Chapter Five

They had been led into the storage room which was now an eyesore. It had been this way, roughly unkempt and unattended to, for some time.

Principal Rowlings hadn't intended on getting workers for the job, so he gave it as a punishment for rule breakers such as these.

He had believed strongly that academics and entertainment were two very wide contrasts and shouldn't be interchanged or combined.

He, of course, didn't mind sporting events, because it fetched money for the effective running of the school. Aside that, no other.

The musical band had been scrapped off, and the instruments had been locked away.

Now, they had arrived the storage room, each following the other. They were to start with removing old chewed gums from underneath the tables, and they also had to contend with leaky roofs.

Joyner broke the awkward silence by beat boxing a familiar tune. Then, Owen joined in with a soft tap on the table. Rick shook a bunch of keys that hung on the wall, and before long, they had begun a perfect harmony, so much so that Allie saw her chance and folding up her book to represent a microphone. She sang the song the rest hummed to.

It was titled 'More than a friend'. Just then, she stopped abruptly and turning sharply towards Owen, and she said.

"You are going off-key. Take it high."

"If your pitch is resoundingly and awkwardly high, that doesn't mean the song is that high. You should take it low instead." He said.

"Awkwardly high?!" She exclaimed. "I could punch you right now on your face with my fist." She said getting closer.

"I would like to see you try." He replied sarcastically.

Everyone began murmuring, until suddenly Maya spoke up. She hadn't said a word before then.

"Can we all just stick to the cleaning? I don't know about you, but I don't want to do this again." She said to her utter surprise. She hadn't said much, and now she was the one calling back order.

They had worked in silence after that, and after a hard job of dusting and cleaning, they sat staring into the blank space until the idea of telling stories in low tunes, of course, dawned on them. Some of them spoke about their Preschool and Junior High years. It made Maya more at home with their company as she occasionally laughed effortlessly at their stories until they were instructed to head home.

Later that day, while at home, on her bed with her diary, as she always did everyday, she wrote down everything that had happened and how glad she was that they were punished after all. Then all of a sudden, a thought struck her 'SHE HAD A TEST THE NEXT DAY'. She hadn't thought about it for a bit until then. It was on American History, so she kept her diary aside and began flipping through the pages of her textbook. She came at the middle of an academic semester, so it was only normal to find some topics alien. Though she understood the concept, she found it hard to read on her own as the words kept overlapping each other. Now she was at one of such words.

Was it Ceretorial, Cremetorial, Cretomiral?

"Who am I kidding?" She rhetorically asked, pushing the book aside. "I can barely see my own name if it's written somewhere else." She added.

She was to have her examination by her optometrist tomorrow too.

She had drafted a plan.

She'd quickly take the test then hurry over for a quick assessment by her doctor and probably be given a pair of glasses.

"No, then I'll look like a weird nerd." She thought aloud.

After that was all planned out, she read what she could understand and apparently, what she could see, then slept off there, just there, on her bedside desk.

Later the next morning, she had taken a shower and had breakfast. She was putting on her blazer when she realized she had woken up on the bed, but she remembered sleeping on the desk. Could it have been...

"No, of course not. I'm big now! Dad wouldn't have."

After a few here and there touches, she left for school.

She remembered her drafted plan and looked forward to it. The test Question was shared to all and part of the question they were expected to give was an exact detail on the American Independence and World Peace.

She had seen a thing or two about those and tried putting them together. She closed her eyes for some time and opened it. It made the words come together for a time and then go their separate ways after some few seconds, at least it was worth trying.

It was not until a few minutes later that they were expected to submit their scripts. Maya was a bit confident. At least she knew everything the test required, but her clarity didn't convey much. It was now time to set off to her doctor.

❇❇❇

"How are you doing, Miss Anderson?"

"Pretty well, Same blurred vision, overlapping words, and slow articulation." She blurted out with much force, like the words all came from within at once.

"What you are experiencing, my dear, unfortunately, has no medical solution, but it can be managed effectively, and you would have to learn to live with it. Here, I've made a learning tool. As you can see, the words are magnified enough, and even though you won't be able to see everything, you should be able to feel it. Seeing that the letters on the tablet are bold enough and elevated." The doctor said handing over a tablet but quite heavy as it had elevated letters that formed words.

The lady sitting at the opposite chair was supposed to be her optometrist. She looked calm through the process and the tag on her coat was written Andrea Bryant. Now more than anything, she was so sure she had heard that last name somewhere before although she couldn't exactly figure out where.

She had read the tablet in front of her by mere feeling the words and imagining what each letter might be and gradually joining each to form one word. She did that until the doctor permitted her exit, and an appointment for another day was fixed.

That felt like she was using the braille reading aid for the blind. Technically, she was word blind.

She thought about her test once more, and fingers crossed, she headed back home.

When she arrived home, she received the news that a new tutor had been arranged for her and would arrive at any time. Even though she had complained of the arrangement being planned too sudden, worst of all without her knowledge, she couldn't change much.

He arrived few minutes later just enough time for her to have finished a decent meal.

He was a grumpy man, by his mere appearance, quite shabby and serious.

This wasn't the first tutor Maya had had. In fact, it wasn't the tenth. All were all the same old, shabby, and serious. They just didn't get her, and she didn't too.

According to her mum, he was a degree owner from five fields. He was obviously the best choice.

"Miss Anderson, you can address me as Mr. Cooper."

He said.

"Mr. Cooper." She repeated.

The lesson had begun, and he had given her a text to read from which she fluttered on. He then gave her some words instead to pronounce which wasn't any better.

"Me..me.. la...cholic

Cl.... strophobi..c.

Au...ment... I'm really sorry, sir, but I can't keep this up."

"This is really frustrating. I don't think I can keep this up either. We have been at this for two straight hours, yet no improvement. Tell your dad, I'm calling it off." He said as his voice thundered about the whole room. He headed for the door.

Maya pleaded, but he wasn't a man to take back his words. Well that ended quick. He definitely wasn't patient, though the promise for a pay was high. It always ended up this way with all the tutors. It was high time they stopped bringing more, she had concluded.