I opened my eyes, completely giving up on trying to get any sleep tonight. The excruciating nausea in my stomach was threatening to come up, and the room started to spin while I straightened my body into a sitting position. As I swung my legs over the bed, my body completely gave out. I fell to the ground, my limbs clanging onto the floor as I coughed out blood. Everything started to move in slow motion as my mom came running into the room.

“Dylan? Dylan, what happened?” Dylan...That’s me. Just your average fifteen year old girl who obsesses over hot actors and listens to way too many boy bands. However, in this moment I felt like much less. As I tried to comprehend what my mom was telling me, the room suddenly went black.

I don’t remember much after that, except for waking up in the hospital with a horrible, aching feeling all over my body. My bones felt sore and stiff, and a burning sensation took me over as I tried to steal a glance at my mom.

“Honey, you’re awake! How are you feeling?” The concerned expression on her face worried me. 

“Everything hurts…” My voice was a lot more feeble than I had intended. In fact, it sounded distant, as if someone else was speaking. As my mom started to reassure me that everything would be okay, a doctor bursted through the room. It was at this moment that I noticed I was lying in a hospital bed. 

“You must be Dylan. It is my pleasure to meet you.” The bald, dark-skinned doctor stood with brawny shoulders as he held out his hand for me to shake. Little did I know how life-changing the words that he was about to say would be.

“We ran some blood tests, and we found traces of cancer cells in your blood. To be more specific...” He took a pause here to sigh. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. My mom gulped in an effort to hold back tears.

“You have stage two leakuemia.”