Lance McClain was filled with joy. He found it in everything. He had a huge family, that filled his heart with nothing but love and support. He was an optimistic thinker, and he found happiness in the smallest of things. He always carried a wide smile on his face, and held his shoulders high.

      He loved music. He could spend hours strumming a simple tune on his guitar. After 10 years of practice, he had practically mastered the piano. He was in love with any instrument that made a pretty sound or created a beat.

     And along with music, came dancing. He loved watching dancers, going to his sisters ballet performances. He also loved being the dancer. He could bust out some pretty good moves, but he also loved simply swaying to a good tune in the kitchen.

      He loved animals. He loved dogs, cats, Sharks, anything alive really. He appreciated the diversity of the earth and would never hesitate to pet a strangers puppy.

He loved the outdoors. Skiing, running, hiking, relaxing at the beach, anything activity where he could take in the sunlight. Especially surfing.

He loved flowers. Natures colorful little masterpieces. He loved giving them to his loved ones. He loved picking them in the spring, and making flower crowns for his siblings.

He loved snow and the cold. He would go to Durango, Colorado every winter, and he loved it. He loved snowboarding, skiing, sledding, he loved it all.

He loved the ocean. He loved surfing and swimming. He just loved the water, and the waves.

Not surprisingly, he also loved the beach. He loved the happiness. He loved all the people and the sunshine. He loved finding seashells to give to his little siblings. He loved sun bathing to deepen his tan and gain a few more freckles.

Lance loved coloring pages and Christmas lights. He loved the colors yellow and blue. Lance loved football, playing against his siblings, nephews, nieces, parents. Lance loved painting. Spreading colors over a canvas and creating a whole new world was this boys favorite activity.

Lance was positively in love with life.

But it wasn't always that way.

On his 14th birthday he went to the park with his family to play football. It was the McClain Super Bowl, held every year on The same day. His birthday.

The whole family played for hours, taking up the entire field with their rowdiness. Because the McClain family was huge, wild, and loud. Lance was always the happiest on that day of the year.

Except this one.

He blew out the candles on the cake made by his mama. There was a huge "14" written on the top in beautiful blue frosting. Then, everyone rushed off to play. Lance noticed he felt a little... sore?

But he ran after his siblings anyway.

      The game started, his grandparents were there cheering everyone on, with his sister Crystal. Crystal was 4 months pregnant with her first baby.

     The rest of the McClaim siblings, were tackling each other to the ground and screaming. The older ones occasionally swearing, and lances parents laughing and jogging down the field.

     Lance loved his parents. They both worked insanely hard at everything they did. They fell deeply in love in high school, and the rest was history. Lance aspired to be in love the way they were. Always competing, and messing with each other. They were best friends and lovers.

     Lance and his siblings were all insanely different. They all looked about the same, but were each equipped with a unique personality and special set of skills.

~an: a full list of lances siblings with descriptions, interests, and ages will be given in a chapter or so.

     He was chasing down his younger brother Christian, when his older one came sprinting behind him. All three boys were laughing and screaming, trying to get a hand on the ball. When suddenly...

      There was a noise like no other... a snap... a crack...

      Lance was slammed into the ground. His ankle was roaring with pain. He rolled onto his back and pulled his knees to his chest, clutching the pain.

     But no one had landed on top of him. Lance was skinny, but he was fast. The only McClain that could catch him was his sister Alex. Lance didn't know what had happened at all. He felt lost.... everything was spinning. He watched as Christian and Andrew came peering over him. They looked horrified... but at what?

     Lance heard himself scream. Everything was spinning. More McCain's appeared, standing
over him looking down. He felt himself being scooped up be Andrew. He tried to not move his foot.

     Andrew carried lance bridal style all the way to the McClains home, where Lance's parents then took him to the hospital.

    That's where it all began.

     Lance's birthday present that year was severely breaking his ankle. But doctors were confused as to why, because neither of his brothers tackled him. His bones just... snapped.

     He opened the rest of his presents in his hospital, it wasn't ideal, but he was grateful.

     The next few days were filled with full body scans and big pieces of machinery. There were lots of X-ray machines and words Lance didn't understand.

     After what felt like lots of waiting, money spent, and a very long emotional roller coaster, lances family got a call.

    They were told to come in, and see Lance's doctor, Mr. Puma.

    They were sat in a small office in the hospital. Mr. Puma was a fairly young doctor, with black hair and light eyes, that were surrounded by glasses. He smiled a lot, and knew exactly how to make a 14 year old boy laugh. But today he seemed... different.

