Brooke arrived at the park the next day wearing her Ravens cheer uniform with her hair in a ponytail, decorated in fancy ribbons. She remembered thinking that cheerleaders looked so cool like that when she was a kid, so she dressed it up more than she normally would for a game or for practice.

Dr. Grant was there with the girl and her mom, all ready waiting. Brooke grinned and led Lucas over. "Hi, Dr. Grant. Hello, my name is Brooke and this is my boyfriend Lucas."

"This is Chance Heatherly and her nurse Charlotte. I've got to get back to the hospital. Have a good time, girls, and don't overexert her, Brooke." With that, Dr. Grant left.

"It's nice to meet you, Charlotte," Brooke said as she shook hands with the blonde woman, who grinned at her.

"Thank you so much for doing this."

"It's a pleasure," Brooke said sweetly, bending down to address Chance. "So, you wanna be a cheerleader?"

"Yes, Ms. Brooke."

Brooke laughed. "Oh, sweetie, just call me Brooke."

"Okay, Brooke. How long have you been a cheerleader?"

"Since I was eight. So almost ten years."

Chance's mouth formed a perfect little circle. "That is such a long time!"

Brooke grinned. "I know, right? So I really know my stuff. You wanna learn some cheers?"

"Yes yes yes!"

"Okay, here we go. Start with you hands on your hips like this. And let me see your best cheerleader smile!" Brooke demonstrated for her, giving her a beaming, cheery smile. Chance, with her very thin short brown hair and gappy little smile, looked like an adorable miniature of Brooke. Lucas watched as Charlotte took pictures.

"Would you mind if I got some copies of those next time?"

"Absolutely," she smiled. "So Brooke has lymphoma too?"

They watched Brooke and Chance, who were quite a distance away and obviously enthralled in their cheering. "Yeah. I'm not gonna lie, I don't fully understand it still. Some days she's great. Then there are weeks where she's a mess."

Charlotte nodded knowingly. "That'll happen. Chance can be that way and I've seen it in a lot of my patients. How long have you known Brooke?"

"About two years now," Lucas said, watching her with a smile as she adjusted Chance's little arms into a perfect L-shape. "We weren't that serious in the beginning. I messed things up a lot. But we've been together for about nine months this time around, other than the week she broke up with me because she didn't want me to have a dying girlfriend."

"She seems like a very nice girl," Charlotte said, also watching the two girls interact. "I told my friend last night that Chance would have a mentor of sorts named Brooke Davis and she seemed a bit tentative about it. She said she had a reputation."

Lucas sighed. "She does. But she earned it years ago, and it seems like there's nothing she can do to ever earn a new one. She's an amazing person and she's grown more in two years than anyone else I've ever known."

Charlotte smiled. "You seem to love her very much."

"I do."

"It takes a lot to stick by someone through something like this," she noted. "It's so incredibly painful to watch someone you love go through this."

Lucas looked at her and saw a deep, raw sadness in her brown eyes. "You've seen it a lot, huh?"

"You never expect it to be a kid," Charlotte said. "You see the commericals and the donation bins at super markets, but you never think about the fact that they're actually little people, with so much potential and huge hearts. Chance probably doesn't have much time left. She always wanted a big sister and she always wanted to be a cheerleader, so when Dr. Grant suggested that Brooke spend some time with her once or twice a week and her mom agreed, I was thrilled. I want her to be as happy as possible in her last few months."

"Maybe she'll surprise you," Lucas said hopefully. Charlotte smiled at him softly.

"I can only hope, but they rarely do."

Meanwhile, Brooke was giggling with Chance, who had captured the older girl's heart with her quirky comments and surprising insight.

"Is that boy your husband?"

"Nope," Brooke said. Chance had plopped herself down on the grass, and Brooke assumed she was tired, so she joined her. "He's my boyfriend."

"Why isn't he your husband?"

"Because we're only seventeen! Well, he's eighteen, but I won't be eighteen for another two weeks."

"That's really old, though," Chance said. Brooke giggled.

"To most people, that's really young."

"I would be so happy if I got to be as old as eighteen," Chance said wistfully. Brooke felt her heart constrict. "Dr. Grant explained to me that I probably won't, though, and that's okay. Cause I've seen lots of stuff and now I'm gonna get to know how to be a cheerleader and I think the world needs more butterflies anyway."

"What do you mean, sweetie?"

"The people we love die and they stay on earth as butterflies so they can still see us, but they get to be beautiful and fly around and not have to worry about anything."

Brooke smiled at her and squeezed her little hand. "Well, if the world does need more butterflies, and it had to be someone, I bet you'll make a beautiful one."

"I want to be one of those orange ones," she said. "Those are my favorite."

"I like white ones," Brooke replied, and Chance nodded.

"Will I get to see you lots, Brooke?"

"As often as you want and as often as your mom will let you."

"Will your mom let you?"

"Oh, my mom isn't really around. She travels with my dad. I don't see them very much."

"That's sad, Brooke. My mom and dad don't live together. My dad lives in Oregon with his other family, and my mom is always busy with her friends and stuff. I get sad and lonely, but I have Charlotte. My mom hired her to take care of me."

