With the Help of an Angel
CHAPTER 1
Seventeen-year-old Katelyn Sharp laid the cordless phone down back on its receiver. She continued to look at the phone like it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. After a moment of stunned silence, she let out a loud scream.
Her best friend, seventeen-year-old Corey White, came running into the kitchen from the living room, where she was watching TV.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Corey asked her voice filed with concern.
Katelyn blinked before she started jumping up and down screaming. "We're going to Hawaii! We're going to Hawaii," she chanted.
Corey looked at her like she was crazy. "What are you talking about? Have you gone completely loco?"
"Stop talking Spanish, you know I flunked that subject. Anyways, you know how my parents got me that vacation spot for Christmas? Well for New Year's Eve we're going to be down there, as in Hawaii for five days, partying. P-A-R-T- why? Because I gotta!" Katelyn said.
Katelyn had thought her attempt to be like Jim Carrey would make Corey laugh, but it made her do the exact opposite. Corey frowned and studied the white ceramic tile on the kitchen floor.
"What's wrong, Corey?"
"Um, Katie," Corey said sadly. "I can't go."
"What? Why?" she asked completely oblivious to what Corey was trying to get across without actually saying it.
Corey's eyes fell. "I have a clinic appointment that week. Plus, I have a bunch of stuff to get done down at JIVE. It would have been fun to see Hawaii, though." She smiled wistfully.
Katelyn fell silent for a few seconds. She looked up at Corey. Although she was in remission from her leukemia, she still had to have a checkup every month. She looked great, though. Her hair had grown down to her shoulders and she had gained back a lot of weight, plus the rehearsals had given back her lean, muscular physique.
"Maybe they have clinics down in Hawaii," Katelyn said optimistically.
Corey shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I have a few things I have to do over at JIVE, anyways. Listen I better get home I have to get up early tomorrow. Have fun in Hawaii and take it easy on the guys," she remarked.
Katelyn smiled and rubbed her hands together evilly. "Those hotties better watch out cause they won't know what hit them."
Corey laughed merrily at her best friend as she put on her light windbreaker GAP jacket. "I feel pity for everyone on those islands."
Katelyn laughed as she hugged her friend. "I'll call you tomorrow. Tell me how everything goes at the studio."
Corey nodded as she headed out the door on her walk home.
Corey White was shorter one of the two at 5'6". She was also gorgeous. She used to have long brown hair, but it had fallen out from chemotherapy. It was now to her shoulders. She had dark brown eyes and a great tan, but if you looked closely, she was quite pale. She was a basketball player, but she was also a softball player. She was a straight-A student, but she had missed out on a lot of school because she was in the hospital. She had a tutor for a few years and would be graduating from high school around the end of next summer.
That was the down side of Corey's life. But the good side outweighed the bad by a landslide.
Corey White was also a talented singer and had landed her record deal with JIVE Records at age of sixteen. The producers at JIVE had compared her to big names such as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Janet Jackson. But do to her cancer it had caused her to miss a lot of rehearsing and conferences she had to attend. Her debut CD should have been released within the first eight months of recording at the most, but the cancer had caused the CD to be delayed by a year and counting. Due to the delay, her single was yet to be released too. The producers wanted to release her single after the CD was finished so this way when the fans craved for more of her music, the CD could be released.
Corey slowed down her pace as she saw her house in the distance. Her house wasn't very big, but it held plenty of room. It was a one story brown brick house with two floors and four bedrooms.
Corey opened the door to her house and stepped into the foyer. She took of her coat and hung it up in the closet in the foyer. She walked into the kitchen, where she was bound to find her father. Sure enough he was in there, reading the paper.
She walked over to him and kissed his cheek. "Anything exciting happen?"
Her father put down the paper and smiled at her. "Nope, damn Steelers lost again. I swear Cowher should do something with those men."
Corey smiled at her father, Chris White, as she walked over to the fridge to get something to drink. He was born in a small suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania. Also her grandfather had played on the Steelers in the 1950's, so the Pittsburgh Steelers were his favorite NFL team.
"Where's Matt?" Corey asked as she poured the pop into a glass. Matt was her younger brother who was sixteen. He was a male version of Corey. Brown hair and eyes with a dark tan and a lean, muscular physique.
"Basketball practice. I don't think they should be having practice three days after Christmas," Chris said. "But that's just my opinion."
Corey chuckled a little. Her father had always thought the week of December 25 to January 1 should be left alone for family/non-work purposes. He had preached that it was a time to spend with family and be happy and after that week everything could go back to normal.
"What time do you need to be at the studio?" Chris asked.
"I think Mr. Stevens said by nine. He has a few things he needs to go over with me before I record the last few songs," Corey said nonchalantly.
"How are you feeling?" Chris asked.
