Sorry for the wait! :(

It took me a little longer than usual to write this chapter!

But I finally got it done! And here it is! :)


The car was silent on the way to school. Usually when Noah drove me to school in the morning you could feel the seats vibrating the music was so loud, and the sound of us singing along to it was somehow even louder, but today Noah kept the radio silent. He kept his eyes forward; staring as the road as his knuckles turned white he was gripping the steering wheel so hard.

I ran my hand along his to calm him down, and took his right hand off the steering wheel to hold it in my own hands.

"Noah, it's going to be okay," I said softly, still attempting to calm him down.

His left hand's grip on the wheel softened and he relaxed in his seat. "It's just not fair. Why her? She's never done anything wrong. She's done nothing but tried to make Hannah and my lives better, and this is her reward?"

"I don't know why bad things happen to good people. You're right, it's not fair. But maybe instead of spending this time being angry about the illness, we can spend it celebrating your mom and her life. Don't you think she deserves that? A happy ending? With you and Hannah celebrating all that she has done for you?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Noah said quietly. "It's just really hard because Hannah doesn't really understand why mom is always tired, and how am I supposed to explain it to her if mom… you know…" His voice trailed off, and he glanced over at me before looking back out towards the road.

I looked forward as well. The thought had never crossed my mind. Hannah wasn't that young, but she was young enough to not understand how terrible cancer is. "The doctor said that you mom does have a chance at survival, right?" Noah nodded beside me. "Then, for now, let's just focus on the positive, okay?"

He nodded again, his eyes not moving from their place on the road. I kissed his knuckles, hoping to get him to relax even more.

"Would you maybe come over for dinner night?" Noah asked suddenly, finally glancing over at me. "You always seemed to make her happy, and Hannah likes you too."

I smiled, "I'd love to. I'll make dinner. I don't want you or your mom to go to the trouble of cooking for me at a time like this."

"Rachel, you don't have to d-" Noah started until I held up my hand to stop him.

"No, I insist. And make sure your mom knows that I am not taking no for an answer," I said, knowing that his mother would insist on cooking dinner for me.

"All right, I'll try to reason with her," Noah said, actually putting out a real genuine smile.

I smiled back at him, glad to see him finally relaxed and not thinking about the worst of possibilities.


I could tell that Noah was getting extremely annoyed during the school day. I would be too if everyone in the entire student body were all giving me the same look. A look of pity. The least they could do was same something to him, but instead they all opted to stand back motionless.

It was almost as if they were waited for him to explode. They were waiting for all of the anger he had built up inside to take over and make him return to his old bullying ways. Along with the pity, every student had a look if fear in their eyes.

I was a little shocked at the lack of faith they had in him. Noah had changed for the better, why couldn't anyone else see that? He used to treat me worse than any of them and now he was the person I trusted the most. Why couldn't they treat him better?

When the school day was finally over, Noah was in a rush to get out of the building. He practically dragged me to his car and drove me home. I didn't blame him. I wouldn't want to be in a play where I wasn't appreciated either.


Noah picked me up a quarter to six that night to take me to his house for dinner. The smell of my homemade casserole filled his car, making us both hungrier than we already were.

"That smells really good," Noah complimented. "My mom will love it."

I smiled, "How long did you two argue about who was cooking dinner tonight?"

"Well, she was stubborn at first, insisting that I call you and make you cancel your plans to make dinner, but eventually I got her to calm down. It didn't take as long as I thought it would to convince her, though,"

"That's good," I replied. "I'm excited to see her, it's been a while."

"She's excited to see you too. The second I came home from school and told her that you were coming over she wouldn't shut up about how excited she was. She started cleaning the house and getting everything all ready for you, so make sure you comment on it when we get there."

I laughed, "Okay, I'll be sure to do so."

"Hannah's excited to see you too. Just as a warning, she'll probably want to introduce you to all of her new stuffed animals tonight."

"She introduced me to them last time I was over! How many new ones could she have?"

"When the news of my mom spread around all the neighbors started bringing her things for comfort," Noah explained quietly, getting the same look he had earlier that morning.

"Oh." I regretted asking the question. It had an obvious answer. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that."

He shrugged. "It's okay. You didn't know." He relaxed again, making me relax knowing that he was more comfortable than he was this morning. "My mom and Hannah appreciate all that our neighbors are doing for us, but I think it's more of an invasion of privacy. Like they think that we can't do anything on our own anymore."

"At least you have people that care about you. I mean, what's worse? Having people bake for you and bring you gifts, or have no one give you nay bit of attention besides their looks of pity?"

He shrugged again. "I guess it's nice to know that they care. But I'm still wondering if they actually do care or if their acts of kindness are just because of the pity they took on us. I'd rather have no attention at all than have people pretend to care about me."

"Noah, your mother is a wonderful person. I'm sure all of these people genuinely care. Your mom is loved by many people," I said to him.

We spent the rest of the car ride in silence as we finished the trip to his house. We exited the car after we pulled up into his driveway and headed towards the house. I carried the casserole inside with me and placed it on the kitchen counter while Noah went to tell his mom and sister that I had arrived.

Shortly after that, I heard, multiple footsteps approaching the living room. Noah entered the room first muttering, "get ready" to me.

Hannah came running into the room and wrapped her small arms around my waist. "Rachel! You're here!"

