Amber's Star Read online

  Edwin M. Torres

  Amber’s Star

  Copyright © 2021 Edwin M. Torres.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 9798713743017

  First Edition: March 2021

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  For Gemma,

  A wonderful soul that deserved to live longer,

  Chapter One

  Amber: Having cancer sucks. Being the new girl at a new school sucks too. Unfortunately, today I deal with both. My family moved to Boston so I can receive better treatment for the cancer inside my body. I like calling it the cancer, others call it my cancer, but I don’t like the feeling that something this horrible could belong to me. I like the idea that it’s just cancer and that one day it will go away. I’ve learned to live with cancer, changing schools has me worried. Being the new girl is never easy. The teachers make you stand in front of everyone and introduce yourself, expecting you to enjoy it. You stand there with thirty pairs of eyes dissecting you while you try to say something cool that will help you get friends fast, but instead you stutter and your face turns red and you soon look like a giant tomato. Though I’m not too worried about stuttering or the kids making fun of my voice, I’ve practiced enough in front of my bathroom mirror to be okay with that. What worries me most is that my wig may fall off and they’ll see my round bald head. The smart ones will know I have cancer, the dumb ones will ask why a girl is completely bald.

  Mom had almost finished talking to the principal, and that only meant one thing, I was minutes away from meeting my new classmates and teacher. Dad always said moving to a new place was a fresh start and that you could start again and make new friends. What dad didn’t know was how hard making friends for me was. At my previous school it took me years to make any friends, I remember when I hit the third grade I had to lie about having friends to mom and dad just so they could get off my back. To me my dog Ernest was my only friend, besides my parents and my sister that’s for sure. Ernest, my sister and my parents meant the world to me. I needed no more. My mom and dad treated me as an equal, and so did Ernest. My sister Grace often treated me differently, but mom says it’s because of puberty. I wish puberty had never hit her and she’d treat me like she did before.

  My mom and my new principal walked out of her office and looked down on me. By the look Mrs. Jude gave me, I could tell mom had told her about the cancer. After years of having cancer, I had learned to tell apart those adults who knew about it and those who didn’t. The ones that knew about it looked at me as if they were sorry for me, it painted a week smile to their face and most of them asked me a dumb question. I was getting ready for Mrs. Jones’ question, but it never came.

  “Nice to meet you, Amber,” she said instead.

  “Hi,” I answered, waving my hand at her.

  On our way to the classroom, I caught Mrs. Jones looking down at my hair, wondering probably how I got it to stick on. I moved it around on purpose so she could tell it was sticking on real good.

  “This is your classroom,” she said. I was waiting for both of them to leave so I could knock, but none did. Loud screams came from inside the room. Already I knew my teacher would be one of those that allowed students to scream and be loud. A cool teacher, we call them. Mrs. Jones knocked at the door and immediately the loud screams stopped. Later, a young woman opened the classroom’s door. She greeted us with the best of smiles and welcomed us inside. She was beautiful. Her face was full of freckles just like mines and was the perfect size a teacher could be.

  “Come on in,” she said in a kind voice.

  “Ms. Flowers, this is Amber. A new student, she moved here from Denver,” said Mrs. Jones.

  Even her name was beautiful, Ms. Flowers. She looked at me and gave me the look I wanted to get. She didn’t know about my ‘condition’.

  “Come on in, Amber,” she said. The class was full of boys and girls which eyes darted directly at me.

  “Bye, sweetie,” I heard my mom say behind me.

  “Why don’t you introduce yourself to your classmates,” said Ms. Flowers. I nodded ‘yes’ in response. I looked around the class and it seemed so full, I stood right in the middle of the room and looked for the most vulnerable to stare at as I spoke. My dad had thought me this technique. It comprised staring into one or two people while in front of a big audience, focusing on just one or two somehow felt as if you were just talking to those two people and it helped a lot.

  “My name is Amber; I came here from Denver, Colorado.” I said first.

