Sibling Love (Sequel to I Just Want To Be Loved)

Helping Amber

Kirika was determined to help Amber raise her grades. She helped her with her homework and gave her study tips.

Once Shu was out of the hospital, he also helped to tutor Amber. She seemed to be improving in some ways. Her Math knowledge seemed to improve as she could remember formulas better.

However, Amber still seemed to be poor at languages. She kept making mistakes in her reading and writing.

Finally, Shu told Kirika that he thought that Amber seemed to have reading difficulties.

"I told her to spell out her name, but she put a p in the middle of it."

"Oh," said Kirika. She had been able to spell her name perfectly at the age of four, although she never told her friends about that fact, not wanting to come off as boastful.

"I think that Amber has... A reading deficiency," said Shu. "Do you see the way she squints at every book she reads? Something is up and I think that we need to take her to a psychologist to be sure.

So with permission from Amber's mother and stepfather, Amber was taken to a child psychologist. His name was Mr Hanks and he ran several tests.

Amber confused some similar sounding words with each other, spelled easy words wrong, and when asked to read the first sentence in the first Harry Potter book, it came out sounding all wrong.

"Mr and Mrs Dursley, off number for, Pivot Drive, whore proud two said date weren't perfect normal, tank eww very munch."

Mr Hanks told Shu and Kirika that Amber was dyslexic. Kirika had no idea what it meant, so Shu explained it to her.

"Dyslexia is a learning disorder which causes difficulties in reading," said Shu. "It would explain why she does so poorly in class as she can't read properly."

"Can it be cured?" asked Kirika.

"No," said Shu. "But it can be managed. She will have to get a specialist and will need special classes."

Unfortunately, it seemed that learning about having dyslexia had discouraged Amber and she stopped trying in class. Although her second family tree was passable, she didn't go volunteer to read out loud in class. She also stopped doing her homework.

Kirika was almost in tears. "Amber, I told you not to give up! I know this looks bad, but we can figure this out."

Amber's other friends also tried to help out, but Amber was beyond cheering up.

"I'm stupid," she said.

"No, you just have a problem," said Regina. "Kirika's brother said that it can be managed."

"Don't," said Amber. "You're making it worse. I can't even read a simple nursery rhyme right. How can I pass exams with this?"

"Dyslexia doesn't make you stupid," said Isabella. "Your brain just registers words differently."

"Look, you just need help," said Kirika. "Don't cry, we will figure something out."

But in the next few days, Amber stopped coming to school completely. Concerned, Kirika rung up Amber's mother and asked if Amber was alright.

Unfortunately, Amber's mother was under the impression that Amber was going to school, so Amber ended up getting grounded for playing truant.

Feeling guilty, Kirika had no idea what to do. She wanted to help Amber, but she won't let her help. It was very agonising.

"I don't know what to do!" she told Shu. "Amber seems to have really given up. I want to help her, but..."

"Look," said Shu. "I know that this is hard, but Amber is your best friend, right?"

"Of course she is," said Kirika in surprise. "You know that we have been best friends since preschool."

"You see, when... I was Red Eye, everyone thought that... I was beyond saving. But Valt never gave up on me. He tried again and again until I was free. If he had given up, I don't know what would have happened to me."

Kirika looked up at her big brother. It must have cost him a big deal to talk about this. Shu usually avoided talking about this.

"You're right," she said. "Amber needs my help, whether she wants it or not. I'm going to help her."