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Why must the world insist on giving Ocean its toughest battles?
It happens during a choir show for the school. The St. Cassian Choir got to perform during an assembly, and Ocean was having a great time dancing and singing, always enjoying when they have an audience to witness how amazing (she is) they are.
And then, her left foot slipped off the riser she stood on and collided with the floor in an awkward, bent position, and she wasn’t able to bite back a scream as a hot, voltaic pain shot up her entire leg.
That brings Ocean to where she is now: teetering sideways off of the riser and falling straight to the floor in the middle of the performance…in front of what seems like the entire school.
She’s only on the stage for a split second, reeling from what had happened, and then she’s scrambling up to get back into position, hoping that maybe nobody saw that. However, she isn’t even able to stand up fully before a pain so fierce it feels like she’s got one leg stuck in a chasm to Hell sears up her calf, through her knee, and into the rest of her body. Then, everything goes black, and when she eventually comes to after supposedly passing out for a few seconds, she’s on the ground again, this time half-sprawled on the riser like a broken doll, and she can’t think of anything more embarrassing than this.
She seems to have not learned her lesson because she immediately tries to move the moment she awakens from the brief escape of unconsciousness, and when she does so, the pain is there to greet her for a third time. Once again, she blacks out thanks to the infernal fire devouring her leg, and upon waking up, she’s met with a weird sound that’s mixed between a yelp and keen. It doesn’t take her long to realize that the sound is coming from her own throat, and such a wretched noise is enough to finally get her to stop moving around.
Her skin broils with a sudden heat, as though she’s stricken with a fever, and she feels sweaty all over. She’s dizzy, too, and very nauseous, and she bites her tongue to keep from vomiting all over herself because that certainly would not help her situation.
This all happens in a matter of fifteen seconds, but it’s enough to leave a permanent fracture in the show, especially once the choir realized exactly what happened. Now they’ll never get back on track. The whole performance is ruined because of her.
Constance is flying down to her side, all concern and alarm, and Mischa isn’t far behind her. Penny shifts to stand in front of her fallen form, probably to try and shield her from the gawking eyes of the audience, and the fact that there are so many eyewitnesses to her spectacular screw-up makes Ocean feel even worse. She already gets so much crap from the student body as is; she’ll never be able to live this down.
“Ocean, oh my god,” Constance is saying, her voice thick with worry. Around her, the other choir members hover, alongside several of the school’s staff, all wondering what the hell went wrong. “What happened? Are you okay? Here, lean on me, honey. What happened?”
Ocean feels Constance’s hands prop her up so she’s resting against her side, and even that simple movement is enough to send savage zigzags of pain ripping through her leg. She screws her eyes shut, gritting her teeth to keep back a cry. Through her own heartbeat in her ears, she can hear the murmur of the crowd, then the rustle of the curtains closing.
At least some of her shame will be concealed with them closed, not that it really matters anymore. The whole audience already saw her fall, and she’s sure some people even had videos of it. Great.
“What happened?” Noel asks.
I don’t know, I wasn’t looking at her, Ricky replies helplessly.
“I think she fell,” Penny says.
“Ocean, are you alright?” Constance says. “Can you tell us what happened?”
“My ankle,” Ocean manages to gasp out. “I slipped off my riser and landed wrong and— I don’t know if it’s broken o-or just twisted, but it kinda really hurts.”
They all look at her left ankle, and several of them grimace. Noel even gags, not that Ocean blames him. It’s a pretty unpleasant sight, admittedly.
Her ankle has already started to swell up, the skin fading into a mauvy-purple color. The foot is twisted at an unnatural angle, and a bone—she’s pretty sure that’s the talus—can be seen bulging abnormally through her flesh.
Yikes, Ricky signs helpfully.
Penny kneels down in front of Ocean and carefully begins to feel her injured ankle. Although Ocean knows she’s trying to be gentle, every touch of her fingertips is like jamming a red-hot fire poker into her tender ligaments. It takes everything in her to not kick Penny directly in the face.
“The good news is that it isn’t broken!” Penny declares. “It’s only dislocated.”
“What’s the bad news?” Ocean asks warily.
“You have to set the bone,” Mischa says, catching onto what Penny is thinking.
Ocean pales. “Oh.”
“But don’t worry!” Penny says quickly, noticing her anxiety over that. “I know how to do that! It’ll be quick, and then you’ll be all better! Well, not really. You’ll still be in pain, but your ankle will be back in place so that it can heal properly!”
