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Sadie didn't know how she messed up her ankle, there were lots of instances where the injury could have come from but she wasn't sure what exactly. Maybe she stepped weird going down the stairs, maybe she moved wrong during training. She wasn't sure all she knew was that walking hurt like hell because her ankle felt like it was breaking every time she stepped on it.
Jaz said she had something called hypermobility; her joints were extra bendy but that also meant they could bend out of place. She knew she was bendy she had taken gymnastics for a few years as a kid but had gotten injured by too much, her bones always seem to twist out of place, so her grandparents took her out turns out she wasn't just a clumsy and silly kid, there was an actual medical term for it, take that Gran.
But now, as she sat on her chair in the living room, waiting for Walt to be done doing a little study session with Jaz and Carter so they could hang out, she felt like she was going insane, she couldn't move, well she could but walking hurt too much but Gods, if she had to sit still for one more minute she was going to implode.
She stood up wincing a little from the pain but it wasn't that bad, that was a lie it hurt like hell but she could deal with it, she'd saved the world, she could handle it.
“You're not supposed to be standing up.” She turned to Felix, the blonde boy was wearing a penguin jumper of all things, because of course he was. He was staring at her, she hadn't even noticed him sneak up on her, how long had he been sitting and drawing at the table behind her?
“I feel fine,” She assured him, Felix was a sweet kid but she did not want him telling Carter she was using her messed up ankle because she was pretty Carter told all the other initiates to tell him if she was because he was “worried about her” and “didn't want her to get more hurt” and all those other annoying older brother concerns he had.
“Carter told me to get him or Zia or Walt if you stood up.” Dammit Carter.
She would never admit this to him out loud but a part of her enjoyed that he would worry about her so much, Gran and Gramps had worried about her, of course, but most of the time it was because she was causing problems or doing something wrong, and their dad had worried about her but he was never around. It felt weirdly nice to be worried over, but she would never tell Carter any of this unless it was a life or death situation, obviously, goodness knows the boy did not need more encouragement to be a protective older brother but it did feel nice to know someone always had her back, even if it was annoying sometimes.
“I feel like I'm fine, really,” she promised, trying to stand in a way so as to put as little pressure as was possible on her bad ankle without making it too obvious to Felix. She knew the kid was worried about her and it was sweet. She wondered if this is how Carter felt when she pestered him about him getting hurt, she wondered if this is what it was like to be an older sibling.
But, as sweet, as Felix’s concerned was, if she had to sit in that chair doing nothing but sitting with her own thoughts any longer she was going to start ripping her hair out. She was not built to sit still and the fact that she got injured easily and took longer to heal seemed to be some fucked up punishment when combined with her ADHD.
“Carter said your ankle’s messed up.” Felix said, obviously worried about her, glancing at her ankle.
“I'm fine Felix really.” She tried to smile but standing hurt so much so she wasn’t sure how reassuring it actually was.
Felix turned towards the door and cupped his hands around his mouth, ready to yell for Carter or Zia or Walt.
Sadie sat back down quickly, “okay, okay, I'm sitting down, I'm sitting down, don't start yelling forCarter.” She tapped her feet impatiently. She was going insane just sitting here.
“You want to play a card game?” Felix asked, sitting on the couch next to her chair. He had noticed that maybe putting the ADHD girl with nothing to do but sit still and wait wasn't the best idea, or maybe he was just bored and wanted to spend time with Sadie, it could really go either way with Felix; he was simultaneously so observant and so oblivious.
“What kind of card game?” She asked, praying to whatever God would listen he would not suggest Mao. She still had nightmares about the last time they had tried to play that game with the initiates.
“Mao?” He suggested innocently, she immediately shook her head no at the suggestion.
“No, absolutely not, we're not playing mao.”
“Why does no one want to play Mao with me?” he pouted.
“Felix, the whole point of the game is you don't know the rules and that can really annoying.” She chose not to mention the fact that playing a game like that with a bunch of children who could do spells had also led to a few couple broken vases and minor injuries in the past.
“I like it,” He grumbled, sometimes it was easy to forget he was just a ten year old little kid but then he had moments like this and Sadie was a very glad she was the youngest child of her family, though she supposed she viewed most of the initiates at Brooklyn House the same way one would view annoying siblings or cousins.
“You like it ‘cause you're the one who knows all the rules,” She counter.
“My rules make sense.” He argued.
“We're not playing Mao, Felix, what other games do you have?”