     Lance noticed that when he greeted them... his hands twitched. His smile was more lopsided than usual... and his overall demeanor wasn't as happy.

   So, Lance asked him what was wrong, and if he needed any help. He could've sworn he saw a tear in his eye.

     Mr. Puma cleared his throat, and with a sad, mellow voice gave Lance news that made his entire world fall apart.

     He had bone cancer.

     There were tumors in his bones, in his very structure, that were trying to kill him.

     That's what made his ankle so fragile it snapped. That is what would ruin the rest of his life. That is what would kill him, if he didn't act fast.

     A million thoughts raced through Lances head. Was he going to die? Would he ever make it past his teenage years? How much would this cost his parents? Would he have
To have chemotherapy treatments? What were his parents thinking? Was bone cancer easily treatable? How many people die from bone cancer?

      He left that doctors appointment feeling empty. And broken. And more than anything, terrified.

     He began his first chemotherapy treatment not much later. He slowly got weaker. He began to lose his hair. He got even slimmer than he already was, and began to lose his speed. He couldn't wrestle his siblings anymore. He couldn't even take his dog for a walk.

      All he did was sit around. And feel bad for himself. And eat... and then he would often throw up his food. And he spend many hours at the hospital.

     And he met a kind intern doctor, Shiro. He often saw him when getting his chemotherapy treatments, and it always lightened his moods. He also met a girl named Pidge. She was small, and also going through chemo therapy. She was very young, a genius, and wore a lot of green. She had a hole in her neck, due to the treatment she needed on her throat cancer. Lance liked Pidge. They spent the long, painful nights in the hospital together and talked about space.

As Pidges hair began to fall out, so did Lances. They ended up bonding over it, and making pretty cloths with Lances older sister, Alex. Lance's was many different shades of blue whole Pidge's was green. They both wore them all the time, and continued to tie them on as bracelets as their hair would grow back.

The next few years of Lances life were very up and down. He was homeschooled now, attending public school became awful for too many reasons. He spent the majority of his time painting, or hanging out with Pidge.

They almost lost each other several times, and it was hard. It was hard waking up in the morning and immediately having to text your best friend to make sure they're alive. But they always did. Lance once slept in until 1pm, and Pidge panicked because she didn't receive the insanely important "cancer hasn't killed me yet" text.

Lance spent so much time being sad. Sad he couldn't play football, sad he couldn't run like normal kids, sad he couldn't look like normal kids. He was just sad.

But one day, he got very close to losing his life. Extremely close. His family thought they had lost him.

But he woke up. He came back. And from that day on, he lived his life to the very fullest. He lived his life with joy. Because there was so much to be sad about, but there was also so much to be happy about.

His health was still a rollercoaster, but with his mood up, life got better.

Now, 3 years later, he's 17. He still has the overly positive attitude today. And somehow, cancer hasn't killed him yet.

     Hunk moved into the house next door, and they became best friends quickly. Pidge has been off of chemotherapy for a year now. Her cloth she made with Lance always tied around her wrist.

     And Lance, he wasn't better yet, but he was still fighting.

     On September 16th His mom pulled up in front of the hospital and they got out of the car. Lance had his blue cloth tied around his wrist, because his hair had slowly began coming back. They walked to the front desk and his mom began chatting with the woman there, who they knew quite well by now. It was always her shift when he was there for an appointment.

*trigger warning

     Suddenly there were sirens outside. Lance wasn't exactly surprised, considering where he was. But as he watched the ambulance doors open, he nearly had to turn away.

     So much blood. It must've been a car crash victim or something, because whoever was on the stretcher was surrounded in gauze and other white material that was being stained red.

As the human on the stretcher was being rushed closer, lance saw the majority of the white was surrounding the figures forearms.

Oh no.

Lance had been here long enough to know what that meant.

The stretcher disappeared behind large white doors, and the figures family members were left on the other side. A blonde woman and a taller man. They didn't look as sad as most parents... just frazzled. Odd.

Lance had a crease in his brow, he was worried about the figure under all the white material. He prayed Shiro wasn't on shift today, he was always so sad when a patient died... but the suicide victims really got to him.

It was going to be a long day.

-

I hope you enjoyed.
I'm sorry for any spelling/grammar errors
I would also like to apologize if I'm offending anyone. I realize these are some touchy topics, and if it bothers you please don't read. I love writing angst, but I don't want it to really hurt or offend anyone!
Have an amazing night.
<3
Later