  “Tell us a little more about yourself, Amber. What do you like to do?” asked Ms. Flowers, smiling.

  “I like playing with my dog, his name is Ernest. I enjoy listening to music and reading,” I said fast.

  “Boring,” whispered a kid in the back. Ms. Flowers definitely didn’t hear him, otherwise she wouldn’t be smiling.

  “Great, does anyone have questions for Amber?” she asked. I begged for no one to raise their hand, but right before Ms. Flowers offered me to take a seat, a tiny skinny hand on the second row went high in the air.

  “Yes, Sally?” asked Ms. Flowers. A girl too short to be in the fifth grade stood up. She wore giant glasses and had long yellow hair.

  “What’s your dog’s breed?” she asked in a squeaky voice.

  “A schnauzer,” I answered.

  “Are those the ones with the ugly mustache?” asked a kid in the third row.

  “Yes, they are really ugly,” I answered, giggling. The rest of the morning went ‘okay’. I sat in the fourth row, that way only the kids sitting on the fifth and sixth rows could see me. At first I thought about sitting all the way in the back, that way I would have a full perspective of the class, but I didn’t want Ms. Flowers to think I was a troublemaker. I have a theory that all trouble makers sit on the last row in school, the nerds sit either on the first or second row, and the snitches sit closest to the teacher and door. I often looked around to see if anyone was staring at me. Usually being the new girl can cause everyone else to stare at you for the first few days, but not these kids. They all looked down on their notebooks and up at Ms. Flowers. I was the one staring at them. I caught a kid on the third row chewing gum and afterwards sticking it under his desk, gross. Right before lunch, the girl to my right kept leaning close to me until she finally poked my leg.

  “Do you like cookies?” she asked. Yes, I nodded in response. I shouldn’t have said that. She pulled what looked like a pillowcase from her backpack full of cookies!

  “Get some,” she ordered looking up at Ms. Flowers making sure she wasn’t seeing us. I didn’t mean to be rude, but the big sign next to the door that said ‘NO EATING’ almost made me say no. I finally grabbed three cookies and thanked her. I hated the idea of getting in trouble on the first day, but knew how hard it was for me to make friends and thought it was worth it.

  I sat with the girl that offered me cookies at lunch. She introduced herself as Emily and from what I could tell; she didn’t have many friends either. We ate our lunch and most of the cookies that Emily had brought. Emily didn’t say much. We sat close to the soccer field and watched the boys play. I wanted to ask Emily lots of things but didn’t know where to start. There was an awkward silence for a while, but then Emily finally spoke.

  “See that kid over there playing goalie?” she asked. I looked down and
looked at a boy with bushy eyebrows that matched his hair.

  “I see him. What about him?” I asked.

  “That’s Michael Heinz, the cutest boy in school according to most of the girls.”

  “He seems pretty normal to me,” I said.

  “Yeah, he’s plain and simple to me too.”

  “Who’s that?” I asked, referring to a kid about to jump from the top of the slide.

  “That’s Noah and his group of friends,” replied Emily.

  “He’s the stupidest in the class, always trying to be funny and he does stupid stuff where he falls and hurts himself trying to make the rest of us laugh.” I stared at Noah as he stood at the top of the slide. He spread his legs, getting ready to jump while all his friends cheered for him. ‘He’ll break his leg’ I thought. Moments later Noah was in midair and looked our way. His face seemed terrified. He landed on the soft sand and his feet sank into it all the way to his ankles. His friends cheered, and he seemed to enjoy it. The bell rang just before Noah got ready for his next jump.

