"I'm Gray, and I just moved from the public school literally just blocks away." I said, introducing myself in front of twenty other students wearing the same uniform as I was.
The teacher, Mrs. Garcia, turned her attention towards the students and asked "Is there anything you'd like to know about your new friend?"
A few students raised their hands and Mrs. Garcia pointed at the girl at the very back. She asked "Why did you move?"
Calmly, I maintained eye contact with the girl, like a proper person would, and answered her question. "I got bullied in my old school and my parents thought it'd be best for me to move into this private school. I think it might also be because of the uniforms and all, you know?" I said, shrugging.
I supposed that my answer only sparked even more questions in the girl's mind because she furrowed her eyebrows and titled her head a little.
"Why?" A voice suddenly interrupted. "Why were you bullied?" It was a tough looking boy who asked and everyone nodded as if they agreed with his question and were wondering the same thing.
"Blake! You shouldn't have asked such question." Mrs. Garcia scolded.
I, who didn't see what the matter was, said "It's okay. I don't mind at all, really."
When I saw the approval look in the teacher's face, I continued. "I got bullied because I used to wear ridiculously bright-coloured shirts and pants to school. The nickname 'clown' stuck with me for longer than I thought it would, so when my mum knew about it, she got worried and moved me here.
"Oh, and I was also bullied because I'm colour blind." I added simultaneously.
Whispers erupted in the class and I knew they were talking about me. Not that I minded though.
The teacher quickly shushed the whispering students and showed me my seat next to a short-haired girl.
"Hi, I'm Amy Schulman!" She said cheerfully and extended her hand towards me for a hand shake.
"I'm Gray. Nice to meet you."
"So what's your full name?"
"Aiden Woods." I said and Amy let out a small gasp.
"'Aiden Woods'? I thought that your name is Grayson or something." She said, still bewildered.
I nodded curtly and say "Gray is actually my nickname."
"Why 'Gray'?" She then asked.
"Because everything is gray to me."
-
Throughout my first week in my new school, I would sometimes receive weird looks from people probably because I was new. Or it could also be because the words that I was colour blind spread like wildfire. Anyways, during this one week period, some girls had even tried to flirt with me but I guessed that my lack of response towards them might have been such a turn off.
"Retard," some girls would say. "Fag," some would call.
Oh, well. What could I do? It wasn't like I was capable of feeling anything. And I meant it literally. I was born colour blind and with the disability to feel, to have emotions. My world was not a splash of colours like an optimist would say, but it was a tint of gray like a pessimist would say. Only now that it was literal. The one and only colour to ever exist in my eyes was gray. I looked at trees and I saw gray. I looked at the sky and I saw gray. I looked at the rainbow and I saw gray.
Apart from that, I never knew what happiness was, or sadness, or anger, or any other emotions to ever exist in the history of humans because of my lack of ability to function like a normal person. The world that I felt, that I sensed was as gray as the world that I saw.
