Chapter 1: A Depressing Start

I wake up to see her, my grandma, lying peacefully without a sound. I got up from the cold, red wood chair_ that I slept in_ to see her face. It was hard to sleep thinking I should've done something to help her out of this struggle. The silence was broken when Dr. Halo entered the hospital room with my brother, Tyson. I could tell there was bad news by the tears in Tyson's eyes. The doctor gestured me towards the door. I got worried knowing she was going to be alone in the room. As I was walking over to them, I glanced back at her to make sure she was fine; and, she was still asleep.

The medic took me into the hallway explaining to my brother and I all the things that could possibly be affecting her. She was growing weaker and there was nothing they could do. She could possibly die in a matter of days, weeks or months. My life had always been this dispiriting. Most of my life had been in a hospital. When I was born, my beautiful mother died 13 minutes after I was born. Tyson showed me a photo of her and the one of my father. When I was two years old and Tyson was with my grandparents, my dad was driving me to daycare. On our way there, he lost control of the car, crashing into three other cars killing both drivers and him. Two other women and I were sent to the hospital. I had scars all over my body.

Those scarring memories still haunt me to this day. Why does the hospital mostly have bad news about good people? It's not fair that my grandma was possibly going die. He apologized then left us with only our tears. Tyson and I returned into the room to see my grandma sitting up staring at me as if she knew what I was going to say.

"My darling, I know this won't be easy for us, but whatever happens I'll always be with you. Remember that even the strongest fire burns out too." Her voice was shaky but I understood every single word and that she would never stop fighting, no matter how much it may have hurt her.

"I won't forget, grandma." I reached for her hand to show her I was strong when really I was praying for a solution. It felt like nothing good was ever going to happen. I looked at the clock; and, I saw that it was almost time for lunch. My stomach was growling so loud I thought the people around me could hear. I looked at Tyson to see that there were small drops of water hitting the ground one at a time but he had no expression on his face. I found that a little strange that someone could keep a straight face while they were crying.

I tugged on his sleeve like a 4 year old girl who wanted to be picked up. That's when he gave me a hug and squeezed me so hard I felt as if I was going to need a hospital room, but Tyson didn't care. Tyson and grandma were best friends; and by the expression on his face he was scared.

"You two should go eat. You don't want to be thin like me," she whispered like we were undercover. "Go eat!" Tyson took those words as if it was a mission he had to accomplish.

We had lunch in the big, blue and white cafeteria, sitting at a two person table eating the soup we purchased from Tim Hortons®. Tyson slurped his soup as fast as he could so that he could go see her again; and, I ate slowly so we couldn't go see her again. I couldn't stand to see her small skeleton like body in that cage they call a room. Tyson was anxious to see her or he had to go to the bathroom.

"Tyson, just go up there already! I'll be fine," I said trying to get him to leave and to stop shaking the table. "I know you want to see her. So don't let me hold you back!" He smiled, opened his mouth and said:

"Nice try but I'm not leaving you. Before you were born I made a promise to mom that I would take care of you and I won't break that promise. By the way you are going to go to high school starting next week," I wanted to yell no but I knew yelling in a hospital would get me kicked out. "I signed you up to go to Everwood. Don't worry it's only a block away from the hospital."

That last sentence made me feel a little better but not that much. I knew that this school was going to make me feel worse than I already felt. Hopefully this school was at least decent to people with family problems. I cared more about my family than my education but it would help me get into a good university but my feelings would never change. I finished my lunch then we headed up stairs. My grandma was in the room with a stranger who I was about to meet.