“HU, HU” I gasped for air. My eyes shut and opened, I drifted in and out of conciseness.

“HU, HU” Again, I gasped for air. But nothing would come. The air would not come in. I desperately gasped for shard of air to enter my lungs. My eyes briefly opened and I saw my mother coming towards me. It looked like she was screaming and was terrified. I felt my legs grow limp then they bent. I felt myself starting to collapse.

Moments Before
My family and I had just come back from doing some volunteer work. (I was in a dress.) We had decided to go visit my grandmother. I was out in the backyard talking with my aunt. When Justin (My friend) and Tami (His mom) came.

“Hello?” Tami said. I got up and walked towards her.

“Hey Tami, Justin” I said. We hugged each other and commenced with small talk.

“Mom, Abby, Tami and Justin are here.” I shouted. Then my mom and sister came out of the house. And they began talking. I grew bored and went back to the back yard. Justin followed me.

I turned around and faced him, “You wanna play tennis?” I asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders, “Sure.” He said.

I ran to the garage and got out our two tennis racquets and our tennis ball. I handed him the blue racquet and tossed him the tennis ball.
“Your serve.” I said

He nodded and served the ball. We kept going back and forth. By this time everyone had settled down and was sitting in the backyard talking and watching us. Tami and my mom were sitting in some chairs by the patio. (On the side Justin was.) Abby (my sister) was sitting next to my aunt by the garage. And my grandmother was in a chair behind me.
Justin and I had set up a perimeter to mark the out of bounds. I had put the lawn chair in back of me to represent that anything past that point was out.
It was a hot, humid summer day. So I had taken off my white sweater and thrown it on the ground behind me. I did the same for my tights and my black shoes. A few more minutes had passed and I had stepped all over my tights and sweater so they had been dyed to a brown muddy color. Yes, I was running around the yard, barefoot, and in a red dress. (An accident waiting to happen.)
But then, it was Justin’s serve. I was ready, I just needed to score this last point and I would be victorious. I had my racket in my right hand. My eyes were focused on the ball. I blocked out all the outside noise. I had one thing on my mind, and that was to win, to crush Justin. Justin threw the ball in the air; a trickle of sweat ran down the side of my face. He put his racket into position. It looked like he was going to smash it down. I lowered my racket and got closer to the front.
“POW!” I saw the ball fly clear over my head. My eyes darted to where it was. I grimaced. Then I took off running towards it. I could see that it was going straight to my grandmother’s face.
I had two choices, to allow the ball to hit my grandmother’s face, or save it, be a hero and win the game. I decided to be a hero. (What would you have done?)
I thrusted my body right in front of my grandma. And hit the ball. I grinned with pride. Then I looked down and saw I was going to step on my white (actually now browned) sweater. So I moved a little to the right, and landed on my black high heeled shoes. The heals stabbed into my bare feet.
“Crack!” The heel off of one of my shoes broke and I tripped over it. I felt myself starting to fall. I was not only falling but I was falling onto the lawn chair.
“Yes! A soft landing.” I thought to myself
But, there was no soft landing. When I hit the lawn chair the armrest hit right in between my chest. And my forehead hit the top of the chair. I felt something inside crack.
Then I somehow immediately got up and walked to my mom. Then I felt it. I felt the air leave my lungs. My eyes closed and I lost consciousness. Then I heard someone yell and I snapped out, I woke up and saw my mom running towards me. I tried walking to her but I couldn’t, I couldn’t breathe I gasped and gasped for air. Waiting for the smallest amount of air to enter my lungs, but nothing came, nothing at all.
I looked around, I saw my mother coming towards me and yelling, I saw my grandmother’s worried face, and Justin's morbid blank face.
My eyes shut again, I felt my knees bend. And then my body started falling to the ground. Someone grabbed me before I hit the ground.
“Splash!” I felt water hit my face.
“HHHUUU!!!” I woke up, then sat up.
“Oh baby.” My mom said and then hugged me. I smiled.
Now you may be thinking that now I went to the hospital. NO! Being the family I have, of course we didn’t go to the hospital. I went home; my dad punched me and said, “Yeah! You took it like a girl, tough it out!” I winced and rubbed my chest. For a year after that I could not normally breathe and sometimes I felt like my chest was caving in and I was being crushed. Now that I look back, I'm 100% positive that I broke my ribs.
Oh and regarding whom won. Justin did. My so called “Hero” act landed out of bounds. And landed a broken hero.
I walked out of my grandmother's backyard with a muddied sweater and tights, a broken shoe, a twisted ankle, a bruise on my face and broken ribs. Now that I write this on a cold snowy February day, with my once broken ribs acing, all I can say is...
Why did I try to save my already dirtied sweater?