Chapter 10! :)
I was on top of the world.
It was unbelievable how happy I was.
It's almost too good to be true.
I was still processing the fact that Noah and I were dating. I know, I've spent a little too much time trying to grasp the fact that Noah Puckerman chose me over all the girls at McKinley High School, but it wasn't everyday that I was actually chosen for something let alone the person someone wanted to spend all their time with. At first I expected to randomly wake up at any moment to discover that it was all a dream, and I was still the most hated girl in school. However, I still woke up every morning, and Noah still felt the same about me.
I was walking through the school on my way to my locker. I was upset that Noah couldn't drive me to school this morning, but it was nice to have some father-daughter time again.
I got over the fact that I couldn't see Noah on the way to school when I remembered that I would get to see him at school. This realization made me quicken my pace to my locker.
I turned into the hallway that housed my locker, expecting Noah to be standing there waiting for me to arrive. However, the area surrounding my locker was empty. I walked up to my locker and put in my combination. As I exchanged my books, I looked up and down the hallway repeatedly, half expecting Noah to randomly show up.
Before I headed to my first class, I checked the whole school for Noah. First, I went into the choir room, only finding Mercedes and Tina sitting at the piano bench. Next, I checked the auditorium, finding it dark and vacant. Finally I checked the cafeteria, wondering if he might be conversing with his football teammates, but he was nowhere to be found.
I went through the entire school day with no sign of Noah. He usually stopped by all of my classes so we could walk together to the next one, but he never showed. I constantly checked my cell phone because of the possibility of a text message from him, but I received no new messages.
When I walked into my afternoon English class, my eyes scanned the room for Noah. He was always there before me, and I knew today would be no exception. But, today was the exception seeing as Noah was nowhere in the room. I had to sit by myself in the corner, hearing all the other kids make fun of me because I had no one to sit with. They all knew that I had no real friends, and they weren't afraid to show it. I sat through the entire English class in silence, thinking about Noah as I ignored the comments of the other students. I couldn't wait to get home.
As soon as I got home from school I dialed Noah's phone number. It rang and rang until the answering machine picked up, asking her to leave a message. I didn't bother leaving a message since I had to get ready for my weekly piano lesson soon. I knew that my carpool would be arriving at my house soon, so I decided to start getting all of my things together.
The piano lesson was disastrous. Miss Phearson wanted me to try a new song of a new difficulty level. She thought I was ready to challenge myself ever further. Any normal day I would have gladly accepted the challenge, and taken by storm. However, this was not any other day. My mind was in some other dimension, and my ability to stay focused on the task at hand was shot. Miss Phearson yelled at me for the entire duration of the song, making it even harder for me to play. I wanted to scream for joy when the hour of practice time was up. I practically ran out the door of Miss Phearson's house and jumped into the car waiting outside to drive me home.
I spent the majority of the car ride thinking of reasons for Noah to not be around. I refused to believe it was because he no longer liked me. I absolutely refused.
But why would he miss school?
And why would he not answer my calls?
I knew that he wouldn't just randomly skip. He was working on becoming a better student and skipping school wasn't exactly a quality of a good student.
The only other reason I could come up with was the possibility of him being sick, and that was very unlikely. Noah would never let the sniffles get to him. So, an illness was ruled out.
That's when a new idea struck me.
Sick.
His mother.
I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and called him again, getting his voicemail. "Hi Noah, it's Rachel," I said to his answering machine. "Please call me back as soon as you can. Talk to you soon." I hung up the phone and put it back into my pocket.
"Is everything okay?" Linda, the carpool driver, asked. "You seem a little worried."
"No, everything is fine," I lied. "Thank you for asking though." We returned to sitting in silence until we arrived at my house. "Thank you for the ride, Linda. I'll see you next week." I climbed out of Linda's car.
"No problem, dear, I'll see you soon." Linda's car backed out of the driveway and drove away. I turned around to walk up to my house, but a car parked on the side of the street caught my attention. It was Noah's car.
I ran into the house to see Noah sitting on the couch talking to my dad. He looked up and saw me, immediately looking relieved.
"Noah?" I asked in confusion. "What's going on?" I glanced between Noah and my dad.
"I'll leave you two alone," Dad said, standing up from his position on the couch and walking into the kitchen.
"Noah, what are you doing here? I've called you twice now. Why weren't you at school? Are you avoiding me?"
He looked a tad overwhelmed by all of my questions.
"Rachel, how about we go upstairs and talk?" Noah suggested. I nodded my head in agreement and walked with him upstairs towards my bedroom. We entered my bedroom and I shut the door behind us to make sure we had privacy.
"Noah, what's going on? Talk to me," I begged, taking a seat beside him on the bed. I pulled my legs on the bed and sat Indian-style as I prepared myself to hear the whole story.
"Remember how I told you that my mom wasn't feeling well?" Noah asked.
"Yeah," I replied worriedly, "Why? You said that it was no big deal."
"Well, it wasn't when I left my house for our date," He responded. "When I got home she was a lot worse. She said that she was in a lot of pain and didn't know what was wrong. So, I took Hannah to the neighbor's house and drove my mom to the hospital."
"What happened? Is she okay?" I leaned forward and took a hold of his hands.
Noah shook his head. "Rachel, my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer last night."
I placed my hand over my mouth, "Is she going to be okay? How early did they catch it?"
"They caught it fairly early, but at her age there's no guarantee that she will make a full recovery," Noah said sadly. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "My dad left us when I was little, Rachel. He just got up and walked away. I can't lose her too, Rachel. I just can't. I don't know what to do."
"Noah," I whispered and pulled him in for a hug. "You're not going to lose her. When your dad left he didn't care enough to stay. Your mom loves you, and Hannah. She's got something worth fighting for. Noah, cancer is battle that you mom is going to fight to win. From what I know of her, I know that she is a very strong woman, and I know she will fight until the end. Until then we just have to make sure the war is the best it can possibly be for her. Okay?"
I felt him nod in my arms, and I hugged him tighter. I hugged him until his tears stopped flowing.
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