Yeah, Umm. Nothing much to say here...
"Anna, why don't you go get into your pajama's?" My mother says absentmindedly. "It's getting kind of late."
I get up without saying anything, and head toward the room I share with Kate.
"Oh, and shower!" My mom calls as I trudge up the stairs. I could hear my sister in the shower, singing loudly once I got up the stairs.
"Oh, Honey, Honey, Hooney, I said Honey Honey Hooney!" She sings, in that wonderful, tone deaf, voice of hers. Ever since her APL went into remission a year ago, and hadn't returned, she had begun to act more and more like a normal teenager. I bang on the door.
"Kate!" I shout. "You're not even singing the right words! And I thought you hated Justin Bieber!"
"I do!" She calls back through the door. "But his songs are just so catchy!"
I sigh. "Are you almost done? I need to get in there."
"In a minute." She answers, and stars to sing again. I sit on the bed and flipped the T.V. on to my favorite show; House. It was a new episode, when House was just about to diagnose this young girl with a disease no one's ever heard of, when Kate shuts the water off and opens the bathroom door. She was wearing only two towels, one on her body and another wrapped around her hair. Her hair had grown back since her remission, and now it was a short cut, her pretty brown curls fell down to just below her ears.
"Sis, get out. I need to change."
I turn off the T.V. and grab my robe from the closet door. I take a towel from the linen closet, and go into the bathroom. I turn the bath handles, (that was one of the many differences between us, Kate liked showers, and I was fourteen and still take baths), and undress. When the bath fills up, I slide my skinny body into the tub.
Ahhh. The warm water envelops my skin, and I was instantly at peace. I shampoo my hair, use a drop of conditioner, and let myself relax a little longer before getting out. I unplug the drain and start to dry myself off. While I was drying off my back, I felt a dull pain, and I attempted to twist around and see why. I failed, so I stand on the toilet and peer into the mirror. I see a bruise, not that big, about the size and shape of a quarter. I recall hitting my back against a doorknob this morning, so I figure it's probably from that. I don't think much of it, and I finish drying myself off without a second thought.
But there's a thought tugging at the back of my mind that I just can't shake.
It was a week later, and the family was about to take a family vacation to the beach. The first since the time Dad took the family to there all those years ago. Kate is taking up all the space in front of the closet, forbidding me to grab my bikini and change.
"Anna? What should I wear?" Kate asks for the hundredth time.
"Just pick something." I reply, flipping a page in the magazine I'm reading. "It's not like it matters."
"Anna, there could be cute guys there, and I don't want to just wear sweatpants and a baggy shirt, like somebody I know."
I groan. "Kate, it doesn't matter. When was the last time you were there and you saw someone there?"
She sticks her tongue out at me, and then grabs something from a shelf. "What do you think of this?"
It's a white tank top with a light, pale blue shawl with tight black leggings.
"Great. Now can I get my bikini?"
"Fine." She says, heading toward my parent's master bath to change.
I take it from the top shelf, where it always is, and go into our bathroom and shut the door. I undress hastily, and pull the top over my chest of nothing. I yank up the bottom, and gather my clothes. I drop them in the hamper, and head downstairs. I see my mom packing her bag with the usual. Lipstick, lipgloss, foundation, and a whole bunch of other makeup stuff. She also places her blackberry in, and a couple snacks, and finally looks up at me.
"Hi Anna. You ready?"
"Yep." I say, taking a seat at the marble island. "Just waiting for everyone."
Mom nods, and I notice how young she looks. She's been looking better every day since Kate's remission, and she even laughs on a daily basis now.
"Mom? Can we go?" Kate yells, clomping down the stairs.
"Sure." Sara answers. "Your father's waiting in the car."
Kate practically runs toward the door. She obviously can't wait to get there. Besides Montana, her favorite place in the world is the beach. I look at my mom. "Ready?"
"Ready." She replies. I spin around in the chair, and I hear my mom gasp. "Anna? Come here."
"Why?" I say, but obey. She presses her thumb on my back, and a sharp pain answers. "Ow!" I mutter.
"No. No no no no no" My mother says. "Did that hurt?"
"Yes."
"This can't be happening." My mother says softly. "Not again."
I know what she's talking about. The bruise on my back from a week ago. I had forgot about it.
"Mom? I slammed my back into a doorknob a week ago, it's not it."
"Does slamming one part of your back cause you to get six large bruises on your back?" She says, and I shut up. She grabs my wrist and basically drags me to the car. She shoves me in, and says to my dad, "Brian, go the the hospital, now."
My father winces. "Is it Kate?" He asks quietly.
"No. Anna."
My father doesn't reply as he drives toward the hospital, away from the beach, while Kate remains silent and as still as a statue next to me.
Two hours later, I'm sitting in the waiting room in a plastic chair, waiting for my blood test results. We've been waiting for about an hour and a half hour now, and my mom is about to go mental with worry. She keeps looking over at me, scanning me over, still in my bikini, and then looking away. A young woman comes out, checks her clipboard, and looks up at us.
"Anna Fitzgerald?" She asks. My mother stands up. I follow her lead. "Come with me." Is all she says. She leads us into a small room, where she makes my mother sit down.
"Sara? We believe Anna has Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia." The woman says, her eyes sad. "It's one of the most common types of Leukemia in children, and it can spread to vital organs in weeks."
"Are you sure?" My mother asks, tears already beginning to build up in her eyes. This is her last hope, I know.
"Quite. We triple tested the results, knowing about Kate. We don't want to worry you, we're just telling the truth. If you have any questions, see Dr. Andrickson, I just deliver the news."
My mother's head is in her hands. She keeps murmuring, "Not again, not again. I can't do this."
The woman pats my mother's back, and says, "Dr. Andrickson will be right with you."
My mother just sits there. I stand in the middle of the room, the shock of the news sinking in.
A minute that felt like forever goes by until Dr. Andrickson comes in. He hands my mother a sheet.
"Sara, it's not like she spontaneously received this disease, like Kate, but often the gene of a sibling is able to be passed along to the next child. If Kate had this, it was most likely Anna would develop it as well." He says, coolly and briskly. "Often, this is the type that the next child gets."
My mother's head jerks up. "May we leave?"
The doctor looks surprised. "Well, it would be best to do some more tests-"
"We are leaving. We'll be back tomorrow." She said, standing up. "Anna, let's go."
I followed her back into the waiting room, where we rejoined Kate and my father. I saw my mother nod ever so slightly toward him, and he closed his eyes as if preparing himself for another blow.
I couldn't blame him.
We all were.
Like it? Please please please review. Oh, and I know they might seem OOC, but I haven't finished the book yet, I'm only on page 100 or so. But I've seen the movie. :D
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