Rules for 5050 Chances by Kate McGovern

Author:Kate McGovern [McGovern, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374301606
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2015-11-24T08:00:00+00:00

“Walk me through this one more time,” Lena says in a stage whisper, leaning across the heavy oak table in the reading room of the library. We have a study hall, but we’re obviously not studying. I’ve just finished telling her, also in a stage whisper, about my visit to Dr. Howard. “You’re legitimately planning to take this test now, to find out if you’re going to get your mother’s disease approximately twenty years or more from now?”

I notice the reference librarian shooting us a dirty look, and I think Lena notices too, but we both ignore her. “If you could find out if you were going to get colon cancer, wouldn’t you want to know?”

“My dad’s cancer wasn’t genetic, so, moot point,” she says, tapping a neon green highlighter against her physics notebook.

“Not moot point. If it had been genetic, if you could take a test and know with one hundred percent certainty, I’m going to get it or not, wouldn’t you want to know?”

Lena stares past my head, into the middle space of the reading room. She chews her lip for a moment, unconsciously, squinting. Maybe she’s thinking about what it was like when her dad was sick or something, I don’t know. There were five months between Lena’s father’s diagnosis and his funeral. We were young, but not young enough to forget that mad dash from normal life to something unrecognizable.

“If it meant I could do something about it, then yes, sure. But if there wasn’t anything I could do, then no. No way.”

“I just don’t think that’s true. I think if you were in the situation, you’d feel differently.” I see her point, though. There’s no treatment for Huntington’s, nothing you can do except wait for the first hand tremor, the first fender-bender, and watch it progress. It spares no one.

She shrugs. “Whatever you say.”

It’s probably time to tell Lena the real reason I’ve been mulling this over so obsessively. That there’s more than one big decision hanging in the balance, and I have to nail something down or I’m going to go crazy.

“Miss Julia wants me to audition for a scholarship. At UVPA.”

Lena’s eyes snap to attention. “Wait, what? A full ride?”

“Full ride.”

“Hello! Oh my god! That’s amazing!”

“I don’t have the audition yet. I have to make a tape and send it to them if I want to be considered.”

The librarian trots over to our table. “Come on, girls,” she says. “You need to leave the reading room if you want to chat.”

“Sorry,” I say. Lena waits until the librarian’s back is turned, and then does a silent scream, pumping her fists in the air wildly. She leans in again.

“I can record you. That’s easy. UVPA is your dream school! Unless you found out just this second, I’m offended that you didn’t tell me sooner!”

I do feel a little guilty about that. I’ve never kept a secret from Lena for much longer than it takes to write a text message, let alone a whole week.

“I know.

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