Taking Back My Life

Chapter 3: Cancer = Trouble

It's around two months into the school year and it was midterm week. Every class was giving a midterm and all the students were spilling all-nighters the whole week to prepare for their six or so midterms. Today, Emily and I were having our Calculus midterm. We had a good breakfast, and we arrived at school on time despite studying so late last night. Our Calculus teacher, Mr. Stone passed out the exam to all his zombie-like students. Once the timer started, we started concentrating and all you could hear were the sounds of paper flipping and light tapping sounds of pencils scribbling across the papers.

Thirty minutes into the exam and we were rushing to finish our test, the room was quiet only the sounds of rapid pencil writing. The quietness was suddenly disturbed by a loud thumping sound. We all instinctively looked towards the sound and it was Emily. Her head was lying on the table and she wasn't moving. It looked like she fainted.

I immediately raised my hands and said, "Mr. Stone, something's wrong with Emily. It looks like she fainted. Call the nurse."

One thing lead to another and Emily went to the hospital. Paramedics got involved, the classroom was noisy for a bit but the midterm still continued. I was stuck at school, but they said they would call our parents.

Throughout the day, I was waiting anxiously to get out of school. Normally I love school, but I was really worried about Emily. People just don't faint like that, especially young healthy teenage girls. During lunch I told Ai, Alli, Robert, and Tyler what happened and they were also concerned about Emily. They tried comforting me and telling me everything was going to be okay. But I had a gut feeling that everything wasn't going to be okay.

I continued through my final classes, anxious and hardly paying attention to the lectures. At last the end of sixth period came, and once the bell rang I ran straight out of class. A few of my other friends waved at me while I was rushing out, but I kept going ignoring them. I know that's quite rude, but it was nerve wrecking.

I left the school building and Mr. Page was there to pick me up. I asked him if Emily was okay. He told me that she woke up, which brought me a bit of relief, but he added that my parents were waiting for test results before Emily's cleared to go home. I asked him to drive me to the hospital, which he was planning to anyways. We arrived at the hospital and went to the lobby. We asked the receptionist, whose name was Ivy, where patient Emily Lam was. She instructed us where to go and we had no trouble finding Emily.

We took the elevator, and after a series of turns, we found Emily. She was sitting on a bed talking to our parents. Both our parents were sitting on some chairs next to a table with a vase filled with white lilies. Ms. Page was bringing out food for Emily to eat and she was carefully placing them out on that hospital tray desk thing that could roll. I entered and asked Emily if she was okay. She replied that she was fine and that it was nothing to be worried about. I told her that Mr. Stone would let her retake the midterm when she comes back, to which she was quite pleased about.

"Thank goodness. My grades won't take a hit." Emily said with relief.

"Worry about your health first." I stated back.

"The results should come back soon, and if everything's good I could probably go home to night." Emily said as she started eating the food Ms. Page set out for her. "The food's amazing like always Ms. Page, thank you."

"You're probably fine if you're in the mood to eat." Sarah commented and smiled.

A little later the girl's parents were called out to speak to a doctor. I assumed the test results came out. In the meanwhile, Emily asked me what happened in our other classes and what assignments are there. I told her nothing much happened and there were no assignments since midterms were so close. We turned on the hospital tv while we waited for our parents. Not long later our parents came back and our mom was crying. A doctor then came in to deliver the shocking news to Emily. She was diagnosed with brain cancer and the doctor estimated that she only had at best three months. After hearing the news the cold harshness of reality hit us so hard. Ms. Page, Emily, and I started tearing up. Eventually Emily was discharged and we went home, but the doctor warned that she was going to be coming in and out the hospital quite often.

...

    Emily stopped going to school by the end of the week. Our mom insisted to have her rest at home, I continued going to school and everyday after school, as soon as I got home I told Emily exactly everything that happened in class. Ai, Alli, Robert, and Tyler came to visit quite often.

    My parents tried to spend more time at home, in fact my mom took her vacation days to stay home with Emily. My dad came home early as well. Also I wasn't one hundred percent sure, but I think they were researching in their lab rooms for a cure for Emily. Many nights I woke up and came down stairs for a glass of water I saw the lab room's door opened and lights were on inside. I peeked in several times and I saw them playing around with microscopes and syringes.

Things were looking pretty good except for the few times when Emily starts having a seizure. My friends and I did our best to comfort Emily when she was down. Together we tried many different things that we never ate or done before. And for a short time, we forgot about Emily's illness. But then just like that, I came home from school one day and Emily was dead.

Next thing you know, I was at her funeral. Everyone was crying. Ai, Alli, Robert, Tyler and I were weeping as we watched them closed the big coffin shut. Emily lay lifeless inside, fearless of the dark and loneliness that she was slowly falling into. The coffin was then slowly place into the deep rectangular pit, six feet deep, and dirt was slowly mounted over Emily. She was really gone now. I was sobbing as we were leaving the cold cemetery, but strangely I noticed that mom wasn't crying.

...

    It was a feel months before, we finally settled down after the loss of Emily. We kept her room the way it was because no one had the heart to remove her things and erase her from our house like that. Everyone did their best to move on, however occasionally we had a few teary eyed moments when Emily's name popped up. Mom was doing quite well, she never shed a single tear after Emily died. I thought it was strange but I disregarded it and assumed she was just moving on in her own way, which was quite rapid. Boy was I wrong.