She Sure is Mature for her Age

“So I’ve heard you’ve been telling a lot of people you want to go into the entertainment industry?” The Nurse asked as she set the IV bag for the girl. She took out the connecting needle and held the girl’s thin smooth arm. “Look away now hun,” she murmured as she drew the needle closer.

The girl looked away stiffly and shut her eyes, “Actually I wanna do something with communications. Not public relations though because I think it’s so stupid. I wanna be the marketer of a large firm.” She winced as the needle slinked deep into her skin.

“Marketer of a large firm eh? Sit up Shelby, I need to check your blood pressure.” She sighed unwillingly but obeyed the Nurse’s command.

“Yeah, actually I wanna have a big media conglomate.”

“A bid media conglomerate, you sure dream big don’t ya Shelly?”

“Is it now that you tell me how you used to be such a dreamer but then somewhere along the lines, your dreams faded and you learned to live in reality?” Shelby inhaled deeply as the Nurse squeezed the pump and the cuff tightened around her frail arm.

“Now why would I say that at a hospital, to such a bright ambitious girl like you?”

“Well that’s what people always tell me-well they tell me indirectly by nodding their heads and patting by back, then switching the subject. But I don't care about what they think so I'll do my own thing."

“Good,” the Nurse said removing the cuff from Shelby’s arm.

“And then I’ll write a book-not those how did I do it books but more about a pathetic looser that reaches her breaking point and at the end, she finally makes a choice.”

“To turn her life around?”

“That was what I was gonna say but now that you said that aloud, it sounds too expected. So I think she’ll make a choice…to make a choice.”

“Innovative,” the Nurse nodded as she wrapped the wire around the monitor.

“When I grow up, I just wanna be rich and successful. I can never ever settle, I won’t ever, ever settle.”

“Great mind set, love. I’ll eat rocks if your dream rejects you.”

“You won’t have to,” Shelby aid grinning, “I’ll buy you a big house.”

The Nurse turned around and smiled back at her; she carried the monitor and headed out the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to go and tell the less hopeful, more depressed patients about you. They’ll surely be inspired. Watched Saved by the Bell, it’s on.” Shelby turned on the television as the Nurse left.

"...I'm in the corner just to see the bus slide by, it’s all right because I’m saved by myself!” That was her favourite part of the song and she sang it very loudly, overpowering the voice on the box and probably disturbing the other patients.