Two months later

Grams pulled up outside the only school on the reservation, the same one that Carrie would be starting at today as well. I just stared out of the window, rain splattering against the glass and partially obscuring the view of the new place of my complete and utter hell. I saw her look at me out of the corner of her deep brown eyes, a sad look in those chocolate coloured orbs.

I didn't move, and she sighed. "Elle," she soothed, reaching over to me and giving my scarred hand the gentlest of squeezes. "I cannot make you get out this car," she stated with another soft, breathy sigh. I glanced at her, my eyes beginning to water. She gave me a sad smile. "But I can wholly say that if you don't, you'll never experience any of these experiences you teenagers need to have. My only regret is that you can't experience the rest of your wonderful existence until you're as old as me," God damn it, cue the tears. They pooled unwillingly in my grey eyes, and she wiped them away before they could fall. "But I want you to have the best teenage life possible." She finished.

Her words rang around inside of my head before I grabbed my backpack and reached for the car door, not missing the twinkling of those eyes as I climbed out of the care and into the pouring rain. Carrie must have been sheltered somewhere near as she came running over, pulling an umbrella up as she did so, her silky black tresses as wild as her own dark eyes. She gave me an admonishing look. "You know you can't get wet!" She cried out and I gave a half hearted shrug, water dripping from my nose. She grabbed my backpack, another one securing my oxygen tank already on my back so I couldn't put it on. She adjusted my respirator under my nose, putting it on properly before taping it back on properly. I scowled. "I don't want to do this." I grumbled.

My best friend nodded. "Well, I don't either, but Mom had to go back to work. Look, anyone says anything, just tell them to shut it. They stare, tell them to take a picture as it'll last longer. Just ignore them if they say anything at all about your absences. They don't need to know anything unless you chose to tell them." She repeated what she'd told me a couple of days back, and I nodded, taking my bag from her. "Just think, I'm making a scrapbook of all of our memories. Maybe you'll find someone I can snap you with." She teased with a nudge.

An unladylike snort ripped from me before I could stop it, not that I wanted to. "Yeah," I retorted bitterly. "Who'll want to date a dead girl walking? Lets just face it, Rie, I'm gonna die a virgin." I added and she rolled her eyes. "You will not, and stop saying that. I thought we agreed not to talk about the doom and gloom on the first day and embrace public school life and all of the skanks and jocks that come along with it?"

I sighed, not in the mood to argue and too tired to do it anyways. She gave a triumphant smile and began leading me away. "Lets go, Nora."

(W*W)

It wasn't even lunch time and I was already sick of the lingering stares of both teacher and student alike. It was irritating and the feeling of punching someone inducing. I was furious. Carrie didn't have this period with me, something I hated beyond belief, but I pushed through. Grams was right. I needed to experience every single shitty experience I could.

The seat next to me was thankfully empty. Carrie hadn't been able to sit next to me in English last period, so I'd been stuck beside some girl. She had spent the entire God damn time staring at my respirator until I angrily asked her what the hell she was looking at. She hadn't looked at me directly again after that, and that was the way I liked it.

Class filled in slowly. I'd been allowed to leave five minutes early considering how slow I walked sometimes, especially right now when how cold it was happened to be making it harder for me to breathe. I couldn't stand this. At least at Carrie's home during school it had been warm, or the heater had been put on and hot tea had been passed about on the off chance it was just a little bit cooler than my ailing body could manage.

The chair next to me remained empty, that was until a towering giant of a man came into the classroom, his expression showing that he wasn't the least bit sorry that he was slightly late. The teacher, an aging man by the name of Mr Redwood just sighed, not bothering to take a look as if he already knew who was late to his lesson. "Take a seat, Mr Black, and then we can begin."

And lo and behold, the only seat that happened to be available was right next to God damn me.

I remained stiff as the giant of a boy took a seat beside me, the chair scraping noisily as he pulled it out and sat down. I kept my head down, reading through some of the notes I had from my old Physics lessons with Carrie and her Mom. I wasn't the best at Physics, but I was good, I guess. I could pull through this lesson, that was about it.

The words coming from Mr Redwood sailed around me, and then he set us to some tasks. I went about mine silently, quietly thanking the teacher as he handed me a workbook to write my findings down in. I pulled my pencil case out, getting a pen out and jotting down my findings.

