Little Lightning

Kalypso Background Story: The Couch

Kalypso stared at the board, trying to make out the squiggly lines that she was told were supposed to be letters and words. 
“What does it say, Kal?” The teacher asked gently, bending down with her hands on her knees to Kalypso’s eye level. A pitying look was on her face. 
Kalypso didn’t like that look. Even at age 8, she could tell it was a look that would bother her for the rest of her life. 
“I don’t know.” She whispered, eyes on her hands in her lap.  
“What, honey?” She looked up. 
“I don’t know.” She repeated louder. She could feel the stares of her classmates and her peers on her, gazes burning into her back and on her face. She looked down, her cheeks burning. 
“Ok, honey, take it easy.” Out of the corner of her eye, Kalypso saw her stand up straight. “Does anyone else know?” A girl's hand shot up. She had straight platinum blond hair, and bright blue eyes. 
“Yes, Alice?” Alice. That was her name. The perfect American name for the perfect American girl. She was everything Kalypso was not. She was pretty, she didn’t have traditions that no one understood, she was smart, and worst of all… she could read. She was even the top of the class in it. 
“It says ‘Lily walked to the park.’” Kalypso’s eyes burned. That was so simple! So easy! Why was she so stupid? She could never get these stupid words straight. They always looked like squiggly lines, moving and shifting constantly. 
“Good!” The teacher exclaimed. “Now let's move on to the blue…” The teacher's voice faded as she spotted Kalypso. 
Kalypso was no longer sitting, but standing, her face down cast, hands clenched. Tears ran down her cheeks in little rivulets, and she looked up at the teacher. 
“I hate you!” She shouted, her voice breaking. “I hate you all so much!” With that, she turned and ran outside the room. She turned down one of the halls of the school. Then founder herself in an unfamiliar place. It looked like an empty classroom, but with couches and soft chairs instead of normal ones. Without a second thought, Kalypso hopped onto one of the couches, curling up, and did what any normal 8-year-old kid would do in her situation. 
She cried. 
Not just cried, she bawled her eyes out. She missed mom, she missed dad, she wanted to go home, everything was stupid and she was so stupid and why couldn’t she read… 
She sat there, crying, for a good half hour. When she had calmed down, she looked up and wiped her eyes with the back of her small hand. Sniffling, she got up from the couch, then walked back out of the room and down the hall. Somehow, she managed to find her way back to her classroom. 
“Ms. Lilan?” She asked quietly when she entered the room. The teacher, who had been murmuring hurriedly to two other grown-ups, turned. “I’m sorry I said I hate you.” She looked up as the teacher pulled her in for a hug. “I didn’t mean it.” 
“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have put you on the spot.” She pulled back, then saw Kalypso’s red and puffy eyes. “Oh dear, were you crying?” 
“No.” Kalypso denied stubbornly, but she felt like crying all over again. 
“Ok. Let’s go do some math. That makes you happy, right?” 
“Yeah, it does.” Kalypso nodded. “Can you teach me how to do the dividing decimals?” 
“Sure, honey. Whatever you want.” 

To explain, Kalypso has dyslexia. She can read basic words, but numbers make more sense to her. There is such a thing as numerical dyslexia, but normally dyslexia doesn’t apply to numbers. That's a huge reason why Kalypso became an engineer, because numbers make sense to her. I did my research, but the internet is not always a reliable source, so it might not be 100% accurate.