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AN ACT OF KINDNESS [|Click Here for Audio of Short Story]

I woke up at seven to get ready for school, even though I wasn’t intending on going. Scenes of me losing my wig and the whole class, including the teachers, laughing at me filled my head. I blocked them out and focused on packing my bag. I shoved my binder, science book, math book, pencil pouch, and phone into my blue book bag. I strolled out of my green room into a blue hallway and trudged down to the kitchen. I slung my backpack by my chair and shuffled over to the cabinet to get some Poptarts. I shoved them into the toaster and waited for them to pop out. While I waited for the Poptarts, I wondered about school. I hope I don't get any mean teachers. Thoughts of school filled my mind while my mom, the nurse, entered in her scrubs. My Poptarts popped out of the toaster, and I almost burned my hands getting them onto a plate. My mom had gotten a cup of coffee and was clipping her Hospital ID onto the waistband of her scrubs. "You realize I am not going to school today," I said. "Jenny, you have too..." mom said. I really didn't want other people to know that there was something wrong with me. Eventually, I ended up going to school with my wig, also infuriated at my mother. But I felt something more than anger, lingering in the pit of my stomach, it was fear. Over the summer I was diagnosed with leukemia. I underwent multiple treatments of chemo therapy, and now not an inch of hair was left on my head. Without my wig on I looked like an old, bald man, something I was appalled by when looking in the mirror. At school I was normally the odd ball out, others would make fun of me, but I had learned to ignore it. Now more than ever my nerves were chewing away my courage, and I was deeply afraid to step foot on the sacred building of studious learning. Reluctantly I entered my mother's car, know viewed as a jail, keeping me in till I enter the pit of doom. We sat in silence, my mother driving the car, me so afraid that if I opened my mouth nothing would come out. Between bites of my Poptarts, I again wondered about school. Thinking about what would happen if my wig fell off, I forgot where I was for a bit, and I stopped to pull my schedule out of my backpack. As we pulled closer my throat became dry, my hands started to sweat, and there was a lump in my stomach, growing bigger. "Alright sweetie here you go." said mom. I grunted and opened the door... I can't believe she was making me do this, right now I couldn't stand to look at her. But, at the same time I wanted to run up to her embrace, where she could keep me safe from the kids I was about to face. I grabbed my things and walked slowly into the school. My homeroom was in Room 213. Once I got there I encountered a middle-aged, about 5' 10", teacher. He was wearing a white polo shirt and khaki pants. When I walked into his room, I noticed that it was lime green. It had two windows in the wall opposite the door and had several tables in two rows in his room. Most rooms in the school were like this. I looked around the room and saw no one I knew. I looked up at the teacher. He greeted me kindly and explained what the schedule in 8th grade was like. After he finished talking, which seemed like a long time after I entered, it was time to leave for first period. In my case, this was English in room 124. I walked in and encountered an elderly, white-haired woman that appeared to be in her fifties. She pointed to a seat and I sat down, and almost immediately she began her lesson. The teacher introduced herself and had us introduce ourselves, and when it was my turn to stand I was timid and kept reaching up to “scratch” my head. “Hi, my name is Jenny and I am thirteen,” I said in a meek voice. “Well, welcome back to Mountain Heights Middle School,” she said. Then, she began thoroughly lecturing us about the curriculum and grades. By the time class was over I was desperate to leave, I was bored out of my mind, but to my disappointment most of my classes were full of lectures. After English I had History, Spanish, Gym, Lunch, Math, and then Science. All were quite boring, and I almost fell asleep in most of them. After school that day, I came home to find my mom waiting for me in the kitchen. I was surprised because usually she was in the office when I came home. I went over to give her a hug and she stopped me. She said, “Honey, I came home because I was worried about you. I was afraid that you wouldn’t make it through the day without being humiliated in some way.” “Mom, why were you worried? I made it through the day fine,” I said in a hostel tone. Right before my eyes I saw my mother’s face soften, she opened her mouth to speak and she never stopped talking, but by the end I knew why she was so worried. Mom said, “Honey, when I was your age, my best friend was diagnosed with cancer. She went through many different treatments, and luckily survived for 2 years, because her cancer was so deathly. Those last two years she hated going to school, she was too afraid to tell them what was going on, fearing they would never treat her the same way again. Kids ate her up though, she was called names like “baldy”, and every night would be crying her room. I just don’t want that to happen to you “Mom,” I said, “I am going to get through this, I feel fine.” “But Jenny,” mom said, “you don’t get it.” “What don’t I get mom? That I am diagnosed with Leukemia or that you are being way too protective,” I disputed. “You don’t understand that it takes a long time to treat cancer. Sometimes it doesn’t even get cured. I just want you to stay strong, you were so worried about going to school today it took you 20 minutes to get out of the car!” mom said. I had had enough of this. I stomped out of the kitchen and down the hall to my room. When I got there I looked around, I had taken the mirror out otherwise, when I looked at myself, I would just cry. Every inch of my walls were covered in Get Well cards from neighbors, friends and relatives. I sat down on the bed and thought about what it was to live a normal child life…I remembered the times when I had hair. I used to have my mom braid my hair and then I would go running in the spring. I would swim without being afraid my wig would fall out. I would have loved to be like this now, but no I had Cancer. I remembered the times when I lived in Maine, my friends and I would go blueberry picking after school and then we would lay down in the meadows and just look at the clouds. Now my afternoons were filled with checkups with the doctors, and weekends were full of chemo treatments. Then mom came in, finding me with my wig lying on the floor and my head covered by a pillow. She called my name again and