the year we spent together ↠ [REWRITING]

01.

song for this chapter - vagabond by misterwives

[ chapter one ]

Grace Indigo

When I first was informed of the growing tumor that had grown inside of me since a young age, I was only nine years old. I was taking dance classes from a nearby studio, I loved stargazing, and helping my mother plant in our garden. I didn't feel any less normal than the kids in my school yet they treated me differently when I came back from a surgery to attempt to get a part of the tumor out.

From what the kids had told me, I had reasons to think that I needed to treat it like my sickness was a death sentence, like I would never make it out alive. It caused me to lash out, and I quickly retreated from the rest of the world.

Of course, all kids didn't distance themselves from me just because I was different. I made few friends when I was at that school. Some of them were definitely forced from their parents to befriend me, but for the most part the others were genuinely my friends. As I grew up I didn't continue with public school just because it became too hard to live going to school everyday and how much work I missed because of doctor appointments. Myparents eventually pulled me out of school and into home school.

I didn't mind their decision to take me out of public school, it was understandable. If my own child was going through stage 3 of cancer, I would take them out of school as well to spend more time with them too. Even if that wasn't the whole reason they had taken me out, I liked to believe that it was. I wasn't asked if that was what I wanted to do, and I knew that they wouldn't want to ask a mere nine year old to keep them in school, a part of me still would have appreciated if they had asked me.

Though, I didn't have many choices in my life, today I would be given some power in my life.

I closed my eyes as I heard my mother start her babbling once more. My head resting on my hand, I hummed a response when I heard her stop talking. I didn't exactly know what she was even talking about, but I found that most of the time any type of answer would satisfy her. Her constant rambling quickly gave me a headache that I was attempting to minimize by slowly rubbing circles on my temple.

"-and honestly, dear, if we're going to buy you another wig you must take better care of it. If you continue to treat them the way you do, we'll be forced to buy an additional one and you know how much those things cost." Her judgmental tone was laced with annoyance. Just as she was about to open her mouth to say more, she was interrupted by the door of the office opening.

A woman in a light gray suit top and matching skirt walked into the brightly-lit room. The way she presented herself somehow reminded me of my fourth grade teacher, a smile wide on her face and her face welcoming as if she was ready to change the world just by helping kids. The woman put her hand out and introduced herself.

"My name is Ms. Robert." She said cheerfully, her smile becoming so big I was afraid it might fall off. "And I'm here to make your wishes come true!" I tried my hardest not to roll my eyes, guessing that all of the representatives for Make-A-Wish Foundation were forced to say the cheesy line. She shook hands with my mother and made her way behind the desk.

She talked about the foundation and how they came to be. It was fairly boring for a teenage girl to listen to so I easily stopped listening to her when I heard a beep on my phone. The screen lit up as a notification from twitter appeared. I opened it excitedly when I read who it was from. Ms. Roberts kept on talking, and didn't notice that I was using my phone.

The notification was from the only person who I had on my notifications. Mitchell Hughes.

"You can get one wish." I was in the middle of reading the tweet when those five words caught my ear. My thoughts came back from what I was thinking about and suddenly I knew what I was going to wish for.

"The constrictions of what your wishes can be are in this packet, if you-"

"Mitchell Hughes." I said abruptly. Ms. Roberts and my mom looked at me because of my sudden outburst. "Well, uh, ever since I became a fan of his, I-I've always wanted to meet Mitchell Hughes." I told her, my voice now barely above a whisper. I only got a blank expression in return as she glanced at my mom.

"A singer she loves." My mom waved her hand dismissively, giving me a slight glare in response to me interrupting Ms. Roberts.

I waited a moment as to give her the chance to reply but when she didn't say anything I began worrying. "I know it might not be possible, but I just thought that maybe you could at least try because I've been a fan of his for so long and it would be really amazing if I could get the chance to tell him how much I appreciate his music and maybe-"

"Well I'll certainly try." She said with an uneasy laugh as she cut off my nervous banter. "But with celebrities, it's always a hit or miss because of their busy schedules but I'll get in contact with his agent and I'll get back to you."

I took a sigh of relief as my shoulders released the tension I didn't realize I had. "Thank you so much for trying," my mom said.

Ms. Roberts folded her hands on her dark mahogany desk and gave us a smile. "Of course. Just make sure to fill out the paperwork that is on the tenth page in the handout."

I returned her smile as I began to stand up, quickly adjusting my beanie out of habit. My fingers were shook as I tugged the fabric further down my head.

My mom and her began to exchange goodbyes but I couldn't focus on anything except the simple promise of trying.

                                -------------

Editing this book is taking so much out of me. Save me. These chapters are so poorly written, it's basically like a writing an entire new book. Looking back on it, I cannot believe why people read this book so much. They all had to be like, preteens with no sense of grammar or spelling or cliche alert sensor thing (which exactly who I was). I'll try to get the second chapter out soon(:

hope you enjoyed

xoxo selah