Chapter Forty-Seven
Maya Hart

*Start playing "Live Like We're Dying" by Kris Allen. Lyric vid above*

"Beep, beep, beep!" The sound of the alarm clock went, waking Riley and I up from our slumber.

My eyes slowly fluttered open. Everything was pitch black, making it so that I could hardly see. The only thing that laminated the room was the digital clock of course. Yawning and stretching, I slowly sat up in bed. I felt my way for the edge of the bed and swung my feet over it. I pushed myself off of the bed and through the darkness, attempted to make my way towards a light switch. "THUD!!!" was the next thing that Riley and I heard. I was now lying on the cold, hard ground. I felt my way in the darkness to find that it was a suitcase that I had tripped over-- and it was my suitcase too.

Sometimes we fall down and can't get back up

"Are you ok, Peaches?" Riley asked me, stifling a giggle.

"I'm fine, Riles," I answered as I carefully stood back up, "I'm tough."

We're hiding behind skin that's too tough

Riley just laughed at me. "Wow, Maya, and I thought that I was klutzy!"

"That's because you are."

"Well, now we can be klutzes together!"

"Whup-tee-doo!"

Riley and I just laughed.

"Anyways, Maya, are you ready for our big day?" Riley questioned.

It was now around 6:00 in the morning on Sunday, May 8th. Today was our first full day in the UK. We are currently in the city of London. At 12:00, we are going to go skydiving. However, we have to be at the North London Skydiving Centre by 8:00 for four hours of lessons. Again, it is just going to be Riley and I who are doing this. Farkle was the first one to chicken out and after explaining the dangers of skydiving, Lucas and Zay soon chickened out too. Mr. Matthews and Mrs. Matthews are also too afraid to do it and, because he is young, will not allow Auggie to do it, no matter how many times he begs them to let him do it with us.

I laughed nervously. "Of course I am! why wouldn't I be?"

"Uh, because we're jumping out of a plane in like what? About 13,000 feet in the air? That's pretty scary..."

"A-Are you scared?"

"No, why are you?"

I gulped. "No."

"If you're not scared, then neither am I."

I gulped once more. "G-good..."

I took a little nibble of my blueberry breakfast bar before putting it back down on the table. You see, Riley and I knew that we weren't going to have enough time to go downstairs to get breakfast this morning, so we bought a dozen breakfast bars at the gift shop last night. I sighed. I knew I was hungry, but for some reason, I just couldn't eat...

Our hearts are hungry for a food that won't come
And we could make a feast from these crumbs

"Maya what's wrong?" Riley, who was sitting across the kitchen table, asked me.

"Nothing's wrong, Riley," I lied.

Alright, so perhaps I lied before too. Maybe I am a little scared to do this whole skydiving thing...

"But you're playing with your food," Riley mentioned as she pointed towards my barely-eaten breakfast bar.

"I'm just not hungry, that's all."

Riley raised an eyebrow, obviously not believing me. "You sure that's all?"

"Mmmmhhhhmmmm...," I replied as I nodded my head.

Riley shrugged. "Well, alrighty then."

I was nonchalantly brushing my teeth when I looked at my own reflection in the mirror, piercing-blue eyes staring back at me.

Yeah gotta start

"Do I really want to go skydiving?" I thought to myself.

Looking at the hands of the time we've been given here

"13,000 feet is really high..."

This is all we got then we gotta start thinkin' it

"Knock, knock, knock!" The sound of Riley rapping her knuckles against the white bathroom door went.

I took my toothbrush out of my mouth. "Come in, Riley!"

'Every second counts on a clock that's tickin'

"Maya, there's something that I have to tell you..." Riley said quietly as she stepped into the bathroom.

My eyes widened with concern. "What is it, Honey?"

Gotta live like we're dying oh

Instead of answering me, Riley just pulled her shirt up, only revealing her stomach. I gasped. Right next to her belly button was another large, brown mark.

We only got 86 400 seconds in a day

"I'm getting sicker, Maya..." Riley sighed, pulling her shirt back down, "What if I don't have much longer?"

I put my non-toothpaste-covered hand under Riley's chin. "You'll make it through this."

To turn it all around or to throw it all away

"But what if, Maya? What if?"

Gotta tell 'em that we love 'em while we got the chance to say,

I shook my head. "You'll make it through this. I believe in you."

