Closed Lips

Chapter One

We all have those days that we wished never happened, for me, that's today. I never used to get anxious about things, well, until around four hours ago. Today I was feeling extremely ill at school, I was throwing up, coughing a lot and even couldn't breathe properly every few minutes. The school ended up calling my parents who picked me up and took me straight to the emergency room. The doctors ran a few exams and told us they would call if anything was seriously wrong.

We've been home for about two or three hours and I've been anxious since we left the exam room. I'm hoping nothing's wrong, but I know that something is because I've never felt like this before.

I looked up every possible disease I could have, according to my symptoms. Just as my eyes begin to fill with tears I hear the phone ring downstairs. I race down all thirty-two stairs, crashing into just about every wall in the house, my heart's pounding wondering if it's the doctor.

I answered shouting 'HELLO!''

A loud feminine voice screaming ''Amelia are you ok, I can come around if you'd like!''.

''Lia!, that would be fantastic''.

I walk up the stairs to my bedroom and heartbeat goes back to normal. When I get to my room I race to the window and wait for Lia to get here. When she arrives we go to the attic and start talking. '' Amelia..''

''Yeah Lia''.

''What's going on, why did you leave school, are you ok?''

Just as I was about to answer her the phone rings so again I race down to the living room and pick it up leaving Lia to follow behind me. I answered ''Hello''

A deep voice replies "Uh, good evening is this Mr or Mrs Scottins?''

''No it's Amelia Scottins, who's this?'' Whilst I nervously wait for a response I begin to get anxious and I feel like I almost have a panic attack.

Then the voice replies, ''Dr. Long. I am in the scanning room and I have your results from earlier today''

I almost die inside and in a screechy voice I say

'so what's wrong with me, you said you'd only call if there's something wrong''

I started panicking and I almost cried suddenly the doctor's response is '' How do I put this, well Amelia, you have bone cancer, I am so very sorry, can you get your parents to contact me as soon as possible please?''

. My heart sinks, my knees go weak and I begin crying, I drop to the ground thinking many thoughts like; 'why me?', 'what did I ever do wrong?', 'I am going to die, aren't I!', 'this is it'. After about 5 minutes I realise that Lia was standing there the entire time, she races over to me, drops to the ground and pushes my head into her chest and doesn't let me go for what seems like forever but I didn't hate it. Then I remembered that the doctor said to get my parents to call him as soon as possible, I jump up and grab the phone to

call mum.

10 minutes later mum and dad arrived home and Liah left. For a while we sat on the couch in silence, then mum jumped up and muttered that she needed to cook dinner and I offered to help and we headed to the kitchen. Dad was still sitting staring through the window when we served the food and he didn't say a word whilst we were eating.

The night had passed and today I was going back to school. Mum and dad didn't make me go to school but just because of the news I didn't want to completely block out the world so I decided to go but I wasn't going to be that kid that made a massive deal about herself so just for the moment I want to keep it on the low side, which means that I need to call up Lia and tell her not to say anything.

I got to school and everyone was asking how I was so I lied and said that I was fine. For the whole day, I had to try and be my usual enthusiastic self, which with only receiving the news yesterday was really tough.

After the longest day of school ever I drop my bag off and sprint to Lia's house. I frantically knock on the door to find that there is no answer, so I walk home in disappointment and drop onto the couch.

Two days have passed since I found out the news and I am now going to get a check up on my cancer. I told the doctor not to hold back on telling me anything, so he didn't. He told me that I had had cancer for about three months now but it's starting to get serious, he also said I can have three rounds of chemotherapy before it will be too late to stop cancer from spreading all through my body and to every bone. After a while, my ears went numb because I didn't want to hear anymore but I knew I had to face it. At some point in time, I heard him mention having to be in a wheelchair if cancer starts at my legs. I really began to panic and my anxiety got the best of me I started crying and screaming, my fingers, feet and tongue went numb I couldn't speak but I could hear mum telling me to breathe and eventually I settled down.

I ended up leaving the room but I couldn't help putting my ear up to the door to try and hear something, I heard mum talking about travelling and that's all the rest were just mumbles.

After about half an hour mum came out of the doctor's office and we headed out to the car. Neither of us spoke a word during the whole car ride, but I knew mum was hiding something cause she's never this quiet.

Today is Sunday, which is the day Lia and I usually go into town and do some window shopping but I wasn't sure if we were still doing it because I haven't really talked to her since Wednesday. I give her a call and she doesn't answer so I place my phone on the table and walk down stairs and see dad laying on the sofa watching My Kitchen Rules even though he always criticising it for being really lame. I'm starting to worry about dad he's hiding something I know it cause he hasn't talked to me for the four days we've known about my disease and he has neglected me ever since.

Mum calls out to me to come downstairs so I run up to my room and get out any clothes I can find, then I throw them on and run downstairs to see Lia at the counter and dad still on the couch. Something about seeing dad makes me stop and begin feeling weird. I feel my heart pounding and suddenly I am on the floor breathing loudly and heavily. I hear dad's voice for the first time in ages. Following that, I hear Lia scream and drop to the ground with me. Dad helped me up and Lia looked really anxious, she's got her lip wrinkled up to the side of her face and the bottom row of her teeth over them. Dad from what I could see had hardly any emotion on his face although my vision was poor from eyes watering.

Dad lifts me up and carries me to the sofa. He drops me on the comfortable cushion and runs to get a wet cloth. Lia is sitting by my side with no idea what to do. She sits staring into my eyes with a worried look on her head.