Sixteen and Dying (17 page)

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F YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT

K
ATIE AND
C
HELSEA, BE SURE TO READ

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C
helsea James and Katie O’Roark met at Jenny House and spent a wonderful summer together.

Now Chelsea and her mother are staying with Katie as Chelsea awaits news about a heart transplant. While waiting for a compatible donor, Chelsea meets Jillian, a kind, funny girl who’s waiting for a heart-lung transplant. The two girls become fast friends. When Chelsea meets Jillian’s brother, he awakens feelings in her she’s never known before. But as her medical situation grows desperate, Chelsea finds herself in a contest for her life against her best friend. Is it fair that there’s a chance for only one of them to survive?

“Don’t you see? There’s one donor coming in. Only one. Who will the doctors save? Who will get the transplant?”

For a moment Josh stared blankly as her question sank in. “Katie, you don’t know for sure there’s only one donor.”

“Yes, I do. There’s only one. One heart. Two lungs. The doctor said the donor’s family had given permission for all her organs to be donated.” Katie’s voice had risen with the tide of panic rising in her. “There’s two people in need and only one heart.”

Katie and Chelsea are also featured in the novels
Please Don’t Die
and
A Season for Goodbye
.

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F YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT
L
ACEY
,

BE SURE TO READ

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O
ut of control—that’s how Lacey Duval feels in almost every aspect of her life. There’s nothing she can do about her parents’ divorce, there’s nothing she can do about the death of her young friend, there’s nothing she can do about having diabetes—that’s what Lacey believes.

After a special summer at Jenny House, Lacey is determined to put her problems behind her. When she returns to high school, she is driven to become a part of the in crowd. But Lacey thinks fitting in means losing weight and hiding her diabetes. She starts skipping meals and experimenting with her medication—sometimes ignoring it altogether.

Her friends from the summer caution her to face her problems before catastrophe strikes. Is it too late to stop the destructive process Lacey has set in motion?

She went hot and cold all over. It was as if he’d shone a light into some secret part of her heart and something dark and ugly had crawled out. She
had
rejected Jeff because she didn’t want a sick boyfriend. She’d said as much to Katie at Jenny House
.

“It’s any sickness, Jeff. It’s mine too. I hate it all. I know it’s not your fault, but it’s not mine either.”

“I’ll bet no one at your school knows you’re a diabetic.”

She said nothing
.

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“You know, Lacey, you’re the person who won’t accept that you have a disease. Why is that?”

She whirled on him. “How can you ask me that when you’ve just admitted that girls drop you once they discover you’re a bleeder? You of all people should understand why I keep my little secret.”

Lacey is also featured in the novels
Please Don’t Die
and
A Season for Goodbye
.

I
F YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT KATIE
,

C
HELSEA, AND
L
ACEY, BE SURE TO READ

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T
ogether again. It’s been a year since Katie O’Roark, Chelsea James, and Lacey Duval shared a special summer at Jenny House. The girls have each spent the year struggling to fit into the world of the healthy. Now they’re back, this time as “big sisters” to a new group of girls who also face life-threatening illnesses.

But even as the friends strive to help their “little sisters” face the future together, they must separately confront their own expectations. Katie must decide between an old flame and an exciting scholarship far from home. Chelsea must overcome her fear of romance. And Lacey must convince the boy she loves that her feelings for him can be trusted.

When tragedy strikes Jenny House, each of the girls knows that things can never be the same. Will Lacey, Chelsea, and Katie find a way to carry on the legacy of Jenny House? Can their special friendship endure?

“Over here!” Katie called. “I found it.”

Chelsea and Lacey hurried to where Katie was crouched, digging through a pile of dead leaves. The tepee was partially buried, and Chelsea held her breath, hoping that the laminated photo and Jillian ‘s diamond stud earring were still tied to it
.

“It’s come apart,” Katie said, lifting up the twigs in three parts. But from the corner of one of the sticks, the laminated photo dangled, and from its center the diamond caught the afternoon sunlight
.

The photo looked faded, but Amanda still smiled from the center of their group. Chelsea felt a lump form in her throat. These days, she and Katie and Lacey looked older, more mature, healthier too. But Amanda looked the same, her gamine smile frozen in time. And ageless
.

Katie took the photo from Lacey’s trembling fingers. “We were quite a bunch, weren’t we?”

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K
atie O’Roark is thrilled to learn that Jenny House is being rebuilt. After the fire last year, Katie thought she could never return to the camp, where she spent the summers with young men and women like her who faced medical odds that were stacked against them. But thanks to Richard Holloway’s efforts, Katie and her longtime friends Lacey and Chelsea will work as counselors once again. They’ll be joined by Megan Charnell, Morgan Lancaster, and Eric Lawrence, who are newcomers to Jenny House but who have experienced the generosity of the One Last Wish Foundation.

It’s not until Katie arrives at camp that she discovers that Josh Martel, her former boyfriend, is also a counselor. Katie and Josh broke up a year ago, when Katie decided to go away to college. Being near Josh again brings back a flood of old emotions for Katie. And when Josh confronts unexpected adversity, Katie knows she has to work out her feelings for him. Through the heart transplant she underwent years ago, Katie miraculously received a gift of new life. Now she must discover how to make the most of that precious gift and choose her future.

She stopped. By now tears had filled her eyes and her heart felt as if it might break. She truly believed that God had heard her prayer. What she did not know was whether or not he would grant her request. Against great odds, God had given her a new heart when she’d desperately needed one. And he had brought Josh into her life as well. She believed that with all her heart and soul. Now there was nothing more she could do except wait. And have faith
.

Katie lifted her arms in the moonlight in supplication to the heavens
.