I  looked back at all the sad faces that were looking at me leave, leave home, leave friends, leave EVERYTHING behind. 

Coach was there, all my amazing teammates and friends were there, and of course my big loving family was there.

 “ I just hope cancer won't affect my memory because I really don't want to forget how many people will miss me and that I'm not alone.”

 A slow dripping tear slips down my cheek and under my chin. I slowly lean my head against the cold car window, I pull my knees towards my chest and bury my head into them as I try to get a little bit warmer. 

“ Are you sure she is ready? It will be a big change and she might want to get started in a few weeks.” 

I wake up and see mom's concerned face looking over at dad, mom looks back and asks nervously.

 “ Alex honey, how long have you been awake?’

 “Just now” I say although I had heard her serious conversation with dad.

I look around and have no idea where we are. We are probably in California.

 “ How much longer dad?” I ask.

 “ We are five minutes away sweetheart.” he says with a reassuring voice.

Soon I start seeing houses and short entrances, suddenly there is a sign that says “Clover Neighborhood” and dad smoothly turns the wheel until the car is facing it. 

Suddenly I start seeing enormous grey and black houses with big windows, they are very tall and I can get a glimpse of the yards when I sit up straight.

Once again dad takes another right turn onto an empty garage that is INSIDE a house.

This can't be where I will live can it I think to myself as I stare amazed into the parking we are in, with the number 12 on the top. “ And my Lucky number,” I mumble .

I slowly step one foot at a time out of the car. I gently walk in disbelief as I look at the mansion placed in front of me.

I walk towards the back of the new white  chevrolet suburban to get my  back pack with my essentials for the trip, but just as I take it from the back of the car  mom quickly jumps out of the car shouting hysterically “ Sweetie don't grab it, it will hurt your back and make your tired, you have gotta remember not to grab ANYTHING heavy-” “it's not heavy mom.” I interrupt in an irritated tone.

I keep on walking toward the house looking at the enormous green, beautiful yard and at the amazing pool reflecting the shining sun on it. I look back at dad as he looks at me “what do you think Alex?” I immediately run towards him with a big hug, and he kisses the top of my head stroking my falling hair.

As I enter the tall wooden door mom places her hand on my shoulder and I swing the door open and stare at the empty but beautiful modern house. 

As I inspected it I noticed that all the moving trucks had gotten here before us and all the big boxes were already there waiting for US. 

I instantaneously spot the 3 boxes with the name “Alex” on them.

I sprint towards them and open them brutally. 

At the top of the first box is my favorite, most memorable soccer ball signed by all the real madrid players which I had gotten as my 12th birthday gift, and right at the bottom of the soccer ball was my favorite  toy “Hamilton” the teddy bear that Dr. Hamilton had given me the day he told me I had cancer….

“ Alex, First of I want to give you this teddy bear because you have been extremely brave during all these tests,” he told me when he gave it to me, it was also when I felt there was something wrong with me because he looked at me with very sad and sorry eyes and mom was crying on dads shoulder in the waiting room.

As I keep on opening the boxes, stuff comes out that I had forgotten I had in there, like my first and current soccer cleats and my secret stash of candy, but I opened it at the wrong moment because just then mom walked past me and scowled “Alex I'm hoping that you will not eat that candy because Dr.Hamilton said NO CANDY, in fact give me all that candy right now and I will keep it until your can have it.”

“So never?” I shout “First cancer prohibits me from playing soccer, then I have to move and now I can't even have candy,” I shout with tears in my eyes, but I can tell mom is about to cry as well, either way I storm upstairs into a room that I don't even know is mine, but as I step inside and slam the door behind me, I get mesmerized by the the size of this grey room and the view of the turquoise atlantic ocean with sailboats sailing through and all the colorful houses leading towards it. 

As soon as I calm down I join my parents for dinner in the fancy kitchen. As I eat my juicy strawberries and drink my chilly milk I explore the house with my eyes: the tall kitchen counter, the long dining table and the hundreds of drawers to put who knows what.  As soon as I finished I counted and explored all the 11 luxurious bathrooms and decided which room I was hoping on getting which was the highest room with the beautiful view of sea, beach and stores, but more than anything it was because I had already planned where all the nice furniture would be and how it would look. The Bathroom would stay at the right and the bed would be in the middle next to the bed table in the right and my desk in the left, and all around, the room would be decorated with soccer posters, all my trophies, medals and my 1D posters.

