The next morning felt awkward, mom wasn’t there and dad was still in his room. The only good thing about last night had been my dream. I had been a real astronaut overnight and I couldn’t wait to tell Amber. I peeked inside dad’s room to make sure he was okay and heard him snore. Nick was awake and heard him brushing his teeth.
“I’m off to school!” I shouted for him to hear me. The slippery ice on our driveway nearly made me fall. The day was foggy and our garage’s window was covered with ice. It took me longer to get to Amber’s as I picked and chose where to step being careful not to slip on the slippery sidewalk. Cars drove slow past me and had trouble stopping at the stop signs.
Amber was ready when I came close to her driveway, the wind blew hard and I asked myself how she kept her wig on with all this wind. In a near future I wanted to convince her to take it off and just accept how she was, to me she didn’t have to hide the cancer. I wouldn’t do it. Besides with Skylar in the same school as us it wouldn’t be long for all the sixth graders to know.
I wanted to tell Amber about mom and dad, I wanted her opinion about it. Hopefully she would tell me her parents often fought and that it was ‘normal’. Nick had told me about a possible divorce but I hadn’t believed it. Amber was looking down avoiding the cold wind to blow on her face as I told her about my dream from last night.
“I was a real astronaut, and the dream felt so real!” I said. Amber looked at me so I’d notice she was paying attention.
“What is your biggest dream?” I asked. Amber thought about the question for a while, I was looking forward on hearing a big dream from her, but instead she said:
“My biggest dream, I think I don’t have one.”
“You got to have one, everyone does,” I said.
“I don’t think I do,”
“I always have a dream, I’m always looking forward to something,” I added.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“I don’t know it’s something that keeps me excited for something. Years before I would be excited for my birthday or Christmas, but now I’m more excited about the science fair, going into high school, or kissing you,” I said without thinking the last three words. I closed my eyes expecting Amber to laugh. To my surprise she didn’t. I felt so stupid, we hardly spoke the rest of the way and it was all thanks to those three words I had said. It was like if something inside me still had a big crush on Amber, which I did, But, I thought I had a full control of it. The school field and yard was filled with mostly eight graders, some threw a football across the field while others simply talked in groups of five or six. I looked down on my phone to check on the time.
“Eleven more minutes until first period,” I said.
“Do you have your camera on you?” I asked remembering what I had heard in homeroom about possibly getting our lockers sometime between today and tomorrow.
“I don’t,” answered Amber.
“I want a photo that I can hang in my locker, forgot to tell you they might be giving us lockers today or tomorrow,” I said.
Amber didn’t seem excited about getting lockers, to my concern she might was still thinking about me looking forward to one day kissing her. I saw her turn right at the end of the hall and disappear into the crowd.
Middle school was great for me, the science fair was in December and as the days went by I realized I had the best lab partner there could be. Isabella was brilliant. If I thought I was smart this girl was beyond that, she was bilingual, played the guitar and loved everything to do with science. We agreed our science fair project would be something that had to do with outer space.
“What if we make the entire Milky Way and have the planets floating all around the sun,” I suggested one day.
“I have something else in mind,” said Isabella.
“You should come over to my house one of these days so I can show you what I want to do. It’s hard to explain, I’d rather show you,” she added.
I couldn’t wait to start our science project, Isabella had full control of it and I was okay with it, we still had plenty of time to start and winning the first prize was our priority. I spoke about it to Amber who clearly was jealous of Isabella. I caught her rolling her eyes once as I told her Isabella had begun studying French.
School was going great that I hardly kept track of time, I accompanied Amber on Saturdays to her chemo and at home I dealt with mom and dad constantly fighting. It didn’t affect me but it sure did affect Nick. His grades had dropped from a ‘B’ to a ‘D’. It hurt me to see my brother this way, he hardly came out of his room and when he did he would always have a bothered face on. I talked to mom and dad constantly and they made sure I was okay and told me no matter what happened between them, they would always love me.
Chapter Nineteen
Amber: Two weeks before our birthdays Noah did something I’ll never forget. Something that nearly made me regret making him the surprise for his birthday. It had been two weeks since he and Isabella had begun with their science project. Two entire weeks of him constantly reminding me how great she was. I wished I could hang around Levi Goldberg as much as he did with Isabella. It didn’t kill me that he talked about her but what did offend me was him calling me by her name. That worst thing you could do to someone is to call them by the name of a person they dislike, and Noah didn’t do it once but twice!
I talked to Grace about me and Noah’s fight and she said it was normal for friends to fight.
“Wait for you two to be boyfriend and girlfriend, you’ll be fighting then,” she joked.
Mom had anticipated on calling Noah to invite him for dinner on the day of our birthday. It had been two weeks since we last talked and seeing each other on Saturday for our birthdays would be awkward.
“I invited him and so did dad and Grace, he’s our friend too,” said mom.
I was seriously thinking of giving him the present I had made for him, a complete album on the shape of a round planet with many pictures of him and Ernest and some with me that I had taken most of them without him noticing. After minutes of thinking I came to the conclusion of only giving him his present if he made something for me.
