My Story; Chapter One-The Principal's Office

January 15th, 2008.

It was a Tuesday.

And a day that's etched into the back of my mind forever.

It started off normal. Well, I say that, but really it wasn't. My parents were going through a bitter divorce and my mom and brothers and I were moving to Canada in a few months for her job. Add on the raging hormones of a middle school girl, I'd swear to you that my life was everything but normal.

Anyways, I had went to school in a great mood trying to savor every last minute with my friends until I moved. Of course I had my ever-present aching headache in the back of my head, but I tried my best to ignore it. Also, I was counting down the days till my mom got home from her trip to hopefully find us a house up north. My grandma was watching us for the week, but she'd be back friday. I couldn't remember if it was her weekend or my dad's. Secretly, I hoped it was neither. I couldn't stand being around either of them. I just wanted to be with my friends.

First was English class. My favorite. I was behind on my work because I had missed the day before. I always hated missing class. It was mortifying. I was so embarrassed because I heard one of my classmates say under her breath "She always gets pulled out. How come they're always for her (talking about the passes we'd receive if a parent was there to come get you). It was true though, recently I had been missing a lot of class.

I missed the day before because I had to get an MRI with contrast, which basically means they had to give me an IV to inject ink into me to see my brain better. I had to spend 40 minutes with my head attached to a cage, not being able to move, while hearing the loudest banging noise I'd ever heard.  Honestly, I would've rather been in English class.

I wasn't really sure why I had to get an MRI anyway. I mean, I had just gotten one a few weeks ago. Why on earth do they need another one? I remember I was annoyed.
  "they're just headaches, jeez."
 I thought my mom and doctor were overreacting. Oh, how I thought I knew it all.

Nevertheless, I began my makeup work from the day before. I hated it. I hated feeling like I was behind everyone else, and that I had to catch up just to understand.

English class flew by, and fortunately for me, so did math class.

Reading was next, then lunch, which meant I was closer to being able to talk with my friends which is all I seemed to live for back then.

I sat at my desk watching the clock tick.
Only 48 more minutes until lunch. I can do this.  47... 46....

While I was watching the paint chip off the wall, I heard our classroom door open, and instinctively, all of our focus turned to it.

In walked our school principal. Odd.

I had never seen him before. He's always in his office.

He whispered something into my teachers ear.
That's when both of them turned towards me.

My face fell.

Oh crap, it's about me. 

"Miss Amber H, I need to see you in my office," the principal said sternly.

I stumbled to my feet, my face was beat red. My classmates had fell silent, and all their eyes were on me.

One kid said "oooooh What'd you do now, Amber!?!?"

I ignored it, and walked out the door despite my legs feeling like jello.

The principal wouldn't look me in the eye. I remember that.

But he asked me how my day was.
I kinda chuckled at the question seeing that my principal was escorting me to his office. So I decided to say "Depends on what you're about to tell me" sarcastically.
and he said nothing.
  Double crap. It's bad. 

During the remainder of our short walk, I tried to recall what I could've possibly done to go to the principal's office. I was a good kid, and had never even had a detention. This stumped me. I had no clue.

He opened his door to his office and I saw my grandmother sitting in a chair. Her face was grim.
My eyes searched the room and saw my mother sitting next to her.

Oh God. She isn't supposed to be back until Friday!

Then I noticed she was sobbing. I looked back at my grandmother and then to the principal, but he was no longer in the room.

I was confused. I asked quietly "what's going on?"

No one said anything.

"MOM, what's wrong!?!??!"

She muttered beneath her tears,

"Amber, Sit down. I need to tell you something."

"TELL ME!" I screamed.

"Amber," she said softly,

"you have a brain tumor"

and I didn't hear anything else she said after that.
I fell to my knees as I felt my world come crashing down around me.

*Stay tuned for chapter two!*