Chapter Three

Being Permanently Crippled has its flaws. I have to go physiotherapy twice a week, I have been going there for the past 7 years and there is no change but Lee won’t give up, she wants to see me walking someday. She doesn't care even if it is with crutches she just wants to see me out of my wheelchair.

Physiotherapy is actually quite fun! It’s in the hospital of course but it doesn't smell bad, it doesn't smell like the typical hospital smell. The rotten smell of old people and medicines and the stale smell of glucose. The physiotherapy room smells of pine trees and clean laundry, it’s got a nice light blue walls and one comfy bed that I have the honor to sit in. There are two beds in every room and one physiotherapist attends each bed.

This is where I meet Sammy. I first saw Sammy when Lee made me come here the first time. She was sitting on one of beds, her nice brown hair tied in a cute pony tail and her electrifying blue eyes stared at me as I wheeled into the room. She had broken her leg falling off the swings at some playground, which I later found out. A therapist named Varun was helping her exercise it, He was talking to her in a solid Indian accent I didn't understand how Sammy understood him.

From the first thing that Sammy said to me when I wheeled into the room, I knew she was going to be my best friend. She said.
"Oh my Gosh! A wheelchair? That is so cool! Do your hands get tried? How do you have a shower? And go the toilet?"
My reply to that was,
"Its simple"
She smiled flashing me her crooked but white teeth.
"Hi I'm Samantha Percy but you can call me Sammy"
"Hey Sammy, I'm Jason Marbecks but you can call me Jay"
"Holla Jay"
That's how our friendship started. Later I found out that she moved to LA from Chicago because her dad had got a transfer, he was an insurance agent.
Sammy was joining my school. We have been best friends since we were 8.
Now we are together at 'Abraham Lincoln Senior High School' in grade 10. Perfect.

Its Valentine Day today and it’s become mine and Sammy's ritual that we have to get together that day and use it as a friendship day for us. We created this when we were 9 and we are sticking to it. She never goes out with boys on that day and I never ask girls out on that day (not that I get a lot of girls to ask out, but Sammy gets any guy she wants, she's the popular kind but she will always be by my side everywhere). We needed an excuse to send Lee to Matt's place and both of us couldn't think of anything. This one is going to be a tough one.