August 27th
"Get your lazy ass up or you're gonna be late on the first day!"
"I'm awake, I just don't know what to wear Alex." I shouted back and I heard the footsteps on the stairs.
As he stepped into my room and looked me up and down, he started laughing which caused me to scowl at him.
"You wanna go with trendy but nothing that makes people assume stuff. Keep them guessing from day one." Automatically, I went for the skinny jeans and he nodded his head. "Wear a black vest underneath it and hold on."
He disappeared from my room, so I took the opportunity to get changed. I felt too exposed in this shirt.
"Alex, what are you looking for?" I called out, opening my door to find him standing there with a grin.
"I figured you were getting changed. Add on this." He held out a red plaid shirt and I shrug into it.
It was huge on my small frame, which told me that it was Alex's. But not only was it comfortable, it was comforting. I didn't feel so nervous about going to school.
"And lets add on this." He took the beanie that had been covering his messy hair and sat it neatly on mine.
"Anything else, oh great fashionista Gaskarth?" He grinned before taking out his phone and we had a morning selfie. I couldn't resist on pulling a dorky face, so he pouted before posting it to instagram. "I really hope that there aren't fans of the band at school. Like, the ones who try too hard." He snickered and kissed my cheek before telling me to hurry and that breakfast was ready.
By the time I had eaten, he'd gotten changed and we were both in the car. I had my bag and money for school and he was ready to do a bit of press for the new album,
"You excited?" The drive to school wasn't too long, but long enough to start up the butterflies.
"More nervous than excited." I admitted and he squeezed my hand.
"Well I've explained everything to the school so they know what's going on. But for now, just enjoy the day and try to make new friends."
"Easy for you to say." He grinned at me before pulling up to the school.
"Want me to come in with you?" I shook my head and he laughed, pulling me into a tight hug, kissing my forehead. "I'll text you if I can't pick you up. Cass will probably be waiting for you. Sound good?" I simply nodded and grinned. "Now scat, you've got friends to make."
"Have a good day." I called behind me as I left the car.
"You too kiddo!" Came the response and I waved before making my way up into the school.
To say I was terrified was and understatement. Clearly kids hadn't expected to see a new face in the school and because it was one of the more local high schools, it seemed that everyone knew most faces.
By the time I'd reached the office, I was shaking like a leaf.
The woman at the desk smiled warmly at me.
"How can I help you dear?"
"I uh, I'm here to pick up my timetable?" She gave me a confused look before understanding my words.
"It's schedule honey, but don't worry. You'll learn the lingo eventually." I gave off a nervous laugh. I'd forgotten that they had different words.
"Sorry, it's all still a bit new to me."
"Well, Charlia Gaskarth, I hope you have a good day, get the teachers to sign the slip and then bring it back to me. And you can tell me about your day." I gave her a nervous smile as I took the things she handed me, looking over my timetable before checking over the map she'd given me.
I made it to homeroom just after the bell went, and I realised that everyone was already in the room.
As I stepped inside, every head turned to me and I felt my cheeks flush as I made my way to the teacher.
"Ah you're the new girl that people have been talking about." She seemed nice enough. "I'm Miss Robson. Would you like to introduce yourself?" I panicked for a second before nodding my head and turning to face the room filled with judgmental eyes.
"Hi, I'm uh, Charlia Gaskarth and I just moved here from England. I have an unhealthy addiction to pop tarts and I've never been so scared about starting school before." This earned a few laughs and I grinned weakly before Miss Robson pointed me to the empty desk in the middle and I sat down quietly whilst she welcomed back the class.
By the time that the first break rolled around, I'd been forced to introduce myself three times and I was yet to make a new friend.
So it led to me being sat by myself outside, a book in my lap as I listened to the teenagers around me talk to their friends, kick around a soccer ball and just have a bit of fun.
"You know, sitting by yourself won't help you get friends." A girls voice startled me from the book and I looked to my side to see a bottle blonde girl, skinny jeans and sweatshirt completing her outfit.
"I'm too chicken to go up to someone and say 'hi, I'm the new British kid, can we be friends?' because that shit is a good way to give me a heart attack." The girl laughed and held out her hand.
"I'm Cali." I took her hand and shook it.
"And I'm the new kid, aka Charlia." She grinned.
"Do you wanna join me and my group of friends? Only, I could see one of the preps in homeroom this morning putting two and two together, and lets just say that if you're not careful-"
"I'd have people befriending me for the wrong reasons." She grinned before standing up. I followed suit and followed her as she made her way to, what I felt was a rather large group of people.