Noah’s dad dropped him off at around eight and told him he would be back for him in two hours, he didn’t carry anything on him which made me a little more furious I had taken almost four months making the entire milky way album for him and he hadn’t gotten me anything.
Noah waved at me as he stepped inside, Ernest clearly didn’t know about our fight or else he wouldn’t have jumped into Noah’s arms. Ernest moved and wiggled his tail for Noah to pet him. Dinner made me realize something I’ve never even thought before. Mom, dad, Grace, Noah and even Ernest were having a great time. It was only me that was mad with Noah, and frankly I didn’t know why I was mad at him. Isabella was just her friend and we were just friends too. I finished my dinner and decided to put my ego to the side.
“I got something for you,” I said standing and looking at Noah.
“Wait here,” I said walking to my room. I heard mom and dad joke about me making something for Noah.
On my way back I saw Noah leaning back on his chair trying to get a look at what I had done for him. The round photo album was painted by me and had what looked like a real planet on the front. Noah’s jaw dropped and before I could say anything he snatched away from my arms. He opened the album and his eyes went wide as he saw the first photo. He and Ernest playing as they usually did in my front yard.
“This is awesome!” he cried.
“Glad you liked it,” I said trying to hush Grace teasing me.
“I love it, this is great!” screamed Noah going through the entire album.
“I got you something too,” he said.
“I left it in my dad’s car.”
Noah shared the insides of the photo album with everyone and they all encouraged me to keep taking photos. I didn’t see what they saw in my photos but apparently I did a good job. Noah’s dad arrived at around ten for him and Noah r
an to the street to get my present. I loved getting presents even now that I was twelve I still got excited for getting something new. Noah came back inside and was holding my present behind his back.
“It’s nowhere as good as yours, but I hope you like it,” he said handing me what looked like a notebook. Noah ran back to his dad’s car before I could thank him.
“Bye!” he screamed from inside the car.
I hid the notebook underneath my shirt and headed for my room to get a better look at. It was in fact a notebook. The cover was filled with all different kind of small cameras and the paper inside was much thicker than any other notebook. I searched inside all the pages and found a letter in it. It had Noah’s handwriting and I opened it as fast as possible.
Hello Amber,
This will be your diary, the one you will write on when you’re mad at me and the one you will write on when you’re happy. You will always be my best friend and no one will be able to change that. I chose this notebook because it will allow you to glue photos and write as well. I hope my name can be on each and every page of this notebook.
Happy 12th Birthday!
Your best friend, Noah
I closed the notebook and saved the letter in my drawer. Noah was my best friend and now it was me who wanted more than just his friendship.
***
The first year of middle school went by fast. I had good grades but not any good as Noah’s. He and Isabella had won the first prize in the science fair and had been invited to the Science Fair State Championship where they won second place. That only encouraged them to try harder to win the state championship the following year. I stopped being jealous of Isabella at the start of seventh grade when Michael Pence asked her to be his girlfriend and she had accepted. It was now clear that she and Noah were only lab partners and they were some of the smartest in the entire school. By the end of the seventh grade my chemo was doing well according to Dr. Nahal, I had grown two inches of hair and I felt great. Noah got me hair styling gel for my hair as a little joke.
The summer before the start of our last year in middle school was when I realized Ernest wasn’t the same. He would struggle to jump into Noah’s arms when he arrived. He had a hard time keeping up with us when we took him on long walks.
“He’s getting old,” dad said at dinner.
“We’ve had him since you were four,” said mom. I called Ernest by his name and he sprinted into my arms.
“If he has a hard time keeping up with us this weekend I’m taking him to a vet first thing Monday morning,” I said.
It had been a few weeks since Noah had introduced his older brother Nick to my sister Grace and they were getting along very well. Grace needed someone like Nick, and according to Noah so did Nick.
“Before he met Grace he would hardly leave his room,” said Noah.
“He and Judy had dated for a while but broke almost a year and a half ago and he’s been different ever since,” Noah had told me.
“I’d never seen Grace this happy before,” I said.
“We should all go watch a movie this weekend, Nick can drive us,” he said.
On Saturday all four of us decided to skip the movies and take Noah downtown instead. He’d love to run freely and walk by my side through the city. I was glad Ernest was able to keep up but still thought about taking him to the vet to have a second opinion.
Me and Grace bit our nails as the vet instructed us to stay outside while he had a look at Ernest. Noah and Nick tried to calm us down telling us it would all be okay.
“What’s taking him so long?” complained Grace. The vet finally came out and so did Ernest, he ran out of the room into Noah’s arm.
“Are you two the owners?” he asked me and Grace.
“Yes,” answered Grace.
“Ernest seems okay to me, but I do want you to give him this, it will help me not be so tired all the time. His belly is quite swollen and his bluish gums tell me he might have suffered dehydration or can be the beginning of heart failure,” he explained.
“Heart failure?” asked Grace.
