“Brianne, come on you’re going to be late for school!”

I rolled my eyes, stuffing two discs cleanly into my backpack before standing up from my bedroom floor.  I checked my hair quickly before sighing.  Today was the day.  Presentations were due in history class.  Today I would stick in the disc that held the key to Dannon's life—well, excluding the fact that he had cancer. Everyone would see what a goofball he was outside of school. Not like he wasn't a goofball inside school, but whatever.

It'd been a week since the visit where Dannon and I drew pictures of Garrett. Dannon was still in the hospital. He gave me his disc, making me promise him to tell him what I thought of it the next time I visited—which would be tomorrow. Tomorrow was Dannon's birthday after all. Poor guy was going to have to spend it inside the hospital. That sucked, it really did.

“Calm the hormones, I’m coming!” I called, grabbing my bag and hurrying down the stairs, toward the kitchen.  My family was gathered around the kitchen table, munching on their breakfasts.  Okay.  So my mom was hurrying me while she was sitting there eating food?  That made so much sense.

“Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean the hormones are to blame for everything,” my mom snapped, rolling her eyes.  “Gosh, you guys act like I’m possessed by the thing.”

“You just called your kid a thing,” I pointed out, grabbing a poptart from the cupboard.  I stuffed one into my mouth, quickly chewing and swallowing it.  I wasn’t really hungry, but I needed something to hold myself over until lunch.

My mom scowled at me.  “Whatever!” she exclaimed, practically throwing her arms into the air. 

Yep.  The hormones hadn’t taken over her at all.

A loud beep cut into the brief silence, almost making me jump.  I tossed my leftover poptart to Garrett, who caught it smoothly and plopped it into his mouth.  I wondered how he could eat everything and still manage to be fit.  I didn’t understand.  At all.

I tossed my bag onto my back before hurrying out the door.  Kyla was waiting for me in the driveway.  She waved as I padded down the walkway, making my way toward her.  She looked worn out.  Who could blame her?  The crew was becoming frantic, demanding to know what was going on with Dannon.  Telling them that he was sick at home wasn’t going to last much longer.  And, on top of that, Kyla had been forced to keep this secret from Oliver, the one guy that she’d been with for more than two weeks.  This was probably killing her inside.

“Hey,” I greeted as I hopped into the passenger seat.

“Heya.”  Kyla smiled briefly.  “You ready for your presentation today?”

I pursed my lips, shaking my head.  “No, not at all.  But at least Shelley and Garner are in there with me.  And I have two projects to present since Dannon didn’t have the decency to show up.”

Kyla laughed, shaking her head.  “How dare he?”

I sighed dramatically.  “I know right?”

The conversation grew steadily lighter as the car ride continued.  We talked about how we were going to bring balloons to Dannon’s hospital room and force him to watch my presentation.  I didn’t really want to since there was this part at the end that would embarrass me to have him and Kyla watch.  I was so lucky that I finished last minute or else my mom would have watched it.  Now that I thought about it, why did I even put it in?  It was so unlike me, really.

“Oooh and we should bring him cake and ice cream!” Kyla called out.

I nodded.  “What kind of cake and ice cream?”

Kyla thought this over for a few moments before saying, “Cookies and cream, duh.  And for cake we should totally go red velvet.”

Cookies and cream with red velvet cake.  Interesting combo.

“Okay, now we’re going to have to find a way to get the cake and ice cream,” I pointed out.  I hoped she had a brilliant plan for that one.  I was broke.  Well, my mom would probably pay for it, but I doubted she would buy a red velvet cake and have the cake lady at the store write, “Happy Birthday Dannon!” on it.  She would say that it cost too much and that we could frost it ourselves.  And then she would ruin the cake with her lack of skill.

I could not let that happen.  For the sake of my sanity, I could  not let that happen.

“My mom will buy it,” Kyla said with a dismissive wave of the hand.  “She knows how important Dannon is to us.”

Kyla’s mom had been filled in with everything that had been going on lately in our lives.  She’d practically tackled me when she found out that Dannon and I were dating.  Everyone seemed to have that reaction.  I didn’t understand why.  It was like they thought I was going to die alone.  Well, they probably did.  How sad.

“True.”  I nodded.  “Okay then.”