"I got the new girl guys, you can stop arguing over who'll talk to her first." The two guys who seemed to be aguing back and forth stopped to look over at us both before high fiving Cali.
"So they argue over decisions and you just do whatever you feel is right?" The group laughed.
"Pretty much. Okay, so I'm going to introduce you. That over there is Jennifer, but she prefers Jen." The girl who was sat furthest from me waved. "The goofball sat next to her is Fletcher."
"I'm not a goofball, you just don't appreciate my jokes." He glared at Cali and she just grinned.
"I like a good joke or a bad pun every now and then." I piped up and Fletcher let out a cheer as the rest of the group groaned.
"Guys shut up, she's staying now." I gave him a thumbs up.
"Moving on. This here is Rae and the girl next to her is Emma." They both waved and I smiled back. "The two d-bags that were arguing over who would go over and talk to you are Sean and Jordan."
"Who is who?"
"The guy with the bright pink fringe is Sean."
"Is he gay?" The question had fallen from my lips before I'd even processed it in my brain and I slapped my hand over my mouth as everyone started laughing at his expense.
"That's it, I'm gonna go back to brown." He groaned and I gave him a sheepish smile.
"Sorry."
"Nah, a lot of people were asking me if I was gay, so I might as well."
"So new girl, how are you liking the U S of A?" Jordan piped up and I shrugged.
"It's different and I'm trying to remember that you guys don't really know half the stuff I talk about." They all laughed and I grinned.
"You'll get used to it. What class do you have next?"
"Art, then History and last lesson is English." I repeated back my schedule and Cali grinned at me as the bell went.
"We'll find you at lunch. You've got last lesson with all of us." I grinned and high fived her before we made our way inside the building.
"Sounds good to me. How about the canteen for lunch? I'll need food." She nodded her head before pointing me in the direction to the art room.
Once I arrived in class, I handed my teacher the slip and she smiled at me.
"So you're Charlia?"
"Yes ma'am." Her grin widened before motioning to the desks which had filled up quickly.
"Take a seat, we're starting a new project for this school year. Your previous grades will count towards this." I simply nodded my head and took the empty table of four which was sat between two other groups of four.
I ignored the whispers and set my bag down.
She started the lesson, welcoming the students back. She didn't make too much of a fuss about me and launched straight into the work.
"Right, so we have a new project for this year. You have to pick out trigger words from a hat and then for the rest of this year, I want you to work on something to present back to the class."
She went around with the hat and I picked mine out. Opening it out, I felt my stomach drop as I read the title and I sighed.
'Fairytale'
I plotted down a few ideas, wondering how I could work this out. My first thought had been Disney, but it was too cliche.
Art finished and I still felt uninspired, however I carried on with the classes and put a smile on my face.
By the time that English had finished, I'd spent most of the lesson talking to Cali and Jordan in whispers as I'd been placed on their table. When it came to the group work, the rest joined us and it ended up turning into a social chat whilst we worked.
The group walked with me to my locker and they all put their numbers into my phone, and I sent a group message so they all had my number.
"So what does it feel like to have friends?" Cali commented as she threw her arm around my shoulders.
"Weird, but in a good way." The guys laughed.
"So is it true?" Fletcher piped up as I searched for the familiar car. I checked my phone briefly before turning my attention to him.
"True about what?"
"True that you're Alex Gaskarth's daughter?" Before I even had a chance to answer the question, booth Jen and Rae hit him around the back of the head.
"She might be our friend but that's a bit persona you ass."
"Nah, it's okay. We kinda told the world on a livestream and my name trended world wide on twitter. But you guys are the first to ask." They all paused and I grinned. "I am his adopted daughter and if any of you freak out I will never invite you to my home." Fletcher pouted and Cali giggled.
"Well you're the new girl who is now our friend. No famous people here." Sean piped up and I nodded.
"That is true. Although I'd get rid of that ridiculous colour or you might end up famous." Jordan laughed as he caught Sean in a headlock and headed to a car, calling out their goodbye's. Eventually everyone had left and I found the car I was looking for.
Bouncing into the car, Alex laughed when I kissed his cheek.
"Good day?"
"Yep! And I made seven new friends today."
"Seven? That's a new record. I only made two on my first day." I sniggered as he pulled away. My phone vibrated to see a text from Cali.
