Vanilla Dipped In Chocolate

Chapter 1: The Strong One

This is dedicated to all the people who died, beat or who have been affected by having a family member/friend with cancer. To my aunt. Always in my heart. R.I.P. I wrote this in tears. The next chapter I'll introduce Evan and Cassandra

lice Gillies was always brave. She did her first ballet solo at the age of seven, beat her neighbor in halo when she was ten. She was the captain of the cheerleading squad at her school, she had the best boyfriend in the world, friends that cared about her. She always had good grades, drove around in a pink custom made convertible she received for her 16th birthday.  Or so she thought… When she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, everything changed. She had exactly two years to live the rest of her life.

  

   The form in front of her was her future. In a few months, she would have to decide whether or not she wanted to be revived in the likely hood that she did die.

 “Would I like to be revived if I flatline?”

 She sat on her bed turning on the video camera that she had been using to record her thoughts since her unfortunate diagnosis. The red recording light blinked and even through the pain, she managed to  smile weakly. “I’m sitting here looking at my future. It seems pretty pointless to think about the day I won’t be here. I won’t be able to get married and get my dad to walk me down the aisle. I won’t go to college and get a good job. I won’t be able to have kids and get old, to smile at my wrinkly husband. I won’t get any of it,” Little Alice Gilles, the strong one burst into tears. She had to be strong when the video was off, she wanted to be strong, she needed to be strong so she could fight the chemo.

“Alice dear. Are you ready for school?” She patted her eyes fixing her makeup and walking slowly downstairs, tugging at the clothes which had now become sizes too big. While she had never been a heavy girl, she resembled a little boy and felt uncomfortable wearing junior clothes at seventeen. Her current outfit looked like something  she had worn in pre-school, but none of her old clothes fit. Since the diagnosis, the weight had drastically dropped until she resembled a walking twig.

 “Mom, you don’t have to drive with me every morning. I’ll be okay,” The teenager tried to convince her mother that she was still strong  and even though the principal at her school had agreed to let her continue classes until she got sicker. At the moment other than her family, the principal was the only one at school who knew about the diagnosis. “Stop crying for me mom,” She looked over at her mother, seeing tears in her eyes and wiped the tears from her eyes.She in turn, wiped the tears from her own eyes, promising not to let herself break down in front of her mother again. “No matter how long I live, I love my family dearly. Is dad still asleep?” The house was quiet, too quiet for her father to be home, but still she began looking for him.

  We walk to the car holding hands. “He went out with your uncle Evan to take his mind off things. He’ll be back in time for your session this evening,” That familiar cringe prepared herself for the chemotherapy which they told her would give her a better chance of surviving her cancer . She stayed in quiet reflection as her mother drove thinking about the announcement at school, where she would let the entire school know that she was dying. “Everything is going to be okay love. Plus I hear your uncle is bringing those cookie bouquets you like so much,” Her mother tried in vain to cheer her daughter up up as she sungs along to Dolly Parton’s Jolene.