Free Push Girl by Chelsie Hill, Jessica Love Page B

abandoned me when I needed him the most, I got so angry, I felt like my skin was going to light on fire. But I had so much to be angry about that I found myself having to move on and focus my anger elsewhere. I knew I’d see him at school, though. I thought briefly about texting to let him know I was coming back, or texting one of our mutual friends to try to dig for information, but I decided against it. None of those friends had visited or called, and he was obviously avoiding me. If he didn’t know I was coming, I had the element of surprise working in my favor. I could finally get him alone and find out what’s been going on.
    I wanted a distraction from all these thoughts in my head. I was about to pick up my phone and watch some more videos of people doing awesome things in wheelchairs when the door to my bedroom squeaked open.
    “Dad?”
    “Oh, sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
    “It’s fine. I couldn’t sleep.”
    “Me neither.” He shuffled over to my bed in the dark and lowered himself down on the edge of my bed. The disturbance woke Logan, who walked himself down to the edge of the bed, curled back up, and was snoring again within seconds.
    “Why not?”
    I could see him shrug in the dark. “Just thinking about you going to school tomorrow. You ready for this?”
    I would have just given a little nod, but I knew he couldn’t see me with the lights still off. “It’s not like I have a choice, right?”
    Dad reached up and patted my arm. “You’re so strong, kiddo. I’m so proud of you.”
    “People keep saying I’m strong,” I said. “But I don’t get it. I’m not strong. I’m just doing what I have to do. What other choice do I have?”
    “That attitude of yours is exactly what makes you strong. There are some people who just give up, Kara. They don’t try.”
    “I can’t imagine giving up.”
    “I know it’s hard to see it right now, honey, but this happened to you for a reason. And there’s a reason it happened to you and not someone else.”
    I’m glad he couldn’t see me roll my eyes. If I heard that everything happened for a reason one more time, I swear, I was going to wheel myself off a cliff.
    “I can tell you’re rolling your eyes at me. Just because it’s dark doesn’t mean I don’t know what you’re doing.” Dad scooted himself around on my bed so that he was able to lean his back against the wall, and Logan, disturbed again by all the movement, walked back up the bed and settled next to Dad with an exasperated grunt. Dad absently stroked his fur. “I know this is nowhere near the same as what you’re going through, but do you remember when I told you about tearing my ACL?”
    I nodded onto his shoulder; I’d heard this story many times over the years. My dad had a full scholarship to UCLA to play soccer, and he tore his ACL the summer before his freshman year while messing around playing rugby with his buddies in the park. He lost his scholarship and never played soccer competitively again, all because of a random pickup game.
    “But even though I lost my scholarship, I still went to UCLA. I didn’t give up and stay at home, even though I wanted to. I still got a great education, and I met your mom in a class I would never have taken as a soccer player. If I played soccer, I’d have a different job now, and I wouldn’t have you. There’s no way I would go back and change what happened to me, even if it meant I’d never been hurt.”
    “But you could still walk, Dad. You still had a normal life. This isn’t the same. What good things can possibly happen for me like this?”
    He let out a long sigh and reached over to pat my arm. “It’s too soon to tell just yet, sweetie. But I promise, good things can and will happen to you. Maybe you’ll never walk again, maybe you will. But no matter what, you’re still the same Kara Moore. You have awesome things ahead of you.”
    “I don’t feel the same,” I said. “Dr. Nguyen has me on so many