“Yes, and for that I would like for Ernest to start taking these,” he said handing us some medication.
“He won’t love it, but you will have to give it to him,” he added.
The vet was right. Ernest didn’t love his medication in fact he hated it. Grace had to open his mouth and I needled the medication inside his throat. He didn’t get used to it either; he coughed and refused to take it every single time. I didn’t see the medication helping at all. It actually seemed to me that it was making him more ill.
On Friday after school Noah and I rushed back home only to find an empty house. Mom and Ernest were gone. Noah tried calling mom but had no answer. I tried opening our front door but didn’t have any luck.
“Maybe she took Ernest to the vet again,” I said.
“Yeah, maybe,” said Noah. I bit my finger nails far enough for one of my fingers to bleed. I saw Noah scratch his head and walk in circles in the front lawn.
“There’s mom!” I screamed seeing she was walking alone.
“Where’s Ernest?” asked Noah. Mom wept several times before she could answer.
“I don’t know,” she finally said wiping the tears from her face.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” I asked.
“I left the living room window open for a few minutes and he was gone,” said mom crying again. I couldn’t believe it. At the time I wasn’t noticing how rude I was being to mom; I gave her a heavy look and turned around to look for my dog.
We searched for Ernest nearly an hour and couldn’t find him. I was so mad at mom I didn’t want to go back home.
“It’s getting late, we should go back home,” said Noah. Ernest was out there somewhere, and back home I decided that I would hang fliers with Ernest’s photo and I wouldn’t stop until I found him. I finished printing the fliers late at night and set my alarm clock early in the morning to start looking for him.
The alarm sounded six hours later next to me; Grace was already up and was waiting on me to have breakfast so both of us could begin hanging banners. We ate as fast as we could and got the tape and banners ready. Grace went into mom and dad’s room to tell them we were leaving but before she came back there was a big hard knock at our door. It was Noah. Behind him was Nick. Noah’s hands were tied behind his back and neither of them said a word.
“Are you two here to help?” I asked. But before Noah could say anything I heard that little bark.
“Ernest!” I screamed. Noah smiled and moved out the way for me to see Ernest.
“Where’d you find him?” I asked petting him as much as possible.
“Underneath the slide in the park,” answered Nick. Grace sprinted out and hugged and kissed Ernest as much as I did.
“Thank you, thank you,” said Grace still holding Ernest. Ernest seemed hungry so we fed him as much as possible. We talked for a while until Ernest found a nice cool shade and fell asleep in our front yard.
“Wonder why he would leave,” said Nick.
“Yeah he’d never done that before,” said Grace.
We kept Ernest on his medication which helped for the next two weeks, but three days before the start of school he wouldn’t want to leave my room. He stayed in my room and waited for me to take him out after school. He hardly left our house and when he did his tail would hang low in between his legs.
On the first week of school things only got worse, Ernest had a hard time standing up and I had been told I would have to take him to the vet on Sunday. I was afraid of losing him, afraid of losing my best friend. I kissed Ernest goodnight and prayed for him to get better.
Chapter Twenty
Noah: There’s one way for you to get a girl to hate you instantly and sadly I learned it the hard way. I called Amber by Isabella’s name not once but twice. I felt stupid. I was stupid according to Nick who said I would be lucky if Amber ever spoke to me again. It was the hardest two weeks ever, I had to
walk several days by self to school and dad picked me up afterwards.
“Where’s your friend Amber?” he asked several times.
“She has a doctor’s appointment,” I’d lie. I was thinking a lot about our twelfth birthday and would I would get Amber but by her not talking to me I doubted of her even receiving it. When the day finally came I received a call from Amber’s. It was Mrs. Sanders inviting me over for dinner.
“I’ll be there around eight,” I said. I had bought Amber a diary where she would be able to write and had found the perfect one with blank pages and the cover filled with cameras. It wasn’t the best of gifts but I’d know she’d like it.
Dad dropped me off and I couldn’t feel more awkward. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders greeted me inside and so did Grace. Ernest jumped from the highest couch into my arms, he licked and bite my face and forced me to ground to play with him. Mrs. Sanders was a great cook; every time I sat at their table my palate thanked me. We had something I’ve never had before but it sure tasted great. We were all having a good time except for Amber who had barely touched her plate. She didn’t talk or look at any at us, I was getting ready to call dad to pick me up knowing it was more uncomfortable for Amber than it was to me. But before I could stand up to call dad Amber stood up.
“I got something for you,” she said.
“Wait here,” she said walking away. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders looked at me with confused eyes, but not Grace, she had a slight smile on her face and she enjoyed the fact of me being nervous. I leaned back to try to get a look at Amber. I was speechless. She held the most detailed planet painting I’d ever seen. I took it away from her to get a closer look. I still didn’t if it was mine but it looked great. Once in my hands I noticed the planet painting was thick and had more to it. I opened it and saw a photo of me and Ernest on the first page. It was a planet photo album!
“This is awesome!” I cried looking at the entire album
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