Read Six for Free Online Page A

so I acted as if I didn’t care. As if I wasn’t dying. “I was trying too hard. Your report was better.”
    Shannon comes closer and sits down on the edge of my bed. It’s kind of a forward thing to do, especially after barging into my room uninvited. She smiles again. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna put the moves on you.”
    I smile back at her. “That’s good. I can’t really start a long-term relationship right now.”
    â€œMe neither.” She shakes her head. “My tumor is a pontine glioma. In plain English, that means ‘Good-bye, cruel world!’”
    I can’t think of anything to say in response. Shannon’s dying too. We’re in the same boat. I’m not happy to hear it, but at least I understand her a little better. She’s dying and she wants to talk. Maybe she thinks I can give her some advice.
    â€œI saw you when the paramedics brought you in yesterday,” she says. “My room is across the hall and my door was open. You were unconscious, but I caught a glimpse of you before they wheeled your gurney into your room.”
    Her eyes are dark brown. Above them, the wispy remnants of her eyebrows look like apostrophes. As I stare at her, I remember what she looked like in biology class a year ago: a pretty fifteen-year-old with shoulder-length black hair and dimples in her cheeks. She’s still pretty now, despite her swollen eye and twisted mouth. I want to tell her this, but I’m too chicken. “It’s weird,” I say instead. “This is a weird coincidence, don’t you think?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI mean, us being here on the same floor of the hospital.”
    Shannon stops smiling. “It’s not a coincidence. Your dad arranged it.”
    â€œArranged what?”
    â€œWait a second. You seriously don’t know about this?”
    I shake my head. I’m bewildered.
    â€œYour dad got in touch with my parents through the high school and told them there was a new treatment we could try. It was experimental, something his research lab had developed for you, but he said it might also be useful for other teenagers with terminal illnesses. He said he was recruiting kids to test the treatment and would explain everything to us at the hospital.”
    It doesn’t make sense. I never heard Dad say anything about a treatment he’d developed for me. I can’t even see how he’d be able to do it. He’s a computer scientist, not a medical researcher. “I’m sorry, but this is the first I’ve heard of it.”
    Shannon bites her lip. “Now I’m confused. Is there a treatment or not?”
    Lowering her gaze, she looks down at the bed, which is covered with a thin, white blanket. Her eyes turn glassy, and for a second I think she’s going to cry. She’s clearly invested a lot of hope in whatever promises Dad made to her parents. It might be a long shot, but it’s all she has.
    My chest aches. I don’t want Shannon to lose her last hope. I furrow my brow, trying to figure out what Dad is up to. I remember the conversation we had in his office before everything went haywire, and what Colonel Peterson said about Dad’s research. And something comes back to me. “You know what I think it is? It’s nanotechnology. That must be what Dad has in mind.”
    She looks up, cocking her head. “Nanotechnology?”
    â€œYeah, the science of building very small things.”
    â€œI know what nanotechnology is. I did an extra-credit report on that too.”
    I use my right arm to roll onto my side. I feel like I need to sit up if I want Shannon to take me seriously. “Okay, my dad works with the Department of Defense, right? And yesterday he got a visit from this colonel in the U.S. Cyber Command. This guy mentioned a laboratory called the Nanotechnology Institute. He said they were doing some amazing work