At least this guy next to me wasn't ogling my breathing shit. That was something I could live with. I saw a few other people around the room sneak glances at me before looking away hurriedly when I fixed them with the most withering stare I could manage. It wasn't hard. I merely narrowed my eyes and they were instantly uncomfortable. Good. I'd perfected that withering glaring stare over the years as I received stares.

A pen rolled into my line of sight and I frowned, looking up as the guy next to me reached it. He looked at me, and his dark brown eyes seemed to go wide, wider than I actually thought eyes could go. He dropped the pen from his grasp, the quiet sound of it clattering on the table doing little to break him from his gaping stare. I couldn't even narrow my eyes irritably at him. I seemed to be lost in his gaze, my eyes wide and searching for something themselves as though they could see right into his soul.

He eventually blinked, and I immediately ducked my head away. What was I thinking? And anyways, why had he started staring at me like that in the first place! I wasn't an animal in a cage for people to leer at. Fury spiked through me. You also stared at him, my subconscious muttered disapprovingly before I willed it back into submission with an inward glare directed straight at its reared ugly head.

The boy, who I think his last name was Black or something like that, continued to stare while flexing his hands, almost as though he was fighting not to punch something. I almost wanted to scoff, and then after another twenty minutes of his seemingly endless staring at me, I snapped. "What?" I hissed in a low enough voice so that no one apart from this boy could hear me. He frowned, a slight tremor going through his russet coloured limbs. "Maybe if you take a fucking picture it'll last longer," I added, my frustration getting the better of me.

He reacted immediately. The chair gave a deafening roaring scrape as it was pushed backwards, the tall figure of this boy storming from the room regardless of Mr Redwoods protests that he needed to remain in class. I watched as the boy trembled, another boy coming out of the toilets and following him, calling after him, just as bulked up like the boy who'd been sitting next to me.

I kept my head down the rest of that lesson. I trembled, but with a certain sadness as though a part of me had been ripped away from me. I was shaking violently inside. I ignored looks from people as I rushed to lunch, knowing Carrie was waiting for me, and the fact that I couldn't take this school anymore, even after just two God damn lessons.

(W*W)

I didn't even flinch as the needle penetrated my skin, Grams waiting patiently in a plastic chair on the other side of the examination room as I received my weekly transfusion. They didn't even bother me anymore. How could they? I lost count after over three hundred of them. I settled back on the bed, pulling my phone out and flicking through my text messages. I had a new, recent one from Carrie, so I opened the message.

You have no idea how boring English is right now without my favourite bestie beside me, it read, and I cracked a small smile at that, my one free hand already typing away a reply slowly. It took me a minute or two, but I got there. You could always take my spot, I replied, and the response was instantaneous from my childhood best friend. Hell to the absolute no, it read. You can keep your needles away from me.

I couldn't conceal the slight titter under my breath, and Grams glanced upwards in my direction, a small smile coming to her face. She sighed, placing her newspaper down onto the small table. "How is this whole school business going then?" She asked innocently. I sighed, giving her a pointed look. "You're so fishing for information to pass onto Dad." I accused mockingly and she chuckled, holding her wrinkled hands up in a teasing gesture. I couldn't help but smile every so slightly and she sighed softly, giving me a slight smile. "I do love that smile of yours. You need to use it more often. Show people that you are in fact human beneath that mask of yours." She commented wistfully and I sighed, poking at the tape that covered my syringe injected arm. "It's a little hard to smile when you know that you have limited time here, Grams, and the fact that I'm being made to spend that time in school instead of touring the world and seeing all those amazing wonders that I hear everyone talk about." I replied.

She chuckled quietly before her expression turned serious. "You know that if we had the money for that treatment, we would pay for it in a heartbeat, you do know that, right sweetheart?"

My throat constricted as that God awful lump rose up in it. "I know," I whispered, my eyes prickling with unshed tears. "I also know you and Dad have tried everything, done everything, and I know you guys are in debt because of all my medical bills. I know I'm not the easiest kid to necessarily deal with, and I'm so, so grateful to the both of you for doing all those things when you didn't have to do anything for me. You have no idea how much everything you guys have done means to me." I acknowledged.

I saw a multitude of emotions cross her dark brown eyes before she cleared her throat, nodding in a slightly unsteady manner. "I know," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "You're my life, Eleanora, and you better believe me when I say I wouldn't exchange you for all the riches in the world."

My heart broke a little at that but I withheld my salty tears as I schooled my features into a neutral expression. "I know, Grams, I know."