Something messed up happened today, and I just need to pour it out somewhere. So, remember how Hyde needs to wear a battery-powered backpack in order to help him breathe normally? He’s supposed to charge it every other night, but you know when you think you plug something in and it turns out you didn’t? That’s what happened to his portable life support. He skipped on the morning stretches so that it could charge, thinking that it would do and he’d be fine for the day. Jekyll still brought a portable manual resuscitator as a precaution, but Hyde didn’t think he’d need it, that he was good, and he was. 

Until Gym class.

Hyde has two favorite classes, English and Gym, and he gets amp for both of them- especially Gym. Because of his breathing problem, for a long time, he was confined in a pod that helps him breathe, restricting him from any physical activity. But he is an energetic kid, so being forced to not do anything was practically torture for him. That advanced backpack freed him to do what I do on instinct every day and take for granted. That’s why he loved gym, he can actually move instead of just sitting all day.

So when Gym class came around, Hyde didn’t care if his backpack wasn’t fully charged, he just wanted to enjoy Gym. Jekyll was worried, but we’ve been doing aerobics stuff lately so we thought that’s all we’d be doing today too. But then Ms. Achilles decided to reward us for behavior and participation by allowing us to play dodgeball. The whole class exploded, I was excited, Hyde was ecstatic, the only one not happy was Jekyll- he was petrified for his brother. He was worried that the backpack wouldn’t last long enough if Hyde played and tried to talk him to sitting out even getting the teacher involved. But Hyde just brushed him off, he was sure he was going to be fine. We normally play 3 to 4 games before the bell rings, and Hyde was completely fine in the first round. I even forgot about his breathing problem by the end of the second round I was caught up in the game- we were winning- but then Brice threw a ball that hit right at Hydes gut hard.

He was winded and … couldn’t catch his breath.

The more he tried to control his breathing the worse it got it was like

I don’t even know!

Like the air was being sucked out of him with every inhale!

I completely froze up I didn’t know what to do the whole class was still- I started getting flashbacks from when I first saw him I don didn’t know what to do I was dreaded I don’t want to go through this again- I don’t want him to die!

The only people to react were Ms. Achilles and Jekyll.

They’ve managed to get the manual resuscitator to him and got his backpack to the nearest outlet before things got worse.

And Hyde still insisted on playing!

DUDE- YOU HAD THE EQUIVALENCE OF AN ASTHMA ATTACK AND YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST “WALK IT OFF”? JACOB- THE TOUGHEST GUY IN THE CLASS- WAS WORRIED FOR YOU AND BRICE LOOKED EXTREMELY GUILTY ABOUT TOUCHING THE BALL - HE JUST WANTED TO STOP PLAYING AFTER THAT!!!

We all just stopped playing after that. How could we, after seeing that?

I feel really stupid, I just stood there, what if Jekyll wasn’t there? I don’t know what to do with his condition- I have experience with this emergency stuff I SHOULD HAVE known what to do- I SHOULD HAVE REACTED but I didn’t! I just stood there in shock- completely clueless like a

I… I just didn’t think I had to go through that again. I was caught off guard.

He's fine now.

He's not allowed to partake in Gym until next week, he's upset about it, but now he promises to make sure that the backpack is plugged in right.

I should find out more about his condition, I can't be caught off guard like that again. Let's hope they're cooperative with that information.