Gotta live like we're dying oh

"Girls, I don't think that you're going to be able to go skydiving today," our skydiving instructor told us as we were already up in the sky, on the small skydiving airplane.

"Why not?" Riley asked, confused.

"Because we're falling out of the sky."

I looked out the window to see that the left wing of the plane was on fire. Riley and I immediately embraced each other in a tight hug. The whole plane jolted, causing Riley, the instruction and I to fall the ground. All of the lights in the plane suddenly went out.

I let out a scream, waking myself out of my horrific daydream. I looked at myself in the mirror of the dresser where I had just been picking out my clothes. I looked terrified.

Well if your plane fell out of the skies
Who would you call with your last goodbye

Suddenly, my bedroom door swung right open. A deeply worried Riley stood in the doorway.

"MAYA, WHAT'S WRONG?!?!" Riley practically screamed at me.

"Thought I saw a spider," I lied.

Riley's eyes suddenly widened. She let out a terrified shriek. "SPIDER?!?! WHERE?!?!"

I just laughed at my girlfriend. "Relax, Riley! It turned out to be just a piece of fuzz!"

Riley put her hand on her chest and took a deep breath. "Oh, Maya, you almost scared me to death!"

I just laughed.

"Well anyways, I better go get changed out of my pajamas since it's like 6:30 now," Riley announced as she started to back out of the room.

Yeah we gotta start lookin' at the hands of the time we've been given here

"Yeah, I need to start getting dressed too," I added.

This all we got then we gotta start thinkin' it

"Ok," Riley replied as she started to slowly close the door.

Every second counts on a clock that's tickin'

Just as Riley was about to close the door all the way, she opened it about eight inches and stuck her head in the doorway.

Gotta live like we're dying oh

"Oh, and by the way... You sure nothing's wrong?"

We only got 86 400 seconds in a day

I nodded my head. "I'm sure."

To turn it all around or to throw it all away

"Ok, because if you're scared to do this or something, it's ok."

Gotta tell 'em that we love 'em while we got the chance to say,

I just smiled. "I'm not scared."

Riley smiled back at me as she began to close the door again. "Alright, good."

Gotta live like we're dying

"SNAP!"

"MAYA, MY STRING BROKE!!!" Riley shouted, sounding quite terrified.

Like we're dying oh

Riley and I were plummeting through the air, 5,000 feet away from hitting the ground.

"WHAT?!?!" I practically screamed.

Like we're dying

I automatically grabbed onto Riley's hand.

"It's ok, I got you," I tried to comfort her.

Like we're dying oh

I automatically pulled the string on the side of my parachute.

"SNAP!!!"

Like we're dying

I let out another scream, waking myself out of another terrifying daydream. I now stood in front of the mirror, yet this time, I was brushing my hair. I looked frightened.

We only got 86 400 seconds in a day

Suddenly, my door was wide open again. Riley came racing into the room.

To turn it all around or to throw it all away

Riley threw her arms around me, giving me a bear hug.

Gotta tell 'em that we love 'em while we got the chance to say,

"Please tell me what's wrong, Peaches!" She pleaded.

Gotta live like we're dying oh

"I-I'm scared, R-Riles...," I managed to stutter out, "I-Is th-that b-bad?"

You never know a good thing until it's gone

"Of course not! You know how many times I've been scared during this trip? A lot."

You never see a crash until it's head on

"I know how many times you were scared, Riles," I replied, "I never forced you to do any of that, so you were being very brave."

Why we think we're right when we're dead wrong,

"And what made me so brave was you. You reminded me that nothing was going to go wrong and if something did, I'd have you at my side. You reminded me of how I actually really wanted to do those things and how I had nothing to fear."

You never know a good thing 'til it's gone

"You girls ready?" Our skydiving instructor asked us.

He had been teaching us how to skydive for the past four hours. It was now time to do the real thing.

Yeah we gotta start lookin' at the hands of the time we've been given here

"Yep!" Riley and I replied excitedly.

I did decide to go skydiving after all after what Riley told me. It reminded me of how much we need each other and how much she actually wants to do this. She has been brave for me so many times; it was now my time to be brave for her.

This all we got and we gotta start thinkin' it

The instructor smiled at us.

"Alright follow me," he said as we started to board the plane.

Every second counts on a clock that's tickin'

Before we knew it, we were 13,000 feet in the air. The door of the plane was wide open. We had a very nice view of London. Riley and I had all of the equipment on that we needed in order for this to be successful.

