"We will speak of this to no one"

*Hinrew already heard this story, so he's been forewarned. Any others of you who are squeamish when it comes to blood might want to sit this one out. Reader discretion is advised. Yes, again.*

Carrie sits in Health class as her teacher Mr. D. talks about "capillaries, arteries and stuff" and he decides to put on a video of Clint the hockey player who takes a blade of an ice skate to the neck. 

Obviously, Clint goes down, wide-eyed, there's blood all over the ice, and Carrie flashes back to the time she got the first three fingers on her right hand scissored in the Dutch doors at church. She had been leaning over the ledge of the lower door with her fingers hanging off the outside into the hallway when a friend unknowingly threw open the bottom half into the room and into her body. She tries to pivot back, and the bottom door would have slid nicely into the top door except she neglected to also move her hand. 

She describes the experience by using a karate reference. The owner of the karate academy instructs his tiniest students to be careful to use the bottom of their foot when kicking and not their toes because otherwise, "there are three sounds I will hear. *CRUNCH*, "ouch!", and "MOMMMMM!" That last one is the one that scares me most."

She almost passed out the sight of the 90 degree slices out of her fingers. She's cringing as I'm typing this from the muscle memory. 

Flash forward to the health room. Poor Clint has his hand to his neck (picture lots of blood) and collapses to his knees. A ref shoves his own fingers into the wound on Clint's neck and pinches the artery closed. (Clearly we don't pay refs enough.)  At this point in the video, Carrie closes her eyes, grabs the water bottle belonging to the ninth grade boy sitting beside her, remarks "I'm gonna take a sip, and I'm gonna pass out real quick. Be with you in a moment." 

She recounts that she *should* have leaned to the side where the bar connects the desk to the chair. Alas, stupidly, she leant left with her head down on her arms, closes her eyes again, and tries to not focus on the church flashback. 

She remembers blackness and then dreaming.

And then a fuzzy-edged Mr. D. kneeling beside her as she's on the floor, exclaiming in a voice that sounded away, "Carrie? Carrie?! Are you okay?!!"

Glaring at him, Carrie reads his lips and replies through gritted teeth, "you will speak of this to no one."

He grinned and remarked, "now we know who passes out!" Carrie restrains from punching him.

He instructs, "Mr. G (another student), go get the principal." Carrie muses to herself, from the floor, "what did I just say? Aren't you a health teacher, and you ask me if I was okay? I'm on the floor!"

The vice principal strolls in, does a double take at her white face and quips, "you are really pale. Do you want to walk with me to the office or do you want me to bring in the wheelchair?"

At this point, Carrie does a complete Carrie-ism which is hard to describe unless you've seen it. There's the eyes which squinched shut, a half shrug with palms wide open, shoulders up to her ears, mouth wide open with incredulity. It's hilarious to see in person.  "I'll walk."

She reaches for her backpack only to have him snatch it while soothing, "I'll take that." Rolling her eyes, she follows him out. Evvvvvveryone stares as they leave.

Arriving at the office, he installs her onto the nurse's bed in the middle of the hallway in the office. He instructs her to stay put and that he's not letting her do anything until color comes back into her face because, as the secretary noted, "you are as white as paper!"

"And then he just leaves me there!"

And doesn't come back. 

Eventually the bell rang, still no vice principal, Mr. D. comes back in and asks, "oh, you're still here? Did they allow you to leave?" 

She recounted what the principal had said. Mr. D. says he'll go find him and he leaves, too.

Carrie's ride starts texting her from the parking lot because they're supposed to head off to work, so Carrie texts replies and sums up the situation. 

Mr. D comes back in and says he thinks she can go. Carrie's ride is waving cheerfully from the front desk. As Carrie collects her backpack, the secretary again comments, "you were really white." 

Yes. Thank you. Got it.

Upon reaching work, one of her bosses asks, "where were you guys?"

"Oh. I just passed out last period."

*pause* He smacks his lips a time or two then declares, "that's a valid reason."

Then life continued on as the staff wrestled with erecting Halloween cobwebs, which, I'm told, is more difficult that it would seem to be. 

In all the kerfuffle, somehow Carrie's coat went MIA. She asked Mr. D. if he'd seen it and he hadn't. It could be in her friend's car or in a previous classroom... poof. 

Woohoo, buh bye.

If you're interested in the video, YouTube "Clint hockey accident" and she says it's probably the second one from the top. Also, don't show her any sympathy lest you get punched.