again, but I wasn’t listening. I was recalling the times of a free, worry less childhood. Finally, she came and shook me and I moaned and sat up to see her right in front of me. She said, “Jenny, it’s time for dinner. Freshen up and come down to eat.” “Okay Mom, I will be down in a sec…” I said. I went downstairs, and saw my dad and mom already at the dinner table ready to eat. I sat down across from my dad, and started eating. They were both looking at me, instead of eating. I said, “Why aren’t you eating?” “Jenny, we are worried,” my dad answered. “I told you don’t be worried, I am fine!” I said. “Okay, but just be careful,” mom added. I was so annoyed by them. Every minute since I had been diagnosed, they had been on my tail about being careful. I knew I would be alright because I had made it through one day of school. Now, I just had a billion more to go. What could happen? I woke up thinking about my second day of school. Today it was easier for me to go to school, although I still didn’t want sit in the boring classes, constantly checking if my “hair” was still on my head and not on the floor. I was less worried that my wig would fall off, but I could not be too sure, for I had only gone one day. I rolled out of bed, got dressed, brushed my teeth, packed my bag, and went to the kitchen. My mom was waiting for me there. I got some breakfast, peanut-butter toast, and followed my mom to the car. She dropped me off at school and I slowly walked to homeroom. Sure enough, once I got there, the bell rang and I strolled off to English. Everything had gone fine, until I was in Gym. In gym, the coach, Mr. Doodybot, said that we were going to do physical evaluations. This included: running the mile, calculating how many push-ups you could do in a minute, and how many sit-ups you could do in a minute. I got through the mile with a decent time of 8:40. I got through the push-up segment with a respectable 25 push-ups. Then, it all fell apart. I was halfway through the sit-up segment, when I brought my head down hard enough that my wig fell off. I tried to replace it on my head, or hide, but there was nothing I could do. One of my classmates noticed and said, "Oh my gosh, She's BALD!" Everyone's heads snapped toward me, including the coaches'. Then, my classmates started laughing at me. I grabbed my wig, and ran for the locker room. I could hear echoes of the class behind me. I sprinted out of the locker room, and out of the school. I kept running until I was a ways from school. I sat down on the pavement ahead of a maple tree, and started crying. I was angry at my classmates, my mom, and most of all, my lack of hair. I looked around and found that I was in my neighborhood, in front of a white and black house. I stood up, wiped the tears from my eyes, and started walking towards my yellow house on the other side of the neighborhood. The moisture from my breath billowed in front of me as I walked. My shoes crunched through the inch-deep snow. I almost slipped on one patch of ice that had formed from last nights snow. I made it to my house, found the hide-a-key, and walked into the green front hall. I shut the door behind me, slipped my shoes off and walked to the kitchen. Surprisingly, public humiliation makes you very hungry. I grabbed a box of Cheezits out of a cabinet, walked over to my chair, and flicked on the tv. Until my mom got home, I divulged my sorrows in Cheezits and reruns of Full House. My mom walked into the kitchen and said, "Jenny, why are you wearing your gym clothes?" I broke down crying. I managed to say, “Oh mom… it was…awful!” "Oh, honey it will be alright," my mom said while she sat down beside me, "Jenny, what happened?” At that time I was quiet, with the only sound of my tears hitting the leather couch, “They…found…out.” “Found out what? Who are you talking about sweetie,” she said. “The kids at school, they know I have cancer,” I said softly. “Oh, Jenny I’m so sorry,” she said sympathetically, “How did they find out?” “In gym class, I was doing sit-ups and my wig fell off. They all started laughing at me, mom. Just like what I feared would happen.” “Oh, I am sorry,” she said “I’m going to go make you some Chicken soup to cheer you up.” She left my side and went over to the oven. By this time I had stopped crying and the re-run of Full House had ended, so I began channel surfing. I found a new episode of House and started watching that. It was seven when my mom brought over the chicken soup. "I'm going to have to leave you by yourself tonight. I have duty, and your dad has to work late," my mom said while she grabbed her keys. I took a sip of the soup and it scalded my tongue. "Oh, and the soup is hot." She left, and I was surrounded by the sounds emanating from the television’s speakers. I waited for the soup to cool, watched a few more episodes of House, and before I knew it, it was nine. I put my soup bowl in the sink, and headed up to my room. My alarm went off at 6:30 and I reached over to hit the off button. My mom came in five minutes later to wake me up again. I finally got out of bed and changed into my school uniform. I grabbed my bag and went down stairs to eat breakfast. When I got down, my mom was already eating breakfast. She had my cereal and milk already on the table. I sat down next to her and thanked her. I gulped down my cereal drank my milk and stared at my mom. I was mad. She had told me that my wig wouldn’t fall off. Once she was done, my mom said goodbye to me and went off to work. I was startled. I thought she was taking me to school. Maybe she was expecting me to walk to school or take the bus… It took me half an hour by the time I had gotten to school and I was drenched in sweat.I strolled toward my locker to get my backpack I left there the day before. I hoped no one from my gym class would notice me. Surprisingly, no one was staring at me, laughing at me, or saying, "OMG that the bald kid." I got through homeroom and three periods without incident. Then, I got to gym. I opened my gym locker to put my school uniform in there, and found a letter in a white envelope. The note read: //Dear Jenny, I am sorry for screaming out, "OMG She's BALD!," in front of the whole class. We realize you must feel terrible with the all of us laughing at you. Again, we're really sorry. Still Sorry, Your Class // I walked into the gym, joined the kids there, and started stretching. No one laughed or whispered about my being bald. Everyone was quite and focused on stretching. Then, someone walked up beside me. It was Katie. "I'm really sorry about what I said yesterday," Katie said, "I didn't mean to embarrass you in front of the whole class." "That’s ok," I replied. Katie said, "Hey, it's what inside that counts, right?" "Yea," I replied, "I guess so."