Chapter One- Jennifer Cunn

I enjoyed the wind that hugged my body and the sunrise that gave me light to see the sky. There weren’t any clouds high above, but the orange color mixed with black was the perfect view. As I lied down on the top roof, I imagined what it would be like if my imaginary girl was up here with me watching this beautiful sunrise. I closed my eyes and embraced all that I had around me.

Before I was eighteen years old, I grew up in a boys home. My parents died when I was three years old. They were drunk and I don’t know, I guess they decided to go out by the river and God knows to do what. But um, early that morning, the day I turned three, I heard these policemen break through the door and running around my house. When one of them appeared at my door, he dropped his gun and grabbed me and raced out the house. I didn’t scream or cry, I guess it was because I haven’t had a clue of what was going on. So yeah you get the story.
I was in my senior year when this major event happened. Because I was eighteen, I had my own apartment and worked two part time jobs. Life was hard, but I didn’t know anything better. Walking into school with confidence, I was looked as a guy who was different if you understand. They always seen me as the boy who wrote poems and someone who was excellent with the piano. My outlook on life was far from what they thought and my perception never seemed to match theirs so because of that, I was an outcast.

Now don’t get me wrong, I had friends. I just wasn’t excepted by everyone. One more year. This last year, for me to deal with an enclosed area with judgment and gossip. Everyone knows that in the real world, that really isn’t how they work. Of course there is bashing or they are just real and don’t talk to you. School was a place were I could express my ideas and have more than thirty different type of opinions. I wasn’t a straight A student, I was an A B student.
I entered my English class and sat in the middle seat of the third row. Mrs. Kerry walked in the class and whistled at all of us to settle down and take our seats. She was in her early twenties and had a beautiful smile with a caring heart. We mostly discussed poetry and American History. Over the summer, we were all sent mails that we were to complete a total of six poems. It stated exactly:
Owl Palms High School
21113 Drain Circle
West Palm Beach Fl 33433
Dear Upcoming Seniors,

As we all know, school will be starting in 2 weeks. On the day of August 19, 2010, a total of six poems a due. Each and every one of them will be one of the following: Free Verse, Sonnet, Haiku, Limerick, Ballad, and Song Lyric. You are to be creative, unique, and outstanding. All of them will be graded as a test so put some serious work into it. I can’t wait to see all of your faces on the first day of school and your last year of high school.


Love Always,



Mrs. Kelly
As Mrs. Kelly took attendance, everyone reached for a seat. I loved this class, not because it was English, but because of Mrs. Kelly. She was an amazing teacher. You could tell she was a new teacher, because she made mistakes and it is cute. She comes in with these high heels and pretty blouses. She smiled to all of us and fixed her almond glasses.
“Welcome back everyone, how was your summer?”
Everyone mumbled what it was they had to say and then became silent. She then said, “The real question is did you do the assignment that I sent to everyone homes?”

Blank stares, shock stares, and stares that they know they got the letter about the assignment but just didn’t do it fixed one the face of almost every student. She laughed and said, “You guys swear you can fool me huh?”
The class giggled and replied, “Yeah.”
She went to her black board and wrote on the board: Assignments due tomorrow will be the assignments that were due today. Everyone groaned and yelled, “What the heck, that is a lot to do.”
“Well,” she explained. “You are the ones who weren’t thinking because you had an entire month to do this major assignment.”
So we went throughout class talking abut the different types of poetry and what each and every one of them meant. The bell rang. It was time for chemistry class, which was located way in the other building, so it was a walk. I turned around and seen that my friend Jared was running to catch up to me. He held on to my shoulders as he tried to catch his breath. I told him that I would talk to him at lunch and there he went running again just to get to his next class. The bell rang two seconds after I stepped in. Everyone in this class always sat with someone and I always made sure that I was alone at one of the lab tables. Mr. Gonzales came in the classroom fiddling with his tie and said to all of us, “Alright, alright, settle down class. I have some very important news.”
A kid named Jonny said, “What your moving back to gorilla village?”
“Very funny.” said Mr. Gonzales, “You can continue cracking jokes in detention.”