"I feel good. I mean I feel better than what I have in the past. Don't worry Daddy, I'm fine," Corey said. That's the one thing Corey hated most in life. People worrying about her. She knew it was her father's job to worry about her, but sometimes it got to a point where it annoyed her. Everyone always thought and treated her like a baby. They would do things for her or make things as easy as they could, and that's what Corey hated. Or in other cases they acted completely disgusted with you. She didn't know what was worse.
Chris got up from his seat, walked over to Corey, and kissed her forehead. "I'm gonna go lay down. Today was a really long day at work." Her father was the manager at the Orlando Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
"Ok, night Daddy. I'll probbaly see you tomorrow after I get home cause you'll already be gone when I leave," Corey said.
"Night, Sweetie. Don't stay up too late," he advised.
She saluted him. "Yes sir!"
He chuckled and he shook his hands as he walked towards the staircase. Corey decided to follow his actions. She rinsed her cup out, placed in it in the dishwasher, and headed up to her room.
She shut the door behind her as she walked into her room. She had always loved her room. It was simple yet so magnificent.
Her walls were white and her carpet was a shade of dark forest green. Her bed comforter was just green with different colored flower heads on it. Green was her mother's favorite color.
Corey sighed at the thought of her mother. She walked over to look at the shelf that held a few pictures of her mother. The one that caught her eye was when she was seven as she had won the school talent show. She had sung "Against All Odds". In this picture Corey was holding her six inch trophy, giving a toothless grin at the camera while her mother hugged her from behind.
She smiled wistfully as she set the picture down in its place.
Her mother had died of brain cancer when she was ten. When Corey was born, her mother had passed on her gene that was infected with the cancer.
Corey remembered the month she was diagnosed with leukemia. Matt was taken to the hospital to take several tests to see if he had inherited the the cancer gene also. After many tests, it was stated that he was in the clear but there was a possibility that was slim, but it was still there.
Corey yawned then mumbled, "Wow, I'm more tired than I thought." She walked over to her dresser to group a pair of men's oversized pajamas pants and an old softball shirt from her freshman year that said 'Cores' on the back. Corey had always thought the nickname was weird and made no sense but it stuck the day Katelyn started calling her that in fifth grade.
Once she was dressed, she climbed under the covers and snuggled up in the warm bed. She held Mr. Fuzzers, her stuffed bear, tightly in her arms as she drifted off into a deep slumber.
* * *
Corey walked down the steps tiredly. She saw her brother sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal.
"Argh God! How can you eat at this un-Godly hour?" Corey asked as she practically threw herself into a chair.
Matt laughed at her. "Morning Sunshine! Rough night?"
Corey's head was in her arms, which were lying on the table. She had mumbled something, but Matt couldn't decifer what she had said.
"So when should we leave? It's eight oh nine right now," Matt said finishing the last of his cereal.
"In twenty minutes." Corey picked her head up. "Are you taking me?" He nodded with a smile. He had just gotten his license two weeks ago. "Is dad nuts? Is he giving me my death sentence at such a young age?"
When Matt heard her say 'death sentence', he stopped laughing. He coughed loudly and cleared his throat. He got up from the table, walked over to the island in the kitchen, grabbed a blueberry muffin and tossed it to his sister, who caught it dutifully.
"Eat. You know that's doctor's orders."
She folded back the paper and bite into the muffin. "What are you going to do tonight?" she asked as she chewed the muffin thoughtfully.
"There's a big party tonight at Rick's. Then New Year's Eve, Marc's having one cause his parents are out of town. Do you wanna come with me tonight?" Matt asked.
Corey shook her head. "I don't think I really fit in with your crowd." When everyone in her school found out that she had cancer, many people stopped having all kind of contact with her. Those were the people who were disgusted by her. There was only a few who stayed true friends, and Katelyn was one of them. She knew there also was a lot of fake people in her high school so her record deal was kept a secret between very few people.
"What are you talking about? You were one of the most popular girls in your class," Matt said.
"Were, Matty. Plus, I don't want people looking at me because of my cancer," Corey added bitterly.
Matt caught on to what she was saying. "Dom," he muttered. Dominic Spence was Corey's ex-boyfriend of three years. But when he had found out that she was diagnosed with cancer, he couldn't handle it and dumped her.
"You can't tell me after five months that you're still hooked on him," Matt continued.
"Love doesn't disappear in an instant," she added quietly.
Matt watched her facial expressions change. "Don't worry about him anyway, Corey. When you're big and famous and you're up on that stage getting your grammy, thank him for ending the relationship because you could do so much better than him."
Once Corey finished the muffin, she stood up and brushed herself off. She grabbed her gym bag that was sitting on the bottom step of the staircase and motioned for Matt to come on. "Let's go, Matty. I don't want to be late."
Matt walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "Let's go shorty. Let's go show the world what you can do."
* * * * * *