Chapter 3

Mike,Johnny and Tee arrived back at the dumping ground around mid morning and Tee had remained silent for most of the Journey back as she was still in a bit of shock from learning about her illness.

"Okay we're home now kiddo" Mike told her as they pulled up in the drive way "you okay back there?"

"Yeah" Tee replied smiling. Mike smiled back at her and the three of them got out of the car and walked inside where all the kids were waiting in the front room and gina came out of the office and gave Tee a hug.

"How are you feeling babes?" she asked the sick child.

"I'm fine apart from the fact that I've got a growth on my brain and it's slowly killing me" she pointed out " is it okay if I go see the others now." Gina nodded and let go of Tee, allowing her to go into the front room where all the other kids got up and started fussing over her.

"Oh Tee we're so sorry to hear about your illness" Carmen pointed out giving Tee a hug "bet it must have been scary when tell told you that you had a tumor." Tee didn't say anything, she just nodded and pulled herself away from Carmen, sitting on the sofa and Faith was the first one to notice that she had started crying.

"Hey come on it's going to be okay" the older girl said, pulling Tee into a comforting hug "I can't imagine how scared you must be feeling, bet it's awful."

"I'm very scared" Tee sobbed "I'm dying and I'm going to miss out on a lot of things, becoming a teenager, going to college, having a boyfriend, getting married and having a family of my own, I'm never going to get to do all of that." Faith could feel herself beginning to well up but managed to hold it in as she continued to comfort Tee.

"I know but don't worry, we're all going to be here for you" she reassured her "and whatever time you have left, we'll make the most of it." Tee nodded and got up from the sofa, telling everyone that she was tired and was going to lie down for a while.

"Okay see ya later" Lily said. Tee nodded and headed up stairs and into her bedroom where she walked up to the mirror and stared into it. Staring back at her was a small girl of Eleven who appeared healthy and normal, despite the fact that she was suffering from a brain tumor and would soon grow more frail and weaker. She then walked away from the mirror and sat down on the bed, looking down at the floor and thinking about how she would get through this illness, what it would feel like when she was close to dying.

"It's not fair" she muttered "I don't want to die." Feeling tired, Tee decided to lay down on her bed for a while and close her eyes. She must have been sleeping for a while because Mike had come to wake her up to tell her that it was dinner time.

"Sorry Mike, I must have dozed off" Tee replied as she sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Bet you must be pretty tired, how much sleep did you get last night?" Mike asked.

'Not much, it was noisy at the hospital and I had nurses coming in every half hour to check my blood pressure and check my temperature" she explained.

"Well dinner's ready if you're up to having some" Mike told her.

"yeah, I'm starving" Tee replied as she got up off the bed and followed Mike downstairs but started getting bad headaches again as she walked into the kitchen and almost lost her balance but managed to grab on the kitchen counter before she hit the floor.

"You okay babes?" Gina asked as she steadied the girl on her feet.

"yeah I'm okay" Tee replied as Jody asked Mike why Tee had nearly fallen over and he explained to her that a brain tumor could effect people's mobility and that Tee might not be steady on her feet.

"Do you want to skip dinner today" Gina asked Tee.

"No, I'll be fine" she replied before walking over to the table and sitting next to Johnny who looked at his sister in concern.

"Were you getting headaches again?" he asked and tee nodded. Mike suggested she should go and lie down but she insisted on sitting down to dinner like the other kids.

"Okay, if that's what you want" Mike said and Tee sat down next to Carmen and Jody. After Dinner, Tee was starting to feel tired again and she almost dropped her plate when taking it to the sink but Johnny insisted that she should take it easy.

"Not yet" Tee said "I've got a month to live and I want to make the most of it. The first thing I want to do is to go to school and tell my class about my illness." Johnny was surprised at how brave Tee was being and told her that it would take a lot of guts to stand up in front of the whole class and tell them that she was dying.

"Well I would rather tell them sooner or later" Tee explained "anyway I feel a lot better if I told them instead of the teacher telling them on the day I you know" she couldn't bear to say the word die, it made her feel scared but Johnny knew what she was getting at.

"So how are you going to deliver this speech then?" he asked.

"I'm going to write it down and practice" Tee informed before turning around and heading upstairs just as Mike came out of the office, asking Johnny what he and Tee was talking about.

