She stops in her tracks, brows raised. “Oh you sound like you have a story in you! That’s for another day. Anyhoo, I’m Josette Batiste but everyone calls me Jo. I like to sign it with an “e” because no one ever expects that. Gotta keep ‘em guessing.” She gives me a wink, her perma-smile never leaving her face.
I grin back at her, and keep the grin on my face as she tugs me with her through the doors, somehow navigating her way to the room where we will be doing our practical work.
* * *
“Phew wee, girl! That was NOT what I was expecting! Like seriously, did you actually expect that we’d be actually doing CPR on an actual test dummy today?” Joe says animatedly.
I get it, I’m still high from the class, too. Today I got to actually practice CPR. To feel what it feels like to work on somebody. Even if that somebody was a dummy and was hooked up to an iPad to tell us how fast and deep we needed to go.
“I can’t believe I did that! I know it’s not much-”
“Whoa, whoa, hey now!” Joe grips my arm, stopping me in my tracks, turning me to face her. “What do you mean ‘it’s not much’? Boo, you topped the class in both CPRandAED. Even your bandaging skills were on point.” Joe grins at me, then gives my arm a little shake, turning forward again so we can resume walking out toward the parking lot.
“I guess I did do pretty well.” I duck my head, trying to hide my grin.
“Nah uh, head up, girl.” Joe nudges me with her elbow. “I see we gotta work on your confidence.”
I let out a sigh, turning to look at my new friend. “I wish I was confident like you.”
“Ain’t nothin’ to it. I’m not really confident, but sometimes you gotta fake it ‘til you make it. Shoulders back, tits out, big smile, and strut.” She grins at me, loops her arm through mine and we strut all the way to an old looking Toyota. “This is me. She may look rough, but like me, she always gets to where she needs to go.”
I stare at Joe for a beat, and then, not sure what comes over me, I throw my arms around her and grip her tight. “Thank you so much for making my first day so much fun.”
She squeezes me even tighter than I’m squeezing her before I let her go, moving to step back.
“Give me your email address. And phone number. We can work through our online stuff together. I always study in the evenings, 6 til around 9 if you want to study together.”
“Yes! Please! That’s when I work too.” I grin at her, pulling a notebook from my bag and scribbling down all my details before ripping out the page and passing it to her.
A car horn has me turning, catching sight of Justice in the DRMC SUV. I wave at him, turning back to find Joe eyeing the SUV.
“That is a nice ride, you fancy folk or something?”
“Oh gosh, no way! No, that belongs to the MC.” Joe’s brows fly up to her colored head scarf, “No, they’re good guys. Not a one percenter or whatever you call them. I live at The Keep, you may not have heard of i-”
“The Keep? I’ve heard about that place. I live like forty minutes from there. Used to be a cult and now it’s like, some sort of safe haven, isn’t it?” She tilts her head, brows furrowed.
“Yeah, I guess that’s how you could describe it,” I mumble, looking at my sneaker.
I risk glancing up at Joe’s face, only to find her wide smile back on her face, eyes glinting. “Oh girl, youreallyhave a story to tell, am I right?”
I let out a little huff and smile back. “Yeah, I probably do.”
“Good thing we have six months left of training, it’ll give us time to get to know each other. I got a story too. Could be more like yours than you think.” With that she gives me a wink and her trademark grin.
“Thanks, Joe. For everything.”
“Ain’t nothing to it. See you online, Loyal Blessin’,”
“You too, Joe Batiste.”
I walk toward Justice, turning only to wave to Joe as she slowly leaves the parking lot, honking her horn and grinning from inside her car. My chest feels all fizzy and my head is dizzyat how light I feel. My first real steps toward becoming an EMT have been achieved and I can’t imagine how it’s all going to feel once I’ve completed my training.
Opening the car door I slide in, grin still in place. It’s not until I buckle my seatbelt that I notice Justice grinning at me.
“What?”
“Nothing, sister-cousin. Just that you look like a different person to the one I dropped off six hours ago. This Loyal looks like she could take on the world.”
