Sightless

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

            “Okay, class, did anyone decide to be over achievers and get a head start on reading?” Mrs. Hayden asked after the morning chatter had died down. She could pretty much guess the answer to her question, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

            Alex slowly raised his hand. He knew that he was probably the only one who had even thought about it after class had ended, but at some point his father had asked him to leave his study so that he could work on his latest project at work. Having nothing else to occupy his time Alex decided to read the Braille version of The Hunger Games instead of listening to it. He knew if he couldn’t feel the words underneath his fingers he wouldn’t absorb any of the information the way his mind kept jumping back to Casey.

            “Why can’t you all be more like Alex? It is probably a hundred times harder for him to read than it is for you and he still did without any instruction!” Mrs. Hayden joked with the class hoping that Alex wouldn’t mind.

            “It’s not that difficult. I use my hands instead of my eyes, but I’m probably faster than anyone else in this class,” Alex said with a smile.

            “I like to read too!” Angela protested. She was too busy filling up notebooks with Alex’s name to pick up the book last night. Plus she was a very popular girl she had to social network or people would go into shock.

            “How far did you get in the book?” Mrs. Hayden asked folding her arms and arching her eyebrow.

            “The cover,” Angela said in defeat.

            “Exactly. Class, learn to take some initiative. Just because I didn’t have time to assign chapters doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get started. Alex gets ten bonus points on the pop quiz we are having on chapter one tomorrow.”

            “But Mrs. Hayden, that’s only one day!” Meredith whined.

            “Very good, Meredith, you passed basic math!” Mrs. Hayden said. She was used to her class from last year. They expected her to be a smart alec and abuse them a little, it made them feel like she was a peer not their overlord.

            “You all have the rest of the period to read, because I’m not heartless. I know some people take a little longer to read than others.”

            Alex pulled out his Braille copy and then continued to space about Casey until the bell rang.

            Instead of sprinting to Biology 2, Alex actually let Angela walk him to class. Her mind numbing chatter was a much welcomed distraction from his whirring mind. But unfortunately it wasn’t enough to slow down time. He was going to have to face Casey whether he liked it or not.

            “Bye, Ange, thanks for walking me to class, I’ll see you later,” Alex said distractedly and walked into the class room clutching his books closer to him as if they would protect him from what was about to come.

             Five, six, seven, eight, nine.

            Oh, God.

            Alex reached out to pull his chair back and then slowly dropped into the hard plastic seat. There was complete and utter silence beside him, as opposed to the low roar all around him. He let out a little sigh of relief, feeling pretty safe that Casey was nowhere near. But when it came to Casey, Alex’s luck wasn’t always so good.

            “What are you sighing about, Cruz?”

            Alex nearly jumped ten feet out of his skin. He clutched at his chest, his heart thudding like a frightened rabbits against his rib cage. After he calmed down he realized that it would be better to run into Casey at school rather than getting kidnapped by Rodney again.