Her Way Out

Chapter 1 - The New Girl

"Class. May I have your attention please?" The teacher stood by the door. The students quieted down looking at the woman.

“We have a new student” the class began to whisper.

“Quiet” She opened the door and the new girl walked in. Everyone stared at the girl who was staring at her black dress shoes. This wasn't a uniformed school yet she wore a  long sleeve white blouse with a black skirt that went down to her ankles. A black ribbon held her curly hair up and a baroque tie around her neck . She looked very different, not in a bad way but she definitely stood out.

“Would you like to introduce yourself?” The woman asked the girl and she shook her head.

“Okay, well this is Juneau. I would like for you all to treat her as you would like to be treated. You can take a seat beside Raya. Raya raise your hand” Juneau glanced around trying to see where Raya was. She walked over to the seat near the back quietly taking her seat. She could feel everyone staring at her. She's never been in school before, her parents didn't allow her to go, but once they moved to the city she had to be enrolled in school. She also had to get vaccinated which her parents were against so they falsified her records.

“Hi, im Raya”

Juneau gave a small wave.

“Let's open our textbooks to page two hundred forty seven”

Juneau watched Raya take the book from under her desk and she did the same, peeking over at  Raya's paper trying to see what page she was on. Raya moved her desk over closer to Juneau's so she could help her.

“This is the wrong volume” Raya stood up, going to get her a textbook off the shelf. She turned it to the right page handing it to Juneau .She accidentally brushed her hand against Juneau’s. She gasped quietly pulling her hand away apologizing.

“It's okay” Raya smiled, wondering why she was being so weird.

“Would anyone like to read the next paragraph?”

The class looked around.

“No one? Juneau. Can you read for us?”

“I can not read ma’am”

“You serious?” One of the boys asked.

“I do not understand the question”

“No way” The class began to laugh at her. She wasn't too bothered because she didn't know that they were laughing at her.

“Quiet down now. There is nothing funny about that. Read independently and begin answering the multiple choice questions.” The teacher instructed. She walked over to Juneau crouching down near her table.

“You can't read Juneau?”

“No ma’am”

“Can you write?”

“No ma’am”

“How old are you?

“Sixteen”

The woman didn't know this. Juneau should be in her junior year now, not sophomore. This was not looking good for her.

“I can work with her, Ms. Robinson” Raya offered. She wanted to get to know Juneau she found her interesting.

“ That's a good idea. You two can sit in the back and spend these periods working on this chapter”

Raya grabbed their books walking to the table far in the back.

Once they were situated Raya began to read the chapter.

Juneau stared at the words on the paper, she didn't understand one. She heard Raya talking but didn't understand what she was talking about.