"There's nothing wrong with that," Liz replied as she looked over the lunch offerings. "It's just that you do it so often that I think you forget that sometimes it's good to raise a little hell."
"I don't feel the need to raise hell like you do, Liz," I said, looking at her sideways. Liz had been my best friend since we were ten, when she'd waltzed into my elementary school, looked around and chosen me as her lifelong best friend. She was wild where I was calm, mouthy whereas I was polite, and rebellious whereas I was a definite rule follower. I calmed her and she, well, she got me into more trouble than I could imagine.
"I'll take the burger, fries, and a bowl of chili...please," Liz said to the woman behind the counter then looked at me and flashed a big cheesy grin. "Happy now?"
"Oh, Liz, you're a piece of work," I said, shaking my head. I turned to the lunch lady and said, "Salad, a bowl of chicken soup, and a wheat roll, please."
"Gross," Liz said as she made another face. She had the most animated face I'd ever known and was always shaping and reshaping herself to fit some new idea of who she thought she should be. It was entertaining, but sometimes I worried that Liz really didn't have any idea who she was.
"Do you think Rikka will hold today against me?" I asked once we were seated at a table near the window so Liz could watch people pass by. I loved the fact that I'd be able to observe the doctors and nurses as they worked on patients and then relaxed over lunch. I wanted to soak up as much about the hospital as I could, and the cafeteria was an excellent place to do it.
"Seriously doubt it," she said as she crammed two catsup-covered fries into her mouth and chewed. "Hey, look at that guy. Do you think he's homeless or just a hipster whose mom didn't do his laundry this week?"
"Liz! That's so mean!" I laughed before turning and looking at the young guy crossing the street and adding, "Definitely hipster. He's got a messenger bag slung over his shoulder. Homeless guys always use grocery sacks to carry their stuff."
"Hmmm, yeah, you're right," Liz nodded as she watched the boy cross the street. "He's cute, then."
"Elizabeth Marie Baker! You are incorrigible!" I laughed as I speared some lettuce and stuffed it my mouth. I chewed for a few moments then said, "I wonder who we'll be working with."
"I hope I get the ER," Liz said with her mouth full of burger. "I want to meet a handsome doctor who will sweep me off my feet and meet me in the broom closet for a scandalous rendezvous."
"Liz, is there ever a moment when men are not part of the equation for you?" I laughed already knowing the answer.
"Alex, my darling, the answer to that question, as you very well know, is no." Liz grinned. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a red-blooded, American girl who enjoys sex, so don't judge me."
"I wouldn't dare," I smiled before turning the conversation to a more serious matter. Sometimes Liz's reckless behavior scared me. She took chances that I knew I'd never be brave enough to take, and most of the time her gamble worked out just fine, but the few times when it hadn't, well, it had spelled disaster. I looked over at her stuffing fries in her mouth and said, "I'm just worried that I won't be able to manage all the coursework on top of working at the hospital. I can't afford to lose my scholarship, Liz."
"I know, kiddo," she said, patting my hand. "You're going to be just fine. We're going to kick ass and take names so that when we walk across that graduation stage, we'll be super stars!"
"I hope you're right," I sighed as I finished the rest of my salad. "I really hope you're right."
#
Later that afternoon, Liz and I walked into our classroom and found our professor setting up an anatomy lesson covering the skin. Liz muttered a few choice curse words under her breath while I took note of what the professor had written on the board.
"It's not going to be that bad, Liz," I whispered as we took our seats in the middle of the classroom. "It's just basic anatomy. Stuff we've been studying forever."
"Well, that would be helpful if I'd been studying it," Liz said mournfully.
"Liz! Why didn't you tell me you needed help?" I whispered. "I would have shared my flashcards with you or helped you study."
"I know, I know," she said. "Well, now's as good a time as ever to turn it all around!"
Twenty minutes later, Professor Jackson began the lecture, and I found myself lost in the intricacies of human anatomy as it related to the skin. I loved learning about the way the body was not only designed to be an efficient machine, but also how easily that machine could be disrupted by even the smallest abnormality. It wasn't that I wanted people to get sick, it was just that I loved learning how we, as medical professionals, could learn how to identify the problems and contribute to the process of fixing them.
"So, you can see how important healthy skin is to the overall function of the body," Professor Jackson said as she tied together the main points of the lecture. "Any time the skin is compromised, you have to keep an eye out for infection. A breach in skin layers can be as small as a paper cut or as large as a third-degree burn, and cause major problems either way. This is why good hygiene is so vitally important when you are dealing with the skin. Now, any questions?"
"Is this going to be on the exam?" Violet Metzler asked in a bored voice as she looked down at her nails. "And if it's not, could you be so kind as to give us an idea of what will be on the exam?"
"Ms. Metzler, it would be safe to assume that everything I lecture about will be part of an exam," Professor Jackson replied. "After all, this knowledge is what you will need in order to function as a nurse."
"Yeah, but see, I'm planning to be an administrator," Violet replied in the same bored tone as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and said, "I don't intend to have to actually deal with patients, so I don't want to waste my time memorizing things that aren't going to be useful in my administrative capacity."
"Ms. Metzler, administrators normally work their way up through the ranks, so you're going to need to actually practice nursing before you are allowed to supervise other nurses," Professor Jackson said, raising her eyebrow.
"Yeah, no. My daddy is going to put me in charge of the nurses at his hospital as soon as I graduate, so I don't need to worry about all that stuff," Violet said, waving her hand impatiently.
"And I wish you, and him, the best of luck with that," Professor Jackson said, turning back toward the board. "Are there any other questions?"