No. Olivia opens her eyes.

You breathe into Olivia’s mouth one last time, and you’re about to move away to swap with Ms. Fujiwara when you hear the girl on the floor loudly gasp for air, her eyes opening wide.

“Oh my God!” You hear Lilian cry behind you and small, short sobs right beside her.

“She’s alive!” Some other voice says, and that’s when you realize you’re surrounded by students, all looking as you performed CPR.

With that, you finally stop and make way for the nurse.

“Don’t move.” She orders her. “I’m going to check your head. Try to breathe normally.”

Olivia looks dazed and confused, but does as told.

It’s not long after that the ambulance arrives. When they ask the nurse for details, she points them to you, saying you’re the one who revived her and saw the accident. You tell them everything from how the accident happened to the amount of sets it took to wake her up.

“Good work, son! You just saved a person’s life!” The man gives you a strong pat on the shoulder.

With the professionals now taking care of everything, you allow yourself to relax a bit, sitting on the first step of the stairs and breathing heavily.

“Fucking shit…” You mutter, thanking your past self for deciding to take that CPR course in high school.

You’re shaking. It’s hard to pay attention to anything else now. You briefly notice Olivia being covered with a blanket from the neck down and being transported in a stretcher, along with Lilian and Jessica fighting with the teachers and the paramedics to be allowed to go with her until they give in. A person almost died in front of you. The fact that it was a person who seems to have something against you is a non-issue.

You watch your hand shaking with a bit of amusement. Then two hands wrap it around theirs. You look forward and see Ms. Fujiwara kneeling in front of you, taking your hand in hers and giving you a bright, thankful smile.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Walker. If it wasn’t for you, Ms. Hughes would’ve died. You saved her life. Thank you, Thank you very much!” She bows her head as she thanks you from the bottom of her heart, eyes tearing up.

“I just… it’s…” You sigh heavily, trying to regain your composure. “I’m just glad she didn’t die.”

“So am I, Mr. Walker. So am I.” She squeezes your hand. She might be trying to calm you down. “You did an excellent job.”

“T-Thank you.” You stammer, but this might be less because of Olivia and more because the nurse is just so darn cute.

“What class do you have next?” She asks.

“History.”

“Then I’ll ask Ms. Hunter to cut you some slack. I know how you must be feeling now, so eat something sweet and try to relax, okay?” She stands up, ruffles your hair playfully and leaves to talk to another teacher.

You follow her advice, standing up and walking to the vending machine at the end of the hallway, ignoring everyone’s stares.

Just as you’re about to put your money in, Emily steps in, holds your wrist and puts her own money in. Megan walks to your other side and puts a hand on your shoulder, rubbing it.

“My treat.” Emily smiles kindly and pushes the buttons, buying you an orange juice. “For the hero of the day.” She teases, but it’s all in good nature.

“Don’t say that. I wish I could feel like a hero, but that was too real to feel anything other than fear. You two did amazing, too. Thanks.” You sigh, looking at the can she put in your hand. “I wanted a chocolate bar, though.” You tease back.

Laughing as she watches Emily’s face fall flat, Megan puts her own money in the machine. “Then that one will be my treat.” She says and buys it for you.

“You don’t have to. Neither of you.” You try to smile, but it’s hard right now.

“But we want to.” Megan puts the chocolate bar in your hand. “You were amazing there.”

“Can you teach me how to do that?” Emily asks. “It just hit me that I should REALLY know how to do CPR.”

Megan agrees. “Me too. Accidents like that happen often in the field. Thankfully, we’ve never had one that serious, but well, you never know.”

“I’d be happy to.” You nod.

You spend the rest of recess idly chatting, and it seems they extended it for 10 more minutes because of the accident. When it’s time to go back to class, Ms. Hunter does cut you some slack, not asking you to answer any questions and not calling you out for spacing out.