Part One

I looked around the gym, everyone cheering on and laughing, enjoying the pep rally. I even wore a small smile on my face despite my pounding migraine and gut-wrenching cramps taking over my stomach.
Everyone seemed happy. Content.
As if there was no pain.
No sorrow.
No wars.
No fears crawling in the shadows at night.
It was surreal.
The drumline of the school band started a simple beat, the trumpets and tubas following suite. A few seconds later the whole gym shook with the sound of the orchestra, our hearts beating in temp a with the ensemble. The stands vibrated at the immense power of the sound.
Then it suddenly fell silent, our hearts still beating as one. But, after the leader dropped out, they changed.
I looked around to see everyone with their hands raised, first fingers pointing at the ceiling, heads bowed. A low drone grew, the ominous sound became the school’s Alma Mater, everyone repeating its verbatim.
I swallowed and chimed in, adding another voice to the massive crowd. After we finished, everyone cheered again, a roar of teens jumping up and down on the stands filled the air and echoing down the empty school halls as the bells rang, releasing us from the hot, sweaty gym.
I grabbed my bag, tossing on my headphones and cranking up the music as I walked down the over-crowded halls, a ghost among the energetic pupils.
I sighed as a jock pushed me to the side, taking the brunt and keeping my head down as the bully got in my face. “You have a problem?” His spit covered my face as I slightly shook my head.
He grabbed my bag and threw it across the hall, shoving me up against the red lockers. The cold metal bit through my shirt as the handles of the locks dug into my back. The jock yelled in my face some more before throwing a couple of punched to my stomach and face, slinging me like a rag doll over to my stuff.
He laughed and highfived his football buddies, one kicking me as they strolled away.

Part Two

The halls were vacant as I lied on the cold floor, crying quietly. I coughed up some blood before moving, getting on my hands and knees before coughing again. Blood splattered the tiled floor as I wiped my mouth, grabbing my bag, and sighing in relief. My MP3 was still in one piece.
I dragged myself to the bathroom, hurling for a few minutes into the toilet before heading to the mirror to assess the damage.
I gingerly touched my right cheek, the jock’s senior ring cut through the skin. One of my blue eyes was framed by black circles and my lip was split open. My long, black hair ruffled and knotted, but I didn’t care.
I signed slinging my bag over my shoulder and heading out to the car rider line, pulling my hat down to cover my face. Sliding into the black Honda Accord, my mom watched as I buckled up and curled against the door, my hair and hat shrouding my face.
“Hey, Autumn.”
“Hey…”
I felt the tension in the car as I breathed out slowly. “Everything okay, Mom?”
She looked over at me. “Yeah, why?”
I snorted. “The tension in this car is choking me.” I glanced over to see my mom’s brows furrowed in thought.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
I turned to face, totally forgetting about hiding my words as my concern for her took over. She glanced over at me and almost had a heart attack.
“Autumn! What happened to you?”
I shook my head as we pulled into our driveway. “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing. What’s wrong?”
Mom sighed, shutting off the car. “I’m being admitted tomorrow.”
I looked at her in confusion. “What? Admitted for what?”
“I…” She looked over at me sadly. “I… have cancer, Autumn.”
My heart stopped in my chest, the heart-wrenching pain blocking everything else out as it sunk in.

I shook my head as tears threatened to return as I gawked at my mom.
“Wha-what kind?” She sighed in pain.
“Lung cancer; they’re afraid it might not be removable, but they’re going to try. The thing I’m worried about is how much it will cost and where we’d cut back… we could never afford th-”
I cut her off. “Mom, we are getting your treatment. I can’t lose you too. We’ve already lost Dad…” I winced in pain as the tears streaked over my wounds, the memories of my father wrenching my heart. I remember the last time I saw him…
The morning of the airplane crash two years ago.

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

“Bye, Dad! Love you!” I waved out the window as I saw him drive away into the sunset, waving. Mom told him to call once he was in the air.
I went to my room, playing my new Thousand Foot Krutch and Skillet CD’s I just recently got the week before. I started banging my head to TFK’s Bounce as I started cleaning, my room is a wreck.
Three hours passed by before the phone rang, myself barely hearing it over the “Light Up the Sky” remix I was blasting through my speakers. I turned it down as my mom picked up the phone.
“Hello? Who is this? Yes this is. Uh-huh. What? That’s not possible!!! Wha.. okay. Thank you for calling. Goodbye.”
I paused my music as my mom came in, tears streaking down her face.
“M-Mom? What’s wrong?”
“It’s your father. He’s… gone. The plane crashed with another one as it was taking off. The landing plane had faulty equipment and tilted to the right, crashing into you father’s plane right after it left the ground.”
I went numb as the truth hit me.