Just to clarify something before hand, the italics are when she is stating something at the exact moment. It's going on as if it was just happening at that exact moment, if it's not in italics, then it means it's her thoughts relating to the memory. Basically normal font means that she is in narrator mode.
Btw: This first chapter is the setup, so it's very important.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of XMEN
My life wasn't what you would call extravagant or extremely magnificent, I was just a normal girl too completely caught up in my own world to see the damage waiting on the outside. My parents were quite wealthy and had a habit of taking a luxuries vacations yearly, my favorite was our summer trip to France. My father was an historian who liked the idea of hands on when it came to places, architecture, and whatnot. My mother on the other hand, just liked the food and shopping; naturally we got along better. I had one sister who was a year younger than I and we were best friends. She was beautiful, and my mom would frequently refer to us as the most beautiful girls in Miami, Florida.
You might take notice of how I am saying all this in past tense, because this is all that's left, the past. My story starts out as the summer before my senior year. I had just been named Captain of my cheer squad, landed a gorgeous boyfriend that was the envy of every girl, and was ready to have the time of my life before high school ended. Everything was perfect, the feeling I had that summer can't be explained in words. I was ready to rule the world!
May 15, 2009 Last Day of Classes
The feeling was such a rush, the overwhelming happiness up heaving all the way up through my chest; school was DONE. School was done and I was free, free to hangout with all my friends, including my bestie Jessica; but mostly Derek, the love of life. Derek and I had known each other since seventh grade, but didn't really talk that much. At the time we were in different social groups. He was just starting football for the first time and I hadn't even thought about cheerleading yet. It wasn't till our ninth grade year that we started hanging out and then becoming really close friends.
At the time he was dating someone else, Jessica, my now best friend. Of course, we harbored no hard feelings towards each other by the time I started dating Derek, actually she was quite excited about it. Ultimately I had amazing friends, great friends that would give up anything for me; or so I thought. Anyways, back with the story. My life was just really getting started, it was going to be my senior year upcoming fall and I was on top of the world.
A smile played up my features as the final bell was ringing, and the loud cheering and yelling was reverberating through the walls. I felt a small shove to my shoulder and I quickly turned to see who it was. I came to face with non-other than Jessica and I smiled friendly to her.
"Girl! Can you believe it? It's summer! Ugh, finally I can get some R&R!" She spoke with enthusiasm.
"Man, can you even hear yourself? It is the first official day of summer and you're already talkin bout sleeping? It is three months of nothing but the sun, water, and cute-looking boys!" I spoke excitedly to her as we walked through the doorway to the crowded hallway.
"Okay, look her little missy; you happen to be off limits." She spoke with a glint in her eye then smiled evilly. "I, on the other hand, happen to be available. So, no cute-looking boys for you. Find any, send them my way!" She finished with a giggle.
"Yeah girl, cause you need all the help you can get!" I exclaimed and then threw my head back with laughter.
"You know, you're a really sexy when you do that." A voice said at the same time a hand was placed on my shoulder.
"Oh. My. God." Jessica replied in distaste. "Broch, get your nastified hands off my shoulder." She said while shoving his hands off while mumbling "gross."
"Oh come on baby, you know you dig me!" He replied offering her a goofy smile.
"You know you dig me?" Jessica replied incredulously. "What are you in, the nineties now?" She finished with a scoff.
"Can you two just kiss and like get over it already?" I finally replied.
It was ridiculous after all, I mean Broch had had the biggest crush on Jessica since we were in the fifth grade, and while she'd never admit it, she was secretly all over him. Their sexual tension was so obvious, apparently to everyone except them.
I looked over and saw that Jessica was staring at me like I had gone insane.
"What?" I said irritatingly.
"Kiss him?" She said wide eyed while pointing a finger at him. Then at that moment Broch took a step forward and placed his hands around her waist smiling deviously.
"Wanna take a go at it?" He said slightly seductively while she just stared at him in total surprise. Maybe she didn't think he had it in him to actually make a move.
"Ugh! As if!" She finally exclaimed while shoving him backwards.
"Oh baby, that hurt. You hurt me real bad!" Broch stated in mock sadness.
I rolled my eyes at the pair of them.
"Look whatever, I'm going to go find Derek." I said while flipping my hair over my shoulder. "You two-" I looked at the sight of them. "Have fun." I finished with a laugh.
"What! No, you can't just leave me here with twinkle toes perve!" Jessica exclaimed behind me while I stalked off.
"I'm sure you'll figure something out." I said turning slightly back towards her before walking towards the gym.
I immediately noticed Broch walk up beside Jessica and put an arm around her shoulder, to her irritation.
"So uh, twinkle toes perve is my new nickname huh?" I heard him say.
And laughed as I watched her shove him off and quickly replying.
"That was meant to an insult you moron." She stated back but not before I caught a slight blush creeping up her cheeks.
