Remember Me

Chapter Two

In biology class I find myself daydreaming instead of focusing on my teacher who is introducing the digestive system and its importance to the class. My thoughts are elsewhere. I am thinking about summer. More specifically I'm thinking about Ruck 'n Rumble and how I am going to survive it.

Physically and metaphorically.

Ruck 'n Rumble is something my father and a few of his closest friends started a while back when I was five. Every year they would go camping, just the dads and their kids, for the month of July at Willow Tree Provincial Park. It was the highlight of my summer for many years after I started going when I was nine. I accept, yes, that I was scared to go when I was first offered. A month in the woods. Alone. No cell reception unless you were on the beach. My whole view was turned around, however, when I first went. It was the best time I had ever had away on vacation, and it was, up until four summers ago when something that would haunt me for the rest of my life, happened.

"Ms. James, what is the answer for number three?" My biology teacher asks and I immediately snap out of my thoughts. "If you have time to daydream you should know this information already."

"What was the question?" I sheepishly ask, cracking my knuckles and dropping my gaze to avoid eye contact.

My teacher sighs and pushes her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. "What are some of the main causes of liver failure?"

Many of my classmates gasp, signaling to me that we haven't learned this yet in class. I knew better than this, my teacher was testing me.

Well if she wanted to play, we could play.

During my summers off, I'd read up on diseases and what causes specific organ failures. Before I was diagnosed, I wanted to be a doctor so I began doing some light reading to gain some basic knowledge.

I clear my throat and scan the room. All twenty-seven pairs of eyes are on me. Questioning whether I will get the question right.

"Well, uh, for starters, acute liver failure can be caused by hepatitis. It can also be caused by taking medicines like acetaminophen. And if I recall correctly, Wilson's disease can also cause acute liver failure, but in most cases, the cause for the disease is unknown, and varies from person to person based on their history and lifestyle."

My teacher gives me a nod. "It looks like someone has been doing some extra reading. Props to you Ms. James. Now class, everyone please turn to page three hundred and twelve and we will return to our studies on the digestive system."

I blow air out of my mouth and close my eyes.

That was close. Too close.

Thank goodness for that organ book my aunt bought me for my birthday last year.

My next two classes, AP pre-calculus, and French, go by in a blur. After my diagnosis, I stopped caring about my classes as much as I normally would. I am not going to be able to do anything with my life so why bother trying? The extra effort is draining and tires me out. I still keep my average to a B+ or an A-. It's still decent, but extremely different from my usual A+'s. I didn't think anyone had caught on until in the hallways Joshua Barlowe, who was up until recently, my academic nemesis, stops me.

Our rivalry first began when in eighth grade I won the science contest. I hatched my own chicks while Joshua made a typical volcano. Joshua congratulated me but told me that he would crush me in the math contest later in the spring. I lost the math contest by two points. The next year he won the science contest and I won the math contest. Last year we tied both of the contests. We took all the same classes so our GPAs have been exactly the same, up until the fifth decimal for years, and this year we were both trying everything we could to secure a spot for valedictorian, whether that be writing essays for extra credit, or tutoring the underclassmen.