Title:  Blood Donating.
Author:  Miranda White (Mimi)
Date:  8th April
Cat:  Vignette, humour (well, depending if your sense of humour is as
twisted and weird as mine), future (Jonny, Jessie and Hadji are now all over
17)

Blood Donating.

"Dad, why are we walking around this town.  There are only two shops that
interest me.  Or at least they would have if their products hadn't already
been in the shops at home a few months ago."
"Well, Jonny," Dr. Quest replied to his son, "England is a few months behind
America in some things.  And we are walking around here because there is
still another five hours until my meeting starts."
"Besides,"  Jessie added, "This part of England is really nice.  Trees in
every street, squirrels running around, really polite people."
She was stopped when two boys pushed into her.
"Hey!"  One of the boys shouted.  "Watch what you're doing!"  He then
preceded to walk down the street with his friend, cursing with words that
Jessie hadn't even heard of when she was their age.
"Well, Jess.  You were saying."  Jonny said tauntingly.
"It is apparently true that you cannot judge a book by it's cover.  A nice
place like this does not always make for nice people."  Hadji stated while
walking past a row of four mobile phone shops, all for the same network.

The group continued through the smallish town, wondering why a place with a
high percentage of unemployed people and single, low income, parents needed
nine travel agencies along their High Street.
"Hey, what's going on here?"  Jonny asked when he noticed that the town hall
was pulling an awfully big crowd, even if he only noticed the mansion sized
building due to the Blockbuster Video store next to it.
"Hmm, the sign says it's a blood doning session."  Race said as he looked
over in the direction of the hall."
"There is no such word as doning.  It is donating."  Hadji said absently as
he tried to avoid looking into the lingerie store and the sex store that
were stood next to each other, directly opposite the town hall.
"Why don't we take a look?"  Dr. Quest asked, "You kids are bored, and
besides, Blood DONATING,"  He stressed, looking at Hadji, "Helps people."
The other members of the group shrugged, obviously willing to take any
suggestions for something to do, not noticing that a half hour ago Bandit
had been chased away by two, particularly vocal, boys who wanted to tie
rocks to his feet and throw him in the town's river.

Race looked that the questionnaire that each of the group had been given
after declaring to the cheerful woman at reception that they wanted to
donate blood.
The first few questions had been fine.  He hadn't been ill in ages, they
hadn't been to a country in Africa recently that had a high malaria risk and
Race had avoided South America like the plague since that meeting between
Estella and Jade.  Unfortunately the questions about his sexual habits, in
order to make sure there was no passing of STDs, were doozies.  He quickly
looked over Jessie's shoulder, who was sat in front of him in the rows of
stiff, hard chairs, to check her answers, and was relieved to see her put no
next
to all the 'have you had sex with...' questions.

The group quickly finished their questionnaires, and after their details
were entered into the laptop on the front desk they were ushered into a room
where people were being seen by nurses.
The person who escorted them in gave them all a number and left them to sit
in another row of hard chairs to await examination by a nurse.

"29!"  A nurse called, waiting for Dr. Quest to realise that was his number
before disappear behind a screen that was completely UNsound-proof in order
to keep confidentiality.  He walked over to her and he answered all her
questions about his health before getting a small pin prick in his finger to
test for anaemia.  After he watched the blood droplet fall to the bottom of
the blue liquid filled test tube in less than thirty seconds he was declared
anaemic free and able to donate, followed by Jonny and Jessie.  Race's test
came next, and the nurse asked the typical questions before warning the
patient about the pin prick for the anaemia test.  Race watched the small
drop of blood leave his finger and promptly fainted, much to the nurse's
disgust and the other patients' amusement.  Hadji helped the nurse move him
to a chair before passing his own test and entering the main room.

Jonny, Jessie, Hadji and Dr. Quest were all escorted to beds where a nurse
came to see each of them.  After wrapping a cord around their arms to make
the blood vessels stand out a nurse placed a needle, connected to a
collection bag by a pipe, into each of their left inner elbow's vein.  About
two seconds later, Jonny was chatting up his particularly young nurse while
Hadji was taking the time to meditate and Dr. Quest was getting a long
deserved rest, what with being the father of a trouble magnet like Jonny.
Jessie, however, was asking the nurse to get the 'God damn needle out of
her'.
"What's wrong?"  The nurse managed to ask while trying to stop Jessie from
pulling the needle out.
"This thing hurts!  That's what!"  Another nurse came over, asking what the
pain was like.
"What does it matter?  It hurts.  Get it out!"  The new nurse started to
explain the slight discomfort of giving blood before Jessie looked at her
condescendingly, quickly explaining the perils of her life and her high pain
threshold.  After telling the nurse that it felt like someone pressing down
on a bruise, the needle was removed and another set up to go in her right
arm, this time NOT hitting a nerve.
"Would you like an anaesthetic?"  The new nurse asked Jessie.
"Hell yeah."  Jessie quickly replied.

The group met up at the back of the room after the donating and ten minute
post donating lay down where some staff were giving out tea and coffee and
directing patients to the table with lots of packets of chocolate biscuits.
Hadji quickly explained the whereabouts of Race while tucking into a biscuit
called a  'hobnob'.
"Oh my god, Race is a wuss."  Jonny stated as his world fell around him.
Jessie tried to drink from her coffee cup, but since she had had needles in
both elbows and they were now bandaged up, she couldn't bend her arms enough
to get the cup close enough to her mouth.
"Haven't we rested enough?  Can't we go yet?"  Jessie asked, handing her
coffee over to Jonny for him to drink, since he had a higher chance of
getting the cup within a foot of his mouth without practising the yoga Hadji
taught them all.
"Hmm, okay."  Dr. Quest said, yanking Jessie's coffee out of Jonny's hands,
know the consequences of giving a danger prone boy too much coffee.
They all headed to reception to pick up, a now conscious Race, getting
leaflets shoved into their hands on the way out.
"How can they expect people not to drink for twenty four hours when there
are 69 pubs in this small town alone, 11 of them within view of this hall?"
Dr. Quest asked while walking away from the hall.
"Hey, Dad.  Can we come back here in three months time and do this blood
donating thing again?"  Jonny asked with puppy dog eyes, getting the
reference from Bandit who had mysteriously reappeared after sending two boys
to the doctors for their tetanus and rabies vaccinations.
"Why?"  Hadji asked.  "Do you like the feeling of knowing that your donation
may have saved someone's life?"
"Nah.  That nurse back there was hot.  I wanna see her again."

The End.