I smiled to myself as I watched them from the corner of my eye. It was really cute and I knew that one day they would be day together, probably about halfway through the summer. I stared at them both a little while longer before I finally made my out of the building to the gym. I wanted to find Derek to see if he wanted to hangout tonight. I mean I didn't really want to go home since there wasn't really anything to do there, and I knew that Jessica already had plans with her family that night. It was her sister's birthday, so they were going to go out celebrating. So I hoped Derek was free.
As I made my way over to the gym I noticed a slight headache was starting to happen and a quickly stopped and grabbed a bottle of Tylenol from my bag and popped two pills in my mouth. It was weird quite frankly, I had been getting these strange headaches for a while now and pretty frequently lately. I shrugged off the coming throbbing in my head and kept walking to the gym doors. I figured if I ignored it for a while, the Tylenol would kick in and I would forget about all about it.
I reached the doors, opened them and smiled brightly when I immediately saw Derek doing pushups. He was completely shirtless and his body seemed to be chiseled like a Greek god. I just stood there and stared in completely awe of his amazing body. He apparently must have noticed that someone was staring at him because he hesitated and turned his head towards me. Immediately a smile played up his features as he saw me and he slowly brought himself up to his knees.
"Hey babe!" He said sweetly as he brought himself to a standing position.
"Hey. How was your last day?" I asked nicely as I watched him wipe off his body with a towel and walk his way towards me.
"Incredible!" He replied enthusiastically.
I quirked an eyebrow at him and crossed my arms. This was certainly odd, considering he hated school most of the time with the exception of football.
"Oh really, huh? And why is that?" I asked mischievously as he put both hands on either side of my face and leaned in.
"Because I kept thinking about how now I have the entire summer to hangout with the hottest girl in school!" He said before kissing me lightly on the lips.
His lips were smooth and his breath was slightly labored from his previous workout. I smiled against his working mouth giggling slightly before pulling away.
"You're such a suck up!" I replied with a laugh.
"Oh well, guess I am." He simply responded with a shrug.
"So, you wanna hangout tonight, or are you busy?" I said.
"Yeah, just let me shower and stuff. If you wait here for a few minutes, I'll be done and we can just hangout in town or something. Maybe go see a movie or whatever." He said.
"Yeah that's cool." I said while walking over to the bleachers.
Suddenly everything started to spin and the slight throbbing in my head became a full blown migraine if that could even begin to explain it. It felt as if there was something banging on the inside of my head and my entire body felt on fire. Everything around me was blurring and nausea swept through me and I immediately started vomiting all over the floor.
I could barely hear the faint calling of my name as I began falling to the floor. I immediately brought my hands to my head as I fell to my knees screaming in pain. All I could think of, all I could register, was how my brain felt as if it were about to explode. The pain was unbearable as I fell on my back screaming and thrashing in pain. I felt hands on my body and someone screaming my name.
"Rachel! Someone help!" A voice screamed.
The blurriness became overwhelming and I started to vomit again while the pain just intensified. I had no idea what was going on, all I knew was that I just wanted it to stop. I opened my eyes and everything started to fade.
"Hold on." A voice whispered.
And everything became black.
I opened my eyes and an overwhelming light flooded my senses. I looked around and had no idea where I was. The last thing I could remember was being in the gym with Derek then being overcome with a massive migraine. I started to panic.
"Honey calm down." A voice said gently.
I slowly turned towards the voice and stared into the red eyes of my mother. Her cheeks were tear- stained as she looked at me with severe distress.
"Where.. Where.." I couldn't finish my sentence as I started looking around the room.
"Honey, you're in the hospital." She spoke quietly.
What? My mind swirled with questions. Why on earth was I in the hospital? After all it was just a bad headache, nothing serious. Maybe it was because I fainted or something.
"The hospital? It was just a bad migraine or something. Look this is completely unnecessary." I spoke sharply while eyeing her with confusion.
The look I received from her was one of pity, and it scared me. Obviously something was going on that I was unaware of. Her eyes became teary-eyed and then she started sobbing putting her head in her hands.
"Actually, Miss Montgomery, this was no ordinary migraine." A voice said.
I looked over and saw a doctor lingering in the doorway. My eyes rested on his face of concern then swept back over to my hysterical, sobbing mother. Clearly something was going on.
"What? What is it?" I finally spoke in haste.
A knot began to form in the pit of my stomach and I started to feel nausea sweep over me. His eyes registered one of pity, and I knew whatever it was, it was bad. Doctors only have this look when the news is bad.
"We found a tumor in your brain Miss Montgomery." He stated clearly.
The knot became more intense. A tumor? In my brain? I had a tumor in my brain! That thought alone kept going through my mind and I became afraid. How did this happen? And to me? I looked back up to him and realized he wasn't finished.
"It is not benign, unfortunately." He spoke even more clearly and now my mother was heaving.
My brain was trying to register what he was saying but couldn't quite make it out. A tumor was a tumor right? Then he said the three letter word that could practically be a death sentence.
"You have cancer."
Author notes:
I know this chapter seemed somewhat pointless, but it's the setup for everything. Obviously in my story, my character had a life and is now realizing that that life is practically over. So please review, I'll be happy to answer questions that anyone has.