Riverbranch Avenue, **** 8am

"Mom?" Cassandara called. It was 8am in the morning and she was heading to work. Today was the day the newspaper was going to be released. The halls were quiet. "Mom? Mom?!" She called again. It was still quiet. She suspected something was wrong, but everytime she did, she would shrug it off and let life take the way.

But soon, she started to hear coughing. And the coughing got louder as she walked closer to the kitchen. "Mom!" Cassandara called, a little louder. She peeped her head out to the kitchen and dropped her jaw as soon as she saw her poor mother on the floor, coughing mucus.

"MOM!" Cassandara shouted. She dropped her bags and ran over to her mother. She bent down and helped her mother get up.

Mrs. Aporson looked up and smiled. "Hello, dear," she spoke in a soft voice.

"What's..." Cassandara spoke. "What's going on with you?"

"I-" Mrs. Aporson said but she sighed. "Cass, I need the doctor." Cassandara widened her eyes. "The doctor.. please call the doctor."

Cassandara looked at her mom and then her bag. She got up and slowly walked to her bag with teary eyes. Cassandara bent over and picked up her phone. She dialed a close doctor, looking at her mother while staring at her phone.

The person from the other line answered and Cassandara felt her eyes tearing up. "Hello? May I schedule an appointment."

Riverbranch Avenue, **** Doctors 8am

They warned her, they told her, but she stubbornly denied. Cassandara waited, tapping her fingers on her legs with a scared look on her face. She had just called her manager that she was going to be late for work and he understood.

She calmed down, taking in a breath. 'It was only once, right?' She thought, forcing a smile. And if something did happen to her, she would just give her a few medical treatments and go on for the rest of her life. Cassandara was the relaxed type, she never overthought.

Her father wasn't here as usual. Even though he was supposed to be here, he wasn't. Cassandara took her phone out, and gazed at the latest message she sent her father.

Hey, father. Mom's at a doctor's appointment, I was wondering if you had the time to come here since she was coughing up mucus. Please?

But as she stared at her phone, a voice inside her mind started telling her how much her dad didn't care. Its been like this since she was 10, but the reason why she never thought of it much was because she never really remembered the life she had with her dad before he got that new job.

Why was she thinking about things now?

Cassandara decided to shrug that voice off again. She couldn't be thinking about things now. She was a relaxed type, she never thought about things, and she let life do its thing.

But Cassandara scrolled up through her messages and realized how barely her father texted back. She only saw about four or five messages from him. And all they said were 'Get ready, we're going to another meeting.'

She rolled her eyes. Since he decided to stop caring, Cassandara started to stop caring about him either. And as much as careless goes, she stopped caring about every bad thing in life too.

Cassandara slid her phone away as soon as one of the doctors came in and told them that it was time. Cassandara and Mrs. Aporson quickly got up, and followed the nurse all the way to a room.

They finally arrived to a room that was decorated with plants and had doctor related tools. It also had a nice smell and welcoming signs. "So, was it only the mucus coughing that brought you here?"

"No," Mrs. Aporson said. "It was also because of severe headaches and I've recently been having struggle breathing," she explained and the doctor immediately started writing things down on her clipboard.

"What?" Cassandara gasped. Mrs. Aporson only turned to her and nodded.

"Okay, what else?" The nurse asked.

"Weight loss, lack of appetite, chest pain, and coughing," Mrs. Aporson finished. Cassandara gulped and she held her mom's hand.

The nurse looked down at her clipboard and widened her eyes. She was quiet for a couple of seconds, looking hesitant.

Both Aporsons looked nervous. They held each other's hands tighter. "Those symptoms," the nurse finally said. "They all lead to TB," Cassandara widened her eyes and clawed on her legs deeper. "Tuberculosis."

Cassandara widened her eyes. She let go of her mom's hand with shocked expressions. She turned to her mother, who looked as scared. "What?" Cassandara said.

"Your mother, she has Tuberculosis," the nurse repeated looking a little ashamed. "Those are symptoms of Tuberculosis, I suggest you take her to a hospital-"

"But it can't be!" Cassandara shouted, standing up. "Those are normal things for someone her age, she's fine! It'll go away in a couple of weeks."

"Hon..." Mrs. Aporson spoke softly.

"I'm sorry, Ms," the nurse said. "You'll have to take vaccinations for 4, 6, or 9 months. Its to help the TB disease. And also, stay away from people as much as you can and wear a mask. It may spread."

The nurse stood up and grabbed a shot. "I'm going to have to give you a vaccination for the disease." She said, taking an alchohol wipe too.

Mrs. Aporson lifted her sleeve while Cassandara panicked. "Well? When do we need to bring her to the hospital?" The nurse wiped off the blood and she gave Mrs. Aporson a bandadge.