Everyone laughed at him and then the room became silent. He cleared his throat and fiddled with his tie once again and said, “So everyone, today start lab week. Yay! And I have paired up people to ensure that all of you will be able to get the assignments completed with no hassles.”
The class grunted in dismay and he then began assigning partners and specific assignments to each pair. He reached me and said, “Sam, your partner is Jennifer Cunn and this is your project.”
Jennifer stood up and said, “Oh my God! Mr. Gonzales, why in the world would you do this to me? You must be out of your freaking mind. I’m not teaming with him.”
He sighed deeply and said, “It’s either that or you a zero everyday of this week. It is your choice.”
She screamed and walked over to my lab table. I was reading our project information and that’s when she tugged on my shirt and said, “Let’s get one thing clear, we aren’t friends and I don’t want you to think that this will make us become…”
“Get your hands off of me. You don’t ruin my clothes that I ironed.”
She raised her eyebrows and then rolled her eyes.

Jennifer Cunn was the prettiest and most popular girl in school. She was the head leader of her little click and they all had nasty and mean attitudes. She had long black hair and a very deep tan color. Her nice white teeth went perfectly with her dark green eyes. I didn’t like her, not because of her attitude, but because I wasn’t interested in her. I began working on our project, which was to start building a model of the chromosomes and find away to create the proteins within the DNA and RNA molecules.

I asked her, “May you please hand me that beaker?”
She rolled her eyes and shoved it into my hands then crossed her arms over her chest and that’s when I noticed she had really dry skin. It wasn’t the regular type either, it was very dry and kind of discolored. I didn’t say anything. I resumed back to the project and never said a word to her.



Chapter Two- Telling the Truth

It was Friday, the end of the school week and out chemistry project was due Monday. Jennifer was coming over my apartment tonight to complete the assignment. It was seven thirty and I went into my lab office and set up our utensils and equipments. My doorbell rang twice and I took my time to answer my door. She was wearing ling jeans and a long pink sleeve shirt. She pushed me out the doorway and walked in my house. She looked around my house and smiled, she said, “Okay let us get this crap over with.”
“Follow me this way.”
We walked to my lab room and that was when I heard her gasped in. She was so surprised at my room. She asked me, “What the hell, is this your’s or your father’s?”
“Mine. I built this room. It is half an office and half a lab. I live here by myself.”
“Wow this place is huge.”
“Let’s begin.”

She walked and stood right next to me and then looked into my microscope. I watched her become amazed as she watched a live spice squirm around n the template. She looked up at me and said, “Wow I am actually not disgusted.”
I nodded my head. I was a very calm and chilled type of person. She walked over to my desk and read out loud the poem I just finish created for the fun of it. She cleared her voice and read softly:
“WHY LOVE?…I like the title.”
I didn’t reply to that comment. She continued,
“Love is dangerous…
Isn’t that what everyone says?
Love is deceiving…
Isn’t that because people get blinded by words?
Love is painful…
Isn’t that because when you set yourself up for that?
Love is depressing…
Isn’t that because you gave your full heart away?
Love is confusing…
Isn’t that because you loved too early?
Love is something…
Isn’t that because…wait what?”
“Love” is a feeling that expresses an emotion no one really knows,
People speak of it and tell you butterflies are flapping in their stomachs.
The word love is just an excuse for the hypertension you body creates when you look at someone you are attracted to.
So back to the top please.
Love is a word…
Isn’t that because we must find a word or a bogus explanation for this mysterious feeling(s) we have?
Now that sounds accurate.”

She looked up at me and held the poem to her chest. She said, “Wow that is deep.”
I dug in my pocket and pulled out a cigarette and lighted it. Jennifer mouth dropped and asked me, “You smoke?”
I nodded. She walked towards me and said, “I never noticed how cute you were till now.”
“That isn’t a shocker.”
“Really?”
“Every girl says that.”
I removed my sweater and kept my t-shirt on. She touched my arms and said, “You have a tattoo?”
I took another puff and then our eyes met. She closed her eyes and slowly re opened them. I took her hand and slid her sleeve down to her elbows. “What is wrong with your skin?”
She pulled away and said, “Don’t f***ing touch me and mind your own business.”
I said, “I’m not going tell anyone. It is my business.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I am Sam Derrick. And the reason it’s my business is because I f***ing care to know.”
“”Well why the hell do you care?”
“To let you know that people do care for you and you don’t have to be such a rude and mean person.”
She couldn’t say anything after that and my only guess was that she agreed with me. I took another puff of my cigarette and began to make gel like substances for our project. She said, “I’m hungry.”
“What you want?”
“What you got?”
I stopped firing up my gel like proteins and looked at her. I said, “I have pizza in the freezer that I can put under the oven.”
“Oh okay I will eat that.”
I burned out my cigarette and pulled her closer to me and said, “Now I want you to try and create one of the proteins.”
She smiled at me and said, “Show me how to do it.”
He placed me in front of him and told me to look into the magnifying glass and use the burner to form a stringy type shape.”

