The monarch butterfly is a milkweed butterfly in the family of Nymphalidae. Try saying that 10 times fast! People all over the world are stunned by their elegant orange color. What little people do know is that the monarch is poisonous. Beautiful things do not always have the best features.
My name is Caroline. I guess you could say I'm the average 16 year old other than the fact that I live in my hospital room surrounded by my butterfly posters. As you can probably guess, I don't get much sun. Therefor, I've never really seen many butterflies or I don't remember seeing one. I was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was seven. Around age thirteen it got really bad and I've basically lived here ever since. My best friends are my nurse Janet and my parents. Like I said, I don't get out much. I spend my days knitting caps to cover my not so glorious locks and reading about, well you guessed it-butterflies. So yeah, I'm pretty much the average 16 year old. Well maybe not.
Today was Monday. Monday was chemo day. The only good thing-and I mean the one and only good thing- about chemo day was that my mom always stayed the entire day.
Janet walks in with my clipboard and frowns. My mom follows her and walks over to give me a hug. "Hey Carofly! How's my snuggle bug?" My mom constantly makes butterfly jokes around me because she thinks I have an obsession. I'm not obsessed.
"Hey mom!" I hug her back. Janet is tapping her foot impatiently in the corner. I look up at her to give her the signal to speak.
"Caroline," Uh oh, That's the 'I'm disappointed' voice. "Nurse Gregory says you refused to do laps yesterday. You know Caroline, you know, you have to do your laps!"
"Gregory is so weird! Janet he makes skip, and sing, and sometimes he'll make me visit other patients! That's not my job, it's his and if thinks-"
"Caroline!" My mom interrupts my rant. "He's trying to get you a social life. As much as I love hanging with you I think it'd be nice if you had a friend or two."
Mom one, Caroline zero. "Whatever" I say leaning back into my pillow.
"Enough of this," Janet steps forward with a new IV. "Let's get started Caroline, you ready?"
I roll my eyes. "Ready."
YOU ARE READING
Caroline's Butterflies
Teen FictionCaroline is a 16 year old cancer patient who has been practically living in her hospital room for the past few years. She spends her days with her mom, her nurse, and drawing her favorite thing: Butterflies. She believes that she will never be as be...
