The Girl Next Door

Gemma Hansen and Noah Candor grew up right next door to each, pulling them into a tight friendship for years to come. All through grade school they would meet in Gemma’s backyard tree house every day after school. They would spend hours talking and laughing up there. That all changes when high school comes though; Noah gets pulled into a bad crowd. Drinking, parties and fighting. Gemma regretfully lets him go, thinking he’s done with their friendship and there is nothing she can do. She tries to bounce back from the loss of her best friend and surrounds herself with new friends. She and Noah float through the first years of high school in their own social bubbles, almost never speaking. Noah watches her though; seeing the scrawny be-freckled girl from grade school transform into the most beautiful girl he can imagine. Just as he starts to try to win back her friendship, the unthinkable happens. Gemma is diagnosed with leukemia. How can Noah prove to her that he really wants her friendship and doesn’t just feel sorry for her? Gemma has her own problems. All of her friends drop her, leaving her with only true friend. Will she be so desperate that she lets Noah back into her life?