She created one, two, three and so one. After she got the hang of it, she said to me, “This is actually interesting.”
I smiled and began creating a multi colored Golgi body system. The pizza was ready. We sat at my dinner table and she said to me, “Thank you very much for the pizza.”
I nodded and she said, “You seem like one of those bad boys that has a sweet heart.”
I laughed and replied, “I am a bad boy alright.”
“Hopefully you won’t freak out but I think I’m digging you.”
“I know you have a problem with your health and I want to know.”
She stopped smiling and her eyes became watery. She stood up and said, “I have to go.”
I rose out of my seat and quickly grabbed her arm and said, “No I want to see you cry and I want to know the real you.”
She sniffed in deeply and threw her head on my chest and hugged me tightly. I wrapped my arms around her and rocked her slowly in my arms. I walked over to the couch and she looked into my eyes and said, “I have a disease called…leukemia. I’m on medication but it is very painful. No one knows about this so don’t say anything to anyone I beg of you.”
I said to her, “Under one condition.” she raised her eyebrows waiting to her what I had to say. “You have to be cool with me at school and don’t change on me.”
“I promise I won’t.”
I nodded my head and then closed my eyes. I felt her soft hands on my face and then her lips touched mine. I opened my eyes and found her eyes shut and embracing my lips. I liked it…I liked her. It was like we both got to know who we both really were. She asked me, “Where are your parents?”
“They are dead.”
“You live here alone?”
“Yes.”
I stood up and walked her to the door and said, “I think it is time for you to go home.”
“But what about the project?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“No I really enjoyed doing it.”
“Oh.”
“But it’s okay.
We kissed each other good bye and I smiled to myself.



Chapter Three- The Final days

A lot has happened in the past six months. I have seen this beautifully designed and great girl turn out to be a sick and wan. She has become a very fragile girl. She has lost her hair and always wore a hat winter hat to cover it up. She staid strong and made sure that the world never seen the downfall side of her. I was very proud of her. We were in a relationship. She told me that I was like no other because I did things that no other man would dare do in his right frame of mind. Before she went to the hospital, she used to sleep at my house and always at three o’ clock in the morning I would have to wake up and slow dance with her to make her fall asleep and forget about her pain. It killed me to see her suffering and I didn’t want her to be alone with this devastating time.

I believe it was for a total of three months that she slept over my house on the weekends. We never had sex together. It was beyond that. I never seen her like that. It was past the physical part. And it wasn’t like I was afraid that I would catch something from her because I knew I wouldn’t. I fell in love with her. I went to school and sat in chemistry class having flashbacks of when we were first paired together and how far we have gone. I had flashbacks of when we were in my kitchen creating a homemade lasagna. I never knew how to cook, she was the one who taught me and I was so happy that I learned because I made her surprising meals. The bell rang and class was over. Today was our last day of school so each class was ten minutes long. I drove to the hospital with many gifts in my hand, for it was her birthday.

I walked into her room. She seemed to be sleeping. When I placed the bouquet of white and green roses on the table her eyes opened. She smiled and looked at me and in a low harsh voice she struggled to say, “I thought you forgot it was my birthday.”
I rushed by her side and kissed her dry lips and said, “No baby I am here with you on your special day and everyday till the end.”
Most of my days were spent in the hospital accompanying her every time. I loved her so deeply and I always cherished every moment with her. I helped her sit up and gave her present. She smiled and unwrapped her gift. It was a marble and diamonds melted together with these words engraved in it, To my heart and love. She smiled and puckered her lips for me. I leaned forward and kissed her one more time. I moved her balloons next to her bed and said, “I would like to have this dance again my sweet heart.”
She moaned in pain and said, “But I cannot stand up on my own. Sorry my legs have gotten to weak.”
“Oh baby you are not heavy, I can hold you up.”
She did her best to smile and held out her hand to me. I managed to lift her off the bed and play our slow song and began to dance with her slowly and held on to her tightly. She looked at me and said, “You are a true man and hopefully the next girl treats you the same way you treated me.”
“I want one last kiss Jennifer, one last kiss.”
She used all her might and kissed me one last time and while we were kissing, her heart gave up and she went to sleep for good. Tears strolled down my cheeks as I laid her down on the bed. I whispered to myself, “Rest in heaven peacefully. Happy birthday and I hoped you enjoyed your last dance and last kiss.”
I stood back and watched the nurses turn off the operator and began to disclose her. I walked out of the room and sat on the chair.


The End!