  Back inside, everyone took a seat even though Ms. Flowers wasn’t in the room. I looked around for Noah and finally spotted him walking in, leaving a trial of sand behind him. Noah sat on the fifth row and couldn’t stop chatting about his big jump with all of his friends. He pulled his left shoe off and dumped an enormous pile of sand onto the carpet. He did the same with his right shoe and finally spread the sand all around so it wouldn’t be visible. Ms. Flowers came in and seemed to be in search of someone that someone was me. When her eyes finally caught mines, the look on her face only showed one thing. “She knows about the cancer,” I said to myself. The rest of the day went smooth for me, Emily’s cookie bag had gone empty and Ms. Flowers often gave me that sorry look but besides that I had a good first day at my new school.

  The bell rang, and everyone rushed out. On my way out, I got pulled back by Ms. Flowers.

  “Amber, could I talk to you for a second?” she asked. I said goodbye to Emily and walked back inside. I sat next to her and waited for what she had to say.

  “Mrs. Jones told me about the cancer,” she finally said. I liked the way she referred to it. After all, it was just cancer. My previous teachers had referred to it as your condition, and my second-grade teacher once called it my ‘malignancy’ which I had no idea what that meant.

  “I want you to know that I will treat you the same as any other student. You won’t get a special treat for having cancer,” she said.

  “Great,” I answered, thinking she had read my mind.

  “If you need anything school related, please let me know.”

  “I will,” I answered with a big smile.

  “Okay, you’re free to go,” she said. I ran out and didn’t stop until I reached the exit door. I looked around for mom and ran up to her as well. The smile was still on my face when I told her the great day I’ve had.

  “How’d it go?” she asked.

  “Great!” I answered. “I got the nicest teacher ever. She calls cancer the way it’s supposed to be!”

  “That’s great what about friends? Did you make any?” asked mom.

  “One, I wouldn’t call her a friend just yet, but she’s nice, and we shared her cookies in class.”

  Mom smiled and asked no more.

  At dinner I told dad and Grace all about my first day, Dad seemed interested to know all about my day but not Grace. She often lifted her eyebrows and rolled her eyes as I spoke. Dad was in the middle of asking me another question when he got rudely interrupted by Grace.

  “You know, I also had a first day at a new school!” she screamed, throwing her spoon into her soup.

  “Grace!” dad shouted. But it was too late Grace got up from the table and left her plate nearly full.

  “She is right, dad,” I said.

  “You should have asked her how her day went too,” said mom. My mom tucked me to bed and kissed my bald head goodnight. I stayed awake for a while longer and heard Grace’s door finally open. I pretended to be asleep in case she came into my room, but she didn’t. I heard dad come out of his room and heard Grace come out of hers. Dad and Grace spoke in the hallway, but I couldn’t hear what they said. After a few minutes, I heard them laugh and heard Grace cry. They talked for a few more minutes as I tried to stay awake, trying to hear what they said. A few more minutes went by and I heard dad crack the loudest laugh I’ve heard of him in years, Grace did the same and mom joined them from inside her room. I fell asleep happy that day, happy to know I would wake up to a happy family.

  Chapter Two

  Noah: Nothing interesting had happened in my first month of fifth grade. My teacher was cool. She’d let us eat in class and chew gum. I say she’s cool because next to the classroom door a big red sign is up that says ‘NO EATING’ and she still rewards us with snacks and treats if we’re good. I consider Ms. Flowers one of the nicest teachers there is. She enjoys getting along with students and rarely screams at us. On the second day, she caught me chewing gum and said nothing to me. The second time she caught me she only lifted her eyebrows at me and pointed her head towards the trashcan. I’m smart enough to know that meant to throw it away. I don’t know how Emily Dunn does it, but she eats a pound of cookies every single day without being caught. She hides behind Dustin, who’s a big fellow. Sometimes I see Emily eating a cookie buffet behind Dustin’s back, and not one time has she got caught. One day she brought Twinkies and two of them fell to the floor, but Emily didn’t care and ate them, anyway. I don’t hate Emily, I just don’t like her. Besides, she shares none of her cookies, maybe that’s why she has no friends.

