ALANNA ✔️

Chapter One

(Dyslexia -a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence.)

If there was anybody who hated school it was Alanna, for all reasons every other teenager despised school except hers were multiplied by a million. One word, dyslexia. She was born with it and was going to die with it. She just wished everyone understood that part except they didn't. They all thought that dyslexia was just a fancy word for stupid. How could she make up a disease as real as the one that made her look dumb all her life?

She wanted to be smart like everyone else. She wished for the words and numbers to stop dancing around whenever she opened a book to read. All she desired was to be normal but she couldn't . Her sister always said, normal was overrated and she was far from it so she should look at the positive side of things. Well bad news siz, there was no positive side to what she had . It was all downhill from the moment she was diagnosed or had been from the moment she was born.

"Miss Ireri are you with us?" Her teacher Mrs. Watiri asked from the front of the class.

"Yes madam, I am." Alanna replied giving her the fake smile that she had perfected over the years.

The teacher narrowed her eyes at her knowing very well she wasn't paying attention before going back to whatever she was teaching.

Alanna couldn't even recall what class it was at the moment, they all just blurred together into one giant buzz in her head. She really did try to pay attention but given her disorder plus all the boring lessons it was very hard.

Fake smiles weren't the only thing Alanna was good at. She knew how to ignore people and their harsh comments. She knew how to keep a low profile which was a little hard considering she was plus size weighing seventy kilograms but she tried her best. She was taller than most girls her age and her size didn't help either but she had survived the past three years of high school so the next six months would surely fly by. Or was she just being hopeful?

Alanna went to Kilimani HighSchool. It was a private school started a couple of years ago by some Americans to help children from a third world country get free education. It wasn't free though because they paid for a lot of things but it wasn't as expensive as other private schools in the country. The money they paid also allowed for bursaries to be made available to those students who couldn't afford an education. Alanna didn't really mind any of that because her family was very well capable of educating her.

Being a private school a lot of things were totally different from a typical Kenyan highschool though there were similarities. They wore uniforms black slacks or skirts for the girls, a white shirt, black sweaters or blazers and a black and red stripped tie. Girls had the option to wear the trousers if they wanted to but only a few like Alanna took advantage of that privilege. Instead of the students coming to the teachers class like they did in American schools the teachers came to the students as all lessons were held in one class unless they had to go to the laboratory or to the field. Their desks had storage spaces so they didn't have lockers outside and if your things didn't fit into you're desk they were all assigned lockers that were at the very back of the class. Enough explaining, back to class.

"Miss. Ireri walk with me to the staffroom. I need a word." Mrs. Watiri called stirring Alanna from her thoughts.

"Yes madam." Alanna replied as if she had been paying attention all along.

Crap. She had missed the bell signalling end of class. It was now lunch time as indicated by everyone taking out their lunch boxes and heading out towards the dining hall. Some people packed their own lunch and some ate from the cafeteria. It was you're choice.