Charlotte's Battle - Jason's Recovery

Chapter 12

Charlotte and Sara went into the Vans store with a huge smile on both of their faces. That was a big victory for Charlotte and it was something that would help her in the future. She carefully pushed herself towards the children's section, looking through the many colors and shapes in the shoes. She saw a checkered pattern with blue and white, then another with blue and black. Her mother decided since she liked both of them, she bought both pairs.

Once they were finished in the Vans store, they went to a children's clothing store. They decided to choose a few sets of clothes to wear for the week they would be visiting Charlotte's grandparents. Charlotte picked out a pair of beige leggings, a light blue long-sleeved shirt that had Christmas decor on the front side. She also picked out a pair of black boots incase it snowed. Her next set of clothes consisted of a black shirt with a snowman decor on it, a pair of jeans with a few hearts on the right side of the pockets. Once they were finished, they went to a few more stores, then decided to head home.

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Charlotte never expected her life to turn out like this. She never thought she would have to rely on a wheelchair half of the time, nor rely on a feeding tube most of the time. She was grateful she had this type of quality of life since it could be worse, but she wished things would be different.

Before Charlotte was diagnosed with cancer, her dreams and goals were higher than most children her age. She wanted to become a full-time veterinarian and take care of animals. Her hopes and dreams were now put on hold since she had no idea if she would survive to get to where she wants to go. She never expected she would be in this state at this age. She wanted to take care of animals like her family takes care of her. She loved animals more than anything and she loved to take care of Belle so it would be somewhat in her nature.

Charlotte was lost in thought as they drove towards the house. She was unusually silent, thinking about a lot, but mostly her future. She was only twelve years old, but she wished she could do something about this. She slowly turned her attention to Belle, her service dog. She noticed she was resting her head on Charlotte's lap. She began to pet Belle's head gently. She sighed softly as she closed her eyes, laying her head back.

She didn't realize she had fallen asleep until her mother was beside her, the car door open and they were pulled up on their driveway. She grinned and slowly opened her eyes. She made an annoyed noise as she sat up, gently nudging Belle. "Come on, Belle." She told her as she got up, carefully getting out of the car.

On her way up to her room, she went back to her thoughts. She wondered why all her friends just left her after she had to drop out of school. It was one of the hardest things she had to do. She missed a lot of her friends, even her own birthday last year because she was in the hospital. They spent so much time in the hospital the first few months when she was diagnosed. They had to stabilise her before she was allowed to come home. Throughout those two months, she was in and out of hospital rooms, constantly doing some type of testing to try and see if they could do surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery was more risky than chemo and radiation was.

She wished her friends would at least contact her every once in a while, but it basically showed her how much they really cared about her. They didn't care at all. This is why Jason and her became so close. They played games together, ran around outside when she had energy, and played board games inside when it was pouring rain outside.

Charlotte walked down the halls of Bridgetown Elementary, looking around at all the other kids she saw. It was her first day of fifth grade and she didn't have many friends. Then suddenly a girl appeared in front of her and she noticed the girl had brown hair, green eyes and she seemed genuinely happy. Her voice was a bit high pitched as she spoke. "Hi! My name is Lindsay, what's your name?" She asked Charlotte.
Charlotte replied with a shy, quiet voice. "I'm Charlotte." She said to the other girl.
Lindsay smiled at her. "Would you want to be friends? We could hang out at recess!"  Charlotte smiled and nodded, glancing at the girl, moving a piece of her hair from her eyes. Lindsay nodded and smiled, heading into the classroom. Charlotte went inside the classroom and looked around for a place to sit. The first place she saw was a seat right next to Lindsay so she quickly took it, sitting down as the bell rang.
That's exactly what they did. They hung out every opportunity possible. That included recess, lunch, and in between classes.

Charlotte sighed and slowly got up on her bed, closing her eyes as she held her head. She sat there and felt Belle jumping up on the bed beside her. She opened her eyes and gently began to pet Belle. "Thanks for being my best friend..." she murmured to Belle.