Gotta live like we're dying oh

"Ready, Peaches?" Riley asked me, taking my hand.

"As always, my princess," I beamed.

And so we jumped.

We only got 86 400 seconds in a day

The feeling that I got as we fell was amazing.

To turn it all around or to throw it all away

I kind of got a similar feeling as to what I felt when we were bungee jumping.

Gotta tell 'em that we love 'em while we got the chance to say,

Except for this feeling was ten times better.

Gotta live like we're dying

As we plummeted through the sky, and as our hair danced in the wind, I felt something great.

Like we're dying oh

I could feel all of my fears flying away.

Like we're dying

Skydiving no longer seemed scary; it was now really fun.

Like we're dying oh

I did not feel like we were going to die; I felt brave.

Like we're dying

"Woo hoo!" I heard Riley shout.

I looked at my beautiful girlfriend to see her smiling.

We only got 86 400 seconds in a day

I smiled back at her.

"Woo hoo!" I began to cheer with Riley, "This is so much fun!"

To turn it all around or to throw it all away

"I know, Peaches, I know!" Riley agreed.

Pretty soon, it was time for us to pull the strings on our parachutes. Colors of yellow, blue, green, red, orange, and purple jumped into the air when we did. We suddenly fell much slower.

Gotta tell 'em that we love 'em while we got the chance to say,

I pulled Riley closer and gave her a passionate kiss.

"What was that for?" She giggled, blushing.

"For helping me build up the courage to do this."

Gotta live like we're dying oh

A/N: Hey, guys! Long time no see! Sorry for taking so long to update! I really wanted to update this weekend, but never got the chance. I mean, I did get the chance to write this chapter yesterday, but not made the song edit for it. Anyways, you're probably wondering what has happened to me these past few weeks, so here's a quick little summary of what has happened to me!(Knowing me, it will probably end up really long, but oh well 😂)

