Annika Knudson, second from left, is surrounded by friends Shannon Tichenor, Jayke Workman and Erin Scherl. Shannon, Jayke and Erin recently recorded a two-song CD to benefit Annika, who has Burkitt's lymphoma.

Raintree Montessori students wear wristbands to support Annika.

From left, Shannon Tichenor, Jayke Workman and Erin Scherl wrote and recorded a song to support their friend Annika Knudson, who has cancer.

Annika Knudson, a student at Raintree Montessori School, swings in the school's courtyard.

Erin Scherl cried when her dad told her the news.

Her friend, Annika Knudson, had cancer.

When she was done crying, she started thinking: What could she and her friends do to help Annika?

This was in early February. Annika, 11, had been sick. The family thought it was the flu, but an observant doctor at Lawrence Memorial Hospital knew it was more.

Annika had Burkitt’s lymphoma. Surgeons at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., removed a cancerous portion of her colon, and she started chemotherapy.

She was going to be gone awhile from Raintree Montessori School, where she’s attended since she was a toddler. But her friends wanted her to know they hadn’t forgotten about her.

“I just thought we should do something for her,” Erin says. “If we didn’t, that would be kind of not expressing our feelings.”

So the group of three friends — Erin, Jayke Workman and Shannon Tichenor — did what comes naturally to them.

“We decided to write a song for her,” Jake says.

But what would it say?

They brainstormed. They thought about their friend, her infectious high-pitched giggle and how they never thought this could happen to someone so active and caring.

“It took awhile,” Shannon says. “But then Jayke said, ‘soldier without armor.’ And we were like, ‘Ooh … say it again! Say it again!'”

Erin wrote the lyrics: “You can find your way now. There’s no need to be afraid. We are all together. Lean on us, it’s OK.”

“It’s like, you’re a soldier without armor, and it will be OK,” Erin says. “It’s just reassuring to her and to us that she’s going to get out of the hospital, and she’s going to be a normal person again. She’s going to be OK.”

The students played “Soldier without Armor” for Mike West, a member of the band Truckstop Honeymoon, who owns a recording studio in Lawrence. He invited them to the studio to record the song, and one other the students wrote.

Jayke sang lead vocals. Shannon played piano and sang harmony. Several guest musicians — including Jayke’s and Shannon’s dads — helped out.

The kids came up with the idea of selling the CD to help Annika’s family.

“I just want to raise money for Annika,” Shannon says. “This whole thing must have really taken a toll on her family and especially her. We want to make sure she gets OK.”

Annika first heard the song at the Valentine’s Day party at Raintree.

“It’s just really beautiful,” she says.

She went through her second — and, for now, final — round of chemo this week. After the first round in February, she sometimes listened to the song instead of taking pain medication when she felt uncomfortable.

“A few times, I’ve just had to listen to it on repeat, just over and over,” she says. “I don’t like to take Oxycodone, unless I really have to. And the song is probably the only other thing that works.”

Annika’s mom, Karla, says the long-term prognosis is positive. They’re lucky to have found the cancer in its early stages.

But things will be rough for awhile. The chemo makes her daughter sick, lose weight and lose her hair.

Karla finds her mind wandering back to the song.

“You don’t really realize how much your friends love you, I don’t think,” she says. “And that’s unfortunate, that sometimes it takes a situation like this. It’s really a beautiful thing.”

Annika admits the song doesn’t completely capture what she’s going through. How could it?

But even with powerful lyrics, actions speak louder than words.

“I think it’s just the idea of doing all that work just to make that for me,” she says. “It’s really comforting.”