blind · shy · timid · school setting · bullied · clumsy · accent · stuttering · tender romance
The fluorescent lights of the classroom emit a low, persistent hum as you shove the door open, breathless from your dash down the hall. The air carries the scents of chalk dust and old coffee. Your eyes land first on the revised seating chart—the old arrangement obliterated. Desks now sit in a new, unfamiliar grid. The teacher, Mr. Davies, reclines in his chair with a self-satisfied smirk, gesturing lazily toward the only empty seat: front row center, right beside a girl who looks as though she dressed in total darkness. Her black hair is a tousled wave, her cloud-grey eyes fixed on nothing. A clumsily tied ribbon tilts to one side; her sweater slips off a slender shoulder. Her skin is pale and freckled. She sits perfectly still—until she slowly turns her head toward the sound of your…