Chapter One

The breath left her body, hissing through her mouth as she was slammed against the wall. Pain shot through every ounce of her body as the attacker pinned her against the wall, their knuckles digging sharply into her skin. The radio aid which Aya wore around her neck crackled, only amplifying the hushed whispers that rippled nervously through the crowd that had begun to gather.

 

“You think you’re special, don’t you?” sneered the girl, her words a stinging slap across Aya’s face. The girl’s lips were curled back into a snarl that was of a mixture of disgust and hatred. “You get all this equipment and help. All this special treatment. Why do you even deserve to have extra time in your exams?”

 

Aya didn’t dare move. Her heart raced, hammering painfully against her ribcage with each beat and her cheeks burned in shame and humiliation. She found herself unable to look up at her classmates, her gaze averted to the floor to avoid their expectant stares. Their voices came through muffled and distorted, even with her hearing aids and the radio aid switched on. Aya could feel her flesh burning and crawling from their laser-like stares.

 

I’m entitled to the extra time, Aya wanted to yell at the girl, I’m allowed the extra time and I need support unlike you.

 

But her crippling shyness held her back, teasing away her voice at times when she’d needed it. Aya’s mind was fogged with scrambled thoughts, unable to pull them apart and make sense of the jumbled and flickered images.

 

Tears stung at Aya’s eyes, an unwelcome painful sensation. She bit them back before they could gather and spill over. She couldn’t afford to cry now, not in a situation like this. Crying would only humiliate her even more.

 

“And why do you never speak?” the girl’s knuckles dug further into Aya’s skin. Aya fought the impulse to shove the girl away. She didn’t know how to fight and the radio aid could become damaged or destroyed. “You speak to the teachers. You’re so arrogant, the way you never talk to us. I hate people like you.”

 

Get off me! the words screamed through Aya’s mind but her lips moved soundlessly without a trace of noise or vibrations. Leave me alone!

 

Aya squeezed her eyes shut until she saw nothing more than a velvety blackness. Darkness was better than the staring and expectant gazes of her classmates, shutting out the disgust and hatred laced within their eyes. With one flick of the switches their voices could go too, dissolving into nothing but faint and distorted sounds that couldn’t be deciphered.

 

A world of silence and blackness.

 

“Are you there?” Aya heard the girl hiss, her voice lined with hatred. “Or are you in your own little world again?”

 

The temptation to turn the switches to off was empowering, almost irresistible; to block out the pain of the distorted words that struck Aya from all directions at once.

 

Aya is strange.

 

Aya is weird.

 

Aya never speaks.

 

But turning the switches off would only worsen the situation and anger the girl even more. The radio aid crackled, the microphone brushing softly against the Aya’s jumper.

 

The bell rang, the piercing klaxon-like sound cutting through the air like a knife through soft butter. Aya bit back a yell of pain as she clamped her hands over her ears in a pathetic attempt to block out the agonising sound, her face screwed up from the pain. But still, the sound always came through, as sharp and painful as ever no matter how much Aya tried to close herself off from the noise. The girl’s grip on Aya’s shirt loosened slightly upon hearing the noise. Aya felt relief pour through her veins and her muscles beginning to relax as the sound abruptly ended, knowing that the torment had come to an end. Aya slowly lifted her hands from her ears and let them fall to her sides. A faint and high pitched sound rang in the background, a forlornly and irritating whine. She had been saved…for now.

 

The girl broke her grip, roughly yanking her arm away with her lips curled in disgust. The murmurs began to soften as Aya slowly opened her eyes to the girl’s icy cold stare. For a few moments, their eyes were locked in what seemed to be staring death match. The only sounds were the rushing of blood in Aya’s ears and the fierce pounding of her heart.

 

Then it was over as quickly as it had started.

 

The girl silently walked off, her bag slung over her shoulder as the crowd parted to let her through as if she were Moses crossing the Red Sea. The crowd began to disintegrate as quickly as it had formed, some shaking their heads and muttering to one another as they parted ways to head to their form rooms for afternoon registration.

 

It throbbed with pain where the girl had dug her knuckles into Aya’s skin, a painful aftertaste of the ordeal. The corridors began to fill with swarms of students as they fought past one another to make way to their form rooms. Aya stood where she was, a mere shadow lost within the swirling masses. Aya closed her eyes, letting herself become absorbed by the muffled and distorted chattering, yells and shouts of the other students as they shoved past her, threatening to take her down with their larger bodies. It was only when the shoving, the distorted and muffled yells had subsided into nothing, Aya opened her eyes once more.

 

She found herself immersed in the silence and the company of solitude that she had craved during the encounter. It was a relieving silence, almost like an old companion that had come to the rescue. In a few seconds, Aya herself would have to make her way to her form room or she would be marked late in the register and the teachers would panic.

 

Her vision began to blur and distort, the colours mingling with one another until it was almost impossible to define the warped scenery in front of her. A single tear slid down Aya’s cheek.