Courageous Hearts {READ DESCRIPTION}

Chapter Four: School Work

Chapter Four: School Work

Skyler sat in Math on Monday afternoon, this was her first day at her new school. She have just been placed in a new foster home in a new state. The teacher sat at her desk helping another student with his work. Staring back down at the paper the numbers swam on the paper. It was like that had somehow sprouted gills and fins and the paper had turned into water. None thing made sense to her. The teacher smiled when the boy finally got his page finished. Looking at him through her hair veil she noticed the stony guy tried not to look happy. A chill went down her spine, the teacher had looked at her. 

"Skyler Evans, you haven't started the assignment." The teacher got up slowly. The first thing you noticed about her was her baby bump. Skyler thought she had to be at least in her fourth month. Leaning on her desk she huffed. "I've got a feeling he's gonna be big. I can only pray he doesn't get my grandfather's head." This statement made Skyler smile. "Sky, you know you can come to me. I wasn't so great at math either when I was a teenager, but I talked to people and they made it so I graduated with soaring colors." 

"Well you're lucky you don't have Dis-" The bell cut her off. She threw up her arms and shot out of the classroom towards the parking lot. She bumped several people along her way earning her curse words and fingers. At the mount, or a really tall hill, she stopped at looked around for her foster mother's car. It had turned out her new foster family had actually been close friends with her parents, before everything came crashing down around the very young Skyler. She saw her foster mother getting close to the mount. Skyler guessed she had seen her because she leaned out of the truck waving and screaming at her. 

"Did you see that?" Skyler heard a female voice coming from the bottom of the mount. Looking down it was a girl with long black hair talking to a guy with freckles and red hair. The guy seemed to be holding back the urge to hug her, but she didn't know why. The girl had no legs below the knee, but was still walking like a normal person. wearing a volleyball get up. 

"See what?" The guy said back. He had a British accent to him that sent waves over Skyler. 

"That mom leaning out of the car and screaming like a banshee to someone on top of the mount." She turned her head and saw Skyler. Skyler quickly ducked back. "Hey!" The girl called back at Skyler. 

"Uh, hello?" Gathering her nerves she came back down the hill. 

"You must be new to Hackett High School. I haven't seem you around here, well the school year had just  started so...anyways I'm Paige Rockwell and he's Michael Withers the local brit here." 

"I'm Skyler Evans, Just-"

"Skyler hurry! I've got to go! The barn just called and Lora is colicing." Her foster mother ushered in the car. Even though she had hardly any experience with horses she knew this had to be bad, mainly because her foster mother's horse was pregnant with a baby. "Sorry I have to take her-"

Paige held up her hands making her volleyball bag swing. "No problems my brother has a girlfriend who works with horses. I can understand. See you around Skyler!" Paige waved as the woman drove away. 

When the car was out of ear shot Michael said, "Something seems off with her." 

"We all have something off with us, now come before I miss practice." She pulled him towards the outdoor volleyball court. 

"Shoot!" Paige complained when it started pouring out of no where. She got up and gathered her stuff to go back into the girl's locker room to take a shower. Unlike most high school locker rooms Hackett's High school had state of the art systems, so the students didn't need to worry about anything. When it came to Showering people didn't complain here, instead of the typical shower curtains there were solid doors on the stalls that just left a space that showed their feet and a space above that showed the top half of their heads. Taking off her legs once she sat down on a bench, she began taking off the padding that protected her from getting raw on her stubs. She sighed and rubbed them. "Can someone put my chair in stall nine and roll my wheelchair over there?" 

A girl she had known since seventh grade nodded and pushed the chairs over to stall nine. Paige got off the bench and crawled over to stall nine checking to see if her clothes were on the chair. Closing stall nine's door she stripped and hefted herself up onto the wash chair. 

A couple minutes later she came out fully dressed in her wheelchair. She saw her mother and Abril sitting on the bench. Looking up Abril noticed her older sister smiling she got up and pushed her over to their mother. After she finished sending a text message their mother got her wash-chair and walked with them to the van. She folded the chair into the back and lifted her daughter into the van. 

It was getting close to midnight and Skyler knew she had school tomorrow, but she just couldn't leave Lora alone in her large stall. The palomino mare had been moved to a larger stall when she reached the ninth month, the vet had said she could deliver the foal soon even though her pregnancy still had two months to go. Lora heaved a long sigh. Skyler reached over and stroked the mare's white forelock between her elegant ears. "I know girl, well at least it was only a small bout of colic." 

The mare looked at her with her brown almond shaped eyes. It almost seemed as if she wanted Skyler to take away the pain. "Only two more months until the baby comes." 

"Hello?" Skyler almost jumped through the barn's roof when she heard the female voice. "Is anyone here?" Then a head with curly brownish hair peeked over Lora's stall door. "Oh thank heavens, I was about to call the police when I saw the barn door open. What's wrong with your mare?" 

"Oh Lora isn't mine, she's my foster mother's." Skyler played with her red hair. "She colic-ed, my foster mom almost had a heart attack because she's pregnant." 

The older girl twisted her car keys on her index finger. "Oh she's the new boarder. Also I noticed a load of homework out here, need help?" Skyler looked away. "Come here."

After a social studies problem Willia looked back up at Skyler's confused face. Willia smacked her self in the face. "You have dyslexia, that's why it's taking you so long." 

"H-how do you know?" Skyler stuttered. 

"Why, I have dyslexia too. Not as bad as I had it when I was younger though." Willia showed her a trick. "You just gotta keep pushing." Her phone rang. "Oh I've gotta go! Sorry!" 

Skyler watched her go. She's always thought she was the only one with dyslexia. Guess not. 

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Sorry for the wait! Stupid writer's block.

About horses:

Mare is a grown up female horse. A baby horse is called a foal. Also horses cannot vomit up food like we can. So if they have a stomach ache it's called Colic or Colicing. Colic can kill a horse.