"Mackenzie, we've been waiting on you! You can't just wander off whenever you want to!" The director pointed his finger at her. "But you're back now, that's all that matters." He said, softening his tone as he looked at Kenzie's wide eyes. I knew she was trying to make him feel sorry for her, so he wouldn't yell. She did that with Demi all the time.
"Sorry." She sassed, when she obviously wasn't sorry at all. Well at least I was seeing more and more of Kenzie every day. She was a brat but I loved her.
"Mackenzie." Alexia hissed. "Manners." Alexia was always corrected Kenzie, sort of like she was her mother. That bothered me. I didn't like something about Alexia... I couldn't put my finger on it yet but something was up. I like to think of myself as a good judge of character.
"Sorry, sir." She smirked.
"You missed the whole scene." Hadlee scoffed. "You're so unprofessional." She rolled her eyes. Unfortunately, as mean as Hadlee could be, she reminded me of how Kenzie had acted towards Kenna.
"Just shut up." Avie shot back, stating what everyone else was thinking.
"You missed the whole scene too. Maybe you should go back to your freak show." Hadlee stuck her tongue out.
"Don't you dare talk to her that way." I stood up, clasping my hand over my mouth as I realized I had actually said that out loud.
"And who's this?" Hadlee mocked, glaring at me. Like I was afraid or even intimidated by a 10 year old.
"That's Cece. She's my very close friend." Avie smiled in my direction. Internally I died, I completely died. "Don't be so bitter that you didn't get the lead." Avie turned to Kenzie. "She auditioned for your role. She just didn't get it."
"At least I already have 7 awards. What do you have? What does she have?" Hadlee mocked, making faces at Kenzie. I made eye contact with Avie long enough to read her mind. Such a great group of people. The cast gets along so well together!
"That's enough! Rehearsal is over!" The director stood up. "Be here for 6am tomorrow. If I hear another fight you'll be asked to leave. To help you bond I've arranged for a group outing tonight. You are all required to attend. It's a team building event- you'll see."
While the cast, mixed in with parents and coaches made a dash for the exit, I hung back to wait for Avie. I wanted to talk to her, she captivated me.
"Will you be there tonight? At this "team building event", whatever it is?" Avie found me.
"Oh of course!" I stuttered. I didn't know what Demi had planned but I had to be there.
"Okay good." Avie smiled, before wrapping her arms around me. I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Avie didn't seem to care if anyone saw us.
"Come on! Cece! I'm waiting!" Kenzie whined. She didn't seem to notice how long Avie was hugging me for.
"Bye Avie."
"Bye Cece." Avie brushed my bangs away from my face.
"Short for Cecelia.. I've got to go now bye!" I turned away, silently kicking myself for being such a freak.
"Bye beautiful." My heart stopped. Did she just? Did that just happen?
"Cece that was so cool! I love being on set! I want to do this forever!" She leapt, making dramatic hand motions.
But I wasn't really paying attention. I was thinking about Avie. Maybe I liked her, okay, I liked her a lot. But I decided I was going to take things slowly. Whatever happens happens. I had always imagined myself marrying a guy. Not that there's anything wrong with being gay, but when you imagine something for a long time, it's hard to accept that that might not happen.
Once we got into the SUV to go home, my phone rang. It was Demi. She wanted Kenzie and I to get dropped off near her and Kenna.
"Okay Kenz, we're actually going to go straight to the doctor where Kenna is."
"I wanna go home! I hate doctors!" Kenzie whined, thrashing in her seat. I prepared myself for a tantrum. I was sorry that Kenzie had to spend time in hospitals, but Kenna practically lived in them.
"We have to go see Kenna. It's okay, you can play in the playroom or maybe we can find something else for you to do."
"I WANNA GO HOME!" She broke into her screaming tantrum.
"It's just gonna be for a bit Kenz, and you can see Demi!"
"I'm tired of being at hospitals!" She cried. "I want things to be normal again." Her mood instantly switched from the spoiled Mackenzie to the broken little girl.
"It's okay baby." I let her rest her head on my chest and I rocked her back and forth. "That's why we're here. To get things back to normal." I hoped that's what was really going to happen.
Once we arrived I unloaded Kenzie from the car. She clung to my side, her cheeks still wet from her tears.
The center that Kenna was being treated at was huge. It was on a beautiful property with different apartments for families to stay at. It also had a park and gardens to walk through. At the main area there were inpatient rooms, but also multiple clinics, playgrounds, playrooms, and areas for the kids to hang out. All the people were really nice. It was definitely where we needed to be.
