Free My Forever (Canary Series) by Cl King Page B

Riverbend, I'm staying here and possibly will be moving here."
    "What?" Both Emily and Christine said together.
    "Yeah, I applied for a transfer. I'm staying with Garrett until we hear something, if or when I get approved I will be moving in with him. But for the time being I'm staying with him, kind of as a trial run."
    "That’s great," Christine said with excitement in her voice.
    "How is this great Christine?" Emily said annoyed. "He was placed in Riverbend for a reason, that's where he belongs. He shouldn't transfer to Mapleleaf."
    " Emily that’s rude," Christine said as she was getting angry with Emily. "What's so wrong with Mapleleaf that Nate shouldn’t be here?"
    " Christy, nothing is wrong with Mapleleaf. It's just not the house that Nate was placed in. So why change it? Plus, he's been in Riverbend for four years now. We have a few months left. Why change this late in the game?"
    "Because I belong here Emily, that's why. You know nothing about what's going on and you have no room to judge. Plus, when I tested only one-tenth of a point separated the results between Riverbend and Mapleleaf," Nate explained, frustrated with Emily.
    Both Emily and Christine looked at him in shock. They couldn't believe what they had just heard. They hadn't ever seen him act like that. A few moments passed and everyone seemed to calm down.
    "I'm sorry Nate. Why don't you tell me what's going on," Emily said calmly.
    Nate looked at Christine when they heard the door open. Everyone looked to see who had come in and saw that it was Garrett.
    "Hey guys , sorry to interrupt, I'm just going to go to my room and finish up some homework," Garrett said as he started to pass them and head to his room.
    " Garrett, wait. Why don't you join us, it might be helpful to have you here for this," Nate said. He knew having Garrett here would help him convince Emily that he staying in Mapleleaf is a good thing. But he also knew that what was to come out about Emily and his past relationship with her might mess things up a bit.
    "Sure, OK, whatever you say," Garrett said as he went to go sit in the chair by Nate.
    Everyone just sat there and stared at each other in complete , awkward silence. Nate was looking at his watch and calculating how much time he had left before Olivia came back down. No one knew what to say or where to begin.
    "OK, this is crazy. What is going on?" Emily said to break the tension.
    Garrett , Nate, and Christine all looked at each other to see who would speak first. Both Garrett and Christine then looked at Nate and slightly nodded to signal that he should speak and to let him know that they were there for support. They knew that what he was going to say was tough. But they were also going to be surprised about something that he would be admitting. Christine knew partly about what was going to be said, but Garrett was going to be hearing some things for the first time.
    " Emily, the reason I haven't been around is because of Olivia. Yesterday she fell and broke her arm. When we were at the Medical Building she had some blood work done. The results came back abnormal and with the results and her medical history they realized that her cancer had come back."
    "Hold up, Olivia has cancer? What kind? And what do you mean by come back?" Emily asked in a way where she thought that Nate was joking and just made up this lie so she would forgive him for standing her up twice in twenty- four hours.
    Nate looked to Garrett asking him to explain to Emily that he wasn't lying. "A few years back Olivia got sick and during the summer got worse. So my parents took her to the doctor and we found out that she had leukemia. So during the summer she went through Chemo. Well, she beat it and didn't think that it would come back. We wished it wouldn't, but I guess we didn't wish hard enough because it did come back. Thankfully we caught it sooner this time so she has a better chance of beating it again." Garrett said, trying to sound positive; but a