Soon after, I quietly left the room with my soccer ball and slid into the backyard that already had a goal. I didn't want my parents to hear me because Dr. Hamilton had said to take a break on sports for at least a few weeks, but I didn't care what people told me or what stupid deciese I had nobody would stop me from playing soccer, or at least from taking some chots on the goal plus I WOULD take it easy. But just a few minutes through my “self made” training  my breath started getting shorter and instead of it being steady it became short and forced which had never happened to me in a 15 MINUTE TRAINING.  So I  went back inside and took an Opioid* to calm my breathing down and for the thorough pain. When my breathing steadied I went to mom and dad's room. “Good night,”   I whisper, kissing them both on the forehead and heading to my room. I lay down on the inflatable mattress with my favorite heartwarming “out of my mind” book and thoughtfully read a few pages until about 10 pm, right after that I prayed and asked god to please heal me, just like every day.  I also prayed for him to give me a lot of luck in my new school for tomorrow and to make tons of new friends that don't judge me for my disease. 

While thinking about my Miami impressions I start drifting off until I completely fall asleep…

7:30 AM

“ Sweety!!!   It's time to wake up,  are you ready?” My short hair is all over my face, and as I look at her I notice her pale face looking down toward me “ Omi god!! Are you feeling alright, are you sick? Does your head hurt?” “ Mom I'm fine okay?” I say sleepily but truthfully “ Okay, put on your clothes while I look for the thermometer.” I roll my eyes and put on skinny jeans and my real madrid shirt. Then mom puts the white thermometer under my tongue as I brush my hair.  “ beep, beep, beep,” my mom immediately pulls as the bright yellow numbers pop out “36.5.” See mom I'm fine.” I assure her  “ let me try again.” She insists so I open my mouth because I know that there is nothing that I can do  when my mom is acting this way.  Once again the accurate thermometer lets my mom know that I'm fine “36.5” mom sighs and tells me to quickly have a bit of breakfast because she doesn't want me to be late to school.

 I quickly eat my cereal with milk and my vanilla protein shake. Then I badly brush my teeth and race to the car. Mom is already there with her hands resting on the steering wheel. I nod and she accelerates. That's when I feel butterflies and start getting nervous. What if nobody likes me, or they know I have cancer, and they think I'm contagious, I look out the window to see the blues sky with small clouds and try to imagine animals to get me distracted.

Before I know it we are already at the big, modern, beautiful beaker MS. I know mom will want me to enter alone because it's a big transition and it will help me become independent but for once I want her to be worried about me and to go in with me but I know she will just tell me to go in.. ALONE. So I nervously open the door, grab my backpack and head into the now scary looking building. 

The second I step in through the door everybody looks at me as if I were some kind of animal “Oh great.”  I think “Everybody knows and I will be THE cancer girl  who has no friends.” but I walk looking up straight and just as I enter room A116 (HOMEROOM) I see a girl sitting down reading a book and on top of it all she has an Alex Morgan shirt. Stunned, I stupidly walked towards her and say “Hi I'm Alex, I'M new.” She slowly looks up and her eyes get bright as if she had just seen an angel and immediately exclaims “ You like soccer?” without expecting that question I twirl around modeling my real madrid shirt “ Of course.” I respond excitedly. She stands up and hugs me, but not a sorry you have cancer hug or an I'm here for you hug but an I don't know you are, friend kind of hug. “ I'm Abby.” she tells me with a beautiful white smile, and that was when I knew I had one friend at my new school.  Just then the bell rings and we sit together. 

Then Ms.Jennifer (homeroom teacher) announced that we had to choose 1 person to write a letter to and of course I wrote it to Abby, but instead of writing all about me (taking the cancer out) I wrote EVERYTHING, from loving books and soccer to HAVING CANCER and as soon as Ms. Jennifer said to hand out our letters SIX different girls and TWO boys gave their letters to Abby, which meant she was popular but I didn't care because she was MY friend. 

To my surprise I got 3 letters myself, one was from a boy named Lucas that liked soccer and another was from a girl from Arizona and one from Abby, but I was focused on seeing Abby’s reaction when she read the cancer part. But Either and she was taking a long time or she was a slow reader (which I doubted) or she just didn't care or maybe she had an AMAZING poker face or maybe she didn't even read it but deep inside I had a feeling she had read it but that it wouldn't affect our relationship.

As soon as I got home I hugged mom and she hugged me back, I knew everything would be okay, me moving, my health, my school, my friends and that I would SOON play soccer.