I spotted Kenna and Demi with another little girl sitting in front of a fish tank. The girl was pushing Kenna's wheelchair around, pointing at fish and chatting to her.
"MOMMY!" Kenzie shrieked, running into her arms.
"How was your day? You have to tell me all about it baby girl. Oh I'm so proud of you." She knelt down to Kenzie's level and hugged her. I wanted a hug like that. But it was getting more and more rare that Demi comforted me.
"Let me talk to Cece over here and then we'll go eat lunch together and talk. Go say hi to you sister and her new friend." Demi turned to me. "Hey Cece." She somewhat sighed. "So much happened this morning."
"Like what, how did everything go?" I was nervous to hear exactly what the doctors thought about her condition.
"It's really confusing, nothing's definite yet. But there's the positive and the negative." She put her hand on my shoulder. "Let's sit" She was starting to worry me.
"Demi just tell me what's going on. Is she okay?"
"Well I met with her entire team. She has about 10 different doctors. Today she had an MRI, a hearing test, a vision test, X-Rays, a blood test, an EKG and an Echo for her heart, and they want to do a spinal tap."
"What did all the tests say?"
"The results aren't back yet. They told me a bunch of different things they're looking for. Mainly they just want a baseline of where she is."
"But do they think they can fix her?"
"Well the one really good thing is that they are going to be able to take her trach tube out so she can start working on eating and talking again."
"That's great right? That means she's getting better!" I smiled, thrilled at the thought of McKenna being able to speak.
"Cece she's still really sick."
"Yeah but she'll be better soon."
"There's a lot of complications that can happen. She has a really long road ahead of her. There's so many procedures she had to have, so many things she has to have done to her daily. Really painful procedures. It's hard on her."
"I know... but she's strong." I didn't like thinking about how much physical pain Kenna had to go through every day. " What about walking?" I questioned, Demi was being so negative. She had to know something I didn't.
"We met with an orthopedist and a few other specialists, and they feel that her legs and feet have a lot of damage from not being used. She's going to have physical therapy every day for that."
"But she'll be able to walk one day right?"
"That's the thing Cece... he's not sure."
"Why are we here then? They said she could fully recover. If she can't walk-"
"Medically it's just enough that she's alive. She's never going to be normal. She's going to deal with effects of this for the rest of her life." Demi said slowly.
"That's not fair!" I could feel my eyes filling with tears. "She's supposed to get better."
"They have really high hopes Cece. They just don't know for sure yet baby girl. Don't cry."
"I'm not crying." I pulled away from her, going to see Kenna.
"We'll talk later." Demi gave me a look. "Kenna wants you to be with her during the spinal tap. I'm going to take Kenzie to eat."
I approached Kenna and her new friend. The hope I had had for Kenna was fading. It made me sick. I was so angry she had to suffer.
"Hi I'm Belle. I'm 7." She shook my hand, her brown eyes sparkling.
"Hi." I smiled. Belle was adorable. She was bald aside from a thin layer of light brown hair. She had galaxy leggings on with a striped top.
"This is my puppy." She held up a blue dog stuffed animal. "He's a good puppy. Oh! I showed Kenna my favorite duckie fountain here earlier. I've been here for.." She looked at her fingers. "1,2,3,4.. 4 years. I can show you around. I'm an expert."
"I'm sure you are. I would love for you to show me around sometime. Maybe after Kenna sees the doctor." I laughed.
"Oh yeah I told Kenna all about spinal taps. I've had tons! I've had everything pretty much. I'm going home soon though!" She stuck her hip out, posing. "Kenna and I had fun today. She's my best friend." Kenna's eyes tracked her, and she smiled slightly. "Oh I forgot to tell you. I'm bald but I AM a girl. People get confused. I have cancer. Brain cancer. That's why I'm bald." She specified.
"I know you're a girl. I'm sure most people can tell. You're beautiful. I hope you get better."
"I am. That's why I'm going home." She smiled, posing again.
"That's exciting! So Kenna, I'm glad Belles been here to keep you company." I grabbed her hand and she squeezed it a little in return.
"McKenna Lovato." A nurse called, opening a door up and looking around.
"Well Kenna's up, see you around Belle."
"I'll be waiting!" She skipped off.
Maybe life here wasn't going to be so bad.
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unedited but it's late and I wanted to post a long chapter to make up for the lack of updates. I have so much planned for this story :)
Should Cece and Avies ship name be Cavie or Cevie? It's up to yall.
next update: Friday
~in memory of my friend belle who passed away earlier this year.