'You really are an awesome chick. You got any plans tomorrow?'
"Hey Alex, what do we have planned for tomorrow?"
"You've got your first treatment kiddo. You going to want to go into school?" I pulled a face and he laughed.
"Depends. What about after?"
"Nothing that I know of."
'Nothing as of yet but I won't be in tomorrow. I'll explain soon but if I'm free after school, I'll let you know :)'
August 28th
My hands were shaking.
Gripping Alex's hand, I felt like a small toddler, lost in the supermarket. But here wasn't a place where my parent would find me and we'd leave, no. I had to go in further.
By the time we reached the ward that I was booked in, Alex was humming softly whilst rubbing circles on the back of my hand to calm me down.
And it worked, especially as we were waiting for the nurse to come and get me.
"Charlia Gaskarth?" Despite it feeling weird to hear my last name, I looked up and the nurse seemed nice enough, her features soft as she gave me a gentle smile.
"Don't leave me." I whispered to Alex who's response was simply to hold my hand tighter and kiss the top of my head.
"I'm not going anywhere kiddo."
Once I was settled in the bed, she attached the hospital band to my wrist before prepping my arm.
"What I'm gonna do is put the cannula here," she pointed to the most visible vein in my arm. "and then attach the chemo to you. It'll take roughly two to three hours. You may begin to feel nauseous and we have the sick bowls here if you do need to throw anything up. Once you've had the treatment we'll be prescribing you some drugs which will help battle the more serious side effects like heart conditions or kidney problems."
I couldn't take any of this in, so I simply nodded my head and let her get on with it.
After the first forty five minutes, I could feel myself falling asleep.
"Alex, can you ask Cass when we can next go to get our nails done? I want them to look nice and pretty." I mumbled, half asleep and he chuckled, placing a kiss to the top of my head.
"Sure. Sleep for a bit. I'll be here when you wake up."
ALEX
Once Charlia had fallen asleep, I simply sat there watching her for a few minutes before the nurse came in once more.
"I figured that it would be easier to explain things to you in detail." She explained quietly and I nodded my head.
"It's fine. She's still struggling to accept that this is happening. And so am I, if I'm totally honest."
"No no, it's understandable. A long as there's a support network for you both. But I'm not here to talk about that, that's down to the therapist tomorrow. This is about the tablets and future treatments."
"Yeah, you mentioned about heart conditions or something?"
"Yes, its a necessary precaution as we need to be sure that the patient understands what could possibly happen. Most tablets she'll have work with each other so she'll be as healthy as the chemotherapy allows her to be. But she'll need to have an uptake of more fluids, less junk food and certainly no drugs."
It felt like I was being scolded by a teacher for letting her have the last cookie.
"So she has to come here every week?"
"Yes, for the next twelve weeks. Then we'll do an eight week cycle of radiotherapy before doing more tests and scans. If there's been some change, we'll continue with that cycle. Chemo then radiotherapy. She will have an eight week break depending on how her body copes with it."
"So we don't know what's going to happen over the next twelve months?"
"I'm afraid not."
I simply nodded my head in thanks as I let my head rest on her bed, my eyes feeling a sting of unshed tears.
Pulling out my phone, I sent Cass the text, asking if she'd take Charlia out to have their nails done.
'This weekend, with a girls night in.' Came the response and I smiled.
It was in moments like this that I was grateful that if anything, she had a female in her life to do the girly stuff with. It just wasn't up my street to get manicures.
By the time she had woken up, the drugs were nearly in her system, the bag almost empty and Charlia was beginning to complain about feeling sick.
"It's just the side effect. You know that. Also, Cass told me to tell you that it's going to be a girls night in this weekend." The grin that lit up her face made me smile in return.
"Can I invite my new friends?"
"Sure. I don't think Cass will have a problem with that at all."
"Ace, also if I'm not throwing up, can we go for food? I'm really hungry." I laughed and ruffled her hair, causing her to pout at me.
"Sure. There's no rush at all. If you're feeling up to it though, you're going into school tomorrow."
"That's fine by me."
i've got cute alex/charlia moments planned bc i wanna make it up to you guys.
vote & comment!
peace, love n tiger stuff x
ps. this is also dedicated to keep_the_secret aka siobhan because she's nearly finished her story kill me with words and I'm so incredibly proud of her and happy for her as her stories are not only some of my favourites but she is an incredibly talented writer. go give her a fan and enjoy her stories!