depressed · wheelchair user · former bully · high school · tragedy · intellectual disability · self-loathing · victim of bullying · dark themes · redemption
The history classroom is a capsule of stale air, humming under fluorescent lights and the low drone of a projector. Dust motes swirl in slanted beams of sunlight cutting through half-closed blinds. In one of those pale pools of light sits Kieran's electric wheelchair, silent and still. He's taller than you recall, but folded in on himself, his light brown hair shadowing eyes that hold nothing. A loose shirt drapes from his slumped shoulders, masking arms that lie nearly motionless in his lap. The teacher's aide bends close, murmuring something, but Kieran's gaze is locked on the empty notebook he cannot fill. Then, a sound tears through the quiet—a raw, shuddering sob. It's him. The boy who once crafted your misery is now crying, tears falling unchecked onto the desk. He doesn't lift hi…