"Hey! If it was so simple, I could make it for myself!" Making spaghetti was hard! You had to put the noodles in the water and wait until they were cooked just right and you had to open the big old jar of spaghetti sauce. And those things were hard to open! So if it was so easy, Kelsey could have made herself spaghetti. And that was that. It wasn't that long before they got to the house and she was being lifted off Bobby's shoulders and being put down. She wasn't that heavy, though.
Once the door was open, Kelsey could smell chocolate chip cookies. She instantly grinned before taking off her shoes and setting them neatly side by side on the floor. Then, she followed Bobby down the hall toward the kitchen. "Hi, Mrs. Caldwell!" she said with a smile and wave, just as Bobby tried to steal a cookie. A fit of giggles came from her when he got smacked on the hand with a spatula. That was what he got for trying to eat cookies before dinner!
~ ~ ~
Yes, that had been a fun time. Mouse stopped fiddling with the flowers in her hands, having finished her little crown. She wasn't going to wear it this time, though. Eight years old had passed awhile ago. It had been some time since then. And during that time, she'd gotten her diagnosis for leukemia. That wasn't a very pleasant memory, but it was one that was hard to ignore when it popped into her mind. She remembered that day, how normal it had started and then how strangely it had continued. Looking back down at her hands, she saw the little bruise-like spots that had been on her hands that day. The petichae...
~ ~ ~
It had been about a week since the Greenes had received their daughter's diagnosis. Kelsey had been asleep for a lot of that time, having been given sedatives to keep her from feeling the pain. But today, she was wide awake...and feeling genuinely awful. Two days prior the doctors had started her chemotherapy and medicine regimen. She'd been warned of side effects of pain and nausea along with the flu-like symptoms she was already experiencing. It was awful, to say the least. Kelsey laid there in bed, her stomach unsettled and her head pounding. She'd just taken her morning round of medicines and believe it or not, her current condition was better than the one she'd been in when she woke up.
Her eyes were closed when the nurse came in to check her charts, but when the older woman spoke she opened them to look at her. "Hello, Kelsey. You're looking better," she said. Kelsey grumbled a little bit. "Barely..." She tried to sit up some in bed in order to have an actual conversation as the nurse continued. "You have some visitors, today. The Caldwells have come to see you. Your parents are walking them up right now." Kelsey brightened at that, though it wasn't easy to tell from her outward appearance. "Just relax. They'll be up in a bit, alright?" With that, the nurse wrote down the rest of what she needed to write and left the room, leaving the door open for the coming visitors.
She'd get to see Bobby. Kelsey would get to see Bobby and his brother. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell. It would be so nice. She coughed some as she waited, hoping that she didn't look too horrible. That was beyond hope, though. What with how pale she was looking and the little bruises on her skin from the needles. Still, she tried her best to smile when everyone came in. "Hey, honey. Look who's here to see you..." her mother said when she came in the door. Trying to keep up the smile and not seem too weak, Kelsey chuckled some. "Hi, everybody."