Disabled.

Eighteen

Eighteen

Nadia felt the smile still on her face even when they had left the building.

"Are you that happy that we're officially friends?" she heard Mason ask as he walked beside her.

"Yes I am," she replied.

"Why are you so happy about it?"

"Because," she stopped pushing herself to turn her chair to face him "you're currently the only friend that I have in this school and you have no idea how great it feels to say that I officially have a friend."

She saw the corner of his lips twitching, causing her to say,

"You can smile if you want, you know."

His lips turned into a full smile and he pointed to it with both of his hands to show her.

"Satisfied?" he asked. She nodded her head.

"Yes I am."

They laughed for a few moments as a fall breeze surrounded them, causing Nadia to notice the feeling of content which surrounded her.

"Speaking of moms," Mason suddenly said. Her eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"We weren't talking about moms-"

"I know but I had to tell you somehow." She nodded her head as she began to continue pushing herself.

"Go on."

"My aunt invited you over for dinner tomorrow."

"What does that have to do with moms?" she asked, not seeing the connection between the two. There was a moment of silence before he replied,

"Because she's like a mom to me."

"Where's your mom then?" she heard herself ask immediately. There was an awkward moment of silence which surrounded them before Mason replied in a solemn voice,

"I don't know."

Nadia was tempted to ask him more about his mother but she got the feeling that it wasn't something which he wanted to talk to her about. And she understood that. Sometimes, there were things which were better left unsaid. And she felt like for Mason, the topic of his mother was one of those things.

Instead of asking about his mother, she chose to stay silent as they made their way to the bus stop. It wasn't long before her bus arrived and she looked at him to say goodbye.

"I'll see you tomorrow, friend?" Mason asked, putting emphasis on the word friend to which Nadia chuckled as she nodded.

"See you tomorrow, friend."

---

The next day they were in their chemistry class when their teacher decided to surprise them with a sudden assignment. Nadia had been trying her best not to fall asleep during the class but there was no doubt that the announcement of the assignment was enough to wake her up.

"So for this assignment, everyone will be paired up-and I'll be choosing the pairs." A collective groan filled the classroom, to the teacher's amusement as she laughed.

"Think of this assignment as free marks. It's actually very easy. I'm going to assign each pair an element from the periodic table and what you have to do present to the class how it's used in our everyday life. Pretty easy right?"

Nobody answered, too eager to find out who they would be paired with.

"Alright, time to announce the pairs. The first group who is assigned hydrogen is..."