“Ummm, we could play Blackjack, we could play Go Fish, oh! We can play Uno!” He bounced in his seat at the idea of playing Uno, he had been trying to get the older initiates to play Uno with him all week but they had never had the time between training and school and Nome magic lessons but now it was nearing the weekend so most of their school work, both from actual school and the magic lessons, had been completed since they tended to do more physical training on the weekend and Sadie couldn't participate in any of those physical lessons making her the perfect person to play Uno with at the moment.
“Uno? with two people?” Sadie asked, she didn't want to take away his excitement but Uno with only two people sounded incredibly depressing and a bit boring.
“You can play uno with two people!”
“Uno needs more than two people, I don't care what the box says Uno needs more than two people.”
“Umm I dunno than.” Felix furrowed his brow, trying to think of more card games to play.
“You know, we don't have to play you can go play Mao with Jaz, well no actually, you can’t she's studying with Carter and Walt but you could play it with Zia?” Sadie suggested, Felix obviously wanted to spend time with her but with just the two of them most card games would be pretty boring and most board games had to be played at the table and that was more moving than she would probably be allowed to do without Jaz checking her ankle first.
Zia might not be the best person to suggest she was pretty good with kids in theory but would freeze up and panic in practice. But Felix was one of the older kids which meant he was easier to deal with than the ankle-biters, and especially more cooperative and definitely easier to communicate with.
“Zia doesn’t like Mao.”
“Oh.” It wasn't surprising that Zia didn't like Mao, most of the initiates didn't actually really enjoy it that much but we're too competitive to actually back out of a game once did it started, but considering that had been her main plan as a way of distracting Felix will making sure he didn't feel like he was being shoot off it was a bit annoying.
The two sat in silence for a long moment. The room was quiet for the most part almost everyone either in physical training or studying. Sadie broke the silence “Do you really want to play Uno?”
“Yeah, if you don't wanna we don't have to,” Felix mumbled, rocking back and forth in his seat, he seem to have the same problems with sitting still that she did.
“I know that but I think if we get more people it could be fun and I'm sure we could probably get some of the ankle-biters to join us, if you still want to play Uno with me that is?” She asked, smiling as his face lit up like a Christmas tree.
“I do! Wait, can little kids even play Uno?”
“Shelby can, I’ve played with her before.”
“Okay!” Felix lit up even more and scrambled off towards the door before turning around, “Don't move, I'm supposed to be watching you for Carter and I don’t wanna disappoint him.”
Sadie laughed. “I'm not moving, go on and go get the ankle-biters and some decks of Uno, I will sit right here the whole time”
Felix rounded up the ankle-biters and about two decks of Uno cards in case anyone else wants to join. Have they spent a good half an hour making sure the ankle-biters understood the rules of Uno and how to play, Sadie wanted to make sure the game didn't lead to any meltdowns so she reiterated it was just for fun and winning did not really matter that much about fifteen times over.
Zia walked in about an hour after they had started playing they are already played a few rounds and the ankle-biters seemed to be getting the hand of it.
“Zia!” Shelby said, immediately abandoning her cards to go say hi.
“Oh, hello Shelby,” Zia stiffened a bit but smiled at the younger girl, she still wasn't entirely used to dealing with small children but Shelby was a sweetheart and had already decided that Zia was now her new favorite older kid of Brooklyn House.
“Play Uno with us!” Shelby insisted, pulling Zia towards the couches and chairs where they Had all been sitting
“Um..” Zia glanced at Sadie obviously looking for an explanation or at least some help on how to navigate the situation. Sadie laughed.
“It's a card game you can watch this finish up this round and if it seems fun you can join and if not you can be a spectator,” Sadie explained.
“Oh! alright,” Zia nodded, sitting down next to Shelby on a couch. The young girl explaining to Zia what the cards did as she played them, Zia nodded along, occasionally even asking questions.
They finished the round and Zia seem to be following along quite well asking to join when the next started. They continued to play Uno, talking and laughing, until eventually Carter, Walt and Jaz showed up having finished their studying.
After a bit of coaxing the three joins their game the hours passed as they played and laughed Carter being surprisingly bad at Uno, Shelby surprisingly being the one with the most wins when they they had to stop as it was time for dinner.
Sadie hadn't even noticed the hours passing, or the fact that she hadn't been moving for most of them, too distracted by card games and banter with her friends to actually think about how annoying it was she couldn't walk or about how her ankle hurt. Jaz checked it before they headed to dinner making sure the bandages were correct and it wasn't worse, she give Sadie a thumbs up and some ibuprofen and they headed to dinner. Making plans for maybe doing game nights with the initiates as a new weekly or bi-weekly tradition.