Cause and Affect

||Forty-Nine

Soon, January had past, and it was now February. Everyone in our youth group was buzzing about Fusion Fire.

Fusion Fire was the mid year weekend event, where all the churches from camp are invited to a specific church. This year the church was at a church a couple hours away from us. More north Wisconsin.

"Guys! Fusion Fire is in two weeks. I literally cannot wait." Amber said, bouncing on her toes after church on no particular Sunday.

"Same here! This year is gonna be so good." Hunter agreed.

"Oh. I didn't tell you guys. Alex wanted me to tell you that he can't go this year." Amber remembered.

"What?! How come!" Hunter and I asked curiously.

"His family doesn't have enough money. His parents say he can only go to camp this year, considering they just went on a really expensive trip that they've been saving up for, for about three years."

"That's crap." Hunter replied, sadly.

"Yeah, it is." Amber's expression went from sad to happy again. "But this is Kaila's first year!"

"I'm so excited guys. You all have been talking about it since camp ended. And since Kallen could never make it to any of them, he never told me anything about it."

"It's not exactly like camp, although it's with most of the same people. It's still amazing, and God moves every time." Hunter explained.

After talking about it for a while Mom came up to me. "Hey Kaila, I was thinking about going out for lunch. Would you want to?"

"Yeah! I'd love to!" I told her, smiling. "I'll see you guys later, okay?"

"Okay. Bye Kaila!" Amber said, embracing me.

"Bye love." Hunter said, also giving me a hug. I kissed him on the cheek and smiled after.

"Bye guys." Mom and I walked out of the church and to the car. "So where are we eating?"

"Hm, I was thinking Culver's."

"Yes!" I exclaimed. I hadn't been there in forever, and I really loved their ice cream.

We drove until we found it. We went inside, ordered our food, and sat down.

"So, any reason in particular why we're here?" I asked, sipping on my water.

Mom seemed to be putting it off. "I need to go and get some ketchup, I'll be right back."

I sighed. I decided to look at my phone, I got a text from an unknown number.

Unknown: Hey, is this Kaila?

Me: Yes it is, who is this?

Unknown: This is Lacy, from camp! I was on your team!

Lacy.. Lacy.. Lacy! I thought

Me: Lacy! I remember you! Oh my gosh, how are you?!

Once I sent it, Mom came back with six ketchups.

"Geez mom, do you really think we need that much ketchup?

She laughed. "No, but you can never be too careful."

Then the waitress came over to our table. "Here is your food, have a good rest of your day." She said.

"Thank you! You as well." Mom said. Once the waitress left, mom grabbed my hands. "Let's pray."

We prayed for our food, and the rest of the day and dug in. For some strange reason I was a little more hungry than I had been lately.

Once we were halfway through eating our food, Mom spoke up again. "I need to stop putting it off and just tell you." Her words took me by surprise.

"What do you mean, mom?"

"Well, uh—" She paused. "You have to go back in."

My eyes lowered to her plate of food instead of her face. "Oh."

"I know, and I'm sorry. But your appointment is the Tuesday after you come back from Fusion Fire. So there's always a little hope, and prayer that maybe something will happen whilst your there."

I shrugged. "We don't know mom. For all we know, nothing could happen, and I'll have leukemia until I die."

"Kaila! That's no way to talk." I knew she hated it when I talked about that, but we couldn't hide that it's a possibility.

"Mom, we both know it's a very big possibility."

She stayed quiet. I looked down at my phone again.

Lacy: I've been good! Life is just kinda, you know, all over the place, haha. Hbu?

I didn't know how to answer. Do I tell her about my life so far? Lie to her and tell her it's been pretty good, when in reality I've been a mess? I decided to do something in between.

Me: It's been a rollercoaster that's for sure. Are you going to Fusion Fire?

I put my phone down and ate a couple more bites of my lunch.

"Hey, can we get ice cream? I'm in the mood for something cold, besides the weather, of course." I said, laughing a bit.

"Sure. Are you done with your lunch?"

I nodded, and offered a little smile. She nodded as well.

We threw away our trash, and remainder of the food. We went to the counter and got some small sundaes. Once we got them, we headed out the door.

I opened the door to the car and got in. Mom did the same.

The car trip was silent. Between the small bites of ice cream, and looking out the window, Mom and I kept to ourselves the whole trip.

I couldn't wait for Fusion Fire, a getaway, and a chance to reconnect with Jesus. I felt like recently I hadn't been connecting with him as much as I should. So that was my goal, was to reconnect to Jesus, and pray.

~~~
you guys. there is only one more chapter and an epilogue left.

i'm kinda freaking out, because like, i've been working on this book for a year and it's already coming to a close.

but that just means that, SOF will be updated VERY SOON!

I hope all of you enjoy these last two chapters! (: more sappy stuff to come once the book is officially over XD

also! a little heads up, i've never been to Fusion Fire before, so i don't know what it's like, unlike the camp, which i've been to.

okay that's all from me! see you next chapter (:

❤Ari