Chapter 5

Creating a bucket list is a lot harder to do when you've never considered doing it before, Lissa thought.

Lissa clicked down the pen and started to write.

There is a lot of things she could do in two years. She would have considered travelling, but she just didn't think she wanted to experience her headaches in a foreign country, where she wasn't surrounded by her usual doctors. She can't — won't — risk it. Los Angeles was massive, and full of awesome places she could use to carry out her List.

Things to do before I die:

1: Buy myself a Polaroid camera

2: Ride in a convertible car

3: Learn the basics of surfing

4: Go camping for a weekend

5: Learn to bake a 3-tier cake

6: Do live karaoke

7: Do bungee jumping

8: Go windsurfing

9: Indoor skydiving

10: Try Mexican food for the first

time

11: Go ice-skating

12: Eat a giant ice-cream

13: Watch the sun rise

14: Go to an arcade

15: Go to a nature reserve

16: Binge watch Netflix for a day

17: Take a picture in a field of roses

18: Catch a fish

19: Stargazing

20: Attend a concert

21: Sleep over with Jace

22:Ride a bike on the beach

23: Get a tattoo

24: Caged shark diving

25: Try a space simulator

26: Read the Game Of Thrones series

27: Change my hair colour

28: Let go of a floating lantern

29: Go to a shooting range

30: Hot air balloon ride

31: Paint a potrait

32: Go to an archery range

33: Dance in the rain

34: Learn to cook at least one dish

35: Donate blood

36: Have a lazy day in bed

37: Go paint balling

38: Take a ride on a childrens train

39: Take a picture with Santa Claus

40: See a new year's eve fireworks

display

41: Find my own secret place

42: Tie a message to balloons and let it

go

43: Carve my name into a tree

44: Ride a horse

45: Leave my hand prints in cement

46: Have a picnic on the roof

47: Plant flowers

48: Watch the sun set

49: Take a picture in front of a

waterfall

50: Have a movie night

51: Go mud sliding

52: Get a third piercing on my ear

53: Send a message in a bottle

54: Put a lock on a love bridge

55: Volunteer at a kids hospital for a

day

56: Make a gingerbread house

57: Volunteer at the aquarium for

one day

58: Go zip lining

59: Donate clothes to charity

60: Watch a movie at the rooftop

cinema

61: Swimming with dolphins

62: Write a goodbye poem to Jace

63: Learn how to do

embroidery (basics)

64: Make goodbye video

65: Outing to a museum

66: Try different science experiments

67: Clean my room (not very fun)

68: Have a stay-awake

69: Customise my closet

70: Pie eating contest

71: Do an escape room

72: Basic makeup course

73: Write a short story

74: Play golf for a day

75: Halloween themed photoshoot

76: Catch live jazz at the Culver Hotel

77: Attend the opera

78: Rent a pedal boat at echo park lake

79: Climb the Culver City Stairs

80: Go rollerskating at the Moonlight

Rollerway skating rink

81: Take a photo in front of the urban

light installation at LACMA

82: Have a beach bonfire at Dockweiler

83: Make ice cream sandwiches

84: Learn how to make neon signs in the

arts districts

85: Studio tour at paramount pictures

86: Do the L.A marathon

87: Create a custom donut sign platter

from California Donuts

88: Participate in the Halloween Parade

in West Hollywood

89: Walk down the Hollywood Walk Of

Fame

90: See the latest exhibit at the Getty

91: See the world's largest animal

92: Say hi to a black bear at the zoo

93: Walk by the Venice canals

94: Take a picture with a wax celebrity

95: Buy things at the Rose Bowl Flea

Market

96: Attend the prom

97: Graduate

98: Attend a radio talk show

99: Star in a music video

100: Take a picture in front of the

Hollywood sign

“So this is what a bucket list looks like? Unorganised, but it's not like I planned for this to happen.” she told herself looking at her scribbled handwriting. That night she dubbed her bucket list, her List. Four pages connected end-to-end.

“I am going to make this the best 2 years of my life. That's a promise.” she said, staring down at her List.

Lissa put the List and pen in the drawer beside the hospital bed, had a text marathon with Jace for the remainder of the night. Thereafter, at about ten, she drifted away into a slumber filled with horrors of impending darkness.

Flickers of her imminent and inescapable decease, was running a race in her subconsciousness, encasing her mind in a deep and dangerous box of hopes and dreams that will never be fulfilled, with no means of escaping.

Until her alarm went off...