We pulled into the school and stepped out.  I sighed deeply as Shelley ran toward us.  This was a normal thing.  She would run to us and demand to know if Dannon would be returning today.  Every time we would tell her that he wasn’t coming back, and her face would drop.  You could tell how worried the girl was.  I felt guilty for not telling her—or everyone else for that matter—about what was really going on.  I felt like a shitty friend.  But I promised Dannon that I wouldn’t.

“Is he coming back today?” Shelley demanded as she reached us.  She put her hands on her hips, her eyes expectant.  That’s what killed me.  Every day she seemed to truly think that he was coming back that day.  Her hope wasn’t diminishing at all.  Though, wouldn’t it kill more to see her hope fading?

“No,” I said, shaking my head.  “Sorry, Shelley.”

Shelley sighed, bringing a hand through her hair.  “That must be one killer illness he has going on there.  Can’t possibly just be the flu.”

She eyed me suspiciously, waiting for me to tell her just what the sickness he had.  I shrugged.  “He says he’s sorry that he can’t come back yet.”

Shelley groaned.  “How come he doesn’t tell us?  I mean, it’s reassuring that you know he’s fine, but still. . . .”

I knew exactly what she meant.  “I know what you mean,” I muttered.  I was tempted to call him and have him reassure that he was going to be fine, but then the cover-up of him being sick would fall.  He sounded perfectly fine.  And, besides.  He was probably sleeping.

Shelley nodded before smiling.  The awkward situation was over.  For now.  “So, are you ready for your super-duper amazing presentation during history today?”  She grinned.  “At least you don’t have to watch one on yourself today.”

I laughed.  “Yeah I do.  Dannon forced me to take his disc to present it.  He said that it was important that he got to present today.”  I shrugged.  “Why he feels that it’s important for him to present today and not on Tuesday, I will never know.”

Shelley smiled brightly.  “Damn, he really loves you.  I want a love like that.”  She sighed mournfully.  “But, alas, I’m going to die alone with a gazillion cats.”

“Not a gazillion,” Kyla reassured with a smile.  “Maybe a billion.”

Shelley whacked Kyla playfully on the shoulder.  “Thank you for your reassurance, Kyla,” she teased, shaking her head.

Kyla smiled.  “No probs!”

We all ventured toward the crew.  They were gathered in a circle in front of the doors like they usually were.  All the fangirls watched with wide, expectant eyes as the three of us walked past them.  They too had become frantic.  You know how many people had come up to me, begging for me to tell Dannon that they missed him and for him to get better soon?  A lot.  It was getting rather tiresome.

“Hey, Brianne?”

I turned, bracing myself.  It was a freshman girl with her hair tied into two ponytails.  She could really pull the look off.  I never could, much to my dismay.  I’ve always wanted to be able to pull my hair back like that and not look like an idiot.  Maybe I could have Kyla and Shelley try it on me sometime.  They were experts when it came to hair.

“Yes?” I asked, smiling kindly.  She seemed like a nice enough person.  Not like one of those people who would kill in order to be the one that Dannon wanted.

“Can you give this to Dannon?” she asked softly, holding out a folded piece of paper.  She was nervous, like she feared that I was going to refuse her request.  See what I mean?  Everyone was worried about him.  “It’s a get-well card from some of my friends and me.”  She smiled sheepishly.

I held my hand out, and the girl placed the car within my hand.  “Sure.”  I smiled back at her.

The girl’s smile grew.  “Thanks, Brianne!”  She looked like she could hug me.  “Tell Dannon to get better soon, yeah?”

I nodded and the girl turned and jogged back to her small group of friends.  I sighed, gingerly putting the get-well card into my bag.  By the end of the day I was probably going to have ten more to give to him.  I wondered what was going to happen if Dannon didn’t show up for two more weeks.  The fangirls were going to die.  Poor Dannon was accidentally murdering the girls in the school.

“You’re getting good at this,” Kyla complimented as we returned to walking toward the rest of the crew.  “There wasn’t a single sound of annoyance in your voice.”

I snorted.  “I’ve been practicing in front of my mirror for hours on end.”

Kyla laughed.  “Sarcasm not appreciated!”

“Whether it’s appreciated or not, you’re still getting it.”

We finally reached the crew and began chatting as we normally did.  I joined in occasionally, but for the most part I stayed silent.  I was never one to speak animatedly around them.  I was more of a watcher, amused by their banters and ridiculous conversations.  At this moment, for example, Shelley was arguing with Garner about whether orange was a disgraceful color or not.  In my opinion it was, but I wasn’t going to get involved.

