The school certificate sucks. It should go jump. Immediately. That's what I said in maths today, and my teacher laughed. Oh, and my English teacher should join it. Yesteday, last period, we built a chair pyramid in the middle of the room because we had no teacher. And we left it. This is the same class who sent our year six teacher into a pychiatric ward. Yeah, when we get ideas in our heads its a little hard to shake them. Hence the chair pyramid- its something we've wanted to try for a while. On the brighter side, by next Wednesday, I've finished year ten! Woop woop! Read and review,

Love Rhyleigh xoxox

Dave kept his eyes closed long after he was awake, not wanting night to end and morning to come. As long as everyone was asleep, everything was alright. Nothing was wrong. But, as soon as he felt Julie shift in his arms, he knew he'd have to face the cold reality of life all too soon.

"Morning", Julie whispered.

"Morning", he echoed, leaning in to kiss her. He hadn't been able to sleep properly the night before, because it had actually hit him. He could lose Julie and everything. Ruby and his older kids- he wouldn't be there for them. He could die and lose everything...

"Dave... Dave?" Julie repeated for what would be the eighth time.

"Huh?"

"Are you okay? You were acting really, I don't know, distant last night. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Why would anything be wrong?"

"Dave..."

"Seriously, Jules, nothing".

"Fine then". Julie swung her legs out of the bed, stepping out of the room.

"Wait, Jules..." Dave felt his voice catch in his throat.

"What?" Julie turned to face him, her expression softening slightly.

"Do you really want to know what's wrong?" although he expected it, he hadn't wanted her to say yes. Running his hand through his hair out of nervous habit, he sighed. He hadn't wanted to tell her like that. He had wanted to wait at least a day, to gather his thoughts. But seeing how hurt she looked, he decided to come straight out and tell her. He didn't want to be treated differently- he wanted things to be kept as normal as possible for as long as possible. As soon as everyone knew he was sick, they'd treat him differently. Unintentionally, but they'd treat him differently.

Suddenly, Julie didn't want to know what was eating her husband up inside. It had been a long time since she had seen him that nervous, and inside she was running through every possible scenario.

"Um, you know how I went to the doctor's?"

"Go on". Julie eyed him wearily.

"Well, they did some tests and stuff..."

"Continue".

"They found out something, Jules. They found out I have cancer".

Julie felt like her entire world was crashing down around her. She didn't want to believe it, but she knew that her husband would not lie about something like that. She then thought she'd heard him wrong, but, upon looking up, couldn't meet his eye. She didn't want to believe it, but Dave wouldn't say it unless it was true.

"Jules? Say something", Dave all but begged.

Julie looked him straight in the eye. "I love you. And we'll get through this".

"What are we going to tell the kids?"

"No idea".

The doctor hadn't been able to tell them anything definite, when they arrived that afternoon. The cancer Dave had was treatable, and was caught early, so the chances of him surviving were highly likely.

But being in the doctor's office put everything into perspective. It had seemed like it was just a dream, when Dave had first told Julie, but now she knew it was all very, very real.

"We have to tell the kids", Dave decided, sitting in the passenger seat of the car for the first time in a long time.

"I know", Julie said softly.

Hey guys family meeting this afternoon. Need you all to be there. Mum xx

"Ben, Mum cannot possibly be pregnant, why would you even say something like that?"

"It's gotta be important, we never have official family meetings!"

"Hey, if you two shut up, maybe we'll actually hear what it's about!"

"It has to be important, it was pretty short notice".

"Thank you, Sam, I'm glad you're on my side!"

"Hey, where's Carbo?"

"Oh, God, did we lose Carbo again?"

"That happened once! I don't see the need to keep bringing it up!"

"Dave didn't mention anything about the other day, it must be pretty important..."

"See? Jake's on my side!"

"I never said I wasn't on your side!"

"Shut up!"

Dave heard his children before he actually saw them, as they crammed through the front door. Julie was in the kitchen, preparing dinner for their family, and Chel and Ted were talking quietly, while they watched the television. It wasn't the most exciting of all afternoons, but the news he was about to deliver was going to shake things up quite significantly.

Seeing Julie stirring the sauce, Dave wondered what made her act like that. Like nothing was wrong. In a single day, the perfect future they had planned had been rocked and suddenly, their future was bleary. For the first time in a long time, he was beginning to question it.

"Dad!" Rachel cried, making a beeline for her father.

"Is everything alright, Dad?" Ben asked in concern, following his sister.

"Where's Rubes, Dad?" Nathan checked, not seeing or hearing the little girl's excited shrieks or footsteps- the usual reaction when her older siblings paid their all too frequent visits.

"Hey, guys", Dave said softly. "Rubes is asleep, she crashed out after we came back this morning".

"What's going on?" Ben repeated, having a hunch that Dave was avoiding his questions.

"Who's pregnant, who's moving?" Nathan suggested.

"No one's pregnant and no one's moving", Julie said, cringing when she saw the looks on Melissa and Ben's faces. "Oh, I'm sorry".

"I'm guessing this announcement isn't 'we're going to Rome'". Sammy shot an inquisitive look at Ted and Chel, who simply shrugged- they'd been kept in the dark just as much as their kids had.

"Not exactly", Dave said, clearing his throat. Everyone looked at him- for Dave, he had been unusually quiet. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed Julie's hand for support. "I... um, I have cancer", he mumbled, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"Cancer?" Ben said thickly, a lump forming in his throat.

Dave nodded, swallowing the lump that had begun to form in his own throat. "The doctors said they caught it early, and I have a pretty good chance..." he finally looked up to meet his daughter's eyes. The silence in the room seemed to last forever, as the Rafter clan tried to digest the news they had just been fed.

"What can we do?" Melissa finally said. Being a nurse, she had seen cancer patients in and out of hospital, and knew how unpredictable the disease was.

"What?" Dave hadn't expected that response.

"We'll do whatever we can to help", Jake spoke up. "Babysitting Rubes... she can stay the night at our place, if you need her to. Or just... whatever. We're all here for you. We're a family".

"Yeah, Dad, whatever", Nathan agreed quickly. "Whatever".

"What's happenin'?" Ruby wanted to know, stepping into the room. Rachel gathered the little girl into her arms, dropping a small kiss to her curls. People had often described Ruby as the perfect mix of Dave and Julie. Rachel looked more like Julie, with her father's eyes. They all had Dave's eyes. Nathan and Ben were copies of Dave at that age, whereas Ruby was a mix. You could point to any feature the little girl had and say either 'Dave' or 'Julie'. Eyes, Dave. Nose, Julie. Ears, Dave. Hair, Julie.

"Rubes", Julie said finally, "Daddy's sick".

The little girl's eyes widened, looking slightly confused as her gaze swapped between her parents, grandparents and older siblings. Innocent blue eyes stared them down, as they desperately tried to shield the youngster from pain. "Like a cold?" she tried to comprehend the situation and failing miserably.

"It's kinda worse than a cold, Rubes", Dave said gently. "You don't know what cancer is, do you?"

Blonde curls bounced, as she shook her head, and Julie took a deep breath before starting from the beginning, leaving her older children with watery eyes and aching hearts.