Smile

Chapter 2: Clara

"Good morning, listeners!" The announcer's voice sounded out of my old radio as I ran a hairbrush through my messy, pale blond hair. "We're going to start the day with a special request from four year old Clara McCloud's father, Mr. Patrick McCloud, who called us earlier to ask if we could play his daughter's favorite song."

McCloud. That caught my attention, as there weren't many with the name around here.

"May we remind you that it's been a month today since Clara lost her fight to cancer. We will be collecting money all day for the Clara McCloud Foundation, which helps providing money for cancer research. So, get your phones and cash ready, people!" My hairbrush long forgotten, I was already on my laptop as the announcer talked some more about Clara's foundation before introducing her favorite song.

I typed Clara's name in the search bar and millions of results instantly came up. I clicked on the first link that seemed reliable and started reading.

'Clara McCloud was diagnosed with Leukemia when she was almost three years old. She fought like a soldier through it all, but finally lost the battle eight months through her fourth year of life, leaving behind her beloved brothers, Logan, seventeen, and Oliver, 19, along with their father, Patrick. The three children's mother, Stephany, passed away giving birth to her last child. The remaining McClouds believe Stephany will take care of Clara wherever they are, and created the Clara McCloud Foundation to help provide money for cancer research.'

'Leaving behind her beloved brothers, Logan, seventeen, and Oliver, nineteen'

Her beloved brother. Logan. Seventeen.

Clara McCloud. She'd died a month ago. She'd been four.

Logan McCloud. He'd stopped smiling a month ago. He was seventeen.

I knew Logan's mother wasn't around anymore, as did everyone else. We lived in a small town and word got around pretty fast, although I had to admit I didn't know Logan had any younger siblings. I thought he only had his brother.

Maybe Logan's situation was worse than I thought.

-/-\-

Logan wasn't at school, that day. I wasn't surprised.

I decided not to share my discovery of Logan's sister with my friends. Not today, at least. No one ever listened to the radio anymore, so not many people seemed to know about Clara McCloud, and those who did seemed to have decided to contain their craving for gossip today.

 Hardly anyone was saddened about a little girl's death, and it angered me. Suddenly, it was like I wanted everyone to feel Logan's pain - to understand the situation. But I knew I couldn't do that; even I didn't know how Logan was feeling.

"Chloe, are you okay?" Kelsey asked me on our way to Math. It felt like everyone was asking me that question, these days. If only they knew they were worrying about the wrong person.

I shrugged and faked a smile. "Yeah, why?"

"I don't know, you just... You seem out of it, today. Frankly, you've seemed out of it for quite a while, now."

"Nah, I'm fine." I waved her off with a flick of the wrist. "Just tired, that's all."

She stared at me for a few seconds, obviously suspicious, but dropped it soon enough. I felt my shoulders cave in relief as I decided to go to Clara's grave after school. It was the least I could do.

-/-\-

It took me several minutes to locate Clara's grave. I finally found it at the very back of the cemetary, along with a few other McCloud graves, but unlike all the black and gray ones, hers was pink. I sat down infront of it and read the words carved in the stone.