Slapshots {BOYXBOY}✔

Chapter Thirteen {Dyslexic}

Something changed that night. It was like the air got cleaner, being around Henry, though still a little awkward wasn't as bad as it had been. He was smiling more and joking with him became a lot easier. Which in turn made studying easier. I was understanding more.

So when two weeks went by and my mom decided it was pop quiz time, I wasn't nervous. I could totally ace this.

Or I thought I could. Until I actually looked at the sheet she handed out and all the words looked bunched together and I couldn't tell what was English and what was French. Before I knew it an hour of the class had jumped by and I had answered two questions while mostly looking around the room and trying to see if Malcolm West was going to move his arm so I could look at his paper.

He didn't.

"I got an F. A big fat F. I thought I was doing better?" I was hiding my face with both of my hands as I sat outside on the patio of my house leaning back in the colorful lawn chair Henry was sitting beside me in another lawn chair that was painted yellow, he was sitting with a book in his hand but set it down when he noticed my crises.

"Your overall average went up in the class though, one pop quiz won't ruin that. What happened anyways? Did you just freeze up?"

"No, I mean, maybe. I don't know what happened. All the letters just started to go together. Some were even turned upside down. I couldn't focus at all."

"Matt," He said up, legs turning towards me, so I sat up to face him figuring whatever he was about to say must be important. "Have you ever been tested for a learning disability?"

"What, no of course not. I just can't focus."

"I don't know. What you just said sounded a lot like dyslexia. It's not something to be ashamed of, it's actually really common." He lifted one leg over the other, his knee hitting mine as the hot sun shined down on us. It was only 10 after four but we didn't have any real studying planned for today plus I didn't have hockey so we decided to hang out at my place sense Harmony was shopping with her cousins.

Dyslexia. I never really thought about it. But it did make sense. My inability to focus, words looking like a mess on paper, I couldn't read out loud to save my life because words jumped in front of each other and come out of my mouth wrong.

Maybe Henry was right. Maybe I had a learning disability. But then, why wouldn't my parents have noticed? They're both teachers you'd think they would see the signs a mile away. So that's why that night at dinner I brought it up. Henry had been gone for about an hour and the three of us were sat around in the living room while watching The Flames Vrs The Leafs on TV.

"Mom, what are the signs of dyslexia?"

Mom thought for a minute, her head tilted to the side as she held up a spoon full of rice. "Well, there are a couple different signs, hard time memorizing things, which what makes it difficult to study for tests, how are you going to pass a test if you can't remember what it is you studied right?" She ate her spoonful then continued. "Of course you have the delay of reading and writing a lot of headaches because someone with it is pushing themselves so hard to focus but can't. Delay in speech in some people, speech impediments. Why do you ask sweetheart?"

Really? Why do I ask? She literally just described me. I was a slow talker growing up. My speech wasn't bad no, but it took some time for me to get where I am. I had a hard time focusing and since Henry and I started to study together I slept more because my head was always killing me.

"Do you think I have it?"

"What? No, of course, you don't Everyone has a subject they have a hard time in."

"I have a hard time in every subject though."

Mom got up with her plate, grabbing mine and dads on her way to the kitchen. "I'm sure you're fine Matthew, you're just pushing yourself give it a few weeks and you'll be passing every class with flying colors."

"But mom-"

"I wouldn't worry about it champ," Dad said while he was standing up, ruffling my hair as he walked passed me.

And that was it. The topic was dropped and I was left sitting here, even more, confused than I was before.