I laughed along with everyone else as Shelley and Garner continued to scream at each other, their voices escalating at a startlingly fast rate.  I sighed contently, my eyes reaching for the sky.

Let the day begin.

| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |

I stepped into history, dumping my bag carelessly onto the floor beside my desk.  It was time for presentations.  Saying that I was nervous was a complete understatement.  Miss Tanta told us that she had a specific order to how presentations were going.  And, if Dannon was put too far on the list, I was going to have to request that he could go today.  And she still scared me.

“Hello, class,” she greeted as the bell rang.  “Are you ready for presentations?”

People mumbled in response.  Nobody was looking forward to today.  Not only because we had to get up and present, but also because the volunteers weren’t allowed to volunteer.  That meant that the lazy people who relied on the volunteers to waste time were screwed.  I would say that I felt sympathy for them, but . . . I so didn’t.

“Okay, so for the order today we have Michelle and Dom, Kelley and Rachelle, and then Brianne and Dannon.”  She looked at Dannon’s empty seat.  “I’m guessing Dannon isn’t going to be presenting today?”

I flicked my hand into the air before I could stop myself.  Miss Tanta nodded in my direction, signaling that I was good to say what I had to say.  “Dannon gave me his presentation, and he wants to know if he can still show what he made.”

Miss Tanta paused for a moment, thinking it over.  For a short second I thought she was going to refuse my request.  But then she said, “That’s fine,” and I sagged in relief.

So Dannon was the finale.  Cool.

After Miss Tanta took attendance, the presentations began.  Michelle had created a slide show about Dom’s life.  There were basic things about his family members, his favorite things, and where he lived.  Then there was stuff about what his favorite memory was and what he saw himself doing in ten years.  It was a pretty good presentation as a whole.

Dom, on the other hand, had created a song.

It was the worst song ever created in history.

Ha!  Get it?  Created in history?  This is history class?  I know, I’m so punny.

“Michelle is a girl who liked to hurl in the tilt-a-whirl!” Dom belted out.

I sunk into my seat, wishing that this would just end.  I mean, poor Michelle was probably so embarrassed right now.  I glanced over at her and saw that she was rolling her eyes.  Obviously the two of them didn’t get along at all.  Dom probably did this just to piss her off.  Poor girl.

“That was . . . interesting,” Miss Tanta muttered as the song finally came to an end.  “Kelley, you’re up.”

Thank goodness that Kelley and Rachelle liked each other.  They were two normal presentations.  Kelley had created a collage on a huge poster of pictures with Rachelle and her family in them.  I really liked how the collage came out.  I wish I could do stuff like that. But I could never get the collage to look right.  That’s why I swore to never make one again.

“Brianne?”

I took a deep breath, standing up and making my way to the front of the room.  I handed the disc to Miss Tanta and leaned against the desk while she placed it into her laptop.  She pulled down the projector screen and gestured for someone to turn off the lights.

With another deep breath, I opened my mouth to speak.  “Okay, so I had Dannon.”  I glanced at Shelley.  She winked and gave me a thumb’s up.  “He’s not here today so he doesn’t have to deal with watching himself on the screen.  Poor him.”

I watched as a couple of my classmates laughed.  I smiled slightly before nodding to Miss Tanta.  Taking the hint, she pressed a button and the video began.

A Switchfoot song began playing as the introduction clip came on.  I sat down on a desk in the front row, deciding that I mine as well watch the project I made along with everyone else.  I was pretty proud of it, anyway.  I stayed up for hours the night before to make sure that it was perfect.  It probably wasn’t, but that was beside the point.  The point was that it was finished, and as I looked around, people looked pretty into it.

“Dannon, get out of the neighbor’s tree!”

I laughed along with the rest of the class as we watched Dannon climbing up the neighbor’s tree.  I remembered that day: how we’d gotten soaked after Dannon picked me up and put me into the shower.  The day that Garrett thought Dannon and I kissed when we hadn’t.

Good times, good times.

“This, everyone, is Dannon the Dufus.  He climbs up trees that do not belong to him and smiles while he does it.”

The clip changed to another time when Dannon and I had actually taken the project seriously.  It was a time where we talked about Dannon’s family—his mom and Tom.  We talked about what his greatest fears were (excluding the dying of cancer) and an insight on what he wanted to do when he was older.  Then, of course, it went back to us fooling around.  I had to keep a lot of those in.  They helped show who he was as a person.

