Life is like a bandage. No matter how hard you stick it on, it will always fall apart and show your deepest wounds to the world.

         She doesn't show it, she never does. She always puts on a smile at school and behaves like she's the one, like she's the one who's got it all. People envy her, people glare and stare. Others adore and fan over her. She's dating the quarterback jock and has straight A's even in her AP classes. She’s getting ready to go to college, Harvard maybe Yale. She's got it all, she really does. She has long blonde hair and beautiful crystal blue eyes. Her mole is in a perfect spot. Just like a little Marilyn Monroe. When she smiles, all everybody sees are her perfect straight teeth and irresistible almond dimples. That’s school. She’s confident strong and the mask she puts on, stays put.

When she gets home though it falls off.

She takes off her expensive pumps and switches them for worn out socks. She pulls of her perfectly matching outfit, a wool skirt and a sheer blouse and trades them for sweatpants and an old tie dye T-Shirt. Its the only thing that feels comfortable with all the tubes and incisions on and in her. She pulls of her wine colored scarf, which covers the largest scar, where the largest tube once lived, and hangs it on the hook that holds her other carefully knit scarves. She goes into the bathroom and wipes off all of the days makeup. Concealer, foundation, highlight, blush, eyeliner, lipstick and mascara. And even the mole she puts on with eye liner. People actually believe its real. Shes bare now. She has freckles, hundreds of them. The span from ear to ear, forehead to chin. Now she removes her blue contacts and leaves her with her natural brown eyes. Her mother tells her they’re pretty. And so do her brothers and sisters. She doesn’t buy it though. She thinks blue eyes are what will give her the whole package. Finally, she pulls off her long blonde hair. She places the wig gently on the stand. She looks into the mirror and sees nothing but the shell of who she once was before the treatment started. She’s worked day and night to make herself look perfect, to show the world who she wants them to see, not really her. Getting ready in the morning and taking everything off takes about two hours combined. She cries, day and night at home and tears herself down constantly.
On the second to last day of high school, an outdoor party is thrown for all the seniors. A DJ, food, a hot tub and even a pool is brought out to the fields to celebrate. Everyone expects her to be at the pool in a stunning swimsuit. Everybody’s waiting so she shows up there, but in her clothes.
“I’m not swimming. Today.” She says with a smile. People ‘aww’ but move on with the party. Until as a prank, her two best friends, from behind do the unthinkable and push her into the pool.
She screams and flaps in the water, but what's laying on the surface shocks everyone even more than her being pushed in. She jumps out of the pool hoping to run, but it’s already too late. Her makeup ran off, contacts fell out, clothes messed up and revealing her stomach and scars on her neck. She tried so hard to avoid it. But now the whole world has seen her tubes and bare face. But most of all, they’ve seen her disease and her shiny bald head.