"She wants to tell her class that she's got Cancer" Johnny said "she's gone upstairs now to write a speech."

"She must really be brave to do something like that" Mike pointed out before having an idea "I know, why doesn't she tell the whole school, we can go upstairs to talk to her about it."

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea" Johnny pointed out. He and Mike then went upstairs and knocked on Tee's bedroom door.

"Come in" Tee said from the other side and the two guys entered the room "what do you want?"

"Well we was thinking about that speech you're writing to tell your class that you have cancer, what if you told it to the whole school" Mike suggested.

"Do you think I should?" Tee asked.

"You do whatever you think is right" Mike said, putting an arm around her.

"I think I should, the school has a right to know" said Tee "besides, I want to make the most of my time at school, pretty soon I'll be too sick to come to school and i won't be going to school ever again because, well, you know." She quickly wiped her eyes and looked down at the floor but both Mike and Johnny could tell that she was beginning to cry.

"Hey, it's ok" Mike said, hugging her "can't imagine how scared you must be."

"You have no idea" Tee replied "my twelfth birthday is next month, what if I don't live to see it?"

"I don't know to tell you the truth and I wish there was a way that the doctors could make it go away but you heard them, there's nothing more they can do, they can only give medication to control the head aches and the seizures but they can't make the tumor go away" Mike gently explained to her and Tee nodded, indicating that she understood before announcing that she was tired and wanted to go to bed. Both Mike and Johnny then left, leaving Tee to get some sleep, she had a big day at school the next day, standing up in front of the whole school to tell them that she had cancer.

The next morning, Tee woke up earlier than everyone else, she put on her school uniform as soon as she got up, did her hair then went downstairs to see Mike was already up as well.

"hey kiddo, what are you doing up so early?" he asked as she sat down at the kitchen table.

"I couldn't sleep, I'm pretty nervous about this speech" she replied "what if i get teased for it or what if the other kids think I'm contagious and won't go near me."

"Well if some kids start teasing you about it then they're just heartless because having cancer isn't something to make fun off" Mike told her.

"No it isn't" she agreed. About an hour later, the whole house was up and Tee had just told everybody that she was going to give a speech in front of the whole school about her illness.

"You must be so brave" Carmen pointed out " I don't think I'll be brave enough to stand up in front of the whole school to tell them something like that."

"I'm still pretty nervous about it though, but I wrote a speech down and I did a bit of practicing this morning before you all got up" Tee explained.

"Can we hear it?" Lily asked.

"Not yet, you'll be hearing it in morning assembly this morning" Tee told her " anyway, I don't fancy reading it out twice." Later that morning, Mike took the kids to school in the mini van but stayed a little while to tell Tee's head teacher Mrs. Cunningham about Tee's diagnosis with Cancer and that she wanted to tell the whole school during assembly.

"Are you sure you want to do this Theresa?" Mrs. Cunningham asked and Tee nodded, explaining that she would feel much better if she broke the news sooner rather than later. Mrs. Cunningham then told Tee to head to registration before having a talk with Mike.

"I'm really sorry to hear about Theresa" she pointed out " such a shame, she's still a little girl."

"I know, we're all devastated about it. I think Tee is as well but she's trying so hard to put on a brave face" Mike explained.

"Well we'll keep a close eye on her and we'll call you straight away if she gets bad" Mrs Cunningham said before showing Mike out of her office. Later that morning, the whole school piled into the main hall for that morning's assembly and Mrs. Cunningham stood on the stage in front of the whole school and began talking into a microphone.

"Good morning pupils and welcome to Tuesday morning's assembly, now today's assembly will be focused on bullying but first, Theresa Taylor would like to give a speech about something that happened to her during the weekend so if miss Taylor could take the stage please" said Mrs. Cunningham. Taking a deep breath, Tee got up from her seat, clutching a piece of paper in her hand and nervously made her way up onto the stage and Took the microphone from Mrs Cunningham and began her speech.

"Over the Weekend, I received some devastating news that changed my life completely. On Saturday, during a trip to the seaside, I became really really sick, I was having bad headaches and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in hospital being told that I had been diagnosed with a Brain tumor and that there is nothing more the Doctor's can do for me. I've got cancer and I only have a month to live." There wasn't a dry eye in the room after Tee had finished her speech but she felt better that she had broke the news sooner rather than later.