Why It's a Good Thing: Chapter 1: Alone

hi guys!!! i've already put this story on wattpad but i've decided to re-put it on here with actually chapters.  sorry if there's any confusion haha :) please vote comment and fan i hope you enjoy!

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Chapter One

Alone

 

His eyes are searching, sweeping through the halls... looking for something, but he sees nothing.  Mysterious, green eyes, brown, more on the light side.  He has done nothing to anyone, just fell out of a tree is all.  I see the other boys dancing in front of his face, waving and giving rude signs that he doesn’t see but he notices, just slides his stick across the school floor.  Then I see it, like a slow motion movie, a boy with light blonde hair puts out his leg.  I see Adam’s arms fly up and his books smash to the ground, his cane falls against a girl in the crowd of rude people, she takes it, imitates him, and runs away to hide it.

The bell rings and the hall clears, all accept Adam and me.  Adam sits in the middle of the hallway, his legs are criss-crossed, he is waiting for his teacher to come looking for him.  His cane is lying about twenty feet away from him at the opposite end of the hall, she must have dropped it when the bell rang.  I walk over to him and his muscles suddenly tense up.  “Don’t worry,” I tell him.  “It’s just me.” 

He relaxes and smiles at nothing in particular just looking wherever.  “Good.  I thought you were someone coming back for more, a surprise kick or something.”

“Here.” I grab his arm and stand him up.  “Let me go get your cane.” When I put it in his hand I say, “You know, you’re a lucky boy.  When boys get into the stick loving stage, moms hate their boys having sticks, they can’t stand it.  Sticks drag spiders and dirt and leaves into the house.  But this stick right here,” I tap the cane.  “Your mom loves it.”

“You always say things,” He pauses, thinking of what to say.  “You always say things so that they sound wonderful, like the best thing in the world.”

“I could give you twenty reasons being blind is a good thing.” I tell him.  “Being blind is so good that I could make up twenty one decent reasons.” I pick up everything he dropped, surprisingly a teacher hasn’t come looking yet.

I put his books in his free arm and we go to our next class.  “Late again, Julissa?” Mrs. Jarol asks me irritably.

“Yes, someone tripped Adam and I was helping him.” I explain to her.  Out of the corner of my eye, I see a couple of boys nudge each other and chuckle like it never gets old to trip a blind boy.

“Very well, take your seats.” She told us impatiently.  Luckily, our seats are in one of the back corners, that way Adam can find it easier than if it were to be in the middle of the classroom.  

I take out a piece of paper and number it 1.-21.

Your mom can’t yell at you for having a stick.

You can’t judge people by the way they look.

You don’t know what gross stuff look like, like weird food and mold and smashed bugs and dead people.

I slip the paper into my file folder and get out my history book, I will continue later. Adam takes out his book, its Braille with a simple white cover and a 3-D dot pattern, his mom goes to Hilliard to get everything specially made just for him, it must cost a million dollars.  She refuses to let him go to a blind school, they learn all of the same things so I really don’t understand the point of it, but I’m glad because he is my only friend.

 

Lunch rolls around and I sit down next to him.  “Want to know what I realized?” I ask him.

“What?” He replies.

“You are my only friend.” I state.

“You are such a liar, you probably have tons of friends but you hang out with me because you feel sorry.” His prediction is wrong, he is seriously my only friend.

“No one else hangs out with you because they feel sorry, what makes you think that I would be the only one nice enough?” I feel bad because I said this to him meanly.  I should have thought this over before I actually said it.

He says nothing.

“Everyone has shunned me because you are my only friend and you’re blind.  But it’s okay, because you’re the only friend I need.”

“Everyone has shunned me because I’m blind, so I guess we’re kind of in exile.” He tells me.

“Yeah.” We laugh, it’s funny because seven years ago, in kindergarten, we would never have expected to be in exile.  Now we are in eighth grade and sitting all alone.  

My mine flashes back to a recount of the day it happened.  A surprisingly warm late March day.  Perfect weather, crayon green grass, no jackets necessary.  Up in the big Sweet Gum Tree in his backyard, we were hanging upside down on a thick branch, holding on with our hands and legs, pretending to be an opossum.  Mr. Copelan had cut all of the low branches a few weeks before, because he had told us multiple times to stop climbing trees because it was dangerous and we wouldn’t stop.  On that day, we snuck a little five step plastic ladder out of the garage, the biggest ladder two kindergarteners can handle. “I dare you to let go, and hold on with your legs, like a real ‘possum.” I dared him, at the time, we still thought it was ‘possum’ not ‘opossum’ so I pronounced it wrong.  

“I will if you will.” He told me, in a voice that let me know that he thought I couldn’t do it.  

So I let go and hung there with my legs wrapped around the tree.  “See?” I asked him.  “Harmless.  Try it.”

So he let go, at first he was okay but then he started to struggle.  He reached up for the tree branch but he couldn’t get there all the way.  “I’m gonna die.” He told me.  “I can’t reach the branch and I’m not strong enough to stay up here.  I’m gonna die!”

“You’re not going to die, take my hands.” I held out my hands, he swung forward and took them, then his legs gave out and his grip tightened, pulling both of us to the ground screaming.  We both landed on our backs, me on top of him, I was crying and he did nothing.  For a few minutes I thought he really was dead, I screamed.  I screamed until his mother came out, then I cried.  She called 911 and afterward called my mother to let her know what happened.

After weeks and weeks of testing they confirmed that he was completely blind for his whole life.  “You never know.” I would always say to him.  “You might wake up someday and be able to see your ceiling.”  But he would always come up with something negative to say to it.

Also, we used to be the coolest people in school.  Often things like ‘Can I see your stick?’ ‘Why do you get to have a stick in school?’ and ‘Not fair!  He gets a stick!’ came up, Adam wished he could trade lives with other people, but he couldn’t.

Then third grade rolled around and that is when the shunning started, no one wanted or cared to be associated with someone like Adam except me.  When he came down the hallway everyone moved out of the way and just stared.  

After third grade, there was sixth grade.  Sixth grade is when everyone started to make fun of him.  He was their entertainment system, Adam Copelan.  The thing is, they never got tired of tripping him, stealing his cane and hiding it, or knocking his books out of his hands.  

Now we are in eighth grade and they still get a kick out if it.  That’s the story of how Adam is blind and how people treat him.  We are the two shunned people and no one can accept a blind person obviously, so we are alone.  

i hope you liked it!!!!! please vote comment and fan!