@ofseeingstars cont from here.
It had been one hell of an afternoon.
It had started after eating lunch with the group, before they all went their separate ways for the last half of school. Janis ended her day with art, her teacher introducing a new medium for them to try. She set up a paper canvas in the corner, a closed package of soft pastels in hand. She struggled with the taped packaging, and after a moment, she was enveloped in a soft cloud of pastel dust, a few of the school provided pastels broken and crumbled.
Her asthma hasn't acted up in years, she thought it was one of those childhood things, where you grow out of it. She was wrong, gasping and choking, her lungs seizing at the sudden grainy dust falling down her throat. The teacher had stepped out just before the attack, and the other students stared at her for a long moment before realizing she wasn’t just sick-- she needed help. As she leaned on the sink counters, trying to force air down her throat, a kind enough guy took the first initiative and supported her out the door to the sunny campus. Resuming a tripod position, 911 was called.
An over reaction in the slightest, but she had no inhaler on file making the nurses office futile. The few worried students tried to keep her breathing as her esophagus hurt, contracting around nothing. Her throat was raw from coughing and she was panicking- oh god she was panicking. Barely being able to breathe terrified the artist, the pound of adrenaline doing nothing to help her current condition, limbs going a little numb and chilly from the lack of circulating oxygen. When the paramedics rolled onto campus she was treated quickly, and finally she was given medicinal relief, her breathing reduced to ragged breaths, desperate to fill her body with oxygen again.
Her mother was mostly one to overreact, fluttering around like a nervous bird as the doctors spoke. She pressed the doctors to run tests, to see if she needed an inhaler again, while allowing Janis her one phone call before being trapped for the night.
Seeing Cady was a relief. She was worried, justifiably so. Their hands clasped together as Janis’ made her request, voice close to lost from the coughing and gasping. She fluttered her eyes closed as Cady joined her, physical relief passing her features. She was sure her mother, and Cady’s, thought nothing of it. They still were best friends, after all.
“Thank you,” Janis mumbled, face in her hair. The doctor took a glance at the two before gesturing the mothers to step out, paperwork needed to be done to allow Cady to stay.