Finally, the video came to a close and I popped onto the screen.  I watched as I set the camera onto my bureau and sat back onto my bed.  I had to specially clean my room for this moment in the video.  I wouldn’t have, but my mom forced me to.  “I don’t want your dump of a room being shown off to your classroom!” she’d shrieked.  “Clean it.  Now.”

So nice.

“Hey, everyone,” I said, smiling brightly.  “So that’s the story of Dannon.  Crazy, I know.”  I watched as I sighed deeply.  I tilted my head to the side.  I never noticed how alight my face looked when I was talking about him.  Gosh I was so corny.  “There are many things that I learned about Dannon while doing this project.  It helped me see that he is more than meets the eye.”

“Awwwww!” a few girls cooed.  I knew immediately that one of them was Shelley.  She really got into the whole “romance” thing.

“There’s still so much more to learn about him that hasn’t been shown yet.  But that’s the cool thing.  I get to continue learning about him as we go on in life.”  The me on the screen sighed.  “Gosh, I’m a sap.  Anyway, there’s one last thing I have to say.”

Everyone waited as I paused to collect my thoughts.  Outside of the screen I leaned forward, resting my chin on my hand.  I knew what was coming next, and I knew that Shelley was never going to let it go.  She was going to talk to the whole crew about it and then they were never going to look at me the same again.

“The other day I was thinking about one word that could describe Dannon as a whole.  There are a lot of words that could describe him.  Smile.  Laugh.  Stupid.  Idiot.  Crazy.  Funny.  But there was one that really stuck out to me.”  Camera me took a deep breath.  “If I had to describe Dannon in one word it would be love.  It’s what he’s filled with.  It’s what reflects in his eyes.  And, most importantly, it’s what he taught me to do.”

The girls went insane.  I turned as discreetly as I could and watched as the girls squealed, their hands covering their mouths.  Yep, I was never going to be looked at as a non-romantic ever again.  Whatever.  It’s what I really thought.

The ending credits came on and I stood up.  The class began clapping and complimenting my project.  They couldn’t wait to see how Dannon’s came out because apparently mine was amazing.  I simply took out the disc and handed Miss Tanta Dannon’s project.  She smiled at me, and for the first time, I didn’t see any strictness in her eyes.  She seemed happy.  Weird.

“Okay, I’m doing Dannon’s project too!” I exclaimed as Miss Tanta put in Dannon’s presentation.  “He decided not to show up to school today.”

My classmates laughed.  Wow, I was really good at these kinds of things.  Maybe it was because this wasn’t my presentation.  No pressure was needed anymore.

“So, I have no idea what’s on this,” I drawled.  “Hopefully you guys like it I guess.”

I trotted down the aisle, plopping into the empty seat next to Shelley.  She smiled brightly at me, mouthing, “That was so cute!”

I smiled slightly, shaking my head.  Here we go.

Shelley and I turned, our attention moving to the screen as Dannon appeared, sitting in his bedroom.  He must have taped this part a while ago with a different camera.  Or maybe I was out of the room.  I had no idea.  “Hey guys!” he called cheerfully, giving a small wave.  “So, I had the honor of hanging out with Brianne the past few months, and this is the video I made of her.”  He smiled.  “Enjoy the show.”

I bit my lip, smiling as my “happy song” came on.  I hadn’t even asked him to play this song on it!  It was barely mentioned while we worked on the project except for when the song came on the radio while we were working.  I didn’t even know that he knew the name of the song.

I watched along with everyone else as clips of me appeared on the screen.  Clips of me laughing and fooling around with Garrett, clips of me reading my book in the room.  Clips of me staring out of window at nothing.  There were also clips of me failing epically at every game known to man.  He really had to let everyone know about that, didn’t he?

Like me, he put up titles explaining the information about the past and futuristic stuff.  I found myself smiling and not being able to stop.  All these memories were things to cherish.  I was going to keep this disc forever.

At the end of the video, Dannon reappeared.  He was in the teen room of the hospital, though no one in the class seemed to notice.  He must have taped this when I accidentally left the camera there the other day.  “So that’s Brianne,” he said with a bright smile.  “She’s the most stubborn, most beautiful, most amazing girl that I’ve ever known.”  He paused.  “No, Brianne, I am not just saying that because I know you’re going to be watching this.”