"When she's coughing up blood or have blood in the urine," the nurse answered. "Here are the symptoms for Tuberculosis," she said, handing them a list.

Cassandara mentally read all of them and widened her eyes when she did. These symptoms were exactly what she saw that was happening to her mom, and they were what her mom had described to the nurse. She didn't know why she was acting surprised now, it wasn't like she got surprised earlier when the nurse said her mom had TB.

"These are fake," Cassandara finally said in her stubborn habit. "They're not true, my mother can't have TB!"

But the nurse and Mrs. Aporson looked at each other and then sighed.

"Cassandara?" Mrs. Aporson spoke.

"Yes?"

"You are."

Cassandara blinked, "Excuse me?"

"You are stubborn. You really are."

Riverbranch Avenue **** News For Yous 6:15pm

"Tuberculosis?" Ariana spoke, dropping her jaw.

"My great grandma had that too," Robert added.

"Yeah.. I'm gonna need Julie to take care of my mother more than ever," Cassandara muttered.

Work had just ended and they were dropping off Cassandara in Robert's car. Cassandara sat shotgun while Ariana was in the backseat. "Does Julie know the symptoms?" Ariana asked.

"Yeah," Cassandara nodded. "I gave her the sheet of paper before I left for work. I think she knows how to take care of every symptom."

The car turned right and Robert slowed his car down with wide eyes. Cassandara turned to him and then to Ariana. "What?" She asked.

"Cassandara, look!" Robert said. They all turned their attention to the front. Cassandara widened her eyes when she saw a bunch of people who looked like landlords surrounding her house.

"Mom? Mom!" Cassandara yelled. Robert stopped his car in the middle of the road. Cassandara stammered a little before quickly stepping out the car door, and slamming the door behind her.

"Cassandara!" Mrs. Aporson spoke. Cassandara blinked at the landlords before walking towards her mother. "See! My daughter did pay the bills," Mrs. Aporson claimed.

"It says in her record that she didn't," One of the landlord argued as he was checking something on a piece of paper. "In fact, none of you have been paying the bills in quite a long time." He bit his lip before admitting, "I may even have to sell your property."

"WHAT!?" Cassandara shouted. Robert and Ariana stood behind her, watching all of this. "But I paid last month! Besides, I have two weeks to pay!"

"I believe my best friend," Ariana said sternly in Cassandara's defense.

"She didn't," the landlord said, showing her the paper. The Aporsons' house had a broken record. They really haven't been paying their bills. 

"Umm," Ariana pursed her lips before taking in a sharp breath. "Nevermind," she stepped away.

"But I don't have enough money right now," Cassandara admitted. "I'll pay when I have enough!"

"You had since last month's deadline to pay, Ms. Aporson," the landlord said. "I'm giving you 30 days, alright? You have the option to either use those 30 days to get ready to move out or to earn money for the bills."

"But 30 days isn't enough!" Cassandara pointed out. She started to tremble, remembering about her mother's issues. She already had her mother's Tuberculosis to worry about and from the looks of her small reporter job, she couldn't earn enough money to pay for both.

She had to do something within these 30 days.

Cassandara looked at the record the landlord had. This was gonna be atleast 4 weeks and a couple of days of nothing but hard work and double jobs. It was gonna be endless weeks of hardworking and perseverance but Cassandara didn't even know where to start. She looked at her mother and then the landlord who was still waiting for her decision.

Her mother did mention Cassandara's stubborness. Julie did too. Maybe its time she expressed it in a good way.

Robert and Ariana knew about Mrs. Aporson's TB. They looked at Cassandara with doubtful eyes but widened them when she finally decided, "Fine." Mrs. Aporson looked quite surprised aswell.

Cassandara continued, "In 30 days, I will keep this house. I will keep everything, and anything. I'm paying the rent, trust me," she said in a confident way as if she knew what she was doing.

She didn't.

The jobs here paid way less than the jobs at Everglow Street. In Riverbranch, if you worked extra hours for 5 weeks, you won't get paid as much as a person getting paid 20 dollars for every hour they worked in a computer. It wasn't like Everglow Street.

For Riverbranch, Everglow was many people's dreams. It was like Hollywood to them where rich and famous people ran the place. But for an average person living in Riverbranch, being rich was just a dream.

"You better find a solution fast," the landlord said, hopping onto the van. "You only have 30 days to do it."

"You can count on me,"

"But remember, Aporson. This isn't only about you paying the rent, this is about your house and continuing the 'shelter life' for you and your mother," the landlord added while gripping onto the back door. "Do not lose this opportunity."

Cassandara only nodded in response.

These 30 days are going to be long...