  Today Ms. Flowers gave us an announcement that a new girl was joining us from Denver. I’m looking forward to meeting her. I talked to dad about Denver and he says there are lots of mountains for hiking and skiing. I love hiking and everything that has to do with heights and danger, and for sure someone from Denver will love it too. I waited an entire week after Ms. Flowers told us about the new girl. She said she’d come on Friday, and Friday was finally here. I sat in my usual spot so I could have a clear view of when she came inside. Ms. Flowers said we’d start the class after the new girl arrived so that way she wouldn’t feel excluded. Finally, a knock was at the door and Ms. Flowers told us all to be quiet. I leaned sideways, trying to get a better view, but Mrs. Jones our principal was in the way. I sat back as the new girl and Ms. Flowers walked in. She had the most beautiful hair a fifth grader could have. Her pale skin went perfectly with her pink freckles. Ms. Flowers asked her to introduce herself, so she did. She told us about her dog and the breed it was, and for the first time, I saw her beautiful big smile. I looked around to see if anyone was seeing me. I felt I was blushing, and I needed to hide it. I begged for her to sit as far away as possible, and she did. She sat next to cookie eating Emily. I often looked up to check up on Amber, she stared at everyone in the room, when she tried to look at me I looked away and pretended to be writing in my notebook. I could see her doing something in her notebook but couldn’t see what. Before lunch, I saw Emily do the strangest thing ever. She poked Amber’s leg with her ruler and offered her some of her cookies! I could see Amber’s eyes trying to say no, but Emily seemed to insist on forcing her to grab a handful of them. At lunch, I tried talking to her, but Emily never left her side. They sat together and ate the rest of Emily’s cookie treasure.

  During recess, I saw Amber and Emily sitting close to the soccer field, the perfect time to catch Amber’s attention.

  “Follow me,” I told my friends. I pushed away a third grader from the big red slide. I climbed to the top of the slide’s roof. Some of my friends cheered for me to jump down, others told me how stupid I was and ordered me to come down. I bent my knees and looked to find Amber and Emily both staring at me. I’ve had Amber’s attention. It was now or never. My legs shook as I approached the edge.

  “Don’t do it!” screamed my best friend, Daniel.

  “Do it! Do it!” screamed the rest of my friends. From
the corner of my eyes, I saw Amber still looking at me, I closed my eyes and jumped out to the sand underneath. In the air, I turn to face Amber and she was still seeing me. ‘I did it’ I thought to myself. My feet got buried into the sand and the loud cheers from my friends reached my ears. I waved at Amber, but she didn’t see me.

  “Who’d you wave at?” asked Daniel.

  “No one,” I lied. The bell rang, giving me no time to clean my dirty shoes. I walked into the classroom, the sand had gone past my socks, I had sand in between my toes and they were begging to itch. Ms. Flowers was late as always, and that gave me enough time to dump the sand onto the carpet. I gathered Daniel and Tom around me so Amber couldn’t see me. My left shoe was filled with sand. I dumped the sand on the carpet and spread it so it wasn’t visible. After Ms. Flowers arrived, I asked to go to the bathroom where I took my socks off and shook off the sand into the toilet. I cleaned my bare feet with toilet paper and came out fast from the restroom. I’ve never gone number two in school and wasn’t planning on anyone thinking I had. Honestly, I don’t know any boy who has gone number two in the entire school. It’s just something boys don’t do. I came back into the classroom to find everyone silently working on their notebooks.

  When the last bell rang, I rushed out to the exit and looked for Amber. I stared at the front door waiting for her to come out but she didn’t.

  “Let’s go,” said Daniel.

  “My mom’s here already!” he cried. I wished I could tell him about my little crush on Amber, but I couldn’t, not yet.

  When I got home, dad asked me about the new girl and what she had said about the Rockies.

  “I didn’t get the time to talk to her,” I said. My dad seemed confused, so I told him all about Emily and her problem obsession with eating cookies in class.

  “I’m sure you’ll get to talk to her soon,” he said.