Chapter 4 beauty in everything

AN: Hope you all are enjoying it so far, for pictutrs check out this story on my wattpad. evilregalsq7

^December 3rd 2016^

*11:30 pm*

"Pearl...?" Blanche asked quietly as she entered the room.

"MmMomma?" Pearl called back, searching the dark room for the voice.

"I'm here baby, are you in pain?" Blanche asked, settling in the chair beside Pearls bed.

Pearl shook her head and burrowed deeper into the bed.

Blanche moved the chair closer, letting her hand push her bangs out of the way, revealing an oval birthmark in the center of her forehead.

"What's wrong with me...?" Pearl whispered into the darkness, soothed by her mothers touch.

"I don't know love, but I'm going to find out and you're going to get better..." Blanche said as she kissed her forehead and let her daughters eyes slowly shut as she fell back asleep.


"So, tell me what's wrong with her..." Blanche said, her voice monotoned to conceal the worry she felt eating her up inside.

"Well like I said before, we would like to biopsy the lump, to rule out some things.." The man said, locking eyes with Blanche.

"Tell me what it could be, don't sugar coat anything, you're thinking cancer." Blanche said her voice painfully cold.

"Well I obviously don't know anything for sure, it could be a benign tumor and all that we would need to do is remove it to relive the pressure" He spoke with a soothing tone as if he'd done this a million times, she supposed that he had.

"Or?" Blanche pushed on.

"Or it could be malignant and in that case we would need to look at all our options, see if it had spread anywhere, find what type of cancer it is. But let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Blanche nodded but said nothing else.

"We'll plan the biopsy for tomorrow morning once she gets some rest, her friends can all see her afterward."


When Blanche left the Doctor she headed back for the waiting room to tell the group of friends the news she had, well, some of it.

When she stepped out from the swinging doors into the nearly empty waiting room three of the four people waiting shot up and rushed to her, the fourth standing slowly leaning on her cane as her blue headscarf flowed down her back, yet she was the first to speak, "how is she?" Blue asked from across the room.

"She's asleep right now, they gave her some medication for the pain and she just drifted off, they couldn't find anything broken so that's good news, but that lump, that you'd felt, they're going to biopsy it and let me know in the morning." Blanche said, walking to Blue and having her older sister sit back down. The three young women trailing behind her.

"Can we see her?" Amethyst asked.

"Well not right now, visiting hours are over and she's staying the night, but you can come back at nine tomorrow."

Amethyst, Sky and Rose all nodded moving to collect the things that they had with them, Sky moving to her mothers side and helping her up.

"We will be here at nine o'clock okay the dot B, I love you" Blue said, kissing her younger sister on the forehead before walking away with Sky at her side. Amethyst and Rose following. Blanche started back to Pearls room.


"The biopsy went well, it may be about a week before we get the results, I'll be discharging you this after noon and you just rest until we have the result alright Pearl?" The kind older nurse spoke to her.

Pearl nodded in thanks and went about collecting herself. They'd given her a prescription for a pain reliever as needed.

On the drive back home pearl looked over at her mother, "So..." she said softly, playing with a loose string on her t-shirt "guess all the scouts picked someone yeah?" She signed, thinking about all the potential college chances she blew by falling in her main dance.

"Well, Sky got in an audition for Juilliard, Jasper got one for Ailey School, and I had the scout from Empire City Ballet ask me about you, as your teacher of course."

"What?!" Pearl nearly leapt into her mothers arms as she drove.

"Pearly, just because you got hurt doesn't mean you're not an amazing dancer, they obviously saw that!"


^December 5th 2016^

Pearl woke at seven am on Monday to get ready for class again. She'd stayed home after getting home from the hospital late Sunday afternoon. Blanche said she could take the rest of the week off but pearl insisted that she not miss anymore days than she absolutely needed to, she had no desire to fall behind in any of her classes, especially if she had a chance at ECB.

"Am going to drive you in with me today?" Blanche called down the hall as she gathered all her things for work, running her fingers through her cropped hair again, slicking it back even more.

"Yea I'm coming!" Pearl called back, slipping her leather coat on and rushing down the hall.

"Are you sure you want to go in today? You really don't need to..." Blanche question worriedly.

"I'm sure mother, I feel fine. And if it starts hurting I've got my meds with me" Pearl assured her.

The drive to the school was quieter than normal, both mother and daughter sitting is awkward silence.


^Friday December 9th 2016^

* 2:21 P.M. *

Blanche was at her desk gathering her clothes to change for ballet practice, she always believed that if the children had to change than it wouldn't be fair for her to just stay in her day clothes, she often does the moves and practices with them.

The blaring sound of her cell phone ringing startled her as she picked it up, "Hello?"

"Hello is this the parent/guardian of Pearl White?" The voice on the other end of the phone asked.

"This is she, may I ask who's calling?" Blanche said, a sinking feeling in her gut growing by the second.

"This is Dr. Priyanka Maheswaran, with Ocean Side Wellness Hospital."

"Oh of course, did you get Pearls results in?" Blanche asked in her usual cool voice.

"We did.. it would be best if you and pearl could join us today, say four o'clock?" The dr asked, and Blanche looked up at the clock seeing it was only 2:30, "do you have any earlier times?"

"We have a three o'clock opening do you think you could make that?"

"Yes we will leave right away. Thank you."

The phone clicked off and Blanche hung her head.

"Miss Dawn? Please call Pearl down to the front." Blanche said, her voice nearly cracking. She threw all her things together and pulled on her heavy coat before walking to the front door to wait for Pearl.

"Pearl white please report to the Front doors, Pearl White to the front"

Pearl came walking down the hall with all her things only a few minutes later, her face sullen and head down.

"So the hospital called?" Pearl assumed not meeting blanches eyes.

"Yes." She said simply not sugar coating anything.

"Well let's go then."


"I'm sure it'll be fine Pearl, they probably just want to tell us the good news in person" Blanche said, moving to rest her hand on Pearls shoulder but the young dancer just walked faster.

They turned into the office of Dr. Priyanka Maheswaran at exactly 2:58. The woman sat, her graying hair wrapped in a braid down her back.

"Hello, welcome, please take a seat, make yourself comfortable" The woman said she she stood to shake hands with pearl and than Blanche.

"So nice to meet you pearl! I was at your performance on Friday, it was magnificent, you're a terrific dancer!"

Pearl blushed and let a small smile shine through, thanking her kindly.

"Well, I have the results from your biopsy, it looks like you have Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, or ARMS, it's a cancer that forms on your muscle tissue, now we have some options here we could..." Dr. M kept talking but all Pearl heard was cancer, than emptiness.

Cancer

Defiantly not on her Christmas list.