1. One of the friends that I have been trying to distance myself from asked me if I wanted to sit with her and the other friend I have been trying to distance myself from. Let's call these 2 people M and S. My best friends, J and A, had left because in my new school, if you have science class before or after lunch(our schedule changes every day, so we don't always have science before or after lunch) you either have to stay an extra 15 minutes, or leave an extra 15 minutes. My one new friend, C, was elsewhere so I was just happily chatting with some of my new friends, K and G. And so out of the blue, M comes up to me and says, "Creativity77, do you want to sit with us?" She really put me on the spot here. I really didn't want to sit with them and would rather sit with my new friends, although I had probably just met them a week or so ago at the time. And so not knowing what else to say, I said with a bit of a stutter, "I-I'm sitting here. Do you want to sit with us?" And I know you're probably thinking, "Creativity77, if you want to distance yourself from them, then why are you asking them to sit with you?" Because deep down, I still care and want to continue to be the nice person that I am. And so M just said, "Let me go ask S." Since when did she need permission from her? Like, are they really that attached. But what made her ask me that though? Did she feel bad for me because J and A left and thought I had no one to sit with? Like, um, did you like not see me talking to K and G about Suicide Squad and scary movies? (Weird that I remember the convo I had with them that day, huh?) But I do feel like that was nice of her to do that, but I kind of feel like it was out of pity. Like, M, these people are my buddies now, it's ok, I ain't lonely.
2. M and S asked me why I haven't been hanging out with them, talking to them, or texting them as much. It's no surprise(It comes as no surprise that I won't be here tomorrow... I am willing to give a shoutout to anyone who can tell me what song that's from!😂) that these two have figured out that I'm trying to distance myself. I mean, I guess I made it kind of obvious, but I'm still friendly with them. Like S's locker is near mine and she'll say hi to me, so of course I say hi back. And so I said, "Well, you guys know where we sit. We sit in the gym and you're welcome to sit with us anytime you'd like. And I've been SnapChatting you guys."(Just got SnapChat a month ago, and despite how much I despised it before, I actually kind of like it. Huh.) But yeah, I do have streaks with them because I do still want to remain friendly with them. And they asked me this quite a few times, especially S. My answers were pretty much the same every time they asked me.
3. I have been making even more friends. There's this person in my computer class that likes to talk to me, so of course I talk to them back. We added each other on SnapChat and started a streak. They will occasionally stop at my locker to say hi to me, and I will occasionally say hi to me. S likes to make fun of me(not in a mean way, but I do find it annoying) for it and keeps on telling me how she thinks the person likes me and asked me if I like them. Honestly, I think this person is funny and good looking, but I'm not crushing on them yet. I feel like I don't know them good enough yet to like them like that yet. Also, there's this person that they keep on pairing me up with so I'll occasionally say talk to them when I see them at school or at crew. The other day, we had to do races on the ergs and we were on the same team and we were both cheering each other on. Honestly, I don't mind that they keep on putting me with her because the person is a good rower and they seem nice. Also, there's this one girl that I have talked to in my gym class a few times. And then there's my new friends, K,C, and G. G is also in my computer class, so if we have time at the end of class, so I'll talk to her. S is in that class too, so as talkative as she is, I usually end up getting stuck talking to her. And then there's a few people from crew who have sat with or hung out with my friends and me a few times.
4. I really like my new friends! Honestly, I didn't think that I was going to make so many new ones so quick that are so nice! I went to a football game with them a little more than a week ago for our school and since J, A, K, and K's friend from her old school, J2, don't really like football(sorry if you like the sport, I've never been a fan), we just left in the middle of the 3rd quarter to go up on the boardwalk! It was so much fun, I really want to do it with them again! We went to Starbucks and we all decided to give them different names to write on our cups, it was so funny. 😂 And since I take really long when it comes to drinking/eating treats like that, the sugar didn't hit me until I was in J's mom's car with her, her mom, her sister, and A. K made a weird noise while we were on the boardwalk and started saying how her mom gets mad at her for making weird noises and hyper me started to remember that in the car and thought that it would be a good idea to share with J and A all of the weird noises that I can make. Before I even made any noises, I said, "I can bark like a chihuahua." And everyone in the car started cracking up. They started laughing even more when I actually did it. And then I started meowing like a cat and then made this weird squeaking noise that I can do. J was like, "Creativity77, please don't tell your mom that we gave you Starbucks!" And so I was like, "I won't!" And then I remembered that I had already texted my mom, saying that we got Starbucks when she texted me to check in on me, so I just started laughing and was like, "Oops, I forgot I already did!" Honestly, I thought I asked for decaf, but I don't think it was. 😂😂😂 They either accidentally gave me regular or I forgot to ask and thought I did. Either way, it was all good because I actually ended up falling asleep, but it kind of lingered into the next morning and I wasn't able to sit still when I did my homework. And another funny thing that happened was that they had this work truck up on there and there was this dude who was hanging on the side of it, yelling, "BEEP, BEEP! MOVE OUT OF THE WAY, BEEP, BEEP! WATCH OUT FOR THE TRUCK, BEEP, BEEP!" And I kid you not, he actually yelled, "BEEP, BEEP!" And so my friends and I started laughing and I was just like, "When your horn is broken." And K was just like, "Ha, that's me."I  wanted to do go on the boardwalk with my friends again this weekend, but the weather was crummy. Maybe I'll ask them to do it this weekend, but idk if I have anything to do yet. But K's friend is really nice, I even started a streak with her on SnapChat! (I also started a streak with K, J, and A) I really hope that I get to see her again! And my new friends really make me feel included. Like when my best friends, J and A, leave for science, they stay with me. One day at crew, we were all doing exercises and I was doing really bad at all of them and C and K were cheering me on. And a few weeks ago, we had this carnival after school where we went in the cafeteria and looked at all of the stand that they had for the clubs and after we got out much earlier than expected, so none of our parents were there yet. K had announced that her mom was there to pick her up, but didn't leave right away. Then A and J left because their rides were there. And K stayed with me a few minutes after that even though her mom was already there, which I thought was really nice of her. She probably would have stayed with me until my mom told me that she was here, but didn't want to keep her mom waiting. I left like 2 minutes after that and by the time I got outside, my mom pulled up, so I wasn't by myself for that long. And one day last week when J and A had lab, I overheard K and one of our crew friends saying to each other how they wanted to go to the schools store. They started to get up and since C had left for a short moment, I didn't have anyone else to sit with. I started to feel real left out. 🙁 Just as I was about to ask if I could go with them just so I had someone to be with, K turned around and asked me if I wanted to go with them. My mood changed from sad to happy like that. 😀 And of course I said "yes".

Anyways, so that's basically what has happened over these past few weeks that I wanted to share with you guys! Well, have a nice day/night, everyone! 😃😃😃

-C77