"It's not too bad for me. I have friends that are like my family."

"What are they like?"

"Well Peyton has been my best friend since I was your age. I know, a long time, right? She has blonde curly hair and she's really tall and skinny. She draws really, really pretty pictures. Her mom is a butterfly. Then there's Nathan, and he's been my friend for that long, too. He's Lucas's brother, and he has brown hair and blue eyes and he is amazing at playing basketball. He's married to Haley, who is gorgeous and so unbelievably smart."

"I thought you said you're too young to be married."

"Well, they're different, I guess," Brooke said. "They got married when they were only sixteen!"

"Well," Chance said, picking at the blades of grass. "I think you and Lucas should get married. He would look handsome on top of a cake."

"I agree," Brooke said with a laugh. Chance hopped up.

"Can you teach me a dance?"

"Sure thing, kiddo."

BoxUpAllTheButterflies

A knock at Brooke's door after school two weeks later on a Tuesday startled her and Peyton, who had been playing with Jenny on the living room floor. Brooke hopped up to answer it, surprised to find Charlotte standing there with Chance.

"Hello," Charlotte said apologetically. "She had a bad doctor's appointment yesterday and has been begging to come see you since."

Charlotte looked exhausted and drawn, and Chance's sickly apperance was evidently the cause of a sleepless night. "Well it's great to see you!" Brooke said happily. "Why don't you leave her with me for a bit and go get some rest?"

"Oh, I don't know..."

"Charlotte," Brooke said sternly. "You work way too much, and Mrs. Heatherly is a massive b-i-t-c-h, but I'm not. I'm not going to tattle on you for taking a personal day."

"I do live just a couple of blocks away..."

"Go home and nap," Brooke urged. "You can come get her after dinner. Lucas is coming over."

Chance hopped up and down in excitement. "Yay!"

Charlotte nodded and hugged Brooke. Despite their ten year age gap, the two had become close in the last two weeks, seeing as Chance was always begging to see Brooke and Brooke had never declined.

"Come meet my best friend Peyton!" she said, holding Chance's hand and walking her into the living room.

"You never said Peyton has a baby!" Chance said excitedly.

Peyton laughed. "You must be Chance. I've heard a lot about you."

"Me too. Can you draw me a pretty picture?"

"Of course I can! This is Jenny."

"Hi Jenny, I'm Chance. I don't think you talk yet, but just so you know. That's my name."

Brooke and Peyton laughed, turning the TV to a cartoon station for her. Brooke went to go find something fun for her to do while Peyton began to chat with her. As Brooke returned with some paper and colored pencils that Peyton had left in her room there, Chance was explaining her butterfly theory to the blonde.

"I've never been told that," Peyton smiled. "But I like that. I definitely think that my mom is a butterfly."

"I bet she's one of the prettiest, cause you're really pretty."

Peyton looked like she was about to tear up as Jenny crawled around on her legs. "Thanks, Chance. You're a very pretty girl, too."

"Not really," she said sadly. "The boys at school tell me that my hair is funny. When I'm bald, they're gonna tease me."

Brooke looked affronted. "Your hair is not funny at all. It's beautiful. And you are a beautiful little butterfly angel. Anyone who says differently is a stupid meanie head!"

"Brooke!" Peyton exclaimed, while Chance giggled.

"Brooke is really funny," she explained to Peyton. "Her and Lucas are always saying funny things. They tease each other a lot but it's not like the kids at school. It's cause they're in love."

Peyton smiled. "Yes, they are. And she is funny, isn't she? Want to know something that only I know about Brooke Penelope Davis?"

"Her middle name is Penelope?"

Brooke rolled her eyes. "I know, it's awful."

"Brooke Davis is ticklish," Peyton said with a pointed look. Chance clapped in excitement as Peyton began to whisper to her. Brooke's eyes widened just before Chance launched herself at her and began to tickle her behind the knees. Brooke was near tears on the ground when the door opened.

"Hey Pretty Girl, where are ya?" Lucas called. "Oh!"

He found Brooke on the floor with Chance on top of her, Peyton sitting beside them with her back leaning on the couch, holding Jenny, who was clapping and squealing at all the excitement. Lucas grinned at the scene. He went into the living room and snatched up Chance, squeezing her to him.

"Luke!" she squealed, throwing her arms around his neck. "I found out where Brooke is ticklish."

"Oh did you now?" Lucas said with a laugh. "How was school today?"

"I didn't go today," Chance said. "I wasn't feeling very good."

"Then shouldn't you be resting, crazy girl?"

"No!" she giggled. "I'd rather be with you and Brooke and Peyton."

"Well, it's your lucky day, because there is no one we'd rather be with than you, princess!" Brooke said, taking her from Lucas and squeezing her. She laughed happily and gave Brooke a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

Peyton watched from her position on the floor with Jenny, feeling as though she were watching a family. She knew that it was what her friends must feel like watching her with Jenny and Jake, and it made her grin and her heart swell. But then her heart stopped, remembering that two of the three members of this newly formed little trio were sick, and her stomach turned at the thought.