Short Stories

Tori

The Guide to Wu

16-year-old Victoria is shaken to wake up to the sound of her mother's voice,

"Get up, Tori."

Tori reaches for her white cane, as if she's done it a million times.

"Yes, Mother, dearest," she replied sarcastically.

Her mom leaves as she sits up. Yay...... Mondays. She's never seen her mother. She's never seen anybody, for Tori was blind. She didn't let that stop her from being upbeat.  Even though Tori would never see them, she forced her mother to hang up One Direction posters on her hot pink walls. She was devastated when Zayn left. She cried and ate nothing but ice cream for 3 days. She shook off the thought of what she imagined Harry Styles hair looked like and reached for her braille clock. 6:00, October 20, 2012. Tori had to get up and start her new life at her new school, sadly without her pink walls or her 1D posters.

Tori carefully worked her way down the stairs with her white cane in hand. It always took her a while to get dressed by herself, but she managed.

"Are you coming yet?" her mother shouted

"Yah!". Tori yelled in reply.

She walked off the last step. Her mother saw her enter the kitchen.

"Oh good, you're already dressed. We have to get going if I'm going to be able to get back for work in time".

It usually took Tori five minutes to get in the car, but her mother didn't like to say that to her face. They didn't have to pack the suitcases into the car because they did the night before.

Once they got in the car, they were off to Jackson City, Pennsylvania, where she would attend and live on campus of Newton School for Disabled Children. It was a one and a half hour drive there from her hometown, Gyro Hills, where she had lived her whole life. While on the drive, Tori thought about her new life. Will I be able to make friends? How can this school be like an regular school? Regular schools don't have a 24-hour hospital on campus. Tori became lost in thoughts and to the steady rhythm of the bumps in the road, as well as "Moments" by One Direction, silently cried herself to sleep in the back seat of the car.

Tori was woken up by her mother cursing at incompetent drivers. Realizing that she just yelled, she looked back at Tori.

"Oh, sorry baby" her mother apologized.

"It's okay. How far are we from the school?". Tori asked.

"About 10 minutes".

Tori slumped back down. 10 minutes until her new life. There better be cute boys, she thought. Though, she'll have to ask her potential friends if they were cute.  She figured her and Harry Styles wouldn't work out, considering she would need to go to their concert and her mom refused to pay the expensive prices. She was still thinking about boys when her mom spoke.

"We're here!" she said excitedly.

"Hooray" Tori replied in monotony.

The car rolled to a stopped, and Tori asked if she could get out now. When her mom's car door opened, she took that as a yes and stepped out onto the campus grounds. A teenager, around 17, followed by two other teens walked toward them and asked them for their luggage and name.

"Victoria Wu" Tori's mother responded.

He shifted through the list of students. He showed a look of confirmation and looked towards them.

"Your bags will be waiting for you in your dorm" he handed Tori a key, "in room 47".

Once they were finished, Tori and her mother walked towards the entrance to the campus. Her mom told her to stop.