One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something.- Henry David Thoreau
CHAPTER #20
The happiness that surrounded Scott, rubbed off on the other Cliff Hangers. Juliette helped Susan with a history project, which involved re-dressing her childhood doll in historic garments. They got 95% on their presentation. Scott and Mark, helped one of the guys that trained with Scott to finally complete the rope course. Bryan had never had the courage to face his fear of heights, until those two encouraged him to do it. The good will seemed to pay forward.
During art class they were told to show a moment of happiness and sadness from their childhood. Chris painted on one side fishing with her father, where the fish seemed to jump out at them in 3D. The sadness was a stick figure of her father, his face was scratches of black and red. His foot was gigantic and it was about to squash a black sheep, that stood beside a white one. She felt her picture said it all and refused to talk about it. Mary who rarely spoke, due to her stutter, explained the picture.
"Chris is t-the bl-bl-black sh-sheep. Her d-dad is a-angry a-and cr-crushing her un-until sh-sh-she's g-gone."
The teacher was amazed that Mary had spoken. Chris nodded and then hugged Mary, "thank you for being my voice."
Later Chris sat and ate lunch with Mary. The only person that Chris had ever shown her journal to while at Mt. Horizon had been Peter, but she now shared it with Mary.
"Sometimes when I can't talk, I write. Poetry or stories to purge my soul," Chris explained.
"I-I do t-t-too. I c-can s-s-sing t-t-too," Mary said.
"Can you sing this?" Chris pushed one of her poems towards Mary.
The girl nodded and sang softly to Chris. The amazing thing was that when Mary sang, she didn't stutter. She had a nice voice too and Chris said so. Daisy came by then and asked her if she knew how to sing Amazing Grace. To everyone's delight, Daisy and Mary sang together. It was beautiful and everyone clapped afterward, making both girls blush.
"Mary have you ever thought of just singing when you're trying to answer questions in class?" Daisy asked.
"N-n-no. D-do you t-think t-t-teachers w-would l-let m-me?"
Chris grinned and waited patiently for Mary to finish asking her question. "If Daisy and I talk to Peter, they will. If we get them to let you, will you try?"
"I-I gu-guess. Th-thanks."
"Sometimes we need someone to be our voice and other times to make ourselves heard, we have to think outside of the box." Chris hugged Mary and then the three of them went to find Peter.
Peter agreed to talk to Mary's teachers. The next day, Mary participated in class and became more social. It was an unconventional solution, but it worked. Thanks to Chris and Daisy, Mary's silence was broken.
For the next two weeks, more and more students on campus had some kind of positive experience. It was the ripple effect in progress. Before everyone was out to protect themselves, unless it was just within their group. Now the Sun Dogs would help the Trackers. The groups began to mingle at lunch, instead of just staying isolated within their teams.
Chris watched an asian guy doing Tai Chi and asked if he'd teach her how to do it. He was known for fighting and being sensitive to racial slurs. "Jaw-long that's so beautiful. Like a dance, but I'm sweating like crazy!"
Jaw-long nodded, "it's a work out for beginners. For me it's just a warm up."
"A warm up for what?"
"Doing my martial arts," he explained.