Everyone, including me, laughed.  I felt a blush creeping into my cheeks.  Dammit.  Why did he have to go and say things like that?  I mean, they were sweet and everything, but I hated blushing.

“She’s not only amazing because she’s funny, loving, and the only girl that I can see myself with for eternity, but because she has done the toughest thing that someone at our school has ever had to do: keep a secret from the people she loves.”

I tensed.  What was he doing?

I glanced at Shelley and saw her eyes widen.  She glanced at me questioningly.  I shook my head, turning back to face the screen.

“I know you’re probably wondering what that secret is.  It’s not about her.  She kept this secret for me because I asked her to.” Dannon sighed, looking up at the ceiling.  “And I know that’s she’s probably asking me what the heck I’m doing right now.”  He smiled.  “Aren’t you, Brianne?

“Anyway, I think it’s about time that everyone knows: I have cancer.  I’ve had it for a while, and the condition is getting worse.  I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want to be treated differently.  But Brianne helped me see that I can’t keep going on like this.  I have to tell people before it’s too late.

“Shelley, Garner, I know you’re probably mad at me right now for not telling you.  I’m sorry.  I just couldn’t bring myself to.  Hopefully you’ll understand.  And please don’t bite Brianne’s head off for not telling you, either.  She wanted to, she really did.  But she didn’t because I asked her not to.”

I felt tears burn in my eyes.  I didn’t know why.  I’d known for a while now about Dannon’s condition.  But, as I looked around, I saw that everyone was near or in tears.  Even the boys.  Shelley sat there, wide-eyed as she stared at the screen.  Then she turned to me and her eyes were full of tears.

“I just wanted to say thank you, Brianne, for helping me see the bright of things in this dark situation.  I love you so much—more than you can ever know.  And I wanted to say that I’m sorry to everyone for not telling you sooner.  You deserve better than that.”  He cleared his throat.  “Well, that’s my presentation.  Thank you!”

Shelley immediately stood up, rushing out of the room.  Garner and I followed pursuit, ignoring the teacher’s calls for us to come back.  Hopefully she wouldn’t give us a detention.  I mean, Shelley had a good excuse to run.  She’d just found out one of her best friends had cancer.  I would—had—run too.

“Shelley!” I called out as Garner and I exited the room.  Shelley was halfway down the hall, practically running now.

“Come on,” Garner said softly, grabbing my arm and pulling me down the hallway.  We caught up to her a moment later when she came to a stop at an intersection between halls.  I felt my stomach drop when I saw her shoulders moving up and down rapidly.  She was crying.

“Shelley.”  Garner put a hand on her shoulder.  “Come here.”

Shelley twisted around and flung herself into Garner’s arms.  As she wept, I leaned against the wall, closing my eyes.  I couldn’t believe that Dannon had done that.  I was proud of him.  Proud that he finally had the strength to tell everyone the truth.  But, why?  Why not tell them to their faces?

My eyes burned as I realized: he didn’t think that he would be leaving the hospital any time soon.

I felt sick to my stomach.  Dannon must have suspected that his condition was worsening to the point where he might not leave the hospital.  He was making preparations in case he never stepped out of the hospital again.  He wanted everyone to know what was going on so that they would stop questioning me about it.

“B-B-Brianne?”

I opened my eyes and saw Shelley detaching herself from Garner’s arms.  She moved toward me then, wrapping her arms around my neck.  I hugged her back, eyeing Garner.  He looked pained, but he wasn’t crying.  He was being strong for Shelley.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.  “I felt bad for not telling you—”

“No, I understand.”  Shelley pulled back, wiping her eyes.  “It’s just—it’s just a shock.  Dannon seemed fine.”  She swallowed.  “How bad is it?”

“Terminal,” I whispered.  “Less than three months.”

Shelley sighed shakily, looking like she was ready to bawl her eyes out again.  I couldn’t blame her.  In fact, I was proud that she was able to hold it together so well.  I wished that I’d been able to handle it as well as she was.

“So he’s in the hospital,” Shelley muttered, leaning on the wall next to me.  “That’s why he hasn’t been at school.”

I nodded.  “Yeah.”

“So tomorrow he’s going to be in the hospital.  On his birthday.”

I nodded again.

“Well,” said Shelley, moving slowly away from the wall and standing in front of me.  She smiled, and I almost forgot that she’d just found out about Dannon’s condition.  “We’re just going to have to bring the party to him, eh?”