No Longer Silent Around You

7

Warnings:
-None

Clay's POV

I was at maths class today, but I was really sad. I didn't have my favourite teacher and the current teacher wasn't as sweet as my favourite one.

I couldn't figure out the maths problems since I just didn't know what it said and I got really frustrated again. It caused me to cry and I laid my pencil down as I pouted. I really want to do good, but I just couldn't do it.

I was silently crying and felt my tears drop down on the table as I heard footsteps behind me. 'Hi, Clay,' George said to me. 'Come with me.'

I stood up and he grabbed my hand as we walked away from the classroom with my books and my pencil. George grabbed two chairs and a table and put them in the hallway.

'Sit down, I'm going to help.'

I pulled my shoulders up and wiped my tears away as I sniffed softly. I was happy George was going to help me, but I was also scared he thought I was weak after I cried.

'Can you point to where you are?'

I lifted my hand and pointed at the page I was working on and George nodded. 'Where is it going wrong?' he mumbled to himself as he looked in my notebook. 'Oh, I see. Can you look here?'

I looked at his hand and he smiled shortly. 'Can you show me the first number on your hands?'

I looked at it and held five fingers up.

'Yes, that's correct. And the second one?'

I held three fingers up and he nodded. 'That's completely correct too! If the five comes before the three, is it bigger or smaller than the three?'

I held my arms very wide open to show him it was bigger and he giggled. 'Yes, it's bigger. So what does that make the five?'

I held ten fingers up and tapped the table five times.

'Fifty, yes,' George said with a smile. 'Fifty-three. Then the other number, can you do the same for that one?'

I took my time and figured out it was twenty-five.

'Do you know what three minus five is?'

I shook my head and George lifted my hands. 'Hold three fingers.'

I held three fingers up and he gently pushed three of them down. 'Now there's two left,' he said. 'We will remember those two, okay?'

I nodded very softly and George smiled. 'Fifty minus twenty, do you know what the answer is?'

I held up three fingers and tapped the table ten times. 'Good job, thirty. Do you remember the two we just wrote down here?'

I gave him a short nod.

'We have to do thirty minus two.'

I had to think about it for a few minutes and started counting it all on my fingers. After a while I wrote down twenty-eight and George nodded. 'Good job! You did it. You did it all by yourself.'

I smiled and pointed at another one I didn't understand. George just helped me the exact same way as he did with the last one and after ten minutes I figured out what one hundred twenty-seven minus fifty-seven was. I was very proud of myself and giggled shyly as I grabbed George's hand to thank him.

'Do you want to do the other exercises together? I finished my homework.'

I nodded slowly and stared at my book. I tried to read what it said, but no word made sense in my head. George noticed me struggling and started reading the text to me. He let me count on my hands again and at the end of the class I had finished four exercises.

'You did great, Clay,' George said with a smile.

I smiled and my cheeks heated up as I looked away. I was going to give him an extra message today because he was so sweet to me.

After maths I walked to my English class. I immediately felt myself getting sad again because I was already so exhausted from maths that I knew I wouldn't be able to do English right now.

I sat down on my chair and stared into my book with a soft sigh. I was sitting alone and looked out of the window instead. I wasn't going to learn anyway.

After my brother called me dumb about a hundred times, I started believing him. I couldn't read, I couldn't do maths, I couldn't talk. I was stupid, he was right.

I felt very sad and laid my pencil down as I rested my head on my lifted knees. I wished I was a little bit smarter.

I was staring outside as suddenly someone sat next to me. I looked up and saw George sit next to me. I immediately felt my face heated up as he smiled.

'Let's do it together.'

I nodded softly and he pointed at my book, reading out a sentence to me. 'Can you write down the word "amazing"?'

I nodded slowly and grabbed my pencil.

Amasing

'Close,' George said with a smile. 'Only one letter is wrong. It's the S, can you figure out what else it could be?'

Amazing

'Yes!' George said with a smile. 'Can you write down the word "applause".'

Aplouze

George smiled. 'That's a really hard one, I'll start with easier ones.' He wrote down how to write it and looked in my book. 'Can you write down the word "beautiful".'

Butifull

'Close!' He showed me how it was supposed to be and stayed very sweet.

He helped me with ten other words. I only knew the right spelling of one of them, but George was already very proud of me. I was very happy that he helped me and after school I ran to my mother and grabbed her hand.

'George h-h-helped me t-today,' I whispered as I jumped up and down. 'With m-maths and E-English. He was s-s-sweet.'

My mother ran her hand through my hair and smiled. 'That's really sweet of him. Are you happy?'

I nodded as I ran home.

1038 words