Anywhere But Here

Chapter 1

I put my headphones in, preparing for the one hour drive to the doctor. I didn't understand why we had to drive to a doctor that was one hour away from my house just to get stupid test results. Why couldn't we just get them from my doctor that was only fifteen minutes away from my house? Why couldn't they just call us? I never even considered that something could be seriously wrong with me.

I had been feeling pretty bad lately. Headaches, no appetite, nausea, fevers, and pain in my leg. I thought that I had a weird case of puberty or something.

I shuffled my playlist of my favorite songs, mainly consisting of A Capella and Musical Theatre. The first song that came on was See Through by Pentatonix. I sometimes felt like this song described me because I felt like everyone knew how I was feeling.

I was just getting into the song when I was interrupted by a stream of texts flooding my phone.

Madden: Where are you?!?! Are you sick?

Renee: Nora! Where are you? You never get sick! Are you sick?!?!

Eva: Hey! Are you okay? Why aren't you at school? The lunch table isn't the same without you!

Me: I'm fine! Just going to the doctor for a checkup. Wish me luck!

Renee: Good luck! We'll miss you.

Madden: Be good! Maybe you'll get a prize! Just kidding! Good luck!

Eva: Hope you feel okay! I'll pick up your homework for you and drop it by your house tonight.

Me: Thanks! See you guys tomorrow!

Madden, Renee, and Eva had been my best friends since we meet in 6th grade 4 years ago. We would hang out all of the time. I felt like I could tell them anything.

Madden was the nicest person that you would ever meet. No matter what, he always wanted to make sure that everyone was okay.

Renee was always energetic and happy. Her laugh and smile were contagious.

Eva was so smart and encouraging. She could make anyone feel like they could conquer the world.

I kept thinking about how lucky I was that God blessed me with having them as friends as I listened to the music.

Suddenly, I was snapped out of my thoughts by my mom, lightly tapping me on the shoulder.

"We are here," she said.

She didn't look like herself. She looked concerned. I could tell that she was trying to hold it in, but I knew something was up. I suddenly felt a pang of worry deep in my gut.

I nodded, fixed my beanie, and got out of the car. I walked in holding my mom and dad's hands.

It took us a while to find the right floor and to find the desk that we were supposed to check in at. We checked in and sat in the waiting room. All of us were too nervous to talk, so I checked Instagram and Snapchat. I checked the time. 1:47. Wasn't my appointment supposed to start at 1:30?

I eventually got tired of looking at the popular girls' "#tbt" and the rebels' Snapchat stories of selfies during math class, so I looked around the waiting room that I had been ignoring every since I arrived.

All of the kids looked sick. Do I have what they have? I questioned.

"Nora Quincy, the doctor is ready for you," the nurse said. My parents and I stood up and followed the nurse into a colorfully painted room.

I wondered why it was so colorful. I was in a hospital, not a circus. Then I realized that it was probably because of the fact that I was in a children's hospital.

I focused on the patterns on the wall to distract myself from the nervousness of the whole situation.

"Hello," the doctor said as he walked into the room, "I'm Dr. Breckenridge! You must be Nora!" I nodded and shook his hand.

He shook my parents' hands, sat down, and opened my file.

"So," he said, "There is no easy way to say this." He closed my file and rolled his stool towards me and my parents. "Nora, you have Osteosarcoma. That is a bone cancer that most commonly occurs bones near the knee. In your case it's on your femur."

I was shocked. Cancer? I couldn't have cancer. I'm always eating healthy and exercising. I thought. I couldn't talk or move. I just sat there and listened.

My mom grasped my hand, her knuckles as white as vanilla ice cream.

"Sadly," Dr. Breckenridge said, "The cancer has spread a lot and we probably will not be able to spare your leg. We will also have to do chemo before the amputation."

Chemo? Amputation? I thought Everything was happening so fast.

Dr. Breckenridge talked for a while longer, answering my parents' questions and explaining the process to them. I tried not to cry, but the tears still came.

Finally, the appointment ended. I walked out of the hospital in silence. Once we got in the car, I put my headphones in and turned up my sad music, full blast. I cried my eyes out until my eyes were burning.

We dropped my dad off at work and drove the rest of the way home. My mom had to go get groceries, but I convinced her to let me stay home alone.

I was in my room, blasting sad music out of my speakers until I heard the doorbell ring. I knew that my mom couldn't be home yet and that the neighbors would still be at work.

I went downstairs and answered the door. Eva was standing there.

"Hey!"she said, handing me my homework, "How was your appointment?"

"Good," I lied.

"Okay, well I've got to go to tennis practice! See you tomorrow!" She said.

"See you tomorrow," I mumbled as I watched her black ponytail bounce as she walked back to her mom's car. I waved at them as they pulled out of the driveway.

I walked up to my room, noticing the pain in my leg. I set out my homework on my desk. I finished it in twenty minutes. My mom wouldn't be home for another hour.

I opened up my window and realized how nice it felt outside. I decided to go for a bike ride, because in a couple of months I wouldn't be able to.

I left my mom a note and went outside to get my bike.

I pulled my bike out of the garage and started riding. I saw Madden a few streets over, sitting on his front porch.

"Hey, Nora," he yelled at me as I rode past, "Where are you going?"

"Anywhere but here," I yelled back as I rode my bike off into the crisp autumn air and away from all of my problems.

Author's Note

Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading this! I'm so excited to start on this crazy, exciting journey of my first full-length novel! I've been working on this since May! I can't believe that I'm actually doing this! I want to thank my friends that let me use them as character inspiration... You know who you are! This is fiction, so please don't expect me to get everything right! I'm trying to do research on the chemo process, but some of it will be incorrect due to lack of knowledge and being able to tie it into the story! If I get something wrong, feel free to let me know in the comments! I also would LOVE it if you gave me some constructive criticism in the comments! Please don't copy my book or characters, but if you want to write something similar with your own spin on it, feel free, and send it to me so I can read it! Okay, I should stop now!

Love you guys!

-Madalyn