“Shouldn’t we just take her to a hospital?” Noel asks skeptically.
“No!” Ocean protests immediately, and Penny gestures to her while looking at Noel, letting him know that that’s why she hadn’t suggested just going to a doctor.
“It’ll be fine,” Penny says. “I know what I’m doing!”
Constance gives Ocean a reassuring squeeze. “You’ll be okay, Ocean.”
Ocean nods slightly, still not a fan of this turnabout, but knowing there’s nothing else for them to do. She looks at Penny. “Okay. Set it.”
Penny nods and then picks up Ocean’s left ankle, stoking a fresh bonfire of pain in her foot. Ocean winces, wanting to pull away, and, like that, the little courage she has crumbles out of her.
“Umm, actually—” Ocean says, and Penny looks at her. “Can we count to three before you do it? Just so I can, like, prepare myself.”
“Yeah, of course!” Penny says.
“Thanks.”
Ocean braces herself in Constance’s arms, trying to steel her nerves. One of her hands is pressed flat against the ground, the other is clutching tightly to one of Ricky’s. Mischa is holding her steady, prepared to pin her down if she starts to struggle, while Noel covers her good leg, also ready to restrain her.
Penny prods around Ocean’s ankle, mainly where the bone is sticking out (what a miracle it is that it didn’t pierce through her skin), then gets a firm grip, nodding once to herself.
“Ready?” she asks Ocean.
Taking a deep breath, Ocean answers, “As I’ll ever be.”
“Alright. Let’s count.”
“One…”
Penny yanks her hand and snaps Ocean’s ankle bone back into place.
Instantly, a virulent pain blitzes through Ocean’s muscles like a carpet bombing airstrike targetted solely on her leg. A sharp, yelping cry breaches her lips, and she throws her head back against Constance’s shoulder while her hand clutches tightly to Ricky’s in a near bone-crushing grip. Mischa manages to hold her down when she instinctively thrashes, but Noel isn’t quite as strong as he is, so her other leg slips from his grasp. She immediately reels it toward her and then kicks it back out in some kind of feeble retaliation to the pain, and she feels her foot connect with something.
“There we go!” Penny chirps gleefully. “Good job, Ocean! You took it like a champ!”
“I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO COUNT TO THREE?!” Ocean screams, still wracked with discomfort. Her ligaments are pulsing beneath her flesh, charged with an electrifying pain.
“OW!!” Noel roars at the same time, clutching at his nose and mouth. “You just KICKED ME in the FUCKING FACE!”
Oh. So that’s what her foot had hit.
“Oh, I know!” Penny says to Ocean, smiling pleasantly. “But I felt like it would be easier if I caught you off guard! And it worked! Look!” She gestures grandly to Ocean’s left ankle, which is no longer bent freakishly. The bruising is still present, and it still hurts like hell, but the bone is back in place again. “All better!”
Ocean groans softly, letting her head rest against Constance’s shoulder as she waits for the pain to simmer down into a low boil. It does so slowly, eventually feeling less like an infinite cascade of knives is raining down on her leg and more like someone is just bashing her ankle with a rock over and over again. Not the most desirable sensation to feel, definitely, but it’s better than it had been before.
“Feeling better?” Constance asks.
“Yeah,” Ocean answers. “Kinda.” She looks at Penny. “Thanks.” Then, to Noel, “Sorry about kicking you.”
“So glad you’re willing to spare me some of your concern,” Noel grumbles. Luckily, he seems not to be hurt that badly. His nose wasn’t broken, and Ocean hadn’t knocked any teeth out. His lip just looks to be split a little. He straightens himself up. “It’s whatever. I’ll be fine.”
Well, that’s one problem solved. But there’s still the fact that the whole show was interrupted because of her, and the guilt and humiliation, which had mostly been smothered by the pain of her dislocated ankle, come trickling back to her.
“God, so many people saw that,” Ocean says in dismay. “I probably look so stupid.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up,” Constance says. “It’s not like you were trying to dislocate your ankle.”
“I guess,” Ocean says.
“Don’t worry, if anyone says shit about it, I’ll break their knees,” Mischa says, and that gets a small smile from Ocean.
After finally getting off of the stage, the choir makes plans to go to Constance’s house to hang out (half because Constance wants to keep an eye on Ocean), seeing as school is basically already over. And even as pain continues to ache in Ocean’s ankle, she likes the sound of that.