They all bounded down the stairs to catch up with the rest of the family who was setting up cameras and camcorders. Their mother looked up from loading film. "Taylor, get a shirt on." Tay groaned, "it's hot in here!" "Taylor, I don't care, no one really wants to see you with your shirt off." Jessica walked in on that comment, "Their fans would!" Diana smiled, and Tay turned red. "Fine, I'm going!" And he trudged back up the stairs.
The phone rang when the telephone rang. Taylor grabbed the cordless, "hello?" A very weak, female voice responded, "Taylor?" "Sarah, is that you?" "Yeah, hi Taylor, Merry Christmas." "Merry Christmas to you too!" "Are you going to come by the hospital?" "Yeah! We also have your gift's here!" She smiled on the other end. "That's good, Tay, I'm not feeling to well so I'm going to let you go. Tell everyone I said hello and Merry Christmas, and I wish I could see all of you guys. Goodbye Tay." And she hung up.
Taylor felt terrible. Sarah had known them all since they were younger. But about a year ago her heart started failing. She had been on the emergency donor list but so far nothing. They visited her at least once or twice a week and talked to her. Sarah was turning 17 tomorrow and they all had gotten her Christmas and birthday gifts. He came downstairs, "hey guys, Sarah called and said hello and Merry Christmas." "Why didn't you let me know, I would have talked to her?" Ike replied getting a spare tape for his video camera. Taylor looked at him, "Ike, she's getting worse." Ike stopped and looked at him. Tay and Sarah were joined at the hip but Ike and Sarah had always had this romantic thing either of them had figured out. "We'll go visit her right after we're done." "That's fine." Ike looked away and finished up.
They all had taken showers and gotten dressed. Taylor and Ike were loading the back of the car with Sarah's gifts. Zac came running out making Tarzan noises. "Don't look at him, and don't question it." Tay grinned at Isaac's comment and loaded about 15 more gifts in the car. Sarah's parents also had trouble financially. They worked all the time trying to support them and pay for Sarah's bills. Some arrangements were made so the Hanson family helped with some of the hospital bills and her parents took care of the house payments and everything else. Taylor loaded the last package, "ok, we're done." Both of them ignored Zac's antics and this was making him upset. "HELLO! EARTH TO IKE EARTH TO TAY! I AM ALIVE HERE YOU KNOW!" This upset the two, "Zac, shut up." Zac understood everything that was going on but didn't pay much attention to it because he always kept thinking she'd get better. He didn't want to accept the fact that Sarah might die. She had bailed him out of a lot of trouble in the past in return he was the one who got her pictures and autographs of famous people. They all rounded themselves into the car and Ike started the engine. "Ok, let's go." And they drove off towards the hospital.
Sarah woke up when she heard the door open. Her mouth was dry and she felt weak. Her heart ached from pumping and the tips of her fingers, toes, and lips were tinged blue from lack of oxygenated blood flowing through them. It hurt to breathe and as morbid as it is for her to think like this about somebody. She wished sometimes that one day she would hear, "Sarah, someone died and you can have their heart!" But she knew the chances of that happening were slim. The doctors told her earlier that day that she needed a heart in about 3 weeks or she would die. She didn't want to tell Ike, Tay, or Zac that. Especially on Christmas day, it wasn't the right time. "Halloo Sarah!" And Zac bounded in with about 9 packages. "Zac!" Sarah smiled and then looked in awe; "whose are those?" "Oh, they're mine!" Taylor walked in, "yeah right Zac, you wish!" He was holding about 5 packages. And Ike finally walked in with 6 wrapped gifts. "Merry Christmas Sarah!" And they all put the gifts on the bed and pulled chairs up to her bed. She almost started crying, "you guys, you didn't have to get my any gifts." Taylor hugged her, "please don't cry, we enjoyed picking them out!" She looked at them, "you guys are the nicest!"
She wiped her eyes and her chest tightened. She put her hand to her heart and started taking shallow breaths. "Sarah, are you ok?" All of them stood up and hovered over her. "Sarah?" And she started blacking out, and pushed the emergency help button before she passed out into black nothingness.
