Chapter Twenty; Lucy's First Day

It was the first day of school for Lucy, very stressful for her. She had been put in a special needs class and was treated like a baby. Even though her arms worked very well, the aids at the school would do everything for her. Spoon food into her mouth, do worksheets for her, draw for her, even move her hand for her.

It might seem like heaven for other people not having to do anything, but after a minute of not being able to do anything by herself she had an outburst and through a tantrum. The aids held her down into her wheelchair while the teacher was trying to  calm her down.

The tantrums wouldn’t stop and she did this until the lunch bell rang two hours later. She stopped the tantrum and wheeled herself to the cafeteria. A few aids creeped behind her so she wouldn’t have another outburst disturbing students.

She wheeled to the lunch line and pointed to a salad on the side of the countertop. The lunch lady gave her a bowl of soup instead, she shook her head no and pointed to the salad again. The lunch lady grabbed a slice of pizza flopped it on her tray and helped the next student. Lucy felt an outburst coming, she flopped the pizza onto the ground and the milk that was also on her tray.

Her outburst left a huge mess on the ground that the aids rushed to in a flash. They wheeled Lucy to a table and got her a new pizza and a carton of milk. “Sorry you dropped your pizza,” said the aid shoving the pizza toward her face.

Lucy didn’t care anymore and decided to eat the pizza even though she didn’t get what she wanted. The pizza was cold and soggy, much like any food at school, except the salad. After lunch the bell rang and Lucy wheeled herself to class again.

She dreaded having another outburst in front of the class again. Most of the students there just had a small injury or disability. Sasha had a small lisp and he was hard to understand. Amanda had a missing right hand so the aids had to help her with everything, just like Lucy. Maggie had something that had to do with a brain surgery, she was a bit confusing.

And Michael was fine, Lucy could see nothing wrong with him, she wondered why he was in there anyway. They sang the Abc’s millions of times over and over again until the bell rang.

By the end of class Lucy could probably sing the alphabet forwards, backwards, and upside down! Lucy had to ride a special bus with a lift on the side to help her onto the bus. She was pretty excited when she was wheeled out of school and to the bus. She was clapping until the aid stopped her at the lift, and walked back inside. Lucy was locked onto the metal plate that looked a thousand years old, and was hauled up by a loud motor. The sound hurt her ears and she covered them on her way up. She was locked into a back area on the bus while normal kids stared at her until the bus jerked and began its journey to the kid’s houses.

One by one the kids followed out into their driveways at home while Lucy wait bored until her stop. Lucy was the last one on and a half an hour later, the bus stopped at the last stop and Lucy was locked onto the lift again.

This time, it was quiet and Lucy didn’t cover her ears. Her mother was waiting for her next to the lift until the motor stopped. They unlocked her, and she was wheeled inside by her mother. The bus drove away as Lucy unlocked herself out of the chair, and her mother lifted her onto the couch. She laid there for a while watching T.V. and she began to feel a bit tired.

Her mother carried her to her bedroom and laid her down on the bed. Her mother put a special CD into her travel radio and it played the sound of soft waves on the beach. Lucy closed her eyes and began to fall asleep. She dreamed about when she went to a normal school and was normal.

She was awakened when the radio stopped playing but she wanted to hear it again. She sat up in her bed, grabbed the radio and pressed rewind until the tape started over again. She sat the radio back onto her bedside table and bumped the picture of Ryan and her at the beach. She kissed the picture, and fell asleep.