Morton apologized to Bella, folding her hand in front of her.
Arriving in the next cabin, the doctor asked Isabella to sit on the bed, so she did.
"Miss, let me see where you got hurt?" Bella nodded at the doctor's advice while Bethany and Danny scrutinized Bella's injury.
As Bella pulled her dress to her arm, she was wearing a black frock, while the frock had a chain on the back. Zipping down, the dress slipped from her shoulder, but she placed her hand in front of her chest. That's why only a bra stripe and her white skin were exposed before everyone's eyes.
But then two gaps were heard by everyone, following their concern. "O God, Bella, your shoulder."
Bella cranked down her head and glimpsed at her shoulder. There was a big blue bruise tattooed on her shoulder, looking terrible.
"Don't worry, it is just a bruise. If you take these pills for one day, it will vanish right away," the doctor suggested, wiping the bruise with gel which Isabella closely analyzed as she didn't know about a bruise gel. Although Isabella never used anything for a bruise, she just waited a couple of days, and it's gone forever.
But the bruise on the shoulder was quite painful, and the gel soothed the area quite a lot.
"Thank you, doctor," Isabella said sincerely while the doctor smiled back, but his tip of the ear turned slightly red, which was only noticed by Danny as she helped Isabella zip up the chain of her dress.
"Let's go. Nowadays, you are hurting so much. I have to check your horoscope," Bethany joked, holding the door wide open for Bella to exit. On the other hand, Danny took the folded paper from the doctor where the names of the medicines are written, but before leaving, she turned and mischievously teased the doctor, "You should have written your number on this paper."
"I did," the doctor said shyly.
"Ow, great. Good luck," Danny laughed as she said and exited.
In the car, they were talking about Paoli's actions, which they didn't think she had done unintentionally. Isabella ignored and didn't comment. The thing she always wanted to search for was why everyone hated her. All because she was not rich and had a beauty that would recede one day.
Just then, she straightened her back and screamed as if something had whacked her mind, "Wait, wait. I have to go to Luther industry."