"Hi, Hannah," I said, hugging her back. "Noah told me that you got some new friends."

Hannah smiled brightly. "I sure did! I'll go and get them! I'll be right back!" She turned around and ran out of the room as fast as she came in.

I smiled at Noah and shook my head as I laughed. He had the cutest little sister in the whole world.

"Don't run!" Noah's mother's voice came from the next room. Her voice sounded scratchy and tired, I could only imagine how tired she must be. She entered the room and smiled, her smile brightening her tired complexion. She had dark circles around her eyes, and she moved slowly. I had read somewhere that cancer caused pain; I couldn't even imagine what the woman was going through. "Rachel!" She said, still smiling. "It's so nice to see you again!"

"Hello," I said, smiling back at her. I made a note not to ask her how she was doing. I vaguely remembered Noah saying something about he home being cleaned. "You're house looks wonderful."

Her smile grew even wider. "Thank you, dear. We spent the entire day cleaning it up."

"Well you did a fantastic job. The place looks great."

"You're too kind," she replied. She glanced over at the table. "What have to brought us tonight?" She took a few steps closer to the table and took a seat on a neighboring chair.

I took the cover off of the container and showed her the casserole inside. "My home made casserole. I think you'll really enjoy it."

"I'm sure I will," she said, smelling the casserole.

Hannah came charging back into the room, about 10 stuffed animals in her arms. She laid them all out in a line across the table and pointed to the first one, a lion.

"Rachel, this is Leo, he's my lion," she moved onto the next animal. "This is Sally the snake, Oliver the otter, Ellie the elephant, Gloria the giraffe, Henry the hippopotamus, Lilly the lemur, Ben the Bird, Isaac the iguana, and Polly the panda."

"Wow!" I exclaimed, "It's so nice to meet you all." I waved towards all of her new toys, "I'm Rachel."

"Hi Rachel!" Hannah pretended to make them all say back to me.

"Hannah, why don't you clean up and wash up for dinner? Rachel made us a nice casserole for dinner," her mother said.

"Okay," Hannah said cheerfully, picking up all of her toys and heading back to her bedroom.

"Sorry you had to meet everyone. She's really excited that you're here," Mrs. Puckerman said to me.

"No, it's all right. I don't mind. She's adorable," I replied. "I used to do the same thing when I was little, but I was a very spoiled child and was always getting something new. I probably talked everyone's ear off every time I got a new toy."

"I think it's so sweet that everyone got her a new toy. They didn't have to do that," Mrs. Puckerman said.

I just smiled, because I wasn't exactly sure of how to respond. Mrs. Puckerman seemed to be so strong in this whole process. She didn't show one sign of defeat against the illness. Noah didn't know how lucky he was to have such a good mother. All my mother did was give birth to me, abandon me for 16 years, reconnect with me, and then tell me she didn't want me as her daughter.

I stopped my thought process. There was no need to make myself upset by thinking about Shelby.

"Noah," his mother said suddenly. "Why don't you put this in the microwave and heat it up again for us?"

"Sure, mom," he said, taking the food and following his mothers orders.

Hannah came back into the room, fresh for dinner. "Rachel!" she said, "Come and sit next to me." She pulled me to the table and made me sit in the chair next to hers. "I love it when you're here! It's my favorite time of the day!"

"I love it when I'm over here too!" I said back to her. I smiled at Noah, who was already doing the same to me. He had the best family I had ever seen, I was so grateful to have the chance to get to know them. I then saw Noah give his mother a sad glance, sadness washing over me as well. What would happen if the cancer did beat her? Noah wasn't close to being 18 yet. Where would he go? Where would Hannah go? I glanced at the little girl next to me, as she played with her hair. Their perfect little family of three would be ruined.

I was brought out of my thoughts when Noah placed the reheated casserole in the center of the table and then took a seat across from me. We all dished out food for ourselves and began to eat. We easily slipped into conversation and spent the evening talking and laughing. Why couldn't I have been with Noah sooner?


Noah pulled into my driveway that night to drop me off. He shut off the car engine and turned to face me. "Thank you for coming over tonight, Rachel. It was the first time in a while that I've seen her actually smile. She loved that you took the time to come over and visit us."

"It was my pleasure. I loving coming to visit you guys," I replied. "You have a great family."

"What a sick mom raising her two kids on her own while the dad rots away in prison? Yeah, what a great family."

"A great family isn't a perfect family," I said quietly.

He grabbed one of my hands. "I didn't mean it that way. I'm sorry. I know that your mom flat-out ditched you."

I shrugged. "It was her choice to leave. The wrong choice, I might add. She's going to miss out on me moving to New York and becoming famous. She's the one missing out, not me." I looked at him. "Same with your dad. It's his own fault that he's missing you and Hannah grow up. He could have had a great life, but he chose to mess it up."

"I never really thought about it that way."

"The only was to really enjoy life is to think about the positive and focus on the future instead of dwelling on the 'what ifs' and the past."

"Your mom is so going to regret her decisions when she sees your name in lights some day and sees how incredible you are. She'll finally realize how perfect you are, but it will be too late to have you back. But like you said, it's her loss."

I smiled, leaning in to kiss him. "Thank you, Noah." I grabbed the door handle of the car. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," he replied, kissing me one last time before I got out of the car. I waved goodbye to him before I walked into my house.

Best boyfriend ever.


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