Whatever condition Margaret has, it isn’t pretty. The doctors give her six months to a year, but she can tell they’re just guessing.

She’s still in school, though, taking everything except gym. You never know, after all, there might be a miracle, she might make it from sophomore year to senior and die a high school graduate instead of a high school dropout. Anyway, she needs something to do other than think about it.

The school does know, of course, even if the other students think she’s just tired all the time. So when she drags herself to the nurse in the middle of English with a fever of a hundred and three, the nurse doesn’t hesitate to call her father and her father doesn’t hesitate to come and take her to the doctor.